The Truth about Heroquest - Review

I think I got this the Christmas the year it came out — so I was 11. We had some extended Christmas break with family, so made it through all the quests. Immediately got the main two expansions, Witchlord and Keller’s Keep and then was gifted the Barbarian and Elf expansion. Didn’t get the other two — Ogres and Wizards until college (around 97). Game has tons of nostalgic value for me — my mom painted the bad guys when I was a kid (my dad had died…so it was a cool way for us to draw closer). As Barnes says, it’s the simplicity (plus the furniture) that is its appeal — even playing through Descent now (I am curious how many quests there are; we just keep going), the tracking of fatigue and line of sight, and status conditions clutters everything up a bit.

After that was Dark World, which was mainly a disappointment (the turn order randomized is great though). Then we added the two expansions for that and it definitely better with them.

Then Dragon Strike, which led to AD&D 2nd ed….and along the way came MTG, Spellfire, and INWO which took a bit away from boardgames

I remember liking advanced heroquest a lot as a step up from this in my teens once I'd had my fun with HQ. Back in the proper GW giant tables and big slabs of cardboard days.

hotseatgames wrote:

Jexik wrote: Personally, I played more Dragon Strike after my friend’s dog peed on their HQ board.

I should have done that the time I was forced to play Agricola.

And to think Daviau rejected that option for his legacy games

I played a friend's copy of the original when it came out, so I must have been about 10. It was a lot of fun at the time, but I've never felt the need to track down a copy myself in later years. It seemed like a game that was better left as a fond memory. The remake just kinda made me sad, as it was clearly extreme nostalgia bait.

It doesn’t seem the writer or others here have a perspective of price, & don’t know what other board games go for or miniatures are priced at. Just talking miniatures & pretending everything else included in the box is $0: $125 (actually only $85 on Amazon right now) is about $1.50 per miniature (tho some are larger & there are furniture so prices wouldn’t be equal) while most other miniatures of even close to this quality are $3 lowest, to even up to $10 per miniature! & that’s just for minis, not the board, tiles, & manuals included with Hero Quest. Take into account that after you spend $3 per single mini of D&D or Warhammer, to have the rules you have to buy a few $50-$60 book(s). Catan is $60 for mostly cardboard & overall less mass.

I believe both were suggesting to ditch the minis to lower the price. Not because it was expensive for a minis game. But expensive for a kids game.

I feel like there's enough apps to play this game that I don't need to own this ever again.

In the case of kids, they should think of this as not just a board game, but a combo playset boardgame. Or mini statue decorations. There’s a lot more that can be done with the minis than simply what’s in the box. & technically the intended age group is 14+ this isn’t a game of Sorry, it’s for those looking for a slightly more complex but still casual game to play at the table with friends & family.

The Dungeon & Dragons boardgames like Wrath of Ashardalon and Castle Ravenloft etc offer all of that for half the price of Heroquest.

Ashardalon has 42 minis consisting of 22 different moulds and a giant kickass dragon, a heap of chunky cardboard dungeon tiles, hundreds of cards and tokens and 10 or 11 scenarios that can be linked into a campaign or played standalone. Component quality is excellent.

Complexity is on par with Heroquest. And, as stated, it's half the price.

Also, I can assure you the writer and all here have a valid and keen perspective of price and the cost of mini-based games.

I suspect you're seeing Heroquest's value against expensive, overproduced Kickstarter games from the likes of CMON etc while most here are judging Heroquest against similar weighted retail games.

I own that too, but current prices Ashardalon at $63 means those minis amount to about $1.50 per mini, while Hero Quest base set as stated $80 for 65 minis (are they counting doors, weapon stands, chests?) means $1.20 per mini. So Hero Quest is CHEAPER. Also beyond a full board does have cardboard pieces aplenty & better quality cards. Gameplay for Hero Quest is better & more approachable with casual gamers, each quest has a more full story throughout the quest, with customization & so many fun little extras like to scale skulls for humans & orcs & others & little rats. I use Ashardalon for the minis, I actually play Hero Quest. The compainion app does all of the DMing for you if you want to play alone or partner with a friend, with sound effects & voice acting. I never brought any kickstarter into this, I barely look at kickstarters. D&D essentials with 0 minis is $46, latest game to be like Ashardalon is Trials of Tempus at $75 for 25 minis, & my earlier reference to DnD was official minis bought standalone like WizKids. Btw the original reviewer & others talking about pricing would most likely consider Ashardalon bad as well, so not sure why you bring that into the argument. I didn’t say Ashardalon was bad, I simply defended Hero Quest.