Warhammer Quest: Silver Tower

Warhammer Quest: Silver Tower was the new incarnation of the old Warhammer Quest, and as such a dungeon crawler boardgame set in the Warhammer universe, but this time in the Age of Sigmar timeline.

The main plot revolves around a group of heroes against a Gaunt Summoner in its lair in a Silver Tower of Tzeentch. Said group is... well, everybody who knows about pen a paper groups knows how quirky they can be. They're pitted against cultists, horrors, Tzaangors, skaven and more people in their fight to retrieve and assemble the pieces of an artifact which will allow them to challenge the silver towers master himself.

Gameplay

On 14/05/2016 (a week before official release) GW stores had open copies of the game to allow players to well... play the game.

The game is 2-4 players with each controlling one hero and the bad guys when it is their turn to be 'marked'.

The game is split into turns which where each player can do a number of actions depending on the value on the dice which they have rolled.

Players take turns in being the 'marked one' which essentially passes a gnarly looking Tzeentch icon to them, making them the first player and also making them responsible for controlling the monsters and some other events.

1) The Destiny step: The marked player rolls 5 dice. Any doubles/triples/quads are discarded while the rest go into a destiny pool that all players can use (say one rolls a 1,3,3,4,6 the double 3 is discarded) If a double is rolled an event normally happens involving a familiar. If a double 1 or 6 is rolled then the marked player has to roll 2 dice (d66) to see what kind of effect happens) The familiars have pre-requisites to their shenanigans such as requiring heroes to have treasures or a certain number of enemies on the board.

2)The hero step, Each player takes turns controlling their player. To do so the player has to a number of dice equal to their remaining wounds (starting at 4, on 0 wounds you're not dead but can only use the destiny dice). These dice are then used to pay for actions written on the character card.

E.G: Barbarian rolls a 1,2,4,6 He can only spend the 1 on an action which costs 1+ like moving or exploring. He can however use his 6 to activate his ability which requires a 6+, the 2+ to use his basic axe attack and his 4+ to use his more dangerous attack.

During this phase the destiny pool can be used to pay for actions. The system is such that if a player uses one of the dice then the highest dice remaining in the pool cannot be spent by that player for the rest of the turn. This doesn't apply to the last player. EG if the dice were 1,2,3,4,5 and player 1 used the 3, then the 5 would be 'locked'. He could then use say the 4 and the 2 would be locked. Player 2 would then have 1,2,4 available but if he were the last player taking a dice wouldn't lock any.

3) After all players have used up their dice it is the adversary phase. Here the Marked One rolls for each group of enemies on the board (1 for all blue horrors on the board, 1 for all cultists on the board, etc) and then look at the unit's behaviour table. The adversaries will then follow the result and the marked player rolls for them. If there are no enemies then the Heroes take a respite and can heal or search for loots. If 2 respites would happen in a row random stuff happens.

Rince and repeat with the next player becoming marked. This continues until either a) a final room has been revealed and the party succeeds, or b) they die a horrible death.

Heroes

Several of the heroes beating some tzeentch ass.

The core box includes six heroes:

• Knight Questor: An errant Stormcast Eternal, dedicated to journey the Mortal Realms and help the free peoples wherever he goes. A dedicated brick wall who can pull enemies closer and keep them there indefinitely.
• Darkoath Chieftain: The only representative of Chaos in the heroes team! This dude is on a Death Or Glory path and seeking the favor of the gods, and apparently topping the tower of another servant is a sure way to daemonhood...
• Mistweaver Saih: The very first aelf miniature is weird as fuck. Apparently, this chick is a wizard focused on illusions to annoy the hell of of her foes. Stuns whole rooms and then chucks magic missiles, probably a prototype wizard to the as of yet unreleased Malekith/Malerion's Aelf army.
• Tenebrael Shard: Another aelf, this time a guy. Is an assassin that can jump from shadow to shadow and has supernatural skills for assassination. ¿Sound familiar?, again a probably prototype assassins for the Dark Aelf army.
• Doomseeker: An old-school Dorf Slayer with the skin of a Fyreslayer. No really, there isn't much more to say. He wants to get stuck in and gets better if enemies are hitting him and when he's killing stuff. Y'know, Slayer.
• Excelsior Warpriest: Another great piece of win: a Warpriest with all the badassery the career entails. He's followed by a Gryph Hound. Capable of healing and smashing heads alike.

