LotR Battle Report : Rohan vs Orcs

The two boys were at a loose end yesterday evening and they asked me if I would referee "the board game" as they put it. I said that I would but as time was getting on we would run the game a little differently to the usual line 'em up and charge, with the winner being the one who broke last, type of scenario. This time I decided to drop a few of the advanced rules I had introduced in the last couple of games (regarding leaders and break points) but introduce the concept of victory by objective. So, I set up a little scenario for them to play out.

Barn Busters - an orcs versus Rohan mini scenario:

A small band of Rohan warriors found out from a local shepherd that there was a very important, but sickly Orc chieftain holed up in a small barn by the local river. They were told that he only had a small body guard with him, so they decided if numbers were fairly equal then they would trust to chance and try to eliminate the chieftain thus making a telling blow agianst their enemy.

Rohan objective - get two warriors into the barn to kill the orc chieftain
Orc objective - stop the Rohan warriors from entering the barn and/or reduce the Rohan force by 50% (4 troops)

The orcs were to set up around the barn and Rohan would set up on the left side of the board. To kill the chieftain the Rohan warriors (at least two of them) had to get to the barn, stay there one turn (to open the door) and then enter the barn (thus killing the bed-bound orc chieftain).

Turn 1 - Rohan Priority
A small band of Rohan warriors advanced from the west towards their objective in a small huddle; each man nervous and wondering what might greet them at the riverside barn. Meanwhile, a small warband of orcs crouched lazily outside the barn whilst their chieftain suffered from a fever within. Once he was better, he would lead them on a path of destruction throughout the Westfold.

Turn 2 - Rohan Priority
As the goodly warriors advanced upon the barn the sharp ears of the orc lookout picked up on their steady progress and yelped the alarm. The orcs grabbed their weapons and advanced upon the Rohan stalwarts. One of the orc scouts managed to get a shot off with his bow but the shaft failed to find its mark. The rest of the orcs clashed with their hated adversaries.

Turn 3 - Orc Priority
Now that combat was joined, the orc numbers told and they began to encircle their foes. The Rohan troops put up a brave fight in the hope of breaking through their ranks and putting their chieftain to the sword. Unfortunately the two-handed axes and support of their spearmen caused grave injuries to two of the brave Rohan warriors.

Turn 4 - Rohan Priority
The broken ranks of the Rohan shield wall allowed the two archers to peel off and advance towards the barn entrance supported by a solitary swordsman. The orcs redoubled their efforts to defeat their foes but the wily Rohan captain managed to split his forces in such a way that they diverted the main force of the orc attack away from the two archers tasked with killing the orc chieftain.

With a little support on the flanks, the Rohan troops were able to keep the orcs away from their assassins. Unfortunately the heavy two-handed axes of the orcs took their toll and another Rohan warrior fell to the ground. The remnants of the shield wall put up a grim defence and were rewarded with dispatching two lowly orc warriors. The remaining orc archers attempted to stop the two Rohan scouts from breaking into the barn, but their shafts either bounced off their armour or stuck in the wooden door frame.

Turn 5 - Rohan Priority
The two Rohan archers finally broke the door down and entered the barn. It took a few moments for their eyes to adjust to the gloom within, but as soon as they saw the cot on which the orc captain lay they loosed their arrows with deadly precision and killed him where he lay.

Meanwhile, outside, the Rohan troops whooped in joy at the death screech of the orc captain and attempted to make their get away. They ran as fast as they could, dodging the deadly arrows from the orc bows, but one poor fellow could not escape the deadly kiss of a two-handed axe. He fell before he could join his comrades in the woods to the south.

Summary - a Draw
A few things could be taken from this rather short game (it lasted about 30 minutes). The boys still saw it as a kill 'em all type scenario - I had to keep reminding them of their objectives.

Nick got his two men into the barn and dispatched the (imaginary) orc chieftain; this gained him his victory point. Alex managed to slay half of Nick's force, and thus gained his victory point that way.

