Why Not?: Immigration

This is the second in a series of posts on the reasons I will not be voting to return the former president to the White House. My focus here is not to support his opponent but instead to explain why I believe that Donald Trump is manifestly unqualified for the role.

When I started writing this post, the presidential debate between Vice President Harris and former president Donald Trump was only a few days in the rear view mirror. I began trying to pen a thoughtful if overly long blog entry about my numerous political, practical, ethical, moral, and spiritual objections to the former president's immigration rhetoric and policies.

The avalanche of nativist/xenophobic rhetoric from the former president and his campaign over the last couple of weeks has completely overwhelmed my ability to summarize my rejection of Mr. Trump's immigration lies and pipe dreams. Instead, I'm going to give you the barest of outlines along with a number of excellent deep dive resources to scratch the surface of these issues.

In fact, let's start there. Immigration is complicated. As long as folks are intent on dumbing it down to "build a wall" or "send them back", it is impossible to juggle the myriad of concerns involved: international trade, border security, preventing drug smuggling, welcoming genuine refugees and asylum seekers, promoting healthy legal immigration, import & exports, supporting the proper use of student and work visas, etc. 

Second, our legal immigration system is, at best, completely overwhelmed and thus increases the likelihood of individuals using illegal means to immigrate, among a number of other negative effects on the U.S. The former president is intent on making legal immigration more difficult.

• Why Legal Immigration Is Nearly Impossible (Cato Institute)
• Trump reveals new pledge amid Haitian refugee controversy: 'I will save our cities' (Fox News)

Third, legal immigration is actually a positive thing for the United States - providing economic benefits through productivity and keeping the falling birth rate from undercutting our economy. (Yes, that's a gross oversimplification - remember, immigration is a complicated issue.)

• The 14 Most Common Arguments against Immigration and Why They’re Wrong (Cato Institute)

Fourth, mass deportation is a ridiculous idea that appeals to the worst impulses of Americans - and, if actually implemented, will cause unbelievable economic hardship as well as untold amounts of suffering. 

• Trump's deportation army (The Watch - Radley Balko)

“A significant part of Republican immigration policy centers on the possibility of deporting 12 million people (or ‘self-deporting’ them). Think about it: we conservatives (rightly) mistrust the government to efficiently administer business loans and regulate our food supply, yet we allegedly believe that it can deport millions of unregistered aliens. The notion fails to pass the laugh test." (J.D. Vance, writing about immigration in 2012)

• JD Vance got a former professor to delete a blog post Vance wrote in 2012 attacking GOP over anti-immigrant rhetoric (CNN)

Fifth, the best chance Republicans have had at a bipartisan immigration bill was shot down by candidate Trump because he wanted the issue to campaign on rather than an attempt to mitigate the problem.

• Abandoned by his colleagues after negotiating a border compromise, GOP senator faces backlash alone (AP News)
• Trump says ‘blame it on me’ if border bill fails (The Hill)

Sixth, Donald Trump's language about immigrants is woefully tone-deaf (a charitable reading) - but more in line with far-right white supremacist rhetoric.

• "Remigration" - Trump’s Alarming Use Of A Word With A Deep Fascist History (Huffpost)
• "Poisoning the blood of our country" - Trump says immigrants are ‘poisoning the blood of our country.’ Biden campaign likens comments to Hitler. (NBC News)
• "These people are trying to get them to vote, and that's why they're allowing them into our country" (Great Replacement theory) - How Trump is relying on a racist conspiracy theory to question election results (NPR)
• "Shithole countries" - Trump: Why allow immigrants from ‘shithole countries’? (AP News)

Finally, the Haitian illegal immigrants eating pets in Springfield, Ohio story is a lie. I saved this one until the end because it galls me that this is the level we've descended to in attempting to discuss an important policy issue - making up crap to score points. 

"The American media totally ignored this stuff until Donald Trump and I started talking about cat memes. If I have to create stories so that the American media actually pays attention to the suffering of the American people, then that’s what I’m going to do...” (J.D. Vance on ABC's State of the Union show on Sept. 15 - emphasis mine)

• The Lies They Tell (To The Contrary - Charlie Sykes)
• The Making of the MAGA Hoax About Pet-Eating Haitians (The Unpopulist - Cathy Young)

The immigrants in Springfield are primarily Haitian refugees on Temporary Protected Status - not illegals. And the eating pets accusation is not only unproven - it's been debunked by the source: a Trump shirt-wearing woman whose cat went missing and was found. The true story of Springfield is a profoundly American story - of the difficulties of assimilation, the economic benefits to a dying city of immigration, and the echoes of nativist fear-mongering persisting to the present day.

• What JD Vance and Donald Trump don't want you to know about Springfield (The Watch - Radley Balko)
• The Exotic Cat-Eaters of Springfield, Ohio (The Dispatch - Kevin Williamson)

Vance has turned Solzhenitsyn’s maxim on its head: “Let the lie come into the world, but only through me, and only if I get something good out of it.” A man who is not suffering from whatever disease of the soul with which Vance is afflicted would have a hard time even imagining wanting to be vice president—of all petty things!—that bad. A different and better sort of man would understand that bearing false witness against 15,000 poor and vulnerable people in the pursuit of political power is the same as bearing false witness against anybody else. 

But I’ll give Vance the last word. Here he is on Twitter, back when Twitter was Twitter and J.D. Vance was J.D. Vance: “Trump makes people I care about afraid. Immigrants, Muslims, etc. Because of this, I find him reprehensible. God wants better of us.” (Kevin Williamson)

A Closing Thought for those of us who follow Christ

You must not oppress a foreign resident; you yourselves know how it feels to be a foreigner because you were foreigners in the land of Egypt. [Exodus 23:9 HCSB]

Important reminder: I am not attempting to defend the Biden administration's record on immigration. I am simply pointing out that the casual cruelty, the dehumanizing language, and the destructive policies advocated by Donald Trump do not deserve and will not receive my support.

