Frostgrave Campaign Game 4 - The Orb

 After a four-month hiatus, David, Ziggy and I got together for the next installment of our Frostgrave series. I selected the scenario "The Orb" mainly because I had short notice and it doesn't require special terrain. I spent my previously-earned gold on upgrading my Thug to a Barbarian - a premium close-combat specialist. David spent a ton of gold he'd been camping on hiring three Rangers turning his group into a ranged-combat nightmare.

My deployment corner.

The Orb and Imps

David's group (near in the woods) and Ziggy's in the far corner.

Turn one was the usual slow rollout.  A Frost Wraith wandering monster did appear near my group right off the bat.

Not to mention two imps headed my direction and a blasted Fire Panther (or Snow Leopard) wandered in a turn later.

Imps are pretty weak so I felt confident charging into one of them with my Apprentice, Sweet Dee. I rolled a 1. Ziggy, rolling for the imp, rolled a 20, a crit. Dee out. Damn.

I did make an agreement with David to let me break the Orb, worth 25 XP, if I agreed not to prevent him from taking the treasure. My barbarian and and infantryman ran up to the Orb and smashed it! David and I had been on each other's case since the get-go, so this was a nice temporary reprieve, mid-game.

Miao Yin, my bard, handled the imps pretty easily, allowing my thief and another infantryman (Meat Cheetah and Sand Panther) who were lugging treasures easy passage to the exit.

So what happens? Of course a wandering monster zombie appears right there! Blast.

My wizard, Billy Thorpe, quickly summoned a floating skull to keep the zombie occupied. It worked really well and the zombie was pinned and pushed away!

David's sneaky wizard teleported in to grab the middle treasure, the teleported out a turn later. What a snake.

The outing was a success for my group, the Children of the Sun. We earned 200 gold and found a magic Sword that grants +2 Will. I earned 270 XP total, worth three level-ups. I upped FIGHT by +1 and improved both Raise Zombie and Heal to make them easier to cast. I also fired the reliable thief and replaced her with a more competent Treasure Hunter. The Treasure Hunter was given the new magic sword. Although my Apprentice and Javelineer were knocked out during the game, both made full recoveries. As always, looking forward to the next outing!

Frostgrave Campaign Game 3

 David, Ziggy and I got together on Saturday for the third game in our Frostgrave campaign. For this outing we played a relatively straightforward scenario - The Well of Dreams and Sorrows. We did place seven loot markers rather than five which keeps it to where everyone should get at least two treasures and we really fight over that third mystery box.

My group, Billy Thorpe's Children of the Sun are in the lower left corner, again surrounded by Ziggy forward and David to my right. Three games and that's three times I've been the monkey in the middle. It sucks. ;)  We did deploy in corners for a change instead of along edges.

We went heavy on the wandering monsters this time, with two arriving on turn 1 and one more every turn for the duration. We rolled a Large Construct and a Snow Troll right off the bat and they went after my crew and Zig's. At least they're slow!

Of course Z ended up with a giant spider in his back-court a turn later and things got weird for his crew. Yes, the troll is bright green and had googly-eyes. 

So, David rushed loot markers with his Wizard via Teleportation and a Thief went after another. Ziggy and I took a more traditional slow march to the treasures, mostly keeping our groups clumped up. We also had strong monsters pressuring us which forced us to press forward. We also wanted the XP for having our magic users drink from the well. David sort of ignored that. I marked loot locations on the image above. The blue one became quite the focus for Z and D, being the coveted #3.

The Tiki Monster (large construct) bears down on Sweet Dee while my apprentice. My Thief grabs a loot marker.

Ziggy and I have a temporary cessation of belligerence while we get our experience points from the well with our wizards and apprentices. In the upper right you can see a wall that's been thrown up by David's gang to shield his guys from Zig's.

There's ol' bug eyes and the spider! 

David goes with another wall to completely block off Zig's group. Frustrating for sure but hilarious for a third party in my position!

