How to Introduce to a Group of 3 or 4?

[charlest]

While I played Heroscape a couple of times many years ago, I recently got a huge haul of it. I wanted to introduce this to my regular group of board gamers and trying to figure out the best approach.

I'd build the map ahead of time, but I'm at a loss as to facilitate quick drafting, and whether we should do a team or free-for-all format? How many points, etc.

The most enthusiastic local I know swears by capture the flag (playing it almost exclusively now) as it speeds up play and he finds it the most interesting format.

Any tips or suggestions?

[Drewman-chu]

To speed up the whole drafting process use premade teams and then draft the teams. If you have a odd number of people and/or don't want to have teammates, play a version called "kill the guy on your left" Basically if you kill the guy on your left you win. I have played capture the flag but would need to look at the rules again. There is a ton of different variations on this site to try.

[flameslayer93]

For Free-For-All’s I really like “Keep What You Kill”. Basically, whenever you kill or damage a figure, you earn its partial point cost. Basically just write down how many points you earn. The most intriguing part is that healing units or units that bring themselves back can become extra points for your opponents. It helps discourage turtling because you won’t win if you don’t get into the fray!

For Team Games, I still prefer kill em alls, just make sure that teamates are sitting across from each other. Also, Glyphs don’t boost your teammate! To help with time, just keep the armies fairly simple and small. Around 250-350 per player is good.

Toss Astrid in the middle for a bloodier match.

I’m also a big fan of predetermined armies. Build enough armies +1 extra for everyone, and let them choose one to play.

[charlest]

Pre-building armies and letting people choose never crossed my mind, great idea.