Heroscape is back baby! Well ok, you already knew that if you read my review of the Heroscape Master Set: Age of Annihilation a few months back. It also won our 2024 Board Game Quest Award for Best Reprint. It’s on our tabletops again, it’s fully compatible with the original game, and my son is addicted to playing it. So what more does a good heroscaper need? Why expansions of course!
Today we are going to take a look at one of the newest sets to come out for Heroscape, the Revna’s Rebuke wave of expansions.
Expansion Overview:
Renegade Games sent us two boxes of Revna’s Rebuke characters to check out. The first is the Kyrie Warriors Army Expansion. The Kyrie have been in Heroscape for a long time, and this expansion adds 5 new heroes for this faction. The Kyrie are unique in that they are all winged, so they can fly around the battlefields. Are they angels? Demons? Some kind of mix? I did check out the Heroscape Wiki for the lore on them, and it says:
Kyrie are a native species to the world of Valhalla, in which most of Heroscape’s canon takes place. They stand between seven and eight feet tall, with large wings. Kyrie differ vastly in appearance, both in the color of their skin and the style of their wings. A kyrie that drinks frequently of a Wellspring may transform into a Valkyrie, gaining psychic powers, enhancing their wings, and becoming immortal as long as they continue to drink from the spring.
If Valkyrie aren’t your thing, then the other set may be more to your liking. The Iron Lich Viscerot and Necrotech Wraithriders Army Expansion adds in a large warlord unique hero, and a squad of 3 Wraithriders. These two units are part of the Eisenek faction. Which, jumping back to the wiki, describes them as
A strange and forgotten cybernetic people left adrift in the distant past or far future of the world Noxdorma.
Unlike the Kyrie warriors, this faction appears to be wholly new to the Age of Annihilation lineup. But in my opinion, they look really cool.
Game Experience with the Expansion:
So let’s talk about the Kyrie Warriors first. There are five unique heroes in this set, and they are somewhat similar in base stats. They are melee attackers with flying and have fairly average attack/defense/move stats. What makes them unique is their spatial abilities.
Glinerva is more of a stalker, with the ability to drop darkness for concealment of her and her allies. She is also resistant to ranged attacks (what few there are…). Xiomara is a defender that allows other Ulnar Kyrie with in 6 spaces of her to ignore all but one wound on a roll of 8-16, and all wounds on a 17+ She is a good one to pair with Mielki who has not only a double attack, but can heal a nearby figure when she kills someone. Kilkdrax has a telekinesis power that can move figures around the battlefield. It’s fine, but not really earth-shattering
Finally, there is Queen Qhyrion. She has a Heart Finder Spear, which is great for taking out high-defense units. When you attack, if you roll a 12+, the defender can only roll 1 die when defending. In addition to that, she has Stealth Flying, so she gets all the normal benefits of flying, but also doesn’t take attacks when leaving an engagement. She and Mielki are definitely my favorites of this group.
Hoping over to the Eisenek. First, you have the Necrotic Wraithriders. These are a squad of 2 units, with 2 hp’s each. They have a solid 8 move, however, they move on a giant ball, so they can only move up 1 or 2 levels of elevation at a time. I guess stairs are their arch nemesis. They can also grab and pull a nearby target in with their chain grab.
And then comes Irom Lich Viscerot, my favorite unit of this wave. This one is notable as it’s the first unit I’ve seen with a base ranged attack. If you’ll recall, that was one of my gripes with the core set was the lack of ranged units. Being able to shoot from a distance makes the battle a lot more dynamic, so it was great to see a unit that can finally do that.
As a huge unit, it has the Dismissive Strider power that lets it leave engagements without taking damage. Its main power is its Vile Injection. Three times per game, it can spend a token to allow a friendly Eisenek unit to gain +2 to its move and attack for its activation. And if that weren’t enough, it has an Ironclad Puppeteer power. After it takes its turn, it allows another Eisenek unit to activate. This one seems to be made hand in hand to run with the Nercotech Squad, or perhaps the Hellforge Mandukor if you’ve gotten your hands on this really cool figure.
Final Thoughts:
For fans of Heroscape, these two expansions are great additions. The Kyrie warriors have been a staple in Heroscape for a long time, and they have lots of synergies with each other. Having all of your units able to fly gives you a lot of freedom on the battlefield, especially if you have a good amount of elevated terrain.
And the Eisenek faction is just really cool. I love the cybernetic spin on them, and the Iron Lich Viscerot is easily my favorite unit yet. With some super useful special abilities and a basic ranged attack, this one often makes its way onto my team.
Hits:
• Good synergies within their faction
• A unit with a base ranged attack!
• Cool-looking figures
Misses:
• None really, other than Kilkdrax being a bit meh
Disclosure: Someone who works with Renegade Games also writes for Board Game Quest. He had no influence over the opinions expressed in this review.
Source: Board Game Quest
