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Hero Quest or Cursed City?
The Quest is Best!
This City is anything but cursed!

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Made in pt
Inquisitorial Keeper of the Xenobanks






your mind

If one were to buy one of these, not both, which is the better game? Which is the better value for money? Which is more comfortable for friends and family to play, together?

After discount, both come in at about 123Euros. I have both in my cart online with a popular games distributor. Which is best?

I have a large and still growing GW collection of models. But, do not let that interfere with voting. I ask here because I want to know from people who know and understand better what these two sets offer.

Looking forward to seeing results, and thank you for your feedback. Note that Cursed City made to orders end March 21st, so...

   
Made in gb
Moustache-twirling Princeps




United Kingdom

Right now - probably Hero Quest as it already has several expansions available IIRC.
   
Made in ca
Fireknife Shas'el






Cursed City literally has 'Cursed' in its name and has been a gigantic PR disaster for GW. It's literally a cursed game.

   
Made in pt
Inquisitorial Keeper of the Xenobanks






your mind

Is Cursed City a good game?

   
Made in us
Decrepit Dakkanaut





The Battle Barge Buffet Line

 John Prins wrote:
Cursed City literally has 'Cursed' in its name and has been a gigantic PR disaster for GW. It's literally a cursed game.


How so? What happened? I just follow the non-scifi games for minis pron.

We Munch for Macragge! FOR THE EMPRUH! Cheesesticks and Humus!
 
   
Made in gb
Decrepit Dakkanaut




UK

 warboss wrote:
 John Prins wrote:
Cursed City literally has 'Cursed' in its name and has been a gigantic PR disaster for GW. It's literally a cursed game.


How so? What happened? I just follow the non-scifi games for minis pron.


Last year Cursed City had all the marketing for it setup for it being identical to Blackstone for 40K. Ergo a medium term core game that would remain instock with fresh waves of stock when it fell out of stock. Backed up with expansion sets that are more likely to be one and done releases. However the very weekend it went on sale it ran out of stock entirely over the whole world and the marketing suddenly changed from "medium term" to "one and done" with no word from GW about what was going on. It went from a game people expected to last for a few years to a one time release that many didn't get a copy of (either because they'd not even tried because they thought they had time or because stocks ran out before they could get a copy).


GW have never said what happened; however later they released the "evil" side along with a few clearly expansion models - mostly because they appear in the AoS army for the Soulblight.

So far as everyone outside of GW knew, CC was a one and done game which might not even get its expansions.




So that's basically it. However it coming back into print is very very welcome. Heck right now is a good time because its made to order (you will get a copy) and its price is the lowest it will ever be. It will go up along with everything else after the 7th (the made to order window is, far as I'm aware, a fixed price at the low original value; so its when it returns to regular GW stocking that the price goes up).

A Blog in Miniature

3D Printing, hobbying and model fun! 
   
Made in us
Decrepit Dakkanaut





The Battle Barge Buffet Line

Thanks for the explanation. That sucks for those who missed out on it. Did they backtrack and do an all comers second pre-order run hopefully?

We Munch for Macragge! FOR THE EMPRUH! Cheesesticks and Humus!
 
   
Made in gb
Decrepit Dakkanaut




UK

 warboss wrote:
Thanks for the explanation. That sucks for those who missed out on it. Did they backtrack and do an all comers second pre-order run hopefully?


They are doing a print-on-demand right now at the original price; whilst after this print on demand window ends the game will come back on general sale, just with an increased price like everything else (most stuff is going up in price on the 7th)

A Blog in Miniature

3D Printing, hobbying and model fun! 
   
Made in pt
Inquisitorial Keeper of the Xenobanks






your mind

As I understand it, delivery will begin in May…

   
Made in gb
Moustache-twirling Princeps




United Kingdom

 jeff white wrote:
As I understand it, delivery will begin in May…


It has the standard MTO disclaimer:

Made to Order
Cursed City is available on a Made to Order basis from 10am GMT on the 5th of March until 8am GMT the 21st of March.
As a Made to Order product, this item can take up to 90 days to dispatch.
   
Made in gb
Decrepit Dakkanaut




UK

MTO Varies a lot in how it delivers. I've seen it all from everything going out in one go (typically books where its a single big shipment going through distribution); through to pretty fast all the way to a staggered release that rolls out in phases over some months.

