Epic Encounters: Savannah of the Gnoll Review – Hyenas for everyone
Steamforged GamesTabletop RPGs involve the theater of the mind, with games like Dungeons & Dragons 5e or Pathfinder 2e that can be played with paper, pencil, dice, and your imagination. Sets like Epic Encounters: Savannah of the Gnoll are all about enhancing that experience, taking it out of your mind and onto the table.
To this end, companies like Steamforged create premium minis for RPG fans to use in their games. In the case of Epic Encounters: Savannah of the Gnoll it involves the hyena people that debuted in Dungeons & Dragons. This set features a wide range of Gnoll figures and some extra material to help you use them in your games.
With a high price point attached to these minis, we checked out the Epic Encounters: Savannah of the Gnoll set to see whether they truly enhance a TTRPG campaign with their presence on the battlefield.
Key Details
- Publisher – Steamforged Games
- Price – £59.99
- Release Date – Available now
- Supported Systems – Dungeons & Dragons 5e
A deadly batch of quality
Steamforged GamesThe highlight of the Epic Encounters: Savannah of the Gnoll set is the eighteen minis. These include:
- 4 Gnoll Ferals (who are crouching and unarmed.)
- 4 Gnoll Seekers (wielding spears/javelins about to be thrown.)
- 4 Gnoll Ravers (wielding spiked glaives.)
- 2 Gnoll Striga (winged creatures with tribalistic spears.)
- 3 Gnoll Hyena (animalistic creatures on all fours with six bonelike protrusions coming from their backs)
- 1 Gnoll Fang (a massive, imposing humanoid holding a barbed axe and eating meat off the bone, with two spears strapped to its back.)
As with most Steamforged products, the minis in the Epic Encounters: Savannah of the Gnoll set are of absolutely incredible quality. From the packed muscles, clawed toes, bony wings, sharp weapons, flowing hair, and razor-sharp teeth, bringing your campaign to life with these creatures is easy. While they come unpainted, they still cut an impressive figure regardless.
The comparatively high price point for the set might raise some alarms, but bear in mind that one of the best things about this set is its versatility. If, for example, you bought one massive dragon figure, then there are only so many things that can be represented in a TTRPG, that is, unless the party is fighting giant lizards every week.
These figures could easily act as Lycanthropes, Ratfolk/Skaven, Barbarians, Bugbears, Hobgoblins, or Mongrelfolk. The Gnoll Hyenas can act as Worgs or most Dire animals, the Gnoll Striga make for great winged enemies (like demons/devils), while the Gnoll Fang is pretty much any large humanoid enemy, like an Ogre, Troll, or even a Golem.
The range of creature types also means DMs can make a small group of visually distinct enemies, making it easier to keep track of their hit points when looking over a screen. In this example, they can act as pretty much any regular-sized creature in the game.
While the additional adventure booklet is geared towards D&D 5e, these minis can work perfectly in a variety of fantasy or sci-fi RPGs, especially as they’re the perfect fit for standard battle maps.
Bringing the Savannah Gnolls to life
Steamforged GamesIt’s not just about the minis with this Epic Encounters set, as it comes with a booklet that features lore, stats, and multi-level combat encounters for the figures.
The lore section is brief, mostly because the whole set is intended for use in a variety of campaigns and is not necessarily restricted to those owned by Wizards of the Coast.
What’s more interesting is the adventure hooks that appear in the booklet, which better establish the reason for the Gnolls’ presence in the campaign. Were they originally pets that grew into hideous beasts over time? Are they here to awaken an ancient evil from its tomb? Has the party been called to defend an imperiled settlement from the ravenous hunger of these invaders? These do far better to establish the Gnolls as a threat than the lore.
The set has two combat encounters, each using a different side of the map (detailed below.) The Savannah adventure involves tackling Gnolls in the wilderness, where they can use the environment to their advantage. In contrast, The Standing Stone adventure involves the Gnolls’ leader using the magic from an ancient landmark.
Running both encounters back to back involves some lengthy and exciting combat encounters (if run as written). If you factor in adventure hooks, resting, and resolution, you could easily get a packed session out of the set with minimal prep work on the part of the DM. The encounters in the set are customizable in a way that makes them extremely useful to a DM in multiple circumstances, as it’s simple to tailor to your campaign in terms of both story and combat.
These two encounters are intended to be run one after the other (the Savannah into the Standing Stone), but either works independently. They’re both well-written in terms of their mechanics, as they’re designed to be handled in multiple ways, so it’s not just a case of rushing in and killing the enemy. You can use environmental effects to help players who carefully prepare and punish those who rush in, offering multiple ways for the encounters to play out.
The Gnolls all have stats, with variable modifications that you can use to make them weaker or stronger, depending on the group’s level. These involve adding/removing Actions and tinkering with their stats, which offers a good baseline for balancing them in a fight. Ultimately, enemies are only as strong as the tactics the DM employs, but the option of changing their strength is welcome.
The balancing rules are incredibly useful for scaling for higher-level groups, so the set doesn’t become redundant for parties that are level 10 or above. Characters of that level will still have a much easier time, thanks to the extra options that magic provides them, so you might want to tailor the adventure further to give the Gnolls a sighting chance.
The Savannah needs brightening
Steamforged GamesThe map that comes with the set is the weak point. While it works perfectly with the minis and adventures, it doesn’t have the utility of buying a dedicated battle map, as the high-quality ones are laminated, allowing DMs to write on them and draw structures.
The other parts of the box set are great because they can be repurposed for different things, but this is trickier with the map, as it’s covered with natural environments that won’t always fit with what the DM is doing at the time. If nothing else, it serves as a functional grid for battles.
On the plus side, the map is double-sided, featuring a small wooded area with an oasis and a rocky area, so there’s at least some variety to what you can use. The oasis map is the superior of the two, mostly because the rocky side has dark patches, so it can be hard to see the grid lines from a table’s length away.
Verdict – 4/5
It’s no secret that premium mini sets can be expensive. DMs will want to ensure that they get a lot of bang for their buck, which they will with the Epic Encounters: Savannah of the Gnoll set. The minis are amazing and can fit in a wide variety of games.
The accompanying adventure will probably only be used once in a major campaign, but it’s excellent for DMs who run one-shots or want something impressive to whip out for new players. It’s also good to keep in your back pocket, in case you cannot prepare an adventure one week and need something quick.
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