Weekend Frenzy of Frostgrave

I spent the past weekend in Saskatoon gaming at Tim's house for his Annual Birthday Bash Weekend.  This year was a Frostgrave event, where we played 3 games to determine the final 4 players looking for the Crystal Skull Sword.

I went again with my Elementalist Warband, (saved me getting more figures painted in time), so those who are following should note that things which occurred this weekend have no bearing on the existing Campaign taking place at my home.

I am sure that once Tim has recovered from the weekend, he will post the campaign results. So as not to steal his thunder too much I will post mainly what occurred to my warband.

Friday Night: This scenario was similar to the Well from the original book. However as in incentive, there were bonuses to drinking first, with diminishing returns for those who drank later. In this game I played against Finnegan (Tim's son) & John.

John was quick to cast a Fog, which stayed the entire game. This was a bonus as it allowed my own band to remain hidden from him as well.

I did manage to get my Mage to the fountain first & drank, then was Pushed to the far side of the table by John's Mage. Finnegan then cast Glow on my mage & I spent pretty much the remainder of the battle hidden behind the building attempting to heal myself.

Meanwhile I had an archer who was wounded near the pool, whom after several shots at opponents was finally dispatched by John's Jiggling Women.

I attempted to get to a treasure atop a wall, but just as I was reaching for it, was pushed off (again by John's Wizard) & suffered some damage (7pts). Being stubborn he attempted it again, but was taken out of action.

I managed to get off the table with 2 treasures. My dice were miserable, though after drinking first, I netted 450xp. I did have a thief & thug die from the battle, so replaced them with a Man at Arms & a Templar. I also found a Scroll of Strike Dead, which was promptly added to my Magicians items.

Saturday Morning: During the next foray into Frostgrave, I was pitted once again with John's Jiggling Women, & the host Tim's Turbaned Ticklers. In this scenario there was a central building which contained most of the treasures. We each placed a single one additional before the start of the game. There were several skeletens about the ruin & more would spawn.

John once again used Fog, which hid my warband from him. I didn't mind in the least.

Tim's warband approaching the ruin & a skeleton guard.

Not many images of this one & I only managed a single chest of treasure & the Map (this would be needed to be entered into the final scenario). There were 2 tables playing, so 4 of the 6 players would advance. During this battle, after another horrible round of dice rolling, I had lost 3 archers & had a Thief missing the next game. I also managed another 240xp. John was making out like a bandit these past 2 games.

Saturday Afternoon: The third battle pitted me against Tim & Paul. Another horrid effort & it seems just the 1 photo of it. I did manage another 2 chests. The hi-light was the death of Paul's Magician to a 20 from a Giant Rat. Tim snagged the lions share of the chests, using Leap to good effect. This battle was more about not losing people, as it provided another opportunity for players to find a map.

As it was getting late, we decided to post-pone the last battle until Sunday Morning. We then went out for supper & had a couple beers.

Sunday Morning: 4 warband's remained, to face the final challenge for the Crystal Skull Sword. A Mausoleum lay at the centre of the table. Numerous undead guarded the approaches.

Inside the Mausoleum was a Sarcophagus & it was guarded by 2 Wights (these required a magic item to harm)

Thing's degenerated quickly as my archer (near the lion statue) was Mind Controlled by Corey's Apprentice. I then lost 3 other members attempting to break him from his state, before he finally was felled by my Magician.

After that, both Corey & my warband were in the mix. 

The other half of Corey's warband fighting Finnegan's construct.

A long drawn out melee ensued. I did successfully get Scatter shot off, but it proved ineffective against Corey's dice rolls. Eventually my Templar, evened the odds, taking out 3 of Corey's soldiers. I also used the Strike Dead scroll & took Corey's apprentice out of the game.

Meanwhile, Finnegan's & Paul's warbands were focussed on the Mausoleum, having formed some sort of truce. Paul slew one of the Wraiths with an Elemental Bolt, while Finnegans troops took the second down with magic weapons.

