Frostgrave, Halo Ground Command and other tabletop minis

[Hahma]

My daughter and I played a little more the other night. Morgan jumped her bear and ranger off the walkway and each took 5 wounds. But she wanted to secure that treasure that I had moved off the roof she was heading towards. She had used Telekinesis to bring the treasure between the logs in the center, closer to her side of the board. But I used Telekinesis with both wizard and then apprentice to steal it back towards me. Her fog drifted away and I cast a Wall spell to keep her at bay and from charging her bear at my crew.


We had a boar come out on my side of the board after the 5th treasure was picked up, but my Crossbowman and Archer took care of it during my soldier phase to keep it from causing trouble.

Maybe we'll finish it up tonight or tomorrow.

[Tornado]

Wall spell? Nice.

Those were always one of my favorites in RPGs. So much strategic goodness.

Can you 'wall in' figures?

[Hahma]

Originally Posted by Tornado

Wall spell? Nice.

Those were always one of my favorites in RPGs. So much strategic goodness.

Can you 'wall in' figures?

I suppose you could wall in figures. But it would be difficult. If the figures were in a U shaped enclosed area already, then it would be easy to close it off with a wall. But the wall is 1 inch thick, by 6 inches wide and 3 inches high, and you have to place the wall within 6 inches of the Spellcaster. So it wouldn't really be efficient to try to wall figures in, unless it was from closing off a U shaped corridor or whatever. Also, the wall can dissipate at the end of the round on a high enough die roll.

The wall is solid, so it can't be moved through and it blocks LoS. The Fog spell is nice too because it also will block LoS, but it can be moved through. The advantage of the Fog spell is that can be cast anywhere within LoS of the Spellcaster, though like the wall spell, you have to roll once per round ti see if it stays or dissipates.

[Tornado]

Would there be any strategic advantage in 'walling in' your own figures?

Wall talk rules!

[Hahma]

By 'walling in', I take it to mean that the figures would be sealed in.

No, I don't think it would be useful to do that. Your wizard and apprentice each only get to cast one spell each round/turn, so casting multiple Wall spells just to wall in your warband members would be a waste, because there are so many other spells you may rather cast. Also, you still have to roll to succeed to cast the spell (apprentice needs to roll 2 higher to cast any spell than their wizard ), and if you fail your roll by enough, you can take wounds.

Another consideration, is that while the wall will block LoS from many positions because it's 3 inches high, there could be positions on the board that can be high enough to see over the wall, depending on which angle it's coming from.

[TREX]

Originally Posted by Hahma

Good stuff Trex! That showed your brother to mess with you

I'll have to check the Kennel again, I didn't think it gave you a free warhound, but just let you go over you size limit if you had a warhound. Kind of like the Inm, but more specific to warhounds. They are only 10GC anyway.

Did you have one of your soldiers close to thay board edge to grab the treasure your warhound killed the thug over, or did your brother have one clever and end up getting it anyway?

Did your brother's wizard end up surviving okay after the game, or was he killed or wounded?

Your brother should consider buying a grimoire that has a Fog spell and learn it as a level up. That would be a good counter to your archers and Elemtal Bolt

I think the kennel allows a warhound on top of your warhound limit, if I read it right. I ended up getting the treasure my attack dog stopped from leaving. I had my apprentice tag teaming with an archer to swing over to the side and take it. I ended up knocking out my brothers apprentice with my apprentice the same round as my wizard knocking out his wizard. I don't know how many losses my brother took due to him taking off after game because it was late. He said he'd roll for it when next he came out to my house. I knocked out his wiz, wiz apprentice, and 5 more of his guys. Surprisingly enough, my archer firing squad didn't do as well as I thought they would. I still wrecked him, but the archers whiffed a lot. He kept a lot of his guys really well hidden for the most part. They were getting +3 and +5 modifiers to their rolls. +2-+4 for their cover bonus and always making me take a hasty shot giving him a +1 on top of that. I got a staff of power(3) on my game before that but didn't really check into, but seen what it could do and hooked my wiz up with it post game on this last one. I've got a full warband, got that staff, got a handful of potions, and two new grimoires for spells I'd likely not use for a bit. My treasury has over a thousand gold on top of all the cool stuff I picked up. That's after playing 3 games. I'm really loving this game. I can't wait for the cultist box I ordered. Its been awhile and it still hasn't showed up yet. I'll be getting massive darkness soon and that should also be fun. I've been taking pictures of all these battles we had, but find it challenging to sit down on my computer at home to post them. One day. I really want to show you guys my demons, home made cultists and other cool terrain I've made.

[TREX]

Originally Posted by Hahma

My daughter and I played a little more the other night. Morgan jumped her bear and ranger off the walkway and each took 5 wounds. But she wanted to secure that treasure that I had moved off the roof she was heading towards. She had used Telekinesis to bring the treasure between the logs in the center, closer to her side of the board. But I used Telekinesis with both wizard and then apprentice to steal it back towards me. Her fog drifted away and I cast a Wall spell to keep her at bay and from charging her bear at my crew.


We had a boar come out on my side of the board after the 5th treasure was picked up, but my Crossbowman and Archer took care of it during my soldier phase to keep it from causing trouble.

Maybe we'll finish it up tonight or tomorrow.

