Hi all! We're back with a guest post from a wonderful member of the Heroscape Community, Daniel Chance! He's written up a great guide on the top-tier units at Gen Con. Here's his takeaways:
Gen Con 2025 having wrapped up, here’s a quick look at some of the key figures in the meta sandbox currently for contemporary:
Queen Maladrix the Conqueror and Festering Honor Guards
For 220 points combined, these two army cards are a pretty self sufficient start to an army, and one that was prevalent at the 2025 World Championship. Boasting up to seven attacks per Player Turn, with solid defensive stats and a way to revive fallen Honor Guards,
Maladrix and her guards are certainly at the top of the contemporary meta currently.
Tanuki Tricksters
One of the first three common squads in the contemporary sandbox, the
Tanuki have taken a notable lead in efficiency compared to their two peers. While limited to two activations per order marker, the combination of range, high move, solid defense, displacement using Nage-Waza and additional army movement with Tanuki Aruki makes the Tricksters a versatile 45 point squad.
Revnan Acolytes
Another common squad, the
Acolytes are a cheap support option that fits well into just about any army running Revna heroes. Providing a reroll to adjacent heroes who follow Revna, combined with the ability once a round to place a destroyed Acolyte next to one of said heroes provides a lot of value for just 40 points. Acolytes can easily fit into armies running Maladrix or any of the Eisenek heroes, and even have some use running multiple squads to pod around Viscerot and create a screen that he can walk over when attacked by enemy melee.
Major Q11
A bit of an underdog to some extent,
Major Q11 makes it onto this list as one of the heroes in the runner-up army at Worlds 2025. At the end of the day, the Major’s heavy hitting melee and multi-target special attack are still very efficient if you have 160 points to spare in an army.
Summary
The top two armies at Gen Con featured combinations of these five army cards. The champion list was Maladrix, Honor Guards, and four squads of Tanuki, while the finalist ran Maladrix, Honor Guards, Q11, and a squad of Acolytes. While a lot of different armies made it to Day 3, it is clear that in the early Contemporary Meta, Maladrix is indeed the queen. With new threats such as the swarming Gelryie Vanguards and long-range Greatbow Archers on the horizon though, we will have to see how long the Skordyre brood can stay at the top.
