I don't know what a Heroscape is, but this game looks pretty sweet. I'll probably pick it up as a collector geek, whether or not I actually end up playing it with anybody.
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Currently playing:
Standard: Superfriends!
Legacy: Nic Fit / Pod
Pauper: Delvar; Tron; Flicker Stuff
Commander: Riku ("Some weird doubple spell thing happened"); Keranos ("I did a Gatherer search for 'random' and 'flip a coin.'"); Superfriends!
So, some quick notes based on the released images:
It appears the game is using many of the same tiles and mechanics as Heroscape. The one thing that confuses me are the odd giant teeth on some of the hexagons. Are we looking at large interlocking mats, with only the raised areas being the plastic terrain pieces? The figure bases appear to be the same, as well.
The molds themselves look amazing. Chandra's Pheonix looks great. The paint jobs on the 'walkers could use some work, but these are clearly early prototypes.
What I don't see are activation markers or all the units on the board at once, but I do see a 'deck' of cards and a hand mentioned in the cards, so everyone might have a hand which lets you summon/activate creatures or cast other spells. It looks like there are Sorceries and Auras, at the very least. It does look like there are squad costs, with Liliana at 250 (which would have made her an expensive Heroscape unit, on the level of the Hulk). 'Zombies' cost 40, while Liliana's Reavers cost about 110. Honestly, you could probably directly adapt Heroscape figures into the game with little effort, you'd probably just need to print a card for the deck and use opaque sleeves, maybe rearrange the unit cards into the long playing card style instead of the weird gear-shaped cards from heroscape.
Unit stats appear to be:
Point Cost
Life
Move
Range
Damage Dice
Defense Dice
Line of Sight/Damage Box
These are exactly the same stats on a Heroscape card, too.
The Damage/Defense dice appear to be unified like a lot of games are doing these days. The Line of Sight is the green dot on the silhoutte of the figure on the Unit card - Dark Gray is the 'hit' area while light gray isn't (so weapons or effects don't count for LOS).
I don't know what a Heroscape is, but this game looks pretty sweet. I'll probably pick it up as a collector geek, whether or not I actually end up playing it with anybody.
Heroscape was a fantasy board game that was really popular for about four years. It was a war game that featured buildable terrain through interlocking hexagonal pieces, and otherwise looked a lot like the Magic Board Game. The figures were pre-painted plastic about the size of your average D&D mini. There was a Marvel and D&D tie-in before being discontinued.
It was also very modular, so expansions with new units (which weren't random, one of the big sells of the game) were introduced frequently in waves along with more tiles. It was a relatively small investment for a great wargame.
Theory number one of the white walker: It's a secret. The most likely reason being it's Elspeth who has managed to come back from the dead. For the sake of all that is good, let's hope not.
Theory number two: We don't know them yet. It's a character yet to be introduced (this game doesnt come out til next summer) and they're waiting for a more appropriate time. Mayhaps someone we meet in the third set/next year's core/the hero of next fall set.
Theory three; It's not ready yet. For whatever reason, they don't have a figure/card for the white character, and they don't want to half ass it. This is a work in progress, after all. This would cover Gideon and Ajani as playable characters.
I'm leaning toward theory number three, but personally hope for theory number two.
I strongly doubt that it will be Elspeth because A. She's dead and B. I don't think they're going to do a 4:1 female to male ratio.
This is exactly what i was hoping for. True to the theme of the real game, and (as least based off of my impression Watching the YouTube video) easy to play/learn. I'm without any doubt there will be expansions, but I'm not even all that opposed to that assuming they don't come out as frequently as magic card sets.
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The answer is purple because ice cream has no bones.
This looks like its terrible quality material compared to actual Magic products...not sure how I feel about this (unless this is just a the prototype they are showing off)...
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"I don't need to have the perfect plan. My foe just has to have an imperfect one."
I don't think they're going to do a 4:1 female to male ratio.
I doubt that will be an issue either way. They will most likely be releasing additional 'packs' with more Planeswalkers, summon spells, etc. Think of this as a Core Set with Wave 1 on the way to supplement it.
