Gnolls Rescue Me From a Broken Promise

    Six Gnolls from the Frostgrave plastic kit from North Star -- picked up by the sprue from Firelands

I bought three of the sprues from the North Star Frostgrave Gnolls from my friends at Firelands Games last year. That gives me 15 of them, along with the usual extra heads, weapons, and such they include in these plastic, multipart kits. My original thinking (besides buying something to support my friends' store at a convention), was 15 would give me enough for a Dragon Rampant unit, which are typically 12 figures. Now I'm thinking that I'm more likely to use them in Four Delvers, Sellswords & Spellslingers, or some other smaller skirmish game.

    I've always liked Gnolls -- I guess the idea of crazed, tribal Hyena Men appeals to me...ha, ha!

I've always liked gnolls. I guess it is the hyena-men appearance, their crazed, bloodthirsty look, and weird, hunched posture. The kit does a nice job of reproducing that in plastic. The torso and legs come together as one piece for four of the five minis on each sprue -- not sure why the fifth one has to be glued together. Needless to say, I didn't use any of those poses for these first six! The less assembling that I have to do, the better. Anyway, there is a longer neck projection coming out from between the shoulder blades that you glue the head onto. I think it is to specifically give that hunched over look. So, the head glues on almost perpendicularly to the torso. This is fine -- it just means you have to hold the head in place until the bond of your glue takes hold.

    Confession to make: I really don't like 'assemble & customize your own' plastic kits - I prefer metal

There are weapons for gnoll archers, but I chose all of mine to be melee weapons. As with any Frostgrave kit, I really struggle when a weapon calls for both hand to be on it. Assembling is a challenge for me, for some reason, and getting the arm to line up with the long spear AND sit flush with the shoulder is bewildering to me. What's more, I would not be surprised if I was supposed to do the same with the two-handed sword. I punted on that, though, and didn't even try. Give me a one-piece metal casting over these "Build a Bear" kits any day...ha, ha! Yes, yes, I now -- the variety! Customization!! Not for me. I can instead just make sure I purchase a bunch of different poses and weapons types, right?

    I tried to use a variety, but really struggle with figs where both arms are gripping the same weapon

Once the six figures were all glued together, I based them up on one of my usual thin, plywood round bases with a heavy duty magnetic base bottom. Then I primed them with Liquitex White Gesso. Once they were dry, I remembered another thing that I am not particularly crazy about plastic kits. The detail is relatively shallow, and once you prime the figure, it becomes even more so. I think it becomes most noticeable, though, when you are dry brushing fur or clothing or something that would normally have a bit of depth to it on a metal figure. You certainly don't get the same effect with dry brushing that you would on a well-cast metal figure.

    Crazed hyena faces and a subtle variety of fur shades which I'm not sure anyone will notice!

I looked up some images of African hyenas online, and then at my paints for potential matches. Since I saw various fur tones in the pictures, I'd felt I'd be justified in using a handful of tones for the base coat. So, I picked out and used a half dozen beige, khaki, light brown, etc., colors, with each being slightly different. My favorite one was a craft paint called "Khaki." It had a very nice yellowish tint to it that looked perfect for gnolls. That said, I'm not sure after dry brushing and washing that the differences between the various shades stand out much. I also used the images to paint the dark brown around the muzzle, as well as the bottom of their legs and spots on their fur. I used a relatively thin craft paint called "Walnut." It is almost semi-transparent, which gives a shading effect. I also painted the black for the eyes and their nose, while I was focusing on their faces. 

After that came the difficult part. I looked at their torsos, arms, and legs to figure out what was clothing, what was leather armor, and what was something else entirely. It wasn't easy, which is another reason I'm not a plastic kit fanboy. For their tattered clothing, I chose pale or darker colors -- similar how I painted the orcs of my Bonefish Band. Next, I dry brushed a lighter shade on the clothing. I used a variety of leathers or browns for the leather armor or the skins they appeared to be wearing on top of their clothes. Some also had cloth wraps on their legs and leather bracers on their forearms. So, lots of different leather tones!

    Last look at these North Star plastic Gnolls (or at least until they make onto the table for a game...!)

I decided to do their shields in a wicker pattern, with a dark brown and Camo Brown dry brush, along with bronze and steel for a metal strip that appeared bolted on for reinforcement. I did the leather straps on the inside of the shields in my lightest leather color. Somewhere along the way, while waiting for a base coat to dry, I also finished their faces. I did a pale yellow for the "whites" of their eyes, and a dark brown pupil/iris. Their mouths were painted blood red. Once dry, I picked out tehir teeth in pale yellow. I felt the faces looked great, and they are probably my favorite part of the figures. They definitely have that crazed gnoll look in their eyes!

 I considered doing some sort of primitive tribal designs on their wicker shields, but chose not to in the end. The shields themselves are kind of small, but wouldn't you know it? That's the deepest incised detail on the figures, which would make straight lines more difficult to do. So, after a brown wash on most of the figure and black wash on selected parts, this batch of gnolls was mostly complete! I flocked them so they would match most of my figures and finally spray dull coated them. Done!

