It’s hard to believe that it’s been 20 years since the Heroscape debuted from Hasbro. If you’ve never played it before, Heroscape is a skirmish game that will have you battling with a team of miniatures from all walks of life. One of the main selling points of Heroscape is its amazing table presence. Stackable terrain, pre-painted minis, and lots of cool bits made this a must-have game.
Yet over the years, Heroscape went out of print and has become a much sought-after item. Hasbro did try to revive it a few years ago on their Hasbro Pulse crowdfunding platform, but it failed. Now, Renegade Games has breathed new life into this series with the Heroscape: Master Set – Age of Annihilation. Heroscape is back with (optional) preprinted minis, compatible rules, and new armies.
Gameplay Overview:
In games of Heroscape, players each build a squad (or use a preset one) and create the battlefield using the interlocking (and stacking) terrain pieces.
In each round, players will roll for initiative and secretly assign up to 3 of their units an order marker, with a 4th unit being assigned a bluff marker. Players will alternate activating their units, from 1-3, and then a new round begins.
When a unit activates, it can move a number of hexes equal to its speed, with extra movement points required to go up to higher elevations. Attacks are handled via dice rolls, with the attacker rolling dice equal to their attack value (skulls are hits) and the defender doing the same with their defense value (shields cancel out skulls). Squad units (which usually have 4 members in their unit) are killed on any hit, while a hero can take multiple hits before they are defeated.
Many units also have special abilitties that let them move around the battlefield, attack at range, or command other units. Units also have a basic side that only has movement, attack and defense numbers if you are playing with younger players.
The game ends when either one side is wiped out or one player has achieved the mission objectives.
Game Experience:
Sometime, when old games are revived their popularity is powered solely by nostalgia. While I enjoyed my time with HeroQuest, it’s not hard to see the flaws in the system compared to other modern dungeon crawlers. Even games of Talisman and Dungeon! don’t tend to keep my attention very long nowadays, despite being rereleased with prettier bits. And then there is Heroscape! Even after 20 years this one has aged quite well.
Part of that reason is that the toy factor is off the charts. Unless you are a mini painter itching to get some brush work in, the pre-painted set is the one to own. Sure it costs more and the paint job is nothing to write home about, but the overall experience is really elevated with the painted minis moving around the colorful terrain.
If you are a skirmish game veteran, you might be a little turned off by how light Heroscape is, but that’s also part of the game’s charm. It’s incredibly accessible. I’ve played it with my gaming group and with my almost 7-year-old son.
The rules are simple: Move, attack, roll some dice. Occasionally special powers spice things up, but for the most part, turns will fly by. Even line of sight is handled organically—get down behind the mini and see if they can see their target. Boom done. This makes the game very easy to pick up and start playing.
The hardest part about getting Heroscape to the table is building the terrain. If you are doing one of the preset missions that come with the game, it can take a bit of time to find all the pieces and put them in the right spot. The graphic design in the scenario books doesn’t really help with that as it can be kind of hard to tell which pieces are on which levels. More than once we spent too long trying to figure if a piece was supposed to be placed on the current level or was part of a previous level.
That being said, one of the perks of Heroscape is just making your own battlefields. My son and I have played a ton of games and he takes absolute joy in creating his own battlefields. You can create sprawling, open areas, tight valleys, rivers and lakes with islands…the only limit is your imagination (and how many pieces you have). The game just shines because of how flexible the system is.
I’m also glad that Renegade Games made everything compatible with the original version of HeroScape. Could the rules have used some updating? Maybe. But I’m ok with the new version being backwards compatible with the original as there are some great units from the OG set if you can get your hands on them.
Which also brings me to one of my small complaints about this set. There is a distinct lack of ranged attacks in this set. Almost every attack is melee based, short of a few special abilities. That takes a bit of the fun and strategy out of the game as you can’t sit on the other side of the battlefield to snipe at your opponent. Hopefully a future expansion brings out more ranged units.
Renegade Games also sent us a copy of the Battle for the Wellspring expansion to check out. What’s nice about this one is that it’s a stand-alone expansion, so you can use it to just test the waters of Heroscape (pun intended) if you are not ready to dive into the Master Set. This one comes with 6 heroes, a small set of terrain, and some 3D trees (and some new missions). If you are just looking for more content for the game, it’s very easy to integrate into the base game. We’ve mixed it up with the Master Set and it plays great together.
Final Thoughts:
Even after 20 years, Heroscape is still a fantastic game. Yes, it’s a light, dice-chucking skirmish game that can be fairly swingy at times. But it more than makes up for that with its amazing table presence and smooth gameplay. Everyone I have played this with has had a blast, and part of that charm came from just creating our own battlefields. Sure, you can use the preset missions in the rulebook, but after a few tries at those, we ventured off on our own and had plenty of fun.
The Heroscape: Master Set – Age of Annihilation is a win for Renegade Games! I look forward to getting a lot more Heroscape content (and figuring out how to store it all). Whether you are a diehard fan of the old set or just curious what all the hubbub is about, this one is worth picking up for fans of the genre.
Final Score: 4.5 stars – Heroscape returns and is just as awesome as we all remember it being.
Hits:
• Pre-painted figure option is great to have
• Fully compatible with the old system
• Amazing table presence
• Easy to pick up with streamlined gameplay
Misses:
• Lack of ranged units in the Master Set
• Eventually have to figure out how to store everything.
Disclosure: Someone who works with Renegade Games also writes for Board Game Quest. He had no influence over the opinions expressed in this review.
