2nd Sept - 1st Sept Frostgrave vs The Wife

After spending the morning together painting The Wife decided she wanted to get another game of Frostgrave in so I got to work setting up the table and a quick scenario. I decided on a central tower with two chests on either side flanked by two "statues" (large constructs that would come to life upon the treasure being picked up/moved) along with four zombies scattered around roughly a foot away. We would also deploy a single chest each that had to be within the two foot square centre area that would spawn a zombie on a D20+Wizard Level roll of fifteen or more.

We deployed on opposite sides of the road and began. The first turn just had us both advancing up and casting a couple of spells, but in the second both of us began engaging the surrounding zombies in both melee and ranged combat. Christian the Humble, Thaumaturge Extraordinaire and Worker of Miracles quickly had the rotting walker in front of him glowing presenting a nice target for his Ranger and after a quick shot the Barbarian rushed in and finished the job quickly downing the foe. The Apprentice took a little longer with his taking a few turns and some spectacular miscasts, although he thankfully managed to cast heal without hurting himself in the progress, but the shambling foe was soon taking down through the valiant efforts of the Man-at-Arms. 

On the other side The Wife got a little bogged down with her undead attackers, but after some minor miscasts and some amazingly luckily timed shambles by the zombies (I can't call them dodges when it's a zombie can I?!?!) she was able to pull down both of them with Jenny Crafter of Trinkets once again mostly abandoning her school of magic in favour of her single Witch spell Curse, perhaps she missed her calling. You now how it goes all you ever wanted to do was be a witch but overbearing parents forced you in apprenticeship with the local Enchanter and that was that.... 

This set up both up to grab chests. I had been slowly moving up two infantry men for the task and one of them quickly grabbed the potential zombie spawning chest but managed to avoid waking it's guardian. On the other side The Wife's infantry men attempted the same task but a zombie quickly clawed it's way out of the ground and sprang to the attack. However her apprentice remembering he was an Enchanter and not a Witch cast telekinesis on the tower chest closest to him bring it forward but activating it's guard who was slow to awaken and merely turned to lock eyes on the potential thieves.

Emboldened by the apparent lack of speed of the guardian my second infantry man made a grab for the second tower chest but as luck would have it his construct sprang to life and engaged him in combat forcing him to drop the chest and defend himself which he did managing to wound the automaton. 

With the combination of the powerful magics of Christian the Humble, Thaumaturge Extraordinaire and Worker of Miracles and his apprentice and the force of blows from the infantry man, barbarian and even the humble thug the beast was quickly felled and loot secured. On the other side Jenny Crafter of Trinkets was caught up in a pair of ongoing combats and while eventually downing both beasts my ranger had time to run up and play touch the chest as her apprentice was busy throwing rocks at the construct before him. A warning that perhaps if she was going to be focused on such a insignificant task as saving the lives of hirelings then perhaps next time she would be going home one chest lighter...

We're really enjoying this rule set both for it's simplicity of mechanics and it's fast play ability. On a painting note, the Fishermen team for Guildball is now varnished so pictures tomorrow before I head to work hopefully, then I think it'll be time to start work cleaning up and gluing the hundred off Abyssal Dwarves I now own for Kings of War. 

1st September - Finished Guildball Masons

Finally got around to taking photos of the Mason team for Guildball. This is the team The Wife has picked to play. I'm thinking I'll be revisiting these at a later date to add some more detail to the bases, but for now I'm calling them done.

Honour

Team Captain

Central Midfielder

Marbles

Mascot

Flint

Striker

Mallet

Defensive Midfielder

Brick

Centre Back

Harmony

Winger

Tower

Defensive Midfielder

I've finished off the Fishermen now for The Eldest, they just need to be varnished tomorrow so pictures hopefully a little quicker than these took me to get around to. Also got a game of Frostgrave in with The Wife today so I'll get that posted up in the next few days also. Back to six days weeks again for a month at work at the moment so I'll have to see how I go fitting hobby time in around that.

27th August - 25th Aug Frostgrave vs The Wife, The Daughters and Toby

I was basically stuck at home today waiting for FedEx to bring my giant (16.4kg) combined Dreadball Extreme and Kings of War kickstarter packages. I'd also decided to put on a game of Frostgrave, so I just dived into hobby things, finishing off the Masons for The Wife for Guildball (pics to come, I think the bases need a touch more detail but she's happy), getting some more paint on my wizard for Frostgrave and finally pulling out one of my battle-systems packages and starting to put it together so I had some sort of decently cluttered table.

I just knocked together a quick scenario where there was five loot counters scattered through out the small keep guarded by zombies. 

All the wizards gathered their war-bands and entered the area surrounding the keep. 'Christian the Humble, Thaumaturge Extraordinaire and Worker of Miracles' began the first turn and moved up taunting the Zombies before him to come face his might. His opponents for today's treasure hunt followed suit though they all made the blunder of rushing the doors with the exception of The Wife's Enchanter and proceeded to get bogged down fighting their rotting foes. The Youngest's Elementalist decided "Bugger the treasure I want to kill The Eldest before she attacks me" and began hurling ball after Elemental Ball at the fledgling Necromancer wounding several the wizard but soon was under fire from The Eldest's hired archers.

