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Koyote in Frostheim (Frostgrave)


Koyote

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For those of you who are unfamiliar with Frostgrave, it's essentially Mordheim in the snow with a focus on wizards and magic.

 

"Amidst the frozen ruins of an ancient city, wizards battle in the hopes of discovering the treasures of a fallen empire. In this fantasy skirmish wargame, each player takes on the role of a wizard from one of ten schools of magic, and builds his band of followers. The wizard's apprentice will usually accompany his master, and more than a dozen other henchman types are available for hire, from lowly thugs to heavily armoured knights and stealthy thieves. Wizards can expand their magical knowledge by unlocking ancient secrets and may learn up to 80 different spells.

 

...

 

While individual games of Frostgrave are quick and can easily be played in an hour or two, it is by connecting these games into an ongoing campaign, that players will find the most enjoyment."

 

One of Frostgrave's strengths is that its world and background are deliberately vague, freeing gamers to play in whatever fantasy setting they please. Below in a excerpt from a interview with Frostgrave's creator.

 

Can you tell us about the world of Frostgrave? How does it compare to say, the Old World in Warhammer, Mordheim, etc?

 

The world of Frostgrave is deliberately vague. The game all takes place in and around one city, and even that I have painted in only broad strokes. I want to give players just enough to set their imaginations going, but not weigh them down with specifics. I’m sure, over time, the world will grow and develop, but I always want to leave plenty of remove for players to tell their own stories.

I would also like to point out that while Frostgrave's setting is an ancient city, half buried in snow and ice, there is really nothing in the rules that reflects the city's freezing weather. Consequently, Frostgrave could just as easily be set in a lost desert city, half covered in sand. Although, most of North Star's Frostgrave minis would look out of place under a blazing desert sun, so you'd probably want to find more suitable minis for "Desertgrave".

 

As for myself, Mordheim has long been one of my favorite GW games and settings, so I plan relocate the ruined city of Felstad to the Old World and take advantage of the minis that I collected and painted for Mordheim.

 

For starters, my warband will be led by my Mordheim Warlock, Nikodemus (not to confused with the grossly oversized Mordheim wizard model, Nicodemus).

 

Nikodemus

 

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The bulk of my Soldiers will be drawn from the ranks of my Mordheim Averlander Mercenary warband and the Hired Swords that I painted to support the Averlanders.

 

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Below are close ups of some of the models along with both their Mordheim and Frostgrave titles.

 

Captain (Man-at-arms)

 

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Sergeant (infantryman)

 

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Mountain Guard (Infantrymen)

 

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Bergjaegers (Archers)

 

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Elf Ranger (Ranger)

 

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Tilean Marksman (Crossbowman or Marksman)

 

TileanF.jpg

 

 

More later...

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The first model that I assembled for Frostheim is an apprentice. The model's body and arms come from the GW plastic Empire Archer kit, which worked out great because I was able to position one of the 'arrow release' arms so that it looks like the model has its arm bent back, preparing an incantation.

 

After wasting a lot of time digging through my bits box and experimenting with different staff toppers, I realized that the model doesn't need one. He's a f*****g apprentice. A fancy staff has to be earned.

 

I didn't have a proper staff but on hand so I made a GS staff. I started by cutting a short length of brass rod to the appropriate length and then, to give the GS something to grip onto, I used a coarse file to score the rod's surface.

 

The first staff I sculpted turned out okay, but because its cross section had a uniform diameter it looked more like bo staff than a wizard staff. The uniform thickness would be fine if I had a staff topper, but I didn't have a topper so I removed the GS from the top half of the rod and started over.

 

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I sculpted the new section of staff so that it was thick at the top and gradually tapered down to the thickness of the staff's lower half. The new staff was an improvement, but without a topper it looked to me like a really long baseball bat. Crap!

 

Admitting defeat I removed the top of the staff so I could add a staff topper.

 

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Typically, when I finish with a batch of mixed GS, I roll the leftover GS I into a sphere or a cylinder and place it into a tin. Later, when I need a piece of material for modeling I have a ready supply of spheres and cylinders of varying sizes. It was from this tin that I found a sphere to serve as a staff topper.

 

The apprentice is an explorer and an adventurer so I adeed a backpack and lots of pouches to carry supplies and treasure. For flavor I added a book made by Spellcrow Miniatures and the fun turnip and rat bit from the Bretonnian men-at-arms kit.

 

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More later...

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My earlier foray into Malifaux means that I have a pretty good start on my Frostheim table.

