Heroscape - Battle for Wellspring: Rapid Review
Information:
Player Age: 14+
Player Count: 2 Players (up to 4 with another base set)
Year Published: 2024
Disclaimer: A review copy for the game was provided by the Lets Play Games.
Rundown:
Heroscape is a very easy and intuitive skirmish game. There is an easier ruleset for younger players but for this review I will be focusing on the master ruleset. Although the game is easy to learn, there is much to cover, so this review won't include every intricacy but it will help to explain the core principles. Throughout several rounds, players are going to focus on defeating their opponent on a battlefield constructed with hex pieces. Each player will have an army that meets the army point allowance for the combat, in this starter set it is pirates vs the beasts. On a round players place order markers, roll for initiative, and then (in turn order) resolve movement and attack in a specified order.
Order Markers:
Everyone will simultaneously choose the order of battle for their characters by placing numbered markers. Characters can have any amount of order markers placed on them. The order markers determine which characters activate this round and in which order. Since the enemy player does not see which number is associated with which character, there is an ‘x’ marker that is included to misdirect the opponent.
Roll for Initiative:
Each player rolls the D20 and whoever rolls the highest result will be the first player for that round.
Each character will now resolve in turn order based on the order marker. This will include the character moving but not attacking if they so choose.
Movement:
The character can move a number of hexes up to its maximum movement value. Going down heights doesn't cost extra movement. When a character moves to an elevated level they must spend one more movement per hex piece they climb up. For example the below image will take four movement.
Attack:
The active character can either use their normal or special attack as long as the enemy is within range and line of sight. The attacker will roll dice equal to their attack and every skull will result in a hit. The defender rolls dice equal to their defence with any shields blocking one attack. If there are any skulls left over the defender will take those as damage. If the character has damage equal to their health they are defeated.
Alteration:
This is a game with a lot of content for the player to invest in. The original game and its expansions are backwards compatible, plus there has been a remarkable amount of content released since Heroscapes returned to the market.
As each character is very unique, I find the main alteration you will want once you have enough characters is the terrain. There is a lot of freedom in how the players create the battlefield and these terrain packs also can add ones with different effects. In the Battle for the Wellspring set, there are already three unique terrains; water that will stop any character once they move onto it and remove fall damage, the jungle tree adds a defence die to an adjacent character defending from a ranged attack, and the wellspring water that can heal or harm the character starting their turn on the terrain as based on a die roll.
People (Characters):
Each character the players use will include a miniature and a card. There is a lot of content on this card such as species, class, personality, uniqueness, height, abilities, silhouette and attributes (health, movement, attack, range, defence and army points).
There are two types of army units; heroes and squads (not included in this starter set). The squad characters have less health but multiple units of the same character.
The four most relevant pieces of information I find on the character sheets are height, attributes, and abilities.
Attributes:
Several attributes are shown in this section including the character's health, movement, attack range, attack value, defence value and army points. When building an army you can only have troops equal to the pre-determined army value hence the need for the final attribute ‘army points’.
Silhouette:
Each character has a silhouette that helps with line of sight. 
If another character can see any of the red zones by looking through the perspective of their silhouette's green dot they will have a line of sight on the original character.
Abilities:
Each character has different abilities that make them unique and help build synergy between armies. Some of these abilities will use keywords such as ‘flying’ which allows players to ignore additional movement costs when moving across terrain. YOU SHOULD ADD ONE MORE EXAMPLE OF A KEYWORD FOR BETTER FLOW.
Height:
Height involves a couple of key elements such as the physical element that allows the character to hide behind obstacles or walk underneath others. It also affects certain characters as they move off higher terrain. If they moving off higher terrain and the distance is equal to or higher than that character's height, they will take one dice of damage. This will increase in risk and can ultimately cause instant death if the distance is far enough.
Interaction:
This is a skirmish game that includes constant interaction and careful planning. Players need to cultivate which order their characters will activate in, using the order markers or it may result in dead turns if a character is defeated by the time their order marker is resolved. The other element that I find highly interactive is the 3-dimensional presence of the battlefield. If planned effectively players can hide behind obstacles to keep out of opponents' line of sight, while gaining attack benefits for being on a higher hex. If you enjoy the interactions skirmish games bring, then heroscape easily brings that player vs. player clash.
Determination:
- The characters have interesting abilities and good synergy.
- Easy gameplay but plenty of space for decisions.
- A classic game returned with full backwards compatibility.
Heroscape Battle for the Wellspring is only an introduction to this skirmish system. If you are willing to gain a few expansions, including new characters and terrain, then Heroscape becomes a sandbox of skirmish combat. Players can determine exactly how they want the map setup; varying size, adding in obstacles, benefits, and height variances, which allows for the kind of system that holds a lot of capacity and potential for the battlefield. Additionally, the game doesn't bog players down with an intricate rule system, so if you are someone who loves lighter skirmish games and want one that you can dive into then I recommend Heroscape, with Battle for the Wellspring being an affordable jumping on point.
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