The Secret of the Thunderforge Playthru

Here's my write up of the face to face session.  

But first, a few points.  I'm no writer, so apologies for the style and the overlong prose. Reading back it seems all about Tharnak, while it's true that this was his character arc, all the players got lots to do.  My note taking may have focused on him, but in play it was very much a group effort.  I didn't take many pictures, mostly because we were all concentrating on the game.  There are more of the minis and the scenery in the relevant posts.

Also, the structure is technically a foundry more than a forge, but the name stuck.  Apologies if this bothers you (it does me, a little).

Now, read on...

Background 

The party were investigating why the northern branch of the dwarf paladin's clan were considered anathema.

To answer this question, they explored the abandoned furnace and forge of the clan, situated in a flooded cavern. 

Previous sessions showed them that they needed to open some valves and shut others to drain the cavern, and in a previous foray, they actually gained entrance to the uppermost levels. Here they were met by the bizarre site of many of the clan, turned to stone! What's more, they seemed to have undergone the process willingly.

The Heroes plus Hangers On

The heroes consist of;

Harrow, tiefling cleric of The Raven Queen 

Kei, dragonborn wizard

Roland, half elven paladin of Bahamut

Tarryn, elven rogue 

Tharnak Thunderforge, dwarven paladin of Kord

Timbers, gnome bard

They are accompanied by Kluku, a construct built in the form of a small dragon, Tordek and Lonar Deepdelve, father and son and Clan chief and heir of the Deepdelves.

Kluku was adopted by the party (especially Harrow) when they met him trying to sell them merchandise in the abandoned Thunderforge market. He has proven useful with his knowledge of Clan individuals.

Some of the Heroes of  Nentir Vale can be seen in one of last years' posts.

Draining the Cavern 

The first stage was to drain the water; accompanied by Tordek, Chief of the Deepdelve Clan, they were able to enter the room containing huge metal pipes with tarnished wheels, presumably some sort of tap?  Water pooled around them, but Harrow was eventually able to open one valve. When Roland joined in, the puddle rose up and attempted to engulf him. Fortunately, the group soon dispatched the creature. 

It was a simple matter then to open the second valve, causing a drop in the water level in the cavern.

But water was still gushing in through the ceiling. 

Earlier, the heroes found a room above the cavern with similar pipework, but with no apparent control, only a blue crystal set in the wall. Time to go back and check further.

Tharnak's use of the Thunderforge motto seemed to bring the crystal to life; glowing runes appeared in a language none of the party understood. Tordek was annoyed; these defences were supposed to require at least two Clans to lift, the ancient Thunderforges were clearly keeping secrets from his clan. 

Harrow mollified him; surely the Deepdelves also had clan secrets?

Kei used his magic (comprehend languages) to try and read the writing, but when he touched the stone, his eyes lost focus and he slumped. His mind was elsewhere, where a strange watery presence demanded to know what he wanted. 

Questioning revealed that it was an elemental creature of water. Despite it's alleged great power, it was compelled simply to control and direct water for the dwarves.  Kei asked it to turn off the water, but the dragonborn was no dwarf to be obeyed without question, what could he offer in exchange?

Quickly Kei asked what it wanted. Would it like the blue crystal? With delight, it seized the thing binding it to servitude and vanished, shutting off the flow as it went.

The players thought this rash. Without the elemental would the forge still operate? Was Highpeak doomed to a dry dusty future? As Kei's consciousness returned, this was something to ponder. 

The water now drained slowly out, revealing a lower wooden bridge, another door in the side of the forge, and a series of mine tunnels leading from the cavern. The Deepdelves suspected that this was a section of their mines that had long been flooded.

The Fate of the Forge Master 

The heroes then persuaded Tordek to remain outside. He was a leader, but no warrior. He agreed, providing his son Lonar accompanied them. At Tharnak's insistence, dwarves were placed at intervals so that the alarm could be raised if needed.

The doors opened at Tharnak's whispered words. "More Thunderforge treachery" Tordek muttered as he took up position just outside.

