Salute 53: the shoppening

As you may know, yesterday was Salute, and we made our annual pilgrimage (although in a reduced party of 2 this year).

As always seems to be the case, I took far fewer pics than I thought I had, mostly due to spending the time walking and talking as we encouraged each other to support a variety of small businesses, as all good citizens must.

As is now tradition, as soon as we got into the hall we rushed over to the Osprey stand to sign up for a demo game, this year being Warriors of Athena. While we waited to see if anyone else was going to sign up, we got to have a look in the cabinet at a preview of the upcoming sprues:

Here’s the board of the demo game, which is basically the second scenario from the first Quest:

I selected Penelope as my Hero, who unlike the other Heroes had no companions, but did have a bow, which I figured might be tactically optimal to reduce the chance of getting my face smashed in by a Cyclops:

The game was fun, and our luck with dice seemed to be very thematic. We were there to reclaim some honey that was due to the gods, and so bundled in to wreak mighty violence on the naughty Cyclopes that were withholding it. Things started well, with us generally avoiding getting blatted with flung rocks and even taking out one of the Cyclops brothers with a combination of bonfire and carefully applied axe, but then things took a turn. My hero, finding herself with nothing unengaged to shoot at, explored a hut, discovering it to be a slaughterhouse full of meat (some of it human). My usual terrible dice rolling skills returned in this moment when I rolled a 3 and failed to hold my nerve, and threw up at this sight. The next turn, I dashed forwards to grab the honey… which again required a roll to resist eating it (which the Gods were very clear about the importance of not doing). And I again rolled a 3(hey, she was probably hungry after losing her lunch earlier). The next turn, everything that could go wrong did, as 3 of the 4 companions were killed, and a harpy appeared just as we came to the end of our time slot, so we all surmised that I had managed to curse us:

Once we’d finished the game, we then ambled around peering at lots of lovely minis. A small selection of things I took pictures of:

Scratched paintwork, a music themed mech game that caught our fancy. No minis for it, but probably worth an investigate…

A Robin Hood game - not something on my immediate projects list, but it’s probably only a matter of time…

Butt Fish!

Dreadfjord had a cool diorama that caught our eye

Barsoom! I’m surprised I haven’t had a Barsoom project at any point, as I enjoyed the novels I’d read, and have a stack of the comics too. I even liked the movie!

Which leads us to the crux of every Salute post, the loot:

• A few packs from Foundry - assorted Satyrs and ancient townsfolk for Warriors of Athena, and some Mexican Irregulars to use as Tejanos in the Alamo project 
• A box of Perry Spanish Guerrillas, because they work for Silver Bayonet Bandits, and between these and last years purchases I could probably do a reasonable Spanish Napoleonic army… 
• A freebie of a little lizard from Twilight 
• A mixed pack of tufts, as I build up my basing options
• The event freebie of Saladin. Fun fact: I read the entire Osprey about the third crusade on planes trains and automobiles coaches the day before Salute in preparation 
• The Barons War Outremer expansion - I asked whether the rumours of this book being updated in the near future were true, which they couldn’t tell me, but I bought it as I figured it was still going to be full of cool Crusade stuff, and also they said they’d give me a free sprue of Ancient civilians (that they were giving away if you bought Gangs of Rome) if I bought it, which I was eyeing for potential Warriors of Athena use 
• Crooked Dice - some Greek themed treasure tokens, the 13th Doctor, a companion for the 3rd Doctor, and the Terminator to go with my batch of them from last year 
• Super Tiny Giant Battles and two gacha from the Mammoth Minis gumball machine 
• Some GSW basing bits - crabs, that I’m hoping look good enough based up to be enemies in Warriors of Athena, and Pigeons, because my daughter is currently pigeon obsessed and next time we play D&D will probably want her Druid to turn into a pigeon
•  Silver Bayonet Spanish Unit, because… it was in front of me and I really like the sculpts! Plus, with the various Perry Plastics I have I could definitely make a unit. He says, still needing to finish his first unit… 
• Bad Squiddo vampire hunters, in case this is the purchase that gets me to actuslly finish my original Silver Bayonet Unit 
• Warlord gave me a couple of Konflikt 47 preview sprues when I bought a pot of Strong Tone at their stand 
• A sprue of Mantic Abyssal Dwarf infantry was another goodie bag freebie 
• Sci-fi barricades (for Firefly) and Amphora (for Warriors of Athena) from Debris of War
• 2 pots of Troll Trader superglue, as a pot of that lasts a year as opposed to going through a hundred tubes of terrible Poundland glue
• A Vae Victus buttfish, and a Dwarf Slayer from a company selling orange brushes 
• 3 shapeshifting aliens from Tangent, because I try to support Wayne every year 
• The Wargames Illustrated Templar and Assassin heroes, that I had previously resisted, but were in fact right in front of me which is much harder to resist 
• A Bushido giant crab for use in Warriors of Athena - expensive, but the nicest crab sculpt I’d seen all day and a good size too 
• Warriors of Athena Mythic Bees and Athena herself - after months of telling myself that I was going to find some alternative miniatures to use as giant bees, after playing the demo game I decided that maybe the official minis were actually the way to go! 
• My Gringo 40s preorder, which had a spread of minis for Silver Bayonet and the Alamo, and even included a freebie mini of an 1860 Egyptian chap 
• The final goodie bag freebies was the annual Salute die, a sample of Warmag base magnets, and then a smorgasbord of stickers, fliers and catalogues.

Before we add all of that to the Tally, a confession:

With the best of intentions, I’d hoped to wrestle the Tally down to zero before Salute, but that didn’t quite pan out. I even took minis 250 miles to Germany to try and hit that target:

Only to discover that rather than Foundry 34B, a nice dark charcoal paint that I was planning to use next, I’d packed 34A, black. 

I was able to get some other base colours done though, although I only managed to actually sit down and paint once the whole week between one thing and another.

And in full transparency, I had also picked up another issue of the new Warhammer partwork magazine since my last post, which had added 3 more minis to the Tally:

So, running all the numbers, the Tally now stands at:

20 vs 160 = -140

Not the biggest haul I’ve ever brought home, but still unlikely that I’ll get it back into the black by the end of the year!

The adventures of Tim the Necromancer: House of the Golem

Potentially for the last time this year, I was able to take Tim for another spin in the frozen city to finish off the Hunt for the Golem mini campaign. Having studied the rampaging Golem, Tim has decided it’s time to steal it - and if he can’t (which is entirely possible, as it has now been responsible for many deaths), he could probably try to reverse engineer it from it’s smouldering corpse…

I set up the board as best I could to look like a ruined factory, with multiple rooms that have been smashed through. I rolled for random monsters, adding one result to each table edge and treasure token, coming up with a boar, Small Construct, Minor Demon and 5 zombies on the board:

The Golem, as per the scenario, was placed 10” from the centre in a random direction, ending up behind a wall on the left hand side.

Team Speedy (also known as ‘Team Have Bows’) set up first on the right hand side of their table edge, planning to hopefully pick off the relatively weak zombies on that side before swooping in to clear out the treasure.

