Rangers of Shadow Deep – Solo play project

Mantic Games Terrain Crate painting. Enjoyed doing the watermarks / dirt marks on the tables.
Experimented with a large blob of wash allowed to dry for a few moments and then whipped away. The over saturated center is still wet and whipes away leaving a fairly convincing dry ring of wash for the effect.

I have seen a lot of marks on pub tables where the wood colour is actually taken lighter by the water marks. Might try that on a table later.

This is actually a project based in procrastination even though it is in aid of scenarios coming up in the near future, because what I really need to do is create river sections for the next scenario. I could just imagine it or use blue paper, but with all the effort in painting so far I would prefer something a little more pretty and realistic to help with the immersion.

Thank you Joseph A. McCullough for writing such a cool game.
Had my first game of Rangers of Shadow Deep on my Birthday.
Starting to understand the rules and got some scary rolling to start with, but everyone survived, lots of Rats and zombies died and we ended up with 100xp and treasure. ?

Eoin and Godwin took their licks with the first zombie but buddied up expecting this zombie to attack them next turn.

No need to fear though. Myfanwy the archer took some herbs boosted her shoot ability and delivered a headshoot to the evil creature.

By turn 8 the only threat were two last zombies, but they were too late. Aventine’s dead body was found. Archibald would leave personal grief at his passing until later. Aventine’s sword retrieved for the King’s armoury and some tracks to be investigated Archibald marched his party away from the cursed village.

Addicted now, I set up the next scenario with nest trees, spiders and lichen foliage. ?

Great fun had, the archers in the group killed a lot of the spiders before they even got into melee. We even had a couple of turns without enemy minis being available during the Creature Phase.

Godwin got stuck in a web for three turns. Edwin and Eoin set the nest trees ablaze and Myfanwy found some treasure.
Archibald got poisoned, but showed great leadership on the last turn. Rather than see a survivor get attacked he got the creature’s attention and drew the beast onto him. His companions rallied around him, mobbed around it and slew it.

The bestiary grows. Giant rats and a boar. From the Frostgrave NorthStar metals range.

Primed with the last of my rattle can Mournfang Brown and hit from above with a spray of Monster Fur Brown.

The rest of the look just created through washes. Needed to knock back the glossy finish that some of the washes left with some brush on Army Painter brush on Anti-shine matt varnish.

The basing has made up for a bit of a lazy paint job I think.

Wrapping up my trilogy of Dungeon Saga Mantic Points earned minis.
A halfling, clearly an adventurous Took of some genealogy.
Turning up clad in red leather armour and chain mail coif doesn’t say homesick hobbit to me. ?
Contrast paints again to start on the shoes, trousers, armour and belts.
Some washes used to knock back some of the gloss that oft comes with Contrast paints.
Zandri to the rescue again for the linen tabard and I find Contrast paint are quite handy for painting relatively neat lines.

Popular in Mantic Games Sci-fi games Blaine is a mysterious bounty hunter. As part of a Mantic Points option I picked up Blaine in this fantasy Dungeon Saga style design.

I think I can field him as a Shadow Knight, but this leaves me with a quandary on how to field the hulking knight I already painted to hopefully fill that role. Perhaps I will just create a scenario where an alien has been passing himself off as a rare species of orc and has some sinister motive for being in this fantasy era sub-reality.

I used some of my Mantic Points to get this Dwarven bartender. It came with a “Blaine” model in fantasy attire and a halfling.

Not sure which company this mdf stable was from but I have had it assembled but unpainted for a while.
Vallejo Iraqi Sand as a base, Vallejo Air Golden Brown on all the wood, all the exterior washed with Agrax Earthshade, then a heavy highlight of Iraqi Sand and matt white mix. I used Snakebite Leather Contrast paint over all the wood. It seemed to go down really well, which makes sense given that it is ultimately a stain type paint and the colour suited the building nicely.

The roof I drew a blank on. I wasn’t sure how to approach it. Was considering making tiles from coffee stirrers or corrugated card but I just went with simply painting it a Vallejo Cavalry Brown terracotta colour. I can probably use it eventually with other games like, Bolt Action, Blood and Plunder and Sharp Practice without it looking out of place.

The flooring in the stable is a mix of brown earth type flock, some Army Painter steppe grass and some finely cut up teddy bear fur as a nod towards dirty hay.