The orc teaming up of a two-handed weapon supported by a spearman proved to be a deadly combination. This is definitely something to think about if I play with them in the future due to their generally being inferior troops. The Rohan shields proved pretty useless as they do not provide anything extra to the troops' defence at this level (I haven't introduced the 'shielding' rules yet).

We did not use any leaders in this game, so there were to be no break points. The game was designed to have ended after 10 turns as I supected the boys would play a bit of cat and mouse whilst they attempted to manoeuvre their troops to achieve their victory conditions. It only took 5 turns of direct combat in the end, but it was a very tense 5 turns.

Diamond Sky - Session 3 (29/07/15)

We had a new player join us this week. He has taken on the role of Salderban until his usual player returns. The party has grown to a very handy six characters now...

Karik (?) - Sorceror
Rhogar (Dragonborn) - Warlock
Salderban (Human) - Paladin
Skins (Kobold) - Barbarian
Torric (Human) - Bard
Zook (Gnome) - Ranger

Okzar - the flame-headed brass construct

Arathea, the half-elf, backed off from the party after she had stabbed the old elf and threatened to kill herself. Rhogar, being an ex-slave himself, calmed her with his soothing words, but no sooner had she stopped trembling than the old elf began to live again. The blood stopped flowing from his wounds and he tried to rise again despite being bound.

Skins, her barbarian instincts prickling, battered him to the ground again with her axes and Zook pinned his hand to the ground with his own eldritch dagger to prevent him from rising again. Despite his pain the old elf attempted to cast a spell, but Torric put a stop to his movements and suggested that all his clothing and trappings be removed lest they contained the source of his power. He was stripped to his loincloth with Karik taking his rings and Torric his strange black robe with a sash of eyes.

Okzar iterated the fact that they needed to get moving if they were to save his brothers and escape the Magnaroc, but his words fell on deaf ears as Salderban went off to investigate the lift apparatus, Karik went to look at the book on the elf's lectern and Zook made his way to look at a bubbling cauldron nearby. Nothing new was learned about the lift device, but Karik got a swift peak at the book and saw that it was about airships before Okzar growled a warning and slammed it shut. The bubbling cauldron turned out to contain a vile concoction of demi-human body parts in a broth that was undoubtedly for consumption by the bullywugs.

Torric cast a Detect Magic cantrip which highlighted the book, the eye-sashed robe, the rings in Karik's possession, the chain around the necks of the three remaining elf's slaves, and a chest off to one side of the room. Torric persuaded the old elf to give up the secrets of the locks and got the chest opened, which revealed an amulet, four scrolls and some good food.

Arathea, once again scared now that the elf was back alive begged for the party to kill him to finally free her from his thrall but Torric and Rhogar continued to question him. This led to the old elf attempting to cast some diversionary magic before Rhogar Eldritch Blasted the wizard, taking away half of his head, thus killing him once and for all.

Torric revived Arathea from her faint with a small sip from the last remaining Potion of Healing and gave her some of the good food from the chest, which revived her no end. He then did the same for the other three slaves still standing upon the dais. It was at this point that Okzar finally lost his patience and ordered the party to get going with Zook leading the way over the bridge.

Their path took them through a series of large caverns and small, twisting crevices and ended in a large cavern beneath the main caldera of the volcano. In the centre of the room they espied a large magma chamber with a narrow stone bridge spanning it. Flying around the upper reaches of the caldera, close to the open air, they spotted one of the smaller red dragons but the central magma chamber was surrounded by a score of bullywugs praising three figures that stood upon the narrow bridge. Every so often one of the bullywugs would be directed to jump into the magma.

The three figures on the stone bridge did not spot the adventurers as they crept into the chamber due to the concentration they had upon the ritual that they were performing. Okzar pointed to the far end of the chamber where there were two huge glass cabinets that each contained a huge construct not unlike himself. He handed a key each to Zook and Skins and ordered them to open the cabinets and thus free his brothers.

Skins and Zook took to their tasks and rapidly advanced upon the cabinets whilst the rest of the party took up supporting positions. Unfortunately, as the two sneaking party members approached their goal, they were spotted by the three figures on the bridge who ordered their bullywug minions to attack them. It was at this point that the party realised that one of the figures was the old maester from the sky-ship they had crash landed on the Magnaroc. The other two were a red-skinned bullywug type and a large devil. When any member of the party looked at the red amphibian they found that they felt nauseous and were ill.

