Monday, April 21, 2025

On The Painting Desk- First Big Painting Project for 2025 is Done and Dusted

 


The first big painting project of the year, was an Anglo-Saxon army for my Fury of the Northman rules.  That was going to be a relatively large force with 1 Thegns unit, 3 Fyrd units, 2 Skirmisher units, and 3 missile units.  I had all ready batch painted the Shieldwall and now it was time for the support units.  

For the Skirmishers and Archers, I was using leftover Victrix kits of Early and Late Saxons.  For the Missile Troops I was using the Dark Age Archers kits.  The great thing about the archers was that I could use them with a variety of Dark Age armies if I wanted, as they were relatively generic.  

When we last left-off on this project, I was batch-painting about 50 models at this phase.  I had managed to paint them up with my standard techniques to about half-done before we left off.  It had taken about three weekends to get that far, thanks to a bad case of Influenza A.  Yuck.  


They all had on pants and basic clothing, but there was still a lot of weapons, hats, helmets, hair, and gear to go.  Therefore, it was time to get started again and finish them off.  Thankfully, my wife is in school so I have most of Saturday open to paint while she does homework.  That has given me plenty of time to paint.  

I went to work on the rest of the models using my standard batch painting techniques.  I worked on belts and pouches next.  Here I used a variety of Armypainter browns such as Skeleton Bone, Desert Yellow, Monster Brown, Leather Brown, and Fur Brown.  I had to make sure that none of the gear matched anyone's tunics either.  Each model tended to get two of the brown colors to create some different colors on the same model.  

I also painted the weapons up.  Here I went with a very different look.  I opted to do all the Bows with Dessert Yellow to give them a yellowish look.  On spear and weapon hafts, I had primarily used Oak Brown and Skeleton Bone, which I did again.  The weapon tips were all Bronze or Gun Metal.  The feathers on the arrows I decided to use Mummy's Robes for a goose-feather look. 


That just left heads and headgear to be finished off.  So close to getting all the base-coating done!  For hair, I used Fur Brown, Monster Brown, Dark Stone, and Uniform Grey.  I avoided any Orange hair and I think only 1 guy had Blonde hair in this group.  A bit unusual for me, but Blonde's and Red-heads did not seem that common for Anglo-Saxons.  It will help the Irish and Vikings pop out a bit. 

For the hats and helmets, I allowed myself to go a bit crazy on the color-schemes.  The majority of these guys had been in browns, greens, and more nature themed colors.  This time, I skipped that and leaned into the brighter colors for headgear, Deep Blue, Pure Red, Daemonic Yellow, Lava Orange, Greenskin, and even Voidshield Blue.  Helmets were Gun Metal and Bronze for the most part.  That gave some of these guys a bit of a "POP" to them too.  

Not a bad looking crew.  That left all the base-coating done after 4 weekends of work.  I was onto Washing and Base-coating.  I had used Strong Tone on the shieldwall due to all their chain mail, and it turned out good, but a bit dark.  I wanted these guys to fit in with those, but I decided to do a test on the Priests with a Lighter tone to see how they fit in first.  I thought that the Strong Tone might be too much for these minis and make them super-dark.  

After looking at the test models, I was happy with the Soft Tone results. It used a black ink base, similar to the Strong Tone.  Therefore, I moved forward with washing all the models with a Soft Tone. Here is what it looked like. 

Well, they look finished now.  All that is left is the basing now.  I used the standard Territorial Brown craft paint with scatter moss sprinkled on to make my bases.  Nothing fancy and it gives a good effect.  It also matches my other Historical armies.  

Here was the final 52 models.  Two units of archers, one unit of slingers, 1 skirmisher with Javelins, and 1 unit that could be skirmishers or Irregulars.  Then, two random priests that are not part of the army but came in the set and I thought they would be cool to have around and painted up for various reasons.    


With that, this batch of 52 is complete!  I went and put them with the rest of the army in order to get a couple full army shots and some unit close-ups.  


  Some Skirmishers.....


Some missile troops....



With that, my first big project for 2025 can be crossed off the list!  92 models done for 2025! Done.  Now, onto the next project, which will probably be some Heroquest heroes from First Light. 

Until next time! 


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Monday, April 14, 2025

Heroquest: The Maze of Melar and Legacy of an Orc Warlord

 

Keep on questing heroes!  The Fellowship of Destiny; Allathura of the Green, Hamilcar Margos, Aerlin the Wizard, and Neo-wulf are back on the Quest.  Last time, they managed to defeat the Orc warlord Ulag and retrieve Prince Magnus' gold from the bandit Gulthor.  It was a tough fight with many wounds and scars taken.  However, everyone made it through alive... if only just barely!  

