Frostgrave Campaign #2 - Teleportation trauma

The three forces met once again, and this time the mission was to be The Keep.

The warbands were restructured as follows.

Greblord: Fapdalf's foragers

I retrieved two treasures from the first game, which netted me a create Grimoire scroll, a staff of power(2) and 70gc. The created grimoire was sold for 250gc, so I bought more troops for the cause.
One level gained meant an extra point of health.

Wizard (1): Fapdalf
Apprentice: Sheena
Tracker: Glopnir
Thug: Dave
Thug: Dean
Thief: Gobby
Infantryman: Bugolas
Ranger: Gongfarabil Joogleflaps
Treasure Hunter: Alan

Charlie: Theven thedithious thcribes from Thaetharea

1st and 5th miniatures painted by Charlie, 3&4 from another collection.

The Thcribes came away with four treasures and two levels. A ring of power, A Grimoire of raise zombie, a +2dmg Crossbow and a +1dmg 2H sword plus 180gp means his team are the best equipped.

Wizard (2): Thithyfuth
Apprentice: Theptethemia
Tracker: Thoothan
Tracker: Thimon
Marksman: Thtirling
Knight: Ther Thirrill
Treasure Hunter: Thiriuth
Thief: Thethill
Thug: Thparrow

Oli: The Reliqueeries

Oli was fortunate enough to get three treasures from the first game and rolled 150gp and a grimoire for his treasure.

He went up a level (170xp) and took a point of health.

His restructured warband looked like this after the death of Infantryman Doss and the retirement of the badly injured Thief Tu. Crossbowman Trie was badly injured and out for the game.

Wizard: Gloate

Apprentice: Teeleef

Crossbowman: Wahn

Crossbowman: Tooh

Infantryman: Uno

Thief: Wonn

Apothecary: Milka

Treasure hunter: Grabbit

Knight: Sir Charge.

On to the second game then. We rolled 'the Keep', which features four teleportation discs - a barrel of laughs. On each disc there is a treasure, and there are two additional treasures in the centre of the board.

Starting the game

Fapdalf's first Wizard phase

Stranded ranger about to be mobbed

Archery vs crossbows

staying in cover

keeping a close eye on the disc as the fast troops advance

escaping with treasure as mind control wreaks havoc in the reliqueeries' lines. 

Mob the knight!

Waiting for incoming

line of sight?

Charlie had another victory and took away three treasures. Oli got two, with his added secret treasure, and the two centre treasures were taken by me, with judicious use of fleet feet, fast act and jump.

More fun soon.

Frostgrave campaign #1 - Getting started

Frostgrave is big news around 2016. A simple fantasy skirmish wargame using d20s as a base for all rolls, it is wildly erratic and in turns both demoralising and euphoric. Each player (2-many) plays the role of a Wizard, who is usually accompanied by an Apprentice and a selection of the area's finest mercenaries, from low-lives such as Thugs and Thieves, to noble Templars, Knights and Rangers.

The really nice aspect to this game for me, and probably to many hybrid role-players/wargamers is the low set up cost. The rule book is £14.99/$24.95 rrp (I managed to win the 'Miserly Yorkshireman' award and buy a shop-soiled copy for £12 ;)). Added to that, you need 3'x3' to play in (check), a selection of city ruin terrain (check, all that 40k stuff that never gets used any more), and miniatures to represent your forces - painted, of course (check). So that will be an entire new miniatures game for £12, you say? I'll take it!

So on to the campaign. There are three of us for our regular Tuesday night games, myself, Charles and Oli. The campaign will only be 3 player games - it's unfair for one player to miss out if the others have an extra crack at xp and treasure. 

Standard setup. We decided to play criticals do double damage at least for the first game.

Here are the warbands.

Greblord: Fapdalf's Foragers (7)

L-R: Fapdalf, Sheena, Bark, Snorri, Dark, Glopnir, Dave

Wizard: Fapdalf. Chronomancer.

Apprentice: Sheena

Archer: Bark

Knight: Dark

Infantryman: Snorri

Tracker: Glopnir

Thug: Dave

Charles: Theven tholicious thcribes from thaetharea (As named by Oli) (7)

L-R: Thithifuth, Theptathemia, Thoothan, Thethelia, Thirruth, Thethill, Ther Thirill

Wizard: Thithifuth. Sigilist
Apprentice: Theptathemia
Tracker: Thoothan
Thug: Thethelia
Treasure hunter: Thirruth
Thief: Thethill
Knight: Ther Thirill

Oli: The Reliqueeries (9)

L-R: Acquisitor Gloate, Tithecounter Teeleef, Wahn, Tooh, Thrie, Wonn, Tu, Uno, Doss.
A shortage of painted crossbowmen meant two partial paintjobs snuck in.