I wonder if the planeswalkers featured in this game are our final core set's lineup? Like how those new Funko Magic figures spoiled the lineup for M15 by revealing that Nissa was back and we were getting a new Garruk, Ajani and Jace, based on the artwork. Perhaps that's why the White walker is secret for now.
This looks like its terrible quality material compared to actual Magic products...not sure how I feel about this (unless this is just a the prototype they are showing off)...
This is very obviously an early prototype, some of the card art is even watermarked with an FPO.
They White walker is probably whoever they are printing in the next Core Set since the game comes out after that. It's probably not Ajani but they knew using Gideon would make the walkers in that set known. It's also possible it's someone new but with the same reasonings.
For those of you wondering why we're excited about the Heroscape aspect, here is an example of a display from Gencon:
The Magic: The Gathering Board game demo looks boring, but that is largely because we're not getting a real sense of terrain or customization yet. Heroscape was hugely customizable, to the point where you could build almost any scenario you wanted. There was a heavy modding community as well that did everything from building skyscrapers to converting HeroClix in.
If they actually make a decent amount of terrain for this game, you could have games were you race Jace and Chandra up a mountain in Akoum while Sarkhan's Dragons harry you, trying to keep you from the goal. Or a five-way duel to claim and hold the chain veil through a diverse environment. I'm excited for the potential of this - at the very least those of us with old Heroscape terrain can build what I'm imagining.
Is there any confirmation that this will be able to interact with Heroscape? If so, that will make my day! I have missed new expansion of that game so much.
Could this be the product for which they trademarked "Planeswalkers" few months ago?
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Huey, Dewey and Louie are always dressed in RUG. it is CLEARLY going to be the wedges block Pioneer: WURFaerie fires BRGDragons ModernBGElves WRBurn UR Fires Turns URGift Storm UG Twiddle Storm
I'm excited for the potential of this - at the very least those of us with old Heroscape terrain can build what I'm imagining.
I doubt that the game will be designed as being so setup and terrain greedy as Heroscape, which is why it looks so tame in comparison, but I suspect that those of us with storage containers full of Heroscape terrain will have a blast taking it to the nth degree.
I don't understand why people are worried about the gender balance of the characters. Would you really be bothered if the white planeswalker does turn out to be Elspeth and surprise they change their mind and make Tamiyo the blue one? I mean really.
Could this be the product for which they trademarked "Planeswalkers" few months ago?
Not to mention "Origins"?
I'm leaning towards MtG:Origins being the final name, TBH... starts with some of the base 'walkers, gives hints that there will be more coming down the pipe...
I don't understand why people are worried about the gender balance of the characters. Would you really be bothered if the white planeswalker does turn out to be Elspeth and surprise they change their mind and make Tamiyo the blue one? I mean really.
It's not "upsetting" or "problematic" as SJW types like to put it, but it breaches a pattern and we at the rumor mill are very pattern-hunting, that's often how we correctly speculate on stuff.
I wouldn't care either way if the box was five females or five males, or 4/1 or whatever, we're just finding it less probable because they usually use a 3/2 spread either way.
Only reason I would have to personally care who the last planeswalker is, is if it's Elspeth and I have too many other things to buy on release date because I'm guessing this will be a very sought for collectible item and I want Heroscape-playable Elspeth, may the game take off or not.
It's not "upsetting" or "problematic" as SJW types like to put it, but it breaches a pattern and we at the rumor mill are very pattern-hunting, that's often how we correctly speculate on stuff.
I wouldn't care either way if the box was five females or five males, or 4/1 or whatever, we're just finding it less probable because they usually use a 3/2 spread either way.
Only reason I would have to personally care who the last planeswalker is, is if it's Elspeth and I have too many other things to buy on release date because I'm guessing this will be a very sought for collectible item and I want Heroscape-playable Elspeth, may the game take off or not.