    It's April and I've kept my promise to intermix batches of figs bought this year with older ones

What else is on my painting desk? Well, since these are "old" figures, I can do a batch of new miniatures for new projects next. So, it is finally time to finish off those big alien monsters that I bought at Cincycon! Two of them are complete and two are about halfway done. I can't imagine they will take too long to polish off, but we'll see. Also on tmy painting desk is both the next "old" batch of figures AND the next new one of elves. So, as I was finishing these gnolls, I had four different batches of miniatures in various states of progress. It's getting crowded on there! I leave for vacation on Monday, though, so there will be a week-plus hiatus with no progress or updates. Maybe THAT is why I have so many projects going on at the moment -- I'm trying to make up in advance for that!

MINIATURES Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2026

• Miniatures acquired in 2026: 159
  
• Miniatures painted in 2026: 79

TERRAIN Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2026

• Terrain acquired in 2026: 3
  
• Terrain painted in 2026: 22

SCATTER Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2026

• Scatter acquired in 2026: 16
  
• Scatter painted in 2026: 48

 

Battle of the Gems - 6-player Good vs. Evil Dragon Rampant Game

    Tom's fast-moving giant lizards (Lesser Warbeasts) with 3 gems in tow charge Keith's Frogmen

I decided to create a two-sided, mutiplayer scenario for Dragon Rampant using the classic Good vs. Evil fantasy trope. However, I didn't want this to be a standard game, with one side along one table edge and their enemies on the opposite. I felt that would mostly end up being three, separate 1-on-1 matchups. How to do something different that would force each contingent on a side to make difficult choices? I came up with an idea that would intersperse each side's armies in deployment areas along the perimeter of the table. So, a Good army would be flanked by an Evil army on each side, and so on. 

    Interspersed along the table edge, 3 Evil players wage war over magical gems against 3 Evil players

Here was the storyline I created for the battle: "Long ago, the wealthy trading town of Sigilmesa was buried suddenly by the sands -- much like a desert Atlantis. All of its wealth and magic disappeared beneath the sand, along with its people. However, when the great sandstorms tear through the desert, the city's ruins are often exposed. On the surface, some of its great treasures are scattered across the sand until they are eventually buried by the shifting sands, again. The greatest of these treasures are its incredibly beautiful and magical gems. So, when news of the desert sandstorms spreads, entire armies race to be the first to arrive..."

    My map of the battle, showing deployment areas, difficult terrain, sandstorms & gem locations

I placed 14 gems in between the players' deployment areas. A unit could pick one up as part of a movement or skirmish action. They dropped them if routing off-table, retreating from melee, or if destroyed by magic or spells. A unit defeating another in melee could also pick up any gems dropped by their opponent as part of their victory.  Gems were worth 5 VPs each, and each side also scored VPs in equal to the Army Points of enemy units destroyed or routed off-table. There were also three standstorms on the table that armies would have to contend with. At the start of each side's turn, all three would move 2d6 inches, each in a random direction. If they made contact with a unit, the unfortunate troops suffered a 12d6 attack, hitting on 5+ on each dice. 

    'Good' Allen deploys his army of Human knights ready to march out & dispute possession of gems

We had six players on an 8'x4' table, so it would be close quarters and armies mixing it up almost immediately. No deployment area was within 12" of another, but whichever side went second might easily be within charge range of enemies. The armies were Orcs, Goblins, "Wheel of Time" Beastmen, Frogmen with their dinosaur allies, Human knights, and Human Steppe Tribes. Tom declared his Beastmen were more evil than Evil, so he teamed up with the orcs and goblins. So far, Tom has given his Beastmen army a complete makeover after every game as he tries out various troop types, spells, and fantastic abilities in his (to date) unsuccessful attempts to "break the system." His foray this game into hacking the system was his unit of Bellicose Foot which costs 10 army points (1/3 of his force). Tom stacked "Berserk" (re-roll 6's in melee for more chances of hits) and "Enchanted Blades" (plus 3 dice in melee) onto the already potent troop type to see how it fared.

    Evil Tom, left, and his Beastmen know they will probably wage war with Good Keith's Frogs, right

The game started off with the Steppe Tribesmen (Mike S's Avar army) suffering from terrible activation rolls. His Froggy ally, Keith, had no such trouble, though. Keith's troops raced towards the center of the board and to each side in an attempt to snatch up as many gems as possible. Allen's knights moved a bit more cautiously, eyeing the orcs on their right and goblins on their left. On the Evil half of the turn, Tom's beastmen stormed across the battlefield, too, his Lesser warbeasts snagging gems with their enhanced speed. Joel's goblins also suffered from poor movement activation rolls, but were able to announce their presence to Allen's knights with the fire of his rocket battery (heavy missiles). Mike W's orcs advanced from their side edge deployment area cautiously, as well.

