FG: The Complex Temple

27/11/2016

After the previous marathon game, the clock was ticking as I had to go home, but JP and I having now got the hang of the rules are able to speed things along.

Six pillars were set up on a slightly altered table. Each one as per the scenario contains treasure, but must be fought before they release them.

Thaddeus (who ids EVIL, and must be destroyed) having recruited new staff following his rather rough experience in The Library set up. I wasn’t sure by the way he set up as to whether Thaddeus was actually going to go for a pillar in person.

Having just upped Lady Catherine’s Fight score, I decided to chance a fight against an inanimate object.

I’d cast reveal Secret and Fools Gold, so added two ordinary treasure chests to the table, and decided to let the Rangers go for them with the Captain.

As usual, I lost initiative and JP won, so he charged in to the nearest pillar with three characters and initiated combat.

The pillars have a fight of 0….so whilst JP rolled for his minions, I rolled for the pillar, and rolled a natural 20. Goodbye to the first minion !

So, the Captain initiated combat. Oh dear, I rolled another natural 20.
I couldn’t believe it having not rolled a 20 in the previous game, so simply walked away from the dice and told JP he might need to take a look at what I’d rolled but he wouldn’t be happy.

Goodbye Captain.

So first turn, tow models out of action and the dog couldn’t take the treasure.

So it was with some trepidation I sent Lady Catherine in to combat (supported by an archer), luckily the dice were not with JP, and I won the combat and got the treasure.

Next turn, Thaddeus (who is EVIL and must be destroyed), reached the pillar in the centre of the table, but let the new Barbarian deal with it with success.

I then had my apprentice drop a wall behind the two of them to try and cut them off from the rest of the war band and their avenue of escape. A cunning plan I thought.

But my cunning plan was foiled ! Thaddeus (who is EVIL and must be destroyed) had learnt the Spell Eater…spell…So the wall popped out of existence !!

And for my trouble, JP’s apprentice conjured up an Imp. Luckily my Captain was on hand and promptly dispatched it back to whence it came.

However, Thaddeus’ puppy killers shot down my war hound.

As the rest of Thaddeus’ war band got out of Dodge city, the war hound was cornered with more well placed wall to prevent escape so my Captain could down it – his first attempt had failed so he had to restore honour !

The game ended quickly, and I escaped with only the war hound as a casualty, and four treasures.

Another great game.

Filed under Frost Grave, Mordheim

Frostgrave: The Library Part 2

26/11/2016

With the walls in the centre of the table vanishing, the war bands pressed in to hand to hand combat.

Well except for Lady Catherine who opted for NOT fighting a Greater Demon, who hastily called up a new Wall and backed away with a henchman with another treasure chest.

Leaving her minions (morcueax) to actually deal with the enemy. henchmen in Frostgrave don’t even get names really.

The Greater Demon moved in, and finally defeated an archer, but my Captain held out for some time, until getting zapped by a Blinding Light spell, even so, he still managed to fend off Thadeus’ Captain !

Whilst to JP’s embarrassment the Blue Knight managed to get defeated by another of my archers – the dice were with me and against JP !

With the bear behind…them…Thaddeus’ war band headed for a different exit off of the board, only for Lady Catherine to drop another wall right over the exit ! This was very nasty of me, but hey, all is fair in love and Frostgrave !

Shaking off the Blinding Light, my Captain, in conjunction with the wounded Archer, defeated the Greater Demon.

At this point I had been getting my minions off the table ASAP, but both Lady Catherine and her Apprentice decided to hang around and see what more mayhem they could create (and what more XP they could gain) with Thaddeus’ war band running around in tatters.

Unfortunately, whilst slaying Thaddeus’ Captain (who was EVIL and must be destroyed), the bear wondered toward my Captain !

The bear wandered straight on to my Captain’s magic sword. Oh how sad. Funnily enough there was some thong caught in the bear’s teeth. Must have belonged to a barbaric person. 😉

Lady Catherine teleported herself to the front to support her Captain, whilst her Apprentice glued from the horn of healing. JP promptly had his apprentice summon an Imp…

And the Imp promptly perished at the Captain’s sword. The Archer ran for the exit now that the wall had vanished.

A second summoned Imp, was Pushed away, allowing Lady Catherine and the Captain to escape.

So Lady Catherine escaped with four treasure chests, one dead archer and one dead hound, and a shed load of XP.

On to the second game…

Filed under Frost Grave, Mordheim

Frostgrave: The Library Part 1

26/11/2016

A visit to Price Towers yesterday (Friday) for a couple of games. JP decided we’d do The Library from the main Frostgrave book.

JP has been busy carving outlets of scenery from various sources of foam.

I used Lady Catherine and her war band, again the rather flamboyant colour scheme stands out. We had to start within 6 inches of our respective entrances so we were bunched up closely. Again I managed to get off the “Reveal Secret” spell and added some more treasure chests to the table.

JP used Thaddeus’ war band (who are EVIL, and must be destroyed) and they had a Greater Demon (who was EVIL and must be destroyed).

