Trial game of Frostgrave

Last weekend for the first time in over half a year my beastmen saw some action again, not in a GW-game but in my first game of Frostgrave (the whole AoS-thing had really put a downer on my desire to game and/or hobby but now Frostgrave has sparked my enthousiasm again)!

I used my Beastmen as a Witch warband with my Shamans as wizard and apprentice, Ungor raiders as archers, Gor as thugs, Beastlord as a knight and my Razorgor as a War hound. One of the great things of the game is the liberty in using mini's from other systems and from different races in your warband (basically race etc. don't matter as long as it's clear what hireling type your miniature represents).

We played with 7 people at Arjan's house and here are the two tables that he laid out in his living room using terrain that we normally use for Mordheim:

I played Ludo and Arjan on the table with the trees (Sigilist and Thaumaturge warbands), the other 4 guys played on the more open table. One observation we made is that the game plays better on a table with more terrain. 'Cause on the open table ALL 4 mages got magic missiled/shot out of the game(!) while on 'our' table you had to work to get line of sight.

The scenario we played was 'The Silent Tower' in which you can find a special treasure on top of a 3-story tower that is surrounded by a magic null-field: no spells can be used by or aimed at anyone that is inside the tower. Also magic items don't work in the tower. There were 4 other 'normal' treasures placed on the table as well.

As for the game itself, I'm happy to report that the Beastmen Witch-band won with claiming 2 normal treasures besides the treasure in the tower! :-) Key to my victory were 2 utility spells, Telekineses (that allows you to 'pull' treasure towards you) and Teleport (that allowed my Wizard to quickly escape to the edge of the board with the scenario treasure).

Here are some piccies of the battle:

Overview of the table with my ungor archer climbing on top of a tower to get a good overview of the city:

Members of the Sigilist warband advancing:

A Gor thug running off the board with a treasure:

My wizard claiming 'the bounty' (harhar) on top of the silent tower:

Getting out of the tower's null-field before Teleporting to safety:

To summarize: I had a lot of fun with Frostgrave, the D20 system makes for fast paced and often brutal combats. And even though it's Wizard-centric it isn't all about blasting your opponents off the board but also about utility spells to win the scenario objectives. Finally the fact that you only need ~10 mini's for a warband that can be of any system/race makes it very accessable to existing and new players. I've already gone through my old pile of lead miniatures to put together new warbands, probably going for something Viking-themed next!

BTB: Living Treasure

We're still playing the Border town burning campaign but with some other scenario's then the original rules describe. It is fun to use the BTB surroundings and play all kinds of scenario's in them. This time we've played the living treasure scenario. Some slight alterations to the scenario. We've put in the treasure counters and when a treasure attacks you, there is a chance you encounter The luggage!. We've used the rules for the luggage as described in the blogpost. In our case we've played the scenario multiplayer with 4 warbands, orcs&gobbos, beastmen, possessed and dwarfs.


The following is a first part of the battle report from the dwarf treasurehunters point of view. Other warbands have their stories to tell and if available they will be added just the same!

"Truckloads 'o treasure, truckloads" the drunk farmer was blabbering in the Crooked Tooth tavern. Bjorgir was listening intently to the drunken man's talk. He was gathering quite a crowd in this small border town. Not much happens in these surroundings and a chance of some action or good stories the villagers weren't letting slip away.
The farmer (or so he looked) stumbled in this evening in the tavern, where the dwarf treasurehunters found themselves on a particularly harsh evening. The season was turning to winter and these surroundings were already cold in summer let alone in winter. The story of the drunken man was worth pursuing before the warband travels more down south were the weather is less harsh.
The weather already sent a lot of warbands away and the sturdy dwarfs remained quite long in these surroundings.
The farmer mumbeled something about ...Gorgon's way... "Hmmm," Bjorgir was thinking, "that is something I found on the weird map I found a while ago."
"OK lads, we're heading up north once more" Bjorgir was telling his warband. The beardlings were grumbling under their breath on the harsh conditions already, but followed their leader regardless.

In a corner of the inn a very drunk slayer was quaffing his ale. The 2 slayers already within the warband cought up with him and were getting very drunk themselves. Eventually for a couple of gold coins the other slayer was willing to follow them as well.
With 3 slayers, an engineer, 3 beardlings and a thunderer Bjorgir was prizing himself lucky to have such a warband. They were starting to get some name in these borderlands and gathering some fortune as well.

