Heroquest!

Hoi,

There's no better end to the year than a regular review, I am saving that for tomorrow. Okay to be honest there are far better ends to any year, but as far as the hobby goes a review in which you can look back to goals achieved and ones to look forward to is pretty nice.

 Noble son number 1 Arthur thinking about his next move

That said, this post will, yet again, concern itself with Heroquest or HQ for short. Somehow this little game sparked something in me. Whether it is my inner child that is chuffed to bits with being able to find a decent use for all those long forgotten minis lying around around, or the gamer in me that rejoices about at least 1 game a week at the school club.
Or even the collector, who is eagerly searching the net for bargains of Oldhammer figures to be used or the rare "true" HQ find like the illusive extensions. It seems that many gamers have been lucky finding the extensions in second hand shops in the UK. Well no-go for me! We do have those shops but there are no HQ games to be found there. So what? I hear you think, weeeell while you can download pretty much all the paper content of any thinkable extension for the game, it does not beat the feel of the original box and the figures in your hands. At this moment I am the proud owner of:
- 2 basic boxed games (the game-system) 1 at home and 1 at school.
- 1 Kellar's Keep extension
- 1 Return of the Witchking extension
- 1 Wizards of  Morcar extension
- 1 Advanced Heroquest box set
- 2 x half box of classic Warhammer Quest

So yeah I would really like to get my grubby paws on any of the other extensions like Against the Ogre Hordes or the Barbarian- or Elf Quest packs. The prices those seem to go around for are ridiculous, go to Ebay and look for yourself. There are boxes tagged for $1200,- and I even saw a HQ stickeralbum go by, for which $5000,- was asked...that is waaaay beyond me to be sure!

Now on Friday December 22nd I hosted a major game at the school club for the pupils to enhance their characters and for me to try the rules out at a more skirmish- and out-of-the-Dungeon level. We have two "fellowships" at the club, one which we jokingly call the "Young Hounds" and the other, erm well... the "Old Dogs". Both were now playing on the same table with a more regular wargame scenic lay-out.

I had prepared briefings with personal goals and background stories for each member.

And yes I have Lord Kitchener and Lord Vader hanging next to each other in my classroom ;-)  To recount the entire story that was played out and explain all outcomes would take too long so I won't do that here, but I do have some impressions of the game in progress. I didn't have much time to take many pics, what with trying to DM 8 people in at least 3 locations at once, but hey here they are.

The rules were basically those of the main game-system with some additions and small changes like instead of rolling 2d6 to see how many squares you can walk you now roll and walk that many inches. Simple enough.

So what did the adventurers gain in this Christmas Quest?
Well first up, everyone was awarded 10 gold pieces for each monster killed, with thanks from the local populace.

The Old Dogs:
Sir Olwyn of Farthingale (yeah I know ;-)  achieved his main goal of freeing Farthingale of Wights and became it's lord. He also gained one Bodypoint.

Sir Skyrithm (for your information: the names were made up by the kids not me!) found a necklace which would have protected him from any magic used against him, but he sold it for 300 goldcoins. He also gained 1 BP.

Sir Jonas Paladin of the Order of the Lion was promoted to Commander in his order, for giving them the necklace he bought off Skyrithm. and also got an extra Bodypoint.

Baroness Blackwood was able to protect a lockingstone to a portal to the Warp and thus prevent a major Chaos incursion. Therefore she gained 1 Mindpoint, handy for all future spells.

The Young Hounds:
Dame Glacia of Clan Redwinter found a Dagger of Frost which functions as a Wand of Recall (i.e. you can use two spells each turn instead of 1)

Icicles, Guardian of the Power of Ice was able to acquire an henchmen for free.

Erofillios of the Rangers (again: I know!) gained a mind point but was also possessed by a Chaos Deamon which will manifest itself if, at the start of each following Quest he will roll a 1 on a D6.

Sir Hadrian rooted out the Chaos coven that had desecrated the Temple of Taal in Ardglass village. He then spent a turn in prayer before the altar and gained, yup you've guessed it, another BP.

Surprisingly both Glacia, Icicles and Erofillios turned to the Dark Side and became followers of the Dark Gods. This will make future Quests rather interesting...

