Wizards

Northstar - Frostgrave Plastic Wizard

Reaper miniature

Northstar - Metal Frostgrave Elementalist

Northstar - Frostgrave Plastic Wizard

Northstar - Frostgrave Metal Sigilist

Here are five wizards I've been working on over Xmas... they will all be used in up coming games of Frostgrave and/or Rangers of Shadow Deep...

Rangers of Shadow Deep - Burning Light - Part III

We have moved up the stairs to "The Dormitory" for our third scenario in the "Burning Light" campaign for Rangers of Shadow Deep...

   

(There are some spoilers here - so if you are planning to play through this mission yourself, maybe don't read this until after you've had your own game experience...)

Our crew were slightly battered from our encounters with the spiders in the Hospital... we didn't find anything to help us heal up in the last scenario... so most of our characters started slightly damaged.

At the start of this game, all our team had to roll individual climb rolls, If they failed, then they wouldn't make it up the broken staircase until the start of the second turn... Only two of Alfies' guys made it up the stairs, and all of mine apart from Seb got up in the first turn.

As we entered the room, we found a smashed up hospital dormitory, with three large holes in the floor.. cobwebs were everywhere...and three giant spiders started towards us from the corners. On the far wall across from the stairs were what looked like four chests... but the only way to get to them was to cross some thin precarious walkways of damaged floor...

The table floorplan for the game... end of turn 1.

The special rules for this scenario were that if any of our figures did a double move and ended their actions within 2 inches of one of the holes, they would have to make a special roll. If they failed, the figure would fall down the hole through the spider webs down into the hospital.. they would not be injured, but they would be out of play for the rest of this scenario.

In the first round, one of Alfie's characters Fern fell straight down a hole. After that we decided to just do single move actions and play it safe at least for a few rounds to try and get over to the chests safely. Meanwhile the Giant spiders were getting closer. 

My Ranger Jennifer, and Archibald her archer companion took out the first giant spider with their bows before it could get to them. At the end of the first round the event card caused one of the three walkways to collapse... we rolled a D6 to see which one it was... it was the top one on the furthest edge... a spider was halfway across it, but it passed it's move roll and made it back to the slightly sounder flooring...

As our teams split up to creep across the walkways, we managed to shoot both the other spiders as they approached... and then at the end of the second round two giant flies came up the stairs from behind us... Alfie's Ranger Arthur and Brutus our new doggy friend took on the Flies and managed to finish them off together without taking any damage..

At the end of the third turn a "Tortured Soul" materialised in the corner near the staircase and started following Arthur across the crumbling walkway...

Another Giant spider appeared near the chests, we shot that one too!

Arthur tried multiple times to put to rest the Tortured soul, but he didn't manage to do it.

We made it to the chests in round 7. Seb opened the first chest. It was unlocked... but unfortunately there was nothing of use in it.

Jennifer my Ranger smashed open the next one with a successful strength roll... she found a strange idol made of clay, she made an Ancient lore roll and discovered that it was a miniature sculpture of a specific deity. If the idol survives the whole mission it will be worth some XP! 

The third chest was opened by Archibald... there was a book in there written in runic symbols. Archibald failed a "read runes" roll. - he decided that the book must just be poetry or something and discarded it. I hope it wasn't anything actually useful?!

Hattie, one of Alfies'  characters picked the lock on the fourth chest. In it there was a painted icon of St.Doneera the warrior priestess....And then something miraculous happened....there was a flash of golden light, and an apparition of St.Doneera was there in the room with us!! - She mysteriously pointed in a specific direction (perhaps a clue?) and then she drew her golden sword and has joined us for the rest of this mission!!

With all the chests investigated, and no creatures on the table apart from the Tortured Soul, we decided it was time to leave, and everyone jumped down through the cushions of spider webs to the hospital below....

We were really lucky in this scenario, we didn't take any damage at all, and we managed to get to all the chests and open them before we ran out of time. All our guys will be back to full health for the start of the next game.

 Alfie has decided that for the next scenario we are going up the other stairs from the Hospital... up to "The Abbess' Quarters"...

...

St.Doneera

I created all the floorplans for this campaign using the fantastic free resources available from

  2 minute tabletop.

TT Combat terrain for Frostgrave

I got myself this mdf terrain set from TTCombat for Xmas. It is the DERELICT ENCLAVE set.

TTCombat have some excellent MDF terrain. They are really substantial, and very good value for money. The kits don't come with physical instructions, you have to download the pdfs from their website - but they are very easy to follow, no text just images - kind of like lego instructions.

I checked out the various Fantasy terrain sets they do, and I liked the look of this one the best - mainly because I thought it would fit in nicely with my homemade Frostgrave terrain, and bring in some more platforms and an extra level for our warbands to run around on.

This kit was easy to make, and I really enjoyed putting it together. This particular set is modular, so you can plug it together in a variety of ways... 

I spread a little bit of wall filler over the parts where the joints are to disguise them a bit, then painted the whole thing with dark and light grey emulsion (tester pots from B&Q) to match the Frostgrave Terrain I have already made...

All the modular bits...

Just one of many possible configurations... 

The set mixed in with some of my homemade terrain in our latest Frostgrave game.

Frostgrave - "The House of Longreach"

"The House of Longreach" is the sixth scenario in the Thaw of the Lich Lord campaign for Frostgrave. 

The set up for this one is that there are six magical portal archways on the board, and every time an archway is moved through you have to roll a D20 to see what happens - if you roll high enough you will travel to a special extra treasure room where a pair of Frost Wights guard some special treasures! But other results might be that you randomly pop out of one of the other five portals, or that you take damage...  There are 3 treasure tokens on the main board, and two in the special room. At the end of the third turn 4 Death cultists will turn up with a Zombie Troll sent by the Lich Lord to stop our Warbands from messing with his stuff! Special XP points are awarded for Killing Death cultists and the Troll, for a Wizard using a portal, and for a Wizard making it to the treasure room.

