New warband for Jay.

So,

with the full time death of the Necromancer Krosh I needed a new warband. I had some perry miniatures agincourt french infantry knocking about and got to work. Jon used these as proxy for his band in the last AAR but I managed to get them painted up last night.

Whilst not quite as high as my normal standard, I have a ton of poop that needs painting and not much time between now and my next Frostgrave game, so I just banged them out in one night and only when seeing the pictures do I realise I reaaaaly need to touch these up. But that's a week away. Here they are in their current state:

Group Shot.

 Wizard and Apprentice (as yet unnamed).

These guys are made from some bits of the Cultists set and extras from the Agincourt box.

 5 Thugs/ Men at arms.

 2 crossbowmen, Knight and 2 Templars.

The whole red and blue thing makes them look like 'Team Superman' but it's two colours I have not done in a while so I indulged myself. 

The plan so far is to use these as my new summoner warband. Whilst I currently have no Demon or imp models I think starting out I will utilize the two Templars as 'Demonic Hellknights' until I source some demons. 

For anyone interested, the Perry models have some excellent parts and bodies for Frostgrave, and I recommend them highly. 30 models for £20 (iirc) is a good deal. Ample single and two handed weapons with armored and unarmored bodies. However there is no bows. So if archers are your thing then you will need some conversion pieces. I like crossbows. Thunk. Also there are no bare heads so making thieves from these sprues may be a challenge.  

All in all these guys will do, and fingers crossed they will last longer than Krosh's crew! 

Many thanks for looking,

Jay.

Jon's first game AAR.

Hi all,

Finally roped Jon into a game, using some of my models as proxy's for his Witch warband. Rather than the usual format of explaining every detail of the game I have been advised to keep it short and succinct. Anyways, I was using Krosh's warband level 9.8 (nearly 10) against Jon's as yet unnamed witch man gang, Lvl 0. We rolled Well of Sorrows for scenario, which I think is a great starter scenario.

Set up:

Using my new roads from dave's wargaming on ebay (brilliant roads, vinyl, double sided.) and the Deepcut mat we set up a small town is thing with the large rock in the middle being the 'well'.

Krosh set up far left, totally forgetting about the objective, with Brun centre and soldiers right. Jon set up wizard central, Apprentice left and soldiers right.

Out of game spells, Krosh forgot to roll for create grimiore and familiar, my bad. But did get a zombie. Jon got a potion and his animal compainion: Boris the bullet dodging bear (denoted by the big red pocker chip base.

On that not Jon's entire gang is pretty much perry miniatures agincourt French infantry with 2p bases lol. Great models.

 Sorry about the wedding pics in the background...

 Krosh deployment. 

Turn one: 

With Jon getting initiative he takes his heavy hitting crew of himself, Boris, a knight and zombie down the middle towards the well and a treasure. He casts fog right in front of Brun who has all the missile troops with him. (Fog represented by....paper).

 I can see you....

 Oh....never mind. Tonight Matthew, I'm going to be.....

(If you get that jibe, you are as old as me).

In response, Krosh takes his knight, templar and thug off left to secure a treasure, sneaking a Bone dart at Boris that fails to wound. 

 Bullet dodging bear.

The apprentice witch pushes up and activates both his crossbowmen, one of which kills an archer who was skylining himself. A thug heads direct for a treasure token. Brun catches teh apprentice in the open and hits him with a bone dart, killing him instantly. 

 See that pointy hat in the distance....'thunk'.

 Advance.

 Apprentice down. 

With no ranged soldiers lef,t all the rest just amble towards either treasure or enemies.

 End of play turn 1.

Turn 2: 

Jon gets initiative again and runs his wizard forward to drink from the well, whilst Boris charges and kills a thug that over extended in the fog and his zombie grabs a treasure, knight follows the bear of doom. 

 Witch drinks.

 Thug down!

Krosh has a thug grab a treasure, moves his heavies into the ruins to contest one of Jon's treasures. SPotting the zombie carrying treasure Krosh empowers a Bone dart for 3hp to hit him, but fails to wound...ARM 12...

 That back shield works...

 Advance and grab.

With no witch apprentice, Brun activates and fails to wound with bone dart.

