There are
some games that pull you in like a good B movie. You know they aren’t polished gold but you
just can’t help coming back for more.
That’s frost grave—reasonably well written—simple enough to play quickly—and
a resource management mechanic which gets me every time. A couple days ago WMTG and I kicked off our inaugural
2019 gaming season with a fresh new campaign working through the 15 adventures
in the frost grave folio.
Building starting
warbands is its own minigame. I agonize
over how to spend my cash, what spells to pick, whether I want to focus on meta
mechanics, and how to put my own spin on things. I feel a compulsion to try something new with
every warband just so I can feel like each iteration is unique unto itself. This time I went for a less physically aggressive
witch build focusing on board control.
My starting lineup was an apprentice and wizard with staves and the
following spell list:
POISON
DART, FOG, ANIMAL COMPANION, TELEKINESIS, LEAP, BONE DART, BEAUTY, and HEAL
This gave me a variety of ways to control the board, mess
with movement, block line of sight, and get out of sticky situations. I learned last campaign that wizards always
want a cheap magical ranged attack to pick off opposing warband members hence
bone dart. I’ve learned to pick spells
with reasonable casting requirements (preferably 10 or less) because the higher
the target number the more health you are going to spend to bring the noise on
average. I wanted to keep my spell
casters out of combat so I focused my resources on boosting my warband. My starting roster was 2 thugs, 2 thieves, 2
war dogs, a marksman, and an apothecary.
Apothecaries are essentially a free healing potion every game which
means they pay for themselves in 2 deployments.
I like having that potion around in case I have to empower a spell early
on. I love marksmen. Pop them up on a building or covering key territory
and they don’t have to move. They have
an outstanding ranged presence on a body with excellent defensive stats. This means they are pretty hard to kill while
projecting threat. The dogs are just
place holders till I get my animal companion spells off. The thugs are warm bodies for combat and
blocking. The thieves are for grabbing treasure.
Game 1 of the hunt for the golem—the attack sight:
The board
was pretty standard with a huge central tower and random ruins evenly covering
the rest of the table. WMTG did 3d
printing magic to create a wonderful selection of home-grown terrain which
always makes me feel smug even though I didn’t do anything to put it there. We placed 5 tokens each which when revealed
could become up to 6 treasure, 1 survivor, 1 golem notes, and 2 zombies
(randomly rolled upon an attempt to pick them up.)
This game
when very quickly. I got off one of my
animal companion spells netting me a bear replacing one of the war dogs. WMTG got an initial hot run grabbing 3
treasure and the golem notes. However, I
was able to bully the board with my larger warband and managed to take out 2
soldiers while resuscitating the survivor and grabbing the three remaining
treasures. One of WMTG’s infantrymen
killed a thug which was totally acceptable all things considered. I ended up with the golem notes and command
of the board for a total of 280exp and 3 treasure. That netted me 250gp and grimoires of time
walk, planes walk, and undead control (none of which I particularly wanted.) I took an inn as my base and spent my 2 level
upgrades on fight and HP. I spent all my
gold on 3 treasure hunters and a discounted thug for 10gp due to rescuing the
survivor. That left me with a warband
built from 1 bear, 3 treasure hunters, a marksman, an apothecary, 2 thugs, and
a war dog.
Game 2 of the hunt for the golem—Field Research:
WMTG
picked up absorb knowledge and a laboratory base which left me a little
concerned. That plus reveal secrets was a
strong economic engine. The opposing
ground game featured shield to armor casters and a couple 2-handed weapon users.
Teleport gave good reach. It’s easy to look at my warband and my offensive
capacity and think I had the upper hand but I think WMTG was well-placed to outpace
my wizard if I wasn’t careful—especially since many of those spells were
designed to take out my models for a turn or 2 like petrify. We both glommed on to the value of +2 damage
weapons which means the game is a lot more lethal than it has been previously. That means I have to think about which models
I want to throw out as blockers because one infantryman assisted strike can put
my troops down. It means I’m having to
team up more often which leaves me covering less ground than I’d like.
This
board featured a central square with a “Golem” represented by Lego Thanos for
the fucking win. The terrain did not offer
many chances for elevation or heavy line of sight blocks. In addition to the normal treasure, we had
goals to hit the golem with a non-damaging spell, get our wizard close, engage it
in combat, and get one of our soldiers close to it—all without killing the
golem. If the golem died, we got no
experience and the mini adventure ended.
