277!

Thanks to Auggies, I'm expecting 22 more minis to arrive sometime this week. I'll soon be going to pick up some wooden nickels and some more basing supplies. I'm going to start rebasing single base Heroscape minis and medium sized DDMs. That way all my minis are still compatible with hexes. I'm thinking of using magnets for larger figures so I can move them between circle and 8-shaped bases.

Recently been working on HaloScape on my minds backburners. I like the work already done with HaloScape, but I'd like to put my own spin on it. I'm thinking I'll spraypaint some black glyphs for use as ammo and weapons. Not sure whether to make weapons Hero only or available to all units. My wheels are turning...

Su-Bak-Na sub

It shouldn't be too hard to find the actual Marro guy riding him, but a Necron should proably work. This is Reaper's Skeletal Dragon.

HS Substitutes

One of the bad things about Heroscape is the constraints of the hexes. Some figures that look really cool just won't fit on a double base, or even a triple base. This has been leading me to start playing Heroscape without hexes, old school style. But also these figures usually make my old Heroscape figures look kinda childish, this has led me to look for substitutes. The first suitable one I found is the Dragon of Fire by Reaper Miniatures. I intended to find a Mimring substitute, but it looks better as a Zelrig. Here's a link.

D2: Golem and Wyrmlings

The first of the previews leading up to Wave D2, as I said earlier caused a bit of an uproar. Here is my take on the units from the Golem and Wyrmlings exapnsion.

The Iron Golem

We finally got some of that promised Vydar love! In giant walking tank form even! At 3 life he doesn't seem like he has real great survivablity, until you see his 6 defense. Not only that, but your throwing 8 dice against the evil Special Attacks! He looks like he'd be a real good shock troop to send in, take out the special attackers and everything else he can. He will be a real good herokiller with that high attack. Lava Resistant is a small bonus though. Until we see a reprint of Volcarren Wasteland or a new set all together, this guy isn't going to get much use out of his second ability. I still wish they portrayed Golems as constructs that could be controlled. It would be a complex, but fun way to introduce some bonding.

Wyrmlings

These guy may look small, but with their bonding they could be a force to be reckoned with. Especially Aquilla's blue wyrmling! Not only is this unit cool in that it shoots lightning bolts around corners, but it also gives us a taste of Aquilla's future dragon. Personally, I hope it's this figure. There is already a contest up for creating Aquilla's dragon starring that figure. Back on the wyrmlings though. I love how they made the little guys represent their tougher, larger versions. I can't wait for the Green Wyrmling!

As for the Bracers of Teleportation, who needs Tul-Bak-Ra anymore?

New Heroscape Base Size

If you haven't heard already, there's an uproar over the new 1 inch bases for Wave D2. You can see the opinions of the Heroscapers community here.

Basically, WotC cut off 2 mm of plastic off the bases. The official reason is to make the miniatures viable to other miniature gamers. Other reasons that are suspected, but not officially stated by WotC is that the new bases will obviously save cost. However, some HSers, especially anti-D&D people, seem to think this is Wizards way of saying that they are using Heroscape as a D&D skirmish game.

Personally, this change means nothing to me. I plan to rebase all of my figures onto Privateer Press bases eventually anyways. I do not see this as Wizards trying to make Heroscape into D&D. I support the D&D Heroscape line, the figures are great and so are the new abilities. I can't wait until August comes around.

The Hunger Games

Recently I read a book by Suzanne Collins. The Hunger Games is set in a future after a global catastrophe (I think it was a flood...). Anyways, an oppressive government known as the Capitol has taken control of North America, now called Panem. The situation is equivalent to the prerevolutionary France. The Capitol city is spoiled with riches, while the outlying 12 Districts under its control suffer and starve. 74 years ago, when the 13 Distrcits launched civil war on the Capitol they were defeated. District 13, the leader, was completely destroyed. This also led to the start of the Hunger Games. The Capitol requires aboy and girl from each District between ages 12 and 18 go to an arena, where its last one standing.

Short review: The book was good, had a 'To Be Continued' ending that really killed the ending.

Long review: The book is of medium length, 374 pages (I kept telling my English teacher I was on page 375, wow was she confused). The author builds a great mental picture of the suffering these people live in through Katniss, a girl from District 12. The book had some great combat scene potential, but that was squandered by the author trying to make it for teens. I didn't really like the romance between the two kids from District 12, Peeta and Katniss. Katniss was playing the love story to keep people sponsoring them. Unknown to her, Peeta really was in love. I guess that might be in there so girls like it... Meh.

So my point for posting this is this: how can you build a campaign setting from this? Or maybe just an adventure? Obviously, the government would be easy to replicate into a fantasy setting. The Games part, would have to be modified. Because the story is set in the future they have things such as hovercrafts to take the corpses out of the arena. Also, the audience watches with cameras because the arena is something like 5 miles diameter. They also show with a projector in the sky which competitors were killed.

So I'm thinking if you wanted to contain the whole thing to the city, you could have a walled city where poverty runs rampant, that surrounds a rich city on the inside. The Capitol would have a Roman Colosseum inside? Maybe entering the Hunger Games would be under different terms. Like criminals have to fight in the arena. Maybe breaking the cities strict customs would lead you to the Games. Customs that the PCs wouldn't know about.

Boar Boyz Heroscape Stats

OK, gave some thought to this and looked at past cavalry type units such as the Grok Riders and Knights. So here they are:

Boar Boyz

Utgar

Orc

Common Squad 3

Warriors

Wild

Large 5

Life 1

Move 7

Range 1

Attack 4

Defense 3

Points 110?

Special Powers:

Tusker Charge- A Boar Boy receives an additional attack die when attacking any figure that was at least 4 clear sight spaces away from that Boar Boy at the start of his turn.

Rally- When a Boar Boy attacks, you may also make a normal attack with an adjacent friendly orc squad figure.

This should make a nice addition to the orc horde! I think I might just buy these because of these stats. I didn't use the Templar Cavalry Galloping Charge because I figured: 1) boars don't gallop, 2) the boar boyz have battleaxes not lances. Going with this I figured that they should do more normal damage per turn, but not get as high of a bonus from the charge. I threw Rally in there because a cavalry charge generally raises army morale.

Happy Scaping,

- ssnover95