BQP: The Frozen Horror Remake Main Thread!

[Kurgan]

Will have to scrutinize this one... and play test it. They want feedback!

I'm glad it exists, after 30 years!

[Hogg]

Thanks for that!

Now that you mention it, the henchmen are all "pretty" (even the guys). I guess that's why they refused to wear helmets (the biggest sin, in my humble opinion) this time. At least there are 2x of them, but that's going to cost 2x the gold to hire them.*

I've been told that you can use a VPN to get the App in your country. Might try that (alas, no smartphone or tablet for me so I can't really use it).

The Errata has a bonus quest that they recommend you play first, which will give you plenty of gear and some tips that should make it much better, including some awesome artifacts never acquired in the 1992 edition.

* The Horn of Command artifact lets you hire them back at a reduced price!

So FH issues addressed so far:

Needing toolkit and body armor sooner.
Needing some gold sooner.
Needing more healing potions sooner.
Finding the Armband of Ice artifact.
Yeti hug attack vs. solo hero (not used in solo quests, later one character can be immune).
Solo hero needing some backup.
Ice Gremlins stealing too much stuff (easier to get back and at least one person can be immune).
Polar Warbears too powerful (artifact weapon to do more damage to them, you pick which attack to roll to defend against).
New big Frozen Horror is bigger than doorways and single corridors.
Needing Mercenaries sooner (Animal allies in solo quests, 2x mercenaries available to hire, artifact reduces retainer fee).

General:
Bad movement rolls are annoying ("Unthreatened movement" option, 4 movement per red die option instead when no monsters around).

Not addressed: Traps on the other side of an open door, or undetectable traps.

They also added a clarification about occupied Ice Tunnel tiles, which didn't seem necessary, but will probably help someone out.

[Kurgan]

Yeah I suppose originally you could block an ice tunnel by having someone just sit on top it (forcing you to use up Veil of Mist I guess?), so an "anti-griefing" measure there.

[Kurgan]

The official errata/intro quest posted... ! https://hasbropulse.com/blogs/avalon-hill/heroquest-a-chilling-journey-north

Thanks to Encarmine for the news!

Will be recording a video of my thoughts shortly...

[Kurgan]

And here it is: https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1526338204 !

[Sinned]

Played the first group quest with my 11 y/o son.
I gave him a boatload of weapons and equipment and most of the artifacts. This way he was well prepared.

We immediately found out about the Yeti hug problem.
Barbarian was attacked through a door. Yeti grabbed him and hugged him.
Thankfully the others could attack diagonally otherwise it would have been a lost case for Conan.

A fun quest, but not as "clever" as several of the european Quests.

[wallydubbs]

The official errata/intro quest posted... ! https://hasbropulse.com/blogs/avalon-hill/heroquest-a-chilling-journey-north

Thanks to Encarmine for the news!

Will be recording a video of my thoughts shortly...

Good reporting Kurgan.
I just got around to downloading the quest. I haven't played it yet, but I looks through it, read the attachments and all and just want to put in my opinion on it.
First off their solution to the Yeti problem is lazy. "Yeah, the Yeti hug rule still stands, but in a solo quest, don't do it.
At least some of us at the inn used the dagger approach.

I have no problem with a hero being accompanied by a wolf or pet, but giving it 5BP? This thing has more health then the Wizard... Just an uncomfortable thought, I guess.

All the other artifacts they've introduced are ok:
Armor that prevents Ice Gremlins from stealing, nice!
A shield that prevents the Yeti from grabbing you, even better!
No complaints on the command horn either.
But there's this Ice Queen's Spear that is essentially useless unless you're unarmed. I acknowledge that it's supposed to give you a small boost over the Polar Warbear, but if the heroes are already maxed out: The Wizard can't use it, so if you're the Barbarian, Elf or Dwarf a Long Sword will give you better attack against everything else and still give you 3 attack dice/diagonal attack against a Polar Warbear. The idea of artifacts is to give you a boost that regular artifacts cannot do.

In regards to the Frozen Horror taking up 4 spaces, the question of his movement was not answered. Do we count the next 2x2 double square as 1 space or is 1 square over on either the X or Y axis count as 1 movement?
It also says that he can go through the doorway and somehow fit into the hallway... I think it would make him a lot more intimidating if he could just knock down walls. Who needs a door when you're that big?

Otherwise the quest itself seemed pretty straightforward. However the coldness of Room G is not acknowledged to cause damage like most Ice Vaults. I think I counted at least 3 attainable potions of healing for 4BP in this Quest. Unless you have really poor rolls and Snowdasher dies early on this Quest should be doable. But like I said, they wussed out on the Yeti hug.

Also I laughed out loud when I read Quest note G: "Searching the room, the hero can find 200 gold coins as well as the long-lost artifact called the Armband of Ice.
This artifact was so long-lost, we had to wait 30 years for a remake with an added quest just so it can be found!
I feel when they said "long-lost" it was an acknowledgement of past mistakes without the admission of guilt.

[Nlinindoll]

This artifact was so long-lost, we had to wait 30 years for a remake with an added quest just so it can be found!
I feel when they said "long-lost" it was an acknowledgement of past mistakes without the admission of guilt.

None of the people in Avalon Hill worked on the game back in 1990 when it was Milton Bradley. What’s the point in assigning guilt? The fine folks at Avalon Hill surely aren’t guilty of those past mistakes.

