More Frostgrave

I played another game of Frostgrave against Grim the other day.  This time we played The Keep, using the splendid teleportation discs made by JP on his Tales of Frostgravery blog.  We decided to keep to the first edition rules for now and continued with our warbands from last game.
Hakon was without some of his better soldiers, the knight and the tracker, wounded and resting for the duration, and a thug and a man-at-arms who died in the ruins last time.  He hired a templar and an infantryman to make up for their loss.  Orangorn had been spending on various potions and scrolls to give himself an advantage, but how well would his planning pay off?

The scenario is an interesting one, with four teleportation discs, each with a treasure on it.  There is a 75% chance that a disc will teleport anyone stepping on it to another random disc.  This gives a wizard an experience boost if he or she is personally teleported by a disc.

The ruins of the keep

Orangorn's warband.  Note the crossbowman on top of the arch

Hakon's band ready to explore

Opening moves, Orangorn's woman-at-arms is the first to try one of the discs

The core of Hakon's strategy.  Keep a magic and missile base, while the rest go after treasure

Thugs from both sides begin claiming treasure

Orangor's new knight faces the blinded templar

Orangorn's thug grabs a treasure, while a rat menaces Jonrik

A great fun game. We felt the scenario really added to the experience.   Highlights included Halfdan Pushing the crossbowman off his arch right at the beginning of the game.  Hakon taking out the bold (wo)man-at-arms who's experiment with the disc took her right in front of the wizard.  No time for fancy spells, Hakon took her out with a wallop from his staff.  One of my archers also got a lucky critical against the new knight.  Hakon himself braved the teleport discs as well, and after a failed try, they took him right in front of Orangorn and the battered crossbowman.  Fortunately, the game ended (time constraints, alas) at the end of that turn, so we assumed the two wizards stared hard and menacingly at each other, then backed off.

It certainly didn't go all my way.  Once again Orangorn made good use of Wizard Eye, and this time proved adept at Blinding Light.  At one time three of my soldiers were blind, and with casting numbers of 17, 17 and 20, I was lucky to get even one back in play.  Worse, one of the blinded solders was my new templar, who I had high hopes for, with Strength giving him a bonus, along with an Enchanted Weapon and Fleet Feet (which I mistakenly cast after he was blinded, having forgotten).

Some of Orangorn's spending had been on teleport potions, which proved doubly interesting when used to teleport onto a teleport disc.  We couldn't decide if it helped or hindered, but it certainly made the game great fun.

In the end I had put four enemy soldiers out of action, for the loss of one.  Fortunately everyone survived, though my Infantryman will have to miss the next game.  None of us actually got treasures off the table, but I had claimed three to Grim's one.  We have house ruled that in such circumstances we get the treasure value, but not the experience.

Hakon gained sufficient experience to rise to level 6, thanks mostly to his trip on the disc and taking out the woman-at-arms.  Orangorn has got to level 5.  Hakon did well treasure-wise, though he was disappointed to find that both grimoires he found contained spells he already knew.  He has traded both of them for one grimoire with a new spell.

I'm not sure when we will get another Frostgrave game in, but this has been a great couple of games, and has helped cement Frostgrave as one of my favourite fantasy skirmish systems.  I'll admit to wondering if I could use the new Fistful of Lead fantasy rules instead of the actual Frostgrave rules to give a similar experience, but I think I'll stick with this.  I will, of course, play the fantasy FfoL anyway, in fact, Bodvoc and I are planning a game for October.

Showoff

Here's the Frostgrave warband I call the Sons of Empire (for fairly obvious reasons).

Spot the thief hiding in the shadows.

I haven't got names for them yet, but I am starting to think of some kind of background.

They are all GW plastic minis, mostly from the rather well designed old Empire Militia sprues.  There are far more that I need for one warband, but I wanted to provide some extra soldier types both for variety in warband make up, and for improvements when the gold allows.  That and its great fun coming up with ideas on how to use the sprues to make the different types.  I've already thought of a templar build and if I can source one of the old plastic chaos marauders I can have a barbarian too.

As they have relatively little in the way of cold weather gear they should work nicely as Ghost Archipelago crew as well.  

They are posing on some terrain I made for the current D&D adventure.  A set of ramps and platforms that make up various sized step pyramids, a feature of the current dungeon.  They will also make interesting blocking terrain for Frostgrave, and should be right at home in Ghost Archipelago.

They were all cut from pink XPS foam and scribed using first a knife then a pencil.  Texture added with a ball of scrunched up foil,  strengthened with Mod Podge then painted with tester pots of paint (much cheaper than model paints and fine for this sort of project). I may add a thin black wash to pick out the details and darken them a bit, but I rather like the stone colour.

Now how do I log the terrain in my challenge?  How about a separate category

Current totals for November

Bought 1 (the survivor)
Painted 11 (Frostgrave warbands)
Sold/traded 8 (5 dwarf berserkers and 3 lesser obsidian golems)
Terrain and modelling 1 ancient ziggurat set (11 pieces)

Frostgrave - Ready for the Frozen City

Astute readers will have noticed two of my new Frostgrave minis demonstrating the use of clothes-pegs the other day.  Well that batch is finished now, so here are the rest of two Frostgrave warbands.

