A few points to help you understand my position:

1. I loved Hero Quest - the 1989 board game that was clearly made as the gateway drug into Warhammer. I even recently painted 4 models based on the Hero Quest game. Why .. because.

2. I despised Warhammer and 40K. I have about 10,000 points painted solely because I enjoy painting. I have played maybe 10 games of 40k .. and hated it.

3. I am loving X-Wing. I've been a fan for a solid 6 months or so, and whilst that isn't long, my interest has never wavered. Admittedly, it being Star Wars is huge draw card. I have about 30 SW t-shirts.

4. My final point. With the exception of my above mentioned games, I have not played a board game since Hero Quest.

My question; Will IA play similar to Hero Quest? A great game in my opinion but with SW flavour? Being out of the board game .. game for so long, I really don't know if /how they have evolved over the past 25 years.

Question 2. If the answer is yes to the question above .. how do I tell Mrs Conandoodle that I'm giving all of my money to FFG?

All comments are welcome.

We'll, it looks to be basically a Star Wars dungeon crawl game, so there should be a basic level of similarity. Game design has evolved a lot since hero quest though, and FFG is kinda noteworthy for using innovative mechanics in their games, so the actual rules will almost certainly be quite different.

But it still looks like a party of highly elite individuals penetrating a complex and fighting a bunch of mooks whole trying to accomplish an objective based on some scenario.

But it still looks like a party of highly elite individuals penetrating a complex and fighting a bunch of mooks whole trying to accomplish an objective based on some scenario.

Don't forget it's two games in one - there is the dungeon crawl-esque campaign game as mentioned above, AND there is the skirmish game where you point build squads and go head to head...

Short answer YES

Longer answer it looks to be a sci fi version of Descent another FFG dungeon crawl game which pits a game master and his horde of monsters against a party of adventurers which has gone through several versions so I hear it's quite good (friends have been running the campaign version of it). I look forward to trying the Star Wars version, FFG seems to want all my gaming money.

Imperial Assault looks to be more or less the star wars version of Descent: Journeys in the dark. Second edition.

Also a FFG game

If you enjoyed Hero Quest then you would love Descent.

So yes

See when it was just looking like a dungeon crawl I wasn't that interested but hearing it can also be a skirmish game peaks my interest I'll wait and see how it develops.

The only issue with the skirmish game is I'm worried about how much it will cost to expand the factions.

Not to be a curmudgeon, but wouldn't this topic be better suited to the Imperial Assault boards?

I tried looking for an Imperial Assault board yesterday and couldn't find one

It is a 100% copy of descent if I look at the preview, and like said, descent is the spiritual successor to heroquest (which i also loved). Big difference will be that they would very much like your money (more normal these days) and some mission figures will just be available as a token when getting the game itself and will be buyable as small expansions for an actual figure. And than there will be more expansions and than some more. You could see this as a good thing or a bad thing, but pay you will

I tried looking for an Imperial Assault board yesterday and couldn't find one

It's under the Board and Card Games section. Try looking for Star Wars: Imperial Assault.

Decent is basically a really good version of Hero Quest. And FFG has said that Rebel Assault is a Star Wars version of Decent.

Wouldn't it be more like Warhammer Quest?

I think it's fine asking here - until they come out these boards will be better populated, but with much crossover in audience.