Nice, what scenario are you playing with this game? I am going through in order in the main book right now. My one brother and myself played a generic game to figure out how to play, then I played a 3 player with my other two brothers on the mausoleum. Then I played a 1v1 with my summoner brother on the genie lamp mission.(even though he didn't come out.) Next we'll probably play the silent tower. I hope its a 4 player blood bath. I know all my brothers will be gunning for me too. Especially since my last level up. I think we will just play through each book after the one before it. I also thought up some very cool ways to do monster spawn charts to spawn either more thematic types of monster in games or just what the players would rather do. I think I'm going to either find or make creature reference cards that have pics with them. Also, might just make it a lower roll for a creature to come out on a treasure roll as well. We didn't see any creatures come out last game, including the genie, I worked on and painted so cool.

[TREX]

Originally Posted by Hahma

By 'walling in', I take it to mean that the figures would be sealed in.

No, I don't think it would be useful to do that. Your wizard and apprentice each only get to cast one spell each round/turn, so casting multiple Wall spells just to wall in your warband members would be a waste, because there are so many other spells you may rather cast. Also, you still have to roll to succeed to cast the spell (apprentice needs to roll 2 higher to cast any spell than their wizard ), and if you fail your roll by enough, you can take wounds.

Another consideration, is that while the wall will block LoS from many positions because it's 3 inches high, there could be positions on the board that can be high enough to see over the wall, depending on which angle it's coming from.

Speaking of other spells worthy of learning, that push spell looks super cool. I think that is one I might go for with some extra gold I have. Either that or fit some of my cooler war band members with special gear.

[Hahma]

Originally Posted by TREX

Nice, what scenario are you playing with this game? I am going through in order in the main book right now. My one brother and myself played a generic game to figure out how to play, then I played a 3 player with my other two brothers on the mausoleum. Then I played a 1v1 with my summoner brother on the genie lamp mission.(even though he didn't come out.) Next we'll probably play the silent tower. I hope its a 4 player blood bath. I know all my brothers will be gunning for me too. Especially since my last level up. I think we will just play through each book after the one before it. I also thought up some very cool ways to do monster spawn charts to spawn either more thematic types of monster in games or just what the players would rather do. I think I'm going to either find or make creature reference cards that have pics with them. Also, might just make it a lower roll for a creature to come out on a treasure roll as well. We didn't see any creatures come out last game, including the genie, I worked on and painted so cool.

We are playing The Hunt for the Golem campaign in the Frostgrave Folio book. It's a 3 scenario campaign. Right now we are on the 2nd scenario.

Some games I haven't seen any creatures and some games I've seen a few. I have an Imp spell, so I use it on occasion to send an Imp near my daughter's troops to force her to deal with it as if it's a random creature. I also have Raise Zombie spell, so I can send it over to mess with her guys if I feel like it, and not worry about it getting killed, because it will turn to dust at the end of the game anyway.

I have been writing creature stats on little piecesof paper as they come up, but may end up getting some note cards and do them all.

[Hahma]

Originally Posted by TREX

Speaking of other spells worthy of learning, that push spell looks super cool. I think that is one I might go for with some extra gold I have. Either that or fit some of my cooler war band members with special gear.

Push is cool. My Illusionist that I use when playing my buddy Chris has that spell, and my daughter Morgan has it with her Witch.

It's neat to be able push an enemy off of height over 3 inches to cause them wounds. My daughter tried that once to knock my Crossbowman off height, but missed. I had used it to push a giant worm away from my apprentice. I used it to push one of my own figures with a treasure closer to the table edge.

It's neat, but it requires good positioning by the caster since the subject of the push goes directly away from them if successful. Also, it's not a guaranteed distance. Though, that stuff is likely there fir balance so it's not OP.

[TREX]

@Hahma , If I make up a set of playing card sized Monster reference cards in photoshop I'll post them here. My top three favorite spells are Leap, Elemental Bolt, and Telekinesis. I've used Telekinesis about 3 times total to pull treasure towards my characters. My favorite time was when 2 thugs and a knight of mine went up against 2 thugs of my brothers all next to a contested treasure. I pulled the treasure away from them all next to an archer of mine that was closer to the table edge. Leap has to be the most useful spell in the game, hands down. Whether you are leaping up height or just leaping distance, its by far the most useful movement spell I can think of. Its quite easy to roll as well. With my wizard being an elementalist, the elemental bolt is great when wanting to get extra xp's shooting at enemies with the wizard. Did you know that improving your shoot skill with the wizard will help you shoot the elemental bolt once you've cast it. I just added to that skill as well.

[Hahma]

@TREX

Improving the Shoot stat for a wizard or apprentice will only help if they are equipped with a bow. I checked that out awhile ago because it seemed potentially OP, and my daughter wanted to do that to increase Shoot for her Bone Dart spell, but I told her she couldn't do it to help a spell. It's like that for balance I'm sure, just like not being able to increase the same stat more than once between games, not being able to lower a casting roll of a spell more than once between games, and not being able to stock up level ups from game to game.

From the official errata/FAQ on Osprey's site:

Shooting Stat – The shooting stat is NOT used for spell attacks (e.g. a wizard casting Elemental Bolt
rolls his shooting attack at +8 regardless of his shooting skill).However, other shooting modifiers,
such as those for movement and cover ARE applied to spells that make shooting attacks).