Great review. Also great job painting the squads. they look great. this game is pretty good. but i think they should also include more terrain in plastic so we can build higher grounds but also include more terrain in the cardboard box material. that way we can build a bigger ground.
Great job and to the point. I love the painting on your squads btw. I even bought 5 multiple original core sets besides the expansions to build zombie army. Didn't bother to follow the unique rules as long as it's not a "Hero" Character this opened up a list of possibilities. Keep this game expansion's videos coming pls
Will do, we're finishing up editing our review for the latest expansion (Shadows over Innistrad) tomorrow, should be up very shortly. And yah, sometimes we throw the army point rules out the window too and just go for a massive brawl. Definitely fun.
I need to see the abilities on the new characters of the expansion i am going to buy it but first i need a deeper look at each figure abilities so I can know what I am getting into before I buy.
If you're looking for more Arena of the Planeswalkers vids, check out the preview of our upcoming series: ua-cam.com/video/r9pYlio_oA4/v-deo.html Thanks for watching, and subscribe to see the newest vids the second they drop!
hey forrest, great review, your honesty and perspective is muchly appreciated. can i ask how you think the core game and the innistrad expansion mix? i have SOI but id like to increase the options. keep up the great vids, say hi to the wife!
Thanks dude! Of the two expansions, I prefer the SOI expansion if only because it has more content. It mixes great with the base game- in fact it's main strength is to let you build armies with higher point values. It also lets you run two Planeswalkers of the same color- a house-ruled setup where we each player controls 2 separate armies, but can cast spells on the allied army with either Planeswalker they control. The BFZ expansion mixes pretty well too, but it's better for things like a 3 player setup, where two people take on one player controlling the boss (or you can do like us and just have 1 player as boss, 1 player controlling two armies). The main point here is that either expansion greatly expands your options from the core set, given you take on a certain mindset: Screw The Rules. What I mean by this is create any army you want to, don't worry about all the little conflicting details, just have fun and if it doesn't work out, play another game! Hasbro never really "finished" the game (at least in our opinon), so it's up to you to come up with new options. Enjoy your games!
I love the videos! As a Magic player, Arena was my first board game, and I'm buying Heroscape stuff to crossover with it, can you make a video regarding the best ways to play crossovers? Thanks!
+SnowCoveredPlainswalker We'll definitely look into doing this, it would be a cool concept to cover. We've got another DIY vid for Heroscape/AoTP terrain coming out later this week. Also check heroscapers (google it for the link), they've got some good resources on combining the two. Thanks for the likes!
The quality of your review, writing, shot composition, General filming, editing, sound quality, music, and lighting, are incredible given what a pain in the ass this game sounds like. You must have really like magic the Gathering or the heroscape concept, because I don't know why on Earth you spent so much time making this high quality review for a game that is now been discontinued. You must really love the game, or your subscribers. More power to you I guess.
+matthlowder Anything worth doing is worth doing well. If you check out our 'why we do what we do', we go a bit further in detail on why we put the time into our vids that we do. It's a shame Hasbro has passed over this game, given the fact that there's a good sized fan base that enjoy it. Thanks for the compliment.
I like what you had to say and I think you did a very good job explaining the pro's and cons except for the point about Liliana's Zombies being controlled by Ob'Nixhilis. The point of the Zombies are to be disposable/recurring troops. To recur, they only need a black Planeswalker. If anything its just a reminder of how black functions: Calculated sacrifice.
There is a new expansion come out this Fall "Shadows of Innistrad it will introduce new twisted terrain and planes walkers and spell cards. This is good to know so the third expansion is on its way
+MrCatalystguy Yep, first official announcement dropped from Hasbro in late February. Finally, some new terrain! We'll definitely be reviewing it when it's released.
I was just disappointing that it only came with a single scenario and the fact that you do not get enough cards to actually make a spell deck for the two new Plainswalkers without sacrificing one of the original Plainswalkers because you have to scrap their spell deck. We bought 2 of each of the base game and the expansion so that we could have more variety of the miniatures and enough spells to actually use all of the Plainswalkers. It also let us remove some of the useless spells like the Anti-Flyer one in the Green deck that is useless unless you are playing against the Red. The game itself is a blast. Two sets fixes any of the issues I had with the game (aside from the terrain, which I already have laying around). Arena of the Plainswalkers officially came out in November of 2015 (though it was released a month early on Amazon i limited quantities), it has not been 7 months, it has been 2 (again Amazon released the expansion a month early in December). No other game out there has gotten an expansion within 2 months of its release.
