Playing Frostgrave!

 

Chris' knight proved how strong the giant was by getting stomped flat. The archer decided to run.

A few weekends back, I had a couple of friends down for a bit of dice-rolling action in the Frozen City! This not only represented the first time that I had played a wargame with another human being in over a year, it was also the first time that I had played Frostgrave: Second Edition primarily for fun!

We all created new wizards and warbands for the occasion. I brought Scarfollean the illusionist. Pete brought an Enchanter, while Chris showed up with his Bretonnian themed thaumaturge. Since there were three of us, I set up a hexagonal table, using masking tape to mark out the boundaries. That way we could set up in alternating angles, ensuring that we were all equidistant from the centre of the table and one another.

The spider is just marking the deployment zone, luckily for Pete's warband!

The game also gave me a chance to test out a few mechanics that I’m planning to use in Frostgrave: Fireheart, a future supplement.

The first game featured several teleportation discs scattered around the table. Whenever a figure stepped on one, there was a chance that they would be teleported to one of the other circles. This was especially important since many of the treasure tokens were sitting on top of them!

Pete's warband cautiously advances.

The game got off to a cautious start, with no one really wanting to make the first move and expose themselves, but the teleportation discs ensured that didn’t last. My man-at-arms ended up on the complete opposite side of the table and went into hiding to avoid the other two warbands. Meanwhile, a large chunk of Chris’ Bretonnians were transported right into the centre.

In fact, things seemed to be going really well for Chris until a frost giant showed up in his deployment zone. A pair of his archers nobly dived off a tower to escape its wrath. From here on, it became a comical game of dodge the giant, as the lumbering brute managed to teleport all over the table, eventually threatening each warband in turn.

My woman-at-arms teaches Pete's thug a lesson about wandering off alone.

When the dust finally settled, everyone had made it out with at least a couple of treasures, and the giant was left ruling the battlefield!

After a lunch break at the local pub, we were back at the table for Game 2!

In this game, a giant turbine was placed in the middle of the table. At end of each turn, there was a chance of it randomly activating. If it did, it would spin around randomly, and when it stopped, it would turn on. This would push all the figures in front of it away, while sucking in all those from behind (and not nice things would happen to anyone who got sucked in…) So, of course, most of the treasure tokens were sitting just next to the turbine.

Pete's treasure hunter face-plants after diving off a tower with treasure.

Scarfollean really found his stride in this game. I used transpose to great effect, grabbing treasure, and switching the treasure carrier with another member of the warband. Also, Fool’s Gold came in real handy to snatch treasure from other warbands.

Meanwhile, Chris found the perfect firing spot for this archers, and poor Pete’s wizard went down early to a rain of arrows. Unfortunately, things then took a turn for the worse for Chris as a series of monsters all showed up behind his warband, forcing him to beat a hasty retreat off a different table edge.

Chris' Bretonnians accidently secure the centre in Game 1.

In the end, only a couple of figures were sucked into the turbine, much to the disappointment of the players. (That’s when you know you’ve got a good scenario, when the players are kind of disappointed when their own figures don’t get mauled). My tricky Illusionist won the day in that game, making off with four treasures, and advancing to Level 5.

It was a great day of gaming, laughing, and shooting the breeze, and hopefully there will be lots more days like it in the future!

Thanks to Pete for all of the photographs!

The frost giant continuing its rampage around the table!