As promised here’s some more pictures of the two mobs I’ve made for Gangs of Dunkeldorf so far. 3 more to go. And also some more gang members, including two pets. It’s a huge undertaking. Getting the rules into a playable state, making items and character cards. Getting them all painted. But it’s also a super fun process.
Please note that compared to my other Dunkeldorf stuff, I have started to paint these rather quickly. I have so many to paint and get ready, I decided ‘Fast & Furious’ was the way to go.
The Drunken Mob
The Gong Family
Emmerich the Hunter
Esther the Zealot
And some tiny pets. Really happy to have them in the game as well. Feels so ‘Dunkeldorfian’ that even the pets will fight you.
Quite a few weeks ago I got some more Gangs of Dunkeldorf playtesting on the table. Just haven’t had the time to post about it until now. As always, the drunken mob didn’t dissapoint. First turn, first go and they went straight into the canal, and stayed there for the rest of the game. Drunkely going back and forth, wondering why their pants were wet.
Have the gangs down, so this time my opponent got to choose who he wanted in his gang, instead of an already pre made gang. And I had prepared two deck of items, so there were options there as well.
Two of the mob bases have been finished as well. More detailed pictures in a second post I think. So not to flood this one.
We also got to play with pets. My opponent had brought his lovely Battle Chicken. I feel the pet system if probably where I’ll be deviating the most from Gangs of Rome.
And I had to document this crazy roll for all times. Think I used up 4 years of luck right there.
There’s nothing like pushing your painted army across a well laid out table. But when that is not possible, I am so happy we have Universal Battle 2. And it gets better and better. It’s also a perfect way to test out new ideas for your army, before investing in plastic. So here’s my 2000 point ‘virtual’ Nightstalker army fighting against the evil evil (but not so evil as the Halflings) Basileans, for a game of Loot.
Turn 1 and 2 A slow start. I won the choice of who’s starting, and I chose my opponent. I almost always make that choice if I can. I get to see where his army is going and in the last turn, maybe I can just do something real sneaky before it all ends. I deployed my butchers behind the walls of Scarecrows. Very much still learning the game, the army and how I want to play it. But this advice (cause this is not something I think I would have naturally though of) really paid off for me later. So really taking that advice to heart.
The Basileans were quite content staying back, just inching forward ever so slightly. My Nightstalkers were a bit more greedy.
Turn 3 Jullius and one horde of the Elohi went straight into my Scarecrows, smashing them for 29 points of damage, taking them off the table. Wearing the Crystal Pendant of Retribution, which really paid off this time, meant Jullius walked away with 8 points of damage himself. I believe the only damage he takes in this game. And the Elohi took 9. The pendant definitely paid off this time.
The Phantoms and Shadowhounds in the upper left corner stayed behind. The pups have quite the range and the pahntoms can fly. So I felt pretty confident leaving them there. The other regiment got up to the hill and stayed there. Again, it’s long range made me confident to just leave it there as a threat. The hillside Nightstalkers picked up the token. And Kermit the Terror Frog has taken 1 (1!) damage from the Arbalests.
I should say, at this point I was still super worried about the Arbalests down south. They can reach almost anything with their 48 inch range. And I really didn’t want to run any of my people down there to take care of them. So decided to ignore them, and hope for the best.
After the scarecrows were blown up, my pups and Phantoms moved down to introduce themselves to the Elohi and Foot Guards. It’s a hindered charge for my pups, so loosing their Thunderous as well, but definitely worth it. The horde of Butchers joined the pups, for a closer look at those winged beings.
Terror Frog also wanted to try out a feather meal, so he tentacles forward, not caring at all, that he just left difficult terrain. Gotta love Strider.
Turn 4 and 5 Left side Butchers and Shadowhounds take out the Elohi, and the Pahntoms eventually gets rid of the Foot Guard. But a sneaky sneaky Beare of the Holy Icon moves up and blocks them. Not worried at all. The icon should be super easy to take off the table. If I didn’t Double 1 off course. And I double 1’d (yes 1’d is now a word).
The paladins that had been hanging back finally decided they didn’t want to miss out on the party. I’ve lost the screenshot, but my scarecrows drop the token move into them, as soon as they’re in charge range. One Foot Guard horde is removed. As is the Scarecrows. But that’s exactly what they were there for.