It really depends how their back-end is and production and how heavily they get hit with orders for the MTO product and for other things as well.


Chances are they've got X amount in stock with a bulk order of overseas produced material to run through. After that they'll likely have a second order of overseas material made based upon the actual sales they get to make up the shortfall. So you could easily see several waves of boxed sets going out.

A Blog in Miniature

3D Printing, hobbying and model fun! 
   
Made in us
Dakka Veteran





 jeff white wrote:
Is Cursed City a good game?


I tried playing Warhammer Quest Silver Tower (my copy) and Cursed City (friend's copy). I find them very tedious and dull. It's like taking the most grinding, brainless dungeon-crawling aspects of D&D and making it a whole game. That being said the minis are great and I would buy them both just for that part.

So between the two I would go HeroQuest by default.

My favorite light questing game is Dungeon Fighter, personally. It's simple and fun but has increasing difficulty levels to keep you playing and getting better. It's tough to get a hold of at the moment.
   
Made in pl
Longtime Dakkanaut




Ditch these oldschol, boring designs. Go for Gloomhaven or Machina Arcana or Middara or one of a dozen better, slick, modern dungeon crawlers.
   
Made in gb
Fixture of Dakka





Heroquest.

From my experience of Blackstone Fortress, Heroquest is a much easier game to learn and more suitable for a family experience. If you want something in the middle, then Castle Ravenloft might be worth looking at.

The other thing is the assembly time required for the Cursed City models, as "easy to build" means little when you still have to clean up the plastic. I'm damn good with a knife and it took me hours to battle through the sprues for Blackstone Fortress. At least with Heroquest you don't have that hassle.

Casual gaming, mostly solo-coop these days.

 
   
Made in us
Regular Dakkanaut




 jeff white wrote:
Is Cursed City a good game?


Nope. Its actually objectively bad. But the models are great for other games. Its just a shame all game materials are an insult to the garbage bin you directly throw them in immediately after purchasing this game.

Its been a long time since gw created such a stinker design. Its kind of shocking how bad it is.
   
Made in ca
Poisonous Kroot Headhunter





 jeff white wrote:
If one were to buy one of these, not both, which is the better game? Which is the better value for money? Which is more comfortable for friends and family to play, together?

After discount, both come in at about 123Euros. I have both in my cart online with a popular games distributor. Which is best?

I have a large and still growing GW collection of models. But, do not let that interfere with voting. I ask here because I want to know from people who know and understand better what these two sets offer.

Looking forward to seeing results, and thank you for your feedback. Note that Cursed City made to orders end March 21st, so...


Hero Quest is one of my favorite games as I grew up with it (so fully aware of my nostalgia goggles), but there are a few things that you should be aware getting into it as a modern gamer if you choose to do so.

1. Limited tactical depth. It's a great drinks and chips game, where you sit down with friends and mess around, but for those that enjoy in depth tactical experiences it will come up short. Think of it as "My first D&D". Combat is very simple and while the three new Hero's have added a little bit of complexity, they are limited by the system they were designed for. This may not be a drawback for everyone, as the sleek and simple design makes brining new people into the game super easy, but it is worth noting. If you do have one person who likes more of the tactical feel, the Wizard is the closest thing you'll get, they get 9 spells and can only use each one once per game, they are pretty much useless beyond that, so deciding where and when to use your power is fun.

2. Base game heavily favors the Heroes. I've been DMing this for my 4 and 5 year old sons who love it to bits, but even when I'm legitimately trying to make the base game difficult (aside from the way too hard for a tutorial first mission) they haven't even come close to loosing yet. So when you have people who really know what they are doing at the helm, them winning the first many quests by a wide margin is pretty much a forgone conclusions and thus they may not find it very fun. (I add more monsters and tricks when playing with adults, but that's because I know the game/system well enough to modify it into a challenge while keeping it fair.)

3. This ties into the previous point, but the DM has to understand that they are pretty much there to facilitate the game for the other players, it's very much a DM/player relationship like in D&D, not a 4v1 game. Again, I quite like this, but it's not for everyone if your DM (Zargon) gets frustrated that they don't have much of a chance to win.

4.Old school fantasy vibe and the best kind of cheesy 80's/90's fantasy dialogue for the quests, but not everyone appreciates that.

