AoA:Vanguard Campaign Postmortem

[Master Roshi]

Originally Posted by nyys

For me it was Scape for sure, through and through. But I think the pretty significant change in aesthetic is what made it too unScape-like for some. I disagree but understand.

My bigger disagreement was with complaints about particular cards or factions, to say they weren’t Scape. You don’t have to like everything, but just about anything can fit into the game. I have plenty of classic figures that I rarely, if ever used because I simply don’t care for them. Doesn’t make them any less HeroScape.

Thats how I felt, I liked the designs and just felt like it was a new direction for Heroscape which was fine by me. I think it might have been too much new stuff all at once, but the particular designs and factions were fine with me.
Another direction could have been three or four new factions, and then the remaining characters are filled with miscellaneous stuff fitting older factions

[GreatPlainsKnight]

Regardless of how people feel about the factions, I think it was a mistake to make Heroscape faction oriented. It seems limiting to have 5 factions that play almost entirely on their own. Heroscape was never about factions, it was about making your own armies and experimenting. You could play the Legionnaires with a variety of warlords, and have them fight side by side with Roman Archers, or redcoats, or ww2 soldiers, or maybe figures who didn't have any thematic or synergistic connection to them at all. The Venoc Warlord and Vipers could be drafted with Aubriens or Mohicans, it didn't matter.

Age of Annihilation would've done way better if it had a wide spread of units (like RotV) with a tight synergy web. For instance, some warriors could get an attack bonus when next to a fearless figure, that fearless figure could boost the d20 rolls of a soldier unit, that soldier unit could bond with a hero of their species, and that guy could do something that benefits someone else. If everything somehow tied together (I'm just spitballing ideas), you could mix and match and truly make your own army, rather than use a faction meant to be played by itself.

I mean imagine if it was a giant box with kato Katsuro and the Ashigaru and Samurai, the Hive and various marro, the Gladiators, the Elven Wizards, and Vydar Soulborgs, and you were told it was the battle of all time and you could build whatever army you want. Technically you could, but it wouldn't be optimal.

All of that being said, I backed the campaign because I liked the factions and everything new and innovative, like the new wall terrain and the squads with two life, I just think AoA wasn't the best thing to try and grab a new audience with or introduce said new audience to what Heroscape is all about. I also wish the Haslab thing was handled better, but that's a dead horse I ain't gonna beat.