Amarok's Lair - The English Version: Musings on tabletop dungeon crawlers

I've always been keen on dungeon crawlers, since the first Diablo came on my PC. Even if during our rolegame sessions we never really played lots of dungeon-type situation, in our WFB campaigns there were often typical dungeons in which the Hero must survive to achieve some narrative objectives. Years ago, thanks to a former friend, we used the tiles from Advanced HeroQuest to create this dungeons. Then I printed something similar (in monochrome to economize; I still have and use those), and we even tried the original HeroQuest, which I really liked even if we played just few games.

Random Diablo pic just for pure love

Thanks to Age of Sigmar, Games Workshop renewed their Warhammer Quest series, but we took interest in that only in 2018 with Blackstone Fortress. In our little gaming group (Verona MAD Wargamers: have I ever told you this name?) some people bought this box and we gave it a try: not bad at all indeed. However, mainly due to lack of time, we never started an official Blackstone campaign.

When GW released Cursed City we went mad. It was April 2021, we were in the middle of the Mordheim fever and this looked just like what we were waiting for: a great return for a WFB-like grim world in form of a boardgame, with great miniatures and fantastic tiles. Passing over all the various events around Cursed City and its distribution, we managed to buy a pair of boxed sets in our group, but we tried it out only in January 2022. Nice system, practically identical to Blackstone Fortress which we already liked. Let's start a campaign!

We did. Last January (we suffer from time dilation, but we know it and we're ok with it).

Our first ever Cursed City game, Jan 27 2022. With the right fuel

In 2021 there was another epic release: the new edition of HeroQuest. Immediately I thought about buying a copy, then I hesitated, because I really didn't like the new miniatures. Even during these last months I read lots of negative reviews about the soft plastic and the fact that the game system has not be changed at all since 1986. However, I was too fascinated by the epicness of HeroQuest and the infinite possibilities of modding the game with everything I liked. Last but not least, it seems that Avalon Hill is giving a lot of official support to the games, with new expansions, the wonderful Companion App, etc., so is the ideal situation for a long lasting purchase.

These days, before and after buying the game, and having started our Cursed City campaign, I tried to confront the two game systems and I found various interesting elements in both. I even was torn between buying HeroQuest or Cursed City, at first, but in the end the reasons I just wrote pushed me towards the former. However, I want to share my musings on these games I definitely like.

⚠️ Disclaimer: I read and play everything in Italian and I don't have access to the original english rulesets. So I will try to translate from Italian the specific words written in the rules, but I hope it will be understandable even in not precise or incorrect.

Let's enter this dungeon! Barbarian in the foreground: look at the muscularity! (cit.)

From now on, WQ means Warhammer Quest and HQ means HeroQuest. For Warhammer Quest I mean both Cursed City (CC) and Blackstone Fortress (BF): my real playing experience is mainly related to the former, but I played one or two times even the latter and read all the rules; they're almost specular games, with some minor (even if appreciable) changes, so I'll treat them as one. Sometimes I will underline differences between the two boxed sets. For HeroQuest: so far I played just Grimbeorn and me, using the Companion App as Zargon; in the future I'll probably be the Game Master.

I identified various aspects of this game, specifically:

miniature quality
learning curve
in-game system
campaign system and official support
modding possibilities and replay value

5 points per aspect, total 25 points.

Miniature quality

WQ: GW quality, so superb imho. WQ miniatures are really stunning, the hostiles are very nice (I love both the Ulfenwatch skeletons and the Traitor Guardsmen), reusable as Vampire Counts units in WFB, given that I surely would have used square bases where possible, and they're explicitly available in WH40K, because miniature stats are given. The Heroes are various and defined, with the same strengths of their enemies. Great hobby opportunity in both cases. Only downside: they look really fragile (more CC than BF), especially for the dragging around and constantly touching typical of a board game. 4/5

HQ: quite the opposite, HQ miniatures are born to play, they're more toys than collective and hobby-related items. The usual GW fanbase rotates around gamers AND painters, where I imagine HQ fans are mostly gamers so this is not a real problem. The soft plastic is too flexible and some weapons are bent. The design is detailed while simple, far from the squared rigidity of the old (epic) miniatures: even though they're not ugly miniatures, they're unapt to hobbyists who want to paint something GW-leveled. A note of merit to the tiny furniture: this miniatures are really really nice, from the doors to the other elements, and this is a treat. 2/5

Some Ulfenwatch and an objective marker (everything from CC is painted by a friend from our gaming group)

My character! I chose the Noble Duellist (spectacular Imperial/Roleplaying vibe)

I really love the tiles from CC: here there are some hostiles and two other characters, the Ogre and the Witch Hunter. Last one we play with is the Elven archer (you can se her horns just behind the massive Ogre)

The HeroQuest family! As I stated before, not the classical epicity but some nice miniatures altogether. I loved the Fimir, but the Abominations are my first "evil fishman" minis: I loved to deepen this kind of creature since I first met Murlocs in Warcraft (remember them?)