Firstly the Sons of Empire wizard and his apprentice.  Both GW plastic figures.  The chap with the rather fine dragon staff came free with an old White Dwarf and I believe was also used in a version of the Talisman board game.  His apprentice was, I think, from Advanced Heroquest.  If I can find one, I'd like to replace the apprentice with the wizard from the original Heroquest.

Three specialist troops for the Sons of Empire; thief, man-at-arms and crossbowman

The wizard and apprentice for the Men of the North.  These are actual Frostgrave minis from North Star.  I thought they fitted nicely the dark age/Viking look of the rest of the band.  I might even manage to use them in a game of Blood Eagle.

Men of the North thief and barbarian

Men of the North infantryman and man-at-arms

The Men of the North were a mix of Wargames Factory Vikings and bits box bits.  The rather sinister head on the thief is from the Frostgrave cultists box.  The Wargames Factory minis have less interesting poses than the Gripping Beast ones I used for the rest of the band, but they do have a useful leather armoured body.  The barbarian is an old GW metal Viking Berserker.  I used to have this mini years ago.  A good friend gave me a replacement, I altered it to have a double axe rather than a sword and shield.  These should all fit nicely into games of Blood Eagle as well as Frostgrave.

Although these took some time to finish, I really enjoyed painting and modelling them.  I didn't go for any form of uniform, but the Sons of Empire all have some yellow as a distinguishing mark.  I would think something like this is pretty important in the ruins of Felstadt.  

I'd like to call this project finished and move on to other things, but already I have had ideas for other soldier types for each warband.

Anyway;  current totals for November

Bought 1 (the survivor)
Painted 11 (Frostgrave warbands)
Sold/traded 8 (5 dwarf berserkers and 3 lesser obsidian golems)

Which puts me nicely ahead.  I've also got a simple modelling project that I'll get photoed and up here in the next few days.

Warbands

It should be no secret to my reader(s) that I like skirmish games.  The small size of the forces is a definite plus; you can get playing that much sooner.  I also think it's easier to tell a story within the game, as the miniatures are more like personalities.
Frostgrave is one such, and a while ago I showed my warband made up of various prepainted minis, mostly from the old WotC D&D line.  This warband was only ever meant to be a 'get-me-by' until I got round to painting one from scratch.  Now I am well on the way to finishing two warbands, on the grounds that its easier to show the game to someone with a warband ready for them to play.
For 'reasons' I am theming each warband; this is what I have so far.

Warband 1 'Sons of Empire'.  These are made up of old GW figures, mostly the rather excellent Empire Militia (formerly the Mordheim humans).  These minis are ideal for Frostgrave, although perhaps they need a scarf or something.  They will also do for Ghost Archipelago, and D&D as well.  this picture shows four of the thugs, before I remembered that thugs are supposed to be unarmoured.  I'm sure if I make it clear what the are, no one will mind.

More of the 'Sons of Empire'.  (l to r) Another thug, a knight, borrowing a torso and shield from the Empire command options on the spearmen/handgunners sprue, and two archers.

Warband 2, 'The Men of the North'.  These are Gripping Beast Dark Age Warriors and Archers.  (l to r) two thugs and two archers

More 'Men of the North (l to r) knight and three thugs.  More Gripping Beast.

The Men of the North will, of course, fit into my Blood Eagle games as well, so they are nicely versatile.  No wizards yet, they and their apprentices are still on the painting table, along with reinforcements for both bands.  That's the problem.  Once I start thinking of ways to show the different soldier types, I can't stop.  Already both bands have thieves, men-at-arms and infantrymen on their way to being finished.

These aren't for Frostgrave though.  That said, there's no reason why not.  This is the sample goblin warband for the alpha rules of Kings of War: Vanguard.  I rooted around among my KoW goblins and found what I needed, along with some reinforcements from Dungeon Saga.  Just about all these will find a place in my KoW collection as well as being good for Vanguard, so yet more versatility.

I like the look of the rules so far, and want to try them soon, though I have a DeadZone campaign to finish off first.  I suppose I should get an opposing force as well.  At around a dozen minis that shouldn't be too hard.

Finished Skald

Finally, the skald is finished, along with his boss, the Warchief Hagar.

Hagar is made up from Gripping Beast's Viking Hirdmen sprue.  I am not entirely happy with his shield design, but I can get back to it at a later date, as he was rushed somewhat.

The skald, details of his construction can be found here

From this angle the shield appears too big, but in real life it looks more appropriate.

Next up are a Berserk and a Veteran.  The former is a converted Wargames Foundry metal mini.  So old that I remember it as an old Citadel miniature back when they had a small historical range.

I have also been looking at a completely fantasy Viking band made up of Reaper Bones, horned helmets and all.