Wizard: Acquisitor Gloate. Thaumaturgist
Apprentice: Tithecounter Teeleef
Crossbowman: Wahn
Crossbowman: Tooh
Crossbowman: Thrie
Thief: Wonn
Thief: Tu
Infantryman: Uno
Infantryman: Doss

Fantastic names there, Oli. :)

With the forces prepared, we rolled for our first scenario and got 'The Silent Tower'. This scenario requires a tower of three levels, two adjoining towers with links to level one and two, and then a normal set up. A 3-treasure horde is atop the highest tower, four other treasures as normal. The rest of the city ruins are placed as normal. The trick in this scenario is that the three towers are anti-magical. No spells will work from or on any miniature touching the three towers. To maximise the distance between the three parties, we use a Y setup, two in corners and one in the middle of a side.

Some shots from the game:

Setup

View from the foragers' corner

The Reliqueeries advance

Fighting around the silent tower

The foragers deal with a mind controlled tracker

line of sight

The thcribes hiding behind a wall

overhead

All is silent once more

Plenty of action in and around the tower resulted in several dead and injured troops. Charles won four treasures after emerging victorious from furious fighting in the tower. Oli won 3, and I got three.
Each of the Wizards increased their level by two, except me, who only went up by one. :/

4pt SAGA Welsh vs Anglo-Danes - Scenario 2: Battle at the ford

This was going to be a lot tougher than the previous battle. In the battle at the ford scenario, the objective is 'most men on the enemy side of the river'. As my Welsh thrive on hit and run tactics, it would be challenging, to say the least.

A choice of Five terrain pieces each meant five in total. A hill, a wood, two buildings and the stone circle meant we set up like this:

Starting layout

A closer look at some of the Anglo Dane forces

Warriors, Warlord and Hearthguard on the Dane right flank

More Warriors and Dane-axe Hearthguard on the Dane left flank

Welsh left flank

Welsh centre and right flank

Some manoeuvring and the first turn is done. 

Turn two sees the Welsh Warlord and Levies advance to the centre of the river, whilst the Dane Warlord and Warriors advance over the bridge, backed up by Hearthguard.

Meanwhile the right flank sees a unit of Welsh Warriors advance to cover the ford.

It says somewhere in the rules that you shouldn't let your Warlord be caught in melee with Levies by his side. Yeah, I know. The mobility that he afforded my poor quality troops in the previous game was for naught in this one, as the Dane Warlord double moved to attack them. They were down to 10 men after some Anglo-Dane trickery with fatigue and Exhaustion, and although I gave them seven attack dice with 'Strength lies in number', they lost.

Didn't expect the double move, and had failed to roll for a 'Holy ground'

Minced slinger, anyone?

Oh dear. The Warlord was surrounded, the slingers in tatters and I could not roll activation for the Warrior backup. It was getting a little bit tricky.

Blurry view from the Dane side

Unfortunately, Charlie's photography skills do not match his Generalship

The Dane warriors mobbed my warlord, and then he was forced into a one on one with the Dane Axe wielding leader. It was curtains for the big Welsh guy. Down to three SAGA dice. I was losing, though if I could get enough men over the river I could still win. 

Finally an activation came for my warriors that the Danes couldn't intimidate away, and they went in, javelins blazing.

The Dane Hearthguard moved in to intercept, but Warlord backup was not available, mark one up to the Welsh Warriors as three quarters of his elite were wiped out. The Warlord was then surrounded and would have died but for a usefully placed remaining Hearthguard - not in base to base with my forces, but within VS to sacrifice himself.

Levies' fate

The Anglo Dane Warriors chased the remaining slingers and wiped them out. This did bring them into double-move-and-shoot range for the Welsh Hearthguard. One casualty meant there were now only five of his troops on my side of the river.

Six on one action saw my warriors lose five as they failed to kill the Anglo Dane warlord again. 

Six on one, good odds, surely?

The last turn (7) loomed and my only hope was to double move my warriors over the ford. Unfortunately he had kept an intimidate (cancel an opponent's activation), and my dash for glory wasn't to be. 

A very wonky final table

On the whole, it was a good game for learning more about the abilities and rules. If I'd had more actual painted men available, I would have fielded three Warriors and a Hearthguard rather than the Levies. I don't think I'll be putting the Warlord in harm's way with only Levies surrounding him in future though.

The move forward for them was not one of my best General moments, to be honest. Still, we live and learn.

Well played to my opponent, Charlie. 

