This is a site for discussing roleplaying games. Have fun doing so, but there is one major rule: do not discuss political issues that aren't directly and uniquely related to the subject of the thread and about gaming. While this site is dedicated to free speech, the following will not be tolerated: devolving a thread into unrelated political discussion, sockpuppeting (using multiple and/or bogus accounts), disrupting topics without contributing to them, and posting images that could get someone fired in the workplace (an external link is OK, but clearly mark it as Not Safe For Work, or NSFW). If you receive a warning, please take it seriously and either move on to another topic or steer the discussion back to its original RPG-related theme.

Author Topic: Heroscape rambling  (Read 875 times)

Gabriel

  • Guest
Heroscape rambling
« on: December 11, 2006, 09:47:30 AM »
I discovered that the Heroscape flagbearer figures are out.  They're Toys R Us exclusives and I grabbed all 5.  They were pricey, though, at $12.99 apiece.  They come with the flagbearer miniature itself, character card, 1d20, 12 Heroscape d6s, and a tiny cloth dice pouch.  I haven't tried them out in a game, yet.  Hell, I'm beginning to wonder when I'm ever going to use the castle or the snow pack.

I did play a game of Heroscape, though.  I had it reinforced to me just how important ranged weaponry was.  I had foolishly chosen an army with only a single unit for ranged attacks (Deathwalker 9000).  Most of my units were from the core set (Deathwalker 9000, the vikings, and Raelin the Kyrie Warrior.).  I also chose some Samurai from a recent pack.  I was impressed with their 5 defense rating and counterattack ability.  On the other hand, my opponent chose all heroes and all from expansions and all with ranged ability: the white dragon, the Deathwalker with rapid fire, and one of the cowboys.  I thought I would overwhelm him with numbers.  I was very, very wrong.

Early on, my opponent used his dragon to block off a bottleneck in the middle of the battlefield.  This was doubly bad because he had control of a glyph of initiative.  I tried using a combination of my samurai and Deathwalker 9000 to drive the dragon away/kill it.  But I began a string of bad rolls which would plague me throughout the game.  I drove the dragon away, but lost all my samurai, which had been intended to be my primary troops.

I continued plinking away at the dragon with my Deathwalker, only to have my bad rolls continue.  In the interrim, my vikings located a Def +2 rune in a very secure area.  I thought this might tilt things in my favor.  The very next action, my Deathwalker came under attack.  My opponent rolled one skull.  I rolled my 11 defense dice, confident I'd get at least one shield.  Instead, I got nothing.  My only unit on the board which had been effective died instantly.

This opened things up for my opponent.  He could now attack with near impunity.  All I had left were my vikings and Raelin.  Even this ended badly as my enemy's Deathwalker took position at the top of a hill my vikings had to climb and they were cut down in true Hamburger Hill style fashion.  Deciding I was going to lose anyway, I started using Raeling more actively, instead of as a support unit.

What followed was a very long string of attack and defense rolls as Raelin lacked the attack ability and I lacked the rolls to do any damage.  Eventually, Raelin did kill my opponent's Deathwalker, but his dragon put an end to Raelin.  This left my last viking safely hidden standing on that Def +2 rune.  I conceeded because I figured my last snowball's chance of a draw had evaporated with Raelin.

Despite being seriously PWNED, it was a fun game.  Next time I'll return to my more customary ranged tactics, and probably try to have a more hero heavy army.  I'll never pick those Vikings again.  They're too damn slow.  The samurai were pretty good, I just had bad luck with them, and Deathwalker 9000 is always a crapshoot.

Yep.  Hopefully things will go better next week.