Episode 14: Bloody Heart continued

 

We just cleared room one, open the door into the next room, then roll for Unexpected Events. We get a 1, roll for event type, monsters, roll to see if they must be Dark Elves. They must be Dark Elves.

12 Dark Elf Heroes (spearmen), 6 Witch Elf Mistresses, 6 Dark Elf Assassins, & 1 Dark Elf Lord.

This whole group other then the Dark Elf Lord fits in the first room.

Dark Elf Lord's equipment.

 

Dark Elf Heroes equipment (Accidentally labeled Master instead of Hero on monster card). 

Turn 1 Warriors phase we kill 3 Heroes. The Dark Elf Lord was vulnerable to Magic Weapons this turn, but manage to evade every attack with his Dodge (4+).

The Priest's hammer is insane. It has 3 Runes. With total stats of +1D6 Damage, +7 Str, can't be dodged, and +2 to hit. Additional, for this adventure only the Priest got a blessed at the Temple for +1D6 damage. That means with here base damage of 2D6 Damage, each attack she has Deals 4D6+10 that can't be dodged and +2 to hit. She only has 2 base attacks.

The Dark Elves move in, cause some wounds but don't bring anyone to zero bottom of turn 1.

 

We are still in the room with the baby kraken, he will grab at only non-dark elves. So unlike with the Daemons, this can only harm the party. The Wardancer gets grabbed and loses all his bonus attacks from Parrying the turn before. The Dark Elf Lord again fails to make himself immune to Magic Weapons, but the few attacks we can send his way aren't able to kill him. Pit Fighter and Priest kill 3 more Heroes and the Ranger is shooting down Witch Elves as they have Dark Elf Magic (1).

 

The party holds up to turn 2 rather well, no one goes down to damage.

Turn 3 the Dark Elf Lord failed again to make himself immune to Magic Weapons and the Wardancer finishes him off. The Priest gets grabbed by Kraken and reduced to 1 attack. Ranger kills 1 Hero and Pit Fighter kills 1 Witch Elf.

Dark Elves move forward, aren't able to bring any of the warriors down.

Turn 4,the Baby Kraken grabs Priest, Pit Fighter, and Ranger. 
As a team we don't do much damage this turn.

Turn 5, We kill 1 Witch Elf, 1 Hero, and 2 Assassins. There numbers are getting low enough, they aren't putting us in any danger.

Turn 6, we mop up all but one witch elf. Turn 7 she gives up the ghost.
Two combats and like 13 turns, we are still in room one of this dungeon.

We make it into the 2nd room of Dungeon. Attacked by 1 Beastmen Shaman Champion, 8 Beastmen Champions, and 1 Beastmen Lord.

Beastmen Lord's Equipment.

Beastmen Champions' Equipment.

Beastmen Shaman's Equipment.

We have Negate Ambush (A) for these first 4 rooms, so their throw spear get pushed off until the first monsters phase. We get locked in the room by the Orb of Imprisonment, but thats not too scary with this group.

Turn 1, we kill 2 Beastmen Champions. The Beastmen Lord, casts the Orc Spell Brainburst, targeting our Priest. Luckily the Priest rolls higher on 1D6 than the Lord rolled on 2D6. For the most part we take a few lumps but nothing to dangerous. It help that the Lord is stuck in the back and can't reach us.

Turn 2, we kill 3 more Beastmen Shaman. do small amounts of ranged damage to the Beastmen Shaman.

 

Turn 2 monster's phase the Beastmen Lord again cast the Orc Spell Brainburst at our Priest. This time the Priest goes down and has to be healed by the Pit Fighter.

 

Turn 3, we kill all but 1 Beastmen Champion. Little bugger survived the turn at 1 wound. Turn 4 we clean up and move toward the Hellforge Bridge. 

Each turn while in "The Forge" we had to test not to fall into the molten pit to our doom. Luckily we kept rolling well to avoid that fate.

After entering the Hellforge Bridge, we get assaulted by a familiar sight. 12 Dark Elf Heroes, 6 Witch Elf Mistresses, 6 Dark Elf Assassins, & a Dark Elf Lord.

 Luckily equipment changes each time the same monster group shows up, so they feel different from the previous fight.