The book includes profiles for four additional heroes, but the actual cards are either limited edition or supplied with the miniatures in the upcoming expansion set:

• Knight Venator: Fast, agile and equipped with heavy armour and a powerful bow. He can shoot even in melee and his arrows are pretty damn accurate and powerful.
• Slaughterpriest (with axe): A priest who worships Khorne by hacking apart anything in his path and eating the meat that falls off. Effectively, he's a beatstick who can heal friends and himself by chopping up enemies and gets killier and who can make enemies' blood boil.
• Auric Runemaster: A Fyreslayer who's greedy even by their standards and will stop at nothing to loot stuff. This means he gets extra Renown for grabbing treasure. Other than that, he's a support hero with meh personal attacks but useful defense buffs and splash damage attacks.
• Tzeentch Sorcerer Lord: A Tzeentchian Sorcerer who's most definitely not friends with the Gaunt Summoner and sees the Silver Tower as a treasure trove of knowledge waiting to be uncovered. He has a pretty cool missile weapon that can cause splash damage and since he also serves Tzeentch he can control enemies to an extent.

Wait, there's more!

With the release of Warhammer Quest: Silver Tower, a companion APP was be released called Warhammer Quest: My Hero(groan) which can track the campaign progress, equipment, abilities for your chosen hero. But here goes the bomb: It will allow you to create your own hero for the game using the AoS/WFB characters range. Empire (Free Guild) General? Go for it. Lord of Chaos? You bet. Ironjaws Megaboss? Of fucking course! WRONG! app was released and it is a broken mess... Crashes all the time, has to be connected to the internet to even get to the content one bought, and there is no sign of any create your own character! Also of the 37 characters released not a single empire or ogre character... But of course for some reason banner bearers and musician (Stormcast Heraldor) are playable but not ogre mercenaries and empire witch hunters...

Here is a list of all extra characters from the app:

• Aspiring Deathbringer - kills shit
• Both Exalted Deathbringers (different rulesets, one's a blender and the other a counterattack machine) - kill shit in different ways
• Khorne Bloodstoker - the S&M element, can whip allies to give buffs
• Khorne Bloodsecrator - bloodsecrates shit and heals.
• Both Slaughterpriests (exact same but one with axe has better attack stats that synergise better.)
• Chaos Plague Lord
• Khorne Skullgrinder - smashes shit
• Fyreslayer Auric Runepriest
• Fyreslayer Battlesmith
• Grimwrath Berserker
• Battlemage
• Black Ark Fleetmaster - limps along faster than most, has a hook which can give extra attacks, resistant to shooting
• Branchwych
• Dark Elf Sorceress - can bladestorm stuff
• Dark Elf Assassin - even sneakier than the shard
• Chaos Sorcerer Lord - wants to fuck over Tzeentch because /just as planned/
• Chaos Lord - changes mark each turn if desired
• Lord of Plague
• Cogsmith (Grima Burloksson)
• Runesmith
• Warden king (Belegar)
• Unforged
• Bray Shaman
• Grey Seer
• Skaven Warlord
• Goblin shaman
• Savage Orruk Warboss
• Orruk Weirdnob Shaman
• Orruk Warchanter - "Little Drummer Orruk" uses weapons and abilities to drum up ludicrous amounts of additional hits.
• Knight-Heraldor
• Knight-Venator
• Knight-Azyros
• Lord-Celestant on foot
• Lord-Relictor
• Lord-Castellant
• Knight-Vexillor
• High Elf Loremaster - can chop stuff and blast stuff
• Nomad Prince(Araloth) - the hawk can eat their eyes
• Skink Priest - agile and semi-random powers
• Saurus Oldblood - hard ass mother who can bite and smash
• Wight King (can either use Krell or the generic guy) - can decapitate people
• Necromancer - has 2 skeleton pets

