generalripphook Posted August 5, 2015 Report Share Posted August 5, 2015 Wizard (Pak Tharkus the gold ) - Level 0 Xp:0 School: Thaumaturge Spells: Banish, Blinding light, Dispel, Reveal Secret, Push, Strength, Transpose, Elemental Bolt Warband: Apprentice (Derbast the Unfortunate) Apothecary (Wild Man Marvin) Infantryman (Faf the Furious) Infantryman (William) Archer ( Dead-Eye Dave) Thief (Jimbo) Thief (Timothy the Lucky) 1st Battle, Experence; 240 (3 treasures, 5 spells, wizard killed a guy) Casulaties: Apprentice, Faf and William no bad results Treasures:Grimore-Will Power - Circle of Protection Otherwise one was a lot of money (d20x 25 gc) and ended up with 410 GC Upgrades: Bought Blerg the Mighty (Barbarian) and Gervas the Just (Templar) and a Staff of Power +1 Used the Grimore to gain Circle of Protection and make Reveal Secret 1 easier. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
generalripphook Posted August 5, 2015 Author Report Share Posted August 5, 2015 Wizard (Pak Tharkus the gold ) - Level 2 Xp:40 School: Thaumaturge Base: Library Spells: Banish, Blinding light, Dispel, Reveal Secret (1 easier), Push, Strength, Transpose, Elemental Bolt, Circle of Protection Equipment: Staff of Power +1 Vault: 0 GC, Grimore Will Power Warband: Apprentice (Derbast the Unfortunate) Apothecary (Wild Man Marvin) Infantryman ( Faf the Furious) Infantryman (William) Archer ( Dead-Eye Dave) Thief (Jimbo) Thief (Timothy the Lucky) Gervas the Just (Templar) Blerg the Mighty (Barbarian) Battle The Keep, Called a draw because of time, experience: 230 (2 treasures, teleported, 3 spells, killed a man with my wizard) Casualties: William (he died), Apprentice (full recovery) Base: No Bonus Treasures- 160 GC and Grimore Draining Word 40 GC and Grimore Planear Tear Thoughts about the game: The keep is a really crazy game because you just teleport every time you try and get one of the main 4 treasures, I am still getting used to who should pick up a treasure. In this game if one of your people ends up ending next to a treasure because he didn't teleport take advantage of it. Highlight was Jim's apprentice summoning a demon which turned on him and ended up killing the apprentice and two of Jim's guys. Also my apprentice died again...this time to a bone shard and not an elemental bolt. Upgrades: Bought a Sir Tellier (knight) to replace my vacancy and "upgraded" a thief to a Treasure Hunter which leaves me with 20 GC Made Elemental bolt easier by 2 with my 2 levels (its now a 14) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gailbraithe Posted August 5, 2015 Report Share Posted August 5, 2015 This is what my warband looks like, I think I'd like to get in a game next week (depending on when my minis show up): The Cult of the Ebon Eye Xantharxes - Wizard (Summoner) Xyrzak - Apprentice Darklighter (Treasure Hunter) Ironmark (Marksman) Nimblejack (Thief) Slipshadow (Thief) Swiftfoot (Thief) Backbiter (Thug) Cutthroat (Thug) Legbreaker (Thug) 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gailbraithe Posted August 6, 2015 Report Share Posted August 6, 2015 So Eli and I played a game and I'm a bit underwhelmed. The game play was just okay -- I'm really not a fan of how hitting and damage is resolved, it's very swingy and its far too easy to kill models for the low model count of the game. The bigger issue I had is that without a handicapping method, or a very structured playoff system, as a campaign game its basically unplayable. Eli only had three games on me, and his warband was so much more effective than mine that it made the game feel completely unfair and lopsided. I was so outclassed that I ended feeling the only strategy I could engage in was to grab the two closest treasure, flee the board, and surrender the game to Eli. Except my apprentice died (he was knocked unconcious and rolled a 2 on his survival test, so dead dead), I didn't get enough treasure (only 2) to buy a new one, while Eli got 4 treasures and killed a giant worm for 100XP. So I tore up my warband and threw it away because going into a new game I would be at a 70 Gold disadvantage against a new warband, but my likely next opponent would be...Eli. So instead of facing him with his +300 Gold, +3 Levels advantage, I'd be facing him with a +570 Gold, +5 Levels advantage. Even creating a new warband, I would still be at a greater disadvantage than the first game. And this advantage will only continue to grow, especially if Eli is able to get in more games than me -- and given that this is Eli were talking about, he will. Without some way of addressing this imbalance, I just don't see this game as viable. If there are only two other players (say Jim and Eli), and they play more regularly than I do, then the only thing this game has to offer is the chance to get curbstomped by an ever more ridiculous margin as time goes by, which is a strong incentive to simply never play in the first place. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
