Warhammer Quest

Outdoors Adventures!

By T. Jordan "Greywolf" Peacock
10 Aug 95

The following are house rules that I mostly developed during my transitional period between running games of Advanced HeroQuest for local players and switching over to Warhammer Quest. Basically, I still prefer many things about Advanced HeroQuest (such as the 12-siders, which give a wider range of randomness, and the better profession/race selection system) but when WQ came out, I borrowed several of WQ's rules regarding movement and combat as house rules for my AHQ sessions.

I found that using WQ rules made it much easier to try running a game without any floor tiles at all, in an "outdoors" setting, utilizing some of my Warhammer Fantasy Battles terrain, and substituting a tape measure for tiles. I only ran one such session, and it turned out rather well.  I then wrote up some rules to convert this over to Warhammer Quest and tried those out as well, with respectable results.  The players generally enjoyed fighting out their battles with the "Goblin Ambush" or "Brigands" events rather than being forced to just win/lose with a 50% chance, regardless of their abilities.

Of course, insert the standard disclaimers here.  There is nothing about me which gives me any claim to being better at coming up with house rules than the next guy.  I just came up with some rules that seem to work for me, and like the idea of trading notes with other players of these games.  If there's something here that might help you with your own games of Warhammer Quest, then that's great!  If not, well, at least I tried!  ;)

1. INCH MOVEMENT

Rule:
Movement and range is measured by inches, not squares.

Rationale:
Tape measures and rules will be necessary to determine movement, in whichever direction is desired.  This allows you to make use of a greater portion of your table without having to have one colossal piece of cardboard with a grid marked off!  It also allows you to utilize scenery from your games of Warhammer Fantasy Battles, if you also play that game.  Isn't crossover nice?  =)

2. MODEL SUPPORT

Rule:
Movement may not end on a space that is not capable of supporting a model.

Rationale:
This is simply for reasons of practicality.  Terrain pieces such as hills can't have perfect slopes AND perfectly flat surfaces for miniatures at the same time -- at least not without some really great engineering!
Therefore, there are going to be some positions (such as the sloped areas between hill "tiers", or at the very edge of a terrain piece) where a model simply can't be placed without risk of tipping over, even if the
terrain represents something that can be travelled over normally.

3. MOVEMENT PENALTIES

Rule:
Wooded areas, rough terrain and steep slopes halve movement.  While crossing such areas, only one half inch of movement is possible for each point of Move.  For tiered hills, simply count a move that takes a model up or down a one-inch step as a two-inch movement.

Rationale:
This gives a little bit of meaning to all those goodies on the table, other than just sheer obstacles.

4. SHORT BARRIERS

Rule:
Short walls and fences take a full move to traverse.  A model may move from one side of a wall to the other, taking a full turn.  (An exception to this is that the Leap skill of the Wardancer or Elf can be used to
bound over the obstacle as part of a normal Move.)

5. OBSTACLES

Rule:
Cliffs, walls and rivers cannot be moved through normally.  Methods of passing such obstacles require GM discretion and probably characteristic tests.  Rivers would require a bridge, ford, raft or some special means (such as felling a tree to cross, or casting a Bridge spell) to pass.

6. WOOD ELVES AND HALFLINGS

Rule:
Wood Elves and Halflings can move through wooded areas at normal speed.  The Elf and the Wardancer are Wood Elves, and the Halfling Burglar would of course qualify for this benefit as well.  The Elf High Mage and other High Elves do not have this ability.  Some other creatures (particularly forest creatures, such as Forest Goblins or Gigantic Spider riders) have may have this ability as well.

7. BASE CONTACT

Rule:
Models may attack targets in base contact in hand-to-hand.  Base contact a is necessary to reach an opponent with normal attacks.  Bases much touch at some point -- they need not be perfectly aligned.  Attacks over a fence, short wall or hedge are possible against models directly opposite.

8. REACH WEAPONS

Rule:
Reach weapons, such as spears, can be used to attack an opponent up to 1" away, measuring from base edge to base edge, as long as there are no intervening full-size walls or enemy models.

Rationale:
Note that I've listed "1 inch" instead of "2 inches", the latter of which would seem to correlate to the 2-space reach of these weapons.  That's because I'm measuring the /intervening space/ between the bases (i.e. 1 space = 1 inch).  If you measure base center to base center, you'll end up with some strange results if you have any guys on bigger bases!

9. LINE OF SIGHT

Rule:
Hedges and short walls block line of sight over level ground.  (However, a model placed directly behind an obstacle can see and shoot over the obstacle ... and can be shot at in return!)

Woods block line of sight.  It is only possible to see through 2" of woods, so line of sight is possible between a model on open ground and a model up to 2" into the edge of the wooded area, but no more.