    Mike S's historical Avar army simply added a couple spellcasters to become a Dragon Rampant force

It wasn't long before the sandstorms began to claim some victims. One raced through the goblin's greater warbeasts, who were then subsequently charged by a unit of knights. This saw the game's first destroyed unit. The goblin's cousins, Mike W's orc army, also was struck by more than its share of whirling sandstorms. As Keith's Frogmen closed in on the orcs, they took casualties from the scouring sands, too. The orcs closed to within missile range and began loosing arrows at any human or frogman that came close to them. The Frogs continued to spread out all over the table, grabbing magical gems. They would be aided in that goal by an oversight that Tom admitted to late in the game. By giving his lesser warbeasts "Fast," increasing their move to 14", he was able to grab quite a few gems. However, that left him with their increased Wild Charge range of many enemies. So, he would pick up gems only to hand them over to his opponents in lost melees. In one case, Tom lost 3 gems to Keith's Frogmen heavy foot in melee! 

    'That doesn't look good!' A sandstorm boils up out of the desert and heads towards Joel's goblins

At one point, I commented to Tom that his beastmen seemed to be having a frustrating evening, so far. When he wanted to close in for the kill on some of Mike's horsemen, their sorceresses would either create a magical wall between them or freeze the beastmen motionless into place. His 10-point unit? It spent the first four turns just trying to get into contact with enemy, who simply withdrew and refused to let them charge into home. I think he told me that, over the course of the battle, he charged with the 10-point unit only once. And wouldn't you know? In that battle, he rolled poorly --  getting only one "6" on 15 dice! The enemy also chose to shoot at him instead of melee, so the most expensive unit on the table ended up causing very few casualties. That seemed to be the case for a lot of the high point units, though. Joel's greater warbeasts (8 points) were the first to die, while the orc's burrowing worm didn't show up till later in the game and did not accomplish much, either.

    After the goblin's giant lizards were buffeted by a sandstorm, Allen's knights charged in for the kill

I had asked the players to send me their lists ahead of time so that I could make up unit cards. As a unit was destroyed or routed off-table, I would collect the cards. It soon became obvious to me that the "Good" side was out to an early lead. Despite the bad activation rolls of the Steppe Horsemen, their units were holding firm on their flank of the battlefield. Keith's troops were all over the board, but didn't seem to be taking many casualties, either. As usual, Allen's lost a couple of his 6-figure units of knights, as they advanced beyond the support range of their infantry archers, hand gunners, and spearmen. 

    Facing two armies, the Steppe tribesmen frequently used magical barriers to keep the enemy at bay

The players all seemed to be having a good time, though. I had cautioned them against creating armies of huge numbers of small point value units, worrying this would slow the game down. They had listened, and most armies seemed to be composed of 6 or 7 units. Most of the gems were grabbed in the first few turns. After that, they changed hands only as a result of lost combats. I hadn't been tabulating which side had the most, but my guess was that Good was ahead in that category, too. As losses began to mount, or an army's horde of gems grew, all across the table, the forces began to back away from each other. They prepared to withdraw from the battlefield. When it seemed all six armies were done engaging enemy, I asked the players if they wanted to call the game. They agreed, and so I counted up the points. 

    Frustrated beastmen prepare to finally charge into a tribal unit of light riders

First, each Evil army was in possession of only one gem each -- 15 total points. The Good armies had 11 -- for 55 points! When tabulating losses, the trend continued. In the end, the Good armies combined for a win with a 3:1 advantage in points -- a decisive victory for Good over Evil. I thanked the players for bringing their armies -- Keith, in particular, had fielded three of the armies that were on the battlefield. I believe everyone continues to enjoy the rules, so I look forward to more evenings of Dragon Rampant! Maybe next time I will get to play, too...ha, ha!

    The orc's giant sand worm tunnels up to the surface & charges into Keith's unit of bullywogs

MINIATURES Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2026

• Miniatures acquired in 2026: 159
  
• Miniatures painted in 2026: 73

TERRAIN Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2026

• Terrain acquired in 2026: 3
  
• Terrain painted in 2026: 22

SCATTER Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2026

• Scatter acquired in 2026: 16
  
• Scatter painted in 2026: 48

    Keith's unit of Frogmen heavy foot, also armed with short range missiles, sight in on an enemy

    Seeing they are carrying a magical gem, goblin halberdiers charge into a unit of human light riders

 

    Keith's army of frogs, dinosaurs, and such were all over the center of the table snatching gems

Catrine House - Another Lovely 3-D Printed Medieval Building

    Towering Catrine House - 3-D printed purchased from RRB Minis & More adds to my growing city

My medieval (or fantasy medieval?) town is slowly growing. My favorite part of it, so far, has been the 3-D printed buildings that I've bought from my friend Rich Bown of RRB Minis & More. He bought the license to produce and sell the Dadi Dungeon & Dintorni products and their Ferisia line. If you get a chance to check out this line or any of the others, it is truly worth your time. They are amazing, evocative buildings. The Catrine House is no exception. The fact that "Katrin" was one of my best friends from teaching (our middle school's German teacher), makes it all so much the better...ha, ha!

