Bones Return to Frostgrave: A Battle Report

  This past Sunday I got to try out the new Frostgrave rules again, this time with real opponents.  Two of my friends came over and we got to play a couple games. The first game we played was a three way battle between a Necromancer band controlled by me, an Illusionist party controlled by Buck, and a Chronomancer group controlled by Greg.  Greg and I had talked a while back how much the Chronomancer type of wizard reminded us of a Time Lord like Dr Who.  So, sure enough, for his faction Greg brought the Eleventh Doctor, and River Song, as his Wizard and Apprentice, which I thought was mighty cool.  He also brought three pieces of the rare material, Jethrik, as his treasure tokens.

Team Illusionist: The Wizard, Apprentice, Templar, Archer, Archer, Thief, Thief, Thief, Thug, Thug

Team Necromancer: Wizard, Apprentice, Man-at-Arms, Infantry, Archer, Treasure Hunter, Thief, Thug (Yes, he's a goblin thug). The Necromancer was also able to raise a Zombie before the game began.

Team Chronomancer: Wizard (The Doctor), Apprentice (River Song), Infantry, Treasure Hunter, Crossbow, Crossbow, Crossbow, Thug

 We played a straight up game with no optional rules, and no campaign goals, as we all were still getting a feel for the rules.  While this was the first game for my two friends, I had played a solo match a week ago. As there was no chance of eliminating both enemy factions in a three-way match, claiming treasure became the primary goal of the game.

A view of the table near the beginning of the game. Buck entered his Illuisonist group from the far long side of the table, Greg from the near long side, and I entered from the short far side.

    As can be imagined, the action was chaotic.    The beginning level wizards were not having a good day as lots of spells failed. My Necromancer and his Apprentice tried numerous times to launch Bone Dart spells but they always seemed to miss, they soon were dubbed the "rubber chicken" bone darts. However, this made the spell successes all the more memorable.  The highlights being a well tossed grenade by the Illusionist; and the Illusionist's apprentice managing to mind control the Chronomancer's thug, with the sacrifice of some health to empower the spell. The Thug had just picked up a treasure, and was forced to carry it across the board; and as the game neared the end, the Illusionist Apprentice did a spectacular Push spell on him that shoved him over a foot and off the table edge with his treasure.

A swirling battle developed in the middle of the table between the Chonomancer's forces and the Illusionist's 

    As the game neared the end, my Necromancer had removed 4 treasures, the Illusionist 3, and the Chronomancer had 1.  There was one more treasure left, and my infantry woman was climbing down from the third floor of a ruined building with it. She had been wounded on top of the building by one of the Illusionist's archers and now he finished her off with a spectacular shot through one of the buildings windows as she climbed down.  The Chronomancer teleported to the spot where the treasure now lay, as my Necromancer and his Apprentice moved up to claim it as well. My Apprentice finally managed a successful Bone Dart attack against the Chronomancer, putting him out of the game, just as the Illusionist successfully teleported to the spot as well.  I had a chance to Bone Dart him as well, as he picked up the treasure, but failed; and the next activation he teleported away.  The game ended in a tie of 4 treasures each for my Necromancer and Buck's Illusionist, and one for  Greg's Chronomancer. Everyone had a great time.

My Infantry lies dead next to the treasure as the Illusionist and the Chonomancer teleport in to claim it, as my Necromancer (visible in the lower left of the photo) moves up.  Out of view is my Apprentice who is on the other side of the rocky otcrop that the Necromancer is standing by, taking aim at the Chronomancer.

 At this point Buck had to leave, so Greg and I reset the terrain a bit and prepared to fight another game; this time with the plan to use the campaign rules and wandering monster rolls.   I took the Illusionist group this time, and Greg re-ran his Chronomancer gang.  Again, another good game was had.  The addition of the creatures was fun, especially when a ghoul appeared directly on the table edge behind my Illusionist. The creature badly injured my illusionist, before my wizard could teleport out of the engagement, and my archer then quickly finished off the Ghoul.