 

Dark Elf Heroes's Equipment. Ouphfta, thats a combo.

Fear (9) for level 5 warrior could be hard to pass, except we all get +3 to Fear Test from the Rune the Ranger has.

Dark Elf Lord. And he has that Warpstone Staff giving that scary Skaven Magic.

We probably should have cornered up better when we entered this room. Us near the center surrounded by Dark Elf Heroes with Reach (3), is a ton of attacks to deal with. Also something I didn't mention last fight against Dark Elves, they all have Hate (Elves) and we have two Elf Warriors in the Party. That means double attacks but at -1 to hit. So many attacks.

 

Turn 1, we manage to only kill one Dark Elf Hero. They have 7 mitigation, 5+ dodge, 25 Wounds, and we don't get our Strength Bonus when attacking them. They are meaty. Monster's Phase the spells knock the Priest down, and all the Reach (3) attacks take down Wardancer. Luckily, Ranger and Pit Fighter can use potions to bring the other two warrior back up before the turn ends.

 

Turn 2, we kill 2 Heroes & 1 Witch Elf. The Priest used a once per combat making 
us -1 to be hit for the turn. The Dark Elf Lord flew into an empty space and attacked the Ranger. 

Turn 4, we only kill one Heroes. Man these guys are hard to kill.

Turn 4, monster's phase the 4 of the Witch Elves cast Transformation of Kadon and turn themselves into a Chimera!

Turn 5 we have the Ranger move to a spot where all 4 of us our one line, so when the Chimera chooses its target, he won't push anyone of around as he can reach us all for one spot. We don't kill a single monster during turn 5.

The Breath Fire (4D6) from the Chimera immediately face plants the Priest.

The Ranger Potions the Priest back up, and we manage to survive the bottom of turn 5.

Turn 6, the Hellforge Bridge's heat triggers and the Chimera and 3 Assassins get knocked prone from the overwhelming heat. They can't take actions this turn and are at +1 to hit.

We gang up on the Chimera as best we can while its knocked prone, during turn 6, we kill it and one Hero.

Turn 6, the Assassins move in, we manage to fend off these attacks.

Turn 7, we kill 6 Assassins and 3 Dark Elf Heroes.

Turn 8, we clear out that last 2 Heroes.

The turn after, the Hellforge bubbles up  some intense heat. The Pit Fighter, Wardancer, and Ranger all collapse in the heat for a turn.

After pulling ourselves back up, we head to a new doorway to explore more of the dungeon. 
This reveals the intersection. 

It was getting late, so we decided to call it a night. We will continue from here next time.

 

That's all for this post, may your lantern always stay lit.

DeMagic Tutor out.

Episode 13: Bloody Heart

 

Last episode, we had just failed to destroy the Hellforge, so we decide to head to a new city. I don't think any of the travel hazards were super relevant. Although we failed the mission, we gained a ton of gold. Enough that everyone could level up to Battle Level 5.

My Pit Fighter gained a Luck, Str, and Attack by using training points. Then +1D6 wound, now deals +1D6 Damage, and gains the Title Hero. This increases my Ignore Pain to 3 from my "No Pain, No Gain" class skill. It also got me the Hero Title skill "The Bigger they are. . . .". 

The Bigger they are . . . : The Pit Fighter is at +1 to hit large monsters. If the Pit Fighter rolls a natural 6 to hit a large monster, that attack splits into two successful hits.

The Elf Ranger gained +1 WS, +1 Attack, now deals +1D6 Damage, and the Title Hero. The Ranger gained the normal class skill "Herblore" and the Hero Title Skill "Crack Shot".

 

Herblore: The Elf may attempt to make D6 Herblore Potions at the start of each adventure. For each potion attempted, roll a D6. For each result of 5+ creature a Herblore Potion.

Herblore Potion: Drinker heals 2D6 wounds. 

 Crack Shot: Ranger can re-roll each failed ranged attack once each. 

The Wardancer gained +1 WS, improved to Pinning (3+), now deals +1D6 Damage, and the Title Hero. The Wardancer gained the normal class skill "Parry Mastery" and the Hero Title Skill "Parry Deflection". Because the Wardancer has the Title of Hero, his Parry increases to Parry (4+) so long a he uses two one handed swords.

