Rich Croton
United Kingdom
Reading
Berkshire
-
Before I start, let's put my review into perspective:
1) If I had to choose a 'genre' of games which I prefer, then I'm a Eurogamer.
2) I love wooden pieces and cardboard tiles - IMHO plastic just looks cheap by comparison. ( Lajos sums it up well in this GeekList, when he says: "Cardboard > Wood > Rotten dead shellfish > Plastic")
3) I'm a thrifter - so I sometimes buy games because they're cheap, not because I'm likely to play them.
4) I really have no reason to enjoy HeroQuest. After all, It's Talisman Lite and anyone who read my review of Talisman (fourth edition) will know my opinion of that game!
Anyhoo...
Last weekend I heard about a local car-boot sale (I'm not sure what the US equivalent of this is - let's just say these sales can be a thrifter's paradise.) As they normally only happen during the British Summer (when the rain is slightly warmer), I jumped at this opportunity for a thrifting fix...
There wasn't very much there in the way of games. Then I spotted HeroQuest tucked away on one trader's table. I didn't want to leave empty-handed, it was a game (albeit Ameritrash), the board was in good condition and it was only £5.00. I bought it...
Driving home, I rehearsed the conversation I would be holding with my wife. Put simply, she's not as much of a gamer as I am. She has the strange belief that other things are more important than gaming and usually always despairs when I return home from a bit of thrifting. I steeled myself for the usual interrogation and 'evil looks'! Was I in for a shock...
My wife's first comment on seeing the HeroQuest box:
"Oh wow! Can we play it after dinner?" (She never volunteers to play a game[/b])
"..."
"Can I play as Morcar? Pleeeeze..."
"..." (It took me a while to realise that Morcar is the name of the evil wizard.)
"It's a shame you haven't got the expansions and Advanced HeroQuest too..."
"..."
"I love this game - I haven't played it in years - oh wow..."
(I got my voice back.)
"What have you done with my real wife???"
Needless to say, after dinner, we set up the game. This review is to let people know how I felt about the game.
What's in the box?
This can be the bane of any thrifter - what's supposed to be in the box rarely equates to what you actually have. I'll just list the discrepancies from what should have been there.
I only got 3 rather than 4 special combat dice - that's still enough to play the game.
There were only 2 closed doors instead of the 5 listed. Eric Keuchel's tile file will soon fix that.
The 35 Citadel miniatures... This was the real worry, I hadn't had time to check for completeness when I picked the game up and miniatures are frequently the missing bits. They were all there! This is also the first part of HeroQuest where thrifting had a bad side-effect. The quality of the paint job!
Okay, I've seen worse than this, and it gives me a project for this winter!
There was actually an extra miniature in the box too:
Other than these minor issues, the game was complete and in good condition. It even had a plentiful supply of unused character sheets and a couple of pencils!
The game itself:
My wife took over the set-up (another first) and handed me the character reference cards, sheets and figures. She then insisted that I had to work through Mentor's tutorials from the rule book! (Normally I'd skip these and just get on with the game.)
The tutorials, whilst being too basic for a seasoned gamer like me, were very well thought out. They introduce the various mechanics gradually and in a fully interactive way. I'm a great believer in learning a game by playing it. The HeroQuest tutorials use this method and they were surprisingly fun to do.
Training over, my band of heroes set off on their first quest. We used the basic quests supplied with the game and played through the first three of them...
As a Eurogamer, certain questions were screaming at me as we played: "Where were the wooden cubes? Why were the mechanics loosely pasted to a theme, when every good game loosely pastes a theme to the mechanics? Where were the Meeples? What do you mean roll and move?" I ignored these (usually valid) questions and thoroughly enjoyed the game!
What I enjoyed:
Your heroes develop from quest to quest. They have names and even develop personalities (although that may have been the claret we were drinking!)
As you continue, you get a feeling of role playing. This even affected my non-gamer wife - her orcs were yelling battle cries as they charged my characters!
Seeing the evolution of games at work: HeroQuest uses a fixed board. By positioning 'blocked square' tiles and doors, some areas become inaccessible. This effectively changes the layout for each scenario. This concept was developed for Advanced Heroquest, which uses a modular board. This design style has changed little and has resulted in games like Doom: The Boardgame and Descent: Journeys in the Dark.