Tim sets up on the far left with the Knight, Barbarian and Apothecary - with a Boar, Minor Demon and the Golem clustered just ahead of them, it was likely that this corner of the board was going to feature the bloodiest fighting! Because of this, Team Apprentice sets up just to their right, and consists of the Apprentice, Thug, Man at Arms and Warhound, hoping to be close enough to cast spells on the Golem, as it’s likely that taking control of it could be key to success!

Tim and the Apprentice cast their pre-game spells, and Tim excitingly gets a critical success raising a zombie, which means that the gang gets to add a Ghoul instead (better, faster, stronger). He then follows this up by failing to cast Brew Potion, but the Apprentice succeeds in making a Healing Potion, which he gives to Tim to replace the one he used last game.

To kick things off, Tim starts strong by successfully casting Control Construct on the Golem, bumping the total to 18 using his Staff and Ring of Power, but despite this the Golem succeeds in resisting his control. At this point, I stop and ponder - if I had been successful, I could have just run it straight off the table next turn to immediately ‘win’, and I decided that would be no fun so no doing that for at least a couple of turns.

The raised zombie/ghoul, Knight and Barbarian cautiously advance, positioning themselves just outside of the charge range of the boar’s fearsome tusks, and also hiding just behind the ghoul to avoid someone that isn’t instantly replaceable getting blatted by a thrown rock from the Golem!

As expected, the Golem hoys a rock, but due to poor rolls the raised ghoul ‘lives’ on to fight another day. That other day may come sooner than expected though, as the Golem then stomps over to loom over it…

In the Apprentice Phase, the Apprentice considers also trying to cast Control Construct, but settles for casting Strength on the Knight instead. The Warhound charges in to engage the Golem, and everyone else piles in to hide behind a low wall from the Minor Demon behind the Golem, ready to pounce on the Golem next turn. 

Looks like most of this game is going to take place in about one square foot of the board…

The monsters all start making their way towards the gang, and I realise that I’ve messed up, and left the Warhound within charge range of the boar, and so it does! Luckily for the Warhound, it rolls very badly and the Warhound bites it down to 1 Health.

I’ve on the right, the Captain zips off an arrow at an approaching zombie, dropping it to 1 Health - I’ve had this (almost but not quite taking monsters out) happen quite a few times in the last few games. Maybe I need to track down some items that buff everyone up to do at least one more point of damage! The Tracker tries to finish it off with an arrow of his own, but missed, so Team Speedy huddle by a low wall of their own hoping that the zombies won’t notice them and will wander off. Tactics!

Unfortunately for them, a Giant Rat appears just behind them at the end of the turn:

As the new turn begins, Tim attempts to cast Control Construct again, but fails so badly that exerting to make it a success would cost him more than half of his Health. He briefly considers it (that’s what Healing Potions are for after all) but decides that it’s just too risky with when there is also a Boar and Minor Demon rushing at him (and anyway, he rolled a 2, so maybe worth it next time with a less terrible roll). Then, it’s a case of trying to work out who to activate, and in what order - the Warhound activates first and finishes off the Boar, leaving him unopposed to support the Knight who runs in to chop at the Golem with his magic sword and Strength spell enhanced muscles (although he does move around the Warhound to attack, in order to leave a gap for the Barbarian to have a go at the Golem if all that isn’t enough). The combination of an above average roll and the aforementioned magic sword and magic muscles (and a bevy of supporting companions) result in him dealing it an impressive 11 points of damage, dropping it to only 5 Health. The Barbarian then dashes into the gap left by the Knight to finish it off, and also manages to deal 11 points of damage, chopping it down and claiming the Script of the Golem for Tim! I guess Tim gave up on trying to capture it, and figured it was safer to study it while it wasn’t actively attempting to murder him and his employees…

There’s still treasure to gather though, so the Apprentice sends the Ghoul/zombie forward to fight the Minor Demon, figuring that it’s better to try to pin it in place so that everyone else can bundle it later, rather than letting it assassinate whichever lone character it can get its hands (tendrils?) on. The zombie gets smashed for 4 damage, but survives to fight on. The Apprentice then tries to cast Control Undead on a wild zombie loitering behind the Minor Demon, in the hopes of setting up a flanking situation, but suffers a critical fail on the casting roll, meaning he can’t try to cast that spell on this particular zombie for the rest of the game.

Unfortunately the Man at Arms (who is a better fighter) is just slightly too far away to be able to fight the Minor Demon this turn, so the Thug who is slightly closer steps up to fight alongside the gang’s ghoul/zombie, but loses the fight and suffers 2 points of damage. The Man at Arms dutifully runs in to join them, hoping that next turn some better fighters will be able to get there to relieve them!

In the Monster Phase, the Minor Demon rips apart the already damaged ghoul/zombie with ease, and all the other monsters on the board menacingly close on the bundle of juicy targets clumped together on the left hand side of the board. Over on the right, two zombies can no longer see Team Speedy - one shuffles off in the wrong direction, but the other continues forward, towards Team Speedy’s hiding place:

The Giant Rat that recently appeared charges in to attack the hiding Tracker, and crits, which is enough to take the Tracker out of action in one bite. Seeing this, the Captain quickly puts an arrow in it, then she and the Thief charge into the zombie that is between them and the nearest Treasure Token, and although the Thief is able to land some pretty solid hits she isn’t able to finish it off, and they remain locked in combat.

To add insult to injury, a randomly determined piece of terrain collapses, so a chunk of ruin behind Tim and the Apprentice crumbles to nothing. On the other hand, no more monsters appear, so maybe my luck is turning…

Tim cuts to successfully cast Control Undead on the zombie behind the Minor Demon, before sending the Barbarian in who manages to strip the Demon of half of it’s Health. He then shuffles forwards a bit, as last turn he lagged too far behind to be able to activate the Knight in the Wizard Phase. Next, he sends the Warhound in to finish off the Minor Demon, but unfortunately the Demon gets a crit and takes the hound out of the game.

After Tim has finished activating his group, the Apprentice cuts to successfully cast Control Undead on a different zombie to the one he crit failed against previously, planning to send it back across to the right hand side of the board to assist Team Speedy. And that’s it, as he has also lagged behind, and doesn’t have anyone near enough to activate in the Apprentice Phase.

In the Monster Phase, both monsters in combat attack, but in a change of fate both lose their fights and are taken out of action by Tim’s gang, the zombie by the Thief and the Minor Demon by the lowly Thug!

Buoyed by this sudden victory, the Captain looses an arrow at the zombie that they had previously wounded and crits it, leaving the right hand side of the board now suddenly clear of enemies, so she and the Thief dash ahead to secure a pair of Treasure Tokens. As the Thief grabs the central Treasure Token, 4 Giant Rats scurry onto the board just ahead of them…

While the Apprentice controlled zombie attacks the last uncontrolled zombie (doing 2 points of damage) Tim’s controlled zombie attacks the Small Construct that has been slowly but surely closing on the gang cutting it down to 5 Health, and it seems like the dice are definitely favouring me this turn.