Entering the Master Forge

The doors had leather seals to keep out the water, and the place was warm and dry. Pillars supported the ceiling and steps led up to doors, presumably the doors that had proven impossible for Tarryn to open in a previous session.

In one corner a cylindrical feature rose floor to ceiling, a faint reddish glow emanating from it. 

Both a ramp and a shaft led below and various tubs and crates littered the room, filled with rubble.

Entering the Ore Floor

A shuffling sound behind the pillars alerted the heroes. What could be moving after 300 years?

Tharnak concentrated; as a paladin, he could sense the undead, and there was an undead creature there. It slunk forward, hissing and licking it's dry lips. It was, or had been, a dwarf. 

Still wearing the remains of its apron and work wear and clutching a metal staff topped by a miniature anvil it approached.

"Ah, rescue, at last. But why did you abandon us for so long? Deepdelve doings I'll wager".

Tharnak, Roland and Harrow watched its approach, the tiefling mentally preparing the blessing of the Raven Queen that should send it to it's rest. But the creature seemed to want to talk, so the heroes questioned it.

In between complaining about how hungry it was, and it's shame at what it had had to do to survive, it revealed that it was Goran, the Forge Master, and son of the Clan Chief. When asked, Kluku recognised him, confirming his tale.

At some point (he seemed confused by the time he'd been shut away) Highpeak was attacked. There were reports of Grey Dwarves in the depths. All dwarves mobilised, but Keldrick, the Thunderforge chief suspected the Deepdelves were behind this.

He withdrew as many of the Clan as possible to the Master Forge. A great battle was fought in the cavern outside (where, incidentally, the bravery of the Deepdelves proved they were innocent of collusion with the dvergar at least). When all seemed lost, Keldrick triggered the defence mechanisms, flooding the cavern and the lower mines.

With a supply of food and drink, they settled down to wait. With the dvergar washed away, surely the other clan chiefs would drain the cavern and release them?

But no help came.

Keldrick issued instructions to his son to lead the apprentices in the regular rituals that kept the forge running and stable, then ushered the rest of the Clan upstairs. A short while later he returned, pale and shaken, locked the doors and sat, sword in hand guarding the stairs.

Now Goran became very upset as he recalled how they ran out of food. Flosi, the youngest apprentice, fell ill and passed away, solving the food problem for a while. 

Eventually, only Goran remained, he glossed over what happened to his father, but did mutter that "he didn't stand a chance against all of us". 

His anger at being abandoned returned and he prepared to attack, exuding a foul stench which caused the paladins to retch.

"They couldn't help, there was a dragon. It attacked and drove everyone away" pleaded Harrow, staying the creature.

He remained suspicious at the timing, but Tharnak commanded him to stand down. Recognising, perhaps, the Thunderforge blood, he declared his watch over, bowed and offered up his staff, begging the adventurers to save the foundry which he feared was dangerously unstable. Harrow offered to finish the undead creature's existence, but Tharnak took that responsibility.

Searching the area revealed that the round structure in the corner was the top of a furnace. Peering in, the heroes were surprised to see it was still lit (and very hot).

Rummaging through the various tubs and bins, the heroes found they contained ores of different kinds.  Strangely, some of the more valuable pieces accidentally fell into Tarryn's pockets.

Disturbingly, there were also gnawed bones, among which was a fine sword, a key and a ring.

The sword had clearly had three gemstones embedded in the hilt, though they were now missing. The ring matched the ghostly ring the ghost placed on Tharnak's finger when they first arrived in Highpeak, and the key opened the doors at the top of the stairs, to Tarryn's delight (they had previously tried to open this from the other side, but the poor thief only rolled a 2).

Descending the slope, the adventurers reached a mezzanine level. Wooden flooring partially concealed the floor below, flickering flames near the ceiling illuminated the area.

Descending to the mezzanine level

View from the other end of the room

But as the heroes explored further, the flames moved! Three bat like creatures wreathed in fire flew at the intruders.