You would likely have to make up your own Heroscape card for it since I don't see them sharing mechanics that closely, even if the base stats are shared. I suspect that the changes that make them feel like MTG units, using spell types ans such, will make them behave quite differently than a unit of Cyberdudes. That said I have always loved the genre bending chaos that is Heroscape so the idea of using Elly with some Mecha and super-spies is quite appealing.
Gotta hope that the mysterious white walker is Elspeth returning. It's pretty obvious that that's the story they're telling, but it's still an annoying point at which to break up the narrative.
I'm excited for the potential of this - at the very least those of us with old Heroscape terrain can build what I'm imagining.
I doubt that the game will be designed as being so setup and terrain greedy as Heroscape, which is why it looks so tame in comparison, but I suspect that those of us with storage containers full of Heroscape terrain will have a blast taking it to the nth degree.
I think that's a fair assessment. They're aiming for a much shorter game - 25-45 minutes, whereas Heroscape was usually 1-2 hours, plus a lot of set-up time. But since they do seem to be using the same plastic terrain pieces, my hope is that it is at least somewhat terrain oriented, with more than just a couple 'bumps' on the map.
No, I asked the Hasbro employee who presented the game, but he couldn't tell me (the game isn't finished enough to determine price). When I say expensive I mean probably in the 60+ bucks range, as the setup they presented had quite a lot of high-quality components (although it might be sold in modules).
Oh, and by espensive, i don't mean like hasbro is ripping you off or something, just that it probably won't be in the same price category as lords of Waterdeep, for example, which is what I had hoped for.
Well, MSRP for the original Heroscape core sets was about $40, and that included about as many figures (plus a few much bigger ones) and a lot more plastic terrain pieces. In general, it wasn't that expensive compared to most Miniature games.
Currently playing:
Standard: Superfriends!
Legacy: Nic Fit / Pod
Pauper: Delvar; Tron; Flicker Stuff
Commander: Riku ("Some weird doubple spell thing happened"); Keranos ("I did a Gatherer search for 'random' and 'flip a coin.'"); Superfriends!
It appears the game is using many of the same tiles and mechanics as Heroscape. The one thing that confuses me are the odd giant teeth on some of the hexagons. Are we looking at large interlocking mats, with only the raised areas being the plastic terrain pieces? The figure bases appear to be the same, as well.
The molds themselves look amazing. Chandra's Pheonix looks great. The paint jobs on the 'walkers could use some work, but these are clearly early prototypes.
What I don't see are activation markers or all the units on the board at once, but I do see a 'deck' of cards and a hand mentioned in the cards, so everyone might have a hand which lets you summon/activate creatures or cast other spells. It looks like there are Sorceries and Auras, at the very least. It does look like there are squad costs, with Liliana at 250 (which would have made her an expensive Heroscape unit, on the level of the Hulk). 'Zombies' cost 40, while Liliana's Reavers cost about 110. Honestly, you could probably directly adapt Heroscape figures into the game with little effort, you'd probably just need to print a card for the deck and use opaque sleeves, maybe rearrange the unit cards into the long playing card style instead of the weird gear-shaped cards from heroscape.
Unit stats appear to be:
Point Cost
Life
Move
Range
Damage Dice
Defense Dice
Line of Sight/Damage Box
These are exactly the same stats on a Heroscape card, too.
The Damage/Defense dice appear to be unified like a lot of games are doing these days. The Line of Sight is the green dot on the silhoutte of the figure on the Unit card - Dark Gray is the 'hit' area while light gray isn't (so weapons or effects don't count for LOS).
Heroscape was a fantasy board game that was really popular for about four years. It was a war game that featured buildable terrain through interlocking hexagonal pieces, and otherwise looked a lot like the Magic Board Game. The figures were pre-painted plastic about the size of your average D&D mini. There was a Marvel and D&D tie-in before being discontinued.
It was also very modular, so expansions with new units (which weren't random, one of the big sells of the game) were introduced frequently in waves along with more tiles. It was a relatively small investment for a great wargame.
TerribleBad at Magic since 1998.A Vorthos Guide to Magic Story | Twitter | Tumblr
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It seems that it could be a simple product number but why include it ?