Now that they had been spotted, the band of adventurers charged into battle to support their two sneaking comrades. Many bullywugs were pushed directly in to the lava but soon their numbers began to tell and they became less of an easy target. However, the superior skills-at-arms of the party told through and the bullywugs began to fall faster and faster, especially with Torric's magical chanting and ballads belittling their prowess. Okzar made straight for the bridge to bring battle to the three beings there.

The red being saw the advance of Okzar and that the fight was going against his sect, so he made himself disappear and a sphere of bright white light appeared in his place. This sphere slowly dropped into the magma chamber where it caused great wafts of steam to rise into the room above.

The maester, fearing what might happen, dropped to his knees and grabbed the hem of the skirts of the devil. This caused the devil too to disappear from sight as the magma rose in the chamber beneath. Knowing that he now had nothing to lose, the maester squared up to Okzar who had just reached the centre of the bridge. Okzar roared his battle-cry but it was cut short by a Cone of Cold that shot from the fingers of the magic user. He fell to the ground, the flames of his hair went out.

Rhogar cast an Eldritch Blast at the maester and Torric's bardic lore caused the old wizard to clutch at his head and fall to his death into the rapidly rising magma. Karik just had time to grab the magical book from Okzar before they realised that they had to leave the caldera as soon as possible.

They shouted to Skins, Zook and Salderban to hurry up and release the giants. The three warriors rapidly finished off the last of their bullywug adversaries before they put the keys into the locks on the cabinets. A quick turn of the keys released a magical energy that turned the locks and the doors began to open. The giants within, their eyes full of fire, emerged from their slumber.

Skins commanded the first giant to return her to her companions. The giant obliged by picking up the small kobold and threw her the length of the room. Zook chose his words more carefully and ordered the giant constructs to collect Okzar then follow the party and aid in restoring the Magnaroc to order.

The small band of adventurers made their way to the exit from the magma chamber, but not before the small red dragon managed a single swoop down on Rhogar before it too made its escape.

It was only a matter of a few minutes before they had regained the chamber with the sky-ship and the three remaining slaves. The sounds of the volcanic eruption rang in their ears.

Diamond Sky - Session 2 (22/07/15)

This week saw one of the players (Salderban) leave us temporarily whilst he goes on holiday, but we were joined by another new player to replace him, so party numbers remained at five.

Bullywugs go to war - courtesy of WotC

The Party:

Karik (?) - Sorceror
Rhogar (Dragonborn) - Warlock
Skins (Kobold) - Barbarian
Torric (Human) - Bard
Zook (Gnome) - Ranger

Whilst the four companions watched what was happening at the cave and discussed what they were going to do with the captain when they got back from investigating the distant combat, one of the former slaves edged away from the rest of his companions and rooted around on the now broken and deserted sky-ship for a few items that may come in handy at a later time and place.

Skins and Zook were the first into the fray, their axes and swords carved crimson swathes through the
amphibious and insectoid enemy; their chosen enemy was no longer the warband of towering 5' tall frog men but also their attendant fire beetles. Torric began to sing a ballad to magically aid his companions whilst Karik hung back with his loaded crossbow at the ready.

The beings, now recognised as bullywugs, had encircled the fire-headed bronze dwarf and began to strike at him in earnest, but upon contacting the warrior their heads burst into flame. This great loss of batrachian life caused the rest of their companions to turn tail and flee, but the party managed to overcome and dispatch the remainder before they made it back inside the cavern. Skins and Zook cut the firestones from the beetles for later use.

The dwarf took up position before the cavern in front of the party. He introduced himself as Krokdahk Oxar; the prenom being his rank of chief mason as translated by Karik and Zook. Skins stepped forward to shake hands with the now recognisable metallic construct but burned his hands before he could pull them away from Oxar's purposefully light grip.

