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)
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!
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