Koyote

My Frostheim menagerie continues to grow.

For those of you locals who have been following my work and missed the notice in the Tournament section (why it's there I have no idea), the next Fluger Games Day is Nov 21st. I am going to bring everything needed to play the Hunt for the Golem mini-campaign. It's only three scenario campaign, so I think we can play through it in an afternoon. I want to play all three games as four player games. So far it's only me and Fluger, so we need two more players. If you are interested in joining us, you can click on the following link for more details. http://www.ordofanaticus.com/index.php?/topic/26522-warporch-games-day-nov-21st/

Yes, indeed. I want to play through The Hunt for the Golem mini-campaign. It’s a 3 game narrative campaign, written by Frostgrave’s creator, Joseph McCullough. The campaign features a new creature (the Granite Golem), 3 new scenarios, and some new magic items. Like all Frostgrave scenarios, the campaign scenarios include rules for multi-player play. I’d like to play each scenario as a 4-player game, but so far I’ve only recruited Fluger, so we need two more players. All four players will begin the campaign with starting warbands. And since we will be playing in campaign mode, I’d prefer to play with some modifications to the general campaign rules, so that we don’t have to worry about Elementalists and other blasty-blast Wizards dominating the XP race. I will provide the scenario rules, some very nice terrain and all the models for the Random Encounter creatures. I also have enough models to field two warbands, so if someone wants to try out Frostgrave, but doesn’t have a warband, I’ve got you covered. If you have a warband, you needn’t worry about it being painted. Oh, and here’s the Granite Golem, the focus of the campaign and our collective nemisis. *insert dramatic music here*

"Two legs good, one leg baaad..."

I did a bit more work on the Giant Yeti. 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.

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

Oops, I accidentally hit report whole trying to push the quote button. Sorry about that. As to your question,you are correct. However, if one plays fixed or random game length, removing all the Treasure Tokens from the board simply ends the game early, much in the same way wiping out your opponent's warband ends a game. Thanks for bringing this point up. If I write campaign rules I will need to clarify the ways in which a game ends prior to the fixed or variable game length.

I've been brainstorming ideas to address the experience point disparity between Wizards whose spells focus on taking out enemy models and Wizards whose spells focus on buffs and/or curses. What follows is proposed change to the current experience point chart and it is designed for games with a set or variable game length, which is another idea being discussed on the Frostgrave forums. It also presumes that we disregard the rule that states that the scenario captures all of the Treasure Tokens that remain on the table at game's end. My changes still focus largely on taking out enemy models, but I've adjusted the point values and opened it up this means if earning XP to the entire warband, so the Wizard and Apprentice can focus on other aspects of the game. I also believe that warbands should be rewarded with xp for taking out hostile creatures that they encounter. I've changed the xp awards for casting spells and based it upon the general difficulty of the casting requirement. Lastly, I propose a change in how warbands earn xp from Treasure Tokens. My goal is to make it worthwhile to capture Treasure Tokens that a player knows that he or she can't get off the board. The scheme also creates an additional incentive for preventing an opponent from capturing or carrying off Treaure Tokens. CAMPAIGN EXPERIENCE POINT TABLES 2.1 Casting* Your Wizard or Apprentice casts a spell from own school: 20 xp Your Wizard or Apprentice casts a spell from aligned school: 25 xp Your Wizard or Apprentice casts a spell from neutral school: 30 xp Taking Out Warband Members** Enemy Soldier: 20 xp Enemy Apprentice: 40 xp Enemy Wizard 100: xp Taking Out (Uncontrolled) Creatures** Starting Health 01-05: 10 xp Starting Health 06-10: 20 xp Starting Health 11-15: 50 xp Starting Health 16+: 100 xp +20 xp if the creature type is immune to non-magical weapons +10 xp if the creature was controlled by enemy warband when it was taken out**** Loot and Deeds Winning a scenario: 100 xp A scenario ends in a draw: 25 xp to each warband Each Treasure Token taken off the table by your warband: 50 xp Each Treasure Token held by a member of your warband that is still on the table: 25 xp***** Each Treasure Token on your opponent’s half of the table that is not held: 25 xp * A spell or spell effect that is “cast” automatically by any type of magic item is worth 0 xp. 'Out of game' spells are cast "directly before the [...] game" (SEE Frostgrave FAQ), so the experience points earned by casting these spells are combined with the experience points earned during the ensuing game. ** These xp are earned if any member of your warband or any model controlled by your warband takes out (TO) one of the models mentioned below. Please note that if an enemy caster takes control of a member of your warband or creature that is treated as a permanent member of your warband and that model TO another member of your warband or a creature, only the enemy caster earns xp. *** This includes creatures that are treated as a permanent member of an enemy warband (e.g. summoned Constructs). ****Players only roll on the Treasure Table for Treasure Tokens taken off the board during game play.

I have two of 4ground's prepainted Dark Age Hovels and one Dwelling that I use for SAGA terrain. I too am impressed by the quality of their products and how easy they are to assemble. I'll probably stay with their prepainted buildings. For me the extra money is well worth the time I save.

