Heroquest: Wizards of Morcar- Hasbro/Avalon Hill

 

I did not think I was going to get my hands on this one.  It was supposed to be released in March of 2026, but due to some SNAFU many places got it and sold it out around Christmas of 2025.  That was three months early!  Therefore, when I started looking for it after finishing painting up Mage in the Mirror I could not find it!  I was concerned this was going to be a Rogue Heir situation, and it would never see the light of day again!  However, I managed to track it down at a smaller Friendly Local Game Store (FLGS)-style hobby store that happened to have a website.  I ordered it quick and it came within a couple of days, so I had it in my hands by the end of April 2026.  As a bonus, I also helped out someone's FLGS!       

Everyone says this is a re-release of an old Heroquest expansion from the OG version.  I believe them, but I never saw it.  I had never seen Against the Ogre Horde, Frozen Horror, or Mage in the Mirror either though.  I had only seen Kellar's Keep and Return of the Witchlord with my own eyes.  I am pretty sure I owned the OG Witchlord expansion.  However, despite being a re-release of the old version this time Avalon Hill made some updates by adding more quests to the quest book, and a few other tweaks.  Therefore, unlike some of the other expansions this one has new content in it.  

With this purchase, I have all the Heroquest sets except for the Rogue Heir and the Crypt of Perpetual Darkness.  I have a feeling that the Rogue Heir will never be available again, and I am not sure how much I need Crypt of Perpetual Darkness for one really "hawt" black dragon mini.  I am sure my magpie nature will compel me to get it one day.  However, for now I think I have all the heroes, quests, and monsters I could shake a stick at.  I am honestly wondering what they will be coming out with next!  

So, with that rambling pre-amble out of the way, are you ready to jump into a review of this expansion?  Okay, grab your broadsword, prepare Fires of Wrath, and Zargon open the door so we can get started! 

Things I Liked

Of course, I always like getting a lot of fun miniatures in my Heroquest expansions.  It is a big draw for me obviously.  Most of my fantasy collection now is thanks to Heroquest boxes.  I have so many now, that I keep joking I am going to be able to play BattleMasters!  Here we get a bunch of Mercs that act as friends and foes during the Quest.  These would make great units of soldiers in Battlemasters <wink>.   

Hasbro did not hold back on the named characters in this one and I am here for it!  We get a specialty Minotaur, the long-awaited Sir Ragnar, a bunch of enemy wizards, and some of their spell effects!  Sure, each wizard maybe for a handful of Quests but they are worth it.  They will see the table more than the Frozen Horror will!  Of course, there are also some new monsters too, and you have to love the Mimics... this time playing the part of a Dread Shifter.  We also get the female Wizard variant so all the main Heroes have a M/F version now.... except the Dwarf!  I really hope the next expansion is Dwarf focused.  Finally, you get the two big Golems too.  Good value in miniature pieces alone.  

They massively expand on the Wizard spell lists, and the spells of your foes too.  There are a lot of spells in this box.  Combined with the Elf spells and the OG spells and your spell-casting Heroes now have a lot of options.  Perhaps in the future, they will make a Scroll-making expansion similar to the Alchemy deck?  Maybe allow some Heroes to dabble in Dread magic but at some sort of corrupting cost.  I mean, a lot of these spells are begging to see more table time than the villains alone can give them!          

This expansion has my new favorite Treasure card..... Nothing.  They only give us one, but I really think they need to add about a dozen!  This should be the most common outcome of searching.  

Things I Did Not Like

The Quest books is.... stitched together.  It is not as cohesive as the other expansions.  They marked the OG Quests, so you can play those if you are just trying to recreate that OG experience.  However, I think if they would have stuck just with those it would have been a pretty thin expansion.  The extra Quests help bulk it out, even if they are a bit of a .... stretch.... sometimes and do not fit perfectly.  I mean Sir Ragnar is all over the place in the narrative.  

When I play, I hope the evil wizards last long enough for them to use some of the fun spells in their decks.  In my games so far, the bad guys die pretty fast.  They do not always get to use their fun toys and special tricks! 

Meh and Other Uncertainties

They added a "going to town" aspect.  I was wondering how long until they did something like this?  I mean, it was a part of many expansive Dungeon-crawler games like Shadows of Brimstone.  It gives another way for your Heroes to buff up between missions and earn extra abilities.  At this stage, Heroes might be pretty buff after doing their initial Quest, an expansion or two, and now this one.  They might not have much else to spend money on or things to do.  This gives them another avenue to expand.  Like most Heroquest expansions there are always questions about how much you can use this in other parts of the game since each one is designed to build off of the Core game and not necessarily cross-over with other Expansions.  This leaves good ideas kind of scattered across the expansions and left for Zargon's and their groups to figure out how to use as a cohesive whole.    

