Frostgrave - The Coming of Ambronnax!

This past Sunday we had our 4th Campaign game of Forbidden Pacts. This scenario was The Coming of Ambronnax.

One of the guys was sick & unable to make it, however we did finally get Craig to the table with his Level 0 Wizard.

Kalaryn (Apprentice) - Level 1 Summoner

Roach Lvl 7 Witch

Tellia - Lvl 0 Summoner

Barden Lvl 4 Summoner

Maximus Lvl 5 Summoner

 
 The Scenario & modifications.

Once again the Wizards & their bands pass through the portals. This time its to confront Ambronnax & prevent his passage to the mortal realm. They enter yet another temple ruin. A central altar sits on a raised platform. Several Flailing Wretches can be seen near the platform.

Once starting locations are rolled.

As well a body lies on the ground, surrounded by 3 more Flailing Wretches. The glimmer of an Amulet of Constancy can be seen on the body.

Special Rules:
Once locations are determined for the wizards entry portals, a d20 & direction dice is rolled to determine where the body of Sven the Apprentice lies with an Amulet of Contancy.

At the end of the 2nd turn, Ambronnax appears at the beginning of the creature phase, near the altar. Beginning on turn 3, the winds of magic cause each member of a warband to perform a Will TN12 test. Failing, causes 1 point of damage. Anyone wearing an Amulet of Constancy is immune to this effect. If a warband member falls due to this effect, they are merely taken out of action & do not roll for injury.

Another affect that Ambronnax causes, is that it locks down all portals, thus once a demon arrives through an active one, they cannot be reactivated until Ambronnax is destroyed.

Treasure picked up risk summoning another Flailing Wretch. Starting at 16-20 for the first treasure, the number is lowered for each additional. Thus the 4th treasure would be on 13-20. Location of the summoned Wretch is D20 & random direction dice from the grabbed treasure.

Treasure / Experience
50xp if the wizard is on the table when Ambronnax arrives
25xp if the apprentice is on the table when Ambronnax arrives.
25xp for each standard treasure recovered
50xp for the special treasure being recovered (Ambronnax True Name & roll on normal treasure table)
100xp to the warband that kills Ambronnax 

Now onto the report

 

So for the aftermath, here is what each warband gained & lost

Maximus (Scott) - 425xp, 100gc, Shroud of Foresight, Grimoire - Power Word

Barden (Chen) - 325xp, 20gc, Amulet of Stone Heart, Ring of Restoration, Belt of Animal Repellant, True Name of Ambronnax.

Tellia (Craig) - 195xp, 80gc, Fate Stone, Grimoire - Summon Demon (Sold), Perp killed, Tellia Badly Wounded.

Kalaryn (Andrew) - 140xp, 30gc, Potions - Elixer of the Chameleon, Restoration, Toughness

Roach (Terry) - 475xp, 50gc, Grimoire - Plague of Insects

So thoughts....well what can I say. Ambronnax died quick! He had been hit with a couple of arrows, then the Elemental Bolt on a 20 crit finished him. Even the wretches were not overly problematic. I opted to remove the 1 showing up every turn as we were using the portals & treasure guardians. The fact there were 5 warbands on the table, only 2 engaged Ambronnax. Perhaps adding Critical Immunity would have allowed him another turn to survive.

Another change I may make is to have the winds active at the very beginning. Besides the 1pt of damage, anyone failing also loses their actions for that turn. If in combat they would still fight back however.

 Fog of course is the go-to spell for almost every band, thus we have a table covered in it. We have discussed some changes to its persistance. Perhaps reducing the number each turn by 1 for it to dissipate. I will be looking forward to seeing if changes have been made in Frostgrave 2nd Ed.

I am sure everyone is happy to finally be able to replenish their warbands. The nature of the scenarious make it such that they are supposed to happen very quickly which does add a nice element to build anxiety. 

So thats it for this post. Thanks as always for taking the time to visit & read!

Couple of Quick Game Updates

We had our first club night, almost 2 weeks ago now. Bruce brought out a Napoleonic battle using the Lasalle rules.

The battle was a French bridgehead attempting to dislodge the Austrian forces. Richard & I played the Austrians, while Bruce & Scott were the French.

As the French Guns advanced, I opened up with my battery, totally missing them. Well this is off to a crap start. Bruce then returned the favour & wiped the only artilery the Austrians had off the field.