We decided not to use Ulterior Motive cards in this game as there was so much else going on.

The table set up... we mixed in some new scenery from TTCombat that had lots of archways in it.

We numbered the portal archways 1-6 for random travel results.

My Apprentice and two of my soldiers head towards one of the magical portals.

One of my Treasure Hunters runs to secure a treasure, whilst my Wizard, Rangifer and Infantryman head towards a portal.

Lizzy's Wizard and team make for the center of the board... and pick up some treasure.

My Wizard successfully summons a Minor Demon.

   The first few rounds saw both our teams trying to get guys through the portals.... mostly without success.. We picked up a treasure token each, and my wizard summoned a Minor Demon which he sent to pick up the center treasure. Lizzy's Construct intercepted him and a fight ensued...
   The portals really messed things up for our teams - separating out our guys, and quite a few figures getting injured trying to use them.
   Unfortunately for my Treasure Hunter, the Zombie Troll and Death cultists turned up just near him as he was about to get off the board... he managed to take out two of the Death cultists... but the Zombie Troll was too much for him..
   Lizzy's construct tore apart my Minor Demon and one of her other soldiers picked up the treasure and made off with it.

The first of my guys has made it through a portal to the special treasure room.

My Minor Demon has picked up the central treasure token... but Lizzy's construct really wants it!

My Apprentice and her Demon Imp are attacked by a giant Ice Spider.

My two Crossbowmen take shots at one of Lizzy's soldiers who has just appeared out of a portal. And miss as usual.

Lizzy's Wizard comes out of a portal and ends up face to face with my Wizard!

   We didn't do too badly for wandering monsters this game - we just got one giant Ice Spider, but my apprentice made short work of that.
   Over at the special treasure room I had two soldiers who made it through the portal... they waited at the entrance. Two of Lizzy's guys also made it through, and they ran straight in to take on the Frost Wights. They killed one, and whilst they were engaged with the other one, my two guys ran around to get to one of the treasures. Lizzy's dudes finished off the other Wight and got to the other treasure.
   Then my Wizard made it to the treasure room, Lizzy's guys were weakened from the Wight fight, and that was unfortunate for them. Soon there were only my guys still standing in the room, and both treasures were in their hands.

Two of my soldiers wait for an opportune moment to run into the treasure room... whilst two of Lizzy's team take on the Frost Wights.

Lizzy's guys have got the special treasure... but my Wizard has also made it to the treasure room...

So close to the edge of the board... but my Treasure Hunter is about to be knocked out by the Zombie Troll.

  Over on the main table, only Lizzy's Wizard was left of her team on the board - her other guys had either made it off or were knocked out. Lizzy's Wizard was pretty weak, so she decided to get him off the board too...
   In the end there were a lot of casualties - I think 6 of Lizzy's team were knocked out, and 5 of mine were. There were no fatalities, but a couple of Lizzy's guys, and one of mine are going to have to sit out the next game or be replaced. Lizzy secured two of the treasures, and I got three including the special treasure, which is a magical gem that can suck up damage... but if it takes over 5 it is destroyed. Pretty cool. We got just over 200 XP each, so we can go up a couple of levels. My Wizard is now level 10.
   I really enjoyed this one, the portals were great fun, and really mixed up the situation, It was hard for our guys to stick in groups to mob up on opponents.
   What will the Lich Lord have for us to contend with in the next game....?

Painting Skeletons - step by step...

I went over to the Wargames Foundry Miniatures shop on my birthday, I picked up a few things - some Foundry paints, the fantastic Kev Dallimore painting guide book, and a few packs from their Fantasy range of 28mm miniatures that I couldn't resist - including these excellent skeletons rising from their graves! 

At around the same time over on the Frostgrave facebook page there was a fun painting "competition" running with an Undead theme... so I decided to take step by step photos to document my process for painting skeletons.

The paints I used were:

Undercoat - Halfords Matt Grey spray primer

For the skeletons:

Army Painter - Matt Black

Army Painter - Matt White

Army Painter - Machinegun Metal

Game Color - Cadmium Skin

Game Ink - Skin Wash

For the base:

Army Painter - Ash Grey

Revelle - Gunship Grey (Matt)

Snow effect:

PVA glue

Bircarbonate of Soda

Cheap white acrylic paint (from "The Works")

(These are the paints I used because they are the ones I had - but any similar paints will do a similar job I'm sure... this is just a guide to my personal process!)

Make sure the models have time to completely dry between each step.

Prepare the miniatures for painting, and spray with Halfords matt grey primer.
Give the models a wash of watered down Matt Black paint. Then when dry, drybrush with Cadmium Skin.
This is the start of painting anything boney!

Give them a coat of Skin wash Ink.

 Drybrush again with Cadmium Skin.

Drybrush highlights with 50/50 mix of Cadmium skin and Matt white.

Final highlights on boney parts with Matt White.
The bone areas are now done.

Tidy up the models by painting anything that isn't bone Matt Black.

Paint the swords Machinegun Metal (leaving dark areas where appropriate around handles etc)

Give all metal a coat of Skin Ink Wash for a rusty effect.

Drybrush highlights onto the swords with Machinegun Metal.

And now for the bases.
Drybrush with Gunship Grey.

Drybrush highlights around the edges of the base etc with Ash Grey.

For the snow effect.. mix up 1/3 PVA, 1/3 cheap white acrylic paint and 1/3 bicarbonate of soda into a paste and apply with an old brush in small patches to the bases - and ontop of gravestones etc...

Add a few tufts (Army Painter)... and they're done!