Descent- Solo play with the Road to Legend app

Stepping foot on the Road to Legend.

Since finishing painting the monsters and heroes of Descent: Journeys in the Dark I've been exploring solo games using the free 'Road to Legend' app. This app (for iOS, android, PC) turns the base game into a fully cooperative experience for up to four players. Whereas usually you would play against the Overlord (another player), now the app takes control of the monsters so no-one in your group needs to be the 'bad guy'.

The best part? 

The map is hidden. New rooms are only revealed when a member of your party opens a door. Unlike the base game (or some games like Gloomhaven) you never know what is behind the next door. Will it be an abandoned throne room, a long, silent corridor, or a small room with a party of Goblins? 

Although some boardgamers have concerns about using an app I really like the convenience they bring. In this case the software instructs you on where to initially place the enemies and instructs you on how they will play their turn. However, although it manages some admin the players usually would (such as gold) it actually doesn't intrude as much as you might think! You move the miniatures around and roll all the dice, track wounds and conditions (stunned, immobilized etc.) and manipulate your cards outside the app. To me, this is the best of both worlds. The app is giving me a world to play in and enemies to battle against, but it feel hands-on as I fight and puzzle my way through a campaign. More dice chucking and less pencil pushing!

For a taste of that, here are some photos. 

Hounded by a pack of Barghests, our heroes - 'The Friends of the Flame' - have advanced deeper
into the Crypt - only to disturb an elemental...

Leoric of the Book (R) desperately looses two arcane bolts

Jayne (foreground) tries to stay away from the Shadow Dragon.
Will her arrows fly true?

Back in town, the app provides has a marketplace to buy and 
sell equipment with treasure accrued from your explorations.

As well as providing the A.I. (instructions) for the monsters, 
it also uses their special abilities and thrown other challenges at you.
Here my party has been diseased. Not helpful when under attack!

After moving out of their starting zone, another group (Blackjack's Bastards) now face
renewed attack from the rear - and an elemental ahead.

Led by Grisban the Thirsty (in red), the gang rushes on, desperately
trying to fight their way past the enemies blocking the narrow tunnels.

Leoric of the Book and Avric provide backup for Grisban (R),
but the enemies keep coming and the arrows are flying thick and fast.

Now imagine this with some suitably epic music playing through my tablet. I have recently really enjoyed '2-Hours Epic Music | THE POWER OF EPIC MUSIC - Best Of Collection - Vol.5 - 2019, Pandora Journey'

To sum up, I'm really enjoying the Road to Legend app. I'm just really gutted that the campaigns are very limited in number, and that the best ones require physical expansions that are so expensive and rare now! (I'm looking at you Shadow of Nerekhall...)

Happy dungeon delving everyone.

:-)

Descent 2nd Edition Heirs of Blood Lieutenants

Meet the bad guys - and girls!

One of the few things that disappointed me when opening and exploring the Descent 2nd edition Journeys in the Dark box was the lack of enemies...

...not the enemy types (they get the job done.)

...not the miniature sculpts (they are pretty good!)

...not the enemy stats...

No, it is the lack of minis for the enemy lieutenants - the movers and shakers of the Heirs of Blood campaign that comes in the box. What a disappointment to find they are represented by small pieces of card!

This is probably a business decision...including them would increase the price of the box, and (more importantly I'll bet) remove the business opportunity that comes with selling them separately in blister packs. To be fair, if you do purchase them separately you get other stuff with them - tokens, further rules and more - but that doesn't erase the disappointment of them not being in the box (or the sharp intake of breath you may experience when you look at the current prices for lieutenant packs on ebay.)

So, in order to have a 'complete' base set, I set out to get hold of the lieutenant packs for each of the six characters in the included 'Heirs of Blood' campaign...

...and here they are! (with a little bit of text from the Descent 2e fandom page.)

Lady Eliza Farrow

'Lady Eliza offers salvation with one hand, and doom with the other.'

