Super Dungeon Explore: a game

Introduction

Last Thursday's club game was Super Dungeon Explore.  This won't be a blow-by-blow account, but rather an overview.  It was a very close game indeed...

The Beginning

So, the Questing Knight (in red armour) and the Thundervale Huntress (the centaur) tore through a number of kobolds and their pet hounds.  Initially, Princess Emerald (steampunk sniper) and the Royal Warden (black trenchcoat and hat) just stood and watched.  Of course I, as the dungeon consul, just spawned new monsters to replace these losses; I didn't care about such losses 😁.

After a while, the heroes seemed to realise that they weren't getting very far.  They switched to prioritising spawn points instead of destroying monsters.  This worked much better and they were working through the second tile when my mini-boss spawned.  Sadly, he was so ineffectual and was dispatched so quickly that I don't even have a picture of him; he just wasn't on the board for long enough...

The third and fourth tiles had some very well-entrenched zombies protecting their spawn points.  Nevertheless, the heroes did manage to destroy one of these before the arrival of the big boss (the Witch Queen, on her pumpkin carriage).

Now it took me a while to figure out how to use the Witch Queen effectively (call me slow if you like...).  She's not much good in a melee, can't heal very well - and the heroes were pretty well tooled up by this time.  However, she can throw curses like there's no tomorrow!

Above is a picture of the Questing Knight shortly before he expired: he is badly wounded and on fire, has hex, bane and ice curses and also is infested by a rabid squirrel and a ghost - none of which are particularly hindered by his considerable strength and armour.  He's not in a good way...

Last to die was the Royal Warden - though not before the Witch Queen had been reduced to 2 health left (from a starting value of 8).  One more turn might well have been enough for the warden to inflict 2 damage, so it is quite possible that the heroes could have won this game.  But they didn't...

Conclusion

We were playing the fan-published Lootimeter Mode rules, rather than one of the two official modes that come as part of the game, though we used 20 cards in each countdown deck rather than 16 .  I think I prefer this mode greatly; Lootimeter Mode provides some very necessary time limits and therefore imparts a real sense of urgency.  The heroes need to stick to their plan; they can't afford to deviate!

Not having destroyed the fourth spawn point made a huge difference, as it allowed the Witch Queen to activate an additional time every move.  In effect, she had 2 turns for each one in which the heroes moved; this is a big multiplier.  Heroes, you really need to kill those spawn points!

The Last of the Christmas Models

Introduction

The Christmas & New Year holiday is well and truly over; I've been back at work for 2 weeks now.  However, I'm still sorting through and putting away models which I painted during that period.  Here are some of them - it's quite a mixture!

Damsels in Distress

These are some classic "damsels in distress", from Bob Murch's "Pulp Figures" range.  Specifically, they come from pack PWM 10 - Cringing Captives.  I plan to use these in games of Pulp Alley or Congo (fairly obvious, I would have thought!).  As such, I don't really need the other two figures from the pack; sawmills and railway tracks aren't really a feature of Darkest Africa, where my games are set.

Note that I've painted up both of these models in an identical colour scheme.  This will enable me to use one as a replacement for the other in a game, thus indicating whether the heroine is currently tied to a stake or not.

DreadBall 2

From L to R: score marker, turn (rush) marker, new style referee 

Early this month (i.e. January 2018), I received my Dreadball 2 Kickstarter package.  I'm not buying any new teams, as I already have 12 (I think), of which only 8 are painted.  However, I did receive the new rules, new cards and new game markers.

1st edition DreadBall supplied cardboard counters for the score and rush markers.  This worked well enough, but the 2nd edition has some rather nice models instead.  The new score marker is a miniature trophy, while the turn marker is a robotic commentator/linesman in a floating disk/chair that is liberally equipped with spotlights and/or cameras.  There is also a different figure for the robot referee.

I did need to replace the support pillar on the floating chair with a transparent post.  This was mainly because the moulded pillar was somewhat bent and wouldn't have produced a very good effect.  Still, that conversion/repair was easy enough.

Note that I'm experimenting with transparent bases for the figures which will be on the pitch.  The referee is the first such model to be completed.

Lady Godiva - Fiction and Reality

Lady Godiva: the myth

The fictional tale of Lady Godiva is simple: a Saxon lord was oppressing his people.  His wife (Godiva) asked him to lower rents or some such, to which the husband replied that he would do so only if his wife rode naked through the streets of Coventry.