My Apprentice teleports to the top of the tower to retrieve a treasure (The treasure is a piece of jethrik.   To go along with the Dr Who figures, Greg used three pieces of this rare stuff as his treasure tokens. :)  )

    Another highlight included the same Chronomancer's thug that got mind controlled in the first game getting mind controlled again with a treasure in his hands, this time by the Illusionist himself. Much humor ensued at the expense of this poor weak-minded thug.

As if from nowhere, a Ghoul appears and makes a dash for my wizard.  Luckily the nearby archer is able to dispatch the foul creature. 

 Best of all was a spectacular battle atop some tower ruin, as my Apprentice teleported up there to grab a treasure, followed by the Chronomancer infantry soldier who began to climb the tower after her.  The Chronomancer himself then teleported up to the tower's top on the Wizard phase of the next turn. Desperate, the Apprentice tried a Push spell on the Chonomancer and succeeded spectacularly pushing him 9 inches back and off the tower.  The 6 inch drop then did 9 points of damage to the Chronomancer as he fell. The next turn my Apprentice picked up the treasure, and as the infantryman neared her, she teleported off the tower the following turn.

Duel atop the tower. The Doctor and my Apprentice face off

      The game ended soon after that, with the movement of the last of my soldiers off the table after retrieving 4 of the treasures.  Both wizards were badly battered but not dead.  While I had managed to get four of the treasure again, Greg got two this time.   We then spent a few minutes to run through the after-game book keeping.  I had lost two thugs and a thief during the game, and while one of the thugs and the thief were quick to recuperate my other thug was injured badly enough to have to miss the next encounter. Treasure wise, I got a nice pile of gold coins and a pair of grimoires.  I earned 240 experience points, going up two levels.  I used these to increase my health by one, and my skill at teleporting by one.

The result of the duel: The Doctor lay badly hurt where he fell into a ruin, after being pushed 9" off the tower.

     Both games were a lot of fun, and there are a lot of nuances to the game which will be fun to learn and experiment with.  My Illusionist, now named Nikon, and his trusty apprentice, named Cherowyn, are now settled in an old abandoned inn on the edge of the city; fixing it up and preparing for their next excursion. They have put out a call for a Ranger to join their ranks, since they have so much extra space at the inn; and can afford his fes now with the treasure they recovered; he should be here in time to join the next adventure.  It will be just in time too, as the poor injured thug will not make the next outing.

Frozen Bones: A Frostgrave Battle Report

    No second figure this week, but I've got a battle report instead.  I recently purchased a copy of Frostgrave, as it seemed like a it might be a good set of rules to use with my ever growing Bones collection. And, quite coincidentally I had already painted a few of my Bones in a winter theme. So, after reading through the rules, I set up a quick solo game one evening this week to give them a play through.
    I don't own a lot of appropriate terrain, but I have run a number of Christmas Wars games in the past, so had a bit of  scenery I could press into service along with some generic ruined brick buildings.

An overview of the table. The Illusionist's forces entered from the near side, and the Necromancer's from the far side.

      In selecting my forces I thought I would try one with fewer but more elite troops, and another with a quantity of lower cost troops. So, I picked an Illusionist, with his Apprentice, a Templar, a Knight, and a Ranger. And against them a, Necromancer, Apprentice, 2 Infantry, 2 Archers, a Man at Arms and a Thief.
    For the Illusionist picked the following spells: Teleport, Glow, Monstrous Form, Mind Control, Push, Heal, Fast Act, and Grenade.  For the Necromancer I selected: Bone Dart, Raise Zombie, Steal Health, Familiar, Decay, Imp, Awareness, and Telekinesis.  Cutting up, sorting, and selecting all the spell cards took  a bit of time.  Before the game the Necromancer was able to both raise a Zombie, and get a Familiar.

