Blackstone Fortress Deep Dive: How to Play, Review, and Aimless Rambling

Always Board Never Boring is trying something a bit experimental today. It's a "deep dive" into Warhammer Quest: Blackstone Fortress. The video covers every aspect of playing the game, from set up to tear down, with regular stops along the way for "micro reviews" that go into certain mechanisms in more detail and discuss why they work (or don't work). It's incredibly long and wordy, but hopefully some people will find it worth the slog. Please share your thoughts in the comments.
Please be aware, while this video may serve as a primer, it's not a replacement for the rules. When doing a video on this scale there's always a chance something gets miscommunicated or left on the cutting room floor.
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[@ionious97]

This was a great tutorial for a wonderful game! We need more community support like this.

[@AlwaysBoardNeverBoring]

Thanks. I'm really glad you enjoyed the video. If you haven't had a chance to look around yet, I do a lot of coverage of Blackstone Fortress here on my channel.

[@agentorangecb1]

The Warhammer official channel did a pretty good demo which i just listened to today. However, it was quite superficial lacked the detail on things like the Discoveries and time elements. I didn't even know there was overwatch or gambits, it just gets more appealing the more i learn. Also, the voice here is easier to listen to for me and obviously speaks from the place of experience. I agree, the content is great and tipped me towards subscribing and buying the game. Sorry I'm behind the zeitgeist but is anyone else still playing or have you done it all and moved on now?

[@Bassmunchkin1]

What a brilliant step by step tutorial via video which I would of found as gold dust when I started playing 6/7 months ago, as reading instructions has never been my strong point and watching videos has always been my desired way of learning anything in life. I did manage to scrape through the bulk of the rules in the books, but saying that, I also came across questions in my head and although we’re told to play the roll off rule to decide, Mmmm I still cringed knowing that I wanted to know the correct answer and not kind of guess. This is the only video explaining how to play this brilliant game and yes I know there are some play through videos, but their not the same as learning HOW to play. As a constructive thought, perhaps rather than having this video play for just over an hour, it might of been an idea to of broken each section up into various videos, to help refresh our minds and alertness, but honestly, I feel that an incredible amount of gamers learning Blackstone Fortress and even regular 4/5 nights a week players like myself will learn some valuable tips, which we never realised that we were playing incorrectly before . For example, at 43.30 you explain the “aim” rule which I never knew about and not only that, but that white line between the centres of the two adjoining hex’s either side of the aim rule example, I thought it was the same as the red lines and explorers and hostile couldn’t attack each other from either hex. I also really like using gambits to not only swap an explorer with a hostile to my left, but also a hostile to my right, as I might want the hostile to deliberately go first if for example I want them to move at the beginning so that he comes out of hiding and makes it easier for me to attack him at say a 2 to 3 range, rather than a 4+. Out of every aspect of the game, I would have to say that pausing before activation and going through my head all the various tactics of how I’m going to go about that round and who’s going to use two of the destiny dice and then pausing again at each explorers turn to assess which of their cards they’re going to discard or use again, is where I believe I’m actually fighting along side these fantastically detailed models. I really do get totally lost in my own little world playing this brilliant game solo and although some complain or bicker about the price, it has been the best value hobby that I have ever purchased. The quality of the figures, detail on every single card and the complete boxed set, must of taken an unknown joint venture of hundreds if not thousands of hours in creating. Many thanks once again for your time putting and editing this excellent video together, much appreciated.

[@AlwaysBoardNeverBoring]

Thanks so much for watching despite already being a long-term player of the game. Thanks also for such a great detailed response. It was really helpful. This video was a bit experimental (actually the most complicated video I have made so far, involving three shooting stations and two days of shooting and editing - hopefully most of the edits are invisible). Partly I was seeing if I could do it, and what I could do; but also I wanted to gauge the response. In the past I have done series, and the viewership drops off quite a lot after the first video, but really long videos sometimes scare people off from watching, or they duck out early. As a relatively small channel, tinkering with this sort of thing helps me to know where the lines are. I'm quite happy to do shorter videos covering specific mechanisms if there's a demand for it. And I still want to do a playthrough video at some point. Anyway, yes I agree with you. Blackstone is a wonderful solo experience. I really enjoy setting it up and taking my time with it, puzzling over the situations it presents.