Of course, he didn't expect her to do this, but she arranged for the local townsfolk to close their doors and window shutters and then disrobed and rode the streets, unobserved by all.  Her husband was true to his promise and treated his people better thereafter.

A later addition to this tale: one man did steal a glance at the naked lady, but was immediately struck blind as punishment.  His name was Tom; from this incident we get the phrase "a Peeping Tom".

Lady Godiva: the reality?

In reality, Lady Godiva was a virtuous Saxon noblewoman who would be much more likely to look like the figure above.  It's entirely possible that she did indeed soften her husband's harsh rule - but not by riding naked through a town!

Super Dungeon Explore: Last of the Kinoko

Finally (for now), I have finished my Super Dungeon Explore "Kinoko" warband!  These are mostly aggressive, mobile mushrooms, though they also have some truffle pigs.  Here are the final two groups to be painted:

Kinoko spawn points

Kinoshrooms - minions

There's not much more to say about these; either you'll like them or you won't...

Conclusion

I completed a goodly lot of models during the Christmas/New Year break just past; these are just some of them.  It helped that we didn't go away and that the weather was not good enough for us to be outside much.  Still, it's very satisfying to have made such progress!

December Oddments: Finished Models

Introduction

Just over a month ago, I showed the state of my workbench (here ==>).  Since then, I've been trying conscientiously to finish some of the longer-term projects which were contributing to the clutter.  Whilst this task is by no means complete, I have made progress; here are some of the results...

Super Dungeon Explore: Emerald Valley

I've been working my way through one of the Super Dungeon Explore expansions: the "Emerald Valley" warband set.  So far, I've completed the hero that came with this set (the Silver Chevalier) and have moved on to the monsters that inhabit the area.

This is Glimmerwing, the mini-boss who controls Emerald Valley.  She's a 'Fairy Dragon', which seems to mean that her strengths in game terms are in magic use rather than physical power.  Having said this, I'd say that the model looks quite robust enough to chew off some adventurer's head!

Most of this mode is simply painted green and then highlighted with 2 or 3 lighter shades.

The wings were more involved, as only the "veins" were done in green.  The "membrane" between these prominent lines was painted in a pale undercoat and then coloured with several thick washes/thin paints (take your pick).  Water was used on the brush to lessen the intensity of each colour when further away from the focal point, or even to blend a little with an adjacent colour.

Whilst the result isn't perfect, I'm reasonably happy with it.

The Emerald Valley warband itself consists of pigs and mushrooms.  Not scary?  Take a look at these elite Okoshrooms!  Basically, one of these is a very large mushroom man with a rope around its middle, tied to two large mace heads.

There's not a lot of detail on the mushroom bodies, but I have attempted some subtle shading nevertheless.  Fortunately, the rope, face and cap add plenty of colour and texture to draw the eye away from the bland body.

Out of curiosity, why does a mushroom need a fig leaf (or equivalent)?  Modesty seems unlikely, both from a botanical point of view and also because these berserkers don't seem the types to be worried by such a consideration.  Who knows (though it's probably better if you keep your answers to yourself)?

Hordes of the Things: Barbarians

My Barbarian army for Hordes of the Things has been growing steadily.  Last year, it was large enough to provide one part of the force which took on Santa in my annual Christmas Game.  Since then, I've expanded it by adding some panther cavalry, with the ultimate aim of being able to field 48 or 72AP (i.e. 2 or 3 times the normal HotT army size).

I've been looking for a general for the second 24AP "army" and here he is.  As soon as I saw this model, I knew that I had found my barbarian chieftain!  He is, of course, Kovornik, the Barbarian Outcast from the Frostgrave range.  I've classed him as a somewhat-unusual Behemoth General.  In HotT, Behemoths are usually big, dumb things such as trolls or giants, not leaders.  It'll be interesting to see how well or badly this works in practice...

This is a all-resin model and it's incredibly detailed.  For a long time I was too scared to do much with it, but once I knuckled down I found that it wasn't too hard after all.  Still took a while to paint, though...

Finally, here are some more Barbarian warband elements.  The figures are all 28mm castings from Black Tree Design, though this time there are some conversions in amongst them.  Some of these BTD models were spearmen, but I wanted them to represent HotT warband rather than spear bases.

The standard bearer is an obvious and straightforward adaptation; the top of the spear was cut off  and replaced with a banner from an old set of plastic Warhammer goblins.

