apologies for the long break in communications, with easter etc we have all been snowed under with work and family. But we are back! Note Hoops and I did have a game recently but I cannot for the life of me find the notes. Suffice to say Hoops' elementalist hammered out bolts of doom and we got 3 treasures each and not much else.
My birthday was last week and my awesome wife got me a nice deep cut Frostgrave mat!
Having blasted through some scenarios from the original book, we decided to fire up the Lich campaign. Scenario one sees the wizards and co fighting during a solar eclipse, visibility is reduced and gets worse as the sun is covered, only to get better once the moon passes.
James and I had our respective warbands play this out.
Deployment was fairly normal, with treasures fairly central, we did play on 4x4 but deployed 12" on.
My Necro, Krosh, deployed central with his knight and templar whilst apprentice Brun held the right flank with all my missile bods, a group of soldiers held the left. Pre game I managed to get Lazarus the zombie up and create a Grimiore (a spell learned earlier). James had no out of game spells with his Thaumaturge and deployed as a 'blob' on his right flank with his two crossbows and dogs central.
Turn 1: Initiative James.
Wizards:
James won Initiative for turn 1, and with that activated Algannon and piled him forwards with his templar and man at arms in tow, empowering Combat awareness by 5 hp to buff Ser Thrandarr, but it's ok he can heal.
In response, Krosh leads his elite fighters out of the ruined building and tries to Telekinesis a treasure closer but fails.
Apprentices:
Brigitte leads the remaining thugs up behind her master and empowers (3hp) a heal to heal her master for his previous empowerment....
Brun, with his entourage of missile troops and thief, with nothing to see due to the eclipse, move up. Brun empowers (1hp) a Possess his archer giving him +2 fight and armor at the cost of -2 Will.
Soldiers:
James crossbowman advances on a treasure. All other soldiers just advance.
End of turn 1.
Turn 2 Initiative James:
Wizards:
Algannon advances with his usual followers and casts shield on Ser Thrandar, but again has to empower for 3, it's ok he can be healed.
Krosh pushes his fighting line forward and casts bone dart at a crossbowman who is juuuuust in range despite the eclipse but fails to wound.
Apprentices.
Brigitte once again heals her master for his previous empowerment and brings the thugs with her.
Brun, with still nothing in range moves up and fails to cast Wall for the sake of xp.
Nothing too interesting, James crossbowman drops a thug of mine in one shot. Everyone else moves up or grabs stuff, oh and one of James' dogs gets into combat in the centre. One of Krosh's thugs takes on 'operation speed bump' on the temple in a heroic last stand.
Turn 3: Initiative Jay.
With only the treasure carrier nearby to group activate, and the crossbowmen now covered by the eclipse, Krosh sends him rearward with the loot and casts possess on his knight.
Algannon and co pounce as one on the lone thug making his last stand. Last into the fight is Ser Thrandar who is now a monster: his fight is +4 with +2 for a support attack, +2 for Combat awareness and +2 for a magic sword giving him fight + 10....This ends predictably for the thug. Algannon was cheeky enough to cast Blinding light on him but he resisted, but no avail.
Ouch!
Apprentices:
Now in range Brun's 'fireteam' open up!! Well... Brun fails to cast bone dart, takes 1hp, the possessed archer misses a dog, but the crossbowman drops said dog.
With her master not actually needing a heal this turn, Brigitte does not know what to do with herself...So she heals herself to cover her previous empower, but fails by 5. Cleverly James decides to empower by 5 (causing 5 damage) to successfully cast heal, gaining the 5 hp lost to empower. Why you ask? To get the xp for a successful cast of course!
Soldiers: not much here again, most treasure bearers made for the board edge, one treasure generating an imp (the unpainted french soldier) on James board edge. Krosh's Knight kills the last doggy.
Down boy.
Turn 4 initiative James:
From this point on things get a bit messier so I will try and keep it simple, also in the excitement a few pics may have been missed :) we will switch to video soon.
Wizards:
With the heroic thug out of the way, Algannon orders his warriors forwards over the ruins, getting a thug in contact with the possessed knight. He moves up himself and casts Blinding light on the knight reducing his prodigious fight to 0!! Note: The knight would have resisted easily were he not suffering the -2 Will from possession!
Algannon however leaves himself exposed and takes a bone dart to the chest from Krosh for 7 damage, but it is ok, he can be healed. The possessed Knight swings for the thug but fails to hurt him. Whilst the thug flanks right towards a treasure in the archway. At this point Ser Thrandar with his +200000 fight was looking very scary so the plan was to grab and run, leaving a few speed bumps in the way to slow the juggernaut.
Apprentices:
Brigitte......Heals Algannon for 5.
Brun tries to put a wall up for Ser Thrandar to go around but fails, whilst his archer puts down a man at arms.
