the Beacon Tower. Tor Varden lower level

From the book: 

"After the encounter at the bridge, you and your companions were able to slip past a couple of other gnoll patrols and reach Tor Varden. There were no guards posted outside, and very little indication of anyone inside. Then a muffled scream came from somewhere in the tower. It was a sign both good and ill. There is at least one man alive in Tor Varden, but you might already be too late to save him. You will need to move fast"

The vulture escaped alive and brought news to the tower so they were ready for the party.

 They entered into the armoury and there were two Gnoll sergeants and an archer waiting for them.

 

 

The ranger and the archer shoot and kill one sergeant and the other one falls back. The Gnoll archer misses.

 

 

The dog chases and finishes the Gnoll archer whereas the rest gang on the sargeant and kill him. The conjuror finds a philtre of fairy dust and the ranger later gets a magic sword with two uses.

 

 

They move to the torture chamber on time to try to rescue one of the soldiers of the tower!

But it is too late for him as the group is too busy fighting all those pesky Gnolls.

Again they make it on time on the third room to catch a Gnoll shaman in his workshop trying to awake a Flesh Golem! (the ranger is right behind the door and inside the third room). The conjuror gets a dose of fury leaves from the Gnoll sargeant from the torture chamber.

At the end of the third turn in the workshop, the shaman is still alive and able to revive the Flesh Golem.

The Flesh Golem attacks the barbarian while the shaman flees.

And helped by the ranger's mastiff, they destroy the monster. Then the shaman tries to escape to the upper level but is caught by members of the party and is slayed on the stairs.

 

The party got 44 XP and proceeded to the upper level of the tower.
  

Ogres in 1/72

I had the two first Ogres Jes Goodwin did long ago printed. I think they are the best Ogres around ever and now I have them in 1/72 for my skirmish games.

They are smaller than the original ones and less sharp as well, but I am very happy with how they have turned out. I must say they look better in the flesh.

 

I tried to paint them as when they were released except for the Hrothyogg's scabbard (see below). My Skrag's axe is also green but it cannot be appreciated in my pictures.

 

 

Image from Stuff of legends

 

And here there is a comparison of them next to a 1/72 Caesar's adventurer and a Dark Alliance Ranger.

The bridge guards

From the rulebook: "As you make your way towards Tor Varden, the gentle, rolling hills slowly give way to rocky plains, and finally into the boulder-filled maze known locally as ‘the Scree’. It is a barren, unnerving place – a perfect site for an ambush as the large rocks cut lines of sight down to just a few yards in most places. Proceeding cautiously, you eventually hear the Enthel River, which you must cross to reach Tor Varden. As you approach, however, you hear other noises as well, nearly drowned out by the river. Voices, of some inhuman type, a language filled with whines and barks." Gnolls!

The ranger and his companions at the bottom centre, hiding behind a big boulder. Guarding the river there are four gnoll archers plus a sergeant and two fighers on the bridge, and two more at the camp. The party has ten turns to cross and try to investigate one clue token in yellow and one treasure in the camp.

The group tries on the left but the conjurer springs a trap and results wounded. One of the gnoll archers approaches and is shot down by my archer. The alarm is sounded!

All the gnolls run towards the party and in no time they are desperately fighting for their lives. The archer kills one gnoll archer but is wounded by another. The conjurer heals himself while the ranger and the barbarian fight in close combat.

Every body is wounded and the conjurer is out of fight. The situation is desperate.

Another gnoll comes out of nowhere and attacks the archer who shoots and wounds him.

It started raining heavily on turn 7, hindering bow shooting. There is only two turns left to check the clue token and the treasure chest, so the barbarian takes the risk of dashing through the river under the cover of the rain but he is put down by two gnoll archers guarding the bridge.

Then the archer tries behind the barbarian and he passes through unscathed and reaches the clue token on turn nine and finds a scroll.

On turn nine a soldier who escaped from Tor Varden appears, but too late to be of any help.

It is turn ten and the archer has to decide between exiting the table and getting 15 XP or checking the treasure. In the treasure there are gold and gems that allow to rise the level of the barbarian.

 I killed a total of nine gnolls and deciphered the scroll found in the clue token. The giant vulture crossed all the table and escaped unhurt. The conjurer and the barbarian went on full recovery from their wounds and I get a total of 35XP. The party is heading for Tor Varden.

The infected trees

From the book:

"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."

 

There are 5 coccons to check (yellow tokens) and 5 giant spiders (from Halloween). Our heroes have to explore the cocoons, burn the infected trees and rescue as many survivors as possible.

