Frostgrave: the Well and the Mausoleum

I got together with a friend who had recently returned to the area for a couple of games of Frostgrave on January 15, 2017.  He brought an Elementalist warband made up of mainly Warhammer  Empire troops and I used a Dark Elf warband made up of Warhammer and RAFM figures. For the first game we used the Well scenario and the second the Mausoleum scenario. 

The Warbands

Elementalist Warband

Elementalist Warband above: Front row: archer, mage, apprentice, 2 treasure hunters, in the back row:  a construct (skeleton giant), infantryman and 2 thieves.

Dark Elf Warband

The Dark Elf Warband above: L-R back row: Treasure Hunter, Apprentice, Crossbowman, Sorceress, Ranger. Front row: 2 minions + War hound.

 The Well

The objective of this scenario was to get your wizard / mage / sorceress to the well so they can drink from it to gain power / experience.

 



Overview of the battlefield for the Well Scenario, 4' x 4'



Dark Elf warband sets out, Sorceress in the lead.

A group of the Elementalist's troops and a construct avance

Elementalist's bowman and apprentice take cover on the flank

Dark Elf Sorceress and her troops advance

 

The warhound and ranger lead the Dark Elf advance over the bridge

Dark Elf Sorceress has a spell backfire and she takes damage

The Elementalist fires a bolt spell at the Dark Elf archer

Dark Elf troops on the bridge come under fire

The Dark Elf Warhound is the first Casualty

Elementalist watches as his construct advances to the Well

The Elementalist "bravely" takes cover behind the construct

Elementalist troops make use of cover

Dark Elf Apprentice takes some damage from a miss cast and the treasure hunter advances.

Apprentices have a spell duel.

Despite his cover the Elementalist Apprentice takes some damage

A decisive turning point in the game came when the Elementalist successfully cast a wall spell blocking the Dark Elves access to the well.

Only the Dark Elf Ranger has managed to get to the well before a magical green wall appears blocking the remainder of his fellow troops.

The Dark Elf Ranger is now isolated and outnumbered facing 5 of the Elementalists warband

Eventually the Dark Elf Sorceress and an infantryman join in the battle for the well after they get around the flank of the wall

The spell duel between the apprentices on the flank continues

Dark Elf Ranger and treasure hunter try to gang up on the construct.

The Dark Elf infantryman is outnumbered and eventually slain

The Elementalist is able to reach the Well and drink from it.

One of the Elementalist's troops is killed by the Sorceress' grenade spell

Another turning point came when the Dark Elf Ranger (one of the elite troops) lost his battle with the Construct and was thrown down the well to his death

Down the well goes the Ranger

Outnumbered treasure hunter is the next Dark Elf casualty

The Dark Elf crossbowman takes a critical hit from a fire bolt spell cast by the Elementalist

Burning Dark Elf Crossbowman

The Elementalist celebrating his successful spell cast



The Dark Elf Apprentice uses a grenade spell to destroy the construct near the well

With the Destruction of the construct and the retreat of the other Elementalist troops the Dark Elf Sorceress is able to reach the well and drink from it.

Victorious Elementalist troops, rolling good dice numbers always helps.

Victory Conditions Achieved

The Elementalis was able to drink from the well first but eventually the Dark Elf Sorceress was able to do so also, however many of her troops had fallen including the: Warhound, Ranger, Treasure Hunter, Crossbowman and Infantry man. 



The "Dead Box" lots of Dark Elf casualties.

Troops that are "killed" in the game are not usually really dead but rather injured to the extent that they can no longer participate, and a die roll at the end of the game determines the seriousness of their wounds.


Both sides achieved the objective and gained experience but two of the Dark Elf casualties (Treasure Hunter and Infantryman) were serious enough that they were not able to return for the next game, but would be recovered for the game following that.




The Mausoleum

The objective of this scenario was to reach the Mausoleum  to gain treasure / loot.  The Mausoleum was surrounded by 4 walls with a treasure in each corner.  The Dark Elves were without their Infantryman and Treasure hunter who are recuperating after the last adventure so began outnumbered.

An overview of the battlefield (3' x 3') , Mausoleum in the centre, both sides advancing

The Dark Elf Sorceress with a minion, Ranger and Warhound, reach the entrance to the Mausoleum.

Battle inside the Mausoleum, treasure markers in the corners.

Once again the successful use of the wall spell by the Elementalist was a turning point, cutting off the Dark Elves from 3 of the 4 treasures.

The Dark Elf Warhound is wounded and the rest of the Dark Elves are cut of from most of the treasure by the green wall

Elementalist troops escaping with their loot.

The Elementalist's warband has gained 3 treasures, and the Dark Elves just one, the latter is carried off by the Ranger.

The Construct and another Elementalist warrior do battle with the Dark Elves knocking out the Sorceress 

After the  Dark Elf Sorceress is knocked out and her apprentice steps in to fight the construct but she suffers the same fate.



The Dark Elf Apprentice is slain by the Elementalis troops leaving the crossbowman on his own.

With only the Crossbowman remaining he decided discretion is the better part of valour and retreats.

Victory points

The Elementalis troops clearly won gaining more treasure and taking no casualties.  Other than the Dark Elf Apprentice none of the Dark Elf casualties were serious and they would all return to fight another day.  The Dice gods were not on the side of the Dark Elves for this game.

Conclusion

We certainly enjoyed Frostgrave and were able to get 2 games in during one afternoon.  We will certainly play it again  The d20 combat system is a bit different from what we are used and it generates a wide range of wound numbers so a hit can be minor or decisively deadly.  It is based on the difference between the hit number rolled with modifiers and the armour value of the defender.   While the manufacturer makes some very nice figures for the game as our game above demonstrates other Fantasy figures (such as Warhammer miniatures) work just fine.  On my "to do list" will be to build a brick wall to use to represent the Wall spell, and see if I can get that spell for my Dark Elves.