Warhammer Quest: The Silver Tower

If you're a regular reader of this blog you'll know by now that I'm especially fond of Games Workshop's older dungeon crawl games, namely Advanced Heroquest (which I'm attempting to recreate) and Warhammer Quest.

Both of these games have been out of print for many years as the Games Workshop focused on it's core games, Warhammer 40K and Fantasy Battle. Fantasy battle of course underwent a controversial re-boot, which hasn't won everyone over, me included and became Warhammer Age of Sigmar.

In recent weeks there has been various leaks on the internet regarding a re-boot of Warhammer Quest within the Age of Sigmar universe, the game is called Warhammer Quest: The Silver Tower. This seems to in-line with the current policy of putting back games into the Games Workshop, which has up until now seen a number of Warhammer 40K games released. This is the first fantasy setting game in the growing range and in fact it's the first fantasy game since the original Warhammer Quest.

Today I visited my local store and got to see a copy of the game. Here are my thoughts.

Warhammer Quest: The Silver Tower - Source: Games Workshop (2016)

I really don't like the setting of Age of Sigmar and I suspect Games Workshop are aware that they still have to win many people over in this regard. The setting of this game seems to be intended to appeal to both older gamers like myself and the newer fans of Age of Sigmar.

If I recall the Warhammer Old World lore correctly the Silver Towers were magical realms of the sorcerers of Tzeentch, one of four powers of Chaos, that in this case have survived into the new universe. This in my opinion is very clever move; along with retaining the Warhammer Quest name. There's enough of a nod to the old, highly regarded, games that preceded it, while at the same time moving onto the new.

The villains have a decidedly Old World feel about them, but Tzeentch is the changer of ways after all and so that fits well. This means fans of both the old and new game worlds will have some familiarity with them. I got to see the actual figures today and I especially liked the new cultist figures and really hope they get a release into the Age of Sigmar world proper, if they do I'll be buying into Tzeentch at some point in the future. The main Tzeentch character is a delightfully insane old-school demon wizard called the Gaunt Summoner, again a nod to days gone by and one the painters amongst us will surely want to get their hands on.

As for heroes they are very much from the Age of Sigmar. I'm a bit sceptical about the Stormcast Eternal as a hero, but apart from that you get new updated versions of the dungeon crawl barbarian, dwarf, elf (in this case an assassin) and spell-caster along with a warrior priest (and his pet Gryph Hound). Having more than the standard four character to choose from is, again, another nice touch which ensures there should be something to appeal to everyone.

The Heroes - Source: Games Workshop (2016)

So overall I think this looks like being a fantastic move for the Games Workshop and one I really hope pays off. If it does there are rumours that more expansions will follow. Rules also appear to be following the initial release which will allow more heroes, and possibly villains, from within the existing Age of Sigmar miniature range. With all that in mind the future's certainly looking bright for this one. Well done Games Workshop!

Personally it's been such a long time since I've been excited by the prospect of a new release. This one however has a good blend of old and new and ticks a lot of boxes as far as I'm concerned. So much so, that this afternoon, I went and pre-ordered a copy which should hopefully be with me in a week and a half. I can't wait!

The Age of Sigmar Is Upon Us

After months of speculation the Age of Sigmar is finally upon us, this being the Games Workshop’s latest fantasy battle game, replacing the long-standing Warhammer Fantasy Battle, now in it's 8th edition.

As I tend to write about models and miniatures I am of course going to start by looking at the new miniatures, which I got to see at my local store. There are currently two factions of new miniatures both of which will be released with starter set next weekend.

First up are the Stormcast Eternals, these are an entirely new faction, representing the forces of order. The models looked very good and the plastic looks to be finer and more detailed than the current models within the fantasy range. However they are not really to my personal taste, I felt they’re essentially fantasy Space Marines and I’ve never been a fan of Space Marines, they're just too bland and have little depth beyond being big and crushing all that stands in their way.

Even so Space Marines are the Games Workshop's best sellers, which probably says a lot about their target demographic, and so I can see exactly why they've suddenly appeared in the fantasy setting.

Next we have the forces of chaos represented by the Khorne Bloodbound, one of the original chaos powers from the previous Warhammer. In that respect they’re nothing particularly new but again there’s a new set of figures, chaos warriors and marauders. These again are excellent and look finer and are more detailed sculpts than previous models.

