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...

Frostgrave 2e: Stat Sheets

I have been neglecting the hobby a little bit over the last few weeks due to the newly enforced lockdown dragging my attention elsewhere. However, in dribs and drabs, I have put together some very basic Frostgrave Wizard Character Sheets in Excel.

I have listed each of the wizard and soldier classes from the Second Edition rulebook (I will sort out those featured in the supplements too soon) and messed around until I could get the wizard and apprentice, the spells, and the hired soldiers onto 3 sheets. I will use this spreadsheet as a template going forward so that I can copy/paste the basic outlines for each soldier etc. into a separate spreadsheet for each new warband I create. So, when they are printed out, I will have a visual representation of the miniature used for that particular wizard/soldier as well as a handy easy reference list of their stats.

Anyway, here is an example for one of the soldiers that I knocked up this afternoon just to see what the individual entries would look like. It is for a barbarian soldier called Rollo - who I may or may not use in forthcoming games...

My initial warband will be used for rules testing, but then I will create a brand new one for actually gaming with - I have had some daft ideas on what I want to do here (see below). As I do not have access to any fellow gamers at the moment, my initial games, at least, will be solo affairs.

The daft idea is for my first warband to have a down on his/her luck 1st level wizard and their apprentice travelling to the environs of Felstad to put together an adventuring party to retrieve some of the fabled treasures of the frozen city. They will have stopped at an inn close by the city (which will become their base of operations) and just advertised the fact that they will be paying a visit into the city and would anyone care to join them for a cut of the loot.

In game terms, this is basically a wizard/apprentice and any free hires they can get - i.e. just thugs and thieves. The wizard currently has zero cash, so cannot hire on better soldiers at the moment, but as time goes by and treasures are amassed then, hopefully, this situation will change. Each wizard will have just very basic equipment to begin with - one weapon each, and I will be rolling randomly for the magic school and on the spells known tables to make it more fun and force me to have to think on my feet with what spells I can utilise in any given situation.

My thoughts are that the main scenario treasure objectives are those that the wizard thinks are worth having - he will have those for himself. However, in an abstract way, there are many other treasures in Felstad that are not so fabulous (piles of silver and copper coins, cheap jewellery, slightly more ornate weapons than those the warband already have (although these have no effect on combat skills), dinner ware and other trinkets), and it will be assumed that the soldiers pick these up for themselves on the way to and from the scenario site, and thus are rewarded for their efforts in this way.

Hopefully, the next week or two will allow me to create my first warband and sort out what scenery I have left and what I can make for no cost from kitchen waste (yoghurt pots, snack tubes and the like).

Frostgrave 2e: My First Warband - Preparation

Even though I bought all of the original wizards and companions with the first Nickstarter, I did not get the opportunity to paint any of them. I will try to remedy that fairly soon though, when I am able to get to my paints and figures after the recent house move.

That said, I do have plenty of adventuring types in my collection of miniatures that I painted several years ago, and detailed elsewhere on this blog, to be getting on with. I will take a look at the types of soldiers available in Frostgrave and match my old miniatures to them; I have plenty of wizardly types, clerics (not sure if they can possibly be used as soldiers of some type?), thieves, fighters and barbarians, as well as loads of historicals that could double-up as fantasy soldiers.

Some wizards for me to choose from...

These are re-used images of the wizards I painted way back. Luckily, I have two or three painted in each colour scheme; perfect for a Frostgrave wizard and his/her apprentice.

I also have penty of soldiers to choose from...

And some thieves...

And barbarians...

Looking at the paint-jobs, they are not that great. I was pleased with them at the time but now I am looking at them several years later...hmmm. I won't repaint them as they are usable, but going forward I hope to make a better hash of the paint jobs on my "official" Frostgrave miniatures.