Most treasure bearers run for the hills, only one treasure is currently not being lifted. Krosh's Templar doubles back to help his Knight in combat, worried about that 0 fight stat.
Turn 5: TOTAL DARKNESS (all ranges reduced to 10") initiative Jay.
Wizards:
Taking a note from Brun, Krosh tries to erect a wall between himself and Ser Deathmachine but fails to cast, in a group activation his templar and knight fail to kill a lone thug but push him back. Elite fighters indeed.
With no obstacles in place, Algannon and Ser Thrandar pile in on the melee their lone thug has held down. Ser T killing his evil counterpart in a single blow.
Apprentices.
Brun, now seeing a wall is futile opens up on the exposed Algannon but fails to wound with bone dart, his archer misses (again) and the crossbow scores a solid hit for 10 hp on Algannon leaving him wounded.
Never fear Algannon Brigitte is here! And again he is healed.
Soldiers:
All other soldier moves are fairly trivial with most moving away with treasures! James' huntsmaster does however grab the last treasure and make a beeline for the right flank, generating a snow leopard on my board edge, about 6 inches from my lone zombie that has been SLOOOOWLY carrying a treasure towards that very spot.... In the creature phase, said leopard (played by a dog) charges the zombie but fails to wound and the imp almost reaches the running crossbowman.
between push backs and casualties the warbands are separated.
Doh...
Turn 6: initiative James.
Wizards: The separation between the two warbands gives ALgannon the space to move his team to swarm Krosh, resulting in Algannon killing Krosh himself in a very risky move!
Wizard down!
With no wizard, Brigitte heals Al back up to full health again.
Brun, witnessing the fall of his master Casts bone dart empowering by 1 to hurt Brigitte but not kill her. Archers bot miss.
Soldiers:
The remaining thug for Krosh's band chases the Huntsmaster but fails to wound him.
Algannon's thug swings for the possessed knight and despite heavily outnumbering, gets killed for his efforts. The knight in turn hits Al for 10 damage.
The crossbowman kills off the imp, allowing him to leave the board with the treasure, whilst the zombie just cannot hit the snow leopard.
The knight holds!
end of turn melee.
Turn 7: initiative Jay:
With no wizard, Algannon and Ser big balls swing for the Possessed knight but somehow FAIL to wound him!!
Apprentices:
Brun takes his archer around the right flank, killing the fleeing huntsmaster with a Bone dart and arrow combo.
Brigitte once again spams heal on Algannon. Taking him to 10hp.
Soldiers.Still outnumbered The possessed Knight swings for Algannon, and against all odds takes him out of the game!
Meanwhile Brun's crossbowman takes out Brigitte with a roll of 20. All that empowering cost her.
The last thug grabs the last treasure token.
In the creature phase the snow leopard kills my zombie, dropping the treasure...raging.
Wizard and apprentice die (wiz already removed).
Nooooo!
Turn 8: Initiative Jay.
No wizards. Brun sees the only remaining Thau ganger, Ser deathmachine and acknowledges this is still a very dangerous foe, but this foe deserves a fight! Despite his buffs, Ser Thrandar falls under the combined attack of Brun and the Knight!
Just Die!!
End Game Summary:
What a game. Once again this shows the fickleness of the d20 systems. James well played the game tactically and it was luck that won me the game (which is a relative term in this game). Ser Thrandar was at at least +8 fight at all times but still lost on rolls to guys with +2 etc. There doesn't seem to be much in the way of tactics and synergy in Frostgrave, combat essentially comes down to a flip of a coin. ANyone who slates thaumaturge is mental. If you add up the heals that went on, These guys should have been dead 5 times over ha ha. The great thing is, that they can heavily empower spells increasing the amount of successful casts per game, raking in exp.
This was the first time a wizard killed a wizard too! In the end I got 3 treasures, James 2.
Casualties:
Krosh: Everyone OK!!
Algannon: Brigitte died! as did Ser Thrandar, losing his magic sword. Oh and a thug died.
Exp:
Krosh: a Measly 130 xp for a few casts and being alive at turn 5 (scenario xp)
Algannon: A whoppingt 450(!!) xp for a wizard kill, LOTS of (empowered) casts and being alive at 5.
Loot:
Krosh: 150g grimiores of embed enchantment and enchant weapon (what a combo).
James sold some old items and used his loot to replace his apprentice, thug and templar. He upped 4 of Algannons stats too.
Krosh is now sitting on a stack of cash (800gc) and is wondering if to buy some better guys or pile in towards transcendence and get a grimiore of his school.
All and all a brutal game. If anyone was interested the mat is made by Deep Cut and is gorgeous, this is the vinyl one and I recommend it highly!.
Jay.
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