And that made room for my Reapers and Shadowhounds to have a bite at the…Swordsmen?…I can’t remember what they were :s (Paladin Defenders. They’re Paladin Defenders. We’ve just been told, by our man in the field, that they are in fact Paladin Defenders) But I hit them super hard. 29 points of damage. So sure I’ve won this game now. Except…I roll the games second Double 1s. Two sets of Duble 1s in this game. And I deliver both of them. So yeah….
Jullius is moving about, standing on top of the middle Loot token. My Fleshripper has removed two of the Arbalests. Mostly because he had nothing better to do. Now he’s hitting on the last one. But it really doesn’t seem to be all that receptive of his advances.
Turn 6 and and yes spoilers 7 Just putting it out there. I would have lost if there hadn’t been at turn 7. Cause I completely forgot the objective of the game.
Phantoms are still hacking away at the Icon. And eventually it finally goes away. But he was one stubborn dude. The Fleshripper is still trying to woe the Arbalest. And the Arbalest is still not having any of it. A horde of Footguards into one of my horrors. He turns out to be a tough dude too. The other Foot Guards starts slashing at my Reapers, and the utterly devestated Paladin Defenders takes it out on my pups.
And just like that, pups and Reapers are gone. Gone! But this is one of the many things I love about this game. It’s never ‘over’. It can look so dire, and you still have a chance to come out on top.
And we’re at the end. The Fleshripper is still heavily smooching the Arbalest, and it’s willpower is finally wavering. I imagine that at this point, he will just lift it up and carry it with him home, while everyone else is busy fighting north of the forest. “I will love him and squeeze him and call him George”. I got the pups to run over and grab the leftmost token, turning the game into a Draw instead of a Loss for me.
Had a lot of fun playing this game. And I’m beginning to understand both the game and my Nightstalkers better. It’s really nice getting that feeling that I am actually getting better at it. If only ever so slightly.
Some more Gangs of Dunkeldorf playtesting. Still using the combined Gangs of Rome and Gangs of the Under City rules, but tweaking them to give a better feel for Dunkeldorf. I really want it to be easy to just setup and play a random game, or go all in and play a campaign. So a lot of my focus is on just that.
Still a lot of painting to get done. And some more shopping. But currently I am working on getting the mob bases done in my hobby time. The mobs are just such a wonderful mechanic from Gangs of Rome, and in both games, they ended up telling a narrative all of their own.
One of the mob bases I decided should have a ‘tavern/drunk/ theme. And yes, it is silly they’re dragging their bench and chairs all over town. But on the other hand, I can see a group of people deciding to just go all in on the drinking anywhere in Dunkeldorf. And during the games they just kept running back and forth between the same two houses, like drunk people who can’t find their way home. Perfect.
I’m gonna hunker down and get the rule and item changes written up, so I can get some more playtesting done, before I start working on the scenarios. So it’ll probably be a while before a full on Battle Report shows up here
Herman and Erhardt above, having a serious discussion with Barik, Lenny and heavily disguised Sven (he fell on the floor, so we used Gunther as a quick substitute until I can glue him back together again.) Lenny got killed dead by the invisible mob in the background. Seriously love how you have to not only beware of the ‘enemy’, but the city itself.
Very slowly building on my Nightstalker army. Figured I could use Big Daddy Pumpkin Beholder thingy from Reaper as a Mind-Screech.
Totally stole the idea of using mimics as my Doppelganger regiment. Nowhere near PMC, but I do find it hilarious to push a regiment of angry furniture towards my opponent It took awhile to rummage around on various shops, but the multibase contains your common chests, a couple of barrels, a bed, a throne, a bookshelf and my favourite…an outdoor toilet.
Also got a little difficult terrain done. Played a game against Halflings invading the peaceful homestead of my Nightstalkers (random rolling had us playing on the Ethereal Plane). My Scarecrows were minding their own business, tending the pumpkin fields, cause their kids needed new fancy heads, when the evil evil (evil!) Halflings invaded and completely slaughtered everybody. Just to get fresh ingredients for their pumpkin soups and pies. Imagine the horror.
Anyway, as we were playing, this was kinda the narrative that just emerged. I lost big time, but had so much fun. And after the game, had to make the terrain piece. The wheelbarrow is ‘loose’, and can just be removed when gaming.