The apprentices all proved themselves this time with my aspiring Thaumaturge casting a glow upon zombies to aid my archers and ranger or shield upon my melee hireling strengthening them against attacks. Toby's apprenticed Elementalist conjured several walls, very nearly killing himself in the process. The Youngest's got stuck in to combat at first but then made several attempts to heal her mentor though she never quite managed it and The Youngest was the first to bottle out satisfied suddenly coming up with the solution to the problem she'd been pondering (enough xp to gain a level). 

The Eldest soon had a summoned zombie in tow for both her Necromancer and apprentice, but with her large thief filled war-band and her skirmish with The Youngest she too retreated from the field with no loot (but again enough xp from casting for a level).

This left the field down to three The Wife, Toby and myself. The newly arrived Elementalist Toby the Unlucky was still struggling with his zombies having failed to pull down the initial rush from the first room he soon found himself having to deal with a stacked doorway, although a well placed Wizard's Eye helped him attempt to clear the doorway from the back while his men attempted from the front using muscle and steel the mage just could not manage to pull the risen dead down with his Elemental Bolts exploding harmlessly against the bloated flesh and his steel turned aside by rusted breastplates and mouldering leather.

The Wife's Enchanter Jenny Crafter of Trinkets however gazed across the field at the masterful way Christian the Humble, Thaumaturge Extraordinaire and Worker of Miracles was luring the moaning husks out of the building quickly dispatching them with a concentrated effort of magic and steel and watched his band disappear through the now clear doorway and ordered her men to throw back the zombies and pull back allowing them to mob and pull down the single minded foes.

Meanwhile as the second shambling corpse fell to the ground the foul energies animating it dissipating. My Ranger, Barbarian and Thug headed into the now cleared room only to be confronted by a second pair of zombies. The well trained war-band again sprang into coordinated action and with Christian the Humble, Thaumaturge Extraordinaire and Worker of Miracles himself hurling spells at the foes they soon fell to some strong blows and well placed arrows leaving the central rooms cleared and the treasure for the taking.

 

Meanwhile......

Jenny Crafter of Trinkets quickly entered her now clear doorway and on a spur of the moment decided to order an archer to check the tomb while the infantry held off the zombie they encountered in the hall and found a stashed bag of loot (I wasn't intending it but decided to reward her thought process, plus i'd left a coin insert in it so what the hell :)  ).  A quick Telekinesis spell later and the treasure was secure.

With the four chests now clear for the taking Christian the Humble, Thaumaturge Extraordinaire and Worker of Miracles rushed in with his followers quickly securing the chests and heading back to camp.

Finally!!!

Another enjoyable game of Frostgrave. I'd make a few changes to the set up though for this one, either adding some wider doorways or even removing a wall section or two. I've just got to put a coat of varnish on The Mason's when I next get a chance then it'll be on to the abyssal dwarves now they've arrived I think.

20th August - 16th August Guildball vs Toby

So after an enjoyable morning of Frostgrave at The Uncles, we headed home to see The Wife (who had been at work so missed the game). I had also teed up Toby to come over and get in our first game of Guildball since receiving our minis.

Toby had gone with the Butchers as his first team and once again my Morticians took the field. We left terrain off again for this game but the next time we'll have a few bits and pieces scattered around. We tossed a tossed a coin and I decided to be the receiving team, we deployed and the game was under way with Brisket taking the kick off.

The game began with Obulus headin up the field after giving Casket a running start with puppet master. The remainder of the first turn saw both teams quickly closing in on each other and Casket grabbing the ball after being heavily debuffed with the ranged abilities of the butchers and shooting a quick pass off to Silence who used to momentum to take a bit of run up the field and out toward the wing.

The next turn saw Casket and Obulus getting stuck into Brisket and Princess who had just been covered in embalming fluid thanks to Silence as he streamed past them with the ball. Boar the lumbering giant had moved up but was still unable to close with anyone as of yet. Ox the Butchers team captain move forward but ran into a world of hurt as Cosset smashed into him screaming like a banshee tearing herself up in her haste to close with him. The resulting attacks left the captain with very little health thanks to the added weight from Dirge. And allowed Graves to continue forward ready to unleash some pain himself and Boiler also headed over taking an interest in his captains plight.

The Morticians kept the ball rolling (haha) in the next round with Graves charging in and finishing off Ox with a devastating whirlwind attack damaging Meathook as well but unfortunately clipping Cosset in his haste, after laying in to Meathook though he took the time to help Cosset to recover from her bleed (although I think I should have just gone for a heal instead and cleared the bleed later). Seeing his captain fall and taken off the field to recover was too much for Boar and he slammed into Cosset who was rather quickly sidelined to the ministrations of the team doctors. This would leave poor Graves surrounded by the end of the turn with Boar, Meathook and Boiler all trying to bring the man down, although he continued to stand despite their best efforts. On the other side of the pitch embalming fluid rained down again as Silence continued his run toward goal while Brisket and Princess continued to try to pull Casket down with little to no luck. Obulus continued to harass the pair as well with the poor Butchers mascot easily susceptible to puppet master and therefore often attacking his mistress.