Finnegan then managed to open the Sarcophagus & released the Vampire within. The god's were smiling as the very first swing by Finnegan's soldier rolled a 20 & decimated the Vampire. WOW!

As Finnegan picked up the Crystal Skull Sword, all bets were off & a massive bloody melee ensued. Finnegan lost his Wizard, Knight & one other soldier. Corey & I had formed a sort of truce as our 2 warbands were quite mauled & decided to focus on those with the sword.

As Finnegan's last soldier fell, the sword landed on the ground, where my mage used Telekinesis to pull it outside of the Mausoleum, with cries of FOUL! by Paul.

As luck would have it, a Ghould spawned almost atop of the sword & slew my archer. My Man-at-arms was dropped after an extended melee with a Thug. Before my Mage (now my last warband member) could snatch the sword, she was taken out by an Elemental bolt. Sooooo close!

At this point it was pretty much a given, as Paul's Captain snatched the sword & made for the tables edge. This netted Paul (this was his first time playing Frostgrave) the Crystal Skull Sword....though we now wonder, if in fact that Mercenary Captain, didn't just run off with it as his share of the treasure.

Another fun weekend (thank's Tim & Amanda for the place to sleep) & I got to meet another enjoyable gamer in Paul. It was also good to see & go for beer's with Corey & John again! Now I am looking forward to Tim's Campaign write-up

Garden of Morr Gate

Before the fellows arrived yesterday for Frostgrave, I had just finished the Army Painter dip on my Garden of Morr gate.

So as we gamed, we enjoyed the wafting odour of said Army Painter Dip. Ahh well, it is my games / painting room after all.

So here is the finished front of the gate. Seems I've forgotten a piece that mounts on the top. I may leave it off as it would likely suffer getting knocked off anyway from gaming.

And the inner wall. I believe the graves had headstones to be attached, but I've decided to hold onto them for use with individual grave plots. Still thinking about how I want those to be made.

Still quite a few pieces from this set to be painted up, but as I prepare for another weekend of Frostgravery, they will need to wait.

Busy Weekend: Cthulhu Wars & Frostgrave

Had a very eventful weekend, starting with seeing Deadpool Saturday (WOO-HOO!). Then it was off to Craig & Arlene's for a game of Cthulhu Wars.

Craig wanted to go through another game, to work out his briefing to new players at the Mayday games event. Scott also came out & below are the 4 starting locations. We used the Primeval Earth Map.

I randomly selected the Windwalker faction.

As each turn passed, more & more of the map became covered with Glaciers. If a gate was on a Glacial zone, no-one could control the gate, so all factions benefited.

Another image of a Glaciated Gate.

Below are 4 of the 5 Great Old Ones. 2 of which were mine.

As the huge battles at the game drew to a close & the points tallied, I was the winner with 42 pts, followed by Craig 33, Scott, 25 & Arlene at 10.

If readers recall, Arlene won the previous time we played.

Today was also the second game of our Frostgrave Campaign, where we once again vied for treasure & glory.

The Rival Warbands have stumbled across he Mausoleum of some ancient Necromancer, that is overflowing with both treasures & the Undead. 4 Special treasures are located at the corners of the Mausoleum & several wandering Skeletons begin on the board.

Ember leads her warband & after a successful Telekinesis, has a treasure pretty much ensured.

Scott's warband was also successful with 2 Telekinesis spells, drawing the special treasures away from the Mausoleum.

Jonathan's thief approaches a special treasure, but is engaged by a skeleton.

Jonathan's warhound attempts to prevent the escape of Scott's thief with a treasure, but is laid low.

A Werewolf found its way to the field & caught the scent of Scott's warband.

One of my thugs gets the first treasure off the board.

Meanwhile a battle between my Man-at-arms & my Thug, raged with Jonathan's thief & thug'. Down goes Jonathan's thief

Followed by his Thug. Fizzle then  cast a Telekinesis spell & drew the chest away.

The Werewolf was about to pounce when it suffered a heavy wound from an archer, reducing it to a single action.

Scott's construct was making its way towards Jonathan's archer.

