Balthazar's Warband

This is the second post regarding Balthazar and his minions. The first post detailed the gathering of the warband and the very beginning of their journey, this post details their stats and a few more insights into how I am going to play this warband.

For this campaign, I am going to run the warband as if they are completely raw recruits. I am not giving Balthazar the usual 400 Gold Crowns to purchase a warband of his choice, I will be assigning him just eight basic soldiers for free. In the story, Balthazar has cajoled his apprentice and eight local toughs (Thugs in game terms) to accompany him to Felstad to seek their fortunes.

Every time there has been a choice in character creation, I have randomly rolled it. Therefore, Balthazar is from the Elementalist school of magic as that is what was rolled. All of his spells have also been randomly rolled, so he will need to cope with all eventualities thrown at him without a balanced and selected list of offensive, defensive and "useful" spells.

Balthazar Blimp, Wizard...

Balthazar's spell book consists of ...

Dave, Apprentice...

Balthazar's followers - eight Thugs...

At the start of the campaign, the eight thugs in Balthazar's warband are all armed with farm implements - to all intents and purposes these are the equivalent of hand weapons. At the end of each scenario, I will randomly roll (10% cumulative per scenario completed that resets after each success) to see if each thug improves their clothing (warmer layers, better boots etc.) and weaponry (i.e. to a club, axe, sword etc.), even though this will not have any effect on how they play as soldiers. This will be used as a visual clue that shows the look and feel of the members of the warband changing as time moves on - it shows them developing as characters in a story. In real terms, it means I can paint up and use different figures to depict each character as they develop.

During a scenario it is going to be assumed that the soldiers get rich from what they find laying around that Balthazar does not claim - trinkets, silver and copper coins, cheap jewellery pieces and nicer weapons than those they already have (although, as already stated above, these have no effect on their stats etc.) - Balthazar will be getting the results of the rolls on the treasure token table at the end of each game.

Experience points will be used to improve Balthazar's stats, but the treasure he gains can be used to improve the soldiers themselves. I am going to assume that if Balthazar wants to improve a soldier he can pay the GC cost to "upgrade" him - in game terms this is just replacing one type of soldier with another, but in story terms this takes into account purchasing new arms and armour for the soldier needing an upgrade and paying for some training to get him up to scratch in whatever new role he will need to play. Specialist soldiers will still need to be bought, however, as those particular skills cannot be taught.

If a soldier is lost in action, then he can be replaced either by a new thug (another villager that arrives from Standof) or a new soldier in the form of one that can be purchased at full price. This is the tim ewhen specialist soldiers can be recruited to join the warband. Thieves can be "purchased" by swapping the stats of an existing soldier and saying in story terms that the soldier was more adept at that role than as a thug, or a thief can be recruited from Standof when a previous warband member dies.

Balthazar and his followers head out of Standof on their journey to Felstad...

 

 

Just after sun-up, the party stumbled out of the barn attached to the Star Inn to gather their belongings before heading north. Sore heads from the drinking of the night before were nursed as each member saw fit, and packs were shouldered. This was to be the adventure of a lifetime; riches untold of and stories undreamed of were to be experienced and hopefully returned to the snug of the alehouse.

Frostgrave 2nd Edition: My First Warband

It took me a while to get around to this what with real life getting in the way; Covid, redundancy and a general lack of motivation due to these issues. I was hoping to get these details up onto the blog and get in some playing action last month, but I just never able to quite get around to it. However, what with the Christmas preparation (now that we have been locked into Tier 4 and I cannot get to see the kids this year) I have managed to free up some space on the table and photographed my initial warband. I have chosen some of my really old Citadel and Ral Partha miniatures that I painted many years ago to make up the wizard, his apprentice and their followers.

First up, here is my first Frostgrave warband in all its glory...

And some individual/paired photos of the warband itself, starting with Balthazar...

Dave, the sorceror's apprentice...

Bill and Ben, two of the more well-to-do peasants from the village of Standof...

Ant and Dec, just a couple of regular farmers...

Dick and Dom, two more regular farmers...

Bill (2) and Ted, two more fairly (un)regular farmers...

Balthazar had just heard through the grapevine (the Stars Inn), in the back water village of Standof, that the far northern city of Felstad was slowly emerging from its icy grave of a millenium. However, he found that he was a little late to the party, as the news, when it reached him via a band of travelling wizards who had already made their fortune there, was at least five years old, but due to the finding of a second major tome with cryptic clues of what may be found there, there was now renewed interest in the city.

Learning that a trip to the frozen city would be fraught with many dangers, Balthazar realised that he would need his own small warband to aid him on his mission. He cast about the village and the local farmsteads over the following few weeks, and managed to drum up, through promises, lies and various forms of coersion (bribery and blackmail), enough support for his venture.

The wizard already had an apprentice, in the form of Dave, to help carry his magical paraphernalia, but the addition of eight local toughs, he thought, should hopefully be enough for him to visit the city. The ancient magics contained within the mouldering tomes he would find in the ruins would be reward enough for him, but the lure of the ample treasure that is there for the taking also piqued his interest and convinced his followers.

The party left on their journey bouyant and full of good beer cheer...