CORRECTIONS: -16:55 As @jasonanton2105 pointed out in the comments, Sonya Esenwein from Classic Heroscape does indeed have four powers on her army card. There may be others from Classic and/or VC Heroscape that also have 4 items on their cards, but Sonya alone shows this has precedent. -1:07:30 Completely forgot about Runa here. Runa holds the title of the first female Utgar-aligned Kyrie hero in the game. -1:13:49 In my excitement over Misaerx, I skipped over the caveat that her Life Drain Spirit can only be applied to Unique Warrior Heroes *who follow Revna.* An important detail missed, and a welcome check on her power. I wouldn't want to be going up against a Jotun with Life Drain... -1:31:21 @benharris9079 caught this one. Completely goofed on my concern with Knight Irene bonding with the Knights of Weston--she doesn't. They only bond with Human Champions, so my worries that they'd get even stronger with her are assuaged. -1:35:13 @jackstory233 correctly points out that the Varkaanan units of Aquilla sport a few large 4-figure squads, specifically the Greyspears and Swiftfangs. I suspect there are lots of other little errors I made in this with the unscripted, free-flowing nature of this video. If any glaring ones jump out, feel free to note them in a comment and I'll add them here to these corrections.
For raakchott you start the game with 3 red consume markers total so the attack is capped out at 5! Once you use soul fury, you remove a consume marker FOR EACH figure attacked so its a one shot deal, you dont recoup the consume markers with consume the dead afterwards since you start and are limited to 3!! So basically best case scenario is you consume the dead all 3 of your markers, get in deep with your opponent and blow up hitting for 5 everyone around you but then you have no more markers to gain, its a big bomb kinda thing! Hope this helped great vid!!
Ah, thank you! I read over these pretty quickly so some of the more elaborate descriptions threw me for a loop. But that makes sense. Sort of like Brimstone’s Heat Blast attack from VC, if I understand you correctly. Thanks for the comment!
Thank you for your kind words about both these designs and the C3V. I hadn't found your channel before and now I'm glad I did. If you're cool with the Pirates, you're cool with me. :) edit: Your comment that "you want the unit to have powers that the mini looks like it should have" goes right to the heart of design work. Very sharp. edit 2: Xenithrax the Vineweaver was going back to an earlier name, that I (as her designer) preferred. Same with Raakchott, Steward of Death. A return to an earlier, better name. edit 3: Hey! I'm a War Council person, watching this! You were right about how you add markers to Raakchott. "Do not place Consume Markers on this Army Card while using Soul Fury Special Attack." edit 4: Knights of Weston have *human* champion bonding. ;) edit 5: Get yourself on Heroscapers.
Thanks for the comment and very glad to have a War Council member here! We are 120% cool with pirates. Yeah, I didn't care for some of the Avalon Hill names of the figures, but the ones that bugged me most were changed in this release, so I'm happy. I totally goofed on the Human/Jandar Champion Bonding with the Frostclaws, and will add that to the corrections. It also turns out I did sign up for Heroscapers--exactly 2 years ago from today! There was some verification issue it had that caused me to completely forget I even made one. I'll work on fixing that. Thank you for all the work you and the War Council did in designing such impressive figures and units, and for keeping Heroscape alive!
LORD-IVD here. Great video ! specials note , I am currently almost blind so the fact that you took the time to go over the cards verbally was priceless for me and I value your time you took to do that so THANK YOU! You get my respect and a SUB! also love you vibe and excited thoughts on what units might bring to the game , lets us get to know you abit. As for who you are in the Scaper community, make yourself known I too am a classic heroscapers lurker or see myself as a crazy hermit that shows up from time to time says a bit then vanishes but always has had my eye on the site all these years and I have never stopped playing. We need elder Scapers like you to light the way for the new players and draw more of the old players back to the game. Welcome Scaper brother maybe some day we will meet in battle! P.S. I dont remember who else but there are were a few of us on heroscapers who already made pirate ships and pirates that didnt make the VC . I plan to add flying to one of my ships to celebrate the official pirates , The Crimson Claw will rise again ARRRRRR!!!
