Topic: Frostgrave

[Midaski]

Turn 3
The Thaumaturge reacted quicker but failed to cast Glow on Njal, and he retaliated with a Grenade that exploded amidst the enemy Wizard, Archer an Treasure Hunter who miraculously all avoided any shrapnel. The opposition apprentice successfully cast Shield on the second Treasure Hunter, whilst Postle finally came good with Leap, sending a Thuggess complete with treasure towards the safety of their start point.



The enemy apprentice had started on Njal's right flank with a  Treasure Hunter and a hound.



They closed on the thief and Thuggess as they tried to escape with a treasure ...........



...........to no avail as the thief went down under the snapping jaws of the hound, despite the Thuggess valiantly tackling the powerful Treasure Hunter.


Turn 4

Njal attempted Leap and with the spell teetering on success he drew extra power from his own life force to send one of the sisters scooting to safety. He was helpless as the Thaumaturge again called for Glow and again failed. Postle hurled Grenade skilfully at the enemy wizard and his crew but again they went undamaged, and the other apprentice launched Shield only for another failure and personal damage.

Njal allowed himself a wry smile as the two sisters headed back to camp laden with their rewards :

 

Turn 5

Almost like magical harmony the Thaumaturge and Njal sensed that this would be their last exchange before they both retreated, and the Thaumaturge cast Heal to protect his apprentice.
Njal hurled a parting Grenade through the arches under the central building and a hound suffered from the blast.



The rejuvenated apprentice cast Push and thrust his thief safely back to their camp complete with Treasure, and then Postle fired the parting shot with another successful Grenade.

- - - - - - - -

Njal and band returned to their camp in the partly ruined Library, and he checked the state of his soldiers - all were safely returned and healthy for further action.
He pondered on their efforts - 8 successful spells and two treasures, and Njal himself had disposed of the enemy hound. (220 Experience)
He used his new power to give himself (and Postle) some extra Fight and Health, and then examined the treasures to find a Magic Item, Healing Potion and 3 scrolls:
The Belt of Animal Repellant would certainly be useful if he came across this same Thaumaturge and his hounds again - the extra movement speed of the hounds had cost him another treasure when his thief on the right flank was caught.
The scrolls were interesting - Elemental Ball seemed to be like his Grenade spell, but have a longer range, and Will Power might be useful. He also found Bone Dart which he decided to pass to Postle as a reward for his efforts.
However he kept the Healing Potion for himself ........... you can never know when you might need a helping hand or phial to stay alive.

[rufus sparkfire]

Great report, Midaski! It's good to see the shen being used for its proper purpose. That's an excellent level of terrain coverage on that table!

Did you play any more games?

[Midaski]

We did  - there was a second game and I kept better notes - I hope.

However as Bogenhafen seems to be taking all the interest at the moment I thought I'd hold back fro a bit - or it could be I haven't had the time. 


The scenery needs some work - putting polyfilla at the base of pillars or against walls to simulate debris or rubble is all very well but figures on bases looking for cover don't stand up on it 

I also need to go over the painting - the aim is to be able to use the scenery for Frostgrave and Mordheim - so I want a 'winter' feel but not totally iced over. The board squares were all covered in white textured wallpaper - some were painted black, and some were sprayed or painted various shades of grey - I'd like to get a more uniform colour. The buildings with the darker red walls could do with toning down, and the cream walls ones had a quick coat before the weekend - they were foamboard signs from a bed showroom, with balsa wood posts. I'd like to stick a few more struts and planks on them.

I would like to replace the cardstock buildings as well - they look out of place with the more substantial walls on the scratchbuilt stuff, and I have started working on some ruins made from Hirst Arts blocks.



The second game was a scenario - the Well of Dreams and Sorrows.
Totally different game with an open space in the centre of the board - but maybe that can be a discussion after the battle report.

[rufus sparkfire]

I want to see the report on the other game!

The terrain looks good already, so should be great when finished.

putting polyfilla at the base of pillars or against walls to simulate debris or rubble is all very well but figures on bases looking for cover don't stand up on it

Yes, being practical for gaming is more important than looking nice!



I played my second campaign game tonight. I'd replaced my lost archer with a ranger (upgrade!) and added a barbarian (I had an extra warband slot due to my base: an inn called 'The Striving Squid'). So, my warband was:
Illusionist (now with a crossbow as well)
apprentice
ranger
tracker
archer
crossbowman
barbarian
thug
thief
small construct
dog
(and one more thug who had to sit this game out due to injury)

I didn't take any photos, but these are from the shop's facebook page:

Me, playing (on the left, holding the book).


