Season of Scenery 26: The Masterforge, Planning and Progress

Warning: this is another one of my long rambling posts where I go through various options and choices prior to actually doing anything. Hopefully it's interesting to the reader, it's certainly useful for me.

A Bit of Background 

The online D&D campaign is currently set around the Dawnforge Mountains, site of Nentir Vale's largest settlement, the dwarven city of Hammerfast. 

Back in 2010 WotC released a sourcebook covering the city and the region, incidentally mentioning three further dwarven settlements and various adventure sites.  One of these was my original plan for the session, but various side quests and distractions mean that the focus is still very much on the dwarven side of things, the Valley will have to wait.

I've taken one of those settlements, Highpeak, and developed it to tie in with Tharnak Thunderforge's (dwarven paladin of Kord) background. The heroes are seeking the ancient forge of the Thunderforge clan and are attempting to reclaim it, hopefully discover more of its history and uncover the truth behind disquieting rumours about the clan.

The Master Forge 

The forge is multi level, in fact the party have already explored a couple of them. Some areas have walkways, giving the potential for 3D encounters, and there's plenty of smithing type equipment lying around.

Initially I'll focus on the large ground floor room with the walkways as being a good place for action, and the space that translates least well to a 2D floorplan.

If time allows, I'll expand further to other levels.

How to Build an Arcane Forge

The Crypt of the Vampire Knight used Crooked Staff's Dungeon in a Box, with a few additions. It's a great system, and has lots of uses beyond the adventure. 

The Master Forge, however, is quite specific, and is unlikely to be used beyond this adventure. 

I much prefer multiple use terrain so I'm hoping to keep this build pretty simple; no point in putting a lot of effort in for one game (yeah, right).

I'm was going to use some of the Crooked Staff Print and Paste terrain; it's quick to build and produces a pretty sturdy result. It also uses mostly scrap materials (apart from printing off the textures and standard hobby consumables such as glue), and Kris has recently done some very nice dwarven textures.

But then I remembered that I already have Fat Dragon's Halls of the Dwarven King EZ Lock set*.

I've used Fat Dragon stuff in the past, most notably for the Lost Library (a truly epic build, if I do say so myself), but I found the thin card construction was prone to damage and the whole thing was fiddly to assemble and used quite a bit of white card for printing. 

If only there was a way to combine the two???

Of course there is; it's easy. 

Simply print off the Fat Dragon textures on paper, cut out the bits (ignoring any tabs etc), then proceed using Kris's method of corrugated cardboard and cereal box card.

The end result is much more robust than the original Fat Dragon builds, and quicker too.

I do need to get a bit neater with the hot glue gun though.

Once I got going, I got quite inventive with the textures, and even used some Crooked Staff stuff (Episode 51, Broken Wooden Floors) to build the ramps that connect some of the floors.

Current Progress with Spoilers

(While I don't think there's too much sensitive stuff here for the players, there will inevitably be stuff that you might rather be surprised by. I'll try and keep any spoilers to a minimum).

I've got the basic floor plans of four of the levels done now. There's still the walls (which will be removable for ease of play), should I decide to do them and if time allows, and a few more pillars and steps.

I also want to make some bits and pieces to help show the purpose of the building; benches, tubs or carts of raw materials, possibly an anvil or two, if I get as far as the Crafting Level. 

The furnace, heart of the structure, is also important, hence the following...

True crafters want the container, not the contents 

Textures ready for application,  plus a few other bits and pieces 

The furnace takes shape

I toyed with various designs for the furnace. There's a rather nice one in the Dungeons of the Mountain King set, octagonal in section**, but I wanted something bigger. My original map on Dungeon Scrawl has a round icon about fifteen (scale) feet in diameter. That's three inches; roughly the diameter of a Pringles can! I'm not personally a fan of the contents, but they're slowly being eaten. 

Then it's just a case of applying suitably dwarven textures and some greebles to indicate some sort of functionality and control.

Hopefully I'll get enough built for the game.  There'll be a report on here afterwards, and I'll share pictures of the finished forge afterwards.

What's Next?

Well I've also been assembling minis for the game, though there seems to be less required than last time, and many of those are already painted.  

Scenery-wise, there's still a good chunk of time left in the challenge, so I might take the opportunity to finish some stuff off.

*Fat Dragon Footnote

I haven't linked to Fat Dragon's stuff.  I do like to do this as I believe that we in the hobbysphere can help promote buisnesses that we find useful.

