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EDIT: Review posted on RPG.net! : https://www.rpg.net/reviews/archive/19/19119.phtml (This thread is a partial draft of the review.) As something of a litmus test of the recently released Loke Battlemat's "Castles, Crypts, and Caverns", I thought I'd see how well the maps fit with the D&D "Starter Set : Lost Mine of Phandelver". This set is the first starter set released, now free as a PDF on D&D Beyond, so I figured it would be the more popular D&D published adventures for the current version of D&D. This thread is a WIP as I try out the maps! CC&C is primarily indoors, so, for the outdoor areas, I'm looking at the Loke Battlemat's "Box of Adventure : 2. Coast of Dread" for some outdoor areas. This set has sunken ships for the D&D "Ghosts of Saltmarsh" hardback adventure and (SPOILER) one of the D&D starter sets (END SPOILER). The maps are wipe-off, so you can easily modify the maps. Or you can use the Loke Battlemat's vinyl clings. I'm using the "Add-on Scenery - Wilderness". Loke Battlemats also just finished its BackerKit "Big Box of Dungeon Doors" campaign, so contact them if you're interested in them. Coast of Dread review : (Insert review link here) (Insert pic of book covers here) CC&C is sold as a two-volume set of spiral-bound battle maps, with 1" grids. You can either use the battle map as a two-page spread, or one page of the battle maps. You can place the battle maps adjacent to each other. Both CC&C and the BoA's have an "index" of thumbnail shots of their battle maps. I found this invaluable when *quickly* searching for a battle map to use with the D&D maps. Some gamers don't like the spiral-bound format, since you can't remove the maps, but I've noticed that the spiral format with the index lets you find the map you want easier and faster. It's a trade-off, and if you don't like the spiral-bound format, take a look at the Loke "Box of Adventure" maps, which are loose double-page spread maps. The BoA sets also have cut-outs of rooms, storage boxes, etc. which you can add to maps for some customization. The Loke battle maps aren't an *exact* match with the D&D ones, but I tried making the D&D maps from the D&D Reincarnated tiles and wasn't able to make the D&D maps, either! In any case, I've used dice to indicate the locations on the D&D map, as well as the monsters in the encounter, plus our intrepid heroes, so you can see there's plenty of room for fighting. Needless to say, spoilers ahead! ***** Part 1 : Goblin Ambush & Goblin Trail While the Goblin Trail traps don't really need a battle map, for the Goblin Ambush, you can use the CoD swamp map (see below), adding some cover for the goblins, either by drawing in some trees and brush, or using the vinyl clings from the "Add-on Scenery - Wilderness". The ambush involves two dead horses (which don't particularly affect combat), which you will end up drawing on the battle map. The Goblin Trail encounter is just an unattended snare and pit, so won't need a battle mat. Unless you decide to *combine* the encounters, with the party first encountering the pit and snare, then being attacked by the goblins. Use the Disadvantage rules if someone falls into the pit or is snared! Part 1 : Cragmaw Hideout (Insert pic of D&D map of Cragmaw Hideout here) For the Cragmaw Hideout encounters, I used the CC&C books and one of the CoD maps. For the first and second outdoor locations (bottom of the map), I used a CoD swamp map, which easily doubles for a generic outdoor map. I then used trees and a river vinyl cling from the "Add-on Scenery - Wilderness" to create the first and second encounter forested areas more closely. I also used the wall clings to section off some cavern areas of the CC&C book. The Add-On Scenery lacks bridges, so I had to copy some dock sections from a CoD map, cut them out, and mount them on index card. After placing miniatures from the encounters onto the battle maps, you can see there's plenty of room for some good fights! Location 3 is a wolf den, 4 is a passageway, 5 is a goblin guarding a bridge, and 7 are three goblins next to a reservoir. In the next pictures, location 6 is a common area, with a southern room, from the location 4 passageway. Location 8 is the boss lair, north of location 7. The location 8 boss lair encounter calls for some storage boxes, so, like the bridge, I made copies of the storage room cutout from CoD, trimming it down to the size I wanted.

Rather than clutter up the topic in sci-fi general with the details of how I'm painting these guys, I decided to start a wip thread. The plan is to paint all the marines in the primaris half of the new warhammer 40000 starter box. So far I know the base colors I'm going with are purple armor, silver trim, blue weapons, green lenses. I haven't decided on squad markings or chapter symbol yet. This is of course not the colors of a canonical chapter, so I'm making it up as I go. I painted two test models just to make sure purple, blue, silver looked ok.