Warhammer Quest: iOS

Yeah that’s a bit pricey. Though Rodeo has a lot of goodwill from me for Hunters 2, which I have over 40 hours played on and of course I’m a Warhammer junkie. So I’m right there with ya Chaplin. Though I don’t have an ipad, I’m curious to see how it looks on an iphone 4.

Someday, I hope to visit Denmark, as I have been told I have family there… until then, thanks for the review. I’m looking forward to the nostalgia train tonight!

US prices are believed to be 3 per character and 5 for the expansion.

I loathe the fact that you have to rotate the screen to portrait to access the inventory. What an awful idea.

Is there a PC version planned? I want to play this on my laptop while watching TV.

Pocket Tactics has not yet posted its review, but in a post today Owen gives a pretty good hint:

There’s no scarcity of turn-based dungeon crawlers on the App Store, but Warhammer Quest sets a new standard for the genre. Fans of loot-plundering party-based RPGs shouldn’t hesitate to pick it up — this is one of the year’s best iOS games.

And this is a title that Rodeo Games intends to support extensively post-launch with new characters and quests.

I perked up a bit at this tidbit from Pocket Tactics as well. If over time (assuming this game that I still have not seen lives up to the potential) and several DLCs later they have a fully fleshed out digital WHQ, that would be a near priceless piece of a gaming library. Ebay prices on just the base game are about $450 bucks currently (roughly 100x more expensive than the iOS version-- not that they are exactly the same game) and that gaming experience lacks sound effects (usually), animation, and requires a heck of a lot more record keeping along with a massive feat of unified spousal negotiations in order to have anybody to play it with.

Although… just to start the “what ifs” flying, Games Workshop would be nuts to not follow up an iOS groundswell with a reprinting of the physical game. Many middle age gamers are neck deep in the revitalization of the board game market and I would bet more than a few would trample children for the chance to add Warhammer Quest to their collection. Furthermore, just like it was before, it would be a gateway to get non miniature gamers to buy up mucho buckos worth of miniatures from already existing GW product lines in order to fill out their encounter options for the board game. Free money, just sitting on the table…if WHQ iOS continues to garner praise and subsequently generates enough buzz. Just a “what if”.

Ut oh. I think I’m back to frothing nostalgic fanboi again. So weak.

Gameplay videos. Judge for yourself:

Early gameplay

Tutorial and IAP

Things my analogue WHQ eyes picked up on:

Traditional game phases (warrior then monster)
Exploration is not LoS but rather a character must end its move on a doorway square (ie WHQ and not Hunters)
Exploration triggers an event card draw
Each turn has a Power Phase or “Winds of Power” (random resource for spell casting)
WoP roll is 10 in the tutorial (clearly not a d6)
Neither video showed if a surprise event happens on a WoP roll of 1 (tool tip suggested it though)
Traditional loot cards drawn when a tile is cleared
Neither video showed character creation (ie if there are random starting wounds and abilities) although the wizards in each video had different spells
Traditional monsters with snotlings to eat actions and spiders to web heroes
Troll replaces Minotaur? It is a big tough baddy that regenerates, but my nostalgia meter hopes for Minos too (and the dreaded triple threat Minotaur event card)
Random “FU player!” RPG events are in (player is robbed and the warrior spends too much on drinking while the player is navigating the city menus)
Maurader seems to be just a renamed Barbarian
Traditional strength, toughness, etc numbers appear on information cards if you hold touch on a unit
The warrior is seriously OP in the tutorial and leveled through the roof (50 or so wounds, hits for high teens, and seems to have a WS rating making him virtually immune to the things in the tutorial)
The RPG scaling is off the charts judging from the 170 or so wounds on a single troll at the end of the tutorial (RPG book lists trolls as 30 wounds or 25 for a stone Troll)
Wizard attacks again after a miss, not sure why
Didn’t see a roll party and run a single random dungeon option (ie traditional basic WHQ death mode)

Overall, as of this point WHQ iOS looks much closer to a digital translation of the traditional WHQ rules set rather than a Hunters 3 skinned in Warhammer assets. I am not sure how the general public will feel about this nor how the decades old game will withstand the test of time. Personally, this lets me release the anxious breath that I didn’t know I was holding. At worst it looks like even someone who never heard of Games Workshop could have a darn fine dungeon crawl experience for five bucks.

Owen loves it. http://pockettactics.com/2013/05/29/review-warhammer-quest/

FYI I was able to purchase it just now.

It is not showing up for me as of yet (9:06 PST).

Bought, and I just ran through the intro and first couple adventures. My feelings thus far are extremely positive.

It wasn’t showing up for me either via search. But I found a direct link to it and that seemed to work:

http://itunes.apple.com/nz/app/warhammer-quest/id573516833?mt=8

For some reason the app store was not finding it if I searched for “warhammer quest”, “warhammer” “quest” or “give me the Nurgle damned game now”, but if I went to Hunters 2 then searched for related games it showed up.

Yeah, I searched for Rodeo Games first, then was able to find it.

DLC is much cheaper in the US than the conversion from Danish Krone in the Danish review indicated. US pricing is $2.99 for each additional character and $4.99 for the Skaven Expansion.

I’m surprised that no one’s mentioned Tom’s lack of love for this on the main Qt3 site. His review was not kind, and seems to raise valid concerns for those of us who never played the original board game.

I never played the original boardgame. I agree with Tom’s review (with the opinions stated in the text) but I’m also liking -a lot- my (very limited) time with the game. Yes, it’s obscure, and we will have to either check the rules somewhere or “play by feel”, but that is something I can put aside. The game is stupidly polished and the tactics, although limited at the start (and I haven’t played enough to see if this changes), do provide tension and a nice set of pacing.

So far, I think there might be too much randomness in there (got ambushed at a very bad moment and lost two heroes on hardcore). Also, I have the feeling it might become too repetitive long term, but again, it’s too early to tell.

But its not a very expensive game (in the grand scheme of things, not compared to other iPads games) and is definitely a polished, long and hardcore experience of which there aren’t many in the system. I’ll say it’s definitely worse designed than Ace Patrol on a tactical level, but it seems to have way more longevity in it with what seems a compelling campaign system (again, caveat of limited playtime). I hope the RPG elements pay off.

To temper your optimism, I’ll just remind you that Games Workshop has left WHQ out of print for multiple decades along with tons of other well-loved boardgames, and when occasionally they do bestir themselves to reprint an old favorite (like Space Hulk) or create a new game (like Dreadfleet), they make a limited print run that quickly sells out and returns things to the status quo. The only reason that classic Games Workshop boardgaming properties and RPGs are currently in print and being developed for is that Games Workshop licensed the majority of that stuff to Fantasy Flight, and Fantasy Flight knows how to actually support boardgames.

So why doesn’t Fantasy Flight reprint Warhammer Quest? Because their license explicitly does not cover it. Otherwise…well, he may not work there these days, but Jon Goodenough, who headed up the resurrection of Talisman among other related projects was and is a huge WHQ fan as well (I’ve been keeping him updated on the news about the iOS version) and would absolutely have brought it to the table.

I swear the App store search engine is the worst. I do not understand how in this day and age it can be so terrible.

I think people have seen it, put their fingers in their ears and are repeating “I’m not listening, I’m not listening” so they can buy it and will it to greatness.