A few months ago I talked about getting into Dungeon Saga, a cracking dungeon crawler game by Mantic. I also picked up the Adventurer’s Companion supplement which gives you the tools to create your own scenarios, campaigns, and characters.
My first move was to put together 4 mighty heroes, and I picked out miniatures from the Oathsworn range, which are a favourite of mine. I posted pics of the finished characters in my Dungeons & Badgers article.
The next step was to populate the dungeon with some new and interesting baddies…
Long-term readers to this blog will know that I’m a big fan of Midlam Miniatures. They have a range known as Cult of the Kraken Lord, and, being a fan of Lovecraftian fiction, I was immediately drawn to them.
High Priest Kroll comes on this nautical-themed toilet. He’s been on there a while because the person before him forgot to replace the bog roll.
Cp Models were a company on my radar since writing my Oldhammer miniature companies roundup. I placed an order with them recently, and threw in these Spectres with Scythes. The bases on these guys are from Warbases.
Kraken Cultists queue outside the toilet, waiting on High Priest Kroll to be done.
Meanwhile, the spectres titter away at the shortage of bog roll for those squid-faced buffoons.
We’re not done with the puerile commentary yet either. Here’s another one from Cp Miniatures, known simply as ‘Night Horror’. Yup…
Sir Verlburch, Squirrel Knight, has spotted some nuts, and he’s about to have them off with that big axe of his.
I look forward to my anthropomorphic dungeon delvers ploughing through these Kraken Cultists and Spectres. I’ll be doing a bit of solo play soon to test them all out.
Meanwhile, would someone please fetch poor Kroll some newspaper or something? Seriously, he’s been in there a long time…
Traditional Spooky Characters
Lovecraftian creatures weren’t all I’ve been painting in this batch of dungeon baddies. I found another couple of nice minis on the Midlam site, and thought they’d make great Boss characters.
The first is Lady Clarissa De Collate.
The second is that old clock-watcher himself, the Grim Reaper.
“My head’s been all over the place since we last met. I don’t think we should see one another any more.”
So there you have it, my latest bunch of miniatures moved from the “to-do” pile to the “done” pile. Next up, I’ve a bunch of 6mm stuff I might focus on as a bit of a palette cleanser.
For someone who’s sat alone playing Elder Scrolls: Skyrim for 1500+ hours, I still found the idea of solo wargaming “a bit weird”.
“Oh yeah? You and who’s army?”
That was a limiting opinion, given that I’d only recently returned to the hobby. I didn’t exactly have a wealth of playing partner options, so I’d be buying and painting miniatures and terrain, pouring over rulebooks, and then… well, not very much, really. I took the “someday, I’ll have a really good game of this” approach.
Then 2020 hit, and I realised that any difficulties I had in finding someone to play with had just gotten a whole lot harder.
I’d been reading the rulebook of Song of Blades & Heroes (find out more about it in my Miniature Agnostic Games roundup), and I’d also recently picked up Dungeon Saga. The latter actually came with a solo-play element and I thought I’d give it a shot (there are also some great adaptations available out there). I’d painted up all the in-box miniatures and created an Oathsworn Miniatures party to delve these dungeons with.
I also started playing out some warband skirmishes with the Sellswords and Spellslingers rules. During some of these early games, it began to click that solo wargaming came with a whole host of benefits that I’d been missing out on before.
No solo wargaming article is complete without mentioning Rangers of Shadow Deep either. This is one of the genre’s elite games, penned by the creator of the legendary Frostrgrave.
Do you work strange shift patterns and find yourself free between 2 am and 4 am most mornings? Playing solo only means you have to suit one person’s availability, and that’s you.
There’s no back and forth arranging dates and times, not to mention last minute cancellations. If you’ve got time, then you’ve got time to get a game in.
You might also save a lot of time in the setting up and tidying up, if you have the luxury of a play area that doesn’t need to resume its role as dinning table that evening. Your opponent won’t need to take their miniatures home, so games can be set up and played over days, or even weeks.
