Heroscape the way to go?

[ApokalypseTest]

I have been thinking about ways to have terrain and still have hexes (I do love hexes) and obviously many people use Heroscape. Given that stuff is out of print and it's not goin to get any easier to get ahold of, I try to make up my mind about going heroscape all the way or not at all. The question is: How much of that stuff would I need?

And to those of you who use it: How big are your battles usually? Do you use hero scape stuff for everything or just hills? How about holes in the ground or different water levels? Do modify (make them nicer looking) your tiles? How many tiles do you use for a full game with two or three lances on each side? How do you represent other terrain (forest, rubble etc)?

[worktroll]

From what I've seen, the best use is to get a cloth mat with Heroscape-sized hexes marked on it, and just use Heroscape for elevations. Of course, you'll probably need to use cutouts (like the Hex Packs) to mark depressions, but that provides an effective use of your tiles.  Presumably something like blu-tak can be used to prevent continental shift in-game ;)

If you have more time than money, and don't mind a bit of manual work, you can build your own terrain out of 1" thick foamboard - see below, and let me know if you're interested. Note - not recommended if you have little storage space, or move a lot, as they're bulky (if very light).

W.

[ApokalypseTest]

Thx, storage spaces somewhat of an issue, at least for the next year or two, one reason I found the hero scape stuff very tempting. I also have huge swathe of Battletech Maps coming in (I think about 60 or so), that'll provide material for quite a while...

Hero scape was tempting since it seems to be quite storable, looks nice and is very versatile, however, the price might be an issue

[john blackwell]

I have been thinking about ways to have terrain and still have hexes (I do love hexes) and obviously many people use Heroscape. Given that stuff is out of print and it's not goin to get any easier to get ahold of, I try to make up my mind about going heroscape all the way or not at all. The question is: How much of that stuff would I need?

As an avid fan of Heroscape, I can only offer my <unbiased  ;)> opinion

How much of that stuff would I need?

I typically cover an 4' by 6'.  It ends up being something like 34 hexes by 45 hexes or so.  That takes ~1300 hexes to cover the ground.  I personally have 8+ master sets to lay the ground and build lots of hills, so I have backed off the idea of buying sheets of foam (although I absolutely love the idea and might do it anyway to increase my terrain).

How big are your battles usually?

I have run simple battles all the way up to battalion-sized slugfests.  There's not a lot of room to maneuver, but I expanded the board to 6' X 8' effectively doubling the size of the table.  I kept the ground nearly flat as this used most of my tiles.  It was one epic battle.

Do you use hero scape stuff for everything or just hills?

I use Heroscape for just the hills.  Sometimes I use 1 level of tiles per elevation if I want to do crazy-complex terrain.  Other times I do 2 tiles per level for something more mech-scale.

How about holes in the ground or different water levels?

I have water tiles which fit as normal terrain tiles with slightly less thickness.  If I have water that is above the table surface, I always surround it with standard terrain tiles to make the water appear recessed into the ground.  Call that asthetics at that point.

Do modify (make them nicer looking) your tiles?

I haven't at this point.  Some do.  I like the look of flocked tiles and will take on that project at a later time.

How many tiles do you use for a full game with two or three lances on each side?

I think that all depends on the amount of maneuverability you want.  24 square feet allows for recon units to really hustle and keep put of range of LRMs and PPCs. 

How do you represent other terrain (forest, rubble etc)?

I have a post titled "Heroscape Terrain Ideas".  In it I show some of the terrain ideas I have developed including wooded & rough hexes as well as industry.  That might give you some ideas.


Sorry for the length of this reply, but I hope it helps.

Happy hunting!
JB


ps: noticing your recent comment about storage, I have 3 5-gallon tubs that hold all my non-24-hex tiles and then a stack of 24-hext tiles.  You're right, it's rather compact for all the terrain you can build

[ApokalypseTest]

Thanks a lot for this very detailed answer, I just bought one master set off of eBay, I guess if I have to look into 8+, I might just go with using the hero scape to create hills and not the basic surface.

I was thinking that 2 Master sets should be sufficient for a regular sized (2 BT maps) game and 3 to 4 sufficient for actually large games.

[worktroll]

I was able to recreate the "basic" BT map using one master set, so I think your 2-4 should be fine - given you don't want to replicate Mountain Lake, or Deep Canyons ;)

One nice thing about the foamboard maps - you can chose your own hex-size. I stuck to the 1.25" so I could get more maps on the ping-pong table, but could have gone 1.5" or even 2" to allow the more recent larger minis to fit in. Heck, you could even go true-scale and make 12" hexes - at which point they're to nominal scale with the minis :D

W.

[ApokalypseTest]

Heh, that WOULD be cool :)

I think I'll just go ebay hunting for a while, plus, since I intend to flock my Heroscape anyways, it doesn't matter what terrain types I get (well, it does for the water, but eventually I should have enough of that as well...

[worktroll]

You can always paint the swamp or lava tiles :)

[ApokalypseTest]

True,

Especially the lava tiles seem to be worth quite a bit though. I plan to just keep buying large plates as they show up on eBay ( the 24 hex and 7 hex pieces), that should allow me to get a large basic plate relatively fast.

[Dr Lucky]

You can always paint the swamp or lava tiles :)

It would be nuts to paint lava tiles (or ice tiles) because of their value.  I can never have enough water tiles either, so those are out.

The swamp tiles and the shadow tiles (from the D&D set) are pretty good repainting choices though.

[markhall]

I use the green swamp tiles as woods hexes for my games.

With a section of them painted A darker green for heavy woods.

Storage can be a pain when you end up a with a larger collection.