Warhammer Quest, the Silver Tower battle report. First game (and second).

With the PVA glue still setting on the bases but the majority of the miniatures painted in 24 hours (!!!!!!) we pop the floor tiles out of their sprues (?) and set up for our first game.

I sent out the mass text to our gaming buddies and Neil of 'Rom on the Ford' answered the call to arms! While he was on his way Lano and I played a game to get the rules dialed in.

Considering we have been up up for over 24 hours at this point (35 hours without sleep in my case!) the rules were very easy to digest and we were well into our stride by the third turn!

Lano looking great on only 90 minutes sleep since yesterday!!

In typical Heroquest style the tiles are revealed as you pull cards out of the deck. adversaries are rolled randomly on the various encounter tables.

We play with the Darkoath Chieftain and Fyreslayer Doomseeker for our first game.

 First tile exposed is a corridor and various baddies appear from the portal.

The rest of the crew wait patiently in the wings. Look at the shiny shiny!!!!

I like that they have removed the GM element from the original game as lets be honest he was redundant in the original game and their only job was to set up miniatures for the heros to hack to pieces. This way all 6 (potential) players are doing the fun stuff!

Anyway back to the game and the next tile is revealed. 4 Grot scuttlings appear. At this point Lano has a bit of Nerd rage about 6 limbed goblins with four eyes so I sit back and let him vent his Doomseeker rage against the scuttlings!

The combat follows the AoS system where your hero hits everything on a +4 (for example). The die you roll decides what actions you can perform and there are also 'fate die' to dip into for the extra actions. 

Once again a very simple system which harps back the the original. It is a nice fast combat system that keeps the game flowing  along quickly (which is what you want with a six player game).

On to the next tile and 'the Librarian' turns up who is an extra tough Pink Horror. As you can imagine much hacking and slashing followed.

The next tile is revealed and it is the 'Searing Beams room', along with LOTS of opponents thanks to our high rolls on the Adversary tables!

Once we clear the room we have to decide what to do with the searing beams. A bit of a discussion takes place and I'm not sure if it's the lack of sleep making us paranoid but we are a bit jittery as we make our final decision.

Not going to spoil it for anyone who has not played  yet but somehow the Gaunt Summoner appears and we get busy with the iron work and the Summoner is dispatched!

Sorry for the blurred photo but that is probably how we were seeing things at this point!

We put the kettle on for a caffine fix and discuss the game.

Lano compared it to the 'Dead of Winter' board game. To me it certainly has echo's of the original Heroquest game but with FAR superiour miniatures!

Both of us enjoyed it, so with the arrival of Neil we set up for a second game.

To keep things simple Lano and I play with the same Heros while Neil takes the Excelsior Warpriest with his Gryph-Hound pet.

Once again it is into the first corridor section and straight into trouble. This game certainly seems to come into it's element the more players you have as 'fate die' become a more desirable resourse and the race is on to win the most renown (something you earn for killing baddies).

Neil explores ahead and discovers 'the Way divides'

We also a gain a 'companion' thanks to an event card (that will explain the appearance of the Stormcast, Knight-questor later on).

Once again 'the Librarian' turns up!

And  then so does the 'Searing Beams room' (maybe we should have shuffled the cards better). Knowing what's coming next Lano and I are ready to pitch our sleep deprived Heros' into the fray . . . . . .

BUT Neil is fresh faced and enjoying himself. I know sleep deprived people are more susceptible to persuasion. 

This can be the only reason why Lano and I agree to back track to explore the other branch of 'The Way divides'!

LOTS of baddies appear.

HACK, HACK, HACK. . . . . SLASH SLASH SLASH!
 

and then . . . . .............

Yep, the Ogroid Thaumaturge turns up!  I decide to do the heroic thing and run out of the room so Lano has the honour of killing it ;0)

The Ogriod is dispatched and we decide to stop chancing our arm and return to unleash the Gaunt Summoner to finish the game.

A much closer game which we only survived thanks to the Warpriest's healing ability! Wounds inflicted take up die spaces which means your Hero has less and less activations and abilities. A really simple but effective touch to the game.

So was it worth staying up for 24 hours to try and get the whole lot painted and played . . . . . . . . . 

DEFINITELY!!

It's a nice fast play game with good pace and exceptional miniatures. Seriously there is no faulting the miniatures!

The game mechanics are nice and simple with a good learing curve which means extra abilites and treasures are added at a pace which allows you to master it before you earn another one and become overawed by what going on.

The game looks great thanks to the Miniautres and quality floor tiles, tokens etc.

The box weighs a ton and gives an indication of the quality product contained within.

Some will say £95 is a bit steep but thats less then £2 a miniature! The going rate for most miniature companies is about £6 a miniature! If you buy it from Darksphere it is £76 (£71.25 web price). Thats about £1.50 a miniature!!!!!!!

The miniatures contained within the Silver Tower game are of far superiour quality to these more expensive miniatures from other companies AND you get a decent 'plug and play' board game to boot!

All three of us are more then happy to play again and I have a starting Tzeentch warband for AoS or oldskool Realms of Chaos. . . . . 

To summerise 'Winner, winner chicken dinner'!!!!!!!

Now when is Bloodbowl re-released so we can do it all again?