Frostgrave: Angry Monks and Scarecrows

Got this parcel from West Wind Productions in the mail while being sound asleep today:

Four packs of Vampire Wars Brotherhood, for my Thaumaturge Frostgrave warband (and Chaos in Carpathia), and two different packs of Killer Scarecrows, to use as constructs in Frostgrave (and probably also Chaos in Carpathia, and other horror themed settings, such as Strange Aeons).

Another Skeleton Horde, Part 2

Well, yesterday's disappointment with Frostgrave at least spurred me on to turn my attention elsewhere, and, behold, there was my second Skeleton Horde sitting on my pain(t) station, awaiting further treatment!

I started out giving all the models a wash of Devlan Mud (which will soon be running dry), to make the previously painted skellies blend in with the recently primed ones.

Had to leave them to dry for a bit, before I could move on to glueing sand on the bases of all the 'new' models.

They will have to sit in the sandboxes until tomorrow afternoon, when I get up from sleeping after a night watch.

Finally, I painted the bases of the 'old' models with Warzone Trench Brown, and I shall do the same with the rest tomorrow, if I do not get up too late for anythng but a quick run and cooking dinner for my family.

My stock of these ancient GW models is running low, now, and I am in the market for more, as I shall need several more Skeleton Hordes to flesh(?) out a proper battle line.

Well, hopefully someone out there is skipping their old undead army because of Warhammer Age of Sigmar, and I shall be able to snatch up some reinforcements!

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.

Frostgrave: The Crusaders - Part 3

I assembled my 'knight' - which is going to be painted up as a Templar Serjeant - and had second thoughts about the 'templar' model, for which I decide to use an uncowled head instead.

This negates the need for using putty, and I wonder if the cowled heads are, in fact, meant to go with the plain cloaks/capes of the Fireforge Templar Infantry set...

Well, if my angry monks do not show up tomorrow, I shall be taking filler to the bases of these (after trimming some intergral bases a bit),

After noon, Ulolkish is bringing a mock-up warband to play my mock-up Necromancer warband in our first test game, so stay tuned for a game report and some afterthoughts one of the next days!

Frostgrave: The Crusaders - Part 2

I have been doing stuff outside today, as the temperatures rose over 17 degrees Celsius, and no rain was in sight (rare occasion this summer), but I found time to put the last piece (the head) on a Fireforge Templar, dig out my old Citadel 'not Friar Tuck', and rebase him on a steel washer.

Templar, Man-at-Arms, and Apothecary for my upcoming Thaumaturge warband.

The Templar needs some putty-work around the hood (and trimming of the integral base), but otherwise I am quite pleased with this collection of henchmen.

Funny detail: The merry Friar was originally (20 years ago?) intended as an Apothecary for my Blood Bowl team 'The Oakhill Rangers', but never got painted before the Blood Bowl craze at out local club in Svendborg waned, but I remembered him, and now could get him out and back on his career track.

Next up is a Fireforge Templar sarjeant, that I am going to use for the 'Knight' soldier archetype. I expect to do most of the work on him tomorrow, and then I expect the West Wind Brotherhood minis to arrive in a couple of days, so I can probably get these ready for primer in the meantime.

Frostgrave: Table Mock-Up.

Here is a quick test set-up of most of my fantasy ruins:

 As you can see, I actually did not use everything, and Ulolkish's pieces have not been touched.

Between us, I think we can easily cover a 4x4 table, especially when I/we get some snow pieces done to use as 'open ground breakers'.

Ziterdes Ruins!

The Ziterdes order un-boxed:

Two of the pieces are for Ulolkish/Duregar, which is why there is two of each.

Later I shall unpack my ruins and mock up a preliminary Frostgrave board, to see if I now have sufficient scenery to break up LoS for those shooters and combat wizards out there.

I think so, but I probably am going to want to populate a 4x4 table at some point, as I have some ideas for allowing bigger warbands and experience/advancement for soldiers.