Tuesday, 7 October 2025

Rangers of Shadow Deep: The Infected Trees

"Scenario 2: The Infected Trees
Examining the bodies of the zombies, along with the other clues from the village, left little doubt.
The village had been attacked by some horrific species of giant spider, whose venom reanimated the dead. Thankfully, such creatures move slowly. Likely, they will have retreated to the nearest shelter to slowly feast upon the missing villagers.
Your duty is clear. Taking just enough time to patch up your wounds, and make a quick pyre for the dead, you set off after the spiders, following their faint, but unique tracks. 
After nearly a day’s pursuit, the tracks lead into a small forest. Chances are the spiders are not too deep in the woods. You must find them, destroy them and any nests they might have made, and, if you are
lucky, rescue any survivors."

The MEGAforce finally got around to playing the second scenario in the first mission. 

All four of us were available, so we each chose one of our Rangers from our previous play-throughs of the first scenario and took either a Recruit or a Warhound from a previous game. The rationale was that all the earlier games had happened and the various Rangers met up on the way to the Trees. Four then took a Companion each to investigate, while the rest returned to base escorting the rescued Survivors.

L to R: Omoranti, Bostol,  Portus Fell,  Gendrin,  Ranger Bob, Wuffles, Valdar and Haflas


The Infected Grove
I set the game up ahead of time, using my Nest Trees and pretty much all the rest of my tree collection. Sadly I didn't really have any other suitable terrain to provide cover and make the going difficult.

The table ready for play; four nest trees at the far end, with a good scattering of other trees filling the rest of the table.  The occasional spider can be seem hiding, and five clue tokens are spread around the board
The Infected Trees with lurking spiders

We'd not got together for a while, so there was a lot of chat and too few pictures.  Here's a brief account of the action.

Opening Moves 
The Heroes advanced, already sighting Giant Spiders ahead. Early shots took out a couple, and Valdar was able to target one of the Nest Trees with a Fireball, burning both it and the Spider hiding in it.
The only setback was both Omoranti and Bostol being Poisoned by a Spider (Grim couldn't roll less than a 17 in the first half of the game, great when it was for his Heroes, less good when he rolled for the Spiders).
The first couple of Cocoons held corpses, but in the third was an elderly woman. At 87 she wasn't going to let mere spiders stop her!

NB, pic at 90 degrees to first.  My Ranger and Recruit head up the near side towards a cocoon, but are stopped by a spider, on the far side, Bob and Wuffles advance towards more cocoons.
The Heroes investigate, meeting venomous spiders and Nest Trees, and destroying them all 

The End Phase 
The Rangers continued their mission. Wuffles was attacked by a Spider, but a rare shaft of light through the canopy drove it off. Sadly the noble hound then fell to a Zombie after sniffing one of the remaining cocoons.
The final cocoon held another villager, but it seemed the danger wasn't over. Two more trees were Infected, but Valdar dealt with one with a Recalled Fireball and as set fire to the other.
With no more cocoons to investigate, and any remaining Spiders hidden away, the Heroes returned to base, stopping only to help Valdar and Gendrin, who had managed to get themselves caught up in sticky spider webs.

The Heroes cluster round the rescued survivors, all threats eliminated
All clear!

Aftermath 
Everyone gained a level. Portius Fell was already level 1 from the first game, so now she's improved her shooting (all that practice on poor helpless spiders).
The rest of us are now level 1 and have honed our Skills ready for Tor Varden.

And Wuffles survived his encounter with the zombie.

Summary 
Well that was a lot of fun. 
The Mission wasn't as difficult as I anticipated, and I set up for the Challenge Level after reading suggestions in the Rangers of Shadow Deep Facebook group.

Initially, everyone kept their Ranger and Companion together, but we soon got into the swing of things and had folk helping out where they were most useful.
My experience was, perhaps, jaded slightly by having both my Heroes Poisoned, so down to one Action a turn. I felt I added little to the game from that point onwards, it's a good job the rest of the company were up to the task.

Mistakes Were Made 
Although the system is an easy one to learn, I still got some things wrong. 
Despite using a Fast Play Sheet, I messed up the second move. This meant that we were moving far too fast (especially Ranger Bob and Valdar, with their base move of 7). We got to the Nest Trees too soon, and took the initial four out of the game relatively early (Fireballing a tree and spider was nicely cinematic though).
I was also rushing through the Event Card results, not reading them properly, so I missed placing the spider and treasure tokens along with the new Nest Trees. Doh! This would have delayed setting fire to them.

But the real reason the scenario seemed relatively easy was the 'spider shooting gallery'. This was down to my not placing any low cover. Bushes and such would have helped the spiders survive until they could contact the company.

If that sounds a bit negative, it's not meant to. Everyone commented on how fun it was, and the ease of learning the rules (excepting mistakes) helps the story to stand out.

