Frostgrave With Dave

WINNER DAVE ENTERS FELSTAD

It's all Adam's fault!  I was innocently trying to establish a common gaming system between myself, George and Adam, when Adam suggested Frostgrave. After a few minutes of reading about it, I was smitten.  I subsequently found out that my FLGS was starting a brand new campaign a week later, so I hurriedly bought some models and threw together a wizard of the Witch variety.

Upon arriving at my FLGS for Round 1 and helping to setup a 4x4 board, I soon found out that there would be six of us playing all on the same board.  This blew my mind, I had assumed that like most games it would be many boards of 1v1.  I also found out that there were already about three Witches, so I rubbed my wizard out and started again.  I went with a Soothsayer as no-one had one and they seem to be the underdog of the wizarding world - I'm a sucker for an underdog story.

This is Nihal (right) and his apprentice...he doesn't have a name as I expect him to die soon

Round One - The Mausoleum
(Wizard, Apprentice, 2 Thugs, 2 Thieves, 2 Archers, 2 Infantrymen)
Naturally I made some mistakes as I hadn't a clue what I was doing. First mistake was holding back.  With the amount of Leap, Telekinesis, Teleport spells being cast I was way too far from treasure.  I also had skeletons constantly being spawned towards me, at least I got to experience the combat mechanism.

Jacob, an experienced player seemed intent of Fireballing everything in sight and I realised I had chosen no offensive spells... arrgh.  Attacking another player's wizard seemed to be frowned upon by the group, so I restricted myself to firing arrows at soldiers.

I managed to grab the one treasure I had spawned thanks to Reveal Secret and I nearly got my wizard killed by charging into combat with a Treasure Hunter, who I then revenge killed (proper dead) with a Thug.

Net result was 20gc and a single level for my Soothsayer, which I spent on improving the Wall spell.  One of my Thugs was Badly Wounded so had to miss the next game.

Not a great result, but I enjoyed it and was looking forward to my next game.

Nihal is rejected by people, as he can only foretell doom

Round Two - The Tower
I had to miss this game due to family reasons.

Choosing A Base
I chose Tower for my base to further improve my chances of casting Reveal Secret - my fave spell.

After going on the run, Nihal came across a band of Gnolls. Having saved one of their number, the Gnolls accepted him

Round Three - The Library
(Wizard, Apprentice, 1 Thug, 2 Thieves, 2 Archers, 2 Infantrymen)
There were eight of us for this game and we played on a 6x4.  The campaign organiser, Ethan, has done a brilliant job of providing all the terrain we need, so we had plenty to play on.

I didn't hold back this time, but my Apprentice and Wizard were pretty hopeless at casting. I managed to cast Fleet Feet on my two Thieves who went sprinting off to grab loot.  I ended up sharing a border with my mate Jack against whom I've played a lot of Infinity.  Jack manages to make me look lucky, which is hilarious for me and disheartening for him.  He went fairly aggressive against my Wizard and nearly got him through liberal use of Magic Grenades.  Fortunately one of my Infantrymen stole up behind his Wizard and took him out of the game.  Amusingly (to me at least), Jack's Wizard now has a niggling injury

My Soothsayer limped home with a single health point left after failing to cast cast Heal three times in a row.

I'd grabbed three treasure tokens, again one due to Reveal Secret.  I spent my loot on a Magic Sword (+2 fight) for my Wizard and a Ring of Protection (+1 armour).  For levelling up I improved Health by one and made Heal one easier to cast.

Recently Nihal and his apprentice have been experimenting with summoning.  It keeps the Gnolls amused at least

Round Four - The Tower (again)
(Wizard, Apprentice, 2 Thugs, 2 Thieves, 2 Archers, 2 Infantrymen)
Only four of us played this round and as two of us had missed Round Two, we repeated it.  I was very pleased with this outcome as I'm a natural completionist and the thought of not playing one of the scenarios was bugging me.

I really enjoyed this game.  I ended up having a massive scrap with a guy named Matt.  He nearly killed my Wizard off.  As it was he took out my Apprentice and two Infantrymen.  I need to make better use of cover as so many spells only require line of sight.  A successful Wall spell for example would have helped me out loads

I got no where near the tower itself and focused on grabbing another three treasure tokens just scattered around.

My Infantrymen were both badly wounded so would miss the next game.  I spent the loot on a Fate Stone (thanks to Jacob for the idea) and a Crystal Ball for my base, making Reveal Secret even easier to cast.

Round Five - The Genie
(Wizard, Apprentice, 2 Thugs, 2 Thieves, 2 Archers)
Six of us tonight and George makes his debut... hooray.  I didn't want to start next to George though, as his dice rolls are beyond legendary in my eyes.  Jack (see above) did and those two got proper stuck into each other, which was hilarious to watch.  I think George ended up with a proper dead Apprentice, but that's his story to tell.

We decided there would be two Genies. Matt revealed one early on and I revealed one mid-game.  A player named Dan who had some +8 fight (due to enchantments and potions etc) Man-at-Arms wandering around with two soldiers in support, was an absolute genie-killer and got both of the monsters.

This game I got my (g)Imp on, which was hilarious and actually very useful for covering my retreat.

Really enjoyable game this one.  I tried to get up a tower to grab some treasure, but Gareth's Archers shot my Thief full of holes.

Another three treasure tokens, one of which netted me a Magic Crossbow and another Grimoire.  One of my Archers got proper dead thanks to Dan's ninja genie killing Man-at-Arms.  I actually saw how beneficial it can be to multi-assault things, so thanks for the lesson Dan.

I managed to cast a tonne of spells and managed to climb fours levels to the dizzying heights of level nine.  I haven't spent the levels yet and also have 480 gold coins to spend on something.  I need to read up on the four grimoires I have to see if they are spells worth learning or is it better to keep improving stats for now.

Round Up
So far I'm loving Frostgrave, the rules are simple, but it's easy to forget things like +1 to the opponent if the Archer moves.  All first moves must be done first in a group activation.  Daggers are -1 damage.  I'm doing my best to keep track of all these things but it's easy to let them slip.  I'm pleased to have got to level nine with my Wizard, not as good as some, but not too bad either.  I regret not having a Fireball/Bone Dart type spell, but Reveal Secret is very good and I'm enjoying making Imps appear.  Time to crack on with some painting, these will very much be playing pieces, so I'm keeping things simple.

Winner Dave