I believe this building was meant as a Butcher’s or Merchant or something. But I decided that my version of the Prancing Peacock has both an inside area and a ‘through the window’ bar. So people can sit outside and enjoy the very gloomy weather of Dunkeldorf 😀
Since it’s so easy to see the ‘insides’ of the building, at some point I’m gonna paint up the bar and some tables and chairs from the kickstarter. Add some interest to the floor.
I don’t use miniatures for my roleplaying games, so I’ve been wanting to use the gorgeous Dunkeldorf minies in some kind of skirmish game for some time. Hadn’t really found anything I liked, and was kinda resigned to having to come up with something on my own.
Then along comes Gangs of the Undercity. A slightly revised edition of Gangs of Rome. And it’s darn near perfect. On paper anyway. Since I hadn’t tried any of them, it was time for a test. So here’s the very first gang fight in the streets of (my) Dunkeldorf.
I did some changes to the rules, for this first fight. Simply to make things easier for me. This was never about winning (obviously, since I am playing myself), but learning. So 2 gangs of 4 people each. Ignored the points value of them, but in the end there’s only a difference of 1 point. Each gang is of the same faction.
I gave them each a 1 coin item and stopped at that. Figured I’d have plenty to learn about mob reactions etc., so wanted to keep it rather plain.
Gang 1 consists of Herman Geizhals with the Wand of Illusion, Erhardt Reichenbach with a Sticth Kit, Hans the Joyful with a Sling and Linus Witzner (off course 😉 ) with a Cloak. All in the Golden Square faction.
Gang 2 consists of Claudia Hinkel with a Crossbow, Sven Wentzel with Brass Knuckles, Barik Kneebreaker with a Hammer and Leonard ‘Lenny’ with a Chain. I put these in the Rookery faction.
In both cases I completely ignored their deity. That will be for later games. This was more about learning movements, attacks, mobs and simple coin items. So I also ignored the fact that they’re mounted on various sized bases. I will get the odd ones out either re-based or in the cases where I have two of that person, I’ll simply repaint a second one.
Using my Carnevale stuff. It’s really perfect for this. And since I am painting some of it for my Dunkelshelf, it’s evern perfectier (now a word! 😀 ).
I didn’t have to worry about the coin cards so much. Since they each just got stuck with a 1 coin item and that was it, I just placed it with the character card. I don’t have any 60mm bases. Will have to order some. So for now I just cut out 60 mm circles in card stock for the mobs. Used colored dice instead of pebbles for the draw bag. Don’t need any way to identify the card with the mini, since I wrote their name on the card. Since I don’t have the ‘roman’ dice to indicate direction of the mob, I used a direction die instead. I think from Bolt Action or Gates of Antares but I am not sure. Anyway, 4 of teh 6 sides have an arrow on it. So I just re-rolled it, if it ended on one of the other two. Used D10’s to indicate wounds.
And then it was just a matter of getting the gangs going. Deployed them on either side of the board. Decided this was an all-out war. They just wanted to take each other down. Again, learning, so didn’t want to complicate with scenarios objectives. Although I must say, that this rule system seems like it’ll be a breeze to make scenarios for.
A lot of movement in the beginning, as expected. But it wasn’t until round 2, when I did a quick read up on The Mob rules, I realized I could use them to get around the table a lot faster. I think at the end of Round 2 I had 3 gang members all hiding out of sight 🙂
I absolutely love the super simple success vs failure rolls of the dice. Any 4, 5 or 6 is a succes. Any 1,2 or 3 is a failure. So it’s so super easy to quickly see how the fight goes (in the above Erhardt hits Barik for 3, and Barik defend the 2 of them, gaining just 1 wound).
And I absolutely adore how you can ‘gang up’ on each other. But I think what I enjoyed most of all from this first game, is how The Mobs reacted. Erhardt got attacked twice by them. Claudia got trampled and moved out of range by 1. It just makes the table so much more ‘alive’.
Also found the rules to be fairly easy to understand. Though I did also use the YT channel, for some clarification. I do have one thing I haven’t quite figured out yet. In Gangs of Rome the cards state the persons Agility value. But in the Gangs of the Under City there is no Agility value on the cards. So I just gave them all an Agility 0f 6 and left it at that.
