"Battle on the River" is the second scenario in the "Thaw of the Lich Lord" campaign for Frostgrave... the set up for this one is that most of the board is taken up by a frozen river filled with derelict boats and debris... there are 6 inch strips on either side of the river which are the river banks... at the end of the third turn a servant of the Lich Lord would appear from the central large boat and head towards the board edge carrying a special treasure....
So after the death of Lizzy's Necromancer in the last scenario, she was starting again with a new warband - Necromancers again. My summoner was now level 2. We decided to use "Ulterior Motives". I had "The Courier" which meant I had to nominate two particular warband members, and if they managed to exit the board on the opposite edge I would gain extra experience and select a free base upgrade after the game! Lizzy had "Cursed Artifact" which stated that one of her warband started the game carrying an evil treasure, and she would get extra experience if she managed to throw it down a pit 12" from my edge... she decided to place the pit inside one of the boats nearest my side of the board, representing a whirlpool or magical hole in the frozen river.
There were special rules in his scenario for movement on the ice... the first movement of a figure was normal, but a second movement in the same turn was only possible after succeeding a special dice roll, otherwise the figure would fall on the ice and be injured. There was a lot of falling over in this game!!
There were four treasure tokens on the board at the start of the game - we placed them in the four smaller boats on the river... As the game progressed we both started moving across the ice... we secured a treasure token each with out too much trouble... but picking up the 3rd and 4th tokens resulted in wandering monsters entering the game... two zombies and a werewolf!
Both my Wizard and apprentice succeeded in summoning Imps, and Lizzys crew raised a couple of zombies to bulk out our teams.
Whilst most of Lizzy's guys headed towards the boat with the pit in it, half my guys headed towards them - but ended up grappling with the werewolf! - Lizzy's wizard was keeping well out of the way (playing it safe after her disastrous Wizard fatality in the last game!).. My wizard and a few of my guys made straight for the centre of the board hoping to intercept the servant of the Lich Lord when he appeared.
The Imp that my wizard had summoned was taken out by some of Lizzy's team. My magic users can only have one summoned demon each at one time, so this meant my wizard could have another go at summoning. I rolled pretty well, only 1 point off summoning a minor demon - so my wizard took a wound to empower the spell and a minor demon was now under his control. At this point the servant of the Lich Lord ran out of the central boat just near my Wizard and demon and started to make a move towards the edge of the board... just as I was going to close in on the evil servant, Lizzy's Wizard who was lurking off to one side, climbed up onto some crates to get line of sight on my wizard, and successfully cast a spell which broke my wizard's control on his Demon. The Demon attacked my wizard and knocked him out with one blow!!...
A scuffle ensued around the Lich Lord's servant, resulting in his demise...and one of Lizzy's team running off with his special treasure...
One of the two guys I had chosen at the beginning of the game did manage to make it off the board on the opposite edge, fulfilling part of my Ulterior Motive. I managed to secure two treasure tokens, and had five, Five! of my team knocked out including my wizard.
Lizzy completed her Ulterior motive, throwing the cursed treasure down the pit. She secured two treasures plus the special treasure and got a load of XP.
After the game we rolled for our casualties. I rolled a "1" for my Wizard!! - The same as Lizzy had done in our last game!!... so that was that for my team... back to the drawing board for a new Warband for scenario three! Aaargh!!
This was a really fun game - I loved the mechanics for the movement on the ice... lots of falling over!! Lizzy did well to keep her wizard out of harms way but still use his ability to break my spell. I'm really going to have to try and keep out of her line of sight in future games...
