Sunday, March 10, 2024

Heroscape is back...Renegade version of failed Age of Annihilation

It has been over a year since the failure of Avalon Hill's attempt to bring back Heroscape. During that time Renegade has taken over and I wasn't sure if it would actually happen, but pre-orders are up for the remix of the failed Age of Annihilation. 

I have really struggled with how I want to feel about this. I want to be excited for new scape but it just looks like Heroscape from the outside. I want to support it but, not at the price they are asking for it. There is some good things they have done but really they should have just used the terrain and basic rules to create a new game; instead of using nostalgia to sell a product.

The only positive for me is you can buy new terrain, if you need any, and I personally don't unless I find a huge amount of people to play with, host tournaments, and the time to do it all...which is not going to happen for me anytime soon. 

I mentioned this in my post from 2022 that I didn't like the direction of the story they are trying to push. These "designers" don't play Heroscape, they don't understand the lore of Heroscape, and they are just using the name as a marketing ploy. 

My biggest problems are: 

1) The introduction of  "factions". This is not needed, this is already done with the generals. I like adding additional generals, I have done it with my customs, and so have many others

2) The removal of Valkrill. I think they should have found a way to work it out with WotC to use him, instead of a new Valkyrie general that appears to replace him. 

3) Making Raelin evil again. This was done in the sort comics, I have and others have made customs of this. It doesn't make sense to do it again, and change her from having metal wings to red feathered wings. 

4) A design for a Kyrie that follows Vydar that does not match the description of the only kyrie that follows him in the lore. I could get past this but the story from the Master Set Swarm of the Marro makes it pretty clear that his kyrie pretty much all left him. 

5) The new Dragon doesn't match the aesthetics of the other dragons and just doesn't look like it belongs, I also don't really like it's vine growing ability. You could say this about most of the new figures. Also a Marro bounty hunter...doesn't align with the hive mentality. 

6) "Compatible" with original Heroscape. Again they are using the names, rules, and terrain; but this is not an extension of the original. 

 7) The cost. This is a big one. While the argument could be made that its not a bad price for the non-painted sets and cost of the painted set is crazy high. I have seen it said the the difference is only $5 per figure, which is really cheep for "hand painted by a professional person" but these will not be that. There was nothing wrong with the "paint apps" for the original Heroscape, why are the upgrading it to "premium paint apps". 

8) Card art looks cheep and unprofessional, it doesn't match the original. 

So, I guess if you want to support this go for it. But as of right now I would not call this Heroscape. 
If you like the unit designs then just do what the community has done for the past year: print your own cards and buy a proxy figure to use. 
This how I felt about it the first go around, wanted to be excited, then looked at it and was really put off.

Heroscape and the community that plays it doesn't need this. They, myself included, have continued making it for over a decade. And I would argue done a much better job. 
I may still buy it for the terrain, but if I do I will be remaking all of the cards...maybe that will help give me the spark to get back into playing, I guess we will see.