Frostgrave, Halo Ground Command and other tabletop minis

[TREX]

I think if you bought the starter set you could proxy the rest of it. But id agree that sometimes its better to just buy it for all of the components. I finished modifying the second castle and just primed it black.

[keglo]

Originally Posted by Hahma

Well keglo, I don't always enjoy painting I know that it's cheaper than commissioning it to be done for me, so that's part of the motivation, but also, if I want to own certain games, I think that I took on that responsibility to make it look as good as I can by painting the minis. But I also do get great satisfaction with the end product and seeing the hard work and time payoff with visual results that make me feel proud and happy that I accomplished something pretty neat. Then when the game is played, it looks better visually.

That said, for me, I have learned to take breaks from it if it feels like too much of a chore. I might take a few nights off and then hit it again on the weekend mornings when I get up and have a few hours to myself. I'm more of a morning person anyway. I also will switch up some projects so that it's not endless painting of miniatures. Working on terrain here and there is a break from working on the minis. Also, the soldiers kit I got from Northstar games for the Frostgrave warband members comes in sprues and several parts and options each. So by assembling a batch of them for a few nights, it is a break from painting, same with the Mantic undead kit. And now working on the Mausoleum building, it has given me another non-miniature thing to work on and paint.

That's what I do to help break it up so that it's not endless minis painting. I did go for a while painting a lot of 15mm Halo Ground Command minis, and that got tough after awhile. Still have some more to do, but when I get back to them after the couple month break, it will be a fresh start again.

On another note, I just made a wall for the "Wall" spell in Frostgrave. I was sifting through my closet in my office/hobby center, and found a piece of black packing foam that was about an inch thick. The wall size for the spell is 6x3x1 inches. So I cut it down to size and it will work wonderfully and had only taken a few minutes. It will look a lot better than the white foamboard pieces I had through together initially that were dual purpose Wall/Fog pieces. Now I need to glue some cotton on those foamboard pieces and they will be better looking Fog

Yeah, I have had quite a long break from painting. I have a set of dwarves that I think I'll break out and have a go at soon. I have had them for a few years. They would make a good start at a dwarven warband I think. I still haven't given up on developing a love for painting either.

I am diggin' the new wall too

[Hahma]

Originally Posted by TREX

I think if you bought the starter set you could proxy the rest of it. But id agree that sometimes its better to just buy it for all of the components. I finished modifying the second castle and just primed it black.

Yeah, just getting the starter set would get you the dice, event cards etc.

You'll be all castled up. Can't wait to see it

Originally Posted by keglo

Yeah, I have had quite a long break from painting. I have a set of dwarves that I think I'll break out and have a go at soon. I have had them for a few years. They would make a good start at a dwarven warband I think. I still haven't given up on developing a love for painting either.

I am diggin' the new wall too

Thanks! I was happy to find that foam. It was the easiest thing I've done for this hobby

I've seen some people use dwarven warbands for sure. I think that would be very cool. In fact, in a game I started last night with my "more of a gaming daughter" Morgan, we did some pregame stuff like hiring some additional warband members, and since I didn't have a barbarian type mini from other sources, one with a 2 handed weapon and bare chested or light armor, I used one of my dwarves from Heroscape. So now I have a dwarven barbarian as part of my warband.

I still only have 9 guys total of the 10 allowed. I had 8 to start our first game, but since Morgan took out my Ranger that game and I rolled 5 or less on the d20 post game, he died and I was down to 7. I only had 170 GC from last game and wanted to beef up my forces with better than just a couple more thugs, so I spent a 100GC on the dwarf barbarian and 50 on a 2nd Infantryman. Since Morgan chose the Inn as her home base after our first game, it gives her space to have 11 members in her warband. So she hired a warhound for 10GC, which I had a primed dog from Mercs Recon, and she hired a knight for 100GC, which I used a figure from Heroscape, as he has a shield, hand weapon and mail as part of his armor. I had chosen the Crypt as my home base because I have a Raise Zombie spell that has a cast number of 8, but is a neutral alignment spell so it gets +4 added to the requirement, up to 12. The Crypt gives a +2 to Raise Zombie spell attempts, so now it's a net 8+2 for a 10+ I have to roll.

