Heroscape News: Zed Nesbitt Soars into View Whilst The Good Folks At Renegade Deal With Tariffs

Welcome, Heroscape friends (and those who don’t play/collect the game but actually like reading my oddball takes on board games laced with pop culture references and other nonsense)! We’ve got two items to deal with today.

First, I’ll give a quick review/recommendation about Air Marshall Zed Nesbitt, the newest BIG figure that released this month. Second, we’ll talk a little bit about tariffs and the workaround (of sorts) for summer 2025 Herospace releases from our friends at Renegade Game Studios. It’s a distinct possibility that I may insert a bit of personal political opinion into the second discussion. 

Zed Nesbitt: Any Landing You Can Walk Away From Is a Good One

The first thing you’ll notice about Zed is how large the zeppelin is… seriously, look at it!

For comparison, the only figure larger than the Air Marshall (from the last year of Heroscape) is the golden dragon, Xenithrax the Vineweaver. However, due to the unique shape of the figure (see the picture above), the airship is a lot more maneuverable than other recent “biggies” like Queen Maladrix or the Iron Lich.

Beyond his rather obvious flying powers, Zed can also Skyhook up other small & medium Vorid figures and carry them with him. I think this will be especially helpful once the Tanuki Trickster common squads are released this summer. Zed can also Crash Land – taking a wound to his figure and getting a FIVE dice attack on every adjacent figure. (I’ll note from personal experience that this is [a] lots of fun to do, and [b] needs to be used judiciously, as the airship can quickly be set upon by those figures who survive the impact.)

I’m pleasantly surprised how well this figure turned out – this was always one of the most fanciful designs of the HasLab version of Age of Annihilation. It’s actually better balanced than Xenithrax – though I would be careful about knocking it over mid-game as it is big enough to rearrange a number of smaller figures when it goes down.

Tariffs and Heroscape

In late April, the good folks at Renegade Game Studios let those of us here in the U.S. know that the next wave (Boiling Tension – releasing around GenCon in August) will be affected by the ridiculously high tariffs currently in place.

The recently imposed tariffs came after we had already started manufacturing on August Heroscape titles. They significantly increase what we pay to bring these releases to life. Unfortunately, an increase of up to 145% to our manufacturing cost is not something we can fully absorb. We are doing our best to absorb part of them with the hopes that they at least come down to a more manageable level in the future. We waited until the last possible minute to make this decision but now we are at a point where we must ship the next wave or miss our release date. 

So, due to tariffs, Heroscape items will have the following new MSRPs:

• Scavorith, Lord of Ruin UNPAINTED – $30
• Scavorith, Lord of Ruin PAINTED – $40
• Imperator Kayne UNPAINTED – $30
• Imperator Kayne PAINTED – $40
• Revnan Acolytes & Grave Grim UNPAINTED – $40
• Revnan Acolytes & Grave Grim PAINTED – $60
• Molten Crustaceans & Tanuki Tricksters UNPAINTED – $40
• Molten Crustaceans & Tanuki Tricksters PAINTED – $60
• Heroscape Glyph Pack – $30
• Heroscape Lava Fields of Valhalla – $70

Here’s the good news:

• They are still on track for August and the Fall releases.
• All Gen Con events, Store Championships, local tournaments, and Valkyrie Trials support remains unchanged. 

More good news from my perspective – the tariff bump is only $5 for each item.

I’ve written about the foolishness of tariffs more than once on my personal blog – most recently with an extensive series of quotes from game publishers. W. Eric Martin and BGG News are doing a great job of keeping us informed about how this unbelievably short-sighted (and quite possibly unlawful) imposition of these tariffs is damaging our hobby. Please do yourself a favor and keep informed about this – and reach out to your congressional representatives to let them know your opinion.

It’s hard to get a good picture of Zed himself due to the airship blocking overhead light – but I made sure you got one!

I received review copies of the new Heroscape material – Wave 1, Wave 2, and Wave 3. 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.)

A version of this review originally appeared on the Opinionated Gamers site.

Please note: any political commentary about tariffs and/or the current administration is my own and does not necessarily reflect the views of the Renegade Game Studios.