"changed my understanding of what a board game could be, and what kind of games I wanted to play from then on" This is exactly how I felt after playing HeroQuest & Space Crusade

I can't express how much I appreciated this video. Everything you said is true. Your retrospective commentary and nostalgia for wanting the game as a child, being disappointed, then realizing the regret of selling it off for next to nothing is something a lot of people probably can relate to. I would like to get a copy of it for the reasons you described. Love your channel and content! 👍

Nice! Your advanced hero quest story is magnificent. A real life story. Youth, young adult and then maturity. Nice little posthumous ABNB reference too. Good stuff. ❤

Your videos have led to me getting Advanced Heroquest out of the attic again after 30 years, and I'm absolutely having a blast! Such a great game! Thank you!

Incredibly well written script. Your work is fantastic!

Love your Advanced Heroquest content! I didn't know about or play AHQ as a child but I have so much nostalgia for the game because it feels so much like Basic Dungeons & Dragons in a box! Your low level character could get killed by a single goblin or a trap. Even when you leveled up some you still had to be careful because dungeons are dangerous places! I've watched all your AHQ content! Would love to see you do an extended playthrough of AHQ, I would tune in for every episode! Thanks for all you do.

Pure nostalgia in video format and great to see so many people relating to it. I shared that disappointment of realising all the AHQ enemy minis were the same and seeing pictures in the book of all the lead minis that were out of reach (using those card tokens instead just wasn't the same). That last line got me too, I currently use an original copy of HQ in a board game club with my Year 6 class and part of me hopes they'll always remember it as 'my game'. Great vid, keep 'em coming!

I am a little older than you so I remember getting the bus to the local W H Smith to pick up my copy. I had played Heroquest before but not really got into the whole GW thing at that stage. The chaotic Ratmen changed all that and I persuaded my Girlfriend - who had a car - to drive me to Hammersmith to visit a GW store. I still use classic Skaven minis for advanced Heroquest, all except for Praznagar whose mini I always found disappointing so I use the new (ish) Queek Headtaker mini for him :)

Great video and obviously very personal. This is my era. Heroquest, Space Crusade, Talisman , Advanced HQ and SC, Warhammer Quest, Plus my absolute favourite Space Hulk.Over the last year or so I’ve been going back and collecting these games again. It’s been a bit expensive but worth every penny. Right now i have Space Hulk 2nd edition on the dining table. One of my gaming friends has recently discovered the new Heroquest. I think it’s time for Advanced!

I absolutely love your quote about how memories get molded, the more we hold them and turn into memorials. That was beautiful and so completely true. Love the channel by the way!

Love how you are educating the world on the joys of an Argos trip in 90’s with your parents 😆 only thing I would add was Index catalogue was another reference for my Xmas list to… but I suppose it depends on we’re you lived in the UK at that time..

Really enjoyed that you told your story very well! I like practically everything about this game but particularly how you have to spend your money and use spell components very carefully. I also bought Warhammer Quest but then sold it as I found heroes were coming out of (too short)dungeons with magic items and money galore and I missed the challenge of AH. Another aspect was the use of D12 in AH as opposed to D6 in WQ. Thing is I have a hundred (not literally)games that use six sided dice and using D10`s or larger for this type of game just feels right to me. D6 does not. Btw as I`ve been revisiting AH recently I have used some of you heroes paint schemes from your other AH videos so thank you for those!

I think I got AHQ at the right time; a year, maybe a year and half after HQ, for Christmas, along with a paint set and the old BC2 Monsters set, who became unique characters to defeat. Warhammer Regiments followed in a January sale, with skinnier skaven for slaves and chunkier orc elites, goblins wielding bows and Dark elves as deadly ranged versions of chaos warriors. It clicked for me; this was a system where I could use any monster, any hero, in my own adventures with friends or long-suffering relatives, infinite possibilities beyond HQ's fixed board. Rules for dwarf and elf henchmen were made; Heroes were soon leading small armies through dungeons, where they met... Harboth's Orc Archers, and the Skeleton army; chariots in a dungeon never made sense, but those boxes became the starting point for whole campaigns. And by the time those gangs started to outgrow the narrow confines of the dungeon, what came along but Warhammer 4th? Now Elves, Greenskins and Undead collected over the years met in open combat. I returned to the dungeons with WHQ but I never really found the same satisfying mix of gritty danger and endless customization of AHQ.

Top notch content - love your reminder of the joys of Argos and your love of these games!

Another fantastic video! I was very pleased to wake up here in South Korea, begin making my morning coffee, and see you had uploaded! Thanks ABNB! Great analysis and commentary! I wanna get advanced HeroQuest now as well. But I think I’ll wait to see if an updated version gets released by a 3rd party or Avalon Hill.

Great video. I too had it as a kid and it went over my head at the time. I'm also in the process of painting up the original figures.

