Monday 23 June 2014

Advanced Heroquest Launch Special



Advanced Heroquest. What a game! Even after all of these years, it is still a firm favourite of mine for many reasons. The miniatures, the playing pieces, the ruleset, the background and not to mention the numerable scenarios published in WD over the following few years. If memory serves, I only played it a handful of times (with my stepbrothers) but those few hours were enough to sear a firm attachment to the game that remains to this day. Sadly, despite many efforts, I have yet to get my hands on a decent copy of the game and enjoy it all the more as part of the Oldhammer Scene. 

What follows is a look at the material published in WD 118 in support of the games release. As a cursory glance will show, there was a great deal common with this game with its more famous sibling. The four heroes (barbarian, elf, dwarf and wizard), a playing surface that allows for almost innumerable different dungeons and a series of adventures in the grim world of perilous adventure! In fact, the only thing that Advanced Heroquest lacked was the plastic furniture! 


The game looks more adult than Heroquest. And this is certainly true when you start delving into the background material, which has a lot more in common with WFRP than WFB. A quick scan through the artwork and narrative presented in this article shows are far darker tone to the game. As with many products released at this time, many of the pieces of associated artwork came from the massive stockpile of images that GW had at its disposal. Gary Chalk's shield designs and the beautiful pen and ink drawings are new though, and look just as magnificent as we have come to expect. In my book, it was this high quality art alongside high quality miniatures that sold these sets and still makes us love them today. 


Many of you will recognise the famous Advanced Heroquest diorama that was put together, if memory serves, by Ivan Bartlett. It makes great use of the wide range of metal and plastic Citadel miniatures available at the time. As each model is a single sculpt and not part of a kit, apart from the few plastic models used, the diorama has an very different feel than many we see today, which are more a journey of familiarity rather than an adventure of new discoveries. One of thing worth noting on this page is Wayne England's crayon illustration of skaven to left. Very evocative that piece of art!


A big draw to games like Advanced Heroquest were the Solo Rules, advertised here with a giant yellow circle. As many of us gamers were still quite young, or lived miles away from other enthusiasts, rules like this made it possible to play out these games alone in the safety of your bedroom. I can recall many happy hours inventing my own dungeons before laying them out and gaming away using the original Heroquest set.


As with many products released in the late '80s, Advanced Heroquest was fully compatible with many of the models produced by GW. In fact, expanding the game with your own collection was positively encouraged by the game, and the cardboard cut outs of monsters and daemons secreted in the box only encouraged you to chase down the models and paint them for real.

Super keen eyed readers may well spot a familiar miniature in the selection above. It was part of my previous post. Can you spot which miniature I am referring too?

Orlygg

12 comments:

  1. In an odd coincidence Mantic Games have just announced their AHQ-type game, Dwarf King's Quest. I missed out on AHQ and couldn't afford Warhammer Quest when it came out so I'm excited!

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    1. Dwarf King's Hold was given to me one Christmas a while back, but alongside too much other stuff to ever get played (oh, the miseries of too many luxuries!). But this looks very, very good.

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  2. Dwarf Kings hold is a realy great game, a heroquest version of it can only be good imo, especially when written by Jake Thronton

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  3. Remember the cardboard amulet which came in four (?) pieces, each of which was handed out at the end of each chapter of the campaign? From memory once the amulet was rebuilt it was used as a terrain piece for the final battle. I still have my copy of the game but the Skaven figures have long since been lost.

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  4. A wonderful game - the bestiary was like a collectors check box dream. Really hoping the Mantic DKH reboot rekindles interest in this style of game.

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  5. I have seen Dwarf Kings Hold and it certainly looked promising. Though I am sure that I saw it a Salute a couple of years back, perhaps it was a WIP version. For me, why pay out £50 odd quid for a new game when I could just go out a buy a copy of AHQ? I am just waiting for a decent copy at the right price to cross my path!

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    1. That's Dwarf King's Hold which is more of a mini game. They've just announced Dwarf King's Quest, which is much more of a full scale AHQ type thing.

      And if you can get a copy of AHQ or Warhammer Quest for £50 then you're very lucky!

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    2. Actually, its not that hard. I did the same with my Blood Bowl and Dark Future sets. I tend to buy up all the pieces separately and slowly build up my collection. the hardest part is often the box, but there are usually a couple of con artists who like to sell them on eBay each year to take advantage of.

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    3. Opps, seconds after typing the above message I went on eBay and bought a copy for £50. Bugger! I am so addicted to Oldhammer.

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  6. Love it. Never played AHQ, just HQ, but once had a half-complete set from a car boot sale. Shame they're so expensive now, I'd love to have it back again and actually play!

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  7. One of those on my "to get" list (mainly for the doors)...from what I've seen there is quite a bit to it rules wise.

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    1. The doors were one of the weakest parts in the game, they were designed to open and close, but the very small tab's which held the door to the frame were prone to breaking, which is where Hero Quest's doors, while simple plastic stand with cardboard frame worked so much better and you can still get hold of intact to this day.

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