Warhammer Quest: Lost Relics Review

 A few years ago I managed to get hold of Warhammer Quest: Silver Tower, which I really enjoyed. Most of the games in the Warhammer Quest series are huge coffins with lots of tiles and sprues. Before starting the game, you will have to spend many hours collecting miniatures. This element of modeling does not appeal to everyone, but the gameplay was fan-friendly.

 I really enjoyed Space Marine Adventures: Doomsday Countdown. The main complaint about the game is the lack of a campaign. Lost Relics has a campaign - and it's also a Warhammer Quest. Both are pluses for me.

GAME PROCESS

 Each game of Lost Relics features all four heroes (Stormcast Eternal) from the box. There are many nuances here, so I will describe only the main elements of the gameplay.

 Each move is divided into the following phases:

• Adventure Phase - Effects vary depending on the rules of the current scenario, but generally enemies will move and attack heroes.
• Dice phase - each hero rolls 3 six-sided dice.
• Initiative phase - shuffle the heroes' initiative cards and lay them out in random order.
• Action phase - activate heroes according to the initiative order; one cube at a time. After each activation, one enemy reacts (see below).
• Leader Phase - Each leader on the field activates.
• Refresh phase - if you are near the shelter, then all the disabled heroes return to the game.

 The action, surprisingly, takes place in the action phase. However, every action is followed by a reaction, which makes the game resemble Newton's pendulum on a table. You can break out of the "back and forth" cycle with the help of chains of actions. A chain of actions is a situation when you have an active hero with a cube with a value of 1, and you sequentially play the actions of any heroes with values of 2, 3, etc. After the chain ends, only one enemy reacts.

 Hero cards have numbers indicating which dice values a hero must spend to take an "inspired" action (there are both generic move-rest-interact actions and combat skills unique to each hero). Inspired actions are stronger than the regular version; For example, in combat, you can deal more damage or apply an additional effect.

 If you haven't dealt a minion damage equal to the HP on its card, it flips over to the "wounded" side. Thus, any minion can be defeated with two weak hands. But bosses need to reduce HP to zero to win. The hero also turns to the wounded side when he takes damage equal to his HP. If after that he receives the same damage again, he is out of the game.

 Leaders are different in that they get an extra action in the leader phase and do some mischief, for example, summon new minions, get an extra reaction or activation.

 Each mission has its own special rules, victory and defeat conditions, as well as ways to obtain fate tokens, which can be used to roll the dice to any limit.

IMPRESSION

 I love the dice placement mechanic found in both Lost Relics and older Warhammer Quest games like Silver Tower. However, in Silver Tower, after deciding which die to use, you also roll hit dice. Lost Relics doesn't have this step, so battles are random. On the one hand, it's nice to be guaranteed to destroy enemies, on the other hand, it's unpleasant when they're guaranteed to hurt you. And the random activation of enemies removes the element of chaos from the game when you don't know in advance how your opponent will act. With these innovations, tactical thinking is very welcome in Lost Relics. You're anticipating your moves and the moves of your enemies, rather than dashing through a dungeon like Leeroy Jenkins.

 The mechanics of the activations are not very clearly laid out, and I repeatedly wondered if I was playing correctly. I assumed that when reacting, the enemy activates all the actions listed on his card in the specified order, skipping the currently impossible ones. Therefore, it is important to use chains of actions so that there are fewer reactions from enemies. But it depends on dice rolls and initiative cards. If the only die with a value of 1 fell on the fourth character in line, then, unfortunately. But with successful throws, after turning a few powerful combinations, you can go through the dungeon on a steam roller.

 Equipment is either disposable or permanent or available per mission. But according to feelings, it often makes no sense to turn off the path in order to lose the equipment. Maybe I'll regret it later when I face tougher enemies, but... we'll see. Judging by the first six scenarios, the characters do not level up, which is not very pleasing in a game with a campaign mode.

 Let's go to the main thing: is it fun to play? In general, yes, but I have not yet decided on my feelings. Due to the alternating activations of characters and enemies, you often freeze in place for a long time, planning your future actions and the reactions of enemies. Or make a chain of actions and destroy all enemies in the room without an answer. And even after going through six scenarios, I still have to look at enemy and leader cards almost every turn.

 Dungeons are laid out very quickly since you only place four double-sided tiles on the field plus some tokens. The images in the campaign book are hard to look at, so I resorted to a magnifying glass to examine some of the enemies and scenario-unique icons. Since each token has a unique image, and each enemy card also has the same image, it's hard to tell who is who at first. The side with the wounded enemy on some tokens is also difficult to distinguish.

 Games Workshop standard quality miniatures. Assembled without glue, removal from sprues and assembly took about 45 minutes. I recommend using scissors; I had an onion string fall off when I removed it from the sprue. Surprisingly, one figurine has a stand that is completely nondescript — just a few stones — unlike the others, which are decorated.

CONCLUSIONS

 The random activation of dice actions by feeling is not as fan-friendly as the mechanics traditional to Warhammer Quests. But for some players, this may turn out to be a plus (if you are one of them, then Lost Relics is most likely for you). Personally, I didn't like the reaction mechanics too much, because if I was lucky I could complete the level in a few turns, and if I was careless I could lose all the heroes just as quickly. As a result, I didn't enjoy Lost Relics as much as Doomsday Countdown and the old Warhammer Quest: Silver Tower.

 The rating is 2.5 stars . Random mechanics may appeal to some, but kill the magical atmosphere of past Warhammer Quests.