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Yeah, I wonder if it's easy to shave a few games off before fighting Radukar or if that's just going to cascade break the game somehow. I had planned to try and get some people who aren't usually into boardgames to play with me but I doubt I can convince them to play some 13 game campaign. I would've guessed it was maybe 8-ish games before the big showdown so hopefully it doesn't become tedious and you just want to skip to the end at around game 7-12.

Not as crazy as some past preorders like Indomitus, but I’m sure GW isn’t crying over the results. It looks like the bundles with novel and the individual editions were gone in less than ten minutes, about 15 for game with key, and less than an hour for just the game.

So we know they sold 5650 copies + some without keys in the US. Not bad for them. Now the fun part comes, waiting. While it officially releases next Saturday, shipping has been very slow from GW direct. You may well have to wait 2-3 weeks after then to get it shipped.

PiñaColada wrote:
Yeah, I wonder if it's easy to shave a few games off before fighting Radukar or if that's just going to cascade break the game somehow. I had planned to try and get some people who aren't usually into boardgames to play with me but I doubt I can convince them to play some 13 game campaign. I would've guessed it was maybe 8-ish games before the big showdown so hopefully it doesn't become tedious and you just want to skip to the end at around game 7-12.

Spoilers for the end of a mission mechanic. (Not like the finale, but like what can happen after your first mission, second, third, etc.)

Other rolls may mean you start the next game with less health, etc.

Having second thoughts about Cursed City.

Not that I feel like purchasing a copy but having seen the unboxings and taken onboard what it actually contains( one large sprue more than BSF ), the value of this set seems like the equivalent of BSF and The Dreaded Ambull, which would have been £130.

This is a bit of a wild thought, but recall the BSF 2019 annual for which its main feature was the extra expeditions for the Dreaded Ambull expansion. Before that Annual went to print that expansion had been discontinued( well, I'm pretty sure it was. Correct me if wrong ) so that annual was a very hard sell if one hadn't picked it up while it was available. If the Vargskyr is the "Ambull" of Cursed City( it looks big enough ) this would be pretty good if that situation is repeated. If there is to be a lengthy Vargskyr-themed expedition in White Dwarf then its only a case of the core game and the annual, and players wouldn't have the worry of an out-of-print expansion. But once again, that depends on what role the Vargskyr has in Cursed City...

Maybe they have done the right thing this time by including more, and in the long run the cost is justified when compared to BSF?

I would like to thank Games Workshop for sending me a free copy of Warhammer Quest: Cursed City, who has generously sponsered this post on DakkaDakka.com....

< Just kidding...or maybe wishing? Yeah, lets go with the later... >

Does anyone know if Cursed City is at all compatible with Silver Tower and Shadows Over Hammerhal? I get it's a different setting and all, but for example are the heroes from the previous game useable in Cursed City?

Currently no. Not at all.
But in time who knows. A free pdf or something I suppose.

But it’s an old game now, they aren’t going to go out of their way for it..

 Unix wrote:
Does anyone know if Cursed City is at all compatible with Silver Tower and Shadows Over Hammerhal? I get it's a different setting and all, but for example are the heroes from the previous game useable in Cursed City?

Not at all, no compatibility what-so-ever.


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PiñaColada wrote:
Yeah, I wonder if it's easy to shave a few games off before fighting Radukar or if that's just going to cascade break the game somehow. I had planned to try and get some people who aren't usually into boardgames to play with me but I doubt I can convince them to play some 13 game campaign. I would've guessed it was maybe 8-ish games before the big showdown so hopefully it doesn't become tedious and you just want to skip to the end at around game 7-12.

If it's like Blackstone Fortress you could probably just play the mission(s) with the final boss, but the point of the game is exploring and getting to that point.

For Blackstone, you could probably beat the game in 5/6 games if you got lucky and didn't muck about too much.



I am really interested to see where they go with the expansions. The Blackstone expansions brought a bunch of cool models and stuff to the game, so I'm excited to see what comes next.

Are the Cursed City attack dice the same as Blackstone fortress dice? just wondering

Nealy went to my local GW and preordered, but I passed. Maybe I'll buy it if they have any on the shelves, but right now I can't justify spending that much when all I really want are the skeletons, zombies, and objective markers.

 Genoside07 wrote:
Are the Cursed City attack dice the same as Blackstone fortress dice? just wondering

They look pretty similar. 'Special' d6s, d8s and d12s, 2 of each, plus some normal d6s.
BSF seems to have a normal d20, while Cursed City has a d12, but those aren't exactly hard to get.

