RiSkape: HeroScape / Risk mashup

[IshMEL]

RiSkape is a mashup of Heroscape and Risk, played on the Map of Valhalla:

Spoiler Alert!

(This map is saved here as a PDF (1.2 M). The image is sized for printing on 11 x 17 paper.)

As one of Valhalla's Generals, you must secure the Wellsprings, gain allies, summon the greatest heroes of time and space, and send forth your armies to gain control of Valhalla!

CORE RULES
The Core Rules cover the basic relationship between the Heroscape and Risk games. There are a number of Variants that add more complexity and Scape lore to the game. If you need to brush up on the rules of Risk, you can read the basic rules here.

Object
The first player to occupy all the Starting Homelands wins the game.

The Map
The map is divided into 20 territories, 8 of which are Homelands of Valhalla's Generals. (Marr has been promoted to his own Generalship.) Territories are adjacent if they share a border, or there is a marked sea lane or river crossing between them. (So from Laur you may attack the Thaelenk Tundra, but not Ostrivick.)

Setup
Each player chooses a General. The territory with your General's symbol is your Starting Homeland. Any territory with a General's symbol that's not chosen by a player is a Neutral Homeland.

You begin the game with army tokens, which function like regular armies during a "Risk battle," and are each worth 25 Army Card points during a "Heroscape battle."

Each player begins with 20 army tokens, and adds 1 additional token for each Neutral Homeland on the map. (So in a 2 player game, each player would start with 26 tokens.)

Also, if there are at least 2 unfriendly Starting Homelands adjacent to yours, you get 2 extra tokens for each one of them. (So, in an 8 player game without teams, Vydar, Ullar, Marr, and Einar would get 4 extra tokens, and Utgar and Valkrill would get 6.)

Place all your army tokens on your Starting Homeland.

Place 10 neutral army tokens on each empty Homeland. Place 2 neutral tokens on all other empty spaces.

Roll for initiative.

Turn Order
On your turn, you will Summon, then Attack, then Fortify.

1) Summon. The territories you control generate Army Tokens.

Your own Starting Homeland generates 4.
Any other Homeland you control generates 3.
Any other territory generates 1.

Place your summoned tokens on any territory or territories you control.

2) Attack. During this phase, you can Attack as many times as you want from a territory you control with at least 2 tokens to an adjacent territory. Most of these battles will be fought using regular Risk rules.

Players should agree at the start of the game when a battle will be fought on a Heroscape map, what the format of battles will be, etc. Keep in mind that there will be many battles! Some possible things to consider:

* Size: A minimum army size on both sides
* Balance: Since it's no fun (and not worth the map setup time) to have a Heroscape battle of 1500 vs 50 point armies, set a rule for balance between armies -- such as no more than 200 point difference, or no more than 25% difference, etc.
* Frequency: At most once per turn. Generally declared by the attacker. You could make a rule that defenders must agree to a Heroscape battle once declared, otherwise it's resolved with dice.
* Format: Since there are many battles, you might consider a faster format such as Heat of Battle.
* Units: Decide on admissible units (C3V, Marvel, custom, etc.)
* Maps: Generally chosen by the defender. Maps should be balanced, except for Homeland battles (see below) and can be as thematic to the territory as your terrain collection and imagination permit. A suggested list of maps is coming soon!

Attacks on territories held by neutral armies are always resolved with a Risk battle.

An attack on a Homeland occupied by another player is always resolved with a Heroscape battle. The Homeland's defender may choose a Castle siege map and take the defending position.

When playing a Heroscape battle, each Army Token is worth 25 points. You may only summon units from your own General, or from the General of any Homeland you control. If there are more than two players, and your starting Homeland is occupied by an opponent, you may still summon units from your starting General. Marro units may only be summoned by a player who controls the Marr swamp.

After the Heroscape battle, if the defender was victorious, reduce the attacker's force to one token. Reduce the defender's force to the size of its remaining army, rounded up to the nearest 25. (Use partial card scoring, so if you had two Tarn Viking Warriors left, they would be worth 25 points.)

If the attacker was victorious, remove the defender's force. Reduce the size of the attacker's force to the size of its remaining army, rounded up to the nearest 25, using partial card scoring. If the attacker has fewer than 50 points left at the end of the battle, it gets two tokens (one for the territory that it attacked from, the other to occupy the defending territory). The attacker must move all army tokens from the attacking territory, except one, into the territory it just attacked.