I threw a Wizard Eye on a distant wall overwatching the well, daring David to drink from it. The eye also had LOS to the hot corner where D & Z were fighting over that last loot marker.

Ziggy's Wizard casts Plane Walk to get through the walls. Now in the hot zone, he pops off a Destructive Sphere spell, seriously wounding three of David's characters including the apprentice. Really, it was pretty bad ass.

Late in the game... another Large Construct appeared where the last one had been dispatched. I also had a Frost Wraith appear on the other side of my group. Good thing I was just about to leave!

All in all, a heck of a game. I was terribly successful - 300XP again, two loot and no permanent casualties. David KO'ed my Crossbowman but he recovered after the match. David did lose an Archer KIA and Ziggy had one of his guys get seriously injured and they'll have to miss the next outing. 

After the match and my three level-ups, this is where my group stands:

I have 325 GP in the bank. I think I'm going to hire a Barbarian to replace Katanga the thug. I'm a fan of the two-handed weapons. We'll see... I'm still on the fence.

AAR: Frostgrave Game 2 - The Living Museum

 Our small Frostgrave group convened on Saturday the 15th at Roll the Bones again for our second game in the campaign. After a rather successful first adventure, Chronomancer Billy Thorpe's Fighting skill had improved through training and he became more proficient casting the Petrify spell after seeing its usefulness in real-world situations. A Bard, Miao Yin was located and hired to replace one of the thugs who'd fallen in the earlier encounter. 

The next visit to the Frozen City was to explore the ruined home of an artificer, rumored to contain a useful stash of gold and magical goodness. We decided before the game that wandering monsters would appear every turn until there were three on the table and we'd only add more once the WMs numbered less than three.

My bizarre setup. My Wizard, Billy, second from the right only has two soldiers within 3 inches! Oh well, into the scrum. 

More of an overhead shot of the table after a little bit of movement.

I started the group to group engagement by sending a Animated Skull to harass one of David's Thieves. A minor inconvenience for sure.

A bear wanders in, attracted by the noise giving my archer Jayna quite the surprise. 

David and myself as i fumble with selfie-vision.

My Thief grabs the first treasure and the Construct right there comes to life to protect the house! Jimmy the Infantryman was right there to strike it down with a massive swing from his Zweihänder. All the groups started to assemble fighters around the treasures and still immobile "statues."

The bear continues to chase Jayna. 

The Construct (obscured by the wall in this picture) guarding my second treasure was full of piss and vinegar and slapped my other Infantryman, Sand Panther, around pretty good. Miao Yin had to step in to regain control of that situation. 

The table was incredibly busy with many awakened constructs, treasure transporting and wandering nasties.

Cheetah and Miao Yin have my share of the loot and are taking back for safe keeping.

The last unclaimed treasure (up top surrounded by David's dwarfs) would activate the last construct. I was content to let David have the loot, I wanted the XP for another monster kill! I assembled two Infantrymen and a Thug around it under the watchful eye of Billy Thorpe! The construct has been Petrified (the gray token) and would be easy prey for my brute squad.

A Frost Wraith appears! More XP for me if I can take it out. Jayna and Dee the Apprentice begin working on a plan.

Who ya gonna call? The spook proves to be manageable and the remainder of my group leaves the area. An outstanding success! 

Actually it was very successful for David, Ziggy and myself. No casualties to speak of and decent loot. I rolled up a total of 100 GP, a Grimoire of Raise Zombie and a Wand of Light. The wand allows the wielder, once per game, to roll 2 d20 on a single spell-casting attempt and the player chooses the result he wants. I maxed out the XP gain at a full 300! I need to work out my levelling gains. 

Looking forward to the next encounter for sure!

Frostgrave 2025 Campaign Game 1

 Good morning! Ziggy, David and I played our first campaign game of Frostgrave yesterday. Two years ago we played in a Stargrave campaign that was a lot of fun so we're running it back with swords and sorcery. I put together a Chronomancer group, Billy Thorpe and the Children of the Sun. Ziggy's running an Elementalist group and David's got a Thaumaturge. 