The first post in this series focuses on tariff policy - at this point, Mr. Trump's "magic wand" that can cure all sorts of problems - child care, grocery prices, bringing manufacturing jobs back to the U.S., etc. It's not.

Why Not?: Tariffs

This is the first in a series of posts on the reasons I will not be voting to return the former president to the White House. My focus here is not to support his opponent but instead to explain why I believe that Donald Trump is manifestly unqualified for the role.

For someone who graduated from the Wharton School (albeit graduating with a Bachelor of Science in Economics rather than an MBA), Mr. Trump has little or no understanding of how tariffs actually work.

Let's start simple: a tariff is a tax on foreign goods, not on a foreign country. The Chinese government is not paying the tariff to the American government... despite what the former president asserts:

We're doing tariffs on other countries. Other countries are going to finally, after 75 years, pay us back for all that we've done for the world. And the tariff will be substantial in some cases. I took in billions and billions of dollars, as you know, from China. [Donald Trump from the presidential debate on Sept. 10]

The tariff is paid to the U.S. government by the importer of the item(s) - not the exporter. That cost is most often passed on to American consumers & businesses. (Occasionally, the exporter will choose to reduce the wholesale cost of the item(s) to the importer in order to keep from raising the price in the American market, but they are not required to do so.)

Tariffs don't lead naturally to lower prices - in fact, they can do the opposite:

...high or unpredictable tariffs can reduce potential supply and give domestic producers more market power over U.S. consumers who, thanks to the tariff, have fewer alternatives, and this can and often does increase the prices of the American-made goods even higher than they were before the tariff. These kinds of price-boosting effects are precisely why U.S. manufacturers—like this guy—lobby for tariff protection. [Scott Lincicome in his Capitolism newsletter on Sept. 11]

Important safety tip, courtesy of Professor Don Boudreaux (George Mason University):

Tariffs protect domestic producers from foreign competition only if and insofar as they raise the prices that consumers pay for imports, for only by raising imports’ prices are consumers incited to purchase more domestically produced goods. It’s not merely that, as Mr. Stuttaford writes, “the importer may, if its competitive position allows, pass on that cost to its customer.” A protective tariff serves its purpose only if the importer passes on at least part of that cost to its customer. The very purpose of tariffs is to increase demand for domestically produced goods by raising the prices that consumers pay for imports. A tariff that doesn’t raise prices paid by consumers doesn’t protect domestic producers. [post on Cafe Hayek on June 19]

So, if you want to protect American industries/businesses, using tariffs will end up raising costs to American importers, who will - in all likelihood - pass that cost onto businesses, retailers, and consumers.

Of course, that's not how Mr. Trump sees it. When asked about tariff costs being passed onto consumers during the debate, he answered:

They aren't gonna have higher prices what's gonna have and who's gonna have higher prices is China and all of the countries that have been ripping us off for years. I charge, I was the only president ever China was paying us hundreds of billions of dollars and so were other countries and you know if she doesn't like 'em they should have gone out and they should have immediately cut the tariffs but those tariffs are there three and a half years now under their administration. We are gonna take in billions of dollars, hundreds of billions of dollars. [Donald Trump from the presidential debate on Sept. 10]

Honestly, a single sentence in this statement is one of the few moments where I will agree with the former president. The Biden administration left tariffs in place that the Trump administration started... which undercuts them making an argument about tariffs. However, it's not my job to defend the Biden administration.

On the other hand, Mr. Trump's assertion that we are hurting China and "all of the countries that have been ripping us off for years" coupled with the assurance that "they aren't gonna have higher prices" doesn't pass the smell test. Remember, China isn't paying the tariff (though large tariffs affect businesses in their country) - Americans are.

Please understand - this is a highly over-simplified discussion of a complicated economic problem. But even at this level, it's easy to see that the former president either (a) is willfully lying to the public about how tariffs affect American consumers & businesses as well as other countries on whom we impose tariffs, or (b) isn't able to actually understand the effects himself.

The primary concern here is that the power to enact tariffs - given to Congress in the Constitution but delegated to the President under Section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act of 1962 in cases of "national security" - is one that can be exercised without much oversight. If, as I posited above, Mr. Trump doesn't understand (or doesn't care) about the effects of extensive tariffs, giving him that power is unwise.

I'll give Scott Lincicome the last word from his excellent Dispatch newsletter:

An intellectually honest pro-tariff case would go something like this: Yes, U.S. tariffs have real and significant economic and geopolitical costs on net, but those costs are a necessary price Americans must pay to achieve a core federal government objective (typically national security). I do occasionally see this argument when it comes to China, but in general it’s most definitely not what most American protectionists are offering today. Instead, tariffs are a magical policy that’s all benefits and no costs. They protect American jobs and security, boost industry and innovation, and advance our strategic interests abroad with both enemies and allies alike. We can use them to solve any problem—even child care and the national debt!—and, perhaps best of all, foreigners will foot the bill.

You don’t need a Ph.D. to see some of the flaws in these claims. Think about this stuff for more than a second, and problems emerge: If tariffs make us money and boost the economy, why stop at 10 or even 20 percent? If tariffs don’t raise prices here, then how do they protect American workers from “predatory dumping” or “cheap labor” (or whatever)? If tariffs achieve Real Free Trade, then why do we still have so many in place, some for literally centuries? And on and on. Most of the myths shrivel in the dimmest of sunlight, yet they persist if not flourish. [Scott Lincicome in his Capitolism newsletter on Sept. 11]

For much more detailed reading on tariffs, I recommend the previously linked articles as well as the Cato Institute's extensive Separating Tariff Facts from Tariff Fictions report.

10 Questions About The New Era of Heroscape

While I wasn’t able to attend GenCon and the events celebrating the return of Heroscape after fourteen years, I did have the privilege of receiving review copies of the first wave of releases… and so, it’s time to answer some questions. 

Luckily for you, gentle readers, I’ll be assisted in this by my two sons – both who grew up playing Heroscape and are now gamers in their own right. Braeden is 23 and Collin is 19… and between us we have 50+ years of experience at the game.

