Warhammer Quest: Blackstone Fortress Overview | All the Expansions, All the Spoilers, and More

Always Board Never Boring has decided it's very unlikely there will be any more Blackstone Fortress content in White Dwarf and the chances of a 2020 Blackstone Fortress annual seem very remote. That being the case, he's here with a "final" overview of Warhammer Quest Blackstone Fortress, talking through the core experience and every single expansion. There's a lot of ground to cover, and he talks too much, so you might want to put the kettle on before you get started.
#WarhammerQuest #BlackstoneFortress #GamesWorkshop
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[@TinyDiodes]

Anyone who is a fan, I highly recommend the Novels as well. They flesh out the story quite nicely and give a nice fat stack of narratives to mentally implant into your overall play experience. Blackstone Fortress, Vaults of Obsidian, Ascension. Also, if you count the Audio Drama, Augur of Despair, every single character, good and bad except for Mallex and Aradia, are featured in a story.

[@JBenderP]

Well - Aradia is actually featured in the Warp's Curse short story...

[@TinyDiodes]

@@JBenderP Thanks! I didn't realize that some short stories aren't in the Anthology! I will have to get that one and see if there are any more I've missed!

[@ghostwood9174]

I came into Blackstone only recently, as I have money to buy the base game/expansions while I was in school. I was lucky enough to grab the base game + Escalation and Ascension. Your videos were an excellent tool in helping me research the game and acquire the needed narrative components to fully play the campaign 👍

[@AlwaysBoardNeverBoring]

That's fantastic. I'm so pleased the videos were helpful. I hope you have lots of fun in the Fortress.

[@terratheterribl]

I will forever love this game for introducing so many unique characters and armies into 40k. I have a bunch of "umber hulk" miniatures I use as an ambull army, it's very fun.

[@AlwaysBoardNeverBoring]

That must be a sight! Umber hulks are great proxies for ambulls.

[@TinyDiodes]

Just finished Escalation tonight! I have been holding off playing each expansion until they are painted, but I got every one on my shelf!

[@AlwaysBoardNeverBoring]

Escalation is great. Well done on getting everything!

[@oznazdreg]

Beyond precipice is a facebook group with player made expansions. Expansions: A Dark New Dawn - campaign against Gellerpox, starstrider retinue characters. Beyond Precipice Rulebook - additional rules for BSF, additional retinue characters, random generated missions and enemy factions, various locations to explore on Precipice, levelling up adventurers and gaining skills and a tonne of extra equipment and psychic powers. Isolated Incidents - a series of solo games using unique adventurers including - Broodlord, Tau Stealth suit, Leman Russ, Primaris special characters, Commissar and retinue. Sin and Damnation - rules for playing Space Hulk in BSF. Terminator Retinue. Bestiary - basic Level 1 enemy matrix and dataslates for most factions in 40k. A Sibling's Deceit - Coming Soon. Rules for playing as the traitor legions, new sicarian target - Cypher.

[@stevenray8737]

Shame I don't do Facebook as these sound fantastic.

[@DestroyerHivePro]

I had this in my Watch Later for 6 months. I was waiting for the day that I would muster the courage and time to finish BSF in it's entirety (minus all of the Annual/WD missions) before watching your recap. I am glad to say that today is finally the day that I can watch this. The reward at the end of Ascension was jaw-dropping, to say the least. I was always mulling over the possible contents of that large envelope in Ascension, and came up with many theories about what could be inside. I did suspect that the reward was exactly what it turned out to be, but I also had my doubts and thought, "naww, GW would never do that." But they DID. And it is AWESOME.

[@DestroyerHivePro]

I do have to say though - I disagree with your assessment of Deadly Alliance. I found it to be the best-designed expansion in terms of it's level and challenge design. The enemy spawns would only attack when they saw you, which eliminated the problem of having all foes rush you at once so that you can pick them off and then traipse through to the maglev with no resistance. The levels were then designed so that you often had line of sight to multiple groups at a time, unless you took a longer route around, which would then run a higher risk of having the level change layout or a character getting yeeted to the other end of the map. Overall, brilliant design. The challenges were actually tough, and almost guaranteed to hurt your explorers, thus raising the danger and making you sweat each time you picked one. In every other expansion, challenges were a god-send, because you didn't have to set up a level and trudge through it, but in DA, challenges were more dangerous than the levels themselves. I also didn't mind the escorting, personally, although the zoat did lose it's trust pretty quickly and once stalled in front of the maglev for 3 turns while poxwalkers and plague marines swarmed him XD

[@JezielProdigalSon]

We had alot of fun with Deadly Alliance tbh. We kept joking about how he felt like having that random pug in your group, in world of warcraft. Also the Deadly alliance rewards are great. Also i think you understated how HARD No Respite actually is. Its brutal. Thanks for the review.