Writing that down obviously tempted fate a little too hard though, as my next roll is absolutely terrible and the Thug is wounded by the Small Construct when he charges in to fight it. As is the Man at Arms when he also joins the fray. Dammit.

The Knight also stomps over to join in, but it takes both of his actions to actually get into combat so righteous violence will have to wait until next turn.

As the turn ends, a skeleton enters the board on the right hand table edge, next to the group of Giant Rats - which is less than ideal, as all of the fighty types are over on the left, and threats seem to be massing on the right around the Thief and Captain!

On the aforementioned left, the Barbarian bundles in to join the combat and manages to pull down the Small Construct, freeing up the 4 other models that were surrounding it.

Tim then marches up and joins them, casting Leap on the Barbarian and sending her flying off to land at the feet of the Thief. The Apprentice suddenly remembers that he has Gloves of Casting, and so probably could have had a crack at casting Control Construct on the Golem earlier. Probably best not to mention that to Tim, he mutters under his breath as he starts heading off towards the right side of the board too. He pauses briefly to lob a Grenade over the head of the zombie in combat with his controlled zombie - and only goes and kills it, in a wildly out of character move!

Ahead of him, the swarm of rats and skeleton boil across the ruins towards the Captain, surrounding the Treasure Token that she was heading towards:

Using the proper encumbrance rules for the first time, the Thief makes a much slower than usual rush towards the north most table edge with a Treasure Token, hoping that no monsters spawn there and ruin her day.

With the Small Construct destroyed, the Knight starts making his slow way over to the right, where the Captain looks fairly imperilled, while the Thug grabs the nearest Treasure Token. Tim had originally planned to raise a new zombie to do the fetching and carrying, but got the Thug to grab it instead lest he embarrass him by failing to cast the spell. As the Thug hoists the treasure under their arm, another Small Construct wanders onto the board, just behind him, so Tim has his controlled zombie lumber over to screen the Thug from it. Unfortunately, the controlled zombie is immediately cut down by the Small Construct (in hindsight, I shouldn’t have made it fight!) so the Man at Arms redirects, and also loses the fight, getting cut down to 4 Health and becoming Wounded!

The turn ends, and an Ice Spider scuttles in on the right hand board edge, making things look even hairier over there…

Tim and the Apothecary both charge in to rescue the wounded Man at Arms - although he does love magic, Tim is actually pretty hench and smashes the construct to pieces with his staff, allowing the wounded Man at Arms to limp off of the board to safety. 

The Apprentice, meanwhile, moves forward to get in Grenade range of the sea of Giant Rats ahead of the Captain, succeeding via a combination of his Gloves of Casting and spending Health, destroying the two closest. The wandering skeleton then moves to attack the Apprentice’s controlled zombie (as it was just closer than the Captain thankfully) and is destroyed. The now reduced swarm of rats manage to make it into contact with the Captain, but exhausted from scrambling through the rubble and ruins aren’t able to attack this turn. Seizing the initiative, the Barbarian charges in and easily cuts one down - the Captain tries to slice the other, but loses the fight (although luckily does not lose any Health). The rest of the gang either head for the Captain if they’re not carrying treasure, or trudge towards the edge of the board if they are. 

At the end of the turn, 2 zombies appear and immediately attack Tim and the Apothecary (maybe I should start having things appear at a random point on the board rather than in the centre to avoid this sort of thing happening). Tim tries to brain one of them with his staff, but even with the Apothecary supporting him gets hit for 6 points of damage, leaving him on 10 Health - this is what people mean when they say Frostgrave can be really swingy - so Tim cracks his Healing Potion. The Apothecary then manages to win a fight against the same zombie, but isn’t able to do any damage to it, and with Tim in the other side of it isn’t even able to push it away from him!

Hearing this scuffle the Apprentice swings across to get line of sight on the zombies attacking Tim, shooting the nearest one with a Bone Dart but due to a good roll from the zombie isn’t able to damage it. Frustratingly, both parties rolled 19, and the defender wins draws when it comes to shooting - one point more and the Appentice would have blown it away!

Back on the right, the rat bites the Captain who uses her Dodge skill to reduce the damage to zero, and the Ice Spider manages to get into biting range of the Apprentice’s controlled zombie. On the left, the two zombies attack the Apothecary, who thumps them both with his staff and pushes one back out of the combat.

While this is going on, the Thief finally manages to make it off of the board with her Treasure Token, and the Knight bundles in to attack the rat currently trying to bite the Captain’s face off. Despite rolling a 1, all of his bonuses still added up to enough to beat the rat’s 10, which wouldn’t do anything to most monsters, but is enough to kill the rat! 

Behind them, the Barbarian dashes forward to attack the Ice Spider, but gets poisoned. Free of the rat, the Captain grabs the last Treasure Token and as she does so a Ghoul wanders onto the board behind the Apothecary - I guess my luck has dried up over on the left… 

At the end of the turn, 2 wild dogs appear on the board, entering on the northern edge. I still haven’t painted any dogs, so they look like weird mushroom creatures today:

Tim, fearing losing a chunk of Health to another bad roll in combat elects to Raise a Zombie instead to bolster his numbers. The Apothecary attempts to take out the zombie between himself and Tim, but loses the fight and 1 Health. 

The Apprentice, feeling like the right flank has things under control heads back towards Tim, exerting for 2 to cast Bone Dart again and this time successfully destroys the zombie. 1 down, 1 to go!

The right flank does indeed turn out to be under control, as the Ice Spider attacks the controlled zombie and is cut down, leaving the entire right hand side of the board suddenly clear of threats. For now, tha5nis, as the mushroom men/dogs rush towards the Knight:

Back on the left side, the Ghoul surprisingly loses its fight against the Apothecary, but due to being armed with a staff he isn’t actually able to do any damage to it but does manage to push it back. The zombie then attacks the Apothecary, who again wins narrowly enough that he isn’t able to deal any damage. Maybe I need to find him a magic staff or something that means he causes more damage, based on how often he seems to end up in combat!

The Captain looses an arrow off at the approaching mushroom men/dogs before heading towards the edge of the board with her Treasure Token, as the Knight charges in to see if he will have more luck in taking it out. He doesn’t, and a crit from the mushroom drops him straight to zero Health in one fell swoop… seeing this, the poisoned Barbarian uses her single action to put herself between the mushrooms and the treasure carrying Captain, as does the Apprentice’s controlled zombie. Luckily, when the end of the turn rolls around no more monsters enter the fray.

Feeling like things are entering the endgame, Tim orders his newly raised zombie to attack the wild zombie next to him, but despite outnumbering it 3 to 1 his zombie is immediately destroyed. I realise at this point that Tim shouldn’t actually have been able to cast that spell last turn due to being in combat, but it achieving literally nothing makes me feel less bad about that. Biting the bullet, Tim swings with his staff again but due to the staff’s inherent damage reduction rule is only able to drop the zombie to 1 Health. The Apothecary tries to finish it off, but unfortunately can’t seem to get a decent blow in, as often seems to be the case. The Apprentice casts Bone Dart on the Ghoul near the Apothecary, but isn’t able to stop it from attacking the Apothecary. Both roll terribly though, leaving the zombie to attack the Apothecary instead - he manages to crit and take it out, leaving Tim now unengaged. Over on the right the wild mushroom/dogs attack the Apprentice’s controlled zombie, chipping away at its Health, but at the end of the phase it is still standing.

