Warhammer Quest: Silver Tower

I love how psychedelic it looks. Mechanics look decent.

Hmmmm .... I have board gaming mates who do Warhammer Fantasy minis (they dislike AoS because it has no points system, the winners are always those who have the biggest bank balance) and the game looks interesting, if it is reasonably priced in the UK AND they assemble and paint the minis for me then I may look at this (they'll defintely play it with me).

Cross-posted from BGG - incase it's helpful:

I walked to my local Games Workshop at 10am this morning and got a demo of Warhammer Quest: Silver Tower.

Key information:

1. The models are gorgeous. VERY high quality. Tiles also gorgeous. In general, the component quality is superb and on par with Space Hulk 4th Edition. The box itself is quite thin - almost Heroquest sized - but apparently a foam tray of painted assembled minis will fit into it ;
2. Warhammer Quest: Silver Tower is fully cooperative;
3. Silver Tower closely resembles the D&D Adventure board games and will probably fire them (for us);
4. The app isn't necessary to play, but - if you want to include other Age of Sigmar models as heroes - that's how you access their information.

The dungeon is random. Each time you move you turn over a room card, which may bring in monsters (random roll), cause players to draw a card, or read from a passage in the adventure book (AKA Tales of Arabian Nights). In this way, the game is different each time you play.

The major win condition is collecting tokens by fighting through rooms. Each room card has a coloured token that you win by completing the room. You can also win (I think) by defeating the boss monster. An advantage of the room card system is that - like Myth - you can easily park the game and return to it another day.

The heroes roll four dice to take actions. Each hero has several actions on the card, but while some (the basic attack) can be activated by rolls of 1+, more complex actions only activate on 3+ or 6+. This is similar to Claustrophobia, but not the same mechanic. The heroes seem quite varied - we chose the Knight Questor and War Priest with dog.

When you complete some cards, you can collect treasures that 'level you up' AKA D&D Adventure Games. You can choose to keep these treasures game-to-game or reset for a fresh experience.

My takeaway was this game probably wasn't Warhammer Quest, but is akin to coop Claustrophobia or a gorgeous pimped-up edition of the D&D Adventures with several improved mechanics. For example, the much-maligned 'kiting' strategy in D&D Adventure doesn't work in Silver Tower. It would make an excellent family game for kids who might be interested in Age of Sigmar.

It isn't 'epic' and can probably be played in under an hour. For this reason, it doesn't compete with the big miniatures dungeon crawls we already own like Shadows of Brimstone. We preordered based on the demo. As we were the first people to preorder in store that morning, we got a free Battlemage hero card (although there wasn't a Battlemage mini), badges and some artworks. Apparently there will be other goodies when we pick up next week.

That is very helpful!

I object to them naming the Knight "Questor". That is, and always will be, the Elf AElf from Gauntlet.

I am totally on board for all of the above.

Vee, did you see this dice stacking thing? Seems like something a lot of folks will hate...but I think it sounds kind of fun.

Michael Barnes wrote: I am totally on board for all of the above.

Vee, did you see this dice stacking thing? Seems like something a lot of folks will hate...but I think it sounds kind of fun.

No, but I saw it mentioned in White Dwarf. It seems to be something that comes up on a one specific room card (the narrow ledge) That room didn't come up in our demo.

I was planning to house rule it...

Based on the description, the only thing different from the original WHQ is the actions that are exactly like Dead of Winter. While it is a nice mechanic, it is certainly not enough for me lay down the cash.

I think this could be better than the ddas games, at first blush.
You're offered more choices than ddas in what each character can do each turn, it has that claustrophobia element that I enjoy, there is an actual plot to be read as you enter each encounter, the AI of the monsters is more than just move and/or attack (judging by the youtube videos I watched then paused to read), you actually gain treasure and skills more satisfactorily. The tzeentch theme of ever changing dungeons is clever use of their ip, which is frankly shocking for GW. Much of what I read seems to point at cleverness regarding tieing theme to the mechanisms.
I haven't been snared by GW for anything since space hulk rerelease in 2009.

From a board gamers perspective, the only drawback seems to be the miniature assembly. And the obnoxious GW tax.
Though I'd rather spend $150 on a game would I enjoy and that the kids would like, rather than $60 on one that fell flat.

As a person who played the original, abhors both co-op games and GW, this looks enticing...

I came dangerously close to getting this...here's why I backed away: future minis needed (and to paint) beyond this core adventure.

As a previous owner and fan of HQ, AHQ, and WHQ, I know how quickly only having the core adversaries gets stale. Fortunately, at the time, I had all three so plenty of baddies. Had I only AHQ or WHQ (which both contained stats to a cornucopia of creatures) my games would either be boring or my wallet in a world of hurt.

I wouldn't have the resources here. After playing through the base shattered amulet quest (a great nod to AHQ), the game will get stale...unless i start buying AoS minis...

I'm not going down that road and would rather just spent $25 and play the Lone Wolf Adventure Game or one of the great DDAS titles.

Still, this has made me more intrigued in the AoS and I think the tool to include AoS characters as heroes is a great move. I too, am drawn to its psychedelic vibe.

Whether the new bb is in the AOS setting or not (and I'm fairly certain it isn't ), having a bb player as one of the useable heroes in this supposed hero app would be the business...and a great cross promotional angle.

Silver Tower looks really good so far, the models look great and the mechanics seem very promising. Since it is a Tzeentch theme we might see some weird stuff happen in the events and I'm glad the monsters are not simply orcs and trolls. Honestly, the monsters may be the stars of the whole package.
The game system seems to be relatively simple, but still seems to offer quite a bit of differentiation between the heroes and the random behaviors of the monsters is a great idea, though it could prove fiddly.
The price is pretty off-putting though, if all you want is a boardgame and you don't really care about miniatures. Since I want to get back into the miniatures hobby anyway, but don't find the wargaming aspect all that appealing, this feels like a good deal.

Yeah, maybe it was by accident or by design, but having it be in a tzeentch setting really works to the narrative of constantly varied 'dungeons'. Well done choice.

I think I need to know more about the replay value. The randomness seems indicative of good replay value, but over time I've found random games to feel samey. Also, was not impressed with the random stuff in the GW's failed ships game. The name departure from "winds of magic" is expected, but I'm quite surprised the imported Space Hulk's command dice mechanism here.

Especially since Descent seems to have come up with a really nice total co-op app containing all-new adventure.

I'm liking the idea of using AoS characters as Warhammer Quest heroes more and more.

This game would be a good 'event' game to put together. Paint up the set, have the players buy an AoS character they paint on their own and bring to the game.