Team Illusionist: The Illusionist, his Gnome Apprentice, Lady Templar, Dwarf  Knight, and Ranger

Team Necromancer: The Necromancer's Toad Familiar, The Necromancer, his Apprentice, 2 Infantry, 2 Archers, Man-At-Arms, Thief, and Zombie

     To begin, I separated the Illusionist's forces into two groups: the Illusionist himself, the Templar, and the Knight started just inside the cemetery seen in the lower left of the table picture at the top. The Apprentice with the Ranger to protect her, started at the wall just opposite the two-story ruin, by the big pine tree, seen on the right of the table photo.
   I likewise split the Necromancer's forces. He and his apprentice, along with the Man-At-Arms, and the female Infantry and Archer started by the statue seen in the upper right corner of the table in the photo at the top. While his other Infantry and Archer, along with the Thief and the Zombie started by the blue crystal in the upper left corner of the table in the photo at the top.
     In the first turn the Necromancer's side won the initiative.  He moved forward to the cover of some ruins, and then cast his Awareness spell to gain a +1 initiative bonus for the rest of the game. His soldiers that stared within 3" advanced as well. The female Infantry then picked up a treasure, the female Archer moved to cover in some ruins, the Man-at-Arms moved towards some other treasure.
    The Illusionist now activated, and he and his Templar and Knight moved into the graveyard. At that point the Illusionist spotted the Necromancer's female Infantry holding the treasure and did a Mind Control spell on her, rolling a 19.  She failed her Will test and became controlled by the Illusionist. The Templar picked up some treasure, and the Knight moved towards another treasure.
   The Necromancer's Apprentice then moved forward to the cover of some ruins. Then the Illusionist's Apprentice and the Ranger advanced to the two-story ruins. The Apprentice then Teleported up to the second floor, and the Ranger climbed up after her.
  During the Soldiers phase, the Necormancer's other Infantry and Archer along with the Thief all advanced into some nearby ruins, where the Thief picked up another treasure. The Illusionist then moved the Female Infantry he now mind-controlled towards his side of the table. In the Creature Phase, the Zombie lumbered forward.

At the end of turn 1. The Ranger and Apprentice are on the top floor of the 2-story ruins at the bottom of the photo, while the Necromancer's forces move to their positions.  The mind-controlled female Infantry can be seen carrying her treasure forward near the white rocks at the center left of the photo

Meanwhile, the Illusionist finds himself a good position to cast spells from while the Templar carries some treasure urns to the rear, and the Knight moves toward a treasure chest near the statue.

      During the next turn the Illusionist  moved to where he could get a better view of the battlefield and his Apprentice cast Glow on one of the Necromancer's Archers.  The Necromancer and his Apprentice attempted to throw Bone Darts at the Illusionist's Apprentice but she was too protected by the ruins. The Ranger and the Necromancer's Archers exchanged ineffective fire, as they all were in good cover. The Templar carried her treasure to the back of the cemetery and over the wall. Likewise, the Necromancer's Thief and Man at Arms carried their treasure to the rear of their positions.  The mind-controlled female Infantry carried her treasure closer to the Illusionist side.  Then miraculously rolled a 20 on her Will check, breaking free of the Mind Control.

As the female Infantry approaches, she breaks the Mind Control.  The Illusionist tries desperately to regain control, but can't. The Dwarf Knight drops what he was doing and prepares to move against the female Infantry.  Meanwhile, the Necromancer's other Infantry can be seen sneaking into the cemetery at the center left of the photo.

     On the next turn the Illusionist's Apprentice took a Bone Dart from both the Necromancer and his Apprentice and died. The Illusionist tried to regain Mind-Control over the female Infantry and failed; so his Knight rushed forward to engage in combat.  Meanwhile the Necromancer's other infantry had worked around the ruins and entered the cemetery where the Templar moved to stop him.

The Knight and Infantry fight, as the Necromancer's support moves up.

   The Illusionist moved to help his Templar, and the Knight was able to dispatch the female Infantry. But by then the Necromancer's Man-At_Arms and Zombie were right there and the Knight, already weakened a little from his fight with the Infantry, now found himself in another combat.  Meanwhile the Necromancer cast an Imp nearby, and this Creature moved toward the Knight as well.  The Necromancer's apprentice moved to  a position where she could start casting Bone Darts at the Ranger

The Templar and Illusionist battle the other Infantry; as the Dwarf  Knight now finds himself facing the Necromancer's Man-At-Arms.  A Zombie and Imp move up behind the Knight.

