The fourth and final Stronghold: The DEATHMAZE!
Exploration Round One: Challenge
Amanda picked the Ratlings to do this one...
First roll...
I did re-roll the one, for giggles, and got a two - not that it mattered - the initial roll was more than 16 and included a 2 and a 4... so... Ratlings picked up two Archaeotech cards!
Although, looking at the card again... I actually rolled HIGHER than they have results for on the card... probably should have just said 16+. Otherwise, what happens when you roll MORE than that!?
Ratlings found a thing. Locarno was wounded, but recovered in the recovery step.
Exploration Round Two: Again With The Challenge
And and AMBUSH at that! With, like, ALL of the Traitor Guard!? (feeling a little grateful I haven't gotten to painting the extras...
Everyone rushed the explorers... except for the one group of Traitor Guard that could see them - they just took (largely ineffective) pot-shots.
And then our explorers hit back... Hard. Dorg caved one of their heads in... Pious Vorne started bringing the light of the Emperor to the foul traitorous creatures that they are.
then more of them... This group all died in one Cleansing Flame action...
Which meant Vorne was now INSPIRED!
Unlike all the others in the group, Vorne's Secret Agenda requires Doing a Thing - which is great early in the campaign - as she can actually become Inspired pretty early in the game, early in the campaign... but at this point, everyone who has a Special Agenda that requires a card, they now have them and START every game inspired.
All of the Hostiles were wiped out and all the discovery locations searched and everyone was heading to the escape chamber and just waiting for Dorg to catch up... when ALL THE REINFORCEMENTS arrived!? Seriously... Amanda just couldn't stop rolling 1s on the d20 Blackstone Die used to determine if Reinforcements arrived!? Luckily there was a bit of a bottleneck... that has a bend in it... that was precisely 4 hexes away from the escape chamber (Dorg's max move) and Dorg was plugging said bottleneck... So they all took a run at Dorg... and he took a couple wounds... but he's a HARD guy to take down, and after they'd done their thing, Dorg just retreated into the Maglev chamber and everyone was off to their final destination...
And Finally: The Deathmaze Stronghold!
I played this with Keira last month. Her harlequin danced through here in, like, a single turn... (
Harlequin Solitaire in the Blackstone Fortress - check it out, it was EPIC!
but... I have a feeling this lot was going to have a bit tougher go of it...
As it happened, when I dealt out the initiative cards, ALL the hostiles went first! But that actually worked out really well... They pretty much all charged, but they weren't close enough to actually make an attack at the end of that charge... I really just gathered them all nice and close...
End of Turn One... Beastmen and Nega-Volt Cultists dealt with...
Next turn... Vorne burned up one of the Traitor Guard detachments. Well... almost all of them.
The Ratlings went into to finish the survivors off.
Vorne arrived on, leading the assault, and burning more traitors...
BUUUUURRRRRNNNNN!!!
On Surviving Traitor Guard tries to flee.
Vorne chases down the fleeing Traitor Guard and then burns a Chaos Space Marine to death.
This triggers the activation of Obsidius Mallex and his Chaos Space Marines. Mallex and the Chaos Space Marine pursue the fleeing Vorne - the Chaos Space Marine burns in the flames she leaves in her wake.
And then the Eldar goes and ONE SHOTS Obsidius Mallex!?
BOOM!
Okay, she had some help from a handy little orb that she picked up from the Kravv'cha'to, back when they were hanging with Dahyak Grekh, the Kroot Tracker.
Then everyone just had to get to the escape chamber...
Vorne burned a Rogue Psyker....
And then another...
And then left some flame waiting for any reinforcements that might come through the portal...
There was some waiting for Dorg and the Ratlings to catch up!
During which some Traitor Guard showed up... so those flames burned Chaos Space Marines... but the Traitor Guard were undaunted...?
Nega-Volt Cultist reinforcements also made an appearance... but that was it. Everyone made it out alive!
Woo!
Precipice
Back at Precipice we drew a new Destiny card... yikes...
There were a few things purchased... but not much. Everyone is pretty much all tooled up and carrying the maximum number of resource cards. Ready to hit the Hidden Vaults!
I HAD thought our next game might be ultimate conclusion to the Quest for the Hidden Vaults - but, rereading the rules, we DO need four more clues to get to the Hidden Vaults... for some reason I thought I'd read that once the Strongholds were cleared, you just go to the Hidden Vaults... but re-reading it, I noted that it is played "just like a stronghold" and the very first thing you do to attack a stronghold is discard 4 clue cards! Unfortuatnely we don't HAVE four clue cards... I thin we may have even discarded a few, because everyone is already carrying MAX resource cards (all equipment!). Actually, I think the rAtlings still have two clues stowed away in their packs somewhere (I'm pretty sure Rien had one in his mini-refrigerator, tucked in behind a dubious looking jar of "sauerkraut"...