Two other spearmen had their entire right arms (including the spears) removed at the shoulder.  These were replaced by arms from the same set of Warhammer goblins, one waving a crude sword and the other holding a large, curved horn.  I was very pleased to find that he plastic parts fitted very well and were just the right size and style!

Conclusion

As always, this isn't everything on which I have been working recently, but it is fairly representative.  It's a considerable relief to be completing models again and reducing the clutter on the work bench - especially as Christmas is coming up very soon.  After all, who knows how much new stuff I might be given then?

A May Mixture...

Introduction

I'm supposed to be writing an All Things Zombie battle report, but I'm procrastinating.  Battle reports are a lot of effort!  Instead, here's a bunch of oddments that I'm working on or have just finished...

Frostgrave

The Golem

This guy is a Reaper Bones golem; I intend to use him as a large construct for Frostgrave.  He is certainly large: that's a 40mm base on which he is standing!

This was a very easy model to paint.  I used a pale grey base coat with gold bands and fittings, all covered with a black wash.  Once that was dry, I added some colour to make the eyes glow and that was it!  A cheap, simple model, but I think he's quite effective.

More Ruins

I recently ordered a fair quantity of MDF ruins from Blotz.  The package arrived promptly and I spent part of a couple of evenings gluing it all together.  Now comes the tricky part, though!  I intend to mount these permanently on building-sized bases; the picture above shows one possible configuration that would give 3 separate ruined houses of roughly equal size.  But obviously there are other ways in which this could be done.

Once glued together, I plan to add more detail to the bases so as to make these a bit more "lived in" (although that's not really the best turn of phrase for abandoned structures, is it?).  But that's where I'm having difficulties: how to turn these base pieces into plausible, but still playable, ruined buildings.  Hmm...

Super Dungeon Explore

Not so long ago, I discovered that buysend.com has a fair number of Super Dungeon Explore sets available at a very reasonable price.  I've now bought more of these than I should and I still have the best part of 2 complete warbands to paint up.  Here are some heroes and villains that I've finished recently:

Dragon Blade

This hero comes from the Kobold warband set "The Claws of the Wyrm".  It's not clear from the short description on the packaging whether he's an elven hero with a magic sword or a kobold hero with a magic elven sword.  Either way, he's growing on me...

Candy and Cola

Candy is something of a mascot for Soda Pop Miniatures.  In this incarnation, she has (some) armour and a large sword.  She's always accompanied by her pet, a 3-tailed squirrel-thing called Cola.

Nyan Nyan

Nyan Nyan is another hero, though in this case she looks as if she'd be more at home at a pyjama party.  She's dressed up in a tiger costume and wears a pair of oversized gauntlets equipped with large talons.  Very odd...

Captain R

Finally, here's an evil mini-boss: Captain R.  He's an undead pirate captain - I really don't know where they get these ideas!  Most of the front of him is beard and face, whilst most of the back is coat.  He's carrying quite an array of weaponry, as might be expected.

Conclusion

I'm a bit surprised to see that all these models are for either Frostgrave or Super Dungeon Explore, as it doesn't feel to me that I've been concentrating solely on these two games recently.  Indeed, my painting table is full of stuff for Pulp Alley, Saga and Congo right now.  Perhaps I'll show some of them soon - right after I write up the ATZ game I should have produced last weekend!

SDE: The Witch Queen

Introduction

I'm supposed to be writing up a battle report for my first game of Congo, but it's taking too long.  Battle reports are a lot more work to prepare than other types of blog article!

In the meantime, here's a model for Super Dungeon Explore that I completed a few weeks ago.  I've been meaning to show it ever since then, but just haven't got round to it.  Oh, well, this one won't take long to publish...

Beatrix, The Witch Queen

Beatrix the Witch Queen is a boss-level villain, sold as a separate expansion for the Super Dungeon Explore board game.  She comes with 6 little ghosts that are used in the game as a form of Creep; they're not deployed alongside her and consequently I've not bothered to show them this time.

Beatrix rides on top of a wheeled pumpkin that is drawn by two black cats.  I think that the camera flash has picked up something strange in the cats' paint, because they appear to be medium grey in some of these pictures.  In real life, they are much darker than that.

This is quite a large model; it's a puzzle to me how the designer managed to fit so much onto a standard, large-sized SDE base.  Some of the nooks and crannies were quite hard to reach with a paintbrush, especially around the underside of the pumpkin.