These games at the school club really made for a highlight in the work-week as you can imagine. The kids all are so funny and really get into the thick of things without the whining that is so common in modern day youth.

So that's it for now, but I do hope that from this you have gleamed a bit of why I like this game so much. Although after so many weeks of DM-ing I would like to get some time in as a player as well ;-) 

Cheers Sander

Oepsie!

Hoi,

Honestly, I did plan a post to wish you all the best for Christmas, truly I did! But I rather simply forgot... Great fun with the family and a not so great day spending getting rid of something bad I ate prevented this I suppose.

Anyway, we're back again and for today the first post at the AHPC is up for your approval.

LINK

More posts will follow soon!

AHPC 8...

Hoi,

Well an update is long overdue I suppose. While work and sickness in the family  have not permitted  me to spent much time on the hobby, a lot has been happening.

For starters I have the honour of being asked  to participate in this year's Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge not as apunter but as Minion. It goes without saying that I am mighty pleased with this highest of hobby accolades.

See the CHALLENGE link.

Arthur and I will enter the Challenge  together as well, me for a modest 1000 points  and the lad for 50, an amount which his concentration  might actually permit him to achieve. If minioning allows I will up the amount.

While I will surely paint figuress for all my running projects, the main focus of this year's  Challenge will be my "BIG" project: Salamanca  1812.
This will see me paint lots of 1:72 Peninsular War plastics and the occasional  metal special figure. I hope to get the larger part of my Allied 3rd division done by the Challenges end.

So you see, quite a lot of exiting stuff to look forward  to!

Cheers Sander

Crisis 2017: the Loot!

Hoi,

With the showing of the loot, we conclude my Crisis 2017 report. This year's Crisis never was about buying loads of stuff, but I did have a few things on my list prior to going to Antwerp.
- I really wanted to complement my Iron Duke Indian Mutiny figures. I bungled up a direct order to Empress by forgetting the command blister for Neil's bluecaps and the troops for the Sikh troopers, so I remedied that. I also bought the Stronghold terrain's Viking Seer, needed to complete that series of figures. In the tools section of my, rather short, list was some Valejo filler of which I got two cheep tubes. That pretty much sums up the list, but what else did I buy? Well a lot of stuff I did not expect to find but had wanted for quite some time.

As you can see on the pictures I was able to get a Histoire and Collections issue on the Cuirassiers. It contains the itinerary's of all listed officers in all the regiments as well as some great colourplates. Since the 14th regiment was the former 2nd Dutch regiment there are a lot of countrymen in there which makes it rather interesting.
I also got the Antediluvian Dungeon explorers (i.e. the characters from the 80's TV series but their grown-up versions) in a discount-bin from Studio Miniatures. They also had a box of their Medieval Mayhem Knights there which I got at Euro price instead of Pounds and since the rounding off of the entire buy came out on a strange number I got even more discount. The other Antediluvian blister is of course Raquel Scotch, I just had to add her to the collection. The two boxes to the left and right are Mantic's Dungeon Saga doors and furniture  sets which I also got discounted. That leaves the blister of Wargames Foundry Indian civilians for the IM project and the Dragon Rampant rules. I have heard and read a lot about the latter and got curious enough to buy them.
Apart from the Crisis special figure Tijl Uilenspiegel, that sums up my purchases.

Arthur is determined to enter this year's Painting Challenge and has personally asked Curt whether he was allowed to join, which Curt has magnanimously allowed him to do for 50 points. I tasked Arthur with choosing some figures for him to paint. He wanted to do some Hero Quest figures, as we play that game together a lot, but he also wanted some wizards. Now if we were not able to find any fireball-throwing-wizards, he was of the opinion that Knights would do as a substitute. So because of a lack of easily recognisable wizards he looked for knights and at the Foundry stand found some. These mounted knights, which he really picked himself, had an entirely appropriate label: King Arthur...
He also found a blister containing two British ensigns and a drummer from the Studio Miniatures China range. He wants to paint them too, but doesn't want to wait for the Challenge but do them earlier.

That wraps up my Crisis coverage. Next convention will probably be Poldercon in February but more on that when applicable.

Crisis 2017 the pictures!