2. You Can Learn at Your Own Pace
Few people like to admit that they are a slow learner, but I definitely am. It takes a while for rules to sink in. I can pour over a rulebook for weeks, and think that I know the game inside out. Then, when I put it into practice on the tabletop, I start forgetting everything and it all goes to pieces.
I’m someone who learns best by doing. The problem was that I could seldom “do” because I rarely had anyone to play against. Solo wargaming has allowed me to gradually soak up the rules and quirks of the main game systems that interest me. When I make mistakes or need to spend 5mins looking through a rulebook, I’ve no paranoia that I’m ruining anyone else’s experience.
This relaxed “at your own pace” approach has given me a deeper understanding of how everything works in practice.
“Yep, he really is playing with himself, lads”
3. You Can Tell Better Stories
If someone is going to the trouble of meeting you for a game, there are usually certain expectations. One of those is that we’re going to face off with two forces similar in strength, and we’ll both have a realistic shot of winning.
I’ve always been more into the storytelling than the winning. I know that many wargamers do have great narrative-play experiences with their gaming pals. But it’s a tough sell to say to someone “here’s 4 halfling skirmishers, let’s see how long you can hold this hamlet against my minotaur horde.”
With solo wargaming, no setup or scenario is too unfair, or even, too silly. A single giant can take on hundreds of goblins and it doesn’t matter than one turn takes 30 seconds whilst the other takes 5 minutes. It’s often in these games that the most dramatic, cinematic, and downright hilarious moments occur, too.
4. You Can Test, Test, Test
Whether it’s a new army list, some home-brewed rules to a flawed but otherwise favourite ruleset, or the layout of some new terrain pieces, solo wargaming is the perfect testing ground.
Troubleshooting whilst playing solo means a smoother and more enjoyable game next time you’re able to get together with someone. It’s not just about fixing flaws though – you can optimise too. After a few solo games with your new medieval village terrain, you might come up with a layout that’s just perfect for kicking off your next campaign. So set up some solo games to answer the questions of “does this work?” and “how can this be even better?”.
Summary: Solo Wargaming
The purpose of this article isn’t to convince you that solo wargaming is better than playing against (or with) a friend. It’s just yet another layer of the hobby that many of us miss out on because it can initially seem “a bit weird”. But so can collecting and painting tiny toy soldiers, to be honest. You quickly get over other people’s perceptions – sometimes it’s harder to get over your own.
So why not try being an army of one (or would that be two armies of one?) and see what you think? If it doesn’t work out for you, it’s not like you’ve got far to go to get home 🙂
The well of Etsy wargaming terrain is a bottomless one. You can get lost on there pouring over the various offerings, from Dwarven mines, to scorched gothic ruins. On Etsy, you’ll spot companies and manufacturers you’re familiar with, and many more that you’re not. It’s an abundance of talent and beautiful products all in one place.
After spending way too much time on there (yet again), I thought it’d be useful to pull together some of the best stuff I’ve found so far in one handy roundup.
So whether your jam is leading a small party of adventurers through dark and narrow dungeon corridors, or leading huge regiments of troops into an epic conflict, you’ll find something to suit your needs right here.
To be up-front, I do use affiliate links here, which means I may earn a commission if you were to buy through them. This is at no extra cost to yourself, and helps support the running costs of this humble blog. If you don’t want to use my affiliates though, then here’s a straight-up link to the Etsy marketplace 🙂
Etsy D&D Terrain
There’s a lot of terrain on Etsy that’s perfect for your D&D adventures. Perhaps your adventure begins (as it does for many) in the tavern bar (or even kitchen?). Or maybe your party has just escaped from prison? In any case, once your quest is underway, what kind of dungeon would you like to explore? Will you pave the way with some dungeon tiles and doors, or will you opt for the full immersion of a cavern/dungeon set? A cheaper “all in one” option is this MDF Deep Dark Dungeon kit, but that’ll require a bit more work on the building and painting side of things.
