Painting Update - Frostgrave, Strange Aeons, Wargods

I'm at the shore for the week, so let's take a look at everything I've managed to paint since the last update. 

These miniatures are going to go with the rest of the Frostgrave warband, adding to the variety of different classes that can be hired in the game. Additionally, I could always use these for Open Combat, which I still need to play.

This group of Threshold Agents are from the Strange Aeons starter set, in addition to a kickstarter bonus Priest.

Opposing the Threshold agency are the Lurkers, encompassing all of humanity's worst nightmares. The starter set includes the Cultist Leader and his followers, the Fishman, and the Formless Thing. The Maniac and the Cultist Midget were Kickstarter bonuses, and Kevyn passed along the Shambler, which he received two of accidentally with his Cult of the Black Goat membership. I can probably use it as a Blasphemous Construct.

These objective markers were pretty easy to paint up. The crates and chest come with the starter, while the pumpkins, jack-o'-lantern, and Pickman grave were kickstarter extras.

A pair of Asar warriors will be rounding out the hand weapon unit in my warband.

Wishing Well - Frostgrave AAR

One of the local stores has started a Frostgrave campaign, which Kevyn and I decided to join. Of course, on the day we went, no one else showed up, so after a game of Guild Ball against Alex and his Masons, I played a game of Frostgrave with Kevyn, with our new warbands. 

Since no one else was there, we got the chance to not only use a really cool 4'x4' board made by one of the store's employees, but we also raided the store's terrain cabinets to cover that larger playing area (a normal game of Frostgrave is played on a 3'x3' area).

We decided to play the Well of Dreams and Sorrows scenario, which has regular treasure placement, but any wizard that drinks from the well in the center of the table gains 100 extra experience points - basically, a free level.

Kevyn's warband was lead by a Thaumaturge, and included a Captain from the new Sellswords supplement.

And while I took my original roster, which I think works well, I decided to run an Elementalist instead of a Sigilist. I wanted to see how well Elemental Bolts really worked.

As it turned out, they worked really well, as Logarius the Elementalist took out Corvis the Thaumaturge in the second turn.

However, Logarius traded a large portion of his health to successfully cast the spell, and was felled by an archer's arrow in the same turn. Because of that, neither of us could drink from the well and gain the extra level.

Kevyn's Captain didn't fair well, either, being taken out by my lowly infantryman's halberd. 

My two Thugs carried off two treasure tokens, and my Treasure Hunter killed one of Kevyn's thugs and got his treasure as well. My last treasure token was secured by a crossbowman who kept hold of the treasure as the warband retreated off the table. My thief, however, didn't manage to reach his counterpart in Kevyn's warband before the enemy thief got off the table with a treasure token. Kevyn secured two others.

Of course, just before the game ended, Kevyn's archers (the MVPs of the game, really) turned my apprentice into a pin cushion and killed him.

In the after-game, Logarius lost his staff but survived; his apprentice, however, died. However, the treasure tokens turned out to be 580 gold coins, a Potion of Healing, and a Potion of Teleportation. After establishing his base at one of the many Inns popping up around the frozen city, Logarius had a Kennel built, and then hired a new apprentice, a Knight, and another Thug, bringing the warband up to twelve members - hopefully a numerical advantage against any other warbands that might be encountered in the future.

In addition, Logarius increased his health by 1 and made both Fleet Feet and Elemental Bolt easier to cast by 1.

Painting Update - Frostgrave

I've finally gotten around to painting my warband for Frostgrave. I've been lucky so far, so my roster hasn't changed all that much, which means I've only had a few models to paint. 

All the models are Warhammer figures - if I ever want to expand, I'll probably buy the official stuff. There's no reason not to support a game I enjoy!

First up, we've got Fayrlock the Sigilist, and his apprentice Willem.

Next are the three "professional" soldiers in the warband; Karl (Infantryman), Deryk (Marksman), and Pavel (Knight).

There's the adventurers; Leocantro (Treasure Hunter), Brellyn (Ranger), and Fang (Warhound).

And finally, the lowlifes; Stabbes (Thug), Reg (Thief), and Choppes (Thug).

If you noticed that the warband numbers eleven instead of the usual ten, it's because Fayrlock had a Kennel installed in his base after one of the early games, which allows him to add a Warhound to the group above the normal limit.

I decided to stick with the blank, black bases as an aesthetic choice. Frostgrave's focus on the wizards and its use of d20 dice gives it a very D&D feel, and I wanted my miniatures to look something like the pre-painted miniatures that Wizards of the Coast produces for the RPG. In fact, the Warhound is a repainted Yeth Hound from the Pathfinder miniatures line.