At the end of the turn, the Captain escapes with the last Treasure Token, and the Barbarian joins the controlled zombie in fighting the mushroom/dogs, giving it enough of an advantage to be able to pull one down. 

Having failed to take the Ghoul out by combat or shooting, Tim then fails to remove it as a threat by casting Control Undead. The Apprentice steps up and is more successful, and that’s it for the game bar the Barbarian making a fighting retreat while the Apprentice’s controlled zombie is left fighting the lone remaining mushroom/dog…

Post-game:

The Warhound and the Knight survive with no negative effects, but unfortunately the Tracker is Badly Wounded and has to miss the next game.

The Captain gains 30XP, not enough to gain a level again. She does loads in every game, but doesn’t actually seem to be getting many kills, which is where the bulk of her XP would come from…

Tim would have gained 421XP, which caps at 300, enough for him to gain 3 levels. He learns a Flourish to the spell Bone Dart that makes it more effective against Constructs and the Undead, gains a point of Will, and makes Grenade easier to cast, as it’s the spell that probably gets cast the most by the gang (as they always seem to be getting mobbed by groups of enemies).

For treasure, as well as the Script of the Golem gained for destroying the Golem all 3 tokens get rolled on the scenario specific table (as there’s no other time we’ll get to see most of these items) and Tim ends up walking away with a barrel of Construct Oil (which Tim already had), a Book of the Golem and a Mind Wrench, which Tim equips to make future attempts at stealing a golems easier. The Treasury generates 7GC, reduced to 6 after the Captain takes her cut. Not the most profitable result the gang has ever had, but this scenario was more about Tim wanting to learn about making his own mechanised weapons of destruction rather than mere profit.

What’s next? I think I’m going to take a pause in the adventures of Tim to focus on other projects in the New Year, but that’s not the end of him - he might nip back to the library to see if he can find a book about how to animate rather than just steal constructs (or venture into the Necromancy section, to see about learning the flourish that lets him summon a controlled skull using Animate Skull). Or carry on with the solo campaign in Perilous Dark. Plus, his Mortal Enemy might have something to say about his plans - and at this point, I realise that I forgot to roll for his Mortal Enemy at the start of this scenario! I roll now and she wouldn’t have turned up anyway, so we’ll retcon and pretend that I remembered…

One addendum that I forgot to include in my last post - the Tally took a little hit:

I ordered a bunch of bases, and couldn’t resist a lovely Westfalia Amazon on Clearance (as previously mentioned, a mini for a pound is almost irresistible to me) for my Warriors of Athena project. I had some issues with the website I was ordering from, which meant I had to re-place the order a couple, of weeks after my first attempt, and in the interim discovered that the do their own line of bits, so I ordered a few things - a banner pole (because all else failing, I’m sure I’ve always got a need for a rod), a couple of round shields (to see if they would be the right size to replace the now unavailable Hasslefree Hoplite shields that I have used on my House Stark conversions), and some knight helmets with Bishop hats (because the second I saw them I was struck by inspiration, and am tempted to make a unit of battlin’ bishops for Barons War).

Only one actual mini in there though, so the Tally now looks like:

38 vs 255 = -217

What’s next? It’s Christmas, so my painting time is limited in favour of wrapping presents and making space in the fridge for a turkey. I’m not going to get the Tally back in the black (do I ever?), but I could probably finish off 14 minis in the next 9 days to get the annual average up to one a week, right?

The adventures of Tim the Necromancer: Field Research

Having previously found some clues to the whereabouts of the massive golem currently rampaging through the frozen city (that he may or may not have been the cause of), it was time for Tim to hunt down the thing itself and have a proper look at it.

As mentioned in my last post, this scenario takes part in a crumbling garden, full of low walls, fountains and statuary (which can be magically animated during the game), so I tried to set up the board to represent this as best as possible:

Some homemade weeping angels (so old they were painted before this blog was even a thing) stood in for statues (with the plan being that any that got animated would be replaced with the much nicer Weeping Angel miniatures made by Crooked Dice). I also set the golem up further back rather than in the centre of the table, as I figured that was mostly to have him equidistant from the two groups in a two player game, and figured it would be better to give him a turn or two extra of hurling rocks at my troublemakers!

I rolled to see if Tim’s Mortal Enemy would make an appearance, and again they did not. Then it was time to roll for monsters - I started with rolling for each edge of the board other than the one Tim would start on, and then also rolled for a monster to start in the centre of the table, to make sure that the game wasn’t too easy. I rolled a Wraith, 2 Ice Spiders, 2 Wolves, and a Bear. The only bear mini in the house is the one my daughter painted to use when her D&D Druid transforms, so on the table he goes! 

(The picture of him on the table was hugely out of focus, so here he is in a box instead)

As well as deciding that the Golem would activate between the Wizard and Apprentice phases, originally I had planned to have the Golem treat anything (including wandering monsters) as a target, since he is described as being on an out of control rampage, but then I decided not to, as I figured he’d likely spend all his time stomping the monsters while Tim idly sauntered over, which would make things a bit too easy!

Pre-game, Tim and the Apprentice (whose name is Sebastian, but Tim has never asked) crack their knuckles and set about casting their spells. Both fail to cast Brew Potion, and Tim even fails to raise a zombie, but the Apprentice manages to successfully do so. Come on lads, get the bad rolls out now before the game starts properly I guess…

Again, Tim varies slightly from his usual go-to setup. He enters in the centre, accompanied by the Barbarian, Apothecary, and Man at Arms, planning to march up the centre towards the Golem to give it a proper looking at, in the hopes of finding some weakness or override that they can use to claim it in the glorious name of Tim. On the left, the Apprentice is accompanied by the Knight and Captain (who both have magical weapons and so are some of the only people in the gang able to actually harm the Wraith ahead of them) and the Thug and raised zombie (who do not, but are frankly expendable). On the right flank, the Thief, Warhound and Tracker form a compact Team Speedy, hoping to nip in and grab a Treasure Token before rapidly getting back out.

As things commence, Tim strides through the doorway ahead of him, surrounded by his heavily armed comrades, and casts Control Construct on one of the statues in the garden, animating it under his control (although he has to use the power stored in both his staff and ring to turn a narrow failure into a success). 

The Golem, now having a viable target in range where it didn’t before, grabs a chunk of broken masonry from the ground to hurl and absolutely pulverises the newly animated statue (having rolled a 20). It then stomps forward to investigate the shards, leaving it looming unfortunately over the Treasure Token that Thief & co had their eyes on…

On the left, team Apprentice scramble through the ruins towards the Wraith, with the Knight running as far as his legs will take him, while the Captain holds back slightly to let the Thug edge ahead to lure the Wraith out. The Apprentice initially considers casting Grenade (as the one magic attack he knows, Bone Dart doesn’t count), but decides to cast Strength on the Captain instead, to make her as good in a fight as the Knight.

