Hero Quest and Battle Masters

It really is true what they say:  Childhood ain't what it used to be, especially now that we ain't children.  But, we'll always have memories and no memory will be more valuable to me than that Christmas morning that I awoke to find that I had gotten both Hero Quest and Battle Masters.  If I remember correctly, I was seven years old and it was the last Christmas that I was still buying in to the Santa Claus mythos which was thanks - in no small part - to recieving these games.

What were they?

First, how dare you for asking.

Second, they were two fantasy adventure board games made by Milton Bradley in conjunction with Games Workshop.  Battle Masters and Hero Quest were inspired by and partially connected to the popular game and collectable series WarHammer instantly making both the dorkiest things I ever posessed as a child.

Both games came with a lot of little - very breakable - figurines (that were paintable, although I never did that... I could barely even get the stickers on right).  Both games took a long time to set up, especially Battle Masters, which could take a seven year old a good 40 minutes.  Both required hour or more long time comittments from preferrably 3-4 people.

For the craftier... and dorkier among us.

So, to put that last paragraph into simpler terms:  I didn't spend very much time actually ever playing either of these games.  Most of the time I'd just open the box and look at the little guys.  I probably played Battle Masters more often, because it was simpler and only required two people (thanks dad!), which is tragic because Hero Quest was really the more special of the two.

Where Battle Masters was more or less really complicated two-player risk, Hero Quest has imagination and suspense.  There were levels and plots and secrets you could unravel.  I remember flipping through the quest book looking at all the layouts, reading all the stories, probably only ever actually playing 2 or 3 of them.

Even if I didn't get to fully enjoy these games when I had them, it was still great getting to experience them at all.  And maybe I shouldn't be so bummed they're gone, because if I had gotten the full effect, maybe I would have gotten really into fantasy and then I would have gotten really into D&D and then I would have gotten really into World of Warcraft and then I would have gotten really into Mountain Dew and Funyuns and then I would have gotten really into lonlieness.  All for the best.