Frostgrave with the Family Again

After skipping a week, we finally got in a second game in the new Frostgrave campaign I’ve been playing with my family.

SCENARIO

Again we didn’t pick a specific scenario – as I just didn’t get around to getting anything prepared…

FORCES

I used the same force as Last Game - with zero changes – all the casualties I’d suffered survived and I had it in mind to save up my gold for… something… I can’t remember what? A grimoire of some sort… So the only difference was that my wizard (and by extension, her apprentice) was slightly better at fighting, Mind Control, and Combat Awareness. Oh, and they’ve occupied an old Tower giving them a better chance of spotting an extra treasure.

The Boy also used the same wizard and warband – despite having considered “trying something different”/ They’ve occupied a Laboratory and replaced their Theif and Thug with a Barbarian named Bykuf and a Lizard-at-Arms called Martyth.

The Girl also kept her mousling wizard and warband from last game and they occupied an old inn and hired themselves a Treasure Hunter named Ritty Snaptail.

Amanda decided to try something new. She rolled out with a Summoner named Simpson (Simpson the Summoner…? Okay, whatever) and his apprentice Samuel. They hired themselves a Templar named Regina, a Knight named Reginald, and five Halfling thugs; Rory, Roxy, Rick (“Not Richard!”), Ron and Richard (“Not Rick!”).

(After she introduced them I was left wondering what the name of that Dead Milkmen album was… dang it, what was it!? It was something like that… Took me ten minutes to remember “Not Richard, but Dick” - the one with “The Woman Who Was Also a Mongoose”… totally distracted me and threw me off my game… I bet she did it on purpose…)

THE GAME

Before the game got underway my apprentice successfully cast Reveal Secret – giving me an extra treasure to place, and my wizard used one of the Raise Zombie scrolls he got in the last game… meh… extra treasure carrier… what else am I going to do with them – and I have TWO!? He was quickly nicknamed Barry.

Amanda Summoned herself a Snow Leopard animal companion… Not a demon.

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

Setting up – with the new Ruined Tower terrain.

I’d meant to try a new system of wandering monsters – to make the environment itself more hazardous and give us something to fight other than each other (as we tend to be not terribly competitive or aggressive players…). This would, when playing a standard treasure grab scenario (or any scenario that doesn’t have it’s own organic monsters), seeding the table with monsters to start with – and having a higher likelihood of wandering monsters appearing on the table during the monster turn and a slightly modified A.I. for the monsters… But I forgot to seed the table… and hadn’t really sorted out HOW I was going to have extra wandering monsters (I have now – expect to see it in the NEXT game!).

Jonquil, Lars, his brother Darragh and his other brother Darragh hiding out in a ruined building, checking that the coast is clear before rushing out to grab some treasures they’ve spotted.

Alvareda the Soothsayer along with her thieves (Jenny, Alfonso, and Cerebus the Aardvark) and Barry the Zombie Skulk down a chilly dark alley in search of treasures…

Wil and Spike set up in another ruined building, ready to grab the extra treasure our soothsaying uncovered.

Once again to my right flank Rumpy Silkskins the Mouseling Chronomancer was lurking about – making holes in walls and sneaking about…

Across the table was the newcomer – Simpson the Summoner and his ragtag band of ne’er-do-wells.

To my left silently slithered the Lizard Witch: Bloopblupblop… wait… lizards? Aren’t they cold-blooded?! These ones must be warm-blooded like their distant Dinosaur and avaian relatives, because there was nothing slow about them in this frozen wintery hellhole…

Turn One – Alfonso makes a grab for some treasure spotted just lying about in the street. Unfortunately Rumpy Silkskins lit him up with a Glow spell and then the mouselings filled him full of arrows…

Jenny also made a grab for some gold. Despite later being suppoered by the Darraghs, she too was taken out of the first turn – with an explosive cocktail hurled at the three of them by the Lizard Witch’s Apprentice: Sithana.

End of the First Turn – Walls and Fog, a Giant Boar racing towards the Summoner Warband.

Lizards grabbing treasures.

Lizards beating on Darragh and Darragh

This looks frightfully similar… must have been the end of Turn Two – just before the monster phase when that Boar would have charged Regina the Templar.

More of the Lizards sneaking off with treasure and beating down on the Darraghs…

What you can just barely make out in the background is Ritty Snaptail, the new mouseling Treasure Hunter, relieving the wounded Alfonso of his treasure – Alvareda then successfully cast Mind Control on the Mousling and had it carry that treasure towards her home base. It briefly shook the Mind Control but she then cast it again rolling a 19 – and FURTHER empowered – sacrificing 5 health, bleeding out her nose and ears - it to a 24 so there would be NO WAY that mouse would break the spell…

This is my new tactic. I had been trying to lower the casting cost on Mind Control, but have since realized that’s folly. With a resisted spell you need a high roll anyway – if you want it to stay in effect. So I won’t be improving that spell… I’m just going to work on improving my HEAL spell so I can empower the crap out of Mind Control and then follow it up with a does of self-healing…

Bird’s Eye (or perhaps Wizard’s Eye) view from the top of the ruined tower. No one’s tried to make their way up the rubble to claim the treasure in the tower. The Summoner’s warband looks like it’s doing well for itself, hauling away at least three treasures so far…

Rumpy Silkskins the Mouseling Chronomancer attacked by “Giant Rats”… that are smaller than the mouse… whatever… The first rat got a lucky roll and did some serious damage to the Mousling Magician! Luckily the second one that joined in the feast wasn’t so vicious.

I need to make better Wall spell effects... 

Regina and one of the Thugs taking on the Giant Boar.

