HeroScape

We try to have a family game night every so often.  Unfortunately, we end up bored with a lot of our games after we've played them over and over.

Before Ben and Emily left for the summer we suddenly had an epiphany and pulled out Ben's old HeroScape set.

HeroScape was Ben's favorite game for years when he was a pre-teen to early teen.  Everyone gave him figures and board pieces for birthdays and Christmas.  He has so many that we had to buy him a trunk to keep them all in.

Whenever we would move to a new state, Ben would insist that we take all his HeroScape pieces in the car with us instead of letting the movers pack them because he was so worried something would happen to them.

He actually hasn't played it in years now and they no longer produce the game or any of its pieces which is a shame because we really had a blast playing it.  Despite the fact that Ben hasn't played it in so long, he still remembered every single character and their special abilities in the game.

He said he used to while away the time reading all about each character and he did it so often it's still stuck in his head.

If only he would use that power for good.

We played two games, each of which took a couple of days to complete.  The game can be made large or small depending on how many people are playing and we went for large every time.

The hexagonal board pieces can be rearranged to make the board different for every game.  There are pieces for lava, water, dirt, grass, and ice.  There are also trees, bridges, icebergs, and buildings which can be added.  It's like a different game every time you play it!

Of course, Ben won the first game because he knows how the characters work and how to use that knowledge to his advantage

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Also, he's pretty darn ruthless. 

I actually won the second game but it was more of an accident than skill on my part.  The kids don't like to attack me because, well, I'm the mama.  And Kerry doesn't like to attack me because he has to still live with me when the game is over.  And I don't like to attack anyone because I don't want to hurt anyone's feelings.  So my characters just wander about the board smiling at people and only engaging in warfare when there is no other choice. 

HeroScape.  There is no substitute.