Well, Ryan asked for it, and since I've become a little more of an expert on this one in the past few months, I'll talk about it a little bit.
First I'll tell why I think I'm qualified to talk about it...
I've bought both of the starter sets, you can still get them at the Hasbro site, along with many of the expansion sets. I've also listened to a couple of podcasts where the whole show was dedicated to the game. I have also played a couple games with my wife and by myself. I like the game, so I want to talk about it a little...
Let's start with the good.
First, I have to say that the miniatures are well done. They are pre-painted (which is confusing to some... Basically that means that you get them ready to play, out of the box). They come in dynamic poses, and they rarely repeat within units. The miniatures are large, I suppose the size for the human soldiers is somewhere around 35-40mm, foot to eyeball (that's how miniatures are classified -- by a measurment of miniatures from foot to eyeball...)
The conflict resolution system is good too. It is extreemly satisfying to roll 8 dice at a time and have 5 of them come up skulls (i.e. hits).
The many various units are a mixture of history and fantasy, and they have unique special effects that are well thought out.
Now let's talk about the bad... (Not the cards, they're pretty cool... but the activation...)
Frankly, at first I thought the activation system was good. But now, it really lacks something. Basically, in the rules you place tokens on the units you are activating that turn. Then you activate your units in order. But this means that only 3 of my guys can shoot at one time. That doesn't seem realistic. It also means that you can't move all your troops at the same time. While it is true that you probably can't get away with this in real life, the activation system puts more restrictions on the player than a general would expereince in real life.
There have been some attempts to fix this, basically leaving activation up to card draw. I think this could work. Therefore, in stead of putting order tokens, you would draw specially designed cards that would have things like "Activate any two adjacent units" or "Activate any three units" or "Fire all ranged units in range" or stuff like that.
Now let's talk about the ugly.
At first I really liked the terrain, but now I've got a better idea... The terrain is hexagons, and you know that as a wargamer I just love hexagons. But to tell you the truth, I think a miniatures game ought to be more "free form" movement. This means ditching the hexagons and going with terrain pieces on the tabletop. I've got some trees that are just the right size, and some hills that are really good at blocking line of site. Just multiply all of the movement numbers by 2 and do the movement in inches on the tabletop, and change a couple of engagement rules, and you've probably got a better game.
Finally, to answer Ryan's question...
I am not bothered by the collectibility factor. My experience has been that if you buy the master sets, you have a lot to play with. They both retail at 40 bucks a pop, but I got my master set 2 for half that because of a sale at my local Target store. If you can catch a sale, I recommend it.
It is true that there are some expansion sets that are "out of stock," but I really don't think that they will ever tell you that your miniatures are "fased out" like some other popular miniature games. Take a look at Hasbro's site below...
Also, here's the official heroscape site address...
Heroscape is the intellectual property of Hasbro. It is also a pretty cool game.
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