Has it really been that long since my last post? Has it
really been that long since my last
game!?
I was contacted, via the Hereford Wargames Club website, by
someone looking to get back into wargaming. It turns out Brendan is a friend of
a friend from the Herefordshire Boardgamers Club, and we arranged to meet up at the
Swan pub, where I could introduce him to the joys of Frostgrave.
After knocking up an entry-level Witch warband for Brendan (to suit the shaman vibe of his Massive Darkness Orks)
and a Sigilist warband for me (a magic school I haven’t played before), I
decided upon the Worm Hunt scenario from the main source book (saving me from
lugging any specialist scenery around).
With the table duly laid, we began, both splitting our
warbands into groups and edging them forward while I explained the rules. My
wizard, Sister Sans Serif, took the right flank and headed to the nearest
treasure marker. She was accompanied by a couple of bodyguards while a
barbarian warrior (actually an illusory soldier) scouted ahead and an archer
took up position on a ruin.
In the centre-left, her apprentice directed the rest of the
warband, including another archer to climb up a ruin (accompanied by a thug to
grab the treasure nearby) on the left flank and a warhound to probe ahead.
Both warbands grabbed treasure and fluffed spells (as level
zero wizards are wont to do). The kerfuffle attracted the attention of a
wandering snow troll, who appeared on my left flank and started to head towards
my warband.
The truth behind my ‘barbarian’ was soon revealed after an
arrow from an Orcish archer dissipated the illusion, but at least he acted as a
shield for one of the thugs, allowing him to pick up a treasure.
However as we both started lugging the precious loot away,
an ice toad hopped into the fray, right behind my warband as per usual! The
escape route directly behind my warband was now compromised.
The Orc shaman had used it’s evil magic to summon a zombie
at the start of the game. Luckily for me, my Sigilist possessed the control
undead spell. Soon the zombie was working for me! As the Orcs worked towards my
wizard, the zombie turned on them.
In the centre, warriors clashed over a treasure token. Fighting
around this golden chest would last on and off throughout the game as it was
picked up, dropped and fought over.
With the snow troll looming closer, I sent my warhound up
the left flank to draw the creature away. The poor doggie paid for this move
with it’s life, but the troll was now more likely to attack the Orcs than my
warband.
By now most of the treasure had been claimed. We had both
lost a sizeable number of soldiers, either from combat or from being shot at by
archers. Offensive spells also flew around the table, with curses and poison
darts being slung from the Orcs, while my Sigilists lobbed magical grenades via
wizard eyes.
Eventually only two treasures were left and it was growing
increasingly likely that the giant worm would erupt – but near which one? Turns
out it slithered out of the ground next to the much-fought-over central
treasure.
As the snow troll lumered towards the Orcs on one flank, the turncoat zombie on the other had managed to chew it’s way through
some of the Orcish band and was now free to shamble forward to distract the
giant worm. Would this allow me to sneak forward and grab the golden chest?
My treasure hunter took the chance and grabbed it. However
behind him, this attracted the attention of a wild boar. Unfortunately the
first person the beast saw was my Sigilist, who, with wizard eye successfully
cast, was heading back towards some cover.
Tusks lowered, the board charged and Sister Sans Serif fell!
I allowed this to happen purely to highlight to Brendan the necessity of
keeping one’s wizard alive and the tactical disadvantage of losing the wizard
phase *cough*.
With honours reasonably even regarding treasure, we decided
that the winner of the game would be whoever killed the giant worm. Both my
treasure hunter and Brendan’s thug piled in, only for the Orc to get
critted.
My apprentice evened up the score by lobbing a grenade
through her wizard eye towards the Orc shaman. Landing squarely into his lap
the thing went off, leaving nothing but a nasty green mess. It was now up to
the trainee wizards to finish off the job!
For the Orc apprentice however, things were initially
looking dire, menaced on one side by a snow troll and a giant worm on the other. Fortunately he managed to
escape their clutches and the worm turned on my treasure hunter. Assisted by an archer
but hindered by another raised zombie (a very fresh one as I couldn’t be
bothered to search for another zombie figure), the brave warrior drew his sword
and, despite being poisoned and carrying loot, slew the beast!
We had a really fun game very a very high body count! It was great to be gaming again, and Brendan enjoyed it too.
No doubt there will be more expeditions into the frozen city in the near(ish)
future.
