Lockdown 2.0 Project Log Day 96: Narrative Fantasy Gaming

 Hi!

I was excited to see an email coming through informing me that my copy of Brutal Quest should be heading my way soon and I should have the PDF on Friday!

I'm really looking forward to getting my hands on the book as my recent sci-fi skirmishing has reignited my interest in playing fantasy too which got me onto thinking about what kind of game experience I want to play.

In years gone by I would have said either mass battle ala Warhammer or at least decent sized warband skirmishes like Chronopia or Leviathan but having watched a lot of videos of Mordheim, Frostgrave, Rangers of Shadowdeep and even Warhammer Quest (many thanks to GUERRILLA MINIATURE GAMES for putting on so many inspiring games over the years for us to enjoy!) I'm finding myself drawn ever more towards small skirmishes or even adventuring parties with heavily scenario driven and RPG or at least Fighting Fantasy style encounters which deliver a story not just a bloodbath.

Following my recent experience with sci-fi skirmishing, I'm finding the prospect of painting up a handful of adventurers and assorted villains an awful lot less intimidating than the prospect of painting a full on warband.

Coupled with the fact that I really do have the attention span of a goldfish and flit from project to project at the drop of a hat, such an endeavour isn't beyond even my feeble abilities at staying focused.

I'm really looking forward to giving Brutal Quest a run through as if it's anything like Planet 28, I'll be able to play a game in 30-45 minutes with two or three figures a side so we shall see how things go with it and I'm seriously contemplating picking up Rangers of Shadowdeep as it actually looks excellent. The only thing giving me pause at the moment is the price point. £35 for a hardback rulebook is pretty steep but if it plays as well as it appears to, it would be worth the expense.

I'm not planning on stopping the sci-fi skirmishing either as I have my old stuff from storage needing refreshing and pressing into service as well as the warbands I've painted during lockdown. I am noticing that I do have a few gaps in my collection that needs filling, mostly in the form of random encounters but also specific models or units but I can quite happily bodge along with what I've got as I slowly expand my forces.

I'll post a review of Brutal Quest as soon as I've had chance to read through it and will be posting up some pics of my newly reworked figures as I go but until then, All the best!

Lockdown 2.0 Project Log Day 93: Warhammer Quest? Try Brutal Quest!

 Hi!

I've ventured into town today to get some more superglue to get my Space Crusade themed board sorted for this evenings game but I've been watching the GUERRILLA MINIATURE GAMES Youtube videos of their rather hilarious exploits playing Warhammer Quest and it got me to thinking about just how much fun the game was back in the day.

Sadly the game itself, its expansions and extra heroes are ruinously expensive to get ahold of these days with the box set itself regularly turning up on Ebay for between £150 and £300 quid which is well out of my price range.

But is it possible to source the individual components, figures and whatnot myself and save some cash? The answer is yes I do believe I can. The boards can be fairly easily made by myself and while they cannot really match the originals, they would be good enough for me to play the game.

A little bit of interweb searching has tracked down the original rules and treasure cards and the figures themselves could be tracked down and proxied without much difficulty. It would require a bit of work but could be done.

Do I want to have a go? Well if we have another lockdown (I really hope we do not!) I'd dedicate the time to doing the project justice but I'm eagerly awaiting the arrival of Brutal Quest, the new narrative fantasy miniatures game by Nic Evans and will try that out first as if it's as much fun as Planet 28, it could scratch the Fantasy itch.

In Nic's latest Kickstarter update he says the books should be with him on Monday and we should get ours soon after and I'll be putting together some fantasy miniature shenanigans for that when it arrives! I am having a bit of a ponder on going for either classic red period GW like my usual style or going for something grittier but I'll see how things go!

In other news, I'm planning on playing a game this evening using Planet 28 first and a second game using Blasters and Bulkheads tomorrow so we shall see what terrain I can get finished in the meantime.

Let me know if you'd like to see a Warhammer proxy Quest project though as it wouldn't take too much temptation for me to get stuck in with it!

In the meantime, All the best!

Lockdown 2.0 Project Log Day 47: Tempted by Warhammer

 Hi!

I'm taking a bit of a break from all the sci-fi again to have a bit of a ponder about some fantasy, specifically Warhammerish fantasy.

Now, I must admit that I'm finding myself tempted by the call of Warhammer but have thus far resisted the call as I don't have the space for such a large undertaking but I do wonder about trying out some smaller scale shenanigans, namely either Warhammer Quest or Mordheim.

I've recently been watching the Lets Play Warhammer Quest series by Guerrilla Miniature Games over on Youtube and really enjoyed them and fondly remember playing the game to bits back at high school as my friend had all the expansions, new characters and whatnot. Sadly it's long out of production and ruinously expensive to pick up all the odds and ends second hand. Annoyingly I did actually have the core game and quite a few extra cards but it got sold off when I went off to uni. 

Saying that, there is a really passionate community for the game so with a bit of patience and a lot of printing out, I could bodge something together and make the board sections myself so it's an option. 

Secondly, there's Mordheim which would be a good opportunity to play around with some painting experiments and make lots of interesting scenery. It's also long out of print but the Mordheim community is very active and there's a living edition of the rules and all sorts of interesting stuff to add in so it's another real possibility.

I'll need to have a bit of a think about either option and there's nothing to stop me from playing both as I just need to put together an assortment of random miniatures and off we go or I could just use the rules and change the setting to something completely different, be it a lost city teeming with danger and waiting to be plundered in the lost continent of Crucible or the decaying remains of an Elven Obelisk from Leviathan...

I'll wait for my foamcore to arrive and see what I can come up with but I must admit that if I had the space and cash, I'd be sorely tempted by some Warhammer, specifically 6th edition. I know everyone waxes lyrical about 3rd but it was before my time and the sheer number of cards, tokens and random guff you needed for 4th and 5th was a bit off putting but the miniatures from the late 80s to late 90's were rather fantastic. Combined with the fact that I played a lot of 6th edition and remember really enjoying it, I suspect I'd go for that version of the game over any other.

Maybe I could just challenge myself to painting up a single group of figures and getting it out of my system!

Either which way, it's something for another day and I need to get some painting done for tomorrows update so for the time being, All the best!