Leveled Out - Frostgrave AAR

I played a few games of Frostgrave last year, but the game didn't gather much traction with the usual crew. Kevyn, however, expressed some interest in playing, and picked up the necessary supplies to play. 

We decided to see how the game worked with a lower level wizard (Kevyn's 1st level Thaumaturge) against a higher level wizard (my 13th level Sigilist). We did use a handicap system, however; Kevyn's wizard and apprentice had a +1 to all their spell casting rolls, one additional treasure to place on the table, and at the end of the game would get experience points equal to 10x the difference in our wizard's levels. 

Kevyn deployed his warband, not realizing that he could get an additional soldier in each spellcaster's activation range.

My own warband set up across the table. We decided, since it was Kevyn's first game, to play a standard game - so six treasure tokens (seven including Kevyn's extra) on the table, and a five turn limit, as we were using the Bad Karma rule amendments.

The Apprentice had half of the warband advance with him - a ranger, thief, thug, and warhound. He successfully cast Fleet Feet on the warhound, increasing its movement to 10".

While my Wizard was backed up by the rest of the group - a treasure hunter, knight, infantryman, marksman, and another thug. The Wizard also successfully cast Awareness, giving my warband a +1 to initiative rolls.

Kevyn's warband started towards the center of the table as well, with his Wizard casting Shield on his Man-at-Arms.

My Wizard threw up a Shield on the Knight, and a scrum began on the left side of the table, as Kevyn's Man-at-Arms and Thug engaged my Knight and Infantryman.

My soldiers were able to grab a momentary advantage as the Infantryman damaged and pushed the Man-at-Arms back. Despite being outnumbered, Kevyn's Thug took out my Infantryman before falling to my Knight.

My Treasure Hunter, meanwhile, grabbed one of the treasure tokens and, using his Ring of Teleportation, quickly made his escape. My two Thugs also did their jobs well and grabbed a treasure token each, scoring me three in total for the game.

Kevyn had the opportunity to get a treasure off the table, but my Warhound took down the soldier carrying it. My thief tried going after the enemy Apprentice, but was stopped by an Infantryman.

Kevyn did manage to get a treasure token off the table. My Wizard and his lined up for a duel.

And two Elemental Bolts later, my Wizard and Apprentice were down and out for the count!

And in the last Soldier phase, Kevyn's Man-at-Arms and my Knight tied on their attack rolls (each scoring 21), and so managed to take each other out at the last moment.

Unfortunately for Kevyn, his casualties saw the death of his Infantryman and Man-at-Arms, both of whom were replaced by Thugs. He did manage to secure a Fate Stone, however.

My own warband saw the Knight get badly wounded, so he'll be out for the next game. I did manage to get some more gold and a variety of scrolls and grimoires, but I spent the levels Fayrlock gained to improve his spells.

Despite the difference in levels, Kevyn enjoyed the game and saw that a high shoot roll for a spell like Elemental Bolt can take out a wizard in one hit, especially if the wizard has taken some hits previously. He expressed his interest in playing some more Frostgrave.

The handicap system we used worked well, and I've decided to add it to my ongoing "rules changes" document.

Between a Rock and a Hard Place - Frostgrave AAR

After some missed days trying to get together, the group gathered for some games of Frostgrave. It was a busy day at the store, with a Warmachine/Hordes Journeyman League beginning, and some D&D: Attack Wing getting played as well. 

As Carl had forgotten his lists, the first game was between Bob, Gary and me. We played the Well of Dreams and Sorrows scenario, where any Wizard who managed to get to the water in the middle of the table and drink from it received 100 exp (essentially a free level). Treasure tokens went down as normal. We deployed in corners on a 4'x3' table. 

Bob's Soothsayer make a quick Teleport to the pool, before eating an Elemental Bolt from Gary's Elementalist and was taken off the table. Bob's apprentice stepped up, however, throwing out Mind Controls left and right. 

I was essentially fighting a two-front battle, with Gary's warband to my left and Bob's to my right. Fair's fair - I had the highest level Wizard and a warband that had seen a few games. 

The game ended with Gary securing three treasures, and Bob and I grabbing two each. Bob decided to start his warband over (he wanted to try some different spells), so Gary and I went through the after-game mechanics detailed over at the Bad Karma blog. 

For the second game, Carl had brought out his own Elementalist, and supplied plenty of terrain from his time playing Mordheim. We supplemented this with a couple pieces of terrain from the store, and then spaced the buildings out a little more to fit the table.

