Absolute N00b.... What to throw away?

[Macula]

Hi, first post, so why not dive into the oddities first.
First of all, I havent played a single quest. Not one.
Getting my friends together to play has been awful, so i've been painting, crafting storage, thriftily seeking all the expansions...
I'mm collecting the 2021 set, (First time round I went Space Crusade), and have got everything up to Telor and Spirit Queen, and will probably be the first person to do their zero quest with everything painted (Including the doors)

So.. things i want to ask, as i shuffle painted minis round foamcore trays and greedily eye up those new ogres..

What can I thin out?

There are a few pieces i seem to have duplicates of, such as A LOT of 1x1 tiles, a pair of mirrors*, a few artefacts... Is there anything I can thin out of the big ole box to make it more accessible? Do i need all the ogres from MoM if I'm also getting Ogres's Horde? there are two cards for ogres, and neither match the OG ones, so... could I get away with picking one and bundling the others with some on ebay? I've been told that the new furniture is more an aesthetic choice, but one maps actually requires an extra cupboard?

Between the dread moon and MoM boxes, I have a lot of elves and mercenaries. How many of those do i need to keep to do all the set missions?

Yes, these are dumb first questions, but.. hyper fixations ^_^
I want to minimise the set because..
1. less figures I need to paint
2. More space in the uberbox for future releases,
3 maybe sell any dupe parts off to raise funds for new bits

Has anyone done an ultimate kitlist for all the official quests? (which I'm also binding into one big loretome)

On the subject of this..
How useful are the mercenaries, and apart from the dark adventurers, and a couple of each elv fighter (and maybe a pair of halberders) do i need them for future missions?
What do the two black backed mirrors represent? (so i can do better artwork for the 3d printed ones)


*I also do 3d designing and printing, so am making some nicer mirrors, card holders, cool doors, a better version of that crystal ball etc..

[Kurgan]

The thing is, in HeroQuest anything can be used to proxy for anything else. So hanging onto the extra pieces also means more possibility for your own custom adventures. But if sell them you must, hope this helps...

You don't get to have more than one of the same type of hero in a party in HeroQuest (unless you homebrew), so you only need one Barbarian, one Elf, one Rogue, etc. But are you really going to get rid of the male or female version of each hero? You could of course. You don't strictly "need" them to play. It's just variety. Same thing with their extra hero card with the matching art. Same stats, same character just different look.

The ogres in ATOH have different stats and different cards than the ogre warriors in MOTM. if you wanted to use the ogres in one set to proxy for the others I suppose just keep the cards if you want and the designs you prefer for the single square Ogres.

MOTM has 4 archers and 4 swordsmen. You only ever "need" 2 of each in the quests. ROTDM includes 2 of each and you need them, but you could get away with both packs having only 2 archers (1 of each design if you want) and 2 swordsmen (ditto).

The mirror tiles in MOTM and ROTDM look different, but they serve the exact same function. You don't need both strictly.

The extra skull tiles found in the Frozen Horror and MOTM are certainly needed because the monsters are a lot heavier on BP in those than the others (ATOH could also use some but includes no extra skull tiles). The extra double stone blocks and extra staircase in MOTM are absolutely needed.

The extra wooden exit doors and extra steel entrance doors are not needed... they are stylistically tied to each pack but really you can get by with just one of each (of course the Frozen Horror ones are both blue). Actually Frozen Horror calls for way more open doors that come with any pack so if you want to hang onto 7 extra doors in order to simulate those, go for it. Similarly ROTDM also calls for more closed doors than exist so you can save them for the same reason.

The extra Skeletons, Mummies, and Zombies of ROTWL are absolutely needed in that quest book (and help a lot in the Forsaken Tunnels of Xor Xel). The "ranged" variants of the skeleton, goblin and orc are needed in ATOH absolutely. Most of the extra green skin monsters in KK are not needed only the extra Abominations. The rest are just the luxury of never having to worry about running out of monsters even if the heroes run from room to room activating them without killing off all the monsters before they go to the next one (that's the real beauty of having extras).

The extra monsters found in SQT & PoT retail are not needed. They're just fun variants... yes there are some "fiery" monsters mentioned in PoT and some "ghostly" (spectral) creatures mentioned in SQT, but you don't specifically need the translucent figures for them and in fact there aren't actually enough in each color to fully go for all the ones called for. The designs are different than the ones in the Game System however. The Red Gargoyle is just a bonus to use as the alternate form of the Warlock but isn't strictly needed for gameplay (any Gargoyle or just remembering the Demonform spell is on is fine).

The extra secret door tiles are included for a reason in MOTM.

Pretty much everything else has its use. The "mystery" tiles (in KK and ROTWL) don't really have an official use (except the Zargon/Mentor eye one that is used in Into the Northlands, from the Game System) but are unique.

The several apparently "unused" Artifacts in the Game System are in fact found in SQT and PoT quest books. They are important.

The duplicates of the equipment cards are intended so that hero players can have extra reference cards if they wish (or to affect the likelihood of drawing something in a random equipment draw if you wish to do such a thing). Same deal with the duplicates of the potion cards (and certain spell scrolls) between ROTWL and KK, they affect the probability of random draws or allow for easy reference for players (even though cards don't limit supply of these items).

Anything else I missed?

[Macula]

THANKYOU! That all sounds exactly what I needed to hear.
I’m dealing with the door thing by printing 2 piece doors (which they seem to be copying in ATOH) the mirrors will be spindly 3D frames glued back to pack with images between them. So, just checking what the ROTDM ones are supposed to represent before I take to photoshop (and without ruining the quests for myself)

I’m trying to seek out the clear hammer ork, witchqueen and gargoyle (which I’m going to paint in black cracklure)

That’s answered everything I asked, and lots more info. Only thing I don’t think I got was mercenaries/hires.

1. Are any of them used as enemies and thus needed,
2. Do they really add much to the game? I seem to see the two reactions being “they’re a waste of money and are as useful as chucking a stone down a hallway” and “we kept forgetting to use them, and then arduous about who’s scout was who’s”

[j_dean80]

I can answer the last part to a degree. The Dark Company uses the mercenaries as bad guys. Not sure if it will be re-released or not, but it does require several. Especially if the party splits up. Also, hiring mercenaries isn't always a waste of money. They also came in Wizards of Morcar and are pretty helpful there. The comments you read were probably from The Frozen Horror as it is just a brutal pack overall. By this time though heroes wouldn't have much else to spend their coins on other than potions, so hiring mercenaries is a good money sink.

To solve the who's is who's on the mercenaries, just paint them different color schemes.

[Macula]

Thanks! I assume with the “you only need the extension to play the extension “ rule, any WOM box will have fresh mercs.
(Which may also have the dark company missions if we’re lucky)

[TheLastChaosWarrior]

I limit mercenaries to three per Hero.
So as noted above paint three of each in different schemes. The 1990s ones are easy as they have a decorative plume on their helmet, so you can paint them differently.
Then just note on your character sheets whose colour is whose! Job done.
I prefer the older versions as they had modular weapons so you were not limited to only three of each weapon, like the new versions.

[Macula]

I think I’m going to model up some “team base holders”, both to signify who hired whom, and for pvp skirmish.
The mirrors, I went through very roughly so I know I need to make…
Princess/normal
Bow/cracked
Hellmouth/normal
Sealed/cracked…
And I’ve nearly done them. I’ll be sticking them into my doors collection on cults soon.
Oh.. and I just bought the monk and ogres. More painty painty!