Roland swung at one with his glaive, cutting it in half caused a burst of flame. Seeing this, the heroes resorted, where possible, to ranged attacks. 

Lonar was determined to prove his worth and charged towards one of the bats but slipped and fell (natural 1). As he recovered, the characters were assaulted by more of the bats. They made quick work of them with arrows, magic missiles and, where necessary, glaive and the Forge master's staff. With the creatures destroyed, the party were happy to tell Lonar that he had finished one of them off.

During the fight, Tharnak discovered that the staff protected him somewhat from fire and seemed especially effective against the elemental creatures.

(This encounter made the most of the partial nature of this level, and being able to place the two levels on the table.  Sadly no proper picture of the encounter in play, but the next picture does show three levels with the heroes on the mezzanine in the middle and Lonar sprawled on the floor).

Fighting the Fire Bats

In haste to get to the heart of the forge, the heroes quickly looked around, then descended the ramp to the floor below.

The forge had a spout angled towards the centre of the room, which was covered in sand. Investing this revealed that the sand was of some depth. 

It also disturbed something.

A vaguely humanoid figure formed out of the sand and attacked. No chance to parley, it only wanted to destroy.

Despite it blinding Tharnak with a storm of sand, the heroes proved their worth.  Roland's use of his glaive at distance proved especially useful, and the Forgemaster's Staff walloped lumps out of the thing. Shatter spells seemed less effective against it's sandy nature, but it soon collapsed back onto the floor under the combined assault.

The Sand Thing attacks

The party were surprised when opening the furnace door released a stream of molten metal. The foundry was still operable after all these years, though they could find nothing that looked like it could stabilise the forge.

But there were steps down, so down they went.

The bottom of the foundry was a large octagonal pillar supporting the cylinder above. Wooden walls surrounded the central area and a lift platform rested below the square shaft. The adventurers tried to get this working, but whatever mechanism drove it didn't respond.

But their main focus was the foundry base.

Like the water room high up in the forge, there was a crystal engraved in Primordial, but this one was red.

When touched, a voice asked if they wanted to access 'The Chamber of the Tooth". Of course the party said yes, and found themselves transported to a room the same size as the basement.

A rainbow swirl of colour lit the place and many of the party felt a strange itch or buzz as the energy in the chamber was intense.

The only features here were six large crystals and, corresponding to the foundry, a large tooth thrust through the floor.

Coloured energies swirled around the tooth. 

The crystals spun on their axis, four were irregular shapes and glowed red. Their spin was erratic. A fifth was similar, but a much paler colour. The ghostly shape of a dwarf could be seen trying to control it. The final crystal was regular and shone with a clear light. Another dwarf spirit was controlling this.

Tharnak recognised the latter as the ghost that had treated him earlier, the party was sure the other spirit was that of the Forge Master.

Kei quickly deduced that the crystals controlled the flow of energies from the Elemental Chaos. Presumably the tooth somehow let them through?

Four of the crystals clearly needed attention. Kei and Timbers could use their knowledge of arcane procedures to do this, but since the whole device undoubtedly referred back to the Dawn War, the cleric and paladins could too; different path, same destination.

Tarryn elected to stay on watch, and, after brief consideration, Tharnak joined her. He did attend classes back in the temple, but the finer points eluded him and he felt he could add little to the crystal work.

Before the heroes began, Harrow (I think) called on the Raven Queen to bless their work. Then they set to.

As soon as they began the energies around the tooth coalesced and two fiery spirits appeared.  Tharnak and Tarryn tackled these, and they were soon dispatched.  As the rest of the party concentrated, their crystals began to loose the angry red colour, but they needed more attention to stabilise them, alas, Harrow took longer than the rest, giving more fire spirits the chance to attack, but they were no match for Tarryn and Tharnak.

As the last crystal turned clear and spun smoothly, the energy from the tooth flowed pure and clear.

The ghost of the elder dwarf bowed to the party and turned to Tharnak "you are a true Thunderforge" he said.