And of course, 'special' dice can use normal dice, you just have to keep track of the frequency of the pips- if the d6 has 2 blanks, 2 '1s' and 2 '2s' just roll it as a normal and treat 1-2 = 0, 3-4 = 1, 5-6= 2. Hashmark dice (and other special dice) are just a gimmick that seems more complicated than an actually is. Its mostly like rolling a d3, a d4 or a d6, maybe with some slightly altered probability depending on dice layout (if there are uneven numbers of each face, for example).

FFG used their weird dice to great affect to sell dice packs, when all you need is, at worst, normal dice and a little lookup table you can draw up yourself.

I'm in no rush to get it, my local store will most likely have it when it's released (with the usual a 15% discount), but I would really wanted to have that key tho! I think it's quite cool!

Forgive me if I missed it, skimmed through the last few pages, etc., but is the Cursed city novel with stat card a limited release? I know the game itself isn't (already got that preordered through my local), but I wasn't able to get the novel (store wasn't able to get any).

chaos0xomega wrote:
Forgive me if I missed it, skimmed through the last few pages, etc., but is the Cursed city novel with stat card a limited release? I know the game itself isn't (already got that preordered through my local), but I wasn't able to get the novel (store wasn't able to get any).

There is a limited edition hardback and a regular hardback. Both have the card.

So the regular hardback will be reprinted then? Thats all I needed to know, thanks!

chaos0xomega wrote:
So the regular hardback will be reprinted then? Thats all I needed to know, thanks!

Don’t celebrate quite yet. That’s not necessarily true. The lead times on printing are large, especially as GW does it in China frequently. The question will also be will they still be in demand by the time a reprint can be done? Likely not. It has been recent Black Library trend to only do one run of hardcovers, then the book will later appear in paperback. Might they make an exception because of the hero card? Maybe...but I wouldn’t bet on it, or it being soon if it does. More likely you’ll maybe see that hero card in your December 2021 White Dwarf as an Xmas bonus. For example, the last Fabius Bile novel, Manflayer, only had one small print run as a hardcover. You had to be lucky, and order direct from GW to have a chance to get one. Today, the book is available as a paperback. If you want a hardcover, they run $50-$100 or more on the secondary markets.

I really wish GW would take pre-production orders to gauge interest in a product and to be able to make a reasonable amount of it.
So tired of the mad rush to try to get something so limited.

 Myrthe wrote:
I really wish GW would take pre-production orders to gauge interest in a product and to be able to make a reasonable amount of it.
So tired of the mad rush to try to get something so limited.

Got the impression this one was particularly limited in initial stock not because GW is scared of leftover stock/wants to cultivate some fear of missing out, but simply because they aren't capable of producing more at the moment.
(Besides, I don't fully understand the need people seem to have to buy everything on release, if it will be back later anyway.)



After watching Ash/GMG's playthrough, I'm... unsure I guess. Not too familiar with BSF besides watching a game or two of it, but even then it's familiar (which isn't a bad thing). Basic rules will certainly be easy to pick up for people who aren't experienced players, and it makes for a pretty smooth playthrough.

That said, there are a bunch of small things that either feel like steps back, or things that could have been improved with a new version and weren't. Things like:
-Die faces displaying 2 pips meaning a critical success, which may mean doing 2 damage, or 3 or more depending on the weapon in question. If the 2 doesn't mean 2, just give it a custom symbol to indicate the special nature; they're custom dice anyway. Blood Bowl and Necromunda use informative custom dice, as do any of the FFG games I'm aware of. This feels very counter-intuitive.
-Character cards on the initiative track using somewhat random symbols. While this may make it far easier to include custom characters (or for GW to later introduce new characters) into the game rather than having character-specific portrait cards, it's again just unnecessarily unclear. You can't tell at a glance whose turn it is, not helped by the fact that the symbols don't use the most distinct colours and shapes. Better designs or honestly just numbers would have been clearer.
-Frequent(?) random encounters with the various mini-bosses. Sure, they're not permanently dead "because magic", but narratively I would have preferred encountering the special named guys only in dedicated missions where you try to slay them, or perhaps as very rare random encounters. Would have made those encounters far more memorable.
-Tiles being able to be occupied by 2 basic ("small") figures (on 25mm bases), but these not fitting in because the tiles are 40mm squares by the looks of things. A small gripe I'll admit, but it just doesn't look nice if the models are partially off the board because they don't fit. Funnily enough, going old school and basing the skeletons and zombies on 20mm squares would solve this nicely. Come to think of it, the ogres and I think rat swarms could be on 40mm squares. Hmm...

