Getting Started with Rangers of Shadow Deep | A Discussion on First Miniatures & Terrain

Always Board Never Boring discusses some of the essential miniatures and terrain required to get started in a game of Rangers of Shadow Deep. Of course, you could play the game with pennies and card cut-outs, but this video is really for those people who want to play with painted miniatures on a decorated tabletop.
#RangersofShadowDeep #sologames #gettingstarted
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[@WhiskeyPatriot]

Just got the Deluxe PDF version because of your recommendation. The narrative play you have with the Ronin and view on magic is absolutely how I wanted to play a Wargame RPG. Thanks from Kentucky!

[@AlwaysBoardNeverBoring]

Thanks for watching. I'm glad you found the video helpful. It's a great game; I hope you have fun with it.

[@stuartmc4422]

I've been using my 40k minis and terrain as proxies. Janus Draik and co have been investigating a nurgle infestation on a backwater feudal world. Good fun for sure, but I'm waiting to play with my gaming group.

[@AlwaysBoardNeverBoring]

That's really funny. Absolutely proves the point though, you can use whatever you have.

[@wouterw.2945]

The hardcover book seems way nicer than the one I have, I especially like the layout diagrams for the particular scenarios which aren't in my book. It definitely is a great game and my collection of 15mm miniatures has only expanded a lot because if it.

[@AlwaysBoardNeverBoring]

The special edition is lovely, and certainly the nicest book of its kind in my collection. I am pleased I enjoy the game so much because it turned up with my preorder for Elder Scrolls, which I did not enjoy. This book helped to ease the pain!

[@giovotek]

Just purchased based off this video, thank you.

[@AlwaysBoardNeverBoring]

That's great. I'm glad you found the video useful, and I hope you enjoy the game as much as I do.

[@JezielProdigalSon]

Just got this for christmas. I made a Kenku ranger team for starters. Thanks so much for exposing me to this game.

[@AlwaysBoardNeverBoring]

What a great Christmas present. And Kenkus are cool. I hope you have a lot of fun.

[@JezielProdigalSon]

@@AlwaysBoardNeverBoring My cat got killed on my 2nd mission :( RIP

[@shazamxxx]

Ty for all the insights ... im low of cash theses days , so using paper miniatures ... and fell satisfied with the results !!!

[@AlwaysBoardNeverBoring]

Thanks for watching. I think Rangers can work with whatever you have and it will still be a great time.

[@shazamxxx]

@@AlwaysBoardNeverBoring needing the joy of playing these days ... ty again !!!

[@DevinarGremio]

Nice review, thanks! Just got the book and will start playing soon..

[@AlwaysBoardNeverBoring]

I hope you enjoy it.

[@RayMclean]

New to channel ... thank you for the roll up. Nice looking book, playing cards look nice as well. I think I will give this a try. Off to Amazon to pick up the book and the cards.

[@AlwaysBoardNeverBoring]

Hi, thanks for checking out the channel. I'm glad you found the video useful. Rangers is a really great game, and the book is really high quality. I hope you have a lot of fun with it.

[@Chopperkelly73]

Nice introduction to the game 👍 I picked up my book in June and I’m currently putting together my miniatures. I’m using minis from Descent 2nd edition and expansions, mortal realms magazine, Hellboy board game, other minis from oathsworn, GW, Atlantis, warlord and oathmark! Just random I’ve collected over the years and thankfully never sold or passed on. Nice big project to work on 👍

[@AlwaysBoardNeverBoring]

Descent must be a great source of miniatures. Although I assumed they would have been a bit small compared to many other miniatures lines. It's great to have a large collection of stuff to draw from.

[@Chopperkelly73]

Always Board Never Boring yeah, some of the larger creatures are perfect though 👍

[@nelsikegaming]

I have a collection of about 60 painted miniatures and wanted a Home Game for them other than D&D and I think this might be it! Appreciate you posting this. Subscribed!

[@AlwaysBoardNeverBoring]

Rangers is a really good game for making use of all your miniatures and terrain. Thanks for subscribing!

[@tobyspaulding4618]

Would love to see more on this game👍

[@AlwaysBoardNeverBoring]

Thanks for watching. There are more Rangers of Shadow Deep videos on my channel, including a review of the book, a review of a recent monster card pack, a video on making a team, and three playthrough videos (plus some painting videos for miniatures I use in my team). There are more playthroughs in the works.

