Heroscape Battle for Blackscar Battle Box Review

Heroscape has a new chapter, the Secrets of the Citadel, and with it comes a new two-player starter set. Characters from different warring factions join the epic war in Valhalla, this time in the cavernous wilds of Blackscar. The warriors of the Clockwork Combine seek answers to the secrets beneath Valhalla to a supposedly forgotten Citadel, while the Umbral Covenant defend the land to keep the trespassers out. Renegade Games Studios continues to expand upon the lore of Heroscape, offering new adventures, dangers, and heroes for players of all ages in their hex-based tabletop game for miniature combat.

The Heroscape: Battle for Blackscar Battle Box includes six all-new figures, new interactive terrain, and ‘ancient terrain’ tiles, which are verdigris-washed copper hexes. We’ve unboxed the Battle Box and played through the campaign, so if you want to learn more, then turn on your flashlights, ready your weapons, and let's descend into it!

Unboxing Battle for Blackscar Battle Box

The Battle Box comes with a lot of content and offers a great entry point into Heroscape. Like the other Heroscape products from Renegade Games Studios, Battle for Blackscar Battle Box comes in unpainted and pre-painted (premium) versions. The box includes three maps, each with its own narrative scenario. Of course, like with all Heroscape boxes, you can make your own custom maps and create your own scenarios, too!

6 highly-detailed, unique heroes and their army Cards
8 D6 Combat Dice
1 20-sided Die
8 Order Markers
20 Wound Markers
1 Round Tracker
25 Hex Tile Terrain Pieces
2 Young Shroudshroom Destructible Objects
8 Shadow Terrain Tiles
Rulebook
Scenario Guide

New Heroscape Terrain

Young Shroudshrooms

The Young Shroudshrooms are a really cool addition to the Heroscape flora terrain. They are destructible, with only two health, and count as trees for Special Powers for figures. Their special power blocks line of sight, essentially, to and from Small and Medium figures adjacent to them. So, essentially, you’re Alice lost in Wonderland hiding betwixt the stalks of a mushroom forest. The slot at the top of the Shroudshroom is for a damage counter. Neat!

Shadow Tiles

Shadow Tiles are another inclusion in the box. A small, medium, or large figure on a Shadow Tile adds 1 to its Defense Value.

Ancient Tiles

Stylized with a copper and verdigris color scheme, these tiles provide another hex variation for the Heroscape board.

Battle for Blackscar Heroes

The six new, unique heroes included are designed to be played in two teams: The Umbral Covenant (Vydar/Reva) and Clockwork Combine (Einar/Volarak) alliances. You can always mix-and-match characters, but these characters have keywords and abilities that synergize with each other, offering tricky and thrilling combos that, when triggered, can really shift the outcome of the mission.

The Umbral Covenant consists of Sudema, Agent SI-4X, and Corvynn the Rotbeak, while the Clockwork Combine has “Blink” Dawson, Cainak, Private Eye, and Nishi Souta. Without going too far into combos, bonding abilities, and fun triggers, there are some near powers I’d like to point out.

“Blink” Dawson, at 20 points, is a fantastic filler character. His Quickdraw 7 ability allows him to fully avoid combat and deal back one Wound if he rolls a 7 or higher on the d20. Cainak benefits from being with other Lawman characters, collecting Order Markers from defeated allies, and using the “X” order marker for an additional turn. Nishi Souta, the Samurai Lawman, really wants to go blade-to-blade with enemies, reducing enemy combat stats and benefiting from great defensive rolls.

Sudema, a remastered character from the original 2006 Heroes of Trollsford expansion, returns to Heroscape with updated stats and abilities. She can allow allied Eisenek or Undead heroes a turn before she activates, and can deal out Wound markers with her Petrifying Glare 9 ability. Agent SI-4X benefits from the shadow spaces, increasing skull results and moving without penalty. Corvynn offers Undead and Wizard heroes the opportunity to draw a line of fire from it for non-attack special powers.

As with all Hersocape figures, characters have a “Basic” and “Master” side of the card which provides players of all ages the opportunity to play the game at a skill level appropriate for them.

Playing the Campaign Scenario

The Battle Box comes with a Scenario Book that includes three unique maps with three different scenarios. These scenarios offer a narrative to the Battle for Blackscar story, where the three heroes of the Clockwork Combine must delve into the darkness to see if they can uncover the mysteries the Umbral Covenant are protecting.

Each scenario has a setup guide, rules, and objectives, and the scenario can be played using either the Basic or Master rules. Since I had previously played the G.I. Joe and Battle for the Wellspring Battle Boxes, I chose the Master Special rules for the scenarios. My wife, who has become exceedingly adept at Heroscape, chose the Clockwork Combine to play, and I chose the Umbral Covenant.

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Note: Our initial impressions were that the Clockwork Combine was at a disadvantage for these scenarios. The Umbral Covenant benefited from the Shadow Tiles, and the army was 220 points compared to the 180 points for the Clockwork Combine. Additionally, a lot of the scenarios seemed to favor the Umbral Covenant for setup and special map rules.