So hyped. The customs on CV3 are awesome (especially for synergy gaps) but hard to come by. Batman - Brave & the Bold had a couple of fight summonings. Liked that each unit really fitted their faction. Play Classic HS and D&D together, Marvel (if ever) seperately. Miss the base stickers, too. But the plane card frames, portrait placement and odd colour alterations are worse imo. Thought Theracus was a winged beast (Onshu), but it's a mount like Brunak. Kita could for a couple of points had made for a great stealthy mount, too? Figure features a saddle. Think Bog-Bur-Na's Swashbuckler 2nd attack wouldn't trigger the cutlass!? Bog pirates sound great;o) The wide wings of Raelin's tigercore mount could block LoS? Not going to elaborate on Raakshoot pronouns, but their battle pose could be a hint. Bad ass! Don't mind Revna, but we have Valkryll, who was already treated as kinda Utgar and seemingly forgotten like Aquilla... "Good knight Irene, good knight Irene, I'll see you in my.." Really? But only figure that looks better than it's portrait. Scaly folk, Naga? Mercenaries (miscenaries, ha;o) ) could be more befitting than varied? That could also help to distinct Revna from Valkryll... Great vid, cheers
what you described at the end, as your journey with heroscape, is very much my experience as well. now that I have my own place, my ability to really immerse in the hobby has been incredibly satisfying. Also, you mentioned you're trying to get into painting, for what it's worth, i started mini painting during the crowdfund for Avalon Hill's release. When that failed, i kept painting and custom making figures because I really enjoyed it. HIghly recommend. Thanks for the videos!
17:41 Im pretty sure they're maintaining all the factions introduced in Avalon Hill's run, and thats because the factions were just the different civilizations they came from, not that they were manifesting them on Valhalla(Pirates excluded, obviously). This is something that Heroscape has pretty much already done with groups such as the Marro, Agent Karr and his associates, and we see the pulling of different members to different factions with the Knights of Weston all being summoned by Jandar with the exception of Sir Hawthorne, who was summoned by Utgar.
If they are, it's no big deal. As long as it all plays well, I'm fine with it. I guess it could be interesting narrative to have an existing organization as part of a planet's civilization that the Valkyrie summoned from. Like Jandar and other benevolent Valkyrie had visions of the Dryan Lifeborne Order and chose the noblest among them, whereas Utgar and the evil Valkyrie went after the evil members of the Order, suggesting that there may have been internal conflict in the Order itself. Just my thoughts running amok. Either way, is what it is. Appreciate the comment!
Do you have any recommendations for someone who wants to get into Heroscape for the first time with this release? Really enjoyed the video, looking forward to more content!
Thanks for the comment, and sorry it's taken me a while to respond. Really depends on what you want! I'd recommend learning the mechanics of the game first, and Sir Heroscape has a great primer going over the rules: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-CtOGufHND0A.html If you want to build your collection just from these AoA releases, that's totally fine, and I suspect they're trying to design their new releases for people who don't have existing collections. But if you want to get into past units, or the Valhalla Customs (VC) units, which I do recommend and which these AoA units are building off of, a few things to consider. 1) Cost The official figures from past Heroscape are often obscenely expensive these days since they've been out of print for so long. If you do want to get the original figures, I typically look for deals/auctions on eBay. I'm not on social media beyond RU-vid, but I know there are Facebook and Reddit groups that trade Heroscape and good deals can be found there. There's also All Things Heroscape. They're often on the pricier side, but occasionally do discounts. Website: www.allthingsheroscape.com/ Short of original figures, 3D printing has been (for me) the most affordable way to get the sculpts for the classic figures, and most tournaments are okay with you bringing unpainted figures since all that really matters for gameplay are the original hitzones of the figures, if you're not big on painting yourself. There are lots of tutorials online on how to do 3D printing if you're unfamiliar. And if you don't have the equipment to print, lots of places offer the service, including some public libraries that do monochrome prints on the cheap (I got 20 monochrome Wyrmling prints from a local library for a little under $15). Some sellers on eBay also do high quality prints of old figures, usually at a premium, but still cheaper than getting originals. Here's a forum thread with .stl files for most of the official figures: www.heroscapers.com/community/showthread.php?t=54977 And you can usually find most VC units on Thingiverse. If you want to learn about the VC, and the VC roster, here's their site: heroscapecustoms.wordpress.com/ 2) Casual, Competitive, or Both Next would be to decide how you plan to play. Do you want to play casually or for fun, or do you want to attend tournaments and play competitively? If you plan to play casually, you really can't go wrong with any figure in the game, official or VC. Regardless of "power level," all figures can be fun in their own right, and I don't knock casual play, as it can be a space to experiment with figures that otherwise wouldn't see tournament play. And that can lead to some amazing games. If you want to play competitively, then you'll want to be more discerning in what figures you invest in, as not all units are equally viable. I do tier list videos on this channel sharing my thoughts on competitive viability of official units, but I'm really