 Coenus Scaldingus wrote:

(Besides, I don't fully understand the need people seem to have to buy everything on release, if it will be back later anyway.)

Because it often isn't and we've been deliberately conditioned by GW to grab what we like immediately or miss out.


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I agree with all your gameplay observations.

 Coenus Scaldingus wrote:
(Besides, I don't fully understand the need people seem to have to buy everything on release, if it will be back later anyway.)

In my case it's price.

Either now at 25% off, or later at 20% off.

It's more exciting getting something when it's the new hotness and people are talking about it than it is getting it down the line, especially in the GW ecosystem where they're always touting the Next Big Thing.

Yeah, the one thing I was surprised, and a little disappointed by was that: (minor spoiler for that GMG playthrough I guess) I guess I had hoped that the first couple of missions would be more traditional level 1 RPG stuff, so just killing a bunch of rats and bats and maybe some skellies or zombies here and there.

Oh, on a previous topic, from Ash's video looks like the crises are a choose your own adventure book flip between 2-3 reaction options and then also a stat test to determine reward/punishment.


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PiñaColada wrote:
Yeah, the one thing I was surprised, and a little disappointed by was that: (minor spoiler for that GMG playthrough I guess)

Spoiler:

Gorslav and the Watch Captain Halgrim and one of the Vamp triplets completely randomly and unceremoniously show up in the very first mission of the game. Then they obviously get pulverised like a bunch of chumps too and apparently can just come back like it's no big deal. I really thought that killing someone like Gorslav would require a special mission where you have to kill wave after wave after wave of zombies and then finally reaching his sanctum and then you get to kill him. Not him just randomly dropping by on a mission that has nothing to do with him. Obviously the mission I described might very well be how you end up killing him, but already having defeated him like 4 times before that removes a lot of the fun and mystique from it IMO.

I guess I had hoped that the first couple of missions would be more traditional level 1 RPG stuff, so just killing a bunch of rats and bats and maybe some skellies or zombies here and there.

Let's hope the special boss assassination missions have some meaningful buffs for them. And maybe we can pretend that the other ones were just lesser, generic versions of those boss types.

People keep saying GW have confirmed this is a range item,but does anyone have a link to that please?

Google-fu letting me down...

 lord_blackfang wrote:

-SNIP-
Let's hope the special boss assassination missions have some meaningful buffs for them. And maybe we can pretend that the other ones were just lesser, generic versions of those boss types.

Maybe those missions all start in the midday/evening, so by the time you get to the boss it's almost definitely night-time and now they're all buffed up? But yeah, I hope for a little bit more personality from the mini-bosses to shine through in those missions..

 lord_blackfang wrote:

Let's hope the special boss assassination missions have some meaningful buffs for them. And maybe we can pretend that the other ones were just lesser, generic versions of those boss types.

No, Ash said that it's explained in the fluff. They can't be killed because they each have an artifact that makes someone else in the realms die in their stead.

I bet the Assassination mission allows the heroes to destroy that artifact and ables them to destroy them once for all, meaning once they're assassinated they can't appear anymore in the other missions until the end of the campaign.

But we'll see it confirmed or not as the rules get out, I believe.

PiñaColada wrote:
Yeah, the one thing I was surprised, and a little disappointed by was that: (minor spoiler for that GMG playthrough I guess)

Spoiler:

Gorslav and the Watch Captain Halgrim and one of the Vamp triplets completely randomly and unceremoniously show up in the very first mission of the game. Then they obviously get pulverised like a bunch of chumps too and apparently can just come back like it's no big deal. I really thought that killing someone like Gorslav would require a special mission where you have to kill wave after wave after wave of zombies and then finally reaching his sanctum and then you get to kill him. Not him just randomly dropping by on a mission that has nothing to do with him. Obviously the mission I described might very well be how you end up killing him, but already having defeated him like 4 times before that removes a lot of the fun and mystique from it IMO.

I guess I had hoped that the first couple of missions would be more traditional level 1 RPG stuff, so just killing a bunch of rats and bats and maybe some skellies or zombies here and there.

SolentSanguine wrote:People keep saying GW have confirmed this is a range item, but does anyone have a link to that please?

Google-fu letting me down...

Not sure it has been outright stated anywhere, but it's a Quest game. They'll remain in production and get expansions for the next +-2 years. Blackstone Fortress' core game is still in stock now, and there's no reason to believe Cursed City will be any different.

