by manutd03
Note on the map: I took out the tree in the center and replaced it with an "Attack +1" glyph, which was the only glyph on the map.
Last night we had a friend over, and we taught him to play Heroscape--not only had he never played Heroscape, he'd never played any miniatures game!
I asked for some advice earlier in this thread. Based on the advice, I drafted armies ahead of time and then we selected them randomly.
THE PLAYERS
As Team Gladiators:
[username=manutd03]
Gladiators - 500 pts
Spartacus
Crixus
Capuan Gladiators (x3)
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As Team Orcs:
[username=domcrap]
Orcs - 490 pts
Grimnak
Heavy Gruts (x4)
Feral Troll
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As Team Braxas:
[username=mrolandb]
Team Braxas - 510 pts
Braxas
Greenscale Warriors (x4)
Zetacron
Win condition was "Kill the player on your left." Gladiators had to kill Team Braxas to win, while Team Braxas was trying to kill the Orcs, and the Orcs were trying to kill the Gladiators. So Dominic (orcs) was after me, I (gladiators) was after Mike, and Mike (Braxas) was after Dominic.
We started in 3 separate 'corners' of the map.
Mike made the mistake of going after Dominic too aggressively: He flew Braxas right into the fray and started killing gruts right and left. So Dominic, instead of coming after me, said something along the lines of, 'Forget that. Mike, I'm going after you now. You made it personal.' (All in a good-natured way, of course.)
Nevertheless, Dominic was miffed at having lots of his forces killed by Mike! He spent a few rounds surrounding and attacking Braxas, and finally killed her. He lost his troll and many a grut doing so, though.Meanwhile, with no-one focusing on me, I gained the Attack +1 glyph in the center of the board (with both Spartacus and Crixus nearby to defend it) and sent my gladiator squads into Mike's territory to kill off his Greenscales and Zetacron.
Eventually, Dominic started coming after my team (and took over the Attack +1 glyph), but it was a little too late: I had Mike down to 4 Greenscale warriors and Zetacron, and I only needed a couple turns to finish him off. Luckily for my gladiator commons, Spartacus never died: He had 1 HP left when I won. (Crixus, on the other hand, got chomped by Grimnak. Sigh.) I had 5 of my 9 gladiators left, so my team did pretty well. Dominic had Grimnak and about 6 gruts left.
It was a good game overall--easy for me to say, since I won!
Mike sorely regretted not attempting Braxas' Poison Acid Breath on Spartacus + Crixus while he had the chance; instead, he flew past them and went for the gruts. Losing one of those heroes early could have cost me the win.
We all liked the victory condition because there wasn't too much ganging up or negotiating. The teams also seemed fairly well-balanced, which was a plus. Dominic enjoyed the game, so that was good, too!