Over the last month, we’ve had the opportunity to play 12+ games with the newly released material.

Before we get started, let me note for those of you who’ve been living under a gaming rock for 20 years that Heroscape is a miniatures skirmish combat game played on a board constructed out of plastic terrain pieces. Since the theme is a battle for dominance in world where the Valkyrie Generals can recruit warriors from multiple times & dimensions, there is a wild mixture of heroes & squads – aliens & Matrix guys & Braveheart & dragons & robots & kung fu monks & gorillas with guns, to name a few. And it’s one of my favorite games…

What exactly did Renegade Game Studios release for Heroscape this summer?

While the pre-orders are shipping out now and those who attended GenCon had access to the new stuff, the rest of the gaming world has to wait for the street date of the wave one release – August 29.

There are actually five items in this release:

• Battle for the Wellspring (Battle Box)
• Age of Annihilation (Master Set)
• The Grove at Laur’s Edge (Terrain Expansion)
• Sgt. Drake Alexander (pre-order promo figure)
• Shiori (GenCon event promo figure)

Note: since this piece originally ran on the Opinionated Gamers website, Wave One of Heroscape is sold out at the publisher level. Distributors still have copies, as will your friendly local game store. There is a reprint on the way of the Wave One boxes that should be available by the end of 2024.

Braeden playing Heroscape this summer (pre-Age of Annihilation)

I’m new to Heroscape. Are these boxes a good way to get started playing?

The three of us are probably not the best people to judge these releases for newbies – I bought my first Master Set (Rise of the Valkyrie) within days of it being released in 2004 and both of the boys have been playing since they were able to read the cards. 

But Collin & I anticipated that problem, so we started playing the new material by itself – first the Battle Box and then the Master Set, then combining them together. The last few plays we finally began to add in “classic” Heroscape figures and terrain.

The short answer is pretty simple: yes, these boxes work as an introduction to Heroscape. The Battle Box is an excellent “let’s see if I’ll like this” set with six unique characters and enough terrain (including Laur trees and wellspring water tiles) to give you the flavor of the bigger game system. The larger Master Set offers a great variety of figures (including the first squads of the new system) and possible scenarios.

The terrain box is not strictly necessary, but I like the additional variety that it adds to battlegrounds you can create. 

If I was a new player, I’d probably want both the Battle Box & the Master Set… combined, these have a similar impact to the original Master Set. (Yes, I know that Rise of the Valkyrie had 30 figures – 6 squads & 9 heroes – and that these two boxes only have 26 figures – 3 squads and 14 heroes. They are not identical – but as far as creating a playable set separate of any additional expansions, the two boxes work like the original Master Set did.)

An important note for both newbies and old skool Heroscape players: all of the heroes and squads in the Battle Box and Master Set are unique – meaning you cannot field more than one of them per army. If you want more terrain, your best bet will be to wait for the Lands of Terrinoth and Waters of Terrinoth boxes in wave two this fall.

Braeden: Wholeheartedly agree on getting both the Battle Box and the Master Set. New players will get a really cool spread of figures to play with (including the awesome giant vine dragon), but old players will have lots of new things to try out including some figures that allow for new synergies with figures we’ve played with for years. Personally I can’t wait to see polar bears fighting alongside Templar Cavalry, or battling the yetis for control of the glaciers. 

Collin: Agree on both of the above views about getting both the Battle Box and the Master Set. While the Battle Box is a good “let’s see if I like this” box, in my opinion, battles on the scale of 3 figures per player don’t exactly capture the grandiose, free nature of Heroscape that got me hooked on it. However, I find MOST of these six heroes almost a necessary purchase with the master set. (Except for Killian Vane III, my sworn enemy who I hate vehemently.) Without the characters in the battle box, a couple of the master set figures are left not quite purposeless, but close.

The "awesome giant vine dragon" Braeden mentioned attacking the Frostclaw Paladins

Are these good purchases for those of us who’ve been collecting Heroscape for years?

This question is a little bit more up my alley. I own at least one (and often more than one) of everything from the original run of Heroscape (2004-2010). 

I think the new boxes are excellent additions to my collection. In some cases, they lean into a character trope the original run never managed to get to (pirates!); in others, the characters are the heroes we never knew we needed (armored Lawful Good polar bears?! Sign me up!) The terrain works with my old terrain and in a number of cases (which we’ll get into in a minute, I promise) the new characters connect with older figures to make them work in new and better ways.

I know as a long-time player/collector that sticker shock on the new releases is an issue – particularly when you want the painted versions – but I think these prices are in line with what it costs to create such a game now. (Take a look at some of the other miniature-heavy board game releases on the market.)

Braeden: This is the advantage of having a dad who buys a lot of fancy board games. All I have to do is drive 2.5 hours home for the weekend and try all the new stuff. Something something, General Grievous- “These will make a fine addition to his collection”

Collin: However, the disadvantage to having a dad who buys a lot of fancy board games is that you inherit that addiction and spend a hefty chunk of your summer paychecks on old Heroscape lots off of eBay to prepare yourself for college. As a prospective buyer of new ‘Scape, the sticker shock is pretty real. I’ve played with and adore almost all of the new figures, (sans my arch nemesis Killian) and I’m still leaning towards pulling the trigger, but $225 for the master set and $65 for the battle box (painted, of course) is still a tough pill to swallow, seeing that you can still find secondhand copies of old master sets for less than $300 these days. A price I’m still willing to meet, but the promised continuation of support for Renegade’s reboot is sending my wallet into cardiac arrest.

You just mentioned that the painted figures are expensive. Are they worth it?

If you are talented at painting miniatures, the painted versions are definitely spend-y… but for those of us whose artistic skills peaked at finger-painting in kindergarten, it’s a cost I’m willing to bear.

As for the paint jobs, they are as good or better than anything previously in the Heroscape line. There are a few figures over the years whose paint jobs I adore – example: Sonlen, from the Swarm of the Marro Master Set – and the quality of the new boxes is equal or better than that.

