Is the Unique Squad dead?

[Oliver Upshaw]

Originally Posted by nyys

How about an All Unique wave? Nothing but heroes and unique squads. Granted, it obviously would not sell as much since we all only 'need' one set, but I would imagine the print run would reflect as much.

Considering how often WotC is churning out the waves right now, they could do an all unique wave and get right back on the 3-1 ratio 3-4 months later. Heck, I'm sure they could do it in less time than that if they wanted too.

That is something that Granite-M and I have talked about several times as we look at hero packs sitting on our FLGS shelves. To make it easy to understand for the retailers who order Heroscape, make Waves with even numbers all common and Waves with odd numbers unique. That way the retailers know that if you can devide the Wave # evenly by 2 you will sell more of that Wave than one that can not be devided evenly by 2. Of course we came up with that before the addition of the Uncommon figures, which created a whole new level of how many sets of a figure you need.

[dok]

Originally Posted by nyys

How about an All Unique wave? Nothing but heroes and unique squads. Granted, it obviously would not sell as much since we all only 'need' one set, but I would imagine the print run would reflect as much.

Considering how often WotC is churning out the waves right now, they could do an all unique wave and get right back on the 3-1 ratio 3-4 months later. Heck, I'm sure they could do it in less time than that if they wanted too.

This is certainly a possibility with the D&D stuff, where the production costs are a bit lower and the cross-promotions also boost sales. It's hard to see them doing an all-unique "classic" wave, though. On the other hand, I could easily imagine another unique squad in a new master set.

[mnguy12000]

I loved RoTV, didnt need any other figures, could have awesome battles and not worry about the common stuff, then I got my first wave pack, the Blasts and realized I need commons to make these squads worth it. Then the money pit began! It would be nice to have uniques again, but it doesnt make them any money, so chances are the only uniques we will see would have been in a masterset.

I just cant see them making the same mistake with the agents/glads like they did. Too much money was sitting on the shelf

[wriggz]

I think the unique squad is over rated.

Some squads HAVE to be fielding in muliples to get the right use out of them. Zombies, Drones, and goblins come to mind.

In the next "fun" game try using one common squad as a unique (you could even give them a treasure glyph to balance it out. Any of the kyrie, Higher priced Vydar, Cavalry, etc all fit the bill.

[Greyelephant]

I'd like to see a unique squad packaged with a couple of unique heroes that all work together.

That would be the unique pack for the wave and would be strong enough to keep both casual and tournament players happy.

I'd hate to see 2 unique packs released at the same time return. I don't think they sell well enough, and right now we really don't need a bad wave coming out spoiling this momentum we seem to have rolling.

[NecroBlade]

Originally Posted by Oliver Upshaw

That is something that Granite-M and I have talked about several times as we look at hero packs sitting on our FLGS shelves. To make it easy to understand for the retailers who order Heroscape, make Waves with even numbers all common and Waves with odd numbers unique. That way the retailers know that if you can devide the Wave # evenly by 2 you will sell more of that Wave than one that can not be devided evenly by 2. Of course we came up with that before the addition of the Uncommon figures, which created a whole new level of how many sets of a figure you need.

Something like this should have been done a long time ago.

[Bengi]

With the addition of the "Uncommon Hero", I wouldn't be surprised to see an "Uncommon Squad". It may get a bit confusicationing though keeping track of which squad goes with which card.

[Rÿchean]

Originally Posted by Bengi

With the addition of the "Uncommon Hero", I wouldn't be surprised to see an "Uncommon Squad". It may get a bit confusicationing though keeping track of which squad goes with which card.

I'd be surprised...very surprised. There is no need for it.

The Uncommon hero filled a specific need dictated by the influx of D&D baddies. Going Uncommon Squad doesn't fill a need and does nothing but make things more confusing.

That said, I have been very surprised before.

[Tai-Pan]

Originally Posted by DaddyScaper

I think the Nakitas/Gladiators on store shelves for 24 straight months might have been the death of the unique squad.

Oh, you've gotten rid of yours already?

[Scapemage]

Unique squads are a great part of the game. If they were common, the game would be broken. I think WoTC is using a standard which I don't like: Every pack (otehr than the heroes pack) has the same things in it:

1 common squad
1 common hero
1 uncommon hero

and in each wave, 1 pack has 4 common heroes and an uncommon hero. Now I start to wonder, will we ever get those incredibly great 2 common squad packs again? Or those Unique packs we all love (not just heroes).


EDIT: Post #1900 I ddin't miss it this time!

[Sherman Davies]

Originally Posted by wriggz

I think the unique squad is over rated.

I dunno, I think they're rated just about right. They're hardly about to take the "King of the Metagame" crown away from Common Squads.

I think the tricky thing about designing Unique Squads is finding that balance of stats, powers and cost that makes them worthwhile in a competitive setting, despite their inherent weakness. For me, the Marro Warriors are an example of a perfectly designed Unique Squad. They have an ability that would almost be broken if they were common, and they're cheap enough (50 points for a 4-figure ranged squad) to offset their uniqueness.

[Greyelephant]

Originally Posted by Taeblewalker

The only unique squads ever released, post-RotV, are two Samurai, the Ninja squad, the Nakitas and the Rechets. That's five altogether - three of which are in the Samurai/Ninja theme (which is largely complete, according to the Design Corner on the Hasbro site, with the possible exception of Samurai Cavalry, who would probably be common). Even the Nakitas sort of rounded out the Agents of Vydar. The Rechets of course are a brilliant innovation; really an extension of a unique hero.

That said, in the 10 classic waves that came out we averaged one unique squad per two waves. We are due for one or two more according to that, but the ideas may truly have dried up. I also agree with those who say that sales would suffer in the case of uniques. Perhaps the only way they would do it is if, in the pack that usually has five heroes, they put a unique squad of three and two unique heroes. The other three packs could be the usual uncommons, common squads and common heroes.

You could include the EOV into that list. They are now in wave 10.

Uniques have a grand purpose in the game. I love the Nikitas. I know they don't get much love, but they are a fun group that can protect your ranged figures from getting destroyed.

Plus now with the Warforged squad (Tactical Advantage) we've got, it makes the Nakitas that much better with their "Encounter Strike".

Yes, more unique squads would be nice. Perferrably Samurai Horse Archers TYVM!



Edit

The more I think about it, I think they could release a two squad unique pack along with the unique hero pack.

All they have to do is pick figures from the DnD realm that are hard to find. Include them in the unique squad pack and you'll have DnD'rs buying that pack just so they could have the HTF figures. They won't care that you and I are only buying 1-2 pack (I've 3 packs of Samurai and Ninjas), of the unique squads. They've got another market to cater to as well.

Yes, make more unique squads please.

Win/Win