New to the game, late to the party

[DirtySyko]

After a sudden interest in board/tabletop gaming, I've been diving into many new games and gaining a love for a new hobby. My path finally crossed Heroscape, and I'm not sure if that was for the best. Being a guy who likes to start from the beginning and wants that "vanilla" experience before I jump into the newer stuff, I bought myself a used complete copy of the original Master Set on Ebay for about $55. I also let my impulses get out of control and I bought a second, brand new original Master Set on Ebay, for $75.

Today my used copy came in, and besides missing one glyph and having 2 broken water tiles, I'm happy with my purchase. I played a scenario with 2 other friends doing a 1v2 game, and then played another friend 1v1. I really enjoy the game, and now I need more.

So, where do I go from here? I've looked online at the bigger expansions with more tiles and army units, but some of them are just mind blowingly expensive. Road to the Forgotten Forest running at about $50+, and the Tundra set at over $100... I look up their old prices online and see they used to be sold in stores for $20. That makes it really tough for me to throw down $100.

Would I do best just buying tiles in sets on Ebay, like a pack of snow tiles or road tiles, minus the other stuff from the expansions? And then I can search Units and buy them separately as well? What would be the cheapest, most efficient process?

I wouldn't have an issue paying upwards $100 for new, unopened rare sets like that if I knew they'd remain valuable... But, I have no idea what the chances are of the game ever coming back into print, and if I spend money like that on something that eventually resales for less than half what I paid, I'll have a meltdown. I don't really know what the odds are this game will ever return, you all know more about that than I do. What should a new Heroscaper do to get some sets and not go broke?

[flameslayer93]

$50 for a used MS1 isn't too bad for Ebay. But do yourself a favor, try using one of the sites listed on the front page for extra stuff. Don't buy Epay.

Also, if you want more stuff, you can try the customs sections of this site.

Welcome to the game

[ozzy-scaper]

DirtySkyo - firstly, welcome to the game. Don't stress re chasing terrain. Still available are the second masterset ("Swarm of the Marro"), DnD master set ("Battle for the Underdark"), and the "Fortress of the Archkyrie" castle expansion - these three sets are loaded with terrain and figures, and will add to your other two sets nicely.

Also this website is fantastic and the custom forums will give you plenty of ideas re making better versions of the original expansion sets if the prices you're seeing on ebay aren't appealing.

Check out the links to miniature retailers on the homepage and compare the forum suggestions re the 'best' figures for what's out there to buy. Don't forget the DnD waves of figures (D1, D2, D3) are still readily available and full of great figures.

Yes, you've arrived a little late to the party - but hell, the party's gotta kick on somewhere else, so it might as well be at your place...

Oz

[Agent Minivann]

Sometimes you can get some good luck buying larger lots from guys selling their collections in one auction. Check craigslist as well. That way you might get a killer deal without shipping. I would just try to get a ballpark idea of how much things originally cost, and how much they are going for on ebay before making a bid/offer.

[elvenwizard9]

Originally Posted by DirtySyko

After a sudden interest in board/tabletop gaming, I've been diving into many new games and gaining a love for a new hobby. My path finally crossed Heroscape, and I'm not sure if that was for the best. Being a guy who likes to start from the beginning and wants that "vanilla" experience before I jump into the newer stuff, I bought myself a used complete copy of the original Master Set on Ebay for about $55. I also let my impulses get out of control and I bought a second, brand new original Master Set on Ebay, for $75.

Today my used copy came in, and besides missing one glyph and having 2 broken water tiles, I'm happy with my purchase. I played a scenario with 2 other friends doing a 1v2 game, and then played another friend 1v1. I really enjoy the game, and now I need more.

So, where do I go from here? I've looked online at the bigger expansions with more tiles and army units, but some of them are just mind blowingly expensive. Road to the Forgotten Forest running at about $50+, and the Tundra set at over $100... I look up their old prices online and see they used to be sold in stores for $20. That makes it really tough for me to throw down $100.

Would I do best just buying tiles in sets on Ebay, like a pack of snow tiles or road tiles, minus the other stuff from the expansions? And then I can search Units and buy them separately as well? What would be the cheapest, most efficient process?

I wouldn't have an issue paying upwards $100 for new, unopened rare sets like that if I knew they'd remain valuable... But, I have no idea what the chances are of the game ever coming back into print, and if I spend money like that on something that eventually resales for less than half what I paid, I'll have a meltdown. I don't really know what the odds are this game will ever return, you all know more about that than I do. What should a new Heroscaper do to get some sets and not go broke?

I reccomend FoTA from for new players HouseMouseGames. If you could, get the Forgotten Forest, the trees and road are a great part of any battlefield. Also, I'd reccomend making a few simple custom trees (It's not hard, I made a few) with some terrain from small expansions, modeling glue, and model trees from Hobby Lobby.

