Berwick and Holy Island at Halloween 2019

 

Autumn Colours in the Peak District...

 

Rangers of Shadow Deep - Blood Moon

"Blood Moon" is a one off scenario for Rangers of Shadowdeep... Alfie and myself ran through this adventure in the school holidays, I took pictures of the game, but forgot all about it until now - so the details of the game have already gone from my mind. This won't be a detailed scenario report, just a vague recollection of the fun we had!

   In the set up for this game we could only pick one companion each from our usual crew to come with us to do some investigating of the scene of a werewolf attack... I took Archibald the archer, and Alfie took Malvolio his conjuror.. joining us on the adventure would be four auxiliary companions supplied by the scenario book... I'm not going to give away any spoilers for the scenario - but we had clues to find - a pond to swim... creatures to fight, and a show down with not one, but two Werewolves!! - It was hard fought battle, secrets were revealed and we had great fun! After the game any survivors from the Auxiliary companions are available to recruit in future games... so I think at least one of them will be making an appearance in the future...

We have had quite a busy time after the school holidays with work and school - but we shall be returning to the Shadowdeep soon... I've been making floor maps for the "Burning Light" campaign from the main rulebook.. so that's what we will be doing next...

Frostgrave - The Storm of Undeath

   "The Storm of Undeath" is the fourth scenario in the Thaw of The Lich Lord campaign for Frostgrave. The table for this scenario was set up with a 12" empty space in the centre. The corners of the square were pillars. Randomly placed were six armoured skeletons lying down in the square. There were three treasure tokens in the empty space, and two were placed using the usual rules. The rest of the board was set up as normal... The special rules for this game stated that because of a severe snow storm, line of sight was limited, and all shooting actions had a penalty to succeed. After the end of the third turn we had to roll every turn to see if lightning struck the pillars. The lightning would activate the armoured skeletons, and any wizard standing within the square would get a nice lump of experience points...
  
   We decided to use Ulterior Motive cards... both were secret. Lizzy had "Construct Activation" which meant that if she got to a magic gateway on my side of the table, she could attempt to release a Golem that would join her side, and if it survived the game she could add it to her warband for future games taking the place of a soldier... I had "Rogue Homunculus" which meant that I had to place a zombie in the centre of the table to represent the Homunculus. As soon as anyone got within 6" of it it would be activated, and from then on it would do a magical shooting attack on anyone near enough.. the magical creature would also shout out magical secrets every turn. If I managed to kill it I would get a nice chunk of experience... If anyone from Lizzy's team managed to stay near enough to hear it's secret magical ramblings she would get a small amount of experience every turn...

The table set up at the start of the game...

 

The first few rounds saw both teams creeping towards the centre of the table, Lizzy's spellcasters both kept a bit of a distance, whilst she sent her heavy duty minions in to try and secure some treasures. Both my spellcasters managed to summon Minor Demons, and they went on into the centre to try and hinder Lizzy's team, whilst my Crossbowmen made for a walkway vantage point, and a couple of my guys headed straight for the Rogue Homunculus.. The secret of the homunculus didn't last for long, as Lizzy's team got near him in the second turn and he started shouting out his weird magic and blasting people with spells... a few of Lizzy's guys got in between to try and stop my guys from killing him... one of my Minor Demons headed over to try and do some damage... meanwhile Lizzy's Apprentice had climbed up a walkway on the other side of the square, she took a risk and attempted quite a hard spell - "Planar Tear" - and it was a success! - It opened a rift in the fabric of the universe and my Demon disappeared into it!!

My Wizard approaches the centre of the table, his demon sent before him...
...meanwhile one of my thieves drags off a treasure chest.

Two Minor Demons on the rampage...

Quite a bit of skirmishing went on the centre of the table, and I eventually managed to finish off the humunculus - The lightening struck at the end of round 4. Luckily my Wizard was within the square at the time - so he got his experience points for that! - The armoured skeletons woke up and started attacking...mostly my guys.. and whilst this was going on Lizzy's dudes were sneaking off with the treasures..Meanwhile my two crossbowmen were trying to shoot at anything they could - and didn't manage to hit anything at all!  My other Minor Demon was knocked out... and a wandering vampire appeared just behind my apprentice as the last treasure token was picked up. Vampires can only be damaged by magic weapons - and only my Wizard had one, and he was a long way away. One of my infantrymen was nearby, and together they managed to push back the vampire.. my apprentice ran for it - leaving the infantryman to fend for himself - luckily he managed to keep the vampire engaged and he survived to the end of the game!

The armoured skeletons wake up!

   Lizzy's wizard made it to the magic gate and released the golem... Then Lizzy's team all started making for the board edges, taking the golem, and three treasure tokens with them... It wasn't long before they were all off, and that was the end of this scenario... we both maxed out at 300points of experience each, Lizzy got her golem and 3 treasures...one of her team was injured so has to rest for the next scenario.. I managed to kill the homunculus, my team killed all six of the armoured skeletons, and I ended up with two cool treasures: "The Book of The Rangifer" which means I can recruit a Rangifer as a soldier on my team (more on them in the next scenario)... and a "Drinking horn of healing" which restores 2 health points every time I use an action to drink from it.. two of my soldiers were knocked out, but both made full recoveries.

Lizzy's wizard releases the golem.

My rubbish crossbowmen looking down on the centre of the table...

Frostgrave - Loot the cart

"Loot the cart" is the third scenario in the Thaw of the Lich Lord campaign for Frostgrave.
   Guarding a broken cart in the centre of the board are four Death Cultists. In the cart are four treasure tokens.. The Death cultists are waiting for reinforcements. At the end of the third turn a gang of four ghouls will turn up...perhaps to lend a hand with cart maintenance? Two other treasures were placed normally on the board.

