Wednesday 22 February 2017

Desecrating Graves on a Club Night


The guys at the Hereford Wargames Club had asked me to put on another game of Frostgrave, so last night I duly obliged.

I thought it’d be interesting to play the Mausoleum scenario – the mausoleum being represented by a 6”x6” graveyard (I wanted an excuse to use my new Dark Ops scenery) with 4 special treasures placed around it. Each player (Alan, Steve, Ted and myself) then placed 2 ordinary treasures.

With my opponents each fielding a new level 0 warband, I decided to play with my level 1 illusionist, Miss Mazement, in a change from my usual wizards from the darker end of the spellcasting spectrum. Happily she got off to a good start, managing to cast reveal secret before the game. This was duly picked up by thug in the first turn.

Each player deploys at an edge. With wizards either side of me I concentrate on the flanks, leaving the centre open. Mazement’s first act is to cast a beauty spell on herself. I roll a 19 and empower it with 5 precious health points, making it difficult to resist.

We all move in. My archer, atop a corner ruin, fires ineffectively at Alan’s warband (led by one Hashpot Dribbleweed) on my left and my thugs advance to menace Ted’s band on my right. However, as is becoming the norm, treasure is grabbed, attracting wandering creatures, in this case a four pack of rats, which appear perilously near my wizard.

My thugette tries to dislodge one of Ted’s crossbowmen. She manages to wound him and pushes him back. Gripping his toes he teeters on the edge of the ruin. On my left, my man-at-arms tries to trouble Alan’s flank.

Alan and Steve’s warband are warily advancing towards the treasure, and each other, when the rusty squeals of the cemetery gates heralds the arrival of a skeleton.

My warhound races from my right flank to keep the rats away from my wizard, leaving her free to move away. Will the little critters outnumber the pooch?

Another skeleton climbs out of the graveyard. My warband is moving forward towards the treasure and trying not to get killed by the other wizards. Luckily Alan and Steve are busy fighting among themselves, whilst Ted’s spellcasters are too busy fluffing their spells.

Ted does however send a thug up to deal with my thugette. He wins the combat and she takes damage, but to make matters worse he then pushes her back and off the roof edge, causing her to take more damage from the fall.

In a dark and dingy alleyway my man-at-arms’ flanking move is halted by two of Alan’s men. Above them, another minion is climbing up a ruin to deal with my archer.

Steve’s barbarian dispatches Alan’s bear, hoping to beat Alan’s zombie to the treasure. A wandering skeleton also rattles into view, wondering what the fuss is all about.

My wizard casts a wall of fog to keep my dwarf thief out of sight from any nasties as he advances into the centre. So far I’ve managed to nab the revealed treasure, but nothing else – time to pull my finger out!

On my right, my apprentice watches in horror as Ted’s apprentice blasts my thug with an elemental bolt. He is forced to drop the treasure he has just picked up, on account of being dead.

Steve screens his minions with fog, causing the skeleton to go for Alan’s zombie. After some exciting undead-on-undead action, the zombie prevails.

Having munched it’s way through two of the rats, my warhound finally succumbs to the scratchy little buggers. Luckily I have no-one else in sight, so they head for Alan’s men.

Steve is unlucky. A wandering monster is generated, causing a wraith to appear right behind his lines. With no magical weapons to deal with it, he is forced to screen it off with fog in the hope that it’ll wander somewhere else. Alas a random direction roll brings it hovering right next to his apprentice.

If that wasn’t bad enough, two wild dogs also appear behind him and head for the nearest food source – yep, his apprentice. Sadly she cannot withstand this combined ghost/canine onslaught.

By now Alan and Ted are concentrating their energies against Steve, allowing me to advance into the graveyard relatively unmolested. I use a combination of fog and invisibility to keep any wandering skeletons from attacking my troops.

The hour is late and it is not wise to linger in such a place after dark, so my apprentice renders himself invisible and joins his fellows in lugging away treasure. The other warbands are making their final treasure-grabbing moves and then we call it a night.

Yet another fun game at the club - as it inevitably is when 4 warbands cram onto a 3'x3' board - and quite a successful one for my wizard, who claimed two ordinary and two special treasures, yielding plenty of XP and some nice goodies in the treasure rolls. Alas I lost a sizeable chunk of her warband, but there was enough gold to cover the cost of replacements.

It was also nice to play a less ‘evil’ wizard for a change, casting spells I haven’t used before. Thanks guys for a great evening!

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