The economics of Heroscape

Man, not sure why I didn't think of this earlier...guess I've been too busy Blood Bowling...but I found a treat for daddy while the kids get their new TMNT figs.

The Law will be brought to the citizens of Heroscape World for less than a buck at Troll and Toad.

i can see lava and trees and fortress in this cheapo bundle
www.shopgoodwill.com/auctions/18LBs-of-H...Pieces-27434627.html

Great looking stuff. Any F:ATtie want to do some goodwill shopping and ship it over to London? You'd be doing double charity duty.

Shipping weight is 49 pounds on that. Actual weight 17.75 pounds, shipping weight 49 pounds. That's absurd, and would make the shipping cost pretty salty.

17.75 pounds of Heroscape is a much bigger pile than what they show there.

So, I ran that Heroscape Kid's Tournament out of The Pit (my garage).

Most of the players have never played before, so I pre-built several armies at about 400pts and three battlemaps to save us time. After a brief game demo, participants picked armies starting with the youngest.

The forces battling over the fate of Valhalla:

EDIT: The armies chosen were: Marro, Elves, Agents, Orcs, US Military, and Romans.

Father to one of the kids is going to be stationed in Afghanistan for another tour later in the week, so I invited him over and I sat out. They got to go head to head in a match which was nice. Having him play actually worked in my favor so I could walk around and feel the room. Strictly assist those in need and keep the hours flowing instead of dragging.

First round I paired up the opponents by age, then did a swiss system with winners moving up and losers going down. To keep spirits high, I bought a pool of d20s and after each round the loser got to pick one first, then the winner. The winner was going up, so this was a consolation prize for the loser (who's learning the game as they played) and the kids dug it. I also had some snacks and drinks on hand that I'd hand out when I felt a table's mood could potentially shift down. Recall these are 9-11 year old boys with most not used to sitting at a board game for 4 hours...



At the end of the third, and final, round I had several FFG dice bags (for their new d20s) as prizes. The kid at the highest table got to pick a bag first, then the next ranked kid, downward.

The only downside to the day was that some of the kids wanted to play an ally scenario, so I decided what the hell and pushed several maps together. This was a mistake as waiting for 3-4 other people to go before your next turn, after already sitting through several hours of head to head matches, was a bit much for this age group. We called it early.

Oh, to help maintain my authority throughout the day...I wielded the Blitz Battleaxe! (some prize I got at a BB tourney for causing the most casualties)


All in all the day was a huge hit, with the kids wanting to do it _every_ Saturday. That's not going to happen, but we'll definitely have to do it again.

EDIT: photobucket seems to be working again.

Mr. White wrote: The only downside to the day was that some of the kids wanted to play an ally scenario, so I decided what the hell and pushed several maps together. This was a mistake as waiting for 3-4 other people to go before your next turn, after already sitting through several hours of head to head matches, was a bit much for this age group. We called it early.

Yeah, one of my roughest Heroscape experiences was an 8-player team game on a guy's dining room table. It took everyone awhile to pick their armies, and then the waiting, oh the waiting! Hour or less games with changing opponents is the way to go.

All in all the day was a huge hit, with the kids wanting to do it _every_ Saturday. That's not going to happen, but we'll definitely have to do it again.

Ha! It really is a great game for kids. And adults.

Jexik wrote:

Mr. White wrote: The only downside to the day was that some of the kids wanted to play an ally scenario, so I decided what the hell and pushed several maps together. This was a mistake as waiting for 3-4 other people to go before your next turn, after already sitting through several hours of head to head matches, was a bit much for this age group. We called it early.

Yeah, one of my roughest Heroscape experiences was an 8-player team game on a guy's dining room table. It took everyone awhile to pick their armies, and then the waiting, oh the waiting! Hour or less games with changing opponents is the way to go.

I did more than 4 players once, and only once. That ten player game lasted longer than a six player match of TI3.

Best way to do team heroscape is have everyone on the team reveal their 1 order marker and all go at the same time. We rule that team mates cannot attack (gangbang) the same opponents figure on the same turn... Like where you would all target the same Krug or whatever. Cuts the time down to closer to a head to head game. The guy who is getting attacked can pay attention to the rolls against his figure. We always do it this way and I play more team heroscape these days than solo. Try it next time.

Simple and brilliant. I like it.

Currently we are playing more Arena of Planeswalker more than Heroscape. But eventually the new hotness will wane.

Craigslist. Seriously, people.

This is my second time collecting Heroscape. The first time was long after Heroscape stopped being produced as well.

The only difference this time is that I cannot find under dark sets cheaply. Now I just look at the set as something that doesn't exist.

This time around I have a lot more terrain and figs. 6 of every terrain set, with the exception of only 5 ticalla.

I had to buy a few huge lots to get to that point. But considering how the terrain has a decent resale value, it was easy to horse trade a half dozen times so that all I had to pay for with a higher expense was thaelenk and ticalla. After keeping close accounting of what was spent, it averaged out to well below retail price even then.

You just have to be patient and diligent. 6x terrain sets and a really huge assortment of figs (i think im only missing a few blisters, and have multiples of good common squads, even gladiators.) took me about 7 months and nearly $1000 (out of pocket was closer to $1300, but selling g the extra terrain took me a while longer to recoup that cost, but it was worth it.
Half of that went to Ticalla. So if you can ignore that set too, then the cost could be half that.

You can make your own Ticalla, too. It's not hard or expensive.