Genres in Heroscape: A Study Revisited - now through D3

1Mmirg · #1 June 12th, 2009, 02:58 PM

A while ago now, I did a study of Heroscape genres: A Study in HS Unit Genres: Or, where is the Sci-Fi love? With the new units coming out (and noticing that even Wave 8 wasn't in my last study), and because people had been visiting and commenting on my old thread, I decided to revise that work.

As before, I am using a simplified three genre approach (going back to teekay's work and others). As I stated in the last thread, I believe that a genre like Horror is actually more of a sub- or meta- genre, in that Horror has a locating genre (i.e. Horror can cross any period and is generally more a mood than a type--you can watch a sci-fi horror film or a modern one or a fantasy one, etc.).

Note: I often used the planet of origin to decide difficult choices. Vipers are unclear, but coming from Marr, where we have the clearly sci-fi influenced Marro Warriors and gun-toting Gorillinators, I decided they fit within a "alien race of snakes" category. In a simliar way, Valguard is tough (with his alien arm), but his origin is Earth and thus he fits into a roughly historical mode (his arm becomes like Drake's Katana, an addition to him after the fact, not part of his origin). Once on Valhalla all units are "Fantasy" in a regard.

I will admit that I'm not so tech-saavy as I'd like to be, but I hope this post comes through looking right. And I hope it serves some value for someone else; though, if I'm the only one who is interested in it, I'll be okay with that, too

1Mmirg · #2 June 12th, 2009, 03:08 PM

A few notes on the post above (it was too big already!):

The newest wave (Wave 9) is one of the most carefully balanced that we've had (only Wave 3 rivals it). Many of the other waves seem to emphasize one type more than others.

Large expansions (which Walmart calls "Dragon Exp.") have yet to include a "Historical" unit (where is that Elephant Rider!?).

The game, as before, still tends toward Fantasy over other genres, with Sci-Fi getting the least attention (though Sci-Fi clearly has its stand out units). However, the Master Sets have always been very kind to Sci-Fi and have actually had the smallest amounts of Fantasy units as well.

The Large Terrain Expansions appropriately always include Fantasy units (natives of Valhalla all, I believe, except for the Dumutef Guard). Valhalla is a Fantasy setting, more than anything else, with magic the dominate domain of the kyrie, not science.

When I have some time, or if someone else wants to, I'll try to get some more great graphics, as Just_A_Bill did for me last time. (As we noted in the last study, the graphics showed more clear patterns when comparing like kinds of sets (i.e. Boosters to other Boosters, Large "Dragon" Expansions to other Dragon Exp., etc.).)

If a third Master Set comes out, I will be very interested to see if it follows the rough pattern of also emphasizing Sci-Fi units.

More thoughts to come...

arp12 · #3 June 12th, 2009, 03:19 PM

Interesting information. It would be cool to see a graph of the total amounts of different categories over time.

Tiranx · #4 June 12th, 2009, 03:35 PM

Just to let you know, the Marro Drones are swarming Krug a little on your well done list.

arp12 · #5 June 12th, 2009, 03:45 PM

Yep, put the line start different.

1Mmirg · #6 June 12th, 2009, 04:49 PM

Thanks for the heads up. The whole thing reformatted itself when I did Preview Post and I had to go back and re-lineate everything. Missed that one.

I'll see if I can work up some graphs. For now I'll borrow one of JAB's from last time, just to show one of the interesting results:

Here we have Fantasy in green, Historical in blue, and Sci-Fi in purple. Up to Wave 8 there was a clear trend away from Sci-Fi in the small boosters (though, again, with SotM being so Sci-Fi/Alien-based there was good reason). (Click the graph for a clearer picture.)

~~Microcorp~~ · #7 June 12th, 2009, 05:07 PM

Very nice. You must have put a ton work into this, and the graph.

+rep.

1Mmirg · #8 June 12th, 2009, 05:46 PM

Alright, so now for my first original graph <fingers crossed it actually works>:

The last several waves' plateaus of Fantasy (high) and Sci-Fi (low) are finally broken with Wave 9's release. As I mention above, only W3 clusters the unit genres as closely as this wave does. (And with an odd number of units you can't get any closer. The common squads are perfectly balanced at 2 a piece, the hero pack only holds 5 units--2 Fantasy, 2 Historical, 1 Sci-Fi.)