The war bands rushed for the easy meat, but also decided to head for the treasure chest in the middle of the table – walls went up from both sides, trapping various figures behind and in front of them.

So I sent some of my lot round the side to support the main thrust.

Rich pickings.

Of course, this triggered a random monster event, a bear, which turned up behind JP’s lot, so he sent his Barbarian to the “bear behind”. (in joke)

Shots were exchanged with my archers doing well.

Alas, JP had to grin and bear it, as his Barbarian was downed by the bear, which rather disrupted his plans.

But when two walls in the middle of the table blinked out of existence, that changed the plans for both of us !

Filed under Frost Grave, Mordheim

Nice

23/11/2016

For Frostgrave, I have taken an Apothecary for all three of my war bands on the ground that when they start off they’ll need some healing potions, so as an Apthecary comes with one automatically at the beginning of the game they tick that box, and then they can be used to pick up treasure and scuttle off.

I had a Citadel C03 Cleric “Forestal” already painted to a decent standard from my university days, she became the generic Apothecary, with the equally generic name Nice.

So I touched her up (!) with some highlights, and put her on a new base rather than the very plain flock base she had, and she now fits in with the rest of my figures.

Interestingly there isn’t an equivalent in Mordheim – might need some house rules for that !

Filed under Frost Grave, Mordheim

Huts

19/11/2016 1 Comment

Following on from an earlier posting, and despite the flu, I managed to get some painting and scenery making done.

Having forced myself to eat Pringles, I started making the first of 6 huts I need for the Frost grave scenario “the Haunted Houses”.

The first one, I tried using masking tape as cheap stone blocks to enliven the walls, but the masonry paint covered them up too easily, so for the second side of the hut I simply cut up strips of the rest of the Pringles can and added them.

The door posts were balsa wood, so this was a very cheap item to make. I lined the floor with the usual dolls house flag stones.

I have another 5 to do, and seeing as it is rather boring grey I will probably do some different colours (cream, and then red sandstone) to enliven the table some more.

The figure is for scale purposes, but also because it was on my painting table – Nice the Apothecary – which I have almost finished reviving for the 21st century. She and three figures are being done up for a games session JP and I have planned for next Friday. All of them are classic Citadel figures from the mid to late 1980’s. Which is one of the nice things about Frostgrave (or indeed Mordheim) you can dig out the figures that have languished unloved, unused and unpainted for decades and get them into battle.

Filed under Frost Grave, Mordheim, Scenery

Flu, Cats and clear outs

19/11/2016

I thought I’d only been away from the site a week, but I see its nearly 10 days !

As ever time flies when you’re having fun. Or rather, not, as most of the last 4 days have been.

I cracked open a box of Samurai of mostly Citadel vintage and decided to flog them on e-bay which was a lucrative experience, but rather odd. Some of them went for very high prices, and others didn’t shift at all. The market for figures these days is very hit and miss. What I have noticed is that the very popular ranges sell for little, and the less popular sell for more. Presumably due to the availability of the popular models and the more obscure being rare. That trend is bucked by iconic figures being much sought after.

Anyway, by selective pruning I emptied two more boxes of figures, and flogged one of the boxes to JP. It is always sad to sell off figures, but as I reflected, I had used maybe half a dozen Samurai once in a battle 30 or more years ago. Sometimes they just need to be got rid of, especially as I when;’t even painted them. Wargamers joke about the lead mountain they accumulate, mine is an entire mountain range. So far in the last 2 years I’ve downsized by 10+ boxes (the old GW cases) and need to go for another 5+ in the next month as I am likely to move house.

Now its been cold here in the UK, so late one evening last week I was concerned that BlackJack had not made his satanic presence felt, so early in the evening I lit the fire, and noticed a bulge under the sofa skirts again:

Hmm, a cat sized bulge, for a cat known to play underneath the sofa skirts ?

Even with my flu befuddling my brain cell, I thought this more than co-incidence.

Yes, he’d been asleep under there all afternoon and into the evening. Forget the cushion/throne, forget the blankets provided…sleeping on the floor under the sofa was the latest “thing”

The flu BTW was picked up at a conference I attended last Saturday with my Councillor hat on. Though its obviously doing the rounds, as my parents came down with it a few days later.

Filed under Cats

Fog Off

08/11/2016

One of the other spells used in frost grave is a wall of fog. Byakhee Jon has used it repeatedly against me and others.

The benefits are that whilst it blocks line of sight it doesn’t impede movement, and is also less likely to disappear each round.

On the Lead Adsvenure Forum the use of Kapok was suggested, so wanting to get some fog markers ready for the inevitable, I went off to Hobbycraft. The usual stuffing for cushions and soft toys would have seemed ideal, except its obviously going to get damaged very very quickly. 😦

So I bought this foam slab for £4.

And chopped into the requisite 6×3′ slabs. Its a bit thicker than one inch (it’s 40mm) but figure that that won’t cause much of a problem and I can either shape it/carve it or to the 50/50 rule if its contentious.

