Board games

Heroquest

 

I have been a fan of this game by MB Games since buying it as a Christmas present for my nephews many years ago.  It had a wonderfully simple rules system but the gameplay was just fantastic.  They played it for years and it is still in the loft at their mothers house.  I bought a copy myself but later gave it away prior to a house move.  I regretted it ever since and recently managed to win an ebay auction for another set, complete and in very good condition.  There are lots of copies out there but some fetch silly money and a lot have painted figures (usually done badly).  I hope to use it to introduce my sons to board games when they are old enough.

I have just found out that a Spanish company, Gamezone Miniatures, is trying to publish a 25th Anniversary Edition of Heroquest, complete with newly designed figures and components.  Looks fantastic.  They are hoping to launch it in time for Christmas via a Kickstarter appeal but they have run in to a hitch via this route.  Copyright issues in the USA I think.  Here's hoping they get into production somehow as it looks very desirable.  I will keep an eye on progress.

Latest news as of December 8th is that Gamezone launched the project on a Spanish Crowdfunding site only to have it cancelled again after only a few hours.  The site was protecting its reputation.  Gamezone are still trying to get the project off the ground so fingers crossed.

Last Night on Earth

A board game by Flying Frog Games.  Intended for 2 to 6 players. I was orginally attracted to Zombicide, mainly because of the figures and also because it could be a solo game.  However after looking at various reviews and deciding £70 was a lot for a board game I found Last Night on Earth.  Its been around for a while now and is supported by several expansions.  Its not marketed as a solo game but is very easily adapted, after all zombies do not have much sense of strategy.  

The Players take the part of one or more survivors of a zombie apocalypse and have to complete a mission to win the game.  There are always four survivors for a scenario so that if there are 2 players, one would control 4 survivors and the other player would take the zombie side.  With 3 players, 2 players would take 2 survivors each and the third player would take the zombies.  In  6 player game there would be 2 zombie players (there are two different coloured sets of zombies to reflect this). 

This particular game is advertised as a stand-alone game or as an expansion to the first game, Last Night on Earth.  Unlike that game it only has 4 scenarios (rather than 6) and of these 1 is a starter scenario. That leaves 3 actual scenarios, 2 of which involve protecting generators.  I think this leaves it a bit lacking in variety.  It can however be combined with the other add-ons or the original game,  but these are not cheap.  I am sure that in time there will be plenty of on-line scenarios published.

I was not over impressed with the hero figures in this game (the zombies are fine) but they are ok as game pieces.  As I prefer to have nice models I have replaced the heroes with figures from Hasslefree Miniatures which are very compatible in size and proportion.  I based them on 20mm slottabases which are the same diameter as the supplied models. 

Just a sample of one of the Hasslefree characters