Cosset was back up after a brief pause and on the field although she was still quite wobbly. Ox remained off taking the time to make sure his wounds were as stable as they were going to be. Silence again threw a flask of fluid over the embattled butcher combo and headed toward the goal now only a turn away from being in range. The trio on the other wing took their turns with Boiler failing to bring Graves down followed by the man managing despite the odds being stacked against him to land a blow on Meathook and Boar, before the butcher lass brought him down. Boar then began to lumber over toward Casket hoping his added weight would make a difference, taking out the poor Morticians mascot in a puff of black feathers. Meanwhile the slightly more even melee continued on that side of the pitch.

How dare they kill a poor defenseless bird! Even as Ox returned to the field Obulus puppet mastered Casket giving the hulking man an extra attack which he used to slam Princess to the ground in retribution for the killing of Dirge. An enraged Butchers team sprang into action with Boiler hurtling across the field throwing knives at Silence as he came, but perhaps a cooler head would have helped as he easily dodged through the knives, then himself hurtled toward the goal, scoring easily then continuing on out of reach of any retaliation thanks to yet another vial of embalming fluid casually tossed over his enemies. The return kick had the ball land with in reach of Meathook who quickly took possession. Boar meanwhile charged into Casket but the berserk Butcher was unable to take the resilient Mortician player down and his return attacks left the large slab of a man teetering himself after turns of punishment.  Brisket added a few swings of her own but again Casket just seemed to absorb the punishment from the opposing players with little to no effect. Cosset now looking steadier on her feet moved into charge range on Boar and things now looked pretty dire for the Butchers team.

Graves returned to the pitch ready to intercept Meathook if the need arose but the Morticians seized initiative and Casket sprang into action, pummeling Boar repeatedly until finally as the aggressive Butcher began to topple he hefted him into the air and smashed him down into the handy coffin on his back not only sealing him away from the Butchers medics, but sealing victory for the Mortician team!

Another really enjoyable game and who's going to complain about two games in a day, The Wife was downstairs cheering me along... but mostly finishing off her Saga Anglo Danish and Dropzone Shaltari (hopefully pics coming soon, they're both not too far off finished and I think considering they are pretty much the first things she's painted up for herself they look great) and I spent a good portion of Tuesday night finishing off the bulk of the Mason team for Guildball, with the Fishermen potentially taking their spot on the table next although I have the tracking link for my Kings of War pledge now so the Abyssal Dwarves will take that spot soon.

17th August - 16th Frostgrave vs The Uncle, The Eldest and The Youngest

Headed over to The Uncles place yesterday with The Daughters for our first game of Frostgrave. The girls and I created our wizards and their hired band of adventures. The Eldest created a Necromancer, The Youngest a Elementalist and I opted for a Thaumaturge. The Uncle decided on a Witch and we set up for The Mausoleum scenario.

The game play itself was fast and quite easy to pick up. By the end of the first turn we all knew the basics and even with four players the game went rather quickly. Unfortunately I've not been able to get any of my Frostgrave miniatures painted up yet, but with the help of various Fubarnii and Guildball players we had the wizards sorted, then dipping into the Saga figures, some more Fubarnii, an orc and a couple of borrowed figures we had the warbands sorted and were ready to play.

Our pre-game spells were mostly failures, I was unable to create a potion, The Youngest failed to summon her Zombie, The Uncles animal companion failed to be summoned. The Eldest however managed to raise her Zombie much to her delight.

The Uncle was the first to grab a treasure token, using his Control Undead spell to send a few skeletons to harass The Youngest and clear his path. At that stage he ran into The Eldest who had been firing Bone Darts at everything that moved taking out quite a few skeletons began to exchange fire with him, although he still managed to secure one of the special treasures and began to extract it from the table.

The Youngest played a cautious game at the start securing a treasure, then decided to go on the offensive barreling toward The Uncles apprentice and managed to wound the young witches student, but he was able to get away.

Meanwhile I had fought my way through the skeletons in my path. I had been sending several arrows toward The Youngest's man at arms but was unable to get through scoundrels armour. My Wizard however sent his orc thug up to grab one of the special tokens, casting Blinding Light on The Uncle's nearby Thief taking him out of the running with a nice twenty on the casting roll leaving the poor victim almost guaranteed to be cut down my what ever came upon him. This allowed my apprentice to grab grab another special token, and the man at arms in my employ to secure a third.

This left me winning the game though we all managed to get treasure off the board and all but The Youngest who was ten points short gaining a level of experience on our wizards. Great game and we're all looking forward to getting more in as time allows.