    The Templar and Illusionist killed the Infantry, but the Templar was badly wounded so she and the Illusionist ducked behind a crypt where they were out of sight, and he could cast Heal on her.  In the mean time, the Man-At-Arms killed the Knight, and a combination of an archery hit, an a Bone Dart from the Illusionist's Apprentice took out the Ranger.
   At the that point the Illusionist and his Templar knew their cause was lost and decided to leave the field of battle to to the Necromancer.

The Illusionist and Templar survey the situation and decide to call it a day.

    The game was a lot of fun. I ended up doing Archery and Spell Casting wrong the first couple of turns, making them much less deadly. Once I figured out the correct way, the action picked up.  I also wasted time messing with treasure.  I  can see in a non-campaign game like this that the gathering of treasure is not as important, because whoever wins the battle can collect the treasure at their leisure.  I've read that adding a turn limit might help correct that, which I will have to try in the future.
    I'm also not fully convinced I want to commit to the winter theme.  I can see doing a "Watergrave" variant, with a rising of Atlantis type of setting; and being able to use a lot of the more temperate figures and scenery in my collection. Knowing me though, I'll probably end up doing both. :)

Song of Blades and Heroes: Bones Battle Report

This past Saturday I went to Rob Dean's house for a couple games of "Song and Blades and Heroes". Rob and I decided to hold these game days using SoBaH to give us an opportunity to use our newly painted Bones figures. Like me, he bought into the first Reaper Kickstarter, and has been busy working on painting the figures from it.  He has also purchased and painted a number of Reaper's non-Kickstarter Bones figures as well.
  Rob set up a nice looking table with some sort of ancient stone heads guarding a hilltop.  Perhaps some ancient burial ground I was guarding from treasure hunters?
     For our first game I decided to build a warband around some of my newly painted translucents.    So I decided on a force consisting of: 1 Spectre, 1 Ghost, 2 Superior Skeleton Archers, 1 Skeleton Warrior, 1 Superior Skeleton Warrior (I used the Lionman skeleton stats from the rulebook), and 1 Fire Elemental.   This gave me a group of rather mediocre troops, most having a Combat score of 2, and Qualities of 3+ and 4+.  My best weapons were the Spectre with its Terror attribute and the Fire Elemental with it's 4+ Combat score, and short range shoot.
  Rob chose a warband of assorted Human fighters, archers and a Magic User.  He had one figure with the Leader ability in the mix, who effectively brought his warband's Quality down to a 2+ (Lower Quality is better in SoBaH).

Team Undead: Spectre, Ghost, a pair of Superior Skeleton Archers, a Skeleton Warrior, a Superior Skeleton Warrior, and a Fire Elemental

   It didn't help things that I badly mishandled the warband from the get go.  The Ghost proved to be useless with a Quality 4+ and a Combat of only 1.  It seldom activated, and lingered about waiting to pile on to another combat, which never happened.  I really didn't know what to do with the Spectre  either, with it's Combat score of 2+.  It wasn't until halfway through the game that I realized the way I should be using it was to pin an enemy with one of my other units, and then charge it with the Spectre; thus forcing it to take a morale check (because of the Spectre's Terror attribute) and possibly causing it to flee from combat giving the figure it was fighting a free, and lethal, hack.

Rob advances his troops. 

   The Fire Elemental I sent on a foolish flank march to get at Rob's wizard, but the hill slowed it down to a point where it had hardly got halfway across before the rest of my force had been decimated...which is what happened.  While my Spectre and Ghost flounced around being ineffective with their Quality 4+ activations, Rob was able to efficiently start taking out my skeletons with melee attacks. When I did try to get my Spectre into combat it rolled miserably and lost the fight, falling to the ground.  At which point it was swarmed and dispatched by the enemy.  In a matter of a few turns I was reduced to below half strength, and we called it a game.

My Spectre's big chance.  It knocks the enemy down, but subsequently has such poor activation rolls that the enemy is able to stand up and knock it down in return before it can react.

