New Guy With a Question

[Raider30]

Greetings all!

I saw H2Daddy's(heyo H2!) post here and had to jump in. I'm the one who brought this up over on our other forum, asking if any had played the game and what their experiences were. No one had played it, but a couple of the guys found some good links for me to research a bit and I ended up deciding to go for it.

I saw this quote and it made me chuckle to myself. I'm going to copy below the post I made to our video game forum and I think Markwars especially will get at kick out of the third paragraph as it really supports the 'boys will be boys' stereotype.

Originally Posted by markwars

On a day to day basis my only HS partner is my seven year-old son. He loves this game. It has cool figures (which he likes regardless) and buildable terrain (which he also likes regardless of the game) so he's going to want to play with the pieces no matter what. Sure sometimes the terrain is hosting a Hotwheels gathering or Su-Bak-Na is off fighting Star Wars figure, but the important thing is that he likes this stuff.

Here's the post I made to our forum telling the guys how things worked out:

"I did take a look at Toys R Us, Target, and Walmart and none of the three carried this game anymore. Perhaps with the holidays rolling around Toys R Us might get it back in stock.

I ended up ordering the Master Set 2 and the Dungeons and Dragons Master set from Amazon. I believe it was $43 for the first and $24 for the second, free shipping.

The master set 2 arrived yesterday and the boys loved it. We opened it up and not having time for a 'real' battle simply put some pieces together and began to 'fight' with their guys, eventually raiding their rooms for other small figures to do battle on the terrain tiles.

Tonight I had some more time so we sat down and I read the instructions for the basic game. Pretty simple. It took between 20-30 minutes to set up the first scenario, but I'm confident I can do it quicker next time now that I have a system down. Then we placed their figures and I let them do battle using the basic rules. There is a small bit of strategy in the basic set, ie. being higher than your opponent grants you an extra dice to roll during battle. They pretty much missed the strategy in the first battle, but they had a blast playing it.

I played the next one against one of the boys and tried to lead by example as far as using height and movement to the advantage of my particular pieces. He caught on pretty quick and thereafter it was a close match but he ended up beating my guys.

I really think the advanced rules would offer much more in the way of strategy and eliminate some of the chance factor, which is mostly what the basic rules are about, chance.

So far it was a huge hit and I can't wait to see them when I drop the Dungeons and Dragons set on them. They are already plotting which expansion sets to ask Santa for. "

I'm excited to play some more tonight and I know the boys are too. I'm from way, way, Western Iowa(Council Bluffs) and I'm pretty sure Omaha, NE has, or did have, a fairly active Heroscape community so I'm hoping to go witness a tournament or something sometime soon.

- Raider30

[markwars]

Nice stuff! I can definitely relate.

I'm glad you guys found us. There's definitely a large community here. And though it may be a bit of bummer for you that you are just coming in when the bomb got dropped take heart. You give every long time fan belief in the game and its life in the foreseeable future, and you will probably be able to score some cheaper sets over the next two or three years.

Cheers,
Mark

[H2daddy]

Hey Raider. Small world. I think I am going to do what you did and get the two sets you bought. Seems like a good starting point. I have a feeling my boys are going to enjoy this. I showed them a youtube video about the game and they got all excited. I just wish somebody local carried it so we could jump into a game this weekend but don't think that is going to happen.

[markwars]

There's an entire community pulling for you two guys and your kids.

[xraine69]

[i_r_beej]

Originally Posted by H2daddy

I discovered Heroscapes today on a video game site. I am a 43 year old father of a 7 and 8 year old. ... Before I jump in, is this game okay for small children?

I'm 40 and my son is 7. We started out with the "Basic Rules" (which are very easy and actually LESS fun) and quickly phased in the Master Rules. My son had NO trouble picking up on the Master Rules.

At first he didn't like the order markers but we phased them in over a few games and now we've been playing by Master Rules for a few months.

So check with local game and hobby stores first. I can still find plenty of Swarm of the Marro master sets for $40. The D&D set (Battle for the Underdark) is also still plentiful.

Check on Ebay of lots of used terrain so you can build bigger and more "3D" maps (we build lots of hills, caves, overhangs, bridges).

The re-issue of wave 1 expansion (snipers & vipers; roman legion; etc) is also still relatively easy to find at local game stores. Get as much of those as you can-- they contain extra glyphs and terrain tiles so they're a good value. The characters are also fun to play with.

Have fun!

[H2daddy]

My Battle for the Underdark D&D set came in today. I opened it up set it up; I made the Room 1: The Lair Map and waited on the boys to get home. We tried to play the actual campaign for that room and it was okay. Not sure I am ready for scenarios yet. After that, we lined up and just battled each other. I am clueless on strategy and we basically rushed to the middle and battled. My 7 year old loved it. The 8 year old was sort of interested but kept going back and forth between it and the xbox. My Swarm of the Marro set should be here tomorrow. I really need to read the book tonight and try to figure out if what we did was right today. Either way, we had fun. I see spending a lot of time and money on this game. Here is our first map set up.

[Sherman Davies]

Originally Posted by markwars

There's an entire community pulling for you two guys and your kids.

I know I am.

Welcome to the site, H2daddy and Raider30. If at all possible, you should try and find the original master set, Rise of the Valkyrie (RotV). The sheer amount of play value that set offers is unmatched in Heroscape and, dare I say it, any other game. Its price may be higher now than it used to be, but its original MSRP was a steal anyway so don't feel bad if you end up paying $50 or $60 for it. It's well worth it.

[Kaemon Awa 123]

Well, my opinion's coming in a little late, but oh well...

I'd just like to specify the fact that it's important what kind of play that you'll be doing with your kids. My little brothers are 8 and 10, and both love the game. However, most of our play is not tournament type play, and I wouldn't consider them "tournament ready" players. However, casual 1v1, 1v1v1, or 2v1, or scenario play is quite fun as long as you're sure to give them the better army and make sure they know how to use them. Also, if you're looking for fun, you can't beat getting a 1-3 FotA sets and having castle wars/castle defence. It's still quite cheap, I just picked a second one up for $13.99 at a game shop in MN a couple days ago during a tourney I attended. Just don't forget to give them do-over moves/turns when they make a strategical mistake during any game, they won't learn unless they know how to fix their mistakes.

Anyway, as far as building up your collection, its generally better to get adaquate numbers of a few commons as compared to being a completionist if you're intrested in winning tournament games, but getting as many different units as possible is more fun if you're going to play mostly with your kids.

EDIT- 666 posts!!!

[Cyborgs Gaming]

just for you new guys. I want to state my view that Heroscape isn't over with. There is a brand new release in about a week and it will be at least a year before product really starts to run short. Hopefully by then a way will be found to keep new stuff coming.

Welcome to the site and I'm glad to see you came to the right place.

[screwDriver]

To the news guys... welcome. Heroscape had been discontinued by WotC. The probability of not having new figures after Wave D3 is bleak. Just remember that having more figures adds more fun BUT not having them won't make your game dull either. Besides, there's still lots of expansions you can still get. So play on.

[markwars]

Just look at how many people are interested in helping out the guys that are new to the game. That says a lot about the game the people that play it.