Wednesday 29 July 2015

Frostgrave Treasure Tokens

These are the six resin treasure tokens and the one metal chest from the Northstar Nickstarter for Frostgrave.









Quick and easy to paint up but I'm quite pleased with them.

Tuesday 28 July 2015

Frostgrave Skeletons

A trio of Reaper Bones skeletons for use in the frozen city.



Pretty poor models truth be told, but quick and dirty paint jobs and they're fine for wandering monsters in games of Frostgrave. Also, they cost £2 for the three of them, so can't be too sniffy.

Monday 27 July 2015

Northstar Africa! Explorer 2

Rasmuss Svensson






Svensson is a much sought-after scout and tracker originally from Scandiwegia. Rumoured to have "gone native" and spend much of his time living with a harem deep in the jungle.
He has been hired to provide savvy and know-how for the Ballroom expedition.

Another from the splendid Northstar Hunters and Explorers pack

Saturday 25 July 2015

Song of Drums and Shakos: Foraging Firefight

Stephen and myself wended our weary way over the Ilkeston Gaming Hut for some Napoleonic action. Beforehand debate had raged about which game to play. Frostgrave meant only I knew any of the rules (never a good position to be in), Lion Rampant was a game General Ballroom had never played, Warhammer was probably beyond the capacity of the still recovering Gen. B. to manage. So it was a choice between Age of Sigmar or Song of Drums and Shakos. I refused to actually suggest AoS (but was happy to play) but Stephen suggested SoDS, so the choice was made.

I came up with a simple scenario. Three objective counters in the centre of the board and the two forces would represent foragers looking to live off the land and encountering the enemy in the process. To move the livestock would require one passed activation each turn to keep them under control and then subsequent activations could be used to move them. The barrels (no doubt filled with Rioja) were heavy and would reduce movement to S.

 The peaceful Spanish village of San Mateo

 Every Voltigeur's dream

 El Plonk

Geese, just ready for a spot of force feeding

Stephen used his elite force of recently painted Voltigeurs. We were all a little taken back that they were 50 points each - but as events would prove they were very much worth that.
In response General Ballroom picked a host of plucky redcoats, supplemented by a pair of riflemen. Both sides came to almost 600 points which was quite large by our standards.


Athletic, elite Frenchmen

The two forces set up, Stephen deploying the French in dispersed formation whilst Gen. B formed his men up shoulder to shoulder - the thin red line. Stephen and I both questioned his tactics but he remained adamant.

Redcoats in fine array

The British began a slow and cautious advance. However the elite Fenchmen leaped forward taking advantage of their special rules and proximity of leaders and NCOs to race across the board.

 Gaston achieves his life's goal


Nice slow beat, drummer boy, please!

British volley fire had little impact on the Frenchmen lurking behind the wall.


Bang! Honk!

Meanwhile the first Voltigeur made off with the goats. General Ballroom appeared to be having some issues controlling his men and firing was sporadic.

Gaston heads to the woods for some special time with the goats

The French took advantage of this and began to make off with the booze as well. Despite shots at his fleeing French backside he made off with the goods.

Seizez vous le plonk, Theirry!

Meanwhile further fighting broke out over the duckpond. The riflemen blazed away, felling a Frenchman, but then failed to reload for the rest of the game.



 Allez! Vite!


 Take Aim!

Fire!

The Voltigeur flag bearer leaped over the wall, clearly eager for foi-gras, but was felled by a musketball before he could make off with the geese.



Reload, lads!

Redcoats raced to gather up either flag or fowl, but surviving Voltigeurs surmounted the wall, gathered up the flag and drove the geese from the compound.

Zis way my leetle feazzered chums!

The British unleashed more lead, but the Frenchmen were off and away.

General Vert would be dining well tonight, whilst General Ballroom would have to make do with bread and water.

Wednesday 22 July 2015

Frostgrave statues

I knocked these up from some corks (sadly this meant I was forced to drink a couple of very nice bottles of Malbec) some Warbases round bases and two Foundy knights I was given at the Cannon show earlier in the year.