However, Fat Dragon no longer produce 3D card terrain sets, having moved over to 3D printing quite some time ago.  

I've nothing against 3D printing, but I don't think I'll ever invest in one.  I note that they now do files for printing some of the Halls of the Dwarven King set, those dwarven statues look great!

They still sell files from printing off 2D paper tiles (Copper Dragon), which are worth a look, though there are quite a few other options for this, the 3D card stuff was far harder to find back then.

P.S. if anyone can find links to legitimate sources for this stuff, I'll happily add them here.

**Dwarves love octagons.  Peter Jackson taught us that (or rather Alan Lee did)

A Challenge Failed And A Challenge Accepted (Forgotten Heroes and Season of Scenery)ð

I've not posted for quite a while for various reasons. Lots of other stuff going on (generally good, if busy) and a general lack of hobby impetus. 

Forgotten Heroes '26

After having a lot of fun last year building Mina Murray from the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, I fully intended to take part. Sadly, I never managed to finish this year's mini. I've got all the bits I need, but I never got much further than green stuffing some trousers.

Never mind, he'll do for next year.

D&D F2F 26

One reason I've been less productive is the looming deadline for this year's face to face Dungeons and Dragons session. There's been a lot of planning (or rather, let's be honest, over planning) and a last minute change of plans (making aforementioned planning redundant). But now I know, pretty much, what is likely to be happening, and I'm gathering the materials for it now.

There's less demand for minis this time, all the heroes are still pretty much as they were last year, and I've got most of the opposition already. A few bits of painting should suffice*.

But there's potentially quite a bit of scenery I could build; leading nicely on to Dave Stone's Season of Scenery challenge.

Season of Scenery 26

Last year I used the challenge to make the dungeon terrain for the Crypt of the Vampire Knight. This year the in person session is focused on a long abandoned dwarven forge. 

Whilst I could simply draw out maps, I'd like to have at least something a bit more impressive, so that's my main project this time around.

The challenge runs beyond the D&D session though, so I might have a go at something else as well.

*OK, I'll probably end up doing more than that, time allowing, but I hope the focus this year will be terrain not minis.

If I May Draw To Your Attention...

Free Dungeons

Various dungeon YouTubers have once more got together to produce free five room dungeons on their channels. 

It's organised by Daði on Mystic Arts, and there's a full run down of the available dungeons on his site. 

While you're at it check out his channel too, and hunt down last year's adventures as well. 

The Call Of Cthulhu 

Julian Simpson's Lovecraft Investigations is my favourite reimagining of Lovecraft's work. The first four series are available on BBC Sounds, and I believe that some of his wider 'Peasant Green' stories are as well. 

Going forward, the stories are being independently produced and are funded on Backerkit. They've already done a documentary about the life of Alistair Crowley, and are now continuing the story with an investigation based on The Call Of Cthulhu. 

If you're at all interested in Lovecraft's Mythos, at least check out the stuff on Sounds, you might like it. 

You can find out more about the campaign on Backerkit, they've already unlocked bonus material.

Undead Scorpions Painted with Grenadier Crew

As I mentioned in my Skull Chucker post, I've finished a couple more war machines, bringing me up to the required three for our Dark Shadows campaign. 

One of the Scorpions with crew

In my various job lots of random undead,  I found enough crew members from the Grenadier bolt thrower (one with some sort of trigger lever and one with a spare bolt), for two machines, but no actual bolt throwers. 

It can't be too difficult to scratch build a couple of bolt throwers?

The Skeleton Crew

Warlords of Erehwon has a standard war machine crew of three, so I'll add a couple of orc skeletons with axe, also from my pile of random skeletons; they might be dwarves, raised to add some lingering knowledge of siege machines to the army?

The crew from both machines, showing the fronts and backs of the three different minis

The crew were painted just like all the other skeletons I've done recently, in fact, I'd already painted one of the loaders a while ago, though I didn't know what it was, so repaired the broken bolt as a spear. 

The Scorpions

I had various plans for the bolt throwers; I considered scratch building something from some old Halloween toys; war machines made out of bones, very tempting, but I couldn't come up with a design that worked with my materials.  

As a stop gap I thought I'd build and paint a couple of the old Warhammer Bolt Throwers that were available (with different crew) for both Dwarf and Orc armies. 

But while hunting through a bits box for an elusive wheel, I found some Scorpion models (the Roman bolt thrower, not the arthropod; though come to think of it, I've got some of those somewhere too). I think these are from Irregular Miniatures, sadly no longer in business, though I've no idea why I ended up with them.