Just a last note that when I say "Historical" I do not mean "real," but that they figures reflect a pseudo-realistic unit from Earth's own past.

EDIT: I added it below, as well, but for first time readers, let me put it here as well. Totals by genre for waves/boosters alone:

39 Fantasy
38 Historical
22 Sci-Fi

1Mmirg · #9 June 12th, 2009, 05:53 PM

Continuing from my last post.

Doing a similar chart for the Master Sets doesn't yield much. The Large Expansions are pretty flat/boring as well. All the Terrain packs are pure Fantasy. All the "Dragon" packs are very similar--high Fantasy, some Sci-Fi, and no Historical.

The Flagbearers are interesting to me in that they sort of assign a "default" genre to each General.

Taro (Einar): Historical
Gilbert (Jandar): Historical
Acolarh (Ullar): Fantasy
Ornak (Utgar): Fantasy
Laglor (Vydar): Sci-Fi

For the most part these reflect a fairly general pattern in the general's armies (though each has exceptions--in some case Huge ones

...). Utgar is the closest to an exception, since the Marro are so much a part of the army, but with the Wolves, Undead, Orcs, etc., Utgar does have quite a bit of Fantasy as well.

(This distribution, of the Flagbearers, also reflects the overall emphasis on Fantasy over Historical over Sci-Fi, though, again, the genres are not clearly cut across generals.)

I am eager to see what else (I hope) Aquilla brings to this mix. Clearly, Aquilla is as much Fantasy as anything, so far, and lacks Sci-Fi altogether. But the small pockets of Sci-Fi in the other generals has grown a bit as well, with Jandar adding more bots. Could there be more Vipers for Ullar?

Revdyer · #10 June 13th, 2009, 09:50 AM

Another very interesting presentation, 1Mmirg. It might be of interest to you how I organize my cards because that seems to reflect the less than careful perceptions I have of genres. I clip similar cards together and the number of cards is somewhat dictated by the size of the plastic clips (color-coded ones of the type used to reclose chip bags).

First, note that the cards are all segregated by general (I also happen to put them in point value order, but that's another matter.)

Vyadar is all one group (and about the maximum number of cards held by a clip.

Aquilla is too, but simply because there are so few cards.

Jandar is divided into humans and non-humans.

Ullar is divided into elves and non-elves.

Einar is divided into Asian figures, non-Asian humans, and non-Asian non-humans. (This is a bit odd, I'll readily admit.)

Finally, Utgar is divided into gruts, horror, Marro, and mechanical. This does put Isamu and Hawthorne oddly into the horror group.

This isn't meant to me categorical for any purpose other than easier thematic retrieval; but it does interact with your genres in some rather interesting ways.

1Mmirg · #11 June 13th, 2009, 09:59 AM

I'd love to be able to graphically see how your units come out. How relative in size are each of those clips?

I also find it interesting, going back to the previous study, that you have Horror as separate from the Marro (who many argued there are Horror figures). It would seem you have the more "Gothic" Horror units grouped together (what I would call Fantasy Horror). (Of course, my guess is that in part this may just be because the Marro are so numerous.)

My units are stored in drawers and so far each general still fits in a drawer (just barely in some cases), except Utgar. There I have separated out the Fantasy Horror figures and "mechanical" figures into one drawer, the Marro into their own drawer, and the Gruts, Minions, etc. into the last drawer.

I am always curious to hear how others separate their figures and/or cards. Thanks for sharing, Rev!

Cavalier · #12 June 13th, 2009, 11:47 AM

Quote:

I am always curious to hear how others separate their figures and/or cards.

My cards are grouped simply by General and then Points; all stored in a CD binder.

My figures, stored in the classic Plano containers*, have been, by necessity, brken down further. First of all, they are sepeated by General and then, as needed, each General is broken down further themtically.
Jandar
-Knights & Kyrie
-Everyone else
Ullar
-Elves
-Everyone else
Aquilla
-Currently hanging out with Ullars Elves-Will have to change with Wave 9
Vydar
-All in one case
Einar
-Redcoats and Zelrig
-Everyone else
Utgar
-Marro (2 cases)
-Horror (includes Isamu, Obsidians, all of the undead, Wolves, Runa and Talord)
-Gruts
-Robots

Large figures such as Jotun, Mimring, Charos, SBN, Braxis, et al are stored in a different, larger container.

*

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