This was a great video, awesome job!

Ah Argos, home of the laminated book of dreams

Mate your videos are one of the reasons i got into painting my miniatures, and I’m currently working on my SW Imperial Assault & expansions. I have an original copy of Hero Quest (Australian version), 1st ed WH Quest & 4th ed WH fantasy battles which I’ve owned since new as a kid, love the channel, keep up the awesome work and thanks for the great times!

I am having a very similar experience with WHQ95. This isn't the game I had, this is the game I WANTED. It's the game I dreamed about, and the evidence to that is all the games and mechanics I would actually make up myself for friends to play. There is something so rewarding when I find that I have/had theorized a game system or mechanism and then find that those same mechanisms already exist. To me, it means that I was really on to something and gives me a pat on the back. HQ in 1990, Christmas, similar to you, forever changed my expectation of what a game could be. Unfortunately, it never WAS as I could never find anyone to play it with me. (The Trial ruined the game for every would-be group, but that is very personal.) Anyhow, wonderful video.

Got my hands on a copy of this just recently. Thanks to your videos it's the game I'm anticipating most - the gritty struggle of it sounds fantastic - not to mention being able to use it with my copy of HeroQuest from my youth.

Late watching this one... DUDE!! That Argos store you're describing? We had that in the US as well, but it was called Service Merchandise and I remember it well. Everything you said was very much the same, the catalogues, the conveyor belt, all of it. Crazy!

I remember 40k 2nd edition was £25 in Argos and £45 or possibly £50 in GW when it came out. That was a massive saving back then. You and a channel called battlin barrow reminded me of this game and I now have an immaculate copy to get to grips with when i have time. I wonder if wahammer world has this game on display with every additional minature to admire? Talisman was really cool! I only played it a few times in a tent in my friends garden one summer holiday. We never finished it before the torch battery would die or we would fall asleep one by one! Happy days❤

Your description of opening up AHQ was exactly what I felt at 10 years old! Where are the Orcs and Skeletons and bookcases?

when I got advanced Heroquest, I was put off by the scale of it, but I understood the concept. So I created my own version, which I've been happily playing most of my life. I keep adding to the rules, and creating more quests. It's a true sandbox experience,

I love being reminded how amazing games like HeroQuest used to be available in Argos. Pretty sure my original copy was bought in WHSmiths. Can’t imagine those shops selling such amazing games now.

Oh wow! I will watch this video as soon as I can!!

I remember the big massive catalogues 🤣🤣. Advanced Heroquest i really enjoyed and still has a special place in my heart. Brutal and hard but loved the challenge

I really agree with your review here. I've described AHQ vs WHQ (original) as; WHQ is a better product, but AHQ is a better system. AHQ's system just lets you keep making whatever you want to make. It's a TRUE sandbox, and yes, it DEMANDS that you put things in. It does, however, make the game VERY inaccessible. I've been thinking of making a basic mission wit just the HQ figures to help people today to get into the game. A pack, of sorts, that means that someone can play the game with little to no extras, save their copy of regular HQ. Something which I HAVE written for my copy of AHQ is a system for dungeon events (usually just popped via dungeon tokens) to happen randomly as the dungeon progresses, so that solo play has all the features, and a GM can even play co-op with their friends as one of the adventurers. So a system where the threat level raises and lowers as you play. The higher the threat level, the higher chance that a random "token" is played (though the system doesn't demand the physical tokens at all). Would you be interested in those rules?

Your passion for games is inspiring. But lights a fire under my wallet lol You've had me thinking about this game but its rarity helps me resist. League of Dungeoneers looks like it might hit my Advanced Heroquest itch, and will be easier to get hold of. Thanks for sharing another great video.

Excellent video

great video - I found you perspective interesting because your experience is similar but really different to mine. I guess, I must be a year or so older than you so I came to AHQ from Fighting Fantasy, Warhammer Fantasy Battle, 40k Rogue Trader, not Heroquest, so my expectations were very different. Consequently, I adored AHQ from the off because it was a games system that did what I wanted from a fantasy game, and I had great fun coming up with new tiles, new quests - and I liked the ‘everyday’ stuff between quests because it contributed to the story and world-building. I don’t think I had the same depth of experience again until I played Witcher 3. I’m glad you stuck with it and finally became a true believer! (Oh, and I also flogged off everything too early and too cheap, most notably, Adeptus Titanticus - which was also brilliant and is probably worth a fortune today)