Due to the relatively clear nature of the centre of the board, every monster can see the gang and starts running/shambling/floating towards them (delete as applicable). The pair of wolves that started in the centre of the board attack the Man at Arms (mostly because I forgot just how fast they move), but he cuts them both down in short order. At this point in my notes I wrote ‘I must sort out a replacement mini for him’, but if you’ve read my last blog post you know that’s not actually the case. The Wraith makes it into contact with the sacrificial Thug, but this takes both actions so it’s not able to attack this turn (aha, right into my trap!)

On the right, the Tracker sends an arrow towards the Ice Spiders scuttling towards them but doesn’t manage to land a hit. He then hustles into the cover of a nearby broken wall, to take up a better firing position to try again next turn. 

I start to wonder if I might have made a mistake leaving the right flank so lightly defended, and deliberate for a while about what to do with Thief and the Wolfhound. In the end, the Thief decides to stick to the original plan and sprints towards the treasure, trusting that Tim and his group are on their way to engage the Golem.

(On this day, humanity received a grim reminder… ah, you either get the reference or you don’t)

The Warhound meanwhile takes up position hiding behind a tree, planning to pounce on the Ice Spiders heading towards the Tracker next turn. Last but not least, the zombie starts making his way across the broken ground towards the Wraith, where if all goes well weight of numbers should be able to pull it down next turn.

At the end of the turn, a Snow Leopard enters on the right - I definitely should have sent more soldiers over to that side!

Muttering ‘I don’t get paid enough for this’ the Man at Arms dashes past the Thief to engage the Golem. In hindsight, I wish that I had deployed the Thug in Tim’s group rather than the Man at Arms who is now potentially about to get splatted by a massive angry Golem, but I can’t turn back time (yet), so it is what it is.

Seeing enemies building up to his right, Tim attempts to cast Grenade on the pair of Ice Spiders, but as usual fails miserably. Assuming that the Man at Arms is going to be fine holding off the Golem (that to be clear has been leaving a trail of bodies across the frozen city) the Barbarian dashes off to the right to join the Warhound behind the tree, ready to ambush the spiders. Then I remember that she is a barbarian, and and so her second action is spent dashing directly towards them rather than skulking (which will hopefully also draw the leopard away from the exposed Thief).

Tim cautiously advances, just close enough to the Golem to get the bonus XP for having a good look at it, but also pushes the Apothecary in front of him, just in case.

Then it is the Golem’s turn, and it’s time to see what happens in its fight with the man at Arms. I roll the dice with bated breath… and the Man at Arms rolls a 20 and wins the fight! This deals 10 damage to the Golem, and he pushes it back in the hopes of being able to make a break for it and escape next turn.

On the left, the Knight, zombie and Captain all bundle thenWraith, figuring that overwhelming numbers is probably the safest way to take it out.

The Knight attacks it first, but is dropped to 2 Health (curse that double damage!). The Captain then has a crack at it, and also loses (as having a magic sword, magically enhanced strength and outnumbering the foe 4 to 1 doesn’t help when you roll a 1), but luckily is saved from taking any damage by her armour. This isn’t going as well as I had hoped! The zombie doesn’t bother to fight, as he doesn’t have a magic weapon, he’s just there to make up numbers and provide an outnumbering bonus. Behind them, the Apprentice is a little worried, but still hopeful that the group will prevail against the Wraith, so uses his Gloves of Casting to cast Control Construct on one of the statues, and rolls a 20! Consulting Advanced Spellcraft, a critical on this spell means that it doesn’t count towards the usual ‘max 1 controlled xxx in your warband’ rule - nice!

In the Monster Phases, the bear that has been inevitably making it’s way across the board pushes past the Golem to stand in front of the Man at Arms, while over on the right flank the Snow Leopard pounces on the Barbarian. The first Ice Spider scuttles up to join this fight, which the Barbarian wins, but due to a low roll is only able to drop the spider to 1 Health. The second spider then also reaches her and has better luck, biting her for 3 damage and poisoning her.

The Wraith attempts to finish off the wounded Knight, but a much better roll means that he is able to slash through it with his magic sword (that I only at this point remember also has a Healing Potion in the hilt) and banish it back whence it came. 

The Thug, suddenly finding themself no longer engaged in combat, takes this opportunity go haring off towards the leftmost Treasure Token.

Back in the centre of the board, the recently animated statue dashes (well, I say dashes, I imagine it’s more of a slightly jerky Harryhausen stop motion effect) to engage the bear that is closing in on the Man at Arms, whilst also making themself coincidentally the closest target to the Golem. 

On the right, the Tracker makes a risky shot into the combat swirling around the vastly outnumbered Barbarian, figuring that there are so many enemies that statistically they are mostly likely to hit a viable target rather than their comrade. Luckily, they do, their arrow striking the Snow Leopard, although unfortunately he isn’t able to damage it. He dejectedly holsters (stows?) his bow and plunges in to join the melee, as does the Warhound, which savages the undamaged Ice Spider and tosses away it’s broken body. The turn ends, and no more monsters enter the board - phew!

Tim, considering bigger plans for the future, tries to cast Control Construct on the Golem, but rolls a 7, much lower than the 14 needed. Figuring that he may as well go big or go home, he sacrifices 11 points of Health to empower the spell (as the target has to make a roll against the casting number, so bigger is definitely better) , a risky move as the Golem still gets +6 on these rolls - and the Golem rolls a 1 and joins team Tim for a turn! Seeing blood literally dripping out of Tim’s ears (he is only on 4 Health at this point if I recall correctly), the Apothecary dumps a Healing Potion down his throat, while the Thief dashes over to grab the rightmost Treasure Token:

As she does so, a Ghoul enters the board over on the left side, just in front of the group of heavily armed maniacs that just took down a Wraith…

Under Tim’s control, the Golem smashes its fists down on the Bear’s back, dealing it 5 points of damage. Tim then has it back away, hoping that he can position it to do the least possible amount of damage next turn when it manages to shake off his control, sending it off to hug a tree:

Team Apprentice on the left flank has the Captain loose off an arrow at the newly appeared Ghoul, scoring a critical hit and slaying it instantly. Satisfied with this, she then starts off towards the right hand side of the field to try to rescue the Barbarian, followed (much more slowly) by the Knight. The Apprentice tags along behind them, pausing only to cast Control Construct on the statue nearest to the Golem, hoping to use it as a sacrificial pawn to buy the rest of the gang time to grab the rest of the treasure and get out. Thanks to the use of his Ring of Power and sacrificing 3 points of Health, he succeeds.

Ahead of them, the beleaguered Barbarian is attacked by the leopard, but manages to slap it down to 1 Health - if only she had a magic weapons or some Gloves of Strength to have been able to finish it off! The remaining Ice Spider also attempts to sink its fangs into her, and is swatted in response.

In the centre, the Bear smashes the controlled statue to pieces, leaving it and the Man at Arms half an inch apart, while the Thug grabs a Treasure Token. Luckily, no more monsters appear at this point. 

