Frostgrave: Assorted Figures

 Introduction

It's been a strange year (and a bit).  We've not been able to go out much because of the various lock downs and so haven't really played any games.  However, this has left a lot of time for painting.

I've been powering through a number of projects and individual figures, but I just realised that many of my recent completions are models for Frostgrave.  It makes sense to document them all together, so here we go.

Last of the old GW Wizards

When I started looking for miniatures with which to play Frostgrave (back in 2015!), I remembered that I had a decade-old collection of Games Workshop plastic wizards.  I re-based and finished painting seven of them (here: http://colgar6.blogspot.com/2015/11/frostgrave-wizards.html), but at the time I couldn't find the 8th model in the set - the Dark Elf sorceress.

Well, she finally came to light and so I've re-based this model for the frozen city.  Considering how long ago I actually painted this figure, I think it's help up well.  Mind you, I can't help thinking that her choice of clothing is not optimal for an icy wasteland.  Maybe the cold never bothered her anyway?

The Old Wolf

This is another old (ancient!) Games Workshop model.  It's one of the figures I prepared for Frostgrave some 5 or 6 years ago, but the snow effect on its base had aged very badly.  Oddly, most of the models I have prepared at that time or since are just fine, but this and maybe one other were yellowing visibly.

I painted over the discoloured parts of the base with white, then used a mixture of white paint and glue to stick down some "realistic" model snow (instead of the bicarbonate of soda I had used previously).  Because of the over-coverage to hide all trace of the yellowing, this is now the snowiest base in my collection!

Medium Constructs

For some time, I have been searching for medium constructs for Frostgrave.  There are plenty of large models of mechanical men, golems and the like and I have a selection of these from various manufactures already (see here and here).  However, I wanted some man-sized items as well.

I was delighted when I came across this set of "Magical Automata" from Midlam Miniatures.  These figures are available individually and I don't really need four, but I just love them!

Painting the grain in the wood was not much fun, but I think it has worked better than I had hoped.  Mind you, the models have no texture on these "wooden" parts and so they could be painted differently (as iron, ceramic or anything else you can imagine).

Cultists

As part of a recent "NickStarter" campaign from North Star, I received a bonus sprue of official Frostgrave cultists.  It seemed appropriate to build them (note that I've only made 4 of the 5 models on the sprue), though there's nothing particularly different or unique to distinguish them from anybody else's cultists.

I've finished the cultists with a brown theme.  This helps to identify them as a coherent group and also separates them from my other Frostgrave figures, none of whom are predominantly brown.

The Wandering Mage

Here's another North Star "freebie", recently finished.  She's a somewhat generic wizard or apprentice, though I imagine that the figure could also be used as a thief, healer or pretty much anything else that isn't combat-oriented.

Mind you, now that I look at the model again I remember I had intended to paint the robe with classic wizard's stars and moons to identify her as a wizard - but I forgot.  Hmm, is the figure truly finished?  Should I go back and add the intended detail?  I'm not sure.

Gnolls

Another part of the recent "NickStarter" was a sprue of Gnolls (hyena men).  Again, these seemed useful for Frostgrave and so I've completed all five figures.  This time they're painted in a dark grey or black theme, though there are splashes of other colours from their mismatched assortment of clothing and equipment.  Gnolls should be very useful as wandering monsters, or even as hirelings for the less scrupulous wizards.

Conclusion

That's all for now!  I think this pretty much cleans out my stash of unpainted models for Frostgrave, though no doubt I'll find a few more if I look properly through my storage.  And there's always the possibility that I might buy further models in the future...

Frostgrave: A Diet of Worms!

Introduction

Once again, we had 4 players for a game of Frostgrave.  Steve and his boy came round last Saturday and we ventured into the frozen city once more.  We also played a game of Pulp Alley - more on that another time (i.e. "listen again next week for another exciting installment of...The Adventures of Tarzan, Man of the Jungle!")

Anyway, Frostgrave...