    Angry looking madam of the house looks out from the rear of the stucco & stone building

I love how this building turned out. However, I don't want to play down how long it takes to paint up a five piece building (base ground floor, level 2, 3, 4, and roof). I believe I have been working on it for at least two weeks! The main reason for this is because I'm using my standard base coat and dry brush method for just about every part of the building. That means a lot of waiting overnight (or at least half a day) for the base coat to dry and "shrink wrap" onto the model, so the dry brushing sticks out properly. So, let's say that on Day 1 you spray prime, Day 2 you put on a 50/50 mix of black paint and water like I did, and Day 3 you base coat the interior stucco wall portions of levels 2, 3, and 4. That means you have to wait a day for it to fully dry before you dry brush the interior stucco. On the same day, you can do the base coat for the stone sections of the interior. Now, you have to wait another day for it to dry before you can dry brush that part. You get the picture, and you are still about a dozen days away from being done! 

    'Now where have those danged kids gone off to...?' Looking from the cool, 4th-story balcony

I like to do all of the interiors sections of each level first, then the exteriors. This ensures I have something to hold onto that isn't wet paint while I am working. So, once I've done the interiors, I pretty much have to then repeat the process for the exteriors, if that makes sense. Once I'm started, a normal day working on the Catrine House settled into a dry brush highlighting what I had base coated the day before and then base coating the next part. On most days, that is 20-30 minutes worth of work. So, it is probably best to be working on something else, too, while you're painting a building -- perhaps a batch of figures? That way, after finishing your 20 minutes on the building, you can work on the figs for the rest of your painting session. In two weeks, you should be done. Well, that's if you are being anal retentive like me and insist on doing a thorough job and not doing a just quickie paint! 

    All five pieces of the 3-D printed Catrine House laid out side by side

Note that I'm no boasting and saying that I've done the best-ever paint job possible on this building. To me, it seems like I am doing a minimum acceptable job. There was no customization on the Catrine House, no signs, no graffiti -- nothing to make this building "pop" other than its own natural beauty. Why not add a bit extra like those things? Mainly, it's because I these medieval/fantasy 3-D buildings to be useful for a maximum number of periods or games. I want it to be able to look great on a tabletop simulating a thriving medieval city, but also on a ruined, abandoned one. The less individualization I do on it, the more games I can use it in the table without needing a wink and a nudge!

    Level 1 is all stone and came out very nicely - I like the faded green & blue tiles and stairway up

I especially like how these Dadi Dungeon & Dintorni buildings recreate a variety of textures and surfaces. Of course, that is also part of the reason it took me two weeks to get this beauty painted up! I think it does look more natural, though, for it to not be all stone or wood, or whatever. All the different types of surfaces also add variety to the tabletop. The quality is great -- each level (and roof) fits securely onto the level below and comes off easily. It makes it much more skirmish friendly for gaming! 

    Who's this ruffian at the front door...? Is he a particularly unsavory looking employee of the owners?

Still, these buildings are no idle undertakings. I will do the much smaller, two-story one I bought from RRB next. Then, I will tackle the next 3-4 story one. And once I finish those, it will likely be time to see RRB Minis & More at an upcoming convention. And you know what that means, right? There's a very good chance he'll be bringing along more 3-D printed buildings for me to buy...ha, ha! Anyway, I just need to keep telling myself it is not a sprint to get these done. Work on them slow and steady! Hopefully, you guys are enjoying seeing them. And perhaps, some of you are reaching out to Rich to buy some of his incredibly affordable buildings, too!

    Interior of level 3 of the Catrine House - you can see the trapdoors and ladders to go up & down

So, what else is on my painting desk? Well, Samwise will be happy with me. I did go back and assemble and prime a half dozen of the North Star Frostgrave Gnolls. This will allow me to fulfill my promise to myself to intermix in a batches of figures purchased this year with ones purchased in previous years. That means the big alien monsters I was working on were "kicked to the curb" by the gnolls. And the monsters don't look happy...ha, ha! Also, I began working on a single, 25mm, 1980s Grenadier Dark Ages warrior . Why? He is the only thing I have in my unpainted lead pile that could possibly pass as a Dwarf...ha, ha! I will need him for my Four Delvers games. So, stay tuned for pictures of these things soon!

    Level 4 without the roof on - I think this upper level balcony adds a nice look & gaming possibilities!

MINIATURES Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2026

• Miniatures acquired in 2026: 159
  
• Miniatures painted in 2026: 73

TERRAIN Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2026

• Terrain acquired in 2026: 3
  
• Terrain painted in 2026: 22

SCATTER Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2026

• Scatter acquired in 2026: 16
  
• Scatter painted in 2026: 48

 

    A final look at the building with no figures around it -- an abandoned house in Moonrest...??

 

 

Four (er, Six?) Delvers Smell a Rat in Moonrest...!