[Hahma]

I started another game of Frostgrave with my daughter Morgan tonight. We only made it through 2 full turns, but we had some pregame stuff to do, like hiring extra soldiers (she hired a knight and war hound and I hired a dwarf barbarian and an infantryman), equipping our guys with stuff we got last time from treasures etc.
We also tried out the Ulterior Motives set, so that took a little more time to figure out and explain. You basically place one treasure in the center of the board and the each player gets 2 treasures to place instead of 3. After sides of table are determined, you each each draw an Ulterior Motives card and read it to yourself. Some say to reveal it before starting play and some are kept secret, and for those, you generally place some of the scatter terrain pieces that come with it or that you proxy with other stuff. Perhaps one of those things you have to interact with to succeed at the mission, while some of the other pieces are just red herrings.
Morgan got a secret one and placed a pit, arch and zombie. Neither pieces are painted yet since I just got the set yesterday, and I replaced the unpainted zombie with a painted ghoul figure.
Mine was a reveal card and basically one of my scouts found out that a major demon had escaped from somewhere and was in human form of one of my opponent's soldiers. So at any point during the first 2 turns, she could remove one of her soldiers and replace it with a major demon, or wait until the end of turn 2. It would act as a creature like normal, so she had one lone thug off by himself on one starting edge of her side and during her soldier phase would advance him toward me.
I cast an Imp spell to harass her people overy by one side, but it was before her soldier phase and she moved up the lone thug so the Imp would go after him. The Imp didn't do any damage and then during her 2nd turn soldiers phase, she turned that thug into the major demon and both it and the Imp left each other alone and moved randomly.
I had my dwarf barbarian engage and deal with the zombie Morgan put out, and my wizard raised a zombie of his own to join the warband. Morgan was able to use Telekinesis to move the middle treasure under the catwalk closer to her. We had one outside the doorway near the hill that we were both going for, but after a missed Bone Dart attack by her wizard against my wizard and then an 11 point damage to my wizard with a Bone Dart from her Apprentice and bringing my wizard to only 3 health, I conceded that treasure by the door and hill. We made a deal of sorts, as I could have gotten that treasure with my zombie and cause more of a hassle for her, but I didn't want my wizard attacked again.
Oh yeah, if I killed all of her warband by end of turn 2 (yeah right!), or if I kill the major demon, I get 80 XP'S. Since treasure in Ulterior Motives is only worth 40 XP'S plus roll on treasure chart instead of normal 50xps, I am happy to concede that 3rd treasure to go and kill that major demon. We'll have to see what Morgan's mission was when we finish sometime.
Morgan is cutthroat when playing, that's for sure. Almost killed my wizard.
We used some proxies from Heroscape and they worked fine. My warband zombie and dwarf barbarian, her knight are from Heroscape, and I used a little dragon for my Imp and Taelord from Herocape for the major demon. Had a primed dog mini from Mercs Recon that works for the warhound. I have a Warhound/Tracker, Imp/Minor Demon and Boar/Giant Rats order in so I'll eventually be able to use the official models for some of the creatures and warhound.







I used a spell called Fleet Feet to make that Infantryman with blue and red colors to get +2 to his move, from 6 to 8. He's in the process of climbing up the side of the ruins via the shortest point which is 4 inches high. Every inch climbed cost 2 inches of move, so since he only got to start climbing as part of his 2nd action, which if it's a 2nd move is half normal, he wasn't able to make it all the way. He started his 2nd move on the other side of that thug and only had 2 inches left, so he was only able to climb an inch up the wall. Thus the d6 next to him with the 1 pip facing up to indicate that he's actually 1 inch up the wall.


There's my apprentice and some of my warband working on her side of the board at the start of the game. Notice my dwarf barbarian, who I named "Ripped Smalls".


I had cast an Imp spell with my apprentice to send an Imp (small Scape dragon) to harass Morgan's warband, but it didn't work as well as I had hoped because during the soldier phase after the apprentice phase, she moved the possessed soldier of hers to be closer to the Imp than the rest of her people. So during the creature phase, the Imp moved to engage that guy.


The lone soldier was just about a quarter inch or less closer to the Imp than it was to her bear, but still, the Imp wouldn't move toward another creature, so then the next warband member was even further.



Easy first treasure for Morgan's apprentice group to get to. The warhound next to it can't pick it up, but the man at arms behind it can.


I used a Heroscape zombie as the zombie I created with a Raise Zombie spell. That treasure in the doorway was the one that would have been contested and fought over, had Morgan not surprised me by attacking my wizard with a Bone Dart spell from her wizard near the middle of the board (which missed) and then her apprentice on the hill, which she rolled a 16 on the d20 but got to add +5 to her roll for total of 21 vs my roll of 15 +1 for intervening terrain +2 for his fight value for 18. So she won the fight roll, which means that you subtract the defense of the losing figure (10) from her winning total of 21. So she put 11 wounds on my wizard in one shot and brought me down to 3 health!






My dwarf barbarian and crossbowman taking on the zombie that Morgan placed on my side of the board as part of her secret Ulterior Motive card.


This is the soldier phase of turn 2, and her selected warband member to be removed and replaced by the major demon. If she doesn't do it by end of turn 2, it would automatically turn. She just removes her warband member and he is fine and usable in the next game, it is as if he were knocked out by the Demon or whatever when it assumed his likeness.


And after the transformation, the major demon shows up and the Imp wants no part of it. During the subsequent creature phase, they both move in random directions because neither has LoS and within 10 inches of either warband. But the direction they ended up moving is toward me

My Ulterior Motive card.

[keglo]

Man, that looks and sounds like fun stuff!

[Hahma]

It is for sure. Though I really have to be careful because my daughter is ruthless.

I had to make a deal with her after she nearly took out my wizard, that I would concede the treasure near the doorway to her, if she didn't attack my wizard again. She countered that would be fine, and no attacking figures carrying treasure, but others were fair game. Then she extended her hand to shake on it and seal the deal

[TREX]

Originally Posted by Hahma

It is for sure. Though I really have to be careful because my daughter is ruthless.

I had to make a deal with her after she nearly took out my wizard, that I would concede the treasure near the doorway to her, if she didn't attack my wizard again. She countered that would be fine, and no attacking figures carrying treasure, but others were fair game. Then she extended her hand to shake on it and seal the deal

That is my favorite part of your report. Your daughter having so much fun beating up on you. It shows how fun the game can be.

[Hahma]

Originally Posted by TREX

That is my favorite part of your report. Your daughter having so much fun beating up on you. It shows how fun the game can be.

Yeah for sure, though maybe next game I'm going to have to take the gloves off

We'll see how devious she is. It's public knowledge that I'll get 80 XP'S from killing that demon. If she goes and attacks it to try to kill it to deny me those points, then I will know the extent of her evilness Oh, and she was happy that I had to spend extra money to replacethe Ranger she killed in the last game.

I still don't know what her secret objective is, so she might even get some more good stuff if she succeeds.

[Hahma]

Other than spray varnishing, which I'll do tomorrow, the building part of the Mausoleum is done enough for me. Not perfect by any means, but it will serve well enough for that Frostgrave scenario or for any other use I find. But the price is right, so I can't complain

I still only have the flat foamboard roof untouched since making it. Now that I'm done with the base and building, I can start jazzing up the roof.









Had a productive day. Worked on the building above until about 9 am, breakfast and left with the family around 10 to go see Wonder Woman at 10:45 showing. Went to lunch afterwards, then came home and mowed the lawn, vacuumed the house and cleaned the wood floors, then worked on the Mausoleum some more while my daughters and wife were doing their own thing. Hung out on the deck with a beer and family, and now inside winding down.

I'm going to a game store about 40 minutes away at around 1 pm tomorrow to try out the miniatures game Dark Ages. A guy that has been lurking and posting some in a Facebook forum my buddy Chris started, called NWI (northwest Indiana) TableTop Wargaming & Hobby Group, mentioned that he'd be domoing Dark Ages tomorrow, so I figured it would be a good opportunity to try out the game, as well as meet another miniatures gamer in the area. Always nice to make connections.

My daughter Morgan asked me when I'd be home, and I said by dinner. She wants to finish our Frostgrave game tomorrow night after dinner.

It was funny while driving up to see the movie this morning. My wife likes to drive when we take her van, unless it's somewhere far or she's unfamiliar with. So I texted Morgan in the back, a couple pictures from our game last night, pictures of the hill near the contested treasure near the doorway. I only sent the pictures.

Her reply - "I'm going to beat you "

I said - "Maybe this time you little witch, but I'll have my revenge in the next game " (Her wizard is the Witch class btw).

She finished up with - "We'll see. If you can get your rolls together."

It was a funny exchange, where she didn't show any expression or laughter, but I was chuckling up front.

[TREX]

Super cool. I was able to pick up the walking dead all out war starter set at the gamestore we had our tournament in using the store credit for taking 1st in the tournament. I also got a guest artist box from zombicide black plague season 1. I put a little more money in with it to spend the last 5 bucks of it to buy general weiss from imperial assault in his pimped out atst. Way fun. Now ill have to see about uzing all my zombicide minis to play all out war.

[Hahma]

Look forward to hearing how you like Walking Dead All Out War. Not sure how many zombies you need, because if you are forced to fight zombies every turn, the threat will go up quicker and you'll lose. They have a phase where you place a template that kind of looks like a CD, over zombies near survivors, if a survivor falls within that template, then the zombie will snap to him/her, unless there is intervening terrain, which they will stop at. So you'll have to balance searching and fighting, because ultimately, I believe the scenarios are mostly about getting a certain amount of objectives.

Having all those extra zombies will make it great for multiplayer games where you can have a bigger board. Not to mention, there are events that will bring more zombies out on the board too. The guys teaching us the game had set everything up as far as placing starting zombies, so I don't know how the rules suggest placement. You'll see soon enough and I look forward to your thoughts.

[keglo]

Yeah I am looking forward to your thoughts on Walking Dead too. I had never even heard of the game before @Hahma mentioned it, so it was never even on my radar. The starter box is fairly inexpensive compared to some other game out there.

I wonder how much fund you could have with just the starter box and some terrain.