 

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I found the following photo during an image search for Frostgrave terrain. The crystals come from GF9's Battlefield in a Box Crystal kit. As you can see, when combined with plain stone ruins, the giant, otherworldly ice crystals give the table a cold, Frostgrave feel. And while I want to play Frostgrave in the city of Mordheim, I may want to add a frosty feel to my table as a nod to the game's original setting.

 

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Unfortunately, like most of GF9's best terrain kits, the Battlefield in a Box Crystal kit is no longer in production. Boooo!

 

This afternoon, while making a fruitless search for the GF9 crystal kit, I found what looks like a pretty good substitute. It's sold by Gadzooks Games.

 

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I bought all of their current stock, but Gadzooks will probably make more. Probably... blush.gif

 

More later...

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I've was thinking about a way to incorporate Skull Monkey into my Frostheim warband. Back when I was playing Mordheim, I used this model as a counts-as warhound.

 

HamMonkey.jpg

 

As I was reading through the spell descriptions I got an idea. If I paint Skull Monkey with glowing red eyes, the model will make a pretty good Imp.

 

The Imp spell lets you launch an angry Imp at your opponent. This can be used to disrupt your opponents troops, counter enemy archers, further wound or kill a wounded straggler, or prevent an opponent from picking up a particular treasure counter.

 

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Fluger does not like monkies, nope, not at all. Knowing this and being the way I am, few things delight me more than the idea of releasing a monkey near Fluger and letting the hilarity ensue. However, since this would be an especially cruel prank (mostly to the monkey), I'll just have to settle for releasing demon monkies amidst Fluger's Frostgrave warband. :D

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Uncontrolled imps are absolutely great! I've been playing a summoner warband, and being able to have 4 imps on the board (2 uncontrolled from summon imp, 2 controlled from summon demon) is marvelous. It means you don't have to put your warband at as much risk, and you can really win the battle of attrition - if any die, you just summon more!

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Uncontrolled imps are absolutely great! I've been playing a summoner warband, and being able to have 4 imps on the board (2 uncontrolled from summon imp, 2 controlled from summon demon) is marvelous. It means you don't have to put your warband at as much risk, and you can really win the battle of attrition - if any die, you just summon more!

Wow, that's a lot of Imps. What do your opponents think about the seemingly endless waves of Imps? Do they feel as if it gives them a fair shake?

 

 

I too have been thinking about playing a Summoner. However, the idea of summoning traditional demon types doesn't really do it for me, so I want to do something a bit different.

 

The quirky Mordheim Warlock sculpt that serves as my Frostheim Wizard has a frog on his shoulder. I've also added a small frog to my Apprentices base. I figure that these little critters can represent their familiars. Last week, while look through my favorite miniatures websites for inspiration I remembered the frogs. Yes, Frogs! My Summoner is going to summon giant demonic frogs to do his bidding. Bwah ha ha!

 

In Frostgrave there are three classes of demon (Imp, Minor Demon, and Major Demon), so I will need three different sizes of giant frogs.

 

Heresy Miniatures makes a fun little Demonic Frog Familiar.

 

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Otherworld Miniatures sells packs of Giant Frogs and an extra large Giant Toad. Otherworld doesn't sell their Giant Frogs as singles. The smallest pack includes 3 models, but this will work out fine because I can use the other two Giant Frogs as the 2 Ice Toads that I need for the Random Encounter Table.

 

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One of the few Frostgrave animal sculpts that I really like is the Ice Toad model. It looks to big to be an Imp but too small to be a Major Demon, so I may end up using it as a Minor Demon. :hmmm:

 

Ice-Toad_zpspf1j18u8.jpg

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Wow, that's a lot of Imps. What do your opponents think about the seemingly endless waves of Imps? Do they feel as if it gives them a fair shake?

 

 

The Imps do die easily, and they have to be cast in-game rather than summon animal or the like. That means to keep the Imp train going, I have to forgo all the other useful things a wizard and apprentic could be doing. I think it balances out, though time will tell.

 

I've been using Daydreams from Malifaux for my Imps. Love the frogs!

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The Imps do die easily, and they have to be cast in-game rather than summon animal or the like. That means to keep the Imp train going, I have to forgo all the other useful things a wizard and apprentic could be doing. I think it balances out, though time will tell.

 

I've been using Daydreams from Malifaux for my Imps. Love the frogs!

It's good to hear that the Imp swarm is partially balanced by other factors.

 

The Daydream models are an excellent choice for Imps.

