10 years of Heroclix

This week, Wizkids officially celebrates the 10th anniversary of Heroclix with two mini-sets of Marvel and DC characters in past and present forms. Technically, the 10-year mark was reached last May, but that doesn't really matter.

What matters is that the game - first considered to be less sophisticated and, thus, less important in some ways than the company's flagship title Mage Knight - has exceeded all expectations. In fact, it has lasted twice as long as the original Mage Knight did.

The familiarity of the characters within the game has been an obvious contributing factor to the longevity of Heroclix, but, if the game had played badly, it would have languished on the shelves like so much other gratuitous plastic expressions of licensing greed.

The truth is that those who dismiss the game underestimate the strategic and tactical elegance of Heroclix. They believe that since it is "collectible," it must be fan boy fodder and nothing more. Sure, just this past June, ICv2 reported that "HeroClix is on a total tear in comic stores, with HeroClix products taking the top six game slots in comic stores in June, led by DC HeroClix: The Dark Knight Rises Booster," but the bigger picture shows that, in every year of sales even in retail markets, Heroclix has been a consistent top-5 seller.

There's a singular reason for that popularity and why I've been untiringly playing social and solo Heroclix for an entire decade, now. And there's an equally good reason why my Solo Wargaming Rules for Heroclix have been accessed by readers thousands of times. Heroclix is simply an excellent game system, on par with any other skirmish or mass war game rules ever created.

Here's to 10 more years! It could very well last that long! (Just don't tell my wife.)