On the tabletop the minis work just fine. I'm going to paint some of them for sure, but also I predict using some of my other miniatures

Overview at the end of an adventure: all the doors and the furnitures create a nice landscape and a full dungeon

Learning curve

HQ: HeroQuest is an easy game. Very easy: the mechanics are fast and rapidly learned, few dices, little when not anything happens outside the main action on the tabletop. The fact that the game is born to be played with the aid of a Master obviously smoothes the learning curve: you're constantly guided in the process. Even when learning alone you can easily learn how to play. If you played Munchkin you already know how to play: open the door, slay the monster, take the gold, end. The only thing you need to remember is to look around for traps and search every room: with a Master this is really simple and you can even roleplay this particular aspect. 5/5

WQ: talking in general, the in-game mechanics are quite noob-friendly: you throw the activation dice, then you spend them and to perform specific actions you use the special dice. The fact that there's no Game Master is appreciated (in BF the rules state that a potential fifth player can move the hostiles), but obviously means that you have to understand how the hostiles move. Nothing difficult, however. Two are the controversial questions: there are LOTS of special and specific rules for every hero, and there are LOTS of events that happens outside the battlefield during and after the game. Markers, space ships with special rules, post-game dynamics that you need to look after to recover, to choose the next mission etc. These are more important in CC than in BF. 3/5

In-game system

HQ: vanilla game system is very easy... probably too easy. Some dynamics could have been better defined over the years, for example concerning movement: 2d6 for every character flatten this phase of the turn. I love the fact that spells only work once per game. The searching system means that you're constantly reaching for treasures and traps, and this is fantastic in combination with a GM, because you can really make the game a roleplaying experience by narrating what you character is doing or looking at; it can however be kinda repetitious if not handled well (even though the dungeon crawler system is repetitious by itself, so you're warned before starting). The activation and combat systems are immediate and quick, so you can play more than one game per session, if you want to; to this, contributes even the fact that the board is fixed so it's ready to play. Opening doors is the core event in the game, imho: is where you really build the suspence and the action. 4/5

WQ: there's a lot of randomness given the fact that activation is driven by dies and initiative by cards. I personally love this type of games, because it gives a lot of dynamism and unpredictability and every turn all can suddenly change. Different dies are common here (as in HQ). There's a lot of special rules to keep tray of, especially at the advanced steps of the game: this can slow down the mechanics. The post game phase, particularly in BF, needs to be accurately handled to keep you PCs going. However, the key aspect of WQ's game system is the fact that you have different types of games. Here BF and CC have a completely different game dynamic. In BF you start a mission, than draw a card and resolve an immediate narrative-kind problem OR create a battlefield (following the instructions on the card) and play a game with hostiles etc. In CC, you can choose between three different styles of playing, each to be played on the battlefield: for the Hunt missions (I hope the translations is correct) the scenario is given, you deploy the hostiles and the goal is to kill enough enemies; for the Rescue missions you create the battlefield by opening the doors and randomly adding rooms; for the Decapitation missions you play a mix of the former two to kill forever one of the "bosses". All of this guarantees a lot of variety, but is also quite long to manage and play. 4/5

A CC Rescue mission: the battlefield is created every turn (we needed to make space for the tiles... quite annoying), and on the board you have all the cards for different PCs and NPCs, the initiative marker and the turn wheel . My character, on the right, has got two cards because I'm a lev. 1 PC with two upgrades.

Grimbeorn and I played our first HeroQuest mission with the iPad as Zargon (more on that later). In addition to the board we have the decks from which we draw the treasures and some cards with the stats: not very much.