At the same moment, there was a great roar from the distant volcano and it began to erupt with fire and brimstone. Oxar suggested that the party followed him if they wanted to leave the magnarock alive. The adventurers unanimously agreed and Torric ran swiftly back to the captain to tell him that they were going to aid Oxar and then come rescue him and his remaining crew and passengers. As the party entered the cavern, they failed to spot a sixth shadow slip silently in behind them.

Oxar led the small band of explorers into the mountainside through a great pair of brass valves. The gigantic chamber beyond seemed to resemble a huge workshop or factory with great walkways and tunnels leading off all over the place. However all the finery of the machinery was off-set by the air of disuse.

The party passed through a second, smaller door into a further chamber full of caskets that contained many brass body parts. Oxar introduced them in his gruff language as "Father". Many further doors led off from this chamber into what looked like living quarters; enough rooms for a whole settlement. Oxar did not stop and led them further into the mountainside settlement but the air was laden with the doom of many deaths. Scattered about the chambers were the bodies of many of Oxar's kin as well as many half snake-half man creatures that were recognised as salamanders.

The flame-headed dwarf finally came to a halt at a fourth chamber that contained two large conveyer belts that ended above two deep holes. A great door between them blocked any further progress. Oxar moved towards the hatch wheel that locked the great door but halted, as did the rest of the party as they heard in the distance the sound of many flopping feet approaching. Oxar growled at the party to hide whilst he took up a defensive stance in front of the final door. Skins and Zook made ready next to him but Torric and Karik found the darkest of corners. Nobody noticed in the kerfuffle the trailing shadow take up position in the darkness beside one of the entrance doors.

A large patrol of bullywugs marched past the entrance without looking into the room, obviously bent on going somewhere in a hurry and would not have stopped until Zook launched an arrow at them. This caused the amphibians and their large fire snake companion to turn into the chamber and attack the party. As the first few enemy warriors passed over the threshold into the room Skins threw his hand axes at the following rank felling one of them whilst Zook carried on shooting arrows into the midst of the front rank. Torric chanted to spur on is companions and sewed confusion into the ranks of the enemy whilst Karik looked for a way out at the great hatch door end of the chamber.

As the second wave began to enter the room the shadowy shape emerged from behind the door and a great wave of fire was launched at the incoming bullywugs. This surprised not only the bullywugs but also the party. However, the greatest surprise was on the bullywugs as the great fiery breath dealt death and destruction amongst their number. Seeing that the dragonborn seemed to be a friend, the rest of the party concentrated on the bullywugs and their snake companion rather than worry about who the reptilian was, but Zook recognised him as one of the ex-slaves from the sky ship.

Whilst the combat erupted around the chamber, Karik tried the great door to see if he could escape. He did not have the strength to turn the great hatch wheel so he jumped up onto one of the stationary conveyor belts and wriggled through the chain curtain into the room beyond. The room was full of various wonders but what grabbed his attention most was the vast amount of potions and precious stones. He stuffed a couple of handfuls of the processed stones into his pockets and went about testing some of the small vials. One particular group of the potions contained within a box upon a side table seemed quite familiar to him so he grabbed a few and made his way to the back of the door to see if it could be opened from that direction. He had just as much luck on that side of the valve so, after pulling 3 levers beside the door, he decided to return to the fight.

Inside the conveyer belt chamber the fight was not going well for the party; Oxar had fought the fire snake to a standstill whilst the party slowly mopped up the bullywugs with their combined magical and martial prowess. Unfortunately, numbers began to tell and the party slowly succumbed to their wounds. When they heard the whine of turbines come from beyond the door they were fighting to protect, Oxar swore an oath and redoubled his efforts against the snake.

Looking over his shoulder, Karik saw that a great cauldron in the centre of the room had begun to bubble with clear liquid whilst great fans in the ceiling began to blow cool air into the room. At the same time, the conveyor upon which he was standing began to move him back into the room he had just left.

Skins was very badly injured and extricated himself from the melee he was in in order to try to lick his wounds and rejoin the combat at a distance whilst the fresher Rhogar, the dragonborn, covered his retreat. Torric and Zook held their own and dealt out more damage from a distance whilst the combat between Oxar and the snake remained in deadlock.

