Using Other Figures For Heroquest Part 1 - DragonStrike
This is the first of three articles about other games that I use pieces from in Heroquest. The articles are not a reviews of the games, even though I have played some of them. I bought them to use the pieces in Heroquest. If you want to purchase any of these games, some good places to try are:
Ebay (an online auction house). If you search there you should search for 'dragonstrike' (1 word) and 'dragon strike' (2 words) as the game is listed both ways.
You can also check Funagain Games, a game refurbisher.
Another place to check is the newsgroup rec.games.board.marketplace.
DragonStrike was made by TSR. It is currently out of print. It comes with 24 miniatures - 6 Heroes (Wizard, Dwarf, Barbarian,
Elf, Male Thief, Female Thief), 4 BugBears, 3 Death Knights, 3 Orcs, 2 Gargoyles, 1 Fire Elemental, 1 Giant, 1 Evil Wizard, 1 Troll, 1 Manscorpion, and 1 Dragon. Along with the figures, you also get four boards (2 double-sided ones) that can be used with HQ. The boards are: Village (which is quite a bit like the HQ board), Castle (once again - quite a bit like the HQ board),
Valley (an outdoor scene with roads and a river) and a Cavern. These are a bit smaller than the HQ board, but the squares are about the same size. The game also has some treasure cards that can be used as Artifact Cards, some spell cards for both the Heroes and Teraptus the Evil Wizard that can be used for new Hero Spells and Chaos Spells, and a bunch of tiles that can be used.
The figures are well made, but not as detailed as the HQ figures. They have the same type of bases as the HQ figures. Three of the figures are extra large and take two squares - the Troll, Manscorpion, and Dragon. One thing that may turn some people off the figures are the colors of some of them. The
Orc figures are blue, the BugBears are a light blue-green, and the Troll is a light green color. The colors of the other figures look better - the Death Knights, the Gargoyles, and the Giant are grey; the Fire Elemental, the Manscorpion, and the Dragon are red.
The figures seem to be made at the same scale as the HQ figures (28mm I believe). Since HQ already has Orcs and a Gargoyle, I use these figures as Hobgoblins and Lesser Demons. The DragonStrike Orcs and Gargoyles look nothing like the HQ ones, so this works out fine. The Hero figures can be used for the NPCs found in the game (such as Sir Ragnar in Quest #2 in the
original game quest book) instead of the Chaos Warlock. You can also use them for enemies, such as an evil swordsman, thief, etc. Some of the HQ webpages have rules for new Hero types; the figures can be used for these, also. The Hero figures are purple, so if you use them for NPCs or enemies the players
won't confuse them with the regular Heroes.
The extra boards are well made. The Castle and the Village may be of limited use, because these two scenarios are easily created with the HQ board. While creating a cave using the HQ board can be done, using the one that comes with DragonStrike may create more of a 'cavern' feel to the game. The Valley board
may be the most useful, though, as you cannot create an Outdoors scenario for HQ on the HQ board without using overlays.
One of the things I use these figures for is for more difficult monsters. The monsters that come with Heroquest are fairly basic, and I did not need any more easy monsters. The monsters I created range from only slightly harder (Hobgoblin) to extremely difficulty (Dragon).
Out of the three games that I bought to use with Heroquest, this is the one that I use the most. While the other two offer more figures to use, this one has the most different types of monsters. Since I created some tougher monsters, I did not need a bunch of each one.
Recommendation: If you are in need of some harder monsters, this is the game to get. The Dragon, Troll, and Manscorpion especially lend themselves to this. There are not as many figures as in the other three games I am reviewing, so if you want the most figures one of the other games may be for
you. If you like throwing in different sort of twists, the extra boards can be useful. The game has a lot of treasure and spell cards. Since most quests have few new artifacts in them, the treasure cards (similar to artifact cards) will keep you in ideas for a long time. Even though this game has fewer figures, this one is my favorite, and I have used these figures the most of the three games that I am reviewing.