What, AGAIN? We just DID this not even two years ago lol
PART I
Change of Terrain
WizKids said: “this specific rules update began with a single question: How do we make standard objects matter again? Standard light and heavy objects have long been overshadowed by equipment.”
I mean, that’s YOUR fault, WizKids. But instead of just giving a small tweak to Super Strength — say, making it deal +1 damage with ANY object attack, like we suggested in 2021, or allowing it to generate NEW objects — WizKids is getting rid of objects altogether.
Upon first reveal, I said “I’m not sure if I hate it a lot or just a little.” And this old quote from Heroclixin’ is why:
“There was once a time you needed a whole chart to figure out:
- who could hold any of FOUR different kinds of objects and
- how FAR you could throw each and
- how much damage each could do in close
- or at range because it was different based on what the object was
- and if it was thrown or not …
- GAAHHHH.”
Now they wanna bring all that back, but as terrain markers now. Instead of the old flow chart, each terrain will have the stats printed right on them:
- How far it can be thrown
- How much damage it adds in close or range attacks
- How much damage to destroy it
- How much Giant Reach it gives you
- Gaahhhh. (But in lower case)
The REAL upside? There’s a couple.
- It looks like Super Strength will work with terrain markers, such as being able to grab, say a square of Barrier and hit someone with it!
- They’re also bringing falling damage back to the game. Hopefully this is a nice middle ground and not a wholesale return of knock back damage which could get silly with there being a ton more knockback in the game in general.
That’s exciting. We’re here for it.
PART II
Map quest
They’re shrinking the standard map size from 2×3 to 2×2 — AND changing the startup/setup rules. Quoted from the article [with my additions in brackets]:
- After rolling for First Player, whoever wins the roll chooses between being the First or Second Player.
- Second Player chooses the map.
- First Player chooses which edge they’ll use as their starting area [this is only on the 2×2 maps for 1v1 games … older 2×3 ones still use the purple start zones, I think] and places their force and terrain markers; Second Player uses the opposite edge as their starting area, and places their force and terrain markers.
- Once setup is complete, First Player begins their first turn and the game begins!
This is a bigger deal than the terrain. For ages, first player’s been picking map and going first — both pretty huge advantages, especially with Telekinesis and mega-taxi pieces. Now, with the smaller field and ability to orient the map multiple ways and the single-line starting area, plus the addition of all kinds of special terrain, this game may feel really new.
But the real meat is always the new PAC. The next part’s all about that and they’ve already teased a pretty substantial change:
the minimum range for any standard power or team ability that has one is being changed from 6 to 4.
So that means Mind Control, Force Blast, Smoke Cloud, Telekinesis, Barrier, Probability Control, Perplex and Outwit probably all get their range slashed. They also said some powers would get “tweaks to give them greater interactivity with terrain” — such as Super Strength.
We can’t wait!