smashthedean Posted August 6, 2015 Report Share Posted August 6, 2015 You make some good points about the lack of balance between leveled warbands and starters. I do imagine that some sort of Underdog Bonus akin to Mordheim would be pretty easy to houserule in though. My biggest gripe about the game is the lack of development for 80% of your warband with your soldiers never leveling and eventually just getting fired and replaced with upgraded versions of themselves. This could certainly be looked at as "leveling them up", but since you don't get any money back from firing soldiers, there's no reason not to "level up" your Thugs directly to Templars or whatever and skip the "levels" in between. Really, this game kind of just makes me want to play Mordheim. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
generalripphook Posted August 6, 2015 Author Report Share Posted August 6, 2015 This was my third game. I did not use it for advancement. However here is my opinion, the power curve is very steep for the first few games then levels off. The reason for is tjat your minions can only be so good once you have upgraded to the 100 GC guys all you can do is buy magic items which do next to nothing. So I think warbanda will level off in power. That being said I am keeping this blog do that if I keep getting games I can use an older warband if a player is farther behind. Also for warband construction to start only buy 1 100 gc guy and don't go all in on archers. You want guys to go forward to get stuff and you want 1 good tank. However I have also seen thiefs kill super uber powerful guys. It's still a dice game. In fact my wizard against miles couldn't cast anything to save his life but my guys fought well. His wizard was casting everything and his soldiers were rolling bad. As for normal guys advancing, the game is about wizards. You care about them, the others are supposed to be chump change.so that you can throw them forward to get treasure and then don't mind if they die. That's why they are so cheap compared to the treasure reward and the cost of magic stuff (Miles also rolled badly for his treasures gold wise). In addition miles you also chose to channel enough magic you killed your own apprentice. My wizard was almost dead, all the guys on that near treasure were nearly dead and you choose to retreat with all those full health guys. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
smashthedean Posted August 6, 2015 Report Share Posted August 6, 2015 As for normal guys advancing, the game is about wizards. You care about them, the others are supposed to be chump change.so that you can throw them forward to get treasure and then don't mind if they die. That's why they are so cheap compared to the treasure reward and the cost of magic stuff (Miles also rolled badly for his treasures gold wise). I'm not disagreeing on this point, I'm saying I don't like it. I think I'd prefer a game where my normal guys also had development. I'll do a few more Frostgrave games still, but I'm not entirely sold on it yet to scratch that elusive perfect campaign game itch. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
generalripphook Posted August 6, 2015 Author Report Share Posted August 6, 2015 I'm not disagreeing on this point, I'm saying I don't like it. I think I'd prefer a game where my normal guys also had development. I'll do a few more Frostgrave games still, but I'm not entirely sold on it yet to scratch that elusive perfect campaign game itch. Well we could easily apply the wizard/apprentice death chart to them which makes them more personable. Along with something like 10 experence for each time they win a fight/hit someone with a bow,20 for getting a treasure personally. 30 for killing an apprentice, and 50 killing a wizard. They max out at level 10? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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