4pt SAGA Welsh vs Anglo-Danes

Our first wargame of 2016, and my recently-completed Welsh were to face off against Charlie's Anglo-Danes.
I chose five and my opponent chose one, resulting in three terrain pieces. We chose a hill, a wood and a stone circle.

Some fairly poor placement led to me taking advantage of Charlie's hill choice, and him exploiting my stone circle, but I think the wood was key.

Table set up, and first warlord placement.

I set up behind the wood on the hill, placing my Bonnedig levy slingers around my warlord. The Warriors flanked him, whilst Hearthguard took a commanding position on the long ridge. The Anglo-Danes split their forces with each flank taking Hearthguard and Warriors - his left flank was the stronger as it contained both warlord and Dane axes.

Welsh left flank

Welsh right flank

The Dane forces began the attack, pushing forward on both flanks, which the welsh countered with 'children of the land' stealth slingers from their new position inside the wood. First blood to the Welsh! (You may have noticed that this is not an impartial report. :)) 

Battle is joined

On the right flank there was some hit and run javelin action, at which the Hearthguard and warriors retreated, one warrior short. In the centre, the warriors and warlord pushed into the wood, only to be foiled by a well-timed Holy Ground. The slingers quickly retreated up the hill, aided by children of the land. On the left flank, however, the Dane axes carved into my warriors, whose retort was a favourable two kills. Four vs two would normally be good odds, but I was fortunate to retreat the last man and let the slingers polish off the last Dane Axeman.

Dane Axes and suicidal Teulu

The heroic and foolish Teulu Hearthguard got some javelin fire into the enemy warlord's warrior unit, now two short, but their resulting counterattack wiped them out to a man.

My left flank was at somewhat of an impasse.

A slow advance, and my single man unit keeps me in dice.

Slingers ready for the warrior unit to poke their faces out of the woods.

Game over, man, game over.

And after a final charge, javelins and retreat from my fatigued Priodaur, which gave me two kills on his Hearthguard, the game was over. No Warlords even remotely killed. Points gave me the victory, but I think the hill contributed to that significantly.

On the whole, I enjoyed it. It's a lot more difficult than it looks to optimise your dice rolls. Although I'm sure we missed some things and got others wrong, it's always nice to play a wargame with fully painted forces on pretty terrain. Thanks to my gallant foe Charlie for a good game.

The terrain tiles are from TSS by the way

Dystopian Wars: Kingdom of Britannia vs Republique of France 1000pts

Concentrate all firepower
on that dreadnought!

Our plucky contestants; the largely undefeated Charles - once again fielding his largely undefeated KoB fleet. The relative newbie Dunc, in his very third game, but fielding for the first time his freshly-painted RoF force.

Look, Mum!
Skimming cruisers!

1000points each means both field dreadnoughts, but no air power other than the obligatory 10 tiny tiny flyers. Both KoB are CAPs, whereas RoF field a Torpedo bomber flight and a CAP.

The objective is to destroy core fleet. And they're off! Minimal terrain covers the Britannian right flank, but the French have a plan to skim over it. This plan is quickly abandoned when the heavy Brit left flank open fire.

Magenta mkI rear view

Here come the Ecuyers

Dunc is eager to try his heat lances and manoeuvres his heavy hitters toward Charlie's dreadnought and battleship.

A fierce exchange of fire over the first three turns bag a cruiser and three frigates for Britannia, but a more impressive four destroyers, a cruiser and a frigate fall under the French onslaught. There's serious damage to the Magenta mkII and the Ecuyers though.

Inexorably, they draw closer

Turn four and things start to get nasty. Two KoB cruisers attempt to board a RoF cruiser, and with a swift exchange of cards are repelled! Meanwhile a line of KoB frigates unleash 20 dice on the Magenta mkI.
The French are feeling the pressure as the Majesty class unleashes 25 dice on the beleaguered Magenta mkII, which miraculously survives on 1HP. This proves extremely fortunate on the next turn when it delivers a critical with its redoubtable heat lance! An unfortunate boarding attempt is easily massacred by the dreadnought's CAP, however.

Massed French

Damage abounds, but the
RoF fleet is holding up.

Dangerous boats

Magenta mkI
takes heavy damage

Th KoB frigates completing
their pincer movement

A final round or two of firing saw two French cruisers down and a KoB frigate but the hour was late. A largely disabled KoB dread (7 damage and two half AD counters) faced a ready-to sink pocket battleship and a RoF dread with one hit, so there was still life in the battle, but a marginal KoB victory was declared as he was much closer to the objective.

All parties had jolly good fun, hands were shaken and North duly faced.

I think there will be more painting of DW models in the near future.