10. COVER

Rule:
Models in trenches, windows or doors of buildings, behind short walls, large rocks, etc. have Hard Cover.  Missile attacks against such targets are at a -2 penalty to hit.

Models in woods, behind hedges, wagons, etc. have Soft Cover.  Missile attacks against such targets are at a -1 penalty to hit.

Attacks only hit on a natural roll of 6 against defended obstacles.  If a model reaches a building, hedge, short wall or some other defendable obstacle and has a full turn to fortify before being attacked, the
obstacle is "defended" until the model moves away.  (This bonus applies for any other allied models who join on the same side of the obstacle, without having to spend extra time for each to "fortify".)

11. MISSILE RANGES

Rule:
The following maximum ranges are now applied to the appropriate missile  weapons.  If a target is greater than half the maximum range away, it is at "long range", and there is a -1 penalty to the attacker's BS while firing at that target.

There is no penalty for firing at long range for the Crossbow Pistol.

12. MOUNTS

Rule:
A character on a mount moves at the mount's speed.  A mule cannot be taken into battle.

A horse will give the rider a Move of 8, but is not trained enough to make attacks in the middle of combat.  Damage is listed only for use at the GM's discretion.  (Perhaps if the rider gets taken out and the horse
flees, it gets in a parting kick.)

A warhorse will have one attack of its own each turn, with damage as listed.

For purpose of determining Fear and Terror tests, an animal has a Battle-Level of 0.  Barding may be purchased for a warhorse at twice the cost of a suit of armor with the same protection.  (It also carries the same movement penalty!)  A regular horse may not be barded.  Any Movement penalty to armor worn by the rider is applied to the mount as well, due to the weight.

At the GM's discretion, enemies may attack the rider or horse.  For a simplified way of playing, though, just treat all attacks as being against the rider, but treat his defensive WS as being at +1 for purposes of
determining enemies' chances to hit.  (Translation:  If the Warrior has a WS of 4, anybody attacking him will have to roll whatever is required to hit a WS of /5/ while he's on the horse.)  If the horse has barding (Heavy
Armour) then this bonus becomes +2.  This latter method just abstractly represents whatever extra protection is afforded by having a horse.  Of course, if this is employed, the distinctions between different types of barding are irrelevant.

Any Warrior gets a bonus of +1 to his roll to escape Pinning while on horseback.  Mounting or  dismounting a horse takes 1 full turn, during which neither the horse nor Warrior may move or make attacks.  (Attempting stunts such as a "flying dismount" and the like should be in the realm of GM discretion and Initiative tests.)

13. LANCES

Rule:
At the Weaponsmith, a Warrior may buy a Lance, which is a weapon only useful for horseback combat.

The lance may be used only while on horseback.  When a Warrior charges into an opponent (makes a movement of at least 2" to reach the enemy), he may attack with the lance.  Roll 2D6, and pick the greater of the two dice.  If you roll doubles, add their value together.  Add this value to your warhorse's strength (normally 5, unless your Wizard is doing something clever with Ogre Strength), and that's the damage you inflict.  It is not possible to inflict a Killing Blow with a lance.

Once you are in hand-to-hand, you may attack with the butt of the lance for 1D6 damage plus your Strength, or else you may drop the lance and draw another weapon.  If you pick the latter option, you cannot use the lance again for the remainder of the battle.

The Knight Panther gets a +1 to rolls to hit when charging with a lance, and automatically acquires one if he gets the Warhorse "skill".

Rationale:
This adds something to tabletop combat, and at least introduces some concept of making use of horses.  I do realize that I could get far more complex, employing rules for dismounting and all that, but I'd prefer to
keep it simple for now.  If the Warriors want to employ special tactics, I can always pull special attribute test rolls out of thin air, making  whatever modifiers seem to apply.  Of course, one problem with horseback
combat is that Citadel doesn't produce mounted/foot pairs of miniatures … though the Mounted Grey Wizard might be able to pass for the regular Wizard on horseback, and there are a few Knights Panther to choose from.  A suitable compromise might just be to pick a horse to represent the Warrior's location, perhaps with whatever rider model you have convenient to abstractly represent that Warrior in the saddle.

13. DRUIDS AND WOODS

Rule:
The Druid gains +2 to mana regained each turn when he starts his turn in a wooded area.