following in the footsteps of master players who've ranked them all before. A great place to figure out which units to get is Heroscape.org's Autoload Army Builder. This is a comprehensive list of all official and VC units to date, and it was recently updated with AoA units I talked about in this video. Here's the link: heroscape.org/builder/ You can filter by "power rankings" to show which units are considered "strong" and which considered "weak." As you familiarize yourself with unit powers/abilities, you'll start to see certain army "builds" appear. Builds with bonding and order marker flexibility tend to be strong, but there are others. OEAO, one of the pillars of competitive Heroscape, has a "competitive buying guide" that can point you in the right direction of which units you should have in your collection as a competitive player, official or 3D-printed. Here's his piece on it: www.heroscapers.com/community/showthread.php?t=60710 Echoing some of his notes, the figures from the first Master Set (Rise of the Valkyrie) are still fairly cheap, and some of them are still very strong in today's competitive environment. Marro Warriors, old Raelin, Grimnak, and Krav Maga Agents are all very strong, and there's plenty other good ones from that set besides. I've given you a lot to read, but hopefully this gets you started. Would love to hear how your Heroscape journey goes as you get into it. Welcome to the family!
Gah! Knew I forgot something. In response to my first comment, here are the "Books of" indexes for official classic units and VC units. Official Classic: www.heroscapers.com/community/showthread.php?t=8099 VC: www.heroscapers.com/community/showthread.php?t=33402 These are great resources that will show you synergies units have with other units as well as ruling clarifications on some of their powers. For VC, these Books will tell you which figure was used for the unit and from what toyline, and you can often use that name to find the figure on eBay or another store. You may have to rebase them with Heroscape bases. Trexy3D has excellent 3D-printed Heroscape bases you can use for that, if you plan to get into it: www.trexy3d.com/ These Books also have all the images of the cards for the different units, which you can print out. Much cheaper than getting original cards. Hope this helps!
@@doggindays2631 Thank you for putting so much into that response! I really appreciate it. Looking forward to digging deeper, and reading through some of the "Book of..." articles. I ended up finding a nicely priced ROTV+misc collection, so I'm in!
I've mentioned it in other vids, and it still bugs me- Vane should clearly be a Captain, both because he's the Most Piratey, and also because he has the same "pistol and melee weapon" pose as the other two Captains. You can't have a Marro Captain and a cyborg Captain and then not make the ACTUAL PIRATE a Captain. I don't care why, I don't care about game balance or whatever, you just can't abandon theme like that, it's not ok.
As always, I would love to share my thoughts alongside yours! I also have not had a chance to read any of the bios yet so this is fully based off their army cards! Drake is such a cool concept. Even though his points and stats are slightly reduced from the last time we saw him, he still feels like he's grown as a character just based off his special powers. Heroscape rarely sees evolution in units, and its nice to see the very few times it happens they knock it out of the park. Onshu the Welkineye is not a super stand out figure to me. The other beasts unit are in the same boat. I think I will need need to play with them to get a true opinion. The command familiar ability is pretty neat and a somewhat new idea in the game, letting two different heroes sort of become a two figure squad. The ability to change out which beasts you draft is a neat concept. I like Kita the Springrunner much more than Onshu. That apparition ability is a stand out for me. This will make her a great unit for holding glyphs. She can also be used as a cheap single unit rushdown to help intercept ranged squads or deadly ranged heroes. Ewashia Master of Tides is a great addition. While I know terrain specific units don't do super well in competitive, I am a full on casual player and the terrain specific units are always welcome in my opinion. While you can't fit them into every army, when they do slot in they're normally killer. Again, it all depends on the battlefield, but in a more casual game it can get much more wild. Regardless, with Aegis of the River turning her defense value to 5, she'll be quite tanky. Fia Bonny is alright. Her abilities are nothing we haven't seen before in classic 'Scape. I understand it's a good archtype to have and it should be included when rebooting the game. Her combination of powers is unique to her, which Killian can't say, so that's neat. My only complaint about her is how you can only use Black Powder Pistol once per round. You're already limited to using a ranged attack only three times per game, in my opinion you should be able to use them whenever you want. I guess a ranged attack with a base attack value of four is quite powerful, so splitting up the usage of the shots prevents her from taking height and raining down hell for a single round. I already said a bit about Killian Vane, but he's kind of a nothing unit to me. We've had his explosion special attack appear on many cards before and he doesn't show much else other than a pirate synergy, which I am unsure how that will play yet, and a high attack. Bok-Bur-Na is a super cool concept to me! A Marro who's separate from the hive and a pirate. That's just a cool concept! I unfortunately am on the side of the sculpt looks off. The Marro Drudge theory is super cool! His powers are cool. He's just cool! He appears weak based off stats, but his abilities are all where it lies! Range, a stronger additional melee hit, the potential to self heal!? He's a stand out. The