Campaign system and official support

WQ: assuming that CC and BF have some differences, in general the campaign structure in similar. There's a final goal (defeating the boss and discover the final secret by opening the sealed envelope), which you can achieve by playing several semi-randomly chosen games (completely random in BF, chosen by the player in CC). Every campaign requires a mid-term goal before the final battle: discovering the secrets of the forts around the sancta sanctorum of the Blackstone Fortress, or killing the various lieutenants of Radukar the Wolf for CC. Your heroes upgrade in power and experience to face tougher hostiles. Given the already said differences, both games have little narrative experience in the single scenarios: the map may change every time, but there's not a briefing or background providing the story for that specific game, it's only part of the larger mission.

I personally liked the Fear and Influence system in CC, so you have to choose accurately your games in order to maintain the things balanced; however every game, as stated before, is actually quite time consuming. The advantage in BF, talking only from a practical perspective, is that one of two types of missions are played without the tiles and the miniatures, so it can be faster to play. When a campaign ends you can buy some expansions, but on this side GW really had a troubled experience and these are not available anymore. Beside that, Cursed City expansions were expensive and completely without any new miniatures, while BF expansions were actually nicer. There are no new expansions on sight (even if just in these days GW released a new scenario for CC, but is a way to play with three specific Heroes from the Age of Sigmar range in the streets of Ulfenkarn... quite disappointing).

Summing up: nice campaign system even though destined to end up, bad official support. 3/5

HQ: HeroQuest, mainly thanks to the fact that you officially need a GM to play, has a more narrative/roleplaying focus. Every scenario has a backstory, and even if the general game dynamic is obviously the same (enter the dungeon - kill everything - exit the dungeon) the narrative experience can be intriguing and engaging. The final objective is unattainable: defeating Zargon will be a life mission for the players, because every expansion has new enemies sent by the bad guy. There are lots of official expansions, however, and more to come: contrary to GW, Hasbro/Avalon Hill is investing in the range and constantly launching new ideas. The Companion App for HeroQuest is a FANTASTIC proof of official support, imho, and there are some additional missions specifically downloadable from the app. I personally love the fact that the various missions help develop a coherent narrative story (each usually concluded by the singular mission pack), which is radically different from a campaign in which the games are only subsequent steps towards the only narrative element of concluding the main quest itself. 5/5

Modding possibilities and replay value

HQ: to me, HeroQuest is THE modding experience. Even before buying the game system Grimbeorn and I were already wondering about multiple possibilities: insert every miniature we have by creating new profiles, create new rules for new situations, even adapt the setting to an historic/fantasy experience (I think about one of my favorite roleplaying games, Lex Arcana, an Italian game set in Ancient Rome)... The massive fanmade production since the 90s gave us lots of material, which some people are updating to the new edition (I'm ready to put some Skaven on the HQ's board...). This obviously increases the replay value, which is broad given the fact that HQ is explicitly born as a system. Replaying the specific missions, however, I think could became tedious in the long run, and I don't know if I would want to restart a mission pack from the beginning once played it all: you constantly need new missions or a randomly-generated system. If you are the GM you really can thank for the Companion App, by which you can play the official missions as an effective player before managing other players. Modding > replay value. 4/5

WQ: here we have two boardgames which are intended to be played, replayed (because the randomness allow every game to be completely different) but kinda bonded in the respective story. Once you have defeated Radukar or discovered the secret of the Blackstone Fortress, what else can you do there? Here everything lies in the hands of the players: with the same effort made by the HQ fanbase you can create new stories by using the tiles from the two games and all the models you want (I personally love CC's tiles, which are FANTASTIC even for a WFRP special session with miniatures). I would restart a new campaign, however, maybe to play with a different group: I think every run, even if quite long, would be different and having opened the final envelope doesn't ruin a second try (I think!). Probably I would do that more than create a specific mod for this game system: it's too complicated, every character has too much of rules to take care of and to create from scratch for new models. I also think that this more boardgamey vibe justifies partially the lack of official support: WQ is a single game, you play it and stop. Modding < replay value. 3/5

End score

HQ: 20/25 WQ: 17/25

HeroQuest wins! I tried to be objective while I obviously review as per my personal taste. As you could see, I equally like the game systems, but the narrative element and above all the future official support and the fanmade wide quantity of mods eventually brought me towards HQ.

This was a very long post but I hope to have correctly underlined some interesting aspects of both games. So, more reports to come for both!

PS: after the first draft of this post, all this talk about dungeon crawlers made me restart Diablo...