The side quests are cool, but I was hoping for a non progressive mode of play to exist along side the campaign. For example fight a random Orc den with freshly generated heroes carrying only the starter items. I guess I could just use a save slot for this and delete each game, but the tutorial would be in the way plus the early stuff will only let you see certain critters. I was hoping for a high variable, closed quest or rogue like type run like the original game had. I doubt I will ever be ambushed by 3 trolls in the first random dungeon, but in the boxed game such a threat, while unlikely, existed and caused fear.
Total party wipe on my 4th dungeon (playing on hardcore). I had two characters up to level 2, one almost up to level 2, and the grey wizard just poking along probably only about half-way up to level 2. I’m not quite sure what to do with him. I don’t know if I should treat him as fragile and be reluctant to engage in hand-to-hand, or I should just bull him forward with the fighters. He is handy to have along as the only one with healing ability (although my Elf Waywatcher gained a healing ability when she hit level 2).
Also I’m curious as to how random the level-up bonuses are. My Elf Waywatcher gained three stats and a skill and almost doubled her hit points, whereas my Warrior Priest (who was by far my best damage dealer) only gained 2 hit points and a new prayer on level up.
My last fight was really tough, and I’m not sure it was winnable with my current characters. But I also need to do a better job of inventory management. I might have been able to win it if I’d properly rearranged my equipment before entering the fight.
Mmmm, it sounds even the abilities are random. I got my Wayfarer’s healing ability at level 3, not 2.
So I’m playing hardcore. I’m about to start the last red quest (recommended level 5), but I need to level up some of my guys. I actually think the game becomes way more tense as it progresses. It’s really hard until you hit level 2, and then for most of the quest is pretty doable (dunno, maybe I got lucky with level up bonuses), but once you hit level 4, the random quest throw pretty much everything at you… I’ve seen monsters with 160 hitpoints.
I also discovered you can heal a dead party member the turn after he/she falls down. Which basically saved my iPad from being smashed against the wall. My advice is to have any non-used equipment slot taken with healing scrolls (don’t require to be next to the almost dead party member). Specially if you are playing hardcore.
Interesting game. Im looking forward to finishing this region (if I’m lucky) so I can see what comes next. BTW, does anybody know the recommended level for the expansion? I haven’t bought any DLC (the gold is not only not necessary, but also a cool balancing element, you never have enough, but everything is attainable so you don’t even consider the IAP as making any sense), but I´m considering getting the expansion so I can level up a little with new content. But if it’s level 5, forget it…
The reviews don’t really contradict each other. Owens is mainly about how much he loves the great production values, Toms is mainly about how frustrated he is by the opaqueness of the rules. I agree with both of them. The reviews have different numbers at the end but thats the least interesting thing about either review.
Personally, I love the way the game is presented, and I can ignore most of the niggles people have mentioned. My issue is that I don’t think the underlying rules of WQ are any good. They don’t lead to interesting tactical decisions. And I say that as a big fan of many of Games Workshops other games. (Bloodbowl,Space Hulk,Necromunda,Mordhiem).
Yeah, it´s in a different league than Blood Bowl or Space Hulk (haven’t tried the other). I find it´s not so much about tactics (the optimal move should be clear 90% of the time), but about party composition and proper preparation. I’ve had some nice, tense moments.
That said, playing on hardcore isn’t yet being that hard. However, shall I lose two heroes before I raise the DLC characters to the proper level, and I’m going to be frustrated.
If anything it’s a good distraction while I look forward to the Space Hulk port. I hope they include some sort of campaign with progression in it. The boardgame (new edition) is really good, but some progression system could have taken it to the next level. I guess what I really want is a Blood Bowl port…
So how are folk doing crash wise? I was playing on my iPad 3 and had no issues until maybe my 4th or 5th dungeon. Still had the full party and I think we were close to the final objective when an ambush occurred and the game crashed right as it was about to show me who the ambushers were (you know that screen before the actual encounter stating “5 bats and 4 rats”). The game auto-saved from the last turn but, every time, even after a fresh reboot, the next turn was an ambush and it crashed before I could see who was involved. I had to then delete 4 hours of progress and start a new session. ;-(
I’ve had the crash happen many times, but it always would work again after opening the app.
I had one crash at the end of the dungeon right after I clicked the Continue button in the Experience screen. It wasn’t a big deal though, I just restarted the game, finished off the boss again (the autosave was on the last turn in the dungeon) and the game progressed fine after that.
I totally don’t see why this game rubs Tom the wrong way, I guess the hate from the first sight really does exist. :)
I wasn’t bothered by not seeing the die rolls at all, not really sure why I would want to see them. When I try to hit a mob and miss him, I don’t really care if it was because I rolled 2 or 3. I know (from the Journal) it’s because my melee skill is not that higher than the mob’s, so I expect to miss a fair bit. Don’t care about the actual rolls.