Raelin has gone over to the dark side (aka Utgar).

It’s all well and good for you to talk about prices – but you got these boxes as review copies. That’s not cool.

That’s not a question – but it’s a legitimate frustration when you read a review by someone who got the game(s) comped to them.

So, if the review copies hadn’t come through, I had/have money in my gaming budget that was earmarked to buy the painted versions of the Wave 1 releases.  

Collin: Hi there, it’s me again, son that 100% doesn’t have a crippling addiction to Heroscape. My dad may not have to pay this price because of his review copy, but I sure will. Am I slightly jealous of my dad? No. I’m VERY jealous.

Collin beating me playing with the new Heroscape Master Set

Are the new terrain pieces (wellspring, Laur trees, new style ruins) good?

There’s been some online griping about the new trees… but I haven’t felt like they were a problem. (See the picture of the latest board I built for Collin & I farther down in this post.) 

The wellspring tiles are a clever way to create new objectives for battles – objectively, they’re just sparkly white water.

The new ruins system has chunky posts with a hooked system for hanging “walls” between them. They look great (in part thanks to the wash that helps the detail stand out) and can be used in a variety of ways. My only quibble is that I’d like a wall piece that is long enough to go across a hex rather than just down the spine.

Braeden: The new walls are really cool – their expandable nature will allow Renegade to add more pieces to them later on.

Collin: The walls are a lot of fun to mess around with, although at the moment I don’t feel as if I can build big castle walls like I want to – even with more than one master set. As of right now, they feel like very customizable versions of the old ruins from Rise of the Valkyrie, rather than a reimplementation of the Fortress Terrain. I’m curious to see how they expand the system further. As for the Jungle Trees, those pieces are designed in such a way that they’re slightly frustrating for me to use. They’re very workable, they just don’t sit 100% flat on top of another piece when there’s stuff connected to it, and that bothers me, but not enough to call heresy as people I’ve seen on the internet have been doing.

I read somewhere that they changed some of the point costs for older figures. What’s that about?

Re-costing heroes & squads has long been a discussion topic amongst Heroscape players. The most egregious mis-costing in my mind is still Taelord the Kyrie Warrior (though the appearance of his daughter, Loviatak, in the new Master Set makes his “posse” – the Minions of Utgar – a more viable option). 

For tournament play, the Renegade team re-costed the following figures:

RISE OF THE VALKYRIE

• Raelin the Kyrie Warrior
• Increased from 80 to 125 points.
• Marro Warriors
• Increased from 50 to 105 points.
• Grimnak
• Increased from 120 to 160 points. 

CREST OF THE VALKYRIE

• Sir Gilbert
• Increased from 105 to 160 points. 

UTGAR’S RAGE

• Me-Burq-Sa
• Increased from 50 to 70 points. 
• 4th Massachusetts Line
• Increased from 70 to 100 points.

DEFENDERS OF KINSLAND

• 10th Regiment of Foot
• Increased from 75 to 95 points.

THORA’S VENGEANCE

• Deathreavers
• Increased from 40 to 60 points.

I’d do more griping about these re-costings… except we played a game a week or so ago with Sir Gilbert leading the Frostclaw Paladins which showed off his Jandar’s Dispatch power with such clarity (Collin wiped both Braeden & I out) that I’m now loath to question any of these choices.

Braeden: My initial reaction to the tournament cost changes was something along the lines of “Who cares? It’s not like we are going to do any tournament play, let’s just use the old costs”. After the aforementioned Sir Gilbert debacle I changed my view significantly. Moving forward, it is likely wise to use the tournament costs if mixing old sets with the renegade released ones. 

The great part about these changes is that it lets Renegade adjust the balance dial on these old cards to fit into the new ecosystem without having to make reprints or sweeping ability changes. They now have a knob they can turn as cards become problems, or alternatively a way to make underplayed cards a bit more likely to see play (Taelord the Kyrie Warrior being the most egregious current example). Ultimately though, if you and your game group are playing casually. I would use the costs where your group has the most fun.

How are the scenarios in the various sets?

While we found a few of the scenarios we really enjoyed (The Wellspring’s Woe in the Battle Box and Ghosts of the Past & Annihilation in the Master Set), in general the scenario books are there to give you ideas to use your own creativity. 

I’ll offer some advice here:

• The more points you give each player to build their army, the longer the game is. 
• The timer-based scenarios are a great idea, but are trickier to design on your own. (Figuring out how many rounds to give players to accomplish certain goals is key.)
• It is perfectly acceptable to build a battleground, throw out a point number, and play to the death. (We’ve done that a lot.)
• Renegade will be posting free scenarios on the website starting in September 2024.
• There is still an amazing repository of scenarios and battleground maps on Heroscapers.com (a fan-run Heroscape site from back in the day).
• We managed to recreate my favorite multi-player Heroscape map using only the terrain from the new Battle Box & Master Set – I’ll Dance On Your Grave. It’s originally a single Master set scenario for 2 to 4 players… and it’s SHORT. (6 rounds). It’s essentially a reverse King of the Mountain – at the end of the six rounds, the player with the most points worth of figures in the sandy pit in the middle of the board wins the game. (You’ll have to mess with glyph and ruins placement, but the idea is still solid.)

Braeden: Can’t really speak to the included scenarios, but I am gonna echo my dad’s recommendation of I’ll Dance On Your Grave (or as my brother and I lovingly call it “The Pit”).

Collin: Scenario play has never been my favorite, I’ve always been a fan of to-the-death setups, but the two new official scenarios my dad mentioned and The Pit, I’ll admit are a ton of fun.

Collin & I playing a massive battle mixing old & new 'Scape (including Ticalla Jungle) - yes, I lost.

You didn’t talk about Basic Heroscape. Why not?

Basic Heroscape has been a fixture of the game since it was released in 2004… and I have never played it. Not even when the boys were little. It’s essentially playing on the Heroscape boards with no special character powers.

If you want to play that way, the army cards have the adjusted stats and the rules are in the rulebook. Not for me, thanks – the variety of powers and interactions are an integral part of the game for me.