Back with the Barbarian, the Warhound runs up and attacks the Snow Leopard, but isn’t able to land any telling blows. Seizing the advantage granted by this distraction, the Barbarian chops the legs out from under the leopard, slaying it. The Tracker, now with no threats in their immediate vicinity, takes the opportunity to attempt a tricky shot on the bear, over a low wall and past the Man at Arms which lands true, dropping the Bear to 2 Health. Seeing this, the Man at Arms who had previously been considering making a run for it instead charges in to try to finish it off. He probably should have made a run for it, as he loses the fight, but luckily does not take any damage thanks to his armour.

Finally, the zombie lurches forward to shield the Apprentice from the Golem with his body. The turn ends, and again no new monsters enter the field.

Seeing that there are very few enemies left, Tim feels like it is probably time to start wrapping things up. He attempts to cast Grenade to finish off the heavily wounded Bear, but fails badly enough that empowering the spell to turn it into a successful casting would leave him on the brink of death, so doesn’t. Somewhat sheepishly, he tucks himself behind a wall lest any more monsters appear and attack him in his fragile state. As this is happening, the Apothecary (having already used his Healing Potion on Tim) climbs the fountain ahead of them to grab the central Treasure Token, and as he does so a pair of Ice Spiders enter the table behind them, from the same edge that the gang entered on.

The Golem, managing to shake off Tim’s magical control, launches a rock at the statue recently animated by the Apprentice. Unable to destroy it in a single blow like the previous one, this time it charges in to try to finish the job:

The Apprentice suddenly remembers that they know the spell Slow, which is ideal for using on particularly deadly single monsters, and so probably would have been great to cast earlier. He figures at this point though it’s probably too late to make much of a difference, and initially planned to Leap the zombie into that combat to provide the Man at Arms some backup, but again I remembered that you can’t use it to enter combat. Checking Advance Spellcraft, you can actually learn to do that, so that might be something to consider for the future… he casts Grenade on the Bear (well, technically on a point about an inch behind it, but you know what I mean), and as ever despite the spell being successfully cast, it fails to do any damage. The Knight steps into the broken doorway in the centre, between Tim and spiders, backed up by the zombie and Captain.

Behind him, in the centre, the Bear rears up and delivers a massive blow to the Man at Arms, dropping him to 1 Health.

On either flank, the Thug and Thief both leave with a Treasure Token apiece. I wonder if I should start using the non-solo Treasure Token rules, where anyone carrying one is encumbered and slowed, rather than the rules from Perilous Dark I think where you aren’t? Something to ponder…

The poisoned Barbarian vaults the wall ahead of her and sets off towards the Bear, but is overtaken by the Warhound who is able to make it into combat next to the Man at Arms. The Tracker picks off one of the spiders bearing down on the Knight with a well-placed arrow, then moves off after the Barbarian and Warhound towards the Bear.

At this point I suddenly realise that I missed the spiders in the Monster Phase - and also remember that the Knight is only on 2 Health, so probably wasn’t the best person to hold the door! The spider scuttles up and almost inevitably bites him for 3 points of damage, taking him out of action. If only he’d used an action to drink the mini Healing Potion in the hilt of his sword (that heals 2 points of Health), but he’s so much slower than the rest of the gang that he ends up using all of his spare actions running to keep up!

Finding himself unusually alone and on 1 Health, Tim chugs his own Healing Potion and again tries to cast Grenade on the Bear. Again, he fails badly enough that he hurts himself for 1 point of damage - lucky he had that potion or he would have taken himself out of action!

Congregating in the middle of the board, the Apprentice sends the zombie to engage the spider now looking hungrily at the Captain over the body of the Knight, and while he originally planned to cast Leap on the Apothecary to catapult him vaguely towards the table edge and escaping with the last Treasure Token, but I realised that where he hadn’t activated yet this turn he’d actually get further under his own steam, so the Apprentice instead casts Grenade near the spider, finally succeeding st killing something with it.

The Bear attacks the badly wounded Man at Arms (which reminds me, I must remember to apply wounded penalties to models on 4 or fewer Health), but is cut down, leaving no monsters except the Golem left on the board.

The Apothecary scrambles down the fountain and legs it as fast as he can away from the Golem, and everyone else consolidates to facilitate making a fighting retreat while protecting the spellcasters. The plucky Warhound runs off in the opposite direction, towards the leftmost board edge, trying to draw the Golem away from the rest of the group while they make their escape. As he does so, a powerful Ice Toad hops onto the board just ahead of it.

In the next turn, the Apothecary books it off the board with the last Treasure Token, while the attacker makes an incredible long ranged shot and takes the Ice Toad out of action - unfortunately no one is near enough to harvest it’s webbed feet for spellcasting components, but sometimes the risk just isn’t worth the reward. 

Tim attempts to cast Control Construct on the Golem again, but this time it is resisted, and in response the Golem absolutely obliterates the Warhound with a thrown rock, before stomping up to poke at it’s broken body with it’s huge stone fists. The Apprentice then attempts to cast the same spell, and cuts to empower it to 18, and the Golem is controlled again! The Apprentice sends it stomping off in the opposite direction, and the gang use this chance to make good their escape.

Post-game:

Both the Warhound and the Knight survive - phew!

The Captain gains 30 XP, not enough to level up again yet. Tim earns 332, capped at 300, enough to gain 3 levels. He boosts his Will by +1 (as both Health and Fight are at their maximum, and he vaguely remembers his Mortal Enemy having a spell that requires a Will roll), learns the spell Wizard Eye from a Grimoire in his vault, and then makes the spell Brew Potion easier to cast, as they need to start replenishing their supply of Healing Potions! He should probably invest in a Giant. Auldron for his base, with that in mind… He had originally considered making the spell Control Construct easier to cast, as his immediate future includes plans to go and Control a Construct, but figured that the way the spell works the higher you roll the better, so making it easier to cast on the Golem is slightly counterintuitive.

Rooting around the dusty corners of the Treasury where the gang make their base turns up 11 GC, and the treasure gathered during the game turns up an assortment of lose change, a Grimoire containing the spell Bone Dart that can be used to improve that spell as they already know it, and a magic crossbow. He initially considers selling that last item, but instead stashes it in the vault - he had a cross bow user in the gang before who died, so maybe will again if someone else gets unlucky… all in, once the Captain has taken their cut, he is left with 194 GC, still not enough to invest in a Giant Cauldron…

Next time - Tim figures he’s probably got the hang of it now, and is surely a powerful enough practitioner of terrible magics that he can probably definitely succeed in bending the Golem to his will where so many others have failed, so he should probably go and do that…

The adventures of Tim the Necromancer: The Attack Site

Having successfully looted a lost library, Tim decided to follow up on rumours of a golem that has seemingly mysteriously emerged from the undercity and started rampaging through the frozen city, feeling like that was something he wanted for himself.

With that in mind, I set up the board to look like a camp set up in the shell of a destroyed building in the depths of the frozen city:

I also tried to have some corners of buildings facing outwards at the edge of the board, to make it look like this was just a slice of a much larger area, than my usual fare which has a bunch of buildings in a self-contained square, if that makes sense.

