Arena of the Planeswalkers: Just how good is it?

WITH SUPPORT (which is apparently happening come January), this will likely be the stronger game. As it stands, the set up time is still putting this over HS for me (and I LOVE HS).

Despite my love of Heroscape and Planeswalkers, I would say wait on both accounts. You have already said shelf space is at a premium, but if you can wait until the end of the month (after PAX) we should know how the game is going to be supported. The rulebook says it will have an expansion early 2016, word from Gencon is January, but there has not been an official announcement. The general belief is that it will either be supported Heroscape style (fixed boosters), or follow the tried and known to make money blind box route. I do not know how important that is to you, but it is something that needs to be stated. They wont drop it like they did Battleship Galaxies, there is way to much hype on it and it is selling out everywhere.

As for the game, it is fast and furious. My wife and I have played about a dozen matches and all but two have been down to the wire. Best of all, soup to nuts the matches take 30 minutes at the most. Currently there is no deck building or army management so no matter the color choice it is pretty balanced. To me, it is more like Melee/Wizard/TFT than Heroscape was.

Planeswalkers is good although it's a bit more random than Heroscape. If you do get it, I suggest getting a tub of Heroscape terrain to add to the Planewalker experience as playing on green hills is a lot more fun and interesting than playing on a flat desert.

quozl wrote: Planeswalkers is good although it's a bit more random than Heroscape. If you do get it, I suggest getting a tub of Heroscape terrain to add to the Planewalker experience as playing on green hills is a lot more fun and interesting than playing on a flat desert.

That is the first "solid 7" comment I've heard on this game. Everything else I've heard has raved about it.

I'll be honest, short setup time and short games used to be important to me with four young kids. But my two youngest are 12 now, so I can go longer without so much trouble now. Those aren't criteria for buying anymore. If it's good it's good, but I'd like to hear more about what it's better than other Dudes games.

I'm looking forward to someone here giving the game the royal review treatment, to see if I want to get this for my boys. They're all Magic players; I'm not and particularly dislike the game. Planeswalkers may preserve the more palatable aspects while leaving the stuff I don't like behind. Oh -- and adding a spatial aspect, which is almost a must-have for me personally.

S.

This will almost certainly be on my GOTY shortlist. Loopin' Chewie has a lock on the top spot, as expected.

There are numerous advantages of this game over Heroscape- the barrier to entry is $29.99. It's a "ground floor" release with a hopefully "blue sky" outlook. It takes five minutes to get it from the box to the fun.

It's awesome.

I don't do game reviews but here are the differences between Planeswalkers and Heroscape:

1. Order markers and initiative: Heroscape has them, Planeswalkers does not. Order markers mean you have to choose your next 3 turns in advance and can possibly lose a turn if the card you chose gets eliminated. At the end of each round, order markers are placed again and initiative is rolled. This can allow one player to get two turns in a row.

2. Summoning units onto the battlefield: Heroscape has only 2 units that do this - the Airborne Elite and the Rechets of Bogdan. Planewalkers lets you summon up to two units every time the planeswalker takes a turn. That allows you to bluff with your planeswalker a bit and not put any units out there until you're ready.

3. Spell cards: Heroscape doesn't have any. Planeswalkers does. Spells are neat and can do some very powerful things like destroying figures and unsummoning squads. However, the order you get them is random and that can really affect how the battle plays out. Also, you cannot play any more spells once your planeswalker dies.

4. Terrain: Heroscape has tons. Planeswalkers has hardly any. Terrain allows you to shape the battle, make strategic positions, and provide cover. It also looks awesome.

quozl wrote: Planeswalkers is good although it's a bit more random than Heroscape. If you do get it, I suggest getting a tub of Heroscape terrain to add to the Planewalker experience as playing on green hills is a lot more fun and interesting than playing on a flat desert.

Me and my primary gaming buddy have played this a few times. We have been playing MtG together since 1997, so naturally I got it for him for his birthday as well. So far, I am somewhat torn on it.

Advantages:
1) Fast set-up time.
2) If you are familiar with either Magic or Heroscape, the rules are almost immediately digestible
3) Cheap

Neutral:
1) The out-of-the-box squads are a bit "meh". I feel as though the abilities and interactions are really limited, but I am hoping that this is fixed in future expansions. I do expect that some people are happy there isn't a squad building component at this point
2) Would have been nice if all the minis were painted
3) The flat terrain is somewhat lame.