The older chaos warriors and marauders have been around for some time now. In my opinion they’re a welcome overhaul these older figures (especially the marauders) in the range and when I first saw them I actually contemplated collecting chaos again! It'll be interesting to see if, going forward, there's an update for the other chaos powers.

As for the game itself the onus seems to be on simpler rules, just pick up whatever figures you have and start playing. As I have a bias toward miniatures I think this in itself is a good thing. For a long time I felt there has been too much focus on army lists, powerful units and characters and not enough on collecting the miniatures (or themes) that you want to collect. Want a small skirmish battle? That’s fine; want a huge battle? That's also fine.

Do these change go too far in the direction of simple? After reading the rules I'm still undecided. While few could disagree that Warhammer had become somewhat bloated the omission of things like rank bonus and psychology from older versions of Warhammer initially seem to suggest it's a bit too simple but until I play I can't be sure.

On the point of skirmish battles I can't help but feel that they regret ending Mordheim. As a skirmish game goes, if it was still around, it could have been used as an entry point to Warhammer and we wouldn't be where we are now. It's like they've realised the Warhammer of old required a lot of time and financial investment before you could even field a force on the table which was probably putting a lot of people off. Their solution, merge a skirmish and battle game into one product because the skirmish game that previously could have fulfilled that transition has long been gone.

Of course if you’ve spent any time on the internet this weekend you will have no doubt seen a lot of complaining! There seems to be a rather vocal criticism of the the game as being far too simple and of course complaining that “power-gaming” army lists are no longer valid. Personally I get the feeling the more vocal complainers, at least around the latter point, are the type of players that try hard to win a game with an army list rather than on the table top. These people are one of reasons why I lost interest in the gaming side of things some time ago. Despite all the criticism I have to say seeing this game for the first time this weekend actually had me contemplating gaming again!

From talking to my local store staff I get the impression that there’s been an acknowledgement that they needed make collecting and gaming fun again. If the Games Workshop want to take the increased fun approach as well then I really do think that they should be commended for this approach.

Something I think a lot of people have missed is that the Games Workshop realise they’re facing increasing competition from miniatures board games. Now it’s not uncommon to pick up a battle themed board game and so this seems like a logical step to bring those players into their fantasy gaming world. Should they have done that at the expense of their current Warhammer players? I think they had no choice as there certainly isn't room for both the Warhammer Fantasy Battle and Age of Sigmar. If the sales figures that are frequently mentioned for Warhammer, are to be believed, then from a business perspective it would have become unsustainable and we'd have eventually been left with no fantasy setting at all, just Warhammer 40K.

Of course this all comes at a cost, the destruction of the Old World, a world I've known for the past 25+ years. The new world concept will need time to grow on me, it is of course instantly lacking the rich history that the previously established world accumulated over many years, but I suppose if I don't like it then I know I can carry on playing the older games as their rules are readily available. I can even mix and match older and newer figures and lore as I see fit. And that's it, at the end of the day a hobby like this will always be what you want to make of it.

If you want to check out the new rules, then they are available for free here.

Completed - Games Workshop Moving Skeletons Diorama

Finally, something has been finished! My moving skeletons project.

When I first started building these skeletons I had an idea that they'd be facing off again an opponent (or opponents) who would be in a similarly dynamic pose. Unfortunately searching through my spares box yielded little in the way of suitable figures. The one candidate was an Empire halberdier but he was holding his weapon aloft rather than in a combat pose. So this meant rather than a fight, a pursuit would be the theme of the diorama.

And so on to the final hurdle, finding a suitable base. The first time I had the idea of a pursuit an image of a dungeon corridor came to mind but I felt the skeletons didn't complement each other well on a rectangular base. I felt a circular base would work better allow the chase to develop from several side (especially with the figures I had).

It was then that I found some perfect circular resin bases from Fenris Games. After picking one and waiting for it to arrive, (which was not long, they provide a very good service), I could finally complete this project.

So here it is:

And as the whole point of this project was "movement," here's an animated version:

All in all this has been a thoroughly enjoyable project. I've had a chance to paint skeletons for the first time and was surprised how satisfying they are to paint. From that one moment of thinking, "those skeletons need to look like they're moving" to finishing this project I've really enjoyed trying to bring some life into static figures. I certainly hope to try something along the same lines in the future.

WIP: Moving Skeletons

Following my last post I've made some progress on a few moving skeletons. But first things first, I have new found respect for anyone making an army of these things. They have a habit of breaking very easily. Even more so when you been chopping them into pieces, repositioning, and then glueing them back together (and when you throw my aggressive dry-brushing into the mix)!

So here's a few WIP shots. All the parts are from the Games Workshop, I just need to finish up the armour and weapons and attach the arms that are currently in the way of painting. Once that's done I'll mounted them on a base (yet to ordered) as I've decided on a small dungeon themed diorama.

Standard skeleton warrior, chaos marauder shield.

Standard skeleton warrior, right leg from a mounted skeleton.

Standard skeleton warrior, legs from a tomb king skeleton

Standard skeleton warrior, shield from a chaos warrior, with original hand removed. Left leg from a mounted skeleton.

I have a few more ideas, but until I've worked out how many I can fit on a base these four will be all for now.

So anyway, thinking back a few posts I was rather critical of Games Workshop and their new painting guides. Time to put my money where my mouth is and give you all a quick, but helpful, skeleton painting overview (no pictures I'm afraid as I was painting in bad light for photographs). To paint these I've used Citadel paints, but not the most recent releases so you may need to check out the conversion chart if you're using newer paints.

Step 1
Primer layer, straight onto the plastic with a coat of Scorched Brown, make sure you cover all areas as you don't want any grey showing through.
Step 2
A heavy dry-brush of Bestial Brown. This is effectively your base coat but in some of the deeper recesses (such as eye sockets) you may leave the primer layer showing.
Step 3
Dry-brush Bleached bone over the whole model. Before the paint is dry clean you brush and use it to give a hard polish to areas of bone such as, legs, arms, the tops of skulls.
Step 4
Wash a slightly watered down mix of Badab Black into joints and the gaps in the ribs, leave to dry.
Step 5
Highlight bones with Skull White You can miss this stage out for a really dirty looking skeleton if you want. The skeletons above are meant to be dungeon dead so I figured they'd be a bit cleaner than buried dead.
Step 6
A final wash with either Gryphone Sepia or Ogryn Flesh, leave to dry. When this wash dries it gives an aged look to the bones, so vary the amount of water mixed with the paint for each skeleton to get a varied look across a group of them.
Step 7
Finally highlight with Skull White, teeth, around the eyes, finger bones and you're done!

Overall they're fairly easy to paint and seven steps isn't as much work as it seems. It's worth varying the various stages and using different strength washes if painting lots of them because that helps add variation. Any more advice? Feel free to comment or contact me!

Buried Treasure?

A while ago my father asked me to take some of the huge collection of old miniatures that'd I'd left behind when I left home, almost 20 years ago. Of course in recent years I'd built up a sizeable collection of my own which was filling my own home but I took a few figures that I'd found buried deep in a box and promptly forgot about them.

When I started painting metal figure were by far the best option, plastics were far behind the models you see today. But as time progressed they caught up and I found myself painting them and my vast collection of lead and white metal figures were discarded into boxes to gather dust. I remember at one point I'd do anything to avoid painting metals, so old and out of date was how I viewed them.

Back to the present and I wanted to try a new way of stripping paint and so I decided these old figures would be good for a test. The paint stripping was a success (and will feature in a future blog post). After reading an excellent blog, Realm of Chaos 80s, I began to to look at the figures and see them in a new light.

Sure some of them were certainly worth something on eBay, I'd seen some of the figures selling for between £5 to £50! But really I have no desire to sell them, I feel inspired to give some of them a chance to be repainted rather than cashing them in for a short term gain.

So what did I find?

Here's some of the highlights:

First up a set of figures from the 90's game Warhammer Quest. The Pit Fighter and Chaos Warrior were playable characters, the rest were NPCs from the Lair of the Orc Warlord expansion pack (left to right Gubbinz the Jester, Bogoff the Snotling and Growler the Squighound).

Next up was part of large group of undead, I seem to remember writing a lot of undead scenarios for Warhammer Quest. If my memory serves me well these are all 1990's Wraiths, with the exception of the figure at the bottom left. This one is a 1980's Wight, made from lead.

Finally we have a collection of hero figures that I used over several years. The Golden Wizard and the Dwarf Pirate were more recent figures. The 2 Dwarfs were part of a larger group I had when I played advanced Heroquest in the late 80s / early 90s (before playing Warhammer Quest).





So is nostalgia going to be all it seems? I certainly have happy memories of the times when I played games with these very figures and maybe I was wrong to write off these figures all those years ago. Will they paint up well second time round or have me rushing back to painting newer plastic and resin figures? Well keep reading and I'm sure future posts will hold the answers.