• Welcome to the Heroscapers 2.0 site! We've still got some dust to clear and adjustments to make, including launching a new front page, but we hope you enjoy the improvements to the site. Please post your feedback and any issues you encounter in this thread.

AOA: Playing The New Factions

Its notable that each Dryan Wizard, but not the Dragon, has the Command Familiars power, or a variation of it. But a specific Familiar (aka Beast) does not have to be assigned to a particular Wizard. So any Wizard can command any Familiar on the battlefield depending only on the Beast's size.

Four wizards can command a small or medium Beast, one a small, medium, or large one. Since all AOA faction familiars are small or medium, the only large beasts available would be previously published Classic or Custom large Beasts. So, like the Crimson Widow's Hire power (Dawnraider Faction), this Wizard could synergize specifically with a nonAOA card (or cards)!

@chas and @Taeblewalker great points that will help us all to better understand the right strategy when utilizing these units. It definitely looks like I will be teaming some of the Dryans with the Elf Wizards, which I use quite a bit.
 
Last edited:
Gatormustang,

1. As I've mentioned elsewhere, Craig VN did say during the Con video when the campaign began that the Dryans were meant to interact with the previous Elf Wizards, although he didn't say how. Both Chana and Onshu the familiars have powers that work with "any Wizard you control."

2. Taeblewalker did place two of the Vine Glyphs in the immediate battle area, but they did not come into play, and were still there at the end of the game. I don't know if more careful placement or different circumstances might have been more effective; we're new at this. I certainly didn't need to step on them during Game One, so I didn't. I might have more to say when I get to play the dragon myself.

I've got my cardboard proxy vine tiles numbered 1-3, in case we need to refer to them specifically in later commentary.
 
Gatormustang,

1. As I've mentioned elsewhere, Craig VN did say during the Con video when the campaign began that the Dryans were meant to interact with the previous Elf Wizards, although he didn't say how. Both Chana and Onshu the familiars have powers that work with "any Wizard you control."

2. Taeblewalker did place two of the Vine Glyphs in the immediate battle area, but they did not come into play, and were still there at the end of the game. I don't know if more careful placement or different circumstances might have been more effective; we're new at this. I certainly didn't need to step on them during Game One, so I didn't. I might have more to say when I get to play the dragon myself.

I've got my cardboard proxy vine tiles numbered 1-3, in case we need to refer to them specifically in later commentary.

@chas I kind of thought that placing the Vine Glyphs would be more to prevent the opponent from moving efficiently to a location they wanted to go to, more than actually being something that would really impact play by inflicting damage. Based on the game you played with @Taeblewalker it seems that you were able to strategically move/avoid them. I have a current map built shown below that would definitely allow the Vine Glyphs to potentially wreak more havoc especially with the three bridges that are on the map.

[URL=https://www.imagebam.com/view/MEGUGKU][/URL]
 
Last edited:
Agree! He put them on the slope of a hill I needed to climb, but I was able to maneuver around them with no movement delay. Yes, they're perfect for a bottleneck like a bridge!
 
Taeblewalker has now posted photos of our first game using the proxies of the AOA cards here:

https://www.heroscapers.com/community/showthread.php?p=2551792#post2551792

I've posted some commentary to identify many of the proxies used.

I'm looking forward in January to multiplayer sessions with all the "regular" AOA cards, plus now the 5 upgraded SOTM Heroes and even the 7 new Kyries. This makes a total of 51 Cards. For details see the link above, and other pages on my signature thread for the New York City Gang of Four in General Discussion.
 
A second sequence of Taeblewalker's photos have now been posted, covering the other three of the first four games we played with AOA proxy cards and figures. I've also posted some commentary on them, mostly identifying the proxies I came up with.

In January we'll be trying it with the same "Demo" armies but more players, so everyone can get a feel for the new cards! Later on everyone will be able to build their own armies, mixing in all the other Scape Classic and Custom cards!

These next games will be played on a larger Medium sized battlefield, and have at least one more AOA Vanguard Edition surprise!

It will be the last planned game effect noted by Avalon Hill in their Discord discussions. I don't expect AH to reveal anything further to be included in the Vanguard Edition, due to their NDAs, but we'd all love to hear anything else planned they are allowed to mention.
 
Last edited:
:confused: I'm surprised that no one else seems to be posting about their AOA games. Obviously others are playing, although the discussions may have moved to other media I don't use, such as Discord.