cutlass also has awesome lore implications. Honestly the lore implications around his entire design is so juicy. The new Shiori miniature is the most ambitious we've ever seen, and it goes so hard! I love how only one of the bodies in the sculpt is a hit zone. Figures with very unique hit zones are always memorable, like the zombies. I love how her concentrated will ability was baked into her special attack. EVIL RAELIN EVIL RAELIN!! I've been waiting to see her Army Card for a loooooong time. I love how her Kyrie Aura is basically the anti-Ralein. And she bonds with the Minions and the new Utgar Kyrie!? I didn't realize she could also bond with the Death Knights! The manticore mount is awesome, if only it added a poison sting power! The Twist the Blade power works really well in its place. As awesome as the mount is, it's so strange that it doesn't really add anything to her stats or abilities. Xenithrax is the show case figure in my opinion. She looks massive! Probably going to be the largest unit to ever grace the hexagonal battlefield. And the ability to put glyphs on the field? What a cool idea!! I love the three tails, not that she needed it, but it helps her design stand out even more. I love visualizing the erupting earth special attack! I can just see the dragon sweeping her hand horizontally and then the earth in front of her starts to crack and explode! Loviatak the Kyrie Warrior. I really think they knocked it out of the park with all the kyrie in the master set! The hero kyrie have always seemed underwhelming to me. Despite the fact that they're almost all considered "warriors" they're main goal in classic Heroscape is to position behind other units and just stand there to support. This new wave of kyrie still keep that support role, but they also feel like proper warriors! Misaerx is the unit I am the most excited to get my hands on. What did it for me was how she's an UNDEAD kyrie. I never would have thought that as possible, and I am so pleasantly surprised! I love her Life Drain Spirit! Again, an ability I never would have thought possible! And I always love cheap 50 point heroes. They are always shockingly more useful than their point value implies! I love Dorim all around! Charge is such a neat ability that works not only with pirates, but also the dwarves!? Being able to synergize with two different factions that have nothing to do with one another is always welcome. Also chain axe is so simple to understand, but still sweet to use! Raakchott Steward of Death looks so cool! We haven't really seen any official skeletons or plant units, and the design team decided to make both concepts into this one figure!? They absolutely popped off with this one. The consume the dead and soul fury abilities are, again, another excellent example of character design in this game. The war council really showed their creative chops with this unit! I like Admiral EJ-1M, but this next bit may be a little controversial. He's not that much of a stand out to me. The four arms is cool! We've rarely seen anything with more than four limbs, but the smaller humanoid units that are super high point value have always been weird to me. The best examples of this are Spartacus and Kato. They don't command the presence of their point value the same way a huge unit does. Because of that, I'm starting in a rough spot with Admiral. The ability to switch up order markers, much like Kato's Command, is super unique and very useful. It's a very strong power, but as we've seen with Kato, a very hard ability to balance point wise. Let's hope 170 feels appropriate. Boarding Party is a very cool way to incorporate pirates into the game. I think they haven't been added up to this point because ideas this creative were hard to dream up. Knight Irene does have that intimidating presence. I don't have much to say about her, but I like the big hulking design of her stats and abilities! Once she gets close, she's deadly, and she won't be able to avoid when she runs! She also has a unique hitbox with her forearms being well protected in those gauntlets! Again, just a neat design. Frostclaw Paladins. I love how they're considered knights, but their name refers to them as paladins. It helps them synergize with a ton of Jandar units, but it still gives them more of an authority calling them paladins. Also the first 2 life squad, again what a neat idea! I'm glad that the reboot is really adding new mechanics previously thought impossible or maybe even taboo in the game. It's kind of fun to go back and speculate which unique squads from classic 'Scape would of been given two lives if this was a ruling from the start! We rarely saw "intelligent animals" in classic Heroscape, the only ones I can think of are the primadons, and I'm glad we're adding more in the game! The Exiles of the Sundered Seas are another eh unit to me. Fia Bonny is she was a squad hahaha. I wish that their abilities weren't pretty much the same as hers. This might need to be a squad that I play with in order to appreciate. Super cool that they're varied species though! They look super cool! This is what I imagine a pirate squad in Heroscape would look like! The Knaves of the Silver Scimitar. As of right now, it's hard for me to separate this squad with the other pirate squad. Again, this will most likely change once I get my hands on them. I know their abilities are very different, but having two four man pirate squads kind of blend together. They feel underwhelming because we have so little new squads, and two of them kind of look the same. Just makes the pirate squads a bit underwhelming to me. I do always like a squad that has a "chosen hero" because they normally can play so different each game depending on who you choose! First Assault alongside Disengage makes them quite the deadly squad. Man this was a long comment, but in fairness you made a long video! It's such a new and exciting time for us fans and I want to join in on your discussion!