+Trueflight Silverwing I agree that it would've been nice to see expansion content on the level of something like Rise of the Valkyrie; I have to admit most of my wishes about that went out the door when I heard the MSRP. Just wondering, with two sets- do you ignore the unique squad rule? (The small icon on the card). I've seen some complaints about all the new squads being unique. Also, I went off the release date on BGG; my Amazon price tracker shows copies were available from Amazon for $39.99 on July 2, 2015, but it might be incorrect. Dunno, either way let's hope they keep them coming.
+TwoBats Gaming That was likely pre-orders back in July. Amazon also had the pricing wrong at first and only refunded the difference between their Pre-order prices and the actual MSRP to people who complained when the game finally released and it was much cheaper than they were originally charging. Yeah you pretty much have to ignore the current Unique rules to do any sort of constructed play. Every single unit that has been released so far has been Unique, even the Eldrazi Scions. It was a really dumb move since if you want to play by the actual rules, there is little to no reason to bother with a second set of the game, aside from getting the spell cards to customize the decks a little. Nothing else is really usable (unless you wanted to play some mirror matches against the same color plainswalkers). Definitely a missed opportunity on their part. I would think that the new expansions are probably going to fall on the quarterly blocks the same as the Magic the Gathering card game. This expansion was based on the Battle for Zendikar which is the currently running block in the card game. There are three sets of cards for each block before they move onto the next one. I'm betting that we hear more about an upcoming expansion in March when more info on the next card set is available. I think they don't want to give any spoilers of the upcoming card set by announcing the board game expansion too soon. I too would like to see some terrain packs released. I think they will be very hesitant to do it though. The cost of producing the terrain is what pushed the costs of the Heroscape sets up so high that it died off. There are those die hard fans out there that would buy the stuff though, if not for this game, for their old Heroclix games. A smart move would be to sell a terrain only pack with a handful of pieces here and there for more reasonable prices and players for both games would buy them. Sure it would take a while to build up the huge amounts that us old Heroscape players have, but for new players every little bit is an improvement. I forgot to complain about the terrible box the expansion came in. you didn't mention that in your video either. After the nice lift tob box of the original, the terrible quality side opening paperboard of the expansion was another terrible let down. Luckily, just about everything fits into the original box (the Ruiner's arm sticks up just enough that the lid doesn't completely shut, but it is close enough).
Great insight in your review. I love the cinematography and the editing. Very well thought out. My issues with the game are that the Units are also Unique as of so far so there is not incentive to get multiple sets and thus increase sales and army build variety. And yes a lack of terrain is killing it as well.
+Benjamin Hernandez (TIGBUN) Agreed, it seems like a strange decision on Hasbro's part- why limit players to one unit if they're willing to buy more? It's a shame, I'd really like to see this game take off but it's being hobbled by some of Hasbro/Wizards design decisions.
The last scenario, you just found both sets for about $13 at thrift shops and want some great minis for playing D&D. What are your chances of that happening, I have no idea but I found both. Scooooooorrrrrrrrrreeeeeee!!!!!
I emailed Hasbro, I got a response. They said they can't comment on future development of planeswalker as things are subject to change.... Total generic response, very annoying.
With decades of MTG cards this game needs a community to start mining the history of cards for new content.
I've been doing that it gets allot more fun and interesting.
also want to note in the expansion the manuel says you can go up to 600 army cost
Great review. Also great job painting the squads. they look great. this game is pretty good. but i think they should also include more terrain in plastic so we can build higher grounds but also include more terrain in the cardboard box material. that way we can build a bigger ground.
The video was very well done with valid and well thought out points. I hope and believe you will soon have many more subscribers.
+Edward Motley Thanks for the kind comments, we appreciate it.
