Games Workshop Warhammer Quest: Blackstone Fortress

As someone who owns and played the 1995 Warhammer Quest, going into Blackstone Fortress was a completely different experience. A very positive experience. Blackstone Fortress simplifies the cumbersome WHQ 1995 rules; yes simpler but so much more refined, to a point that everything in the game just flows naturally once you know the rules. We know Games Workshop is top notch when it comes to the yummy things that come in the box- excellent quality of the cards, miniatures, the tiles. I am going to focus on the game play. The game runs in three parts. You explore. You fight. You shop. When you explore, you draw a card. If the card is an item or clue, you keep that card. If the card says Combat, you set up the combat tiles. If you manage to escape with your explorers from the battleground by means of a maglev escape chamber tile, you get to decide whether you want to continue to explore OR you want to go to Precipice; a large spacecraft that has a shopping mall and with facilities to buy stuff and heal your wounds. Each stage of the game has its own manual, but they are all interconnected with each other depending on what you are doing. There's the Rules manual that describes what you do when you're not fighting. There's the Combat manual when you're fighting baddies. And there's the Precipice manual, when you're shopping. Can this be played SOLO? YES! The manual says so. In fact, the game uses a universal set of rules meaning the rules apply across all numbers of players. There are no specific rules for playing solos. The rules you use playing solo are EXACTLY the same as if it were multiplayer. The only difference is that when you play SOLO, you have to play all four explorers single-handedly. But the rules remain the same. Story-wise? In a few words, you are a bunch of explorers who are in search of the hidden vault deep within the Blackstone fortress. To find it, you need to attack each of strongholds; a total of four. To get to each of the strongholds, you need to collect four clues. Four clues get you to one stronghold you can attack by drawing from a deck of strongholds to see which one it is. Yes, you will get massacred if you are careless. The game is tough. You are also fighting against time. The game has a card-timer. There's a deck of cards that you need to flip one card every time you visit the Precipice. When you run out of the timer cards, the game is over. You cannot avoid not going to Precipice. Precipice is the only place where you can heal your grievous wounds. If your team is suffering from grievous wounds and not taking the time to heal up, eventually, you will get killed, and it is game over. So, the game is balancing act. Do I push for one more expedition after that bloody combat? Or do I just go back to Precipice and heal up, but then that would mean I have to flip one card on the timer? Also, you don't have to finish the game in one session. The game has a way of saving your progress so you can clean up and then maybe a few days later, you can break out the game again and continue from where you left off. I highly recommend this game. One thing I do need to tell you though is that you need a large play area. The combat tiles can get pretty huge. Get the game. You will enjoy it!

My husband is an avid Warhammer 40k player. I am not. We played a game (7 hours) today with our friends (one other fan, and one other person new to the fandom) and we were impressed by how Games Workshop managed to create an immersive game that is a friendly gateway for those not familiar with Warhammer, yet a solid and fun tribute for the die hard fans who have been playing and winning tournaments for years. Here is a bit of background. Warhammer is a series of dark fantasy, science fantasy games. The 40k series specifically deals with space, similar the Starcraft-- robots, aliens, religious fanatics, and lunatics. The world is mature and deals with the idea that there are no good guys. Everything is a shade of gray. That being said, there is no element of this board game that is too mature or dark for a middle schooler. Aside from simulated incapacitation from fictional laser guns, the maturity of this game is not that much worse than Star Wars. This makes it a decent choice for family game night if your kids are in middle school or older. The game mechanics are fairly complex with several books, include a core rule book, a rule book for when you are on the airship (precipice), and the combat book. There are additional books if you wish to play Warhammer 40k with the models, or if you wish to find out more backstory. The books are not the 60+page ones you need to play 40k. They are about comic book size, soft cover, glossy, full colored and brief. They will encourage reading comprehension practice for the young ones. They are not extremely well written, and can hey a bit confusing at points, but there are updated fan versions of the books that are far clearer. The game also comes with 44 miniatures. Do not expect to play this game out of the box. I would spend at least a day assembling the models. The sit on bases about the size of a coin, each, and stand between an inch or two high. They can be painted but do not need to be for initial plays. Each character has between 3-5 piece on average that you will need to snap together. These are high quality, detailed plastic figurines that are easy to put together. The set also comes with multiple types of dice including standard six sided di, and the infamous 20 sided di. There are also multiple di with only a few faces denoted with symbols. The game also includes high quality cards and hexagonal tiles for the board. They are beautifully colored, and sturdy. One of the reasons why this game is such a family friendly or fun game for introducing friends to the Warhammer universe is it is a cooperative game, rather than a competitive one. You work together to defeat the AI. I recommend this for: people who like Warhammer, fantasy, science fiction, video games, Star Wars, Starcraft, board games, families with kids over the age of 12 who may enjoy those things or may need a fun way to work on reading comprehension, cooperation, and problem solving.

I bought this mostly for painting the miniatures, because I enjoy the process. Like most GW miniatures, the minis are high definition sculpts that come on 4 separate sprues. The heroes are molded in red and the enemies are molded in gray. Each miniature is push fit, but still probably should be assembled with plastic cement to avoid having big gaps. Some of them are very, very fiddly, so you'll need to be careful with assembly, especially the spindle drones and cultists. You will certainly need a good set of hobby clippers and a sharp knife to clean the mold lines (they're pretty minimal on these). Some high grit sandpaper is also handy to have to clean up the smooth parts. The cardboard game board pieces are easy to separate from their board and are highly detailed. The box does not come with any kind of organization system unfortunately, so a third party foam insert is probably a good choice if you're going to travel with this game, or are going to keep the minis in the box. The game itself is easy to understand, and can be played solo or with up to 4 friends. It comes with all of the dice you need, and easy player cards for each explorer and enemy type, so you don't need to search through an instruction manual during game play as much. Each session is 2-3 hours and each session is a continuation of the last adventures, so this is a long term game. Maybe not the best quarantine purchase, but at least I have something to do in lockdown!!

Super Game and Super Service by Protrade! A component was damaged and the company substituted it in no time

Very well packed and speedy delivery - thanks! Really impressed so far, looking forward to slowly working through it

Box contained everything but the sprue for the Chaos Lord which was one of the models I was most excited for.

As a long standing 40k fan, with 2 adults sons who share the passion, this game offers a more character based and collaborative gaming experience that doesn’t require hours of set up and clearing up after. Great for a long term immersive adventure. Definitely recommend for 40k and D&D fans alike.

Loved the 40k universe and was totally pleased they've finally catered for people like me in a Warhammer Quest flavour. Certainly much better than the AoS iteration.