Rangers of Shadow Deep – Solo play project

The next room was a torture chamber. I got to use my Gnoll Jailer and he did injure the soldier you meet in the chamber, but was later killed by him. The terrain was described as sparse so didn’t go overboard, but it was fun to see my racks in play.

The Rogue, Edwin was down to 2 health fighting the gnoll sergeant in the room, but the team rallied around and yet again Otto hit far above his weight killing more Gnolls. I chose to leave Edwin out of harms way and had time to gather around the door before opening it. Again we beat the 4 turn limit and ventured into the next room.

The rooms are random in this mission and room one was a storeroom. I put a cart in there that can just about go through the door. I used barrels and tables etc. I used the Sigma statues to help shape the room.

Sadly Eion The Tracker fell to two awful rolls, but ultimately the team picked up the treasure available, killed the 4 gnoll fighters (Otto the recruit doing a lot of the killing) and made it to the next door within the 4 turn limit.

Tor Vardon: The Lower Tower has been screaming out to be played but I didn’t have enough terrain to deck out the three rooms required for the mission.

I also wanted to add Otto to the warband and have typed up my warband details online and printed and laminated them. It just makes it easier to track now that only items and stats that change in game need to be added in pen.

I also decided to use neoprene mats from the Terminator miniatures game as the floor for my rooms. There’s a good chunk of the mat i can’t use because it has a modern road on it, but I overlapped the ones I have to cover it up.

I had primed some Age of Sigma minis grey already, so will use them as statues to add as extra terrain for now. ?

Almost ready to play the lower tower mission. Just painting up some archery butts and weapon racks and I think I can call that ready.

The torture pieces in the background are from my Mantic Games Terrain Crate.

OTTO

Otto is made from an Oathmark Human body and arms with a Warlord Games German metal head and a Gripping Beast Viking scabbard.

Painted in the same style as the Man-at-arms made and painted earlier in the week.

The idea is that while they dodged the patrols on the way to the tower they found Otto up a tree. The young man wanted to fight his way back in there. But with everyone dead or having fled he just watched and logged the movements around the tower; hoping to be useful to whatever force arrived to retake the tower. Archibald says that sadly there would be no company of ‘heroes’ coming. That he and his companions were all that were coming and to make his report. His Intel helped them negotiate the patrols more easily and Archibald felt that after his companions had been lucky not to have suffered serious injury at the bridge that perhaps another sword might be worth having. In the confines of room to room fighting another blade might make all the difference. Green but eager, Otto would now share their fate as a companion of Archibald the Grim.

Guard room terrain in the Mantic Games Terrain Crate is really going to improve the look of my next scenario. These melee dummies look nice based together. I figured that individually basing them might be a mistake as they will get knocked over too easily.

Used some winter static grass as spots of stuffing on show. Primed with Skelton Bone Army Painter primer and washed with Agrax Earthshade. Some of the bone colour was toned down with some Zandri Dust. The ropes and stitches touched with Wraithbone and used as occasionally highlights and signs of damage. Leadbelcher for the metal weighted bases and Vallejo Air Golden Brown i think for the wood.

The base is from my rarely used square bases (renedra).

No idea why I am making life more difficult for my group, but I wanted to make my own class of Gnoll after modelling a Gnoll with a whip and calling him a jailer.

I decided to use the basic Gnoll fighter stat line with a +1 to shoot. I have given him a 3″ range for his whip which will act like a normal shoot action. I also added a 2″ snap-to instead of 1 inch to simulate that he whips you and drags you closer.

I will let you know how he plays. If he kills anyone i will no doubt curse my meddling ways.

Gnolljay the Gnoll Jailer. And Beiddgar Verlassen the bold and abandoned Man at Arms, all for the next scenario. ?

Also working on my torture and guard house terrain for the scenario.

Gnoll Jailer

Gnolljay was made using a gnoll arm with a mace cut off beyond the handle. I cut off a length of earphone cable and stripped the insulation. I discovered the copper wire was not likely to look right and was going to be a pain to use because it looked weak and began fraying, but there was a slender length of plastic running with the wire which was what I used in the end.

Man at Arms

Verlassen is German for abandoned and Beiddgar is Welsh for bold. The mini is made from and Oathmark human sprue with a Gripping Beast viking shield and sword scabbard. I know that the sword he has would never fit in the scabbard, but it just looked a bit poor to be wielding a sword with no scabbard. For the sake of speed I kept him on his tab and made it out to be a slight step in a dungeon. The shield design plays into the militia guys I made previously in the project.

The human sprue has really impressed me and I might get more. If I decided to go for an army size Human fantasy force I might get a couple of boxes of Oathmark humans as a base for the army.

Thanks Sundancer for the help naming my hound. ?

I looked for paint jobs of this Reaper mini online and felt a Rottweiler look was effective.

Black Templar Contrast Paint to the fore, with Jokaero Orange as the base for the feet and face. Aggros Brown Contrast Paint as a wash over the orange. Then in the transition from Black to Orange on the legs i used a band of Citadel yellow wash that seemed to add a subtle lazy man’s blend effect.

Might add a tuft to the base, but on some bigger Reaper models, like this hound and the troll I have, i don’t feel the need to base the model further than the one provided.