Spookyhappyfun wrote:Pancho, all this talk about Dark Elves sounds really cool. Is there a Quest Pack you're using all these for, and if so, which one?
Hi Spooky,
Good question. I can answer that but it won't make me too popular around these parts LOL as I know many folks here don't like it when the official quest packs get messed with!!!!! And boy have I messed with them....
I've got two quest packs that feature the Dark Elves.
1) The Dark Company.
2) Mage in the Mirror
I've never actually played the Dark company but to me it always looked like a bit of a slog with very few new and exciting features to really tempt me to play it. Plus I never had the models to represent the Dark company warriors anyway. And I felt that the story was too similar to the Sir Ragnar tale; i.e the Emperors best Knight turns evil. Yawn. So I had a brain wave, why not make Hinsgrim to actually be Ragnar? And then give Ragnar a bunch of elite warriors that he's paid to protect him. Enter the Dark Elves. I already had lots of these models lying around. The Dark Company crossbowman becomes a Dark Elf crossbowman, the halberdier becomes a Dark Elf spearman, the scout becomes a Dark Elf scout and the Swordsman becomes a Dark Elf swordsman.The only real challenge was to give these guys unique and interesting stats/abilities but at the same time make all four of similar value; this was because in the Dark Company the Evil wizard player gets to choose which Dark Company warrior he placed on the board each time the generic Dark Company icon appears in an activated room. If one of the four was better than the others, it would get chosen each and every time, and I wanted to avoid that.
The Mage in the Mirror has also been converted to a Dark Elf quest pack. Again, I didn't have the original models so decided to change things up a bit. It's not stated outright that the Mage in theMirror is set in the wood Elf kingdom, although it's generally accepted to be the case I didn't think it was too much of a departure to place it in the High Elf kingdom, which is at war with the Dark Elves. Our Elf Hero becomes a High Elf. Sinestra becomes a Dark Elf sorceress. I added witch Elves and executioners to the monsters already listed. One idea I really liked was that Sinestra knows that the Heroes are coming for her and has therefore despatched 5 assassins whose sole purpose is to kill the Heroes. They appear when wandering monster traps are triggered during the second half of the quest pack, and add a bit of tension.
It actually all works really well in my opinion.
Heroquest sacrilege I know, but good fun nonetheless.