Warhammer Quest Cursed City Nightwars Review

Warhammer Quest Cursed City is a tabletop adventure game set in Games Workshop's fantasy Warhammer setting. Players take control of a group of heroes, trying to wrestle control of the undead-controlled Ulfenkarn from Radukar the Wolf. The core game released in early 2021 (we previewed it here), quickly sold out, disappeared from sale and has now come back on general release for anyone who missed out on the initial run. Launching alongside the core game is a brand new expansion pack, Nightwars, and in this article, we'll take a spoiler free look at what's in the box and talk about who it's for.

What Is Warhammer Quest Cursed City?

Warhammer Quest Cursed City is different from your usual games of Warhammer or Age of Sigmar, in that players take on the role of heroes, rather than throwing 2 opposing armies or warbands against each other, and cooperatively try to defeat groups of AI-controlled enemies and bosses. The players embark on missions, increasing their skills and abilities, weakening the enemy, and taking out lower-level captains until they are ready to face Radukar himself. Warhammer Quest has always been an adventure game, as a spiritual successor to Heroquest, with its initial release in 1995, subsequent releases in the Age of Sigmar setting, and more recently in the Warhammer 40,000 setting in Warhammer Quest Blackstone Fortress.

What Do You Need To Play Warhammer Quest Cursed City Nightwars?

Nightwars is an expansion pack, so a copy of the Warhammer Quest Cursed City core game is required. It's also designed for players who have already completed the main game's quest, so you won't need to pick it up straight away if you're only picking up Cursed City now.

Nightwars also doesn't contain any of the miniatures that are required to play the expansion. The reason for this could be due to the issues with the Cursed City stock back during its original release, and the miniatures for it have been available for a while under the Age of Sigmar Soulblight Gravelords faction. Releasing the expansion with the miniatures included could force Soulblight players to duplicate miniatures they already own. It would be nice to see a bundle of the miniatures that are required to play, rather than the 5 separate sets that are required. All 5 sets don't all need to be purchased at the same time, and you can buy them as you progress through the campaign. Most players will probably want to pick them all up together and work through assembly and painting while they progress through the campaign.

The miniatures required to use Nightwars are:

• Radukar the Beast
• Fell Bats
• Carmilla DuSang
• Lady Annika the Thirsting Blade
• Kritza the Rat Prince

Radukar the Beast and the Fell Bats can appear at any time with the new cards so they should be your first purchase if looking to start using Nightwars straight away, purchasing the other 3 as you wish to face them.

What's In the Warhammer Quest Cursed City Nightwars Expansion?

Nightwars is a brand new quest for Cursed City, continuing immediately after the end of the original quest story. It contains a quest book and the rules for 4 new vampire lords to face in the aftermath of the Ulfenkarn in Peril quest. It contains the hostile reference cards for these vampires, their power cards (and also some sealed higher-level power cards), a Nightwars quest card, and new board tiles and tokens. It also contains new empowerment cards, encounter cards, and a new adversary, the fell bats that you can use before you finish the core games quest.

Nightwars also contains some new rules for downtime between missions, and as heroes pass Level 5, they can now also gain an elite class, which they can progress through 3 levels of during the quest.

What Are Our Final Thoughts On Warhammer Quest Cursed City Nightwars?

Nightwars is a great second campaign for Cursed City. It continues the story of and adds some character progression. It will take several games, with a steeper challenge level than the original. The 2 most expensive miniatures to buy, Radukar the Beast and the Fell Bats, are the ones that appear the most during the campaign. The other 3 are required for their decapitation missions and may appear during play, but not as often as the higher-level enemies did in the original campaign. This is a shame because they're great miniatures, and it would be great to see them get more play. You can however use them in a Soulblight Gravelords army for Age of Sigmar.

Should I Buy Warhammer Quest Cursed City Nightwars?

If you've played through the whole Cursed City campaign, loved it, and want more, then Nightwars and the purchase of the additional miniatures are very worth it, even more so if you love the Soulblight faction and their ascetic. If you're just playing through Cursed City now, then it might be worth seeing if you enjoy it to the end before looking to pick it up. If you're not interested in picking up the miniatures separately, then there's not enough in here to justify the purchase without them, it doesn't add much to the game without playing through the Nightwars quest. If you're happy to pick up Radukar and the Fell Bats and start playing, then it's worth it to start, but you will need to pick up at least one of the three vampires before you go too far in order to start progressing the campaign.

Nightwars is enjoyable, the new vampires offer an interesting challenge and it's good to see the progression of Ulfenkarn. Hopefully, we'll see a new complete expansion soon now that production appears to be back on track.

The copy of Warhammer Quest Cursed City Nightwars used to produce this preview was provided by Games Workshop.