The Worm Hunts

One of the scenarios in the base Frostgrave rulebook is called "The Worm Hunts".  It's basically an excuse to get a giant worm model on the table, though (like many Frostgrave monsters, I think) this isn't quite as terrifying a prospect as it might be.

We were playing with 4 warbands rather than the 2 for which the scenario is designed, so we decided that there would be twice as many treasures as in the basic description - and twice as many worms as well!  Since I only have 1 giant worm model, the second worm would only appear after the first one was slain, if indeed that happened!

The Warbands

Mysterio the Soothsayer

My own warband is led by Mysterio, with assistance from Little Annie.  I'm mostly using my recently-finished "blue" set of Frostgrave miniatures for this group, though Crom (the huge barbarian) and Edric (the halberdier) are from Black Tree Design.  Watch out for Quirrel, the crossbowman.  None of us had used crossbows before, so nobody knew what to expect from him!

Peltar the Goblin

Peltar's group is run by Steve; the warband consists of large numbers of archers and thugs.  They rarely seem to do anything with just one goblin, preferring safety in numbers (or "ganging up", if you prefer).   Oh, they have a pet wolf as well...

Some of the models are mine, but Steve is making progress with his own goblins and wanted to use them for most of the followers.

Baryn the Timeless

Baryn is a chronomancer, run by Steve's son (AH).  His band are a fairly motley and diverse crew; they've recently hired a goblin treasure hunter to replace some previous loss.  He also raised a zombie (not shown here) - just for practice, I think!

The massed archers, the bearskin-wearing barbarian and the yellow knight are worth watching out for during the game.

Ellie's Elementalists

In our last game, my son's wizard ("Malcolm Firestorm") was slain.  Rather than create a new warband, AD chose to promote his apprentice "Ellie" to full wizard status, albeit at somewhat lower rank than the rest of us.  She duly hired an apprentice of her own, who bore a striking resemblance to the deceased wizard.  I wonder if she passed on some of the old master's clothing and effects?  Other than that, her band was somewhat smaller than everyone else's due to a lack of money.

The Game

In the first turn, all the players rushed for the nearest treasure markers and grabbed them.  This was hardly surprising, but it did give a big bonus to the die roll which would determine if a worm appeared.  One such monster duly burst through the frozen soil, just in front of Peltar's goblin warband.  Well, I wasn't too unhappy about that, I can tell you: let it wreak havoc with someone else's followers, not mine!

To counter this, Peltar ordered his wolf to attack the monster.  The faithful mutt did as it was instructed and charged at the worm, snapping and growling.  However, the pet was promptly swallowed (whole!) .  Oh, dear...

Baryn's archers took several long range shots at the worm and wounded it, but didn't manage to kill the beast [hmm, I think I would have just left it for the goblins to deal with, myself!  Maybe AH thought he could kill the beast and claim the experience himself, though].

The coup de grace was administered by Peltar's apprentice with a well-executed grenade spell.  An extravagantly lucky combat roll meant that the enchanted missile didn't just kill the worm, it blew it to pieces!  I hope everyone nearby kept their mouth and eyes closed!

In a small, long range grudge match in the south, Ellie's archers shot at Mysterio's crossbowman.  They all missed, but he didn't...

There were plenty more treasures to be collected, so over the next turn or two all the bands advanced.  Although there were a few squabbles around the edges, for the most part this was surprisingly peaceful.  I guess that no-one wanted to be the first one to stir up any serious trouble!

Baryn and his apprentice had been steadily casting his signature Fast Move spell on all his followers, thus allowing his barbarian to run for the treasure near the felled worm.  2 of Peltar's thugs tried to double-team him, but the unnaturally quick barbarian barely broke a sweat as he carved first one goblin and then the other into little chunks!

Mysterio clashed with the goblins over one of the chests in the forest.  He cast Combat Awareness on Crom the Barbarian and ordered him forward to retrieve the treasure.  When the goblins interfered (and slew the archer standing beside Mysterio), the soothsayer retaliated with several very successful Blinding Light spells.  This put Peltar himself out of the game; all he could do was stagger around and hope not to bump into anything for the rest of the scenario.