Depth of game... Seriously, this game has more depth than all the different editions of Talisman put together (admittedly, this is not difficult). In HeroQuest, your strategies do make a difference to the gameplay.
Most importantly, my wife likes the game. She used to play this when she was younger. Better still, her parents still have their copy - together with all the expansions and Advanced HeroQuest! (Their game collection would be the envy of many geeks - and they're not even gamers!!!)
What I disliked:
I really want to say lots of bad things about this game. I feel it is my duty as a Eurogamer. But... I can't find anything really bad to say! Here are the things I can comment on:
The quality of the pieces - but I have paint and brushes and free-time so this will improve.
Lack of wooden cubes. - Sorry that's just silly!
Value for money - If I had paid ebay prices for a copy of this game, in similar condition, I would be disappointed. By thrifting it, I believe I got a good deal.
As a result of this game, my non-gamer wife has heard about Doom: The Boardgame and Descent: Journeys in the Dark and expressed an interest in playing those games too! Whilst I appreciate her increased interest in gaming, she could at least direct it towards Eurogames - after all, we went to Carcassonne on honeymoon!
Conclusion:
My thrifting has betrayed me... I used to be a happy Eurogamer, confident that vast boxes backed with gaudy plastic miniatures would not spoil the neat lines of my gaming shelves. Now I'm looking forward to 'borrowing' my in-laws' copies of the HeroQuest expansions.  (We 'borrowed' their copy of Starfarers of Catan three years ago - it's now part of my collection! - I will return it if asked - honest!)
All in all, HeroQuest is great fun to play and puts other Ameritrash games to shame. (Advanced HeroQuest is the exception.) If you're out thrifting and see a copy, buy it - you won't be disappointed.
-
Brian Moyers
United States
Meridianville
Alabama
-
I'm glad to hear of your happy discovery! HeroQuest was one of my first experiences as a new gamer back in the day and I still love it. Here's to many more dungeon sieges, sir!
-
Steven Kimball
United States
Vadnais Heights
Minnesota
-
My question is what in the world is that "extra mini" that was included? Looks like a three-headed dragon?!?!?
-
Fantasy Quester
England
Google 'NinjaDorg Fantasy Quest'
-
Excellent review from a Euro-er perspective plus wifey influence!
I still remember my favourite Christmas ever was opening up this bad boy when I was a kid and seeing all the furniture and monsters and cards and just thinking, "coooool!"
Which I think maybe makes me an Anglo-trash gamer??
Anyway, great memories of long hours spent dungeon delving - I never really got to play as a hero but I always went a bit easy on them just to make sure they weren't put off from playing the next quest . . .
-
Fantasy Quester
England
Google 'NinjaDorg Fantasy Quest'
-
Acoriano3 wrote: My question is what in the world is that "extra mini" that was included? Looks like a three-headed dragon?!?!?
Chimera? Cerberus with wings??
-
Matt Razincka
United States
Seattle
Washington
-
A classic. Still love this game. REALLY need to get Descent and Doom. Oh, and play more HeroScape. Same mechanics, different focus (brawl instead of crawl).
-
Rich Croton
United Kingdom
Reading
Berkshire
-
Acoriano3 wrote: My question is what in the world is that "extra mini" that was included?
Exactly what I thought. I think It's supposed to be a Chimera but the heads are completely wrong! Here's a couple more images - my camera really doesn't like the gold and silver paintwork!
The heads appear to be boar, lion and goat - not a combination that I know from mythology.
-
ɹǝpun uʍop ʞǝǝƃ
Australia
Adelaide
SA
-
Nice review.
 for you -- for seeing both sides of the gaming fence 
-
Universal Head
Australia
Sydney
NSW
Professional creative visual communication: www.universalhead.com
Game summaries and reference sheets: www.headlesshollow.com
-
Try 'stripping ' the minis and repainting them. There's an excellent page which has info on stripping minis here:
http://www.faqs.org/faqs/games/miniatures/painting-faq/
-
Steven Kimball
United States
Vadnais Heights
Minnesota
-
Badgerman wrote: my camera really doesn't like the gold and silver paintwork!
...your camera's not the only one that doesn't like the gold & silver paintwork...
