A proper intro to the newest project... my Dungeoncrawl!

Hey all!

Well, okay, it is time to post a BIT more about my latest project.

Okay, so what started all of this was seeing the 15mm fantasy line from Battle Valour.  I saw them at Cold Wars, and wowza... I just ADORED the sculpts.

So I bought a few packs of dwarves, with the idea of doing a little dwarf army.

But shortly afterwards I realized what I really wanted to do. Make a game!  I've always loved dungeon crawl sorts of games... Heroquest, stuff like that?  Well, I thought I'd do a game that was sort of like that... a mix of Talisman and Spacehulk, with a robust card system to back it up, and an interesting dice mechanic.

But first, I had to build the components!

First, the dungeon itself!  Now, I knew I wanted several things to make it up.  Obviously I needed a floor.  While there are options out there to buy, I partially wanted to do this project so I would have a chance to be a bit crafty... so it is time to do it myself!  Above is the basic bits... thicker balsa on bottom, with balsa squares cut ou and glued on.  I figured that the gap between the squares would keep the black undercoat and look good...

Here are a number of floor tiles, laid out.  I found those cool spindles at a craft store, and will use them as columns. 

Here are some parts getting their undercoat!

So once the black undercoat dried, I sponge painted on a bunch of different grays, to give it some variety.  Above you can see the pieces after I did that.  I did go in afterwards with a brown wash to spot up a few places, and also some glue and flock to put in some moss.  I may do more, we'll see.

And here are the pieces at that stage, laid out!  I am not sure how many more I'll need to do... I don't think I need much.  I may make a few more larger ones, and a few "special" tiles (for example, a chasm/bridge one) but otherwise I think I am in good shape... I plan for the dungeon to "disappear" behind the player as they explore deeper into the dungeon, so I can recycle pieces.

Now, I did consider a BUNCH of different builds.  Originally I was going to do everything with half-walls, because that would give me more of a chance to model stuff on.  But then I decided against it, partially because of the small amount of extra work, but more because I want this game to be compact when it is not being played (a friend of mine gave me a great idea for storage, and I'll need to keep it small in order to work.)  

Now, I also knew that I needed some dungeon scenery, to clog up the battlefield a bit.  I got in touch with Scale Creep Miniatures, who had several packs of things that would work... boxes and barrels and sacks of grain and the like.

So I cut some floor tile pieces to various sizes, and then painted and glued on some of these various bits and bobs!  Here they are with their first coat...

And here they are, just after getting their dull coat!  And yes, that is a British Napoleonic shako on one of the stands... maybe it belongs to a goblin?  I am planning some more... maybe some rubble piles, and then likely some furnishings and some special pieces, like an apporpriately-blood-stained sacrificial altar or something.

Finally, here are the miniatures.  As I said, they are from Battle Valour.  While they usually sell only full and half packs, after some RIDICULOUS nagging on my part Ed was nice enough to surrender and let me buy slightly smaller selections... I have to be a BIT money conscious on this project, so I was VERY very thankful!  

So here is what I bought...

The Orcian character pack

The frigian character pack

A few special orders (the dog handler, the Frodo and Gandalf...)

Two frigian giants

8 war wolves

8 orcian bowmen

3 orcian ogre wreckers

3 frigian ice trolls

10 orcian swordsmen with shields

8 orcian beserkers

8 goblins with spears

8 goblins with swords

8 goblins with bows

3 dwarian stone golems

3 legian bullites

The figures arrived, and are BEAUTIFUL!  The only thing is that I am changing up a little of what I am doing... I decided to double-base the regular bad guys, as I felt the dungeon would just look a bit too empty if they were single based.  That MIGHT leave me a bit short on figures, but I'll cross that bridge when I come to it!

So a group of them have their undercoat... sort of a bare minimum to start playtesting the rules... and then I'll expand on them as I go!

Anyway, at the top is where I am currently am.  I have a bit more work to go, but for two days of work, it ain't bad!:)

Thanks for stopping by and reading, and I'll post a bit about the rules themselves shortly!