I have never played WHQ boardgame and didn’t know any rules prior to starting the game and I had zero problems getting up to speed and understanding how things work. All stats and all mechanics are explained in the Journal. I find it to be a nice touch that you unlock new Journal entries when you encounter stuff (mobs, spells, mechanics, etc.) for the first time. So don’t just read the Journal in the very beginning and then forget about it - it’s constantly updated and new info is useful.
I finished 4 or 5 dungeons, haven’t lost anyone but did have a few very tense moments. The tactical system is not that sophisticated, at least in the beginning, but it’s entertaining. It’s fun to fight mobs and get loot. :)
Oh and I enjoy the quest text and all the little flavor bits.
I also don’t get why people get so butthurt about IAPs. Yes, mobile games have IAPs and the devs want to give them some visibility. It’s not like they bombard you with popups trying to sell you stuff. So yeah, IAPs don’t bother me either.
All in all, I think it’s a nice game, even if a bit too simplistic. Man, I wish they’d release Eador on iOS.
Is it true that gold you bought via IAP can also be stolen by the game with a random “rob” event? How much does it effect the game?
I had the “deathtrap” (maybe “deathleap”) thing occur again, twice. It appears to be some sort of giant rat-specific kamikaze ability, as it has only happened with them. The giant rat attacks during the monster phase, and then my warrior retaliates and kills them. Perhaps it gives the rat some sort of increased skill or strength attack (sorta like a mighty blow) in exchange for death. I believe the complete lack of a journal entry on this is consistent with the journal’s lack of details on monster abilities.
I’ve been playing this madly, after looking forward to it for ages. I missed the boardgame when it originally came out, but managed to cobble some games of it together a few years ago online using scans of the board.
I know the rules a bit, so I haven’t found the lack of rules info quite as frustrating as Tom, but it’s still annoying. I don’t know if Strength applies to missile attacks, for example. I didn’t realise for yonks that you can make a missile and a melee attack in the same round. And it took me ages to work out that Shadow Daggers was a 1-square range spell. There’s no range information given. It just showed up as greyed out all the time and I had to work it out through trial and error.
WHQ’s key feature is that it is random as all fuck. If you happen across a Night Goblin Shaman at level 1 or 2 you’re probably going to lose at least 1 character. He rolls each round to see if he can cast a spell. If he can, every spell is basically surefire death to level 1 or 2 characters. One does 10-15 damage, no chance of missing. One is like five 50% chances to do 7 damage each time. The other gives every other Night Goblin on the board 3 extra attacks, essentially multiplying your enemies by four. Madness.
I’m pretty sure it’s still less random than the original boardgame, where level 1 characters could encounter 6 minotaurs (which are very tough and do insane damage) as a random encounter. It wasn’t even a particularly rare random encounter. And it feels like encounters happen less often in this, but I can’t back that up with data.
I’m playing on hardcore and have already had one TPK and three quarters of another. Both thanks to ^&ing Night Goblin Shamans. The randomness may yet cause me to burn the world.
I like the look of it. I love the map and the overland events that add a sense of activity beyond the dungeon. I like all the Warhammer flavour. Love the hardcore option. So far I like the fightin’. The inventory system, where you have extra active inventory space for uncommon and rare items is super-interesting. The pressure of random encounters as a means to keep you moving is good.
My other niggles are the same other people have mentioned. I wish you could speed up animations while still getting an impression of what happened in a round. I wish I knew the odds on more stuff - is praying worth it? I’ve only once had anything come from it, and that was when I got a free pray as a result of a wilderness encounter. I wish it gave actual numbers for how many hit points I was down, because all the healing items give their effects in numbers, and I can’t easily tell which is the most efficient one to use. I’m not a fan of obfuscating game mechanics, and WHQ does a lot of it.
Oh, and having to flip my pad to access the inventory is TOO MUCH LIKE EXERCISE. That is not why I am lying in bed playing iPad games. I have a Wii for that shit. Somewhere.
The in-app purchases are a mixed bag. I’ve not dipped yet, but I will. The characters and the new quests look like decent deals for sizeable chunks of content, and £2.99 is a ludicrously small price for a game this huge. I feel bad paying so little. What I like about pricing models like this is I can choose when and how deep I invest. For £2.99 I get a good idea of whether I like the game, and I can spread further payments out.
I don’t find that payment structure any more weird than the concept of paying a flat £40 for a game before I even get a chance to play it. Some games I’ve got literally dozens of times more value than that out of (Bioware’s Neverwinter Nights, Guild Wars, Left4Dead, System Shock 2) and others a fraction of that value from (Bioshock, Lego Star Wars, Arkham City).
