Several
weeks ago, WMTG and I hit the gaming table for the first scenario in the sells
word mini-campaign of the frost grave folio.
Fresh off the hunt for the golem, the stars are wrong promised some
interesting challenges.
As per
usual, we set up on a three by three board covered in WMTG’s excellent 3d
printed terrain. This board was packed with
line of sight blocking pieces save for the epic tower in the center of the far-left
side which had sight to most of the board if you got up to the top. Per usual, we set up our treasure
tokens. Not per usual, I set up an
uneven distribution—with one side’s tokens in the clear and the other in
difficult terrain. This made the choice
of sides more important—especially for WMTG who has fewer movement tricks than
I do. I won the roll for sides and
picked the easier treasure side with the tower—all according to plan.
Next, we
set up 6 pillars; one on each of our starting sides and two on the other
non-deployment edges. We would roll off
at the beginning of each turn and if the odds were against us, a +3 bolt of
energy would hit everything between those 2 pillars. Also, we secretly chose a school of magic our
opponent couldn’t use for this game. I
chose illusion because screw teleport.
WMTG chose enchanter because he hates telekinesis. Spoiler, I chose poorly. Let’s just say I hate the stupid shield spell—a
lot—really—a lot.
Right off
the bat on turn one a bolt zapped lots of my soldiers including my apprentice
knocking him down to 3 health. I leaped
my wizard to the top of the tower and my ranged elements started climbing up
the back of the building. The apothecary
healed the apprentice to 8 and the apprentice leaped a bear off to the right. My fortune hunters went after the treasures—making
good use of the open board edge lanes I created in token placement. WMTG ran the entire enemy list at my front
lines using the edges of buildings to cut off line of sight angles from above.
After
that, we ran the best game of frost grave I have ever played. WMTG had a problem. By turn 2 my entire ranged cadre, including
my wizard with a +5-bone dart spell, was standing on the top tower levels. I had or was about to have control of all my
treasure and my bears were running the city in search of easy targets. I used one of my figures to backstop the
other 2 ranged models and my wizard had his back to a wall so push wasn’t an
option. I also had a problem in that WMTG’s troops—especially the wizard—were really
good in melee—as in I wanted no part of that fight. My problems got worse when shield went up on the
opposing wizard and apprentice.
What
followed was an epic battle between an entrenched defense and a mobile assault
element. I shot or killed 5 of the opposing
warband—two of which came from my wizard’s bone darts. One kill came when a ranger won a combat with
an infantryman and pushed him off the edge of a landing where he fell to his death. WMTG forced me further and further back as I
lost troops to treasure scoring and to delaying tactics. The enemy did for both my bears in single
combat at which point I abandoned the field as I was about to be over-run by elite
close quarters fighters.
The game
ended on a far more technical level than our previous games as we delayed
moving our last treasure off the board on the chance that we might score more
kills or grab an extra treasure from the opponent. I think we used every rule in the base book
this game squeezing every advantage from the scenario.
I ended
with 320 XP—70 for spells, 150 for treasure, 80 for two soldier kills, and 20
for the energy bolts. My wizard’s bear
is down for a game (hopefully I can summon a new one at the beginning of the
next session.) I earned 180 gold, a
Grimoire of Possess, and a Grimoire of Planar Tear—which is just enough to not
get me another spell—though possess is really tempting. I used my 3 levels to boost health, lower the
casting cost of bone dart to 8, and lower heel’s cost to 11. That leaves me with 462 gold and a decent
toolbox for the next game.
I found
that while defensive tools are nice, my forces thrive on aggressive long-range attrition. If WMTG continues with this full-bore melee
plan, I’m going to have to start using beauty more often. Also, I need to look at ways to cast more
spells and generate more resources.
Assuming we stick with this campaign plan, I have 8 more games with this
character. I feel like I’ve held my own
lately but WMTG’s overall resource engine is better than mine between his base,
absorb knowledge, and the ability to brew potions.
