Well, well, well...... look what I got in the mail. I had no intention of buying this, but then I watched a review of it from Ash on Guerrilla Miniature Games and a walk-through of the quests on Always Board Never Boring.
That changed my mind for a couple of reasons and I ended up ordering it from Target.com. I ordered it on a Monday afternoon and got it on Thursday! Zoinks. Back in my day, you had to wait 6-8 weeks for delivery of games and stuff. I used to have to order from the Mail Order Trolls from the GW in Baltimore because I lived in the sticks. There was no FLGS. This took 4 days, and it would have been 3 but UPS couldn't find my house.... because I still live in the sticks, just a different forest.
Anyway, you all know I have the Heroquest Core set, because I have reviewed and painted it up. Why would I need this? Here is my weaksauce rationale:
1. This is a lot easier to take to the local coffee shop or across country to play. I recently took my Core Set across country and it was not easy. Worse, I never even got to bust it out to play!
2. This has a whole new set of quests that seemed pretty cool!
3. New miniatures for the Heroes and that nifty "dragon-esque" monster. They looked fun.
4. The new Cavern board!
5. More of the custom dice so we don't have to keep passing them around the table
6. I get a discount on Target.com
Like I said, they are weak sauce reasons, but they ARE reasons to get it. So, let's dive in and take a look at what we get. Grab your short sword, roll your red dice, and let's get moving!
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| Huh, that is how you set it all up! |
The new rulebook is flash! It is very nicely done, super visual, snazzy, and glossy. It looks good and covers all the basic stuff only better. They also include some rules for the multi-square models because the Dragon thing is a two square model. However, the rules themselves have never looked better. I never really knew how to set-up all the components on the board..... until now!
Did I mention that the board is two sided? Once side is the traditional Heroquest board, and the other is a Caverns board! It is great to get a new potential lay-out for quests! The board itself folds down nicely, and is an actual board. None of this paper map crap! However, it is not as sturdy as the board in the Core set.
The monsters are all card standees. I have no real issue with this. In fact, I think the art for the monsters look pretty cool. Nice 2D representations of the furniture too. Hard to tell the difference between a bookcase and a pantry though.
In the back of the Questbook, they have the new lay-out in a grid for making your own quests. I love that so, so much! I have to get this digitized so I can start making me Shadow Over Innsmouth inspired Questpack! The Traditional Heroquest board can be the town, and then the other side can be the Caverns beneath the village where the true evil lies!
Things I Do Not Like
During the quest, you get to fight the Dragon in different forms. I think you fight him 4 or 5 times in 10 or so quests. Each time he gets tougher and there is a different twist, but it might get tiring fighting a guy over and over again. I mean, almost none of the other NPC villains get that much board time!
I am also not 100% sold on the miniature. I think he is kinda derpy, but their is a reason he looks like a human/dragon hybrid and they explain it in the quest book. That said, the miniatures are sold quality and I look forward to painting them all up!
The movement dice are white with red pips. Not cool. The O.G. rules call them red dice. This is a huge nitpick.
This Quest seems to be using a "new" set of heroes different from the Core Set. So, you can have a Varsity Team and a Junior-Varsity team. The events in these quest supposedly take place at the same time as the Core set quests. Alternately, you could just have the A-team handle this set of Quests before the Witchlord quests in the main book, and then tie them back in. However, it makes me wonder how many adventuring teams is Mentor running at once? Is he like the CIA?
Meh and Other Uncertainties
The new quests have all ready been loaded in the App. It is all ready to go for Solo or Co-op play with the App as Zargon. Pretty fast turn-around time.
There is a small dice tray, that can also hold all the standees in once you pop them out of the card. Not sure it is big enough, but I am happy to have the little dice tray. I am tired of my dice flying all over the board.
The alternate sculpts for the heroes are nice. I really like the ones in the Core Set, but these will make a nice alternative. I wish they had made them boy-girl-boy-girl though. A minor quibble.
The minis are easier to get in and out of the plastic on this one, so if I paint them up they are less likely to face wear and tear.
Final Thoughts
Did I need this? Heck no. Am I glad I got it? Heck yeah! It is worth it for the new board lay-out and quest book alone. This adds a lot more replayability and portability to my Heroquest adventures. Plus, some extra minis to paint is not bad either. This is a hefty box that is packed full of goodies.
Or purchase all out games at the Blood and Spectacles Publishing Wargames Vault Page!
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