So instead it might be a regular exploration to use up a couple resources and acquire a few more clues!
THEN we'll be on to the Hidden Vaults...
But what to do after that!?
As some of the possibilities require painting miniature, I thought I'd best start giving it some though...
As I said, we have at least two games left in the Quest for the Hidden Vaults, but what to do after that.
The Dreaded Ambull, I suppose. I think it was the first expansion released - and I have all the minis from it painted! It has at least one adventure and adds new Discovery (shinies) and Encounter (AMBULLS!) and Exploration (Combat and Challenge) cards. There is also a short campaign involving the Ambull in the Annual.
In the annual there are a couple one-off adventures to acquire new Retinue characters - the Pennitent - which I have a miniature for now and a Flash Git (if I could track a single one down...). There is also another Campaign involving the Ambull and a campaign involving a Master of Possession and Greater Possessed.
Who's should keep us busy for some time. After that, however, I'll need to get new things painted!
Traitor Command was, I think, the next release and has, like The Dreaded Ambul new cards and map bits and a single adventure/exploration (or short campaign?). Shouldn't be too hard to get things ready for this, as there were only two miniatures in the expansion - a Traitor Commissar and a Chaos Ogryn!
Escalation was the next release and has a much longer campaign - more like the Quest for the Hidden Vaults! It has a BUNCH more minis to be painted - including four new Explorerss, a Retinue Character and a BUNCH of Cultists (I actually bought a bonus Cultists of the Abyss box - so I have TWICE the Cultists to get painted!).
After that there is No Respite - introducing some Death Guard and Pox Walkers...
There are two more expansions after that before this arc of the the Warhammer (40K) Quest comes to an end. I'm pretty sure we're totally going to pick them up when they are released.
I'm feeling fairly confident that this won't be the end of Warhammer (40K) Quest - I'd guess they'll have a new started box out by Xmas... Anyone care to guess what it'll be about? My money is on something to do with the Inquisition (or maybe that's just me being hopeful!)
I actually cleared (most) of the other distractions off the Workbench this afternoon and left only Blackstone Fortress stuff.
the extra Traitor Guard and other elements from the bonus Servants of the Abyss box made their way to the front.
I also assembled the models from Traitor Command and No Respite. It will be a while until I get to playing those... but since I'm actually excited about this at the moment, I figured I'd ride that wave and see if I can't get that done.
In other news, it seems they've announced a new edition of Warhammer 40000. I have to admit, I'm pretty "meh" about that... It promises to "revolutionize" the system... but... I feel like the APOCALYPSE rules revolutionized the system. Anything short of that sort of system, I feel, is actually going to be a step BACKWARDS!? To be honest, I have Kill Team, which is okay, better than regular 40K.... Anything that can't be handled by Kill Team, I'd rather play out with Apocalypse!?
On the plus side, all the existing codices will work with the new edition - so, to start off, all I'd need is to pick up the new core rulebook... so I may do that. But with the new release, they will start redoing Codexes and we'll for sure see the same old "codex creep".
Coming Soon to Tim's Miniature Wargaming Blog:
Another expedition to the Blackstone Fortress in search of the final clues that will lead our intrepid group of adventurers to the Hidden Vaults!?
Maybe some more newly painted Blackstone Fortress minis...?
"Although, looking at the card again... I actually rolled HIGHER than they have results for on the card... probably should have just said 16+. Otherwise, what happens when you roll MORE than that!?"
ReplyDeleteTechnically, what the card says is that you ignore the 2 and the 4 and total the other dice, which would be 13. The reroll would have been bad for you because it would have been a 2nd 2 and resulted in every character taking a hit and you would not have gotten anything. To be fair, I initially read it the way you did, but then the 16-18 and the fact that you had 5 dice twigged me into re-reading the card.
Still, onward to the Hidden Vaults. I hope you paint more baddies because it feels like you need a bit more challenge for the next set.
Ha!
Delete"Otherwise, the REMAINING values are added up..."
Yup, misread that one... Whoopsie.
It's not the clearest writing TBH, and it's a bit of an odd and convoluted mechanic on top of that.
DeleteWhat it is really doing is playing a dice strategy game in which you need to lock down 5s and 6s while avoiding excess 2s and 4s. Rolling a single die when you have double 6s locked in like you did is effectively neutral in odds in that 1 or 3 means no effect (basically what you already have), a 2 or 4 is bad because of a wound to each character, and a 5 or 6 is good. Banked 5s and 6s are effectively almost the same as double sixes.
