Overwhelmed by Heroscape

[DarthBaggins]

So I'm new to the site and looking for a little help.
It's hard to believe that about 13 years ago I was at toys are us and saw two master sets and a bunch of other stuff , it looked so cool to me that I put a hundred bucks on a credit card and drove home with 3 big boxes of stuff.
I get home and my wife looks at me like I'm crazy buying all these "toys". I figured "man I'm never gonna play this with anybody " so unopened I brought it all back.
Oh my goodness what was I thinking.
Now I'm home playing my first 2 games with my 13 year old using a copy of Rise of the Valkyrie that I paid almost as much as that entire Toys r Us purchase before she was born.
We had a blast even the wife was like "when are guys going to teach me how to play? " ( uughh this is killing me)
Well obviously I won't be buying all things Heroscape as I would have way back when I first saw it in a store.
There's just sooooo much of this stuff and all of it at inflated prices but (and this is my daughter exact words)
"That's the most fun board game I've ever played."

So where do I go from here without having to rob a bank?
I have Rise of the Valkyrie as I mentioned and I've just ordered Swarm of the Marro and the Castle expansion from a really nice Heroscaper on this site.

What would be next that you'd concider essential?
I think this is one we are going to play a lot of.
We are definitely a board game family
Gears of War
Clank in Space
Space Cadets away missions
Legendary encounters etc.
But this is really special, such a shame it will never come back.

[shaolin]

I just found myself in the same position, just got a whole bunch of HS stuff in the last few months. I ended up ordering a 3D printer instead and just planning on making my own terrain and maybe minis when I get good at it. Trying to get everything, especially when you have mouths to feed, adds up quick. Other people with more experience might have more practical advice but this is the road I’m taking.

[japes]

I custom made a lot of Terrain as well. Actually at the beginning I custom made everything until I found deals. If you follow along in the trade threads on this site you can usually get the best deals. Most people on here are pretty good at not trying to make a lot of money on their stuff.

I've had luck with Craigslist as well in the past. Especially this time of year. Kids go off to college and Parents decide to clean house.

Good luck.

[Hendal]

Print the cards and use proxies is a great option. Yea, it is crazy how much the stuff goes for. Glad you found it, and enjoy, Welcome to my favorite game in the world.

[Tornado]

If you are into superheroes, C3G has a lower cost of entry as a lot of HeroClix figures are super cheap. We are working towards not needing a ton of official terrain as well.

Our goal is that you can print out base maps and then print out 'skins' for buildings to make a city map to play on. Grishnakh and McMeeple have created some really awesome buildings! Just add in some matchbox cars and whatever else you want to round out the map.

Welcome to the fun. It is never too late to 'Scape.

[Dad_Scaper]

Welcome aboard, dark hobbit!

I have good news and I have bad news for you. The bad news is that, as you've said, it's not coming back.

The good news, though, is that it's not actually gone. There is an active Heroscape-playing community centered in Maryland, if you're in southern Jersey, and there is an active Heroscape-playing community in NYC, if you're in northern Jersey. Terrain is not easy to come by, but it's not hard to find new units, if you're interested. There's the C3G, for supers, and there's the C3V/SoV community (check the first link in my signature box) for classic 'Scape. And if you want the official guys, then just be patient and watch our sales & trades subforum.

It used to be that some of us old timers would stop at every Toys R Us, like you mentioned, and every Target and WalMart that we passed, so we could see what that store had in stock. Maybe something new? Maybe something on sale? Those days are gone, but I know what you're saying about it being consuming. The word we used to describe those precious packages on store shelves is just as appropriate now as it was then: plasticrack.

Welcome!

[DarthBaggins]

Yep its amazing how much if a following this game still has after being out of print for so long.
I'm going to check out c3g and c3v while waiting for a deal here and there.
I did find the forgotten forest expansion for around 50 dollars
Is that a good deal?

[Dad_Scaper]

I think so. It's a lot of money, but you'll get a *ton* of use out of those road and tree pieces.