For me, I love this game to bits, but especially in comparison to modern games that people are used to, it's not for everyone. I'd recommend getting the newly released Hasbro version of the game rather than tracking down an old version (I have both). They are the same in all the ways that really matter and the old versions are super expensive, plus the new version has several new campaigns that the original didn't (unless you want to track down the super obscure several thousand dollar expansions that only had limited releases) with Hasbro hinting that they may release more in the future.

As for Cursed City, I haven't played it, so I can't speak to that. However, I can speak to how the companies have treated the customers of their products.

I'm sure you're well aware of everything relating to the Cursed City debacle, so I'll leave that to those who were directly effected to tell, however, it was a PR nightmare for GW.

That being said, how Hasbro treated HeroQuest was very much the opposite. The pledge reached just under 3.8mil on their version of kickstarter, brining us up just short of the 3.8 mil for an extra gargoyle model, and the 4mil for an additional bonus campaign and Dragon model. Rather than sell these off as their own thing (which they very much could have done and people would have bought it) they decided to include them both free of charge with anyone who would have gotten them if the pledge had reached 4mil. I was totally surprised to see them go completely out on a limb to give their customer's extra product that they could have held onto for more profit, so I'm reasonably confident that if Hasbro continues with HeroQuest, the customers will be well supported.


17210 4965 3235 5350 2936 2273 1176 2675
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Made in us
Powerful Ushbati





United States

 jeff white wrote:
Is Cursed City a good game?


It's a great game. They took all of the best parts of Blackstone Fortress, and added them to a new list of really good mechanics, combined with awesome miniatures and a lot of really nice replayability. There will be new expansions this fall.
   
Made in pl
Longtime Dakkanaut




Well, isn't Blackstone Fortress infamous for being a dicefest topped with a chore of tedious and long and stupidly random enemy activations?

When you're saying it's a great game, what exactly do you compare it to? Sword& Sorcery? Middara? Machina Arcana? Gloomhaven? Or just other GW games with the same design policy dating back to the 80's?

This message was edited 2 times. Last update was at 2022/03/12 10:01:13


 
   
Made in pt
Inquisitorial Keeper of the Xenobanks






your mind

Cyel wrote:Ditch these oldschol, boring designs. Go for Gloomhaven or Machina Arcana or Middara or one of a dozen better, slick, modern dungeon crawlers.


Wayland seems out of Gloomhaven. I have heard good things… will read a bit more. Thanks for the advice!

Warptide wrote:
 jeff white wrote:
Is Cursed City a good game?


I tried playing Warhammer Quest Silver Tower (my copy) and Cursed City (friend's copy). I find them very tedious and dull. It's like taking the most grinding, brainless dungeon-crawling aspects of D&D and making it a whole game. That being said the minis are great and I would buy them both just for that part.

So between the two I would go HeroQuest by default.

My favorite light questing game is Dungeon Fighter, personally. It's simple and fun but has increasing difficulty levels to keep you playing and getting better. It's tough to get a hold of at the moment.


Dungeon Fighter? I will check it out! Thanks for the suggestion…

Wiz Warrior wrote:
 jeff white wrote:
Is Cursed City a good game?


Nope. Its actually objectively bad. But the models are great for other games. Its just a shame all game materials are an insult to the garbage bin you directly throw them in immediately after purchasing this game.

Its been a long time since gw created such a stinker design. Its kind of shocking how bad it is.


This is what I really needed to hear. I wanted to think it was a board game Mordheim sort of thing, and am sort of relieved to hear it is not so good. I love the models. But… I have a lot of models. Mansions of Madness was a bit too involved for the fam. So, maybe Cursed City is no good for this sort of audience, either. I can ge5 the game for the models, but end up alone with paints and a podcast, as usual, and that was not the idea in sourcing new hovpbby stuff. This one was to share. So, yeah, maybe Cursed City is not the bes5 choice here.

   
Made in pl
Longtime Dakkanaut




 jeff white wrote:
Gloomhaven. I have heard good things… will read a bit more.


It's been number one boardgame on bgg for a few years now: https://boardgamegeek.com/browse/boardgame and I think for good reason. It took my group a full year to finish it and we hardly played anything else in this time, although we usually vary the games we play. We started that year with a trip abroad with 4 backpacks full of games to play, and we played GH exclusively, 4-5 scenarios a day, every day. All other titles were dead weight on that trip


Automatically Appended Next Post:
There's a smaller, shorter, less demanding version too, called GH:Jaws of the Lion.

