New Figure Impact

I'm starting to wonder if any new figures can have a huge impact on the way that Heroscape is played.

1. The order marker system encourages the use of commons.

2. Controlling a point on a map encourages the use of high defense figures or powerful uniques.

3. Height advantage and the engagement mechanics (and its effect on target selection) encourage the use of ranged units.

4. In response to point 1, you want multiple (>=3) attacks per order marker to deal with squads.

5. In response to point 2, you want moderately powerful attacks (>=3A) to defeat uniques and high defense figures.

I'm not sure if any one figure can really change any of these 5 things. (Note that an army need not fit all criteria, but at least 3 is a good idea). Even if something does change one of these rules or is a hard counter for your army, there is such a wide range of viable stuff out there that you can't fret too much over the possibility of a bad matchup. Every army has a couple. spider_poison would have been in a lot of trouble if he came up against Mattser or K-boom last year.

Now, in a drafted game, or a situation where you magically know what everyone else is playing this could be a factor.

But what I've seen of Wave 9 (and other recent waves) is that we really shouldn't expect another Q9 or Raelin to come around transform our perceptions of the game. They've been pretty good about making figures powerful enough to see play, but not so good that they completely dominate.

Do I expect to see lots of Wave 9 this summer at GenCon? Definitely. There are a number of units that are pretty solid, and plenty of people will just be excited to see something new, including myself.