Parry Mastery: Wardancer may re-roll three failed parry rolls per combat.

Parry Deflection: On a natural roll of 6 to Parry, the incoming attack hits the attacker instead.

The Warrior Priest gained a Luck, now deals +1D6 Damage, and the Title Hero. The Warrior Priest gained the "Rune of Inquisition" for their Hero Title. The Warrior Priest gained the following blessing :

 

Rune of Inquisition: Bonds to Hammer, Club, Mace, Scepter or Flail. Wielder is at +1 to hit and their attacks can't be dodged.

While in town, we bought enough healing potions to make sure everyone had 4, a few bandages, a few provisions, 2 Warhorses, a cart, and a handful of Elf Waybread.

While hanging out it town both the Priest and Pit Fighter got hit by run away beer carts on different days each spending D6 days in the infirmary recovering. My Pit Fighter finally got his Spike Pit Armour from Pit Fighter Store, so I put the Body Armour Rune I'd been hanging on to for quite some time on that. 

The Ranger got approached for doing a mission by a stranger. The stranger offered to pre-pay him 850 gold, if we would undertake the Mission Bloody Heart at +1 Dungeon Level. So since we are BL 5, that means the Dungeon Level would be base level 6.

This mission is from our Dark Elf mini-expansion, Blood Temple.

 Corrupted Items are obviously of evil origin and may cause you to be prevented from entering a settlement. Each warrior rolls a D6 for each corrupted item they are carrying as they try to enter a settlement. For each warrior that rolls a 1, they are refused entry.

This is too enticing a reward to refuse. We agree to undertake this mission. As it turns out, the adventure was just outside town. Zero weeks of travel needed.

 

The Ranger's Scout skill auto reveals the first 4 rooms, during these rooms 
we gain Disarm Traps (A) and Negate Ambush (A).

The first room is the "Cage Beast" dungeon room. Each power phase, each non-Dark Elf in the room has to roll a D6, on a roll of 1, that model is grabbed by the Baby Kraken hiding under the floor and is reduced to 1 Movement & and is at +1 to be hit until end of turn. Then we get attack by monsters!

We get attack by 3 Beast of Nurgle, 10 Bloodletter Champions, and 10 Daemonette Champions. None of the other rooms are open yet, so 8 Daemonettes don't spawn as there are not enough spaces for them.

 During turn 1, the Priest, 1 Bloodletter, and 1 Daemonette get grabbed by the Baby Kraken.

During the first Warrior's Phase, we kill 4 Bloodletters and injure one Beast of Nurgle to 41/50 wounds.

The Beast of Nurgle push past the other monsters and the Priest, one attacking my Pit Fighter, the other attacking Wardancer. Since the Priest has not attack anyone yet, no monsters will attack her. But she still takes damage from the Beasts Slime Trail as its area of effect.

Turn 2, only one Bloodletter gets grabbed by the Baby Kraken. Turn 2 Warrior's phase it takes all attacks from Pit Fighter, Wardancer, and Ranger to kill two Beasts of Nurgle.

Turn 2 Monster's Phase. Because of initiative order, Bloodletters and Daemonettes got first (they were all pinned or couldn't move around the Beast), then the beast moves. He attacks the Wardancer, who parries all the Beasts attack.

Turn 3, the unexpected event die rolls a 1. The combat event, has a random warrior get knocked prone until end of turn from a sucker punch. The Wardancer goes down! 

The Baby Kraken Grabs the Beast and one Bloodletter.

The Ranger and Pit Fighter fail to kill the Beast despite getting +1 to hit it. The Ranger uses range to finish off one Bloodletter, and the Priest decides with her insane damage (4D6+11 with no modifiers for Toughenss), that she should be safe to kill some bloodletters. She kills one, but fails to hit the 2nd one. That Bloodletter can now attack her. 

The Beast keeps attacking the Wardancer who can't dodge or parry while prone. Luckily, the beast only had 2 attack this turn and only hit with 1, Dancer survives at 5 wounds. The Bloodletter brings the Pit Fighter from 34 wounds to 15. The Bloodletter puts the Priest to zero wounds with its mighty 4 attacks.