I started
off by successfully bringing in my apprentice’s animal companion (another
bear.) This game went off the rails
right from the beginning. By turn 2 my
marksman managed to 1-shot WMTG’s apprentice because crossbow. We were throwing random models all over the
board in an attempt to draw the golem’s attention to less valuable (i.e. easily
replaced) models while key pieces grabbed treasure and got the extra mission
experience. Thanos got pushed toward me
while I blocked line of sight using fog.
I managed to hit Thanos with poison dart seriously limiting his output.
The game
ended with WMTG leaving the field after getting half the treasure and both of
us earning all the bonuses. I ended up
with 250 experience which gave me 3 more levels. The treasure rolls netted me 260gp, grimoires
of invisibility and crumble, and a bow of +2 damage. I spent 5gp to upgrade my base with carrier pigeons
so that all my future soldiers cost 1gp less. I spent 99gp on a second marksman and another 99gp
on a ranger so I could do something with the magic bow—leaving me with 57unspent
gold. I upgraded fight and health again
and spent my final upgrade to reduce bone dart’s casting cost to 9. This left me with 9 soldiers comprising 2
marksmen, 1 ranger, 1 apothecary, 3 treasure hunters, and 2 animal companions.
Post session thoughts:
1.
It took a bit of work to get back into the swing
of things. WMTG had to gently prompt me a
couple times because I’ve played so many miniature wargames at this point that
turn order and certain rules get crossed in my head. That being said, it amazes me how clean this
rule set is and how most often a misunderstanding is due to my own error and
nothing on the designer’s part. The
strategic and tactical elements combine in subtle ways to make the game self-balancing
in interesting ways.
2.
This session proved to me that where possible I’m
going to use the google assistant to roll my dice. At first, I felt bad because I wasn’t using
my braille dice but more and more, I like the energy surrounding a role that
both of us learn about at the same time in the same way. It feels honest and freeing in a way that I
haven’t felt in a long time what with having other people read my dice for
years. Also, Google’s luck is way better
than mine and it makes the die rolling noise.
3.
I find it interesting that both of our first
moves were to pimp our warbands to the highest level. When I started my first campaign my driving
instinct was to pump up my wizard with magic gear. Now I’d rather just have competent help that
lets me address problems in different ways.
I’m only on game 2 and I’ve already maxed out all my warband slots with
top-flight minions. I feel like I powered
up because buying crap for squishy characters doesn’t actually help sometimes
because you’re just making them a bigger target.
4.
I enjoy the way scenario requirements make
competition challenging and different every time. Wizards who focus too much on a single mechanic
or spell will find themselves in trouble sooner rather than later. I feel like this game lets WMTG and I put our
decades of gaming experience to use solving complex strategic problems as our
initiative ebbs and flows separate from our board control. It gives the experience a spice that is
lacking in some legacy games like blood bowl—especially as the season gets on
towards the end.
5.
There is a pacing to scenario play that I have
only recently come to appreciate. The
game ends when someone doesn’t have any more models on the board or all the
treasure has been moved off a board edge.
This means that while I have a better ranged game, WMTG actually controls
my window of opportunity. Since 2 of my
soldiers can’t carry treasure, I have to mix it up quickly if I want to keep
even. Although we didn’t do it this
time, I am going to suggest we try the random monster rules after the third and
final mission of this pack. I want to
see if it changes how we approach our deployment and strategy.
6.
I need to read the rules—again—paying attention
this time. The excellent rum is no
excuse.
7.
I really really love being able to use random miniatures. This time I went with a plastic bag full of
pre-painted minis from magic the gathering the board game and its expansion. It is so nice not to have to glue my guys
back together again or worry if one falls off a building. My wizard and apprentice even have little
spells coming off their hands.
The next game is slotted for early on March 16th. My dream is to finish the last game of this
pack and finish the next pack for 4 games total but road to hell and all that…Frost
grave scratches lots of itches—the need for a stimulating competitive game—my love
of resource management—my love of story gaming—but best of all it’s a judgement-free
place to talk, drink, and renew a friendship I wish I had more time to enjoy. At 42, I know my time miniature gaming won’t
last for ever but while it lasts, I’m loving having the disposable income,
friends, and opportunity to make the most of this excellent product.
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