[Jexik]

The lack of power creep or planned rarity schemes is part of what makes Heroscape so special.

The figures are fun and interesting to play because the game itself is fun and balanced. What a novel idea! As much as I like trying to come up with the perfect armies, it often comes down to the map and matchup.

A lot of the traditional tournament structure is born out of making life easier for the people organizing tournaments. Most tourney maps only use one master set and 1-2 terrain expansions because it's easier to acquire enough materials and build the maps that way. 24 hex starting zones were originally popularized because they didn't require any marking if you use a 24 hex piece for each player. It later turned out that regardless of point level, this starting zone and map size generally lets you finish a game in about an hour. It's usually kill 'em all because that is the easiest scenario to explain to people.

But I think you're over simplifying matters if you think that simply increasing point totals is the way to make the game more fun. Sure, you can change the point totals, or even the starting zone size and location, but Heroscape provides a system for varying the maps and scenarios that should keep things interesting for many years, even if we were to get no new figures.

That said, new figures are awesome, and what I like to see the most! Not because I'm looking for the next game-breaking unit, but something that will shake up the way people play the game, or dust off previously neglected figures. Morsbane still isn't the best, but Ulginesh and the others certainly increased his value. The Redcoats don't overshadow the 4th Mass, but they play a little differently. The Marro Stingers make expensive heroes like Q9 or Nilfheim a little dangerous to play, while simultaneously making slow melee figures a little more viable.

Also, squads are very fun for me to play. I hope they never become obsolete.