Braeden: Basic Heroscape is the thing I look at when my 200 point hero dies and I stare longingly at the higher health and defense values.

Collin: I would care about basic Heroscape if there were point values and heroes had more than one hit point, but since they don’t, I’ll only look at them when I accidentally put my card the wrong face up.

How does the future of Heroscape look to you?

The future looks really positive… for a variety of reasons.

• The Renegade team was incredibly responsive to feedback as we were doing our initial plays. As noted above, there are a couple of misprints in the battleground maps – which they promised will be corrected for the second printing as well as corrected versions being uploaded to their site for folks with the first edition.
• Did you notice they said “second printing”? 🙂
• The information we have so far about Wave 2 (coming in October) looks like two cool new figure boxes (Kryie & Eiseneks) two boxes of terrain for (a) new players, and (b) old players who want to build MASSIVE battlegrounds.
• A display case picture was part of an earlier Opinionated Gamers report (thanks, Matt!) which shows a number of nifty things… including more Jandar polar bears. (See below)
• The Heroscape Battle Network is live – making tournament play much, much easier. 
• According to Renegade, there are plans for new release waves through early 2026.

Display case at GenCon 2024 of upcoming figures (from Matt Carlson's OG preview)

Let the battles begin! (Or, in our case, continue!)

Braeden playing Heroscape MANY years ago...

Want to read more Heroscape coverage from me on the OG?

• Heroscape in New Hands: The Renegade Con Panel (October 2023)
• The Gates of Valhalla Swing Open… Again: The Return of Heroscape (March 2024)
• Heroscape – Wave 2: The Story Continues to Unfold (June 2024)

Collin playing Attacktix about the same time he started playing Heroscape

How about some stuff I wrote back in the day about Heroscape for this blog?

• Heroscape for Beginners (and Robo) (November 2009)
• I’ve chronicled a number of our massive battles – complete with pictures!
• Defeating the Marro Invaders + Heroscape Update (October 2007)
• Battle Royale + Battle Royale: National Heroscape Day + The Battle is Over (October 2008)
• Marvel vs. the Citizens of Valhalla (April 2009)
• Arena of Doom (December 2010)
• In November 2010, I wrote a goodbye letter to Heroscape when Hasbro ended the line… 

As noted above, I received review copies of the new Heroscape material. Back in the day, I did receive some promo figures, a couple of Volcarren Wasteland boxes, and a wave of figures as a “thank you” for my work as a playtester. (I also received a very cool Heroscape T-shirt which fit 42 year old Mark but isn’t as kind to 60 year old Mark. But I still have it hanging in my closet.)

The Beautiful Game(s) [Classic Remix]

A decade ago, I wrote a post about soccer board games... so, with the US Men's team playing Uruguay tonight and both US men and women playing in the Olympics later this month, I figured it was a good time to revisit and update my thoughts. 

Soccer was the first sport I ever felt semi-competent at as a kid... which probably has a lot to do with my enjoyment of the game, particularly played at major international tournament level. It's the only sport I've ever "officially" coached. (Note: I coached Under 6 soccer, which is kind of like saying, "I herded cats while they played with a white ball & got distracted by their surroundings.")

I'm not a great soccer player - I don't have the stamina, the coordination or the willingness to practice to get better in those areas. I can handle the ball & can "see the field," which means I was (once upon a time) a passable midfielder. (And by "passable midfielder", I mean "I was slightly better than having no one playing the position... but only by a small amount".)

Soccer, by the way, is probably the easiest of the team sports to teach to young kids. While I used to enjoy watching my sons play the royal mess that is T-Ball, those kids out on the diamond have no idea what they're doing and/or why. But as long as you can sling up two goals, mark the edges of the field & get a decent ball on the ground, you can play soccer. (You may not play it well, but you can play.)

All of this is introduction to my "real" topic, soccer board games. There are a LOT of soccer board games available (Tony Ackroyd over on BGG has an extensive older Geeklist entitled Kick Off & Goal! that contains 70 of them). I haven't played nearly that many... but that won't stop me, of course, from commenting on them. (Some of the games I'll highlight don't appear on Tony's list, which hasn't been updated in about a decade.)

I'll be listing the games in my order of personal preference.

Streetsoccer

This is a backgammon-ish 5-on-5 soccer game that plays quickly (25 turns) and is incredibly simple to learn. Don't let that fool you - the folks who are good at the game are REALLY good at the game.

It doesn't so much simulate soccer (like Pursue the Pennant attempts to simulate baseball)... instead, it uses a simple dice-based mechanic to simulate the feel of a soccer game - and does so brilliantly. In fact, it's not only my favorite soccer game, it's one of my favorite games, period. (It was #53 on Top 100 list this year.)

Like playing backgammon, winning at Streetsoccer is as much about the position you leave yourself in as well as pushing hard to score. 

Eleven: Football Manager Board Game

Eleven is more football (soccer for those of us here in the U.S. of A.) team management (including stadium improvements, hiring & firing staff, and dealing with the mercurial decision-making of your board of directors) than playing soccer games... but don't worry, you'll play six matches over the course of the game (and even more if you're using the International Cup expansion.)

While there are some tricky parts (understanding how/when to flip jerseys, for example), the game itself works like a charm and is great fun to play, especially if you are (like myself) a fan of Premier League soccer. Match play is important – but Eleven is much bigger than winning matches… it’s actually an economic/management game.

Since the game this re-design was based on (Club Stories) was a solo game, it is not a surprise that this works splendidly for a single player. However, I wouldn’t suggest trying to throw all of the expansions in at one time – that’s my single play for this year (so far) and it was a bit much. (I do plan on mixing the international players into the regular deck for more variety moving forward… but ditching the airline/recruiting mechanic.)

There's an excellent review of Eleven on the Opinionated Gamers site - which I didn't write but you should still read anyway.