   We decided to use Ulterior motive cards. I had "Ice storm" which meant that at the end of turn four there would be a deadly blast of icy weather... if one of my spellcasters was standing on a special trap door at least halfway across the table, then they and anyone within 12" of them would be safe from the icy attack... Lizzy drew "Galvanize" which involved getting two of her figures in contact with a runic stone and a magic gateway 10" away from each other and completing a magic ritual to empower one of her figures with a deadly fighting ability.

Table set up at the beginning of the game

Death Cultists guarding their broken cart full of treasures..

   So after the disaster for my last team in scenario two, I decided to try and play things a bit more cautiously with my new (very similar) level zero Summoner... My Wizard plus a couple of Infantry men and a thief headed off up the right hand edge of the board (moving towards my secret trapdoor objective)... my Apprentice plus a thief and a couple of thugs started heading towards the broken cart, and my two crossbowmen made for some steps up onto a walkway that would provide a good views of the centre of the table and hopefully a good spot for a bit of shooting.
   Lizzy's team also moved in groups from her starting edge towards the middle of the board.. two of her guys split off from the rest - one heading up some stairs on the opposite end of the walkway my crossbowmen were going up...and the other towards the treasure that was nearest her end of the table...

 

   The next round saw my Wizard and Apprentice attempting to summon Demons... They both succeeded,  my Apprentice summoned an Imp, and my Wizard damaged his health by two points to empower his spell and summon a Minor Demon. My crossbowmen moved onto the walkway over looking the Death cultists and failed to hit them with their crossbows.

   Lizzy's team crept more towards the centre of the board, her guy on the stairs moved nearer, and hid out of line of sight of my crossbowmen...and one of her team picked up a treasure...at this point a giant rat appeared in the middle of my starting edge...

 

Giant Rat attack!!

    My wizard maneuvered nearer to his trapdoor objective whilst sending the minor demon to take on one of the Death cultists. One of my thieves picked up the treasure token nearest to my board edge. This was when a couple of Snakemen turned up behind Lizzy's team and made a beeline for her slow moving guy carrying the treasure... Snakemen are quite nasty as they have poisoned weapons and if you take any damage from them at all you are "wounded" (losing one of your two actions). A bunch of Lizzy's guys turned around and ran to help fight off the Serpent dudes... They succeeded, but one of her team was knocked out, and two were wounded in the process...
   Meanwhile my apprentice's Imp killed the giant rat, my two crossbowmen failed to hit anything again, and my thief dragged his treasure nearer to the board edge whilst trying to keep out of sight of everyone... and then at the end of the third round, four Ghouls arrived on the right hand side (my right) just behind where my Wizard and my Infantry men were...

Lizzy's warband struggling to fight off a pair of Serpent Men...

Some of Lizzy's mob moving in towards the treasures on the cart...

 Lizzy's soldier on the walkway ran and engaged one of my crossbowmen, some minor scuffling ensued around the broken cart... my Imp died, and so did a couple of the Death Cultists... My Infantrymen positioned themselves between the reinforcement ghouls and my Wizard, and my Wizard moved onto his target trapdoor. One of Lizzy's dudes managed to pick up a treasure from the broken cart...just at this point three more ghouls turned up on the same edge where the giant rat came from earlier... The reinforcement ghouls surrounded my two Infantrymen - reducing them to 1 and 2 health respectively. Then it was the end of round four, which meant I had to reveal my secret objective and resolve the effects of the Ice Storm! Not much happened damage wise - apart from the last Death Cultist being finished off by a hail of ice... but then the three remaining treasure tokens were caught up by the wind and randomly moved 10" away from the broken cart...
  

A pair of terrible shots overlooking the chaos...

   There was a mad scramble for the treasures - whilst one of my crossbowmen dropped down from his perch to try and secure one of them, a melee erupted over one of the others - resulting in one of Lizzy's guys getting knocked out by my Wizard - then my Wizard getting knocked out by one of Lizzy's dudes (so much for being cautious!!) and then my thief running off with the treasure. Both my crossbowmen were then finished off by the remaining members of Lizzy's team... One of my Infantry men was knocked out by the ghoul gang...and then making his final stand, my other infantryman who was down to only one health point, managed - in a frenzy of desperate two handed skull smashing, to kill all four ghouls...and then limp off the table....

Minor Demon holding off the ghouls!

My wounded Infantryman down to 1 health point faces off with the final ghoul...

   So in the end we managed to secure three treasure tokens each... Lizzy had two casualties, and I had six including my wizard... this time they all recovered unscathed apart from one of my crossbowmen who died. Unfortunately Lizzy didn't manage to complete her Ulterior Motive this time, but she got over 200xp and some interesting stuff... One of the treasures I got was very cool - a "Vampire Blade" which heals the wielder a couple of health points when it causes damage to living opponents... my Wizard will be rocking that in the next scenario! I managed to get enough xp to go up to level 3... so that was great!
  I didn't end up being that cautious in the end - but it all turned out ok this time....luckily!!

Frostgrave - Battle on the River

"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...

 

 

 

Warhammer Underworlds - Godsworn Hunt

 

The Godsworn Hunt are apparently a Chaos faction in the Warhammer universe. I don't know much about all that, and I decided to paint my latest group of miniatures for Warhammer Underworlds as barbarians from the frozen north. It's a shame that Games Workshop miniatures are now so large in scale compared to most other manufacturers - so I won't be using them in any other games. However - they are very nice models, and lovely to paint.