I also have plenty of Roman and Norman troops to use as cannon fodder soldiers, so these might put in an appearance, as well as a variety of peasants with farm implements - this might make for an interesting skance. I am very tempted to try several different ways of representing warbands on the tabletop; the traditional mix-up of fanatsy tropes, a couple of wizards and their hired men-at-arms (all in the same livery), or a couple of wizards and their peasant followers out to seek their fortune/vengeance on the ill that came from Felstad.

Over the last few days I have been putting together an Excel version of the Wizard Sheet. I have amended it a little to allow automatic calculations of some fields (just basic Sum calculations etc.) in order that I can get a new warband set up and statted more quickly, so it can be printed out and I don't have to rely on my awful handwriting. I am hoping to get my first warband statted up by tomorrow. Hopefully I can blog my wizard sheet and the figures I will use to represent them, then prep for a scenario to try to play over the weekend. It will have to be a solo affair, but it should allow me to learn the ropes of the rules system.

Unfortunately, I do not have any great stock of scenery at the moment. Several years ago, my cat decided he would use my paints and scenery boxes as his litter trays and basically destroyed the majority of it. I have a few items left but I have decided to try to make some of my own going forwards. As mentioned whilst I was summarising the Battle Games in Middle-earth magazines, there are tutorials on how to make scenery for Gondor, Rohan etc. I will put some of this to the test over the following few months and make some ruins. I will use anything else I can get hold of in the meantime; cardboard boxes, toilet rolls, yoghurt pots etc. just so I can at least get started and get a feel for playing the game.

Tales of the Frozen City

After running through all of the rulebooks and supplements over the last week or so, I thought that I should mention the one work of fiction I have from the Frostgrave collection. I received this book as part of the "Nickstarter" I invested in way back when Frostgrave first came out. There are several novels written too, but this book is slightly different in that it offers eleven short stories. I may look into purchasing the novels for my Kindle (if available) in the not too distant future.

Whilst searching the net for a suitable picture of the book cover, I noticed several images showed the tag line "ten authors present ten stories" instead of the eleven stories which my version has. I thought this intriguing but have yet to explore whether this earlier version was actually released (not that I would buy it as I already have the eleven story version, but just for finding out the story).

I have literally just re-read "Tales" (Thursday and Friday evening after work), and feel that I can now start my own adventures in Felstad using the tome as inspiration. I will try to write the weird tales of my own wizard/apprentice and their hardy warband in a similar format so that it doesn't just sound like a write-up of a game session. I kind of tried that with my DnD sessions a few years back and was partially successful (for me anyway), but I have a lot to learn about writing fiction; especially how to write dialogue - hence why I have avoided writing any up until now.

I am hoping that my next post will detail my own warband made up from my very old fantasy figures collection that I used to use back in the day for playing a variety of RPGs. I have plenty of wizard miniatures, as well as thieves, fighters and barbarians, so should have enough choice to make up a decent looking bunch. My issue, as mentioned previously, is a lack of painted adversaries.

Anyway, I digress. This post is about the eleven story collection book and what it offers as a "supplement" to the game.

I was thinking, when I first picked up the book, that each story would be centred around a particular kind of wizard, taking each school in turn, but that does not seem to be the case (or maybe it was and I was just too dense to realise?). Many of the wizardly types are covered (not that I paid too close attention to numbers of each type, because I read the tales for the stories and ideas) but some seem to appear more than others; especially chronomancers.

Each tale is only about 5-10 pages long, so the book can be read in short bursts with each session allowing one to read a complete story or two if so desired. The different writing styles add to the mystique of the stories, and as each author has their own wizardly story to tell there is a lot of variety in the types of story told.

The book is a little pricey (£6.99) for only eleven short stories, but the quality is what we have come to expect from Osprey, so I can overlook that minor point. The only main quibble I have though is that there are no colour plates within the covers; just a small pencil sketch of a wizard at the beginning of each story. These are all very nice, but I would have preferred a few more big pictures in order to fuel my imagination. That said, production costs of a book like this are probably high enough already.