Legion World Forums LEGION OUTPOST Mission Monitor Board Every 10 Years Forum Hero Clix

I have seen these things around for ever and decided I was to get into them. However I have no clue so what do you need to start? Also as I don't have any flesh and blood sort of friends is there someway you can play online?

Oh yeah and what are uniques and LE's?

Well, the short answer is that all you need is a Starter set, and you're in. It comes with (almost) everything you need to play, including a selection of figures, maps, and a rulebook. After getting a starter set, all you need is some kind of tokens to keep track of actions in the game. (Pennies, those pretty colored rocks they sell in gaming stores, anything, really.)

The long answer is a bit longer.

There have been six starter sets released for the game! Yes, Six! They aren't all as good as each other.

First released was a Marvel starter set, containing about six pieces and a single map. This having proven a success, they released a larger version of the same, with more pieces and two different maps. These were released under the name of "Infinity Challenge", the first Marvel set released.

DC came next, and like Marvel, had two starter sets released, a smaller with a single map and a larger with two maps and more figures. The first DC set was "Hypertime". Sadly, there are no LSH figures from the first set, so don't expect any Legion joy from the starters.

After DC, they released a set called "IndyClix", which was a hodge-podge of figures from different companies, ranging from WitchBlade to some of the now defunct CrossGen figures (moment of silence, please). To my knowledge, they never released a larger version of this starter set, just the one-map version.

For debatable reasons, many of the figures from the early Marvel sets were to be retired*, and they couldn't leave the only starter sets on the market for Marvel selling retired figures. So they released a new set called "universe" and produced a third Marvel starter set. It contains only one map, and the map is below regulation size (which matters not a whit if you're only playing home games).

So, which starter set should you pick up? It depends.

The "Marvel Universe" set has the most recent, most correct set of rules, but has an inferior map.

If you're a DC fan, the DC set rules work well enough, but you'll have to look out for a few changes that have been made if you play with someone using more modern rules. It includes the team symbols for the DC teams, like the Legion, though.

For monetary value, the Indy & Infinity Challenge starters tend to be *very* cheap these days, if you can find them.

The really bad news here is that each set is released in a seperate universe. What does that mean? Glad you asked. Many of the figures have Team symbols on them, showing what team they belong to**. These symbols give the figures added abilities. So, there's a chart in each starter set showing the team symbols and the related power it grants.

But only for one universe at a time.

The Marvel sets cover Marvel teams, the DC sets cover DC teams, and the Indy set cover... well, you get it. So, they have never released a single, complete, list of team symbols. (I made one, but my computer crashed. *sniff*) And the starter sets are incomplete because subsequent sets have introduced more teams! *sigh*

Luckily, the Internet can help with that problem, and I'll be producing another complete team list shortly.

Have I confused you enough yet? I hope so, because I'm done!

It really is a fun game, though.


* Why retire figures? Long debate, explanations range from "Because many of the early sets were poorly designed and damaging to the game" to "So they could force us to spend more money on pieces we already have." I favor some of each.

** In theory, at least. When the list of teams began to expand quickly, they started taking short cuts. Rather than create another team and another power for, say, Alpha Flight, they just stick Alpha Flight characters with other team symbols, which represents their powers fairly well, sometimes, but sets some fanboy's cockles on edge.

Oh, sorry, Unique and LEs.

Again, its slightly more complicated than it needs to be.

A Unique figure is a figure with a silver ring on the outside of the base. This figure is "unique" in that you are only allowed to include one copy on a team. The ones with rings colored yellow, blue & red, you can include as many of each figure as you want, regardless of how unrealistic that is.

Say, for example, you want 20 catwomen on your team. Okay! You can put 20 of the normal figures (Yellow, Blue & Red) on as you want, provided you're within limits agreed on for the game. But the silver-ring uniques you can only have one copy of. You could have a silver Catwoman and a silver Batman, but you can't have two silver Catwomen.

(A lot of stores won't let you duplicate named figures, even if they aren't unique, but that's a house rule, not a real one.)

LEs (Limited Edition figures) are played just like Uniques. They have gold rings rather than silver ones, but the game function is the same, only one copy of a particular LE in play.

In the old days, it was simple. You got Uniques out of the booster packs (when you get lucky!), while the LE's were prizes given away at store tournaments. (You will probably find several locally, unless you live out in the boondocks like me!)

They have gone and messed this up now, though. Now you can get LEs out of the boosters as well as uniques. LEs are much, much rarer out of the boosters than uniques are, but there you go.

