The latest release of Heroscape has been showing up on shelves of local game stores and arriving at our door steps via preorders. The Boiling Tension story arc is now available for purchase. Will it have any effect on the current meta?

The Return of Common Squads

The most exciting aspect of Boiling Tension is the (re)introduction to common squads! Those of us that have been around since the early years know that common squads have been a staple of so many competitive armies over the years. They have built-in redundancy to ensure that you can maximize your activations.

With unique squads, when you lose a figure, your order marker efficiency falls. For example, with a single dead Exile of the Sundered Sea, the Order Marker on their card immediately drops from 4 figures activated to 3. Exiles start out very powerful with 4 figures in their squad and can create all types of havoc for your opponent, but when two or even one of them falls, it is much less of an issue for your opponent to deal with.

Commons combat this by being able to field more than one squad. If you have 4 squads of Molten Crustaceans (a 3-figure squad), that gives you 12 figures total. Lose 2, and you still have 10 left. Commons allow you the flexibility to decide which of the (in this case) 3 Molten Crustaceans you want to activate out of the total 12.

Eiseneks Get a New Champion: Scavorith

Another addition Boiling Tensions brings is more Eiseneks. Scavorith, Lord of Ruin, has joined Heroscape as the latest Eisenek. The lynchpin for the Eisenek faction so far has been Iron Lich Viscerot with his Vile Injection and Ironclad Puppeteer abilities. The combination of both have allowed us to power up another Eisenek and launch it into battle for a devastating swing at an opponent's army. This has been used with some success with the Necrotech Wraith Riders and with Hellforge Mandukor.

Stats and Cost

Scavorith costs 185 points, making him the most expensive Eisenek to date. For that cost, you get a double-space Huge 9 figure, meaning he loses any defensive bonuses from jungle and/or shadow terrain. He has a move of 5. We all know from Krug and Grimnak that a walking move of 5 on a double-spaced figure isn’t as fast as we would like. Also being Huge 9, it’s hard to hide behind anything, so trying to shoot at him as long as you have the range, shouldn’t be a problem.

Scavorith has a hefty base attack of 5, solid base defense of 4, and 7 life. He has a range of 1 so he must be adjacent to attack, or does he?

Double Burst Special Attack

Scavorith’s special attack, Double Burst, has a range of 4 and an attack of 3, and it allows him to attack an additional time targeting the same or a different figure. Double Burst doesn’t have great range by any means but it does give Scavorith some versatility as he’s advancing.

One thing to note: since special attacks are never modified, Vile Injection from Iron Lich will not boost the attack of Scavorith if he decides to use the special attack.

Battle Surge Ability

The last ability, Battle Surge, is what makes Scavorith shine, especially with Vile Injection. Battle Surge lets you reveal the X order marker on Scavorith after you have just taken a turn with him, to take an additional turn. The drawback is you cannot use your special attack during this extra turn, and if you don’t attack with your normal attack during this extra turn, you receive a wound.

The One-Two Combo

For a wicked one-two combo, Iron Lich takes a turn, then uses Ironclad Puppeteer on Scavorith while also using Vile Injection. Scavorith’s base move increases to 7 and his base attack to 7. Scavorith runs up to your opponent's Queen Maladrix and swings for 7. Scavorith then reveals his X order marker to use Battle Surge to take another turn. As he takes this turn, Iron Lich vile injects him again, boosting Scavorith’s speed and attack. This time, Scavorith who has just moved up to 14 total spaces, gains height on your opponent’s unsuspecting Queen Maladrix and rolls 8 attack dice (5 base + 1 for height + 2 for Vile Injection).

Revnan Acolytes: The Unsung Support

So, how do we make that combination even better? One of the common squads released in Boiling Tension is the Revnan Acolytes. They look fairly unassuming, with a poor stat line of 2 attack, 2 defense, 5 move, 1 life, and no direct bonding. It’s their abilities and cheap cost that have these 40-point support figures being inserted into Revna hero-based armies.

They have two abilities: Hero Worship and Risen by Revna. Hero Worship allows a Revna hero to reroll an attack or defense dice if an Acolyte is adjacent. Risen by Revna allows a dead acolyte to be placed adjacent to a Revna hero at the beginning of each round.

Army Synergy

So, do you put order markers to move these guys along, or how do you make sure one dies so it can be risen by Revna? If we go back to the Iron Lich and Scavorith example, it now looks more like this: Iron Lich takes a turn and shoots and kills one of his own Acolytes in his start zone. Now at the beginning of the next round, the Acolyte will be placed adjacent to either Iron Lich or Scavorith. This does make the army a bit more defensive and slower, as you want to try and stick closer to your Acolytes and not necessarily rush in with a 14-move Scavorith.

In round 2, if you have advanced into the fight with Iron Lich and Scavorith and placed a destroyed Acolyte on the front lines, you can win initiative and get the 14-move, 7-attack (8 with height) twice, with a reroll if you place the Acolyte strategically.

Other Hero Combos

The Acolytes also compliment Queen Maladrix because she has a double attack which creates more reroll opportunities. Hellforge Mandukor’s Feed the Forge doesn’t mind the occasional heal with the Acolytes, since they come back next to him at the beginning of the next round, plus if they survive he gets the rerolls. Even Raackchott benefits from having the Acolytes around to help trigger their Consume the Dead special ability and survive long enough to use Raakchott’s Soul Fury special attack.

Acolytes are very interesting because with their poor stats they are really only used for their special abilities and support so having one or maybe two squads is really all you need in your army. Putting an order marker on them often feels like an inefficient turn, because they can be “moved” by Risen by Revna.

Tournament Results & Conclusion

So, how good is this combination? GenCon just finished up in early August. There were over 100 players in Renegade’s Heroscape World Championship event. If we scan the top 16 players and their armies we can see that Scavorith was in 5 of the armies including half of the top 4. The Revnan Acolytes were in 5 of the top 16 armies as well.

The army Bodacious Blood piloted to 2nd place out of over 100 players was: Festering Honor Guard, Queen Maladrix, Major Q11 and Revnan Acolytes x 1. Bodacious would move Q11 up early to kill one of his own acolytes and then advance with the Queen and her brood so when the 2nd round started he could place a previously destroyed acolyte next to his queen to utilize the rerolls.

Both Austin and Gordon piloted Scavorith to the top 4 with Iron Lich, Necrotech Wraithriders and Scavorith. They would often throw the Wraithriders out early for board control, grabbing a glyph, or to take out a target that had to be dealt with. They would then follow up with Scavorith coming through and just hitting like a truck into whatever he needed to with the Vile Injection, Battle Surge combination.

What about the Grave Grim character that comes with the Acolytes? How does he work into all of this? That will have to wait until another time, until then, happy Scaping!

(PHOTO CREDIT: Vecna)