Just as Skins thought all was lost, Karik came through from the far room, stood upon the moving conveyer belt. He caught the small vial that was thrown at him, pulled the stopper and drank the contents at the signal from Karik. He felt better very quickly as the magical Healing properties of the liquid coursed through his veins. Following his lead, the others who had been thrown a vial followed suit.

Karik rode to the end of the conveyer belt, leapt off and then removed one of his gloves which revealed a pallid, thin white hand. From this hand shot a Ray of Frost, which struck the fire snake and turned the combat in favour of Oxar. It was with a renewed vigour that the rest of the party rejoined the combat and swiftly put paid to the remnants of the bullywug patrol and their fire snake compatriot.

Torric quickly leapt onto the serpent and removed its poisoned fangs whilst the rest of the party collected their spent arrows and axes, and tended to their wounds. Oxar opened the door to the chamber beyond and led them into the now cold interior. He pulled the levers back into the opposite position to which Karik had pulled them.

With a grunt, he led the party back through the chamber where the combat had just taken place and headed off in the direction that the bullywugs were taking before they were ambushed by the party. He led them through a mine where more dead dwarfs and snake-men lay. Scattered around the huge chamber were huge piles of unrefined jet - a small sample of which was now sitting in Karik's pockets.

Finally, the last corridor opened into a huge chamber that held over one hundred bullywugs that appeared to be worshipping a tall, skinny, old elf with a ring around its neck that held four beings at the end of chains attached to it. The bullywugs were in awe of the elf and as a result failed to spot the party arrive.

There were two exits from the large chamber; to the right was a stone path and bridge that led towards the volcano and opposite was a brass lift with the insignia Azroc (ship) inscribed above it. The party decided to split at this stage but just as they began to move, the elf's speech reached a crescendo and the bullywugs began to rapidly leave the chamber via the bridge exit.

With only the old, skinny elf and his four attendants left, the party advanced amongst the shadows towards the raised dais upon which he was stood. Rhogar created a diversion with a Noise cantrip, but one of the beings attached to the elf via a chain was not fooled. The old elf undid his collar, left the small band on the dais, and moved off towards a table and began to read a book laying thereupon; he began giggling to himself.

The female half-elf that had previously spotted the party began to work on her chains whilst the party advanced upon the elderly elf. Torric crept up behind him and grabbed him firmly by the throat. Skins unpacked his rope and tied the villain up with it. Meanwhile, the female half-elf had been able to free herself from the chain and had found a dagger from somewhere. She walked over to the elderly elf with menace in her eyes. Torric asked if this was what she really wanted and without saying a word, plunged the dagger into the old elf's neck, killing him instantly.

Diamond Sky - Session 1 (15/07/15)

Well, here I go on a whirlwind of adventure into the realms of D&D Fifth Edition. I attended the RP Haven for the first time in 10 months on Wednesday last week to start playing in a new campaign. Along with the DM, there were three other permanent players and one player who may or may not come back after his holiday (I hope he does as he was also an occasional player at the table during my long stint as DM of the Doggerland campaign).

The first session of almost every RPG game I play in involves the task of rolling up a new character and fleshing it out. This time round was certainly no different and the diverse nature of the characters is fantastic; plenty of scope for inter-character banter and hopefully they will make for some funny, memorable moments (there certainly have been so far although I tend to write my summaries a bit more seriously than they actually played out).

The Party:
(with thanks to Rod for his character summaries below)
Salderban (Human) - Paladin of Doom. Currently sunk in a fugue when the end of the world failed to materialise as the party crashed landed onto the slope of an enormous magmarock instead of plunging directly into the active caldera
Zook (Gnome) - Ranger and explorer
Karik (?) - Taciturn, hooded and slightly odiferous man? of mystery
Skins (Kobold) - Eggbearer Barbarian, not currently bearing any eggs as far as we can tell
Torric (Human) - Singer, Dancer, Juggler, Entertainer. Bookings available. Hen nights a specialty

Although there was a palpable split of loyalties between the rag-tag band under the command of Captain Harlott and the well-heeled crewmen who seemed to show allegiance to the maester, things were calm between the two crew factions for several days after the passengers were picked up.

