GENERALSCAPE: Old Controversy Becomes Fun Games

[chas]

GENERALSCAPE: Old Controversy Becomes Fun Games

Many moons ago when Heroscape first came out, a controversy raged about whether Hasbro should put out figures and army cards for the Archkyrie Generals themselves. Believe it or not, this was a big deal back in the day! Eventually the Flag Bearers were made, to furnish "a Command Unit for each faction" (according to an official blurb, or perhaps a statement by Craig Van Ness). Some of the arguments Pro and Con went like this:

PRO:

*Cool; I'd like to see these figures--bet they'll be extra well made! And they are the most important characters in the Heroscape back story.

*They'll add a new creative dimension to faction building, and perhaps add some new synergy to each one.

*We can finally get some clarification as to who is supposed to be allied with who.

CON:

*We as players are supposed to be the Generals.

*They'd be so strong as to unbalence and break the game.

*I don't want to see them killed/defeated!


A few people tried to make custom army cards for Generals, and perhaps played with them, but I don't recall reading about any such games. Then a father named Scaperdad (who is NOT Dadscaper) posted a thread in Custom Figures and Cards which contained a very well executed set of General figures which he'd made for his kids. He also made very interesting Army Cards, which nicely consolidated some representative powers of each faction in their leader. They each had a Command Token which could give a bonus to one Army Card per turn.

Years ago I was excited by this thread, as no official figures had been (or were ever) produced. I vowed to try out the cards with proxy figures. But most of my pals here in NYC were in the Con faction in The Great Generalscape Controversy, and pretty adamantly at that. So I waited.

Finally, years later here in 2012, eight years after Scape was produced and the idea came to me and others, I made up a scenario "The Battle For Thormun's Wellspring," and an idea for a map. I rechecked Scaperdad's thread, and found that he had updated the original five generals with Acquilla, but no Valkryll yet. So I went ahead and made up an Army Card for him myself.

Everyone had by now forgotten the passions of the original controversy, and having tried so many Scape variations, said they'd indulge me when it came time again for my turn to run a game (we play at my house usually, but I only run one out of every four games).

Finally last Friday three of us played two games, in which all seven generals built faction armies and sent them onto the field. The information on this event is now on Scaperdad's thread with descriptions of scenario rules, armies, game play, thoughts about future "Generalscape" variants, 15 photos of the games, comments on the photos, and more. The name of the thread is: *Update* Added Acquilla - six Custom Generals. Some of the preliminary information is on my own Custom Scenarios: Generalscape thread.

Feel free to check it out. I hope it encourages you to consider taking a stab at Generalscape. Because its lots of fun!

[TheExplodingCheez]

very interensting with the backstory and all. Is there a link to the threads with the custom general cards?

[Shedim Kabal]

Originally Posted by TheExplodingCheez

very interensting with the backstory and all. Is there a link to the threads with the custom general cards?

Here's a link to the customs thread and the battle report begins on post #123.

[TheExplodingCheez]

thanks!

[chas]

"ALLIANCE" GAMES

Of course, you don't have to keep to faction pure armies! As a related type of Scaping, Sherman Davies is hosting our next game, where one team will choose from among the Good Alliance, in this case Jandar, Ullar, Acquilla, and Einar to attack a small castle held by the Evil Alliance: Vydar, Utgar, and Valkryll forces. So we'll be playing without the Custom Generals themselves, but each team is free to choose from among any of those factions of his side noted above; an option we've discussed using with the Generals too.

In the old days of Scape, the two sides broke down when they made so many Utgar army cards that any kind of "political" game had to become Utgar vs everyone else. So it was natural to restore some balance. At the end of the Officialscape Era, just before the Fanscape of today, Valkryll appeared and Vydar, always seen as the most changeable, declared for Evil. Congratulations to Our Designers for laying out this outline for a progressive backstory change that we can continue today.

[beholderthedm]

Awesome. You guys make me wanna move to NYC.

[kolakoski]

Well met!

We'll be invading this Keep to steal a Treasure Glyph:

As it stands, Sherman (playing both evil armies) has stacked the deck a bit.

This is what I've whipped up so far - a scenario for four players in two teams, continuing the story of Vydar's secession from the alliance. The idea is that the remaining members of the alliance (Jandar, Ullar, Einar and Aquilla) have decided to retrieve some important maps that were being held by Vydar in one of his keeps. It is a standard capture the flag game in which the allied forces must enter the keep, seize the maps (a Treasure Glyph) and exit the board through one of their original start zones. The airspace over the keep is guarded by Microcorp air drones though, so flying is dangerous - any allied figure that begins to fly will take a leaving engagement strike to represent being shot at by the drones.

