Heroscape squads like AotP - 1 squad w/multiple life

[lefton4ya]

I have suggested it would be fun to do Heroscape armies similar to the way Magic:AotP does. You would draft multiple "lives" of squads instead of multiple copies. For instance, for 300 points, you would get 5 squads lives of Marro Stingers: you would only have 3 figures on the board at all times, but each one would have 5 lives that you would track individually. Alternately, you could pool lives as one, where for the 5 squads of Stingers you would have 15 total wounds to take and only when down to 2 lives left would you start removing figures.

Advantages/differences between standard common squads:

• Only have to buy/own one copy of each "common squad"
• Advantage of not having to bring out reinforcements, you would be able to take more turns of the squads in a row where they can attack with more figures.
• Disadvantage if an attack has more than one skull over your shields you would be loosing lives faster than if you had multiple figures.
• Heroes would be more powerful against squads than currently - one single attack from a powerful hero would be able to kill multiple lives of squads almost as easily as multiple attacks of less powerful squads.
• Melee figures would be a little easier to keep in the foray and therefore ranked higher.
• Ranged figures would be engaged practically the whole game after round 1, so would loose their advantage.
• 4-figure squads and bonding squads have even more advantage against 3-figure squads and non-bonding squads, since at most times both armies would get the full # of attacks.
• Figure speed/move number and movement powers would not matter as much. Except disengage would even be more powerful as there is less figures to engage with.
• There would not be any start-zone constraints so double-spaced figures would be more viable.
• All this adds up to evening out a lot of the power rankings, including a lot of the D&F rated figures (Grok Riders, The Einar Imperium, Shades of Bleakewoode, Obsidian Guards) would be a lot higher rated (Deathwalker 7000 would still suck), but Raelin and Rats (only 4 figures) would still be king of cheese. However, 4th, Stingers, and Major Q9 would go down a lot, but melee bonding units like Knights would go up even more.
• Some units like Zombies and Granite Guardians would have to go through major redesign, or else be exempted from the one squad rule (maybe have 2 squads on the table). Other units like Marro Drones, Dividers, and Warriors would just have to be tweaked slightly.
• Games would be a lot shorter, as there is no waiting for reinforcements.
• Maps could be smaller and would be more focused on where the ultimate fighting would take place, not how to get there. Height is even more key as squad figures get to stay there longer.
• Honestly it might not be as fun, both because I am actually a fan of seeing hordes on the board as well as it would seem like a lot more depends on dice rolls and less on strategy of who to move up when, etc. However there is probably a different strategy you have to focus on, so I'd have to play this way to see which was would be more intriguing

I wonder now how Heroscape would have sold if they had this rule from the beginning: no one would buy multiple packs but stores would not be stuck with heroes on a shelf (which is what most say killed the game) and people would me more likely to buy a whole wave as opposed to picking and choosing, and even since the maps would be smaller people might have bought less terrain. The tournament metagame would be completely different as well, so it might also affect sales of certain units.

[obfuscatedhippo]

Cool idea.

Tracking the wounds on individual squad figures would help so you can target that one Stinger who is down to 1 life while the other two are healthy (instead of being a "pool" of lives which seems more like Exo-markers on Mezzo's).

I noticed with multiple life squads in AotP that things like Leaving Engagement Attacks didn't matter as much. Risk yet, but if you had 3 lives .. disengaging to take a run at the Planeswalker instead of the squad figure that was blocking you might be worth it.

[quozl]

I'd try it out but I think maxing out the Life at 3 is a good idea to counter the "army of heroes" effect.

[keglo]

I LOVE this idea! Especially since I only have one copy of a few commons squads.

[TechToaster]

For a moment I was confused since I actually started out in AotP and only just recently started dabbling with Heroscape by drafting squads and heros from Heroscape in my AotP builds.

I have been pondering just making a house-rule errata change list and boost alot of squads by either 1 or 2 additional life on the card (so each figure would have 2 or 3 life points as opposed to just the squishy 1). Because I've noticed that while Heroscape Heroes are AWESOME in AotP, the Heroscape squads are super squishy compared to most everything in AotP.

Slightly offtopic, but just going to point out that I follow drafting rules from AotP as well where you have to only use figures with the same color as your planeswalker. Also, I believe the rules in AotP for summoning units is up to 6 figures total from up to 2 different squads and only up to 3 figures from those same squads.