On the lower, passenger, deck of the sky caravel Caraway, the talkative, and fidgety Kobold, Skins chittered to those who would listen, in constant competition with Torric who was ever telling the small band of his colourful and self-satisfied life. Salderban usually kept himself separate on occasion and prayed to his god in order to save him from the oncoming doom of the world, but Karik was very reluctant to join in with the conversations going on and always sat alone on his bunk with his hood permanently obscuring his face and his gloves hiding his hands.

It was all going so well on the lower deck of the Caraway until the peace was shattered by an almighty explosion that emenated from the upper deck. The passengers were flung from their comfortable positions and looked around nervously. Shouts suddenly erupted from the crew above and the sound of steel clashed upon steel; a sure sign that combat had broken out. Several men from each faction stumbled down the stairs fighting for their lives.

Salderban, Torric and Skins took to the fight, supporting the brigand captain's crew over the better dressed soldier-like cohorts of the maester. Karik, true to form, began to extinguish the lanterns, which plunged the passenger deck into semi-darkness. This did not affect Zook the Gnome with his darkvision, and he made his way to the hold in order to see if he could find out what was down there.

The fight was not going well for the captain when Salderban arrived up top. Through the steam and smoke of a rapidly approaching magmarock (a floating volcano), he could just make out that he was backed up against the figure-head battling for his life against two adversaries, whilst the maester held sway on the deck. The maester shot off some Magic Missiles at the last remaining brigand crew member on the deck but was not prepared for the paladin, who cut him down with his great sword; his body toppled over the side rails of the floating sky ship.

Skins leapt onto the deck, over the shoulder of the paladin and began to lay about him with his axes. The mutineer's crew slowly backed away from the two fighters as the captain's crew slowly hauled themselves back onto the deck after being blown over the sides by the blast of magic that was the source of the big explosion.

Meanwhile, down below, Zook had broken into the hold and saw that there was maybe a score of slaves held within. It was at this point that Karik looked out of one of the port holes and saw something he hoped never to see. A full-grown red dragon and three younglings, one with the maester's body on its back, circled the sky boat and swooped in for the kill. He yelled to the others what he had seen and sprinted for the upper deck to warn all of the danger, but his yell was lost in the sound of carnage which was caused by the red dragon that ripped out the rear mast, which just narrowly missed him in his retreat from the safety of his dark hidey-hole.

When he reached the top of the stairs there was one of the measter's men positioned with his back to him but blocked his way. Karik let loose his crossbow bolt and stepped past the falling corpse. Skins nodded to his mysterious companion and sprinted for the front of the ship to aid the captain.

Torric, in the meantime, had spotted that one of the maester's crewmen had hacked away at the postern where the ship's wheel was attached. He struck down the crewman with a Magic Missile of his own and tried to bring the ship under control. The mess made by the crewman coupled with the residual damage caused by the dragon meant that the wheel could no longer turn the rudder. He called for aid, and saw that the nearest comrade was Karik; Salderban had dropped to his knees in a revelry of self-doubt and the obvious prospect of the end of the world.

Whilst Karik tied off a rope for Torric to use to descend over the side to investigate the damage done to the rudder, a couple of the captain's crewmen had managed to scramble aboard again and load up one of the ballistae that dotted the deck. They let fly and their bolt flew true, which seriously hurt the adult dragon and caused it to fly off in pain and anger.

Skins let fly with one of his throwing axes, which brought down the last of the captain's adversaries and returned the ship to his control. This gave time for Torric to free the rudder, which enabled Karik to turn the wheel, and thus the ship away from an imminent collision with the magmarock.

However, this was not enough and the ship ploughed into the side of the floating volcano just as Zook and the slaves made their way onto deck. Everyone was knocked off their feet until the ship slowly ground to a halt on the floating volcano. Torric, still attached to his rope that was dangled over the side did not fare well and he too ground to a halt face-first in the coarse pumice and lava stone.

