"Heroscape - Doing well?" Topic

Looks like Heroscape will stay on the toy store shelves for another Christmas – so I'm guessing it's doing well?

Anyone else surprised? (That's not a comment on the game – I haven't played it yet – just on how hard it is for a game to survive on the shelves.)

Is it fair to compare it against, say, D&D Miniatures or Mage Knight in terms of sales and players?

I can't say that I'm entirely surprised. My brother-in-law has apparently decided that it's something that he can buy for us.

We've stopped playing the game, though — it's not deep enough to enthrall us.

The minis will occasionally get broken out for other games. That they aren't the same scale as the D&D and Star Wars ones is a negative, however.

Seems to be doing okay, as long as they keep putting out new releases it'll probably survive. Staying on the radar in the toy industry is tricky, though.

It seems to be doing well, as far as I can tell. Target and Toys R' Us seem to be keeping it in stock, and it seems to keep moving off the shelves.

The minis will occasionally get broken out for other games. That they aren't the same scale as the sillily undersized D&D and Star Wars ones is a positive. They fit in nicely with actual miniatures by Reaper and the like.

It's doing well enough for them to shell out licensing money and add Marvel Heroscape to the mix.

I think this game had two things going for it which has helped it survive the usual boom & bust cycle.

First, the terrain. Forget the game itself, the terrain was deemed usable by a HUGE group of folks who play other games. There is quite the after-market for the terrain pieces to use in those other games

Second, the pre-painted minis. Again, forget the game itself, I know a number of folks who bought the game either for the terrain or the minis. They have other games they wanna use the minis for.

So, in addition to what you would consider the "usual" crowd who might like the game for itself, there were at least two other groups who found either the terrain or the minis suitable for other gaming systems, and that has helped. I'll bet that has helped a LOT!

D&D minis get the same boost. There are people who play some sort of fantasy RPG who will use these minis for those other games. And I know others who do superhero RPGs who will use the clix figures for those games.

Compare that to Axis & Allies minis. I was critical of AH when this was announced because they claimed to go 15mm but actually decided that 15mm = 1/120 scale (which is certainly NOT 15mm. So people who might have wanted to use the pre-painted plastic pieces in other tabletop games to mix with their metal 15mm figures discovered they would not mix at all. So the A&AM game audience is mostly limited to only those who wanna play THAT game.

It's hard to judge how well HeroScape is doing on the basis of sales numbers, because Hasbro appears to have underestimated the demand for the game products. The 'Fortress of the Archkyrie' set, which was exhibited at the San Diego Comic-Con and GenCon this year with an announced release date of August 13, has suffered from severe availability problems — limited quantities appearing in the stores that stock it (small quantities and very irregular geographic distribution — stores near the main Hasbro facility received shipments close to the announced release date while much of the West Coast still has not received any shipments), repeated 'out of stock' notices on the Hasbro online store, and repeated delivery delays to retailers that have placed orders (from August 13 to August 23 to September 15 to no earlier than October 9). It still suffers from a lack of exposure in the game stores because it is carried by Target and Wal-Mart; a small game store generally can't afford to match the prices that a big chain can set.

It's actually cheaper to get Heroscape from Wal-Mart on an employee discount than it is to order it as a shop (at the basic store discount) from Alliance. So, yeah, small shops *cannot* compete on this one.

Maddog Where did you see the Marvel Heroscape?

Toys R Us sells the boosters at MSRP of $13 USD (as does, understandably, the Hasbo site), but both WalMart and Target have them for just under $10. USD TRU is a more reliable stockist than WM (who usually seem to get a case or so of each expansion, and thats it), but I can't bring myself to pay the extra three bucks. I have seen the Fortress of the Archkyrie at several local (Alabama) WalMarts.

I like the game a lot, good beer n' pretzels fare. Simplicity has its place. I would probably get tired of it quick if I played it a lot, but making time for gaming is much harder for me than it used to be, so it won't wear thin anytime soon.

~Mike

I've been jonesin' more of the Continentals and Romans for some time. Excellent for multi-tasking :)

I've been building an army of Heroscape Orcs. And have a respecatable force of Marro for sci-fi games. I think the robots and modern figures would do well for Superhero games. The hexes are excellant terrain overall and the Tundra set is especially good, both for the ice terrain and the "snow apes". I have four sets and on the look out for more. As SeattleGamer says "Forget the Game" – it's the components themselves that are the real value!

Just to be clear, when I said "Forget the game" I didn't mean that it was bad, I meant there were reasons to get the game BESIDES it being it's own game (then cited the terrain and minis as separate items).

I confess I do not own it. I liked the idea, and the terrain, but my kids had no interest in it, and I figured that I would rarely get to play it so passed. Ironically, if it had been a stand-alone game, I might have picked it up during one of those TRU buy one get one free sales and got two for $40. USD

But . . . I knew there were expansions coming on a regular basis, and the thought of having Set A alone, while the world was up to collecting Sets X, Y and Z put me off. My personality is such that once I start in on something it's very, VERY hard not to buy each and every expansion as they come out – even if I don't want or need them : )

I did get a chance to play it 4-way with some friends, and thought it was a fun little game. Not very detailed, but it held my interest and I had fun. I think The Beast is right, I'd play this as light fare every so often, and thus wouldn't find it dull. But if I played it often, I think the lack of depth would get to me and I'd hit burnout quickly.

I too passed when it first came out and now find myself playing "catch up".

For Christmas my son has asked for 4 sets of the new 'Fortress of the Archkyrie'. After seeing them at Gencon I figured 'Why not'.

Regards, the Gorb

The continued support would indicate that it is doing well enough to warrant a steady supply of new releases, and fan reaction on the internet (OK, that's NOT a reliable guide to anything) is uniformly high. The reported Marvel set sounds like the Heroscape brand is not only continuing, but expanding.

Which makes its distribution (or lack thereof) in Europe all the more mystifying. We got the basic set here in the UK about nine months to a year after the US, and priced exactly the same as GW boxed sets (once again, we pay £40.00 GBP where the US pays $40). The FIRST wave of boosters dribbled out THIS summer, and they're imported by Esdevium. So that means the primary source of the boxed set is big stores like Toys'R'Us and Argos, but the boosters are only available through specialist gaming shops.

D'OH…

Greenline, they had some at GenCon. Probably not final sculpts, but they looked decent enough. I think I've seen pix on GenCon review sites, but I won't swear to it.

link

I saw the Marvel Legends Heroscape firsthand at the Comic Con and the figures are sweet. Better than Heroclix IMHO.

Check out Heroscapers.com for tons of info and pics.

Not sure if it's been mentioned, but for reasons that surpass understanding, Meijer (if you have one near you) seems to be unloading their copies of this (or at least the main set). Bought 3 of them at the local Meijer (the remaining stock) for $10 USD each last night. As compared to normal sell price of $40ish…

If you don't have a Meijer, it's like a large Wal-mart with a better lay-out and usually a lot cleaner.

Gryfalia

I picked the main set up for cheap on Ebay, and my fiance, (who was skittish about tossing dice and moving soldiers) has already begun to whoop me. I am going to take it slow..moving on to hex mats next..

It is a good beginner game, and the hex bits are perfect for other games, as was stated before. I will scoop up the sets where I can when they go on sale.