Warhammer Quest Darkwater Board Game Review

For gamers of a definite age, Warhammer Quest is simply a sanction to conjure with. The archetypal 1995 merchandise was the premier dungeon-crawler of its day, a uncommon cooperative rubric successful an property of head-to-head struggle games. Once it was retired of people it became, and remains, highly collectable. But successful 2016, steadfast Games Workshop resurrected the marque with the well-received Silver Tower. Darkwater is the latest iteration, with a fewer caller tweaks and a batch of caller toys connected committee to effort and uphold its sizeable legacy.

What’s successful the Box

Warhammer Quest: Darkwater

Games Workshop is rightly known arsenic the premier shaper of integrative miniatures and, adjacent by its ain exalted standards, the scope of figures included successful this acceptable are a small spot special. Six of them are heroes, the remainder are their enemies, servants of the noxious, squelchy plague deity of the Warhammer universe, Nurgle. The Nurgle scope has ever been a unspeakable beauty, crammed with unpleasant details of unfastened sores and drooling maws and there’s plentifulness of that connected show here. But what makes these basal retired is simply a consciousness of character, thing that’s often missing successful modern, dynamically posed figures.

These popular retired of your tabletop with an aerial of individuality, peculiarly the heroes who show a good premix of old-school adventurer alongside the existent sensibilities of GW’s Age of Sigmar setting. Facial expressions and poses look to archer you thing astir each of them, from the dour scowl of mercenary Bren Tylis to the gloating grin of the cardinal villain, Gelgus Pust. And it’s worthy noting for little experienced modellers that the box’s assertion of push-fit is mostly true. Most of the figures are reasonably casual to assemble, though a mates volition payment from a driblet of polystyrene cement. Painting them is different matter, however, arsenic the level of item whitethorn beryllium a spot daunting for novices.

Outside of the miniatures, GW boxed games often skimp connected the remainder of the components. That’s not the lawsuit here: this is simply a lavish accumulation astatine each level, and you tin spot wherever the sizeable asking terms has been spent. Once you’ve lifted the fig sprues retired of the box, the cards and punch-out tokens person their ain cautiously packed sub-box, with the cards for each of the game’s run acts presented successful their ain sealed envelopes. Although the cards could usage more, and much varied, artwork, they’re sturdy, shiny and wide to read.

"This is simply a lavish accumulation astatine each level."

Most astonishing of each is the publication of maps that are utilized successful the skirmish scenarios that marque up astir of the game. While this is hardly a caller idea, astir examples are clunky and spiral-bound. This 1 is hard-bound, yet it inactive lies flat, making it an implicit pleasance to use. And the maps wrong are afloat of the benignant of elaborate creation that we should besides person seen connected the cards, efficaciously evoking the plague-corrupted environments of the game’s setting, the Jade Abbey. More item connected the mounting and communicative are provided successful the game’s rulebook, offering up a large foretaste of the adventures to come.

Rules and How It Plays

Warhammer Quest: Darkwater is simply a cooperative committee game, but you’ll play with 4 heroes successful each game, truthful it’s champion with 2 oregon 4 players: solo is possible, but you’ll extremity up juggling a batch arsenic the run progresses. It has 2 crippled modes, a one-off skirmish combat oregon a longer run game. The absorption is decidedly connected the second mode, arsenic azygous fights tin beryllium unbalanced depending connected the script you extremity up playing, and you don’t get the amusive of dilatory gathering up your characters and revealing your ain communicative of attempting to escaped the Jade Abbey from Nurgle’s putrefaction.

A run consists of 3 acts, each of which sees you dealing retired 14 random brushwood cards from that act’s deck, with a brag paper beneath. You past get a prime of 2 imaginable brushwood cards for each adventure, and this is an important decision. Many of the encounters aren’t skirmish fights but small communicative snippets oregon mini-games. Most of these are of the propulsion your luck oregon hazard versus reward variety, but determination are a mates of the much imaginative designs that made Silver Tower’s scenarios specified a pleasure.

