Zomtober 2026! Week 1

 And just like that its time for....

As I was trying to figure out what miniatures I wanted to do for this month's festivities, I was digging through my many miniature bins & came up with these oldies from the early 1980's

These Citadel pre-slotta figures were originally part of the Fantasy Tribes ranges of figs, where you could buy the same figure with variant heads, etc. You can learn more about them from this fantastic source of old-school miniatures Lost Minis Wiki

These metal miniatures, whilst amazing in their time, likely don't hold up well with todays standards & will certainly be smaller than today's 28mm standards.

I had the good fortune of having RAFM located in my home town, so every time I was home on leave, would visit the factory & buy about $100 in miniatures to take back for use in our D&D games.

You can see an example of the variant heads on the 2 wildy swinging zombies. One of them has an eyeball hanging out of the socket.

You will see them randomly appear in my Frostgrave & similar system games going forward.

I am working on some of the Mantic Zombies for next week.

Thanks for visiting.

Frostgrave - The Worms Haunt

 Last Sunday was our 8th Campaign Game. This time we played my variant version of The Worm Hunts to handle our 6 warbands. Sadly a giant worm can get critted with a roll of 20 & slain in pretty much a single blow, which in a way seems sad. It lessens the fear of them in a way.

So I made a variant which I call 'The Worms Haunt'

We had 6 warbands (everyone made it). The warbands are below for each player.

Chen's Warband

Craig's Warband

Dan's Warband

Kurt's Warband

Rolland's Warband

Terry's (My) Warband

Here is my writeup of the scenario (its just written in pen atm).

" As your warband scours the ruins, they come upon an area that's been heavily destroyed. While your gang spots the gleam of gold, they also spy some large holes throughout the area, as if something has erupted from the ground."

This area is home to a Worm Warren. At the start there are 4 burrow holes present.

During each creature phase, roll to determine where the random creature will arrive. If a value is rolled on the d20 that exceeds the entry locations (There were 8) + Burrow Holes (4 at start), a Giant Worm will explode from the ground adjacent to a random treasure (there were 12 & each is numbered). This could also include a treasure that is being carried.

A new burrow hole is added at the location the worm emerges.

If the number rolled is higher than 8, but <= to the number of burrow holes, a Young Worm emerges at a random burrow hole. 

If the value is 1 to 8, roll for the random creatures as normal.

As the last treasure on the table is picked up, the Giant Worm Matron will arrive as above.

Experience: Roll for treasure as normal after the game.

Bonus points that can exceed the 300 limit

+20 xp for killing a young worm

+50 xp for killing a Giant Worm

+75 xp for killing the Giant Worm Matron

Young Worm M7, F+3, S+0, A10, W+4, H12 Burrowing

Giant Worm Matron M8, F+5, S+0, A12, W+5, H40 Burrowing, Large

So how did it go? Here is the AAR

Killed: Zargon, Selene

Badly Wounded: Qin, Maggie, Bolg, Grognard.

In our campaign, we have a random creature arriving at the end of every turn. Even with the odds weighted to have worms appearing, the rolls kept being 8 or less for the first 4 turns at least.

We still roll to see if something is guarding treasures as well when they are picked up & that roll improves the odds of something every treasure that is picked up.

I was originally just going to use figure bases to represent the burrow holes, but then went with cardboard, painted to look like holes with a smattering of sand glued around the edges, a much better option!

We also used a 3'x3' table this time around as we often found that the 4'x4' didn't allow players to get into the centre to snag treasure & then get off the board with it. I think the players approved of the smaller setup, but of course this is scenario dependent. We did mix it up a lot faster, which is a positive.

Overall I think the scenario was a success. Feel free to use it in your own multi-player campaigns if you wish.

As always, thanks for visiting & taking the time to read.

Scourge of Princes at EWG

On Wednesday, Bruce brought out Scourge of Princes ( The Dawn of Modern Warfare from Machiavelli to Cromwell) by Sam Mustafa. Bruce seems to really like Mustafa's stuff & has several of his game systems. 

We had 6 people out, so 3 players per side. A central objective (a town) was placed at the centre of the table. Then blinds were placed splitting the table into 2 halves. Each side then got to place 3 terrain features on their side of the blind.

We then switched sides & were able to move 1 terrain piece from where they were placed. The blinds were then removed. We were then each handed a box & the forces inside were what we had to maneuver with.

Most of us had never played this system before.

The table is set, the forces deployed!

A view of the opponents left flank.

We had the initiative so made a rush to get atop the hill securing our left flank. The objective was to capture & hold the town in the centre at the end of the game. However I was focused on our left.

It really didn't take long before we were within musket range & the shots began to occur. Our forces (the Dutch) had better musketry, whilst the Spanish had larger pike units.

A better image of the centre of the battle. Our side did get into the town first & were able to hold it throughout the game. I didn't get any pics of the far end of the table, but it was bloody.

My forces squaring off with Jonathan's. Players roll for command tokens at the beginning of each of their turns. Their general then uses the tokens to activate various units. Units further than 4" cost double the chits. This isn't as bad as it seems however as units who are remaining in place will always get to fire.

Each unit can suffer a certain amount of disruption before succumbing. You can see the boxes on the units above. Jonathan did make a couple of charges up the hill to try to destroy my unit. He was unable to get enough hits against mine to  push me back however. I then relied on my musketry to whittle him down. The other effect of the boxes being ticked off, is that you go from Fresh to Worn to finally exhausted. Those states affect the value you will need to roll on dice.

The game ended in a victory for our side as we were able to defeat a larger number of their units. Having the hill was key as it made their attacks harder. Also charging a cavalry unit into a pike wall isn't a good idea. 

Thanks for a great game Bruce!