Buying in-game money seems like a weird, tacked-on option, though. It’s pricey and sounds like it’s a sucker’s deal once you’ve gained some levels. I guess it’s not there for us lot - it’s there for more casual players who are happy to sling disposable income on easier advancement. But this game is so random there’s no insurance that your gold or what you buy with it is safe. I don’t think it’s a great fit, especially when the other purchase options look so strong.
I’m broadly positive about Warhammer Quest, but there are some things that feel like mis-steps or missed opportunities. Overall, though, I’m having lots of fun. We’ll see if that lasts when a crappy roll wipes out all these characters I’ve finally got to level 2 and 3…
Squirrel Killer: First, leave those poor things alone! I love the little guys that play on the tree outside my office window. :). Second, yeah you can and probably will lose gold to random events. This is fine and a good out of dungeon tension/ story telling mechanic, but indeed particularly wierd when juxtaposed with IAP as essentially the game can steal real money. Wierd indeed and worthy of moral debate in a different game, but in WHQ just don’t buy gold. There is no reason unless you just want to buy a god mode cheat code as it will ruin the pacing early on and by all reports just sit around with other piles of gold you get in game later on. The whole IAP gold thing seems to be a gratuitous “me too” iOS revenue stream targeting those with serious impulse control.
Lordgek: No crashes yet here, but could you crash Squirrel’s game and steal his gold if he does anything naffarious to the poor little furry guys?
TonyM: I agree, they don’t really contradict each other. If you read reactions across the interwebs it seems those reviews are pretty much the two camps that folks are falling in to (too little information and obtuse vs top tier dungeon crawler). I strongly suspect in most cases how much one knows about WHQ before sitting down with WHQ iOS will strongly influence which camp he or she will fall into. Once one has a good grasp of the systems I think it becomes appearant and appreciated for what is and is not displayed on the screen all the time as all the useless clutter is gone (but the portrait inventory thing is a stinker call in trying to stay lean on UI).
Ydejin: I am not sure about WHQ iOS, but in WHQ rewards at level up were randomized as were starting wounds and spells. Out of curiosity, what are the staring wounds on folks level 1 character? What starting spells did you get? I have shadow dagger, shadow bolt, and healing mist for my level 1 wizard. I think my starting wounds were w8, d11, e9, and m11.
Everyone: I was thinking about trying to organize some sort of WHQ spelunking challenges. It would not be a league, but more a semi synchronized attempt at comparing similar experiences. The game doesn’t support seeds and doesn’t really have a way to run single dungeons with settings, so I was thinking of things like everyone starts a new hardcore game, no healing of downed warriors, no DLC, only do the tutorial and first two main quests, and if you have ever killed a squirrel you only get a wizard and must unequip all gear. If you live, how much gold (including item values) did you end with, if you didn’t how did it end and with how much gold, and what was the most “WHQ, wtf really?!?” moment. Or something like that with new rules and setups for subsequent spelunking challenges. Any interest?
Also playing on hardcore (4 level 5 warriors right now). After encountering my first goblin shaman, I never go into a dungeon without a death finger scroll and a ring of fire blahblahblah. Basically those two allow me to one shot everything that can one shot me (for now). And I want to throw in another reminder that you can heal dead characters the turn after they fall down and avoid them being lost. Didn’t know that when I found my first shaman, and I could have saved at least one of the 2 characters I lost there…
I think I have been moderately lucky with my rolls.
Oh, and if you exit a dungeon you lose experience, but also the debuffs you have. There’s a crazy debuff that is -2 to all stats and -7 to wounds that I had to get rid of this way…
That’s true - one-shot items are totally the way to go. But the early game is merciless, here. You can’t always buy Scrolls of Finger of Death and Fire-rings in town, I think, and before you start getting uncommon items active inventory space is so tight you may not have room for all the healing items a fight with a lucky Goblin Shaman can demand. I fought one who was able to cast spells three rounds in a row…
Oh, and if you exit a dungeon you lose experience, but also the debuffs you have. There’s a crazy debuff that is -2 to all stats and -7 to wounds that I had to get rid of this way…
Huh. How do you leave dungeons?
The main menu.
Oh, and in case someone is interested, the Skaven DLC seems to be designed to be played alongside the main quest. The recommended levels start at 2 and scale quite fast. I’m using them to power level DLC characters, but in hindsight (liking the game as I do) I wish I had gone for it since the beginning.
And regarding gold. At least in hardcore I can’t see how you can be flowing on it (until you reach level cap and beat the main quests). Between leveling your guys, buying healing and one shot items and keeping the equipment upgraded it’s really hard to keep up. My level 5 Wayfarer still wears the starting equipment…
Concerning wounds in the UI: This is the second complaint I have read about this, but I don’t inderstand it. What am I missing? Each character has two types of places that wounds (hit points) are displayed numerically. In the character sheet not on the main dungeon screen it displays the wounds that character has if they were fully healed (maximum wounds). Alternatively if you hold tap on a character in the dungeon screen it calls up their sheet which also displays the maximum wounds. When a character is selected in the dungeon screen, their character panel at the bottom left shows a red bar with a number to the left for the current wounds remaining. Or am I misunderstanding the issue or the UI?