Soldiers: A bit more ambling around, Krosh's thief grabs a treasure but generates 2 wolves that appear...right on Brun's arse (Brun didn't move from deployment so these wolves, represented by angry cultist/ ex employees, so WILL be in range of them). Another thug charges one of Jon's treasure carriers but bounces off, pushed away. One of Jon's thugs reaches Krosh. The zombie attempts to hit the boris but is pushed away in the fog.

 Yoink!

 Bugger....

 Thug pushed back off wall after charge. 

 Wizard engaged. 

Creature phase: as expected both wolves jump Brun, One gets pushed back whilst the other fails to wound. 

Kill the wolves!

Turn 3:

Jon once again gets initiative, Spying the thief legging it with treasure, The witch annihilates him with a grenade spell, leaving the treasure on the deck.  Krosh is caught up in melee with a thug but cannot shake him despite a support from a friendly thug, taking some damage. 

 I have the treasure!

 BOOM!

 Just DIE!

Brun kills off a wolf, Great apprentice turn.

Soldiers have a bit more play, with Krosh's remaining crossbowman knocking 11hp off of the witch wizard. Melee on the left flank is broken into lots of smaller fights Jon's thug does a stellar job, bringing both Krosh's heavy hitters to wounded states before dying. Krosh's remaining thug on the right tries to charge the wounded wizard, but the treasure carrier forces combat, blocking hi, and in doing so dies for his efforts. Taking a blade for his master. Said thug is smashed by crossbow bolts shortly after his victory.  Jon's Knight finishes the zombie in the fog whilst Boris flanks Krosh in melee. Brun kills the last wolf in the creature phase. 

 Wizard hit for 11!

 Heroic sacrifice.

 Revenge!

 Knight kills zombie. 

 Last stand of a thug. 

 Fetch Boris.

Turn 4: (not much left on the table so shorter paragraphs )

A little too late Krosh gets initiative and manages to kill the thug that has held him up for two turns. The witch master runs behind a building due to his low health. Brun moves up and cowers behind the crossbowman as the fog fades.  Said crossbowman fires point blank at the charging knight but fails to wound, the knight on the other hand does not fail to wound and wrecks the crossbowman for his impudence. But the main event was Boris the bear eating Krosh in combat, literally. 

 How can you miss?

 Krosh is bear scoff!

 The knight does not miss.

The remainder of the game:

With not much left going on, Boris chases my templar and eats him too, with Jon's crossbowmen taking out Krosh's knight and remaining thug, one thug escapes with a treasure from the slaughter. Witch master fails to cast leap on a friendly and takes himself to 1hp!! Meanwhile the rampaging knight takes Brun out of action. In the last turn, The witch cheekily casts fog for Exp sake lol, risking his last HP!  

 Fetch.

 needs moar thunk. 

 Another notch on the hammer.

 Nom!

 For Fog's sake.

Sole survivor.

End of game:

Casualties: 

Krosh died.....proper dead...eaten by a bear....called Boris. As he was 20xp lower than level 10...Warband disbanded. So I didn't roll any stuff.

I hope you enjoyed the short lived adventures of Krosh and Brun. 

However, for a first game Jon came off really good, wizard drank from the well, got a kill and 4 treasures. Plus 3 casts netted him 310xp which he used to bring down animal companion and fog, and increased his health by 1. 

4 treasures were 150 gold, 3 scrolls, a grimiore of plague of insects and a staff of casting Familiar. 

He sold most of it and netted 550 gold in his first game!

In summary, I lost the warband, Krosh was sitting on 800 gold so my advice would be SPEND GOLD. I was too focussed on grimiores and transcendence, but should have upgraded guys to men at arms etc, just to avoid some of the 'one shot kills' that were so prevalent in this game.  We have taken crits out but a modified roll of 22 still hurts on an arm 10 guy with 10 hp. 

I am looking forward to my new summoner warband.

We are also using Krosh as the Lich for the campaign, and Brun's efforts to resurrect his master. 

We have not seen the last of Krosh. 

Back with a bang! Thaw of the Lich AAR.

Hi all,

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. 

 Soldiers:

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.

 Soldiers:

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.