Rationale:
This is actually an attempt to make some correlation between the Talisman Druid and my (at this writing unfinished) work on a Druid for Warhammer Quest.  Until I see how the Warrior-Priest turns out (which I
consider to be roughly related to the Light College in the same way the Druid is related to the Jade College ... though only slightly so) I won't be entirely sure whether I'm going to treat the Druid as a spellcaster per
se or not.  Needless to say, this hasn't been playtested.  Furthermore, it differs from WFB in that Jade Wizards don't get any particular bonus for being in wooded areas ... but then, Light Wizards don't have any
particular strengths against the undead in WFB, yet they do in AHQ; it's already clear that the Warhammer World isn't always congruent, as the various games go.

14. FLYING HIGH

Rule:
Creatures capable of flying may, instead of moving their normal movement across the table, "Fly High", being taken off the board.  While "Flying High", they cannot be engaged in missile or hand-to-hand combat, except with other creatures "Flying High".  In a subsequent turn, the flying creature may come down to any point on the table.

Rationale:
This was borrowed from WFB, of course.  Flying creatures in WQ have moves like "8" or "6" or so, meaning that they're not going to be able to get across a table terribly quickly.  This remedies that without having to introduce new "flying speeds" for each and every monster.

15. SPELL RANGE

Rule:
Spells that affect targets "in the same dungeon section" can affect a target within up to 8" on the table, as long as there is line of sight.  (Interposing models do not count as blocking line of sight, though
obstacles such as walls or wooded areas do.)

Rationale:
A more severe ruling would be something more like 6" or less, but my theory is that in an open area, things can "spread out" a bit more.  For spell effects, you might want to cut out some templates that cover about the same amount of space that the spells would in the dungeon (e.g., a template about the size of a 2" circular area to show the area of effect for Fireball).

ADAPTING THE OUTDOORS RULES TO THE HAZARDS TABLE

Now then, the most immediate way to use these rules, if you are not planning on building an entire adventure around outside action, would be to use this as an alternate way to handle Hazards on the way to Settlements.  Most of the rules introduced earlier won't even need to come into play.  The most important ones will just consist of weapon ranges (if applicable), movement, and bases.  Things work more quickly if you just take advantage of an open table without having to set up too much terrain for these simple conflicts.

My preferred method with this alternative was to present the players with an option -- They could either handle resolution of the event as spelled out in the official rules, with a chance to win/lose determined by fate, but with loss only being counted in gold coins (or as appropriate) ... or else they could choose to act this out as a full-fledged fight, with their own abilities being employed to determine whether they win or lose, with the possibility of dying if things go badly.

If an individual Warrior decides to opt out, he can suffer the normal results separately.  If anyone should flee the board area (which should be well defined), then it can be usually assumed that there might be some more brigands or goblins waiting along the perimeter, so that Warrior automatically "loses", and suffers whatever the appropriate consequences are for rolling the worst result.  However, if the battle is going particularly bad, this might actually be a viable tactic, rather than dying on the spot.

You should assume, since plenty of time is passing between encounters, that the Warriors will be at full Wounds, Power Reserve and such.  However, if any Warriors should use skills or items usable "once per dungeon", or Luck points, then these items are considered "used" already at the start of the next Dungeon.  (Otherwise, the Warriors may end up having these Event battles won just a bit too easily once they start acquiring such items.)

25 - PRISONER

Roll 1D6 for each Warrior present.  Add the number together, and that many Mercenaries are present in the band.  You'll need models to represent each of the Mercenaries (the Henchmen models from AHQ would be great, or any generic fighter types), and a model to represent the prisoner (just some generic townsperson model, if you have one -- perhaps a wizard type if you play WFB).

Place the Mercenaries in a tight pack around the prisoner.  Allow the Warriors to set up their ambush, placing their models anywhere on the board as long as they are at least 4" away from the nearest Mercenary.  If you have a Thief with the Ambush ability, he gets an extra action before anybody else does.

I'd recommend giving each Mercenary stats equivalent to Orcs (and the same gold value if defeated).  The prisoner has the following stats:

Attacks: none (too incompetent to fight)
Pinning: cannot escape pinning until 1 turn spent removing bindings, then able to escape pinning on 5+.

The Warriors get the first action, but odds are they won't be able to hack all the Mercenaries immediately.  If any Mercenaries are still left standing during the Monster phase, start with any who are standing next to the prisoner, as their first action will be to slay the prisoner rather than letting him escape. Once that is taken care of, the rest will focus their efforts on the Warriors.