Next up, I had prepared an Orc and Goblin warband.  I was able to paint the Goblins up quick after the Spirit figure this past week, as the Spirit didn't take that long, and I will feature them in an article on Monday. Rob reused his warband of Humans, and who could blame him after their great success in the first game.  So this time I was tasked with defended the great Orc holy stone head alter from Human interlopers.
  This will be a short report, as I must say up front, I do not think I have ever had a game go bad for me so quickly.

Team Orc: (Back row) Orc Warchief, 3 Savage Orcs, 1 Superior Orc Archer, (front row) Goblin Elite Archer, 2 Goblin Warriors, and 2 Spider Swarms (I used the centipede swarm stats from the rulebook) 

The Orcs, like my previous warband, suffered from less than average Quality of 4+. I had learned enough from Rob's last outing with Orcs (See: Bones Battle Report ) to include a figure with the Leader attribute to effectively bring my Quality down to 3+ .
     So, on my first turn, I get about half of my stuff activated including an Orc Spearman who is pointed up as a Savage Orc.  He gets two successful activation rolls and races forward.  After my second mixed result activation, the Spearman is about a move out front, with everyone else following up at various stages.

The beginning of the end:  the Orc Spearman goes charging forth.

At this point, two of Rob's fighters who have also been racing forward, reach him.   With their better Quality, they roll and get 3 activations each, so they still have the ability to strike the spear-wielding Orc when they get to him.  The first one knocks him down, and the second manages to inflict a Gruesome Death on the poor Spear Orc.  About 5 of my figures are in range to see this and must test morale.  Since most have hardly got two moves onto the table, when they fail their morale they are close enough that the rout carries them off the edge.  So, four end up running off the table.  This immediately reduced my strength from the 10 models I started with down to 5 remaining by the third turn.  Rob, easily enough, gets one more kill on me by plugging my archer with an arrow, which drops me below 50% strength. In the ensuing morale check, everyone else, but the swarms, run away.  

The end.  The spear Orc meets a Grusome Death as his clanmates look on in horror, possibly wetting themselves and crying like babies, before running off the table.

  So, it was not a good day for my warbands.  Rob and I discussed afterwards that we really need to figure out a way to make lower Quality and high quantity warbands work; since in the games we have played so far, the warbands that have the superior Quality always win.  I look forward to our next rematch.

To read an account of the battles from the other side of the table, visit Rob's blog: The Sharp End of the Brush

Bones Battle Report: SoBaH

My friend, Rob Dean, (who also bought into the first Reaper Bones Kickstarter), and I, have been plotting for a while now to get together for a game; to actually put some of our Bones on the table and play with them.  Rob had suggested "Song of Blades and Heroes" (SoBaH), a set of Fantasy skirmish rules he owned, that he had only played once before.  We finally made a date for this past Saturday, and we met at his house for a couple games of SoBaH. He lent me his copy of the rules to read the week before, and I prepared a pair of 300 point warbands to use: an Elf one, and a Medusa and Skeleton minions one.
   For the first game, I chose my Elf warband because it was small and had only a few Special Abilities. I figured it would be easy to handle for my first outing with the rules. Rob chose a warband consisting of 9 Orcs and an accompanying Troll.

Team Elf:  Sneak, Commander, Elite Archer, and Elite Archer

My Warband consisted of an Elf Commander, two Elite Elf Archers, and an Elf Sneak.    We played on a card table using some of Rob's beautiful terrain and two paper building groupings he had recently constructed.  Since he had set up the table before I arrived, I took the role of attacker, and chose which side I wished to enter from.

A look at the table as Rob moves one of his orcs.