Final Thoughts   

I am super-glad I got a hold of this one.  The miniatures are worth the price of admission alone.  Getting some new rules and Quests is just a bonus.  I look forward to painting these all up.  Tons of new cards too.  A good value for the money and on par with some of the other large expansions for the game.  

If your group likes to use spell-caster and magic than this is a must buy.  If they are more Meat-head than Magic, then you can pass on it even though the "going to town" aspect is pretty useful for all.  This one really bulks out player and Zargon magic tricks!  That can be useful for your own homebrew Quests as well.     

Even if you do not play Heroquest this can be a really useful box for bulking out your Fantasy RPG miniature needs.  Spell effects, Mimics, Golems, and lots of NPCs/PC sculpts in those wizards and mercs.  More than enough models for a Frostgrave crew, Restless Swords game, or similar Fantasy skirmish gaming.       

Until next time! 

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On the Painting Desk: Return to the Frozen Horror!

The large box expansions for Heroquest definitely do not skimp on the miniatures.  I probably have enough miniatures now to play full-fledged wargames with them.  I know I can use them for skirmish wargaming.  I have plenty of Orcs, Undead, Ogres, Wolves, furniture, and other odds and ends.  These sets are also really useful for Fantasy RPGs too.  The downside of such large box sets full of goodies is that it takes me a while to paint them all up!  That brings us to today's post!  Look at that transition, what a professional!  

I got started on Frozen Horror and worked on the monsters and doors.  That left me to tackle the Mercenaries and the Big Bad himself.  The last batch took me about a weekend to complete.  This weekend I got started on the mercenaries that you can hire to help you get through the Quest.  It is not for the faint of heart.  

Before starting, I wished I had Wizards of Morcar because that also came with a bunch of mercs.  I wanted to get them all batch painted up together.  I am pretty good at batch painting, it makes sure they all fit in together, and would take out a big chunk of my Pile of Potential.  Too bad I have not been able to find Wizards of Morcar.  Hasbro/Avalon Hill sort of botched the release with their distributors and it came out before Christmas when it was not supposed to release until March.  Now, everyone seems sold out of it.  I really hope that Hasbro decides to re-release it, because I do not want another Rogue Heir type situation.  However, I get the sinking feeling that I may never see Wizards of Morcar available again.  Oh well.  I guess that gives me time to get the rest of my Heroquest expansions painted up and spend my money on other games. 

Anyway, I did my usual undercoating and the like.  What, you don't know what my method is yet?  Oh, their maybe some folks new to the blog?  Okay, I undercoated them with GW Grey Seer, gave them a dark Grey cheap acyrlic wash, and then drybrush them with cheap acrylic white.  This method really helps the SpeedPaints shine. 

  ^^^ That should give you an idea of what they look like when they are ready for paint.  

The keen eyed among you might notice a couple of Mercs from Jungle of Delthrak.  Yup, I am painting up the Man-Bear-Pig with this batch.  I will save the Dino for a palette cleanser when I work on the Frozen Horror himself. 

So, I got set to paint with my Mobile Painting Station.  In a surprise to no one, I am mostly using Armypainter Speedpaints, some regular Armypainter paints, cheap Acyrlic paints from a Bog Box Retailer, and the new SpeedPaint Markers.  I painted all the skin tones first using Barbarian Flesh, Monster Brown, Fair Maiden, and Tanned Flesh to give me a variety of skin tones.   

 It you know about how I batch-paint, I typically start with the boots and paint upwards from there. For boots, I used a combination of Hardend Leather, Sand Golem, and Crusader Skin.  I then went up to the pants and start painting lowest layer first so skin --> boots/shoes --> pants ---> shirts ---> Outerwear ---> armor ---> belts and straps ---> weapons and gear ---> and I save the fun of picking hair colors for last.  

I used a wide variety of colors for the clothing including Highlord Blue, Slaughter Red, Zealot Yellow, Orc Skin green, Fire Giant Orange, and some dark Purple color.  You know, all the classics.  I wanted each Mercs to look like an individual and be distinctive on the table.  These guys are not part of a military unit afterall.  This variety slowed me down a bit.  

I tried to stick to three main colors for metals.  First I have good luck with Graveyard Grey and Runic Grey for a non-Metal Metal look.  From there I also mixed in the occasional, Zealot Yellow,  Broadsword Silver or Hoplite Gold.   Those last two are from the metallic Speedpaint set. Since most of the metal in my Heroquest is not a true metallic I stuck with the non-metallics mostly.    

The Man-Bear-Pig I painted with a thinned Sand Golem, then a thinned Holy White.  From there I drybrushed Skeleton Bone from the non-speedpaint range.  I painted his claws Pallid Bone, eyes Blood Red, and his teeth cheap acrylic white.  I also painted the pads on his paws with Grim Black.  

For hair colors, I stayed pretty conservative today.  These are not main characters, they are mooks!  I don't want them to hog the spotlight!  I mostly used Dark Wood, Sand Golem, Grim Black, Graveyard Grey, and one got Zealot yellow and another got Fire Giant Orange.  See if you can find them in the group photo! 