As the remaining ship's crew and passengers regained their feet they saw that the wreck was only one of their current worries. The dragons could be seen circling the vent of the volcano and over the deck a few hundred yards in the distance they could see a bronze-skinned, flame-headed dwarf fighting a horde of frog-like beings.

The adventurers, after they had berated the captain for being a slave carrier, leapt over board to aid their companion. After a quick show of willingness, they decided to approach the fight that was going on before what they could now see was a cave mouth. The Abyssal symbol the frog-beings hung around their necks was a sure sign of whose side they should fight on.

Frostgrave - What's in the Box?

This took a little longer to get round to than I first thought. Wednesday saw my first gaming session back at the RP Haven (more on that tomorrow hopefully), and Thursday evening was taken up with my usual hill running stint with a couple of my running friends. Last night was just a relaxing night after a long week at work.

Anyway, onto the main point of this post - Frostgrave. When I heard a few months back about the Nickstarter that was happening in July I was immediately intrigued. Fantasy is probably my favourite genre for gaming as I cut my teeth on Dungeons and Dragons from way back in 1979, and have pretty much played or read it since. I have played a wee bit of historical gaming lately too, but fantasy does keep rising to the fore... Songs of Blades and Heroes, D&D, Dragon Warriors, Lord of the Rings:SBG, Savage Worlds and so on.

So, around April time I had my eyes open for a couple of tabletop skirmishing rules for fantasy that were due out soonish - Frostgrave (July) and Dragon Rampant (out December I think?). As mentioned in the previously post I have never succumbed to a Kickstarter but as this one for Frostgrave was only for a relatively small amount of outlay (depending on the level you enter the scheme) I took a good look. Rules and figures in a complete set for a reasonable price. I ummed and aahed and then jumped in right at the top level after a little encouragement from my wife.

So, what did I get for my £111.00 Level 5 Wizard pledge?

Here is what the whole pile looks like, sorted into a little order...

I received a grand total of one hardbacked rulebook, one softback book of Frostgrave short stories, a box of 20 plastic warriors to be used as henchmen, 6 resin basic treaure markers, 3 resin advanced treasure markers, 10 metal wizard miniatures, 10 metal apprentice miniatures, 4 sets of metal henchmen miniatures, a couple of extra metal miniatures as pledge goals, a badge and 3 small sheets of paper with download details.

Here is a better picture of the main components of the order; the good quality hard back from Osprey (better known for their range of military guide books) is the main rulebook and the softback to the left of the picture is a collection of short stories set in the world of Frostgrave (there is also a download available on one of the sheets mentioned above). The badge was a nice little surprise but the plastic soldiers were one of my main draws - so I can compare them to the plastic miniatures from other manufacturers that I have previously bought.

This is a picture of what was inside the figures box. There were 4 identical sprues each containing 5 warrior bodies and a great variety of weapons and accoutrements. I will have some fun putting these together. Also, each warrior comes with a separate plastic round base. The 9 items at the front of the picture show the 6 basic treasure markers and 3 advanced treaure markers made of a good quality resin.

Now onto the metal miniatures. Each bag contained a wizard and his/her apprentice. These represent the 10 classes of magic available. I am looking forward to seeing what these are and how they function.

Next up are the four sets of henchmen. The first set certainly nods towards the two Fritz Lieber characters Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser. The other three sets include a variety of heavies and supporting cast.

The remainder of the box included the stretch goals. For my level of pledge I received an extra knight miniature, a representation of the Lich Lord (linked to the next set due out apparently) and a small metal treaure chest. The other knight miniature was a consolation figure for the Nickstarter falling short of the next stretch goal by only a few quid. Nick (owner of Northstar who commissioned the figures for this game) has come across as a great guy here and compensated those of us who had supported his venture by supplying a Crusader Miniatures knight with two handed weapon as a sweetener.

The final couple of items were two small sheets of paper that detail downloads for three screen savers for my computer and another book called Hunt for the Golem, which I am assuming is either another set of short stories or maybe a set of scenarios for the game. Hopefully, my next post will see me putting the minis together and prepping them for painting. I will also try to comment on the rules after a brief skim through and then after a proper read and first game.