Heroquest is the actual outlier and lead to an entire generation of more simplistic games that focused on minis and visual appeal over detailed exploration. Modern games have also stressed narrative elements and combat abilities, which were never a real focus for 70s-80s dungeon crawls. And narrative here means plotted story, not that the dungeons didn't have backgrounds and the denizens didn't have agendas and lives. In fact, the concept of dungeon ecosystems with multiple internal factions, different ecological zones, and towns doesn't really happen in any dungeon board game. What's funny is that the Old World in WFRP is a very different place from the Old World in WFB 5e and later. One is a very adult grim pit of despair while the other is a colorful action cartoon on cable TV. I think AHQ represents the grim WFRP version well. Advanced HQ was perfectly in line with D&D and WFRP where the player had the expectation of generating content themselves and the game is a toolkit towards that end. If you approach AHQ from the same viewpoint as the Moldvay or Mentzer D&D boxes of the early 80s or a boxed intro to WFRP, than it's a far more accurate interpretation. Jervis is quite clear in the intro what AHQ is meant to be. As far as difficulty and the grind to get better gear, ammo tracking, careful progress, and limited spells using components, that's all lifted right from D&D. It's supposed to be slow and methodical exploration. It's why 10 foot poles and door spikes are such cliches for the genre. The proceduraly generated dungeons were from a Strategic review article in the 70s and later on in the first edition AD&D DMs guide. All of this is why, to me, Heroquest was such a giant step backwards for the progress of the hobby, even if it made money for the companies involved. A bit like how the Marvel movies are a giant step backwards for comics in cinema.

Great vid.

great review.

SPACE HULK - I feel the same way about that!

Hero Quest is the ultimate expression of the miniatures broad game. Period.

I was quite young when I originally had AHQ. Well, my older brother had it and then I ended up with it. All I remember is reading the rule book, thinking how dark and foreboding the art work was, and not really understanding it. What was a Gamesmaster? Why is there stuff about henchmen and in between expeditions? I didn’t get it, as I’d not experienced proper role playing before. So I just went back to Dungeonquest, Talisman and collecting miniatures 🤣 I definitely appreciate it now I’m older

I was well into Games workshop stuff when I was first into the hobby, and naturally bought Advanced Heroquest, I bought the main box and an expansion with goblins, the problem was I found it boring. Dungeon crawlers have moved on a lot more these days, and there is some brilliant dungeon crawlers about, sadly Advanced Heroquest just never found its place with me, and I have no desire to own it (again). On the other side, the original Heroquest brings back very fond memories of playing this game with my grandparents lodger Adrian and hes friend Bryan who were adults, and seemed to love the game as much as me. The dungeon crawlers I have the most fun with (fantasy) is probably Massive Darkness, Descent legends in the dark, I also backed Maladum and look forward to constructing massive 3D dungeons to delve in with my son and friend. Sadly Games workshop stopped a long time ago making games that weren't Skirmish or war games, which is why I only own space hulk and Dreadfleet. I can only imagine how good it would be if GW produced a modern dungeon crawler with access to all its minis to populate its dungeons. (I know they do some dungeon crawlers, I am talking about more 'traditional' DC).

I bought my first copy at a Sunday car boot sale… £3.50 I think (still got the sticker on it…)a few henchmen with bent or broken pole arms and a few Skaven shields missing… I now have 2 copies and more than all the minis from the box set and have recently started painting the minis! Not ever played as far as I can recall, but sure will.

Advanced HeroQuest is the complete inverse of the normal power fantasy most dungeon crawlers present. You're not playing as a powerful barbarian, a nimble archer or an awe inspiring wizard, you're playing as a character who may become one of those over time if they survive long enough. Your character earns their legend, through blood, sweat and bitter hard won experience. They don't start with it.

I am of the opinion that an actually accurate name for this game would've been Basic Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay, as, while you can use HeroQuest components in it, its mechanical DNA is really fully GW, zero MB, and it feels like an intermediary step between Warhammer Fantasy Battle (3rd edition) and Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay (1st edition) [except that instead of increasing the number of characteristics by two, it decreased it by two and renamed two of the others]. Of course, it isn't perfect, no game is, but it does everything that I keep wishing Warhammer Quest [which is basically just Warhammer Fantasy Battle (4th/5th edition) with its whole meat of rank and file mass combat cut out] did, which makes it all extra frustrating that Advanced Heroquest never got the attention and appreciation that it deserved. I quite likely wouldn't have been able to appreciate it as a wee lad at the time, either, but I recently played some sessions with cheap proxy components, and it's now my favorite fantasy dungeon crawler. I wish I could afford a complete Oldhammer collection, but I won't even start on that journey, as I'm either all or nothing on such. I shall be happy to let others have the OG stuff. Now to go print myself some nicer proxy components.

For some reason, I thought about advanced heroquest recently and how much of a disappointment it was when I was a child. Since I was the only person I knew that had it, I thought it would be interesting to look this up on KZfaq. It’s oddly comforting to know that somebody else had the same experience - missing miniatures, no furniture, a very limited campaign and rules that was simply less fun than the game they were trying to improve upon. Advanced hero quest was so expensive and provided less fun than the originals own expansion packs.