That left them with all their basecoats on.  They were looking pretty.  I gave them all an Armypainter Light Tone wash to fill in any gaps.  Once that was dry, I did any touch-ups or finishing touches.  For example, the Man-Bear-Pig I drybrushed some white on his chest.  Others I highlighted to bring the colors back up where they needed it.  

From there, I painted their bases Runic Grey and gave them the traditional Black Trim.  Once it warms up a bit more, I will spray them down with a protective coat.  Here is where the Mercs ended up.....

Boom!  In one day I had painted a dozen+ guys.  All that was left of this expansion was the Frozen Horror.  However, I decided to leave him for another weekend effort.  A dozen miniatures in a day is a respectable days work!  That means I have painted over 50+ Heroquest models this year.  

Sounds impressive but I still have to paint: 

- The Frozen Horror Himself

- Jungles of Delthrak

- Prophecy of Telor

- Spirit Queen's Torment

- G.I. Joe Heroscape 

Man, that is a lot of stuff to paint.  A bit daunting as I need to build and paint some Late Rome stuff for Osprey now too.   However, if I see Wizards of Morcar I am not waiting.  

Until next time! 

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Wargame Design: Kitchen Table Games

In recent years, the idea of "Kitchen Table Games" have seen a surge in popularity.  What is a Kitchen Table Game you ask?  Well, it is a game that can be played on a smaller playing surface.  Notably a kitchen table that is about three-feet long and two-feet across.  Of course, this is a change from traditional wargames as they typically use 6x4 foot tables or larger. In today's world, getting access to such large tables can be problematic.  The rise of these smaller table games is a natural reaction to these problems.            

In my current "Mobile" situation the idea of Kitchen Table Games is much more appealing to me.  I no longer have access to my 8-foot by 4-foot table.  I have made a few smaller table games in my days, but I typically only go 3-feet by 3-feet as the smallest.  The realm of smaller board games is a new realm for me.  

Thinking about "Kitchen Table Games" leads me to speculate about a few ways to approach the "problem" of scaling down a game.  Many games have all ready tackled these ideas:

Odin's Ravens

1. Reduce the Size  

In this scenario, I mean reducing the actual size of the miniatures that you are using.  I.e. if you are playing a model-vs-model skirmish game instead of using 28mm models, you use 10mm models instead.  You keep the relative relationship of range to movement the same, just different, smaller, measurements.  

2. Reduce the Scale

Here, I am talking about reducing the scale of the battle.  I.e. instead of focusing on unit-vs-unit in the conflict you focus on model-vs-model.  Instead of warbands of 10-12 models, your reduce the scope down to 4 or fewer.  

For example, the game Doom 1490 has a tight focus on only a handful of models for a full game.  

3, Bathtub It

This is an old practice in wargaming where you modify the ground, unit, or even time scale to fit the scenarios. This can include telescoping, rubber banding, time-warping or other tricks to distort the size of the battlespace relative to reality in various ways.  

For example, the Portable Wargame makes use of this technique.  

4. Set Spaces

A technique where all games take place in the same general space.  This is typically some sort of arena like a gladiator game or sports game.  The arena can always be the same general size.  

For example, Heroquest always uses the same board for a variety of adventure types. 

An example of a set-size

5. Abstracting 

In this situation, you intentionally misrepresent the connection between factors on the table.  Such as the minimizing or changing the relationship between movement, range, and speed.  As you modify these relationships you can adjust the size of the table with such tricks.  

For example, Kill Team makes use of this technique to allow games in the Warhammer 40K universe in a small play area.

 

6. Scale of the Game fits the Reality

The final trick I can think about is to find a reality that fits the scale of the game.  This means choose a situation to play-out that only requires a small space.  Think of situation such as the gunfight at the OK Corral, a single samurai duel, or something similar in scope.  

For example, Blood on the Sands is a game of gladiator combat between 1-on-1 combatants.

The Games: Blood and Spectacles

7. Zoom In

Just zoom in real close to the action.  Maybe a huge battle is going on but the game is only interested in a small, close-up piece of the action.

For example. arguably this is how Warhammer 40K: 2nd Edition handles things.   

8.  Ready for the Close-up

Similar to the Zoom In, except all the action is intentionally up-close and tight.  The game has a very tight and focused view on just the action that it needs to see.  Everything is up close and personal, almost cinematic in focus.  

For example, a game like Warriors of Athena uses this trick to keep the play area small.   

Kill Team

Final Thoughts

This is just a general primer on tricks or tips that Wargame Designers can use to create some compelling or interesting Kitchen Table Games.  This can include a tight focus on realism or a much more cinematic approach.  This can include various tools to play with related to how you use The Designer's Triangle.  The key is deciding how you want to make your game fit the space limitations of a Kitchen Table and commit to the bit.  

Until next time! 

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!