Boardgames from Games Workshop

[abhorsen950]

I've recently picked up the thirst for boardgames again, I think its to find a different type of gaming. I've been looking at Talisman and I know Games Workshop published it along with many other boardgames. From what I can gather they did have a few boardgames out in the earlier days of the company, any of you guys play them? If so which ones?

Thanks for stopping
Steve

[Supercollider]

I like Lost Patrol, cracking little game.  A bit like Space Hulk, where you build the hostile jungle board as you go, and equally lethal for the marines.

Also enjoy BloodBowl.  And I suppose Man O War is technically a minis game, but that's a great laugh too

[Gibby]

Blood Bowl. Seriously, it goes beyond simple board gaming - it's fantastic!

[abhorsen950]

I have to agree with you guys on blood bowl its fantastic and clearly people agree as its still going today!
Thanks for your input
Steve

[Rabbitz]

Blood Bowl
Battlecars
Dark Future
Curse of the mummys tomb
Warrior Knights
Fury of Dracular

All great GW games in their time and some of them (if not all of them ) have current editions out too.

[matakishi]

Fury of Dracula, excellent game recently reissued with different mechanics that change the play style and balance. The earlier version is much better (and much more expensive)
Talisman, originally dull after a couple of plays, now dull straight from the box. Roll and move game with tedious game length.
Battlecars, fun but fiddly by today's standards. Better than Car Wars.
Warrior Knights, sub Kingmaker warring Barons game. New version available.
Warlock, Good duelling wizards game but dated now.
Apocalypse, a gem of a game, world domination in the nuclear age. Brilliant mechanics and a lot of fun.
Valley of the Four Winds, too complicated and fiddly now, don't bother.
Judge Dredd, yes!
Block Mania, no.
Blood Royale, Overly long dynasty building game set in medieval Europe, unbalanced with an excruciatingly tedious endgame.
Chainsaw Warrior, solo game, great title crap game.
Cosmic Encounter, brilliant space colonising game. Buy this. Recently reissued in a great format. Several versions available, avoid the Avalon Hill version.
Kings and Things, good game, recently reissued, a bit long and fiddly and not as funny as it likes to think.
Railway Rivals, classic great railway game. Available in other formats.

Italicised games are GW originals, others are licenced and often better. There are others but I haven't played them.

[Danrit]

I agree with Matakishi about Fury of Dracula, a top class game and the original is best. I got it for £1 when the local GW got rid of all their decent stuff, just as everything changed to Warhammer only. It reaches £50 on Ebay sometimes.
I've used Blood Royale as a historical version of Mighty Empires, each battle being done using Warmaster, and the game being fleshed out with extra narrative and a newsletter. It would need a lifetime to finish though!

[Michi]

CHAOS MARAUDERS

[Christian]

Does Warhammer Quest count as a boardgame? More like RPG lite I think, but it's on a board, so there.

Talisman is a wonderful game. Funny it started off as a snakes and ladders variant to become the prefect of the school (rather than the awesomest adventurer).

[myincubliss]

Dungeonquest was a fun boardgame, kinda like a talisman-lite, that occupied many hours of young me's life... Although earlier in the year I found a copy of Chainsaw Warrior in the YMCA shop for a couple of quid that I still haven't gotten round to playing...

[JollyBob]

I totally agree with Matakishi re: Fury of Dracula, Talisman and Blood Royale. I don't think I ever finished a game of the last two, they just went on and on and on and... 

Doesn't Heroquest count as a GW game? I know it was produced in conjunction with MB, but surely it has to be one of the best (or at least most fondly remembered) boardgames they did.

There were also those short-lived "lite" versions of games they did in the early nineties, there was a bloodbowl type one and a few others.

These ones:

http://www.solegends.com/citcat911/c2151fantasygames.htm

[fastolfrus]

Only played a few GW boardgames.
Fury of Dracula was reasonable.
Space Hulk was usually ok (before they started adding all the extra gubbins that usually distorted the original game)
Talisman was ok but not exactly intellectual. The additional sets were appalling - clompletely imbalanced the game (one of the add-ons meant you could finish the game in 1 move, giving playing time less than set-up time)
Some of the MB colaborations were reasonable, if only for the huge number of figures (but not usually for the rules), Space Crusade, Heroquest, Battlemasters.

Still got quite a few of the old games but rarely play them.

If you are looking for games worth repeat playing, Cartagena is a fiendishly easy but really tricky game, quite fast to play probably best with 3-4 players.
Memoir 44 is enjoyable, only 2 players but lots of scenarios.
Beowulf is interesting (and was available cheaply through The Works last year) and plays fairly quickly. Another abstract one though.

[Luthaaren Von Tegale]

We used to play a lot of the GW board games when they first came out including;
Talisman 1st Ed
Bloodbowl 1st Ed
Battlecars & Battlebikes
Block Mania
Blood Royale

Great times.

vT

[Onebigriver]

Space Hulk was usually ok (before they started adding all the extra gubbins that usually distorted the original game)

"Usually OK"?  Great game, absolutely love it, although I agree that supplemental rules were fiddly until you got used to them.

I recommend Heroquest too. You can pick copies up pretty cheaply on Ebay or even download the board and and card components from one of many sites on the net.

[matakishi]

Board games, as with everything, are a subjective thing I hated Spacehulk because it was so predictable, you could tell from the map who was going to win.
There are many, many great board games in the world, none of them are from Games Workshop unfortunately.