Couldn’t agree more. I had the game as a kid but don’t think I ever played it. I was just too young to get my head around the rules

I remember seeing AHQ sets sold at game stores back in the '90s, but I was too broke to buy them. It looked on the back of the box and found it neat with the hinged-doors and puzzle-like dungeon tiles, but was a little disappointed by the lack of furniture and variety of monsters. Later on, though the internet, I learned how the game was played and realized that the game was not an advanced way to play HQ, but needlessly over complicated game that fails to make the action fast and flowing. While I like what it tried to do, and I really did enjoy the random tables for solo-quests, they should have expanded upon the HS rules to make something that is both fast and tactically dynamic. Also, I would have love to see a special 12-sided Combat Dice as I both love the Combat Die and the elegant dodecahedron. With double the faces, I can totally see how it can expand results beyond just "hit", "block" and "miss", with new icons for critical hits and for special maneuvers.

Sounds like you need to try League of Dungeoneers. I have only had it for 3 days now, and the rule set sounds like everything you want in a dungeon crawler. No minis, but the standees are wonderful, the tiles are detailed and what is on the tile matters. Listening to the end of the video as I type, I don't think this will ever replace AHQ but I wouldn't want it too. It may well sit in your top five though. I have enough confidence in this game that I am posting the comment. You want to check this out.

This sounds exactly what I did except with advanced space crusade, I was devastated when 11 year old me opened that box and didn’t get what I expected so it got shelved , then years later when I started going out on the piss I sold everything I had from gw and I’m talking alot of stuff for next to nothing I could cry now when I think back

I finally completed my copy of the game. I just need to find the time to play it.

Still using that as a sort of introduction to first edition WHFRP for younger gamers. That print on that cardboard never fade...but the rulebook...that was cheaply made. I think we collectively ran at least 65 characters through campaigns, only one ever increased to maximum stats, which was both a victory (quite an achievement) and a loss, as there was not much left for that character to do in the dungeons, other than risk his life for little gain. I am pretty sure the player retired it and started a new one.

Ahh challenge, a difficult thing to do in most games; make the game too challenging, and the players will get frustrated and quit. Make it too easy, the players will get bored. Few games can balance this effectively. I'm glad you found this game to fill the bill. 😊

Hey ABNB, wouldn't be awesome to get an interview with Jervis Johnson about this game. I would love to hear you pick his brain!

me: "You enter a small room, etched into the floor is a circle surrounded by the runes of the collages of magic". Player: "I'm not standing on it". me "there are good results as well as bad", Player "don't care".... me: "You enter a small room, there's a pool of water, it looks refreshing, you become aware of how thirsty..." Player "I'm not drinking", me: "There are good results as weel as bad", player "don't care". Me: " You enter a small..." player "no. don't care" Repeat.

Hello! What do you think about the rules for playing classic heroquest with the advanced heroquest set of rules? I think that is a good way to get the best of both worlds.

Yes, please do a playthrough of Mighty Warriors. You may think it's crap as an adult, but it along with Ultramarines was super cheap back in the day. Opening up those boxes full of stuff, gave me greet joy as a child and kept me interested in the whole Warhammer thing. Even if the main games were quite different.

Heh, Tyranid Attack; wrote a letter to Jervis Johnson with some questions...told me it was a favorite or his but didn't do well in sales.

I saw Advanced Heroquest in a comic shop once back in its hay day. Was really pricey. Alas, I never got to experience it. And it’s still kind of pricey to this day secondhand.

Have you done a review of Warhammer Quest. From my research, I’m seeing a lot of people hold it as the gold standard? From my research, I’m seeing a lot of people hold Warhammer Quest as the gold standard? Of Dungeon Crawlers at least… So I’m really interested in learning both from Advanced hero quest, and now Warhammer quest I’m really intrigued to find out more about that game. ..? I’m just finding designing a Board game is really …. Challenging. Bit of background I’m designing a board game gif personal use, to play with my young lads, and solo play. I was trying to add all the features that I personally would want added to the Heroquest experience and I was very focused on the combat side of things and also a big one for me is fortifications, barricades, barricading doors etc to create nice tense moments, or placing strategic, when facing overwhelming odds. I think gameplay works well. But as I’m playing, I’m finding that something is missing. So hence I really been studying advance request and as I say now I’m interested to learn about Warhammer Quest - To find out any features that surround the combat, and how they enrich the experience. It’s almost like trying to capture that X factor…..

I wonder if you can play advanced HeroQuest with the new HeroQuest?

The lack of any character minis was bonkers. I still cant understand that logic. It never spoiled my passion for adding to the game though. Everything I had in my Old World collection is dedicated to AHQ now.

Dungeonquest has a 60% mortality rate and you place it above this one. You have a kink for death games.

Sounds like this game eventually evolved to become Warhammer Quest.

I’ve always wanted a copy of this game I could never find it in the United States!