Hasbro Games Heroscape Expansion Set Collection 5: Gladiators and Agents

This heroscape set includes one unique squad of Nakita agents and three unique heroes: Retiarius, Crixius, and Spartacus. The gladiators are really fun to use, especially if you have the capuan gladiators set from wave 9. Used together, they all have roughly 6 attack and 4 defense, as well as several other abilities. Anyone who knows heroscape knows that the krav maga agents are one of the deadliest range squads in the game, and the Nakita agents are even better. Not only are the difficult to shoot because of their smoke powder, but they can damage small or medium figures that try to move adjacent to them, making them extremely versatile defensive units. Their most important factor, however, is that they make other units adjacent to them difficult to hit, which is priceless if you have strong offensive range units that can't take a hit (aka deathwalkers). To top it all of, they validate the existence of the gorillanators with their movement bonding, allowing you to seize a distant objective (say, a glyph) with the gorillas while covering them with the Nakitas. They are truly a must-have squad for serious collectors, and the gladiators are a fun alternative to conventional strategies.

While I was not overly enthusiastic about the agents included in this package, I was rather impressed with the three *unique* gladiator figures. I had originally mistaken them for a squad, but that is not the case. They are actually a trio of unique figures that can share a rather sizable bonus to their rolls if you use all three (including Spartacus) in your army.All three are good hand to hand combatants, with Spartacus slightly edging out Crixus. Unfortunately he costs more than twice as much as Crixus (a whopping 200 points!), so he's not really worth it unless you plan to use the aforementioned bonus and already have the other two gladiators in your army. If that's the case, I couldn't see any reason -not- to include Spartacus.The agents themselves have some nice features and a useful engagement strike, but somehow they just aren't my think. They have bonding with another hard to find squad (gorillinators) but without them, I kind of don't see the point. I bought this for the gladiators and I feel it was worth it just for them. Don't miss this one because you definitely want to have the gladiators at your disposal when you need solid hand to hand fighters to rip apart enemy squads and heroes.