2025 marks a special birthday for one of Games Workshop’s most beloved game series: Warhammer Quest. For all of you starting to feel your age, we celebrate 30 years since the release of the very first Warhammer Quest game all the way back in 1995. Warhammer TV presenter Nick has become besotted with this classic, and recently kicked off a campaign which subscribers to Warhammer+ can watch right now. We asked him to tell its tale.
Nick: Warhammer Quest is Games Workshop’s classic dungeoneering adventure game, in which players could seek their fame and fortune throughout the Old World. The base set saw a Barbarian, an Elf, a Dwarf, and a Wizard team up to explore dark and deep places – slaying monsters, earning treasure, and saving the day. This was a different kind of Warhammer game; instead of playing against your friends and defeating them, you needed to cooperate against the enemies that were set against you. Of course, you were always secretly competing to be the best…
Using a system of Dungeon Cards, players would explore the corridors and rooms of some forgotten lair: an abandoned Dwarf Hold in the World’s Edge Mountains, the sewers under some great city, or a dungeon in a far-off castle. You would lay out tiles and construct your own map, putting monsters to the sword in their own homes and grabbing the loot. The Adventure Book contained 30 preconstructed objectives, all full of character and classic Warhammer-y goodness, so the replayability factor was huge.
The box came with tons of classic plastic Games Workshop miniatures, including swarms of Snotlings and Giant Spiders, Orcs, Goblins, Skaven, and fearsome Minotaurs. The monstrous Roleplay Book even allowed you to create adventures yourself using just about any and all monsters in the contemporary range (which was a lot of monsters), as well as visit towns and settlements between adventures to spend your gold on better equipment, exotic potions, and training. It meant dungeoneers had loads of breadth to expand and create their own experience, although the game was notoriously tricky – and you should never count on your hero to survive long…
Your characters could reach the heights of level 10 – the equivalent of the mightiest heroes on the battlefield at the time. Nine extra warriors were released separately, including the Dwarf Trollslayer, the Imperial Noble, the Bretonnian Knight, the Elf Ranger, the Witch Hunter, the Warrior Priest of Sigmar, the Wardancer, the Chaos Warrior, and the Pit Fighter, while extra rules for the Halfling Thief and Kislevite Shaman were available through mail order.*
Proving super popular, the game spawned two expansions almost straight away – with Lair of the Orc Lord and Catacombs of Terror allowing warriors to face dungeons loaded with Orcs and the Undead retrospectively, both full of new miniatures including the dreaded Orc Warlord, Gorgut, and the skeletal Dread King, sat upon his throne.
Warhammer Quest even had its own magazine – Deathblow – published for a time, which included loads of expanded rules, articles, modelling ideas, and more. Beloved to this day, there is still a dedicated community online who play the game, come up with new adventures and monsters, and tweak rules. It truly has lasted the test of time, and, having played it a lot recently myself, I can see why.
Celebrating Warhammer Quest on Warhammer TV
Over on Warhammer TV (the video service available to Warhammer+ subscribers), we have started a new series of our show Questing Nights. We sit down as a group and play through a campaign – our first series on Blackstone Fortress is available to watch now. So when we realised that this year is the 30th anniversary of the original, we knew we had to play it.
It just so happened that I had a complete set in my possession: all the cards, tiles, and miniatures. But with only two months to go before shooting, I had a lot of miniatures to paint! What an experience it was painting up these glorious, classic miniatures, trying to match the 90s painting style as best I could. Many hours were spent smiling by candlelight, I can tell you.
I recruited fellow presenters Simon, Josh, Alex, and Ed to play a mini campaign during our lunchtimes. Once we had plenty of experience under our belt, we headed to the Warhammer TV studios and the cameras rolled. Oh boy, did we have a lot of fun.
The first episode of this season of Questing Nights is out right now – Warhammer+ subscribers can check it out here. The whole team has poured a lot of passion into the series and we really hope you enjoy it!
Warhammer Quest at Warhammer World
If you’re heading to Warhammer World before 6th July, then you’ll be able to see a display of Warhammer Quest through the years in the exhibition there, with classic boxes, miniatures, and more to take a look at.
Phew! That’s quite the whistle-stop tour through the glory of classic Warhammer Quest – thanks Nick! Watch the first episode of Questing Nights, as well as a host of great animations and exclusive shows, by subscribing to Warhammer+ right now.
* Some of these long-lost miniatures have even returned to the Old World on a Made to Order basis over the past year.
