Warhammer Quest: Blackstone Fortress is a great game for many reasons. It explores aspects of the 41st millennium that couldn’t be given the right about of attention in main line 40k, such as creatures like Zoats and Ambulls. Its model range is brilliant and offers budding converters a chance to create unique characters to lead their armies. But most of all, it does a great job at converting the standard dungeon crawler format from the worlds of high fantasy to the grim dark future we all know and love.
Many players have become enamoured the residents of Precipice and the denizens of the Fortress over the last couple of years, including yours truly. Battling through its dark corridors across the main campaign and its expansion has allowed us to face down a myriad of foes, and even make some allies too. Whether it’s the Servants of the Abyss, the forces of the Plague God or even the defences of the structure itself, an exploration of the Fortress is rarely empty of threats to test intrepid adventurers.
But what happen when the enemy isn’t a pack of Beastmen or a squad of Traitor Guardsmen? What happens when the only thing standing in your way, is another party of explorers?
Blackstone Fortress PvP is a way of playing Warhammer Quest, which allows you to simulate an encounter between two groups of treasure hunters in some dark corner of the structure. This two player game mode will pit two groups of explorers against one another in a battle to the death, as both seek to claim one to the Fortress many artefacts for themselves. To play PvP, all you need is the main box game. If you have access to the Escalation expansion that is great, but don’t worry if not.
To set up a game of PvP, all you will have to do is follow this setup guide.
1. Each player rolls the blackstone dice, and the winner of the roll off selects one of the available explorers. Then the next player chooses an available explorer. Continue in this order until each player has four explorers each.
2. Randomly select one of the combat exploration cards in your collection, and set up the map as instructed. Place the discovery markers as instructed by the map.
3. The player who chose an explorer first places all their explorers on the transport chamber. If the exploration card is an ambush, then they place all their explorers on the hexes marked with an A.
4. The player who chose an explorer second then selects on of the portals and replaces it with the second transport chamber. They then place all their explorers on that transport chamber.
5. Shuffle all the chosen explorer initiative cards together to from the initiative deck, and collect the appropriate character cards.
The game is then ready to play.
PvP is played like any other combat encounter, with the following alterations.
• All explorers controlled by another player are considered hostiles for the duration of the encounter.
• All explorers start the encounter uninspired.
• No hostiles are used in this encounter, this is a fight between the players.
• No destiny dice are rolled in the destiny phase. Instead at the start of each destiny phase each player receive a destiny counter. This counter counts as a destiny dice with the value of 1.
• Ignore the covering fire and gambit steps in a PvP encounter. The only exception to this is Janus Drakes Strategist and Inspired Strategist abilities.
• Replace the Search basic action with the following;
Search (4+): An explorer can take this action if they are in a hex that contains a discovery marker. It cannot be taken by an explorer that is adjacent to a hostile that visible to them. When this action is taken, remove the discovery marker from the hex. The explorer that performed this action in now inspired.
• Ignore the rules for Inspiration Rolls and Hostile Actions. Additionally, the basic action Summon is not used in this encounter.
• During the event phase, discard any unused destiny counter before rolling on the event table.
• This encounter uses this modified event table;
1, All is Dust: If there are any discovery markers still on the battlefield, randomly select one and discard it.
2-7, Unfulfilled Destiny: No one receives a destiny counter at the start the next turn.
8-13, Changing Conditions: Draw an encounter card. If the card has a twist, it applies for the rest of the combat. If not, there is no effect.
13-19, Inspiration: Each player picks an explorer. That explorer receives 1 inspiration point.
20, Inspired: Each player picks an explorer. That explorer becomes inspired.
• The game ends when all of one players explorers are all out of action, or a player concedes.
And that is PvP for Warhammer Quest: Blackstone Fortress. It’s a fun little game mode that is great for killing some time in-between expeditions, or if your waiting for another party member to arrive for game night. Hopefully it will give you some fun games at home while the world is in lockdown and beyond.
If you wanted to spice this game mode up you could try pitting a team of explorers against the Harlequin or Eversor Assassin, or even use some of your own home brewed explorers if you have them. If you do give it a go, let us know how you got on and what additions you would make to the rules if any.
If you want to contact me directly you can do so via twitter @MTGTengu, or contact me in the comments below. If you have enjoyed todays article, you want to support the site directly, you can join our Patreon for as little as a $1 a month. Until next time though remember, “Know yourself. Know your enemy. These are the first steps of every path.”
