With my getting into Frostgrave recently, it has also had me digging around in all my old 80's D&D Miniatures for those I can use.
This fella is an early Citadel model circa 1982 from the Fantasy Adventurers line. I dug out my old RAFM catalogs to find an image as there was more than 1 Barbarian produced. It seems I do have the other one as well. This is one of those times the Internet worked well, as the catalog didn't show the image of this particular figure.
So I believe this figure makes a wonderful Barbarian. He isn't one I would purchase in an initial foray, but as the warband began making funds, he would certainly be a choice option
Of course I am not getting the urge to go find some of the other figures from that catalog that are likely boxed away someplace in the basement. I do have a couple other of those Citadel Scoundrels, Rogues & Thieves coming up, which will be good options for Thugs, etc. Two more figures are now drying from the dip & am thinking perhaps one of them is an old Grenadier model.
I have also started painting up some of the Myth characters for a buddy.
Tuesday is club night & I believe we are playing Frostgrave to give Kevin an opportunity to give this game a try.
As mentioned earlier today, Chris came out to give Frostgrave a go. I had the table set up & built his warband. I gave him a Summoner & went with my Elementalist Fizzle & Spark again.
I just set it up as a treasure grab. 6 treasures randomly placed & off we went.
Chris's Man-at-Arms approaches a treasure cache.
Chris had managed to possess 2 of his members, including this dog. Though archery made short work of it.
The possessed thief, made for a hasty leap by Fizzle onto the bridge.
Chris's apprentice had a lot of rotten luck & actually became wounded from all the miscast spells. One of my Men-at-Arms ran up to him...
BAM!
Meanwhile the possessed thief, swung about & ran at my thug. Luckily for the thug, the thief was wounded. Dead thief.
As Fizzle kept getting Bone Darts shot at him, he cast Fog ( really need to make one of these better, as piled cotton balls just don't cut it.)
Chris then had his Knight & wounded thug engage my Thug...BAM! Natural 20 by my Thug...
made short work of the Knight!
Meanwhile a Minor Demon had been summoned & laid the smackdown on my Man-at-Arms.
As Spark was making his getaway with a treasure, the Minor Demon received a Leap & landed in front of him.
2 Failed attempts at leaping away & BAM! Down went Spark.
The rest of the battle saw Chris take out my mage with a 24 roll on a bone dart. The minor demon was filled with arrows. Chris's summoner also fell to arrows. This left my 2 archers vs Chris's single wounded archer...you know how that ended.
It was good to see Chris play a game again...its been a long while.One observation made is that games seem to take a long time to play, so I guess the next question is How long should a game take? As we are still learning rules, etc, this does cause a slowing of momentum, so we shall see.
Just a quick post before observing the Remembrance Day ceremony. As we were getting ready for the Frostgrave event at my place on Saturday, one of the last minute items was to ensure we had all of the possible creature spawns covered. On Friday it was realized that no-one had a Giant Worm.
So on the way home I stopped, ran into the Games store & found a metal Reaper Giant Worm figure.
This of course meant I had to get it painted!
As it turned out, we didn't have one spawn, however you just know Murphy's Law would have if we didn't have one.
As the figure comes with a smaller piece with a stinger, I can only assume this was meant to be a purple worm. Well it's not a Purple worm now, though there are some boils, which are on it.
My buddy Chris, who originally got me into Mordheim, will be coming by later this afternoon to give Frostgrave a try. Will post a report later this eve.
As stated earlier, today is Remembrance Day here in Canada, aka Veterans Day in the US, etc. Lest we Forget, take the time to Remember them.
Today was the big day I've been working towards since returning home from Fall Con. The table was set (see previous post) the food/munchies bought, & a last minute run to the game store to pick up a Giant Worm figure & then getting it painted up...just in case.
Four of the fella's came out for today's fun. From left to right - Jonathan, Steve, Bruce & Scott.
After spending some time getting our warbands sorted, we launched. For our first scenario we just played a treasure grab.
On the first turn Scott Cursed my Elementalist. I then launched a couple of Elemental Ball's in return & my apprentice 'Spark' took down his Necromancer.
This of course led to more bloodshed between Scott & my groups. Below my Magic casters are hunkering down behind some cover as Scott took potshots at me with his Crossbowman
Eventually Jonathan's warband started to encroach & our forces were spread out.
My force dwindling fast, I managed to snag 1 treasure urn.
My Elementalist 'Fizzle' was taken out by a Zombie that had spawned ( can't do much about a natural 20) & yes we were playing with the critical rules. Then a Medium Construct appeared & proceeded to move towards my now 3 person party.
A short-lived act of defiance by the Templar. Now it was just my Apprentice that remained & lugging a treasure. He managed to break the LOS of the construct & it proceeded to wander off.
My warband lost the Templar, an Archer & the War Dog in the followup phase. My 1 treasure netted me 50gp & 2 scrolls (which I sold to replace my fallen soldiers). Jonathan, Bruce & I think Steve were the big winners, walking off with 4 treasures each.
The game took more time than anticipated ( usually all games take longer the first time thru as everyone grapples with the rules). At this point both Bruce & Steve had to head out. So the remaining 3 of us prepared for the next foray.
