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: Weird-world
Environment: Outdoor
Map on Reverse: Regency Laboratory
Dimensions: 24" x 36" (16x24 squares)
Set: Secret Wars: Battleworld OP
Status: Modern

This week we're going to be breaking in to the Secret Wars OP kit, and first up on the chopping block is Weirdworld!


Making Yourself At Home

This is a Water heavy map with a bit of cover near the center. One of the things to notice is that even with the Blocking terrain near the center, most of the cover is in small clumps, so if you have a larger team, it'll work better if you can divide them in to small groups. Even still, it's not difficult to surround smaller groups of enemies or tentpoles from a couple different angles with only a little preparation. The cover in the center means that teams will feel natural encouraged to reach the center early and set up to attack a turn or two later. If you want to meet your opponent there, you have the first chance to rush in and take it, which also will likely give you the first choice in whether you want to attack or clear and let them exhaust themselves coming to you. Alternatively, you can hang back in the Hindering behind the Blocking, and allow your opponent to trip over the incoming terrain to get to you.


I mentioned the Water terrain before, so let's take a moment to talk about that. There is a lot of Water on the map, though my criticism here is that it's a little sparse leading in to the center of the map, and as you get closer to the center of the map, it crosses over, and centers along the West side of the map. Unfortunately, this doesn't really make it a dedicated Water map so much as push more of the action to the East. The Water still extends close enough to the center to get within Charge distance of anyone hiding around the Blocking terrain, but the lack of cover makes your initial setup dangerous, and about half of the Water still isn't anywhere near the Water, which is fine for some Water based characters, like those who gain mobility in the Water, but not as good for other Water based characters, like those who actively want to be in the Water for combat buffs.

Ultimately, I'd recommend either Improved Movement or Improved Targeting: Hindering, but honestly it's not a huge loss if you don't have either. Despite all of the terrain, getting around on the map is fairly easy if a little confusing, and there's a lot of tricks to get in closer or, more likely, mid range for an enemy. There's a lot of powers that can be useful here, though not many that will give you a decided edge like on a lot of other maps. Likewise, the Elevated is easy to get to for both sides, so it could be used for an advantage temporarily, but it won't take your opponent long to follow you up there, which means it's likely better as a single prong in a multi-pronged attack. This can be a good map if you plan for it, and the confusing design on the map makes it more difficult to plan for/against on the fly, so just be aware of what angles you want to attack from or draw enemies to.


Stuck in a Lease

There's a lot of Water on this map, which is useful for some characters, but overall there's a pretty strong variation on this map without any of it really getting in the way. That makes it a good map for your opponent to try and mitigate some of the advantage you get from fliers. Additionally, the cover is pretty well sparsed all over the map, but only in clumps that will protect a small handful of people in a single group, which means that larger teams will likely have to split up. The differences between the North and South side of the map are subtle, but one thing to check on is the location of the Blocking terrain. The Blocking terrain in the South sticks a little more prominently to the East side and the Blocking terrain in the North creates a short wall leading in to the Water in the West side. If you think your opponent is going to head for Water, and you want a staging area to combat that, I'd recommend taking the North side, and if you think they're going to move out to the plain terrain in the center, I'd recommend taking the South side.



The primary thing is to watch out for ambushes. The best thing to try on this map is to attack your opponent from a few sides at once, so keep an eye out for that, and find ways to isolate pockets of enemies from other pockets. Additionally, don't let the map itself distract you, and try to focus on the terrain markers instead of the map itself. All in all, there's something for everyone here somewhere, you just have to keep an eye out for it. You can use the center to get in close with your opponents, or even hang back a bit, and shoot out the Blocking terrain when your opponent tries to close in on you. Likewise, you can use the small bit of Elevated terrain to draw your opponent there.

Vacation Spots

This is a good neutral map for casual games because there's somewhere for everyone here. We have Water for people who like that, open terrain for long range characters, and clustered terrain for people who want cover to get up close and personal with their enemies, and the map kind of drives all of the action casually towards the center, giving each team enough confidence to try and set up without a ton of cat-and-mouse play to slow things down.