Ah, but even more goblins, led by their apprentice, were coming to their boss's aid...

Further off, Little Annie was also successful in blinding an opponent.  Ellie had planned to attack the presumptuous apprentice and assist her bowman, but was distracted by a wandering bear.  Indeed, it took several turns for her to finish off the annoying creature.

However, when Little Annie ran forward to claim her prize, the blinded bowman managed to stumble into her.  Annoyed, she tried to fight him off but was knocked out when he lashed out at the nearby movement [Aargh!  After setting everything up so nicely, to be cheated by fate at the last moment is cruel!]

Back in the centre, another worm erupted in full view of most of the parties.  Once more, Baryn's archers plinked away at it and inflicted some injuries.  Once more, they failed to kill the beast.  Instead, the 100XP for that feat went to Ellie's apprentice, who manoeuvred himself to a position where he could see the creature and then unleashed a ridiculously overpowered Elemental Bolt at it.  Once again, the target was blown to smithereens and everyone close to ground zero was showered in gobbets of worm goo!

Baryn seemed to take this all rather personally.  He charged towards Ellie's apprentice and started batting at him rather ineffectually with his staff.  It didn't take long before some of his followers noticed the fight and came running on Fleet Feet to help their boss.  The red apprentice disappeared beneath a scrum of muscular archers and wasn't seen again.

In the north, the remaining goblins were interrupted from their posturings towards Mysterio by the appearance of a wandering armoured skeleton.  In typical goblin fashion, they rushed it as a mob rather than risk individual combat.  The undead knight couldn't handle the massed attack; it was quickly reduced to small fragments of bone.

Elsewhere, Ellie's last 2 soldiers played "king of the hill" with Baryn's knight.  Even though the yellow knight was outnumbered 2:1, he slew first the enemy knight and then the other soldier.  Obviously, Baryn's followers had eaten a proper breakfast before taking the field, even if the wizard himself was a bit feeble!

In the dying moments of the game, just as we reached our self-imposed turn limit, most of the remaining warbands started to disengage.  The goblins in the north gathered around their still-blinded leader to escort him from the field, whilst most of the other warbands had already left (or were knocked out!).

The exception to this was a much more aggressive than usual Baryn.  His archers strode forward and took shots at Ellie and at Mysterio's barbarian (who was diligently hauling away the chest that he had won off the goblins earlier).  Even though the range was long and the shooters had moved, both targets were felled.  A bit petty, I think - but then I would say that, wouldn't I; it cost me a treasure!

Conclusion

I think that everyone was happy with the result of this game.  All the bands got away with at least some treasure and those who got less often made up for it by scoring more experience points for other things.  When the recovery rolls were made, none of the major characters (and not many of the followers) died.

In addition, each of the wizards was quite successful with their spell-casting:

• Baryn gave pretty much all of his followers Fleet Feet; he also used Fog to cover himself from attack by fireballs.
• Peltar and his apprentice are proving to be dangerously effective with Grenade.
• Ellie's sidekick got off a very telling Elemental Bolt (and as importantly, didn't suffer a long string of backfires - unlike previous games!)
• Mysterio & Little Annie had a very good run of Blinding Light spells, as well as realising how useful Combat Awareness can be.  Mind you, every time that Little Annie attempts to Leap, she fails and ends up face-planting!

One last thought: adapting 2-player scenarios for 4 sides is difficult!  Any neutral resources (treasures, monsters, specific terrain) need to be scaled up in some fashion, else the scenario will be unbalanced and not offer the experience that the author intended.  Hmm, perhaps we really should have had 2 worms appear at the same time?

Frostgrave: Death in the Snow

Introduction

My posts have been very slow and infrequent recently; it's been really hard to muster any enthusiasm for this lark.  Still, I'm hoping that this spell will pass soon and service will be restored to something approaching what I hoped for when I first set up this blog.

As a token of my renewed efforts, here's a description of the latest game in our Frostgrave series.  I'm finding that these games always break up into many small, disconnected incidents; I don't know whether this is always the way that Frostgrave plays out or whether it's the way we're doing it with 4 players.  Anyway, this report will be more like a series of vignettes rather than a coherent description of all the action.

Death in the Snow

The game started normally enough, with warbands advancing from all 4 table edges.  This time, the ruins contained 6 impassive statues, none of which showed the slightest wear or aging.  Very strange...

Clockwise, from the top:

• The Great and Magnificent Peltar.  This is a goblin warband led by a self-proclaimed Enchanter. Peltar has a considerable lack of success when attempting to cast spells, though his seemingly endless mob of archers and warriors are rightly feared.
• Malcolm Firestorm, the Elementalist.  Malcolm has a tendency to stride forwards, flinging dangerous fireballs at anything he can see which looks even remotely hostile.  Also, he has a slightly worrying fascination with demons.  These 2 behaviours make him considerably disliked!
• Mysterio the Soothsayer.  Mysterio likes to think of himself as in touch with the inner secrets of the universe, though in reality he is no more knowledgeable than any other wizard.  He's hiding an injury in this game, having been badly hurt in his last outing.
• Baryn the Timeless:  This chronomancer has appeared indecisive and timid in previous games.  Strangely, this has often led to him being the last man standing after all other warbands have fought each other to a standstill.  His occasional habit of using his own magic to assist other groups means that he is regarded as nobody's enemy.

And .... ACTION!

First blood: one of Mysterio's men accidentally activated the statue that was right beside Peltar's goblins.  The goblins shot at the construct and damaged it considerably, but it was finished off by an arrow from one of Baryn's archers (and consequently Baryn claimed the victory points for the "kill").  This pattern was repeated several times throughout the game; the goblins would hurt a statue, only to see it felled by someone else at the last moment.

Mysterio retired early from the game after catching one of Firestorm's more potent bolts of energy.  He was reduced to 1 hit point and decided that helping his thug to carry a treasure to safety was the most useful contribution he could make.

The first wandering monsters of the game: a pack of giant rats started to stalk Firestorm's apprentice, Ellie.  He was having none of that and swiftly incinerated the desperate rodents.  At least this gave the other players a respite from him for 1 turn.

Meanwhile, Firestorm's summoned demon was used as a porter to carry away some treasure, much to the relief of everyone else.

Mysterio's depleted followers were scattered and picking up treasure when Firestorm's crew started to move towards them en masse.  This was distinctly worrying, but Baryn decided to interfere by casting a Wall of Fog between the 2 parties.  At least it would prevent missiles and spells until one side or the other moved through the unnatural weather!

Meanwhile, Baryn's barbarian destroyed another animated statue.  Huh, they're not so tough...

Then, it happened.  Malcolm Firestorm moved forwards after exterminating the rat pack.  Carelessly (or maybe deliberately and somewhat arrogantly), he ignored Peltar's goblin horde to the north.  They weren't going to waste the opportunity, though: their archers filled him full of arrows and down the wizard went!

By this time (we were playing a 9 turn limit for the game), most of the easier treasures had been carried away.  However, Mysterio's band were still trying to retrieve a couple of slightly more remote chests and satchels.  His unengaged soldiers formed a screen to ward off Firestorm's larger band.  The latter attacked piecemeal, through the fog and an almighty melee ensued!

Both sides fed in whatever reinforcements they could scrape together and it seemed briefly as if Mysterio's men would hold off their assailants.  However, there were just too many of Firestorm's attackers and finally one of Mysterio's treasure carriers was mugged.  It didn't help that Baryn's archer kept firing indiscriminately into the melee, on the grounds that anything he hit was good!

In the dying turn of the game (heh, no pun intended), the last few survivors jostled for possession of the loose treasure.  Here's how it went, in order:

• Firestorm went first.  His archer picked the leather bag from the body of its former owner.
• Baryn's barbarian was second.  He came racing in on Fleet Feet (remember that Baryn is a chronomancer; this spell is becoming something of a signature for him) and pulverised the archer.  The treasure rolled loose, as the barbarian didn't have enough actions left to collect it.
• Finally, Mysterio went (and never have I been so pleased to lose an initiative roll!)  In the very last action of the game, my remaining soldier stepped forward and claimed the treasure from under the noses of all the other parties.