In fact, the warriors managed to get enough gold for Allathura to buy a shield and Neo-wulf a Helmet to boost their defenses.  Hamilcar was all ready kitted out like a tank, so he was good.  In addition, Neo-wulf had found a Potion of Strength, and Allathura was packing a Potion of Healing after the two quests.  Not a bad round of goodies!   


Today, Mentor approaches the heroes with dire news.  Loretome has alerted Mentor to the fact that Zargon's forces have been searching Melar's Maze in an effort to locate the Talisman of Lore.  This precious artifact can not be allowed to fall into the wrong hands.  He has put his faith and trust in the Fellowship of Destiny to retrieve it and return it to his safe keeping.  With that, the Fellowship take up their arms and make their way to the entrance of the dreaded Maze.  They descend into the dungeon, prepared to face Zargon's troops once more.  

The Maze of Melar

Immediately, they realize that it is not just the forces of Zargon they will encounter in the Maze.  The Maze itself is protected by the undead minions of Melar too!  The Fellowship spy a Mummy down a distant corridor, and opt to avoid it by going the other way!  

However, they soon run into Zargon's search party as a group of Orcs was found rummaging through Melar's study!  They set upon the Fellowship, but are soon dispatched.  Allathura led the charge and took the brunt of the fighting.  Neo-wulf and Aerlin tried to use their staves for some diagonal attacks, but it was ultimately cold steel that won the day.  

The group continued, and Allathura was reminded about the dangers of traps the hard way.  She stumbled into a pit trap.  As she climbed out, the Mummy they had been avoiding set upon the party!  However, Aerlin made short work of it with a Ball of Fire.  Mummies and fire do not mix.  

Hamilcar detected a trap in a long corridor and moved to disarm it.  However, he foolishly triggered it instead blocking the corridor and injuring himself badly in the process!  Woops.  The Fellowship was forced to go another route.  

They stumbled upon a room with a stone gargoyle statue, but were suspicious of it.  They endeavored to try to find a way around it and split up to cover more ground.  

Hamilcar and Allathura went the long way around, and found a zombie and some traps.  This time, Hamilcar had better luck disarming it.  Meanwhile, Neo-wulf and Aerlin found a secret door and went through.  Neo-wulf was attacked by a deadly accurate skeleton, and took 4 body from it before he was able to send it clattering back to the ground.  A healing spell from Aerlin got him feeling better, but then he stumbled into a pit trap, and soon found an arrow trap while searching for treasure.  Ouch! 


The Fellowship met up again and bypassed two rooms of the Maze at this point.  Hamilcar got jumped by a zombie when he went to search a pantry, and a Zombie popped out!  It was like something out of a movie!  The group rallied and made their way to the center room.  On the way they took out another Mummy.  In the center room, they found Melar's library and it was full of undead patrons!  


Instead of charging in, the Fellowship fell back to a more defensible location in the hallway.  Undead are not smart, and they dutifully shuffled into the kill zone.  Hamilcar and Allathura did most of the dirty work, with the occasional assist from the others.  It did not take long to kill all the foes.  

The group cautiously approached the center room again and carefully search it.  Allathura found the Talisman of Lore and carefully put it around her neck for safe keeping.  The group then beat a careful retreat back to the stairway.  They avoided the Gargoyle room and the door beyond in the process.  

Upon returning to the surface, the Fellowship made contact with Mentor.  There the old wizard said, "The safest place for the Talisman of Lore is with you Allathusa of the Green.  Zargon's forces would be foolish to try to take it from the leader of the Fellowship of Destiny!"  

Post-Battle

This one was not as savage on the Fellowship as previous dungeon crawls.  We played it much safer, and did a much better job searching for traps and treasure.  The Fellowship was much more patient and coordinated, despite Neo-wulf running off ahead again.  This time, the Fellowship comfortably defeated the undead foes with the help of their improved armor. 

Despite the victory, there was far less loot to deal with.  Aerlin got a half-healing potion with Allathura and Neo-wulf coming away with a few bits and bobs.  However, the real prize was the Talisman of Lore itself!     

Legacy of an Orc Warlord

The Fellowship of Destiny was feeling strong and untouchable.  They had bested Varag, they had freed Sir Ragnar, killed Ulag, and retrieved the Talisman of Lore.  They were well-armed and well armored.  That felt confident they could handle what Zargon could throw at them.  However, they underestimated their foes.  Grak, the son of Ulag; was bent on vengeance.  

