The (Second) Best Thing

Gather around the fire, bold adventurer...

 

Woffboot XIII: The Other Games

In between matches at the 'Boot, there was plenty of time to catch up, chill out, eat barbecue and PLAY MOAR GAMES. Here's some short reviews!

Dwarf King's Hold Kickstarter Complete

The Kickstarter Stylus and myself have been cackling to ourselves over has ended today. Never have troll hordes looked like such a probability in the future of the 'Boot, gents. Get painting those flaming weapons now.

It all got me a bit nostalgic for games long since departed from my collection. In joint honour of those games and this future one, here is a questing dwarf, reclaimed from the minion bag.

Dungeon Saga: A Quest Fit For Heroes

My search for a simple out-of-the-box dungeon-bash board game is well-documented, and after a few missteps (always check for traps!) I think I've settled on one...

Behold your quest!

Entitled Dungeon Saga: The Dwarf King's Quest, it's envisioned by those plucky underdogs at Mantic. A spiritual successor to HeroQuest, it's being touted as a game simple enough to play with the kids (after all, who ever heard of a six-year-old playing Warhammer?), but with enough scope for advanced play. There will be expansion sets, no doubt, but you get everything to play in the box: heroes, villains, cards, boards and dice (and it's so hard to find dice).

Battle Masters - The Epic Game of Fantasy Battles

Now, we're all aware about HeroQuest - the attempt to boardgameify (yes, it's a word) the RPG experience - but was did anyone else know about this MB Games/Games Workshop collaboration to do the same for Warhammer Fantasy Battle?

Whilst browsing through some US comics from the early 1990s (it's important to stay well-read), I came across this three page advert:

Are the orc, the ogre and the knight actually playing the game?
That's a tough demographic to market to.

Heroquest - 25th Anniversary

I don't mind that Doctor Who is celebrating 50 years. It always seemed so established that it was just waiting for milestones to be checked off.

But has it really been 25 years since Scott and Charlene walked down the aisle to the heartbreaking tunes of Angry Anderson? Yes, it has: Scott and Charlene from Neighbours are now celebrating their Silver Wedding Anniversary, and if that doesn't make you feel old, here's another:

It has been 25 years since I saw this commercial on telly, and knew what was going at the top of my list to Santa*.

*Yes, that would make me 10 years old at the time. Yes, I still believed. I have a vivid and magical imagination. Go and watch The Polar Express and stop looking at me like that.

Let's just dwell on that memory:

• Christopher Lee is narrating. Because of course Christopher Lee is narrating.
• Why does the child with the Broadsword card sound like Clive Owen?
• The player line-up doesn't match the ones of my experience (several family members dragged to the Boxing Day table, humouring me, dozing off or just complaining loudly)
• I think the 'Fire of Wrath' caster's voice is about to break.
• At the end, the kid in the DM chair becomes a monster (making it the most accurate disclaimer ever added to a commercial).

I still have my trusty Heroquest set (plus Ogre Kingdom expansion), although most of the furniture has been pillaged for spares, and some vandal has daubed all the miniatures with a crude enamel paint.

However, I now learn of a Kickstarter campaign to create a Heroquest 25th Anniversary Edition that looks absolutely cracking. I've never been led down the crowd-funding games route before, but at around £55, I might very well be tempted by this.

For no other reason that to atone for my very first paint job...

"What have we become?"