The warband take up their packs and leave in the cold weather. "Hopefully an easy find, this treasure" the engineer was thinking while they were traveling with the old map to guide them. Eventually after some days travel they found a derilict set of houses and part of some tunnel uncovered. The tunnel was supposed to be named Gordon's way. The dwarfs set to uncouvering the treasure when the weather turned for the worse. Hail was falling from the sky and the hail stones were getting bigger and bigger. The dwarfs gritted their teeth and went on. Upon entering one part of the tunnel they first came upon a shrine or grave for one famous slayer. Loki was well renowned for his deeds and this honorary grave did him justice. The slayers Durri, Grk and Hari were paying tribute to their battle mate. "A good death he found." said Durri. The other (still hung over) slayers mummbeled their respect and were silent for a moment.
2 slayers went outside to inspect their surroundings while the others went in. In running around a part of the hallway all of a sudden they encounter a squig! The hired slayer went directly berserk and split open the squig with one blow of his mighty axe. With squigs around there are gobbo's around and with gobbo's around there was bound to be some orcs as well. Straining their ears nothing was heard by the dwarfs over the hails stones that were falling down, already the size of hens eggs. These stones were doing some serious damage, but not enough to get the dwarfs down.
Under the hail of hail stones some screams were heard nearby of other beings suffering greatly from the onslaught of the weather. According to Grach the engineer it were the possessed that were getting clobbered by the weather.

The two slayers outside all of sudden found themselves faced with a couple of orcs that came running out of the curtain of hail. In no time carnage was happening and the slayers were really hacking into the greenskins. They were no match to big axes the slayers were wielding.

The hail subsided only for a fraction and in no time the hail stones were big as...stones! The dwarfs were getting hit badly. The dwarfs proved to be very sturdy since only 1 beardling fell unconscious when a hail stone the size of an oathstone hit him square on the helmet. The ringing in his ears was to be heard for a while!

To the sounds in the battlefield the orcs were suffering more casualties to the big hail stones and the possessed as well. Some gutteral noises were heard during the monster hail. Apparantly some beastmen were also present and suffering from nature's ice rains.

In the curtain of ice some icy light was to be seen as well when some beastman shaman was using his ice crystal. "How appropriate in these conditions" Grach was thinking squaring his hammer up to run into the room where some misformed bodies were already moving along chests. "The treasure" he thought and with the rest of the warband they went in. A massacre was already going on here between the beastmen and the possessed.

Apparantly the orcs and gobbo's were also taken part, but no livin greenskin was to be seen here. From the sounds of the slayers outside the greenskins were already legging it from the battle field.
In no time the dwarfs were searching the chests for treasure while the possessed and beastmen were fighting each other. This was not long since the beastmen also ran away. After suffering heavy losses from the hail stones the fighting with the possessed proved too much.
All of a sudden the dwarfs were facing some very angry possessed.

Bjorgir and Grach squared up in a doorway fending of the inpoor of possessed in the room. The possessed were pushing hard and the rest of dwarfs took some treasure. The angry mob of possessed proved a bit too much for the already very cold dwarfs. Bjorgir was calling the retreat and the dwarfs ran off (with treasure!).

While traveling to warmer areas Grach and Bjorgir discussed how close they were to the treasure. Living treasure it was told to house, Gorgon's way. They were musing over some pints of ale in a quit border town. In the corner an apparant poor farmer was listening intently...

BTB: Discovered Treasure

It has been a while since the last battle report. We decided to search for a scenario that could be played with 5 warbands and not take all night!
We came across the Discover Treasure scenario that could be really well played. Fun with the partial setup groups, so no advantage of carefully composed warbands but small groups entering the battle field. This could be food for a lot of skirmishes on the field!

Ok, the warbands present here were, possessed, marauders, orcs&goblins, dwarfs and beastmen. We rolled a snowstorm for the weather, so there go all the shooters. Small groups of 2 or 3 warband members enter the field very carefully. They were quite well dispersed when rolling for where to enter. The treasure was hidden in all of the buildings but you had to roll 4+ to find the actual treasure.

The first round for all warbands was basically finding treasure. The second round not much warbands had reinforcements. The little reinformcements that arrived came up in the same corner! It was getting busy over there!

The next round involved the Marauders founding a treasure, or was it? Sabretooth tigers entering the fray was making the board nice and busy. The tigers were wreaking quite some havoc.

