Heroscape
Oct. 2, 2006
Mario (9) came home from a sleepover on Saturday talking about how much he liked a board game he had played. I was surprised, because it seems as though Mario, "a man of action," usually finds board games way too cerebral. We did some internet research and found some positive reviews for Heroscape, the fairly new game from Milton Bradley. At $39.99, the "Heroscape Game System Master Set" was really expensive for a board game. But I figured if it was as fun as Mario said it was, then it would be worth it.
At first it was a big disappointment, because Gabriel (11) and Mario started playing while I cooked. Mario had learned a sort of quick version of the game, in which most of the pieces weren't used, and rules were improvised. Gabriel tends to be legalistic and very competitive. He kept noticing that Mario's improvised rules were not very consistent. Pretty soon the tears were flowing. I couldn't believe I had paid $40 for tears! I suggested we try reading the rule book, which is about 20 pages long.
We started after church on Sunday at about 12:30 p.m. It was really slow going at first. For about an hour Mario complained that he was bored and that he wanted to go back to his quick system. But we built the "Migol's Tomb" battleground, drafted fighters, and started figuring the game out. It turned out to be really fun. It's a combination of chess and Risk. Every character has special powers and it's necessary to plan strategy. Four hours into the game we were still learning about special rules and possible tactics, but we were having a blast. Finally, at 7 p.m., I said we had to stop. This morning the game is still laid out in the living room, and both teams are vastly diminished, but fighting to the bitter end. I can sincerely thank Milton Bradley for a great Sunday afternoon at home with my kids, something that is all too rare.