Are you a bit of a rank and flanker? Whether you’re playing in the Warhammer Old World sandbox, or in Mantic’s Kings of War, there’s a lot of great fantasy terrain on Etsy that’ll make your table look stunning. You can never go wrong with some houses, and this fishing village set is perfect for your Empire army to defend against the tides of Chaos. No settlement is complete without a blacksmith’s forge, and as ever, some scatter terrain adds an extra dimension to your setup. Heading out into the wilderness, you might choose to fight over some ruins, or even a crumbling castle. These dead forest and goblin outpost sets are well worth a look, too.
Summary: Buying Etsy Wargaming Terrain
The thing I love most about the Etsy wargaming terrain offerings, is the individuality. If you’re buying buildings or scenery from one individual company, then there’s always going to be a particular look or “theme”. But because the creators and sellers on Etsy are all independent of one another, it’s akin to walking round a boutique market.
The sheer variety of Etsy wargaming terrain also means you’re more likely to find the exact piece you had in mind to bring your table to life. This is opposed to when buying from companies with a limited range, where you’ll often get something on the basis that it isn’t quite 100%, but “it’ll do”.
With that said, Etsy is far from the only place to pick up buildings, scenery, and furniture for your miniature adventures. Check out my roundup on the best places to buy miniature wargame terrain for even more options.
This time around, it was time to build a Chaos Beastmen Herd. There’s a lot of great beastmen miniatures in the Knightmare catalogue, so I picked out my favourite 10, along with a Greater Daemon to lead them.
The big guy came with wings, but I didn’t stick them on in the end. Help keep his feet on the ground and all that…
Drakkon Skullcleaver
This fellow is a sort of three-eyed Highland Cow. Udderly terrifying.
Thrakor Triclaw
Also coming in threes was this beastman’s arms. He can dig the garden whilst making a sandwich at the same time.
Morthak the Ravager
This chap has the only pair of feet in the warband that aren’t cloven. Hoove had thought it?
Gorath Darkwing
I reckon the shaman is a bit bat-like. A bat with hooves, though.
The customary ‘three miniatures walking through a castle gate’ shot.
Vraxor Goatskull
A beastman who’s gran is always asking him if he’s eating well.
More of the big lad.
Uthrak Bloodhoof
The ‘get off my lawn’ beastman.
Kragoth the Putrid
Spot the Nurgle worshipper. There’s always one…
Drugar Warhoof
Smug youngblood with golden earring and ideas way above his station.
Murgoth Krakenborn
I imagine this guy spends a lot of time thinking about where he should actually live. Under the sea? In the forest? Dry tentacles or wet fur? What’s the lesser of the two evils?
As usual, I stuck them on a Warbases tray so they’ll work equally as well in big rank and flank games as they will in small-scale skirmishes. Remember to also check out my Chaos Warrior Warband and Goblin Archer unit – both of which are made up heavily of Knightmare miniatures!
You don’t need to look far (or hard) online to find a better miniature painter than yourself. That’s as relevant to the seasoned pros as it is to aspiring plodders like myself.
As I keep saying on this blog though, you can only really compare your work to your older work. That’s the only true barometer when it comes to miniature painting progress.
As it’s January 2021, I thought I’d take a look back at my progress this year. I’ve posted monthly hobby updates since I launched the site, so it was easy to skim through. I’ve picked out a few examples to post here.
Let’s kick off though, with my most recent work. This beast herd was finished up around the New Year period (full report coming soon), and I’m pretty chuffed with how they’ve turned out.
My Early Work in 2020
I was pleased with these paintjobs at the time (and I still think they’re acceptable), but I feel I’m capable of a lot better, one year on.
The Middle of the Year
Those heady days of spring and summer brought a bit of a step up in my techniques. To be honest, I probably got a bit better at taking pictures, too.
Into the Autumn…
Not too much of a difference between these guys and their spring/summer counterparts.
Winter is Coming…
Perseverance, practice, curiosity, and an open mind led me to taking another baby step forwards.
So there we have it, a year in pictures. Is there an improvement there? I’d say so. If I can just keep practising and learning, then I’ll be able to kick on even more in 2021, too. The main thing above everything else, however, is to simply enjoy the process.