    New party member Setch, peers through the hole in the wall at Callum & Erevan fighting a giant rat

The Hibernian barbarian smiled as he introduced an old friend to his fellow explorers. "This is Setch," he said gesturing towards the bearded little man who barely came to Callum's waist. "He saved my life once, when I was wounded and left for dead on a battlefield." The Wizard Malik stood up from the table quickly and approached, obviously intrigued by the little man's arrival. 

"Are you one of the Aos Sí, my good sir?" he inquired, bowing slightly. Callum smiled at hearing his native tongue spoken. He turned abruptly as Oslac clapped him on the shoulder, booming that any friend of Callum's was a friend of his, as well. The wood elf Erevan entered the room with a quizzical look on his face as he watched his friends gather around the newcomer. 

"You can use that term, yes." Setch said in much deeper voice than one would expect for his size. "Others call us the People of the Barrows, as our homes are built underground, and often resemble burial barrows to them." He turned to look at the Erevan, pulling his cap from his head and holding it to his heart. He let loose a stream of melodic Elven phrases. Erevan replied in kind, also bowing to the little, bearded man. "Your friend Callum is bound to me." Setch explained to the group. "When I healed him of his grave wounds years ago, part of our spirits were joined."

Callum folded his arms. "We are brothers, now. Twins, even!" A wide smile broke out on the Hibernian's face. It was echoed by Setch, who looked up at his friend, towering over him. He looked back at the others with a twinkle in his eyes. "Even our own mothers would struggle to tell us apart." Setch said. Laughter bubbled around the circle. He continued, "I sensed my brother's recent injury and have come to look in on him." 

Callum seemed startled and looked down at his friend. "I was injured only two weeks ago -- surely you have not journeyed all the way from Hibernia in that time..." Setch looked up at him and merely smiled, eyes twinkling. Callum chuckled, and patted his shorter friend's shoulder. "Okay, okay...keep your mysteries!"

    Six delvers this time! Cleric Friar Horace & Half-Folk Setch joined Callum, Oslac, Malik & Erevan

It was time for another game of Four Delvers. I wanted to increase the party size this time, as my eventual goal is to run games for the Sunday evening group. In those sessions, I will want players to control two delvers each, which on a normal evening, would mean a dozen in the party. So, for this game, I was increasing the party size gradually from four to six, the table size from 18" to 24" square, and doubling the number of creature opponents starting on the board. 

    This scenario begins with the delvers in the middle of the board - a ruined portion of Moonrest

I had another change in mind, too. After my first game of Four Delvers, I reached out to the rules author, David Bezio, and game aficionado Rich Brown, to discuss questions and ideas that I had. My biggest concern with the mechanics was the potential for it devolve into a dice rolling slog with "a whole lotta nothing going on" as I expressed it to them, citing some percentages and statistics. In Four Delvers, you roll an attack, and if you hit your opponent, he rolls to save. If the creature does not save, and is down to 0 hit points, you roll an additional time on a Wound Chart. I was concerned that on the Wound Chart would slow the game down. On it, a d12 roll of 1-4 is no effect ("Flesh Wound"), 5-7 the creature is Stunned and can take no action on its next turn, and 8-12 knocks it out of action. This extra third step to finish off an enemy concerned me, especially as you have only about a 41% chance of rolling an "8-12" on 1d12. I suggested to Dave and Rich that perhaps a final, unsaved hit should not require a roll on the Wound Chart and would kill the monster, instead. I said we could keep the Wound Chart for the players, especially since a number of the character types can take only one hit (such as Malik and Setch). Dave said it would make the game faster and perhaps more cinematic that way. Both Dave and Rich encouraged me to give the rules tweak a try.

    Erevan's keen Elven ears detect the approach of our enemies -- four giant rats carrying disease

So, SIX delvers ventured back into the abandoned city of Moonrest. Partway through their exploration, Erevan whispered to the group that he could hear the sound of movement closing in all around them. Perhaps it was large claws on the cracked stone pavement, he added. Oslac ordered the six adventurers to form a loose circle, back to back. Besides Setch, also joining the group was a holy man named Friar Horace. His main task would be to heal any party members who were gravely wounded. Erevan pointed out to the group where he heard the movement coming from and nocked an arrow to his bowstring. A high pitched squeaking could also be heard, now. The source soon came into view -- four giant rats, eyeing the adventurers hungrily. Each was the size of a large wolf. "Be wary, something else comes besides these vermin," Erevan cautioned, head tilted and listening. 

    'I smell a rat...!' Callum spots one of the creatures and breaks ranks to charge it immediately

Through the ruined buildings, Callum saw movement and the twitching of a pink tail. He shouted a Hibernian war cry and darted from the circle, bursting through a gaping doorway to attack one of the rats. There was a loud squeal as Callum's new, magical axe struck home, then a curse as the creature twisted quickly and bit him in return. Friar Horace twirled his staff and called, "Ware their bite, Hibernian -- these foul creatures carry a disease that acts quickly and weakens the body!" Callum grimaced at the pain and raised his shield. The rat charged quickly and snapped, but Callum was able to swing his buckler to intercept the bite. While it gripped his shield with its teeth, he tugged it forward, and swung downward with his axe. There was a satisfying crunch as its skull was crushed and a final, pathetic squeak. 