 

I've been looking at frog swarms from various manufacturers and trying to find away to incorporate them into my warband or spells.

 

Oh, and I've finally found a use for the giant breaching worm model that you sent me along with the leftover Walpurgis swag. It makes a terrific Frostgrave Giant Worm. I cut off its protruding tongue and carved more teeth into the resin beneath the tongue's root. Thanks again.

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This thread actually got me to start researching this game. I'm really happy with the rules so I want to run a campaign. I'm an advisor of the gaming club at the high school so I think this game is perfect for the kids. My real question would be how to make a solid board for the kids starting from scratch.

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This thread actually got me to start researching this game. I'm really happy with the rules so I want to run a campaign. I'm an advisor of the gaming club at the high school so I think this game is perfect for the kids. My real question would be how to make a solid board for the kids starting from scratch.

That's so cool that their high school has that! That's amazing.

 

I loved the game StarShip! In high school Which was like a Mix of BFG and a role-playing game. I have the rules of you wanna shoot me your email.

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This thread actually got me to start researching this game. I'm really happy with the rules so I want to run a campaign. I'm an advisor of the gaming club at the high school so I think this game is perfect for the kids. My real question would be how to make a solid board for the kids starting from scratch.

That depends upon how much you want to spend.

 

Last year I began a terrain project to add some much needed ruins to my 40K boards. I used two sets of Pegasus Hobbies' Gothic Ruins and two of PH's Large Gothic City Building sets. From these four kits I made 12 sections of ruins, all for about half the price it would cost me to purchase the equivalent size and number of GW 40K buildings. I just checked Amazon, and each of these kits cost around $23.

 

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The four sections from the 2 Gothic Ruins kits are designed to represent ruins, so they only required cleanup and assembly. The other 8 sections were constructed from pieces designed to be intact buildings, so I had to tear into them with my snips and hobby knife.

 

My only criticism of the Gothic Building kits is that they don't include roofs or flooring for second floor. The ruins kits include flooring for the second floor, just not the buildings or cathedral kits. If one wanted more flooring, it would be easy to create using sheets of styrene and some hobby wood (e.g. Balsa) beams. You can buy styrene sheets that are embossed to look like tiles or stone.

 

I used a lightweight spackle to to fill in the cracks and holes. The spackle is inexpensive material that is easy to use. Ideal for this kind of project.

 

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I used sheets of 0.040" styrene to make the bases.

 

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Next I added texture to the bases, primed with black spray primer and dry brushed with two shades of grey.

 

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I quit 40K before I got around to adding patches of static grass and other details. The Pegasus Hobbies kits make good quality scenery that is (relatively) fast to assemble and (relatively) inexpensive.

 

You can make a gaming "board" on the cheap by buying a length of inexpensive furniture/drapes fabric and cutting it to size (36" x 36"). This is what I used for my Malifaux boards.

 

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Below is the WIP mausoleum that I am building for The Mausoleum scenario.  A 6" x 6" is a pretty small space to cram in all those skeletons and their coffins, so my mausoleum is merely the ruined foyer to a much larger underground crypt. The crypt is accessed by a trapdoor that opens to reveal a flight of stone steps.

To add a bit flavor to this terrain piece, I've decided that a necromancer is using the foyer as workshop.  And can you blame him?  The location provides him both privacy and easy access to plenty of raw material for his experiments. The Necromancer's workshop also explains why the skeletons come marching out of the mausoleum during the scenario.  

Fortunately for the adventurers attempting to steal his treasures, the timing of their arrival coincides with necromancer's monthly trip to the zombie bordello for some much needed (albeit disgusting), R&R.  

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I've made some progress on the Frostheim bestiary that I will need for the scenarios and random encounter table. To save money on this madness I used a bunch of long neglected models from my bits boxes and hunted down some bargains on models.

 

In this photo's background you can see the top of a bottle of pink paint. Reaper Miniatures added that bottle to my Reaper Bones order, free of charge. The label reads: "Support Breast Cancer Awareness Month. Please help the cause and visit this website: http://ww5.komen.org". Well done, Reaper Miniatures. Well done. e14144.gif

 

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I went old school with the skellies, zombies and best of all the Fimir. Many of you old timers will be able to recognize these skeletons by the color of their plastic. Unfortunately, I don't have the original shields anymore so I used slightly new ones. The Fimir model will stand in as my Frostheim Werewolf. The Werewolf's stats and its Bounty rule seem to fit a Fimir well enough.

