Great Stuff Over at GW Pertinent

There's some goodness going on over in a fellow blogger's neck of the woods, GW Pertinent, and although I'm an avid reader I never really mention the sites I frequent. Well, Tristan's got a contest up about such a thing, so that was enough to spur me into action. I should say, this is quite the feat in and of itself considering my schedule recently!

So, in no particular order, here's three of my favorite posts of his on different gaming subject matter. They're supposed to all be from the 40k universe, well you might argue they are but frankly I like breaking the rules. Besides, variety is what gaming's all about. And I like breaking the rules.


#1: Warhammer Quest Characters

Obviously I'm a big WHQuest fan as you can tell from my past exploits here. Tristan's taking all of the characters, those form the base game as well as the character packs, and coming up with proxy equivalents to fill in. I particularly like the Trollslayer and Warrior Priest models he's chosen, both of which look better than the actual models that were put out for the game.


#2: Travel Space Hulk

Wow, this project is just way too cool. When I first saw it I knew right away it was destined for greatness. Okay, that might be a bit much, but I knew it was cool. The plan is to have little portable tiles, magnetized Epic figs, and all kinds of corridor-cleansing goodness. When I was a kid I used to really think the magnetized travel mini chess sets were cool, and his post immediately took back to that time of innocence, a time when bygone dreamers lazed about on warm spring days, the grass of the new dawn under their feet.


#3: Blood Bowl

Anything Blood Bowl under the sun can be found here. The thing that impresses me the most is the sheer amount of tournaments Tristan travels to and plays matches in. We're picking up the Blood Bowl gaming around these parts, and I've gotta say it's all of Tristan's Blood Bowl posts that kind of inspire me along the way. Here's a great post about his themed Orc team based off the St. Louis Rams.

My Warhammer Quest

They don't make them like they used to. This post is about my copy of Warhammer Quest, which I'm happy to say this is the same set I bought back in 1995, and its grown since then. Back in the day, this was the only boardgame dungeon crawl of this level in town, and we had many, many 'beer and pretzels' nights with this one. Actually, WHQ action has even reached the blog a time or two, and that's going on a good dozen or more years after its release. I think that says a lot about its replay value right there.


Bunches and bunches of components are within


It comes with treasure cards but I've also got all three of the additionally released treasure card packs as well. These extra hundred and fifty treasure cards give so many more options for both dungeon room and objective room random treasures.





No other GW boardgame came with this many minis! Not only that, but these aren't cheap facsimiles of GW's regular figures. At the time, the figures that came in the box were the same plastic that you could find in the WHFB range too. A gaming buddy of mine, Raymundo, painstakingly took the time to paint these to boot.


Yes, even the bats and spiders are painted!


WHQ put the "tile laying" in "tile laying dungeon crawl"




Of course all of the above fits nice and snug into the main box. There's also a handful of rulebooks in there as well, one of which will take your basic heroes well beyond the first two levels and into much more advanced levels.

The game is now sixteen years old, to find one complete is getting to be more and more rare. If you can get your hands on a copy however, do so, the game is a lot of fun, and it hardly shows it age at all. If you know someone who has a copy collecting dust, get them to haul it out and give it a whirl one evening, you won't be disappointed.


I've bored you enough, so never mind the rest...

Elf Ranger Mage

Lady Talon, a displaced High Elf who has become restless within the aristocratic circles of the Old World. She has turned her efforts to adventuring, and for a short time was the leader (umm, lantern holder) of a group of warriors. When Andar the Barbarian joined their ranks, to her chagrin, Lady Talon relinquished the responsibility of group leader to the musclebound Northerner. She shares a common arcane bond with the Wizard, Thane, yet she can hold her own in combat thanks to her array of magic rings, items, and fighting prowess. She is thankful for the presence of a cousin Wood Elf in the part, although she is openly arrogant towards Vynd.

Lady Talon is my second level character for Warhammer Quest, taking the Mage path of the Elf Ranger boxed set (as opposed to the Knight path). In addition to her standard stat line, she picked up an extra permanent wound thanks to a random traveling event. At second level instead of rolling up a new spell, she got the skill endure, once per adventure she can ignore the killing blow caused by a monster. Not bad, but I'd rather have a new spell. She's got enough gold (for now) to level up to third, if only we can find a city instead of constantly getting sidetracked by blizzards, plagues, and other maladies. She didn't cherry-pick the treasure cards, as some would suggest, ahem, but being the party leader for so long, she just happened to gain some powerful items.

