The impact a map can have on a game is often overlooked. A good strategy incorporates a tactically-sound map choice. But when it comes to locale, sometimes it's hard to see the forest for the trees. We're here to help you make smart decisions when it comes to HeroClix real estate.

Official Title: Police HQ
Environment: Indoor
Map on Reverse: None
Dimensions: 24" x 36" (16x24 squares)
Set: ROC 2019
Status: Modern

We're back in the new year with another ROC 2019 Preview! This time around we have the next map in our "Law and Order" theme, the January purchasable map, the Police HQ!

Making Yourself At Home


We have an Indoor map with a high number of walls, forming variously sized and shaped rooms throughout the map. While the map isn't bilateral, it's very close, though the devil's in the differences. Even bigger is that the North and South side of the map have fairly different layouts, which can affect placement and positioning when you're starting off. The Northern area of the map seems to be the front entrance, and side offices for more important members of the force, and the back offices, lineup room, and even bathrooms line the back to give some variation to this location.

The high number of walls will initially mean that you and your opponent will be able to move towards the center easily and safety, which coincidentally also means that the areas further North and South on the map will have less of an impact as a battlefield, and more of a small navigational challenge to direct your forces forward through. The ability top Ignore Blocking, either for Targeting or Movement will be a large asset here, as will the ability to Ignore Hindering and or Characters, mostly for Targeting in those cases. Phasing/Teleport can also be a huge asset here, especially if you have a character who can make attacks afterwards, as it's very easy to get the drop on opponents with it.

Ultimately, it's very easy to get in close to your opponent regardless of what kind of Improved Movement you have here, so it's a good place to level the playing field a bit for Fliers, and it's a great place to limit the options for Ranged characters. Charge is very useful here, because it's easy to get within range to perform it and lock down an opponent who wants a little space. Likewise, even Sidestep can work wonders here, and characters who have Charge leading in to mid-dial Sidestep or something similar will be able to lock down an opponent early, and then keep positioning between opponents as the battle progresses. Simuilarly, this is a great map to play with characters who came ready to brawl, so things like Super Strength (both for object play AND knockback), Blades/Claws/Fangs, Flurry, or Exploit Weakness all work wonders here.

Alternatively, if you want to hang back, this is a good map to turtle on, because it's difficult to gain line of fire more than a few squares away, and you can set up ambushes for your opponent at different stages to hit priority targets as they try to move across the board. Now, that said, the Southern Starting Zone, near the bathrooms is the best place for turtling. You have small rooms within the complex, and then even smaller rooms within the small rooms. It's a nesting doll of places to frustrate your opponents as you avoid engagements. Unfortunately, if you picked the map, it's unlikely that you'll get to start here, and the Northern starting zone is a little bit more open but you can still make a short walk to press yourself in to the Hindering against the forward wall or in to the hallway nearby. Regardless, the map is still a solid choice for if you want to delay opponents, especially if you have some tie-ups or pogs to make sure that they get stalled even longer. Another similar strategy that's good is giving your opponent the runaround. Since the map has at least a couple ways to get around, it's not difficult to earn a few points and then avoid an enemy altogether, or at least leave cheap tie-ups in your wake as you escape to another area.

Stuck in a Lease

This map tends to limit both Ranged teams, and Flier heavy teams by eliminating most of the advantages for each, and cutting them down to a similar level to Grounded or Close Combat teams. When it comes time to pick Starting Zones, I'd recommend the Souther Starting zone for a couple of reasons. The first is that it makes a better place for turtle teams, so if you want to turtle, or you want to deny your opponent the ability to turtle, the Southern starting zone is the place to be. The other thing is that the Southern starting zone kind of extends in to the middle further. This is better if you have some way to ignore Indoor Blocking terrain, but even without it, it's possible to advance a little further in to the map without leaving yourself potentially exposed. A fun thing to consider is that on the East side of the map there's the lineup room, and that room is completely sealed from the North unless you shoot through the glass, so if you're looking for a little bit of space, it's really easy to defend that area against Grounded Melee characters by hiding behind the glass and then shooting in to it when your opponent tries to close in.



Once the battle begins, you can try to avoid your opponent enough to draw them in to an area that's a little better for you. I mentioned the lineup room, but if you're looking for a little more Range, there's some other places you might have some luck on, including hallways between offices, in the conference room, or even just camping in your starting zone, and firing at anyone who comes down through the locker room. If you're not worried about sticking to long range, you can find other places to engage, I just wanted to cover some good spots if you're looking to get those 7+ Range shots.