As the Fellowship had their guard down, Grak struck.  His forces were able to capture the Fellowship and take them to his secret lair.  They were thrown in a cell and left to rot, while Grak determined their fate.  Hamilcar managed to find a chicken bone, and set to work freeing his comrades.  With an audible click, the lock popped.  The Fellowship was free, but unarmed and without their potions. 

The Legacy of an Orc Warlord

Right away, the Fellowship had a choice to go left or right.  Neowulf impulsively went on his own towards the center room. Hamilcar and the rest went the opposite way looking for their gear.  Almost immediately, Neowulf ran into some trouble as the main room was full of guards, including an Abomination!  That would be hard to stop with just his fists! 


 Hamilcar and the others came to another T-intersection, with doors at the far end of both hallways.  However, the one to the left looked suspicious to the Dwarfs trained eye.  Therefore, the small group went the other way.  A shout of warning from Neowulf warned them that company was on the way as the Barbarian tried a rear-guard action against the crowd of enemies chasing them.  

Hamilcar and Aerlin managed to get into the room, as Allathura scouted around the corner.  They took out a lone goblin guard, and Aerlin quickly found the Fellowships gear.  Just in time, as an Abomination leapt from hiding and attacked!  The group was caught between the pursuing forces of Zargon and this new threat in the room with them! 


 The Fellowship of Desting managed to gear up, and fend of Grak's troops.  However, it was a tough fight and Neowulf and Hamilcar were already in rough shape.  Aerlin's and Allathura's healing spells were quickly used up.   

The group slowly made their way down some long, corridors.  Neowulf was soon left behind as he cautiously crept along the corridor's while Allathusa led the way.  The Elf managed a stealth kill as she snuck up on an Orc guard at an intersection and killed him before he could raise an alarm.  

After a long, slow crawl the group started to run into Goblin sentries and some doorways.  


The Goblin sentries proved surprisingly tough.  Grak got his money's worth with those hires!  Hamilcar was reduced to 1 wound left by the little git! Allathusa had to give him her Potion of Healing to keep the Dwarf in the fight.  Just in time too as the next room had another deadly encounter with an Abomination!  This dungeon was crawling with the beasties.  


 Neowulf supported by Aerlin the Mage managed to fend off the most recent beast.  However, Goblin sentries again tied up the group as they continued to explore.  They needed to find the stairs to escape from Grak's clutches.


 Once again, the Fellowship was jumped by a pair of Abominations!  The fights were very tough, and the party was all on less than half wounds.  Neowulf, in desperation; took his Potion of Strength and laid one of the Abominations low with a single powerful strike from his Broadsword.  Hamilcar eventually wore down the other and was able to best the beast.  However, the cost had been great, as the Fellowship had used all their potions up!

After Hamilcar managed to disarm a trap, the Fellowship of Destiny found the stairway out.  However, it was well guarded by Grak and his loyal servants.  There the Fellowship got a surprise as Grak hurled several spells at them!  Tempest managed to impede Neowulf, while a Sleep spell took Hamilcar down.  Thankfully, Grak's minions had been over eager and the Fellowship was able to best them at a doorway with teamwork.  

Aerlin was shocked as Grak was hit by a fireball spell but managed to keep fighting.  There was still plenty of fight in the Orc Warlord yet.  As Hamilcar slept, his companions fought on.  The decisive moment came when Grak's Fear spell was reflected back at him thanks to the Talisman of Lore.  This gave Neowulf the opening he needed to finish off the Grak once and for all; or so the Fellowship hoped.  

With the way clear, the Fellowship of Destiny made their way to the light of the surface once more.  They were initially disoriented, but it did not take Allathusa of the Green long to get her bearings and lead them all back to the Safety of the King's lands.  They had a tale to share with Mentor about their capture by the Orc Warlord Grak.  Perhaps, they had learned a valuable lesson about the nature of Zargon's forces?  

Until next time! 


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Monday, April 7, 2025

Battle Report: Battle of Kadesh - Participation Game

 

Saturday was the big day.  I was finally taking my Battle of Kadesh game out to play as part of a participation wargame!  There were some strong headwinds on the day of the big event as lots of other events were happening in my small community.  Most of them got scheduled after I set my own date, otherwise I would have considered a different day!  Oh well.  


