Advanced Heroquest, Where is the Love?

[Thantos]

So was thinking of moving to a few games of Advanced heroquest in the evenings, for the extra depth in the rules.
But seems to be a lot less love the AHQ than the classic game. So what puts people off?
I have the AHQ boxed game and am in the process of learning rules!

[Goblin-King]

Well, it wasn't really available in Denmark. It's lack of popularity here simply stems from the fact that no one actually owned the game.

Years later it's the "well I already own and know HQ - why bother with another game that resembles it"-mentality.

Oh yeah... and the fact it didn't come with enough freaking minis! Heroes, men-at-arms and skaven? Are you freaking kidding me? HQ had 9 different monsters!!!
Greed Workshop greedily shot themselves in their greedy foot with their greedy greed ways of greed.

[knightkrawler]

The art in and around the game is utter *lemony goodness*. I'm talking about everything from box art to the tiles and markers and blips and things and cards.
It's too freaking complicated. Why do we love HQ again? Right, the simplicity.
Uhm... shitty art.
And the reasons GK mentioned.

Don't bother with AHQ has always been my verdict.

[tasoe]

I haven't really read any rules, but what was said above. Ugly cover, the minimum selection of monster figures available (and not so hot to be honest) and the fact that a giant preceded it, all those things make me to not even try it.

[Sjeng]

I own a copy too, pretty cheaply at €50 (considering it's even rarer than HQ). I like the miniatures though. The Men at Arms are very useful, the Heroes are nice as alternatives, and the skaven have that classic HQ look. Even though I love my modern clanrats, these guys do have more of an original look to them. And the tiles are pretty good.
But if I use these, they will be used in a HQ game The AHQ rules are too bothersome.

[Thantos]

Yea from how i understand it, the AHQ rules are designed to work with other citadel miniatures. So its more standard to buy other minis then have them used in AHQ.
Agree box art is fugly.

Ill likely give it a shot, post up a review n pics in the aftermath

[gootchute]

I saved up my allowance for AHQ when I was a child and I never regretted the purchase (I purchased WHQ years later as well.)! The Skaven have long since been abandoned, the doors have all broken, and the tiles were destroyed in a flood... but that doesn't stop me from loving it.

I agree the model selection was terrible and a little too on the nose with GW policy of encouraging you to buy more, but since I already owned HQ i used all those monsters (and my growing collection of fantasy minis) and the Skaven were just a bonus. The tiles and heroes/henchmen were just more tools for the dungeon crawling toolbox. GW latter rectified this lackluster model selection with WHQ, but this was another clever "buy more" trap, because they only gave you the models needed for 1 out of 10 battle levels...

I think the artwork is classic, even if the box cover does look like a rejected version of the HQ art. The interior art (many of which by Gary Chalk I might add) really paints a bleak and brutal picture, and that is just what this game is! Every victory in combat is a hard won fight, in this game where all that separates you from a monster (statistically) is a couple of fate points and a magic item if you are lucky. Hell there is a whole section in the rules about how to run away from combats and leave the dungeon to return when you've healed up (quests are broken into many expeditions, if you press your luck and take fewer expeditions you get better fate point rewards).

http://boardgamegeek.com/thread/171457/it-could-have-been-a-contender

This review sums up most of my thoughts nicely. The game suffers from door tactics slowdown even more so than HQ but that is solved with some house rules for pushing combats away from doors (making an already difficult game harder).

I have always wanted to go back and play classic HQ quests with the AHQ rules, though I see every quest containing a Bloodthirster(gargoyle) as a frantic flight to the staircase!

Thantos: be aware there is one piece of errata in the white dwarf magazine, Orcs have 7 toughness instead of 8 (they already have 4 wounds which is as many as some starting heroes!!)

[knightkrawler]

The AHQ rules are designed to work with other citadel miniatures.

It was GW's pre-Warhammer Quest effort to get board game players into buying Citadel miniatures. Sinned, a member here, collects the original Citadel minis depicted on AHQ material.
I agree with Sjeng that the minis that were in AHQ are quite awesome. ghan and Seb have done great things to the Henchmen, which have rare studded leather armor to begin with, and the Skaven look good and utterly ratman in design.
However, what really turned me off about those Skaven is their size. They're too bulky and tall, they should be somewhere between HQ goblins and orcs, but they're not.
The new clanrats from Warhammer are the quintessential Skaven now, what with their posture and general isometric body arrangement (slithering forward cowardly and ready to retreat head over heels) on the bases.

AHQ as a game does away with all things I like about HeroQuest. Simple props, art style, and the skull dice. No game whatsoever should be played without skull dice. Skull dice are the *lemony goodness*.

[Sjeng]

Here's some love for you though:

http://greywolf.critter.net/ahq.htm

http://enhancedadvancedheroquest.blogsp ... loads.html

http://eastern-empire.com/warhammer-que ... t-project/ (seb's blog)

[HeroQuestFrance]

ADVANCED HEROQUEST is a great game system !
Better than warhammer Quest to me. (where monster hordes can appear by falling down the room ?)

It allows you to play again all the quests of HeroQuest but using the rules of HeroQuest.
The game became more tactical and interesting. You can edit every table and add what you have (mini furnitures traps etc)
Now with such websites like printer studios, you can automate the room & passage / furniture /monster / treasure / traps etc by using diferent decks instead of the tables.

More, since it's now the entire property of Hasbro UK and no more games workshop, it means you can edit rules without being attacked by a lawyer who claims copryright or trademark at each web page.