I would prefer my models to come unassembled, but these more recent SDE pieces are glued together and "ready to play" out of the packet.  That can lead to some strangeness, such as the cats' feet not touching the ground.  I did consider trying to glue them down (using clamps), but in the end I decided that the tension on the model would be too great and something would probably break if I did that.  in the end, I decided that the witch's magic probably allows the cats to fly through the air!

So, Congo next time, OK?

Super Dungeon Explore: Stilt-town Zombies

Introduction

Fresh off the painting table this last week: more Super Dungeon Explore figures.  This time, it's the Stilt-town Zombies warband.  Why are the called that?  Well, apparently the local villagers build their houses on stilts so as to provide themselves with some protection from this group of marauders.  Oh - and this warband consists of zombies!

Spawn Point

All SDE warbands have either 1 or 2 spawn points.  These are the places where the rest of the warband comes from, so it's important for the heroes to destroy them as quickly as they can.  For a zombie warband, the monsters come from a Grabby House - a deserted, rundown cottage that has been overtaken by eerie crystals and glowing lights.  Models close to such a spawn point gain the Grabby attribute, which means that the heroes cannot break off combat or move past them.

Shamble Priest

The leader of a zombie warband is a Shamble Priest.  It's not clear whether he/she/it is undead him/her/itself, or is just plain evil.  Either way, this character has some debilitating ranged magic powers and (as might be expected) the abilities to create fresh and encourage existing zombies.  As well as a bizarre sense of fashion...

The Zombies

There are 3 classes of minion in a group of Stilt-town undead.  Firstly, there are the huge pudge zombies.  It's not often that you'll come across a model in a game which has Disgusting and Gross attacks & attributes, but here is one such creature.  Since the Disgusting attack is ranged and poisons all opponents in a straight line, I think it's fair to say that its exact nature is best left to the imagination.  Similarly, when a pudge is destroyed it makes an immediate attack against adjacent enemies, so I imagine that it bursts and sprays them with innards or something like that.  Best if you don't think about this too much...

The second class of zombie minion in this group is the stealthy Prowler.  These are somewhat unusual (for a zombie) in that they're very fast.  They also have an ability which can heal the Shamble Priest if they (i.e. the prowlers) inflict any wounds.  Sounds useful...

Finally, here are the classic zombies; in this setting they're called Swampies.  Individually they are fairly slow and weak, but they do have the grabby and mob attributes.  This means that the heroes cannot retreat from a fight once they have engaged and that the zombies get extra attack dice for each other member of the mob.  Don't get caught; they'll swamp you!

Finally

You can tell from this group shot that I painted the shamble priest some time before the rest; the model's base is quite different.  Actually, I finished the zombies themselves a few weeks ago; it was only the houses which remained incomplete until this week.  Did I mention before how much I dislike painting crystals?  They're quite common (indeed, universal!) on spawn points for Super Dungeon Explore...

Super Dungeon Explore: The Kodama

Introduction

I've finished off a number of models recently.  This has left me unsure which I should show in my Sunday post; should I tell you about my 7TV cameraman or my Frostgrave "blue" warband?  Eventually (and somewhat obviously, given the title of this article), I chose instead to display my Kodama warband for Super Dungeon Explore.

I'm really pleased with the way that my Kodama turned out; see what you think.

Spawn Points

All warbands in the Super Dungeon Explore game have either 1 or 2 spawn points.  These are the locations where replacement troops are placed, thus providing the heroes a near-endless supply of enemies.  For the Kodama (animated plants), the spawn point is called the Old Growth Hollow; they get 2 of these:

Old Growth Hollow (front)

Old Growth Hollow (back)

Now, I think that the Old Growth Hollow is one of the creepiest models in the game.  Not only does it look damp and decayed (those bracket fungi only grow on rotting wood), but it is surrounded by skulls and glowing green crystals.  There's definitely something not right here!

Minions

An SDE warband has (typically) 6 low-grade foot soldiers.  In the game, these are collectively called "minions".  For the Kodama warband, the minions are called "Mooks"; they look something like a very angry cabbage or cauliflower!

Mooks (front)

Mooks (rear)

 You can see some "work in progress" shots of my Mooks in the article I wrote recently on blending.  It might be interesting to compare these shots of the finished models with the incomplete versions in that post.