We played The Mausoleum as our first encounter. I was sandwiched with David's group on my left and Zig on the right. Those ruined buildings in the pictures we completed during the week ahead of the start of our campaign. I picked up this box from TT Combat rather inexpensively from Noble Knight.

My group. The bizarre names are a long tradition Ziggy and I have over our 30 year gaming history, with its roots in Blood Bowl.

I kind of got loot-screwed and was essentially forced to rush the center in order to get a claim on two treasures. I got Jimmy Changa onto the treasure at the lower right corner of the Mausoleum pretty easily with the help of a Fleet Feet spell. David made a play for my other target at the lower left corner of the Mausoleum, sending two Thieves towards it. Dropping a Wall in my work area was kind of a pain the neck. I couldn't believe David was trying to take four of seven treasures for himself! This act of selfishness by the Thaumaturge's gang kicked off an almighty brawl between our groups.

David (in yellow) and Ziggy. We played up at Roll the Bones games store again, the same place we played Alpha Strike back in November.

I got a Petrify spell to stick on the thief running away with MY treasure. My troops subdued her buddy, the green-clad thief.

David threw up a wall of Fog in order to protect his ball-carrier but to no avail! Sweet Dee summoned an Animated Skull into combat with the Petrified thief, then Betty Toothpicks, the javelineer ran in to assist. 

We took care of the thief while under the watchful gaze of a filthy archer a block away. Good grief that guy was annoying!

Having sorted out two of David's thugs and two thieves, I press the brawl with the Thaumaturge, sending Sand Panther and Betty after the Apprentice and working Meat Cheetah, my thief, around into contact with David's Wizard. I grabbed the loot bag with my Archer and kept her close to both Billy and Dee, hidden in the Fog bank. At this point I'd lost two thugs KIA.

No picture, but I rushed my empty-tube Crossbowman into melee with the Apprentice to pin him and promptly got sent to the infirmary by a critical hit by Dave! UGH.

I chase the spellcasters while working to extract treasure from the tabletop.

Last licks... Betty is taken out by David's Apprentice in melee but she is then avenged by Sand Panther!

So, at the end of the day, I had five group members KO'ed, the Crossbowman, Javelineer, two Thugs and my Thief. Only Betty the Javelineer was really hurt and has to miss the next encounter due to injury. I claimed two treasures and earned 245 experience.

Failed Casts Causing Injury - 9 x5

Successfully Cast Spells - 7 x10

Participation Trophy - 1 x40

Treasures - 2 x40

Monster Kills - 2 x5

My treasures totaled 80 gold and two Grimoires, Blinding Light and Absorb Knowledge.

My two level-ups will be +1 Fight and a -1 to the Casting Roll for Petrify, though I might re-think the spell cast modifier, Fleet Feet is also tempting particularly since it lasts the full length of the game. Billy and Co. are setting up a base in an old Laboratory they saw while heading towards the Mausoleum.

David took six casualties, five thanks to me and one courtesy of Zig, so we really laced into each other. None of his were permanent injuries. Ziggy took no casualties. 

Frostgrave Oddballs

 I've been working on MDF Frostgrave terrain for the last few days. Pics of that later. I did finish a few small odds and ends for FG last weekend. Some bears my son made for me on his new 3d printer, a floating skull because, well, if you take the spell, you need the model, and some crates. 

Since painting these up, I've re-rolled my Wizard and warband so I won't have any immediate need for the bears, but they'll be useful. I'm going to use a Chronomancer. Seems fun and I'm happy with the spells and selection of soldiers. 

Critters

I finished some 28mm critters over the last few days. They're all Reaper Bones models. Fun cheap models to add to the collection.

The 'Bot was of course intended to go into a Stargrave game. I thought it would be larger but I LOVE the small size and plentiful guns. Cannot wait to add him to a crew. The other beasties will be fine Frostgrave or Stargrave creepy crawlies.