Love it! Thanks for taking the time to put that together. There are definitely a few units that don't immediately stand out among all the attention-grabbing figures and army cards. But who knows? Onshu might seem negligible now, but I do wonder about Ewashia or Raakchott using Command Familiar with Onshu, Kita, and Otar (VC Hero) as a sort of flexible mid-endgame cleanup force. Onshu might impress in that build, but time will tell. I also hadn't considered Kita's usefulness as a glyph-grabber. Good eye! That team of Onshu, Kita, Otar, might also be good in early game for exactly that glyph-grabbing reason, with either Ewashia or Raakchott of course. Anything with order marker flexibility has my eye. Appreciate your thoughts!
Why does fia bonny dress like she’s from Star Wars, uses a flint lock pistol, and was recruited to Einar?? Im sorry but the people who just immediately dismiss valid criticism of the new stuff have rose tinted glasses. The original heroscape had a consistent theme with their characters. I’m not against thinking outside the box, but there is a set theme to follow for each faction, and each character. You don’t see jandar recruiting futuristic robots that ride mythical dragons because that is stupid and wouldn’t follow any consistent theme. They need to have a more formulaic approach when designing or “factioning”. And contrary to what most people say, it’s ok for people like me to say that. The new dragon looks amazing btw. The innovation of throwable traps as an ability is, contrary to fia, a great outside the box thinking the franchise needs coming back out the gate.
Thanks for the comment, and with you. I have always been into the game and its mechanics more than the lore, but I appreciated the lore where it informed the game. And I agree with you that, however janky that lore was and however mix-and-match-y the army building process is, one of Heroscape's signature features was that each General represented a specific theme, which indirectly communicated the personalities and the battlefield priorities/aesthetic sensibilities of those Generals. I roughly saw it like this: JANDAR: Boy-scout "good guy" faction with honorable goals and intentions. Snowy, Nordic aesthetic. ULLAR: Noble, classic fantasy faction. Most "Tolkien-esque." Hospitable woodland aesthetic. Similar goals to Jandar but emphasizing different themes and approach. VYDAR: High-tech, shadowy faction. Nebulous intentions and goals. Prefers sabotage and "black ops" to traditional frontline fighting. Dark, rocky aesthetic. EINAR: Prefers "historical" units or units that bear resemblance to certain periods in human history. Presents with martial, imperial grandeur. Japanese/Oriental/"Eastern" aesthetic. Goals may be conquest, but not in an overtly malicious way. UTGAR: Standard evil faction. Pitiless, desires power for power's sake and pursues that goal without scruples. Recruits monsters, scoundrels, the power-hungry, the morally bankrupt. Fiery, volcanic aesthetic. AQUILLA: The "nature" faction. Where Ullar may have had nature themes before, Aquilla emphasizes the harshness and "wrath" of nature. Her faction comes off as a guardian or avenger of nature. Foreboding forest/swamp aesthetic. VALKRILL (and I guess now, REVNA, but we'll see): Evil faction of rot, decay, and death. Desires not power but destruction. Units often have some connection to death, decay, disease, or destruction. Dark, harsh cave aesthetic. You get the sense that disease is in the air wherever Valkrill armies set up shop. We'll see where the other new AoA Generals land but that was always my take on the classics. The point is that was largely gleaned from the cards and what little lore I read, and those are strong impressions/themes of each faction just from that. I agree that the new lore they've showcased isn't nearly as charismatic as the classics. But then...nothing ever will be.
