Heroscape: Power Struggle Variant

[KCU Master 2007]

Please, keep in mind that this is a rough draft and is going to be play test in the near future (around Thanksgiving break). It is designed to take a little longer than a traditional Heroscape game for those of us who like truly EPIC games.

If you have any feed back, let me know. Now onto the variant rules.

Set Up:
This rule set requires a very large map, as big as you can make it. You are actually going to be playing on a large chunk of a world rather than small portions of a world.
Be sure to set up enough for each player to have a small region to use as their own sovereign land. Also, make sure you include anything such as forests, river, jungles, mountains, etc. that you may want on the map. IT IS NOT SUPPOSED TO BE SYMMETRICAL, rather it is supposed to represent “real world” situations. Make sure to save some terrain for later modification (discussed later).

After your world is built, place 1 glyph face down in each players sovereign territory. This is a gold mine (discussed later) and is crucial to game play. Place as many glyphs as you want (7-15, depending on the size of the map and how many you have available.) face down in the middle of the map. These are unclaimed gold mines.

Once you have your map built, you are ready for the pre-game.

Other requirements for game play:
- Battle dice and D20 for each player (or at least enough to share)
- 1 set of ordermarkers (to keep track of turns)
- Notepad and pen (or some other way to keep track of income)

Some Misc. Rules and Definitions:
Unique Heros can only be bought once by one player. Once the hero is destroyed it is permanently removed from the game.
Unique Squads can only be bought by one player, but that player may have up to 2 squads on the board at any time
Common Squads may be bought by any player in as large a quantity as desired
Gold is used to purchase units and modify terrain. Gold is acquired by owning gold mines. Every gold mine you own gives you 50 gold a TURN. The cost of gold to buy a unit is the point total located on each card. More on buying units and modifying terrain later.


Pre-game:
In order to choose the sovereign territory, each player rolls the D20. Territories are chosen from highest to the lowest. Once all territories are selected, you begin to build your army. All players are start the game with 150 gold and MUST buy at least one unique hero. This is done in the same order as territory selection. Place that hero anywhere in your sovereign territory. If at any point, this character is destroyed you instantly loose the game and the person who landed the killing blow is credited with conquering your territory (discussed below). Any gold left over from buying the first heros may be saved or used to buy another unit. This counts as the first turns actions, but you may not modify terrain or add to sovereignty. Finally, give 1 glyph to each player to place face up in their Sovereignty as their capital. The glyphs you can use are:
Astrid (attack +1)
Brandar (Gold +20%)
Valar (Move +2)
(Defense +1)
Ivor (Range +2, not 4 as it says on the glyph).
Whichever glyph is chosen as a capital, the bonus it grants goes to all of your units. If you capture an opponents capital you gain its bonus as well.


Game Play:
The game is broken down into ROUNDS and each round is broken down into 3 TURNS. Determining the each round is done by rolling the D20 for initiative. The highest roller goes first and play continues clockwise till the end of the round. Give the set of order markers to the player with initiative. At the beginning of each turn, before moving, there are 3 actions that can be done:

1st - Buy units
You may use any gold that you have accumulated to buy any available units. Any units bought are placed in your sovereignty at the end of the ROUND.

2nd - Modify terrain
You may do 4 things to modify the terrain in your favor:

Build Roads - cost 15 gold per hex and you get all advantages (including height)

Add Height - cost 10 gold per hex and can be out of grass, rock, sand, or swamp. Can be placed on water tiles adjacent to land tiles (counts as level 1)

Remove Height - cost 5 per hex you can remove any hex piece above level 1

Add Battlements - cost 10 per Battlement and can be placed on any terrain

Add to Sovereignty - You can increase your sovereignty by building outposts. Outposts cost 50 gold and include 1 hex tile and 3 battlements. Outposts also increase your Sovereign Territory by 5 spaces. Outposts must be placed within you Sovereign Territory and there may not any other units in the area that will be affected. Any unneeded outposts can be moved forward for 30 gold. An unneeded out post is one that lies COMPLETELY (including the 5 spaces around it) within your Sovereign Territory.

After you have done all the actions that you want to do you may actually take your turn. On your turn you may move up to 3 DIFFERENT units. The same unit cannot make more than once in a turn (except through bonding, then they can move 2 times). If you have common squads you may move 3 different squads. (Example: If you have 3 squads of knights, you may move each squad one time, all 12 knights move and attack. If you only have 2 squads of knights, you can move both squads but must move a different unit after that).

After you have made all your movements for that turn count up how much gold you made that turn and play continue to the next person.


Winning the Game:

There are 2 ways to win, Military Victory and Economic Victory.

Military Victory is achieved by destroying all opponents figures OR capturing all opponents capitals (glyph). If you capture all enemy capitals you must hold them until all players have had 3 turns to dislodge you. Capturing a capital means you have placed one of your heros on the capital and held it for 3 turns. If you can do that, you have successfully captured the capital and receive all half the gold that person possesses.

Economic Victory is achieved by capturing at least 1 more than half of the neutral gold mines. For example, if there are 6 neutral mines you must control 4 of them until all players have had 3 turns to dislodge you. If there is an odd number of mines you must round up and control one additional mine. For example, if there are 7 neutral mines you must control 5 mines until all players have had 3 turns to dislodge you.


Battle Rules:

Follow all rules for line of sight and engagement as the original Heroscape.

When defending in your sovereign territory roll one additional defense die.