This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2022/03/13 05:53:10


 
   
Made in gb
Fixture of Dakka





GH:JOTL looks really good. Might get that one...

Casual gaming, mostly solo-coop these days.

 
   
Made in gb
Ridin' on a Snotling Pump Wagon






I own both. I love both.

To question the question?

Who is your audience? Who are you playing with?

HeroQuest is an absolute masterpiece. At its core is a super straight forward game system. It’s absolutely perfect in ever way. If your players are entirely new to Dungeoneering? HeroQuest is the perfect introduction.

Cursed City and BSF are a wee bit more abstract, due to polyhedral dice and more in depth crunchy mechanics.

For both though? As with all RPGS? The game is only as good as its DM.

   
Made in us
Knight of the Inner Circle






Mad Doc Grotsnik is 1000% correct, the game is just a vehicle. If you have a good game and a bad teacher, most likely someone will not care for the game.
That is what kills games in some areas, you have people that are more interested in winning the game than teaching it against new players.

I also feel that Heroquest and Cursed City are different enough that they can attract different crowds. Which is better, its like pizza versus hamburgers, both
are great but depends on what I am hungry for.

 
   
Made in gb
Ridin' on a Snotling Pump Wagon






Certainly I’ll always start Noobies off with HeroQuest if given the choice. And if they enjoy it, and fancy something more in-depth, the various incarnations of WHQ (except the original, which is well expensive!) are ready to go too.

There are of course other games out there in the same vein, but having not played nor owned them if I held anything but a truly neutral opinion, that opinion would be frankly worthless!

   
Made in gb
Joined the Military for Authentic Experience





On an Express Elevator to Hell!!

Jump the group straight from Heroquest to Kingdom Death

Epic 30K&40K! A new players guide, contributors welcome https://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/751316.page
Small but perfectly formed! A Great Crusade Epic 6mm project: https://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/694411.page

 
   
Made in gb
Decrepit Dakkanaut




UK

Won't they need a few games to bide them over until the KD stuff actually gets made and shipped?

A Blog in Miniature

3D Printing, hobbying and model fun! 
   
Made in pl
Longtime Dakkanaut




A new one, that caught my interest is Tidal Blades 2, currently on KS. Gameplay concepts incomparable to GW's "roll dice to see what dice to roll". Pricy, but I am definitely tempted...
   
Made in pl
Longtime Dakkanaut




O forgot to mention Bloodborne, which reportedly is pretty cool, with some innovative mechanics and the theme represented very well. I haven't played it but heard nothing but praise.

In the meantime I pledged on the Tidal Blades 2 KS. Normally I don't go for such cartoony aesthetics but they bought me with this programming your turn mechanics. I love such planning in games and it reminds me of my beloved Gloomhaven - best dungeon crawler ever but here you add the cards with different values for movement, attack and other effects to a grid and activate entire rows or columns for crazy, elaborate actions and combos. Such a neat, out of the box idea I hope it will live up to my expectations of racking my brains over dozens of options for a creative, satisfying and destructive turn

I will let you know once I get to play it. Which, considering it's a KS, will probably happen in a few years, when the mechanics will already be outdated ;P

This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2022/04/01 08:26:47


 
   
Made in pl
Longtime Dakkanaut




Has any of you, dungeon crawler fans, already played Deep Madness? How does it compare to Machina Arcana or other Cthulhu/horror themed crawlers like CDMD or Bloodborne?

Reviews of this game start attracting my attention and I may be looking for another cooperative title for my group once we finish The Hunters A.D. 2114.
   
Made in us
Powerful Ushbati





United States

Cyel wrote:
Well, isn't Blackstone Fortress infamous for being a dicefest topped with a chore of tedious and long and stupidly random enemy activations?

When you're saying it's a great game, what exactly do you compare it to? Sword& Sorcery? Middara? Machina Arcana? Gloomhaven? Or just other GW games with the same design policy dating back to the 80's?


I compare it to nothing. I have been running the game with a group for over 6 weeks and we've all had a blast with it. That's my metric, it's been a lot of fun for us.
   
 
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