Warhammer Quest: Cursed City is a labour of love for hobbyists and a love letter to those old enough to remember the original Warhammer Quest. I hope it's a good game, but it really doesn't matter.

 One of the things I've paid a lot of attention to during my absence from the hobby is the re-introduction of Warhammer Quest.  

Delicious components

I have very fond but hazy childhood memories of playing the original 1995 Warhammer Quest with my friends Dave, John and Tim.  Dave had acquired the set during a period where we were all collecting Warhammer Fantasy (R.I.P.) models and doing our best to play games when we were too young to stay focused on collecting and painting armies and didn't really have the money to do so.  Warhammer Quest was a dream come true with everything you needed right in the box, and I spent some allowance money on the Wood Elf hero to give another option.  Back then, they released small boxes with a new hero for WHQ with their in-game card you needed to play them, and at the time Wood Elves were very much my jam.  I hadn't yet learned that bugs are gross and I can get all the exposure to nature that I need from golf.

But really, my journey began before that with HeroQuest.

We had a family friend who owned a cottage in the Muskokas, and my father was a general contractor and carpenter.  It was mutually advantageous that we would go up for a period each summer and my dad would do some work or repairs, my brother and I would mow the grass or paint a deck chair, and we would get to use this absolutely amazing property for a week or so each year.  

This cottage was a full blown house in lake country.  Rare for the time, it had all the appliances you'd expect, running water and all that.  Because the owner and his family spent so much time there, there was a variety of VHS tapes, outdoor fun equipment like ATVs, and a selection of board games.

Among the board games was something that completely blew my mind called HeroQuest.  If you don't know what I'm talking about, give that a quick Google.  I suspect that the same son of our family friend responsible for the stack of 1960s-1980s comic books was also responsible for HeroQuest being there, but all I can say for certain is that the box art alone sent absolute fireworks through the mind of a young boy who had been consumed by old AD&D PC games like Pool of Radiance.  

I will never find the words to express the frustration I felt when I couldn't get my family to play the game with me for more than an hour -- I couldn't understand why anyone would want to do anything else.  Screw the lake.

Fast forward a few years, after I'd managed to finagle my own copy of HeroQuest, when my newfound interest in Warhammer ran face first into my delight for HeroQuest and RPGs in general.  It took me a long time to learn that Games Workshop was responsible for HeroQuest as well.  

Stepping away from the days of yore, when I learned that the modern Warhammer Quest games were designed to be playable solo, I broke into a sweat.  I wouldn't have to convince anyone to play with me.

But I didn't buy Silver Tower.  I didn't buy the next one.  I didn't buy Blackstone Fortress, despite being intrigued by the fact that it was WH40k. 

Then Cursed City got a reprint right as I was getting back into this hobby, and I found out that it had all the secret sauce I remembered from before.  Wide variety of heroes?  One's even a wood elf?  Character progression over the course of a campaign?  Random table of bad shit that can happen to you between missions for no reason?  Sign me up.  

So I bought it.  Then immediately decided that I wouldn't play it until I had assembled and painted every model.  I wanted to savour the anticipation and have something beautiful.  I've started, and I'm making progress.  I'm not bothering to count while I'm typing, but I'm 5/8 heroes painted and I'd guess around 20 of the bad guys.  There's  60 miniatures in total.  It's a lot of work.

Just the enemies.

I don't know if the game is good, but there are lots of places you can look up reviews.  I'm guessing I'll enjoy it regardless.  But I wanted to use this space to document some of my trials and tribulations while getting the set ready for prime time, and maybe I can inspire someone to finish their set or help someone learn from my mistakes.  

So with that in mind, I'll be posting about the painting and some thoughts about the models and some limited lore.  I'll also give my thoughts about the box itself, but here's my initial take:

For the money it costs, there is nothing that is going to give you the variety of incredibly high quality sculpts to paint.  It's also a hugely satisfying building experience, although it's moderately challenging so I'd say make sure you have the right tools and patience for the job.  The quality of the materials inside, the models, the presentation is so far beyond my expectations that it really is the best example I can present for the new Games Workshop theme:  High cost, unbelievable quality, slick presentaion.

It's going to take forever to paint, it took a while to assemble, and it will take some time to beat the campaign.  But god almighty, I am going to enjoy opening that envelope.  

Start of a long journey