The barbarian checks the first coccon and meet a zombie who is quickly dispatched by the archer.

On the right the Ranger meets most of the giant spiders.

A new infected tree is sighted, together with one more giant spider and a treasure.

After killing the first wave of spiders our heroes register another cocoon, but it is too late for the unfortunate victim.

 The barbarian takes down two spiders all by himself but after that he got trapped in some spider webs.

Seeing the area cleared, the archer boldly advances and rescues another villager.

Lo and behold! After spending several turns trying to escape from the sticky spiderweb, the barbarian falls into a new one.

Another survivor is saved.

Again it is too late for one of them.

With all the monsters eliminated, the heroes proceed to burn all the trees before it is too late.

After killing 8 giant spiders and 1 zombie and exploring all 5 coccons and burn the 5 trees, the party got a total of 83 points of experience, reaching 100 points enough to raise some stats and skills.
 

The deserted village

I am revisiting Rangers of the Shadow Deep but in 1/72 scale, my favourite one. I am using miniatures from Caesar, Dark Alliance, Hät, Zvezda and I am also printing those that are not available, like my Ranger character and his dog which are 28mm downscaled models.

Another new thing I'm introducing is a different move and combat system as I am not fond of d20 system.

So the starting band is my Ranger and his four followers, his wardog, a barbarian, an archer, and a conjurer that are visiting a deserted village in search of Aventine, a veteran ranger who disappeared three days ago. The yellow tokens are clues to explore and two of them are inside locked buildings.

My ranger and his trustworthy dog hasten to check the closest clue hidden in the building but they are stopped by giant rats and zombies!

The barbarian charges alone one of the zombies while the archer shoots at them from the centre of the village. The caster runs to help my ranger.

The barbarian easily dispatches with one mighty blow one zombie and then dashes back into a new one to help his comrade.

But more enemies are coming and they both suffer injuries.

 

 

The caster search in the building but only finds some herbs. Disappointed, the ranger rushes towards another clue and he finds a mutilated body with strange bite marks that he does not identify.

Time is running so he quickly goes after the next clue while he dodges zombies, and lets his dog deal with them.

The caster finds a survivor hiding in the bushes!

The ranger is attacked from behind and results wounded by a giant rat.

 

 

He falls back and heals while his dog deals with the evil creature once again, and then he investigates the clue in the tress and finds a treasure!

Time was up before the caster and the survivor could reach to the last clue, and they neither find Aventine nor his sword.

The ranger (I have to put names to all the membes of the band) got 74 experience points and his followers two points each. They also get a healing potion and some iron bark powder.

The alternative combat system responded very well so I am sticking with it for the incoming encounter.

20 mm Witch Hunter

I have this Witch Hunter printed for my 1/72 skirmishes.  I am going to use it for Rangers of the Shallow Deep as it is quite similar to the one in the cover of the rulebook. I also have a Witch Hunter's mastiff printed to walk with my hero on his adventures.

 I will also have printed all creatures I'll need for RotSD that I won't be able get on soft plastic 1/72 miniature ranges.

I love this model since it is got released long ago as it is such a classic one.

Here you have a comparative shot with one Ranger from Dark Alliance and you can see how out of proportion is the Witch Hunter, especially in head and hands, but this is something you can only notice when you put a proportionated 1/72 figure next to it.

 

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Cave Squiggs for Mordheim

We are starting a new campaign in Mordheim so I painted these cave squiggs (3d printed) to finally finished my Orc warband.

There is nothing like the old Orc miniatures with that funny evil look!

And here is the full warband but damn! I forgot to include the Troll.

DBA II/11 Gallic army

It's painted for DBA 2.2 and 3.0, but I have to paint one more base of cavalry (waiting for their shields).

As Essex did not send me any command miniatures, I had them printed. These are from Cromarty. Sadly the primer spoiled the miniatures as it left their surface like sand.

These are the chariots. The horses are a bit small but I quite like them overall.

This is the full army including a camp that I also had printed.

And here you can see face to face the Gallic vs the Republican Roman army, also with a printed camp.

For somebody from the 70-80s like me, 3D printing is like magic!

Someone may be interested in comparing old metal figures with new resin printed ones. I'd say they mix rather well.

The resin ones have more proportinate heads but I think the bigger ones get better effect from distance.

Here's another comparative picture with foot units.

Now let's see if I can lure somebody to play a few games with them. Cheers.