E X C E L L E N T series and massively useful information about this game. Cheers guys,
Great job and to the point. I love the painting on your squads btw. I even bought 5 multiple original core sets besides the expansions to build zombie army. Didn't bother to follow the unique rules as long as it's not a "Hero" Character this opened up a list of possibilities. Keep this game expansion's videos coming pls
Will do, we're finishing up editing our review for the latest expansion (Shadows over Innistrad) tomorrow, should be up very shortly. And yah, sometimes we throw the army point rules out the window too and just go for a massive brawl. Definitely fun.
OMG these are some of the most professionally produced vids i have seen on gaming! nice job, twobats!!!
Thank you, appreciate the kind words!
I need to see the abilities on the new characters of the expansion i am going to buy it but first i need a deeper look at each figure abilities so I can know what I am getting into before I buy.
If you're looking for more Arena of the Planeswalkers vids, check out the preview of our upcoming series:
ua-cam.com/video/r9pYlio_oA4/v-deo.html
Thanks for watching, and subscribe to see the newest vids the second they drop!
hey forrest, great review, your honesty and perspective is muchly appreciated. can i ask how you think the core game and the innistrad expansion mix? i have SOI but id like to increase the options. keep up the great vids, say hi to the wife!
Thanks dude! Of the two expansions, I prefer the SOI expansion if only because it has more content. It mixes great with the base game- in fact it's main strength is to let you build armies with higher point values. It also lets you run two Planeswalkers of the same color- a house-ruled setup where we each player controls 2 separate armies, but can cast spells on the allied army with either Planeswalker they control.
The BFZ expansion mixes pretty well too, but it's better for things like a 3 player setup, where two people take on one player controlling the boss (or you can do like us and just have 1 player as boss, 1 player controlling two armies).
The main point here is that either expansion greatly expands your options from the core set, given you take on a certain mindset: Screw The Rules. What I mean by this is create any army you want to, don't worry about all the little conflicting details, just have fun and if it doesn't work out, play another game! Hasbro never really "finished" the game (at least in our opinon), so it's up to you to come up with new options. Enjoy your games!
So you can use Heroscape terrain for this game?
Yep. Everything works perfectly.
this is the best review for the game iv seen good job!
Thanks mate, your support means a lot to us.
I love the videos! As a Magic player, Arena was my first board game, and I'm buying Heroscape stuff to crossover with it, can you make a video regarding the best ways to play crossovers? Thanks!
+SnowCoveredPlainswalker We'll definitely look into doing this, it would be a cool concept to cover. We've got another DIY vid for Heroscape/AoTP terrain coming out later this week. Also check heroscapers (google it for the link), they've got some good resources on combining the two. Thanks for the likes!
The quality of your review, writing, shot composition, General filming, editing, sound quality, music, and lighting, are incredible given what a pain in the ass this game sounds like. You must have really like magic the Gathering or the heroscape concept, because I don't know why on Earth you spent so much time making this high quality review for a game that is now been discontinued. You must really love the game, or your subscribers. More power to you I guess.
+matthlowder Anything worth doing is worth doing well. If you check out our 'why we do what we do', we go a bit further in detail on why we put the time into our vids that we do. It's a shame Hasbro has passed over this game, given the fact that there's a good sized fan base that enjoy it. Thanks for the compliment.
I like what you had to say and I think you did a very good job explaining the pro's and cons except for the point about Liliana's Zombies being controlled by Ob'Nixhilis. The point of the Zombies are to be disposable/recurring troops. To recur, they only need a black Planeswalker. If anything its just a reminder of how black functions: Calculated sacrifice.
Great Review and Video
There is a new expansion come out this Fall "Shadows of Innistrad it will introduce new twisted terrain and planes walkers and spell cards. This is good to know so the third expansion is on its way
+MrCatalystguy Yep, first official announcement dropped from Hasbro in late February. Finally, some new terrain! We'll definitely be reviewing it when it's released.
I was under the impression Wizards of the Coast is a Hasbro Subsidiary.
I was just disappointing that it only came with a single scenario and the fact that you do not get enough cards to actually make a spell deck for the two new Plainswalkers without sacrificing one of the original Plainswalkers because you have to scrap their spell deck.
We bought 2 of each of the base game and the expansion so that we could have more variety of the miniatures and enough spells to actually use all of the Plainswalkers. It also let us remove some of the useless spells like the Anti-Flyer one in the Green deck that is useless unless you are playing against the Red.
