Heroscape Game Night Ideas!

[Gomolka]

Originally Posted by BigBadBruinsMac

I just thought of something that might be fun to try - use glyphs as items/armour to make Heroscape like a RPG. The glyphs would only give bonuses to the hero/squad who has it. Say a hero finds the +1 defense, they put the glyph on his card and only he has that bonus. He could give it one a friendly who is adjacent. If the hero is killed, the attacker gets the glyph and can use it. You could use the artifacts as anything you want such as a healing Fairy (like in Zelda) to autorevive the hero if killed.

Some ideas:

Glyph - Power
Summoning - Character gets Saylind's summoning ability
Negation- Character gets Morsbane's negation ability
Pit Trap - Character can trap an adjacent enemy
Initiative +8 - Character has better reflexes and gets to roll D20 to ignore wounds
Healing - Character can now heal wounds like Kelda
Wind - Character causes wind for the round with D20 roll
Attack +1 - Character get +1 to their normal attack
Unique Attack +1 - Character get +1 to their special attack

etc.

In a game like this you might need to limit common squads to 1 (maybe 2) cards to make it work.

I might try this next time I play with my kids.

Hmmm.. this is a really neat idea. I like how it works, and I like 1Mmirg's idea of how units take the glyph with them and drop it when they die. Some units may become heavily overpowered if equipped with the right glyph, however this opens up play to more combinations and different army ideas. I can just imagine having a hero or squad rushing into your opponent, and then summoning Jotun! Or Arrow Gruts summoning more Swog Riders or Krug to their side for more mobility.

Let's see more ideas, everyone! I'm sure that the community of Heroscapers.com can dish out many more creative ideas. Let's give those who want to spice up their Heroscape Game Night more ideas, and contribute to 1Mmirg's Thread with more draft ideas.

[1Mmirg]

You're right that this can lead to some really overpowered units, but my experience is that these guys end up with giant targets on their backs as well (course, we have play with 3 players, so anyone who starts looking too tough gets a round of friendly gang-up!). However, I don't play with too much healing allowed (limit those glyphs), b/c it can overpower things too much.

The trade off is that you are not boosting your whole team--so, yeah, Mimring can really use the defense bonus (he needs it), but with only him getting it, it isn't quite so bad.

These kind of games have always balanced well for me--and are fun, esp. for those that have a night of craving some RPG action in their HS.

(And thanks for the plug, Gomolka. Tell me about things you have done to make your draft more interesting: Draft.)

[clancampbell]

Since I have a large group, 5 to 6 of us, I've come up with a mini-tournament for us. It works as follows, we play one on one games. Now heres where it gets interesting, army drafts go like this, we each chose one hero, and one squad, with an overall max of 200 points. I know that leaves out some expensive heros and or squads, but I find it a cool concept. It makes for fast games and interesting builds.

Cyprien and blade gruts
Ne-gok-sa and marrden hounds
these are my favs.

[gamjuven]

Here's another way to play that I added in college. This has to do with having a "3rd army" present on the battlefield. Think of them as the natives in the surrounding area that are just trying to defend their land or may be mercenaries. If I made a map that has lava the 3rd army might consist of obsidian guards or brunak, ice map (dzu teh or nilfheim), etc.

At the end of the round the two players each roll a d20, winner gets to immediately take a turn with the natives. If there is more than 1 type of native then the player chooses which unit to control. Once the turn is over, you set up for the next round as usual. If you controlled them last then they still can help in that if they are adjacent you can decide whether or not to swing disengagement attacks.

It's a fun way to play. Very simple addition that requires no additional rules really. It can make the game more fun and adds even more randomness to the game. This is especially good if you have 2 'scapers that are very good and this type of randomness really adds to the suspense.

[rym]

Originally Posted by gamjuven

Here's another way to play that I added in college. This has to do with having a "3rd army" present on the battlefield. Think of them as the natives in the surrounding area that are just trying to defend their land or may be mercenaries. If I made a map that has lava the 3rd army might consist of obsidian guards or brunak, ice map (dzu teh or nilfheim), etc.

At the end of the round the two players each roll a d20, winner gets to immediately take a turn with the natives. If there is more than 1 type of native then the player chooses which unit to control. Once the turn is over, you set up for the next round as usual. If you controlled them last then they still can help in that if they are adjacent you can decide whether or not to swing disengagement attacks.

It's a fun way to play. Very simple addition that requires no additional rules really. It can make the game more fun and adds even more randomness to the game. This is especially good if you have 2 'scapers that are very good and this type of randomness really adds to the suspense.

We've done something similar gamjuven, but our "natives" were always zombies. And we let both players take a turn with them. After a while, you really are fighting a third army.

[Aquaryan]

Very interesting ideas...Kudos for posting this thread, Gomolka!

Since I am starting out on this game, I am going to have to learn how to play it first.

[Kroc]

Originally Posted by BigBadBruinsMac

I just thought of something that might be fun to try - use glyphs as items/armour to make Heroscape like a RPG. The glyphs would only give bonuses to the hero/squad who has it. Say a hero finds the +1 defense, they put the glyph on his card and only he has that bonus. He could give it one a friendly who is adjacent. If the hero is killed, the attacker gets the glyph and can use it. You could use the artifacts as anything you want such as a healing Fairy (like in Zelda) to autorevive the hero if killed.

My variation on this theme is to use the power exactly as stated on the card, but if it is a temporary glyph then the glyph is turned over once it is used and it can't be used again. But if one unit gets a permanent glyph then everyone in the army gets the bonus.

Then if one unit kills the last figure of another unit they get all of that unit's glyphs. (Glyphs are dropped if destroyed by lava/falling, etcetera.)

This does result in overpowerd units and armies, but in my scenarios that is exactly the point.

I usually play with 3+ people so the objective is to gather K of the N glyphs on the board, where K and N depend on the scenario. This gives people an incentive to not hold back and wait for the other guys to kill each other.

We often find that the early glyph grabbers still doesn't win though, the added attention those units get results in them frequently being killed off.

[Kroc]

Originally Posted by clancampbell

Since I have a large group, 5 to 6 of us, I've come up with a mini-tournament for us. It works as follows, we play one on one games.

I am actually considering something like this, OK, it would be different, but might be fun in large groups. You need 2^k players though (4,8,16, etcetera).

Basically start off pairing off players, first you have to destroy your opponent. Then whoever wins with whatever army they have left goes on to take on the winner in one of the other contests. The key bit is that those contestants can't attack their new (potential) opponent until that opponent attacks them.

This way people who play faster get the added advantage of being able to strategically place their figures before engaging the other armies. I haven't tried it out yet but I am eager to give it a go.

[oracle92]

Just throwing this out there, but the official name for destroying a designated figure would be regicide.

I think another interesting match type that would work best 1 vs. 2, or in any uneven odds would be a siege match. Where the player/players with the disadvantage just have to survive a certain number of rounds to win, while the other players will be recieving reinforcements every round or so. (Think helm's deep)

[Cavalier]

Originally Posted by oracle92

Just throwing this out there, but the official name for destroying a designated figure would be regicide.

I think another interesting match type that would work best 1 vs. 2, or in any uneven odds would be a siege match. Where the player/players with the disadvantage just have to survive a certain number of rounds to win, while the other players will be recieving reinforcements every round or so. (Think helm's deep)

Only if said figure is a king.

[Revdyer]

Originally Posted by Cavalier

Only if said figure is a king.

So, if the chosen figure was Sujoah, it would be insecticide, right?

[Cavalier]

Originally Posted by Revdyer

So, if the chosen figure was Sujoah, it would be insecticide, right?

Exactly!!