Before I start, first let me apologise for the very bright figures, they were painted about 15 years ago when I was into bright colours!
At the club yesterday 4 of us sat down to play Frostgrave.
Ian who had to make his warband and wizard on the day, played a "Witch".
Relfy who purchased the rules Played a Necromancer.
Kev who read the rules Played an Elementalist
While I played an Enchanter. I have yet to read the rules but I have watched a few youtube games so I did have a clue.
Firstly let me say I did get lucky on the starting out of game spell casting, And did manage to summon a medium and a small construct (Wizard and apprentice each rolled high, so my starting force was. (all seen in the first picture, and all from other games mostly from my "Empire" Army, dressed in the red and Blue of Altdorf!)
- 1 Wizard (Enchanter) With the feather.
- 1 Apprentice Holding a scroll
- 3 Infantry each with a halberd (2 handed weapon)
- 3 Archers (bows and daggers)
- 1 Medium construct (the Warmachine chicken robot!)
- 1 Small construct. (The chest)
One of my pregame decisions was to go for spells that were easy to cast. In fact I went for the following: (Enchanter)- Animate Construct- enchant armour- Telekinesis, (Witch) Poison dart.
(Elementalist) Wall. (Sigilist) Absorb Knowledge. And "Leap" and "Heal" from neutral schools. This would mean that no spell would be more than 14+ (d20) even for an apprentice so I should be able to get most of them cast IF I chose to enhance them.
I was informed we were starting the campaign so my tactics were to just grab the loot and leap the soldiers off of the board. At the end of the game though they all decided that the campaign would start next time!!! (In Fairness to Ian he wanted that from the very start, but Kev and Relfie.... not so much!) That's my little gripe over but I would have played the game differently if I had n
known from the start. Still I can see the logic of a pre-campaign game to get us used to it so not really too much of an issue!
WE all played on 1/2 a table tennis table, each on one side but no figure could be targeted if they had not been activated. The terrain was a real mix and match, a little of everything, So while it may not look all that good it did serve it's purpose very well by breaking up the board. All the shots were taken from where I sat, with Relfie on the left, Ian Opposite and Kev on my right. Relfie usually attacks me in games like this, but he said on this day he would not and true to his word he did not at all, the closet he came was lining up a crossbow but not firing it at me. But I can never trust another player to do what they say so I did expect him to attack me and I am sure he will in the future, probably the next game!
As we were all learning the rules the game was slow as we checked things each time. (Thank goodness I had watched Youtube!) But in the first few turns Kevin used "Telekinesis" to move a purple treasure gem closer to himself. And As I activated after him I cast the same (useful spell) to move it back. He did it again with his Apprentice. But I failed. (Kev's warband shown to the right) .
Relfie and Ian both moved up and we all manouvered about a bit. While I was trying to do group activations my warband with constructs was too big so I would always have spare soldiers to activate at the end of the turn. So in the second turn having failed to move the purple gem (loot maker) I got my wizard to cast wall instead The blue gem on the laying down wall representing the magically cast wall. This blocked the line of sight so he could not cast telekinesis on the game this turn. So instead He targeted Ian's wizard with an Elemental bolt. Which did a lot of damage. I learnt from this. Wizards in the open are a good choice of target. As Ian did not have a heal spell I also learnt
ALWAYS have a heal spell! Ian did try casting steal health, but failed and did not have enough health left to enhance it!
Turn 3 was pretty much rinse and repeat. Kev got initiative cast the spell again and Ian was minus his wizard for the rest of the game. Relfy was also attacking Ian (who had supplies of biscuits but not of sufficient quality to stop anyone attacking him.) Ian's and Relfy's foot soldiers were having their own private war so far across the table as to have no impact on me. kev was also piling on the pressure with Ians troops as well as well as me (to a much lesser extent) Which did allow me to het a loot counter off of the table. (I got 4 in all and was going for my 5th when the game ended but more of that later!)
I managed to cast another wall cutting Kevs Wizard off from both retreat and his apprentice. Some random "wandering" monsters appeared close to my archer (2 zombies), but far enough away that I would not attract them.
I was then able to send an infantry man to attack Kevs mage. The Third thing to learn is that 2 handed weapons hurt. As I inflicted 7 points on the elementalist. I rolled badly in the constructs battle and he took 5 damage and was pushed back! The fourth thing I learnt was that even if you start hand to hand you can still loose, take damage and get pushed back if you roll badly no matter how powerful you may think you are.
I cast enhance armoutr on the infantryman attacking the wizard and while it did work the variation of d20's is so large +1 is of little real value! My Construct and Infantryman died quickly hereafter. But My infantryman had weakened the mage sufficiently that my archer managed to plug him between the eyes and that was the second wizard out of the game.
The game was winding up so by casting "Leap" from my wizaed on the guy carrying the loot and once more by my apprentice I was able to run two figures carrying loot of of the table and leap a third all in one turn. F0r a total of 4 counters as well as move one of my last figure adjacent to another loot counter but not to pick it up.
Both Ian and kev also lost their apprentice very soon after but that was the other end of the board and I was on a loo break! The game ended when Kev lost his final crossbow man who was trying to escape of of the board with loot.
COINCLUSION> Well I will claim a win for me, as I did manage to cat 10 spells in all (wizard and apprentice) as well as get 4 "loot counters" off of the board. I managed exactly 300 exp, 280 gold, two Grimours (Control Construct and Draining word) and two magic weapons (both +1 fight)
No other wizard was within 100 exp of me or with so much loot. So Like I said I count it as a win. No figure died in the entire game one (Ians Apprentice I think) was wounded and would miss the next game.) But generally a very low leathality rate or maybe we all just got good dice rolls (I know mine were)
But most importantly here is what I learnt!
- Do not leave a wizard in the open to be attacked.
- Always have a way of healing (Spell, potion etc!)
- 2 Handed weapons cause damage!
- Do not try to fight 2 opponents at once. (I did not but Kev id and Ian had to)
- Enchant armour is no substitute for a bad or good dice roll
- Archers can kill wizard!
- Wizards killing soldiers with spells is good EXP. (exp for the Kill and EXP for the spell.)
- Constructs are not that powerful, BUT can carry loot
Generally my tactics did work, but I am not sure I will pick an enchanter for the campaign. I do like them, but the enchant weapon and enchant armour spells are not terribly good (+1 on D20) but they would allow you to attack magical creatures. And Constructs are also on the so-so side and not super powerful which are the main reason to play them.
As to what I will play I have little idea at this stage but you will get told as and when it happens.
I had to have a few days off blogging. It's funny nothing gets finished then everything gets done at once.
So here is a 15mm GZG figure. (This is my intention). Why in Sci fi or fantasy games do we need to stick to the proscribed scale. On an alien planet maybe this is the norm. Now that would scare me witless. I am aware that in Australia they would think of this as a baby no matter what the scale or true size. 
It is perhaps worth mentioning that WTW do make a bigger version for £15 if for some reason this is not big enough! Personally I think it is. 
I have found an old template. Ok it's only a hexagon. BUT this template will allow me to work on my desert in 300th scale and thus get my "Crimson Skies" game underway. Yes I could have used the paper printed maps in the box. But seriously If you know me that was far to easy and simple and convenient and the kind of thing everyone would do. So As there is a harder way I shall go with that! So expect that in a few weeks time. (fingers crossed)