Hoi,

As explained yesterday, I have let Arthur make the pictures during our visit at the Crisis convention. Therefore they are not a full descriptive report, but rather an impression of the event from a 6 year old.

Here he is doing his job!

It wasn't until we were at home that I noticed that in the picture below Stefan is included as well!

Now a lot of blogs, including Curt's, show pictures of Jan-Willem's Barsoom game using "En Garde" rules which I have played at the Poldercon last year. But I guess none of those pictures have quite the angle that Arthur's have. 

Since Arthur just snapped away I really could not tell you what games or organisers they belong to.

Here's a mugshot of Dave D. and myself!

As well as one he accidentally took of himself. 

There you have it Arthur's picture report. Hope you liked it.Tomorrow I'll show you the loot!

Cheers Sander

Crisis 2017, an Odyssey

Hoi,

Last Saturday me and the boy visited the Crisis convention in Antwerp, usually this would result in just one blogpost but this time I think I'll need 3 to relate what happened.

Why 3 posts? Well mainly due to two things: one is that usually I travel to Antwerp by car and this takes about 1,5 hours to get there from my home. This year however, mainly due to my own stubbornness, I had no car transport and Arthur and myself had to rely on public transport. Second I knew up front that Curt from the Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge, was going to the Crisis. This meant I just plainly HAD to go! Since there's no direct train going we had to switch trains at 3 station and the trip took just about 3 hours.
The trip took us from my hometown to Maastricht, to Liege, Louvois and finally Antwerp. 

 Upon arriving in Antwerp we had a lot of trouble getting to the Waagnatie building because due to all the roadworks the busses couldn't get there and so that took another hour. We started out at 07.00hrs and were inside the Crisis hall at 12.00hrs.

Arthur took all this like a real trooper, it did help that I'd had the foresight to download a Dutch children's movie (Mees Kees if you're interested) onto my tablet and the second half of the journey he got to watch that.

Strangely enough all bus-drivers in Antwerp kept insisting on Arthur being 5 years old (instead of the 6 he really is) so he didn't have to pay for his ticket... At the Antwerp station we accidentally met a nice Belgian man "Jeroen" who wanted to go to the Crisis too and helped us with the 1,5km walk from the last bus-stop to the event hall.

At the hall we met up with lot's of old friends and also some very interesting new ones. Right beside the Too Fat Lardie stand we bumped into Curt and Lord Roundwood and had a nice chat. We decided to catch Curt up later for a drink and chat some more after doing a round of the hall. Like last year, I had given Arthur my camera so he could photograph anything he liked. It's a way to keep him motivated and interested and besides my pictures usually are not that good so you'd better go to other blogs for a good photoreport. I'll post up Arthurs pics tomorrow. While taking pictures Rich from Too Fat Lardies came over to me, shook my hand and congratulated me on "getting em into the hobby so young!" wow!

Like the dumb-ass I am I forgot to take pictures of our meet-up with all our friends like Jan-Willem, Johan, Peter, Stefan, Adam, Curt and Dave D. But meeting up was an absolute pleasure at that.

I'll post a 3rd post regarding my loot in a few days so won't go into that here, but I did only buy what I really needed or liked and thus left the hall with money left over in my pocket. At 14.00hrs we met up with some friends and went to a nearby bar to get a drink, afterwards these splendid blokes walked us to a bus-stop found with the help of the bar's waitress  where we said goodbye. Only... due to the roadworks the bus couldn't get there. So after standing there for 10 minutes  we asked a passer-by, who told us to get a trolley-car some way away from the stop. After 30 minutes walking through the rain and with two of the trams driving away right in front of us, we got into one that took us to the station. From there on it all was easy to get home. While walking through the rain Arthur was sitting on my shoulders and the packs were filled with literally a KG of metal the lad casually remarked: "are you going to get that driver's license now dad?" cheeky as the remark was, he's right and so yes I'll probably make some more serious work of that.

As said I will post some more about this later on but I'd like to add one more thing to this report of our journey: it might seem I am complaining about everything but I am not! I had a total blast with my son and with some great guys and got some lovely figures to top it all, it was amazing!

Cheers Sander

P.S. see Curt's blog for his report.