Sprayed black, overbrushed Charadon Granite, then drybrushed with Adeptus and then Astronomican grey.

Not perfect, but simple and they do the job.

Tuesday 21 July 2015

Frostgrave a three player game

*READERS OF A SENSITIVE DISPOSITION ARE WARNED THAT THE FOLLOWING BLOG POST CONTAINS MINIATURES OF AN UNPAINTED NATURE FROM THE VERY START*

After our little taster last week the fruits of my loins were once more keen to delve into the frozen city for a game of Frostgrave. Sadly my job and regular duties as Dad's Taxi mean that I haven't made much progress on the painting front, though I have managed to just about get two warbands stuck together  to go with the earlier "Arab" one.

I took a Chronomancer and apprentice. She was accompanied by three thugs, an archer a crossbowman an infantryman and a man-at-arms. Oh and a dog.
Son and heir took the Arab lads - a Necromancer and apprentice four thugs, a thief, two archers and a knight.
And smallest boy went with Elementalist and apprentice, four thugs, a thief, two archers and a Templar (he's all about the big destructive weaponry).

 Valerie d'Horlage urges her men on

 Elemental fury 

The evil Necromancer and minions

Some time was spent on working out spells. To be honest the eight that I had were too many for me to keep track of properly, so I've no real idea what the boys ended up with.

I set up the city (note recently purchased grey felt playing surface - 1 square metre from Boyes). Then we placed the nine treasure tokens - which proved tricky to fit in with the rules (they need to be 9 inches from edges and 6 inches from one another).

Then we set off.
I raced forward to grab treasure tokens. Smallest boy pushed ahead, whilst eldest child played cautiously. Both boys were obsessed with casting spells - eldest in particular wanted to summon a zombie. Eventually he did. So his brother shot it.

 My lads fan out

 Quick,grab stuff!

 Hope it fits!

Shoot the guy with the big sword!

I managed to grab three treasure tokens with relative ease, but started taking fire grabbing the fourth one on my right.
My Chronomancer was having a few problems casting spells and wounded herself several times (if you fail to cast by a large amount you take damage).
Similarly my crossbowman failed to hit anything all game.

 Kill them all!

Just before taking two arrows to the face...

Small child had meanwhile worked out the power of the Leap spell and used it to grab three treasures and then whisk the carriers off the board. The spell is a little ambiguous - it says anyone affected may take "no further action" but this seems to mean you can run forward, pick up the treasure and then be whisked 10" away. For a low level spell that makes it very powerful (as son demonstrated) but I'm not sure if the intent is for the subject of the spell to not be able to take any actions at all other than be affected by the spell.

Meanwhile back at the game my infantryman was shot down and I began to withdraw. Another treasure carrying thug took two shots but somehow survived and my apprentice took wounds trying to heal him (clearly I have hired some work-experience Chronomancers).

Grab something!

Eldest child finally realised he wasn't going to get any treasure and began to attack his brother, but the small boy got away with his last treasure and I escaped with my last two bringing the game to a close.

Hand to hand finally breaks out

This was great fun. The wounding rules (now we have them right) are brutal and we were lucky that we only took five casualties in total - all of which made full recoveries in the campaign phase.
Shooting is powerful, and the archer and crossbowman are definitely better points investments that the two 50GC fighty types - at least the way we played.
Remembering the spells and making best use of them is hard - but doubtless (like the wizards themselves) we'll get better with practice.

There were a few head scratching moments - usually around the effects of spells and what that means for other activations in the turn - especially when the rules are quite explicit that the first activation you take has to be movement. But we muddled through.
The author is busy answering questions over on Lead Adventure Forum, so maybe I'll clarify some with him.

These are minor however and we got through with no real problems. The boys both had a great time and are keen to play again.
Eldest boy said at one point "It's a lot more interesting than 40k" - praise indeed from a 12 year old.

Now to crack on with the painting.