This time we did the Well of Sorrow scenario. Jonathans warband snagged some early treasure.
My Elementalist Fizzle & the Templar move towards the well.
Scott set his Necromancer up to cast spells at anyone approaching the well. His one archer got plugged though, hence the base sticking into the air.
Fizzle made it to the well & took a drink (earning 100xp)
There were a lot of failed spells for all of the players. In fact I had only 2 successful spells cast the entire battle. One of Scotts Men at Arms had worked his way around & was closing on my wounded Apprentice & an Archer. This fella did manage to take down the archer & my apprentice escaped with a single wound point remaining.
Jonathan did manage to summon an Imp which was heading towards my Elementalist.
The battle ended with Scott having everyone taken out of action. In fact Jonathans Wizard earned 150xp for a Wizard kill.
My Templar & Elementalist were taken out of the battle, though both survived the after game procedure. It was now closing in on 8pm & we decided to forgo playing any further games.
So what were my thoughts on the game?
1) Fair bit of prep to get the warband ready. This was mainly due to reading through the various spells & trying to decide which would work best. This isn't something that goes quick. As Scott found out, apart from Curse & Life Steal, he really didn't have any spells that were damage causing. I guess the prep is on par with creating a Mordheim Warband.
2) The battles are quick & deadly. Usually players had their soldiers removed after a single well placed hit. Don't get too attached to a soldier. Usually once a player rolled a 17 or higher you could pretty much write your soldier as either wounded (1 action) or dead.
3) Casting spells successfully. As your spell casters earn xp for successfully casting spells, be sure to choose 1 or 2 that have low casting scores. Use them to reap xp. Its easy to forget that the Wizard is the primary character for you to make xp with...he needs to get the kill shots as often as possible. Your soldiers are just pawns to aid him in this endeavor.
4) Some interesting mechanics..ie: the roll in the fight also attributing to the damage vs armour totals. The spell casting numbers & effects of trying to cast those not of your school.
So I know I had fun & hope those who attended also enjoyed our introduction to this game system. Hopefully they will chime in with their thoughts as well.
I think we will be running this at our next club night as Kevin wanted to give this a go.
It's coming down to the last hours before the warband's will fall upon the ruins of Frostgrave. So a little more time for painting some stuff before the mists rise Saturday.
I've worked out my starting warband, though I still need to choose my spells. So here they are, Elementalist, Apprentice, Archers x2, Crossbowman, Templar, Thugs x2 & a War dog.
The figures are from quite a range of companies, Frostgrave, GW, Confrontation & the dog I don't recall.
I've planned for 3 scenarios, though depending how fast they go, we could see 4 or 5. The first scenario will be merely a treasure grab, with no other objectives than to get loot & scram.
Depending on the number of fella's who show up, there could be 2 concurrent scenarios.
The first being the Silent Tower, which is what I needed to build those bridges for.
The other end of the table is set up for the Well of Dreams & Sorrows.
Another view of the table.
Depending on how everyone is doing we could then proceed with The Living Museum & Genie in the Bottle.
I'm planning on taking lots of photos, but hopefully some of the others will pitch in on that account as well.
Last night I completed my first 2 thugs from the Frostgrave plastic warrior box set. These multi-part plastic figures have quite a range to make pretty much all the options. Each figure has a range of bags hanging from their belts, though there is options to add more if desired.
This time I switched back to the Strong Dip & am much happier with the result. As I continue to dabble with my Basius & Green stuff, I see I need to spend a bit more time meshing the edges, but I can fix that with a bit of putty & paint.
These could likely pass of as Thugs of maybe a Thief for the fellow with the sword.
Last night I also completed the construction of 2 bridge walkways from balsa & popsicle sticks. These will be used for the Silent Tower scenario & are getting painted when I am finished here. Tomorrow night is also club night, which means 1 less night to prep for Saturday, but I think its going well overall & I hope to have another 3 figures finished at the very least.
OK so we are down to 6 days to go for my Frostgrave Saturday (in lieu of my Remebrance Day game). This is the part where I am constantly wishing I could paint whole units in a single round & have them look fantastic aka Kevin's recent painting bout or Tim in Saskatoon.
However I am slow at it, seems I can maybe pump 2 out a week. So it's crunch time! Last night I finished my Mage & Apprentice. I am going to start with an Elementalist ...who doesn't love a good fireball! This is the blister from Northstar.
For the ability for multi-games, I am avoiding the snow on any of my bases...the real stuff will be coming any day. This will allow me to use them for Song of Blades & Mordheim.
Being an avid Mordheimer, I have quite a few miniatures I will be able to utilize in my warband, or my friends as needed. Of course removing all those with black powder weapons really put a dent in availability.
I again went with the Skin Army Painter Dip followed by a matte overspray, though without a doubt, Strong is my favorite of them.
What doesn't help is my trying to handle too many things at once...warband, find creatures for the wandering chart, terrain... it never ends, but I guess that's a good thing!
I did receive another of the Kingdom Death shipments & another I wish had come a couple weeks ago... my Escenorama ruined village. I may be able to manage a quick base coat to make them useful for the event..we shall see & even with getting an hour back last night I am still behind.
So keeping this short, as I have lots of painting to get done today before Walking Dead!
Thanks for reading.