[@nickgraney2119]

I know I'm 2 years behind but I really enjoyed this walk through of the game and found it really helpful. The mechanics look really good and I really do hope the quest line continues in the same ethos as blackstone. I'm so tempted to get the base game as its right up my street and I'm only sorry I'm late to the party.

[@AlwaysBoardNeverBoring]

Thanks for watching. It’s a great game.

[@SoMrStewart]

Thanks dude , im dyslexic so struggle with reading up rules and some videos just talk way to fast and all over the shop and hard to follow but yours is clear and so helpful

[@AlwaysBoardNeverBoring]

I'm so pleased you found the video helpful. Thanks for watching.

[@Fivepast01]

This is still my go-to video for BSF four years later.

[@AlwaysBoardNeverBoring]

Thank you.

[@thefrenchspy81]

Thanks for the video. I have been sitting on this game for a year and have not been motivated to assemble it or read the rules. This was a great help. Its assembled now I just need to paint it up. Great video sir!

[@AlwaysBoardNeverBoring]

Thanks for watching. I hope you enjoy the game!

[@chrisstairs1326]

Great primer! Thanks for taking the time to provide such a comprehensive overview. Been invited to join my first Blackstone campaign in a few days. (My first Warhammer campaign, actually) I now feel I have a solid understanding of the basic game mechanics. Really appreciate your charity in sharing this level of detail! Looking forward to busting up some Traitor Guardsmen!

[@AlwaysBoardNeverBoring]

Thanks for the kind words, I'm glad you found the video helpful. Blackstone Fortress is a great game, and a great way to dive into the 40K universe. I hope you have as much fun with it as I do.

[@benja6902]

Excellent tutorial - and I enjoyed the background music. Thanks!

[@AlwaysBoardNeverBoring]

Thanks so much. My friend provides the music, and he will appreciate the comment!

[@stuartbridgewater2323]

Awesome vid really well explained 10 out of 10 looking foward to watching the rest

[@AlwaysBoardNeverBoring]

Thanks so much. I'm really glad you liked the video.

[@poliboygamevids]

Just opened my new BSF. This tutorial is just fantastic. Very clear! I also have Escalation and Ascension. Thank you for this video.

[@AlwaysBoardNeverBoring]

Thanks for checking out the video; I'm glad it was helpful. I hope you have a lot of fun with Blackstone. With Escalation and Ascension you have the complete narrative story and so much gameplay!

[@bernardmiller5347]

Thank yooou! Slow an easy. I’ve been sitting on mine for three years and you explained it the best.

[@AlwaysBoardNeverBoring]

Thanks. I'm glad you found the video useful. This is a great game, and I hope you have a lot of fun with it.

[@benrunciman4399]

Love this game. Thanks for this cool video

[@AlwaysBoardNeverBoring]

It is great. Thanks for taking the time to watch!

[@samthomas9574]

It feels like they used Silver Tower & SOH as the canary for mechanics and fixed a lot of the issues. Stat cards for baddies (looking up pages during combat drives me nuts!), better "back to town" system, legacy system etc. Love Silver Tower but this feels so much more polished. Great vid

[@AlwaysBoardNeverBoring]

Thanks for watching! Yeah, there has definitely been something of an evolution in the system. I am a huge fan of all three. Overall, I think Blackstone is the best, especially as it's getting all the great support that Silver Tower and Shadows never got. It's one of my favourite games, for sure. However, I do think Shadows has a better dungeon master experience (I really enjoyed running the campaign for friends).

[@veekleek7535]

Is gentle panpipe music what is played on the speakers of the blackstone fortress? Immersive :)

[@AlwaysBoardNeverBoring]

Only in the maglevs.

[@spencerlewis7160]

Nicely done, thank you.

[@AlwaysBoardNeverBoring]

Thank you for watching.

[@TinyDiodes]

Revisiting this video tonight on the eve of the next adventure. Man, when considering all the content, the expansions, the novels, the audio dramas... Blackstone Fortress has set quite a high bar for Cursed City. On this night, recalling the ENTIRE adventure, I feel like Blackstone Fortress is a masterpiece.

