Warhammer Quest was always a game that could suprise people. I’ve often found it to be the best thing to break out when faced with a tough crowd, amongst those who wouldnt normally play a wargame or an rpg. Every GW critic, every cinic fell in love with the game the first time they deathblowed their way through a crowded tunnel. So in light of my fondness for the game it would seem, therefore, ridiculous to think that only a few years ago in the midst of an anti-clutter zeal I binned my original copy as part of a house move.
This frankly god-awful decision was made during a period when I didn’t have a regular gaming group and we were faced with moving into a smaller house. The slight satisfaction gained from clearing some storage space lasted all of a year or so. At this point our gaming group was coming together and had become a regular fixture with the magic number of four attendees, and the horror of what I’d binned (I wasn’t even smart enough to flog it) began to sink in. Still, the great advantage of getting old is that you finally have the money to correct mistakes like these, and I found myself scanning ebay a couple of evenings a week, waiting an opportunity.
There is always plenty of WHQ stuff on ebay but complete sets are less common, and those in good condition even more so. Eventually my patience paid off and one month when my finances were in reasonable order I took the plunge and forked out the cash. In the end I manged to find a copy for £150, that the seller claimed had been looked at once and then exiled to attic. I crossed my fingers and hoped that the set was in as good condition as the auction claimed.My luck was in and when I collected the item I was astonsihed to find that the contents of the box were almost completly undisturbed.
Opening a old game like this was like travelling a decade or so back in time: the free plastic Necromunda Orlock figure, the same folding brochure that GW crammed into every box in the 90’s. Every figure was still on its sprue, every counter unpunched. For a moment it was alomst tempting to leave it as it was, to preserve it and let it appreciate, but that didnt last long. I do however regret not taking a picture of it before I started painting.