    The other three rats close in and begin to charge members of the party, inflicting & receiving hits

As another rat prowled close to the circle of adventurers, Oslac shouted his own battle cry and charged, sweeping his sword downward and then back. The blade struck home, and the rat squealed its pain and backed off. More rats were slinking through the ruined buildings and came into view. Erevan loosed an arrow which struck a rat, but seemed to do little to deter it. Setch whirled a sling over his head, but the stone missed and clattered past another rat. Malik began chanting, summoning up magical energy.

    Bloody combat begins and soon two of the rats are downed...but wait! What is that loud roar??

In this scenario, called Among the Ruins, players roll at the start of every turn to see if the strong wind has picked up or a momentary calm has arrived. On turn 2, I rolled "Favorable Winds" (+1 to Shooting) -- the only time in eight rounds! All other turns shooting would be at a -1 to the roll. And for a second turn in a row, thankfully, no wandering monster had arrived on the board edge. That would change, though! Turn 1 had been a good start for the delvers-- one dead and one wounded rat. As the wind began to rise, the rats pounced on the adventurers. Oslac suffered a diseased wound, as well. Erevan's second shot struck home and provoked an angry squeak. Malik hurled a magical bolt of energy and finished off the rat that Oslac had wounded. Oslac turned his head as the friar clamped a hand on his shoulder. He felt a healing surge of energy enter his body through his shoulder and looked back, muttering quick words of gratitude. Callum jogged up beside Oslac and grinned. He nodded to the dead rat a few steps away, "That's two, now," he said, raising his gleaming, blood-soaked axe.

    So far, Erevan's arrows & Setch's slingstones have yet to stop this massive rat from advancing

Callum winked as he charged off to help Erevan, who was facing down a rat only a few steps away. Seeing Malik protected from the rat, Erevan called to Setch, and the two ran off through a collapsed building. As they entered the street behind it, the elf pointed at one half-buried chest for Setch to investigate while he darted off to another. Suddenly, a loud roar echoed through the haunted, abandoned city. Whatever it was, it sounded big!  Back at the main group, Oslac blocked the lunge of a rat with his shield. He stabbed around the shield, the blade sinking deep into the rat's mid-section. Another rat sank to the pavement, blood staining the surface. 

    Oslac & Callum were both wounded several times throughout this bloody fight

The roaring was getting closer and closer and Oslac turned to face it. A massive bear soon pounded around a corner into view, sniffing the air in front of it angrily. "Now, there's a big boy..." Oslac muttered. He swallowed, and then raced towards the bear who reared up on its hind legs. Oslac slashed its mid-section drawing a roar. The bear brought both paws down on Oslac's shoulders and crushed him to its body. The stout warrior's breath left his lungs in a whoosh. It...was...strong! He heard shouting behind him and Friar Horace charged to his assistance, whacking the bear's snout with his staff. The bear backhanded the burly friar and three lines of bloodstains appeared on his robes.

    Thinking the fighters have the rats under control, Erevan & Setch dash off to secure the treasures

The bear's roars were answered by another close on its trail. Erevan sighed, glancing one last time at the half-buried, iron-bound box and shook his head. He turned and darted back to help his friends, calling on Setch to do the same. The little man had knelt next to the box and was carefully examining it for signs of any traps. Meahwhile, Callum swung his axe at a rat, which nimbly dodged out of its path and leapt forward, its jaws snapping shut on the Hibernian's arm. Oslac continued to struggle with the bear, as it tried to crush the life out of him. Gripped in its arms, he was unable to swing his sword with any force in reply. Friar Horace continued to pound the bear with his staff, but its hide was thick and it took no notice of his blows. Half of the delvers were wounded and they were still facing two bears and a giant rat. 

    But it was not to be! First one bear, then another attacks the party inflicting crushing blows

And then a third bear arrived! So intent on the half-buried box was Setch that he was startled when he heard a deep snuffling nearby. He looked up and saw a bear approaching him, only a short distance away. He whirled the sling over his head and loosed the stone, then sprinted off -- not even waiting to see if it struck its target. As he raced by a gap in a ruined wall, he could see that Callum was still struggling with the rat. Blood was running down his arm as he swung his axe, unable to land a solid blow as the nimble but giant rodent ducked and skittered back and forth. Malik called on him to fall back to avoid the charge of the approaching bear. Shield up, the barbarian stepped backwards, the rat following him warily. 

