Cursed City or Blackstone Fortress
A frequent question I see online is: I’m interested in getting into a new game, should I go with Cursed City or Blackstone Fortress The Internet It’s a tough question. They’re both still currently available new, from Games Workshop or your friendly local game store. Cursed City costs a bit more, but dollar-wise it’s not a deal breaker. Also, your preference between fantasy (Cursed City), or sci-fi (Blackstone Fortress) may sway your decision. Both have: Blackstone Fortress was developed first, and came out in 2018. Cursed City came out in 2021 and is a bit more distilled than Blackstone Fortress. They both are a bit light on strategy, though some of the newer expansion heroes for Cursed City make it more interesting. Some of the things that were slimmed down for Cursed City make Blackstone Fortress a bit more intriguing to play. In Blackstone fortress, you’re frequently deciding when to…
Update on Darktide the Miniatures Game
So the price is in for Darktide The Miniatures Game. It’s $110 U.S. This game right here. It costs $110! You get 20 minis and some cardboard for $110. That’s $5.50 per figure. Cursed City is $3.33 per model, and appears to be about 10x the game. Generally speaking, I’m pretty charitable when it comes to Games Workshop. But this is too much. If GW does release a new Warhammer Quest game in the future, I’m not sure I’ll be able to afford it.
How I made a Kickstarter
Zine Quest is a month-long celebration of zines at Kickstarter every February. I was completely oblivious to such a thing six months ago. I’d only heard of zines antidotally, skater zines, punk rock zines, etc. Well, as it turns out, there’s a ton of people making RPG zines. There’s SOOOOO much cool content, imagination, and artistry out there in that space. However, almost all of those zines are D&D-like experiences. They need a Game Master to run the adventures. That’s great for a lot of groups, but for me, I like being a player. And those that don’t require a GM, they require a fairly large book with tons of lookup tables and rules. Which has its place, but won’t fit in your pants pocket. So that’s where my game fits in. In your pants pocket! The germ of this idea had been in my mind for decades I think. …
Warhammer Quest – Cursed City: What early reviewers missed
Pretty much all reviewers left out the Trait cards. I don’t completely blame them; out of the 100+ cards, only eight are Trait cards. Some reviewers mentioned that they didn’t care for the leveling-up system but no one ran an on-camera adventure using anything other than level zero heroes. Is the leveling up as momentous as Warhammer Quest 1995? No. Does leveling up unlock new and nastier monsters (other than boss fights)? No. Can leveling up change the development path your character takes? No. Will new levels unlock fun and exciting equipment? No. Wait, I’m not selling this very well. What I mean to say is that even though leveling up in Cursed City isn’t monumental, Trait cards add a lot to the game. Most characters have two or three actions they can take every turn. Adding Traits greatly expands the thoughtfulness needed every activation. It’s fun imagining your characters…
Are Cursed City Bone Dice Cursed?
I read somewhere a while back either on Facebook or Reddit that people’s bone colored (D6) dice in Cursed City seem weighted towards failure. Anecdotally, I agree. So I figured I’d do a small test to find out: There are two successful results on the die, so 1/3 (33.33%) of the results should be successful. I have four Cursed City bone dice and I rolled each 50 times. So if the dice are truly random, we’d expect to see 16.667 successes (50 x ⅓ = 16⅔). Turns out they’re… spot on average. The average across the four dice is 16.25 successes. Just short of the 16.667 you’d statistically expect. However, I might reserve Die #1 for hostiles! Keep in mind, 50 tests is a woefully small sample size. Blank = Failure, 1 = Success, 2 = Critical Success
White Dwarf 500 (2024)
Now this is something I can get behind! A new White Dwarf mini AND rules for Cursed City! Count me in! (sold separately, purchase necessary) He looks great, very majestic. His fellow White Dwarf breathern will welcome him into the fold!
New 40k bookshelf game
Quite often I’m the target consumer for small-box games. This time I’m not. I’ll watch the promo video, but the game-play photo looks… Dull? Uninteresting? Something along those lines. I should be more polite and just say it’s not for me; “It’s not for me”. If it had more of the right minis, it might make sense, but it would take two sets to augment the gaps in my Blackstone Fortress minis. Or more interesting boards/terrain. Or, I don’t know… some pizzaz? I suppose I’m just not the target market. If someone was thinking about getting into Kill Team it might be a good intro. Now this isn’t the first time GW has released a ugly looking box-game. Just check out Gorechosen. Oh boy, that thing looks like a game of foursquare or tic-tac-toe in a box. BUT! Apparently it’s a hoot to play and came with some of the…
I just kicked in a door and fought everyone in the room. Am I the baddie?
Something occurred to me during the pandemic. After being locked in for a while we started exploring those less frequented corners of our house. It turns out I still had all the hobby stuff from my teen years. Everything is still in pretty good shape so we’re HeroQuesting! We’re kicking in doors, we’re stabbing everyone inside! We’re… wait… what are we doing? These orcs were gathered around a fireside table with their only worldly possessions neatly stowed in a chest. We woke mummies from their tombs only to stuff their dusty bones back into their scarcoffigi after looting their final resting place. We stomped on goblins who stole our stuff. OK, well that one felt good. But who’s the real monster here? I have to admit, I felt a little guilty about making every encounter a bloodbath. But that’s HeroQuest, the game is so small that’s all there is. I…
A MOST UN-SILENT NIGHT
This Cursed City content flew completely under my radar until recently. It consists of a pre-battle report: https://www.warhammer-community.com/2023/12/20/building-the-wildest-festive-battle-report-adventure-yet/ The actual scenario is linked in the page above, but here’s the direct link: https://www.warhammer-community.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/vgBnJJdPbfXOvBra.pdf As usual, this GW content would cost hundreds of dollars to put on the table if you don’t already have Da Red Gobbo, Squigs, Grotmas Gitz, Gnawty Snufflers, and Coal Grots. I read the adventure, but it turns out I unknowingly had COVID, so not much stuck around in the old thinker. I’ll give it another read through. I’m glad to see some fun, festive content for Cursed City. The game is a GREAT base to make fun things happen. I found some pretty solid 3D options for you home printers out there. I didn’t find (and didn’t look too hard) for Gnawty Snufflers and Coal Grots. Just swap in some goblins, there’s lots of squig models…
Cursed City eratta for White Dwarf 497-498
Attention everyone! Stop what you’re doing and read the eratta from Games Workshop, fixing the errors with The Madness of Baron Veingulper. Huge thanks to Nicholas Linindoll in the Cursed City Facebook group for pushing GW to move on the fix. It’s nice when non-free expansion material is playable. I’m equal parts glad and surprised this was released. GW addressed the mistakes and omittions necessary to be Rules-As-Written slaughtered by an avalanche of bloodthirsty cannibals. Doorway rules are included, map corrections, as well as the card for Crypt Haunter Courtiers! They will beat your heroes to death, no joke.