KrautScientist finally paints his HeroQuest set

[Weltenlaeufer]

Haha father and son next to each other look awesome!!

One hour for a modell is superquick, its good to hear that it is possible! Something to strive for.

Thanks a lot for the help with the zombies, I ve just seen it on your blog! :) Just 4 more modells to go!!

[arch8ngel]

Looks great! Love how Grak turned out!

[KrautScientist]

Cheers, guys!

In other news: I have a proper game coming up next week, so I'll be giving that fully painted HQ set a whirl. Expect lots of pictures afterwards, even if it's all old stuff in a way

[Spookyhappyfun]

Your stuff is always amazing! I would love to play a game with those minis.

[Thor-in]

They do look amazing. I can't see who you get in the exchange this year and what you send to them.

[KrautScientist]

Cheers, guys!

@ Thor-in: Haha, in fact I already have a plan for what I want to do for the exchange model. It'll be tough not to reveal it in advance...

So, it took me a bit longer than planned to collect all the photos together, but today I would like to share some impressions from the HQ game night we had last week: My friends Annie and T. were awesome enough to join me for this special game night (cheers for that, guys!), and we decided to play a one-off game (at least for now), using the first quest from the second edition Quest book called “The Trial”. Now while this may not be the perfect starter quest (and in fact, the heroes barely managed to make it through alive), it was perfect for a showcase game in that it featured just about every monster and piece of furniture from the game box -- what better way to make the most of my completely painted set, eh?

So I made some very small tweaks to the quest (including a house rule for searching rooms and added wandering monsters) and we were off: Annie and T. chose to play two heroes each, with Annie taking control of Tonriel Silkspinner (the Elf) and Braband the Fierce (The Barbarian), whereas T. would play Thorin (the Dwarf, obviously ) and Garo von Stein (the Wizard).

These four brave adventurers would boldly enter the catacombs of Verag the Gargoyle, slaying vile creatures and discovering priceless treasures along the way…



But we are getting ahead of ourselves, so let’s start at the beginning: Our journey started, as every journey does, with a first step:



The plot quickly thickened, however, as the heroes ventured out from their starting room, encountering the dungeon’s first denizens:



And they kept getting in more trouble by opening additional doors — just as planned



Even at this early point, a streak of bad dice rolls already reared its ugly head, so the fights against the first couple of greenskins turned out to be more troublesome than expected. Little did the heroes know, however, of the monstrous legions arrayed against them:



For now, both the exploration and the fighting continued — and the first treasure chest was uncovered!



Braband the Fierce added another bead to his string of disappointments, however, when he discovered the chest he had fought so hard to reach turned out to be empty.



Thorin, on the other hand, needed some alone time and took a walk around the centre room of the dungeon.



…before coming to Tonriel’s assistance, since the elf had managed to disturb some more denizens of the dungeon.



Exploration moved to the upper left corner of the board — very much the home of a couple of undead horrors and of one of the quest’s “minibosses”, as it were.




Our heroes yet remained oblivious to this fact, but they were at least smart enough to team up before advancing further (and Braband even got in a second, more successful, attempt at emptying a treasure chest of its contents):





There was a collective intake of breath around the table as the fell guardian of Fellmarg’s tomb arose from his long slumber…



…only to be instantly KO’ed by a well-placed Genie spell:



Strangely fitting for a mummy champion to be knocked out by a Genie, come to think of it… Anyway, it may have been a short guest appearance, but the creation of a custom model was still totally worth it

Shortly afterwards, Braband and Tonriel were hard at work running into yet more trouble a couple of rooms further down. And thanks to a spectacularly unfortunate dice results, the lowly Orc pictured below turned out to be much more resilient than he should have been — once again, that is…



In any case, the heroes had learned their lesson, electing to form a neat conga line for their further exploration of the environment.



Returning to the centre of the catacombs for what seemed like this quest’s inevitable showdown…



But wait, had our heroes managed to overlook a room towards the bottom of the board? “Come hither, Braband!”, called Tonriel, “’tis probably just more greenskin vermin in this room!”



“Oh sh….!”

The two chaos warriors and Fimir were vanquished, but not without taking a toll on the heroes’ HP: In fact, things were looking pretty dire at this point, with all heroes down to their last couple of HP and all healing spells and potions already used up.

So it was at the worst possible moment that the foul Verag’s lair was revealed:





But our heroes were nothing if not unconventional in their problem solving: Garo von Stein jumped right into the fray, as you would expect from someone with only one defense dice and only three more hitpoints to his name.

His audacity paid off, however, as Verag was instantly slain by a well placed Ball of Flame — while some of the heroes actions were slightly eccentric (bordering on idiotic), I have to admit they really made the best possible use of their offensive spells against dangerous targets!

Unfortunately, his advance had put the Wizard into a bit of a fix:



But he managed to dodge a full round of attacks, right in time for Braband and Tonriel to show up as backup and provide him with a clear route for a strategic escape.



It was a close call, but in the end, our heroes prevailed:



In fact, Thorin the Dwarf even chose to celebrate the occasion by dancing on the table — a bit rich, really, considering his less than stellar combat performance…



But in spite of everything, the heroes were victorious! They did manage to win by the skin of their teeth, though: One more round of combat could have produced the first hero casualties. For this reason, the heroes didn’t perform any further searching in the rooms that were left, but chose to end the quest then and there.

In all fairness, however, they did manage to vanquish quite a few monsters along the way:



So yeah, that was my first HeroQuest game in a long time — and definitely the first game using a fully painted set. And we had a blast! Thanks must also go to Annie and T. for indulging me in this venture. We had great fun, and to be able to serve as the evil dungeon master using my own toys again was a lovely, nostalgic moment — one that I hope we’ll be able to repeat sooner rather than later.

But that is a story for another time! For now, everything goes back into the box:



As always, let me know what you think!

[arch8ngel]

Great stuff!

The mummy champion looks amazing!

[lestodante]

Oh great... I can finally see your minis "in action"!
Also, I wanted to ask wich grey you used for the bases?

[KrautScientist]

Hey everyone, I'll be back with a more substantial update in the new year, but for now, let me just say a heartfelt "Thank You!" to the entire community over here! 2019 was the year when I finally realised one of my oldest hobby dreams and painted an entire HeroQuest set (and even managed to get in a game), and I couldn't have done it without the support, the inspiration and the knowledge from this forum. So thanks a lot for that, everyone, and a happy new year to all of you!

[Weltenlaeufer]

Yay! Happy new year brother! Your thread here and your HQ set keeps inspiring!! Glad to see you back posting at the Inn!