So there's a mini dice game in there, but you have to know all of the rules to appreciate it, and here the writers didn't do a great job of communicating all of them. Part of the problem is that they wanted to camouflage that it was a dice game and the other part was limited space, so they couldn't put a useful example to demonstrate how to the play the game.
I'm not sure additional 2s and 4s cause wounds...? It says "at least" a single 2 and 4. A single 4 and a single 2 required to avoid everyone being wounded - then they are set aside and the rest are added up and the total determines the secondary outcome...?
DeleteThe challenges are interesting - so that it's not ALL combat - and include a strange mix to totally different mechanics. One required rolling and then stacking dice in a particular order within 20 seconds. Some are a little odd. Some only really work, as I noted with one above, if there are multiple players that are only playing SEMI-cooperatively...
You are correct, it does say at least a single 2 and a single 4, so you can have multiple 2s and 4s. I'm pretty confused by the rules then. As far as I can see, you would keep your 2, your 4, and both 6s. And just keep rolling the remaining dice until you got a 4 or better. So you pretty much had the perfect roll to start the game. I guess if you yahtzeed the first roll with 5x1s, you'd take a wound and reroll all of them until you get at least one 2 and one 4. At that point, you simply reroll the remaining dice until you get 6s on all of them (or 2 5s and a 6 or similar combo). I'm not sure that this was the intended game flow though.
DeleteI do think this variety is good to spice up the game, but this particular card is flawed in its execution.
I think it's when you are done rolling you total it up... so if you rolled 5x1s you'd have to keep ONE of the 1s, but could reroll the other four keeping any number of those that were useful - only once you stop rolling to you check for a 2 and a 4 and total the rest.
DeleteAs you say, not the MOST clearly written card ever! Ha!
Hopefully they'll have it all sorted out for when they launch the next edition!
Sounds like more fun! Once upon a time I'd have been exited to hear there was a new 40k, but that was a long time ago! Have fun riding the wave!
ReplyDeleteBest Iain
I've read some comments on the local clubs forum about what was discussed about what's changing with the rules on the live preview. I am... underwhelmed... I'd be far more excited to hear about what's coming next for Warhammer (40K) Quest... or Kill Team... or Necromunda... or even expansion to apocalypse...
DeleteBut yeah, a new 40K... "meh"...
"No Respite" seems to describe GW's constant new games, versions of old games, new minis, etc. ha ha
ReplyDeleteBut this Blackstone Fortress game does look and sound cool. And if one really gets into it having more material is probably good (if dangerous for a completionist - ha ha). In any event thanks for letting us enjoy it vicariously!
Just giving their fans what they want - New Content! (Which, in turn, keeps a rather large staff of very creative people gainfully employed!)
DeleteThe constant stream of new releases does seem a bit much at times - especially if you're trying to play more than one of their games!
Didn't mean to disparage them for it. I could see fans wanting lots of new content. I'd want plenty of new content myself for some games. I just meant that GW's model feels a bit overwhelming to me personally (I tend to be a completionist, but also a very slow painter, not a great combination for lots of content - ha!). :) (even more so if one is into multiple games, as you say)
DeleteI really do like the style of this game, with the campaign structure, the various challenges, and the option to do things like "army of one". I wish there were other games along those lines in a genre/setting I would be more into.
Sure, yeah, I totally get that. I find it a little overwhelming and am, likewise, a bit of a completionist! With GW one thing that isn't great is - not only do they put out a LOT of stuff, with the exception of CORE books and models for their Core games, everything seems to get one print run and if you don't get it while it's available, too bad for you!?
DeleteFor a time there it was getting a little out of hand with Necromunda AND Kill Team AND Blackstone Fortress AND 40K AND Apocalypse - there was something new coming out EVERY WEEK. They seem to have cooled off on the Kill Team... There ARE four Necromunda books slated for release this year - but that should be it... There are only two more Blackstone Fortress expansions coming (which I'll probably pick up as they come out - so I don't miss out on them - even though we probably won't get to playing them for some time!)
I'd like to say I have enough for 40K... but I'll probably pick up the new rulebook... and the next two Psychic Awakening books (Engine War and Pariah) because both are of interest to me (I haven't picked up ALL of them!).
I just hope they don't rerelease Battlefleet Gothic...
AS for games of this style - yeah, I'm really loving this. Hellboy is similar and can be played solo... not so much of a campaign to is as a series of scenarios. I probably would have liked it better if there hadn't been Blackstone Fortress!
There were fantasy Warhammer Quest games out before this latest 40K incarnation - Silver Tower and Shadows over Hammerhal - and the earlier original Warhammer Quest... I haven't played any of those, but I know the original was very popular for a time. Finnegan has Silver Tower and Shadows over Hammerhal - and had played them with my did (but never got around to actually PAINTING any of the miniatures.