There are enough pieces for three Scorpions, but I've only got the crew for two, and I don't see me needing lots of war machines anyway. 

The models aren't the most detailed, but they are fine for what I want. I added some decorative bits from the newer Skeleton Regiment shield sprue, just to tie them in to the undead force. 

Two Scorpions

The scorpions and the crew are all on individual bases. One day I'll make bases for each set of crew and war machine, with magnets and everything.  For now though, they'll do. 

So that's two bolt throwers for my undead. How will they perform, along with the classic Skull Chucker? Read The Mists Recoil to find out.

What's Next?

I'm well on with the actual 'jacks for Scrapjacks, and I've started on the robots. I'd like to get the game ready for play soon.

I've a few bits that need painting for the next Dark Shadows game (make that at least two units, plus bulking out existing units).

And beyond all that, I need to plan for the next face to face Dungeons and Dragons game in July. 

Busy times. 

The Mists Recoil - Dark Shadows Game Reimagined for Warlords of Erehwon

Boðvoc and I finally got around to playing the second game in our campaign based on GWs Dark Shadows booklet.

Boðvoc has done sterling work adapting it for Warlords of Erehwon (henceforth known as WoE). He even wrote a preliminary scenario to determine who was the attacker and who the defender for The Mists Recoil.

NB: I'm having problems orienting the photographs again, so I've removed some of them.  I also forgot to take any of the final turn or two, it was too exciting.

The Scenario 

The original scenario is designed to use the Warhammer Fantasy skirmish rules, essentially those used in Mordheim. We decided not to try to adapt WoE to anything smaller scale; hopefully the rules would be robust enough for our purposes.

The attacker is trying to land their forces in the teeth of an artillery battery and a skeleton defence force (literally, in our case).

The dwarves are arriving in a number of boats at the only safe landing on this stretch of coast. Each unit had it's own boat, a mix of card models, a resin boat and an XPS craft I built years ago for DnD.

In the original, the attacker has 500 points, the defender has three war machines and just 50 points.  Neither side has any magic. 

After working out sample WFB lists and comparing them to the WoE lists, Boðvoc decided on 750 points for the dwarves and 200 for the undead, plus three war machines. 

The invaders are in as many boats as necessary, which move a random 2D6" each turn, with a chance of getting stuck on sandbanks.

He also adapted the Albion weather table, mostly to lessen it's effects on the game (ha).

The Undead 

I had an Undead Hero as the leader of my force. Given the model (a lovely Gary Morley Armoured Wight Champion), I gave it heavy armour. 

The main defence was two Skeleton Bolt Throwers and a Large Stone Thrower (the marvellous Skull Chucker).

I rounded out the force with seven Skeleton Archers. The three war machines are free for this scenario, but I upgraded the stone thrower to a large machine from my small points allowance. 

The Undead Defenders

The Dwarves

Boðvoc had five units; Amlodi Forkbeard, dwarven chieftain,  accompanied by his four drinking companions, Gunnar Funðinsonn Dwarf Ranger and his mates, Ulf the Ranger plus friends (I can imagine some rivalry between these two units), a unit of Archers and a unit of Dwarven Guard led by Brokkir.

Opening Moves 

I threw for the weather, getting 'Misty'; visibility reduced to 1D10+6". Hmm, it looks like the Isle of Albion wasn't quite ready to give up it's secrets to those hairy dwarves. 

This led to a strangely bloodless opening few turns, with the dwarves inching forward while the skeletons scanned the fog, looking for targets.

The Dwarven Fleet sails on

"Row, row, row yer boat"

The Dwarf Guard reach the shore "Land Ahoy!"

The Undead Defenders poised for action

The Main Battle 

Eventually the boats reached the shore.  Brokkir's Guard were first to land, but the mist concealed them as they advanced in the direction of the defenders.  

The remaining dwarves soon joined them ashore, but as the mist thinned, the Skeleton catapult spotted Gunnar and his Rangers.  Fortunately for the dwarves, the shot went wide. In response, the rangers take out one of the catapult's crew.

The dwarven archers target their skeletal opposites, although many arrows seem to strike true, none of the bony lads fall. The skeletons return the favour, but the dwarven armour is too tough for their arrows.

The dwarves otherwise advance towards the cliffs and the undead scan for targets (at this point, most of the advancing dwarves were hidden in the mist).