[@SiliconSicilian]

It is funny that you mentioned right at the start of the video that you could play with meeples. I am currently in the process of trying to design a meeple-based low scale skirmish campaign game and immediately thought of games like Frostgrave and Rangers as inspiration.

[@AlwaysBoardNeverBoring]

Nice. Good luck!

[@andymckay8981]

I pre-ordered this book too, I got a free ranger minature with it. Its such a great book. I can't express how much I love the art work in it. I haven't played it yet as I am building the village for the first scenario with my nephews and we are having lots of fun with that. The fantasy cards is a great idea. Might have to nick that idea and source myself some cards haha.

[@AlwaysBoardNeverBoring]

I assume the ranger you got was one of the official North Star ones that look like they've stepped off the pages of the book? The card deck I'm using came from Amazon. It's just a little thing, but a bit of fantasy art goes a long way!

[@andymckay8981]

@@AlwaysBoardNeverBoring yeah it was. It looks like the ranger off the front cover. I have slowly gathering minatures for this. There are so many companies (as well as Northstar) that make minatures that look great for this too. I think its really good that everyones scenarios and warbands are all going to be different and personalised. I will have a look for the cards, thanks. Although the fantasy cards arn't needed, it just adds to the game and looking at how well the book is made, I think its worth the effort.

[@AlwaysBoardNeverBoring]

Ah I quite like that one, although I think my favourite is the one drawing a sword. North Star are a good starting point, especially if you want to accurately portray the things in the game. I should have mentioned the brand by name in the video, but doing this type of chatty, unscripted content there's always something you forget to say! For Rangers I use lots of miniatures from the D&D Adventure games (Castle Ravenolft, etc.), Deep Cuts, Nolzur's Marvelous Miniatures, Reaper (metal and plastic), Elder Scrolls Call to Arms, Lord of the Rings, Lord of the Rings tradeable pre-painted miniatures, Anima Tactics, Dungeon Saga, and Mighty Warriors (Advanced Heroquest). I think that's most of them, but most fantasy board games have something useful in them.

[@thedalewardens9106]

I really love this game and I'm glad you're doing vids on it. I am always up for listening to an interesting chat while painting. :) I was surprised that my wife really enjoyed it as much as she does. We played it a bit when it first came out, and with the new scenarios coming out, we're going to pick it up again. Lack of minis could be a barrier to some, so that could be a concern for some. We have a pretty good selection of minis from the Bones Kickstarters. This game has gotten me looking thru those piles and painting minis that might never gotten a second look for me.

[@AlwaysBoardNeverBoring]

It's a great game. While accumulating everything you need is a potential barrier, it's also the joy of it. As you said, it's giving you an excuse to give some attention to miniatures you might not otherwise have used. I really enjoy looking through my collection to find suitable stuff, picking up extra things I need, and creating backstories for my characters. I've also ended up building a lot more terrain, which isn't something I do all that often.

[@thedalewardens9106]

@@AlwaysBoardNeverBoring You're comment about terrain is very relevant. I may be in a similar boat. I have always enjoyed mini painting, and although I like terrain and nice looking tables, I have not invested myself into making it...or even buying terrain pieces. RoSD has gotten me off the couch in that regard in putting together trees and making hills. I have also been putting some time in with scatter. There are so many sets out with boxes, barrels, wells, a broom, haystacks, farms animals etc & etc (ie things you'd find laying about a village or in a house) that I have been buying and painting those items to dress the village and city terrain.

[@AlwaysBoardNeverBoring]

@@thedalewardens9106 The game really does encourage you to make those interesting scenes, and each scenario is so much better for it. I actually just made some spider-infested trees.

[@leversofpower]

We're playing in a pirates scenario. You can play this game with any setting. It's perfect for the glut of 3d printing.

[@AlwaysBoardNeverBoring]

Yeah, the fact they don't drill too much into the background means you can go wherever you want with it. It's great for getting creative.

[@johnmiddleton4291]

Nice overview. People often overlook that skirmish games tend to use double or more the terrain that unit based wargames do, while focusing on only needing 5 minis for a warband or something. Even on a small 3x3 or 4x4 the amount of terrain can be pretty intense. I've been watching another channel prep a western town for a skirmish game with a handful of figures and it's a staggering amount of buildings, fencing, carts, etc. I would love to play a western skirmish like that, but the investment is easily on par with a normal wargame army. I think I spent almost $700 on Samurai terrain for Test of Honour and Ronin, though it's likely more than that. Lots of that was just raw material for a dockside and not kits. Rangers, thankfully, uses pretty generic hills, rocks, woods, medieval buildings that many gamers often have or can easily get. Frostgrave was a challenge initially because hardly anyone had ice and snow covered magical city ruins with multiple levels. For most gamers, it was a huge amount of terrain building. I think Joe's games are designed around a group of gamers that have huge collections of stuff or clubs that do. I have three huge boxes of assorted stuff built for Frostgrave and I never even touched some of the crazier things like the frozen river with crusehd ships or the full board wizards library. Add to that the monster lists and these games show that they really are focused more towards experienced gamers to get more out of their collection than towards beginners looking to start out. The flip side of that is that once you've invested the time and effort into them. you will have a large collection of stuff that makes subsequent games easier. Lots of gamers likely have access to a few large fantasy boardgames from Kickstarter or elsewhere that are good sources of minis for this too. Plus you have the original game to mess with. You are 100% right that the hobby aspect is a major aspect of these games. While you can play with counters or pawns, that misses out on half the fun. Getting to build and paint lots of different things is pretty great, especially when it lets you hop around all the various cool minis made today.

[@AlwaysBoardNeverBoring]

Absolutely. You really need the terrain because with just a couple of models on the board, you need something for them to interact with to make the skirmish interesting. I would love a decent Western-themed tabletop game that I could solo. I was looking at Tombstone from Black Scorpion, but I'm yet to find a really compelling game in that setting. The Black Scorpion miniatures are exceptional though. I nearly got into Test of Honour. I had it ordered, but the company was out of stock. After a while, I started to realise what I was getting into and canceled my order. I don't regret it! With Rangers, I think they did a pretty good job of keeping things as generic as possible. Not even including races for the heroes really opens up your options, and the standard enemy types are easy to find or substitute. It's definitely a challenge (although, like you say, a Kickstarter for something like Massive Darkness or Dungeon Saga will get you well on your way), but that's part of what makes it so much fun. I would rather spend my time painting different enemies and making props for Rangers than painting 40 space marines.

[@johnmiddleton4291]

40 space marines takes a couple of days to do though and then you've got 40 marines forever. I painted 60 Celts in three days and went through 1 1/2 seasons of Star Trek next gen doing it. You just get in the zone and get them done without focusing so much on how many there are. It's like that with all blocks of troops. Very versatile too, once done. Test of Honour is cool. The plus point is there are lots of skirmish Samurai rules so nothing sits unused. Well, anymore unused than 3/4s of the crap I own. Dead Man's Hand is where I'd lean for western, but I have a super old set called Once Upon a Time in the West that uses a wheel chart to do all it's weapon stuff. Really cool system, but a bit ornate. Here's a BGG link to it - boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/14970/once-upon-time-west You can vicariously enjoy some western town stuff and nice overviews of the the 4ground kits with Ralph's videos - kzbin.info/door/PItZtqYzi69-AUxZ1nAiXA

[@AlwaysBoardNeverBoring]

@@johnmiddleton4291 I recently looked at Dead Man's Hand. Seems to have some rules that make solo wargaming a bit more difficult (secret cards, some kind of quickdraw initiative system). It looked good though. Very slick and clean. To be fair, I have enough skirmish games to be getting on with. I don't really need to take on any more right now. My next will probably be a Western theme though.

[@rorydoconnor]

@@AlwaysBoardNeverBoring I did get into Test of Honour and ended up creating my own solo rules. I really like the setting and mechanics in the game. That’s what ultimately brought me here, to look at Rangers of Shadowdeep for inspiration.

[@AlwaysBoardNeverBoring]

@@rorydoconnor Yeah, it looks like a good game. I just didn't want to have to make a whole bunch of themed terrain that I wouldn't use that much for anything else. Thanks for checking out my channel.

[@5upfeelnopain243]

Watching this again now I have painted up most of my Cursed City box (the minis I was intending to use for this) however I am now thinking Aragorn and the Rangers of Gondor (original metal minis) would work best - could even include Legolas , Arwen etc 👍

[@AlwaysBoardNeverBoring]

Citadel Lord of the Rings stuff is really good for this game, I think.

[@pvhep4036]

Agreed! And Gimli from the three hunters set. I've ordered a box of Gondor rangers.

[@seankavanagh3742]

I am thinking some reaper bones, battle field in a box, MDF and some glue...this could be fun

[@AlwaysBoardNeverBoring]

I like Reaper for picking up odd single miniatures. I have a Reaper Bones Black figure on my desk right now as a I type this!

[@holysmoke8439]

All the d saga, Conan, s n sorcery, boxes n the full pantheon pledge..I should have enough minitures to try this

[@drewkennewell4267]

This game + 3d printer = bliss

[@AlwaysBoardNeverBoring]

I think a good miniatures agnostic game is a great playground however you hobby. Whether you are into 3D printing, papercrafting, terrain scratch building, painting, or searching for the perfect miniature for every character and enemy, there's always something to do.

[@faranglao8006]

1:14 I would love to see a playthrough with meatballs.

[@AlwaysBoardNeverBoring]

Even the auto-generated subtitles picked up it's meeples, and they normally throw me under the bus.

[@robins5314]

Northstar do an official line of miniatures that includes giant flies.

[@AlwaysBoardNeverBoring]

Yes. North Star are the company that make the plastic soldiers I mention in the video. I don't know of any other company that makes giant flies (other than the ones you get at Halloween as cheap decorations). The North Star gnoll soldier box covers you for some of the later Ranger scenarios, and I was going to buy some, but then I subbed in orcs instead.

[@synns6898]

I keep meaning to try and get into this but because I’m so set on it being perfect it would just cost me to much, but I will give it a go at some point. I’m currently playing dead mans hand which is such a fun simple skirmish, so I’m trying to design a shadows type solo version myself using some bits from Dracula’s America to use my Wild West terrain.

[@AlwaysBoardNeverBoring]

Is Dead Man's Hand any good? I love the Wild West genre but I don't have any games with that theme, so a good miniatures game is of interest to me. It would actually be interesting to retheme Rangers as a "Weird West" game. Would take a bit of work but I'm sure it would be a lot of fun.

[@synns6898]

Always Board Never Boring I really like it as a nice simple skirmish game that doesn’t need much cash investment to get started. Rule book, couple of £20 bands (or any Wild West type miniatures really) a friend and some terrain and that can be really cheap for Wild West (ttcombat terrain). Which is why I think it could be a good starting point to build on for your own rule set and Northstar also do Dracula’s America which has some great weird West type miniatures aswell (vampires, zombies and some more obscure monsters)

[@AlwaysBoardNeverBoring]

It looks pretty neat, and I like the miniatures. I do a lot of solo wargaming though, so I tend to look for game systems that are all open information, without hands of "gotcha" cards. Looks like Dead Man's Hand might also have some kind of quickdraw timing mechanism that wouldn't translate easily to solo gaming.

[@synns6898]

Always Board Never Boring the card part isn’t to much of an issue, cards are placed and turned for activation so that’s fine, the biggest problem I’ve found is running cards for both sides so I’m going to try and work on a way to eliminate the cards for one side, maybe increase the amount of miniatures on that side to compensate for no cards. Game is definitely worth a look because it’s such a simple system.

[@AlwaysBoardNeverBoring]

@@synns6898 Thanks. It does look very slick and clean, and would be a good excuse to buy some of the really nice Tombstone miniatures from Black Scorpion.

[@5upfeelnopain243]

Great run through - makes me interested to explore this game more. Sub from me! 👍

[@AlwaysBoardNeverBoring]

Thank you so much for the sub. Christmas is getting in the way a bit but I do intend to run some more playthroughs as soon as I can.

[@DatOtterZombie1978]

For the miniatures, these games go great with a 3d printer. Much cheeper in the long run. Specially if you want to change minis from campaing to campaing.

[@AlwaysBoardNeverBoring]

I’ve done a video before taking about 3D printing. It’s a hobby in its own right and requires a degree of effort and space to run correctly. It’s not the right option for everyone.

[@scotteverroad4545]

Sir, as a long time roleplayer and miniature wargamer, I am really getting into this game. My 30years as a gamer has run the gamut of everything from Shadowrun Battletech, and LastDays Zombie Apocalypse, o course Frostgrave. Rangers' is something different! I often play the same scenario 2, 3 4 times and always a little diferent! Love this game! The whole "Isolation" -19 thing has given me time to explore a game that I would normally just walked by in the local store. That said, I really enjoyed the video and Yes, (Like and Subscribe!), waiting for more! Scott.

[@AlwaysBoardNeverBoring]

Thanks for subscribing, I really appreciate it. Rangers really is a bit special, and is one of my favourite games. Just changing the map layout slightly for a scenario will give you a completely different experience, before you even consider changing up your team. I recently posted my first playthrough of the game and I do plan to do some more.

[@b.lloydreese2030]

Ive got several hundred minis i painted since 2019. No terrain or mat tho. And honestly no spacd lol. My biggest barrier tho is wrapping my head around the rules

[@AlwaysBoardNeverBoring]

The book may at first seem quite intimidating, but the actual rules are only a few pages. The rest is scenarios, character creation, and campaign stuff. Once you have a game running on the table it all clicks and is a pretty smooth gameplay experience.

[@campbella2796]

I'll be doing this in 15mm. I like your suggestion for the playing cards.

[@AlwaysBoardNeverBoring]

Neat. Having some fantasy cards is only a minor thing, but I do feel it makes a bit of a difference.

[@tinywargamer3863]

So...I'm a bit late to the party (as always), but do you recon that this game can be played coop by 5-6 people each one of them with 1 miniature of a ranger, or it would be an overkill for most of the scenarios?

[@AlwaysBoardNeverBoring]

The scenarios aren't designed for that, unfortunately. The game is for 1 to 4 players. Each player controls a ranger and a certain number of companions, and the more rangers there are, they less companions they get. The team building rules scale for up to 4 rangers total.

[@Wolf1337DK]

can you play this game with 3 players as co-op?

[@AlwaysBoardNeverBoring]

Yes, it's for up to four players, and it's always co-op. There's no DM role.

[@DestroyerHivePro]

I'm sold! While I do think this would be an amazing opportunity to create cool scenery and figures, I have too many projects already and am looking moreso for a simple solo D&D experience. I am making the buildings out of paper and using whatever other terrain I have available. Most of my mini collection is from 40K, so my "Ranger" will be a rogue trader (Janus Draik) and his companions will be an assortment of 40K characters, including an ork, a kroot, custom harlequins, a custom Carnage symbiote, Tau, etc. Janus will have come to this feudal world to investigate the "Chaos corruption" and thus begin his quest after his ship mysteriously malfunctions...

[@AlwaysBoardNeverBoring]

Awesome. That's part of the joy of the game. You can make scenery and acquire miniatures to "match" the game, or go your own way, using whatever you have. I've heard a few other people giving the game a 40K makeover and it's a neat idea. I hope you have fun with it.

[@c-r]

Thanks for not doing youtube voice

[@AlwaysBoardNeverBoring]

I don't think I have the energy to do KZbin voice; it seems exhausting! I just try to be as clear as I can be. Thanks for watching.

[@MoragTong_]

Spend $150 and you can print anything you could ever want, most of it 100% free. Gamers that don't have a 3D Printer are throwing money away.

[@synns6898]

I don’t like the layer lines on 3D prints makes painting less fun. So 3D printers aren’t yet at a point where I’m ready to invest yet, maybe another couple of years when the price has come down for the best quality.

[@AlwaysBoardNeverBoring]

I have no interest in printing my own stuff, but glad to hear it's working out for you.

[@Geekaylee]

@@synns6898 On resin printers the quality is totally there. I've printed of minis at various scales and 99% of the time the layers are pretty much invisible, the other 1% of the time you can generally angle the print differently get rid of them.

[@Geekaylee]

@@AlwaysBoardNeverBoring They're really useful but an entire hobby in itself.

[@AlwaysBoardNeverBoring]

@@Geekaylee I can imagine. It's just not something I'm interested in getting into, at least not any time soon.