Meanwhile some more treasure was being discovered. The gobbo's were getting it quite well when more reinforcments arrived in the same corner as before and also the possessed were getting at that spot some more numbers. The ideal combination for a good fight in the tower over some treasure.

The Marauders wer scouring the realm for more goodies and still battling the sabretooth tigers. Meanwhile the gobbo's unleashed some squigs to add to the mayhem of fuzzy teeth balls!
With the beastmen it was going well but not spectacular. Some treasure was unearthed but no big fights yet.

The dwarfs and possessed were not getting the reinforcements needed to keep up in this ever busier city. They already had some treasure in the pocket and routed voluntarily. Of course the dwarfs lost a slayer as usual and the possessed were licking some wounds. The beastmen were sniffing out some treasure but didn't make it very long on the battlefield.

The orcs&goblins and the marauders were left, making each others life very difficult in the snow. It wasn't long after the sneaky greenskins tactically maneuvered elsewhere and the win was for the marauders!

This wraps up the battle and it safe to say that it was playable for 5 warbands. No one had to wait very long. With the reinforcement rules a 4+ was difficult to get much of your warband in the field. A better rule to use would be the optional starting with 5+ and then each round a +1 to the dice roll. Noteworthy was an incredible dice roll of only 6's:

BTB: Rat Race

It was in the dew of the morning that the slayers woke up hearing the skitter of little paws. Was it little paws ... or just paws running around they wondered. Bjorgir was a bit on edge because there was little to eat the last couple of days. In the blasted region of the city they were in now, nothing but derelict houses and a faint drizzle all day. You could get quite glum about this, especially with an empty belly. The skittering noises made him think of rats...rat-on-a-stick! A smile grew on the face of Bjorgir and poking his fellow warband members awake a plan formed in his head.

The Magister looked at the runes and smiled. Some days ago he had successfully summoned a lesser demon out of the warp to extend his warband. In exchange for this blessing of the Plaguefather a shibboleth had to be executed. And now the target was near...



The two slayers were very eager to get some rats and were out in no time. But they were not the only ones out there! Just around the corner some Possessed were slithering around with their mutated bodies also looking for food. Also hoof noises could be heard now so some beasties were about also. The beardlings were muttering amongst themselves that the undead wouldn't be far away either. Sarr said: "A perfect morning for a massive fight around some scrawny little rats". Dru and Crumble agreed and were getting ready to face a heavy day.



Locating the dwarf had not been very hard; obviously they were hunting for rats and not very secretive about their whereabouts. However, those pesky rats were hard to ignore, two of them were even attacking. On top of that a loose chaos hound had appeared and attacked Frogface, who (off course) was not up to the task of fighting a meager hound.

But now father Nurgle was really smiling at them! Their price was approching fast (for at dwarf that is)! The aberration, the false blackblood, the requested sacrifice was actually charging them!!

Then everything happened very fast. A rat darted by and the two slayers were loose! Charging into the rat and hacking it to pieces. The rest of the warband were huddling around the corner to check for more. There were more rats running around, a lot more rats you could say. They were so fast it was difficult to tell how big they really were. In the meantime, the rats as the beastmen, undead and possessed were running around and chasing rats.



One particular big rat was boring down on the necromancer of the undead pack! This was a rat of abominable size. The beastmen were charging into the graveyard for some rats with their rabid dogs leading the pack. One of the dogs strayed a bit and ran around one of the pillars of a ruined temple to find a big hammer of the possessed warband leader in its way. With a big squelching sound the dog found its end right there: Not only the rats were meeting their fate.



Nurgly the Magister had by now killed a rat and finished off the stunned chaos hound. Flyface was literally sniffing out the carcass of the abominable rat. He found a wyrdstone shard, yet another sign that the true Chaos God was smiling at them.

But not all was going well. The false blackblood dwarf was a formidable fighter and had more and more dwarfs were joining the fray. And it were the followers of Chaos that were suffering. Several henchies were taken out of action or laying knocked down and both the Possessed were down to their last wound.