[Dad_Scaper]

If you just want a lot of stuff, I'd suggest buys things in lots, as some have said. Watch here for people selling their collections.

If you have two Master Sets you already have a *lot* of terrain. I'd keep an eye out for a Fortress of the Archkyrie to give you road hexes; the column and battlement pieces will be a nice bonus.

One Fortress of the Archkyrie would also immediately open up a *bunch* of tournament-type maps, if you go digging in the Maps sub forum you will fine Rÿchean's recent map building contest.

Coincidentally I made the very best map in the whole competition* and you can find it linked in my signature block.

There is no need, in this particular game, to go find the NIB Uber-unit. There really *is* not uber-unit. Some of the most competitive in tournament play are widely available, and anything you can get your hands on is going to be 100% fun with a capital "One Hundred Percent."

Welcome, have a look around, you'll figure out what's right for you.

[Auggest]

Welcome new Scaper!

We sell singles of everything and you can buy whatever terrain we currently have available by itself. Note though, our turnover is high and to be honest terrain such as trees and glaciers and special hexes like molten lava and snow tend to be expensive.

We do have some customs stuff just now coming online though. We have some plants at $2.99 that look great. I really like plant #1 and it's the best seller along with plant #3 on our site but strangely when I show them in person everyone like Plant #2 best. These plants are easy enough to do yourself and will cost you about $1-$1.50 in materials if you want to go that route. We also just started selling Glaciers. We have the 2 hex ones up for sale and they look pretty good. We aren't professionals here but for the price ($4 each I think) they look nice and are made of hard resign. We have a 7 hex glacier sculpted and it's in the process of having a mold made so those should be up sometime after GenCon (next week). I must say, the master looks awesome! so I expect good things from this one. They will likely come in at around $8-$10 (I have to calculate exact cost of resign though).
Finally we have a customs section where we sell items that with little modification can be used in Scape. They come with a laminated stat card (cut square). These are created by fans here who post their work for critique then allow me to sell them in exchange for a "bounty". The custom creator gets .75 for each one that sells.
Anyway, check us out at auggiesgamesonline.com
.....Andrew

[sixthflagbearer]

Here is Dok's advice when starting (although you can ignore #2)

Originally Posted by dok

My stock advice follows. Skip the stuff you already have. Given what you have, that means grabbing a Marvel Set and an FotA, and a bunch of cheap singles, before you dig into wave 1.

My recommendations, in order from high priority to low:

1) Buy 1 Marvel Set, 1 D&D set, 1 Swarm of the Marro set, and 1 Fortress of the Archkyrie Set. All of these can still be found at or below retail price from numerous vendors. You can get all four for under $100 total on Amazon. That will give you enough terrain to build plenty of good maps, plus enough figures to play home games.

2) Go to Auggies Games and buy singles of the Rise of the Valkyrie uniques. The RotV set is very expensive, but you only need 1 each of the figures, and they aren't very expensive at all.

While you're there, buy a Fen Hydra or two, a couple extra squads of Marrden Nagrubs, and four or five extra squads of Marro Stingers. Dirt cheap and well worth it. At this point you have enough figures to field highly competitive armies in any setting.

3) Next up would be every widely available unique/uncommon pack - that's (in order of how much I'd want them) D2, wave 1, D3, D1, the D3 uncommon pack, the elves, and the wave 8 uniques. As you can see, all of those are very affordable. I'd also consider adding Orm's Return for some extra large figure goodies.

4) After that it's just a question of which common squads/packs you want to bulk up on. I highly recommend adding a few packs of Warriors and Soulborgs. Romans, Phantom Knights, Greenscale Warriors, Goblins, Deathchasers, Warforged, Mezzodemons, Horned Skull Brutes, and Blade Gruts are all popular and available choices. Even if you don't buy the packs, though, it's worth going over to Auggie's and buying one of some of the included uncommons.

So, there you go - a fun, varied, competitive Heroscape collection for well under $200. Enjoy!

Edit: happy Auggie?

[Auggest]

Originally Posted by sixthflagbearer

Here is Dok's advice when starting (although you can ignore #2)

[Dad_Scaper]

The Nagrubs would only really work if you've acquired a Su Bak Na, Tor Kul Na, or Wo Sa Ga from somewhere, so that bit of advice is a little out of context.

[sixthflagbearer]

Originally Posted by Auggest

I meant the first half of it

[TMRose]

Hi.
As another fairly new player all I can do is say welcome.
At present I have a Swarm of the Marro and the DnD master set(And another DnD master set on the way)plus two fortress sets and that enough to keep me busy. And with your two sets you will have more stuff then me:=) I also bought about 10 sets and some stuff from Auggie's( Including all the RotV figures and two ruins terrain pieces he has as they are very reasonable in price ) and I know there still plenty of stuff I dont own that is still at a reasonable price.
I hope that since the game is still attracting new people, Hasbro might second thoughts once the economy improves.