Frostgrave - A Cold Fish?

Well, instead of a game report, I am just going to state that I am somewhat disappointed by the way the game plays.

First of all, the d20 vs the multiple Health points is a feature that at first glance promises some durability for your models, but in reality the models could just as easily have 1-3 'wounds', and the winner of the combat inflict 1 point of damage, 2 for a critical hit. Would be simpler, and less random.

The large 'outcome range' presented by a d20, combined with the variable roll to succeed (have to beat your opponent's roll + modifiers), means that you can roll over average, and still loose a model to a single attack (actually, even if you loose the opposed roll by only one point, your model may still die horribly, as it is only the winner's combat roll vs your armour that decides how much damage you take, your combat roll does not influence the damage).

On top of this, you pay exorbitantly much for models wearing any kind of protection - while armour is at the same time rather ineffective (leather armour gives +1 to a base value of 10, mail a mere +2).

A game in which the rulebook itself states that the game is best played in campaign mode, and is about building your warband while advancing your wizard, I find it a tad annoying that warband members gets taken out this easily, as they then have a 20% chance of outright dying.

I did play the game with a warband based on the models I had at hand, so I had not optimized anything, but neither had my opponent.

We did not play further than the first wizard phase in turn 2 in this test game, as it became quite clear that if I pressed on to secure some treasure, my warband would most likely just get wiped out, and there was no point in that, as neither of us is going to use the same warband again, anyway.

I am still going to make my 'crusader' warband, but I am going to alter the composition somewhat, going for more firepower and less armoured might. Then if in my next game I or my opponent gets totally wiped, I'll probably just leave it there - I don't play very often, and thus I want to play games where the outcome depends on skill, rather than some lucky/unlucky rolls with a d20.