Heroscape is one of the coolest miniatures-based war games to come out in a long time.

I'm not generally a big fan of miniatures games. They tend to move too slowly for my taste. In some miniatures games, you measure your piece's movement with a ruler. That's just far too precise for me. 

Ages ago, Milton Bradley put out a miniatures game called Battle Masters, and I loved that game. The game system was simplistic, but very fast. And the game itself was BIG! The playing mat was 57" long by 55" wide -- a tad too large to fit on the average kitchen table. When all 103 figures were set up on the battle mat, it was an awesome thing to behold. But it's been out of print for more than 10 years.A complete Heroscape set

In 2004, Milton Bradley (now owned by Hasbro) released Heroscape. It was designed by some of the same guys who designed Battle Masters. To a large extent, Heroscape is a table-top-sized version of Battle Masters. Like its predecessor, Heroscape comes with 30 good-quality figures. But it improves upon its progenitor by including 85 plastic terrain tiles that can be used to build impressive three-dimensional landscapes. You get a huge amount of plastic for a suggested list price of $40. And the game is readily available; because it's by Hasbro, a company with a giant distribution network, you can get it at any Wal-Mart or Toys R Us.

Really, there are a lot of reasons to be excited about this game.

For those who have never played war games before, Heroscape is an excellent introduction to the genre. Fans are coming up with new scenarios and new battlefields all the time. You can find some of their work on the Board Game Geek or at heroscape.net. And of course, there's also Hasbro's Heroscape Web site.

I've got a few scenarios of my own. Submitted for your approval: