Skirmish Saturday Part One: Frostgrave

On Saturday evenings this fall I am hosting a Skirmish Game Night on Saturday evenings. The Family and I sort of started last week with a game of Frostgrave, but this week OTHER people showed up as well! Other Tim, Dave, Patrick, And Rick came out to play with us!

As I don’t yet have enough ruined city terrain to set up TWO tables for Frostgrave  - and I also wanted to playtest the A Song of Blades and Heroes scenario I’m planning to run at ToonCon in a couple weeks – I set up one table for Frostgrave and another for Song of Blades and Heroes. As the Family had already played the scenario on Sunday and Other Tim was stoked to play some more Frostgrave and/or not so keen to try Song of Blades and Heroes they went off to play Frostgrave, while I ran the others through building SoBH warbands and ran the ToonCon scenario for them….

As I was running a different game in another room I wasn’t really following what was going on and only got a few pictures…

SCENARIO

This week the gang changed things up a bit. In addition to the regular standard game scenario wandering monsters were rolled for – except instead of the rules presented in the book, no one rolled to see IF a monster showed up, a monster was randomly generated EVERY creature phase! Only the Level 1 encounter table was used, however, as they were just trying it out and didn’t want anything too overwhelming.

FORCES

The Boy returned to Felstad with his Lizardman Warband under the command of Sillitha Speaker of the Serpant (the Witch) and her apprentice Skenth. Since the last game they had established themselves in an old ruined inn. The witch had hired a second Barbarian, a knight, and a thug. Upon successfully summoning an Ice Toad, the Thug was given his walking papers.

The Girl played with her Necromancer Thesira Eloudrana and her apprentice Aminira. Since the last game she dismissed the Theif and hired an Apothecary and a War Dog.

Amanda’s Elf Thaumatuge was back with pretty much the exact same gang she had in the last game.

Other Tim played with his mix of Orcs, Goblins and Koblods – now FULLY PAINTED! I have no idea what he’s down with it…? The boy seems to be under the impression that he’s established himself in a tower somewhere amidst the ruins…

THE GAME

As mentioned before I really wasn’t paying attention to what was going on in the other room and only took a few pictures – mostly at the beginning of the game. The description of what went down came to me second hand from the kids and the description below has little to do with what’s going on in the pictures…

(Remember: click on the pictures for a bigger version)

The Boy’s Witch set up opposite Other Tim’s Summoner and The Girl’s Necromancer set up opposite Amanda’s Thaumaturge…

The Boy managed to get two of the treasures set up close to his deployment zone – the third was whisked away by The Girl’s Apprentice using Telekinesis.

During the battle The Boy lost a Thief, and Infantryman, Lizard-at-Arms, BOTH Barbarians, the Ice Toad, and both the Apprentice and Wizard! Some were taken out by other Wizards warbands, some were taken out by wandering monsters. The Apprentice was taken out by a Bone Dart from the Necromancer’s Apprentice. The Witch took down FIVE enemy solider before she was finally taken down by a pack of wandering rats! One of the Barbarians was surrounded by some of the Necromancers’s minions and taken down, The Ice Toad took a few of them down though! The other Barbarian was finished off with an arrow from on of the Elf Archers. The Theif was shot by an archer of some sort from Other Tim’s Summoner’s warband. The Infantryman was killed by Imps.

Everyone apparently quickly got a two or three treasures off fairly early in the game – most of the action was over one last remaining treasure close to the center of the battleground.

The girl only lost a single Thug and her War Dog during the game and managed to sneak away with three treasures! She actually came into the other room and watched most of the game I was running because she’s gotten away with her treasures and left the others to fight over that last one. Despite her losses, she did manage to get four treasures!

Amanda lost her Apprentice, Ranger, THREE Archers, and her Treasure hunter – at the end of the game the only ones standing were the Wizard, two Thugs and an Archer. All her losses were to other warbands (Other Tim and the Boys)

POST GAME

The Boy only collected up two treasures in the game. Of those taken out of action in the game The Theif, Infantryman and one of the Barbarians will miss a game due to their injuries. The Ice Toad, other Barbarian, Lizard-at-Arms and Wizards fully recovered. The Apprentice will either miss a game or have to pay 100 gold to return. Among the treasure he collected 50 gold, a Grimoire of Control Animal, and three Scrolls (Circle of Protection, Control Animal, and Animal Companion). The Witch got a total of 360 experience (60 for spells, 100 for treasure and 200 for taking stuff out!) bringing the witch to a total of 680 esperience points and level six! He’s considering letting the withc learn Control Animal… if he uses this warband again… he’s thinking of going back to the Necromancer…

The Girl’s new War Dog died of its wounds, but the Thug fully recovered. Among the treasures she collected 120 gold, a Magic Two-Handed Weapon (+1 damage), a Banner of Courage, and a Grimoire of Mind Control. She gained 200 experience (150 from Treasure, 50 from spells)

One of Amanda’s Archers actually died and the Treasure Hunter will miss a game due to her injuries – every one else quickly recovered. Among the treasure she collected 400 gold (!), 3 Scrolls (Animate Construct, Explosive Rune, and Plague of Insects), a Grimoire of Time Store (which Amanda has declared “useless”), and a +2 Damage Magic Crossbow! She gained 340 experience (200 from treasure, 100 from casting spells(!), and 40 for banishing a Demon the Other Tim had summoned!) bringing her to 6th Level! 

No one seems to know what Other Tim ended up with other than “a LOT of gold”… I seem to recall hearing he’d lost a guy with a magic weapon… but had enough to buy him back… and also FOUND another identical magic item!

Amanda spent a few hours this afternoon reading up on all the magic items she’d acquired and figuring out what sort of base of operations to set up in and whom to give what to and which new members she would hire, how to improve her wizard with her level-ups… She must be really getting into the game, because, while she likes playing games with us, she usually just defers to me to decide what to add to warbands or gets me to explain what things do. I'm not sure she's ever looked at a rulebook for any other skirmish game in the past!?

She’s decided to set up shop in an old Inn, bought herself a Kennel. The Archer is beign replaced by a Marksman (who gets the Magic Crossbow) and then hired another Marksman… guess I’m going to have to see if I have any Dark Elves with crossbows – as I’m pretty sure I don’t have any regular elves with Crossbows!

Coming soon on Tim’s Miniature Wargaming Blog:

The Game Report for the Song of Blades and Heroes game I was running last night  - at the same time this battle was raging!