This time we played a straight-up game, with each of us placing three treasure tokens on the table. As before, we deployed in corners.

As we've come to see with our multiplayer games, the game basically broke down into two fights, between Carl and Gary on one side, and Bob and I on the other, with some limited interactions. Carl's gang gave Gary's Warband a trouncing, while Bob managed to sidle up, grab some treasure, and then make it off the table (forcing my own Treasure Hunter to look elsewhere).

Carl made off with three treasure tokens, while Bob, Gary and I had two each.

Bob decided against continuing with the campaign (since he wanted to get in on the Journeyman League), although Gary and Carl expressed their interest in playing more games. However, Gary's also interested in participating in the League, so it may look like Carl and I will be  delving into some Lovecraftian horrors next weekend.

Ruinsgrave - Frostgrave AAR

After putting together I warband, I took a bunch of terrain that had been collecting dust in the basement and headed down to 7th Dimension Games to play some Frostgrave. It's been received with some interest with the others, and Cameron, one of the store employees, was my opponent for the couple games that we played. 

(By the way, we're using the alternate campaign rules from the Bad Karma blog, which can be found here.)

I unfortunately forgot to take pictures of the first game, as I was more focused on checking the rules for potential mistakes. Cameron won the game, however, with a 4-2 victory. His Apprentice used Telekinesis on one of my Treasure tokens before my own warband could reach and, and one of his Thugs ran it off the table. 

Cameron's winning allowed his Witch to set up in a Laboratory, while my Sigilist took up residence in a Library. Luckily, neither of our Warbands suffered any permanent casualties. Since I had won little gold, but found three Scrolls, I just sold all three for a decent profit and bought a Kennel to free up a slot in my Warband. But I would have to wait until after the next game to buy a new soldier. 

For our second game, Cameron switched the terrain around a little, since I had set up the table for the first game. 

My warband consisted of:

Wizard (Sigilist)

Apprentice

Treasure Hunter

Infantryman

Crossbowman

Archer

Thief

x2 Thugs

Warhound

Cameron's warband included:

Wizard (Witch)

Apprentice

Barbarian

Templar

Treasure Hunter

Thief

x4 Thugs

Warhound

On the left side, my Apprentice dueled with Cameron's Witch. My thief grabbed one of the Treasure markers after a failed attempt by the Witch to Telekinesis it closer. For his efforts, my Archer and Crossbowman decided to turn the Witch into a pincushion. 24 inches of range can hurt when the table is only 3 feet wide!

Meanwhile, one of Cameron's Thugs made it off the table with a Treasure, and his Thief approached another. However, that token turned out to be one of the fake markers that my Fools Gold spell had created before the game. 

My Treasure Hunter managed to grab a marker as well, but Cameron's Warhound (who had been pushed away by my Apprentice) and one of his Thugs were getting pretty close.

However, one of the treasures I had won at the end of the previous game had been a Ring of Teleportation, which I had given to the Treasure Hunter. He put the magic item to good use, teleporting 8 inches away and then running off the table with the token. 

Frustrated by the disappearance of my Treasure Hunter and one of the Treasure Markers, the enemy Warhound and Thief tried attacking my Apprentice, who was defended by the two ranged combat specialists. Neither had anything better to do, as Cameron's Witch had thrown up a magical fog bank that blocked their line of sight.

The right side was a reversal of the left - my Wizard against Cameron's Apprentice. A well-aimed Poison Dart spell had crippled my Sigilist, however, severely limiting what he could do. Because of that, another of Cameron's Thugs managed to make it off the table with a Treasure Marker, despite only having a single point of Health left. Instead, the Sigilist used Push on Cameron's spade-wielding Treasure Hunter, who had been knocking off my models at a disturbingly regular rate during both games. 

In a separate combat, Cameron's Templar and Barbarian teamed up on my Warhound, who was soundly bashed off the table. The Barbarian had gotten his revenge from the last game, when the Warhound had defeated the raging warrior.

The game ended when Cameron got the last token off the table, making it a 3-3 tie. I used my new winnings to buy some magic items - a Ring of Power (1) and a Staff of Power (2) for my spellcasters) - and to beef up my Warband. I had lost a Thug and my Warhound in the after-game results, so they were replaced. My Archer and Crossbowman were replaced by a Ranger and Marksman respectively, and I added a Knight for another melee combat beatstick. 

I believe the games went well, especially after we worked out how combat works (it's remarkably simple once you have it down). I'm hoping to get more games in this weekend, preferably with more players and using one of the scenarios in the book instead of the basic one.