Frustrating Frostgrave

I've played about 4 games of Frostgrave after high anticipation for over 6 months. I have mixed feelings. The spells are very good with a range of ways to effect any game. 

(Above shows the 3rd scenario 'The Crypt' - could be tomb or mausoleum? In this game I tried to just grab the treasures closest to me and leave quickly. This conservative battle plan was formed in the utterly shithouse rolls/results in every previous game.)

Here the Snake cult has moved quickly to secure the loot. In this way, the game is working as every other game of Frostgrave - ie: running up to grab nearby treasure and running away. 

My snake cult is led by a witch who tries to utilise magic that controls or blocks LOS or movement rather than using direct attack. Above a wall of fog temporarily blocks the dwarvern apprentices view to cast spells. 

Unfortunately, there are no more images. The game followed a now familiar pattern ... the dwarfs punched the crap out of everything while I took massive damage from whatever. EG: The Dwarfs killed 6 or 7 skeletons - which generated at the doors of the crypt. It took me 2 turns with my crusader AND treasure hunter to drop a single skeleton. This continued in the final turn as the Dwarf leader just cast Fools Gold to rob me of a chest to make sure I had 2 while he secured 3/4. 

I must say I find the Fool's Gold spell very frustrating and it just prolongs a game you thought was over some time ago. It might be funny once or twice buy every damn scenario? Nah! Slowly dragging treasure away gets a bit dull over time ... and this is half the game! 

My dice have been very shit ... or is it my lack of hmmm ... dunno??? I'm reaching the treasure first and limiting my opponents moves and view but this is having no effect. Speaking of no effect are the 3 Frostgrave scenario's I've seen. Both sides just do the same thing regardless of scenario - you just grab the treasure near you then bugger off trying to mitigate losses. After 4 games, my cultists have gathered almost no useful treasure, while the dwarfs are jetting along. I've found two grims with spells completely opposed to my witch and utterly useless ... and I can't sell or profit from them in any way! 

Comes down to a D20 game. That results in damn swing-y-ness constantly. And that can be fun ... to a point ... then it just gets frustrating especially with a low game turn-over. A smaller game time would lead to more games resulting in (probably) some swings both ways. As it is, one game per night (which can go shit based solely on rolls) leaves a disappointing feeling behind. 

Its a good game but I'd like there to be something else ... like Mordheim. Ahhh, the sweet Mord ... will there be another fantasy skirmish to match you??? After Warcry and Frostgrave. I'm beginning to have my doubts. 

Also, we're finding Frostgrave a bit slow with the ability to only play one game per evening. This is a bit crappy in my book for a skirmish game. 

Otherwise, my figures look great as does the terrain. 

 

Frostgrave Game 2

This week, after several players pulled out, Nick and I played Frostgrave. We hadn't read the rules in ages and I'd lost my warband - so I made it up from memory in 10 mins. I got a bit wrong and for the second time forgot items. 

We played the first scenario and this called for a magic fountain. My Splinted Fang witch cult faced off again Nick's Dwarf sigilists. I won initiative and bolted forward flinging my men forward with the leap spell. 

I soon threw a wall of fog in front of Nick's dwarf archer who had made some wicked shots. 

I tried to use my power of nature to block off avenues of movement to the treasures. I had a focus on three which I soon grabbed and began to drag away. 

I had won several of the first initiatives leading me to grab good positions. Nick was more circumspect and moved up in groups. Soon dice would swing in his direction and many good rolls sealed the game. 

My witch and apprentice also cast the mud spell on both sides of two treasure tokens. Things looked good but - tellingly - Nick's archer had badly wounded (8 and 10 health) my best fighters - a crusader and man-at-arms. He had climbed a wall section to continue his shooting. 

One snake cult thief climbed the tower to secure a treasure token I placed. It seemed thematic at the beginning of the game but I think it just used more movement. 

Then all turned against me. Nick won combat after combat and not by a couple but almost each occasion 6-8 or more damage points smashed down on my cultists. Two of my figures were unharmed at the end of the game. He also made successful use of the Fool's Gold spell yanking the treasure from my grasp on no less than three occasions. 

Even when an armoured skeleton and ferocious snow ape arrived and attacked his men ... he took no damage and smashed them too! See the mid-left of the above image (I'd used a Reaper ogre to substitute for a Snow Ape.)

After securing, the treasures I used a fighting withdrawal to slow the Dwarfs while allowing me to get the treasures from the table. I decided not to drink from the fountain/well to reduce my risk and used mud, fog and leap to help. However, the early shots robbed me of the combat strength I needed to hold up his soldiers. Very high dice smashed me in initiative, shooting and combat. My spells failed while his Fool's Gold worked again and again. Frustrated, I just tried to run off the table but could have used more fog spells to block line of sight to protect me from spells. I guess I was just tired too and wanted the game to end. 

There it was a great start and a near certain victory led to defeat. To rub salt into the wound, I gained bugger all gold and truly useless spells while Nick gain a bucket load - enough to hire a barbarian giving him an additional specialist. I do like the game - we did quite a lot wrong making shooting and Fool's Gold FAR more effective that it should have been - but overall I left being quite frustrated by the game and couldn't escape thinking the huge variability of the opposed D20 system had just bent me over despite some good play. 

