Cool Orc and Crap Snake

I did another two minis for the dungeon crawl yesterday.  Sadly I didn't thin my dip enough for the Snake and it ended up a bit shit...but I'll keep it.

The Orc big boss dude came out a treat.  Really big and imposing miniature, will probably make him a Legendary Encounter of some sort.

Death in the Dungeon: A Playtest

Got together with a buddy today to playtest the early days of the dungeon crawl project.  (Early days: 17 years since the idea was started...)

Ran two small dungeons and had a good time.  Won the first game with one casualty of the four, and the next game was lost with three casualties of the four.  Good time all around.

I had something on my camera lens so it didn't want to focus but I didn't notice until afterwards.  The pics are therefore rather potato phone.

 Late in the second game the Warrior cleverly leads the Stone Golem on a wild goose chase, distracting it while the wounded Dwarf makes a run for the exit.

 The joys and mayhem of playtesting something...so many dice...so many cards and junk!

 Only a few spaces from the exit to the dungeon, the Warrior and Dwarf are set upon by cave spiders.  The Dwarf is quickly cocooned and eaten alive.  The Warrior bashed his way through nine(!) cave spiders and escaped...the lone survivor.

 Confronting a Minotaur and Brigands in the objective room the wounded Dwarf and his Warrior comrade turn tail and run...

 The Heroes flee, leaving the Minotaur stuck at a small single staircase he's unable to climb.  Luckily the Brigands are stuck behind him!  They used this same tactic earlier on a Stone Golem (above left).

While the monsters bellow at the doors, unable to follow, the Warrior (top, in my buddy's hand!) slips out the side passageway and tries to circumvent the Stone Golem, ready to distract it so the wounded Dwarf (moving slower) can make a run for it...

Dungeon Beasties and a Hero

Not overly satisfied with the Reaper Bones orcs I previously painted I stumbled upon some gorgeous metal Orcs from Reaper's "Dungeon Dweller" line, aimed at more classic low-fantasy styled stuff - mostly by Bobby Jackson (rapidly becoming a big fan of his stuff).

Will probably collect more of the range and will pick up one or two more packs of Orcs.  A joy to paint.  I'm still making due with slightly old dip that's wanting to gum up....but...they're Orcs, so dirty is fine.

I also knocked out a single ranger/hero type from Reaper as well (forgot this fella's name).  A nice Tre Manor sculpt.

You may notice I haven't posted a ton in the past two weeks - this is mainly because I've been painting these guys, but also because I've been full-steam-ahead on my dungeon crawl rules project.  I've been spending a ton of time arranging/detailing cards and art, and starting to compile some stuff for further play-testing.

Been really happy with the test prints so far.  A loooong road ahead, but it's encouraging and keeping me interested (hence the sudden burst of additional dungeon minis!).   Dungeon stuff, particularly the small numbers needed is a really nice break from the monotony of Warhammer 40K!

40K table, and Orcs which come and go!

This is the table yesterday from a 40K game (my buddy took some pics in-game, I'll see if I can steal some).  Really wasn't feeling the game at all, but it was nice to have some friends over.

Also painted some Reaper Bones (ugh!) Orcs...which I will be replacing soon as I found some Orcs I like better...at least from seeing them online.  Will probably pass these off to recoup some moneys.

I love Reaper Bones material but it really does get quite soft and low-detail the smaller the minis get.  Not a huge fan of these way the Orcs sculpts turned out (despite being Tre Manor stuff!)

Monster Glamour Shots

Working on some test art for the dungeon project...

"Make sure you get my good side" - Massive Dungeon Dwelling Creatures

Games!: Shoot N' Skedaddle

Got in a violent game of Shoot N' Skedaddle tonight with my buddy and his wife.  Of course...I lost.

Hygthumpus and Friend; also CCC playtesting!

I painted up a lovely Minotaur today and a silly Goblin king from a couple days back (hadn't take any pics).

Also, for anyone who knows me or has followed this blog since it's inception about five years ago...you'll know I've been working (painfully) on a dungeon crawl game since around 2002...after regretting losing my copy of the original Warhammer Quest.

In that time I've painted a couple hundred minis...gotten my hands on an egregious level of dungeon terrain and...done nothing with it.  I've been piddling around with rules for 17 years and have playtested a dozen different ideas - never really landing on something that captured my imagination.

This weekend I playtested the latest ideas with a buddy and have to say I may have finally found a core concept on which to proceed.  Here's hoping...the playtest game for basic mechanics went well and most importantly we had fun!

Note: I didn't bust out the dwarven forge scenery because it's very time intensive and this is just playtesting - so some wonderfully diverse and useful D&D tiles were used (they'll likely be my playtesting and travel dungeon of choice).

Dreadful Goblinseses.

I admit...these almost beat me.  I love metal minis, and I love me some Tre Manor...but these Reaper Goblins are so tiny and frail (almost broke bits on them just handling them) that I almost quit.  I didn't enjoy painting them at all.