Prior to the big day, I had papered the town with flyers, posted on our True Crit Gaming Guild page, and peppered local Social Media.  For the event, I made several easy resources for the day like unit cards, quick reference guides, and other tools.  I had previously played a few test games as well to make sure it all worked as intended and moved quick.  Now it was time to put it all together and see what happened.   


My turn-out was pretty sparse.  However, despite the small turn-out I still managed to play two games.  The goal was to introduce people to wargaming, and I did expose a few people.  I also got to teach folks a few things about the Bronze Age as well, so that was fun too.  Folks had a hard time wrapping their head around just how long ago it was!  

Interestingly, the overall plan in both games was different, but mirrored the ones in the test runs! In the first game, the Hittites tries to cross at the main ford near the Pharoh.  The Egyptians tried to block the crossing with the Royal Guard, and their action at the ford was mostly successful.  The effort delayed the Hittites long enough for the Egyptian reinforcements to show-up.  They managed to inflict enough damage on the Hittites for them to start taking collapse tests!  Things looked bad for the Hittite king as the Egyptian reinforcements started to stream forward.  


However, as the lead Egyptian forces at the ford were defeated, a series of bad Collapse tests turn the tables on the Egyptians!  Eventually, the Pharaoh fled the field of battle and from there the Hittites mopped up the remaining Egyptians forces.     


The second game, folks tried different tactics.  The Egyptians tried to get aggressive and attack across the ford first.  Meanwhile, the Hittite Heavy Chariots went wide around Kadesh to the other fords while their infantry moved across the Orontes River.  The Egyptian attack was a disaster as they ran into devastating bow fire that easily repelled them.  


The Pharoah was sent scurrying home early and in disgrace.  The Hittite Heavy Chariots proved more resilient to bow fire and managed to force the river Orontes at the far side of Kadesh.  They rolled up the Egyptian reinforcements and the day was won for King Muwatli II for Hattusa!  The Egyptians were on the back foot all game this time.  


Conclusion
As a day for introducing more people to wargaming, the day was not a success.  However, I did get a few games in with folks who do not normally play historical or at this scale.  I was also able to share a bit about Historical gaming and Bronze Age history with folks who were not familiar with it at all.  Therefore, it was a win in that sense.  

Will today get more people into wargaming?  No.  Will it get more people into Bronze Age history.... probably also no.  Will it get people into historical wargaming?  Also probably no.  Did I complete one of my objectives for the year and have a Participation, Public game for the Battle of Kadesh?  Yes.  

This one is light and easy enough to pack up and play that I would consider taking it out for more public play.  No spears to get broken, solid bases, and clumps of soldiers is good for transporting and all the terrain is light and easy too.  I great game for set-up and transport quickly.  Plus, the game itself was pretty intuitive and quick to play.  The In Strife and Conflict rules were great for this game.  We played two games in about 3 hours, with 30 minutes of set-up and another for take-down. 

Back to painting Anglo-saxons and Heroquest for a bit now.  Until next time! 


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Friday, April 4, 2025

Saturday is the Battle of Kadesh Participation Game!

  


Greetings all, 

If you are in the Northwest Wyoming area this Saturday, I would love to see you at Gestalt Studios in Powell, Wyoming around 1pm.  

I will be hosting a participation wargame about the Battle of Kadesh using the In Strife and Conflict rules.  This is an event open to the public and I hope to have folks get hands-on with wargaming.  No experience necessary and I will provide everything you need to join in. 


I will be on hand to talk about wargame design, host the game, sign books, and have a great time!  

First come, first serve.  

I hope to see you there! 


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Monday, March 31, 2025

On The Painting Desk: Batching Anglo-Saxons

If you recall my goals for 2025 was to complete painting my Anglo-saxon army.  I picked it up from Victrix miniatures using Late Anglo-Danes and Early Saxon kits.  I went ahead and assembled and painted the first few units, a Noble unit and 3 Fryd units. That will be the core of the army.  However, an Anglo-saxon army is more than just a shieldwall!  


Now, it is time to build and paint the remaining units for the army.  That is two units of Skirmishers and one unit of archers or slingers.  However, I am making 20 archers and 10 slingers because I can.  The great thing about the Victrix Dark Age Archers is that they will work fine in my Anglo-saxon, Viking, and other Dark Age armies for Fury of the Northman.  For the Skirmishers, I am using a mix of the Late and Early Saxon set that I had left-over from the shield wall.  The Early Saxons had better parts for Skirmishers, but most of the bodies were tunic wearers from the Late Anglo-Danes kit.  It took me a bit to assemble them all, but here we go..... plus two Monks just because.  


