Another Wave of Heroscape (And Questions!)

When Wave 1 of the new era of Heroscape released in August, my sons & I put out a rather long post to answer a plethora of questions about Heroscape: Age of Annihilation. I thought it fitting that we continue the format to preview/review the Wave 2 material that is being released this month.

Once again, 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 fall?

There are five items in this wave:

• Revna’s Rebuke: Kyrie Warriors (Army Expansion)
• Revna’s Rebuke: Iron Lich Viscerot and Necrotech Wraithriders (Army Expansion)
• Lands of Valhalla (Terrain Expansion)
• Waters of Valhalla (Terrain Expansion)
• Cornelius Breech (National Heroscape Day promo figure)

I’m new to Heroscape. Are these Wave 2 boxes a good way to get started playing?

The Wave 2 army boxes are excellent additions to a Heroscape collection – but by themselves don’t contain enough figures to act as a starter set. The terrain boxes are a great way to expand your ability to build maps but don’t contain any figures. In addition, none of these releases come with order markers, battle dice, or rulebooks.

The Wave 1 releases (the Master Set & the Battle Box) are the place to start if you’re new 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.

An important note for both newbies and old skool Heroscape players: all of the heroes and squads in the Battle Box, Master Set, and Army Expansions (through Wave 2) are unique – meaning you cannot field more than one of them per army. 

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) as well as Wave 1 of the new era of ‘Scape.

Giving Ullar two additional Kyries – particularly these two – strengthens a number of the older figures (Saylind, Atlaga, the Protectors of Ullar). The Revna Kyrie is a powerful tag-team partner with Misarex (released in Wave 1). Glinerva the Kyrie Warrior can not only protect her fellow Aquilla warriors but almost any who fight by her side. Finally, the Vydar Kryie (Queen Qhyrion) is a beast of a warrior in her own right – and a welcome addition to any army.

The Army box with Eisenek warriors is a powerful one-two punch. The speed of the Necrotech Wraithriders is supplemented by bonding with Iron Lich Vicerot and his ability to inject them with a vile substance that enhances their powers. It’s also important to mention that they look really cool on the battlefield as well. 

All of the figures in wave 2 are useful – both in armies created solely with “new era” characters and “all time” armies. Our games with them have shown some weaknesses (don’t let your Kyrie get trapped by a horde of smaller figures) and some amazing strengths (the aforementioned Vile Injection power). 

Collin: As someone who grew up with classic ‘scape and has a small collection of old figures, they’re definitely a LOT of fun to play mixed in with old sets. The Kyrie box especially has a lot of synergy with various figures throughout Heroscape’s history. Most notably, Mielki can provide defense for Ullar kyrie, of which only one exists in new scape figures.

As for the big metal crab and his roly-poly companions, they’re solid figures to add to your collection, but as of right now they primarily synergize with themselves.

Are the new terrain pieces worth it?

The addition of 3 hex water pieces allows for easier creation of very interesting boards – hopefully illustrated by the pictures added here of two boards I built using only the terrain pieces from Wave 1 and Wave 2. (The first of these boards is actually an older Heroscape map originally intended for two Rise of the Valkyrie master sets – the current available terrain is more than adequate to rebuild a close facsimile of the original design.)

It’s nice to have the 24 hex sand tiles as well… particularly when you’re looking to give a map design a particular feel. (This second board is one of my own creation – which actually worked pretty well.)

I did some quick figuring (spreadsheets are our friends) to compare the number and types of tiles in the “classic” sets vs. the “new era” sets… and while the original sets had a few more pieces:

• Rise of the Valkyrie 85
• Swarm of the Marro 75
• Age of Annihilation 74
• Battle for the Underdark 34
• Battle for the Wellspring 31
• Lands of Valhalla 63

…the new sets compare favorably when you count the actual number of hexes:

• Rise of the Valkyrie 359
• Age of Annihilation 330
• Lands of Valhalla 300
• Swarm of the Marro 232
• Battle for the Underdark 145
• Battle for the Wellspring 117

How are the scenarios in the various sets?

There are no new scenarios in the Wave 2 boxes. 

How does the future of Heroscape look to you?

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

• The Wave 3 announcement last week had six army boxes (in two waves – February 2025 & April 2025) along with two more terrain boxes and an official paint set.
• There were a number of very positive hints during the Game Designer Roundtable at RenegadeCon about future development.
• Wave 1 sold out pre-orders for certain boxes direct from Renegade… taking them to a second printing.
• The Sgt. Drake promo figure is now available through Renegade.
• New players exposed to Heroscape in our orbit have quickly become fans… and began purchasing their own sets!

Collin: There’s a LOT of exciting things coming, give me more robots and polar bears!!!!

Let the battles continue! (Or, in our case, happen even more often!)

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Want to read more Heroscape coverage (written by me!) from the Opinionated Gamers site?

• 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)
• 10 Questions About The New Era of Heroscape (August 2024)
• Heroscape – Wave 3: The Rising Tide Raises All Boats (October 2024)

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 – both Wave 1 and Wave 2. 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.)