Elites

The Kodama are spoilt for choice when it comes to Elite warriors.  Many warbands (not all) have 2 types of elite, but the Kodama have 3.

Turniphead

First up are the Turnipheads.  These are best used as support troops; their medicinal radishes can be used to heal their friends.  They also have some ranged attacks, but they're not especially good at hand-to-hand combat.

Turniphead (front)

Turniphead (back)

Wisps

The second class of Elite model in a Kodama warband is the Wisp.  These are not plant-creatures at all, but rather are sylph-like, magical woodland creatures with the power to lead travellers astray.  Again, they don't do well in melee combat, but these spirits have magical abilities and can easily compel adventurers to stray into bramble thickets or into the reach of some more violent foe.

Wisps (front)

Wisps (back)

Sprout & King Sprout

Finally, a Kodama warband also has access to a Sprout (the little green guy in the pictures below).  Now the Sprout isn't particularly terrifying; it's not very good in hand-to-hand or ranged combat, it doesn't have any real magical powers and there's only 1 of it.  However, if it is destroyed or if it chooses to do so then it can shapeshift into King Sprout.

Sprout and King Sprout (front)

Sprout and King Sprout (rear)

  King Sprout is a terrifying monster whose tendrils & roots can reach quite some way; it is also large enough to block many passageways and thus force the adventurers into confronting it.  Indeed, King Sprout's only real disadvantage is that it cannot move, so the Sprout had better be in the right place when it shapeshifts else the heroes will just ignore it and go some other way!

Conclusion

The Kodama are an interesting bunch.  Most of their models don't have a lot of hitting power (though they often have the Virulent ability which gives them bonuses against a hero who is already poisoned).  However, their elite warriors have a lot of abilities that can be combined to produce some really interesting tactics.  An obvious example might be to block a passage or doorway with King Sprout, with a pair of Turnipheads behind to heal it every time it is injured.  Let's see what the heroes make of that!

Blending

Introduction

I don't often do "how to" articles; the Internet is awash with those already and there doesn't seem much need to add to the number.  However, just occasionally I come across something where I've used a simple technique and haven't seen anything describing it anywhere else.

This was the case for my recent post on painting horses for wargames, where nobody else appeared to have published a straightforward, step-by-step guide.  Mind you, I'm probably mistaken here: there are almost certainly such articles around - but I've not seen them.

With that in mind, here's my version of blending...

Colouration for Kodama Mooks

To illustrate this technique, I'm going to use a model from the Super Dungeon Explore range.  This is a Mook, from the plant-man Kodama warband that ships with The Forgotten King (SDE version 2 started set).  Here's a part-painted mook from my assembly line:

Mook with khaki base coat

Now, the colour on this model is definitely a bit on the bland side.  This plant-man warrior has been base-coated in khaki, but there is very little detail beyond that.

I want my mooks to look a little bit like a fancy cabbage, with some vivid colour in the leaves (especially towards the tips):

Fancy kale (image not my own)

Right, now that I've decided what I want, let's apply some colour to the tips of the leaves:

Mook with dark pink tips to the leaves

This doesn't look good, I think.  The colour transition from the dark pink to the dull green is too abrupt and unnatural - not that aggressive plant-men are necessarily "natural", but I think you know what I mean!

Blending

So, here's what I'll do: I'll create bands of colour between the pink and the khaki with different proportions of the 2 base colours:

4 zones in total should do.  At each end the colour will be 100% of one colour or the other.  The 2 "inner" zones will be mixes with different proportions of pink and khaki, so that we transition more gradually from one of the "primary" colours to the other.

Obviously you can have as many or as few transition shades as you desire.  The more you have, the more work you'll need to put into the model, but the colour shading will be finer...

First transition applied (2:1 pink/khaki)

Second transition applied (1:2 pink/khaki)

These models are still not completed (there's painting to add on the shield, eyes & base.  Additionally, I might give the entire miniature a thin, black was).  But does the leaf look better now?

Here is a group shot showing the full effect of the transition colours:

Stages of painting, from 100% khaki to 4-tone blending.

Conclusion

There's nothing particularly difficult or revolutionary in what I'm doing here.  For the record, this is technically "dry blending": I'm applying each colour separately and waiting for it to dry, rather than mixing the wet colours on the model.  However, even if it is simple to do, I think the result is a vast improvement over the original single or two-tone colour schemes.

These mooks won't win prizes at any modelling competition, I think.  But they'll do just fine as game pieces!