Lady Eliza is everything you want in a mini - really simple to paint but looks great on the tabletop. Frankly this was a surprise because when I first saw the plastic it was difficult to pick out any detail and I thought the model would look too plain. In retrospect, this 'plain' simplicity is a strength, as she really stands out.

To keep things simple, a flowing gown like this can be easily painted with a single coat of Contrast paint. I went with Apothecary White to reflect the character art. If you haven't used it before it leaves a blue/ grey shadow in folds. I've heard it works really well for painting Storm Troopers, and it also works here! A single drybrush of Corax White to make the whole gown appear brighter went on top.

The lace was achieved with a Contrast Aethermatic Blue on the chest and the end of the sleeves. Skin was a Tallarn Flesh with Reikland Fleshshade wash. If you leave it there though Eliza's skin will appear very 'warm' which in her case didn't seem appropriate. An Tallarn Flesh/ Elf Flesh mix made her a bit paler - and made the rivulet of blood on her cheek stand out a bit more.

One regret with this model was that after I had added the crushed basing material/ sand (before priming) I came across some lovely photos of this model where people had kept the base smooth and painted flagstones. This is much more thematic for this character than the generic mud/ earth base I did, but in the end I decided to stay with what you see here. 

Lord Merick Farrow

'Lord Merick will stop at nothing to return his brother from the dead.'

Merick is quite simple to paint, and you can get away with almost all Contrast paints - even though he is wearing long, flowing robes the Contrast Black Templar paint doesn't pool, and the Contrast Blood Angels red settles nicely into the folds. The flames that he manipulates are Contrast Iyanden Yellow with a little bit of red towards the top (and a super light drybrush of black at the top of the flame.

If you wanted to do more with this, some object source lighting effects on the upper arms would work well.

Sir Alric Farrow

'A silent specter of death, Sir Alric fears nothing.'

Sir Alric's armour is quite very (Dwarf) bronze, with a dark wash, and then a strong drybrush of Auric Armour Gold. Let's move along!

Baron Zachareth

'The Baron is a man filled with pride and deceit, and little else.'

I had a bit of trouble with Zachareth...

...his sword (a magic artifact) was a chance to try something different, so I had a go at making it a molten sword, but in the end I didn't like my attempt so repainted it more in the fashion shown in game art. If you DO want to try a molten blade effect, I recommend 'How to paint molten iron fire blades' over at Tale of Painters.

I did enjoy recreating the purple tint of his magical tattoos (if that is what they are.) This was done using one coat of Contrast Magos Purple on his arm, with just a single second coat on the swirls of the tattoo. Contrast paints can work as a wash if you like.

As an aside - the Baron hasn't appeared in my games of Descent yet, so I don't know the reason for his amazing hair, but it gives off serious Fabio vibes...

...is it alive?

...or does he just have great volume?

(so many questions.)

Splig

'Splig is a cowardly fellow, but do not underestimate his strength.'

Splig comes out pretty well with almost all Contrast paints and of the six he is my favourite - his red cloak and green skin work really well together. I used Ork Flesh for skin, Skeleton Horde for bone ornaments, Snakebite Leather, Gore Grunta Fur for darker brown materials, etc. I did keep to a traditional approach for the metallic elements here like his armour, helmet wings, nails, and belt buckle. (Metallic base coat, Nuln Oil wash, highlights ending in a bright Runefang Steel.)

As with the other lieutenants here I used a quick drybrush of Blood Angels/ Wild Rider Red to bring out the cloak a bit more.

Belthir

'A relic of the Dragon Wars, Belthir has lost none of his fire.'

Belthir is a good example of a model where time can be saved with Contrast paints (or Speed paints, if you prefer.) All the skin, wings and tail etc. immediately benefit from the simple shadow effects that a single coat of Contrast paint will give. I did a slightly brighter drybrush with a Blood Angels/ Wild Rider red mix to raise the highlights just a little (although this doesn't come across in the images.)

The armour used a classic approach of Leadbelcher as a base coat, then a Nuln Oil wash, then Leadbelcher > Ironbreaker> Runefang Steel. In retrospect it looks a bit clean and shiny, but perhaps Belthir is a conscientious mercenary?