The next step is of course to prime.  Of course, the weather in my area is not conducive to priming in the winter time.  Therefore, instead of the usual Grey Seer spray paint prime.  The alternative was my usual white undercoat with a brush that I have used on my historicals in the past.  However, that is not how I did the Shieldwalls, so that made me pause before deciding what to do next. 

Thankfully, we had a moment of clear weather and that solved my issue. I was able to get outside and get these bad boys Grey Seer undercoated.  Crisis averted!  However, I lost a few weeks waiting for that to happen.  


With the priming done, it was time to just lean into it and get batch painting!  By now, I have a very familiar process for this.  I did not plan on deviating from it this time, because it works really well for me.  Only 50 or so models to do in this batch but none of them have shields!  That will make this batch much quicker!  

I generally get a decent amount of time to paint on the weekends as my wife is a full-time student and employee.  Therefore, at least 1 day on the weekend she is doing homework all day.  That means, the house is fairly quiet and I need to entertain myself for a while.    


That means I had a Saturday to work on these Anglo-saxons.  I was able to give everyone some flesh using Barbarian Flesh from the Armypainter line.  Then, I set about batch painting.  I always start with shoes, and I typically use two or three different colors for it.  This time I uses Oak Brown, Leather Brown, and Fur Brown for the footwear.  Typically, every third man and then fill in any gaps at the end.  

Then, I did their leggings.  Not all of the models had leggings.  My perception was that it was a distinct minority.  However, I still used three different colors on the Leggings.  Armypainter Skeleton Bone, Desert Yellow, and Mummy Robes.  

Next was the trousers.  Here I used about five different colors with each unit of 10 only using it once or twice.  Therefore, the force would have similar colors but each unit was relatively unique in their attire.  For the trouser I used a variety of colors from Scaly Hide, Army Green, Deep Blue, Daemonic Yellow, Uniform Grey. Leather Brown, all the way to Pure Red.  

Most of these models are just wearing a single piece tunic that covers the arms and goes down to the knees.  However, there are a few that were wearing an underlayer.  The models wearing leather armor had it over their tunics as well.  Therefore, I used the same colors I had used on the Leggings to paint the under garments as well.  I made sure to avoid matching the same colors of leggings, trousers, and under garments.  No one duplicated colors.  Everyone was pretty much had their bottom halves painted, but after the first Saturday they still looked like they had a long way to go!        
  

Then, a disaster struck.  I was stricken with Influenza A!  It hit me pretty hard, and I was out of commission for two weekends.  That really messed up my timing!  Once my Influenza A cleared up I got back to work, but the spark was still not really there.  Time to grind.

I used the same colors I had used on the trousers and undergarments for the tunics.  Honestly, this is the bulk of the models surface area.  I think getting the tunics done means that these models are about halfway.  All that is left is belts, weapons, hair, and hats.  Mostly small things, but things none the less.  

After a month of working on these guys, I am a bit behind on the progress I wanted.  I expected to be this far after two weeks, not four.  However, now that I am healthy I just need to finish them off and grind the last bits out.  

I think I am going to call it an update for this week.  Until next time! 

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Friday, March 28, 2025

Battle of Kadesh Participation Wargame in Powell, WY

  


Greetings all, 

If you are in the Northwest Wyoming area on April 5th, I would love to see you at Gestalt Studios in Powell, Wyoming around 1pm.  I will be hosting a participation wargame about the Battle of Kadesh using the In Strife and Conflict rules. 

The wargame features 6mm models on 40mm x 40mm bases for that "big battle" feel.  It is being played on a 6-foot by 4-foot board.  This will be a huge game covering a lot of territory!  

This is an event open to the public and I hope to have folks get hands-on with wargaming.  No experience necessary and I will provide everything you need to join in. 


Of course, I will be on hand to talk about wargame design, host the game, sign books, and have a great time!  First come, first serve.  

I hope to see you there! 


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!  


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

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Monday, March 24, 2025

Review: Mage in the Mirror - Hasbro/Avalon Hill

 

Does the Quest for Heroes ever end?  So far, the answer is NO!  I am onto the next supplement I have picked up to expand my Heroquest adventures.  I decided to pick-up Mage in the Mirror next for a couple of reasons.  The first was that I wanted the Elven furniture and the Elven enemy models to help expand and round-out my Fantasy miniature collection.  I use these for more than just Heroquest, so these were good additions to that.  Second, I had heard good things about the Quest pack that came with this one.  I think before I paint it though, I may pick-up the Dread Moon expansion since it also has some more of the Elf minis.  Might as well paint them all at once! 