And that's pretty much where we left it, time was passing, and many of us had long journeys.

Some more story was revealed as we packed away.  The tooth was that of a Primordial (presumably a dead one!) that pierced the veil between the Elemental Chaos and the material Realm.  The dwarves didn't know where it came from, but it allowed them to access very high temperatures for the foundry and forge, and control them too a very fine degree.  This was the Secret of the Thunderforges.  Keldrik (the last Clanmaster) had found out the Deepdelve secret, and it wasn't anything to do with the dvergar.  He didn't feel it appropriate to divulge it though...

I'll finish by thanking my players for turning up and making this an amazing gaming experience. 

Look out for more posts showing the minis and the terrain, and I may even waffle on about some of the choices I made.

Ready for Adventure

Here's all the stuff I'll need for the face to face session. 

If it looks a lot,  some of those boxes are fairly empty!

There's a box of terrain,  maps, rulebook, dice etc and minis. Even my D&D goblet just for fun.

Expect a write up and a more in depth look at terrain and minis later.

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. 

More Morley

Following on from the last post, I should mention these two skeletal musicians. 

These are from the Skeleton Command set (4514/2 and 4514/3), all sculpted by Gary Morley. Like the zombies, they were released for 4th Edition Warhammer Fantasy Battles, so Middlehammer rather than Oldhammer by most folks' reckoning, but I like them, so that's all that matters really.

Two Skeleton Musicians

These were a kind gift from good friend T'Other One, who has a huge collection of undead of all kinds. (Check out his blog, appropriately called Vault of the Undead). Luckily for me, these were surplus, and I eagerly snapped them up. 

Many thanks, these chaps will be joining my growing undead horde. I'm short of one skeleton for my Necromancer's personal guard; the more ornately equipped one will be just right. The other chap will work nicely among my growing horde.

Recent Purchases and a Find

More Zombies

When I painted the most recent batch of Zombies I was impressed by the Gary Morley minis.  

These were produced for fourth edition Warhammer Fantasy Battle (1992). They might not be quite the Oldhammer aesthetic, but they are nice minis nevertheless, so I kept an eye out for any more. 

While browsing evilbay I found some at a reasonable price, so I've three more to add to the collection, a command set, and what I originally thought was one of the ordinary zombies.

Three zombies and a 'bot

The chap on the left isn't actually a Gary Morley sculpt. In fact it's not even Citadel.  I finally IDed it as one of the Marauder Skeletons (MM 50 06/B) sculpted by Aly Morrison. It might technically be a skeleton, but it sure looks like a zombie to me; in fact several of the MM50 skeletons would do as zombies (check them out on Lost Minis Wiki)  

It fits in well with the GW look of the time, and it's nice to have another 'martial' zombie.

The two members of the Zombie Command will go nicely with the recent mob, though the standard bearer could paint up as a skeleton, having less flesh on it than the Marauder 'skeleton'.

They're currently all sitting in the Dettol bath and will get added to the painting queue soon.

'bot for Scrapjacks?

And finally, a robot.  I found this clanker while clearing through a box of stuff. It one of a handful that I bought back in the 1980s.  It's actually a cake decoration,  and originally had flexible arms and pincer claws.  I bought a few to use in Rogue Trader games,  though never got beyond removing the arms.

I'm showing it here because I think it would be ideal as a maintenance bot in Scrapjacks.  Sadly,  only one isn't really enough.  I do have more,  somewhere,  but probably not another five.  And I do wish now that I hadn't removed those pincer arms.

I may paint it up anyway, it should be fun. I might find something suitable to replace the missing arms.

What's Next?

I'm busy painting stuff (as well as rehearsing), Scrapjacks and things for the next Dark Shadows game. 

Edit 

A Google search shows the following information about the little robot. 

More Miscellaneous Zombies

In between building the Scrapjacks I've finished off a unit of ten zombies. I started these last year, and for some reason I got stuck with them.

Still, all done now, so here they are.

