HeroQuest: What we didn’t get

Bit of a quick filler here as a few things are a bit delayed.

HeroQuest was the most popular of GW’s Board games and ran from 1989 till 1992. Now, In that time we got a fair amount of stuff, but at the same time, not as much as you might have expected. Part of this is probably due to Milton Bradley. With some of the GW board games, they could release miniature packs as add-ons or replacements, but I can guess the MB deal kinda stopped that from being possible with HeroQuest. Hard to say. I would also say everything had to go via them, which probebly also slowed it all down and may be what lead to GW re-booting the whole thing as I’ve said about before.

But lets first look at what we got, then what we didn’t and might have:

HeroQuest – 1989

The Base game gave us 4 Heroes, the Barbarian, the Dwarf, the Wizard and the Elf. It also gave us 9 Monsters, the Skeleton, the Mummy, the Zombie, the Orc, the Goblin, the Chaos Warrior, the Chaos Sorcerer, the Gargoyle and the Fimir.

I would say these monsters fall into 3 categories, which is also something they spilt them up with via plastic spur and colour. The Undead (white Plastic), the Goblinoids (or probably better just ‘Green skins’) and Chaos. When the base game came out, the first two expansions were already green lit and highly promoted but were a bit of a let down in a way.

Kellar’s Keep and Return of the Witch Lord – 1989

Both coming out in 1989, these two sets took one of the main factions (Green skins and Undead) and gave them a focus in a new campaign. Problem was, short of the new quest book and some card stock, they just used the same plastics. Kellar’s Keep came with the same 3 types and witch lord came with the same 3 types and a bunch of skulls which had no purpose now.. but nice skulls none the less. But we got no new Heroes or monsters. just more of the same.

Against the Ogre Horde – 1990

Now we got something nice and new! Ogre Horde gave us an Ogre Horde. A bit of a small one but still pretty nice and a horde. 4 Ogre Warriors, an Ogre Champion, Ogre Chieftain and Ogre Lord.

Wizards of Morcar – 1991

The Wizards set gave us 4 evil Wizards, Zanrath the High Mage of Sarako, Fanrax the Malicious, Boroush the Storm Master, and Grawskak, Orc Shaman of the Northern Tribes. It also gave us 4 new Heroic pieces in the Men-at-Arms. Really, it was just one new figure, but with a plug-in weapons system that GW also used on some of their empire figures, which gave you 4 build options for each figure. These were not replacement heroes but hired guns who could work for you and kinda slow the game down a bit. Oh but we also got new sculpted door bases for some special doors.

Advanced Quest – 1992

The Advanced Quest was just a re-issue of HeroQuest core set, with a new campaign which featured the Black Guard, who were just the Men-at-arms figures, but now as evil warriors.

There were a few spin-off stuff like White Dwarf quests which gave some new enemy stats but these reused figures already in production by GW.

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Now, for some reason, the last two add-ons did not get a release in the USA for their more team focused version of the game, but instead they made 4 new add-ons (only two of which were completed and released). The original miniatures are no where near as good but serviable. They did add far more range though with:

Barbarian Quest Pack – 1992

This pack came with the Frozen Horror campaign and gave an alternative female Barbarian sculpt (no rule difference), some Ice Gremlins, Polar Warbears, Yetis and the Frozen Horror himself. these were not based on Warhammer mythology and appear more of Hasbro (who owned MB at the time) thing then GW. It also featured a re-issue of the Men-at-Arms figures.

Quest Pack for the Elf – 1992

This set came with the Mage of the Mirror campaign, and an alternative female Elf sculpt, along with the evil Mage Sinestra, Eleven warriors, Elven Archers, Giant Wolves and a re-issue of the main Ogres from the Ogre Horde. Unlike the Barbarian quest pack, these ones were a bit more likely to come across in the Warhammer world as it was just very much elf based.

Now.. I’m not gonna say what was in the two other Quest Packs cause they weren’t released. But we can look at GW at the time to see what is oddly missing or could easily have been featured.

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Skaven

Since there introduction in the 3rd Citadel Journal (1986) Skaven were pretty strongly pushed and were a highly popular race, to the degree of getting to be the ONLY pack in Monster miniatures in Advanced Heroquest. yet apart from a couple of WD related missions, we not no Heroquest Skaven. By the early 1990s, we had quite a few skaven figures and I can easily see a Skaven Campaign working well with the Dungeons being tunnels under the city, with Skaven Clan Rats as new figures, long with maybe either introducing larger base figures for a warpfire thrower team, or Jezail team (or just making them 1 rat teams), or using a poison globadier, and then a Grey Seer as a different wizard type. When doing Warhammer Quest (a follow on from HQ/AHQ), they was an unreleased Skaven set in the works but information on that appears shaky at best, but a Skaven campaign would not only make sense but appeared weird by it’s omission.