[@TinyDiodes]

Also, zooming in on the Zoat page of the Liber Xenologis, it looks to be about 300 pages. Can't quite decide on pulling the trigger there. Hoping it's the physical size of the core rules books.

[@AlwaysBoardNeverBoring]

Blackstone Fortress is exeptional. We can hope Cursed City gets similar treatment. I think the zoat page is in the 100s somewhere and appears to be around halfway in, but it's hard to tell what the final page count is or if that's even a real image or a graphic mock-up. I think that with something like an art book, size and page count are actually quite important. On a vaguely related note, I bought my wife the Labyrinth adventure game book for Christmas and was very disappointed to find it was the size of a hardback novel.

[@TinyDiodes]

@@AlwaysBoardNeverBoring Well F@ck. I just pulled the trigger and purchased it based on their preview images, I suppose this will be an opportunity for me to gauge the companies merit on thin advertising, here's hoping for the best. But as I recollected all of my journey's with the characters, I couldn't help but be intrigued by any additional thoughts from THE Janus Draik, and wonder if this book was 'written' during or after the events of our adventures in the Blackstone. I guess I didn't want to miss out by hesitating, something I have abundant evidence for happening with these limited releases. Fingers crossed. Oh, and it was coupled with a free softback copy of Black Library Celebration 2021, I think that will help to reduce the swelling.

[@AlwaysBoardNeverBoring]

@@TinyDiodes Fingers crossed it's a worthwhile purchase!

[@MrDWinpenny]

Thank you for this. Very helpful for a dyslexic fellow like myself.

[@AlwaysBoardNeverBoring]

Thanks for watching. I'm really pleased you found it helpful.

[@GeneralEscor]

Great tutorial, thanks a lot for an explanation

[@AlwaysBoardNeverBoring]

Thanks for watching.

[@janttu]

Cheers mate! Finally. And THX

[@AlwaysBoardNeverBoring]

Thanks for watching.

[@user-kk4cs5oz5r]

Always, thanks for this informative video. I have a couple of rule questions. First, in the 45:30 you said that he would still have to deal with cover. I remember reading in the core rule book that if the two attacking models are in the adjacent hexes they get no cover benefits. Makes sense - you just reach into the cover and shoot them outright. Its even given as an example on a picture. Second, I am unclear about using the same attack or gun twice during an activation. In the rules it says that the same gun can only be used once. But I keep seeing people spending an extra dice to repeat at attach. Can you please clarify your position on this question?

[@AlwaysBoardNeverBoring]

Hi thanks for watching. I actually misspeak slightly at that point. I'm actually trying to say "you don't have to worry about cover, but the sergeant is a slightly tougher foe," but I fumble the line and actually say "you do still have to worry about cover, but the sergeant is a slightly tougher foe". One of those situations where my mouth didn't say what my brain meant! If you and the target are both in hexes that share the covering line, neither of you have to worry about cover. Sorry for that confusion! I'm not sure where you're seeing a rule that says you can only use an action once, but it may be a confusion relating to the actions on your character card and the actions on resource cards. You can use the same action multiple times, as per the rules on page 9 - "An explorer can take the same action multiple times, but must end an action before starting a new one." However, many resources only have a single use, or exhaust after the first use and can't be used again until the following round. So, if you have a resource card that's a gun granting you an attack you may only be allowed to use that once per turn (depending on the wording on the card). However, the actions on your your character sheet can be used multiple times in a turn. Hope that's clear!

[@TheJML1975]

Great video. Me and my nephew have managed to have a few games recently and we over looked (mis-read) some of the rules. So this has been invaluable to make sure we are playing correctly. Funnily though playing with the proper rules, will make are games harder and easier! Haha

[@AlwaysBoardNeverBoring]

Thanks. I'm glad the video was helpful.

[@TheJML1975]

@@AlwaysBoardNeverBoring Just watching your video again to make sure I haven’t butchered any rules 😁 and I was wondering why you never uploaded a video of you playing an expedition, as you could show the rules in action.

[@AlwaysBoardNeverBoring]

@@TheJML1975 It was just something that never happened at the time, and then the game came to the end of its life and I always have so much to cover on the channel so it was just one of those things that drifted.