Once again, you can look over my full year’s worth of work in my monthly updates. As ever, thanks for taking the time to read this humble blog 🙂
Imagine a tabletop where pink orcs battle green-skinned high elves. Where yellow dwarves hold out against hordes of blue-furred ratmen.
This is, of course, a highly exaggerated scenario of what it might be like to be a colour blind (or “colour deficient”, as my optician recently corrected) miniature painter.
I mean, for one, the colours of paints are written on the pots. So it’d be incredibly hard to get things so “wrong”.
I was first diagnosed with colour blindness at an early age, when a test was sprung upon me at primary school. You’ve probably had one yourself. You’re asked to pick out numbers or letters from these discs of coloured dots. It’s rare for me to find one I can spot.
I suppose the early signs were there – I thought grass was red for a brief period of my life. But as a fairly arty kid (I was decent at drawing) this wounded my pride a bit. You don’t want to be known as “bad” at anything when you’re young, so I’d sneakily check the names of colours written on pencils prior to using them. No more red grass and purple skies for me.
I started collecting and painting miniatures at primary school too – though I never gave the colour blindness thing a thought, in relation to it. At least as far as I can remember. As I say, the names of the colours were on the pots. Goblin Green was green for goblins, Sunburst Yellow was ideal for bits I thought should be yellow. And Blood Red was most definitely not for grass.
Then I did what most hobbyist kids do, and take a long break from around the age of 15. A break I never thought was “a break”, more of an “I’ve grown out of that”. But I came back to it all in my mid-30s – again – as many hobbyists do.
“What colour is that banner? Wait… have we been shooting at our own guys?”
It was only then that I started to think about the colour blindness thing. There’s so much content out there aimed at helping folks with their painting, whereas, back in the day, we were limited to segments of White Dwarf once a month.
I became aware of terms like “colour theory”, “colour palettes”, and “the colour wheel”, which enable painters to use colour in an almost scientific way. You don’t need to look far to see the effects of this. The standard of painting out there these days is truly exceptional.
It’d be wrong of me to say that I couldn’t make use of colour theory myself. I simply haven’t read enough into it yet. This is purely because I try to make sure that 90% of my painting improvement time comes through practice, which leaves only 10% for consuming content and tutorials. I might get to it at some point in the future, and only then will I be able to determine whether or not it’s accessible to me.
The thing I struggle with the most in my painting is the classic “you’ve missed a bit” syndrome. This is because, depending on the colours I’m using, a primed area often won’t stand out to me as much as it probably would for most other painters. Likewise, I can make a small mistake and it won’t stand out to me at all, whereas someone else might spot it right away. I’m not complaining about this. Everyone will have their own unique challenges in the hobby, and this just happens to be mines.
Some of my latest work. I think they might be my best efforts to-date
I mentioned the usefulness of having paint colours written on the pots. But come to think of it, that isn’t always true of the modern Citadel paints. For example, I briefly used Naggaroth Night on the premise that it was blue (which was a silly mistake on my part, considering I know my Old World lore). It isn’t hard to find out the colours of paints if I’m in any doubt though, so again, I’m not complaining. Just observing.
I regularly publish pictures of my own painting work on this blog. I accept that I’m nowhere near the standard of many other miniature painters out there, not because of any colour deficiency, but because those folks have put a lot more hours of hard work into honing their craft. For me, it isn’t about comparing my painting with anyone else’s. It’s about looking at what I’ve done this month, compared to what I did 6 months ago, and thinking “there’s a definite improvement here”.
I paint miniatures because it’s a cathartic analogue hobby with steep learning curves and a pursuit of mastery. I don’t see colour blindness as a disadvantage because I’ve never known any different. If I only have my own work to compare against, then it can’t hold me back. I might not ever win a Purple Demon award, but I’m having a lot of fun. And surely that’s all that matters?
It’s Christmas Eve, time of writing, and I’ve set aside some time to sit down with a beer and look over what I’ve been up to this month.
