Heroclix
The last review of the year is Heroclix! It is a miniatures battle game of SUPER proportions. This is a game where you battle against heroes from across almost all universes. Superman can battle against Captain America. The punisher can try to assassinate Batman. The realm of possibilities is endless. If you like heroes, and enjoy miniature battle games, then you will love this game.
Listen to the podcast for a better explanation of how to play, and even the podcast is shortened in that regard. I’ll dive in just a bit here. You and your opponent(s) decide on a number of points for each team. Then you search for characters to create your own super team. Best way to make your team is to look at the Keywords on your character’s card. So start with a character you just like and know is powerful to be a sort of captain of the team. I’ll go with Zatanna for this one. Zatanna has the Mystical keyword on the top of her card. I find Raven, and John Consantine after that. They both also have Mystical on their cards. Now, reading over their abilities is a good next step. Maybe none of their moves actually care about the Mystical Keyword, or Keywords in general. For this example, Raven has a movement ability that works with characters that have the same keyword. Constantine has one that works for Justice League Dark members. Zatanna also has that keyword. Team works pretty well together at this point. You may have some remaining points. Rather than waste them, you should just looks for a character that will be helpful that is the remaining points even if you can’t find a keyword character.
Throw down a map after everyone has their teams, and it’s time to play! This is the tricky part. Those abilities that I mentioned when making the team can be pretty confusing or at least hard to remember. The cards that go with the Heroclix will have a symbol and color that will match the starting click that you are on. You will need to make sure your miniature is at the proper spot on the rotating base that they stand on. That base has all of your abilities and stats that you can currently use. No chance I’m explaining all those here so down below is a picture of the guide sheet that you will ABSOLUTELY need for every game.
Move your characters, attack your opponent and get them down to the “KO” click. Take out the opposing team and win the game. Seems pretty simple, right? Well yes and no. Once you get going in the game it is a quick and fun game to play. It takes a bit though to catch on with the little boxes on your character and that they change as you take more hits or heal. Once you finally get the hang of it, putting together your team and finding the right miniature will be the longest part.
As someone who loves superheroes and putting together dream super teams, this game is a lot of fun. These miniature battle type games are really what got me playing tabletop games in general. Star Wars epic duels game, Heroscape, Star Wars miniatures, and Gatefall are all games very high on my list. This game fits with them perfectly, but also adds being able to play as the Green Lantern Corps. It’s full of strategy, with also a little bit of luck with some dice rolling.
Dice rolls are really the only “luck” element in the game. You roll to attack your opponent. Let’s say your character has a 10 in the attack spot on your hero. The opposing character has a 17 defense. You roll two 6-sided die and take the result. The result needs to be either a 17 or greater in this case. If you are having just a bad dice day, then maybe even the best strategy and team formation can fail, but I’d say that would be more of an outlier.
Ultimately, this is one of my personal favorites. With it being a favorite though… It can cost you a lot of money. The booster packs don’t seem too expensive until you get a bunch of copies of characters you already have and then a few obscure characters you’ve never heard of. That’s what happens with collectible games like this one though, so it’s par for the course. Check out the gallery below to hopefully help you understand a bit of the more intricate game elements I mentioned in this post.