[Kurgan]

Of course not, I took it as that they're still representing Hasbro with this and all HeroQuest releases (by the way, Milton Bradley was owned by Hasbro when HeroQuest was first released, but the brand is no longer used on their current products).

Assuming the wiki article on the company is accurate, the AH team now began in the late 90's (after HQ was a dead franchise, officially). So yeah, they had nothing to do with the vintage versions of the game, with the lone exception of Stephen Baker (who, as frequenters of this forum realize, didn't single-handedly create HQ as we know it, even if he was the original idea guy for the '89 first edition... all of HQ has always been a collaborative effort).

[Kurgan]

Looks like mine was delivered today. Not much more to say about it, but we'll see... (got a bottle of blue paint ready for the female Barbarian)

And I see the Companion App (which I WAS able to install via Bluestacks emulator on my brand new system after tweaking my virtualization settings) has a "coming soon" picture showing the Frozen Horror. I imagine it's only a matter of time before that and Into the Northlands appear. I wonder if it will coincide with the official August 1st release date, or maybe any GenCon announcements?

It took 17 days for Amazon to deliver my "order" (not pre-order), paid proper MSRP:

Initial reactions:

The box has that same fine texture on the outside and brown cardboard on the inside like the other remake boxes. Square, slightly larger than the other expansions.
As pointed out... the extra pad of (modified design but same content, except goes up to 10 quests not 14) character sheets, the extra combat dice and the extra movement dice were not part of the 1992 original.
Two candy tray holding the components... they aren't quite as snug in there and the dip that holds the cards is a little nicer almost as if these trays were intended to last and be used a lot longer rather than thrown away promptly after unboxing for play.
Tiles come in a single folded sheet of punch-out chipboard with linen finish on both sides.
cards come in those paper loops like the other remake sets.
The new combat dice have higher quality control (inscribing, paint) than the Mythic tier dice.
Everything seems to be of the same level of quality otherwise.
No tape loops on the box to peel, just regular shrink wrap (major improvement!).
Figures look great, although I will be re-painting the Barbarian a shade of blue. She is explicitly holding the new design of the "broadsword" along with a shield that looks very similar to the ones carried by the Guardian Knights (and a similar pose as well... keep in mind this pose is mirroring the original version). She looks a little bulkier than the original woman though, which is fine.
Appreciate the sculpts. The Ice Gremlins being slightly smaller wasn't necessary, because although they resemble blue goblins, they are much stronger in-game.
As Amalgamash and Joe Kamler and others have pointed out... the giant Frozen Horror has a "black monster shield" carving on the underside of his huge 2x2 squared (circular) base.
The mercs are all dark gray (them appearing super light gray or dark blue... even navy blue on the back of the box are incorrect, due to lightning conditions or possibly variants in the prototyping process).
The tiles are all double sided as expected with the same linen finish as the other remake stuff.
LOTS of the Tiles have big "Hasbro 2022" text on them. Why? In the Mythic set only the "tavern tile" from Joe's mythic exclusive had this (along with a huge MADE IN CHINA label in the corner). I wish they had put these labels on the edges so when you punch them out they're gone, but oh well. The single square tiles don't have these things on them (I realize the playing cards always had a prominent logo and date).
Same bendy quality polymer in the miniatures as in the Mythic set. Some unboxings show the miniatures as very "shiny" in the light but mine had a more matte finish to them, which is fine and what I was expecting.
Quest book follows the same conventions established by the previous remake sets... blank quest map with symbols at the end, alchemist shop card images and such at the beginning and artifact images at the end. Redesigned artwork to reflect what's on the cards/minis.
The "undetectable traps" are a greenish color rather than acqua/cyan like the original.
The "magic ice" tiles have been redesigned to have a white starburst/swirl type of image on top instead of blue text reading "magic ice" as in the original.
Half the mercenaries are female and all four types have a unique design. Since the weapons are not removable, there are 2x the number of mercs than in the original version (3x of each of four designs). This is no problem as the rules state that each hero can hire as many as they can afford between quests (starting with Quest 4) and if Zargon runs out of monsters (when evil mercs are called for in the quest) he is supposed to substitute a figure of "similar strength" .

I can't quite tell or maybe it's my imagination but the quest book pages might be a little thinner than the Mythic books, I'll compare later (granted there are only 10 quests so it should be about as thick as the Joe Mangianello quest book from that earlier set). Same stitching (no staples), same rough format. No changes in the text as others have noted other than the expected Fimir to Abomination, Chaos to Dread word substitutions. Female Barbarian is called an alternate Barbarian. Gender neutral pronouns to reference Zargon in the quest book. Have to do a direct comparison to see if any other subtle changes...

All of the errata and fixes are in "Into the Northlands" online quest, not here. The gameplay, mechanics, warts and all appear to be the same here as in 1992. I haven't compared it page by page to see any other issues or small changes yet, but will when I have time.

I'll probably strip the white pips off of the movement dice and make them silver. I suppose they could be "snow" or to match the combat dice, but they seem much more boring (I feel the same way about the white pips on the red dice in the Mythic tier... make them shiny gold I say.... just have to find myself some Citadel gold in the right shade).

As "Into the Northlands" points out, even though the Frozen Horror is twice the size of the original one, he is supposed to move like a normal piece... able to pass through open doors and travel down single square corridors without a problem.