Billicus wrote:
It's more exciting getting something when it's the new hotness and people are talking about it than it is getting it down the line, especially in the GW ecosystem where they're always touting the Next Big Thing.

I finally understand what 4Chan means by "consoooooomer".

Sarouan wrote:
No, Ash said that it's explained in the fluff. They can't be killed because they each have an artifact that makes someone else in the realms die in their stead.

Which is really quite the cop-out for why the Dragons and Big Bads can show up before the end, be vanquished, yet somehow still come back.

I remember in Silver Tower that the Gaunt Summoner was a bit of a pushover too.

I think the acid test for buying this game or not, will come down to the availability of the expansions.

Both versions of the game sold out almost immediately, including both versions of the HB novel... but the games a 'core' stock item for awhile, so will be reprinted. Not an issue. However I am forced to wait for the paperback version of the novel now, which I'd guess may get a simultaneous release with the first expansion for Cursed City.

As alot of people are now wise to the limited stock situations / scalper tactics, I'd now worry that any expansions released for Cursed City, could follow the main trend and stock is exhausted on the first day. Where's the point in investing in a game where you cannot be guaranteed of getting the full experience, because the producers only rely on day one success. I'll be waiting until the evening of the first expansion release to decide whether or not to actually get the game. If I can get the Core game and expansion... fine. If not, no great loss, there's always other interesting releases that will satisfy.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't recall reprints of any of the BSF expansions ever - just 'Last chance to Buy' messages on the GW website, as the game was a standard 'Boxed Games' slow burner (So completely my fault that I didn't pick up the 'No Respite' expansion, as I thought, along with everyone else that it was a pure cash grab with the Death Guard mini's... but look at it now with it's £150+ price tag on eBay!)

Really just wish GW would implement a simple 'Buy when available' button (bit like the Indomitus window they kindly provided) so they'll have their day 1 instant sell out success, but allow everyone a week to put in orders for an almost guaranteed reprint. Everyone should win... unless you're sat on a pile of boxes / books you were hoping to resell at a 100%-300% profit!

 H.B.M.C. wrote:

Billicus wrote:
It's more exciting getting something when it's the new hotness and people are talking about it than it is getting it down the line, especially in the GW ecosystem where they're always touting the Next Big Thing.

I finally understand what 4Chan means by "consoooooomer".

Basic human psychology, and it works

SquealMcSqueal wrote:
I think the acid test for buying this game or not, will come down to the availability of the expansions.

Both versions of the game sold out almost immediately, including both versions of the HB novel... but the games a 'core' stock item for awhile, so will be reprinted. Not an issue. However I am forced to wait for the paperback version of the novel now, which I'd guess may get a simultaneous release with the first expansion for Cursed City.

As alot of people are now wise to the limited stock situations / scalper tactics, I'd now worry that any expansions released for Cursed City, could follow the main trend and stock is exhausted on the first day. Where's the point in investing in a game where you cannot be guaranteed of getting the full experience, because the producers only rely on day one success. I'll be waiting until the evening of the first expansion release to decide whether or not to actually get the game. If I can get the Core game and expansion... fine. If not, no great loss, there's always other interesting releases that will satisfy.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't recall reprints of any of the BSF expansions ever - just 'Last chance to Buy' messages on the GW website, as the game was a standard 'Boxed Games' slow burner (So completely my fault that I didn't pick up the 'No Respite' expansion, as I thought, along with everyone else that it was a pure cash grab with the Death Guard mini's... but look at it now with it's £150+ price tag on eBay!)

Really just wish GW would implement a simple 'Buy when available' button (bit like the Indomitus window they kindly provided) so they'll have their day 1 instant sell out success, but allow everyone a week to put in orders for an almost guaranteed reprint. Everyone should win... unless you're sat on a pile of boxes / books you were hoping to resell at a 100%-300% profit!

I’m certainly hopeful they’ll have learnt from BSF Expansions. I don’t mind limited releases as such, but when they didn’t make that clear until the first expansion disappeared entirely was a poor show.

I mean, I’ve got a near complete set of BSF, and am missing just a single deck of cards. The cards I’m not terribly bothered about, but will still get them if I can find them at the right price.

All they need to do is give a deadline. Make each freely available to order for a period of day 6 months for argument’s sake. Early adopters such as myself can grab them there and then. People who have more pressing things to spend their money on at least have a set period to plan for.

That way GW don’t need to worry about overstocking, and every one that wants one can get one.

Or just make them Made To Order after a period, until the next iteration comes out.