Scenario #1 - Who Goes There?!

The first scenario pits the two teams against each other in a last-team-standing objective. While these kinds of missions are not as involved (nor as interesting) as others, it’s a great way to get introduced to/refreshed with the core battle mechanics of Heroscape.

The scenario lasted two rounds. Both armies immediately converged in the middle to engage in a knock-down, drag-out fight. Between stellar attack rolls by the Clockwork Combine (including two Quickdraw 7 rolls by Blink) and less-than-ideal defense rolls by the Umbral Covenant, it was a very fast game, leaving the Clockwork Combine victorious.

Cainak rolled all hits against Crovynn's all blanks (Top). Sudema and Agent SI-4X struggled to defend and attack

Scenario #2 - Pressing Onward

The second scenario was far more interesting, even just with the map construction. The Clockwork Combine’s mission was to collect six mushroom samples (by rolling an 11 or higher on the d20 when adjacent) while the Umbral Covenant needed to seal three exits (by rolling an 11 or higher on the d20 when on the designated space), trapping their opponents. Whoever completed their goal first won. Since we had asymmetrical goals, we immediately began to devise strategies during map setup, discussing strategies with each other (because that’s good sportsmanship!)

The Young Shroudshrooms became illuminating Glowshrooms for this mission. When destroyed, the destroying player got to place it within two spaces, effectively being able to move them around the map. We pictured the Clockwork Combine pulling out the Glowshrooms by the roots and planting them wherever they please.

The Clockwork Combine figures were also saddled with a special rule where all of their figures reduced their attack value by 1 unless they were within 2 spaces of a Glowshroom. The Umbral Covenant, used to the darkness, was unaffected by this and could move around the cave freely.

My wife’s brilliant strategy was to immediately destroy the Glowshrooms, place them closer to her army, and move them away from me. Essentially, she decided to play rugby instead of Heroscape. She stayed close to the Glowshrooms, so her attack wasn’t reduced, and split up her army to harvest samples and attack me simultaneously.

Despite some pretty epic attack and defense rolls on both sides, she rolled like a boss for harvesting the Glowshrooms and collected all six before I closed a single exit.

Scenario #3 - To Serve Her Hunger

The third and final scenario was another asymmetrical goal, but added a fun twist to the game. Set in a collapsing cave, the Clockwork Combine had to find a hidden exit (marked by a wound marker placed beneath a 1-hex tile) as the Umbral Covenant stopped them. However, no figure could begin and end its turn on the same hex tile, or else they would be destroyed by falling stalactites. If the exit wasn’t found beneath one of the six possible tiles in five rounds, then everyone got buried, and the Umbral Covenant would win (because they’re already dead?) So, there was great incentive to find the exit and get out.

This was a cleverly designed mission because it kept players moving and prevented the Umbral Covenant from just sitting on the 1-hex tile hiding the exit. The Clockwork Combine had to be clever in their movement and placement of figures, too. Even though only one figure needed to find the exit, they searched the tile after moving but before attacking. So, even if they found the exit, they would have to wait until their next activation to move. With that said, it was in their best interest to spread out and search so that, when they did find the exit, they could get out of each other’s way and complete the goal.

After hiding the exit under the 1-hex closest to her, I opted to try and obfuscate and hover around two 1-hex tiles closest to me and then go on the offensive. I was able to quickly put down Souta, but at the cost of both Sudema and Corvynn. My wife did not take the bait and found the exit quickly with Blink. However, she blocked herself from being able to escape, and so I took the opportunity to try and defeat her two remaining pieces.Blink won the day. He deftly defended my attacks by successfully rolling his Quickdraw 7 attack, defeating Agent SI-4X.

Campaign Debriefing

Scenarios #2 and #3 were by far our favorite scenarios, and ranked highly among all of the Heroscape scenarios. Even though they played quickly, there is definitely a lot of replay value by switching teams, or even just switching out armies. While the scenarios are really meant for two players, I could see some clever Heroscape players expanding the dungeon and modifying the goals to incorporate teams of two players.

The Ancient Tiles and Young Shroudshrooms are wonderful, visual additions to Heroscape, creating a dungeon-like atmosphere for these maps. Incorporating them into custom maps can add variation to design, possibly adding some depth to the standard green/gray/sand tiles!

“Blink” Dawson and Cainak, Private Eye are the two standout pieces for sure. While the Umbral Covenant has some fun powers, I think they would benefit by adding in some Revna or Vyder figures from other expansions. Despite feeling like the Clockwork Combine was at a disadvantage on paper, they definitely punch above their weight class and work really well together right out of the box. Each figure offers a nice little sampling of their faction and bonding abilities, which just encourages us to seek out other pieces to build some more armies!

You can check out the complete Heroscape database here to browse and explore the different characters, both from Hasbro and Renegade Games, and build out your ideal Heroscape army!

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