The table I played on. More scenery this time... and a giant worm! The worm has a chance of bursting out of the ground whenever someone picks up a treasure token.


Pregame spells went badly: no scrolls, no revealed secrets, no illusionary soldier, no new constructs. Just a zombie!

Some events:

- his wizard threw a fireball that hit my book construct, zombie and barbarian, taking out the book and the zombie. The barbarian was shot soon after.
- I tried to cast glow several times, but kept failing. I switched to shield, which worked much better. Stupid dice!
- his apprentice ate a crossbow bolt.
- my ranger ambushed his wizard and took him down to one health point. Unfortunately, his archer fired a risky shot into the combat and killed the ranger! The wizard subsequently killed himself by failing to cast a fireball.
- I used transpose to swap his thug (carrying a treasure token) for his knight, which was in combat with two of my models.
- The worm appeared in the middle of the board! I shot it, causing some damage. It charged an enemy knight, who was already fighting my thief and thug.
- I used transpose again to swap my apprentice (carrying a treasure token) for my crossbowman. But, the enemy wizard used a transpose scroll to swap my crossbowman for his knight (the one fighting the worm!).
- I raised a new zombie, and sent it to join the worm fight. After a couple of rounds, the zombie finished off the massive creature. 100 bonus experience!
- the zombie then killed his (injured knight), and my wizard ducked out of hiding to crossbow the remaining enemy archer. Game over!


My opponent's wizard was badly wounded, so would have to pay 100 gold for treatment (no NHS in the barbaric world of Frostgrave). The apprentice had a permanent injury! He had psychological scars from his traumatic experience (-1 to will save).

Bad results for me: my new barbarian and ranger both died. The thief was injured and will miss a game. Everyone else recovered (including my walking book construct! Hurrah). I hired a new ranger, and selected a knight instead of the barbarian. I'm going to use a halfling knight (and also an illusionary halfing knight!).

I recovered three treasure tokens, which translated into two spellbooks, three scrolls, and some gold (Professor Lund continues to be very good at tracking down spell books - she's found seven so far). My wizard gained four levels: I chose to improve her fight stat again, and her health stat. I improved her ability to cast write scroll (I'm hoping it will actually work at some point), and learned bone dart.

[Gankom]

Is it just bad luck when it comes to casting the before games spells, or are they on average harder?

I'm really looking forward to getting the book myself, the game looks great for small skirmish stuff. The campaign logs from you guys here are great.

[FR1DAY]

The Wizard seems to level up quickly which is cool. Also the treasure tokens seem to generate loads to stuff.
Henchmen seem to did a lot though.

[Midaski]

If you kill all the enemy or those that are on the board ( some may have run off ) then you collect all the tokens still left?
I got the impression you finished his band off - so how come you only got 3 tokens?

The interesting thing is what equipment to use. - I notice you chose the hand weapon rather than the staff, and then added the dagger. I've only used a staff so far. It is an attempt to play safe as the -1 damage may keep my spellcasters alive, and I have buffed my wizard a health point too.
I guess you use a split 'F' stat - have you given the same combo to the apprentice?


Also surprised about the crossbow - with only two actions I feel the need to focus on casting spells - did you just fire it the once?
Transpose is good - Matt is convinced it's all about movement, and I agree to a certain extent - Leap and Telekinesis have been my favourites, but I do think you need balance - safety, speed, but damage ability too.

At the moment the variety makes it compelling - and I hope that there is no 'broken' warband, and all sorts of combinations can prove successful.
Indeed it may well be that each school has a chance if it finds suitable balance, I keep reading the book and thinking "What if".

Oh and the other question I haven't seen answered yet is the use of the Apothecary - he starts the game with a healing potion, and you would guess he can use it on comrades probably using the 'touch' ( within 1" ) but it doesn't actually say so anywhere.

[rufus sparkfire]

I did need fairly high numbers for my out of game spells (mostly 12+ on a d20), and they can't be boosted by spending health as you can with in game spells. Even so, I see them as a free bonus, since there's only so many different spells you'd want to cast in a game.

Wizards do level pretty quickly, and you do get a lot from the treasure tokens. Henchmen do most of the work!


My opponent got three treasure tokens off the board earlier in the game (helped by telekinesis, which is very annoying). I ran off with two, and claimed the last one by taking out his remaining models.

I'm using handweapon and dagger for the +1 fight (for both wizard and apprentice). It makes them less likely to lose a fight, and also helps defend against missiles. My wizard now has a fight value of 5, which is higher than any henchman! I plan to boost it one more point, and also obtain a magic sword. I have the shield spell to boost her armour rating.