I've been looking at the 4ground ruined buildings for some time now. They are awesome. When I have some extra money I will be adding them to my collection of Morheim/Frostgrave terrain.

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. 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. 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.

I've textured the base and added a few more fun details.

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.

Earlier this week I found this scenario on a Frostgrave blog. I really like that the lair mechanic puts more beasties in play. It reminds me of the Mordheim campaigns that I used to run at Fire & Sword. We used the Random Happening rules, but threw out the 'one random encounter per game' rule. I remember times when we’d have 2 or 3 beasties rampaging around the board and then a table-wide event would strike, like a Storm of Chaos or an earthquake. The mayhem was glorious! For those of you who are unfamiliar with the Random Happenings rules, HERE is a link to a PDF. Another fun twist that can occur using the Random Happening rules is the sudden appearance of a Hired Sword who would immediately ally itself to the player with the lowest warband rating. Reminiscing about this got me thinking about the concerns some people have about Frostgrave lacking ‘underdog’ rules and how introducing a Hired Sword rule could be a partial fix. Hired Sword rules could work as follows. Depending upon the disparity in Wizard levels, the lower level Wizard is temporarily joined by one or more Hired Swords (50-100 gc Soldiers), allowing the underdog player to temporarily exceed the 8 Soldier limit. At the end of the game the underdog warband would pay a fee and the Hired Sword departs. Another idea that I’ve been tinkering with is an adjustment to the Random Encounter rules. The Random Encounter table is divided into 3 columns of encounters, increasing in strength from left to right. How about tying the column to the level of the wizard’s whose warband triggered the encounter? In theory, this would give a higher level wizard a more suitably challenging encounter, while at the same time ensuring the warbands of lower level wizards encounter beasties more suited to the warband’s power level. Of course the level of a wizard isn’t the only measure of a warband’s strength, but I’d be reluctant to implement a complicated warband rating system. One of Frostgrave’s strengths is its relatively simple ruleset, so I’d hate to muck that up.

I finally tracked down the company that makes these tokens. You can buy a full set of 136 tokens for around $23 or you can buy only the sets you need for a particular caster for $2-$3 each. If you purchase the acrylic tokens you get to choose the color of each set. Blotz

Amazing!

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. 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. I used sheets of 0.040" styrene to make the bases. Next I added texture to the bases, primed with black spray primer and dry brushed with two shades of grey. 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.

I think it's fair to say that in tabletop wargamming very few things true 100% of the time.

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.

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. 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. 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:

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. 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. 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

I'm not too worried about Soldiers not leveling up. Keeping their stats fairly static helps to maintain game balance. Moreover, because of Frostgrave's particular D20 driven mechanics small stat boosts, like those available to Mordheim henchmen, aren't going to make that big of a difference. If a player wants to graduate to more powerful Soldiers, as a warband grows in wealth and power it can hire better types of Soldiers. And if a player wants to customize or boost a Soldier's stat or abilities, simply equip that Soldier with a magic item.

Below is an article that identifies and offers house-rule fixes to some of the problems that arise during Frostgrave campaigns. http://www.bad-karma.net/some-thoughts-on-frostgrave-mostly-the-campaign-system/ As noted in the article, modifying how Wizards earn XPs and ignoring the death result from the Wizard's injury table may may help with the underdog problem. Frostgrave's author, Joseph McCullough has a blog titled The Renaissance Troll. Joseph is aware of some of these problems and seems open to suggestions. One balancing scheme that Joseph suggests is to play multi-player games (i.e. 3-4 players). Being a long time gamer, Joseph recognizes that when when playing multi-player games, if on player gets too strong, it's a trailing gamer's natural inclination to join others to group up on the lead player. As for myself, I've seen this countless times in multi-player board games and tabletop wargames. Back when I was running Mordheim and Malifaux campaigns I noticed that when certain players fell behind in campaign points or if one player developed a huge lead over everyone else, many of the players in the middle and bottom of the rankings would disengage from the campaign. They did the math and thought to themselves, 'Why bother?' My response to this problem of campaign morale was to have the four highest scoring players play a final multi-player championship game to determine the overall winner. The game's objective, usually a king-of-the-hill type game, was always located in the center of the table to deter players from holding back the entire game. This scheme changed the mindset of the players in the middle and near the bottom of the pack. They no longer had to focus on catching up to the top scoring player, they only had to catch the guy in fourth place. While its not a perfect analogy, this idea always brings to mind the quote, "You don't have to be the fastest, just not the slowest." Also, because multi-player games don't always favor the strongest warband, if a player made it into the championship game with a weaker warband, that player knew that he still had a chance of pulling off a win. And as we all know, and underdog win is the best type of win. :)

Twelve Wyrdstone/Treasure Counters gives me enough counters to play a four player game, assuming of course that none of the four players has a Reveal Secrets or Fools Gold spell. Hmmm?