As in regular Risk, you cannot abandon a territory.

3) Fortify

Move any number of Army Tokens from one territory to an adjacent territory, controlled by you.

The turn passes to the next player.

VARIANTS
You may choose multiple Variant rules to add to the Core Rules. Most should be compatible with each other. Or, make up your own!

Endgame Variants
Instead of playing until a player occupies all the Starting Homelands, you may play to a certain number of rounds, or to a certain number of Heroscape battles, or when the first Starting Homeland is defeated. Score Victory Points the way you calculate summoning. Or, go crazy and play for Total Global Domination!

Supply Lines
When you Fortify, you may move armies between any two territories you control, if there's an unbroken chain of territories you control (or through a teammate's territory).

Exploration
At the beginning of the game, put 7 permanent glyphs and 8 treasure glyphs in a draw bag.

If you defeat a neutral army in a territory that's not a Homeland, you have explored it. Draw a glyph. If it's a permanent glyph, that area contains a wellspring and is worth 2 summoning points. If it's a treasure glyph, that army has that treasure glyph. During a Risk battle, an army rolls one d8 for each treasure glyph on its territory. During a Heroscape battle, you may use those treasure glyphs. Treasure glyphs can be moved with your Army, but Wellsprings cannot be moved. Treasure glyphs are captured by the victor in any Risk or Heroscape battle.

During your Fortify move, you may move Treasure Glyphs with your army tokens, as long as you move at least one army token for each Glyph you move.

Two Generals
Instead of choosing one General, each player picks any two Generals and places 10 tokens on each Homeland. They are both Starting Homelands. Take turns "drafting" Generals. This should make for a faster game.

Team Play
You can play 2 vs 2, or 2 vs 2 vs 2, or 3 vs 3. If one team has occupied all the Starting Homelands, they are the victor. In a team game, if your Homeland is occupied by an opponent, you may still summon units from your starting General. The teams should alternate turns, e.g., if Jandar and Einar are teamed up against Utgar and Marr, the turns could go Jandar - Utgar - Einar - Marr.

Good vs Evil (vs Neutral)
In this Variant, the "Good" Generals are Jandar, Ullar, Aquilla and Einar. The "Evil" Generals are Utgar, Marr, and Valkrill. Vydar is neutral.

2P: One Good vs One Evil
3P: One Good vs One Evil vs Vydar
4P: Two teams (Two Good vs Two Evil).

There's an additional Alliance bonus during summoning:

* If the Good player controls all four Good Homelands, she gets 5 extra tokens.

* If the Evil player controls all three Evil Homelands, he gets 4 extra tokens.

* If the Vydar player controls his Starting Homeland, and at least Good and one Evil Homeland, he gets 4 extra tokens. If he controls two of each and his Starting Homeland, he gets 6 extra tokens.

* In a team game, a Good player gets 2 tokens if Good players control all 4 Good Homelands. An Evil player gets 2 tokens if Evil players control all 3 Evil Homelands and Vydar.

The Einar Variant
Same as Good vs Evil above, but Einar is considered to be Neutral. The Good alliance bonus is now 4 for controlling the three Good Homelands. The Neutral player gets a bonus of 3 for controlling Einar and Vydar. The Evil bonus is the same.

The Marro Hive
A player defending the Marr swamp makes a swamp map instead of a castle and drafts the Hive at no cost. The Hive can't be drafted in other territories.

Round Limit
If you decide to limit the number of rounds played in a Heroscape battle (except Homeland battles), use the following rules:
* Decide the victor based on remaining points on the battlefield. Use partial card scoring.
* Both attacker and defender reduce their number of army tokens to the size of their remaining armies, rounded up to the nearest 25.
* If the defender was victorious, leave the army tokens be.
* If the attacker was victorious, the defender must retreat its remaining force to an adjacent territory that defender controls. (You may retreat through a friendly territory in a team game.) If there is no such territory, the defender has been routed and all tokens are destroyed. In either case, the attacker moves all but one token into the empty territory.

Dead is Dead
If a Unique unit is destroyed in a battle, it may not be re-summoned for future battles. (Assume that Unique Heroes have their wounds healed between rounds, and partial Unique Squads have their defeated figures resurrected.) You may include Uncommon Heroes in this rule, or not.