 

The Dwarves have landed

The mist finally clears, allowing the catapult to target Ulf's rangers, killing four and forcing them to take cover.  Gunnar orders his rangers to return fire ("we've got this for you, Ulf laddie") and take out the remaining catapult crew, neutralising the threat.

The dwarf archers destroy two of the skeleton archers, the bolt throwers target the standing dwarven missile troops, but only 1 of Gunnar's Rangers falls.  The remaining dwarves advance.

The mist rises again.  The dwarven archers finally see off the skeletal archers, but one of the bolt throwers forces Gunnar's Rangers to take cover.  

Amlodi Forkbeard charges up the hill to tackle the bolt thrower behind the hedge, dragging his reluctant guard with him (they had to carry his beer barrel!).  The hedge proves little defence, and the crew are pounded into dust.  In response, the hulking Undead Champion slays one of Amlodi's guard.  The dwarves hear a thin hissing sound as their axes fail to bite on his armour; could the foul creature be laughing at them?  The dwarves cowered in fear, though Amlodi later claimed that it was a bad batch of beer.

The mist turned to drizzle, giving better visibility, though by this stage all troops could see each other.  Brokkir's dwarf guard rushed the bolt thrower facing them, quickly destroying the crew.  Now only the Champion remained to halt the dwarven invasion.

Amlodi was in no state to appreciate his triumph, he lay shivering in the mud with his drinking chums.  Elsewhere, Brokkir and his troops faffed around behind the hedge (slight misreading of the rules on obstacles here).  

The dwarves close in

The End Phase 

With the defenders reduced to just the champion, the dwarves had cleared the way for their army.  But they still wanted to destroy the huge creature.  

Amlodi was to take no part in this, apparently he wanted to see what the rest of his lads could do.  Archers shot, Rangers scrambled up cliffs and hacked, but in the end, the spirit inhabiting the corpse saw that it's task here was over.

It had failed to hold off the dwarves, due partly to the cursed mists.  

His master's new ally, that dark clad stranger, had promised the weather would be to their advantage.  He lied.

There would be more bodies to inhabit, more battles to fight ere Albion was won, but for now the spirit fled back to it's master to await further orders.

Only the Undead Champion remained atop the hill.

Reflections

Well, that was a great fun game.  I think both of us had a fair idea of how it would play out on the table top, but we were both wrong.  The first few turns may not look like much (the dwarven boats slowly moving forward, concealed by the mist), but it was actually quite tense.

As I expected, once the dwarves got on to the hill, the Undead were doomed.  I hadn't expected the dwarven shooting to be so effective, and I expected a bit more from mine.  I didn't manage to take out a single dwarven unit, though I found the image of the proud dwarven leader cowering in the mud at the feet of the mighty Undead Champion hilarious. I suspect Boðvoc doesn't agree.

We made a few minor mistakes, but we are becoming more conversant with the rules, and they seem pretty good for our purposes.

You can read the victor's account over on The War Crow

A Note on the Terrain 

I was hosting, so the terrain is mine. This is part of my ongoing upgrade of my wargaming terrain.  The baseboard is in the process of being made, for this battle I simply used the three 2' x 4' sheets on the dining room table.  The 'grass' is one of those cheap fake grass mats from Lidl, with the blue cloth I used to use for games of Man o' War for the sea.  The two part hill is a recent build, and not quite finished.  I do intend to rebase those hedges in the near future too.

What's Next?

The next scenario is an Ambush.  The victorious dwarves are pushing forwards, trying to catch the undead already on the isle.  I will have twice the points of the attackers, I guess I'd better get some more undead painted then.

I certainly need a Dark Emissary, and have been collecting bits to kitbash one.

MEGAforce Boardgames Night: Dad's Army

T'Other One and I played his copy of the Dad's Army, a recent charity shop acquisition. 

The game was a 2021 re-release, the original, by Denis Fisher was released in the 70s.

Set up for play

How to Play

Each player has two characters, cardboard standees with cartoon versions of iconic characters (Cpt Mainwaring, Sgt Wilson, Lance Corporal Jones, Pike, Walker, Godfrey, the Vicar and the Verger). They are paired by token colour. 

The objective is to be the first to get both characters to a square, randomly determined at the start of the game, and different for each player. Movement is by d6 throw, and all movement points must be used. 