Vacation Spots

This is a good map if you're looking for a place that provides a lot of smaller areas to fight. This makes the map in to a lot of slugfests, and the terrain is going to get a bit crowded if you place a large number of characters on the map. What I really love about long Casual battles is to not only see how the battle evolves, but the terrain, and with all of the Walls on this map, it's really cool to see how the terrain changes with time. There's a lot of places where knocking out just one section of a wall can completely cut off a room or alley from Grounded characters or open it up to Ranged ones.

It’s Getting Kinda Crowded

This map has enough walls that it's easy to place more than two players on it. Corners is a good standard, but really just isolating people in their own rooms still leaves some good options in multiplayer games. Even better is that the map kind of, sort of be placed next to itself, so if you're in the market for multiples, it does kind of work on that. Interestingly enough, it makes a good attempt to connect with last week's Prison map by way of the hallway in the South, though some of the aesthetics might not line up as well as you'd like unless you imagine a Wall along the border of the map itself except for the hallway.

I Think I’m Gonna Like It Here

ffhq006 Corrupt GCPD Cop is a lot of fun here because they can't be permanently killed until their boss is. Not only does this map provide good ambush spots for them, but it also allows them to block up the narrow passages with their undying bodies AND it provides a good number of places for their "Boss" to hide in the meantime. hq063 The Flash, God of Death might not have the Police keyword some of his counterparts do, but this is a great map for him since he has Hypersonic Speed to make hit and run attacks while using the walls to hide, AND his "God of Death" Trait doesn't require line of fire to affect people. This is a cool map for xxs057 Kid Gladiator. He does the Hypersonic Speed thing, but also has plenty of shelter to keep him and his team on the run while you rack up his "Glory" trait. If you want to go a little commando, halo045 Master Chief (with the Ghost) has not only Hypersonic Speed and a little Range for making hit and run tactics, but he has Thermite Grenades for demolishing walls if you get tired of them. wkM17-011 Storm is another example of someone who has some options for getting around the walls. While she can't shoot through Walls, she can destroy them as a Free Action here, which makes it much easier to line up long Range shots.



This Side Up

Theme: 5/5

Short of having a firing range or something, I really love this map from a theme standpoint. Each of the rooms feels like it could have been the same thing room to room, but there's a lot of variation. You have several work desks, a conference room, a locker room, bathrooms, and interrogation room, a lineup room, and several others. It's even worth noting that the workdesks near the center of the map have a ton of paperwork on them, and look cheaply made, while the two larger offices have less clutter, nicer chairs, and even a nicer cut of wood on the desk itself for the upper brass. Really cool stuff that's easy to overlook, but clearly represents a lot of effort.

Clarity: 3/5

It's difficult to have a clear map with so much going on, but I think this map does as good a job as it can, with it's semi-lateral structure, the floor tile changes in neutral colors that don't blend with the terrain markers, and heavily structured terrain like the easy to see Hindering or plainly laid out Walls.

Tactical Impact: 4/5

A great Indoor, Wall-heavy map that fills a lot of the same roles as the Wizkids Office if you didn't pick that up a while back. Great for leveling the playing field against Fliers and Ranged teams, and that's always a treat.

Balance: 3/5

I really love how both Starting Zones feel very different, and kind of work in different ways. Additionally, the nice thing about a map with a lot of cover like this is that there's a few place to back out of if you don't like the terrain you're walking in to for battle. That said, there's a lot of ambush points for close-up characters, and a few good tie-ups can really limit your options here.

Terrain Diversity: 3/5

This map is Wall heavy, and it has a very healthy amount of Hindering terrain. It also has a bit of Blocking terrain and some of that new Glass, but honestly I feel like both of those are afterthoughts or just a bit of flavor more than they're attempts at those terrain types.

Overall: 4/5

I'm not going to say we don't see any Police Stations on Heroclix maps, but I don't think we get them enough. In the meantime, it fills a strong tactical role, and a lot of effort was made in to the aesthetic part of the map. It's a really solid design, and I like it a lot.

In the Neighborhood

Wizkids Office
http://www.hcrealms.com/forum/showthread.php?t=570927

Gotham Museum
http://www.hcrealms.com/forum/showthread.php?t=600169

Ranx
http://www.hcrealms.com/forum/showthread.php?t=559935


You can get this map for yourself over at the ROC Store at http://gamermats.com/roc

Shoutout to eMouse's Heroclix Atlas for the easy to read map layouts.