Did I really spend $800?

I wanted to game again. But not Magic The Gathering or the like. While those games require a degree of skill, they really come down to whoever can spend the most money on the power cards.

Batman

When walking around my local gaming shop, I came across HeroClix. I hadn’t seen those for ten years or so. HeroClix is a game of collectable miniatures based on comic book characters. I had tried playing them when they first came out, but no one would play against me. They’re more popular now, the shop owner assured me. And they were in the middle of a Batman themed set. So I picked up a pack.

HeroClix are collectable in that the pieces have degrees of rarity randomly in blind packs. Like Magic and other card games, you get a mix of rare, uncommon and common pieces, as well as a chance for super-rare and chase figures. The appeal of HeroClix is that they made versions of each of the main characters. So there were common and uncommon Batman figures as well as rare and chase figures. The appeal was that the common and uncommon, while not as awesome as the chases, were still powerful. You could play with the popular characters without breaking the bank. And there are dice rolls, so luck would be a factor as well as skill.

Mr. Freeze

But it became clear very early on that, like Magic, whoever spent the most money would end up being the winner. Instead of being discouraged, I started buying more and more in hopes of getting better pieces. I’d open pack after pack and get disappointed when I wouldn’t get piece I wanted. And if I managed to get that piece, I’d get beat by a certain piece at the next tournament and have to chase that piece too.

I quickly spent way too much money. The randomness of the pieces is essentially gambling and I was addicted to trying. Like every gambler, I convinced myself I had a system. There is a way to tell, by weight, some of the larger figures. I convinced  this pack had one of the most sought after figures, a oversized vehicle. But to get it, I had to buy that $100 pack. I had the rest of the set, so everything else in that pack would be a duplicate. I put the stupid thing on my credit card and took it home.

It was, of course, not that piece. I was cursing myself for not walking away like my brain told me to. That’s really when I realized I had a problem. I made a vow to stop collecting HeroClix. I gave away most of my set, including some fancy, expensive pieces to keep for causal play.

I still needed a game to play though. The same day I saw the HeroClix, I also saw a game of X-Wing miniatures. I didn’t get it because I wasn’t sure of its popularity. But talking to the other HeroClix players, I found out more than a few were picking it up. So I got a set. And really enjoyed it. It has the strategy element I was looking for and, while expandable, it is not collectable. Every box has the exact same pieces. You cannot outspend, you can only outplay. I’m looking forward to going to my first tournament.