The Non-Euclidian Staircase

I like the IX Roman Legion. Solid, reasonably Legion-like sculpts (though I'm a bit disappointed by the stickers used for the shield designs). The Legionnaires themselves have nice abilities, with adjacent figures adding to each other's Defense and an ability to share each activation with any Warlord their player controls (there was one Warlord in the base set, two more in this expansion, one the Legion's officer). Roman Archers are less impressive, though quite impressive as long as you have all three of them because, as a unit, they can attack as 1 6-die unit rather than 3 2-die units. The Glyph with this set grants all of your figures a +2 defense while any of your figures controls it, which is enough to render many figures all but immune to smaller attacks.

Snipers and Vipers is a mixed set, two essentially unlinked squads. The Omnicron Snipers are a trio of deceptively powerful robotic snipers; deceptive because they look to have only an Attack of 1, but they hit twice for every hit they roll, so can pack a serious punch, particularly if you put them on high ground so they get an extra die to attack with. The Venoc Vipers are a dirt cheap unit (40 points for 3 figures) but they move fast, ignore the normal delays for walking in water, and have a Frenzy ability similar to the Vikings in the base set (get an extra move on a d20 roll of 16+). Unfortunately, they have a terrible 0 Defense, so unless you can get that Glyph from the Roman Legion set, they fall over when sneezed at. This set's glyph is a serious game-modifier, eliminating the Flying ability of any units in play.

The Grut Orcs are two very low cost units (both 40 points) and both quite useful in play. The four-figure Blade Gruts can share their activation with any Orc Champion on your side (there was one in the base set and another added in this expansion). The Arrow Gruts share their activation with any Beasts on their side (which, at the moment, means they are Mimring the Dragon's best buddies). Also, all Orcs can disengage from melee without suffering free attacks. The Glyph here is a major gamble, calling for a roll (19+ on d20) for each fallen figure on all sides; success means they revive and can re-enter the fray. Yikes!

Heroes of Bleakwoode offers 5 Unique figures, including a new "most expensive figure in the game", for those who thought Mimring and Deathwalker 9000 needed company. Taelord is a big, batwinged demon-lord sort with a giant sword, but his point value comes almost entirely from his "Attack Aura", granting a +1 Attack to all of his controller's figures within sight and 4 hexes! This guy can really enhance several figures, particularly the Omnicron Snipers from the S&V set. The Venoc Warlord is a leader for the Vipers, adding 2 to their already-high 7 Movement (though do be careful... he can't keep up with them if you do that, as he's only 7 Movement himself, not 9); he's also unhindered by water and adds a bonus to the viper's Frenzy roll as well. Marcus Decimus Gallus is the IX Legion's officer, adding one to friendly solders' movement (and the Legionnaires are Solideers... though the Archers are not) and also adding one to any adjacent soldiers' attack; at 100 points, he costs nearly as much as the Legionnaires and Archers together at 50 and 55, but he's a nice figure. Kelda the Kyrie Warrior is another flying angel-like figure, like Raelin the Kyrie Warrior from the basic set; Kelda flies, as the wings predict, and can also heal wounded figures, though it requires a d20 roll and there is a small risk of wounding them instead. Tornak is a new Orc-on-a-dinosaur figure, a smaller and quicker Grimnak (the original orc-on-a-dino from the basic game). And with all those great figures, there's also a Glyph, this one allowing to you add 1 to any d20 rolls, which does nothing for some forces, but is a real enhancer for others; for example, it doubles the chance of Ne-Gok-Sa taking over the mind of an enemy figure each turn.

Also, all of these sets come with additional hexes for your Heroscape boards, from 4 to 6 hexes, either in singles or doubles. Lets you make that mountain of death a little taller!

Many of the figures are quite good sculpts, particularly for the price. They aren't quire as cheap as MageKnight or D&D Miniatures figs, but they're also not randomly packed so you know what you're getting. These figures could make great RPG fodder, particularly the IX Legion and the Orcs. And Heroscape remains one of the best games I know of to set up just for people to look at it.