First up are her rings, three in total. The Lightning Fire Ring; For a green item, this one is quite the gold producer. Once per adventure I can automatically strike a monster within line of sight for a whopping 5d6 damage, with no modifiers for armor or toughness. Invisibility Ring; Not as useful, this ring still comes in handy every now and then. For one turn I am immune to all attacks from monsters, yet I can still attack, it's good for ambushes and such. Ring of Regeneration; The last of my rings, this one will heal 2d6 wounds on the roll of a natural "6" each turn. It's not always reliable, but good to have just in case. No self-respecting Elf would go adventuring without their Boots of Swiftness, adding +1 movement while I wear them. These were super handy when I was the lantern bearer, but help out just as well now that I'm in the backfield. I've also got an Orb of Might, but I've been liberally using up its inherent magic power to help me cast spells. It's a neat item, but will be depleted by the end of the next dungeon I'm afraid. Last is my pride and joy, the Blade of Leaping Gold, which I painted the fig's sword to match the one on the card. Nothing fancy here, unless you consider +3 attacks per turn fancy, heh. Actually, in the hands of a Mage, or second line fighter, this blade is quite handy and can support the front line fighters quite well.

The Fountain of Light

Looks like Warhammer Quest was this week's game, woohoo! In a stunning display of both stategery and trickery, the man whose idea it was to play, Oz, backed out at the last minute, haha. Nonetheless, we trudged on, and trudge we did. Ray was playing the human Wizard, Thane, another return for this now second level mage. Given the items he now carries, as well as the plethora of spells he now has, he was rockin'. Jon was present with his character, the Wood Elf Vynd and his magic bow, magic arrows, magic potions...yeah, he was rockin' too. I played Sir Talon, err, make that Lady Talon. All transgendered Elf jokes aside, I hit the local hobby shop and picked up the Reaper Elf Wizard I had wanted and got her all painted up. She turned out rather well and when I get some good light, I'll snap some pics. According to Andy he said, and I quote, "This is probably the best figure you've ever painted." Hmm, coming from him, I'll take that any day of the week. Anyway, Lady Talon was in the hizzy, with rockin' magic items and the like; our second level party was doing well...very well. One would say, almost too well. To round it all out, Andy rolled up a new character, a Barbarian named, ahem, Andar. That means I lost the lantern, ugh. Losing the lantern also means losing the treasure responsibility, and after I screwed Ray with a 3gp Bag too! We're going to have to review the lantern rules anyway, I think it switches hands every game in the roleplay extended rules, but I dunno. With as easy as we rolled through the dungeon, we're certainly going with second level monsters next time, Andar may have a bit of a tough time, but he'll level up easy after a dungeon or two with the group. For this last jaunt, we headed through the dungeon looking for the Fountain of Light, which serves as the well of fresh water for the town of something-or-other. Anyway, those pesky Skaven dumped some of their warpstone in the drinkin' water and voila, some adventurers get suckered in to investigate. Enter us, we rocked. I forgot to take pics during the dungeon, so the only pic I have to offer is the shot above, a flaunting pic of enough WHQ hardware to make even the most diehard fan jealous, heh.

The Return of Sir Talon

If you look to the left, you can see his red cloak. That's right, the rumors of Sir Talon's death have been highly exaggerated. He's back, with a whole new party of adventurers to terrorize and plunder the vaults of the Old World. A gaming friend of ours, Rucht, (see the Witch Hunter entry) was going to be in town for a couple of days and had two full nights of geekin' out cleared. We decided to break out ole Warhammer Quest, for all the reasons I've mentioned before, it's just simply an awesome boardgame. Last Friday night we did some dungeon-hopping, but had a disastrous second dungeon, where a cave-in, in the objective room of all places, killed two of our party members. The Dwarf (Sgt. Biffen) and my Elven Ranger Mage character, Sir Talon, were able to make it out, but just barely.

The next night we cranked out even more questing goodness, finishing the last game, literally, at four in the morning! We were able to tackle a total of three dungeons Saturday night, another two the night before, we were on fire. After the last game we finally made it to a city and levelled up Sir Talon, the human wizard Thane, and Sgt. Biffen. We alo saw a new Elf, a Wood Elf archer named Troyan join the team.

Looking for sutiable alternate figs for the PC's I stumbled across a very cool Elven High mage, with both a sword and a staff, but it's a chick, so "Sir" Talon may have to be "Lady" Talon next time!

Wizard Needs Food...Badly!

Warhammer Quest is a great game, with a shelf-life to rival even Hostess Twinkies. I bought it in 1995 and it was quite the bargain. One of Games Workshop's "big boxes" it included a huge array of stuff under the hood, see the mondo spread shown here. It is one of the few games I have played on a consistent basis for such a long time, going on twelve years now. This is just a preface really, but I can't stress enough how great this dungeon-crawl, Gauntlet-esque, tile-laying, pseudo-rpg boardgame really is. Anyway, we played last night...but no camera, arrrgh! I'll get some action pics next time, for serious!