Even more confusing, the LEs now come in two different colorations. LEs that you get as prizes have gold rings, as already described, but LEs that you get out of the boosters have all the paint on the base done in gold rather than just the ring. There is, however, no difference otherwise.

wow thanks mess I think I now need to go away and comeback and read your posts again to fully absorb but thanks.

The basics: Heroclix is like chess with special powers involved. Strategy is optimal, role-playing is minimal. Although I am sure there is some way to play online or by email (as you could play chess), I have never heard of it happening. I play with a small group of friends infrequently. I do enjoy playing in tournaments at conventions (Dragoncon or introducing it at Gaylaxicon).
Uniques and LEs: In your average box, there are 4 figures. Usually 2 are common, 1 is uncommon and the last is either rare or a unique. The unique is easily recognized as it has a silver ring instead of yellow/blue/red as other figures have. The LEs (limited editions) are given as special offers or prizes at tournaments. They are easily recognized as having a gold ring. As they are usually harder to come by, the are sometimes seen as 'special', but they are not any more powerful that a regular version (as all figures 'power level' is represented by the cost of the figure which is that number on the base). Quite often, the limited edition (LE) will use the characters secret identity such as a Spider Man LE having the name Peter Parker even though it is obviously Spider Man in full costume.
Hope that helps,
Scott

Hey Polar, if you don't have a group of friends who play regularly, check out local gaming and comic shops. They may have a group that meets to play or they may know local players who would be willing to help someone new learn the game. I got into the game because I walked into my CBS one day and found the two employees playing. They showed me how to play and I haven't looked back. Not only am I a huge HeroClix fan, but I became really good friends with those guys and some others.

Just remember that they're HeroClix, not "dolls with dials" as my sister calls them. Men do not play with dolls. How she can fail to see the difference between action figures and dolls is beyond me.

:-)

Used to be real big into HC. Bought a case of every release up to the first DC release featuring the Legion. Then they changed the rules and the games dried up around town so I quit playing. Wouldn't mind getting back into it if someone would be willing to go over the rules with me again.

I even helped develop an e-mail game using an Excel spreadsheet for movements. Came up with some pretty cool maps if I do say so myself.

Oooo, neat!

There's a website that generates random boosters for sealed tournaments online, but I never found any other online heroclix gaming.

I was working on an Excel set up in my spare moments, but being really lazy, never accomplished anything. I'd love to see what you have.

I'll dig out one of the last ones I did this coming weekend and send it over to you. If we get enough people here interested we could maybe start it up again. I even had an online board to do moves with but I'm not sure what's happened to that code. Been a couple of years now.

Hmmmm...I have Statesman from CoH, does he count? It would be interesting to see how HeroClix is played. Sounds like it could be fun but I'm not likely to find a local group anywhere convenient since there are no gaming/comics shops near my house. I'd be willing to give it a shot.

This sounds interesting. Could be something i could get into!!!

I had sorta the same experience. The games in my area didn't dry up, but, for a while, everytime I'd try to do something in a game, one of my fellow players would say either "you can't do that anymore" or "it doesn't work that way anymore." It was very frustrating. Enough so that I just stopped playing for a while. I came back with a vengeance when they released the DC Unleashed set. That was the set that included Brainiac 5, Chameleon, and Shvaughn Erin, plus some more Titans and the first round of Kingdom Come figs (though I never did get any of those; half a case of boosters and no Uniques! I was so pissed!). At this point, I've sworn off Marvel sets and am focussing on DC sets.

Right now I'm really looking forward to the DC Legacy set due out in March. Head over to HCrealms.com and look up Boneyard's list on the Rumors forum. This is a kick ass set. We're getting Kid Quantum, Wildfire, and the Persuader! I would have prefered someone other than KQ (like, say, M'onel), but we're also getting the modern Superboy, so the Legion is sort of getting a heavy hitter anyway. I can't wait!

Cool, the Statesman figure has a gold ring on the base. That makes it a Limited Edition, right?

Yep! So he's like collectible! Because things have to be labelled as collectible in order to be collectible! :-)

Yes, Statesman is a LE. LEs are either prizes or special offers, and in this case it was a special offer. Statesman is a powerfl figure by Heroclix standards, btw.

I'm still looking for those spreadsheets. Its been awhile since I played and since Yahoo doesn't keep attachments anymore I can't go to my old group. I may have one burried in an Outlook folder at work. If I find it I'll upload it to my site and post a link to it here.

Here is my ex's website. Click on the elemental and then the Heroclix symbol to access our lists. You can then make a copy and modify the list for your set if you like on your computer.

http://www.airlemental.net/