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Hi — so I am new to the hobby of miniatures and board gaming.

From my youth and over the years I have observed Warhammer from afar and just something about it was so compelling, both Warhammer fantasy, and also Warhammer, 40,000….

So recently — in a bid to divert my kids from videogames, and wanting for us to be able to play something together that we all enjoy, I started buying miniatures from eBay with the intention of creating our own board game.

My boys are 6&7 yrs old.

It’s been great, they really enjoy painting them and we have the board game up and running and we are playing…. Play testing.

I have based it almost entirely on Heroquest and Space Crusade, which are two board games, that I played it when I was a kid, and I remember them being fun, and importantly, relatively easy to pick up because I was playing these games when I was around 8 yrs old.

For both settings, the hero, quest, Warhammer fantasy, time models, we have created our own heroquest combat dice, copying the dice map exactly. For the Warhammer 40 K setting, we are still using the same combat dice, and he request format.

I’ve created stats for the enemies, but only using LifePoints, and I ditched the mind points from Heroquest. Similarly, if I can recollect space, crusade enemies had armour stats, which I have not included.

The objective with the game was to keep it highly accessible, whilst also trying to inject as much depth into the combat and gameplay, as I can, to have it be enjoyable for myself, and also have varied gameplay possibilities…

My main problem at the moment is trying to create varied stats for the different enemy types, and different goody types, but whilst keeping the Heroquest combat format. As I did feel the space crusade’s combat, with the red and white dice types was too complex for my kids.

So I would really appreciate help in creating varied stats that suit the different enemy types.

Hello and welcome!

Sounds like a fun project. I dug out my old Hero Quest box a few years back and started re-painting the minis. Sods law that it would almost immediately get updated and reissued with a load of new expansions...

If you're sticking to the original HQ dice mapping - 3 skulls, 2 goodie shields, 1 baddie shield - you might have boxed yourself into a corner a bit. The first things that come to mind for adding variety while maintaining the same level of simplicity are varying the number of dice and the target number to roll... So, say, a chaos warrior could have really good defence (roll 3 dice to defend, need to roll 3+ to succeed), a goblin is a mad flailing stabby little thing with little skill (4 dice to attack but need 6s to hit) whereas an ork is slower but better at it (2 dice to attack but hits on 3+)... You could also factor in different amounts of damage - so a zombie with his big 2-handed cleaver thing (assuming original HQ model) could be slow and rubbish (1 die, 6 to hit) but if he does connect you really know about it (does 3 points of damage)... That sort of thing? It's not got the same visceral appeal as rolling skulls to hit, I know...

You could also look at ranged weapons and spells working in the same way, maybe also some default behaviours for different monsters that the GM (assume you!) has to follow - e.g. goblins are cowardly, if they take a hit that doesn't kill them they will try to run away.

Any good?

Welcome on board!

Thanks guys…


Appreciate the feedback there. Yes I think I have maybe snookered myself a bit with using Heroquest dice.

But it keeps it accessible.
I’ve tried to add special abilities for each faction. Plus Bannermen, which gives that faction +1 combat dice.

With Skaven — a bell ringer who can call + 1 Skaven Mini to be placed on the board each turn. Unless he is killed.
ALSO - they can use secret burrows under the ground. So can play a marker/ token between 2 rooms on the board that they can freely move between.




Automatically Appended Next Post:

Crispy78 wrote:
Hello and welcome!

You could also look at ranged weapons and spells working in the same way, maybe also some default behaviours for different monsters that the GM (assume you!) has to follow - e.g. goblins are cowardly, if they take a hit that doesn't kill them they will try to run away.

Any good?

lol… I like to give them personality… I do have them retreat if they are getting beat.

But I have recently discovered Advanced Heroquest. Looking to download and print the rules from somewhere. But that has some great ideas.
Like allowing the Hero’s to retreat and if they evade the enemy LoS for 2 turns the monster will give up the chase and return to the room they are in.
OR they add a counter / parry if you attack and roll all shields the opponent has a chance to roll a free attack! Which is cool.

I do have wounds and bandages. If you get wounded, either by dropping to one life point, or special attack, your movement is halved by 50%.
Can only be fixed with bandages.

I have also added attacking from behind. If you attack from behind you can roll +1 extra combat dice when attacking. Which has so far quite well. It gives purpose to either fighting with your back against the wall, to heroes can fight back to back, which is pretty cool.


I also recently added dogs. I wanted them to be able to bite an enemy and hold them in place for 1 turn.

So far I have formulated —


Dogs attack with x 2 combat dice… but if they bite they attack with 3, but do no damage but a bite is commenced. Whilst an enemy is held in a bite by the dog they cannot move nor attack. And roll -1 dice in defence!
On the following turn the enemy can roll 1 dice, if they roll a black shield they break free.

OK, I LOVE your handiwork on those cards. Those are awesome.

I did play Advanced Hero Quest back in the day, and more recently with some additional community rules. It's good - but probably not what you want if you're looking for age 6-7 level of complexity. Everything has a full Warhammer-style stat line. And it is HARD. Seriously. For starting characters, a couple of skaven or goblins are a genuine threat.

Ye Olde Inn is a HQ site with a forum, so I'd go there. BGG might have some files of new monsters. Have fun with the kid!

Hey — thanks appreciated, yeah — I have made a whole range of items, weapons, armour in the “shop” that I’m not sure I will do a car for each….
And finding cards that take ink well was another pain in the butt!




Automatically Appended Next Post:

 ced1106 wrote:
Ye Olde Inn is a HQ site with a forum, so I'd go there. BGG might have some files of new monsters. Have fun with the kid!

Ahhh ok. They might have Advanced HQ rules??

The new monsters sounds intriguing… Will check that out thanks!

Forgot if Ye Olde Inn has AHQ stuff, but do a search for the fanmade AHQ rules!

AHQ is very different from HQ. Still worth trying out.

Also, Dungeon Saga Origins has been described as a HQ game. : https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/382578/dungeon-saga-origins