Ten zombies.  Brainzzz

Miscellaneous Zombies 

I needed another ten zombies for the third battle in the Terror of the Lichemaster campaign. These minis are a mix of manufacturers, though many of them are Citadel/Games Workshop.

Painting was straightforward, much the same as the dancing zombies I did last year. I'm not sure the skin tones came out quite as well, but en mass they look fine.

Citadel 

Six GW/Citadel Zombies

Shambling away

The oldest mini (extreme left) is an Unarmed Zombie, ADD96 (3a) sculpted by Bob Naismith. Released in 1986 when Citadel did official AD&D minis. He was missing his slotta tab, but it was simple to pin him on a base. He's a nice zombie (if that's ok to say), though he lacks the character of some of the C18 zombies such as Peck Gregory or Khand Meat.

Then there are three are Gary Morley sculpts, Zombie 1, 3, and 6. They date back to 1992. A couple of these look suitably ex military, wit bits of armour, so I gave them the black and yellow livery that seems to crop up a lot in my painting, though always, so far, in the hands of the opposition. I really like these sculpts, especially the chap with the helm. My only complaint is that they are large compared to a lot of my older minis,  but differing heights is definitely a thing. I wish I had more of these. 

Finally (the two on the right) a couple of the plastic Zombie regiment multipart minis from 2000. Not a lot to say here. They're OK, but detail is a little shallow. I've got a lot of these, so I suppose I'll be painting more of them in the future. They are at least a great source of bits, and I'll be using them for various projects in the future.

Grenadier and Ral Partha

Zombie and Wight

Grenadier (l) and Ral Partha (r)

The chap on the left is a Grenadier zombie, but from their Horror range rather than a fantasy mini. I thought he looked a bit like a butler, hence the black jacket.

The right hand mini is a Dungeons and Dragons Wight from Ral Partha rather than a zombie, but it looks the part. He was difficult to photograph well, his hunched pose hides a lot of the details. 

I realise that these two look rather same-y together. 

And Finally..

Zombie and ????

Asgard and ????

These two are an Ásgarð FM 73 Zombie and an unknown,  possibly a ghoul? Probably not a zombie. They are fairly crude by modern standards, but they both painted up nicely and I'm pleased with the results.

Thanks to the Old School Miniatures Facebook group for IDing the Ásgarð zombie and tracking down the exact sculpt of the AD&D zombie.  Alas the last mini seems to have foxed the collective.  If you know what it is, please leave a comment.

So ten zombies for Heinrich Kemmler to make life miserable for the villagers of Frugelhoffen. They'll also crop up in my Warlords of Erehwon Undead force as they (slowly) attempt to invade Albion.

They have a rather mixed look, and I might split them into smaller units to later bulk up to ten.

What's Next?

I'm painting Scrapjacks, but I do need to get some stuff done for the next Dark Shadows game.

Kitbashing Scrapjacks

As March rattles towards its conclusion and we see the turn of another season (and I see that bus pass edge ever closer), how am I doing with the Scrapjacks stuff I planned last post?

Well, everything is built and I'm on with the painting.  They were generally fun to do, so here's what I've got and how I did it.

Scrapjacks 

There are four types of  'jacks in the Quickstart.  Each has a different role, and, conveniently, they have different equipment, so should be recognisable on the board.  

While I'm not trying to match every bit of equipment, it does give me something to aim at and it should help with identification when playing the game.

The four 'jacks ready for painting; Patch, Torch, Rigger and Yard dog

Patch 

Patch is the medic who also deals with suit breaches; essentially it's their job to keep the rest of the crew functioning.  A big case full of first aid gear and something that looks like it might seal tears on EVA suits will emphasize the role.

I used Stargrave body and arms, with an Anvil Industries helmet. I chose the left arm with big case and found a neat device on another left arm that looks like a staple gun. It was easy to switch this on to a right arm/hand; presumably it seals suit breaches. I used one of the fabric looking packs on the back.

