Last Spring when we were at Disney, I found this set of figures that are about the right scale for gaming. They are probably closer to 20mm than my normal 28mm, but they will do. I don’t know what game to use them in, but I’ll figure that our some day.
I was invited to try Frostgrave today with Chris and Greg. This is a reasonably new game with a huge following. The basic premise its that some ancient city has been locked in a glacier for many years. Now that the ice is melting, bands of adventurers, led by wizards and their apprentices, roam into the city in search of treasure and ancient artifacts.
We played this as a three-way game. Each of us had a basic war band, a wizard, and an apprentice. I used a band that Chris had already created. Greg’s band included cryomancers, represented by Dr. Who and River Song.
The activation system involves each player rolling a d20 at the beginning of the turn. Play progresses with the high roller going first, then the second highest roller, etc. There are three basic phases in the turn. Each player, in order, executes their wizard phase, in which their wizard and any minions within three inches of the wizard, perform two actions each. After all the wizard phases are complete, beginning with the first player, each player activates his apprentice. Again, any minions within three inches of the apprentice may activate as well. Finally everyone else activates, in player order.
Figures come in some basic categories, such as wizards, apprentices, templars, thieves, thugs, etc. While each type of character has different attributes for speed, fighting, shooting, willpower, health, etc. there is not a lot of differentiation. This is a game about wizards and magic, and the other players are really second class.
Before the game, the players choose which spells their wizards will be able to throw. The apprentice knows the same spells as the wizard. During the wizard’s activation, he may throw a spell. These ranged from things like “decay,” which would melt a bow or other type of weapon, “teleport,” “push,” which enabled me to magically force someone back, etc.
This game came down to the wire. Chris used a telekinesis spell to draw one of the treasures toward his folks. Neither Greg nor I could do much about that. In the end, Chris got four of the nine treasures off the table. I used a “mind control” spell to ensure one of Greg’s warriors, who picked up a treasure and then brought it to me. Greg tried to break the mind control a couple of times, but Greg was on a particularly cold dice rolling streak. I was able to move the man toward the edge of the table. Then my apprentice used his “push” spell to magically shove the mind controlled minion toward the edge of the table. I rolled particularly well, and Greg rolled particularly poorly. The result was that I pushed him off the table with a treasure while he was under my control, so I got the credit.
The final fight came when Chris and I were battling over a treasure. My wizard teleported to it, killing Chris’ figure who was carrying it. Then Chris’ wizard killed my archer who was moving toward it while my wizard tried to heal himself. Greg teleported the Doctor (his wizard) into the fray, and he took a magic dart from Chris in the back. My wizard picked up the treasure and teleported off the table. I ended with four of the nine treasures, tied with Chris.
In general, I like the game. There were a couple of ambiguities in the rules we had to push through. In general it works, and the game was quite fun.
This weekend I didn’t get a lot painted, but I did manage to knock out these Brigade Games War of 1812 Indians that I picked up at Historicon.
In terms of both size and style, I think they will mix nicely with all the Old Glory Indians I have for the French and Indians Wars. The deal is crisp, and the figures had very little flash.
At Historicon I purchased a few more inter-war Americans in tin hats. I painted them this weekend. I now have a sizable force ready to take on some baddies.
I often use a subset of these forces to accompany Duke Morrison on his adventures. I am working up an interesting Duke Morrison scenario that will involve large forces than normal, so instead of To Be Continued… by G.A.S.L.I.G.H.T., I’ll likely use straight-up G.A.S.L.I.G.H.T.
All three people who follow this blog will recall that I have been building up a town for pulp games for several years. A year or so ago I went on a spending spree on Ebay to get a bunch of Plasticville buildings. There are only two or three remaining that I want but don’t have. Usually I get my daughter to paint terrain for me, but in this case, I wanted to do these two buildings myself.
The first was a gas station. I didn’t realize it, but Plasticville made two different gas stations. The first one I found I painted in green as a Sinclair gas station, complete with a green dinosaur out front. This one I painted as a Mobile gas station. Why? I always liked the red pegasus logo. You can’t see the sign in this picture, but you can see the red and white motif.
The second was the Plasticville pharmacy and hardware. As a rule, I have been replacing the “Plasticville” words on the signs with “Granville” or a made-up name of the store. In this case, you can see that the combined hardware in pharmacy is Graziano’s. As the real town of Granville is full of folks with Italian heritage, most of the stores have Italian names. Note that in the case of both the gas station and the hardware, I was lucky enough to find ones with the original paper inserts for the windows.
Planning for Barrage 2015 is shaping up nicely. We had the last gaming table fill today with the addition of our last game. I am happy with the breadth of games, from WWII to modern. I am also happy with the number of kid-friendly games.
We are actually running short of tables, so if the event grows much more, we’ll have to start renting tables. That’s a good problem to have, but it’s still a problem.
I started working on a few Pulp Figures last weekend and finished them up this evening.
This weekend I finished a few items I had started on last weekend. The first items I completed were four regiments of light cavalry of Burgdorfreuthenheim in 10mm. These are for Chris’ 10mm Not Quite Seven Years War project.
At Historicon I picked up some 28mm Pacific island natives from Pulp Figures. I started these last weekend, because I didn’t have much time, and natives are pretty easy to paint quickly.
Often in WWII games you want some number of folks to have panzerfausts. It is convenient to use small markers to denote which figures are carrying them so that when they are fired you can remove them from the game. Also, it is helpful to have markers to show that machine-guns are set up and ready to use, because I don’t always have all the machine-gun teams in both moving and stationary poses. I got the panzerfausts and US .30-cal machine-guns from The Assault Group and made the markers pictured above. I left the bases with the khaki boarder to make them easily distinguished from figures in a game. I may decide they are too visible and flock the edges later.
In previous posts I reported on my progress painting up the Crooked Dice figures from a large order that Greg and I submitted some months back. Despite an eye exam yesterday that left me dilated and blurry, I managed to knock out the last of the Crooked Dice figures I had on hand.
Now Greg and I have to figure out when we are going to run a big Dr. Who inspired game!