The way the C3V works is this: We design every unit as best we can to have strong mechanics and a strong theme to work with an existing mini (or a group of existing minis) that a person can then go out and buy. You like the Sentinels of Grax? If you look in their thread you will see the mini information, right under the card: "The figures used for this unit is a Heroclix figure from the Galactic Guardians set. Its model names are Cardinal Raker and Cardinal of the UCT." Google will help you the rest of the way:
https://www.trollandtoad.com/p374023.html
https://www.trollandtoad.com/p374036.html

Troll and Toad has them in stock, for a combined $1.49, plus shipping. Print the card that we made for you (don't forget to download the PDF and print that, instead of the jpeg!), and there you have it.

I've been a tournament director since 2010 and run countless tournaments. We allow C3V and SoV and I've yet to see one of those units in action that is not well balanced for competitive play. So that's an easy way to expand your Heroscape collection.

If you like supers, check out the C3G. I can't speak to their processes, because I have no interest in the world of men in tights in my Heroscape stuff, but for those who want their peanut butter and jelly mixed together, that's an excellent resource.

[Tornado]

The process is nowhere as extensive as C3V, that is for sure but C3G has been working on bringing balance for a few years now. C3G is approaching 800 cards so it is difficult to keep everything as balanced as we would like but it sure is fun trying.

It was pretty amazing to see it played at Gen Con.

Personally I would try to just proxy the trees. There are usually good options around Christmas time for a few dollars. For the road, you can play any hexes as road, just say all stone or sand hexes are road.
The bridge is a little more difficult to replicate but you can use hinged paper clips on the bottom of hexes to hold them together to create a span.

[Astroking112]

Welcome to the website, @DarthBaggins ! I remember how overwhelmed I was back when I first came here, but there are a ton of great resources that you can use. The Books of Index lists all official units (and any synergies between them) in case you haven't seen it yet, which can be a great help for figuring out what interests you. If anything's too pricy, you can always print out the card and proxy the figure with something fairly similar. Speaking of which...

Originally Posted by Tornado

Personally I would try to just proxy the trees. There are usually good options around Christmas time for a few dollars. For the road, you can play any hexes as road, just say all stone or sand hexes are road.
The bridge is a little more difficult to replicate but you can use hinged paper clips on the bottom of hexes to hold them together to create a span.

I agree with this very much. The Road to the Forgotten Forest set adds a lot to HeroScape (largely from a competitive standpoint, since the roads help melee units and the trees add more line of sight blockers), but you can probably get away with just the castle set if absolutely need be. The only thing you'll be missing out on is the Dumutef Guard (he has a neat sculpt but is not useful in the game) and the bridge.

The "castle-walk" hexes are just road pieces with some extra attachments on the underside, and you can always use pillars without a top to simulate the trees as line-of-sight blockers. There's also plenty of battlements that you can use to simulate the long stone walls, although making the 5-hex long bridge can require some creativity.

That all said, RttFF is still one of the best expansions to the game, the trees look awesome, and I think that $50 for it is a fair price. If you can spare the money on it and want to, then I think it'd be a better investment than the other terrain expansions like the tundra or the jungle. Just remember that you can proxy the terrain if need be.

[Scapemage]

Originally Posted by DarthBaggins

So I'm new to the site and looking for a little help.

Welcome to the site DarthBaggins! I'm glad you've come into the game, it really is incredible as is the community here.


You can make a whole ton of maps out of 1 RoTV, 1 SoTM, and 1 FoTA. You shouldn't break your back getting more terrain if the price is too steep for you.


I can't recommend C3G (for superheroes and other comic-related IPs) and C3V (for classic Heroscape) enough. They both have been making large catalogs of balanced units for many years and continue to thrive as the most active groups on this site.

[wriggz]

Originally Posted by DarthBaggins

."

So where do I go from here without having to rob a bank?
I have Rise of the Valkyrie as I mentioned and I've just ordered Swarm of the Marro and the Castle expansion from a really nice
What would be next that you'd concider essential?
I think this is one we are going to play a lot of.
We are definitely a board game family
Gears of War
Clank in Space
Space Cadets away missions
Legendary encounters etc.
But this is really special, such a shame it will never come back.

Not sure it's been said but grab a cheep copy of Arena of the Plane walker. you should be able to get it for 5 bucks and the cardboard mats it comes with are the same as scape and allows you to use your terrain to build up instead of laying it out as a base. the game is not bad either and you get a hand full more tiles and some compatible dice to boot.