Chaos

The forces of Chaos are highly stated in Heroquest, but at the same time, we don’t see much of them. Morcar appears to be Chaos in nature and his highest ranking minions are Chaos (Chaos Warriors, Chaos Sorcerer and the Gargoyle (really a Bloodthirster of Khorne) yet I think more of a focus towards this chaos side could easily have been done. If we look at Battlemasters, another GW game around the same time, Chaos is given the same ‘includes all non-human races’ feel with Orcs, Ogres and Goblins in it, but does have not only Chaos Warriors, but Thugs and beastmen. Both of which could easily be introduced into a Heroquest campaign along with maybe a Champion of Chaos. I think MB would have mooted any idea of any real Slaanesh based monsters (Demonettes, Keeper of Secrets etc) but I can see a Gargoyle replacement in line with something like a Minotaur (close to a Keeper of Secrets).. though probably not having a great unclean one. Again, as with Skaven (who technically ARE Chaos) this faction was a major player in the Warhammer world but even in Heroquest, Chaos was a notable area, so expansion on this would have made sense.

More Undead

Okay, we had an undead expansion. But story wise, it left an ‘out’ with one of the ones there escaping to plot her revenge (see my Heroquest characters/storyline stuff) which was a bit of a setup for something else. And what could this have been? why, there are parts of the undead HQ didn’t touch. Vampires and Ethereals. Vampires were pretty popular and they got to a point where in Warhammer, the split the undead factions into Skeletons and Vampires really. the Vampires could easily have had an expansion which included Bats as a low level monster (as was done with Warhammer Quest), Vampires as elits, a Vampire Count boss and could even have including ethereals such as Ghosts, Wights and Liches. These were also popular and I would doubt MB would moot vampires.

Now, lets just quickly look at some I think they WOULDN’T have done

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Slann

Ah, poor Slann… GW never seamed to know what to do with them.. by the time HQ was released, GW had pretty much gave up on the Slann and it wasn’t until much later when they decided to take the Lizard men units and expand them into the main force, with some Slann with them. I don’t think GW would have thought about doing Slann at all in HQ, and well.. the Pygmies and slaves were probably something that MB would moot right away.

Dark Elves

While they existed, I don’t feel that GW gave much care to the Dark elves (or the Sea Elves for that matter) for quite some time so they would be unlikely to focus an expansion on them.

The Bretonnians

Now Bretonnia is an interesting point. As HQ presents things, the Empire is the big Human settlement/lands and all the rest are non-humans like the Elves and Dwarfs, or monsters like the undead, Greenskins etc. Touching upon the relationship between Bretonnia and the Empire might give an interest subject of a novel, but I feel within the Heroquest setting, It would just confuse people (even though I’ve been told the difference a few times, I still find alot of Bretonnia and Empire stuff interchangeable and confusing) and if I remember right, Bretonnia was pretty much missing for 4ed Warhammer fantasy battle anyway (due to events around Bryan Ansell leaving GW).

Fimir

If there was a race that GW tried to push but then gave up on more then any other, it was the Fimir. All in all, it was a surprise the made it into HQ. They were made to be the big standout Warhammer Exclusive race it just never happened. Only a hand full of figures were made (though this did include a few types with not just warriors, but the Meargh, Dirach and nobles (basically Champions)). There have been a few theories as to why the race failed but.. yeah.. they just did and pretty much disappeared by 1992, with Heroquest being their last stand really. Interesting note is the HQ mini, appears based on a Fianna Fimm (another champion type) which was sculpted by Nick Bibby. Anyway.. Despite how some might like it, they had just given up on Fimir by any point an expansion could be made, and as they already had a standard one in the base set, they probably wouldn’t have done much to expand on them.

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So, there you go. 3 Expansions which were oddly missing in a way, and 4 they would never had made. I guess I could have added some more but they would more be ones that COULD have made but it wasn’t a surprise they didn’t (Chaos Dwarfs is such a long story.. I really think some people at GW were trying to push them but they kept failing.. yet they kept trying).

Do you agree with me? disagree?