;) If you are playing AOA and discussing it, or even posting about them on this site, feel free to provide links to these posts here for us to find! The proxy thread certainly indicates that others are collecting figures closer to the physical AOA figures originally posted on the Haslab Offering.

:popcorn: As noted on my signature thread for my local group the NYCG4 (link below), after January we will begin integrating the AOA cards with all of the previous Classic and Custom cards. Even had Hasbro continued the AOA line with further expansions, we would probably be doing this anyway. Heroscape lives!
 
In the NYCG4 thread (see my signature below) I have now also posted up how I'll be initially using the AOA bonus figures--the customs for the upgraded 5 SOTM Heroes (my versions) and the 7 Kyries (Anitar's versions). Check it out there. The custom cards are all in the Customs threads of this site section.

I've already played a couple of games with the SOTM Heroes: the four Good Guys vs Evil Raelin with some Marro forces on the AOA First Scenario map. This is now also briefly described on my local group signature thread.

This month I'll continue to use the eight AOA Faction armies (600 Points each) I made up and played with Taeblewalker in games with more than 2 Players. These are posted, along with photos and commentary, in my signature thread. Later on I'll be considering all Scape cards for army building along with the 51 AOA cards now available.
 
Last edited:
I'm continuing to integrate my new AOA cards and proxy figures into our games. We have two dates to use the eight armies I've posted on my signature NYCG4 thread. We'll be using them in combo armies with other Classic and Custom cards in February and March for the first time. Our most intense army buildier, Kolakoski, will allow for such mixed armies in his March game. See his Blog for his scenario.

Since I'm getting little feedback on this thread, and I'm used to posting there the details of what my local group is doing, I refer you again to my signature thread for many more details, photos, etc.
 
I've now played four more AOA games with Thrasher Darkrai (a new member of our local group). See the descriptions and photos on my signature thread (as usual). These games include our first use of Illusory Walls. I got to play all the other AOA cards I hadn't used yet! Coming up later in the month will be my first AOA games with more than two players.

These last games were played on my AOA Mirror map. It was free built, based on the Haslab Offering Display Photo but changed to make a balanced battlefield. So I've now put in everything offered by Avalon Hill and The War Council that was revealed to us during the offering period last Fall (and some cards that were not) except the 7 Kyries! Wow.

Some of TD and my commentary describe how we used the AOA Faction Armies I'd posted previously. So far I'm having a great time--even if I've lost 7 of the 8 AOA games I've played so far! :shock: Well, another was very close.

On January 25 I expect to be facing Taeblewalker, Kolakoski, and anyone else who can be there!
 
Last edited:
:boxing: Next month the floodgates will be open! I will remove my artificial requirements to only use the eight "playtest" AOA armies I made up for our games, so that we could get as many of the AOA cards as possible out on the table quickly. Almost all of us will have played at least some of them by then.

We will then fully integrate AOA into the rest of Classic and Custom Scape (except Supers). Kolakoski and Thrasher Darkrai are already contemplating playing such "combo" armies. While I've bee busy providing the physical components to play AOA, they've been forging ahead in considering the best synergies for "combo" armies.

It will be interesting to see what they and the others come up with for sure.
 
Had two more games with the AOA cards, a map based on the Haslab Display Photo, and even the 7 Kyrie by Anitar. These were 3 Player games; the first with more than 2 Players, and the second session with my Illusory Walls rules. For details see my signature thread!

While I don't plan on changing the cards any (except perhaps my own customs; I just made a work change on my Zed Nesbitt), I'll mention any discussion we have about using the cards as such. One of my pals did criticize one of the cards, but that's a can of worms I don't want to open for now, unless its done here by group.
 
How have the Vorid Glide Strikers been working out? Do you find that your custom Zed Nesbitt is a must in terms of mobilizing them?
 
Pretty much so far. Although both times I or Sherman Davies used them they had my Zed, so I don't know how it is to put them out only one at a time.

They are much weaker than the old Airborne Elite, but good shooters--they put a couple of wounds on my Brood Queen! I specifically limited Zed's Tow power to take a turn dropping them and doing nothing else, for the bump he gives them in dropping the entire squad at once! When I was playing Zed, I found it difficult to do so, since you have to get to the drop zone a turn before you drop them, and by the time you do the situation may have changed. But I meant it to be a tricky maneuver.

I was actually towed in a Glider one time.

Its great to be finally able to talk specifics about the new cards, having played them all. But "once is not enough" to make any but preliminary remarks. I look forward to further games with AOA units.
 