Torch

Torch 

Torch carries a wrecking bar and a coil pistol. Its their job to open things up to find that valuable salvage. The wrecking bar is the distinctive kit, so I modelled something to show it.  I was actually thinking of something along the lines of a Hooley Bar* (Halligan Bar in the US). I'm sure it would do the job nicely. 

The body is one of the Stargrave Mercenaries, with an Anvil Industries bubble helmet. The Halligan Bar is scratch built using plasticard built on the Stargrave arm holding a missile which was shaved down to leave the shaft for the bar and provided the spike.

They have a pistol in the right hand (I couldn't think what else to use). The pack is from the Warpath Firefight GCPS Infantry sprue.

Rigger

Rigger's fancy pack

Rigger is armed with a coil pistol and a vibro-knife, a fairly generic load, but their speciality is getting stuff to work, even if only temporarily; if Torch can't break it open, Rigger bypasses the electronics.  

So some sort of tech device, and definitely the data pad to show the role.

I chose an open helmet. I see it as a clear secondary visor inside the gold tinted one; Rigger needs the best vision possible when working.

The left arm with data pad is was a given. The device in the right hand is the top of the missile from one of the Stargrave sprues (definitely not a sonic screwdriver).

The fancy pack is the Rangers Com Pack from Mantic's GCPS Infantry sprue. 
.

Yard dog (sorry, no pic, I seem to have lot it) is the muscle, armed with a Riot gun and a shock baton.  There's lots of gun options on the Stargrave sprues, it's just a case of choosing a nice one.  

The shock baton is a mace taken from the Oathmark Human infantry sprue, and the pack is a cylindar and greebles from the Stargrave sets.

There are some options that closely match the illustrations in the Quickstart, but I chose something a bit like the Pulse Rifle in Aliens.

Maintenance 'bots 

"Remove all unauthorized organics"

These are the Mechanite Dreadball team, one of two teams that came as multi part kits allowing coaches to choose different accessories. I chose parts that hopefully make each bot look a bit different from it's fellows. I didn't really have a plan beyond that.

The team, like most of Mantic's Dreadball stuff, is made of 'Restic'. This is a resin/plastic, and gained quite a reputation.  It doesn't clean up as easily as either hard plastic or metals and it can need the hot water treatment to fit. 

In Mantic's defence, it allowed them to get a lot of stuff out at a reasonable price, in a short time, and once cleaned up and painted it looks fine.  I don't think they use it anymore, it's been replaced with resin or a PVC style plastic. 

The bits fit together pretty well, though the arm joints don't have a large contact point.  I foresee some drilling and pinning in the future. 

Raiders 

Six Marauders contemplating a career change to Raiders 

Raiders are the basic humanoid opposition in the Quickstart. I'd grand plans for kitbashing these using GCPS troopers or one of the human Dreadball teams, or even spare Star Saga minis.

But time was passing, and in the end I went for an easy option; Warpath Marauders. 

These date back to the original release of Warpath, shortly after Kings of War. They are variants of the plastic orc sprues, but with some Sci Fi bits replacing the traditional axes and shields.

They are not what I imagine the raiders to look like, and if I like the game well enough to buy the full version, I'll definitely replace them with something like the Stargrave Scavengers or the Death Fields Cannon Fodder. But I've a large box of the Marauders (I've already used some for skulks as they have a useful unshielded left arm), so they'll do.

What's Next?

That's the Scrapjacks built, I'm applying paint now. 

I suspect the main problem will be deciding on colour schemes, though I've a few vague ideas.

Scenery wise I've gathered more than enough bits for the POIs, and I've got a spare computer terminal from Star Saga for an objective. Even better, quite a bit of this is already painted, though I might do a bit of touch up as they are quite old paint jobs.

I've also made a 12 inch square board, which should be sufficient to try the game, though ideally I'll make a second one.

I do have other stuff to do too; some undead for the next Dark Shadows game, and I need to start planning for the next live D&D session.  Plenty to keep me busy!

*I first came across this neat bit of real world kit in "What Abigail Did That Summer", by Ben Aaronovitch.