Magic Number Eleven

I've only had the chance to play this game a single time... but I was very impressed with how it using a tile-laying-like mechanic to simulate the build-up of soccer play. There's enough randomness to feel like an actual soccer game (I got a penalty trying to stop an overwhelming attack - then my goalie managed to block the penalty shot!)... but not so much that it overwhelms intelligent play.

I'm not sure where you find a copy except the Pluto Games site (which shows that they are waiting for restock.) 

Subbuteo

Much more popular in Europe than here in the States, this flicking game of soccer is a lot of fun to play - but I don't have regular access to a copy. The tiny round-based players are tricky to learn how to flick well... but experienced players can do magical things with them. (For example, the gentleman who taught me how to play and pretty much relegated my team to 3rd Division in a single game.)

You can play at a relativelysimple "just get the ball in the goal" level... or the game has a sophisticated set of systems for dealing with fouls, throws-in, PKs, and the like.

Soccer Tactics

This is a dice-based game which is played in real time (stopwatch included) and has a nice fluidity to the game (once you get past the tik-takky stuff in the rules). It has a bad reputation due to [a] a ill-conceived design choice to put the scoring spinner in the middle of the board (which has been solved by the addition of a scoring die), and [b] by the less-than-congenial relationship that the company has had with BGG.

The game usually runs a little long... so it didn't hit the table often enough to justify hanging onto it and was traded away in the Great Game Purge of 2013. I'd still be happy to play it - but I no longer have a copy.

Finale

Finale was only published in German in the 2-player Kosmos line and  is very much out of print. It borrows the rotating card mechanic from the Settlers of Catan Card Game combined with a set of tactics cards to create a pretty nice simulation of coaching a soccer team. Fouls & injuries are a little too common, though.

The problem with the game is that it's a tad fiddly, what with all the marking & turning of player cards. I've got my copy up for trade, but I like it enough that it would take a really good offer for me to part with it. It even managed to survive the Purge - but I'm thinking that mostly due to lack of interest.

Lego Soccer

I have 3 different sets thrown together, so I can make a pretty large field. Sadly, it's cooler in theory than it is in actual play... the field is stable but the players sometimes pop right off their bases as you try to make a play. But, hey, it's Lego!

Note: while many games were sold in the aforementioned purge (back in our 2013 move) and even more were sold earlier this year... I still have Lego Soccer. 

---

Sadly, I have never played The World Cup Game... not for lack of trying.

Sixty is the New Fifty-Nine

Yep, it's happened. With yet another trip around the sun, my personal odometer has turned over and I am, as the title of the post implies, sixty years old.

When I was younger, 60 sounded really, really old... and sometimes the aches & pains of my aging body remind me that younger me wasn't completely off base. But most of the time, I feel like my attitude about life is younger than my physical age.

This week, I've found myself reflecting on the past six decades of my life.

• I spent nearly half of my life in full-time vocational ministry as a Southern Baptist youth minister, church planter, and pastor... then spent nearly a decade without preaching until last year. 
• Shari & I just celebrated our 34th wedding anniversary - I'm so incredibly thankful that she said "yes" so many years ago and has been my companion and best friend through all the high & lows of life.
• I've been a dad for more than a third of my years on this planet - Braeden is 23 and Collin is 19 - and I could not be prouder of who they are as young men. (I'm really looking forward to our road trip to Gulf Games together next month.)
• Speaking of board games, I'm honored to have friends scattered around the country (and the world) due to my involvement in this hobby. I've had the privilege to playtest a wide variety of games (Heroscape, Suburbia, Unmatched: Battle of Legends, etc.) and review countless others for the Opinionated Gamers site and this blog.
• I've had a lot of different jobs in addition to being a pastor - I've worked in a call center, I've flipped hamburgers (back in the "my McDonalds uniform was made of polyester" days), I've served on a packaging line, I've ghostwritten material for multiple books, I've done data entry/payables (back in the Lotus 1-2-3 days), I've worked for the State Legislature in IT, I've consulted on a book on board games for Klutz Publishing, and I currently have spent more than a decade working for the Tennessee Department of Education.

Most importantly, I've been a follower of Jesus for almost all of my life. I made a profession of faith at the age of seven... and I'd love to tell you that it's been smooth sailing ever since. But that would be a lie. In Andrew Peterson's song, "The Good Confession", he describes his younger self with these words:

Through the years

I barely fell;

I mostly dove right in.

I drank so deep

From the shallow well

Only to thirst again.

Still, His grace is real. Over and over, I've experienced the love of God calling me to follow Him - not as a punishment or as a penance for my mistakes, but as a deeply loved child and friend. 

On this day, I'm pausing to remember how thankful I am for all of the things that have shaped me - both the wonderful gifts and the incredible difficulties. I have things I wish I'd have done differently - times where I should have made a better and/or different decision - but I have no desire to rewind the clock. 

The Return of Heroscape

In November of 2010, I posted a sad goodbye to a game system that I'd not only collected & played, but also playtested. Hasbro chose to end the Heroscape line after releasing four master box sets, thirteen waves of figures, three boxes of large figures, a wave of flagbearers with custom dice, and four boxes of special terrain over six amazing years. 

Well, as Mark Twain once (purportedly) said, "The reports of my death are greatly exaggerated." Because, unless Hasbro/Wizards of the Coast has manufactured the terrain out of some kind of special plastic that they can detonate by remote control and/or they've hired the Taelord & the Minions of Utgar to swoop down on game rooms 'round the world and steal back the stacks of miniatures, we can still play this wonderful game. (BTW, this would be the most effective use of Taelord & the Minions. In other news, Taelord & the Minions would make a great rock band name.)

And we did play... a lot. (I would like to issue an apology to Taelord the Kryie Warrior, who I've made fun for a very long time as an over-costed and relatively useless figure. It was Taelord & the Minions that helped me defeat my son's Gorillanator/Krav Maga army last night... as pictured here.)