The crossbow was because she had no offensive spells. For five gold, it gives her a ranged attack for emergencies. I actually used it twice, because there weren't any spells I could usefully cast at that point.

The apothecary issue is fixed in the errata/faq by the game's writer:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0Bwx8Os21jzeXeXo0VHhiUVNHTVE/view?usp=sharing

Apothecaries – If an apothecary is in base contact with a figure, it may use one action to use its healing potion on that figure.

Not sure they're worth using though! I might try one.

[Sig]

Does all that pre-game randomness have the potential to ruin a game before it starts? If all your spells got off, would you just roll your opponent? It's the only thing making me hesitate about this game.

[rufus sparkfire]

The pregame spells wouldn't have made that much difference, really. The best result I could get is 2 scrolls (of spells I already know), an illusionary soldier, a zombie, up to two constructs (but these take warband slots), and 1 treasure marker placed near my deployment zone.

[Sig]

Great! Might pick it up. There's an Aussie stockist charging non-ludicrous prices.

[rufus sparkfire]

It's worth a try, at least! The book is nice for the money, and you can use your existing models (assuming you still have some fantasy stuff).

[Sig]

Yeah, I didn't throw anything away. Still got about 5k of Empire and plenty of undead for zombies and whatnot. I think I'll get the book and if there's something of a scene here I'll get a warband together. Wife will like that it uses models I already have, she's not a fan of me branching out into Infinity.

[Syphon]

Time for my addition to this thread!

This guy comes straight out of the box and off the sprue, except for the shield which is a WH marauder shield.


Lampman had the dashing rogue head added from GW's greatsword kit.


Mister Brutal Axe is also straight out of the box and off the sprue, except for a tiny conversion. I sawed off his hand and put it back slightly angled so the axe is held in front of him as opposed to over his head, ready to strike.


I'm also going to convert my necromancer. In the book there is an amazing piece of artwork featuring a necromancer:


Comparing that to the metal mini I saw that the artwork has longer hair, so I will attempt to sculpt some GS locks on the mini to make him more like the artwork.

[Midaski]

Rufus - Fight is a maximum of +5  Page 56 Improving a Stat paragraph.

You could add to it with a magic weapon for a split stat +5/+7 so your apprentice would stay at +3 unless he gets a magic weapon too.

[GamesPoet]

That necromancer looks like an elf!

I continue to resist the temptation to buy Frostgrave because I have so many other projects I'm working on, yet perhaps one day.

[Finlay]

wayland sent an email roun with frostgrave as the main thing, including suggested alternate models for some of the wizards.

Good opportunity to use cool old models. Defiitely could use my set of witch hunter mercs, (franz and johan?)

[Karl Voss of Averland]

Interesting comparing the strategies of Midaski and Rufus!

You guys should arrange an epic tournament for the next euro bash.

[rufus sparkfire]

Rufus - Fight is a maximum of +5  Page 56 Improving a Stat paragraph.

Yes, but her base fight stat is only 4. It's 5 including the bonus for fighting with a dagger too!

[Finlay]

Interesting comparing the strategies of Midaski and Rufus!

You guys should arrange an epic tournament for the next euro bash.

I'd imagine there will be a Fgrave campaign going.

[Syphon]

Interesting comparing the strategies of Midaski and Rufus!

You guys should arrange an epic tournament for the next euro bash.

I'd imagine there will be a Fgrave campaign going.

That'd be fun. I'll bring my necromancer warband!

[Midaski]

Rufus - Fight is a maximum of +5  Page 56 Improving a Stat paragraph.

Yes, but her base fight stat is only 4. It's 5 including the bonus for fighting with a dagger too!

Ah right - so she has a split stat already. Theoretically you can therefore get to F+8 in a game which is quite powerful, and if the apprentice follows suit he could be +6.

Interesting comparing the strategies of Midaski and Rufus!

Actually Karl as I was sort of suggesting earlier there are so many strategy options - which is what makes it so appealing at the moment.

[StealthKnightSteg]

TabletopMinis now started to do Frostgrave battle reports as well on their youtube channel

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCbIvPoc2bRSXX0LtQyFLqQA

[GamesPoet]

Saw a game of Frostgrave listed on the Fall-In! list of games for this upcoming November.  If a friend of mine wasn't running his game of Light Bobs around the same time, I might give Frostgrave a try.

[rufus sparkfire]

Picture of some of the forthcoming plastic cultists: