Playing a fair bit of Frostgrave I decided to put together more Orc conversions.
I really like the idea of mixing orcs, humans, elves, dwarves, etc. in a single warband, so I'll pick and choose from my collection, but for now - Orc Wizard, Apprentice... and a Thief.
Rival demigods duke it out in the depths of the underworld.
The final pieces are all falling into place, today I was testing out alternate combat mechanics in an effort to lock in on the final version. (Roll vs an enemy Defence target -or- Player vs Player roll, highest wins)
Lots of open space to get right to it!
D10 for this one. A demigod and his travelling party of heroes. Modular dungeon like set up's make the while thing more interesting, and are a key element when playing scenarios.
Hopefully 2021 is the year this finally breaks the surface...
Under the Covid lockdowns, my intrepid gaming parter has long restricted us to Chess, Monopoly, Cluedo, Dobble, Connect 4, Risk and occasionally simply cards (Pontoon, Texas Holdem, snap...).
This probably warrants a separate post, but Dungeons and Dragons: Adventure Begins proved to be a really effective gateway into wargaming, and lead directly to Frostgrave.
Adventure Begins is aimed at kids, and will undoubtably prove boring for any experienced gamer. But to a first timer, the concept of a D20 and attacking/defending, using spells etc. is completely new. It wore thin after 4 games, as expected, but it did the trick of planting the seed and instilled a desire for more.
Enter Frostgrave, second edition.
I've done ruins to death and decided to switch it up and make some intact fantasy buildings. This little set up was perfect as an intro table, immersive and iconic enough to set the scene but not too much so as to intimidate.
As you can see it was day time when we started (early afternoon), the later image of the final game has us in the dark - roughly 4 hrs of gameplay, across 4 short games.
To get us going I created a small double sided A5 booklet each, with wizard and warband stats on the inside, and outside the reference sheets and abridged rules (mostly notes and prompts).
Game 1
Slightly a write off - introducing all the phases, multiple miniatures, shooting, fighting and spellcasting at once was way too much for a first timer. The monster phase wasn't even on the agenda.
Game 2
Scaled back, we had 3 miniatures a side, no spellcasters, and it was simply a 'boxing match'. Instead of the phases we just took turns alternating our miniatures, moving, shooting and fighting.
(We played game 2 twice)
Game 3
Were getting the hang of it now, this game we each had a wizard, apprentice and 2 soldiers. In this game spellcasting and the correct turn phases were introduced.
Game 4
Treasure is introduced for the first time and we have a full* game, still minus the monster phase.
*some rules were omitted, like weapons and shooting modifiers.
Warbands were only 6 strong (4 soldiers) and spells were limited to 4 each. It's been about 20 years since I introduced a novice to the concept of gaming but the day was relatively successful.
Post game 4 I sat with the rulebook and did the hypothetical campaign consequences: treasure tables, wounded tables, experience etc. and it all went to plan - follow gaming is a go. The next few games will be more of the same, only larger warbands, use of the monster phase, then graduation to playing through scenarios. By that time warband and spell selection will be an individual affair instead of me picking some basic and easy configurations.
A few techniques during the intro gaming came into play, which improved the fun and learning element:
The sign of a good game that sucks you in for a few hours of fun - a messy playing area covered in dice, pencils, rulers and miniatures scattered everywhere. And small glasses of wine.
Frostgrave second edition is a vastly superior product and experience to the first one and I can't recommend it enough.
I mentioned these in my last post: terrain swatches.
These are essentially little test pieces that are useful for trying out techniques and colour schemes. I played these ones pretty safe because they're for a specific set of scenery, but I'll be doing more in the near future that are a bit more wild.
A little perk at the end is, if they're worked out, you have a little vignette/background for photographing your miniatures in!
I'll do a full tutorial for the actual scenery pieces (modular Sci-Fi) in the near future but for now I'll talk about the swatches themselves.
Grimdark, grey gothic ruins are hopefully about to go out of vogue.
I made some of this stuff a while ago and never finished it, hopefully this is the first in a series I'll do on making some interesting and colourful futuristic terrain.
To start I've got 4 terrain swatches made up, I'll use this to experiment and document a tutorial for a couple of different techniques. Variations on basecoat, wash, weathering, sponging, paint splatters, stencil markings, etc.etc.
I wanted some nondescript fantasy village terrain so knocking this together took me less than a day whilst listening to youtube.
The basic frames are made from cardboard, specifically the box from a brand of coffee bags (yep coffee comes in little bags now, just like tea bags) that with minimal cuts, scores and folds made the building shapes quite easily.
Using scissors and sellotape for this part felt like a total throwback to being 10 years old and was a nice little part of the process.
Next up is essentially cladding on the cardboard frame - kappa high density foam board, with the satin card facing removed on both sides to leave only the foam. Then it's drawing, pressing and texturing the foam to make the stonework, windows, doors and wooden beams.
Important to do this before you stick it to the cardboard frame!
PVA glue was used throughout, and dressmaking pins (1 inch long) were used to secure the foam joins.
The mode tedious part was the tiles, I experimented with simply pressing the shape onto some foam sheets but it didn't look or feel correct, so I resorted to basic cardboard chopped into strips with scissors. The cardboard was actually the box my plastic Frostgrave Gnolls came in.
Lots of patience with a scalpel shaping the tiles strips was required, then affixing them in place was a combination of PVA glue, a small strip of sellotape to hold cardboard stripe in place, then repeat 6-8 time moving up the side of the roof.
The chimneys and small walls are simply high density foam chopped up and impressed with stonework.
Finally, small amounts of filler were used where the roof tiles meet walls. Not an exactly precise construction... but that's what I want in a rustic fantasy village.
Next up painting! I'll be using these for Rangers of Shadow Deep and Frostgrave, or as my hybrid winter collection is known as: Adventures in Snow Deep.
(You'll see in the images there are 2 more building frames in the background, will come back to those at a later date.)
Continuing my christmas haul of Reaper Bones minis, here's my Yeti for using in Frostgrave.
The left arm posture was a quick conversion job from it's existing awkward pose. Unfortunately it still looks awkward, but it will do.