We look on in horror, did our Priest just die? No one is adjacent to the Priest so no one can use a healing potion on her. The Ranger remembers last adventure he got a Wizard Scroll of Healing, which can heal D6 wounds at range. Use that to get the Priest to 4 wound.

Turn 4 we kill the last Beast and 2 Bloodletters. Over the next 3 turns we kill the remaining daemons easily enough with them no longer being dangerous.

We move to the door and call it a night.

 

That's all for this post, may your lantern always stay lit.

DeMagic Tutor out.

Warhammer Quest: Where to begin?

 

I've gotten a few request from people on how to start playing Warhammer Quest. I'm not 100% sure what exactly these requests are looking for but today's Blog Post is an attempt at fulfilling that request.

Warhammer Quest 1995 is the successor to the game Advanced Hero Quest. It takes Games Workshop's fantasy world of Warhammer and puts it into a self building dungeon survival board game. I liken it to the video game Diablo or Diablo II, but as a board game. Random dungeons, random enemies, & random treasure. It can be ran like Dungeons & Dragons, with a Dungeon Master who writes specific adventures and recurring enemies, and long drawn out interconnected stories. Though I prefer to play it with no DM, just a game that assembles it's own adventures and hi-jinks.

 

The original box came with 89 Monster Models, 4 heroes, 10 Doorways for connecting dungeon tiles, 22 Dungeon Tiles, and 3 rule books.

The game had two mini expansions. Lair of the Orc Lord & Catacombs of Terror.

 

These added more monster models, more doorways, & dungeon tiles.

 Then through smaller releases either in individual boxes or issues of White Dwarf magazine we got more tiles, monsters, and playable classes.

 

Games Workshop has re-released the game with a complete re-write of rules and brand new miniature with several expansions. The first of these being Warhammer Quest Silver Tower and the most resent being Warhammer Quest Darkwater. I'm not a huge fan of these. They have too much of Age of Sigmar feel for me, though the miniatures are gorgeous. 

I feel the 1995 version is superior but that might just be nostalgia talking.

So you want to get your own Warhammer Quest 1995 going? Where do you start?

You have 3 options (which you can combine as you see fit). Original, proxies, and make your own.

The original parts are all available on ebay and other old board game sources. A complete set with all expansions and classes, I'm sure is north of $700 (I'm actually not sure, I've not investigated this anytime recently). That $700 only has around 100 of the nearly 600 monsters needed to play through level 10.

You could use newer miniature that are easier to get a hold of, or miniatures that are cheaper from other companies than Games Workshop (Ral Partha & Kings of War come to mind). I've seen some people print off Standees instead of using miniatures (this is a very cost and space effective option).

These are standees, 2D printed versions held up by the base.

Then there is what I did, I 3D printed scans I found of the original miniatures. Since I was printing all the miniatures I also scaled them down (66% of original size), so the game would take up less space on the kitchen table and when I stored it away. I also put tiny magnets in the base of each monster so I could put them on cookie sheets for easier storage.

The monster list I use for the primary game needs 558 monsters (we added a few things, took away a few). Then for Heroes, summons, and allies needed 72 models. For a total of 630 miniatures.

 You don't have to have Doorways, but I like the esthetic of using them. Mine are 3D printed, I got the STL for my Doorways along with many of my Proxies from Tonoborus on Cults3d.com

 Then you need a Dungeon Deck. This is how you randomize the dungeons. You have a deck that contains a card for each dungeon tile, then each mission indicates a number of random cards to add to the deck, with instructions to put specific cards in specific places with in the dungeon deck. Each time you explore a new doorway, you flip over the top card, that card indicates which dungeon tile to add to the doorway you just explored. Probably the best way to get dungeon cards is to just print your own, especially if you want to add any non-original expansions. This way all cards are the same size and quality.

The game has two play modes for treasure and monster encounters. The base mode is a deck of cards that each time an encounter happens flip top card of deck to show what kind of monsters are encountered. This base mode really only works for the first 2-3 levels. The advanced mode is you roll for monster on a Monster Encounter Tables. Each Level 1-10 has its own table of monster options getting more dangerous the higher the level. I prefer the advanced mode. It has way more variety and scales with the party as the heroes get more powerful. Treasure is also has two modes, decks of treasure or Treasure Tables. I again prefer the Advanced mode of tables for the variety. 