With that, the forecast snowstorm started in earnest and within mere moments none of the protagonists could see anything beyond a few feet away.  It was all they could do to stumble and feel their way back to their respective camps, towers, hotels or other bases.

Conclusion

So, who won?  I'm not really sure and it probably doesn't really matter.  All sides had various casualties amongst their followers and I won't try to enumerate these (can't remember anyway).  However, one thing is for certain: there was one big time loser!

• Peltar: 3 (?) treasures, no major injuries, still can't cast spells for toffee.  Some experience points for destroying statues and taking out an enemy wizard.
• Firestorm: 1 treasure.  In addition, when we rolled for recovery (the wizard had been taken out, remember?), he was dead.  Permanently.  R.I.P.  There were tears, I can tell you.
  Since the wizard was 11th level, it will be possible for his apprentice to take over and start out as a fully-fledged 1st level wizard in her own right.  Whether it's worth doing this hasn't yet been decided.
• Mysterio: 4 treasures, though pretty much all of this was due to his heroic soldiers rather than the rather feeble efforts at magic from the wizard and his apprentice.
• Baryn: 3 treasures plus several "kills" on the animated statues.  Also he's becoming quite the dab hand at the Fleet Feet spell.  By the end of the game, most of his warband were moving at an unnaturally accelerated pace!

Final thought: to start with, everyone was very wary of the statues.  However, after the first one had been activated and promptly destroyed, there was a distinct sense that this was an easy way of claiming experience points!  Thereafter, none of the statues lasted very long after becoming animated; I don't recall that any of them did any damage either!

Batrep: Playing for keeps!

Introduction

Last time, I described how I had scratch-built some magic portals.  These are needed for the Frostgrave scenario "The Keep".  Just before New Year, we had a chance to play this game with 4 players.  So, did the portals make a difference?  Read on to find out...

The Wizards

"Mysterio the Soothsayer" (me).  Even with some new hires, this band is smaller than I'd really like.

"Baryn the Timeless" (Chronomancer, AH).  A newcomer relying heavily on soldiers with big, chopping weapons

"The Great and Magnificent Peltar" (Enchanter, Steve).  An all-goblin warband with 4 thugs and 4 archers.

"Malcolm Firestorm" (Elementalist, AD).  The highest level (5?) wizard with the best equipped group.

So, we had 2 newcomers in this game (SteveH and his son, AH); I was scraping the barrel a bit to fill out their warbands, hence the various shapes and styles of the figure bases.

Setup

The heavily-ruined keep contains 4 portals.  These are all that remain of the building's magical transport system, but they have degraded with age and lack of maintenance.  If anyone stands on a portal then they'll be sent to one of the 4 portals at random.  A wizard who does this (once) will earn a modest number of experience points.

The Game

The game started predictably (if somewhat boringly) enough, with Firestorm's crew advancing and throwing bolts of magical energy at everything they could see.  Initially this was very successful, with both Ellie (the apprentice) and Firestorm himself scoring long-range kills on enemy soldiers.

Soon, all squads were advancing rapidly and trying to collect the treasures that were near them and contest those which were slightly further off.  A couple of notable incidents were:

• Ellie, Firestorm's apprentice, tried to summon a demon.  In the past, this squad has dismayed and terrified opponents by successful magic in this area, so the rest of us breathed a collective sigh of relief when the spell failed.  However, A. then revealed that one of his soldiers had a "demon in a bottle" potion; this was deployed immediately and the resulting demon charged straight into the line of goblin archers.
• A wandering owlbear appeared after someone picked up a treasure somewhere.  It came onto the table near Peltar's group and immediately attacked Nemo, his apprentice.

Things weren't all going Firestorm's way, though.  One of the goblin spellcasters (I forget whether it was the wizard or the apprentice) threw a handy grenade spell over the ruins into his apprentice's squad.  Most of the soldiers were saved by their armour, but Ellie, the apprentice, was knocked out.