When it comes to conflict scenarios, it’s important to work the cards cautiously and see however the combat mightiness play out. They connection a assortment of maps, of enemies to fight, sidequests, triumph conditions and peculiar rules. These origin them to alteration wildly successful difficulty, and immoderate tin beryllium astir intolerable if you haven’t recovered definite rewards for your party. This is simply a large woody due to the fact that the terms for nonaccomplishment is high: you suffer immoderate rewards and get to effort again, with a 2nd neglect ending the campaign.

Duking it retired connected the representation is based connected a acceptable of rules from different crippled successful the series, Warhammer Quest: The Adventure Card Game (see it astatine Amazon). Each leader has 3 enactment cards: move, attack, and aid. Using 1 requires you to expend energy, which is astir commonly obtained by exhausting 1 of said cards, either for the enactment you’re taking oregon 1 of the others. Essentially this boils down to heroes taking 3 actions each turn, which tin beryllium immoderate operation of the disposable options, though immoderate of the rewards you tin get aboriginal successful the run complicate the representation a little.

Combat involves you rolling dice, astir ever a pair, hoping to execute a people fig depending connected what you’re fighting. Many enemies person a defence worth that cancels retired an adjacent fig of hits, meaning you’ll person to deed connected some dice to wounded them. Between the probabilities progressive and the flexibility of the enactment system, this provides a satisfying equilibrium of decision-making and randomness. This is not a heavy crippled by immoderate means, but you’ll often beryllium torn arsenic to however to champion administer your actions, portion the crook bounds connected completing each conflict tin pb to immoderate thrilling, high-stakes rolls towards the close.

Between each hero’s turn, the monsters get to activate. How they behave depends connected a dice roll, and astir enemies power betwixt a sedate achromatic dice and a much threatening reddish dice with each passing conflict round. Mostly they’ll determination toward a people astatine adaptable velocity and effort to attack, though each the monsters besides person a peculiar effect: horrible small pox-wretches spawn caller companions, portion the pugnacious daemonic cankerborn blast each adjacent heroes with an country effect attack. This rotation tin person a large interaction connected the trouble of a scenario, arsenic monsters sometimes bash thing and sometimes unleash a terrifying onslaught, a quirk that the rules enactment down to their chaotic nature.

One flaw successful this strategy and the representation plan is that astir of the boards person 1 oregon much choke points caused by impassable hexes, and astir of the scenarios necessitate players to get determination and bash thing successful bid to win. The effect is that some players and monsters get funneled toward the choky corners and scenarios tin bog down successful repeated roll-offs until you either wide the enemies oregon the clip runs out. Some quality abilities and items tin bypass this – the dwarf ranger Drolf Ironhead tin determination done the unusual impassable hex – but portion this gives immoderate scenarios the consciousness of a spatial puzzle, successful others having 1 oregon 2 characters get a shortcut doesn’t marque overmuch quality to achieving the goal. This contented besides causes a consciousness of repetition, contempt the reasonably varied script design.

Victory, and the completion of sidequest goals, results successful reward cards being doled retired to the adventurers. Like the scenarios themselves these alteration successful power, with amended items being disposable aboriginal successful the campaign, but the much awesome items are often one-shot, portion much insignificant power-ups tin beryllium re-used. They each adhd much tactical options to battles, which is perfectly a bully thing. Weighing up whether oregon not to propulsion your magical one-off widget into the premix successful an effort to prevention a script that’s going southbound is ever a knife-edge determination and adds other frisson to the dice-rolls that usually result.

Even on-board conflict scenarios lone past astir 30 minutes so, erstwhile you premix successful the overmuch shorter mini-game encounters, playing done an enactment doesn’t instrumentality each that long. “Saving” the crippled authorities betwixt sessions is simply a insignificant symptom but perfectly possible. All the escapade cards person their ain substance preamble to acceptable the country and, arsenic you advancement done the campaign, determination are secrets to uncover and immoderate caller playable characters to unlock. The unfolding communicative isn’t going to triumph immoderate literate awards but it’s effectual astatine giving your playthrough a coagulated storybook backbone. Nurgle is simply a peculiarly amusive hostile to tackle, his servitors by turns fatherly and feculent, truthful freeing the once-pristine Jade Abbey from their clutches feels similar a worthy goal.

Where to Buy

• Get it astatine Warhammer