 From the first turn, we immediately saw the difference in our two groups, and how important the Quality numbers were.  My Elves, with a Quality 2+, only lost their activation on a roll of two 1's on two d6,the bulk of Robs figures however had a Quality of 4+ which meant that they would be failing on rolls of 3 or less.  Both of us forgot the Free Move rule on the first couple turns, so Rob's figures entered rather strung out, and hesitantly.  My high quality Elves on the other hand, wasted no time dashing on to the field.  I was eager to take advantage of the disorganized enemy, and rushed my Sneak forward into a clump of woods on my right to try and Ambush the approaching Troll, and perhaps knock him down in time for my Commander to reach him.  Ah, the best laid plans..... On the next turn, my Sneak (Combat  3) burst froth from the woods, and ambushed the shocked Troll (Combat 4) . She only got two of her three activation dice, so was unable to do a Power Blow.   We each eagerly rattled the first dice of the game, and threw....   Troll : 6,  Sneak : 1 = dead Sneak. Oh, well, it might of worked.

A stunningly bad, turn-ending, activation roll by "Red" the archer.  She also managed to break her bow string in both games.  This is how a figure gets a reputation.   She is a new Bones I painted up quickly Friday, to use in the game, as I needed a second Elf archer to complete my Warband.  Look for her painting guide article soon.  

Afterwards, my Commander rushed forth to engage the Troll, as my two Archers took up position on some nearby rocks to lend support.  The Commander performed valiantly, wounding the troll, and dispatching several orcs that ran up to aid it.  The Archers, likewise did their job of picking off stray orcs, and helping the Commander when ever he got a Recoil or a Fall.   In the end, with the troll wounded and several of the orcs fleeing the table when they hit the +50% casualty point and had to roll morale, the Elves were declared the winner.  The quality of the Elves won, as the Orcs were just never able to get any coordinated effort put together.  We both learned the importance in future Warbands of having someone with the Leader quality present if you have a lot of over 3+ Quality members in your party.

Another view of the battle, near the end.  The Commander is surrounded by dead orcs, and bow-less "Red" runs down the rocks to knife an orc archer that has fallen from one of her mate "Green's" arrows.  

We had time to squeeze in  a second game; so for this I switched over to my Medusa and Skeleton minions Warbands, and Rob switched to a slightly illegal (too many points of Personality figures) All-Human Warband.  He borrowed "Red" the archer to pose as a human archer to complete his line up.  We rotated the table 90 degrees so we each had a different side to enter on.

Team Medusa:  Skeleton  w/Hand Weapon, two Superior Skeletal Archers, Medusa herself, the second Skeleton w/Hand Weapon  and two Skeletons with Spears (I used the "Lionman Skeleton" stats from the rulebook to make them a little tougher than the basic swordsmen).

   To begin the game, I sent Medusa and her two skeleton archers and one spearman to the rocks occupied by my Elves in the previous game, while the other spearman and the two swordsmen went on a flanking march.  Things seemed to really be going my way as on my first turn of shooting, Medusa's Poison  and Shooting abilities, and a good roll from one of the Skeleton Archers dropped two of Rob's figures in the third turn.

Medusa and her Archer's take aim, as the Spearman stands guard at the base of the rocks.  Two enemy lay dead in the distance from their arrows...the only two they'd hit all day.

On the other flank things weren't going as well.  My warriors moved to engage the Human Magic User, only for one of them to get transfixed, as the Human's Steel Golem came trundling around the corner.  His metal might made short work of the trapped skeleton, and he moved on to engage the rest, as a couple of the Human warriors came to assist him.  Meanwhile, Medusa had lost her aim, and she and her minion archers were unable to hit anything else for the remainder of the game.  "Red" however, as I mentioned before, did manage to snap her second bowstring of the day.  As the Human Fighters and Golem made bone dust  of the flank attack, I quickly reached +50% casualties, so we called it a game, as it was getting to be time we both had to head to other engagements.

An aerial view of the battle.  On the right, the first skeleton stands transfixed on his white poker chip , as the Wizard shouts, "Kill, Rusty, kill!" to the Golem behind him.

  So not a bad first outing for my Bones.  And I really enjoyed my first exposure to the rules.  I can see there are lots of nuances to be explored.  Most of all, the games succeeded in giving me more impetus to paint my Bones to have more Warband options.
  For a look at the games from Rob's viewpoint, see his excellent blog: The Sharp End of the Brush