The Necromancer's Tower

So Snake-eyes and Steedo came over for a game, so I decided that it would be another go with Sellswords and Spellslingers! As our second game we chose the EXPERT scenario The Necromancer's Tower for a number of reasons:

1 - I didn't have any goblins (or lizard men or ratmen) available for some of the others.

2 - Steedo is still scared from the beating he got from the Orcs last time out. 

3 - I did have plenty of Skellies and stuff.

After the last game Steedo decided to go with 2 characters a Brute (Brutus) and a Rogue (Jackal). Snake-eyes followed suit with a Fighter and a Wizard - named after passed D&D characters ( but I can't remember the names at the moment). I continued with my warband I started in the previous game with a replacement Fighter - Brunhilda. 

TL - initial set up, TR - my warband advancing towards the tower - I should point out Snake-eyes had started out very well lots of successful activations, only for Brunhilda to fail all three of her activations  - getting caught in a trap and bringing a whole load of Skellies down on Snake-eyes Wizard ... Who did a cracking job of killing them. 

BL - The parties close in on the tower, BR - Snake-eyes Fighter has smashed down the door to the tower to find it filled with Skellies and set off the Necromancer firing energy bolts on the party ... and levatate beer out of the top of the tower!

TL - Jackal is surrounded by ghouls and put out of action, meanwhile the party, well mainly Brutus fought through the Skellies and took on the Necromancer. The most challenging part was getting through the door! With Snake-eyes fighter tripping twice I think. TR - the wizard is surrounded and taken down. BL/BR - the Necromancer is down and the party start exiting the tower. With the Necromancer we had to roll for each Skellie a 1 improved them, 2 or 3 did nothing and a 4 they crumble to dust.... So what does Snake- eyes roll! 

Once we killed the Necromancer we decided that no more Skelllies could be placed (no power to animate them) once the last Skellie was dead the ghouls would lose interest and run away. Brunhilda with her Whirlwind of Death taking out a whole load - but unfortunately Woody the woodsman from my gang was killed ..... All the other characters put out of action will be back for the next game.

Another good game of Sellswords and Spellslingers - Steedo and Snake-eyes parties are complete with some silver, spells, scrolls, potions and 8XP to spend. I have to created a new ranger type for my party (and I got some of the above). RIP Woody ....

The game was very tense - it went from this seems easy to we might not make it. I think we were lucky with how the cards came out - very few Wandering Monsters came out until the end so the ghouls did have much of an impact. The Skellies seemed to be rather easy to kill. 

Hopefully another game soon.

Morts

The Worm Hunts ....

Steedo came over and we created a warband each for a game of Frostgrave. Steedo chose a Chronomancer, a barbarian, 2 infantrymen and 2 crossbow men. While I picked Sigilist 2 archers and 2 men at arms - using my Sea Elf team as a theme. 

We used the 3x3 mat - but in future I plan to play 1 vs 1 games on a 2x2 mat to be more intense....

The scenario was the Worm Hunts. 

The dice rolling was dire for both teams when it came to casting spells - I think we managed 6 successful casts between us - however my rolling was spectacularly bad. I don't think that I inflicted a single point of damage against Steedo's warband or the monster. 

The game started ok for me with a crafty use of telekinesis spell, but from then it went down hill. Steedo's crossbow man killed off one of my archers. Then the worm appeared next to my wizard ... To be fair Steedo did inflict significant damage on the worm - but it still managed to "kill" my wizard and a man at arms, before Steedo killed it for 100XP. While this was going on Steedo managed to "kill" my other archer!

I found this a really tough game - a bit like Steedo's last game of Frostgrave. There was literally nothing going right and the dice were against me and once I was behind I couldn't match the numbers in Steedo's warband. I did try 3 different dice to try and change my luck.... But it didn't. 

We only had one monster - the worm arrive in the scenario, a few more would have helped ... If they were on Steedo's side of the table. The crossbows extra damage was very helpful to Steedo damaging my warband and the worm. 

We will play again and upgrade the warbands - my wizard only has a permanent injury -1 on movement, but my magic item is boots of speed or something. Unfortunately Steedo has more to spend so it will be a another tough day at the table. 

I have another set of scenarios I hope to use with the rest of the collective. 

Morts

Dragon Guard and Adventurers!

Well after a bit of effort I managed to finish off the Dragon Guard! Hopefully the scale metal armour is mirrored by the leather scale on the crossbow men. A tough little band!

Some general adventurers who had been laying around for years ......

A Ranger/Assassin and the barbarian - the Mullet! And a couple of Viking types. 

A bit of varnish and basing and they will be wandering around in Sellswords and Frostgrave. 

Started some more wizards!

Morts

On the painting table.

Having played Sellswords and Spellslingers recently I though I should paint (read finish off) a few more minis for RPGs and similar things like Frostgrave.

Top pictures show the final recruit to my Sea Elf "Seals" squad, who apart from varnish and basing is finished. I like the idea of "themed" warband said for Frostgrave (Song of Blades and Sellswords). I reckon 6 figures gives a good base for the group.

The bottom pictures show WIP on the Dragon Guard with their supporting crossbow men (supplied from fireforge plastics), again I think these will make a nice little basis for a warband. The others are "oldies" but goodies from the Citadel Runequest range and others to make up more generic warband - but themed on Runequest/Greek or Barbarian/Vikings. Hopefully I'll get these finished off before the end of the summer holidays. 

