Wednesday 28 October 2015

Castle Ravenloft Ghouls & Zombies

In a game like Castle Ravenloft the most common type of villain your Heroes are likely to encounter are, of course, the Undead. So far I have reviewed Vampires, Wraiths, Blazing Skeletons and Skeletons as part of the Undead in this Dungeons and Dragons board-game. Today, I turn my attention to the flesh-eating Ghouls and Zombies.
I'm almost certain these are first Ghouls I've painted in the last thirty years. I painted them in a very light grey skin tone (Foundry Austrian White 67) and gave them red eyes to help distinguish them from my zombies. They do look very similar to my zombies but are noticeably lighter in real life.
The stats for a Ghoul are AC16 (very high for a monster) and 1HP. Killing one earns a Hero 2 Experience Points.
A Ghoul's tactics are -
If the Ghoul is adjacent to a Hero, it attacks that Hero with a rending Bite.
If the Ghoul is within 1 tile of a Hero, it moves adjacent to the closest Hero and attacks with a paralysing Claw.
Otherwise, the Ghoul moves 1 tile toward the closest Hero.
A Bite attack gives a +9 bonus to hit and causes 3 damage.
A Claw attack gives a +7 bonus to hit and causes  1 damage as well as immobilising the Hero, i.e. the Hero cannot move on his next Turn.
I must admit that I am rather underwhelmed at the way the Zombies have been sculpted. They lean forward far too much and quite frankly, they pale in comparison to the way the  Ghouls have been sculpted. I normally enjoy painting zombies but I admit that painting these three was a chore.
The stats for a Zombie are AC11 (the lowest of any monster in the game) and 1HP. Killing one earns a Hero 1 Experience Point.
A Zombie's tactics are -
If the Zombie is within 1 tile of a Hero, it moves adjacent to the closest Hero and attacks that Hero with a rotting Fist.
Otherwise, the Zombie moves 1 tile toward the closest Hero. 
A Fist attack gives a +5 bonus to hit and causes 1 damage for each Monster on the Zombie's tile. 
Whilst the Zombies are meh! in terms of sculpts and stats the Ghouls are terrific and make for fearsome opponents.

19 comments:

  1. These have come out quite well. Quite well indeed. I have seen a lot worse in board games Much much worse. So overall big thumbs up.

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  2. Your Ghouls look interesting Bryan, I tend to paint the eyes varying shades of blue with most undead things (to represent the undying `non light` of Aradroth which clings to all un-life), but the red does look suitably fiendish. Ghouls are a favourite monster of mine, though are devilishly hard to `bring to life` (excuse the non intended pun).

    The Ravenloft Zombie sculpts are, as you say, a little underwhelming, and to be frank, I`m not sure how anyone can make a lot of these. I think I might have stayed with a uniform colour for the rags and tatters clothing... to give an overall hue and theme to them; like greyscape or possibly muted earth wash. But end of the day, these sculpts are so hard to work with, I`m not sure mine are any better mate. All in all, you`ve made the most of them you could I think.

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    1. Many thanks, Steve. I certainly enjoyed painting the Ghouls far more than the Zombies. Maybe you're right about going for a more uniform colour for the Zombie's clothing but in all honesty, I didn't give a lot of thought to them because they were so underwhelming.

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  3. Nice painting Bryan! Cool ghouls. I'm going to have to agree with you about the zombies. I was really looking forward to seeing them, you know me and zombies. Underwhelmed is very polite of you, I'm quite diappointed by them really. Not that has anything to do with your painting of them!

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    1. I couldn't agree with you more, Bob. The Zombies are really naff!

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  4. Wow, the ghouls are just about OK, though their posture is a little odd even so. But the zombies are downright weird. I mean, what are they doing? Looking on the underside of an invisible rock that they've picked up, perhaps?

    The painting is good, but those sculpts are...poor.

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    1. I like the Ghouls, Hugh, but the Zombies are such a let down.

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  5. Totally agree with above comments Bryan, even your painting skills cannot rescue the underwhelming sculpts of those zombies! The ghouls are v similar in colour to some I painted up for a WHFB Vampire Counts army I put together a few years back so are spot on (imho)

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    1. Thanks, Andy. Nice to see we are in agreement on how to paint Ghouls. :-)

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  6. Another wonderful posting Bryan, which, despite the faults of the bizarrely sculpted zeds, makes for a thoroughly enjoyable read. The Ghouls are outstanding imho, the zombies much less so - But not through any fault of your paintbrush I stress. I'll wager you had some fun painting on the gore of those severed hands :-)

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    1. Ah, you can read my mind, Simon. Of course I had fun painting the gore on the severed arms!

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  7. I think we know what happened to the extras from Michael Jackson's Thriller video...lovely painting on your 'funk' zombies. As for the ghouls - brilliant paint jobs and particularly nice sculpts. A slightly different colour scheme and they could be degenerate sewer dwelling rat people - which would be cool. Can't wait to see what's next on the agenda, Bryan.
    Regards Jez

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    1. Yes, Jez, do look like they've stepped straight out of Whacko Jacko's Thriller video. My next post will be my Monthly Musings waffle.

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  8. I guess you can see what the sculptor was trying to do with the zombies, however, like you, not so sure it works in a miniature, especially one that is duplicated. The ghouls are great though!

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    1. I think most people would agree with you, Adam.

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  9. Lovely work Bryan they turned out great :) Difficult to make these different with out doing drastic work to them.

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