Frostgrave: Ghost Archipelago

And here we have it...the first bit of temptation for 2017.  Over on Joe McCullough's blog there is an announcement about the latest development in the Frostgrave world.
 
I've played a couple of games of Frostgrave and enjoyed it although I haven't played it more recently, but now it looks like the next logical development is....Pirates! 
 
http://therenaissancetroll.blogspot.co.uk
 
 
According to the post the game is set in "A dense maze of shifting islands, the Ghost Archipelago is covered in the ruins of lost civilizations that are hidden deep in the jungles and rocky mountains. More than one intelligent race calls these islands home, and scores of deadly animals hunt in the swamps and forests".
 
The same team behind Frostgrave are involved so we can expect to see figures from Northstar again (and a Nickstarter perhaps?).  At least it isn't due until the 2nd half of the year so I can start saving my pennies....

Some bits and pieces

There's been a bit of a lull in my blogging with nothing of note since Cavalier last month.  In the last few weeks I've played another game of Bolt Action VBCW at Eric's Shed which was great fun but little else.

At Cavalier I hummed and hawed about buying the very nice Ironclad Miniatures Armed Miners and eventually decided not to.  Of course as soon as I got home I immediately regretted that decision and ordered them online!  The whole VBCW setting has always been really appealing but I've always felt a bit daunted by collecting enough for a game. It doesn't seem to have made any impression at all at Guildford and although it does regularly crop up at the Shed (I've very lucky to have 2 excellent opportunities for regular gaming!!) there are always plenty of very nice figures there to play with so there's no incentive to get my arse into gear and get painting.

I had a bit of a revelation though after I ordered the Miners...maybe I don't need to worry about collecting enough for a game...maybe I should just buy and paint them because I want to!  That may seem fairly obvious to some of you but I've always tended to work to a plan and focus on building forces. For the VBCW I've decided to slowly (very slowly I suspect!) pull together some slightly random forces...not so random that they couldn't be fielded together, but not working to an army list or trying to get enough together for both sides of a game.

I think the VBCW setting works best when it's based around something local.  I could have gone with a local Surrey/London force but instead decided to go back to my roots, so the Miners will form the first part of a People's Lanarkshire Battalion!  I can already think of some more related units to field at some point.

Lewis gun team...the figure in the right is either carrying spare
 ammo or his sandwiches in his piece box

I can already see some tensions in the platoon...the foreman appears
 to be a Hamilton Accies fan while the rifleman is wearing a Celtic Scarf!

 

The Miners still need their bases sorted and hopefully a Coal Lorry is on it's way from EBay to turn them into a motorised platoon.

 

I also recently bought a Demon-type thing for Frostgrave...this is a Gargoyle figure from the Reaper Bones range which looked suitable.... again, part of my new approach of buying stuff just because....

 

I've never really looked at these before and while the figures are very nice I was surprised how soft the plastic was...very nice to paint though.



 

Frostgrave Cultists and Wizards

As promised here are some photos of my latest Frostgrave offerings...apologies for the shadows: I haven't got the hang of lighting them properly to avoid these. 

Lich and Apprentice

Skeleton made out of the Cultist set

A merry band of Cultists...

A wraith-type thing...

Summoner and Apprentice

Frostgrave

So, having bought the rules, painted the figures, bought some more rules and more figures, I still hadn't actually got round to playing Frostgrave!  Luckily Eric the Shed was putting on a Monday night game using his fantastic terrain boards so I had the opportunity to have a go and actually use the figures in anger.

I suspect there's a lot of tactical thinking about choosing your wizard type and spells and in making up your warband but in the end I decided to go with an Elementalist as this seemed the most straightforward tactically...Elemental Bolt...BOOM!!!! I figured this would be easier to cope with than other classes which are probably more subtle and nuanced.  Just to make things interesting we were playing a multiplayer game but the table was neatly divided between us and we had an experienced player on each side to keep things on track. 

The game itself was great fun with carnage all over the place and my great and powerful wizard rather ignominiously being felled by a dog!  Honours were pretty even in terms of casualties although our opponents did drive us off the table.  The game mechanics were pretty straightforward and very easy to pick up although it's easy to get distracted by trying to fight your opponent rather than snaffling up the treasure which brings in the victory points.  An excellent game which reminded me a lot of early D&D skirmishes...I've never played Mordheim but I gather this is the other key reference.

I was inspired enough to get out the Cultist box that I bought before xmas and I've built and painted 10 or so evil cultists, a Necromancer and a Summoner over the last few days.  They're not quite finished but I'll post some photos when they're all done.

More Frostgrave stuff...

Yet another addition to the Frostgrave pile! (...because the pile of unpainted stuff just wasn't big enough...)

I saw on Facebook that Annie at Bad Squiddo Games had some sets of the Frostgrave Spell Cards which looked like a useful addition to the game.  I'd meant to order these as part of the Nickstarter deal recently but forgot to add them. 

