Everyone who knows me knows I love HeroQuest. It is one of my go-to games for groups and casual play. True, it has lots of areas in the rules that are rough, and either undefined or badly written—but that is one of the things I like about it. The rules allow for adaptability.
The rules for large creatures, appear in five of the expansions; Frozen Horror, Mage of the Mirror, Rise of the Dred Moon, Against the Ogre Horde, and Wizards of Morcar. Hasbro / Avalon Hill has dedicated the same 31 words for them in each of the expansions. These are the entirety of the rules for large creatures.
When a monster takes up more than one square, that monster can attack anyone on any adjacent square (including diagonally), even if the monster’s figure is facing away from the target.
Each expansion has a few words about the large creature located within it, but that is the gist of the rules for large creatures. Click the pics below for verification.
It seems like it is straight forward and easy, and if you are running the game and your players trust you, it is. However, sometimes a little guidance is needed. Sadly, Hasbro / Avalon Hill score very low on the response scale for questions and answers. They leave the player community to pick up the slack, make corrections, make adjustments, and create solutions.
This article will address the movement of large creatures—those occupying “1×2” squares and “2×2” squares on the board. Miniatures occupying larger sections of the board can be extrapolated from these rules. The shape of the miniature’s base is not relevant to the discussion—only how many squares the creature occupies.
Miniature facing is not a part of the standard rules for HeroQuest; “turning around” is not a concern, however, understanding how large creatures interact with the board’s square matrix is. To build the baseline for this article, I used the mobile application (app) issued by Hasbro. The app shows how large creatures move, but fails to explain it.
A few hours were needed to get the app to move the Giant Wolf and Frozen Horror full movement allocation in an area that would allow for the best determination of functionality.
When it finally did, a few things became clear. The following image is a composite of two screenshots that helps to clarify much of the unwritten rules for large creature movement in HeroQuest.
In this image, the Frozen Horror starts in the corner. The base takes up “4” contiguous squares, but it “fits” in the hall, which is only one square wide. The app centers the horror so that 2 squares are beneath it. Then it treats the Frozen Horror as though the figure were 1 square wide.
According to the card, and verified on the app, the Frozen Horror has a movement of 8.
What can be determined from this image is as follows:
The Frozen Horror need not take up all four squares in a hall—only two—will not occupy three squares at a corner. The figure moves by starting the count with the first square in the direction of the intended move, not the square one on which it is currently positioned. The figure ends movement with the last square under the rear section of the miniature.
Understanding that the large figure is not constrained by facing or strict size limitations is very important. It allows large monsters to squeeze into halls between rooms and fight in cramped quarters. However, they cannot fight on the other side of walls in rooms where their base might overlap with other creatures, heroes, or dungeon décor.
“Turning” the figure is not applicable, as there is no facing requirement in HeroQuest.
The Giant Wolf Examples
Here are examples using the Giant Wolf. The green arrows denote legal movement locations. Red arrows denote illegal movement locations. The Giant Wolf takes up 1×2 squares on the board.
Note that the Giant Wolf “leading end” moves one square north, and the other half of the figure shifts into the square behind the section that just moved. This is not “turning”—it is movement. The red diagonal arrow is what players may assume has happened because they will think the miniature just “swung” or “turned” on one square. This would be a move of “1” movement point.
The following example is a step-by-step method of counting the movement of a Giant Wolf moving across a large room from the southwest corner to the northeast corner.
The “rear” of the miniature ends on square 9, but the “front” or leading side, can end on what would be perceived to be square 10. Both options are displayed for clarity.
The next example shows a Giant Wolf moving east across a room and then north.
Again the “rear” of the miniature ends on square 9, but the “front” or leading side, can end on what would be square 10. All three options are displayed for clarity.
The key point to remember is that diagonal movement is not allowed. The green arrows show the path of movement. All figures occupying 1×2 squares are intended to move this way, it can be verified in the support app. This would mean creatures on 2×3 squares or 3×4 squares would move in a similar manner.
The Frozen Horror Examples
As for the Frozen Horror, it occupies 2×2 squares. The rules are the same, though slightly easier to apply. The Frozen Horror has 8 Squares that may be considered orthogonal for movement, again the red arrows denote illegal movement locations.
In this example, the Horror moves across the room in a southwest-to-northeast path (diagonally across the room). The foremost empty square directly adjacent to the Horror is counted as 1, then a “stair-step” pattern is performed. Once the count of 8 is completed, the “rearmost” section of the figure is placed on the eighth square. This mirrors the behavior observed in the app.
The straightforward movement of the Frozen Horror is similar to that of the Giant Wolf.
Trickier still is when large creatures share a room with smaller creatures. Like in the following example. The Frozen Horror can move between the orcs, but cannot end on a shared space with an orc. The areas in red reflect the illegal end of movement locations.
However, if there are unoccupied squares on the other side of the orcs, then the Frozen Horror has a legal movement ending point. The Frozen Horror could not stop on “2”, because it would over lap with the orc to the west. Thus it had to proceed to “3” to find a legitimate space to stop moving.
10 Points to Keep in Mind
- The board is a grid and should be treated the same for all figures.
- Large facing facing is not applicable.
- Large creatures can travel through narrow passages without restriction.
- Large creatures block movement and line of sight through all squares they occupy in a room or hall.
- Large creature bases that overlap walls into other rooms or halls are not considered to be in those spaces.
- Movement starts at the closest orthogonal square and proceeds from there.
- Large creatures cannot move between other allied creatures if there are no available squares to occupy at the end of the move.
- Large creatures cannot pass over or through heroes.
- Large creatures only enter rooms and halls through doors.
- Large creatures cannot share spaces with other allies or heroes.
There are many optional rules that can be homebrewed, but what I have presented here is consistent and repeatable within the mobile app, and not to be found in any of the rulebooks.
I hope this helps you play and enjoy your game even more.
A PDF file of this article is available here.
– Dru
Dru's Den of Ill Repute 