To be honest, I didn’t get a huge amount of actual painting done. I’d run up a massive queue of miniatures that needed a second coat of varnish, so that took up a lot of my hobby time. However, I still managed to do some painting. All of it Chaos-themed.
My next project is imaginatively titled “The Beastie Boys”. These guys are exclusively from one of my favourite miniature companies, Knightmare.
This herd of Chaos Beastmen will ally with my Chaos Warriors in large-scale games, or fight against them in Real of Chaos-themed skirmish battles (using the Open Combat or Song of Blades & Heroes rulesets!)
I’d expect to have this lot finished in the next couple of weeks, so keep an eye out for a dedicated post about that. And if you’re reading this around the time of release, thanks for keeping up with my content on this humble blog. Wishing you all the very best for 2021!
This month has all been about Dungeon Saga, by Mantic Games.
I recently picked the game up (along with the Adventurers Companion expansion) and quickly burned through all of the miniatures in the box.
There’s also plenty cool dungeon furniture included, so I’ve slapped some paint on those pieces too.
The standard of boxed game miniatures comes in for some (justified) criticism at times, but I was seriously impressed with these. They were a lot of fun to paint. Here’s my full write-up on working through them all.
The Adventurers Companion supplement gives you the freedom to create your own characters, parties, and stories.
These minis are predominantly designed for Oathsworn’s Burrows & Badgers game.
They’re full of character, and a joy to paint.
I selected each of these anthropomorphic warriors to replace the four original heroes in the Dungeon Saga box. Here’s my full write-up on that.
So that’s the bulk of my work this month. I’m now looking to get back to finishing off my retro Chaos Warrior warband before the end of the year.
What about you? What have you been up to recently? As always, feel free to post your own links and updates in the comments section below. I’d love to take a look.
Alright so there are no badgers in my party, but I am of course making reference to Burrows & Badgers by Oathsworn Miniatures. They’re the company behind these lovely little furries.
I’d been dying to buy more stuff from Oathsworn for a while now and this seemed like the ideal project. First up, I replaced the Human Barbarian with this hardy looking anthropomorphic rat. I’ve named him Stinky Bob – there’s a plant theme here, for some reason.
Sir Velburch (say it aloud) is a proud looking Squirrel Knight. He replaces the Dwarf Warrior.
Chickweed is my Mouse Ranger, replacing the Elf Ranger. He’s heard a rumour that the dungeons he’ll be looting are a lot like the ones found in Elder Scrolls: Oblivion – jam-packed with lots of cheese wheels.
Out goes the Human Mage, in comes the Hare Mage. Her name is Rosa Rugosa, and she’s a prickly one.
Godspeed my bold adventurers. Delve forth and kill skeleton minions and stuff. Perhaps I’ll find a vet miniature to act as an Apothecary if things get tough down there.
My quest for a dungeon crawler miniatures game recently led me to pick up Dungeon Saga, by Mantic Games. I’m a big fan of Mantic’s rulesets, in particular, Kings of War. The clincher for me was seeing that it was written by Jake Thornton, a name I saw frequently as a kid leafing through the pages of White Dwarf.
Like anyone else of my generation, HeroQuest was one of the first games to really draw me into this hobby. Obviously, this is a heavy influence behind Dungeon Saga, but we have here a game in its own rights. I’ve played some of the early scenarios and it’s a lot of fun.
I also bought the Adventurers Companion expansion which lets you create your own heroes, design your own campaigns, and play co-op mode.
The miniatures look really good, especially for a boxed game. I painted them all up in a couple of weeks using a quick contrast, wash, and drybrush technique.
Some of the miniatures are an obvious homage to HeroQuest, whilst others – like the zombie trolls – are totally unique.
The heroes have been good to learn the ropes with, but I’m currently working on creating my own unique party. I’ll be talking about that in a future post.
I heard recently that HeroQuest was coming back. However, with Dungeon Saga and the Adventurers Companion I feel I’ve got all the tools I need to scratch those dungeon crawl itches.