Half of the rat pack were now getting nervous with so much mayhem around them and were sprinting of the table. Another two rats were caught in a fight, but the rest escaped. The necromancer was having some big trouble with the big rat facing him.
Meanwhile Loki the bigger slayer flattened the rat with one mighty sweep of his axe. Looking around in a battle craze he saw some movement around the corner and blindly charged into it. The possessed over there were caught by surprise and were getting slaughtered. This was one mean slayer! Everywhere the possessed hit the slayer the blood spraying around was even inflicting wounds. Some of the possessed had that same skill and in moments 5 possessed were surrounding the slayer and damage was dealt very hard. Luckily the rest of the dwarf warband was around to try to help out Loki. It could be questioned if this was, what a slayer would really want, especially since Loki was truly in his element. Some disgruntled shouts from Loki to Bjorgir were also getting the concentration away and the battle swung towards the possessed. Loki was paying too much attention to his fellow warband members not to take out HIS enemies, letting him die his much wanted heroic death, that the possessed landed some blows. Still the tough slayer did not go down, and it was becoming very close. Some of the possessed were chopped away only to be replaced by new foul plaguebearers and whatnot. Loki was doing his best but his mind was not completely to it. The possessed were actually looking to flee of the field or this entire battle to end. Their wishes were not being granted by a necromancer, who was still fighting that giant rat.



The Magister resisted the urge to flee; this task had to be completed or else... He felt chaos powers pour away as a Plabuebearer was sent back to the Chaos courts by the black blooded Slayer. The Magister grawled and rushed in himself, with him the rest of his minions too attacked the dwarfs.

Then it was too much for the big orange crested fellow, too much blows at once, not able to parry them all, Loki went down. The rest of warband wanting revenge, swung in this melee but the possessed although wrung through a grinder, were getting new vigor by slaying the slayer and were really bearing down on the dwarfs. It was soon that the dwarfs saw they were no match and ran of the battlefield with only one rat to share.

A green light lit up the ruins around the small square were some hours ago the dwarfs and possessed had met. Now the mutilated corpse of a slayer was surrounded by the strange shapes of his opponents. A dark liquid, much much darker than normal dwarven blood, was leaking on the ground. Floating above the body was a strange shining bulb, that grew into a crack, a passage toward the courts of chaos. For a moment a bellowing laughter could be heard accompanying a Plaguebearer striding through.

"Father Nurgle is very pleased with your deeds, master magister" Hissed the Plaguebearer. "He sends you this" The minor demon continued and handed over a putrefied, rusted axe. The Magister looked at the warped piece of metal and smiled, recognizing the axe as the one the slayer had barried in the killed Plaguebearer.

We player the Rat Race scenario found on the Wargame Weaver site. A very nice multi player scenario which really fits the Border Town Burning settings and is good fun to play (Thanx Jim!). Minor nitpicks/recommendations: Use random movement (or the Border Town Burning monster rules) instead of the 12" movement for the rats.

BTB: The lost caravans

The late evening sun shines red on the few buildings in fore town of the borderland city Mohawa. The occasional grunt and murmur sound was heard from one of the buildings. Inside a group of dwarves known as the Alequaffers was tending their wounds.
Bjorgir was discussing with Grach that it was for the best that Grach would go to the mountains to report the latest findings and doings of the warband. Not speaking of the fact it would better to get better from the horrible wound he just suffered.
Meanwhile Durri and Loki were the no happy dwarves and quaffing some stale ale. They survived a battle where they faced enormous odds. Loki even got stuck in battle with 6 beastmen before he went down. He dealt some terrible carnage and was becoming a massive dwarf all together.
“It is a terrible loss” Grom muttered. “The beardlings go for fame and adventure, not for cold nights, little food and death.” One of the beardlings wasn’t with them anymore. That last fight was too much for him. One of the Ogre villains thumped him quite badly and the beastmen trampling over him afterwards were too much.

What happened with the warband today? In this small fore town, on the middle of the road they found a wagon being trashed by ogres. 5 Ogres in total were bashing into 5 guards the Merchant had hired.

The Merchant’s wagon was already smashed to bits, the horses run away and the crew was barely standing. In the middle of this fight the dwarfs saw a fellow merchant in trouble and dashed towards the fighting spree to help. At the same time at the other end of the road a massive group of beastmen saw the riches of the Merchant’s caravan and was not planning to leave that to the ogres.


Dwarves and Beastmen charged the Ogres who proved to be very sturdy indeed. Loki and Durri were hacking and slashing into one Ogre while one the 3 beardlings were watching from a distance. They were too afraid to come even near the battle.
From a distance Grach and two thunderers were shooting away with their handguns. Clouds of smoke were billowing everywhere with every volley they shot. Grach being the expert he made a big difference in how fast he could reload and shoot. “Keep practicing lads” he shouted with a mad grin as he shot another round of lead towards the ogres.

