It wasn’t all a dream… there’s really more Heroscape coming.

Yes, I’ve already told you all about the stuff that’s coming in August 2024 (just 2 short months away!!!) – and now we know something about the plans of the good folks at Renegade Game Studios past that initial splash.

And while there aren’t any new master sets (yet), there’s still some nifty things on the way in October 2024. RenegadeCon (a virtual press conference about Renegade’s upcoming games) was held yesterday – and Jordan Gaeta & Lee Houoff shared all about the next wave!

Army Expansions

There are two new army expansions coming. Both are part of Revna’s Rebuke (Revna is the newest Valkyrie General, introduced in the upcoming Age of Annihilation master set).

The first is a box with five Kyrie Warriors – unique figures of immense power who lead the various generals armies into battle armed with powerful weapons. I’m particularly interested in Glinerva, who is the first Kyrie Warrior for Aquilla’s armies. (For those new and/or newer to Heroscape, Aquilla is a small faction but the combination of dwarves, Mohicans, wyverns, sasquatches, and insects – including a dragon-sized fly – they are a personal favorite.) Her Hanwi’s Darkness power protecting figures from ranged attacks could be game-changing.

The Kyrie Warriors box also includes two Ullar Kyrie, one Utgar Kryie, and a Kryie for Revna.

The second army expansion box is Iron Lich Viscerot and the Necrotech Wraithriders. This is also the introduction of a new species to Valhalla – the Eisenek. The team noted that they aren’t sure if these technologically enhanced fighters came from a long-ago destroyed planet… or one that will be destroyed in the future.

One huge figure (a Huge 11 figure – for those who’ve played a bit of Heroscape, that’s the same size as the largest dragon) – the Iron Lich – is a gorgeous mini with some highly useful powers as part of a team. Due to his extended legs, he can actually walk over small & medium figures and doesn’t suffer attacks for leaving engagements with them. (Additionally, he is not forced to attack small or medium figures he is adjacent to – he can open fire on someone farther away.)

He’s paired with the Wraithriders – a unique squad that look like a cross between something from Mad Max and Ghost Rider. Their speed (they have an inherent move of 8) is undercut by their inability to climb more than 2 levels. Chains and chainsaws and rollerballs… what’s not to love?

Both boxes will retail for $45 each in the standard unpainted format (with a wash on the figures) and $65 each for the painted version. There is no additional terrain in theses boxes.

Terrain System

That’s because there are two new Terrain System boxes coming to Heroscape – the perfect answer to all the new folks who (a) want a lot more terrain, and (b) don’t want to buy a bunch of Master sets in order to make that happen.

The first box is called Lands of Valhalla, which contains 63 pieces of terrain in the standard variety of sizes (1 hex, 2 hex, 3 hex, and 7 hex) in sand, rock, and grass colors. The box also has the first 24 hex pieces in sand color that have been released for the Heroscape system – ever! (Yep, I’ve got grass, rock, swamp, and dungeon in 24 size… but no sand.)

The Lands of Valhalla will retail for $70.

The second box is the Waters of Valhalla, which has 35 water pieces for your battle maps. This includes Wellspring tiles (which first will appear in wave 1) as well the first appearance of 3 hex water tiles, making it easier to build larger bodies of water to frustrate or assist your armies.

And, yes, it is the sparkling water we all know and love.

The Waters of Valhall will retail for $30.

Wave 2 Thoughts

I honestly don’t know what I expected from Wave 2. Back in the day, the first follow-up to the original Master set (Rise of the Valkyrie) was a set of 4 figure boosters, followed the next year by the first large figures box and the first terrain box. That’s not the direction Renegade has chosen to go – but I can’t say I blame them for avoiding the blister pack booster system.

What seemed like a good idea back in 2004 – three packs of mostly common squad figures and a pack of unique heroes in each release – meant that collectors/players picked up multiple copies of the common squads and only a single copy of the hero pack. That left stores – both big box and FLGSs – with extra stock of a single pack. In big box store cases, some inventory systems confused those remaining packs as stock, thus meaning they didn’t reorder. For FLGSs, it was inventory that ate up shelf space and overhead.

All of the figures in Revna’s Rebuke (both boxes) are unique heroes or squads – that means you don’t need multiple boxes as you can’t field multiple copies of these heroes/squads in an army. No leftover blister packs; no wondering how many packs will I really need to field an awesome [fill in the blank] fighting force. (I am still looking for second packs of Ashigaru spearmen and riflemen… but any time I’ve found them, I haven’t been willing to plunk down that much cash.)

I think that this direction is a long-term good idea. The terrain expansions are going to be excellent for newer players – access to big chunks of terrain without being scalped on the secondary market for stuff from 20 years ago. (Did I mention this year is the 20th anniversary of Heroscape? More on that in a minute.) The army expansions will add to wave 1 releases… but also connect nicely to the older figures/armies that those of us who’ve been playing most or all of those two decades can get behind.

Better yet, Jordan & Lee confirmed that Renegade has Heroscape releases planned out into early 2026… and they’ll be revealing Wave 3 in October!

Organized Play

I’m not really an organized play guy… well, I like to keep my miniatures and terrain organized, but tournament play is not my jam. For those of you who are interested, Renegade is pulling out the stops.

There will be multiple events at GenCon in August, included Battle Box beginner events, pre-made army events, a 20th Anniversary celebration tournament with some very cool prizes (including some of the paint master miniatures!), a sneak preview event (which is already sold out) for 2025 plans, and even two life-size Kryie to take selfies with!

Moving into September, there will be Heroscape launch tournaments at your FLGS, as well as Heroscape Day in October. (Heroscape Day will feature a new promo figure, Cornelius Breech.)

They are also gearing up for the release of the Heroscape Battle Network… an online portal with tournament software and notification systems, customizable player profiles, player rankings, and (of most interest to those of us who aren’t tournament players) a figure database and army builder.

In Closing…

Some very cool reminders that show just how well-supported Heroscape will be:

• All promo figures (Shiori, Sgt. Drake, Cornelius Breech) will be available in the Renegade web store 3 months or so after the end of the promoted event. No figure will be exclusive. (Thank you, thank you, thank you… from those of us who had to beg/borrow/steal to get Agent Skahen or Sir Hawthorne.)
• The street date for the Wave 1 boxes is August 29th. Preorders from the nice folks at Renegade should arrive earlier in August… and you can place pre-orders to pick up at GenCon.
  • Preorders for Wave 2 have begun – but you don’t want to combine Wave 1 & 2 into a single order, as it won’t ship until October.
    • If you’d like to see an unboxing video, I’ve linked to the moment Heroscape appears in RenegadeCon’s unboxing segment. The hosts are VERY cheerful… but it’s really cool to see.
      • Earlier in the video, they also show the new version of Nexus Ops, which looks sweet as well.
      • They also show the new wall segments with a light wash, which will help them blend with the previous wall & road tiles. Color me pleased.
• Paint guides are being added to the Heroscape website… and if you want some painting tutoring (there is not enough painting tutoring in the world to fix my lack of skill), Renegade hosted a painting tutorial yesterday as well!
• All pix in this report are screenshots from RenegadeCon.

Finally, I leave you with pictures of the Heroscape battles my sons & I had this weekend… because all this Wave 2 cool stuff is joining an already wonderfully detailed universe!