Games Workshop held their big end-of-year Warhammer Preview at the end of last week and one of the major reveals was for the new addition to the Warhammer Quest line-up. Let's dive in and see what's inside Warhammer Quest: Darkwater.

Warhammer Quest: Darkwater // Games Workshop

The first of the big reveals concerned the new characters that will be joining Warhammer Quest: Darkwater. We knew of the four initial starting characters already, thanks to previous previews but for those who haven't yet seen them, check them out below...

Edmark Valoran // Warhammer Quest: Darkwater

Drolf Ironhead // Warhammer Quest: Darkwater

Bren Tylis // Warhammer Quest: Darkwater

Inara Sion // Warhammer Quest: Darkwater

All four of these characters will be available when you start playing Warhammer Quest: Darkwater, which has been designed as a one-to-four player cooperative experience (in line with other recent versions of Warhammer Quest). However, as you continue your campaign, you'll unlock new heroes who all have their own reasons for venturing to the Jade Abbey to destroy the Nurgle infestation within.

Kelthannor // Warhammer Quest: Darkwater

Prince Kelthannor has pledged that he will slay a mighty foe for the Kurnothi and he has set his sights on Gelgus Pust, the terrifying demon that now lords over the ruins of the Jade Abbey. Alongside this follower of Kurnoth, we also have Drasher Vorn, a shapeshifting warrior from Ghur, part of a tribe that worships the Maker of Beasts (an aspect of the Everqueen).

Drasher Vorn // Warhammer Quest: Darkwater

As well as those two utterly phenomenal miniatures, we also had a third! You have a ranged option and a melee option popping up as additional characters but what about another spellcaster? Well, you'll also be able to find Jacobus Vyne on your adventures into the Jade Abbey.

Jacobus Vyne // Warhammer Quest: Darkwater

This Jade Wizard is fighting against the forces of entropy and decay that have invested the realm of Ghyran. I love all of the different heroes we've seen so far (even Bren Tylis is growing on me!) and I think it's going to be hard picking which one I end up playing. I really like the feral Drasher Vorn but Drolf is calling to me as a regular ol' Duardin from The Mortal Realms.

All of these characters will be playable throughout your one-off games or campaigns. It seems like Games Workshop are reworking the core mechanics for Warhammer Quest as well, changing the way heroes work from the dice allocation system that we've seen in Blackstone Fortress, Silver Tower and Cursed City into something more traditional. You can see little hints to that in the first image in this post.

Monstrous Nurgle Foes!

Arrayed against these heroes, you'll find a carnival of chaos in the form of the forces of Nurgle led by Gelgus Pust.

Gelgus Pust // Warhammer Quest: Darkwater

Gelgus Pust, the Prince of Sores, was a holy man who was corrupted by his lust for power. He seeks to repay Nurgle for the gifts bestowed upon him by corrupting the Everspring and dashing the plans of Alarielle against the rocks in a battle for control of Ghyran.

He is backed up in this endeavour by other enterprising individuals.

Belga and Shaman Foulhoof // Warhammer Quest: Darkwater

Belga, the Cystwitch, was a priestess of the Jade Abbey who has been driven mad by her new form, gifted to her by Grandfather Nurgle. Now, she and two more of her kind work as one to brew all sorts of foul concoctions, which then poison the lands around the Jade Abbey.

Shaman Foulhoof is the leader of the beastmen that rampage through Ghyran, commanding an army of his minions, intent on destroying the heroes in waves of pestilent bodies. Another of the servants of Gelfus is Mulgoth the Cleaver (not pictured here), who revels in destroying beautiful things and breaking the spirits of any heroes brave (or foolish) enough to enter his domain.

The spreading rot of Nurgle's infestation has turned the very land against the heroes and that's where the Cankerborn come in.

Cankerborn // Warhammer Quest: Darkwater

These rare daemons are created when violence is done against the land itself. They are twice the height of a Plaguebearer and with leathery, rocky hides, they are going to be tough to kill. I like the enhanced Plaguebearer design for these filth trolls and I think they, alongside everything else in the set, are going to be a joy to paint.

You will also face more mortal champions who have been corrupted by the power of Nurgle and now fight by his side in their new twisted forms.

Blight Templars // Warhammer Quest: Darkwater

The Blight Templars, like so many of the warriors fighting under Gelgus, were once champions of the Jade Abbey that have been twisted and broken. I like their big, bloated forms and the little details here and there that will be fun to pick out when painting them.

The rank and file flooding through the Jade Abbey are made up of servants of the various enemy "heroes" we've seen above. Shaman Foulhoof brings his Pestigors to battle, a welcome return to the tabletop for these excellent Beastmen who were otherwise squatted from the Mortal Realms!

Pestigors // Warhammer Quest: Darkwater

Others have been called to join Gelgus Pust in his evil plans. Many mortals have accepted the gifts of the Plague God and now shamble into battle as Pox-Wretches.

Pox-Wretches and Mire Kelpies // Warhammer Quest: Darkwater

They have only just begun their journey down the path of putrid enlightenment. All of them wear cyclopean masks, which blind them, meaning they must use their other senses to sniff out their foes. A great mixture of new cultist-level figures for the Maggotkin of Nurgle, complete with ruined robes, rust weapons and drooling maws.

What Else Is Inside?

As well as all of the miniatures, you'll also get the Rulebook, Quickstart Guide, loads of tokens, a raft of cards for your heroes and villains, plus boxes which can be used to "save" your progress as you play through a campaign of Warhammer Quest: Darkwater.

Warhammer Quest: Darkwater // Games Workshop

Talking of campaigns, Darkwater has been designed so that you can play quick thirty-minute quests, which can be one-off encounters for a gaming session or part of a larger campaign. Take the thirty-minute sessions with a pinch of salt (this is Games Workshop, after all) but they have said that this can all fold into a ten to fourteen-hour campaign that could be completed in a weekend.

The new map book is a great step forward for Games Workshop and it's something that has worked in the past for Jaws of the Lion (Gloomhaven) and many other games. It means there's less faffing about, set-up and tear down, so you can just get straight into the action. The maps from the book are then modified by cards which change your encounters, giving you lots of replayability in a single location. This gets a big ol' tick from me.

This all sounds like Games Workshop has learned its lessons from previous iterations of Warhammer Quest and could well be providing folks with a much sleeker version of the game. It's not quite as dungeon crawly as previous versions of the game but is that a bad thing? There are lots of VERY good dungeon crawlers out there that did the job way better than modern Warhammer Quest.

Could you be tempted to delve into Darkwater?