Two Sunday Games of Frostgrave

Today I went to the monthly get together of gamers held in our local scout hall - that takes me back a bit!

My occasional gaming opponent Andrew had asked if I wanted to go along for a game of Frostgrave, as there were number of players amongst the guys who turn up to this gaming session, so I got my box of female warriors and a bag of dice and met him down there around 10am on a clear, bright midwinter morning.

Andrew and I had a warm up game first, reminding ourselves of some of the rules and testing out our spell casting rolls. We just played a standard skirmish, and both got three treasure tokens off the table. My wizard performed 3 successful spells and I killed one of Andrews fighters. In the post game rolling, my treasure was converted to 410 gold coins and my wizard gained two additional grimoires - and if you don't know what these are, here is Mr Googles answer:

grimoire

ɡrɪmˈwɑː/

noun

1. a book of magic spells and invocations.

Below, pictures of the morning game

 Most of the playing table is shown here

My war band pose for a pre game team photo

L-R Thief, Markswoman with crossbow, Archer, Infantrywoman with double handed polearm, Enchantress, Apprentice, Barbarian, Archer, Knight and Thief.

My war band lined up ready for the off 

My enchantress (on right in green) and apprentice (on left in red scratching her head!) plus the markswoman with her crossbow and an infantrywoman with double handed polearm

Andrews wizard and support close in on the first treasure token

From the left - my knight, one of the two thieves and my barbarian

Part of Andrews force hidden from my view by an intervening structure

My Enchantress uses her telekinetic powers on another treasure token

A naughty black cat arrives and my Enchantress makes a strategic withdrawal

A VERY naughty pussy shows its claws - but my apprentice survived and my archers filled the little ball of fur with arrows!

My knight and barbarian are attacked by two infantrymen - a combat they won

The Enchantress in her secondary position, next to the archer who killed the naughty cat

My two thieves with the spoils of game one

After lunch we were joined by Rob and Noel for a second, more complicated and intense game. We had to roll to determine which of the Frostgrave scenarios we would play - a 2 resulted in "The Mausoleum" being the challenge set us. We had a total of seven treasure tokens, four around the base of central building, guarded by an army of skeletons, and the other three randomly placed by the players. We rolled to choose who came on from which of the four corners and I fortunately won this roll and was able to choose the corner nearest a treasure token I had placed - within two moves my enchantress and her apprentice had managed to use telekinesis to get this treasure off the board. Unfortunately, Andrew decided to wonder around my flank (is there such a thing in a fantasy skirmish game?!) and I spent the rest of the game concentrating on fighting off his apprentice and his companions, an archer and a trained infantry soldier. We fought several rounds of melee over the rest of the game, resulting in the death of my barbarian -ah, shame - but in the eventual success of my remaining fighters as they slew all three of Andrews figures - HURRAH! I was greatly aided in this by the consistent ability of my enchantress and her beautiful assistant to cast a "HEAL" spell and regain 5 damage points for my fighters in the front line - without this ability, I think I might have lost. However, using all their time and energy on this meant they could not use the telekinetic powers to recover any more treasure - I did have one more token VERY close to the edge of the board but we had agreed it was the last turn, and I would have needed one more to get that off.

Apart from losing three of his guys fighting me, Andrew had a catastrophic game generally - he had two figures who had made it to one of the "special" treasures in the centre of the table slaughtered by a combination of two of the skeletal guards and a demon that Rob brought along and then set loose to act as a random monster!

On the other side of the table, Noel had a pack of wolves (one of which my crossbowoman killed early on, as well as two invisible figures that caused Rob some concerns as they floated around behind his lines. Noel also had aa ability to cast a mind control spell, which he succeeded in doing a couple of times during the game.

Rob had the most successful game, getting off the table with two lots of treasure to one each by Noel and me, and none for Andrew.

Game Two images are below:

Team "Girl Power" with a few substitutes coming off the bench for the second game

A general view of most of the table - my starting position was the bottom left corner, Andrew bottom right, Rob top right and Noel top left

My Enchantress climbed to high tower overlooking the field and remained there for most of the game, until Noel's goblin archer hit her with an arrow late in the game - at which point she decamped to ground level and some protective masonry

Noel's war band advances towards my positions

Two of the "special treasures" in the process of being stolen away

Andrew encroaches on my girls personal space

Combat is joined - my barbarian, knight and infantrywoman engage Andrews apprentice, infantryman and archer

After a couple of rounds of combat - and then there were two

In the centre, two of Andrews characters were killed by a combination of the skeletal tomb guards and an out of control demon that Rob had invited to the party

That bloody naughty black cat showed up again!

Noels wolves move to help his knight make off with some treasure as Robs second demon and one of the skeletons attack from the rear

And then there were none - for the loss of my barbarian (how sad) my ladies killed four of Andrews figures PLUS that annoying black panther!

My Enchantress and apprentice combined their telekinetic powers to float one of the "special treasures" over to my lines but unfortunately one move too late

Two thieves with the treasure that got away

Robs demon who arrived under control but the "went postal", attacking anything in site!

In the post game results rolls, I gained another couple of grimoires, some magical armour and 50 more gold coins - 460 total for the day I think. On top of that, I rolled well so my "dead" barbarian turns out to have only broken a nail, and will be able to rejoin her gal pals next time. Andrew was not so lucky, rolling very badly and losing two or three of this figures completely - he was last seen muttering about starting afresh next game with a brand new set of figures in a different war band!

A great way to spend 6 hours on a Sunday, although not sure if my wife would agree!