Figures for scale purpose, one Apothecary being rebased, and one character model I’ve found. 😉

Filed under Frost Grave, Mordheim

Pringles – a valid feline dietary option, and source of scenery

06/11/2016 1 Comment

Reminded by Byakhee JP that Pringles tubes are useful for scenery, I indulged, and reminded myself of earlier efforts at scenery I’d done.

Necromunda scenery from c1999. Might be useful for Rogue Stars ?

Additional pieces including scatter terrain made from the old GW scenery stuff, brass plumbing fittings, and the plastic top of a deodorant bottle.

Another unfinished piece of scenery that has languished in the playroom cupboard for 14+ years.

I’d added some WHFB bits to the tower, along with the inevitable masonry paint. This also makes the cardboard tubes much stronger and robust.

I’d also used some very old “Arcane Architecture” pieces back when Citadel/GW were of any use, and designed it as a wizard’s tower, so when better to use it than in a game of Frostgrave ?

I’ve been searching the Intercatwebnet for different dolls house tile paper and will be getting some for the ground floor to make it a different and “special” piece of scenery later this week.

So I stuffed my face with more Pringles over the last week, ably helped by…

…Spades, he preferred the Cheese & Onion flavour but partook of all flavours. And today decided Mayonnaise was also on the menu.

These new tubes will be chopped up to make useful huts and mini towers for the Frostgrave scenarios that I’ll be playing with the BYakhees – need the scenery if JP is not around !

Filed under Cats, Frost Grave Tagged with ,

Frostgrave: There’s never enough treasure chests

03/11/2016

For our second game on Saturday, Byakhe Jim and I played the scenario “The Mausoleum”. Chosen partly because I have the appropriate scenery, but also to try and get some “creatures” into the game so Jim got used to an additional phase of each turn…we had tried that in the previous game but frustratingly no creatures turned up !

Again I used my Garden of Morr scenery. Both of us rolled for the “Reveal Secret” spell, and again Jim rolled well and I didn’t.

I also decided to give Jim a bit of a hard time and used Lady Katherine’s war band – level 7 vs level 18. I have generally found a 10 level difference is not much of a problem due to the way Frostgrave works.

So we had the normal 6 treasure chests, plus the two extra and the illusion as well – I barely had enough treasure chests.

My Lady and her minions moved forward gaining one chest, before being jumped on by a Skeleton – the first time these models have been used probably since I painted them back at uni some 20 odd years ago !

The war hound helped by the Treasure Hunter saw that threat off.

Whilst Jim’s Zombie clashed with the skeleton and was locked in combat for a couple of rounds.

But, typically, picking jus the treasure triggered another skeleton turning up right behind me. In fact, two turned up and attacked both of my minions trying to carry off the treasure. In both cases I got lucky and defeated the skeletons in short order.

In the meantime, my war band moved in to the central square to retrieve the treasure WHICH WAS OBVIOUSLY MINE ANYWAY !

As more skeletons came out of the Mausoleum, my good Lady placed a wall in place, to prevent them getting to the treasure carriers who were also harassing my troops with more shots.

Jim’s wizard Doozlebat didn’t get off scot free though with a skeleton going for one of his troops.

My Captain got to a treasure chest and “poof” it disappeared leaving him out on a limb.

Meanwhile, Jim’s minions captured a treasure chest, and was running across the walkway before getting a Push spell causing him to fall to the ground and take enough damage to be downed.

Jim’s zombie lurches towards my now heavily laden minions.

before getting Pushed back, again.

I’d got bored of Wall spells !

In the end, I managed to get off with the majority of the treasure as Doozlebat’s forces caved in and ran away.

Overall another good game, minions were getting treasure off the table with no problem despite being played on a 4×4′ table which is a bit bigger than advised.

If both of us had rolled well we would have had 10 treasure chests on the table which would have been too many for me to field, and also would become problematic for placing them 6″ apart.

Filed under Frost Grave, Mordheim Tagged with

Frostgrave: A first outing

02/11/2016

Byakhee Jim came round for another session of Frostgrave, as my two war bands were 10+ level, I thought it unfair to throw his 2nd level against them, so used the KIY and a new war band. I chose KIY to be an Elementalist.

A simple one to one, this time Jim had come packing the “Reveal Secret” spell and so one of the 7 treasure chests was an illusion.

Doozlebat set up his forces…

And the minions came with lots of bows resulting in my archers tumbling like pins.

Just as well KIY had the ever popular Wall spell.

Allowing my war band to start collecting the treasure.

Unfortunately, I found the false treasure ! 😦

Doozelbat’s minions moved in on my lot.

My apprentice went down to another well aimed arrow – Jim was rolling a lot of 20’s.

KIY was also shot so resorted to the usual meat shield.

So another wall was conjured to cover the retreat of KIY and his sidekicks…half of whom who had been downed in the battle, a rather ignominious first outing.

We got a second game in, to follow…

Filed under Frost Grave, Mordheim Tagged with

← Older posts