-
Steven Kimball
United States
Vadnais Heights
Minnesota
-
I asked some friends of mine on a HeroQuest forum where your "mystery figure" originated and this is what they came up with--hope it's useful! Check out the link and you'll see the different variations of the figure. According to the website it appears that it's missing 1 of 4 kinds of tails, just FYI.
bruenor wrote: It's the old Maurader Chimera, sculpted by Aly and Trish Morrision, when they had their own company, and sold the stuff through GW. Although the wings are from the old Manticore, I think they reused the wings when the Morrisons rejoined GW for the Manticore tho. http://www.solegends.com/marauder/mm44chimera.htm
-
Rich Croton
United Kingdom
Reading
Berkshire
-
UniversalHead wrote:
Thanks, that is a truly excellent page - I was wondering about how to strip the paint without damaging the plastic.
Just in case anyone's interested, I've already stripped and painted the zombies: (You'll need to open this full size to see what I've done!)
I know I'm not the world's greatest painter but I'm happy with the result!
-
James Mclardy
England
Grantham
Lincolnshire
-
Dettol.
That's what I sue to strip all my minis, plastic or metal, the common orange coloured stuff, like Mum used to dab on cuts and grazes.
24hrs and a quick scrub with an old tootbrush gets all that rubbish paint off ready for a new job.
Here's a link to my HQ gallery, which houses not only my own personal HQ pieces but some pics of the set I painted for a client.
(I paint for a living)
http://s119.photobucket.com/albums/o131/bruenorbat/Heroquest...
Some of these were stripped using Dettol.
Oh and good find on the US version of HQ, I myself first bought the UK version when it came out back in the late 80's early 90's, can't remember exactly when, but have loved it and played it many times over with numerous friends and family members, and it still hasn't lost it's luster.
-
Rich Croton
United Kingdom
Reading
Berkshire
-
Bruenor Odinson wrote: Dettol.
That's what I sue to strip all my minis, plastic or metal, the common orange coloured stuff, like Mum used to dab on cuts and grazes.
24hrs and a quick scrub with an old tootbrush gets all that rubbish paint off ready for a new job.
I've been using Dettol and water in a 50/50 mix - it works great. I couldn't find an old toothbrush so I used the wife's!
-
Universal Head
Australia
Sydney
NSW
Professional creative visual communication: www.universalhead.com
Game summaries and reference sheets: www.headlesshollow.com
-
And remember - "don't forget to turn off the water!"
-
James Mclardy
England
Grantham
Lincolnshire
-
Lot of bloody messing about in that video, just get an old sandwich box, lob the contents of a bottle of Dettol in, neat not diluted, and leave overnight, and give a quick scrub, with a toothbrush, and wash in soapy water to get it spanking new.
Smells nice and none of that hurty fingers stuff.
-
Steven Kimball
United States
Vadnais Heights
Minnesota
-
Badgerman--if you're interested in replacing the tail (not that it matters to you that much, but just in case it does )
http://uk.games-workshop.com/storefront/store.uk?do=Individu...
-
Teppo Saarinen
Finland
Turku
-
Great review Rich. (Ever found out what happened to your real wife? Probably being subjected to horrible scientific experiments in an alien spaceship somewhere while the bodysnatcher is busy playing HeroQuest with you...)
Anyway I just "rediscovered" this game yesterday. Like your (the thing impersonating your) wife I used to play it A LOT when I was a kid. Had an "RPG-phase" then and it was a great LRPG to play with people who found real RPG's boring or too complex.
I picked up a partial copy of this game in a rubbish skip a while ago and just put it on the shelf next to my original copy without thinking much, but yesterday checked it more thoroughly while sorting through my collection. Most of the pieces of the original game were missing BUT inside was a full copy of the Witchlord expansion! I can't wait to introduce the game to my regular crowd. (Have to be careful to stress that it's a fantasy themed BOARD game though, and no mention of RPG, otherwise they'll run for their lives...)
I'd like to play Morcar and introduce a bit more role-play for the monsters. The way we used to play was not very realistic, with the orcs and other baddies always going for the weakest target (the Wizard or, generally, the guy with least HP left). I don't think they would be that clever really. The undead could be even dumber than the orcs, with maybe the "boss" monsters being a bit more intelligent.
-
Brad "Real Men Stand in the Rain and Play This" Redfield
United Kingdom
Under a DVD Collection, Scarborough
North Yorkshire
-
Teppo you lucky git! Have you seen how much the expansions go for on ebay these days?! I've got return of the witchking and kellar's keep expansions, but the prices of the others means I'll sadly never get anymore
 
-
|
|
