Starting again.

Mordheim, Frostgrave and generally not having enough time for everything.

So. It has been a very long time since I wrote anything on this blog. The original intention was to try and record the event that transpired during our forays into the City of the Damned and how our warbands developed over the course of the campaign.

Unfortunately life has a way of getting in the way of things like this and a couple of job changes requiring longer journeys or longer hours has meant that there has been little drive left to record anything for posterity. However, with a new (academic) year and getting to a point where I feel comfortable enough with my time management means I will be reviving this blog.

In general we found that the campaign structure of Mordheim led to its ultimate demise; the map whilst adding plenty of flavour meant that actual encounters between warbands were very difficult to organise. This interest dwindled until a short time ago when we discovered the Felstad, the Frozen City (thankfully no angsty teens with frost powers singing about their lives in sight!).

Thanks to Christian's enthusiasm we had a new campaign and several participants. Sadly my own warband has fallen so far behind that I had lost interest due to absences and being unable to organise games. However I still aim to stand triumphant over their charred corpses and transcend the physical realms to become a being of pure power mwahahahahaha!

Ahem. Anyway, this means that I will be creating a new warband and participating in a few npc skirmishes to gain enough experience to challenge their designs on the hidden power within Felstad. This means sitting down and assembling a new warband and working out which disciplines will work best for me and my playstyle. Hopefully future posts will show the development and painting of these characters.

Prolonged Absence

Absence (makes the heart grow fonder?)

Wow! It seems like forever since I wrote anything on this blog. Safe to say that the Mordheim campaign ran out of steam and died (thanks largely in part to the discovery of a myriad of games in the meantime and also my shoddy recordkeeping).

In the intervening time I have somehow accumulated enough scenery to two 6'x4' boards! I could really do with a bigger car (or a TARDIS, that would be handy) and the club has grown to encompass many more game systems. We now regularly play Dropzone Commander, Guild Ball, Malifaux, Secret Hitler and a variety of board games alongside the 40k and WHFB that the club started with.

On the plus side the games we play every fortnight have become really diverse, especially with such a small group, but the flip side of this is that arranging games and getting everyone co-ordinated is problematic. Not good for campaigns methinks.....

This evening I am going to attempt to revive the campaign elements at the club by introducing Frostgrave.

What is Frostgrave?

Frostgrave is a skirmish game set in the frozen city of Felstad. Players create a Wizard and use 500 gold crowns to hire a band of looters/explorers/thugs with which to explore the ruined city. So far, so Mordheim-y.

The main way in which it differs is the tracking and development of the warbands. The maximum size of a warband is 9 members (10 including the Wizard) which makes it extremely accessible to those beginning table-top gaming. The rulebook cost around £14 and encompasses everything needed to begin playing (bar the minis).

Compared to Mordheim, the focus is on your Wizard, with everyone else being a supporting character. What this means in practice is that tracking experience and stat gains is streamlined to a single character; much simpler and easier to remember. Since the focus is on this character, every henchman available for hire has fixed stats and wargear with a single slot for any additional gear. In comparison a Wizard has 5 slots allowing for a greater degree of freedom.

Whilst the Wizard can just hire non-magical underlings, there is the option to hire an apprentice (an option which I have taken). Apprentices allow you to take another magic user in your party, but since they are learning all spells are harder to cast. This addition allows you more tactics to employ as you can now split the warband and have two effective units. The apprentices stats are all based upon the Wizard's; if the Wizard is good at something, the apprentice will be as well.

With regards to henchmen the choices are really varied, and additionally all variations can be made from a single soldier box from North Star games (except the dog). This really brings value for money, especially since there are 20 potential soldiers in the box and the warband can only have 9 max.

If all goes well I will hopefully be posting more often with updates on how the campaign has been going and the big wins/losses we incur. If it works I could even begin a school club....

Until next time (when I will hopefully have a painted warband)

Fields of Blood: Gaming Table - The Finished Item

Fields of Blood: Gaming Table - The Finished Item: Over the holiday break I have been building a new gaming tabletop for my gaming table in the Dunn-geon. This will be my permanent table and...