Silver tower vs shadow over hammer

[Eonx_]

Hi all

 

I am trying to get my brother n his wife to get in to AOS.  I thought the best way to do this was thru a one of the board games. 

 

I see them play monopoly and other board games often. I have never GM or played DnD so that kinda scares me. 

 

Which game Should I pick up for us ? I'm kinda leaning to SOH since the fewer models to paint.

[rokapoke]

If you're nervous about being a GM, then Hammerhal may not be for you; it requires one person to basically run the dungeon. If you pick up the original Silver Tower game, though, the three of you can all play cooperatively. 

[Sharkbelly]

Agreed. It sounds like Silver Tower would be a good fit.

[Greasygeek]

Hammerhal is really great though. But yeah it gets much more fun if you roleplay a bit as gameplay is very simple. However why not consider Skirmish? If your wish is for your friends to play AOS? Skirmish is a great gateway as you have small cinematic combats oppose to huge armies fighting a rather complex game. The setting in Silvertower is really cool but if your friends are used to monopoly getting into the mood and weirdness of Tzeentch's Silvertower might have a negative effect. Just saying..

[Eonx_]

Just wanted to update you guys, i bought hammerfall (preferred the models) it should arrive on Tuesday. 

[TheOtherJosh]

Just wanted to update you guys, i bought hammerfall (preferred the models) it should arrive on Tuesday. 

 Both sets can use the same Hero cards and the Adversaries are compatible across games. When assembling the models for Hammerhal, the models are "multi configuration" and it is possible to assemble models in such a way that you can't build all the options. 

Read the first page of the instruction guide. It tells you what all the symbols in the guide mean, and that is important as there are multiple options/variants in assembly.

 

You have three groups of models to build:

1. Putrid Blightkings

2. Blood Reavers

3. Kairic Acolytes

 

NOTE: you will end up with extra arms and bits..

 

Putrid Blightkings:

The instructions have 15 variations ... 3 possible choices for each of the 5 models.

 

You will need to make the following:

1 Blightlord (there are two versions listed from two different base models as "Blightlord" choose whichever you prefer)

1 Icon Bearer

1 Sonorous Tocsin

 

The remaining two Blightking models build them however you prefer, but I'd recommend at least one with a shield.

 

For the Bloodreavers follow the guide and make:

1 Chieftain

1 Icon Bearer,

1 Hornblower

1 Bloodreaver with Meatripper

1 Bloodreaver with Reaver Blades

You now have 5 models left to build, make them in any combination of Meatripper/Reaver Blades you prefer

 

For the Kairic Acolytes, again following the Guide make the following:

1 Adept

1 Acolyte with scroll of the dark arts

1 Acolyte with Vulcharic (he has the single Cursed blade)

1 Acolyte with Paired Cursed Blades

1 Acolyte with Glaive (and Shield)

1 Acolyte with Cursed Blade and Shield

 

For the remaining 4 models left to build make any weapon combinations that look good to you.

 

This gives you the broadest number of adversary options available. This is key, because when you spawn adversaries you are directed to spawn adversaries with unique weapon loadouts before duplicating any weapon loadouts on the board.

 

So, while it doesn't technically matter your Assembly choices ... this combination of models will give you the largest number of options to put out on the table.

 

 

 

 

[MacDuff]

I loved the extra SOH Blight bits. I had 3 AOS starter boxes with more Blood Reavers than I ever wanted to paint (60, really?), so I shaved their chests down, glued the many extra Blight Kings torsos on, stuffed some lumpy green stuff around to bulk up their backs, glued extra BK arms, shields, heads, etc. on, and more than doubled my BK force. Their legs are a little underwhelming, but they fit right in. Try it, you'll love it.

[jkav86]

I was going to post a topic about this myself till I saw one existed already! So, I was just hoping I could get some info from those who know better

The models are not really an issue, aside from the Ogriod, I'm not fussed about using them outside of the board games. Basicly then, I want to know how the two games play, and replayability. Like, for Hammerfall, how many missions does it have, same for silver tower. I haven't seen either games played to know myself.

Thanks!

[Giac]

Hammerhal has 1 campaign with 8 dungeons, plus the city minigames that can be accessed from most levels. Replayability of the specific campaign depends a lot on your players' curiosity and hunger for power-play; it's likely you won't see all rooms, or even all levels (and certainly not all treasures and skills) in one single run; some players will like to re-run the story while starting at a higher skill level. This said, after one pass my kids went straight to "here's a dungeon I designed, can we play it please" which is really what opens the floodgates to infinite replayability. It does need a player to sacrifice as gamemaster though, playing adversaries and managing the map (and likely writing dungeons, in the long run, as I'm doing atm).

Silver Tower's dungeons, from what I understand (I don't actually own it) are randomly generated while fitting in an overall story that repeats ad infinitum. Hence no two runs are the same. The game is fully cooperative, no gamemaster required, all players are on the same page. The community is also somewhat bigger, since the game was released more than a year ago to wide acclaim; Hammerhal is a more traditional gameplay so it got a bit less publicity (this said, last I checked it had a higher score on BoardgameGeek).

[jkav86]

Thanks Giac, that's really helpful. From what your saying Hammerhal sounds a lot more like what I would like to play. The idea of a GM and that kind of play is appealing.