Although they aren't really necessary I think they might save some flipping through the rule book checking on spell effects at crucial moments.  I also picked up a Summoner and Apprentice set, just because.....

My Frostgrave Nickstarter...

I'd signed up for the latest Frostgrave Nickstarter from Northstar Miniatures which was due to be shipped out on 17/11.  I'd been out to a meeting on Monday 16/11 and arriving home found the Red Card of Doom which meant the Postie had sneaked up the path and run away again before anyone could answer the door and would mean a trip to the Sorting Office.

I managed this on Thursday and sure enough it was my Frostgrave bundle.  There were a range of deals on offer but I'd gone for a fairly modest collection...the Thaw of the Lichlord supplement, a box of the new Cultists (which look excellent) and a few extra miniatures...some treasure tokens, a Lich Wizard and Apprentice, a Templar (with a big hammer!) and a rather Nazgul-ish looking Frost Wraith. 

 

 

All look excellent and the supplement contains quite a lot of new additions to the rules as well as a series of linked scenarios.  This might prompt me to finish the first batch of figures I've started for the game before I get going on the new figures.


I noticed at the end of the supplement it mentions the next release 'Into the Breeding Pits' which is set in the catacombs and sewers under the city and scheduled for release in July 16.... now I need to check if my son ever got rid of his GW Skaven....!!!

Saturday painting

I haven't posted in a couple of weeks...mainly due to work/personal stuff cropping up as it does.  I needed to use up a bit of flexitime this week as I'd been working too many evenings so I took advantage of this to catch up on some long-neglected painting.  I've made a bit of progress on my Frostgrave Soldiers which are now looking a bit better after a dip in some Army Painter shade.  I find this can leave the figures a bit shiny but it has brought out the detail well.

I mentioned a couple of posts back that my eyes were struggling when I was painting and using the laptop.  A visit to the optician confirmed that my vision has changed and bizarrely it has improved slightly!  Sadly the reason for this seems to be that my long-sightedness is beginning to affect my short sightedness due to age...bugger!  I've worn glasses/contacts for distance since I was about 10 and don't relish the thought of needing anything for reading and close up work... the optician reckoned I have a couple of years to go before that happens though so I'll hold on as long as I can.

I did pop in to Hobbycraft though and picked up a small LED lamp which is really good.  It cost £14.99 and is rechargeable and has made a real difference to my ability to paint...hasn't necessarily improved it but at least I can see the errors now!

I'm a Dude (apparently)!!!

This weekend I made a start on building some of the figures from the Frostgrave Soldiers box that I bought a little while ago.  The box allows you to make 20 figures which make up the poor foot soldiers of the average Frostgrave band.  I decided to make up 10 figures to start as this seems a reasonable amount to get painted and feel like I've achieved something before moving onto the next batch.

I suppose I should have had a look through the rulebook again to decide on the optimum combination of heavier armed troops vs bow or crossbow etc but I simply went with what seemed like nice combinations of weapons and equipment rather than applying any logical thought.

I have to say that assembling these figures is a lot easier than some other plastic figures I've built...arms and heads fit neatly and logically together with the body.  Some other figures I've assembled have required a lot of head scratching to make sure I haven't put a limb on upside down or given someone a dislocated shoulder! The figures really were genuinely fun to build with a nice range of accessories to overload your party with...all that's missing is a 10' pole!

Having started painting again for the first time in ages I've realised how old some of my paints are and keep opening bottles to discover that they have completely solidified.  So this afternoon I ventured off to my nearest GW shop to pick up a can of Chaos Black spray and a few bottles of assorted paint.  I was greeted by the GW employee with "Dude....what are you painting!!?"   I've tried explaining that I was painting historical stuff before which has either been met with a blank gaze or, in a couple of rare cases, an interesting chat about what the manager actually like to play when he isn't being a Chaos Space Imp.  In this case I mentioned a few things which were met with a vacant stare and the repeated mutterings of ..Dude...":  I've decided to take this as a compliment!  Then I mentioned that I was also painting some figures for Frostgrave... a really nice Fantasy skirmish game from Osprey.  By this point none of the words were apparently making sense to the hapless GW lackey...a skirmish game that isn't Age of Sigmar???...does not compute!!!!  I took my paints and made my excuses....

I popped into WH Smiths to get the latest WI and also picked up the second edition of Tabletop Gaming.  If you haven't come across this, it's an interesting mix of reviews of lots of boardgames.  Issue 1 seemed to be very review focused with lots about Eurogames etc which made an interesting change. 

For this issue there seems to have been a bit more focusing on the British market and more articles and interviews rather than hundreds of short reviews.  In among the features are articles on Frostgrave, Age of Sigmar, Kings of War, Beyond the Gates of Antares and the forthcoming Dungeon Saga etc so well worth picking a copy up...at 130 pages there's a lot of reading in it!