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.
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.
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.
There’s still a few things I’d like to add I think. Or do different. Like the sewers just have this back wall installed. Originally I wanted to make bars, and then paint the inside of those pieces black, so it would look like the sewer continued inwards. But I also wanted the streets to be done on a fairly quick schedule.
All pictures are taken with flash. I normally never do that, but I really wanted the ‘wet parts’ to show up. And the shelf is a fairly dark place. At some point I have to figure out how to get some light installed too. A project for future me. Anyway…flash makes everything look ‘harsher’.
Right from the get go, the ‘streets’ of my Dunkelshelf was meant to be build with sewers. It’s just quite the project, since I have never really build anything out of foam. And the foam I had on hand, was/is kinda crappy. Still used it though 😀
I For this project all I had was the before mentioned foam, some cardboard, a little bit of foam core, a glue gun and some toilet roll cardboard. Oh right…and also some cards from a game, that I’ve kept around. Cause why throw out good cardstock 😉
Not shown here, but I realised (after gluing the card-cobblestone on the top) that the top would warp and bend. So there’s also been added some strips of foam core to help keep the integrity of it all.
At some point I was contemplating having the ‘top layer’ be one of the Carnevale street modules. That idea was dropped again.
All street modules created. Double checking the height is right.
Cutting up the left over card from the JoA game, to use as some quick street stones. It does yield a quite shallow and clearly fake result. But definitely better than nothing.
Adding some texture paint to hide the cardboard, trying to show the difference on this picture.
Making the sewer a little more interesting.
Final result after paint, washes and pigments. I really like it. It’s not a work of art, but it’s durable, modular, can easily be used for other games and definitely add some fun to the Dunkelshelf.
Yeah, I know. Johannes is missing an arm (and a really nice torch, attached to that arm). I wanted to paint her sub-assembly style. So told myself, I’ll just put that arm right over there. Now, it’s not like the arm is missing. I mean…it’s right there. It’s just that I no longer remember where there is (to quote Terry Pratchet). Still, she’s such an amazing figure (look at those details, wow!), even without her arm. So decided to finish her. Right now I’m toying with the idea of either ordering an extra Johannes and get her, her arm. Or maybe green sculpt some bandages on her, to make it look like she’s simply missing that arm.
Uwe is pretty straight forward. But so much fun to paint. Wanted him colourful, but at the same time, his clothes shouldn’t look straight out the seamstress’ shop. The coulours are a little ‘washed out’ on the photo, making the cute seashells on his shoes blend in with his skintone. It’s a shame, cause in RL that detail is just perfect.
Got Hermans house painted up for the Dunkelshelf. And made some changes to the layout. That’s probably something I’ll do for as long as the shelf exists. Anyway, I moved the church into the background. Means you can no longer see the front door, where I liked some of the details. But you can see more of what’s going on back there, since it was blocking out a lot. Aaaaaand, I’m thinking with the church near the Prancing Peacock and the Dunkelshelf Slum area, the priests are where they’re needed (at least in their eyes). Sinners all around. Also added a walkway to the broken bridge. Like the feel of it being patched up like that. Moved the fountain to the front. Wanna play with some water effects on that one, so it would be a shame it was hidden in the background. And also now I have more space to play with the market area.
Paints used are Scale75 unless otherwise noted.
Joahhnes Skin: Basic Flesh, Flesh Wash (Army Painter), Pale Skin Coat: Petroleum Grey, Dark Tone (Army Painter), Mojave White Leather: Leather Brown, Basic Flesh, Mojave White, Petroleum Grey, Mid Brown (Army Painter) Reds: Deep Red, Basic Flesh Yellow Leather: Gelbraun Brown, Light one (Army Painter) x3, Birch Feather: Thar Brown, Birch, Mojave White Gold: Gold (Vallejo), Copper (Vallejo), Antique Gold (Green Stuff World) Metai: Thrash Metal, Dark Tone (Army Painter), Heavy Metal Wood: Walnut: Mid Brown (Army Painter), Graphite
Uwe Skin: Basic Flesh, Flesh Wash, Pale Skin Shirt: Birch, White Sands Trousers: Braineater Azure, Fairy Blood, Mojave White Jacket: Deep Red, Basic Flesh, Birch, Health Red, Åetroleum Grey Leather: Leather Brown, Basic Flesh, Mojave White, Petroleum Grey, Mid Brown (Army Painter) Beard: Graphite, Dark Tone (Army Painter), Birch Shell: Ishtar Pink, Light Tone (Army Painter), Birch Bone: Thar Brown, Light Tone (Army Painter), Birch Feathers: Surfer Orc Flesh, Undead Flesh, Tiamat Orange, Mediterranean Blue, Thar Brown, Birch, Mojave White Gold: Gold (Vallejo), Copper (Vallejo), Antique Gold (Green Stuff World) Metal: Thrash Metal, Dark Tone (Army Painter), Heavy Metal
I couldn’t find any instruction files for building the Palanquin. It’s not that difficult really, but in case anyone can use it, here’s how I went about it.
A – The seat. Super simple, just glue A1 + A2 + A3 on top of each other. A1 and A2 align easily on top of each other. For A3, align it to the back, but so the little ‘tab’ is still free.
B – The frame I start by bending the lower part of B3. Doing this now will make your life so much easier later on.
Then I glue one of the sides to B3. Doesn’t really matter which one. Then follow up with the seat. Not much to note here, other than make sure the nicely detailed ‘cushion’ of the seat is up :). Last I add the other side of the frame.
D – Back details. Not entirely sure if this should be aligned with the seat or a little above. But I like it best down at the seat, so that’s what I did.
C – the bottom. Glue the two bottom pieces back to back, so the details are showing on both sides. This way, if you want to ‘topple over’ the palanquin, it will show some nice details on the bottom, while still retaining the same pretiness on the inside.
E – Front frame. Last piece of the frame. Just get the details on the front and you’re good.
F – Details. Again, super easy, barely an inconveinience. I added the two sides first, then the front and lastly the back. But honestly the order of which you do this doesn’t matter. I’m a little dissapointed the front doesn’t cover up where the frame has been glued together. So I think I’m gonna add a layer of plastic putty or something, to make it more smooth.
G – Handlebars. Glue two and two together, making sure any details are always on the outside, so they can be seen from any angle. I glued them on just below the window details. Didn’t want to cover that up. Again, not entirely sure that’s the right place. But it works for me.
H – the roof Last is the roof. I will carefully bend it into shape, but I won’t glue it on until the insides of the palanquin has been painted.
Wasn’t happy with the two ‘pretty houses’ on my Dunkelshelf. And I needed the stairs down into the poor parts of my Dunkeldorf. So a quick shopping spree later
The two boring houses, that has now been torn down and the residents ‘relocated’ to make room for Hermans new home.
Due to the way the house is placed on the shelf, it’s kinda the more ‘boring’ side of the house that’s seen. Even once the ‘decorative cardstock’ is added, it still looks a little empty.
But one of the things I got in the Carnevale kickstarter was these extra windows. So I am adding one of these to the side (here it’s just attached with bluetack), to add more interest.
House in its place, but still without the cardstock details. Removing the two smaller houses also adds room for some more scatter pieces. I am considering a statue maybe.
Bag Interior 