[@AlwaysBoardNeverBoring]

Glad to hear you enjoyed Deadly Alliance. It was worth it for me for the unlocks, even though I was a bit cold towards the mission itself. I agree that No Respite is a real challenge.

[@Ben_Mdws]

A fitting end to all your great videos on this game - thank you!

[@AlwaysBoardNeverBoring]

That's very kind of you. Glad you enjoyed the video.

[@Gillemear]

I made a few changes to the game to spice things up: New hostiles- using the replacement rules brought out in Wrath of the Daemonkin mission in the annual which allowed you to replace a given mini with another more powerful one, I have introduced minis like Clawed Fiends, Daemonhosts, Beastmen Champions and others. New Retinue Characters- I have introduced several retinue characters to be able to access skills which other explorers you don't manage to play during the game might have. This includes a Sister of Battle Hospitaler, an astropath and a Genestealer Kelermorph. Also, I introduced new characters which do completely new things such as a former Naval Officer who augments the support vessels. Each new retinue character have their own homemade missions to introduce them to the game. New expansions- I have created two new expansions, the Nest of Chaos (focused on a Chaos possessed Genestealer cult) and Revenge of the Ancients (focused on two well-known Necron Lords, Trazyn the Infinite and Orakin the Diviner, and their rivalry in attempting to steal the "Eye of Moragi" from the station). Both of these were purely because I have the minis from my 40k army collections. (Sorry about the spellings) All in all, it has made for a great game with loads of twists and turns. Best Boardgame (from Games Workshop) Ever!!!

[@AlwaysBoardNeverBoring]

It's a great game, and it sounds like you've had a lot of fun adding new content. Nice one.

[@Gillemear]

@@AlwaysBoardNeverBoring Yep, made lockdown go by a bit easier. Just wish they had published conversion rules or a make-your-own expedition set. Ah well!

[@AlwaysBoardNeverBoring]

@@Gillemear I'm still surprised we never got any kind of adversary pack like with did with Shadows Over Hammerhal.

[@Gillemear]

@@AlwaysBoardNeverBoring Would have been useful but can't complain. It was fun coming up with my own stuff while stuck at home. Pity it will be next year before I get to play it. Other than solo play, I have not had a single game all year.

[@TinyDiodes]

The one cool thing about Abominable Intellect is that every single card has a twist. I just use it as a Twist Pack, and every time I roll the Event that says to draw for a twist, I just pull one from this pack.

[@AlwaysBoardNeverBoring]

Yeah, I mentioned in the video about the twists and also came to that conclusion in my original review of the pack. That’s what I use the deck for as well.

[@dirtybirdsf]

It was an excellent run. Thank you for covering the game in such depth.

[@AlwaysBoardNeverBoring]

Thanks for watching. It's been a labour of love, really. I hope we have a new Quest to enjoy next year.

[@Thedagda801]

Great summary and thank you!

[@AlwaysBoardNeverBoring]

Thanks. I hope you found it useful.

[@poliboygamevids]

I know this is a year old video. I want to thank the presenter for giving a very detailed description of BSF expansions. I came in late with BSF My very first WHQ is the 1995 WHQ that I purchased in 1996 (?) which I still have not opened to this day (still in shrink wrap). I bought it in a small computer store. I decided to search for all the BSF expansions mentioned in this video, and found all of them in new shrink wrapped condition, and bought all of them. It was an expensive investment but well worth it. I'm planning to retire and I want to try and get as many of these hard to find boardgames.

[@AlwaysBoardNeverBoring]

Thank you for watching. I’m really glad you found the video helpful in collecting all the expansions.

[@nickgraney2119]

Great overview, sounds like you really enjoyed this series of the game and expansion. How much have you spent on blackstone (you said you bought everything) and how many hours of gameplay do you think you had until completion? Having completed the narrative, do you think you will play this again as a story arc, or just certain missions on your own or with friends? I bet there was a certain feeling of loss/mourning when you completed the narrative and all had sunk in! I'm slowly getting back into gaming (long time absence since my teens) and am sorry to have missed out on the quest series of games as they would have been right up my street. I'm watching closely to see where GW goes next with the quest set of boxed games as I think I will buy into the next series. Another good watch, thanks for sharing (also like the fact your uploads aren't continually interrupted with adverts, although I acknowledge its not a good point from your perspective) Thanks!

