Dear Miniatures Wargame Heroscape is back with a new high-profile crowdfunding project. Everything hinges on the success of a grand $249.99 boxed set called Heroscape: Age of Annihilation, which includes loads of customizable visuals and five playable factions. It will only be produced if the campaign receives 8,000 pre-orders, but if it is successful, Hasbro’s Avalon Hill imprint plans to bring the franchise back with additional releases.
Avalon Hill is riding high on the success of its relaunch Hero Quest, the classic dungeon-crawling board game. That game was relaunched in a similar fashion after a successful crowdfunding campaign, and now includes several expansions and additional character classes. Chris Nadeau, senior director of design and development at Avalon Hill, explained that once the new Hero Quest Rekha found her place, Heroscape Naturally became the “next target in the vault”.
First published in 2004, Heroscape is a contrasting combat game that pits warlords known as the Valkyries against each other for control of the planet Valhalla. The game is highly heterogeneous, with fictional factions drawn from all over the place and time. But the franchise is also known for its terrain – chunky, stackable plastic platforms that allow for dramatic landscapes. Dedicated fans collect tiles in large quantities, taking them out to create vast landscapes for their home games.
Contrary to the surprising announcement of Hero Quest, Heroscape Dedicated fans have been teased for some time – most notably through the recently installed Avalon Hill Discord servers.
“It was not open cold enough that Hero Quest It was,” Nadeau said. “We know that the community continues to play the game. There have been conventions and tournaments that have never stopped in that community. They have stayed together as a community over the years, and we wanted to make sure that we played the game. The relaunch of it has ensured that their current collection, their current tournament meta, will all have fully viable official content going forward.”
this new Heroscape The offering is fully backward compatible with all the sets that have come before. The terrain itself uses the exact same digital files for production, which means that all the terrains created so far are viable in the future. Even the rules, hero cards, and other gameplay content are designed to be compatible.
“It is tailor-made for the existing fan community to jump right in and feel like they are picking up right where they left off,” Nadeau said.
This new collector’s edition is more than twice the size of the original 2004 launch. It includes over seventy heroes – 76, if all of the campaign’s stretch goals are met – as well as 74 base pieces of terrain and 68 new, modular wall tiles to build structures on the map. The terrain will also include a remake of the highly sought-after Jungle Terrain pieces, which at the time of publication are going for around $250 on eBay.
“As far as miniseries are involved, what we wanted to do next was we wanted the ability to tell rich stories and build on the IP that we could do as Avalon Hill with everything that we Let’s tell the story. That’s why we’ve introduced five completely new factions to the game [representing] New species, new planets, new factions, new powers that have never existed before in the game. so it doesn’t continue again […] Everything in this set is brand new, and it goes back to the idea that we wanted fans to feel like they were expanding their collection. ,
New factions include the Drion Lifeborn Order, a powerful group of magic-users capable of wielding only a limited number of very expensive units. There’s also the Nemesis War Brood, a group of germ-fighters who graft armor and other techniques directly into their exoskeleton. Finally, Avalon Hill is adding the Clockwork Combination, a group of militant woodland creatures. Think squirrels, skirmishes, and captures pouring through aerial reconnaissance vehicles, with even more nimble jump soldiers who deploy further across the battlefield.
“One of them actually has a bipedal walker,” Nadeau said, “with a Gatling gun mounted on top of it.”
Buried in those new factions are some fan favorites, including the Kyrie – a winged angel-like faction native to the planet Valhalla. The goal, Nadeau said, is to fill a faction that wasn’t given enough time to develop “back in the day.” There will also be additional characters drawn from the original game’s lore, but changed and evolved after years of struggle.
If the campaign is successful, what could happen next? Heroscape, Nadeau is extremely optimistic about the potential of the game.
Image: Avalon Hill / Hasbro
Nadeau said, “What the team was doing in 2004 was they were eliminating entertainment trends, different genres, and they would create separate units based on the different genres that were in pop culture at the time. were coming to the fore.” “It created a very interesting brand that is extremely scalable. You can basically introduce any genre, any IP, any licensed partner, anything in the Battle of Valhalla and it makes sense in the story. The opportunities ahead are almost endless.”
that kind of openness in Heroscape Cosmos aligns well with Hasbro’s other gaming properties, such as Magic the Gathering and Dungeons and Dragons. Both of those marquee franchises have poured a lot of energy into the crossover over the years. Hasbro’s own IP, including Transformers and GI Joe, would be easy additions Heroscape universe in the short term. During this, MagicThe Universe Beyond initiative shows the way forward with outside brands. Past partnerships include strange things, the walking deadGodzilla, Street Fighter, and fortnite, whereas Magic Cards based on Warhammer 40,000, Dr. Who, and the Lord of the Rings universe are also on the horizon.
project to fund Heroscape: Age of Annihilation Now runs till November 16. Delivery is expected in the fall of 2023.
