It feels like it's been a while since we played Warhammer Quest... and... it HAS. We haven't played since mid-October, before we took our trip to Vancouver - because last week (the first week since we returned) Finnegan had school stuff to do!
As ever Amanda was playing Glaurio ven Alten III and Qulathis the Exile. Finnegan played Brutogg Corpse-Eater and Dagnai Holdenstock. I Game-Mastered the thing and played all the hostiles.
Because the first three Purge Journeys were all successes, it was time for our first attempt at a Decapitation Journey (Thirst Awakened!) to take down Lady Annika, the Thirsting Blade!
The Purge Journeys were meant to irritate her and disrupt her power and authority in Terror Town! And irritate her they did! The first part of the Journey was defending the city quarter known as Haven - where the Heroes resided. A small outpost within the city that has thrown out the taint of the undead...
Ready to defend Haven
Glaurio ven Alten made the first move. He spied Lady Annika approaching besotted and dripping with the blood of the innocents she'd slain on her way here as reprisals for the damage done to her power structure...
Glaurio shot her twice and stabbed her a few times and she fled geysering blood out of her many wounds...
She would be back...
Brutogg was assaulted by a trio of Fell Bats and was raked and slashed by them. They are not so nearly as deadly as some of the other vampires they were facing... and usually Brutogg is pretty tough... but the bats got some lucky blows in and seriously injured the ogor!
Dagani was attacked by a trio of Vyrkos Blood-Born vampires. He deftly parried and deflected their horrific rain of blows!
Qulathis went after the gigantic Vargskyr that was approaching from the south. She filled it full of arrows... but was not able to bring it down.
The beast howled in pain - terrorizing all nearby.
then it leapt over buildings and landed in the square behind Qulathis, snapping at her with it's gaping maw... but the quick aelf darted away.
As expected, Lady Annika was back and once again attacked Glaurio! He parried her blows, striking back, then blasted her again with his pistol and sent her screaching off into a nearby alley!
Glaurio then returned to the square with Qulathis and blasted the Vargskyr in teh back with his pistols and finished the beast off!
Brutogg caught his breath and started fighting back against the Fell Bats, smashing one from the sky and then trampling it under foot!
Dagnai managed to slay two of the Vyrkos Blood-Born and injured the third...
But then Lady Annika was back, AGAIN, and coming after him!!
Dagnai Holdenstock, Vampire Hunter, lived up to his name and savaged Lady Annika and slew the Vyrkos...
Lady Annika fled Haven, many of her toughest followers having fallen there. The heroes followed her trail of blood back to the Screaming Spires in the middle of Terror Town to face her down one last time!
Amanda went and had desert while I set up the "A Thirst Slaked" map...
This time they were kicking in the front door and taking the fight to the vampires...
Brutogg charged in and attacked a Fell Bat that was hanging in a small room off the entrance hall.
Then suddenly there were bats and vampires EVERYWHERE! Filling the entrance hall and the adjacent rooms. Qulathis charged in, coming to the Ogors aid.
A pair of Vyrkos Blood-Born joined the bat still battling Brutogg!
Dagnai and Glaurio made their way inside, finishing off the Fell Bats and attacking the Vargskyr.
Then it was just the Vyrkos and Lady Annika!
Though by this point most of the Heroes were wounded and not fighting at 100%..
Brutogg smashed the last two Vyrkos.
(I guess in all the excitement, I forgot to take a picture of it, but I'm pretty sure a second Vargskyr appeared and Dagnai pretty much dealt with it himself... maybe with some help from Brutogg...?)
Then it was just Lady Annika and another Vyrkos Blood-Born.
Brutogg barged past Lady Annika to put the last Vyrkos into the ground forever...
Then turned on Lady Annika. The Ogor couldn't land any blows... but Dagnai Holdenstock, Vampire Hunter, had weapons of vampire slaying that could not be ignored... and he chopped her down...
The heroes chopped Lady Annika into as many pieces as they could then set her towers alight... but then had to flee as it seemed all of Ulfenkarn had been stirred up and were advancing on the Screaming Spires! They hoped that was the last they'd see of her... but weren't sure it would be...
Having Killed one vampire we opened the level two traits envelope...
Initially Finnegan had suggested going after Kritza the Rat Prince next... but when they saw Carmilla's Level Two power, they decided they did not want to face her at Level Three with, presumably, something ever WORST on top of starting all games Cursed AND Diseased! (THIS is where Cleona Zeitengale would have really been handy!!)
With Lady Annika removed from power there were new options for doing things in Haven post battle... Everyone gained some treasure and a point of inspiration to start the next game with.
In other Warhammer Quest news...
(Image ©2025 Games Workshop, used here entirely without their permission for the purposes of review)
Games Workshop once again teased us with this out-of-focus picture of the new game... which... has definitely lowered my enthusiasm considerably... It looked like the game will be played on some sort of printed map-board!? Initially I thought it might be a two sided folding board like are used for Spearhead or Kill Team or Warcry or any of the other smallish skirmish games and wondered if that's all that this new version might be - just a series of skirmishes against varying opponents...?! That seems rather... dull...
Some have pointed out that it may be a BOOK of maps that somehow lays flat...? so maybe there will be more than just two map options... still... Not nearly as interesting as the individual room and door tiles that have come with EVERY warhammer quest game to date... that could be re-used and moved around for an incredible amount of replayability without things feeling too samey-same.
It looks like there are about thirty nurgle thingies... There had been rumours of the box including a new Nurgle Daemon Prince... but I don't see anything close to the size that would be... There is certainly a Big'un out there next to the Dorf.. but not Daemon-Prince-sized Big'un. I dont' even know if that's going to be as big as the Vargskyr that came with Cursed City!?
It looks like there is only one hero card (maybe they just didn't feel like putting all four out for the picture...?) and it looks a little different in it's orientation, which has me wondering if they've dispensed with the activation dice!?
(Image ©2025 Games Workshop, used here entirely without their permission for the purposes of review)
They pointed out where the heroes on the box cover were on the board... I have to say, I'm also a little underwhelmed by the look of the characters so far as well. They look more like they belong in The Old World than the Mortal Realms of Age of Sigmar. The Characters in Cursed City were just amazing - I love every single one of them... so far I'm feeling pretty... "meh"... about these ones... but I'm trying to keep an open mind about it...
Also, though, down in the bottom left corner there are these which I can only assume are the four OTHER heroes... which look like it could be another Ogor, a green wizard of some sort, a Centaur(!?) and something rather small!? I don't imagine they're about to introduce Halflings to the Age of Sigmar setting... so maybe a grot or goblin or whatever they are called...?
Wednesday they have promised to reveal at least ONE of the four heroes they've teased so far (depending on which gets the most votes and how many people vote...)
I guess I'll probably be running this as a Game Mastered campaign (rather than a co-op one), just like I've done with Cursed City... and I have access to all the room tiles from Silver Tower, Shadows Over Hammerhal, and Cursed City... if the map-board/book and scenarios look boring, and not nearly dungeon-crawly enough, I guess I could just MAKE UP MY OWN adventures and use all the tiles from the previous game.
I'm wondering if this is going to be a MUCH SHORTER campaign - like Shadows over Hammerhal and Silver Tower - that can be played through in eight sessions...? I know a LOT of people complained about how long it took to play through the campaigns with the rules as written. There were a few house-rules posted about to shorten it up. I have to say, I did not mind at all playing all the scenarios we did... it's been a fun year playing through it all. I was looking forward to something similar with Warhammer Quest: Darkwater, but may have to accept that it might be a much shorter campaign...
Perhaps they'll make lots of little expansions like they did with Blackstone Fortress...?
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