The clouds of smoke probably obscured their vision somewhat, because after rounds of lead no ogre suffered any wounds from the handgunners! Their aim was a bit off this fight.

Eventually the beastmen managed to get 3 ogres down and the slayers also hacked one to the ground. The remaining guards took care of the last ogre and now the dwarfs were standing opposing the beastmen. With some hesitation the beastmen charged the dwarfs. Now the real fighting was commencing. First rounds the dwarfs took heavy casualties.

When Durri went down, Loki was infuriated and started chomping away. He felled 4 beastmen himself. The beardlings were going down very fast and now the thunderers were being attacked. They were no match in hand to hand fighting. Grach was swinging his hammer for all he was worth but it was to no avail. All dwarfs went down in this massacre.


Hours after the battle Bjorgir was gathering his warband, he feared the worst. “How many would have survived the onslaught?” he thought. His head still ringing from the blows he received, the noble found out there quite some survivors. Actually he brightened up seeing his entire warband there…no wait…one of the beardlings was not present. This still was a dark day for the Alequaffers. Some new grudges would be written down and remembered the next fights they entered.

West Gate House: Mordheim and chopping trees

Silence lay down in the city of Mordheim. During the day all creatures of the night are out of sight. At the west gate house a lumbering Oak tree is swaying in the wind. Or is it swaying to hit passersby to keep it from coming any closer. It is rumoured to hide a big treasure of some sort. how this tree became the protector and how a tree became a protector is all subject to the 2-tail comet striking down. This evening the slayers venture out to investigate this Oak tree and it's treasure. After a night quaffing ale this is just the activity to get out and about. While approaching the west gate house and the aquaduct, the tree is already visibible. It looks menacingly gnarly in this twilight (link to scenario)

.

In the disctance hoof sounds and some loud adventurers group can be heard. More are about this night to venture around this tree....

The slayers group up and make their way across the city slowly and carefully. You never want to miss out on a good fight somewhere to seek your doom (or find good treasure for that matter!). In the meantime the adventurers in the distance found some trouble to the sounds of it. The scraping and lurching noises of some foul undead have been encountered apparantly! A vampire is just the thing for the slayers! They have a record of getting rid of these suckers! It is too far of for now to start running towards the melee (maybe only some zombies, no glory in dying at a loose zombie bite there is).

It appears the tree is moving about lightly, but it could also be looks decieving. Was it moving towards the well to get some of that yellow foul smelling water? Upon approaching the big Oak, it is not alone over here! Some small saplings are in the way. Just the thing for some dwarf slayers with big axes! In no time they start chopping away at these no good in-the-way branches.
At the other side of the aquaduct beastmen arrive to also find some sapplings. In stead of lifting a hoof or nibbling these branches the beastmen find themselves attacked by these woods ad a fight starts here as well.

The adventurers and undead are more busy with each other then with trees and the slayers find a free way to the big Oak tree which is now swaying violantly with it's big branches. One hit from these will nock you right out of your Mohawk!
5 Slayers charge the big fellow and start chopping. Since this is a big old gnalry tree it can take some hits. The slayers get 2 big cuts in right away. The tree starts fighting back! This is nog little defensless tree mind! This is heavy stuff. From the other side beastmen pour in for a claim to chop down this piece of wood! The slayers are carved of better wood then these beasties since the beastmen get swatted away quite easily by the tree. The slayers dodge and parry with all axes and might they have. After a while they get some more chunks carved out of the tree and it starts to topple, but not just yet! It is still harrassing the dwarfs with big branches that can flatten a man! This is a glorious battle and all slayers want a piece of this, this could be a glorious death (although from a tree....).

After more rounds of hacking away one of the slayers with a monstrous double handed Gromril axe hits THE spot with all his might, this is the final blow and the Oak tree goes down. What a fight what a tension, but they did it.
In the background some noises of fights between adventurers and undead die down and the beasties also find this a good moment to look for trouble somewhere else in the city of Mordheim.
The night now really comes in and it is a good moment to end all this and find a good ale somewhere. The slayers are till somewhat in batlle frenzie but one of the clansman is clear of mind to remember this was all about some treasure.....what about this and some digging and rummaging begins....