Marvel
If you want to mix Marvel and Classic, align the Marvel heroes with the following Generals:

Jandar: Captain America
Aquilla: Spider-Man
Einar: Iron Man
Ullar: Hulk
Vydar: Silver Surfer
Utgar: Red Skull, Doctor Doom
Valkrill: Thanos
Marr: Abomination, Venom

Commanders
At the beginning of the game, choose a small or medium figure of 150 points or less from your General and place it on your Homeland. It counts against your starting army tokens, rounded up to the nearest 25 points.

During a Risk battle, your Commander is worth the equivalent number of army tokens, rounded up. (Sgt. Drake would be worth 5, Cyprien would be worth 6). You may use a d8 when attacking or defending with a Commander. If attacking with a Commander in a Risk battle, you must have at least 1 other army token in that army for each attack die rolled.

If your Commander's army is defending in a Risk battle, and the Commander is reduced below his equivalent army tokens, it is destroyed. (E.g., Cyprien and 2 army tokens are defending, roll 3 defense dice, and lose all 3. The 2 tokens would be defeated and Cyprien destroyed.)

During a Heroscape battle, you must draft the Commander in your army if the Commander is present (and cannot draft him if he's not). If your opponent controls your Commander at the end of a battle, he now controls your Commander on the map. If he is destroyed in battle, you lose your Commander.

Generals
You can use the custom "Generals" (found here and here) using the same rules as Commanders, with the following changes:

* A General cannot be defeated in a Risk battle. If a General is left with no army tokens on his territory, he vacates the territory and retreats to the nearest territory you control.
* If your General is defeated in a Heroscape battle, you lose the game. (You will also lose if your Homeland is captured as above.)
* Your General may make a separate Fortify move during Fortification, and may move through any territories you control or friendly territories. Before defending your Homeland, you may move your General through any territories you control or friendly territories to join your Homeland's defense.

Heroscape Dice
Instead of using a set of numbered d6's to determine the outcome of a Risk battle, you may use Heroscape dice instead.

The attacking player attacks with an army, rolling up to 3 dice. At least one unit must remain behind in the attacking territory not involved in the attack, as a territory should never be left unoccupied. (So to attack with 3 dice, an attacker must have 4 or more armies in the attacking army.) Before the attacker rolls, the defender must resist the attack with one, two, or three dice (using at most the number of armies currently occupying the defended territory).

Match up both player's shields and skulls to determine how many army tokens each player loses. If one side rolls more dice, that side can decide which of their resulting dice to match up, and which to disregard.

The attacker can then repeat the attack if he wants to, or attack elsewhere, or end the attacking phase.

For example:

Utgar is attacking with 4 armies from Aunstrom to Elswin, which is held by 2 of Jandar's armies. Utgar rolls 3 dice, while Jandar can only roll 2.
Utgar rolls
Jandar rolls
Of Utgar's 3 skulls, only 2 count, since Jandar only rolled 2 defense dice. One of Utgar's 2 skulls is blocked by a Jandar shield, and the other isn't, so Jandar loses one army token.
Jandar's 1 skull is not blocked by a shield rolled by Utgar, so Utgar also loses one army token.

Now there are 3 Utgar armies and 1 Jandar army. Utgar decides to attack again, but can only roll 2 dice (since he'll have to leave 1 token behind if he wins.) He rolls . Jandar can only roll 1 die, and rolls . Since Utgar has two dice he can match with Jandar's, he can either pick the skull (reducing his own army to 2, and destroying Jandar's) or the shield (neither side loses any army tokens, and Utgar can try again and hope that Jandar will roll a blank).

If an attack eliminates the final defending army within a territory, the attacker then must occupy the newly conquered territory with at least the number of attacking armies used in the last round of attack. There is no limit to the total number of additional armies that may be sent in to occupy, providing at least one army remains behind in the original attacking territory. Players may attack any number of territories any number of times before yielding the turn to the next player. Attacking is optional; a player may decline to attack at all during the turn.

In this variant, it is possible to have an "empty" territory. If the defender's wiped out, and the attacker is left with only 1 army, the attacker can move their 1 army into the territory, if (and only if) they can make an immediate fortification move into the (now empty) attacking territory. If they cannot, the defending territory is just empty. Anyone can "attack" it (without rolling dice).