Gonna do some more learning games and start tweaking it to the world of Dunkeldorf even more. Like gang factions and deities. Specific Dunkeldorf scenarios and items. And I think in the next game I’m gonna try and bring in Animal Companions. I mean…we do have an attack chicken. Would be a shame not to use it.
And as a side note, it was Sven’s gang that won. Barik did go down, and Sven himself had a nasty head wound. But in the end it was only Hans the Joyful left of Hermans people. So he jumped into the canal and escaped, when he realized he was out of beer.
If anyone is interested, you can find the rules to Gangs of Rome here in pdf version: Gangs of Rome
And the rules of Gangs of the Under City in the Facebook group. They are free.
I hated painting Spidiculous. I really love the model. It’s so fun and wacky and insane, it just can’t help but look good on the table. But man I hated painting it. Should have done it in sub-assemblies instead of fighting all those legs all the time. That said, instant reward getting to paint the 6 little Spidiculings rigth after. They’re just so super cute. Look at that big smile. Just wanna hug them, and squish them and call them…Will apparently.
Look at that smile ❤
Since Spidiculous doesn’t really have a ‘base’ where he touches the ground, there’s a nekkid dude reaching out model.I believe he’s supposed to be reaching for the ‘nekkid lady lure’. But I thought it would be more fun wrapping him in ‘spiderweb’, fighting his way out of it.
I believe this was the last of the 1.0 expansions that had Survivors as well. Not that I don’t have any survivors left to paint. Lots of pinups still. But done with the Expansion 1.0 ones…I think.
Paints used are Scale75 unless otherwise noted. I didn’t get all colours noted as I was painting. So this is not a complete list
Purples: SS Camo Dark Shadow, Elandil Violet, Braineater Azure, Coven Purple (Army Painter), Matt White (Army Painter), Werewolf Brown, Fairy Blood
Greens: SS Camo Dark Green, SS Medium Green, Panzer Yellow, Dunkelgelb Yellow, Savage Beige
Skin: Basic Flesh, Birch, Wild Beast, Phoenix Egg
Gold: Victorian Brass, Strong Tone (Army Painter)
Metal: Dull Aluminium (Vallejo), Dark Tone (Army Painter)
I’ve tried so many times. Boiling water, ice cold water, a short overnight sleep in the freezer. But the spear (and the axolotl’s sword) bends back every time. So I’ve stopped fighting it. Guess that’s what you get with Reaper minies. It’s a shame though. There’s some real sweet details on them (like the seahorses on Mr. Spears breastplate-thingy). Without further ado, I present Captain Banana Spear and his Watergang. If you can’t beat them, join them…I guess.
I have no idea what to use these for. None whatsoever. They were just too much fun not to paint them.
Paints used are Scale75 unless otherwise noted.
* Axolotl Skin: Birch, Creme White, Phoenix Egg * Eyes: SS Camo Dark Brown * Leather: SS Camo Gray Brown, Rage Brown, Rotten Puss * Stitches: SS Camo Dark Brown, Birch * Wood: Thar Brown, Strong Tone (Army Painter) * Sword Handle: Leaden Sky, Blue Tone (Army Painter) * Metal: Magnesium (Vallejo), Dark Tone (Army Painter) + Blue Tone (Army Painter), Dull Aluminium (Vallejo) * Floppy Axolotl Ears (Maaaawh): Fey Pink (Army Painter), Pixie Pink (Army Painter) * Shield Markings, Book, Cloak, Sword Sheathe: Carribean Blue, Blue Tone (Army Painter) + Water * Otter Brown Fur: US Dark Brown, Strong Tone (Army Painter), Pearl Grey * Otter Light Fur: Pearl Grey, Light Tone (Army Painter), * Snoot (boop!): US Dark Brown + Flat Black, Pearl Grey * Dark Leather: SS Camo Dark Brown, Dark Tone (Army Painter), Pearl Grey * Reds: Deep Red, Soft Tone (Army Painter), Pearl Grey * Clam Inside: Ishtar Pink, Light Tone (Army Painter), Titan Buff (Golden) * Clam Outside: SS Camo Dark Shadow + Anthracite Grey, Titan Buff (Golden), Strong Tone (Army Painter) * Pearl: Titan Buff (Golden), Alchemy White
It took awhile to rummage around on various shops, but the multibase contains your common chests, a couple of barrels, a bed, a throne, a bookshelf and my favourite…an outdoor toilet.
Bag Interior 