Look, I just have to put this out there… sometimes I feel like I might be the only person in the world who loves Cursed City. And I mean the only person.
Not the community.
Not most gamers.
Not Games Workshop.
But you know who does like Cursed City? My wife! It’s the only miniature game I can get her to play with me and, when the dice roll more or less her way, she loves it! She loves the dungeon crawl and the slaughter of skeletons and bats and rats. It’s a good time! And a good time we can have together without a television for two or three hours.
Honestly, it’s been so much fun for the two of us that we’re the only people I know who’ve actually made it to the first expansion. And, to that point, I’m the only person I know who has bought and painted the models for the two expansions that did come out.
In case you’ve been in a hole for the last five years, here’s the quick and dirty history of Cursed City:
Games Workshop announces the first new Warhammer Quest since Blackstone Fortress and the previewed miniatures are raved about, and rightly so. The community website leads a big build up to the point that everyone begins expecting cold fusion. Then release day happens, and the game sells out in minutes. People are disappointed but… such is the case with GW releases! Somehow, I was among the lucky few who managed to get an order confirmation. Everyone else resigns themselves to wait for a reprint.
Because this is Warhammer Quest. And, when GW makes Warhammer Quest, it’s a shelf item for a couple of years, so another print is coming.
Eventually, the game gets delivered. But the bloom is immediately off the rose because the first scenario people play, and that YouTubers review, isn’t stunning. Suddenly, the buzz is that all scenarios aren’t stunning!
But then GW’s social team announces, nope, that’s it people! It’s a one and done printing of the game… Unlike every other Warhammer Quest game ever released, this one had one printing and is finished, despite not having met 1/1000th of the demand. People would sell GW their children for a box and still GW won’t take their money. It’s over! It’s done!
And despite the sturm und drang, we hear nothing for months.
Then, literally when everyone had just forgotten about Cursed City, GW announces they’re doing another print. The world rejoices! Except those who played the first scenario and say it’s boring, don’t bother. Little do they understand miniature collectors…
When the second printing arrives, it’s like the first printing all over again… more people play one scenario and log on to say how underwhelmed they are. But, thank god the miniatures are great!
Then, again, like a Greek god, GW surprises us again. An expansion! It comes with no new miniatures. In fact, if you can get your hands on the rules, you still have to buy AoS miniatures to play them. But, hey! It’s something!
And, if you thought that was bad, about three months later…
Surprise! Another expansion. This one with even less than the last one and it requires a player buy more AoS miniatures to play it. But, at least it’s something… sorry… what’s that? Oh… this is it? Like it’s over? Not the five expansions Blackstone got, just these two? Uh… okay…
If you’ve ever wondered why, after all the hype before the game, that copies of Cursed City have haunted your Warhammer store since, gathering dust on a shelf in the back, it’s because everyone had decided it was boring and it was definitely unsupported going forward. I mean, good luck getting your hands on one of the expansions…
Except there was one major problem with that timeline… it wasn’t fucking boring!
Most of the people who got out there loud on the internet seemed to have played the first scenario and only the first scenario. Which, yeah, if I was trying to introduce people to a new game, wouldn’t have been the banger I would’ve started with. That said… it also wasn’t the complete collapse of Western Civilization and GW’s ability to make new dungeon crawlers. It was just a slow start.
My wife and I played through a handful of games and, once we reached level 1 and got our first new ability and got enemies that were slightly more challenging actually found that the game found its footing!
Above, the heroes of our story…
Is it a perfect game? Not by a long shot…
But is it a sit on the edge of your seat dungeon crawler with a series of “oh shit” moments? Yes! Yes, it is… once you’re out of level 0. The first couple of games are, honestly, too slow. And, because the encounters are determined by your level, they’re too underpowered to feel genuinely challenging. But, as soon as you’re level 1, the gas is turned up and the game hits its stride and, suddenly, you’re not sure if you’re going to make it through. And it just gets better from there.
Most of the missions take place on random static maps or where tiles are placed by card draws and there are enough of the former that it’s generally always okay. But the shining stars are the Decapitation scenarios where you go to kill one of the villain’s lieutenants. Those are pre-determined maps with pre-determined AI but, boy, are they fun. They’re always challenging and they’re unique.
I wish there were more Decapitation-like scenarios.
If I have one complaint about the game it’s that I wish there were more Decapitation-like scenarios. It would’ve been cool if, between missions, you rolled a dice or picked a card, and the next mission was a pre-determined story-even mission where you had to play a Decapitation-like scenario. But, even as it’s been designed, my wife and I have had tons of fun.
Above are the big bads of the game and a lot of their minions.
Then there were the “expansions”. I “scare quote” that because the expansions had new story elements and a few new cards and tiles but… really, were excuses to buy AoS minis to fill out your collection. This was a bit of a bummer for me because I don’t play AoS and don’t plan to. And, because the expansions were essentially “rules only”, there’s no discount on the miniatures you need with them being included. You’re paying full retail price. It could be worse, I suppose, but it definitely could have been better if it had followed the Blackstone Fortress path.
From a painting perspective, I’ve never painted anything like this before. The most I’d painted since getting back into the hobby was a Blood Bowl team, one at a time. Painting a whole box was a challenge. That said, for beginner to intermediate painters, grabbing and finishing a box like this is a challenge worth doing. For one, you become a much faster painter. You find what matters and what doesn’t and then just boom, boom, boom, John Lee Hooker time, nail them down. Painting up this box has benefitted my overall hobby experience because now I know what to focus on when painting a batch of miniatures.
Pros of Cursed City
- It has amazing miniatures – everyone says so because they’re right. Love or hate the game, the sculpts are inspired.
- The game deepens – Play past level 0 and you find you have a legit dungeon crawler on your hands.
- It’s co-operative – My wife won’t play Blood Bowl or Necromunda with me because she doesn’t like the competition. But ask her to kill zombies with me, she’s on board.
Cons of Cursed City
- The first level is a slog – reviewers are correct, the first couple of games aren’t as fun as they should be.
- Bats & Rats & Zombies – There are a lot of minor miniatures you have to paint and they can become a slog.
- Set-up time – Didn’t mention this above but setting up the game can take 30-45 minutes depending on how you have things organized. That can be a major disincentive to play over a game that takes 10 minutes to set up…
- Expansions require a lot of AoS minis – if you don’t play Sigmar, it’s a big cost just to add bad guys to your game. It’s why I don’t play the White Dwarf expansion rules.
