Rangers of Shadow Deep - The Last Stand

Rangers of Shadow Deep - Mission 3... Part 3 - "The Last Stand"

   After the slog through the bog of the last game, our Rangers and remaining companions find a ruined farmhouse.. inside are some survivors of Lorenthia hiding from the creatures of the Shadow Deep.. A horn sounds in the distance and evil beings start to approach the house from all sides... Time to join forces with the survivors and try to hold back the onslaught!

The start of the first turn...
 Four Gnolls, a Troll, and a Giant Spider already on the board!

    This game was played over 12 turns, the idea is to try and keep as many people alive as possible by the end of the 12th turn. Event cards are drawn every turn, and three are drawn at the start of the game to see what creatures are already on the board... We had a Giant spider creeping up inside the Farmhouse...four Gnolls approaching from one side, and a Troll blundering in from another...!!

   The game was relentless - new creatures appearing nearly every turn... we lost three of the Lorenthian survivors and three of our companions were knocked out... but between us we managed to take out two Trolls, some giant flies, two giant spiders and a ton of Gnolls! We were lucky that the giant worm smashed up through the farmhouse floor at the end of turn 11 and no-one was in the house at the time! Things could have been a lot worse!!

"I can't get a clear shot.."
"Never mind that! - come over here and help!!"

"Not another Troll!!... Malvolio what are you doing?... you can't take him on alone!!"

The Giant worm smashing up into the farmhouse..

    I knew this game would take about twice as long as any of the previous ROSD games we had played, and I was a bit worried that Alfie might loose interest. But he was really into working out strategies of how best to work together to fight off the monsters. His companions managed to pick up both treasure tokens from the board and he ended up with an enchanted morning star that does extra damage (from the new weapon hoard in the GHOST STONE expansion that just came out) and a magic potion... so he was really happy with those, and after the game he was talking about what might have happened to our survivors immediately after the battle.

The final turn... Finishing off the second troll...

   I made the map and building on photoshop from the free resources at 2minutetabletop.com , and printed them out on paper / thin card. I love the artwork that Ross McConnell does on there, and it's fantastic what he shares on his site. His style is fun, and cartoony, and it lightens the mood a bit for these games I'm playing with my son - I'm not sure he would be into it so much if everything was grim and "realistic".

Packing away the building after the game...



...folds flat for storage!

This was the last part of the first three missions from the main rulebook. Also at the back of the Rulebook there is a mini-campaign called "Burning Light"... but before we start on that, our next mission will be the first expansion..."Blood Moon"....