Heroscape: Age of Annihilation is here! Back it on Haslab!

[GaryLASQ]

Originally Posted by Grungebob

I see a lot of grumbling and I find it a little surprising.

The reason Heroscape was ever discontinued was because the cost to produce made the retail sticker price too high for big box retailers who purchase reliably large numbers of product seasons in advance. This was compounded by a distribution model that was incongruent with the spending habits of the growing fan base.

HasLab is a crowd funding platform designed for the purpose of reaching the hobby market. It functions similar to Gamefound or Kickstarter, but it is more focused. The HeroQuest campaign not only revived the old game, it breathed new life into it without disrupting any of the things people love and expect. It paved the way for a reliable boutique retail brand, and it’s pretty danged cool.

I am not a fan of crowdfunding in general. I don’t like paying far in advance for something I want now. My tastes and interests shift constantly.

I was able to purchase the new HeroQuest at retail, and I love it. I’ve also purchased everything they’ve released so far, but I’ve done it on my own terms. I literally bought the new HeroQuest after seeing it and playing it at a local convention.

So all of you that are like me should be happy that this is even happening. If it’s successful like HeroQuest (which I think it will be), we will all be chatting about and analyzing and playing new Heroscape stuff, whether we backed the campaign, or waited to purchase at retail.

And no I do not have the HeroQuest exclusive content that came with the campaign. I’ve never been a completionist. I don’t care that I don’t have everything, because I certainly have enough.

I'm convinced. This will be my first time participating in a crowdfunding campaign, for a game that never should have "officially" died. Not to dwell on the past, but in hindsight, I think the two biggest mistakes Hasbro made was 1: Not having some kind of Battlefield/Scenario Builder kid-friendly software ready to go at launch back in 2004 and 2:

Originally Posted by Grungebob

This was compounded by a distribution model that was incongruent with the spending habits of the growing fan base

which I interpret to be the terrain/unique/common packaging "struggle". I can almost picture in my mind the first RotV master set ($39.99) on a TRU shelf, right next to a box of just the terrain from RotV called "The Land of Valhalla" ($29.99), right next to a small expansion set with common Tarn and Zettians called "Vikings and Guards" ($12.99) and common Izumi and Blade Gruts (a teaser squad, since not in RotV and have synergy with Grimnak) called "Samurai and Orcs" ($12.99). With multiple RotVs in one big brown box, and the terrain and commons (and nothing unique) in another big brown box for retailer purchase (or something very similar to all that). And maybe the RotV rulebook could have explained commons, and included one battlefield/scenario that used two sets of terrain with multiple commons, along with the other scenarios that just require the RotV set?
Sorry for 18 years later...

I really hope this relaunch is a success. But if not, at the very least, it has got me, my son, and possibly a few of our friends back into the game.

['Scaper94]

Originally Posted by GaryLASQ

and 2:

which I interpret to be the terrain/unique/common packaging "struggle". I can almost picture in my mind the first RotV master set ($39.99) on a TRU shelf, right next to a box of just the terrain from RotV called "The Land of Valhalla" ($29.99), right next to a small expansion set with common Tarn and Zettians called "Vikings and Guards" ($12.99) and common Izumi and Blade Gruts (a teaser squad, since not in RotV and have synergy with Grimnak) called "Samurai and Orcs" ($12.99). With multiple RotVs in one big brown box, and the terrain and commons (and nothing unique) in another big brown box for retailer purchase (or something very similar to all that).

I am going to be incredibly surprised if the AoA distribution model doesn't resemble something like this. With the factions in mind, I could see packaging uniques together, commons together, and then (as you said) having terrain-only sets. It just... makes the most sense all-around and for all involved.

[IAmBatman]

I haven't seen anything previewed about terrain thus far, which makes me think they may be missing how much of their potential buyer-base is motivated much more by terrain than by new figures.

[boromir96]

Originally Posted by IAmBatman

I haven't seen anything previewed about terrain thus far, which makes me think they may be missing how much of their potential buyer-base is motivated much more by terrain than by new figures.

Originally Posted by Dadscaper on FB

Everything will be compatible. Terrain, units, w/e. I anticipate - hope, even - that some people will be ordering *just* for the terrain, to use it for whatever. Certainly people playing other games did that, back in the day.

This doesn’t say that there will be separate terrain available for purchase, or any *new* terrain at all. But I think it shows that they understand that the terrain appeals to a larger audience than just HS fans.

[brak88]

There's still like a month of previews. I imagine they'll have a week or two of common figures and terrain set previews. I'm hoping for basically remakes of all the old terrain expansions and new stuff too. That's what my connection sorely lacks and the old terrain goes for so much compared to what you get besides the castle. At the very least, I'm painting my old terrain to match lava and etc once I get new terrain.

[IAmBatman]

Originally Posted by boromir96

This doesn’t say that there will be separate terrain available for purchase, or any *new* terrain at all. But I think it shows that they understand that the terrain appeals to a larger audience than just HS fans.

Yep. Which is why I'm going to keep tooting the horn of terrain interest leading up to the Haslab launch. I know the powers that be are locked into the community and I hope I can help influence them to offer us some great terrain options and the ability to back just for terrain if we want.

[Grungebob]

Originally Posted by IAmBatman

Yep. Which is why I'm going to keep tooting the horn of terrain interest leading up to the Haslab launch. I know the powers that be are locked into the community and I hope I can help influence them to offer us some great terrain options and the ability to back just for terrain if we want.

I can’t share details, but I do know they have plans for some innovative new terrain. Something Craig was excited about.

[IAmBatman]

[ProtoFury]

Music to my ears. I'm here for the units of course, the new stuff looks interesting, but the terrain is what I'm most excited for. Can't wait to see what we get in that regard.

[Tornado]

Definitely excited for new terrain. Would love to see buildings.
I bought the game originally to use the terrain for Battletech, which I never did because once I started reading the rules and cards I decided Heroscape would be more fun.
Always cool to see the terrain in use for different games at Gen Con.
I played a homebrew Kaiju game because it was on a Heroscape map.

[UtahScott]

The crowdfunding on HasbroPulse for HeroScape has been mentioned to be similar to what they did with HeroQuest. For those of you who missed it, here it was. Note that I didn't back it and have never played the game. There were two tiers, base game and "all in" with the first two reprinted expansions from the original line.

Exclusives for the base tier were four opposite-sex hero minis, and Sir Ragnar, who is a quest for one of the scenarios in the original book. He doesn't do anything in the scenario and could have just as easily been a cardboard chit. Exclusives for the "all in" tier were two "boss" miniatures, one for each expansion. Again, these characters may not even do anything in the game, as I recall. There were three more exclusive hero characters as unlocked stretch goals new to the reboot. There were also three multi-scenario quest books to be unlocked, two of which were achieved. The last two stretch goals weren't met, may appear in the future? All other stretch goals were a few more of what already exists in the game.

Note, of the exclusive, they said that version of the mini would only be available for the crowdfund. Also note that the stretch goals are very spread apart. There were also no add-ons, either during the campaign or afterwards. Also note that there are no updates on the campaign page. They had another page that featured some unlocks and info dumps, but they didn't happen often. Now that Avalon Hill has a Discord page (set up suspiciously close to the marketing push for HeroScape 1.5), things should be quite different this time around.

[Yodaking]

I'll echo the others. The terrain was always a really big draw for me. I've used if for other games I play as well, so I know their is a market out their for just the terrain.