Each of the four players can draft an army consisting of 500 points. Allied players (Team 1) draft from Jandar, Ullar, Einar or Aquilla. Vydar players (Team 2) can draft from Vydar, Utgar or Valkrill. Each team has a total of 24 start zone spaces. Team members can share unused points or start zone spaces with their teammates.

The following is what chas and I have come up with (please read both "spoilers" - I can't figure out how to stop this from happening):

Spoiler Alert!

The main strengths of our Alliance are Raelin and Soldiers. To clear the walls and/or force Sherman to sortie, I'm fielding the following:

150 10th x 2
110 AE
100 Marcus
80 Raelin
60 Deadeye Dan
500, 14 spaces,

while chas is playing:

170 Drake SotM
140 Master of the Hunt
110 Moriko
80 Kelda
500, 4 spaces

It appears that the AE can safely drop adjacent to the walls, and lob grenades. I have never used Deadeye (which I'm borrowing from chas), but (quoting dok)

he can have a lot of tactical value in castle attack scenarios - particularly if you're not playing with a round limit. DeD can outrange figures on the wall and force your opponent to either abandon the wall, or leave the castle to advance on your army.

Spoiler Alert!

Marcus and the 10th, protected by Raelin, are arguably the best ranged support the Alliance has.

chas is fielding Master of the Hunt, at my urging, solely to deal with Braxas. Drake and Moriko are specifically included to snatch and run. With respect to Kelda, chas says:

My thought is that Kelda stays out of the game perhaps one move out from the start zone where we'll return the map. When a wounded final ball carrier of either of our figures makes it out of the keep most of the way to her, with others playing rear guard, she's there to heal him/her once and let him get to the goal line.

If there is time (a good bet, as we will probably start at Noon and play into the evening), I'll probably get a chance to try:

The Nine

140 Eltahale
110 AE
110 Ninjas of the Northern Wind
80 Kumiko
60 Deadeye
500, 9 spaces

Deadeye and the AE would serve in the same roles as before, but the assault would otherwise be more . . . immediately aggressive.

[Shedim Kabal]

Do you think the 10th are robust enough to survive the march?

[kolakoski]

Originally Posted by Shedim Kabal

Do you think the 10th are robust enough to survive the march?

Well met!

They won't be marching much. Deadeye will force the other side to do the marching. Anyways, Raelin will help.

[Shedim Kabal]

Originally Posted by kolakoski

Well met!

They won't be marching much. Deadeye will force the other side to do the marching. Anyways, Raelin will help.

If anyone else told me that they were going to turtle and bait with Deadeye, I'd probably believe them... But, for some reason, I think you'd seethe with your single attack while Sherman moved in and out of range.

You and chas don't seem to be overly concerned about special attacks (considering you're facing Vydar in a castle), so what about Gurei-Oni (in place of Marcus) as an alternate runner in case Drake drops?

[kolakoski]

Originally Posted by Shedim Kabal

If anyone else told me that they were going to turtle and bait with Deadeye, I'd probably believe them... But, for some reason, I think you'd seethe with your single attack while Sherman moved in and out of range.

You and chas don't seem to be overly concerned about special attacks (considering you're facing Vydar in a castle), so what about Gurei-Oni (in place of Marcus) as an alternate runner in case Drake drops?

Well met!

Marcus is there to boost the Soldiers' Movement and Attack. Moriko is also a "runner."

[Shedim Kabal]

Originally Posted by kolakoski

Marcus is there to boost the Soldiers' Movement and Attack.

Yeah, but your start zones are all split up, so there won't be many adjacent soldiers to attack boost, you claim to not be marching the 10th, the Airborne don't need move...

I also think the guy with Kelda shouldn't be the guy with the runners, right? Since every order marker needs to be moving the glyph out at that point.

Here's my two thoughts:

Rushing
Swarm Drake Alexander
Shiori
Gurei-Oni
Master of the Hunt
Raelin the Kyrie Warrior

Blocking
Knights of Weston x3
Eldgrim the Viking Champion
Theracus
Thorgrim the Viking Champion
Kelda the Kyrie Warrior

First OM walk Thorgrim up on Theracus, second, fly him onto the wall. Third goes on the Knights, bonding with Thorgrim, they advance to the castle. Doesn't matter if the Knights get mowed down since every attack on them is not an attack on your runners. Knights job here is to wedge an opening for the runners. Thorgrim's spirit goes on whichever runner is best positioned to get the glyph. Once he's down, Eldgrim can bond and overextend into the action. Rushing is pretty much as before, only with bacon.