Heroscape: Gladiator's Arena

[superfrog]

I thought I'd share this variant that I have played several times with some of my friends (including @Knight of Scape ). It's fast, pretty simple, gets lots of units in the game, and emphasizes throwing lots of dice right away over strategic setup:

Heroscape: Gladiator's Arena

For any number of players (3-5 works best).

A small map works best.

To set up, choose a pool of a bunch of unique (or uncommon) heroes to use (we usually pick heroes between 50 and 150 points). Set the figures aside and shuffle the cards. Lay out the top 5 cards. Each player starts with 100 points.

Decide who's going first. On your turn, follow the steps listed below:

1. If you have no figure on the battlefield, choose any one of the 5 cards that is laid out. If you choose the first one, pay its cost. If you choose the second one, you must "pay" an additional 10 points. Place a marker (use order markers or round markers or coins or whatever) on the first card to represent those 10 points. If you choose the third card, place a marker on each of the first two cards. The fourth card requires three markers and the 5th card 4 markers. You pay the unit's cost in addition to these added penalties. If you pick a card with markers on it, you get those points added to your total points. You may choose a figure that makes you have negative points remaining. Once you've chosen, move all the cards up to fill in the spot you just created and take the top card of the pile for the 5th spot. (This system is stolen from the board game Smallworld). Once you have chosen your figure, place it anywhere on the board.

2. If you do have a figure on the battlefield, take a turn with it (don't use order markers, so if figures require the use of order markers, maybe don't use them for this format or come up with some house rule to make their powers work). If by some chance you have two or more figures (by virtue of mindshackle or something), take sequential turns with the figures in any order you choose.

3. If you kill a figure, place its card in front of you. You now get as many points as that figure is worth. Add that to your total.

You can play a set number of rounds, or until you've exhausted the pile, or until somebody has a certain number of points.

It's a great way to get a bunch of underused heroes into the game, because even if they're bad, they'll start to pile up markers on them until they're worth it because of the guaranteed points you get from picking them.