This may sound like it is nearly impossible, even for high-Battle-Level Warriors, to pull off, but I can think of at least two tactics (possibly three, but only if things work out right) that can be used to protect the prisoner.  I would also recommend allowing a special action for heroic Warriors to attempt:

A Warrior may attempt to protect someone else from attack, by essentially using himself as a shield.  Before the Monster phase, he may announce that he is trying to shield a model that is adjacent to him.  For any blow against the defended model, BEFORE you roll the chance to hit, roll 1D6 and add it to the defender's Initiative.  If this total is equal to or greater than 7, he has interposed himself, and is hit instead, automatically.  In the case of special attacks where it is necessary to roll the die to hit to determine damage (e.g., Ogres do 2D6 damage on a roll of 5 or 6.  Sure, that doesn't apply here, but it might be handy in the dungeon.) go ahead and roll the to-hit die just to determine such special cases, but at the very least it will hit, regardless of how lousy the roll is.  If the Warrior fails his Initiative test, then resolve the attack against the defended target normally.

If any Warrior should somehow get the prisoner out of pinning, he will follow any Warrior that is adjacent to him, if told to do so.  However, if he is by himself, he will simply head in whatever direction would take him away from the Mercenaries, toward a table edge.  If the prisoner makes it past a table edge, he escapes, and the Warriors win either by defeating the Mercenaries or getting off the table themselves.  (If any Warrior should get off the table edge before that, they're just out of the action.  The Mercenaries will not be able to
catch up.)

If the Warriors win, they may collect 55 Gold from each defeated Mercenary. That's a bit more generous than the official Hazard, but this is a life-and-death battle, and that's the reward for killing something as tough as an Orc. ;)  There is no Treasure Card to draw.

If the prisoner is still alive, then he gives them 100 Gold each upon reaching the next Settlement.  However, he'll still be present if the Warriors should run into any other battle Hazards along the way, and he won't pay up if he gets killed.  (In such cases, either let the GM control the prisoner, or, in an unmoderated game, let the leader control the prisoner's movement.  He's in no shape to wield a weapon, though.)

46 -- AMBUSH

Roll 1D6 for each Warrior present.  Add the number together, and that many Goblins are attacking, riding Gigantic Spiders.  As you might not have a bunch of Spider Riders handy, it should be sufficient just to represent the models with Goblin figures.  If you're short, you might throw in some Orc Warrior figures as additional markers.  (However, most folks I know have an ample supply of Goblins anyway, thanks to WFB.)

I handle this as follows:  Treat the Goblin and Gigantic Spider as a single model, though you might want to have the stats for each handy.  The Goblin and Gigantic Spider get to make each of their attacks separately, though I've boosted the Goblin's WS here to match the Spider's just for the sake of expediency.  (Maybe Forest Goblin Spider Riders are just a bit better trained...)  The Spider's presence effectively makes the Goblin harder to hit.  When you take out the Spider/Goblin, they both go.  (The Goblin, having lost
his Spider, dashes off, or else the Spider, having lost its rider, scuttles away.)

FOREST GOBLIN SPIDER RIDER/SPIDER

---

In the middle of the table, set up a template (possibly just use one of the dungeon tiles, flipped over) to represent a "wooded area".  Movement is halved here for most characters, though the Spider Riders can move through here at full speed.

If at any point during the battle all the Warriors are webbed or otherwise incapacitated, the battle ends, and the Warriors lose.  "Knocked out by a sneaky blow from behind, your Warrior awakes to find one of his weapons (determine randomly) and 2D6x100 gold stolen."

If the Warriors should /win/, they may earn gold for the battle as per normal, as well as gaining a Treasure card.

---

An alternate way that I tried handling this, more suitable to quick resolution with low-level Warriors (Battle-Level 1 or 2) was to just use a bunch of Battle Masters Goblin Wolf Riders.  Essentially, I just treated them as Goblins with a Move of 6, two Attacks, and treated as a WS of 3 to hit (due to the mount).  For this weaker force, don't bother including a Treasure Card as part of the haul.  This wasn't much of a challenge, but the players still had fun, which is the whole point of this game anyway.  =)

62 -- BRIGANDS

Individual Warriors may choose to pay or fight separately.  Whomever pays won't be in on the fight.  However, of those who fight, they may either ALL do it the quick die-roll way, or they may ALL play out the battle.

For the battle, I rolled 1D6 for each Warrior (whether they fought or not), and represented each Brigand with a Henchman model from Advanced HeroQuest (though any generic warrior type would do).  I gave them statistics equivalent to Orcs for Battle-Level 1 Warriors.  At higher levels, this will just be a rout ... but so what?  I should be worried if brigands with the strength of minotaurs are roaming the countryside!

If the Warriors defeat the Brigands, they only get the gold for each model (55 each), but no treasure card.

_Warhammer Quest_, _Advanced HeroQuest_, _Warhammer Fantasy Battles_ and _Talisman_ are trademarks of Games Workshop. _Battle Masters_ is a trademark of Milton Bradley. Their use here does not constitute a challenge to their legal status as such.