[@TheJML1975]

@@AlwaysBoardNeverBoring Thanks for replying and that’s a shame as the very few videos of folks playing this game, are riddled with mistakes.

[@AlwaysBoardNeverBoring]

@@TheJML1975 I always advise people not to try to learn games from playthroughs, and only to use them to get a feel for how the game plays. In my experience of making them, it's difficult to make them faultless. You have to worry about lighting, camera positions, you have to narrate what you are doing, play well, and keep things moving at a brisk pace while keeping it interesting, often all by yourself with nobody there to immediately pick up any errors. It's a lot of plates to spin and sometimes rules get overlooked or misplayed. I annotate major errors in my own videos, like my recent Cursed City playthroughs, but there will sometimes be some that slip through.

[@iconocast]

great info dude

[@AlwaysBoardNeverBoring]

Thank you for watching. I'm sorry I missed your comment before.

[@bulkbu6331]

Great Vid!

[@TheFewzz]

Id love to see you do a playthrough

[@AlwaysBoardNeverBoring]

It’s probably my most requested thing to do. Part of the reason for shooting the deep dive was to get a better idea of how to set up the shots for a playthrough, so I am working my way towards doing it.

[@spro2077]

Good job. Better then official warhammer tv.

[@AlwaysBoardNeverBoring]

Thanks. That's very kind of you.

[@IsDomini]

In a recent game i got 3 spawn points all filled with 4-7 Traitor Guardsmen (17 in total). I opted to proxy 3 guards i did not have with random minis. But I wonder what weapons I should have given them? Rules say that a group of 4 guards does not require Sergeant or Flamer included.

[@AlwaysBoardNeverBoring]

This can happen. There are basically three things to consider: 1. Using rules as written, if you don't have enough enemies to create full spawns, then you just use as many as you can. You chose to proxy three additional models, so from that point out you are in house rule territory and anything is fair game. 2. There are special rules in place for how many flamers and sergeants you can have. Beyond that, you can use whatever weapon loadouts you want. 3. In Silver Tower and Shadows Over Hammerhal (the previous iterations of Warhammer Quest) the rules dictated that each model you placed should have a unique weapon if possible. So, if you have three different weapon options and need to place three models, each one should have a different weapon. This isn't stated in Blackstone Fortress, but is a good rule of thumb to adopt. Hope that all makes sense.

[@IsDomini]

@@AlwaysBoardNeverBoring thanks a lot!

[@TonioLagoule]

Good video. About reinforcements, at 30:30 you're saying that you can never have more than you originaly had at that spawn point. Where is it written in the rulebook, please?

[@AlwaysBoardNeverBoring]

Hi. Yes. I think this has caused some confusion in the past with some players. It's on page 13 of the combat rules book. First it says "make a reinforcement roll if any hostiles in the group have been slain." In other words, don't roll if the group is at full strength. Then it says, "If a number is shown in the reinforcement table, return that many slain hostiles from that group to the battlefield. If there are not enough slain hostiles in the group, return as many as you can." That's why I like to put the slain enemies on the card they came from as a reminder. Hope that helps. Let me know if you have any other questions, and thanks for watching the video.

[@TonioLagoule]

@@AlwaysBoardNeverBoring OK, thanks. The French version of the manual does not mention "slain", so I've been using all available hostiles whenever I had to reinforce! Damn ;-)

[@AlwaysBoardNeverBoring]

Oh, that's interesting. I guess sometimes the nuance gets lost in the translation. Reinforcing from all of the available models would certainly make the game much harder!

[@amberknight6585]

@@AlwaysBoardNeverBoring I think that the rule implies that you put as many hostiles as shown in the table, or as many miniatures as available, regardless what the initial number of enemies was.

[@AlwaysBoardNeverBoring]

@@amberknight6585 No. That's not correct. The rules specifically say you reinforce from the slain models from that particular group.

[@leemartinson6449]

Can these figures be used in Space Crusade and Space hulk. Like you mate, I have my favorites. Have you used these adventures in other games, vise versa?