If playing this Variant along with the Exploration, General, and/or Commander Variants, instead of rolling a d8 in an army with a Treasure Glyph, General, or Commander, all blanks rolled by that Army count as skulls (if attacking) or shields (if defending). If you want to get all fancy, use Valkyrie dice.

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The original post, so the responses below make sense:

Spoiler Alert!

I was thinking of using DanieLoche's excellent Valhalla map as the basis for an epic Risk-style campaign, adapting elvenwizard's War for Valhalla.

Most of the generals have defined homelands:
Jandar: Nastralund
Ullar: Ekstrom
Aquilla: Ticalla
Einar: Lindesfarme
Vydar: Anund

But I can't find a definite answer on the homeland for Utgar (Braunglayde? Jutanguard?) or Valkrill. Anyone know the answer, if there is one?

[Maklar the Silver Prince]

I believe the homeland of Utgar is Bleakwoode, but I could be wrong. I also recall that the "creation" of Vakrill occurred in Bleakwoode as well, but once again, I could be wrong.

[William099]

I was pretty sure that the Volcarren was where Utgar hailed from. And Valkrill comes out of the underdark.

[Unhinged Manchild]

Well, sorry I can't answer your question... I didn't even know the generals had "home bases" or anything like that. I guess it makes sense, though.

Wow, I checked those links you posted, Ishmel, this would be a cool thing to do. It seems to embody the whole idea of heroscape! I honestly never paid much attention to the lore, but this concept of summoning armies and taking control of these battlefields/wellsprings is exactly what heroscape is about!

Hmm, now I want to see if my brother in law, Andy, would be interested in doing an epic game like this. It would clearly be something that would slowly happen, probably even take months to really complete, given our schedules now, but it would make for an epic battle video series.

[betawolf36]

Utgar's is Bleakwoode, the red Kyrie are known to come from the Kyrien Mountains.
Valkrill is in the underdark, and really doesn't rule a region. Any form of law or order would go against his chaos and anarchy.

[OEAO]

This looks pretty cool!

Does anyone know exactly where the Underdark lies?

[betawolf36]

Originally Posted by OrcElfArmyOne

This looks pretty cool!

Does anyone know exactly where the Underdark lies?

Not really. It's a massive series of underground caverns that is supposed to span much of Valhalla. I personally think that it might be connected to Vydar's underground city beneath Montfre Manor.

[IshMEL]

Thanks everyone for your help! Here's a draft of the map:

Spoiler Alert!

Other than adding the General's logos, I've made only a few changes to the map:

1) Added sea lanes to Haukeland, Athenoek, and the Tundra. Haukeland and Athenoek still suffer from the Australia gambit with only 2 adjacent territories so I may need to add more.

2) Divided Ticalla Jungle from the Swamp, so I could add Marr as a General there (and to break up the corner).

For the moment I stuck Valkrill in Braunglayde. It makes ense map-wise. And, well, there's this: "Down beyond the blighted forests of Bleakwoode, in the province of Braunglayde, lies an entrance into the Underdark. A new Valkyrie has recently been born by means of a dark ritual and stirrings in this area suggest that the new Valkyrie may have taken up residence here, seeking to establish a seat of power for himself."

Plus, Braun = Brown, Valkrill's color. That MUST be it!

[Unhinged Manchild]

Originally Posted by IshMEL

Thanks everyone for your help! Here's a draft of the map:

Spoiler Alert!

Other than adding the General's logos, I've made only a few changes to the map:

1) Added sea lanes to Haukeland, Athenoek, and the Tundra. Haukeland and Athenoek still suffer from the Australia gambit with only 2 adjacent territories so I may need to add more.

2) Divided Ticalla Jungle from the Swamp, so I could add Marr as a General there (and to break up the corner).

For the moment I stuck Valkrill in Braunglayde. It makes ense map-wise. And, well, there's this: "Down beyond the blighted forests of Bleakwoode, in the province of Braunglayde, lies an entrance into the Underdark. A new Valkyrie has recently been born by means of a dark ritual and stirrings in this area suggest that the new Valkyrie may have taken up residence here, seeking to establish a seat of power for himself."

Plus, Braun = Brown, Valkrill's color. That MUST be it!