[@AlwaysBoardNeverBoring]

Thanks. I try to keep the adverts to a minimum because I know how frustrating they are, but I have to have a few just to keep the lights on. Blackstone Fortress cost me a hefty chunk of change, although I bought most of it online from Element Games so got a bit of a discount. The core game was around £80, then there was four small expansions at approximately £32 each, two large expansions at £55, the three card packs at around £10 each, the annual at £13, and lots of White Dwarf magazines at £5 each. It's still less than I paid for the copy of Kingdom Death: Monster which sits gathering dust on my shelf. I definitely would play again through the whole story, but not for a while. It got hours and hours of play time (too many to think about really) and I still pick it up to do one-off dungeon plunges. Although you have access to all of the heroes throughout your campaign, there are still some I haven't played much, and having the option to go through again and focus on different team builds, combined with the randomness of the dungeons, keeps things pretty fresh.

[@ghostwood9174]

@@AlwaysBoardNeverBoring Stealing an idea from a comment on another BSF video: use the character cards as game mechanic templates and proxy in your own models to create a unique narrative campaign of your own. The comment was suggestive of proxy’ing AdMech models and playing an explorator squad.

[@roxby1407]

thanks for this helpful video! i hate myself that i didnt buy the game / expansions back in the time it came out. :(

[@AlwaysBoardNeverBoring]

Thanks so much for watching. I'm sorry to hear you missed out. I am hopeful we will see a new Quest game at some point this year, and I will certainly cover it if that turns out to be the case.

[@stevenkennedy4130]

Thanks for the share!!

[@blackraptor311]

Working on Gotfret de Montbard just when you brought out this video out. That would be finish the Escalation expansion. Then I would have the Dreaded Abull, Deadly Alliance, and Ascension. Then I will post up my results on youtube (I'll et you know when that comes out) while learning how to play the game solo. Spent a good chunk of two months painting. Glad to get it when I did since we are practically at the tail end of its run. Warcry tempts me to buy though so maybe another project in the future.

[@AlwaysBoardNeverBoring]

You are a machine with your painting. I'm in awe of how you ploughed through everything so quickly. I'm holding on to my pennies for now, just in case we get a new Quest release soon.

[@blackraptor311]

@@AlwaysBoardNeverBoring I got this game because, if I get everything, I don't have to worry about new editions and codex creep and the ongoing problems with trying to keep up with regular 40K or Warhammer. Otherwise I would not have bothered. Games Workshop tend to be pointlessly expensive compared to the old days so I ignored them for several years. With Blackstone Fortress, I have about all there is to have (minus the card deck expansions which I'm not worried about).

[@AlwaysBoardNeverBoring]

@@blackraptor311 yeah, the card decks are nice enough but you aren’t missing much. You have all the important stuff. I hope you have fun with it all!

[@fumarc4501]

I still want all the base and 2 main expansions. Ideally I’d like Deadly Alliance & Servants of the Abyss. A mad grab for Deadly Ambull if possible, but not holding my breath.

[@AlwaysBoardNeverBoring]

It is getting very dicey in terms of picking up those expansions. I hope you manage to get everything you want.

[@fumarc4501]

5 months later and I have everything I set out to get. I even managed to get my hands on 8 spindle drones, total of 12, and have a 3rd Guardian Drone. Needless to say, I’m a very happy Git.

[@imdeaded]

Should start doing playthrough with the expansions. Cause of covid i havent been playing with my mates. And i think we fiddled with trying to learn the rules. GW only released the how to vid for the main game .

[@AlwaysBoardNeverBoring]

Thanks for the suggestion. I don't really see myself doing any playthroughs. I've done so much coverage of the game on my channel I'm not sure I have the energy for that right now!

[@MarcPastyr]

So do u need to play these expansions in release order or can u jump to say escalation then to traitor command and that would b ok

[@AlwaysBoardNeverBoring]

You need to play base game, Escalation, and Ascension in that order for the story. The other expansions are little side quests that don't really impact on the main narrative so you don't need to play them in any particular sequence. However, you need the contents of Escalation to play any expansion that came out after Escalation, so from a component perspective it's better to play through Escalation before you tackle those. As far as I'm concerned, the best way to experience the game is to play the expansions in the sequence they were released.