Disadvantages:
1) Weird that all the squads in the starter are unique.
2) The game is a little less strategic than Heroscape and more random, as Quozl notes.
3) I think the spells are a little bit weak and uninspiring -- I have less confidence they will change this moving forward.
4) I don't like the planeswalkers are restricted to their own color -- would have been nice to have penalties for drifting outside of their natural mana (but this probably is in conflict with easy entry)

I think that something like Mage Wars might be the better game for dueling mages, it just doesn't have the same toy factor.

Michael Barnes wrote: This will almost certainly be on my GOTY shortlist. Loopin' Chewie has a lock on the top spot, as expected.

If that new Star Wars Risk game is any good, that could make for three mass market games on the GOTY list....Fascinating.

I love arena of the Planeswalkers. It really is the second coming of Heroscape, and that's NEVER a bad thing.

But, it is not without it's (current) drawbacks.
There are a few funky wording problems that prevent complete logic used to play the CCG from being transposed to this.
Destroy where sacrifice should be, that type of thing.
Minutiae to be sure, but its such a thing that makes M:tG so compelling. Also, blue, as one would expect, is annoying and quite possibly OP in the hands of even a remotely competent player.

Regardless, still playable and M:tG logic can be used to resolve any funkiness. A compulsory purchase.

The spells add an dimension that Heroscape originally lacked. As do the Planeswalkers themselves. You need to play on larger boards than typical Heroscape games because of summoning radius, and thus threat radius. The board that comes in the game suffices for the 500 points per player provided, but it won't carry you through 1000 points, from experience.

Deck building with multiple copies has been fun so far, but I think anything over two copies is overkill. Plus, card limits aren't defined. But the pregame deck building strategy is not to be understated for what it adds to the game.

I've already got a few custom army and spell cards up on www.planeswalker-arena.boards.net along with a few other contributors. Worth a look.

That said, while I have played a lot with only what the game provides, it's a lot of fun to play on Heroscape terrain and summon Heroscape units for larger games. 800 pts. seems to be the upper limit of the 300 hex set up the game comes with. A lot of Heroscape units require absolutely no modification, even if the points costs can be questionable. Played for fun, its just what I needed.

Some examples of units we used were stuff like Tarn Vikings, Warriors of Ashra, Deathreavers, Zombies of Morindan for double zombie pleasure with Liliana, Izumi Samurai, Rechets of Bogdan (the inspiration for summoning in this game)...
The theme isn't really important, because what was in Heroscape is essentially present in M:tG as well.
Its satisfying to be Chandra, summon rabid, berserker vikings and give them fire breathing. It just seems somehow apropos.
Or to send hordes of shambling zombies at your hated foes, and idly waiting for liliana to be assaulted as you release a killing wave.

Cool stuff happens, and much like Wiz-War, the games are memorable using more than the game provides. I still think Wiz-War is the superior game, but I like this just fine enough to be glad I have half a dozen master set #1's, and nearly 4 of each terrain expansion.
Arena of the Planeswalkers is Heroscape. It also made Heroscape better. Yes, even without order markers, and especially because of that.

Then color me interested. I might just have to pick this one up.

To be honest, the question of support doesn't even necessarily count as a negative for me. While I do WANT the game to get plenty of expansions, what's there already seems like something I would like.

Speaking of expansions, Hasbro has confirmed that they will not be using the blind buy model for expansions.

planeswalker-arena.boards.net/thread/38/...?page=1#scrollTo=177

So now all the continuous rending of clothe can stop over the potential of blind buy.

This feels very much like a starter set, so the question of support is definitely important for the longevity of the game for me. My 12 year old thought it was ok but was disappointed in the lack of 3d terrain. He also wants more squads of commons. I plan to pick up some cheap terrain off of ebay but I'm steering clear of Heroscape's event horizon (i.e. not buying a master set) since I don't have the storage space.

Colorcrayons wrote: Speaking of expansions, Hasbro has confirmed that they will not be using the blind buy model for expansions.

I am buying a second starter this weekend because of this.

For those interested, the guy who said it is Hasbro's Senior Director of Brand Strategy & Marketing

I found this at Target today, bought it, played it. I played Lilliana and had a hand full of douchebag cards that disempowered and frustrated my opponent. I gotta be honest, I felt bad playing them. There's one big slice of Magic in this game that I frikkin' hate -- the "no, that didn't happen" card. Someone kills your squad and you just bring it back. Someone does damage to your Planeswalker and you just undo it.

Definitely not my game. Hopefully my boys will like it.

I love Heroscape's open approach. Don't like Magic at all.

S.