Heroscape’s new boxed set costs $250, but it could jumpstart the decades-old wargame

polygon.com:

Beloved miniatures wargame Heroscape is back with a new high-profile crowdfunding project. Everything hinges on the success of a lavish $249.99 boxed set called Heroscape: Age of Annihilation, which includes loads of customizable scenery and five playable factions. It will only be produced if the campaign receives 8,000 pre-orders, but if it’s successful, Hasbro’s Avalon Hill imprint plans to bring the franchise back to life with additional releases.

Avalon Hill is riding high on the success of its relaunch of HeroQuest, the classic dungeon-crawling board game. That game was rebooted in a similar fashion following a successful crowdfunding campaign, and now includes multiple expansions and additional character classes. Chris Nadeau, senior director of design and development at Avalon Hill, told Polygon that once the new HeroQuest line found its footing, Heroscape naturally became “the next target in the vault.”

First published in 2004, Heroscape is an asymmetrical wargame that pits warlords known as Valkyrie against one another for control of the planet Valhalla. The game is highly asymmetrical, with fictional factions drawn from all across space and time. But the franchise is also known for its terrain — chunky, stackable plastic platforms that allow for dramatic landscapes. Devoted fans hoard the tiles in huge quantities, wheeling them out to create sprawling landscapes for their home games.

Unlike the surprise announcement of HeroQuest, HeroScape has been teased to dedicated fans for a while now — especially through the recently established Avalon Hill Discord server.

“It wasn’t quite the cold open that HeroQuest had,” Nadeau said. “We know that the community has continued to play the game. There have been conventions