Ember got caught in a melee with a skeleton & lost, taking her out of action.

Jonathan's Apprentice makes it off the board with a treasure.

We had a few more wandering monsters arrive, but all seemed to enter on the same side of the field & didn't get engaged.

Scott's Knight takes out the Werewolf, thus earning a 20gp bounty.

By this stage, all treasures were pretty much secured & headed off table. The results were as follows;

Jonathan snagged 1 normal treasure. Upon opening it revealed 20gp & a suit of Leather Armour (+1 to Armour). His dog was badly wounded & will miss the next game.

Scott snagged 1 normal treasure & 2 special treasures. Upon opening he received 120gp, +1 Fight Dagger, & scrolls of Invisibility, Possess, Familiar & Elemental Shield.

I also snagged 1 normal treasure & 2 special treasures. Upon opening I received 357gp, 2 scrolls -  Call Storm, Glow; & 2 Grimoires - Decay, Time Walk

So overall, apart from the badly wounded dog, no party suffered losses.
 

Guilds of Cadwallon

During Fallcon, I picked up several games during the Flea Market. One of these was Guilds of Cadwallon. A small game I saw being Kickstarted, but never bought into.

Those familiar with Confrontation, are well versed in the world, which included the Free City of Cadwallon. 

Playing on that city, this game creates a setting where the players are using their agents to garner support from the various guilds, to earn the most guild points & thus win the game.

The city districts are laid out in a grid, with space between (the boulevards). The boulevards are used by the agents to position themselves, with support to win the district.

Added to the mix are the Militia, which actually penalize your ambitions. The rules leave a bit to be desired & do not fully explain how all the cards are entered into the game, however we played 2 games (adding 6 action cards the second game). 

Once players got the hang of it, there was a lot of strategic blocking, thus preventing some players from running away with the game. Placement of your agents is all important & as you must place an agent each round, your inevitably going to run into the Militia.

One thing of note is the game uses no dice, so its all about strategy. It seems the game also came with the 5-8 player expansion which made me even happier with my purchase. 

I enjoyed the game & may bring it out to the club again as a stand-by in case there are not enough other games being hosted.
 

We want Morr!

Continuing to work through the Garden of Morr set, for using in Frostgrave & Mordheim. I am going for a more lighter stone colour than what I generally see people using. Hence why your seeing my test piece of the wall.

Also another Mausoleum is now completed.

I have several other pieces in progress, however I wanted to get a post out & this is what was completed this weekend.

As seen in the previous post, the table is set for our next Frostgrave scenario.

I've also been busy in the crawlspace, digging out long forgotten blisters of miniatures, etc, digging through things to take to the club to sell, which is tomorrow eve.

Thanks for stopping by. 
 

Cobblestone sheets for Frostgrave/Mordheim or any other Victorian Era Gaming

Kind of a catch-all title, but suited. I spent last weekend painting up the cobblestone sheets I purchased a few years ago from the Christmas Village sets.

These are often found as a strip about 5" or 6" wide, or in this case as a sheet in a tube. I bought several of these & they come as seen below, in a 2 tone brown, however they are somewhat shiny.

First step was to tone them down, so I used this Woodland Scenics slate gray, more as a wash, this paint is quite runny which would be good at later steps.

Next were 2 rounds of weathering. First with the Rain Grey/Stone Gray. The runny Woodlands scenics worked nicely with the bit thicker craft paint. This was followed by a dusting of Yellow Ocher. The finished tile is below.

Then it was time for the final test. Using it as the base for our next Frostgrave Scenario. Setting the stage early as it ensures I keep the games table clear & making sure I have all the terrain bits I want to use.

A close-up of one of the streets.

I am happy with the results, spending all told, about 6 hours on them. I have a total of 6 of these sheets which make up an approx 4'x6' playing surface.

I have seen several cobblestone mats for sale online, however due to our failing dollar & the shipping costs of getting them from Europe, figured the 6 hours was worth it. Perhaps when our dollar rebounds, a purchase will be made.