This looks great! The only thing I'm worried about is the shear amount of territories that are on this map, I almost feel like it could take 20+ games of scape to complete one of these "Wars for Valhalla" series. I'm not saying that's a good or a bad thing, but it would take us far too long to finish when we are probably going to be playing 1-2 games a month.

I think that if Andy and I try this, I will combine some of the land/territories so that there aren't so many, maybe break it down to like 8-10 total territories. I think I'm going to add a sea route between haukeland and the tundra, too.

Ishmel, as for your battles themselves, what are your plans for maps/scenarios? I was considering using some rulebook scenarios for a couple maps, and then some tourney style maps, and maybe even some totally custom maps and scenarios, although it may be hard to pull those off in a fair manner.

[IshMEL]

All good questions. I think one solution might be to have victory conditions that aren't "take over everything." Like maybe you have to search the unoccupied regions for the "Magofin Amulet" and you draw glyphs from a bag, it's either a Treasure Glyph or the Amulet, and if you get the Amulet you have to get it back to a home base. Another possibility is that not all conflicts are decided by a Heroscape battle, it's more like you're playing Risk and you can decide (somehow) to settle a particular battle with a Scape battle instead of dice. And/or, perhaps regions can have more than one player's army -- they are big, after all.... It's easy to write a ruleset that's complicated and "epic" and will never get played. Much harder to do something that would actually be playable and fun. I'll think on it. Suggestions welcome!

Good call on the Tundra - Haukeland sea route, I'll add that in.

[Unhinged Manchild]

Originally Posted by IshMEL

All good questions. I think one solution might be to have victory conditions that aren't "take over everything." Like maybe you have to search the unoccupied regions for the "Magofin Amulet" and you draw glyphs from a bag, it's either a Treasure Glyph or the Amulet, and if you get the Amulet you have to get it back to a home base. Another possibility is that not all conflicts are decided by a Heroscape battle, it's more like you're playing Risk and you can decide (somehow) to settle a particular battle with a Scape battle instead of dice. And/or, perhaps regions can have more than one player's army -- they are big, after all.... It's easy to write a ruleset that's complicated and "epic" and will never get played. Much harder to do something that would actually be playable and fun. I'll think on it. Suggestions welcome!

Good call on the Tundra - Haukeland sea route, I'll add that in.

How are you editing this map anyway? Photoshop? Paint? I'm a little computer stupid, but I'm a quick learner in general, so advice would be appreciated on how to edit the map.

Back to the game type, I think I may change some of the summoning values and such around.

I'll probably make home castles create 150 points per turn, and each other territory create 50 points per turn, or maybe I'll even shoot for "continent bonuses" where controlling 2-3 territories will confer summoning bonuses.

I may make small armies=150 pts, medium armies=300 pts, and large=450 pts. I think if Andy does agree to playing a series of this, I will talk to him about simulating some battles Risk style, probably even rolling the 6 sided dice exactly the same way as in Risk, where we would probably sub every 50 pts in an army to be worth 1 soldier in Risk, and just roll attack and defense in that manner. But at that point the game is just Risk with heroscape theme, rather than a series of heroscape itself, so I'd like to keep that kind of stuff to a relative minimum. Perhaps it would be better to Risk sim all battles involving at least one 150 pt army, since it would be fairly time consuming to build a map and play every game that involves a 150v150, 150v300, or a 150v450.

You know, now that I think about it, maybe I'll just dump the whole small=150, medium=300, etc. I think if we just put Risk guys onto the Valhalla map and make them worth 50 pts each, it would be a decent way to track everything on the map. So then home castles would give a player 3 soldiers to place, and each territory would give 1 more soldier to place. I think I'd still Risk sim any game involving at least one army with 4 Risk soldiers (200 points) or less. I think I'll add an option that if the attacking army is more than double the defending army's size, give the attacker choice in whether to Risk sim or play the game out. I'd probably also rule that battles fought for the home castle can never be Risk simulated.

Well, I'll be sad if I've done all of this thinking to not have Andy want to try it. He is a Risk fan, but it's understandable either way, I'm almost scared about how long something like this might take us to complete.

[G1shark]

This really cool, I've wondered where many of the generals came from. Do you recommend official maps? If so it would be interesting to have mats for them like these, since the same maps would be used, just for helping to speedup the building process.

Also I figured Myvra would have come from Haukeland (which is why we havent seen her, that and shes a popular fan made general.