[@AlwaysBoardNeverBoring]

The biggest issue is Rogue Trader era miniatures are a smaller scale compared to modern GW and things may look out of proportion. And except for small enemies like the drones, the models are on 32mm bases or larger which is going to be a problem on the Space Crusade and Space Hulk boards.

[@jalovinas]

Hello. I think I just might be dumb, but I don't know how the action dice work. Clearly sometimes there are actions that need 4+ dice for example, but what if I have a "1" dice and I want to move my guy, is that dice enough for that, even if it says "2" in the "move" section in the char card...

[@AlwaysBoardNeverBoring]

Every action has a cost, which is the value you must meet or exceed on the dice you are discarding. There are common actions that all characters can make, such as moving. To make a move action you have to discard a dice with a value of 1+ (the value of the dice has nothing to do with how far you can move, it just lets you make the move action, which lets you move up to your character's move value). More powerful actions require dice with higher values. All characters also have a list of actions on their character sheet which are unique to them.

[@jalovinas]

@@AlwaysBoardNeverBoring Thank you so much for answering in this old video and so fast! My table is a bit scrambled right now with the game and I promised my wife I would clean it up after the first solo campaign, this makes it easier. Thanks!

[@AlwaysBoardNeverBoring]

No worries. I'm happy to help. I hope you are enjoying the game.

[@christianwhite8411]

If you were starting from scratch in the core game. Would you add in the advanced arsenal cards etc in?

[@AlwaysBoardNeverBoring]

Some of the advanced arsenal stuff is quite powerful, but there's no real harm in adding in that and Endless Peril right from the start. Really, those are just adding extra variety, and for your first few games you wouldn't notice whether you added them or not because everything is new to you anyway. If you have Escalation, you might as well have the extra explorers to pick from too. But then I would play through the core game before taking on any of the boxed expansions.

[@christianwhite8411]

Always Board Never Boring Sounds a cool idea. If I were to add heroes from escalation, from the start. What about the newer Cultists?

[@AlwaysBoardNeverBoring]

@@christianwhite8411 The base game has it's own way of introducing enemies. I would just play through the base game using only enemies from the core box first. Each expansion explains how you can add the new enemies into your game after you've completed the expansion.

[@andytaylor160]

New viewer to the channel after I was looking for videos on Heroquest, I have the OG 89 version which until recently was sat in my mums loft. Space Crusade however is long lost. Would this game be good for someone new to 40K? Thanks and keep up the good work.

[@AlwaysBoardNeverBoring]

Thanks for checking out the channel I cover lots of HeroQuest, Space Crusade and dungeon crawlers so I hope you stick around. Blackstone Fortress has a lot of 40K flavour to it, but you don't need to know anything about 40K to enjoy it. At the end of the day, it's a group of adventurers pitted against a group of bad guys, inside a hostile alien space ship. Do be aware though, the expansions for Blackstone are incredibly rare and expensive now. If you loved the game and wanted to expand it, it wouldn't be easy.

[@andytaylor160]

@@AlwaysBoardNeverBoringgreat, thank you. I think I’ve watched all of the Space Crusade restoration already. Fascinating stuff and a total nostalgia wave, I do miss that game! Edit. I think I always fared as badly as your Ultramarines playthrough.

[@AlwaysBoardNeverBoring]

Ha. That was a bad day for the Smurfs. Never underestimate a gretchin!

[@andytaylor160]

@@AlwaysBoardNeverBoring it arrived yesterday I cannot wait to unseal it, it’s weighty!

[@AlwaysBoardNeverBoring]

@@andytaylor160 It's a great game. I hope you have a lot of fun with it.

[@christopheraaron1255]

Did you not get the pre-order poker chip?

[@AlwaysBoardNeverBoring]

I believe the preorder stuff was only available from GW direct. I never order from GW direct because I can get up to 25% off plus store credit from my favoured online retailer, and still get the items on or one day after the launch date.

[@PiterMorbid]

How good is this for solo?

[@AlwaysBoardNeverBoring]

I really enjoy it solo. Characters don't have a huge amount of abilities, and you don't have any hidden information like a hand of cards to deal with. The characters play like a military unit dropped behind enemy lines, and it's fun to work out how they can play together to control the battlefield. The biggest issue with Blackstone Fortress is none of the expansions are easily obtainable anymore, so if you love the game, you don't really have anywhere to go with it.