Looking Forward 
T'Other One had to use the Barbarian for Bob, as I have surprisingly few male Rangers painted. I'll correct that soon.
I must also make more low cover, bushes, rocks etc; I'm sure they will add to the next scenario. 
I also need to start assembling the minis for Mission Two.

"Only hours after you arrived back from destroying the nest of spiders, you received a message from your commanding officer. Contact has been lost with the beacon tower of Tor Varden, and it is presumed to have been overrun.
You are commanded to round up what men you can and proceed with all swiftness to Tor Varden to ascertain the truth. If the tower has fallen, learn what enemy forces now occupy it and harass or eliminate them as opportunity presents."

Thursday, 2 October 2025

October Monthly Challenge; The Lichemaster's Undead

October Challenge 
It's traditional in Hobbyland to either paint orcs in October (Orctober), or do something spoooooky ready for Halloween.
I've done a couple of Orctobers, last year sorting out 6mm orcs for Fantastic Battles and in 2021 trying to paint as many different orcs as I could.

Orctober
So with the maxim "a change is as good as a rest", I decided to do something Undead. After all, I've had plenty of practice recently with my D&D skeletons and zombies.

But what?

As an old Grognard with a liking for the second edition Warhammer Fantasy Battles scenario packs, the obvious answer is The Terror of the Lichemaster*. 

Ulterior Motives
Just as with my Orc's Drift project, this is really just an excuse to collect and paint some undead.
Unlike Orc's Drift, I'm not really trying to collect the recommended minis. Anything vaguely similar will do. There'll be several different manufacturers, and I don't think I'll find anything to match the main characters anyway. They do crop up occasionally at silly prices, but I'm happy to save my limited hobby cash for more, cheaper, stuff.

I don't know how far I'll get in one month, but it'll be fun to see.

Planning 
Here's a brief rundown of what would be required for the full campaign, should I be mad enough to try that.
The Assault on the Mine; Ranlac the Black (skeleton champion), twenty skeletons, Gimbrin Finehelm (dwarf hero), dwarf miners.
The Attack on Bogles Farm; Mikeal Jacsen (skeleton champion) ten zombies, the Bogles (five human settlers), Samgaff (halfling) and Fritzy (psycho dog)
The Defence of Frugelhoffen; Heinrich Kemmler (necromancer), Krell (undead hero), twenty skeletons, ten zombies plus the surviving undead from previous games, twenty spear armed villagers, twenty bow armed villagers and five additional characters, Rialta Snow (elf), Albi Shutz (human champion), Grimwald Calaco (human anarchist), Antonio Epstein (lovestruck human chancer) and Gim Grundel (halfling).
That's quite a lot for the final game, but the preliminary games should be quite achievable. 

I'm not really seriously planning on collecting everything, (well, not at the moment anyway) but I do hope to paint a small force of undead for games like Warlords of Erehwon, and if I can run the first couple of games using WoE, that's a definite bonus.

A True Tyke
In the spirit of saving time, money and effort, there's a lot of crossover with the Orc's Drift project. The Linden Way Militia will provide the spears and some of the bows for the defence of Frugelhoffen, the villagers provide the Bogels, and the dwarves from Ashak Rise provide Gimbrin's miners.
I've got the dwarven mine buildings already from the Second International Townscape Challenge (I've even got the mine head that I built when I first got the pack, it just needs a bit of fixing up) and I painted a suitable dog for Fritzy when I was experimenting with hobhounds (the recommended mini is a different one of the four AD&D Blink Dogs, I'm sure Fritzy won't mind).
I've also got an actual Rialta Snow, "Star of Stage, Screen and Warhammer Scenario", and suitable minis for most of the other heroes.
As for the undead characters, Antediluvian Miniatures do a pack of suspiciously familiar undead heroes. Tempting. 

The Bare Bones
fifteen skeleton minis in various states of disrepair.
Needs work

So here's the start of the undead, some random skeletons from various manufacturers. These include Citadel, Grenadier, and Prince August, the result of decades of random collecting and a couple of job lots from evilbay. I rather like the disorganised look with no standard of arms or equipment. They are different heights and build too, which helps sell the story that these are skeletons animated from all over the place, rather than a trained military unit brought back from the grave.
Many of them need repairs to get them battle ready, so it's off to the bits box for some weapons and other gear. I've got nine more that were more complete and are now primed ready for painting.
Altogether this lot should get me sufficient for the first battle.

Painting 
I'm aiming on keeping the painting fairly simple, after all,  many of the minis are little more than bones and weapons.  
I'm keeping it more 'traditional', in the manner of my old school orcs, so base coat, highlight and wash, with whatever extra detailing is required.



*I intended taking part in Dave Stone's Apocalypse Me challenge this month, and the undead hordes are ideal. But for reasons he explains on his blog, he's got more important matters to deal with. I wish him well; think of this as continuing his great work in the hobbysphere.

Rangers of Shadow Deep: The Infected Trees

"Scenario 2:  The Infected Trees Examining the bodies of the zombies, along with  the other clues from the village, left little doubt. ...