The game itself is a blast. Two sets fixes any of the issues I had with the game (aside from the terrain, which I already have laying around).
Arena of the Plainswalkers officially came out in November of 2015 (though it was released a month early on Amazon i limited quantities), it has not been 7 months, it has been 2 (again Amazon released the expansion a month early in December). No other game out there has gotten an expansion within 2 months of its release.
+Trueflight Silverwing I agree that it would've been nice to see expansion content on the level of something like Rise of the Valkyrie; I have to admit most of my wishes about that went out the door when I heard the MSRP.
Just wondering, with two sets- do you ignore the unique squad rule? (The small icon on the card). I've seen some complaints about all the new squads being unique.
Also, I went off the release date on BGG; my Amazon price tracker shows copies were available from Amazon for $39.99 on July 2, 2015, but it might be incorrect. Dunno, either way let's hope they keep them coming.
+TwoBats Gaming That was likely pre-orders back in July. Amazon also had the pricing wrong at first and only refunded the difference between their Pre-order prices and the actual MSRP to people who complained when the game finally released and it was much cheaper than they were originally charging.
Yeah you pretty much have to ignore the current Unique rules to do any sort of constructed play. Every single unit that has been released so far has been Unique, even the Eldrazi Scions. It was a really dumb move since if you want to play by the actual rules, there is little to no reason to bother with a second set of the game, aside from getting the spell cards to customize the decks a little. Nothing else is really usable (unless you wanted to play some mirror matches against the same color plainswalkers). Definitely a missed opportunity on their part.
I would think that the new expansions are probably going to fall on the quarterly blocks the same as the Magic the Gathering card game. This expansion was based on the Battle for Zendikar which is the currently running block in the card game. There are three sets of cards for each block before they move onto the next one. I'm betting that we hear more about an upcoming expansion in March when more info on the next card set is available. I think they don't want to give any spoilers of the upcoming card set by announcing the board game expansion too soon.
I too would like to see some terrain packs released. I think they will be very hesitant to do it though. The cost of producing the terrain is what pushed the costs of the Heroscape sets up so high that it died off. There are those die hard fans out there that would buy the stuff though, if not for this game, for their old Heroclix games. A smart move would be to sell a terrain only pack with a handful of pieces here and there for more reasonable prices and players for both games would buy them. Sure it would take a while to build up the huge amounts that us old Heroscape players have, but for new players every little bit is an improvement.
I forgot to complain about the terrible box the expansion came in. you didn't mention that in your video either. After the nice lift tob box of the original, the terrible quality side opening paperboard of the expansion was another terrible let down. Luckily, just about everything fits into the original box (the Ruiner's arm sticks up just enough that the lid doesn't completely shut, but it is close enough).
excellent review! best I've seen! please make one for the new expansion :)
You're in luck. It's being released tommorrow. Thanks for the compliments.
Think the problem with this game seems to be they can't get enough releases out to make it customise well. Real shame it could be real good.
Great insight in your review. I love the cinematography and the editing. Very well thought out.
My issues with the game are that the Units are also Unique as of so far so there is not incentive to get multiple sets and thus increase sales and army build variety. And yes a lack of terrain is killing it as well.
+Benjamin Hernandez (TIGBUN) Agreed, it seems like a strange decision on Hasbro's part- why limit players to one unit if they're willing to buy more? It's a shame, I'd really like to see this game take off but it's being hobbled by some of Hasbro/Wizards design decisions.
TwoBats Gaming I agree
You all need to show a entire battle from beginning to end for Battle for Zendikar Playthrough.
I agree if I could just walk out to my local toys are us and buy terrain id be broke all the time
Nicobolas Dragon 3 Edicion Coming som !
The last scenario, you just found both sets for about $13 at thrift shops and want some great minis for playing D&D. What are your chances of that happening, I have no idea but I found both. Scooooooorrrrrrrrrreeeeeee!!!!!
I found the complete set with the expansion pack included for $3 at goodwill
ebay is bad for shopping were i live, it costs a lot for shipping
I emailed Hasbro, I got a response. They said they can't comment on future development of planeswalker as things are subject to change.... Total generic response, very annoying.