Morts

Through the Badlands - Sellwords and Spellslingers

DK, Steedo and myself got together to play the first scenario in the Sellswords and Spellslingers book. 

This was also an opportunity to use the table with minis for the first time. 

The table is set ....

We all produced parties of three PCs - well Steedo picked the dependant negative trait so he ended up with 4! Basically we all had a wizard of sorts and a couple of fighters types as bodyguards. 

The initial set (TL) up for this game put a lot of foes on the table! And mainly on Steedo's side of the board. TR shows the situation after the first turn - which involved some spectacularly poor dice roll on the PCs part, so plenty of wounds taken and very little movement across the Badlands! This could be a long night! DKs wizard has been taken out and is in a coma! No fire balls from him then. 

We also realised that we had taken a lot of anti-missile defence, but the Orcs weren't throwing or shooting anything - d'oh.

BL - more bloody Trolls and my party all have 2 hits out of there 3! But finally getting some hits. This was where the "free disengage" on my "weak" Spellreader came in very useful as she escaped a Troll. 

BR - Steedo has had a PC put out of action, but his leader figure has gone back and killed a troll to rescue him. His Spellcaster has also gone back to rescue her dependant - very in character. There must be some XPs for this ......

So some final shots of the game - mainly of Steedo's party. TL the Spellcaster has cast Deathcloud and taken out two hordes of Orcs, as she runs to retrieve her child. Meanwhile Steedo's other characters has been cut down - who's going to rescue them? 

TR she reached the child - who recovered a bit -2 on all rolls only to put out of action by an ambushing Orc - tears in the eyes yet? 

Bottom picture - the child injured can't carry his parent (or anyone else from the party) makes a break to the northern edge..... Successfully fights off one Orc, only to be hacked down by another ... Cue the sad music and tears!

To be fair pretty cinematic - good roleplaying Steedo. 

I didn't take mainly pictures as we were having fun and a laugh at the poor dice rolling and desperate situation the parties (mainly Steedo's ) were finding themselves in. 

But to summarise DK managed to pick up his Wizard and carry him off the board, earning 4XPs for the scenario and then 1XP for his Dwarf (carrying the Wiz off) and 1XP for his Elf for killing a monster. All the party off well done DK. 

My party left their fighter to die and just legged it off the board 4XP, so I have create a new character.

Steedo with his excellent roleplaying, got no one off the board, his party are either slaves to the Orcs or lunch (as is one of my characters). He gets nothing, apart from the joy of creating a new party.

The scenario is tough - the Orcs were on us from the start and we would have been better off with just a pair of characters as the number of rolls we were making meant we were making the game harder with each failure to activate. But it was fun, which is the most important thing about play a game. 

Hopefully to the table again soon. 

 

Morts

Sellwords and Spellslingers - something new.

Well I've now sorted out the cards for Sellswords and Spellslingers. 

Must resist buy Kobolds - although Reaper Minis do some nice cheap ones in the Bones range. 

I was going to laminate the cards, but I haven't printed the backs (yet) and it would have been a bit of a pain to do. Cutting the cards out was a faff to do and having to do it 3 times for laminating (front, back and laminate version). So I bought sleeves which means I can put the backs in at a later date. 

One thing I wish I'd done was print on better quality paper as the stuff I have used is a little thin and almost see through. 

The plan is to get this to the table soon for a trial game. Sellswords and Spellslingers character generation is similar to Rogue Stars (not surprising really as the same author), but the games are co-operative and  competitive respectively. They also both scratch the RPG itch like Frostgrave. Both Rogue Stars and Frostgrave need to get to a table soon .... 

Hopefully a game report in the next week. 

Morts

Making the games table - Part 2

So the cream paint and varnish went on. A little mixing of wood dye so that the new wood didn't stand out too much. Not looking too bad. But I did hav a couple of issues at this point - when I had reattached the top to the base I managed to split one of the middle edges a bit when flipping the table. Which I compounded when I then tacked the edge back on .... Aggghhhh again! If I can get a short piece of angle edging I might try to replace that bit.

The table in situ and with new mat on - only one leaf up. Looking good - there are a few problems with the table in that size wise it is a bit small for "standard wargames" - being 3ft by 5ft (90cm by 153cm) fully extended rather than the usual 4ft by 6ft (120cm by 180cm). This will only really effect Kings of War and Starship Troopers, as I play Maurice, DBA etc on smaller boards anyway - many newer games are being played on a smaller footprint now. 

DK came over to christen the "new" table (well he came over for a game) - I was hoping to get a minis game on the table, but due to the time spent reassembling the table, doing other chores (watering the pots, walking the dog etc,), I wasn't ready to set up a game. So after a pleasant chat we managed a couple of games of Iron Curtain (2 wins to me) and a play of Odin's Ravens (another win to me). 

I was rather nice to get these to the table, as we don't do many two player sessions anymore or any sessions at the moment. I like these games.

We also discussed GW's new Kill Team as a game for the group to invest in, and the possibility of splitting the cost - as Starship Troopers Mobile Infantry could be pressganged into service as proxies for Imperial Guard. 

Another thought I had was weather (like the better half's book club) pick a day in the month to meet up and play a game(s) - like the first/second Friday of the month .... Obviously this wouldn't preclude other sessions but would make things more regular. The collective will need to meet and discuss and check with other halves. Just a thought. 

Morts