In the summer of 2022 - nearly twelve years later - Hasbro began to hint that they were "getting the band back together" and reviving Heroscape. My initial excitement grew cold as the Avalon Hill/HasLab teams made a number of off-putting choices in their crowdfunding campaign: using Discord as the primary tool to release information, choosing to release the set as a single $250 Vanguard edition box, not giving a painted option (even for those willing to pay more), the garish day-glo color of the mini renderings (whether or not they would have looked like that in the end), focusing on faction groups rather than Valkyrie Generals, etc.

I fully admit that 'old skool' Heroscape players (like myself) probably had our $$ and painted minis expectations out of whack - in 2004, the original Master box (Rise of the Valkyrie) cost just $40 and you darn near needed a hand truck to get it out to your car. And I think that the attempted shift to "factions" as an organizing principle was in order to make entry for newbies easier - a noble goal.

That said, the crowdfunding campaign was unsuccessful... and Avalon Hill announced:

What’s next for HeroScape?

Our unfortunate answer is… nothing. As we said during the campaign if this project doesn’t meet its goal, we won’t be able to produce Age of Annihilation. That has not changed. HeroScape as a project will be shelved, and there are no current plans to attempt a resurrection at this time. The Avalon Hill team will refocus our efforts on the exciting games we currently have coming soon…

As I wrote that fall: "And with that, I truly thought that we could stick a fork in any more Heroscape."

I am so very glad I was wrong.

It was just seven months later that Renegade Game Studios announced a "licensing arrangement" with Avalon Hill/Hasbro to take the work that had been done on Heroscape and make this game system viable again. 

In October 0f 2023, Renegade hosted their first Heroscape livestream - introducing us to some of the team of folks who responsible for pulling a "Free Willy" and releasing Heroscape from captivity. (OK, that's a pretty weak metaphor/pop culture reference hybrid... my apologies.)

They dealt forthrightly with a number of questions:

• Yes, they are still working with the folks at Hasbro and have a positive established relationship there.
• They have all of the inherited stuff from Hasbro and are currently doing their due diligence.
• It was not 100% finished when it was turned over to the Renegade team… so there’s lots of work to do.
• The lore/story direction of Heroscape will be led by the Renegade team.
• They plan to use all of the content from the HasLab campaign – though likely not all of it on “day one”. (We'll talk about that more in a minute.)
• Yes, the game will be backwards compatible.
• There are no historical figures in the current waves.
• They will not be reprinting the ‘classic’ sculpts/figures.
• None of the molds still exist for the old stuff.
• However, personas from the past could reappear (there was a lot of hinting around about Raelin).

And, in a very classy move, they were honest about whether or not they could do painted figures. Simply put, they hadn't made the decision yet - but they were exploring options.

My reaction was very positive:

By the time Renegade’s new wave of Heroscape stuff hits the street, it will have been 20 years since Frank Branham emailed me and told me to head to the closest Wal-Mart with $40 in hand and pick up a copy of Rise of the Valkyrie (the first Heroscape Master Set). Over the next six years, I bought, traded for, and/or was given at least one of each release – and in many cases, multiples of certain figure and terrain packs. They currently reside in three rolling cases in my office closet – waiting for my boys to get home from college to set up some serious battles in my new game room.

I am smack dab in the center of ONE of the target audiences for Renegade’s new Heroscape material. Note: I said ONE of the target audiences – but for the game to be successful, they need to bring in a lot of new players who don’t have a deep connection to the game Hasbro released between 2004-2010.

So, please take my reactions and suggestions that follow with a rather large grain of salt – I’m speaking as somebody who left this up in his game room for weeks while my sons, their best friend, and I played a 6000 points per side epic battle most afternoons after school. 

I’m really happy about the multiple packaging options… I think that was one of the most grievous errors with the crowdfunding campaign.

I get that painted figures are going to be a stretch – I hope that there is an option to get painted figures, as I’d like them to blend with all the figures I already have. But, I understand if that’s not possible.

My wish list for “historical/trope” figures: pirates, cavemen (let one of them ride a wooly mammoth!), post-apocalyptic biker gangs, skeletons, Mouse Guard-ish heroes, and bear cavalry.

In general, I think Renegade’s approach has a better chance for both short-term and long-term success.

 

In March of this year (2024), the actual details of Wave 1 (yes, there are waves!) of the new Heroscape era were shared on a livestream from the Renegade team. There would be a Master Set (entitled Age of Annhilation) as well as a smaller "intro" Battle Box (entitled Battle for the Wellspring) and the first of a series of Terrain System boxes, The Grove at Laur's Edge. 

Most importantly for those of with (a) a large Heroscape collection, and (b) the miniature painting skills of a 4 year old with anger issues, they announced that Renegade is releasing "premium paint" versions of each box with figures. 

Here's the wild thing about these new boxes - they are using the same basic character designs from the failed Avalon Hill/HasLab crowdfunding attempt. I wasn't the best reporter with this initial reveal - I didn't even realize it. (It took a comment from one of our readers at the Opinionated Gamers site to point it out.)

Let me see if I can show why I didn't recognize this fact. (I'll use my favorite squad from the Wave 1 releases, the Frostclaw Paladins.)

In the first picture (from the crowdfunding campaign), the figures are both a single color AND rendered where the back left mini is very difficult to see and the front left mini is lit so he's difficult to figure out. (Yes, I know that those were digital concept art.) In the second picture, not only are the minis painted, but they are positioned where it's easier to see each of the figures. 

Additionally, the rollout from Renegade included a developed website with character bios and army cards - making it easier to see the connections to what had gone before and the nifty new ideas that the both Avalon Hill and Renegade has been working on. (Well, and a way to preorder the new stuff - which only makes sense.)

In other news from the March event, the team let us know that any promos created (two were specifically mentioned - Sgt. Drake & Shiori) would not be exclusive. Promo figures will always eventually be available through Renegade's online store. 

In June 2024 (ahem, last Friday - to be exact), Renegade hosted yet another livestream to showcase the Wave 2 releases. This wave focuses on Army Expansions (two of them) and Terrain System boxes (two of these as well). The Army boxes (under the sub-title Revna's Rebuke) include the Kryie Warriors box and the Iron Lich Viscerot & Necrotech Wraithriders box. The Terrain System boxes are the Lands of Valhalla (filled with - no surprise here - a lot more land tiles) and the Waters of Valhalla (more water tiles).

