Good Fantasy or SciFi Boardgame for 11 year old?

[kronovan]

I'm looking for a good fantasy or SciFi boardgame that would be suitable for my 11 year old son. He hasn't played that many advanced boardgames but he has played a number of challenging tabletop/miniatures games; e.g. Star Wars Miniatures and MechWarrior. So my thoughts are that anything rated less than 10 yrs + will probably be too easy. There's a good sale at a local game store in about 2 weeks so I'm hoping to make my decision by then.

Some possibilities I've come up with so far are Battlelore, Runebound and Nexus
Ops. Can anyone here give me some feedback on these games or suggest some others?

BTW the World of Warcraft and Descent games, despite sounding and looking awesome, are too expensive in my neck of the woods so I'm not really considering them.

[warning]

My 11 year-old son loves Heroscape but he's also been playing it for a couple of years.  It is a lot of fun.

[kronovan]

My 11 year-old son loves Heroscape but he's also been playing it for a couple of years.  It is a lot of fun.

I've been thinking of Heroscape too, I'm just not sure if it's going to be enough of a challenge for him. I've also had some thoughts about possibly getting him Carsaconne since he's taken some interest in the XBLA game.

[Graham]

My 11 year-old son loves Heroscape but he's also been playing it for a couple of years.  It is a lot of fun.

I've been thinking of Heroscape too, I'm just not sure if it's going to be enough of a challenge for him. I've also had some thoughts about possibly getting him Carsaconne since he's taken some interest in the XBLA game.

The great thing about HeroScape is how you can change the board however you want to.  Not only that, but it does have pre-set scenarios that you can use or you can make them up.  If you are worried about challenge for him, you can handicap one side or the other by how many points they are allowed to spend on characters.  With all the characters available, you can create a lot of unique armies.  It also has some sci-fi characters and some fantasy characters, as well as some that are more "realistic" like Western gunslingers and WWII soldiers.

Also, you can always buy expansions later to change things up a bit.  Granted, that can get expensive and create a need for more room later (I have two tackleboxes that I use just for the characters I bought), but they have usually done a good with the new characters.

That would be the best option that I can think of now, but I haven't played the games you've mentioned.

[Pyperkub]

Lord of the Rings: Risk can be pretty fun

[WorkingMike]

I'd suggest Nexus Ops as a good pick...it's kind of like Risk in a way, can be played in about an hour and has a neat setting.

That said, Talisman is probably my first choice. The rules are a little complex, but well written. The learning curve is moderate, a couple of games and you will have it down. Highly recommended, two thumbs up! Here's a link to the website, the trailer shows some artwork and has a clickable picture of the game where you can learn more about it: http://www.blackindustries.com/

[kronovan]

All good suggestions and many thanks. I looked into LotR Risk and Talisman, but unfortunately neither is available in my area anymore. I settled on Battlelore and the price wasn't too bad since the retailer was offering a 32% discount.