[@benja6902]

45:22 - It is my understanding that cover doesn't matter if you're adjacent.

[@AlwaysBoardNeverBoring]

It doesn’t matter if you’re adjacent. I actually fumble my words at that point in the video (I can’t remember exactly what I said but I’ve explained it elsewhere in the comments for this video).

[@christopheraaron1255]

From the limited analysis I've done, the datasheets are an exercise in false value. Every single thing is outclassed in 40k.

[@AlwaysBoardNeverBoring]

The sheets are a few years old now so maybe they are out of sync a little bit, but as my Rangers of Shadow Deep team illustrates, I only ever play around narratives and chucking together things that I think are cool. I don't do any competitive play and never spend any time crunching numbers or comparing stats, so I honestly wouldn't know if the Blackstone characters are outclassed in 40K or not.

[@shoeberrypie]

This game is just Core Space that you can’t play with ANYONE who doesn’t play 40k. Only two or so extra die rolls compared to CoreS in areas of Blackstone Fort that ARE actually neat, like the different *types* of dice per weapon. I really like that in BF. Both games have loot systems and the exact same simple crit system, but somehow these simple concepts seem incomprehensible and unintuitive in BF. It feels like if you bring GW a simple concept, they HAVE to make the game complicated enough for their 40k regulars to take it “seriously” or something. Complex is good. Complicated… not so much! I learned Core Space in a day and played it with my nephews for ages, every game more riveting than the last. It really feels like you’re exploring a living galaxy, picking up different weapons, armors, and techs. Yet here I’m learning how to play a single game of Blackstone Fortress with my friend who actually paints and plays 40k consistently, but we’re STILL scratching our heads after weeks of trying to figure it out in our precious moments of downtime. Solid video, and very informative! I’ll still have to go over it 15 times though thanks to GW’s autism 😭

[@blackraptor311]

You play Blackstone Fortress. You play it to the end. You open up the envelope when it is all done. The card inside reads... BE SURE TO DRINK YOUR OLVALTINE. That's it? A crummy commercial? Son of a ...

[@AlwaysBoardNeverBoring]

The emperor protects, but he doesn’t pay the bills!

[@blackraptor311]

@@AlwaysBoardNeverBoring No no no, it's in the Emperor we trust, all others pay cash.

[@Rincewindl]

Why 3 rule books. Just causes confusion. Do what Gloomhaven did.

[@AlwaysBoardNeverBoring]

Rincewindl I see the intention. They tried to break it into sequence so you read it as you need it, learning the game in stages. I just don’t think it worked quite as well as they hoped.

[@Rincewindl]

@@AlwaysBoardNeverBoring Once again a game falls ill to this concept of over complication. To be honest from the rest of the video the rules seem fine, streamlined with only a small bit of noting down I'd want to do for some of the extra actions that aren't on the character sheets. To be fair I've always been a fan of games that set up rules in stages that are still in one booklet and say at the very start "Set up and play as you read" and force you into a more simple scenario to teach you.

[@AlwaysBoardNeverBoring]

Rincewindl It’s pretty straightforward, and all the extra actions are lists on the back of one of the books so no notes required.

[@Rincewindl]

@@AlwaysBoardNeverBoring Oh great, that's perfect for me. That's how I play Gloomhaven anyway so yeah. Just going to meet a friend and play it for the first time soon so this video has been very helpful.

[@AlwaysBoardNeverBoring]

Rincewindl Glad the video helped. I hope you have a good time with the game!

[@Biodelic]

Argh, this video just won't load for me. Not in a browser and not on mobile. Shame.

[@AlwaysBoardNeverBoring]

There's no reason it shouldn't. Just tested it in Opera, Edge, and on my iPhone. All worked fine and nobody else has reported an issue.

[@Biodelic]

@@AlwaysBoardNeverBoring Well, that was a whole bunch weird. The video plays now for me too. Very bizarre. Anyhow, great video, thank you for making it.

[@AlwaysBoardNeverBoring]

Glad you managed to get it working. Thanks for persevering!