Let's chill with: FROSTGRAVE

I've been searching for some scenery options: I've actually got quite a few small pieces, so I thought I might mount a few bits together on some of those flat GW bases to make little dioramas. Finally give me something to use the pot of modelling gravel I've saved for years on.

Anyway, it'd still be nice to get one or two big pieces, but they tend to be expensive. Then I found this company which makes plastic scenery kits:

www.amera.co.uk/product.php?range=f

They're huge, look fantastic, and cheap: almost every piece under £10. They also do textured plastic sheets, which is another fine way of making good bases for models and scenery.

I'd still like a mat to play on, but there seems no way around that expense - even second-hand ones fetch nearly-new prices. Might just try and buy a big square of white or grey fabric.

Going to have a rummage in the loft at the weekend, see if I can find some old figures to make statues out of. I'd forgotten how much fun it is to make stuff - much more so than painting it.

Tonight was my second match against my friend. He built and upgraded a base, allowing him to field up to 12 units, 1 of which was a hound. I had the normal full compliment of 10 units on the board, including my newly acquired barbarian, Crom.

Right out of the gate, Fabulous Melchor earned his name, summoning a Minor Demon to join the gang. It was nice to have a meat shield that didn't affect my bottom line. Stinky Daryl helped the cause by summoning an Imp that caused a bit of trouble. My side actually starting knocking his guys out pretty handily, and then the tide started to turn. We ended up with several rogue creatures on the board, including a werewolf that harassed one of his archers. I lost a few guys, including Stinky Daryl. Hopefully he recovers. I ended up with a major victory, getting 4 treasures off the board, to his 2.

Unfortunately my friend didn't have as much fun this time, mainly due to the fickle nature of the D20. It hurt him tonight more than it helped him, but that is the way it goes. He says he will give it a 3rd attempt, so hopefully he has a good time with that one because I really want to keep going. Especially since I just negotiated the purchase of some Dwarven Forge dungeon tiles!

Last night I picked up some Valhallan Blizzard. They had a fully painted Warscryer Citadel, and if I wasn't picking up a shit ton of dwarven forge today, I would have bought a kit.

That thing is so cool.

My vac-formed scenery arrived yesterday. It's HUGE.



That's a 28mm miniature in the middle there. That piece cost £8. I've got two others, a bit smaller, and between them and the other bits and bobs I've got, that should be enough to get going. No idea where I can possibly store it when it's not in use, however.

The only issue with the vac scenery is that it's hollow. That's not a problem for a piece like the one in the photo but I've also got a chapel walls ruin that's convex on one side and concave on the other, which looks a bit weird. Won't look so bad when it's painted but I'm dreading painting this up. Need some much bigger brushes!

Still want to make some statues with some of my old, worn metal figures, but I don't know what to use as a plinth. Ideas welcome.

Now I just need a gaming surface. Mats still seem too expensive.

Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings chess pieces work pretty well.

For plinths I picked up some cake decorating columns. There are a number of different sizes you can choose from.

Is that Amera? I thought about trying some of their stuff but then I kind of felt like it would be too much work. I think I would fill that up with some kind of spray foam or something? Pete probably has some techniques for it. Painting that stuff ought to be easy- drybrush, drybrush, drybrush. Keep layering those grays. And yes, use a BIG brush. GW makes a nice XL drybrush.

I've seen folks use juice bottle caps and spools as pedestals.

So my son has REALLY gotten into Frostgrave. I think he likes it more than Warhammer or any of the other miniatures stuff we've done. He drew up his own warband, he has a Necromancer named Skulleye and an apprenticed called Dark Scar. They lead a band of cultists that include members such as the thugs James, Steve, and Bats ("because he has a bat"). They also have a warhound named Woofer, and there is a Knight called Blades. Shooter is the Archer.