 

Some of you will recognize the Fimir as a model from the 25 year old board game, Hero Quest. Many of you will look at this model and think, 'bleh'. And I will admit that it isn't a very good sculpt, I have a tremendous amount nostalgia for the Fimir, so I'd love to see this model on a gaming board once again.

 

Here's an interesting bit of trivia about this sculpt. The Hero Quest Fimir sculpt is one of only two Fimir sculpts that are scaled to the correct size. The Fimir's creator and the original concept art depicted them as Orc sized, but there was a miscommunication at GW. Citadel designed and produced the Fimir as ogre-sized, but this change didn't match the stats in Warhammer Armies, which were already on the shelves. Consequently, the Fimir ended up with too few attacks and wounds for an ogre-sized beastie on a 40mm base.

 

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I saved some money by buying the rats and the big cat from Reaper Miniatures' Bones model line. When the models arrived the big cat was smaller than I had imagined, so to create the illusion that the model is slightly larger, I gave it some elevation by mounting it on a big rock. The Bones bear is way too small for Frostgrave, so I dropped it into my creatures bits box.

 

I also saved some money by buying my wraith and vampire models super cheap as bits from Bits World. The wraith is one of the spirits from the new Nagash kit and the vampire is the Corpsemaster from the GW Mortis Engine kit.

 

My genie is the Saracens Djinn from Hell Dorado. I tried to get into this game several years ago, but when I realized that Cipher Studios didn't have the money or the interest to support it, I gave up. I repurposed a bunch of the Saracen models as counts-as Outcasts for Malifaux, but until now, I haven't had a use for the Djinn.

 

In the event that I play a 4-player Frostheim game and one or more of the players have the Reveal Secrets or Fools Gold spells, I put together another 4 wyrdstone markers (treasure tokens). Oh, and before anyone asks, the metal chests come from the long OOP Bronzio's Galloper Guns kit. Like the skellies and zombies, they too have been floating around in my bitz boxes for a long time.

 

I've also assembled the last three models that I will need for my starting warband, a thug, a thief, and a crossbowman. My plan is to paint these three models and my Apprentice so I can have a fully painted starting warband. Then I need to return to painting my SAGA Irish for a while. I need to get my Irish done for Adepticon.

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Spellcrow Miniatures is best known for its cool 40K conversion bits, but they also produce a model line of quirky yet cool Fantasy minis for Spellcrow's skirmish game, Umbra Turris.

 

A couple of weeks ago I was perusing FRP Games' Daily Specials and I saw that FRP was selling Spellcrow's Sasquatch miniature for 50% off. I couldn't resist such a great bargain price for a mini that I had long admired.

 

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My original plan was to use the Sasquatch as either a stand in for Frostgrave's White Gorilla (there are no gorillas in the Old World, but thanks to marauding ogres there are yetis), or, if the model was too tall, a stand in for the Frost Giant.

 

It turns out that the model is to large to be a counts-as White Gorilla and, because I am using GW trolls as Snow Trolls, too short to be a counts-as Frost Giant.

 

The model has a really long torso and arms, but comically short legs. I knew this when I purchased it, but what I hadn't paid much attention to is its small feet. Whoever heard of a Bigfoot with small feet?

 

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The model's shoe size and the need for a taller Frost Giant proxy convinced me to grab my hobby saw and get to work.

 

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Next, I used my pin vice and brass rod to make a framework for leg and feet extensions.

 

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This Yeti, which has grown to enormous proportions because of the mutating effects of warp stone, won't be as large as GW's plastic giant model, but, as you can see, it looms large over man-sized figures.

 

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The final step will be to use greenstuff to sculpt the missing parts of its legs and feet. I've never sculpted legs this large, nor have I used the sculpting technique that produced the fur on this particular model, so wish me luck.

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I did a bit more work on the Giant Yeti.  

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My plan is to cover the legs from the waste to the ankle in fur. I will also add a bit more fur to the top of the foot.  The technique that I will use involves sculpting each tuft of fur separately.  You do this by rolling out very small, teardrop shaped pieces of greenstuff and sticking the fat end to the models surface so that the pointed end is hanging down or in the direction you want the fur to lie.  Using a sculpting too you flatten the teardrop and then use the tool's blade to cut parallel scores into the flattened teardrop to make the tuft look like it's made up of many pieces of individual hair.  After it sets up for a little bit you can then bend, twist, elongate or divide each tuft to create more natural, unkempt look..

I've never tried this technique, but I've seen a tutorial on YouTube. :smile:
 

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