I enjoyed painting these lieutenants, and in game, I'm looking forward to facing off against them. Roll on the finale of my current campaign - Rise of all goblins.

Descent 2nd Edition - All painted monsters

Meet the monsters!

'Welcome, adventurers to "Duncan's School of Dungeoneering". Here you will learn the ropes of treasure hunting and dungeon delving...

...and what better way to start the day with some basic exercises in enemy recognition?

We'll begin with the less dangerous denizens of Terrinoth - individually no threat to big, bad, tough sword - swingers like yourselves! But in numbers? Watch out!

Goblin archers

'Time is money everyone, and time wasted on wading through these gobbos is less time for exploring and lootin' Watch out though! Many a careless wanderer has realized too late that goblin archers like to gang up on ya - from out of melee range if they can. They may be poor shots, but sooner or later one of those arrows is going to get through...

...your visor...

...your collar...

...remember it only takes an arrow in the knee to end your adventuring career! - Although I hear the city guard often takes in the injured and puts them to good use.

Zombies

'Ah, the shuffling undead. Common to every corner of the Kingdom, but ESPECIALLY where you are going to spend the majority of your time...

...you can outwit them for sure, but you can't easily stop them coming. "Quantity has a quality all of its own" as someone once said!'

Cave spiders

'Eight furry legs? CHECK!

Shiny, beady eyes that catch the glimmer of your torch in a dark room? Check!

Giant pincers that deliver a poisonous bite? OF COURSE!'

Just like they say about rats in the city of Yew 'Nork...

...there are always a few just yards away from you, even if you can't see 'em!'

Barghests

'Many a careless adventurer has mistaken these hounds of hell for a pack of wolves at long distance, but truthfully? Being ripped apart and being eaten alive by actual wolves would be a blessing compared to being caught by a pack or Barghests! Tread carefully, and take my advice, you'll smell that flesh before you see them!

'Now then, now we've got that little lot out of the way, let's take a look at some of the 'larger' types of monster...'

Ettins

As the song goes:

'They're big, they're mean, they aren't that often seen...'

...but when they ARE you'd better be beware. You can disrespect their lack of brains but not their brawn - a good hit from that home-made mace and we'll be scraping you off the flagstones and sending you home in a bucket!' Actually SCRATCH that - me and the staff at Duncan's aren't  paid enough to go in and get you...

...Unless you buy our convenient 'Adventurer's Injury, recovery, and repatriation insurance' (TM) that is! See our broker, Peg-leg Pete, in the office if you are interested.

Elementals

'Bah, most continents and their petty wizards can barely summon a single FINGER of Elemental flame. Our wizards though...

...elementals that are composed of fire, earth, air, AND water. 

...If they don't burn ya, they'll drown ya...

...if they don't drown ya, they suck the air out of your body...

...and if that doesn't work they'll simply crush you with their giant hands!'

Merriods

'Wassat you say, you can't swim?

Don't like water?

Avoid those puddles then har, har!'

If you aren't careful they'll have a long tentacle wrapped around you before you know it, and those hooked teeth will latch into your flesh and begin pulping your insides as they drag you down...'

Shadow Dragons

'You made it this far? Well, most don't - they died along the way - which is why payment is upfront right!?

Pay attention now for the big guys, the Shadow dragons. Not only are they faster than you, larger than you, and tougher than you, these guys and gals are brainier than you too. The images below capture the unusual shadow dragons that live in these parts. How they'd end up in these unusual colours I can't tell, but around the city we call them 'Ol' Swampy' and 'the Autumn Queen'...

...they could be a mated pair, or just good friends - nobody knows because anyone who asked them and got an answer never made it back!

Pray they never cross your path my friends...

Pray...

'Well that's the end of today's lesson! I hope you found it useful...

...As I always say, 'knowing your enemy is the first step to surviving your enemy.' 

I'll see you next week - those of you that make it back from your descent into the ruins that is....'