We've now integrated AOA into our regular Scape games. We just held a game by Sherman Davies which did not allow them. However, our March game will include them. This is the first game run by someone other than myself which rules them in! And its a pirate themed game, in which Kolakoski for already posted an AOA Pirate faction army. We're only allowing one each of any AOA card in any one game. This scenario is a variant of others he's run, including movable longboats and a treasure chest which is the victory condition if you get it back to your boat!

Check out my signature thread later on for a description of this March 18 game.

I'm surprised to see that no one else onsite has described any AOA play. We here assume people are still amassing more proper proxies for some. Thrasher Darkrai, who is still actively collecting Scape figures, brought the new VC dragon to show off, and even had a very impressive 3D Printed mini for the AOA Brood Empress. Photos of them both were taken and should appear soon in my thread (one easy click away down below). None of the rest of us old fogies have used this technology yet, so this was the first 3D print to appear on our table here at The Game Palace.

Excelsior! ("Ever Upward," the New York State Motto, as popularized by the late Stan Lee).
 
The two games went well in terms of integrating old and new Scape characters. Kolakoski was the only one using AOA units in the 4 Player game. He used some pirates, some bears, and the version of Shiori by Anitar rather than my own, one which I hadn't gotten to the table yet. I used the new VC Star Lich and Gold Dragon in different armies; it was also their first time on our table. For details see our NYCG4 thread down in my signature.
 
Played a couple games with my lovely girlfriend yesterday. In the first one she had the glide strikers, xenithrax, and tuck harrigan vs my monks X2, agent carr, and the tarn. Xenthrax really struggles without some sort of screen and the strikers have a really tough time early game coming out without getting sniped. Tuck didn't come out till like round 5. I also think that its pretty easy to keep your squaddies separated to prevent a strong xenithrax attack if you only have a couple. Game 2 she had rats X4, raelin, Q9, and the glide striders again against my Scavorith, hellforge, and iron lich. I loved this matchup. My eiseneks each really got to show off their abilities against this team. I think I made some decisions early that cost me the game, but it was not an unwinnable matchup to be honest. Part of my loss was just getting outplayed lol. Both mostly AOA teams lost, but that might be an issue with neither of us knowing how to play them well. I think eiseneks are solid A- and have decent matchups against some traditional "cheese".
 
The New York City Gang of Four continues our regular monthly Scaping, now including AOA cards for most of our custom scenarios as well as all the Classics and Customs. Check out the latest, THE CHAS ROAD RALLY, being played as a 5 Player this Saturday, right down in my signature thread. The armies include 3 AOA fan custom Cards, two by Anitar and one by me.
 
Lovely GF game 3: I had the dreadnaughts, the knaves, scarlet widow, cornelius breech, and the tarn(turned pirates via hire crew). my gf had aubrein archers x3, armoc x1, raelin rotv, and the venoc warlord. Map was Aftermath I think. I put my dreadnaughts outfront and got almost my whole team out of the startzone in round 1. GF placed raelin and got shooting with the archers, even got a few frendzies in the first couple rounds. the dreadnauts died early, but once the pirates make contact they hit hard. I did not activate mutiny unfortunately. The squads did not last long, the pirates need raelin i think. It came down to the wire, but the Ullar tream beat the pirates.
 
Just played an interesting game against Bert. 500 points no figure limit. He went with Romans x6, Marcus, Me-Burq-Sa, and Marro Warriors. I played Admiral EJ-1M, Crimson Widow, Izumi Samurai (as pirates), Dreadnaughts, and Kate Crawford as filler.

It took me a few turns to get the hang of the synergy, and I definitely regret some early placement choices. I got lucky that Me-Burq-Sa did no damage to an Izumi from range (and in fact got counterstruck to death when engaged). Then it was all Admiral churning through romans, with 1 Izumi sitting on Wannok for 2 rounds killing two more. All told, Admiral killed 16 romans on his own while the Dreadnaughts and Izumi screened for him. Unfortunately, he fell to the Marro Warriors (after taking 2 earlier wounds from romans) with only 3 MWs, 4 scattered romans, and a Marcus left on the field. I conceded as it was not a winnable endgame for Kate with water on the map.

