Our second game of Warhammer Quest: Blackstone Fortress saw our four characters attempt the first stronghold expedition. To complete the game, the characters need to explore all four strongholds and then the vault. We’d found four clues in the previous mission, so we spent them to unlock this expedition. We also swapped out the robot for a sniper; you can choose any of the eight (surviving) characters for each expedition.

A random card-draw determined which stronghold we approached: it was the Null-Gravity Abyss. The regular expedition format is altered for a stronghold: you still play through random challenges, but not as many, before attempting the stronghold scenario in the Precipice book. The scenario has custom rules and events.

In this case, we faced four random exploration cards before entering the Null-Gravity Abyss. There’s no seeding of half-combat and half-challenge for this scenario, but that’s how it came out anyway!

We started with an ambush, where Negavolt Cultists (melee) and Traitor Guardsmen (ranged and melee). The encounter cards were kind; the third group would have been more Negavolt Cultists, but all the models had been placed in another group. So, we had only two groups of foes to fight, and these proved fairly easy to overcome.

Resolving each foe’s activation takes a bit of time, especially when you’re flipping over the foe’s card to look at both the activation table and its movement speed. Trying to remember what each tactic involves also took time; if I play this enough, I’ll eventually remember them – at least they’re listed on the back of the combat booklet. Pious Vorne took a grievous wound, which can’t be healed until the end of the expedition. Wounds are scary: they reduce the number of activations your character has! Janus Draik? Two grievous wounds! Ow!

At least Janus Draik found the Empyrean Chrometer, the item he was searching for. Now, he’d begin each combat inspired.

The next encounter allowed us to make an agility check to take an item; the difficulty of the check depending on how valuable the item was. Our sniper was first, and tried for a clue, needing to make three successes on the d12 success die (33% chance of failure with each roll). She succeeded! Hooray!

Then we had a standard combat. Again, the encounter groups were kind – one group of Negavolt cultists, one group of spindle drones, the third group couldn’t be deployed (more Negavolts), and the final group was a special rule: We needed 2+ on our dice to move! That was annoying! However, with only six foes on the table, we were easily able to account for them and pick up all the treasures before leaving. No reinforcements hit us before we escaped!

The final encounter before the stronghold was a challenge – one that allowed us to pick up an item as long as we fought for it! Yes, in this challenge, the item went to whoever was last to attack someone for the item! So, I attacked Pious Vorne, daring her to attack me back. She didn’t, and my character took the item. A clue!

And then it was time for the Stronghold. This was set-up as two levels, with a group of spindle drones on the lower level, and four hidden encounter markers used on the top level. We had to reach the elevator to get to the lower level, as well as finding the activation key. Three encounter markers were monsters, while the fourth was the key.

We found the key immediately. Now it was just to get around the ring to get to the elevator. We split up a little – and the plan was for Vorne to rejoin us after she found the key. Unfortunately, an event triggered the premature activation of the psychers… and we were in trouble. Traitor Guardsmen from one direction, Psychers from the other!

My cleric and Janus were able to take out the traitor guardsmen that were engaging us, but then another event triggered the final group of monsters, and we found ourselves overrun by Chaos Beastmen and Chaos Marines. Meanwhile, the Psychers were using a DISRUPT ability on us that wounded us even without line-of-sight! The guardsmen and beastmen had already wounded us severely, and the cleric just couldn’t roll high enough to activate his healing abilities. It was going badly.

And then four traitor guardsmen respawned close to Vorne and the sniper, who had run up to support her. We tried to regroup, taking out most of the beastmen, but we couldn’t do it. Just too much damage and too few activations. Events were also not kind to us: we often didn’t have any destiny dice, which we definitely needed.

It was over – all of us defeated. (I’ve knocked us over on the map below, but that’s normally stunned. You’re removed when taken out of action. It’s purely for visual purposes to show where we met our fates!)

However, being taken out of action doesn’t automatically mean death. Instead, you make d20 rolls and compare to the number of grievous wounds you’d taken. No-one rolled low, so everyone survived the mission, but we hadn’t cleared the stronghold. Still four to go!

Back to the ships, where we healed, bought some equipment, and rolled well – more equipment, more clues!

We found a further six clues this mission, so we’re ready for another stronghold expedition. Not sure when our numbers will allow that (we have five coming next week, so we’re likely to play another game instead), but at some point we’ll return to the Blackstone Fortress campaign. The session took about 2-1/2 hours to play in all.

Although it isn’t the most difficult game to play – and the actions that can be taken by your characters are relatively simple – we’re finding it a challenging game. The characters don’t change much from mission to mission, with only a few upgrades available, as opposed to their progression in, say, Silver Tower. The challenge comes from adapting to the tactical situation, with “too many” enemies approaching, and special events disrupting our plans.

I really need to get the miniatures painted, but I’ll likely have time to get at least some done before we play again.