Review: Kellar's Keep- Hasbro/Avalon Hill

 

Hail fellow adventurers!  Join me as we continue our quest.  A quest worthy of heroes.  A Heroquest?  Those who have been following the blog for a bit know that I received the new version of Heroquest as a gift, and have managed to paint the entire Core set. From there, I purchased and reviewed the Against the Ogre Horde set.  I have also managed to paint that entire expansion up as well.  Therefore, I cast my wandering eye to the future and decide to pick up my next expansion for Heroquest.  This time, I decided on,,,,,

Why Kellar's Keep?  I picked up Against the Ogre Horde because the idea of adding some ranged enemies intrigued me.  The Ogres were just a bonus.  The new hero was also a bonus.  I do want to keep expanding my collection of potential heroes.  However, this expansion does not offer any new monsters, any ne heroes, and not much in the way of special rules or rules enhancement.  So, why did I pick this one up next?  

For a simple reason.  At the end of the original Heroquest campaign ......  

************* Spoilers Ahead!**************

.... <Takes a deep breathe>....

No really, spoilers ahead...... don't read further if you don't want to see them.  I mean it! 

Where was I?  Oh yeah, at the end of the original Heroquest campaign, all is not right in the world.  The Witch Lord has arisen, and the King's army went off to fight Zargon's forces.  Newsflash, the battle did not go well for the King and they remnants of the King's army had to flee and get holed up in Kellar's Keep.  

At the end of the campaign, the Heroes are offered a choice.  Do they go forth and put the Witch Lord back in his tomb once and for all, OR do they go and help the King and the beleaguered forces against Zargon at Kellar's Keep?  Therefore, if you want to continue your adventures and games the players get to choose.  Therefore, it is useful to have the Quest Packs that keep the story going! 

************ End Spoilers!****************

Okay, we are back to our regularly scheduled blog post about Kellar's Keep.  So, we established there are not any new enemy units, no new rules, and no new heroes.  What DO you get for your gold coins than? 

Grab your three best chums, your gear, and all the loot you managed to haul off from the last adventure and let's go dungeon crawling!  

Things I Liked

The idea is that the King and is army are under siege in a Dwarven fortress.  Obviously, the heroes can not go through the front door and save the day.  They need to find a way to sneak into the Keep.  They do this by locating parts of a map within parts of the dwarven stronghold behind enemy lines, re-uniting the map and going inside.  A pretty good hook for a Macguffin hunt and dungeon crawl.

This expansion adds the simple idea that instead of stairways, the players enter through a doorway and leave through a doorway.  They do not always get to rest and re-arm between adventures.  

The game also adds a few "expendable" items like scrolls.  These allow any character to cast a spell using the scroll.  However, they are a 1-use wonder.  There are a few other similar artifacts.    

I do love that the back pages offer the map keys and a blank board map.  They are encouraging you to try to make your own dungeon levels and quests.  Love it.  I need to check out the App and see if they let you build them there.  

Iron for In, Wood for out

Things I Did Not Like

There is not a lot of flavor text to set the scene for each quest.  Perhaps it is not needed, as they are rather straight forward.  After all, this entire thing is a Macguffin hunt.  However, that being said I would have loved a bit more.  

The "boss fight" is a Gargoyle immune to spells.  Kind of lame as it negates the special abilities of two models right away.  It is also on the edge of a cliff, so the fight will keep most players out of the thick of things, so multiple player parties might not have much to do.  

I think when Hasbro "re-vamped" this Quest pack, they should have made a couple of custom models for the undead Dwarven Kings and maybe the boss monster of the fight.  Just using a normal Gargoyle is kinda lame.  I might have to dig into my model collection for something a bit more.... unique.  I also think a "statue" miniature would have been much better than a cardboard token.   

Meh and Other Uncertainties

The new quest book has about 10 quests of various lengths.  Some seem pretty short, others are more robust.  The new cardboard tokens like the straight stairways and short stairways allow for more variety to get in and out of dungeons.  They seem pretty good quality, and Grin's Crag is a good first step to try and evolve the game out-of-the-dungeon  

Boulder...... trap..... very cinematic.  

The game has two new plastic 3D doors, an iron one and a wooden one.  The Iron is the entrance to some levels, while the Wooden is the exit.  Nothing spectacular really, but again adds more dimension to what you can create for your own dungeons. 

There are 17 miniatures.  Just re-boots from the boxed set.  8 Orcs, 6 Gobbos, and 3 abominations.  That said, I am not sure you would every need more than what the core set has to offer on any of these Quests?  I probably missed why you need all these new Greenskins to play this Quest Pack.  

Repeats from the Core set

Final Thoughts

I do love the conclusion of this Questpack.  It feels suitable for the source material.... i.e. Grimdark..... but in a kid friendly way.  It is a Pyrrhic victory and set-up more heroic adventure will be needed to stop the spread of Zargon's evil.     

That said, it is a bit "underwhelming" and I can see why it does not cost nearly as much as the Against the Ogre Horde box.  It is about half the size in minis and new stuff.  However, the new ideas it adds are useful, and it does continue the story based on the Heroes choices.  I personally think this could have been available as a downloadable Questpack online without the minis.  When I am done getting these guys painted I will have 20 Orks, 12 Goblins, and 6 Abominations.  I will now have enough Greenskins for some pretty epic HQ clashes!   

Now, we just need that re-release of Battlemasters so we can have some epic Heroquest/Battlemaster cross-over games!   

Become a Patron and get access to all the cool stuff, a peak behind the curtain of Blood and Spectacles, and early-access to playtest games!  

Blood and Spectacles Patreon! 

You can follow Blood and Spectacles Facebook page or Instagram for more fun! 

Check out the latest publications and contact me at our Blood and Spectacles website

Or purchase all out games at the Blood and Spectacles Publishing Wargames Vault Page!