Apparently, this is another re-boot from an earlier version.  I had never heard of it in the US, but in the UK it probably was a thing.  Since I had never heard of it, I am not surprised I have never played it.  Therefore, this one will be a new experience.  

So grab your shield, sheath your short sword, put on your cos-play elf ears, and let's get ready to delve into this expansion!  


Things I Liked

First off, I am super happy to see that a key NPC got their own model in this supplement.  This follows in the footsteps of the Against the Ogre Hordes boxed set.  This also helped me pull the trigger on this supplement set next, a new hero model and a new unique NPC model.  

This Quest pack adds a few new ways to get around the HeroQuest board.  It has Iron Portcullis, a trapdoor, and a Magic Mirror.  The Trapdoor and Magic Mirrors allow you to "teleport" to another space where the second Trapdoor or Magic Mirror is in the dungeon.  The Iron Portcullis acts as another type of door that can not be opened unless you have a special key.      

The game adds a new special Elven magic deck that the Elf can choose instead of just the left-over Elemental deck.  There are 11 Elven Magic cards, but eh Elf can only take three of them per Quest.  However they can change between quests if the player wishes.  


Things I Did Not Like

There is a new type of trap called a Wandering Monster Trap.  When sprung, the trap unleashes the Wandering Monster for the Dungeon that immediately attacks.  I like the concept of this trap, but what I do not like is that Heroes can not detect or disarm it.  It essentially always allows the Wandering Monster a free attack.  In addition, this Quest Pack adds the idea that a Wandering monster may be mor than a single creature!  They also add a Long Pit trap, that requires you to have three move after jumping it.      

There is a cool mechanic in theory for Quest 7 and the  Werewolf Curse Dread spell about turning the players into Werewolves!  However, the execution of this cool idea is a bit convoluted.  Zargon controls players in wolf form, and they drop all their gear.  The game comes with some markers, which would also be useful for if character's die!  

Wow, the Elf can really get kitted out in those first three solo-quests if everything goes right.  I am not sure how balanced that is, but I suppose most Heroes at this point have gone through at least the Core quests and 1 Expansion, so probably pretty buff.   


Meh and Other Uncertainties

This Quest pack starts off with 3 solo-quests for the Elf before he calls in his team to help him.  I am not sure how I feel about these Solo-quests.  I could see them being useful for getting a single player back up to power to join a more-established group, but that would really disrupt the rhythm of the rest of the Questbook.  I think it is an interesting idea, but I am not sure it really works in a team game like HeroQuest.  

The the Quest Booklet there are some rules clarifications about how to pass items between Heroes.  

The Quest Pack adds some rules for Scrolls as a 1-use item.  This makes them similar to potions, only with different spell effects.  There are also new artifacts and items for the armory thanks to this Quest Pack as well.    

There are four "new" monsters in this expansion.  They are Elven warrior, Elven archer, Ogre, and Gaint Wolf.  This Giant Wolf can also be used as the Werewolf for Quest 7.  The Giant Wolves are two base models, where the Druid's Wolf is only a single space.  These are some big boys. The Elven Archers are also missile troopers with 4 Attack(!) dice at range.     



Final Thoughts

Another interesting HeroQuest expansion down.  If you like HeroQuest, this does more of the same!  Like many HeroQuest expansions, it has a lot of interesting ideas.  However, some of them only last for a single quest.  I am looking at you Werewolf!  

If you have heroes that have managed to get this far, this will give them new challenges.  If you are looking to expand your miniature collection, this is a good buy. If you are looking for something that is a big innovation or very different from regular Heroquest than this might not be for you. 

I will now put in my obligatory request to Hasbro/Avalon Hill for a Heroquest themed Mass-battle game using the Heroquest models and molds.  For the forces of Dread they can all ready make units of Dread Warriors, Abominations, Orcs, Goblins, Skeletons, Zombies, Mummies, Ogres, and Giant Wolves.  For the King's forces they have Guardian Knights, Elf Warriors, Elf Archers, Barbarians, and Dwarves.  So close to an alliance army.  They just need some mounted troop types for the Alliance.  Battlemasters beckons!           

I look forward to painting it up.      

If you are in the NW Wyoming area on April 5th, you will want to check out this Participation Wargame the True Crit Gaming Guild will be putting on at Gestalt Studios in Powell, WY. 


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