Denizens of the Silver Tower

The Gaunt Summoner, final boss of the dungeon

The Silver Tower is not a fancy Daemon Engine of destruction and death capable of destroying armies magic-ing up their asses... Well, not only that. People live in there too, at least in the AoS version. Here's the adress layout of the neighborhood:

• Gaunt Summoner: One of the slave sorcerers of Archaon, but the one in charge of the Silver Tower looks like he's on his own. He's a sorcerer and Tzeentchian, so expect trouble. The final boss.
• Ogroid Thaumaturge: A great piece of win which seems like a Tzeentch-marked Doombull.
• Skaven Deathrunners: A special kind of Skaven Assassin; the little shits can't keep their paws out of where they're not wanted. He's supplied in twos, one the real Assassin, the other a perfect doppelganger.
• Familiars: Magic familiars. More like troops, they're markers of effects, either a buff if the heroes catch'em in time or debuff if not. Those who like to look to the past have a soft spot for them. All Familiars have a name and backstory of sorts:
  • Tweek: A little bird who thinks that he's a Lord of Change. Prone to megalomania and to disclose his "clever plans" to anyone who would listen, willingly or not. Lowers your hit rolls while on the board.
  • Blot: A book with legs that can provide helpful information and/or indecipherable blabbering on a whim. Not much else. Keeps you from using bonus skills while in the same chamber.
  • Slop: The fishy fella is the most annoying of the Familiars, and that's something. Known primarily for appearing out of nowhere and his fucking stink. Ironically the least annoying one in game as he only lowers the Heroes' movement.
  • Pug: Some sort of an imp with a half-moon face. This critter steals anything shiny that catches his eye. This includes the heroes' loot and equipment, who can't use items while he's on the board and have a chance of losing their loot if he gets too close.
• Tzaangors: Like the Khornegors and Pestigors before them, Tzaangors are Beastmen dedicated to Tzeentch. Their bovine features are somewhat regressed in favor of a more avian appearance and the result is, as everything touched by the Changer of Ways, weird.
• Kairic Acolytes: Probably related to Kairos Fateweaver, but saving that, just normal chaos acolytes (read: cannon fodder). Speech impediment unconfirmed but likely.
• Horrors: Coming in the common varieties of pink and blue, but adding the cute little things that are the Brimstone Horrors, those come in pairs and work like some sort of bombs, dying after using their strongest skill once.
• Grot Scuttlings: Some Goblins thought that sneaking in a Tzeentchian lair would be a good idea and got an extra pair of arms and legs for their trouble. Sneaky, agile and probably annoying as hell.

There are also exotic enemies that can be used instead of enemies mentioned above. These are all much tougher than what the box comes with, but get you extra renown for killing them and the game will never force you to use them.

• Screamers: Extremely fast and a single one can easily kill a Hero who was at full health just moments ago. They're also pretty tanky. When they appear, you set up one per player but 3 max.
• Flamers: Very strong shooting and pretty tanky. When they appear, you set up one per player but 3 max.
• Exalted flamer: He can take more than a Gaunt Summoner and torches the entire chamber for massive damage if you don't kill him fast. Only ever appears on his own, thankfully.
• Herald: Extremely annoying bugger who summons more Horrors and shoots devastating shots all over the place and even his melee is terrifying. He's also almost as tanky as the Deathrunner, but killing him gets lots of Renown and lets you loot his grimoire. Only ever appears on his own, thankfully.

Gallery of heroes

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  Also a template for making your own hero

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