AOA: Playing The New Factions

[gatormustang]

Originally Posted by chas

Gatormustang,

1. As I've mentioned elsewhere, Craig VN did say during the Con video when the campaign began that the Dryans were meant to interact with the previous Elf Wizards, although he didn't say how. Both Chana and Onshu the familiars have powers that work with "any Wizard you control."

2. Taeblewalker did place two of the Vine Glyphs in the immediate battle area, but they did not come into play, and were still there at the end of the game. I don't know if more careful placement or different circumstances might have been more effective; we're new at this. I certainly didn't need to step on them during Game One, so I didn't. I might have more to say when I get to play the dragon myself.

I've got my cardboard proxy vine tiles numbered 1-3, in case we need to refer to them specifically in later commentary.

@chas I kind of thought that placing the Vine Glyphs would be more to prevent the opponent from moving efficiently to a location they wanted to go to, more than actually being something that would really impact play by inflicting damage. Based on the game you played with @Taeblewalker it seems that you were able to strategically move/avoid them. I have a current map built shown below that would definitely allow the Vine Glyphs to potentially wreak more havoc especially with the three bridges that are on the map.

[chas]

Agree! He put them on the slope of a hill I needed to climb, but I was able to maneuver around them with no movement delay. Yes, they're perfect for a bottleneck like a bridge!

[chas]

Taeblewalker has now posted photos of our first game using the proxies of the AOA cards here:

https://www.heroscapers.com/communit...92#post2551792

I've posted some commentary to identify many of the proxies used.

I'm looking forward in January to multiplayer sessions with all the "regular" AOA cards, plus now the 5 upgraded SOTM Heroes and even the 7 new Kyries. This makes a total of 51 Cards. For details see the link above, and other pages on my signature thread for the New York City Gang of Four in General Discussion.

[chas]

A second sequence of Taeblewalker's photos have now been posted, covering the other three of the first four games we played with AOA proxy cards and figures. I've also posted some commentary on them, mostly identifying the proxies I came up with.

In January we'll be trying it with the same "Demo" armies but more players, so everyone can get a feel for the new cards! Later on everyone will be able to build their own armies, mixing in all the other Scape Classic and Custom cards!

These next games will be played on a larger Medium sized battlefield, and have at least one more AOA Vanguard Edition surprise!

It will be the last planned game effect noted by Avalon Hill in their Discord discussions. I don't expect AH to reveal anything further to be included in the Vanguard Edition, due to their NDAs, but we'd all love to hear anything else planned they are allowed to mention.

[chas]

I'm surprised that no one else seems to be posting about their AOA games. Obviously others are playing, although the discussions may have moved to other media I don't use, such as Discord.

If you are playing AOA and discussing it, or even posting about them on this site, feel free to provide links to these posts here for us to find! The proxy thread certainly indicates that others are collecting figures closer to the physical AOA figures originally posted on the Haslab Offering.

As noted on my signature thread for my local group the NYCG4 (link below), after January we will begin integrating the AOA cards with all of the previous Classic and Custom cards. Even had Hasbro continued the AOA line with further expansions, we would probably be doing this anyway. Heroscape lives!

[chas]

In the NYCG4 thread (see my signature below) I have now also posted up how I'll be initially using the AOA bonus figures--the customs for the upgraded 5 SOTM Heroes (my versions) and the 7 Kyries (Anitar's versions). Check it out there. The custom cards are all in the Customs threads of this site section.

I've already played a couple of games with the SOTM Heroes: the four Good Guys vs Evil Raelin with some Marro forces on the AOA First Scenario map. This is now also briefly described on my local group signature thread.

This month I'll continue to use the eight AOA Faction armies (600 Points each) I made up and played with Taeblewalker in games with more than 2 Players. These are posted, along with photos and commentary, in my signature thread. Later on I'll be considering all Scape cards for army building along with the 51 AOA cards now available.