As usual, I rolled to see if Tim’s Mortal Enemy would make an appearance, and again it was a no. The thing is, each time they don’t appear, it becomes more likely they will next time, so it’s only a matter of time… with that out of the way, I went about setting up some monsters. I figured that it would make sense thematically to have a Ghoul starting in contact with each of the 5 corpse counters, then rolled randomly to see what would start in the centre of the three table edges that didn’t feature Tim and the gang. Left to right, I deployed an Ice Toad, a Pair of zombies, and an Ice Spider.

Then it was time for Tim and his companions to deploy, and as ever they split up into three groups - Tim, backed up by the Apothecary, Barbarian and Tracker in the centre; the Apprentice, with the thug Knight and Man at Arms over on the left; and the Captain, accompanied by the Thief and Warhound, making up Team Speedy over on the right.

I then remembered to cast Tim’s pre-game spells, and he and the Apprentice once again successfully brewed a pair of Healing Potions to replace the ones that they sold after the last game. Flicking through Advanced Spellcraft while setting up (as I’d belatedly remembered that I was planning to start using those rules once Tim had plundered the Library, but hadn’t actually gotten around to cracking the new book open), I learned that it turns out you can’t sell homemade stuff on wizard Etsy any more, so I shouldn’t have actually been able to afford that a Grimoire last game. Ah well, I also learned that I could have learned a Flourish on Shield rather than selling the duplicated Grimoire, so c’est la vie. To follow this up, Tim successfully raised a zombie to join the gang on their excursion, and then it was go time!

Tim kicks things up by advancing bravely forwards, positioning himself so that he can cast a spell on the nearest Ghoul whilst still shielding himself from other Ghouls by positioning his Apothecary between himself and them. The Barbarian and the zombie both also advance on the first Ghoul, just on the off chance spells don’t get the job done (plus, Tim feels like if anyone has to turn over a corpse to look for loot, it should probably be the easily replaceable zombie). Tim casts Control Undead on the Ghoul, and succeeds in bending it to his will, satisfactorily. 

The Apprentice then moves up, using the Thug as his own personal human (well, some sort of freaky toad-man) shield, and casts Leap on the newly controlled Ghoul, sending it flying over to the Ice Toad that was hungrily eyeing the rest of the gang. I originally thought I was being smart and could launch it directly into combat, but rereading the spell card revealed that wasn’t the case, so I dropped it directly in front of it instead.

In the Monster Phase, a couple of Ghouls could now see the gang and ran straight at them - it turned out that I had misjudged the distance somewhat, as one of them was able to get into contact with the Apothecary. Side note - in terms of the Ghouls activating, I decided that any Ghoul that didn’t have line of sight to a member of Tim’s gang that was on a Corpse Token would stay there, continuing to eat, rather than moving randomly). The wild zombies, however, couldn’t see anyone so largely shambled around ineffectually. 

The Ice Toad on the left however hopped forwards and attacked the controlled Ghoul that had just appeared in front of it, losing 1 Health for its troubles. At the same time over on the right flank, the Ice Spider, unable to see the group just the other side of a wall to it’s left and instead scuttles into the camp in the centre of the board, ending up near to the gang’s zombie.

Back with the gang, the Tracker takes aim at a Ghoul that is bearing down on the Barbarian, and scores a solid hit and drops it to 1 Health, a feat then replicated by the Captain over on the right flank with a Ghoul of their own. She and the Warhound then charge in to finish it off, which they do with ease - my dice luck seems to have reversed from the last game, and now the monsters were the ones only able to roll single digits! With the way now clear, the Thief moves up to take cover behind a wall, trying desperately not to get spotted by the Ice Spider.

At the end of the turn, a single Giant Rat enters on the same board edge as the gang did, leaving Tim and the Tracker at risk of being attacked from behind…

At this point in the game, I realised that I’d been mixing up the rules for Group Activation with being able to activate multiple figures in thenWizard and Apprentice phases - so my Tracker is hopefully going to become a lot more effective now that I didn’t think I had to move as his first action!

Tim motions for the zombie to attack the Ghoul currently trying to chew on his Apothecary, and it rolls a 1 in combat, and is immediately destroyed by the Ghoul. The Tracker feels torn - should he rush in to help the Apothecary, or trymtomfinishnoffnthenghoul he shot last turn? Now that I remember the rules correctly, he can try both, and takes out the Ghoul with an arrow before running over to engage the Ghoul attacking the Apothecary. The Apothecary, bolstered by this reinforcement, thumps the Ghoul with his staff, dropping it to 3 Health.

Tim, figuring that the Barbarian should be able to rush in and finish off the Ghoul in a second, attempts to cast the Strength spall and fails badly. He then also moves in to engage the Ghoul, figuring that if worst comes to worse they can hopefully drag it down with weight of numbers.

On the left, the Thug steps up to investigate the corpse at the Barbarian’s feet (again, he’s more expendable than she is) and he discovers a Treasure Token! Unfortunately, as he picks it up two wolves enter the board, just behind the Ice Toad, and suddenly things aren’t looking so hot for the controlled Ghoul…

The Barbarian, being more interested in hitting things with her massive sword than investigating, instead charges into the surrounded Ghoul by Tim and promptly cuts it down. Over on the left flank, the Knight and Man at Arms both sprint up to engage the Ice Toad, and in doing so block the advance of the onrushing wolves with their bodies.

The Apprentice is torn - at times like this, he would usually always raise a zombie, feeling most comfortable having as many bodies as possible between himself and danger, but on the other hand he suspected that if the Knight and Man at Arms fell there would be multiple dangers coming his way, so he clicked the fingers of his Gloves of Casting and cast Strength on the Man at Arms, so that he and the Knight would have an equal chance to survive their combats.

In the now slightly complex melee on the left (between and Ice Toad, two Wolves, a controlled Ghoul, and the Knight and Man at Arms), the Wolves charged into the Knight and Man at Arms - the Knight dealt a mighty blow to his canine foe, but the a man at Arms was unable to do anything other than furiously defend themself. The Ice Toad then clamped its powerful jaws onto the controlled Ghoul, taking him out instantaneously with a Critical Hit! This also unfortunately leaves the Knight and Man at Arms now separately outnumbered:

The Ice Spider, seemingly unaware of the life and death struggle happening on the other side of the board, scuttles forwards to attack the Captain and is killed for its temerity. The Captain then proceeds to harvest it’s venom (I should probably try to learn the spell Poison Dart at some point, as were building up a stash of these ingredients that make casting that spell easier). 

The Giant Rat that has snuck on behind the gang scrabbles through the rubble, and reaches the Apothecary.

With their way now clear, the Thief rushed up and investigated another Corpse Token, revealing a second treasure.

Unfortunately for her, a Minor Demon then appeared on the board to her right…

Figuring that this new threat was much worse than the single Giant Rat that they could otherwise see, the Captain ran up to the Thief and loosed an arrow at the demon, but to no avail. The Warhound then bravely ran up and interposed himself between the ladies and the oncoming demon. 