We took two Elves, a Wood Elf Wardancer named Warhawk, and his High Elf cousin, the noble Ranger Mage named Sir Talon. Accompanying these otherworldly adventurers were two humans from Erengrad. A sword and flintlock wielding Witch Hunter by the name of Kloodge DeBlood and a Warrior Priest, Inquisitor Kane, devoted to Sigmar, hammer and holy book at the ready.

In the heroes' first adventure, a small village, a hamlet really, had been plagued by a man-eating beast from the wild forests near them. The heroes, eager to make a name for themselves volunteered their services, knowing that their pay would be little to nothing. Besides, there's plenty of treasure to be had in the dark recesses among the ruins of the Old World. Warhawk suspected a Minotaur was to blame, given the tracks he found in the area, and the villagers pleaded for the heroes to bring back the head of the beast. Into the dungeon the adventurers went.

The dungeon went fairly smooth, without any monsters giving our characters any serious threats. Giant Rats are always a concern, and this time they didn't disappoint, giving us a good thrashing. Our power phase rolls were pretty mild with a low number of natural 1's too, which is always a good thing. Without having a true wizard with us, we were forced to rely on the Priest's Ring of Jade, and the Ranger Mage's meager healing to give support when possible. Everyone was getting their sea legs and learning their characters, forgetting some stuff here and there, but nothing too bad. We found our way to the objective room, the Fighting Pit, and the chaos commenced. We were stuck on ledge, with archers and enemy warriors below, coming at us one at a time while the arrows flew. We did manage to roll a few 1's in the power phase too, ugh, always a problem when you're that close to being done. The heroes prevailed however, and happily deposited the head of the Minotaur in the middle of the village, politely declining any fanfare or celebration.

The post-game phase was thankfully painless, with us finding a medium sized town without encountering too many travel hazards. We had enough treasure and gold to see three out of four of the party members gain a level too, the Wardancer being the only one who didn't. Frankly, he could have, but he kept a couple of his magic items and bought some much needed extra equipment. In Warhammer Quest, you gain levels by basically buying them, new levels give you better stats, skills, spells, and the like.

The heroes left, feeling invigorated, and set forth for more adventure. Travelling through the Dwarf lands, they were invited to spend time at a Dwarf Stronghold ruled by a minor Lord. Over a night of drinking and a fine feast (by Dwarven standards) they were offered employment by this esteemed Dwarf lord to return a valuable artifact to a statue in a recently abandoned lair. The going would be dangerous, but bringing this revered piece of Dwarven heritage back to completion meant much. The Dwarf Lord, in his "generosity" said that he would only take half of all the treasure the heroes uncover along the way. Well, the Elves were less than cordial and suggested to the Dwarf lord a quite different place he could put his artifact, and that the Dwarves should do their own dirty work...if they could muster the strength for it. The humans of the party (also incensed, but more calm in their display of emotion) were able to stave off a fight right then and there in the banquet hall. The party was run out of the stronghold nonetheless at the request of both axe and hammer, in fact, they were run out of the entire province, quite enthusiastically actually.

Their pace to leave the Dwarf lands was not to the stout folk's liking, and a full on pursuit was in effect. It seemed the heroes had also forgotten to return the Dwarven relic as well. In their flight they came across the shattered entrance to an old Dwarven keep, the same one they were asked to venture into. They knew there was a chasm of fire in the bottom of this lair, and once across the rope bridge, they could sever the ropes and be free of the pursuers, more than likely for good. Into the ruins they went.

Upon entering the dungeon, the pursuing Dwarves, knowing what dangers were ahead, locked the iron portcullis behind the adventurers, sealing them within. There would be no backing out now, the only way the adventurers would be to find the exit would be through the fire chasm. They made their way quickly through the dungeon, taking note that there seemed to be more activity than usual, this was an active dungeon, for sure. It was no wonder the Dwarves had not been able to return the relic themselves. They came to the chasm of fire relatively quick, which was the good news. The bad news is it would prove to be their undoing. Horde after horde of monsters of all types swarmed the heroes, who were terribly bottle necked on the rickety rope bridge. First the lesser minions came, then, attracted by the sound of battle, the Minotaurs showed up. One by one, the heroes fell, first was Inquisitor Kane, whose healing prayers and hammer finally failed him. Next was the noble Sir Talon, his swords were a force of nature to rival his Wardancer cousin in this adventure, no small feat. It would be the crushing blows of a minotaur to lay him low. Warhawk and Kloodge had a sliver of a chance to avoid the same fate as their comrades, but it would take timing, skill, and most of all; luck. As Warhawk fell to enemy blades, DeBlood's fate looked sealed, but he had his magic-infused amulets, powder and shot for his pistol, and most of all, his faith. Kloodge exhausted all of these to do so, in his last chance for escape. He failed to cut the old, but surprisingly stout, ropes of the ancient bridge. DeBlood died where he stood, riddled by Orc arrows.