Next the game came with 3 rule books; Adventure Book, Rule Book, and Roleplay Book. These can be found online as PDFs. You could either access them with phones//computers or print them off. Those with a hatred for their wallet could buy the books on ebay. 

 Similar to the rule books there are Class Books, these came with the expansion classes. They exist online, so digital, printed, or purchase originals.

Table space is a big need for this game. As a dungeon spreads out it can easily take over a normal 6 foot table.

So to play Warhammer Quest 1995 you need:
600+ miniatures (or standees) though you can start playing with around 80 minis
3 Rule books ( Adventure, Role-play, and Rule Book)
45 Original tiles (including mini expansions & White Dwarf stuff)
14-18 Doorways (optional)
Event Deck (optional, could just use Monster Encounter & Event Tables)
Treasure Deck (optional, could just use Treasure Tables)
A Large Kitchen Table
Dice, pencils, and Paper
And the hardest part: 3 friends who can show up regularly. 

That is the base game.

What I've been calling Black Hills Warhammer Quest ( I live in the Black Hills of South Dakota) has roughly 4 times as much content as the original game. This is all stuff my buddy "Bob" and I have added. Some parts (mostly the art assets) were borrowed from other sources. 

Mini Expansions
We added 4 mini expansions that play in the main stuff above (Chaos Dwarf Expansion, Traps Expansion, Dark Elf Expansion, and Twisted Tunnels Expansion). These add another 26 dungeon tiles and dungeon cards for more variety in each dungeon. It also adds another 18 normal adventures to the original 48 adventures.

Large Expansions
We added 2 Large Expansions. Lustria & Norsca. These have there own separate Dungeon Decks, 96 Adventures, travel hazards, monster encounter tables, & treasure tables. 

Medium Expansions
We added 2 medium expansions. Sewers & Lost Caverns. While in Old World (original game), Lustria, or Norsca you may find Sewer or Lost Cavern adventures. These have there own separate Dungeon Decks, 42 Adventures, Monster Encounter tables, and Treasure Tables.

Starting Quests. Old World, Lustria, Norsca, & Sewer each get 6 Starting Quests that are a little easier for starting parties.

Dangerous Quests. Old World, Lustria, & Norsca, get 6 Dangerous Quests that are extra tough adventures, that usually have extra pay out if you can defeat them.

 Epic Quests. Old World, Lustria, Norsca, Sewers, & Lost Caverns each have 10 Epic Quests. Each zone has one for each Battle level 1-10.  These are more dangerous then normal adventure and have better pay out.

Mythic Treasure tables for Old World, Lustria, Norsca, & Sewers. These items can only be gained as rewards for completing Epics or Dangerous Quests.

Side Quests for a Old World, Lustria, and Norsca. These are easier missions for early levels, but they don't pay out Objective Room treasures like normal missions.

Themed Monster Encounter Tables
To add more variety to monsters fought we added Themed Monster Encounter Tables. We have ones for Undead, Skaven, Chaos Dwarves, Dark Elves, Orcs & Goblins (together on one table), Daemons, Chaos Beastmen, Chaos General, Ogre Kingdoms, Lizardmen, & Miscellaneous Monsters. This adds over 600 more monsters.

To make the game convenient to play I've added Monster Cards, Monster Equipment Cards, & Monster Spell Books.

For the players I've made my own Class Booklets, Class Spell Books, Treasure Item cards, Life Counters, & custom Character Sheet-folder.

For Town I've made a custom Settlement Map and Settlement Book. 

For ease of play I have an Events book. It contains Traps Table, Dungeon Events Table, Combat Events Table, Travel Hazards Table, Settlement Events Table, & Harbor Events Tables all in one book.

Well I hope this was useful for those who were asking. Don't be afraid to send me messages, I may not always get back to you quickly, but I will almost always help out another dungeon diver.

That's all for this post, may your lantern always stay lit.

DeMagic Tutor out.