Let's Talk Silver Tower

My copy arrived last night, and I've been working on putting together the minis. It's a gorgeous looking game. What I like best is how the graphics are so colorful. Really looking forward to playing soon.

Link to new Warhammer Quest.

Subtitled: Shadows of Hammerfal.

Looking at the box cover, it looks like it will include a Lord Castellant, a Chaos Sorcerer, a Slaughterpriest, a Loremaster. I can't place the vampire looking guy or the dwarf so those are probably new models.

EDIT: Others online seem to think the ones I didn't identify are the Black Ark Fleetmaster and the Cogsmith, so probably no new heroes figures.

Thanks!

If they are smart it'll be easy to use your Silver Tower stuff in this, even if it is self contained.

It looks like the adversary's are nurgle-esque.

AWWWW YEAH. Can't wait. I'm betting we'll see enemies mostly along the lines of Nurgle/Pestliens Skaven.

Wait...why is it Shadows "over" instead of "under"? Makes no sense!

As for the heroes, some of those are already available in the Mighty/Arcane Hero packs so I wonder what the deal is there. Certainly they won't give me a THIRD Slaughterpriest (after the one in Mighty Heroes and then in Gorechosen). I'm betting that the Catellant (which will also be recruited into my Stormcast army), the Duardin and the Aelf sorcerer are definitely in the box, but the others I'm not so sure about. The Black Ark Fleetmaster is a really old model...and previously ST has had all new models. But I guess some of these guys are older now too

"Still a ways out" in GW speak means what, a month away rather than two weeks? I'm betting on a May release like last year.

It could be packed with old minis just to get it released in a short time. The enemies on that cover are also existing models and the hero art is extremely close to the existing figures. They usually deviate a ways from an existing sculpt when they redo one, otherwise, why bother?

Whenever I try to figure out what GW will do next, it makes sense if I assume it will involve selling miniatures.

My son painted up his first mini...that Stormcast Liberator that came with the 'Getting Started with Age of Sigmar' magazine.
Here's a shot of his stormcast next to mine.


Surprisingly, the two models look pretty close in quality. This is either due to Games Workshop’s credit in developing a line of heroic models that are easy for a 10 year old to paint….or after close to 30 years of painting…I still paint like a 10 year old. I’m hoping it’s the former.

I tricked up a hero card for the model. I'd say he's a little on the powerful side, but hey, it's for a kid to use. I'd suggest making his shield hit on a 4+ if you want a little more challenge.

I think big part of it is the basing. For some reason, people pay way more attention to the base than it deserves. Like, with a base like yours, the eye registers fewer mistakes. On the other hand, if your dude wasn't based well, some people might even think he's of lesser quality.
But, anyways, kudos to your son. His first mini looks way better than my first.

Vlad wrote: But, anyways, kudos to your son. His first mini looks way better than my first.

LOL, this is hilarious. My first mini looked more like this, and I Think if I tried today it would be fairly similar

i596.photobucket.com/albums/tt46/kingsleypark/a95381d3.jpg

your comment sounds a bit like an elevator chat with Beethovens dad. Kudos dude, your kids 1st symphony sounds loads better than the fucking stick my kid beats the door frame with.

Vlad wrote: I think big part of it is the basing. For some reason, people pay way more attention to the base than it deserves. Like, with a base like yours, the eye registers fewer mistakes. On the other hand, if your dude wasn't based well, some people might even think he's of lesser quality.
But, anyways, kudos to your son. His first mini looks way better than my first.

Maybe it's early, but I can't seem to parse what you're saying about the base. We spend too much time on them? If I didn't do the base, my Knight Questor would look worse than my son's Liberator? I'm sure you're meaning a compliment of sorts here, but I don't follow.

Switching back to the game, did anyone pick up Hammerhal? I fully intended to, but ended up being unsold on it and have decided to just continue fleshing out Silver Tower more....for now....

Reasons I have stuck with Silver Tower...
* Very focused setting. Much like Castle Ravenloft, I seem to prefer the adventures tailored to a unique setting.
* Adversaries can be used elsewhere. There's enough baddies from one type here to seed you small AoS force.
* Great use of colors and hues. I dig the kaleidoscope of blues for the villain and his lair over all the standard red.
* Denziens living in the tower beyond just Gaunt Summoner servants. I dig the twisted grots living in the corners of the tower.
* Heroes seem larger than life. At first I wasn't sold on AoS, but really taken to the narrow focus of this game, and enjoy how the included heroes have a 'Masters of the Universe' sort of feel to them.
* Neat 'lieutenant' type characters. Again, sort of like the heroes, we've got some unique villains working within the Silver Tower with the Ogroid and the Skaven assassin.
* As stated above, the whole package has a neat He-Man feel to it with the colorful heroes and the Gaunt Summoner standing in for a Skeletor and the Silver Tower for Castle Greyskull. Observe the Gaunt Summoner's head residing over the heroes on the box cover:


Sort of reminds me of this:


Reasons I have passed on Hammerhal...
* Less focused setting. I know, there's the big fluff book on the city, but you aren't fooling me, GW. I look at the adversaries, the tiles, etc and it comes across as standard dungeoncrawling. Sure, the 'campaign' is back, but this reminds me of Ashardalon, generic dungeon with campaign, and I enjoyed Ashardalon _much_ less than Ravenloft.
* Not enough baddies to start anything new. If this were the rumored Flesh Eater Courts setting...I'd probably also be working on a Flesh Eater Courts army...
* No random denizens under Hammerhal. Nothing like the grots here. Just warriors serving the chaos sorcerer.
* Another Chaos sorcerer as the main baddie. And this one was previously sold in a hero pack. Lame.
* The heroes look terrible. There's not a one here I like.

If I were to buy Hammerhal at some point it would be under the following conditions:
* Gotta be cheap. I think I paid $60 shipped for Silver Tower. No way do I pay more for Hammerhal.
* Find some random creatures to put in the sewers of Hammerhal.
* I'll sell out the 4 heroes and use Silver Tower (+ my customs) heroes. Selling the 4 heroes may make Hammerhal cheap. I think that Stormcast with the gryphhound is like a $40 fig...
* Sell off that terrible chaos sorcerer. From what I understand it's a Slanneesh sorcerer looking to bring Slanneesh back. IF so, that part is really cool because it would be a _major_ plot line in AoS, and to see it play out in a side board game is sort of neat. However, that chaos sorcerer fig is a joke for Slanneesh. I'd sell him and use the following...also as a nod to classic WFRPG where above ground nobles are underground deviants.


So, a lot of my reasons for passing on Hammerhal are subjective. Am I wrong in these assessments? Anyone pick it up and can speak favorably of it?

I think Doc was selling hammerhal for $60.

hotseatgames wrote: I think Doc was selling hammerhal for $60.

Damn...I see they have it listed for like $49 or something on their site. Selling off the heroes...and I'm possibly making money on the game.
Nuts though. I contacted them. Sold out and that was some one time only price. If they get it back...$117.

I actually prefer Hammerhal even though I prefer the Tzeentch setting. I think Silver Tower doesn't quite use the setting to its fullest, instead just lazily using it as a reason to throw any and everything in (such as allowing bad guys to team up with good guys). The tiles are certainly more interesting though and I dig the fluff and weird encounters.

Hammerhal feels more unpredictable and mysterious. That's the biggest thing for me as the atmosphere is much more realized than in Silver Tower. This is primarily due to having a GM, traps you don't expect, and pre-laid out dungeons in the book that actually give a sense of exploration. Silver Tower's mechanisms are more bare and looking at that deck knowing it's just a shuffled set of random rooms I feel less immersed and the magic isn't quite there.

The dungeons being connected is a really neat trick that provides context for what you're doing. It adds to that element of exploration and feels more coherent.

I really like the Hammerhal heroes. I have a sense of who they are (the opening novella), how they fit together, and what they're about. There's a legit story as opposed to Silver Tower which is just random shit in a blender.

How can you not love a Dwarf with a double-barreled rifle and brace of pistols? Or a Dark Aelf with a blade for a peg leg?

Also, Hammerhal doesn't have the annoying horrors that split apart and really just create a drag on the game.

The return of the town phase is nice.

The difficulty is much harder, which is appreciated.

Thanks for the input on Hammerhal!

How much weight do you put to the theory that Hammerhal was thrown together as a reaction to the (supposedly) unexpected success of Silver Tower? Seems that thought explains why there are no new sculpts and the main villain was even used as a hero in Silver Tower. On top of that the adversaries have some odd, for dungeon crawling, equipment...banners, instruments, etc.

Silver Tower had heroes and enemies designed from the ground up. Hammerhal appears to be a bunch of existing models thrown in a box and using those existing models the lead development time was cut drastically enabling GW to cash in sooner. Producing some fiction and cardboard tiles is fairly quick to push out.

Again, seems the theory is that Hammerhal is just a way to get the campaign rules out while the iron was hot. Perhaps there's another unique setting like ST coming down the pipeline?

Funny, I feel that a Tzeentchian tower is perfect for the 'blender' approach, particularly explaining random card pull dungeon layouts, and don't feel it was lazily produced at all. Bad guys teaming up with good guys is just optional character stuff outside the main ST game. Original WHQ had a Chaos Warrior as well.

Have you finished the Hammerhal campaign?