    Setch is surprised by the approach of a 3rd wandering bear - he dashes off without the treasure

Erevan arrived at a gap in a wall near where Oslac and the friar struggled with the bear. He saw the second bear approaching, so loosed an arrow that sunk deep into its chest, provoking an angry roar. With his arms constricted, Oslac was finally able to redirect his sword and plunge the point upwards. He felt it slice through the bear's muscle and pass between its ribs. He kept shoving with all of his strength. Finally, the point reached a vital organ, and the bear groaned and released him. It wobbled for a moment on its hind legs, and then crashed backwards to the ground. Panting heavily, Oslac adjusted his shield and stance as he saw the second bear charging towards him. Before it arrived, he sighed involuntarily as he felt the healing touch of the friar, and the sweet vitality of life pouring back into him. His breathing became less labored and his bruised chest ached less. He narrowed his eyes and braced his shield for the charge of the bear. It hurtled into him, battering away with its mighty arms. Oslac was able to avoid its crushing embrace this time, but his return strikes seemed not to affect the bear.

    Erevan dashes back to add his arrows to the brutal battle against the bears which just keep coming

The bear continued to hammer at Oslac. Thankfully, his quality chainmail and stout oaken shield protected him from the bear's claws. He ducked under one swipe of a mighty paw and thrust with his blade, hearing it roar as the sword struck home. The bear backed away shaking its head in pain. Suddenly, an arrow shaft sank deep into its ear. The bear turned to run, but stumbled only a few steps and fell to the pavement, its deep breathing labored, and then growing slower and slower, as it died. "What a shot!" Oslac shouted at his Elven friend. "Thank you!"

    Finally killing the last rat, Callum & Malik face a new, stronger foe...but the friar arrives to help!

Malik used his staff to hurl a bolt of magical energy, which finally struck the rat solidly. Every hair on its mangy pelt seemed to stand up, and it slumped to the street, lifeless. "By the prophet's beard - finally! I grew tired of missing that vermin over and over." Callum chuckled at the wizard's uncharacteristic expression of anger and frustration. He pointed with his axe at the approaching bear and crouched, shield held high. He heard footsteps behind him and Oslac appeared at his side. The two warriors nodded to each other and turned back to face the bear. Behind them, Friar Horace skidded to a stop, staff raised.

    After much blood is spilled, the party gathers to deal with the 4th & final bear

Meanwhile, Erevan stayed in place, staring down the street from which the bears had come. He nocked another arrow, waited, then aimed. Sure enough, another bear was stalking towards him, muscles in its back and shoulders rippling. Erevan loosed and saw the arrow sink into the creature's shoulder. He called out to Malik, warning him of the creature's approach. He fired another arrow and this one seemed to have no effect on its approach. He heard the whirl of Setch's sling and saw the stone crash into the skull of the creature. It stopped and shook its head in pain. "Cor...there you go, laddie!" Setch laughed. "I have another one of those for you right here," he said, reaching into his pouch. There was no need for the stone, though because another blast of eldritch energy rippled down the street, enveloping the bear. It sank to the street, lifeless.

Between Oslac and Callum, the two warriors were eventually able to kill the final bear. Whenever it wounded one of the pair, Friar Horace would heal him. It had been a long, bloody fight for the delvers. The giant rats and bears had been deadly foes and several of the party had been near death themselves. With teamwork and the friar's healing hands, though, they'd overcome their foes. A moment later, Erevan and Setch jogged up, each carrying an iron-bound box. Malik called from a short distance away that he had the third treasure that they'd spotted earlier. "Let's go, my friends," Malik said. "Unless Erevan's ears say otherwise, it sounds like the way back to the bridge is unblocked by foes. Now, let's go before more are drawn to us by the sounds of battle..!" The other five needed no more encouragement and ran towards the wizard.

    Victory! Oslac, Friar Horace, & Callum celebrate downing another mighty bear

It had taken eight turns to defeat the four giant rats and four wandering monster bears. Did I enjoy the rules tweaks? The board did not seem too big at all and the six delvers were not tripping over each other or too much to keep track of for me. I will probably add two more delvers next time and increase the board size. I felt that removing the Wound Chart for monsters and having them die on an additional, unsaved hit after they fell to 0 hit points gave the proper effect. Although none of the delvers died, three of them were wounded and only one more hit away from zero. 

I will probably increase the monster count proportionally in the next game, though. This is because I feel my rolls were well below average for the most part, with one important exception. Friar Horace earned his place among the delvers and NEVER during the entire game failed a 7+ healing roll on 1d12. On the other hand, Oslac's attack rolls were awful! Successfully hitting on a 6+ on 1d12, he never during the game hit twice on his attacks. Worse, he missed twice on almost half of them! Callum rolled a 10+ on an attack once the entire game -- getting to use his Berserk ability only once. Malik failed to cast his spells three times in the first four turns. Wandering monster bears appeared 50% of the turns, though there was only a 33% chance of that occurring. Setch hit only once with his sling the entire game. And don't get me started on the favorable vs. unfavorable wind rolls...haha! So, I think my delvers under performed, making the game a closer run than it could have been otherwise.

    The base rules for 'Four Delvers' is available for free on Wargame Vault & RRB Minis & More

Not sure when the next game will be, though. I'd like to get it in before I leave for vacation early next month. I want to play at least one more game before I spring it on the guys for a Sunday evening's treasure hunt in Moonrest. Plus, I need to paint up more buildings to appropriately represent the abandoned city of Moonrest! You know how it goes, as a gamer...ALWAYS...NEED...MORE!