Seeing that his left flank looked to be on the verge of crumbling, Tim cast Strength on the Barbarian (using his Staff of Power to turn a failed casting into a success) and sent her to reinforce the Knight and Man at Arms, although she couldn’t quite make it into the combat. He then stepped back to help the Apothecary fight the Giant Rat, which unfortunately nipped the Apothecary for 2 damage.

In the centre, the Tracker was just able to see the Minor Demon, and while he was able to hit it with an arrow, wasn’t able to do it any damage. He lamented the lack of magic bows found in these parts so far! He then strode back to engage the Giant Rat fighting the Apothecary and Tim, in the hopes of being able to take it out in a later phase.

The Apprentice activated, but only had the Thug nearby, who took off and left the board, Treasure Token in tow. This left the Apprentice worryingly alone, which he wasn’t a huge fan of, so he clambered through the crater towards the swirling melee on the left and raised a zombie (although he had to expend the power from his Ring of Power and cut for 2 points of damage in order to successfully cast the easiest spell he knew). Hopefully the Knight and Man at Arms could hold out long enough for the zombie to be able to reinforce them!

On the right hand side, the Minor Demon and a Ghoul rush Team Speedy, but is unable to damage the Wolfhound, who pushes back the demon in order to give the Captain an opening to peg it with an arrow.

Back on the left, the two wolves attack their opponents - the Knight is able to cut down his wounded opponent, but the Man at Arms is less lucky and is bitten for 3 damage. He is luckier when the Ice Toad attacks him though, as a lucky blow manages to finish it off. With the big melee now looking a lot smaller, the gang’s zombie instead redirects to head towards a wild zombie that has almost reached the Barbarian:

The Knight steps up and cuts down the last Wolf, leaving the Man at Arms free to duck through the ruined doorway next to them and attack the zombie that our zombie was closing in on. He probably should have waited for reinforcements though, as it deals him a mighty blow, dropping him to only 4 Health.

While all this is going on, the Giant Rat attacks the Apothecary again, but is outnumbered 3 to 1 at this point and is easily cut down.

Back on the right flank, the Captain uses her Steady Hand skill to shoot at the Minor Demon, but I roll a 2, which even with the additional +3 isn’t enough to do anything useful. Resigning herself to her fate, she draws her sword and rushes to engage it. The Warhound sprints to join her, but I roll a 1 on that combat.

The Thief, deciding that discretion was the better part of valour, looks a little apologetic as she books it off the board with a Treasure Token rather than joining the fight, especially as there is also a Ghoul still closing in on them…

As the turn ends, an angry looking boar enters on the left, just behind the Knight. 

Tim, suddenly remembering that they were here to investigate, not get dragged into a series of knock down drag out fights, decided that he needed to get a bit of a move on. Firstly, he attempted to cast Control Undead on a lone zombie near one of the Corpse Tokens, but I rolled a 1, for a critical failure, a new rule introduced in Advanced Spellcraft. Checking the book, it just means that Tim can’t try and control this particular zombie again - fair enough, I had visions of it accidentally buffing it or something! He then heads off towards the right hand side of the board, taking the Apothecary with him, as it seemed like the Captain might need a little help against the Minor Demon. The attacker then trailed along behind him, loosing off an arrow at the same zombie that Tim failed to ensorcel, but wasn’t able to hit it.

On the left, figuring that it was better to attack the boar before it could bring it’s tusks into play against the Knight, the Barbarian charged in - both combatants dealt each other damage, leaving the Barbarian on 5 Health and the boar on only 1.

Meanwhile, the Apprentice tries to control the other zombie (the one currently fighting the Man at Arms) but failed, as after his negative spellcasting modifier his total was… zero. 

The Minor Demon attacks the Warhound and crits, taking it out of action, as the last Ghoul on the board closes on the Captain.

On the left, a wild zombie shambles to join its companion, while the Man at Arms is dropped down to 4 Health. The boar attempts to strike the Barbarian, but is chopped into bacon bits. The Knight rushes forward to join the beleaguered Man at Arms, as does the gang’s zombie, who is able to successfully cut down one of their foes. 

The Captain, realising that this is literally the definition of a do or die situation, uses her Furious Attack skill to attack the Minor Demon, dealing an impressive 11 points of damage to it, leaving it on a single point of Health. As I frantically double checked the warband sheet to make sure that I hadn’t missed a modifier somewhere, I realised that the Captain is wearing Gloves of Strength, which means that she does +1 damage whenever she wins a combat - the Minor Demon was dead! She then rushed back towards Tim to escape the clutches of the Ghoul that was all too close nearby.

For the first time all game, no new monsters came onto the board at the end of the turn. Reassured by this and surrounded by comrades, the Captain turned and smoothly put an arrow between the eyes of the last Ghoul. Shrugging, she headed towards the most distant Corpse Token, counting hope against hope that no more monsters were going to jump her. Seeing this, Tim cast Leap to send her flying towards it (although he has to spend 4 Health to turn his failed casting into a success). He and the Apprentice then advanced on the Corpse Token in the centre of the board. As they did this, the Tracker sprinted towards another Corpse Token, happy not to be noticed by the last zombie:

That zombie however shambles forwards onto the waiting blade of the Man at Arms, losing 1 Health, only for the Knight to step forwards and finish the job, and with no monsters now left on the board everyone takes this opportunity to consolidate their positions. 

The Man at Arms clambers up a ruin to investigate a pair of dismembered legs:

and finds the Golem Notes (that in hindsight I’d made a special token for). Another side note - I really need to make a proper Man at Arms miniature for the gang to replace this one that is actually borrowed from Tim’s Mortal Enemy’s gang!

At this point I suddenly realised that I’d accidentally skipped activating the Apprentice, which shuffled around a bit and cast Strength on the gang’s zombie, just in case anything untoward happened upon their investigating a Corpse Token. Having found the Golem Notes though, the gang decide to head out before anything else can menace them, as I realised that it’s only zombies or survivors left to find on the Corpse Token table, neither of which I was particularly fussed about. 

Post-game:

Another Warhound dies, and again Tim quickly replaces it with a new one before anyone can notice.

Between clearing the field, claiming two Treasure Tokens and killing a bunch of monsters, Tim walks away with 295 XP. He spends 300 to gain 3 levels, gaining +1 Fight, improving his Control Construct spell (as having seen the destructive power of the golem, Tim wants some of that!), then learns the spell Animate Skull from a Grimoire. I know that spell is kind of useless in solo play, as it spawns an uncontrolled monster that will just start attacking the gang, but one: it’s on theme, and two: if we can find another copy of that Grimoire, we can add a flourish to the spell that means it spawns a monster as part of the gang instead…

The Captain, having had a much more productive game than last time, gains 40XP and levels up to level 4, learning the skill Coup de Grace just in case she comes across any more demons that need slaying!

In terms of treasure, Tim finds a Ring of Power, which he swaps of his Ring of Will for, and a between the a treasury, selling a boar tusk and finding a small pile of gold - once the Captain has taken her (higher now that she has levelled up) cut, it leaves Tim 59 GC to put in the vault.

Not the most profitable expedition into the frozen city ever undertaken, but Tim is one step closer to being the proud owner of a weapon a magical destruction, he just knows it…