In the search for the perfect skirmish system I have recently looked at A Song of Blades and Heroes. I have heard much about this system, and it does have some appealing aspects, but I have yet to actually play, and it may lack some of the detail I expect.  Please comment if you have any experience of the game, either good or bad.

A Teller of Tales, Blood Eagle Skald

Inspired by my first couple of games of Blood Eagle, I have started my own warband.
I am using the Viking Raiders list for now, partly because I used it in the trial games, and partly because it gives me the chance to use one of my favourite saga characters, Egil.

One figure that impressed me in the first game was the skald.  A lore master, teller of tales and user of wyrd powers.  The Second Sight power was particularly useful in the first game, and I wish I had kept it.
The borrowed skald was a robed type with a staff; very Dark Ages wizard looking, but I wanted something that emphasised a youthful wanderer, quite able to take care of himself in the wilds if need be.  He also had to have the equipment listed (leather byrnie, shield and short sword).

Digging around I found the following;

Conquest Games Medieval Archers provided the body and the arms, the head was from the Gripping Beast Dark Age Warriors set, the scabbarded short sword was from Wargames Factory, though any sword would do, I liked this one as it was noticeably shorter than the ones on the Gripping Beast Vikings sprue.  Mantic Games' elves provided a (slightly anachronistic) harp.

All stuck together with green stuff to aid the position of his left arm and provide a neck; Gripping Beast and Conquest bodies and heads don't play nicely together without assistance.

Once everything is set and dry I'll get round to painting him.  He will get a shield slung across his back once he has been painted.

I am particularly pleased with his pose; not fighting, but proclaiming something.  No doubt he has just played a chord on his harp and is telling the saga of his lord.

Quest for the Perfect Skirmish

I have been searching for a long time for the perfect skirmish system.  By that I mean something that gives a fun, fast game, and ideally something that is adaptable to many different settings and backgrounds.
An experience or advancement mechanism would also be great (I have fond memories of the old GW Battle Systems in Middle Earth, specifically the Battle companies variant).
Recently I tried Savage Worlds' skirmish game called Showdown (available free on their website here).  I tried a game against my good friend 'Merlin' in North Yorkshire on one of our irregular gaming days.  He came up with the scenario and I brought the rules.  His elves were trying (ultimately futilely) to prevent my orcs desecrating a sacred well.

Elves and orcs face off across the forest glade

Elven bowfire initially seems ridiculously effective, wiping out a whole unit of orc archers.

The two forces clash

Now the orcs love of the fight comes to the fore

Eventually the elves are slain or driven off.  the death of their leader is the final blow, and the rest fade away into the woods.

The game was fun, and the scenario was excellent as it forced the elves to move to contact the orcs rather than just stand back and shoot, while the orcs had to stay close to the well rather than chase elves down in the forests.

However, the game took virtually all the allotted playing time, partly due to unfamiliarity with the rules, of course, but also there seemed to be a lot of overly fiddly bits.  I suspect this is due to the system's birth in the Savage Worlds Role Playing Game (an excellent system, by the way).

Somehow, it wasn't quite for us, and every time one of us thought of a way of simplifying the rules, the other decided it wasn't quite right.

Fast forward a few weeks, and we got another gaming day.  This time, at Merlin's suggestion, we tried Blood Eagle from the Ministry of Gentlemanly Warfare.

This ruleset is an adaptation of In Her Majesty's Name from Osprey.  This is a Victorian era Steampunk game, and one I bought some time ago, but have never got round to really looking at.  IHMN is itself an adaptation of In the Emperor's Name, a skirmish game set in the WH40K universe.

Blood Eagle uses (as far as I can tell) the same rules engine, but is set in the Dark Ages and focuses on small warbands with a basic alignment towards either Christianity or Paganism.

Merlin provided the figures from his collection, and I provided the table (and lunch).  We managed two games, both great fun and full of cinematic moments, such as the lone Saxon in the first game who just would not die, or my skald using his Wyrd powers to shatter a huscarl's shield.
Both games were simple 'slog-it-out' battles of Saxons vs Viking raiders. Honours even at the end of the day.  While we forgot some things (like Run, doh), we learnt more as play progressed.

Vikings advance through the woods towards the waiting Saxons, while the berserk flanks around the mead hall.

The Saxon archer takes aim while his colleagues wish they had known they could Run.  The rather overweight priest was the first to remember this.

More Saxons hiding in the fir trees.

The Saxon view of the invaders.

As the two forces clash, a Saxon Fyrdman is slain at the foot of the (obsidian, definitely not only undercoated) monument to Thor.

The second game was just as much fun, even though I got tabled.  I misplaced my camera for most of the game, hence only the one pic.

In conclusion, Blood Eagle provides us with a fast, fun play experience.  The rules are simple enough to learn, but complex enough to reward tactical thinking.  The force sizes are about what I was looking for, and the upsurge in plastic figures recently is great for this kind of 'wysiwyg' game.  

I will definitely dig out IHMN and some of my old EoD figures.  I am also thinking this might be the ruleset on which to base my ideas for a Boarder Reiver skirmish campaign.