[@stevenray8737]

Great series of videos. Bought in as far as the core game, Ambull & Annual. Its frustrating in that I really would like to order Ascension but requires Escalation, an expansion for which I have no interest in at all (certainly not for £65, on top of £65!) and is out of stock anyway even if I had. I do hope that the Zoat becomes available separately as I missed out on it. Great coverage though and thank you.

[@AlwaysBoardNeverBoring]

Honestly, while Escalation is expensive, I thought it was the best value of the lot, really. Four new heroes, a retinue character, new enemies (with a mini mini boss), a new boss (without a miniature), new hero ships, new weapons, new map tiles, a sizeable campaign with the new searching mechanism, content required for all of the following expansions, and the continuation of the main narrative made it really exciting for me. I wouldn't be surprised to see some of these models coming out as separate purchases now that the game has reached the end of its life, so you might be lucky with the zoat. Hope you manage to get it.

[@stevenray8737]

There certainly is praise for Escalation, but I'm disappointed that its only Imperium explorers and more chaos traitors, with nothing new on the Fortress and xenos side( as in Urghuls and Drones, and the Eldar and Kroot explorers ), considering its the big expansion to move the narrative forward. Thats not necessarily a bad thing, but I think making it essential to other expansions was a bad idea. For example, a player who picks up a copy of the core game now has only Ascension available to them, and yet its a pointless purchase if they can't get Escalation to make use of it...bit hard to shift stock in that respect, and even more so when the real cost of Ascension is £130. That said its worked out really well as I had purchased the Ambull kit on release( only for the model ) and together with the 2019 annual and core game, I think its plenty of content for the price. I've got a feeling we'll be seeing more of the Zoats going forward - one has even found its way into Blood Bowl of all games, and looks pretty fierce! Cheers!

[@AlwaysBoardNeverBoring]

I always wanted more constructs, and more stuff focused on the Fortress itself, as well. It's the one thing I think they could have delved into more, as it was a perfect opportunity for some new, exciting alien stuff. Having said that, I did like the chaos element in the story, and how they effectively worked as a rival faction who were as baffled by the Fortress as you were.

[@yogibbear]

Oh this looks amazing. I want all of it. Oh it's out of stock! :( XD :'(

[@AlwaysBoardNeverBoring]

Yes, unfortunately the game is winding down. The core set is still available, but if you want it all, it's going to be very hard (and incredibly expensive) to get it. I think we will get a sequel next year, so my best suggestion is to keep an eye out to see what happens with that.

[@yogibbear]

@@AlwaysBoardNeverBoring Yeah basically once I was sold on it from your other videos I've just been waiting for any news of a new Warhammer Quest series.

[@PakornThaipituk]

Price of the No Respite, only one small expansion of a game, in ebay is equal (or almost) to amount of money to pay for Etherfields or Tainted Grail all in. (- -)

[@AlwaysBoardNeverBoring]

Yeah. Unfortunately, the prices on eBay are terrible.

[@johnfarscape]

I just started looking at Blackstone Fortress today, had too many other projects to do untill now, didn't want to add the the pile of unpainted shame. . . Couldn't find anything in stock anywhere, ended up paying £100 for a 2nd hand copy of just the base game on Ebay 😪, supprised by all the really positive reviews that it was discontinued after only 2 years.

[@AlwaysBoardNeverBoring]

Unfortunately, Games Workshop never keep the sideline games live for long - look at Space Hulk, which is consistently praised yet hasn't come back into print since a single run in 2014.

[@johnfarscape]

@@AlwaysBoardNeverBoring bearing in mind they always say paying the sculpters and making the molds for the plastic models is 80% of the cost of the games they sell this makes absolutely no sence, just looked on ebay and the escalation expansion just sold for £200 with over 50 bidders so obviously the demand for the products from the game is still there. . I tried to get escalation for over a year initially just for the tech priest model as I didn't play the game then but it was always out of stock. They already have everything they need to produce more . . It's the sake with cursed city, I sneezed and missed the chance to buy it, scalpers copies are going for £300+ on ebay. All these limited runs or very limited offers just seem to be making scalpers richer and really annoying the fanbase.

[@AlwaysBoardNeverBoring]

@@johnfarscape It's frustrating. Don't pay over £300 for Cursed City, though; you can easily get it for around £200, and some have sold recently for closer to £150, including a built copy for £100!

[@user-dd2jz8cl2h]

0:05 "Heywubdyowaysboudnewoborin" that's how I listen it, lol))))))))))