Not only that, but the goblin archers recovered from their surprise over having a demon attack them from behind.  With a shout of "Get it, lads!", they all piled into the monster and pulled it down, though not before taking some wounds in the process.

Meanwhile, some of Peltar's halberdiers rushed in to help their beleaguered apprentice.  However, despite wounding the owlbear grievously, the enraged creature proceeded to chew through the humans after another.  This probably wan't helped by one of Mysterio's archers firing multiple arrows into the melee on the basis that anything he hit here was good!

Peltar, fed up with having his soldiers smoked by Firestorm's bolts, cast a Wall of Fog between the 2 parties to block line of sight.  As he did this, a new threat appeared behind Firestorm's party: a pair of ancient zombie warriors appeared close to the larger squad.

Those of Firestorm's second squad who had survived the Grenade spell now attacked Baryn's goblins.  The fighting here was intense and bloody as the goblins fought tooth and nail, but they were steadily cut down, apart from one desperate goblin who fought 3 humans to a standstill all on his own.

On all sides, some stout soldiers were dragging away chests and sacks of treasure, just to be on the safe side.

Incredibly, the shambling, fragile zombies laid out 3 of Firestorm's best soldiers before the wizard himself returned and incinerated one with mystical energy.  However, the elementalist was now badly hurt himself, reduced to 1 hit by a combination of miscasts, cutting himself to power spells and the odd arrow.

In the north, the last of Firestorm's warriors fought the last of the goblin soldiers.  In the interests of fair play (!), Mysterio cast a Blinding Light on the nearby goblin apprentice; all he could do was stagger about, disoriented, until the knight finished him off too.

After finishing off Peltar's apprentice and his bodyguards, the badly hurt owlbear staggered on.  It encountered one of Mysterio's soldiers in the rubble and charged at him angrily.  The fresh soldier hit the poor creature a hefty blow and killed it before it had a chance to strike him.

Eventually, one of the wizards stepped experimentally onto one of the magic portals.  I was beginning to think that this would never happen!

• Mysterio was transported instantly to another location, though sadly this was nowhere near any action.
• Firestorm, badly hurt, decided that discretion was the better part of valour and slunk off.
• The goblin wizard, Baryn the Timeless, slew Firestorm's knight and then also decided to leg it with his last minion and some treasure.

Finally, all that was left on the table was Peltar, Mysterio and a couple of their bowmen; everyone else had fled, had left the table carrying treasure or was dead.

The 2 wizards advanced on each other, whilst their 2 archers exchanged futile arrows.  Their leaders flung magic at each other: Peltar's Steal Health struck home, but Mysterio's Blinding Light was resisted.

Despite his initial success, Peltar was afraid that the more experienced Mysterio would soon conjure up some more potent spell.  Rather than risk this, he strode forwards and smote the soothsayer an almighty blow with his staff.  Mysterio fell like a log and lay on the ground, unmoving.

At this, Mysterio's last archer turned and fled.  He was too smart to think that he could win when outnumbered 2 to 1!

Final Results

• 4 treasures to Peltar.
• 4 treasures to Mysterio.  Wizard badly hurt; must pay 100 gold or miss the next game.
• 2 treasures to Firestorm.
• 2 treasures to Baryn.

For the most part, casualties survived and recovered; there were relatively few dead.

Conclusion

This was an exciting game with some interesting use of magic.  Having said that, the previously-established wizards were notable for trying pretty much the same tactics as before.

I was disappointed at the various players' timidity in trying out the magic portals, but maybe this wasn't surprising.  After all, with 3 hostile bands, the odds of landing in the middle of a group of enemies was quite high!

Wandering monsters were infrequent, but performed well beyond expectations!  The owlbear (using the stats for a regular bear) and the pair of zombies between them accounted for 5 soldiers and an apprentice.  More to the point, they completely changed the outlook for the bands that they attacked.

Finally, beware goblins in numbers.  They may look weak and timid, but if they can swarm you then they'll tear you apart!