A quick overview of the game
In these times of pandemic, and for us older gamers who would rather believe science than polemical conspiracies, wargaming is somewhat of a problem as it forces a constant, and somewhat personality-fragmenting need to play against oneself. What if I told you that you no longer have to trade sides of the table while you don a different uniform, that you no longer have to try and guess what you just tried to forget, that a solution is at hand that will save what is left of your sanity and titillate your imagination? And if you are a role playing fan this solution is a double treat; enter Rangers of Shadow Deep by Joseph McCullough, creator of the excellent Frostgrave, Ghost Archipelago and OathMark
This game was designed from the ground up as a solo/cooperative skirmish game in which the game engines handles the opposition. Self published by Mr McCullough in 2018 and followed by several adventures, the game got the royal treatment in 2020 thanks to Modiphius, who published an amazing looking deluxe edition (shown above). Yet, the rules remain mainly identical and thus owners of either edition can enjoy the game as it was intended.
The game is set in the Fantasy Kingdom of Alladore, threatened by the constant advance of an evil shadow that covers and corrupts an ever growing expanse of land. As the rangers, you are an elite force tasked to delay this advance and explore the shadows while a military counterattack is being organized. Quite frankly, the background of the story is generic enough to allow you to create whatever fancies your imagination and I encourage you to flesh out the setting as much as you want so as to add flavor to your troupe and their adventures.
Whether you have the original, self-published, edition or the deluxe publication from Modiphius the rules articulates in a manner familiar to both skirmish wargamers and role players.
You first get to create your main hero, the ranger, along with his skills, abilities and loadout. You are entirely free to shape your hero to be a close combat fighter, a range fighter or even more of a wizard thanks to a significant array of available spells, making this game as close to a role playing game as I have ever seen a skirmish wargame be.
Then come the rules for combat, movement, and just about every adventurous peril you can think of, all presented in a very simple yet elegant manner. I particularly like the way the author handles multiple engagement and their related bonuses depending upon the number of fighters on each side. This approach is quite classic yet fits the overall game feel perfectly.
Following the action rules, companions are detailed, which is somewhat surprising as I would have them placed right after the character creation, given their importance in your adventure. Indeed, as a ranger, you do not travel alone and companions are likely to decide upon the success or failure of your mission, especially if you decide to play solo. The number of ‘hiring’ points a ranger has available diminishes with the number of other rangers accompanying him yet companions always can, and do, fill in gaps in a ranger set of skills.
The rest of the book and I its largest part, is occupied by the missions themselves, which are comprised of several scenarii. What sold me immediately about the game, besides its pedigree (I am a deep admirer of Frostgrave in its two iterations) is the representation of the missions which details, ahead of the scenarii proper, the type and amount of creatures needed to play. Each scenario also also details its terrain, allowing the player to progressively design and collect an impressive cohort of creatures and terrain feature that can be used for any Fantasy RPG or wargame. This game gets you hooked and collecting in a subtle way and, before you know it, you will be lining your living room with shelves to store monsters, heroes, cottages, trees and catacombs…
The regular edition concludes with a bestiary that I found useful to fuel my miniature collecting addiction ahead of new adventures. Also, the deluxe edition was graced by ‘The Burning Flame’ an adventure published separately in the initial run. Having not played said adventure, I will not elaborate, save for the fact it addresses higher level rangers (5 to 15).
I hope this brief descriptor will encourage you to pick up this gem of a game and forget, for a while, the pandemical world for that of the besieged Alladore and its heroic fight to push back darkness, a task we should strive to accomplish each and every day of our lives…