To help and hinder, various squares are War Department depots, with cards that allow an additional move of a specified character; air raid cards that move all characters* to the air raid shelters, then players place a random number of bomb tokens, which block squares (certain squares are 'unbombable', though not, interestingly, the safe squares you are aiming for); 'Union Jack' cards that allow removal of a random number of bombs; and the Mr Hodges card, allowing the player to swap any character on the board* with the irritating ARP Warden. 

And that's it.

T'Other One has played this before, it was my first try. The game took about 30 minutes to play. 

Who do you think you are kidding?

For me, if a game based on an IP is to work, it has to provide a good play experience, and it also has to feel like the IP (I must finish off my post about GWs Doctor Who game).

Dad's Army does neither.  

There are some interesting game play ideas, but they aren't used to best advantage. Placement of bombs can be quite tactical, but the availability of Union Jacks means they are a minor hazard. 

The one sheet rule book is sketchy, and often confusing.  I suspect folk less used to board games would find it baffling. 

As for the Dad's Army feel, the board artwork is reasonable, with some reference to both Wartime Britain, in the form of propaganda posters and locations such as Jones' Shop (but sadly no Jolly Roger Ice Cream Parlour).

There is no practical difference between the different characters, you're simply moving bits of cardboard around. You could replace the names and you'd have a rather pedestrian board game nominally set in Wartime Britain. 

Grades

I'll give this one a D. Possibly a D+ for mechanics and D- for veracity to the source material and general 'feel'. 

The potentially interesting ideas in gameplay can't raise it to a C because it's so annoying seeing them wasted here. For instance, at the start of the game each player draws two numbered cards, one pink and one black, to give a grid reference for their destination square. This is neat (though better colour printing on the board would make this more obvious) but it's never used again. It could be used for the bombs (though that removes tactical placement), or at least for where Hodges sends an opposing character, and surely there could be extra War Department cards that capitalise on the random location generation?

I would have liked to have seen more characterisation; perhaps Godfrey moves slower?  Maybe some reference to specific situations in the episodes?  But I doubt it would be worth it.

I understand that T'Other One is donating it to another charity shop.  Hopefully the next purchasers get more out of this than we did.

Caveats

I mentioned above that the game is a re-release.

The original game has a backstory of the Home Guard in an occupied Warmington On Sea. There are landmines to cope with, and part of the objective seems to have been to cover swastika markers with Union Jacks.  Understandably, these have been removed in the modern version, but I'm not sure if there was any more interesting game play involved with this aspect.

I wonder if a casual group with a love of the source material might enjoy this?  Even so, I think they might expect a bit more characterisation.

*unless the character has arrived at the destination square, in which case they're safe.

Citadel Skull chucker Painted

Long time readers might remember that I picked up the Skull Chucker at RECON in 2023? Back when I was just starting to collect Oldhammer minis?

The Skull Chucker came in MD8, Machinery of Destruction,  Undead War Machines. The set also included a skeletal chariot, and came with it's own backstory (you can find it on Stuff of Legends).

It might have taken a while get around to it, but Dark Shadows has given me the impetus to get it done. I need three war machines, since, following Boðvoc's introductory scenario, I'm defending the shores of Albion against the marauding dwarves. 

Machinery of Destruction,  the Skull Chucker

Painting the Skull Chucker 

After stripping and re assembly, painting was straightforward.  I used the same method that I use on ordinary skeletons.  

I'm not sure it's quite as effective on such large bones, but it certainly fits in with the rest of my undead. 

I added some thread, which doesn't quite look right now I've painted it; a combination of colour choice and it not matching the sculpted rope detail on the catapult arms. At least I can repaint it at some later date. Perhaps I should have completely covered the existing detail?

The catapult with it's ammo

From the side

Rear view - skulls go here!

The Crew

These were painted the same way as all my skeletons.  The minis are nice, with little details like the shackles on some of the crews' ankles. 

Presumably the big bone is some something to do with a winding mechanism, and the pile of skulls is fun.

The Skeleton Crew

The crew again

Rear view

While I'm not completely happy with the painting, especially the actual Skull Chucker, I'm delighted to actually own this Oldhammer gem and it's great to get it finished.  It was a lot of fun to do.

What's Next?

At some point I'd like to make a base and magnetise everything, but that's not immediately necessary. 

I need two more War machines in our next game; they're already finished, just waiting for their post to be finished.  They are quite different from the Skull Chucker, so they'll get their own post. 

Undead aside, I'm continuing with the Scrapjacks, and I have a few bits of other stuff in progress,  such as some more Rangers.