BOING! Simpson the Summoner Leaped one of this Thugs up into the tower to claim the Treasure!

There he is, brave little flying Halfling Thug all the way up in that tower… How will he ever get down!? Oh wait… he’ll just leap again!

Son of the Earth Pig has a slippery Lizard Witch in his sights…

Snow Leopard trying to eat some mice.

Actually the big cat was taken out by one of those mice at some point in the game... 

Cerebus the Earth-Pig-Born, fights off the Lizard Barbarian and tries to take down the witch…. He wasn’t so successful… actually entering the combat he was already wounded – I just moved him in there because The Boy would have to waste an action fighting him…

The nasty scrap between Alvareda the Soothsayer and the Lizard Witch. Alvareda took over the mind of one of the lizards carrying a treasure in a last-ditch effort to claim one more. The other lizards just beat it down and dragged off the treasure themselves.

Nearing the end – this ghoul snuck on and attacked Sithana, the Lizard Witches apprentice and knocked her out cold with his big nasty rock…  

The last fight before we called it a night – a wolf attacks the Lizard witch…

POST GAME

I did not have a great night – Except for Wil - EVERY ONE of my other soldiers ended the game as casualties! The only treasures I got were the one Wil hauled off, the one the Mouseling Treasure Hunter hauled off for me, and the one the Barry the Zombie hauled off… Luckily most of them got of with mild bruises and bumps and minor concussions… Other Brother Darragh wasn’t so lucky… The wounds he sustained at the hands of the lizards turned out to be fatal – Lard and his brother Darragh flew into a rage and swore REVENGE! Though they couldn’t really remember which lizard took him out… (they all look the same, those damned lizards) so they are determined to simply wipe them all out! Cerebus the Aardvark was more seriously wounded than the others and would have to miss a game.

Among the Treasures the Soothsayers collected were a Staff of Power (3) – which will help a bit with empowering those Mind Control spells!! And a Ring of Slow Fall and another Staff of Power (1). I’m pretty sure I’m going to sell the second (less powerful) staff of power, but I’m not sure about the Ring of Slow Fall… there isn’t THAT much tall terrain, where it would be useful… I suppose if anyone ever DID manage to climb up into that Ruined Tower to claim a treasure, they could use the ring to just leap out the window to get down… There was also 140 gold…

Alvareda and Jonquil cast TWELVE spells successfully this game! A lot of them required empowering and subsequent successful healing spells. With that, and the three treasures, she gained 270 experience – bringing her to 590… dang just 10xp shy of three level-ups. I’ll be increasing her fighting and improving Combat Awareness… next time I’ll improve Healing…

The Boy’s warband only suffered two casualties this time around – though one was the apprentice. Both walked their injuries off and will be back in action next game! His wizard gained 390 experience points (20 for the laboratory, 50 for spells, 200 for treasure, and 12 for taking out an apprentice – Amanda’s – and Cerebus). Among the treasure he claimed was 310 gold, scrolls of Telekinesis, Control Construct, and Illusionary Soldier, and Grimoires of Illusionary Soldier, Raise Zombie, and Fog (which he sold for ANOTHER 250 gold!)

The Girl only suffered on casualty – her giant dog – who turned out to have just run away yelping and was totally fine. Her wizard gained 170 experience (70 for spells, 100 for treasure). Despite only carrying away two treasures, among them she found 320 gold(!) and Grimoires of Elemental Ball and Slow. I think she spent her level-up learning that Slow spell…

Amanda didn’t do so well… She suffered three casualties; Samuel the apprentice, Rory the Thug and the Snow Leopard. Samuel and Rory died. Like DEAD, dead. I think at that point she might have decided she’ll be starting with yet ANOTHER new wizard next time… I don’t think she had her heart in the summoner… I mean, what kind of summoner doesn’t actually summon anything other than a wall and an animal companion!? Just in case we did figure out she got 260 experience (60 from spells and 200 from treasure) and amont that treasure she found 190 gold, a Fate Stone, two potions of Healing, a Grimoire of Posess, and a Magic Staff of +2 damage (which is effectively a staff of +1 damage, as staves are normally -1 damage…). We figured if she sold one of the potions of healing she’d have enough money to hire a new apprentice and thug… which would put her slightly ahead of starting a whole new warband from scratch… We shall see…

Well I am almost finished painting all my green soldiers – like the soldiers for the Golden Wizard’s Warband, I picked up a (nearly identical) lot to paint up in “team colours” for the Green Wizards… so Lars and Darragh might be getting some fancy new duds and some of the others might be upgraded to something else… Perhaps Alfonso will become another Archer… or I’ll just hire another Archer and fire Alfonso’s ass… I have been tempted to hire a Captain… but I’m not quite sure they’re worth it… They cost as much as the other “premium” soldier, but none of their stats are really as good. They DO have the Tricks of the Trade – I’m not sure they look good enough to make them ‘worth it’… they do gain some experience, but what they get it will take a long time for them to actually get any better – and their ability to raise stats is very limited… if they could EVENTUALLY get some of their stats up to where the other better soldiers are I might be more tempted. I might just get one to give it a try. I’m not sure which figure I’d use though.

Coming soon on Tim’s Miniature Wargaming Blog:

I have a PILE of figures just needing a finish coat and some base details – they’ll be up in the next day or two. I’d like to get in another game of Frostgrave with the kids this week, perhaps I’ll have a report of that – and I’d still really like to get in a game of En Garde! at some point and have another go at Lion Rampant or Dragon Rampant… There’ll also be some terrain-making going on this week as we enter the last two weeks before the 12^th Annual Wargaming Birthday Bash/winter Wargaming Weekend – which will be featuring a Frostgrave Camapaign!