It’s Getting Kinda Crowded

I wouldn't mind this map for 3 people, because you could start 2 of them in the Western corners back near their own starting zones, and then have a third player occupy the Elevated terrain over on the East to give everyone some space and agency to pick their battles. 4 players might get a little hectic though, because while you could start everyone in the corners or something, the Water is going to drive everyone to try and fight the person closest to them before moving up the middle. This isn't a terrible setup if that's what you want, but it's more of 2 one on one fights with a second fight than a larger free for all, so keep that in consideration. Additionally, the map can be connected to itself by flipping one upside down and connecting them at the lake, but they don't feel like they really connect well on any other corner. That said, this IS Weirdworld as a part of Battleworld, so the idea of lining up several maps that don't organically connect is uniquely accurate. My recommendation is to find a map with a little Elevated in the center on either the East or West edge, and lining it up there, such as placing the map next to GridReality's Jungle Ruins, Civil War's Chemical Plant, or even just something odd like Infinity's Halfworld.

I Think I’m Gonna Like It Here

Witch Queen Le Fay comes to mind here. She has all of the movement powers she could want, and she's really a team player when it comes to her strong Perplex, and being able to cancel out similar buffs in others. Moreover, she has the mid-range values to really get the most out of the map. Other Weirdworld residents like Magma Man, or Crystar have their own usefulness in using the Blocking terrain around the center for cover while they get up close. King Shark is a good example of a Water terrain character who can use the map for mobility without feeling like he lost something once he steps away from the Water. wkD16-005 Green Lantern doesn't have to care about the Water one way or another, but could still use his Flight to ignore it and place himself in the center of a lot of clear lines of fire without having to worry about Grounded characters making their way up to him quickly, and his dial is as adaptable as the terrain.


This Side Up

Theme: 4/5

The map feels a little dark to me for Weirdworld. What I've seen of Weirdworld is a relatively lush place with softer tones, and while the map does have green around the edges, they don't dominate the landscape in the same way. That said, the terrain is definitely weird, and you can see the influences of places like Crystalium on the map. The way the terrain kind of shifts feels representative of Weirdwold as a whole without necessarily representing any specific area in Weirdworld, and it uses a lot of aesthetics that WK doesn't normally feel like breaking out among a lot of other maps with a more generic feel.

Clarity: 2/5

The shifting terrain definitely doesn't do a lot of favors for clarity. For example, the Water terrain doesn't ever really look like water, and changes from a purple-pink plasma to an almost crystalline dark blue to an equally crystalline green fauna that I simply have to assume is below the surface of the water. And when I say crystalline, I don't mean clear so much as rigid and heavily refractive. Likewise, the Elevated terrain is surrounded by this black and red field effect, which obsctructs the boundaries of the Elevated terrain, and completely obscures the fact that the base of the volcano is completely clear functionally. Likewise, the exploding top of the volcano kind of distracts from the Blocking terrain lines it's supposed to be, and a lot of the cover littering the map just comes in all over the place. It's not even a really complicated layout, just aesthetically confusing.

Tactical Impact: 2/5

Honestly, this isn't a map to gain a strong tactical edge over your opponent. There's a few advantages here and there, but ultimately the map, like it's namesake, doesn't really seem to know what it wants to be, and the result is a place that doesn't press an edge anywhere in particular.

Balance: 4/5

To the map's benefit, there are places for everyone here, and honestly it's not that bad of a place to get called to if you just want to have a fairly even game without shutting down some element on your opponent's team.

Terrain Diversity: 4/5

We got all of the big 4 here, Water, Elevated, Blocking, and Hindering, and most of it is in healthy amounts. There really isn't a lot of Elevated though, and the Hindering is mostly towards the starting zones on the map. Additionally, I'd have hoped that an ever changing landscape would have some kind of Orange effect, and I feel like it was a wasted opportunity to not do that.


Overall: 3/5

Honestly, this is a really aesthetically fun map that feels lackluster when it comes to actually playing on it. It's definitely going to see more casual than competitive play, and that's ok because it works well for that and not every map needs to be about grinding a team in to dust before the game begins.

In the Neighborhood

Warehouse
http://www.hcrealms.com/forum/showthread.php?t=577491

Dockside Amusement Park
http://www.hcrealms.com/forum/showthread.php?t=556326

Soul World
http://www.hcrealms.com/forum/showthread.php?t=355983



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

This map hurts the eyes. I think your rankings on both Clarity and Tactical sum it up nicely. Its cool it exists and all, but boy oh boy did I hate playing on it.

I love it from an aesthetic sense, it's pretty, bit yeah it is far from the clearest map to read they have put out. Still like it overall.

This map is a mistake colorwise like so many of the pieces in this set. It is hard to read, and the other side of it...don't get me started. I hope the next op kit map is a little easier in the eyes.

If there was a way to recolor the map, we’d all be moving our characters to the base of the volcano and say “I have the high ground Anakin”

I'm colour-blind (fairly mild case) and this map hurts my eyes too!