~
Theory number two: We don't know them yet. It's a character yet to be introduced (this game doesnt come out til next summer) and they're waiting for a more appropriate time. Mayhaps someone we meet in the third set/next year's core/the hero of next fall set.
Theory three; It's not ready yet. For whatever reason, they don't have a figure/card for the white character, and they don't want to half ass it. This is a work in progress, after all. This would cover Gideon and Ajani as playable characters.
I'm leaning toward theory number three, but personally hope for theory number two.
I strongly doubt that it will be Elspeth because A. She's dead and B. I don't think they're going to do a 4:1 female to male ratio.
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Since this is a prototype and the art isn't complete, it's also likely that this is the Art design version number for the box mock-up art.
I doubt that will be an issue either way. They will most likely be releasing additional 'packs' with more Planeswalkers, summon spells, etc. Think of this as a Core Set with Wave 1 on the way to supplement it.
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This is very obviously an early prototype, some of the card art is even watermarked with an FPO.
The Magic: The Gathering Board game demo looks boring, but that is largely because we're not getting a real sense of terrain or customization yet. Heroscape was hugely customizable, to the point where you could build almost any scenario you wanted. There was a heavy modding community as well that did everything from building skyscrapers to converting HeroClix in.
If they actually make a decent amount of terrain for this game, you could have games were you race Jace and Chandra up a mountain in Akoum while Sarkhan's Dragons harry you, trying to keep you from the goal. Or a five-way duel to claim and hold the chain veil through a diverse environment. I'm excited for the potential of this - at the very least those of us with old Heroscape terrain can build what I'm imagining.
TerribleBad at Magic since 1998.A Vorthos Guide to Magic Story | Twitter | Tumblr
[Primer] Krenko | Azor | Kess | Zacama | Kumena | Sram | The Ur-Dragon | Edgar Markov | Daretti | Marath
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Hahaha, wa just about to post basically this.
I can't wait to get my hands on this bad boy
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Not to mention "Origins"?
I'm leaning towards MtG:Origins being the final name, TBH... starts with some of the base 'walkers, gives hints that there will be more coming down the pipe...
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It's not "upsetting" or "problematic" as SJW types like to put it, but it breaches a pattern and we at the rumor mill are very pattern-hunting, that's often how we correctly speculate on stuff.
I wouldn't care either way if the box was five females or five males, or 4/1 or whatever, we're just finding it less probable because they usually use a 3/2 spread either way.
Only reason I would have to personally care who the last planeswalker is, is if it's Elspeth and I have too many other things to buy on release date because I'm guessing this will be a very sought for collectible item and I want Heroscape-playable Elspeth, may the game take off or not.
Reprint Opt for Modern!!
FREE DIG THOROUGH TIME!
PLAY MORE ROUGE DECKS!
I think that's a fair assessment. They're aiming for a much shorter game - 25-45 minutes, whereas Heroscape was usually 1-2 hours, plus a lot of set-up time. But since they do seem to be using the same plastic terrain pieces, my hope is that it is at least somewhat terrain oriented, with more than just a couple 'bumps' on the map.
TerribleBad at Magic since 1998.A Vorthos Guide to Magic Story | Twitter | Tumblr
[Primer] Krenko | Azor | Kess | Zacama | Kumena | Sram | The Ur-Dragon | Edgar Markov | Daretti | Marath
Was there a price listed? Why do you say "expensive" when it isn't for sale yet?
Well, MSRP for the original Heroscape core sets was about $40, and that included about as many figures (plus a few much bigger ones) and a lot more plastic terrain pieces. In general, it wasn't that expensive compared to most Miniature games.
TerribleBad at Magic since 1998.A Vorthos Guide to Magic Story | Twitter | Tumblr
[Primer] Krenko | Azor | Kess | Zacama | Kumena | Sram | The Ur-Dragon | Edgar Markov | Daretti | Marath
I think its nice to see the planeswalkers and they summonings will be the pierces of the game
Chandra looks amazing !!
Saying now they will be the M15 6 ( Garruk , Nissa , Chandra , Lili , Jace , Ajani ) or just without Garruk