I had several chances to win. The big strategical error I made was not realizing Crimson Widow could be moved with Boarding party. When I'd gotten down to only 1 Izumi and 1 dreadnaught, having her in there for the extra attack for the one other bonding turn she took and the boarding party bonus would have been really nice, but she was just sitting near my startzone. I did realize eventually, and she was key to some more Roman kills, but it was too late. The other chance I had was an initiative flip where Admiral cleared out 3 romans and left an exposed Marcus to a 4-dice and 5-dice attack from the remaining two dreadnaughts at the end of the round, but Bert won initiative and managed to evade devastating mortal blows. A dead or severely wounded Marcus would've really changed the game. The final chance was Admiral blanking his last wound away to a Marro Warrior attack from low ground...would have been a tight endgame for sure.

Final thoughts: Admiral EJ-1M is quite good. He consistently killed romans every turn, sometimes up to 3, completely ruining shield wall and stringing out the romans still in the start zone while moving pirates around to keep him protected. His base stats hold him back. Bert attacked him 3 times. A 3v6, a 2v6, and a 3v7, but that was enough to put 3 wounds on him and send him to Davy Jones' locker thanks to some poor defense dice. That fragility will hold this army back from being top tier. One more life or one more defense and moves from quite good to very good.

The Izumi are by far the best Hire Crew squad for Widow, although I think Tarn might fare okay. Nothing else comes close to these two for Admiral purposes, with Izumi easily at the top. The Dreadnaughts are good simply because they are the most survivable of the unique pirate squads. Any of the other unique pirate squads fold like paper, and having an extra figure doesn't do much when ideally you're screening mainly with Izumi. Admiral is the key piece in all of this, especially with the added toolkit bonus of being able to flex OMs to the Dreadnaught hero killers/heavy hitters after seeing the initiative outcome, or possibly even Izumi if you really need some key repositioning. I think after all the rounds we played, I only ever put 1 OM on Izumi (first round 1st OM to get them developed) and 2 on dreadnaughts (first round 2nd OM to develop them and Izumi with Widow's Midnight Raid, 1 later hoping for some mortal blows on Marcus with a 4v3 from the single remaining dreadnaught, which failed). It's an amazing army, and has the potential to be competitive with some practice.
 
Izumi are a great option for hire crew ryguy266, I didn't think of that. I got two more pirate related games. One was Realin, Dreadnaughts, knaves, bok-bor-na, and killian vs Anubian wolves x3, khosumet, and agent carr. My gf had the pirates in this one, and they developed pretty fast. agent carr didn't get much done, but the wolves went wild. During the second round they got plus 4 attack from unleashed fury twice and took out the pirates pretty quickly. raelin helped, but my gf lost an order marker due to all the knaves dieing and had some dificulty keeping the pirates together which I think hurt their effectiveness.

Games two I took my gf's pirate team and switched out raelin for cornelius breech and she had theracus, raelon, krug, arrow gruts x2, and swog riders x3. I did get to activate mutiny this time around and healed 3 wounds. The game was mostly melee so the pirate defense bonuse didn't help. I attacked krug a bunch with the dreadnaughts to try and cut him down early, but krug with raelin is good it turns out. I probably shouldn't have targeted krug early because he became the offense for my gf after he took a couple of wounds. Bok-bor-na got to heal and was decently effective with his buff, and killian was left to be killed at the end by krug. Theracus cheered from the sidelines. The pirates took 2 Losses today, but I'm looking forward to playing with them more.
 
Allright, did a little Me vs. Me because I'm unhinged. I genuinely tried to play each team as impartial as I could and make the decisions I would make were I playing as each team in the scenario, but I'm only human so who knows how it actually went. had Utgar bots (DW9k, DW8k, rats x3, and zettians) vs pirates (dorim, knaves, exiles, dreadnaughts, and bok-bor-na)
Bots put a lot of early order markers on the rats, but the game was on aftermath which was pretty wide and hard to block off from the knaves. The knaves got an early kill on 8k and where able to engage 9k very early. The bots just don't have much offense. 9k lasted a good couple of rounds of sustained attack, but only had one succesfull attack. This attack was an explosion that took out the last three knaves in one go. Zettians weren't able to do much, 9k just did more damage with an order marker. Eventually, the bots went down and all that was left was to clean up the rats which wasn't too bad as once I made contact with the bots, dorim and bookburner got cooking on them. I only put a few order markers on the exlies, but the were really good late game at hunting down the last couple rats with their range. The pirates only lost the knaves and one health each on both heroes and one dreadnaught. Dorim's movement bonus was also helpful both in getting the knaves in on the bots and in keeping the dreadnaughts super mobile. The pirates really came together on this one and I had a blast.
 
Back
Top