MINIATURES Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2026

• Miniatures acquired in 2026: 159
  
• Miniatures painted in 2026: 73

TERRAIN Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2026

• Terrain acquired in 2026: 3
  
• Terrain painted in 2026: 21

SCATTER Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2026

• Scatter acquired in 2026: 16
  
• Scatter painted in 2026: 48

Second Group of 28mm Elven Archers

    My 2nd batch of 28mm Warhost Elves is now complete & ready to defend their woodlands

This will be my third batch of miniatures painted for my 28mm Dragon Rampant Elven army. That means I have 24 figures done, which tells me these are taking quite a bit more time than the Bonefish Band of my orcs did. I am still enjoying painting the Warhost metal miniatures. The figures have a small amount of flash that needs the attention of a hobby knife, but no assembly for these guys. Yay -- always a cause for rejoicing!

    The guy on the far left is probably my favorite from this batch -- he looks like he is a Sylvan lord

I made a point to look over the miniatures carefully before beginning painting, noting who had scale armor on their shoulders, which figures were wearing metal greaves on their legs, and so on. I also made a list on a sheet of with a spot to write down what color I would paint their inner tunic, vest, trousers, etc. In the end, I used the note for only the inner tunic. Once the lighter base color of the inner tunics was painted and dry brushed, I gave up writing things down. I went back to my method of standing the figures next to the bottle of paint which would be their next color. This method works, too, but I won't be able to go back and make sure I haven't used particular color combinations. I'll have to just eyeball it from this point on in the project.

    Same recipe for this batch -- lighter green for the inner tunic & darker green for the outer vest

One difference with this batch and the first group of archers is I am attempting to be more subtle in the decoration on the hems of their vests. I'm trying to tone down the contrast a bit on the dots and hem stripe so that the decoration looks more subdued. And yes, I plan on decorating the hems on every figure in the army -- or at least something to jazz them up. I would love to give an understated design on the bottoms of their vests, but the sharp pleating on the miniatures is scaring me off. It is really hard to get a micron pen into the deeper folds, and I am not sure I trust my fine brushwork to something like that. In the end, I know that I am not a "Golden Demon" level painter. I want my figures to look nice on the tabletop, but I think I am just a step or two above average in ability.

    I am trying for the decoration on the hems of the vests to be more subtle with less contrast

This batch of miniatures was done exactly as the other two Warhost Elven batches. Same Liquitex White Gesso (which one commenter on the Hobday & Hicks FB page said was "too thick"), same base coat and dry brush combo on a lighter shade of green for the inner tunic and darker for the long vest. I put more decoration on this batch's quivers, going with a couple different two-tone looks. I also did some elven runes and dots here and there on them. Same with the sword sheaths. I tried to stay with the brown equipment theme, so my wood elves continue to have a very green and brown look. 

    I really like the poses & sculpting of these Warhost Elves - very 'Tolkien-like' in my opinion

I am making progress on the army. After this group, I have five batches of rank and file type troops left to do. I still need to purchase figures for an army general, maybe a couple wizards, and then source out my unit of flying raptors (hawks, owls, eagles), which I was going to add to the army. Still, even though it seems to me like slow progress, it is still progress. Hopefully, you like how these guys turned out. I certainly do!

    Elven archers ready to defend the borders of their woodland - nice mix of armor, helms, etc.

So, what else is on the desk, at the moment? Well, I have to admit something. I screwed up! Remember the plan to alternate current, this year purchases/projects with stuff I bought last year or before? Well, for some reason, I got it into my head that the big alien monster figures that I bought at Cincycon were last year purchases. So, that group was supposed to be my alternating "chip away at the lead pile" batch, when I actually picked all of them up this year. As Homer Simpson would say, "D'oh!" Giant face palm! Of those big alien monsters, three of them are completed actually and just need flocking and two are still in progress. I am also finished with the interiors of the Catrine House, the 3-D printed building that I picked up from my friend Rich Brown at RRB Minis & More. I am actually half-tempted to rectify my mistake and substitute in a batch of plastic Frostgrave Gnolls that I picked up from Firelands Games last year. I am certain that I bought them last year...ha, ha! It would make sense, and fit with the Four Delvers solo games I'm running, lately. Hmm...put the big alien monsters on the slow burner and shift the gnolls onto the hot?? Maybe. After all, Samwise Gamgee said it best: "I made a promise, Mr. Frodo...and I mean to keep it!"

    Final look at this batch, bringing my total painted on this project to 24 figures - about 1/3 done

MINIATURES Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2026

• Miniatures acquired in 2026: 159
  
• Miniatures painted in 2026: 73

TERRAIN Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2026

• Terrain acquired in 2026: 3
  
• Terrain painted in 2026: 21

SCATTER Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2026

• Scatter acquired in 2026: 16
  
• Scatter painted in 2026: 48