The French pushed the centre with their infantry attempting to dislodge the defenders in the town. The Austrians gave a good effort on the left flank.
 

Alas, the centre crumbled, however the battered French units were having their flanks crushed. I believe we called it a draw.

Then it was off to Craigs house to have a go at Batman! This was the Monolith game Kickstarter. 

Craig had pre-determined the characters for each of us. I got Harvey Bullock with a group of GPD baton wielding officers.

We had 4 objectives to capture. We had already begun with protecting Witnesses (Orange figures). We also had to interrogate crooked SWAT cops, hack a computer console & retrieve a briefcase from one of the Main Criminals.

Harvey with squad in tow follows the Witness to the crime hideout.

As the Crooked Cops opened fire on the good guys, Harvey spelled off one of his officers with the Witness into a subway car. We opted to take out 3 of the 4 crooked cops (they were using Automatic Weapons on us), Harvey went after the remaining fella...he had a few questions to ask him.

It was then, that Clayface came out of another Subway car & made for Bullock.

Ignoring Clayface, Harvey continued after the crooked cop! Alas for Clayface, he found himself in a crossfire from the other forces of good & was taken down quickly.

By game end, we had gotten 3 of the 4 objectives completed. Mainly due to some lucky dice rolls.

The game is similar to Conan by using the track for the opponents. Dice pools determine the amount of actions a character can perform. With the stance of the character determining how much of his tokens he gets to return to his pool each turn. Resting obviously provides the greater return at the loss of doing much.

The guys are over tomorrow for our next Frostgrave game. Thanks for stopping by!

3D Printed Ruins

Just as we were wrapping up 2019. I had posted some images of the unpainted 3D building ruins I had printed.

With the barrels from that print run completed. It was time to tackle the building ruins.
  

I am still debating whether to affix them both to a base. That would allow me to develop some rubble clutter, etc. But kept separate allows more flexibility.

Actually I have been thinking of basing all of my ruins. Currently the base we are using often ends up as the floors as well. Thus basing them, would allow me to think of say...a raised structure with a basement. I will need to decide on the best medium for that. Something that won't warp & can be easily filed to better blend in.

I am in the process of preparing to print my first large piece from the Stormwatch Terrain Kickstarter. It's looking to take 23 hours for the run, so will need to plan that accordingly.

Chain of Command - 1939 Russia vs Japan

On Saturday, Stephan hosted several of us at his house to play a game of Chain of Command.

This was to be a border conflict somewhere in Mongolia, with Russian forces engaging Japanese troops.

At this stage, the squads were quite large & did not operate in teams, thus they would either all shoot, or move. The Russians deploy first, a couple of their BT-7 tanks also arrive. (Chris & Chen played the Russians)

As word spreads, the Japanese deploy to intercept the interlopers. (Andrew & I played the Japanese)

I played the armoured elements, with my first 2 tanks arriving. (As they enter from the road, it often leads to this situation, where tanks pile up side by side, not the most historical tactics).

 A Japanese squad rushes to the Kraal wall to catch the Russians in the open.

At the urging of a Senior leader, a loud URAAGHHH! is heard & the 2 Russian squads rush the Japanese troops.

As the slaughter was bloody, I chose not to show that footage. Both squads at the wall were decimated.

The tanks at the other end of the battle were slugging it out. Round after round was deflected from Sgt Ping's tanks. A shot managed to destroy the main gun of one of the BT-7's. It then surged ahead into the grain. As well a T28 trundled onto the field. 

Then with the arrival of a Russian Field Gun, the shock on the defending Japanese squad began to quickly mount. The Russian Infantry squad moves into the grain preparing for another assault.

The BT-7 Command Tank is knocked out. The driver of the 2nd BT-7 is killed.

The Russians pummel the Japanese squad causing it to break. They then managed to end the turn, causing the squad to rout.

The remainder of the Japanese tanks advance slowly (doesn't help when you continue rolling 1's for movement. The Japanese commander's tank (Top in photo) had been immobilized.

There was 1 further charge by the Russians & again the melee was bloody & deadly. Although the Russians won the fight, they lost both their Junior & Senior leaders. When the command hits were rolled, the battle ended in a draw with both forces dropping to 0.

Of course there was much after battle kibitzing about whom should have done what. But all in all it was a fun game & lots of death to both sides. Thanks to Stephen for putting on such a great table & game!