Heroic Maps Pharoah's Tomb and Finger and Toe Models Catacombs

I blame Netflix, I do...

After getting the rules, painting up the figures, and doing some terrain boards, our VSF/EOTD project stalled as we moved on to other genres. Now, after watching Penny Dreadful (excellent series - great acting, and the sets are just begging to be reproduced on the tabletop), I felt the need to do some work for the period.

As my faction is Egyptian-themed, from the outset I have wanted an Egyptian-themed headquarters for them, so this became the choice for my project. I imagined a Victorian mansion that looked Victorian from the outside, but had Egyptian decor on the inside.

Due to a lack of storage space, I knew I wanted something that can be taken down and packed more or less flat, but I also wanted it to be interesting from a game-play point of view.

I went to my usual source for 2D terrain: Heroic Maps. After looking at a few of their Egyptian offerings, I ended up getting their free Pharoah's Tomb - Upper pack (there is a - Lower pack which depicts the underground part of this pack.

The pack shows a pillared courtyard that rises in a few levels to lead to an interior.

The architecture of the area represented made me decide to try something I have always wanted to try: a 2.5D terrain. This would involve gluing multiple layers of materials on top of each other, and I knew that the material I would use is 1mm PVC foam sheets, which are now my favourite craft material. Instead of representing the pillars in full-height, I would use something that is about man-height instead.

For the interior, I decided to go for full-height walls. For the texture of the walls, I went for Finger and Toe Model's Catacombs pack. This pack provided walls and pillars "skins" for Egyptian, Greek, and Roman interiors.

After some calculations, I decided to get the foam sheets in 1mm for the courtyard, in 3mm for the walls, and in 5mm for the interior. I had planned on getting wooden thread spools for the pillars, but the art shop did not have them, so I settled for corks instead. To colour the sides of the foam sheets, I also bought a coloured marker.

After four straight hours, I managed to complete the project, shown here with the walls tacked together by removable tape.

Here is a more lateral view of the set-up, showing the elevations of the terraces.

The whole set-up is broken down into three parts: the courtyard with a platform in the middle, a terrace of steps, and the interior space. Broken down, the largest piece has the footprint of just under 28cm x 22cm.

I am quite happy with the result, except that the corks aren't tall enough to block a figure entirely; I might glue two corks narrow-end to narrow-end instead, or just buy some wooden spools from ebay.

(Added: Check out this large battle-board made with Heroic Maps' geomorphic tiles.)

Dungeon Crawl Game 4

fg and I played the fourth game in the Dungeoncrawl campaign on Sunday.

Acting on the information from the lich and the villagers, the party decided to mount a raid on the goblin's lair to try to recover the phylactery. A couple of doughty villagers join the party in the dangerous quest...

The party attempt to set up a perimeter around the fleet-footed Halfling while he grabs the treasure tokens.

A brave villager falls afoul of the goblin chief (mounted on a giant gecko).

The goblin chief attempts to run off with the phylactery while his bugbear bodyguard covers his retreat. The bugbear is cut down and the party manage to recover the phylactery.

We also watched Mad Max: Fury Road for the purpose of "research" for our planned "Mad Max" type of game. After some googling the current plan is to use Axles and Alloys 2 with the vehicles from the Dropzone Commander Resistance faction. Some of the vehicles in this faction look like they are designed for Mad Max, and at 10/12mm scale we can probably change the ground scale and have a bigger area to play on.

Dungeon Crawl Game 3

A warm welcome for the party!

fg and I played Game 3 of our dungeon crawl campaign yesterday.

This particular scenario (and to a large extent the whole campaign) is based on the old D&D module "Red Hand of Doom".

After the last scenario, the party learn that the goblins are gathering allies to launch a massive attack on the human settlements in the region. One of these is a lich who has been sealed up in his dungeon by an order of monks long time ago.

The party travel to the monastery to learn that they were attacked by goblin raiders who carried away their dead a few days ago. Following the tracks of the goblins, they arrive at the entrance of the dungeon to find that the holy seal on the doors have been broken.

They enter the dungeon, fight off a horde of zombies, defeat the lich's two lieutenants, but find themselves too weary to defeat him. Impressed by their abilities, the lich offers them a deal: he had been blackmailed into providing an undead army for the goblins, who somehow came into possession of his phylactery (or horcrux); if the party recovers his phylactery, not only will he not provide the goblins with an army, he will fight on their side.

With no means to defeat the lich for good, the party agrees.

Surely no harm can come from digging around this pit of bones...

Argh!

Instead of using a randomly-generated dungeon, I used the Temple of Abaddon battlemap from Lord Zse Zse Works I bought earlier for our RPG campaign.

The whole dungeon laid out.

After the game, we played another game of Imperial Assault. The Rebels win their first game. I suspect I am not using the reinforcements as I am supposed to...

Dungeon Crawl Game 2

fg and I played the second game in our dungeon crawl campaign last night.

This time I used the print-on-demand Small Tile: Dungeon Core Set from Heroic Maps. The card is a little thin, but used on a non-slip surface they work well enough.

The party tracks the goblins who have stolen the farmer's pig back to their lair, and a series of sharp fights manage to kill the goblin chief, take a couple of prisoners, and recover the pig (and for some strange reason) a goat.

Among the loot they have taken from the goblins' lair they find a map, and after interrogating the goblin prisoners, they learn of the sinister plot behind the map...

The dwarf bashes down the door and the party surprise a goblin mutant, a goblin shaman, and a couple of, well, goblins.

Dungeon Crawl Game 1

fg and I played the first game in our Savage Worlds dungeoncrawl campaign last night.

The adventurers were having a pint at the local when inconsiderate goblins attacked and started looting and burning buildings down.

Unfortunately for them the village was hosting not just the four player characters, but also a dwarf warrior and a mage who were in the neighbourhood too.

The good guys made short work of the attackers, but not before they escaped with the farmer's prized pig. Now the adventurers must track the goblins back to their lair to save its bacon!

Fimli and Grodo

I like dungeon crawl games - they are like the comfort food of wargaming.

fg and I are planning to have dungeon crawl campaign using the Savage Worlds rules and some dungeon tiles I ordered (yes, I know I have already got several...).

We are each going to run two characters. fg is going to run an elven prince and a human witch, and I will be running a halfling thief and a dwarven fighter.

I am calling them Grodo and Fimli until I can think of better names for them.

Grodo is a GW LOTR Merry from the boxed set. Or maybe Pippin - I can't tell the two apart in the book or the movie, much less in miniatures form. I have made him a thief who is curious, greedy, and big-mouthed, so he is definitely one of those people you don't want to hang around.

Fimli is also from the GW LOTR range, in this case one of the Iron Guards. Fimli I am planning to make a dual-wielding mercenary who is arrogant, stubborn, but loyal, which explains why he hangs around Grodo. Fimli is a rather successful mercenary, which explains his fancy kit.

And while we are on the topic of halflings, I learnt about this little beauty from Westfalia Miniatures.

I think he will find a place in my unit of crossbowmen.