I wrote about this last weekend:

I honestly don’t know what I expected from Wave 2. Back in the day, the first follow-up to the original Master set (Rise of the Valkyrie) was a set of 4 figure boosters, followed the next year by the first large figures box and the first terrain box. That’s not the direction Renegade has chosen to go – but I can’t say I blame them for avoiding the blister pack booster system.

What seemed like a good idea back in 2004 – three packs of mostly common squad figures and a pack of unique heroes in each release – meant that collectors/players picked up multiple copies of the common squads and only a single copy of the hero pack. That left stores – both big box and FLGSs – with extra stock of a single pack. In big box store cases, some inventory systems confused those remaining packs as stock, thus meaning they didn’t reorder. For FLGSs, it was inventory that ate up shelf space and overhead.

All of the figures in Revna’s Rebuke (both boxes) are unique heroes or squads – that means you don’t need multiple boxes as you can’t field multiple copies of these heroes/squads in an army. No leftover blister packs; no wondering how many packs will I really need to field an awesome [fill in the blank] fighting force. (I am still looking for second packs of Ashigaru spearmen and riflemen… but any time I’ve found them, I haven’t been willing to plunk down that much cash.)

I think that this direction is a long-term good idea. The terrain expansions are going to be excellent for newer players – access to big chunks of terrain without being scalped on the secondary market for stuff from 20 years ago. (Did I mention this year is the 20th anniversary of Heroscape? More on that in a minute.) The army expansions will add to wave 1 releases… but also connect nicely to the older figures/armies that those of us who’ve been playing most or all of those two decades can get behind.

Better yet, Jordan & Lee confirmed that Renegade has Heroscape releases planned out into early 2026… and they’ll be revealing Wave 3 in October!

OK, Great... How Do I Get My Hands On This Wonderful Stuff?!

Pre-orders for both Wave 1 and Wave 2 of Heroscape are currently open at Renegade Game Studios' webstore. Please remember that mixing both Wave 1 & Wave 2 boxes into the same order will mean they will not ship until October 2024 (shipping date for Wave 2).

The street date (aka "when will Wave 1 show up in your friendly local game store [FLGS]") is August 29th. Pre-order should arrive in early-to-mid-August. Orders placed to be picked up at GenCon are available as well.

Wave 1 pre-orders will also receive the Sgt. Drake promo figure as a part of their order.

Really important fact I don't want anyone to miss: Heroscape terrain & figures can be used with other boxes & sets - both current and past. 

WAVE ONE

The Battle for the Wellspring Battle Box has 6 figures as well as 31 terrain pieces (including a Wellspring water tile), 2 Laur trees, and a single glyph... and all the material (dice, wound markers, etc.) needed to play Heroscape. Four scenarios are included in the box. 

• Unpainted set (figures will have wash to highlight detail): $45
• Premium painted set: $65

The Age of Annihilation Master Set has 20 figures as well as 23 Laur wall terrain pieces, 74 terrain pieces, and 11 glyphs... and all the material (dice, wound markers, etc.) needed to play Heroscape. Nine scenarios are included in the set.

• Unpainted set (figures will have wash to highlight detail): $125
• Premium painted set: $225

The Grove at Laur's Edge Terrain System has 3 Laur trees plus 6 Laur underbrush pieces as well as a set-up guide. A Heroscape Master Set or Battle Box is required to be able to use this expansion.

• No figures, so a single price point: $50

WAVE TWO

The Kryie Warriors Army Expansion has 5 Kryie Warrior figures as well as their army cards. A Heroscape Master Set or Battle Box is required to be able to use this expansion

• Unpainted set (figures will have wash to highlight detail): $45
• Premium painted set: $65

The Iron Lich Viscerot & Necrotech Wraithfriders Army Expansion has 4 figures (the huge Iron Lich mini and the Necrotech Wraithriders squad) as well as their army cards. A Heroscape Master Set or Battle Box is required to be able to use this expansion

• Unpainted set (figures will have wash to highlight detail): $45
• Premium painted set: $65

The Lands of Valhalla Terrain System has 63 terrain pieces for use in building battle maps... including the first 24-hex sand pieces produced for the Heroscape line. A Heroscape Master Set or Battle Box is required to be able to use this expansion.

• No figures, so a single price point: $70

The Waters of Valhalla Terrain System has 24 single hex water terrain pieces, 6 wellspring terrain pieces, and 5 3-hex water terrain pieces for use in building battle maps. A Heroscape Master Set or Battle Box is required to be able to use this expansion.

• No figures, so a single price point: $30

Some final thoughts:

• There is an unboxing video available now... thanks to RenegadeCon last week.
• The link goes straight to the part of the video with Heroscape stuff.
• The hosts are relentlessly cheerful... but the unboxing is still cool. 
• There is also a painting guide video... again, thanks to RenegadeCon.
• While I applaud their effort, there are not enough videos in the world to make up for my complete lack of miniature painting skills.
• I really don't write much about the plans for organized play (since I'm not really a tournament guy)... but there's an impressive amount of organized play support coming for Heroscape.
• The best place to keep up with information about the game and the upcoming releases is https://renegadegamestudios.com/heroscape-home. Of course, you can access the webshop that way... but there are also pictures and information about each of the figures. In the future, even more resources will be available through the site.

OK, I've typed long enough. Time for me to get back to building a huge 2v2 battle map I'm tentatively naming "Swamp & Thunder Road".

I have not received a review copy of any of the new Heroscape material - I just really love the game and am incredibly excited to see it back in print. I did receive some promo figures, a couple of Volcarren Wasteland boxes, and a wave of figures as a "thank you" for my work as a playtester. (I also received a very cool Heroscape T-shirt which fit 42 year old Mark but isn't as kind to nearly 60 year old Mark. But I still have it hanging in my closet.)