I work hard to divvy up the kills between my characters. The grey wizard was definitely the hardest one to get going, but once he got a couple of levels in him, it was easy. I definitely needed to get him into the fray, though I would often “soften” up a gaggle of monsters a bit so that a couple of shots of shadow dagger could take down three at once, if you add in a couple swings of the melee dagger. Once you get some power store, either through items or levelling, a couple of well-timed shadow bolts on a good magic wind round would do wonders for his XP.
Also to help the wizard out, always try to sick him on anything with a Weapon Skill of 2 or lower (preferable already wounded by a shadow dagger as well). Otherwise the math can really work against you.
Yep abilities are definitely random. After my poor Wayfarer got wiped, I got another one and she got an entirely different level 2 ability. My first Wayfarer got Herblore when she hit level 2 and my second one got Parry instead. Similarly my first Warrior Priest got the “Hearts of Steel” blessing which boosts magic resistance when he hit level 2, my second (post-wipe) Warrior Priest got “Hammer of Sigmar” which gives him a strength boost.
I’m not sure about abilities. Both times my poor Warrior Priest only increased their hit points by 2 on hitting second level.
I’m fairly certain starting abilities are not randomized (although that’s only on the basis of having had four characters wiped and then rehired along with having seen some videos). My Grey Wizard definitely has had Shadow Dagger, Shadow Bolt, and Healing Mist both times; my Warrior Priest had Scourge of Chaos and Call of the Brave to start with both times; and my Waywatcher had Dodge both times.
I’m not sure about stats. I wasn’t paying attention to stats all that much before my wipe (still trying to figure things out). But my Warrior Priest really seemed to kick ass (best character by far of my four actives), but then after the wipe, he has a Weapon Skill of 2 and a Strength of 3, how could he kick-ass with such low stats (so I’m wondering if my first Warrior Priest had better stats, because the new one isn’t doing that great combat wise and the stats look crappy). Same for my Waywatcher who was vicious with a bow before the wipe – new one has a Ballistic Skill of 3 and couldn’t seem to hit squat until I got her a Short Bow (increased chance to hit). Now she seems to be doing better.
Could just be bad luck this time combined with observation bias.
Anyway, here are my stats for my level 1 characters:
Grey Wizard:
Move 4, Weapon Skill 2, Ballistic Skill 1, Strength 2, Toughness 3, Melee Attacks 1, Pinning 3, Wounds 10 (actually 9 + 1 for his starting Grey Wizard Staff)
Dwarf Ironbreaker
Move 4, Weapon Skill 3, Ballistic Skill 2, Strength 4, Toughness 4, Melee Attacks 1, Pinning 2, Wounds 12 (actually 11 + 1 for what Battered Dwarf Helm that I’m moderately certain he started with)
Marauder
Move 4, Weapon Skill 3, Ballistic Skill 2, Strength 5, Toughness 3, Melee Attacks 1, Pinning 1, Wounds 16 (actually 15 + 1 for Horned Helm)
[Edit] I started another game for test purposes, here’s the Waywatcher’s starting stats:
Waywatcher
Move 4, Weapon Skill 3, Ballistic Skill 3, Strength 3, Toughness 3, Melee Attacks 1, Pinning 8, Wounds 11 (actually 10 + 1 from Waywatcher Medallion)
[Edit 2] Okay, I started three games and they all have the same starting stats for the starting first four characters (sadly you have to finish the starter dungeon before you can play with the DLC characters, what’s up with that?)
On the one hand, I had the exact same problem, I could not figure out what was going on, and why my Wizard couldn’t cast any of his damn spells. OTOH it’s right there in the description of the spell, which you can bring up if you tap and hold on it. “Attack the targeted adjacent enemy” (emphasis mine). So while I can sympathize having had the exact same frustration, I’m not quite sure how they could have made it clearer (I suppose they could highlight the squares around your character and you could target them watching your spell uselessly fire off, but I’m not sure that would be better).
I’ve only had one crash and that was when I clicked on the “go to Main Menu” button of all things. Current playtime is 4:30 running on an iPad 3.
Ah, okay, I know exactly what you’re talking about now. I"m almost positive it’s “Deathleap”. I’ve only seen it on the Giant Rats. My impression is it’s some kind of special ability that gives them a combat boost on attack, but opens them up for retaliation by our characters. It seems heck-of ineffective though. Generally it mostly just results in the Rat getting splatted.