Thursday 3 May 2012

Games Night: Hero Quest.

And so, another Tuesday passes and battle commenced once more. Lines were drawn in the sand and crossed as skirmish’s ensued. There were casualties, there were heroic feats, and there was Death.

This week is not a tale of armies clashing, nor the tale of Aliens ever encroaching on the worlds of man. No this week was the turn of a quad of Heroes’ an army before them. A dark tale surrounded in confined cramp corridors leading to rooms and vaults filled with dread. Dread sent forth by the Evil Wizard to bring about the demise of these heroes’ and forever end their quest.

This week was the tale of Hero Quest.
It was Tuesday and after reading several blogs over the past week one game has repeatedly been mentioned. Hero Quest. And so we set forth to dust of the ancient box and delve deeper into the past than any of us would have previously dared. We opened the dust laden box to view the contents inside, expecting the worse, we did so at arm length. We all remembered the game, no, the ADVENTURE being an amazing experience. Packed with miniatures, furniture and cards we gasped as our eyes came to rest on the prize. Unpacking the box was joyful experience, all the parts still their already sorted into the corresponding monster type or furniture, we looked lovingly at the pieces, each part holding a special place in our hearts and minds. It was the calm before the storm, for we all knew that soon, pretty much everything in this casket of memories would be trying to kill our four heroes.

The Hero Cards.
Poses are for dramatic effect.

Grundolf, the Wizard. Wise as he is old, learnt in the ways of Fire, Earth and Water. He is a mage capable of doing more damage with his staff than with his Magic.

Leaf Blower, the Elf. Gracious and swift, self-taught in magical ways of wind. He likes nothing more than Blowing… Leaves.

Clodhopper, the Dwarf. Old, Brave, Drunk. The only thing softer than this Dwarfs fluffy beard is the mane of small kitten.

Vivian, the Barbarian. Adventurous, Strong and so very Stupid. Vivian is also trained in the power of wind, but this is due to the amount of raw eggs he consumes daily.

The names, stage and game were set.
A band of four heroes with a common goal.
An Evil Wizard with a horde of minions to throw onto the heroes swords.
A dungeon filled with traps and loads of blocked off areas.

It was time to play Hero Quest.

Vivian the Barbarian showed his years of skill and training by being unable kill pretty much anything, he life was almost ended by a single goblin. The eventual demise of said Goblin met with jubilation from all factions involved. From then on Vivian suffered ridicule and was smote constantly as he consistently failed to hurt anything other than his manly pride. Despite the odds not only did he survive but he managed to slay two minions and even got himself a nice shield to roll more skulls with.

Leaf Blower was probably the man of the match, scoring the most kills throughout. His fondness of tree hugging aside Leaf was a vicious warrior and slew many an Ork and Goblin. He was rewarded in the final stretch with a staff. Later, Leaf Blower would be found hidden rubbing his wooden spear with an odd look on his face.

Clodhopper although drunk did hold his own against the hordes of Green skinned foes. Though he did have trouble with the first Goblin encountered in the game, he managed to hold his head up high after watching Vivian's attempts at combat. Later he would prove that the shiny Helmet he acquired not only felt nice but deflected the enemy’s swords with ease. Clodhopper was last seen polishing his helmet in a dark corner somewhere.

Grundolf saw to it that not a single piece of furniture remained intact, every spell used against a foe was deflected or defended, leaving nothing but smouldering upholstery in its wake. Grundolf however came into his own and saved Vivian’s life and indeed the day killing an Ork in close combat on one dice. Then in his next turn still in a fit of blood lust after his victory over the Ork he cast forth a spell of fire, slaying Urag the Ork warlord and winning the day for our brave heroes... and Vivian.

The Evil Wizard although defeated was not destroyed, he slumped away after Urag was slain and would bide his time, he will rise again and throw forth yet more greened skinned horror. Would the heroes heed the call of their king and head back into the abyss? Only time and Tuesday nights will tell.

Random HQ pick to break up the wall of text.
Hero quest was great fun, a real blast from the past. Despite its very simple rule set it still plays really well. As the heroes advanced through the Dungeon, monsters would jump out at them and try to impale themselves on whatever pointy object the heroes would hold out at them. At first I thought that the Heroes were a little weak and that the monsters would have the advantage, but after playing for a while the game seemed pretty well balanced. And it really was a lot of fun.

-Voidsign-


2 comments:

Doug said...

This is a great game, I really didn't realise the extent of the following it has these days.

Voidsign said...

It's funny we didn't even think about the game for months. Now we cant get enough of it. I think its due to how simple and quick it is to play. Cant argue with a good game though.