Frostgrave

This week's games saw a belated beginning to Frostgrave - a game I have looked longingly at for some time. My good friend, Nick, and I embarked on a first game. We played a basic game rather than a scenario and tried to grab as many of the 5 treasure tokens as we could. 

Nick has been busy printing, purchasing and painting a range of terrain suitable for fantasy skirmish. I mixed in a little of my own considerable collection. Nick's use of Renedra fences as walkways worked very well and I think they look better than my coffee stirrer and match stick scratch builds. 

I used a witch with a mix of movement and blocking spells (like mud and fog) with some spells to bolster my minions too. To represent these forces I used my Splintered Fang. Nick used his 3D printed Dwarfs to represent his warband led by a sigilist. He also chose many manipulative rather than directly offensive spells. 

I began by leaping my man-at-arms forward to block a treasure token on Nick's side of the table then ran forward to secure it with my treasure hunter. In the meantime, I used by thugs and thieves to secure objectives on my side (within the watch tower below). Also a ran my crusader forward to fend off any attacks on the central treasure token.

Above shows my strategy to protect my men and slow the Dwarf advance by channeling my witch apprentice powers to turn the earth to mud. I would later shield this side of the table further with a wall of fog. 

Nick's Dwarfs pass the 'Tree of Woe' and rush forward. My man-at-arms is just visible ready to fend off assault while my other men run off with the treasure. 

Nick was able to open a hole in a stone wall to allow a soldier to clamber through and prevent my escape with a treasure token. This was, not the first, but a tangible sign of impending doom for my witch's cult. A mass of 1's rolled - probably more than 12 on the night - sapping my strength through spell failure and leading to disastrous combat results. My men regularly took 5, 6 or even 7 hits in combat. I lost two treasure tokens I had taken control over - one to a well used Fool's Gold spell (very Dwarfy spell I must add) - and barely got another two to the board edge. 

However, due to repeated combat losses, all of my men had many wounds and were locked in combat that they just couldn't escape from. I wasn't winning and Nick simply held me in combat by refusing to push me back. He just held me there as I lost fight after fight. 

And then ... monsters came on. Directly in my path of escape 2 armoured skeletons marched. Again, I lost many fights and my wizards failed spells to bolster strength. By now my wizard had but 4 health left and my apprentice but 1. While the young witch escaped, the witch was shot then hacked down. 

All evening, I think I won two combats ... and one was against a skeleton. With my wizard dead my warband collapsed at the end of the first game. Not a good start. 

I really did enjoy the game despite my sheer inability to win any combat at all or profit from the really good positions I had gained in the early game. I was a total disaster really. Many soldiers died or were wounded too. The rules seems very good although I must say being helplessly locked in combat once engagement had occurred did - and does - seem quite restrictive. Just running in and pinning the enemy - and keep pinning them (without even fighting) if initiative is won - seems a bit easy to achieve in an otherwise very thoughtful game. Some sort of mechanic to leave combat, even at a risk, would be a good addition by providing an additional decision for players to make. 

 

Brutal Bullies ... New Ogre Guards

In continuation of my latest fantasy project, I painted two Reaper Bones Ogre miniatures. They are excellent value and the large, solid form of the ogres removes the plastic softness common to the Bones range. I like the sculpts as each ogre oozes a flabby muscularity and menace displayed in the skulls each carries. 

How will these fit into my project? And ... what is my project? It started as Mordheim - but is well beyond that now - although ogres do feature in that game. I decided to buy and paint these two to fit into Rangers of Shadow Deep .. if I ever play that game. I have all the terrain and figs for it (well, I just ordered some $3 plastic spiders to fulfill that final need.) 

They do fit into my new beastman warband rather well ... hmmm. 

If not, will they take the field in Frostgrave - if I ever play that ... or something else? I'm sure they will get some use and I do like the figs - even though I found so much skin and muscle a struggle to paint. The idea of role play bounces around my head ... but is then thrown out again - I think I'd feel silly at 50 sitting around a table trying to be a gnome. 

In any case, the ogres have arrived ... whether they will be brutal line breakers in a battle or dull witted guards to bypass remains to be seen. 

 

Last of the Barbarians

 Hunted by crusading forces and lured by the desires of civilisation, the once sparse but overall numberless inhabitants of the far north and west have dwindled. Now few remain keen to the old ways. 

The three warriors are my final current investment of human warriors. I find these more evocative than the easily stereotypical and typecast forces of non-humans. Mortal men are capable of such a range of roles and actions that they fire my imagination. Also, alike Batman, humans in fantasy are easily outmatched by all other races but struggle on with praise worthy courage and determination. What illustrates the energy, consistent struggle and raging heart of humanity more than the noble barbarian?

Not just the last few of their tribes but also the last of my frostgrave miniatures, these three barbarians have just been flocked and name tagged. Not part of my Middenhiem or Reikland warbands, these barbarians could be employed by the former or charge from the forests to defend their sacred places. 

Two poor quality images of figures I chose to paint in a range of browns to reflect their frontier lives. Did it work ... partially? But I'll save my final judgement until i varnish. 

On the left is Gort - the old - in the centre is Ulrich - a talented warrior and dextrous hunter while on the right is Conrad - a fighter possessing bearlike strength and capable of savagery.