We played a little basic game a few days ago, it was a ton of fun. He got to raise zombies and do all that kind of stuff, which he dug. James got KO'd unfortunately, but he managed to take out a couple of my guys as well. I'm playing a Thaumaturgist, and I pulled off a total dick move by using Teleport to beam up to the Dragonfate Dais on top of a central hill, and then down again, and then off the board. We had a Snow Troll attack, which was a lot of fun, and I just about fried my Apprentice (Weemo the Unsteady) failing spell after spell. I also managed to use an Invisibility Potion to get my Thief way deep and run off with a treasure from his side of the board.

I have to say, the combination of the GW Arcane Ruins and the Osgilliath ruins are just PERFECT for Frostgrave...and really quite cost-effective. You could get those two sets and some scatter and you're good on a 3x3 board.

I've got my Barbarian gang all painted, just need to dump some Valhallan Snow on them. It is really refreshing to paint such simple figures...I'm NOT going all out on painting them, I just want simple, tabletop finishes on them. I don't feel like the level of detail is worth trying to do the whole Citadel method on. I washed the Barbarians and I was like "you know what, I don't think I'm even going to highlight these" because I was happy with how they looked.

Still thinking about how to do the Warscryer Citadel...I kind of want to do the rock parts like a giant block of ice, just not sure how to accomplish that.

Oh, I also got my Ice Toads from that dude in the UK. They look GREAT. Very cool figures, and pretty reasonably priced.

Are the LotR chess sets cheap to pick up?

FWIW, the Ruins of Osgilliath set comes with like 6 statues, about like those chess pieces really.

Michael Barnes wrote: Is that Amera? I thought about trying some of their stuff but then I kind of felt like it would be too much work. I think I would fill that up with some kind of spray foam or something? Pete probably has some techniques for it. Painting that stuff ought to be easy- drybrush, drybrush, drybrush. Keep layering those grays. And yes, use a BIG brush. GW makes a nice XL drybrush.

Yes, it's Amera. Seems less work to me that a bunch of kit ruins, and a whole lot less expensive.

I'm not buying an extra brush for it - going to hunt through the kids' brushes collection and see if I can find one that's a size which will fit into the Eschin Gray pot ... but only just.

Colorcrayons wrote: Are the LotR chess sets cheap to pick up?

$1.99 at Goodwill.

Tonight the campaign continued. We did our first scenario instead of doing the standard game. We chose Complex Labyrinth, which is basically a normal scenario except that the treasures are held by "columns" that you have to fight. Each treasure is worth +20 gc and if your wizard fights a column personally, he gets +50xp.

Fabulous Melchor immediately got into it with a column, and the column beat his ass for 5 damage. A column beat up the enemy wizard as well. Things went back and forth like this for a while, with my treasure hunter easily grabbing a treasure and getting off of the board. A large melee erupted in the center dungeon, and my inept apprentice, Stinky Daryl, failed to cast a single spell. However, his fists were fury, and he laid out 2 enemies, including a Knight.

The defining moment was when my barbarian, Crom, actually got base to base with the enemy wizard and one-shotted him. My opponent claims that if his wizard has permanent damage, we are starting a new campaign.

As a side note, I have never rolled so many <5 rolls in my life. Fucking d20.

Wow.... had my worst session yet. But it's all good, my opponent really needed a win so he could stay in the game.

On turn 2, Fabulous Melchor decided it would be a good idea to summon a demon. He promptly rolled a 1, summoning a minor demon who immediately attacked him and fucked his shit up. Melchor eventually managed to get away long enough to drink a potion, while a scrub archer finished off the demon.

Five members of my warband went down, and are waiting for their injury rolls.

Fabulous Melchor brought the pain tonight. This was our first game using Ulterior Motives. I had to kill a specific member of his warband, and he had to kill a zombie. He achieved his mission, and ran his cowardly fighter off the board so I couldn't kill him. Stinky Daryl, the lowly apprentice, actually fired an elemental bolt into the enemy wizard, frying him extra crispy. That was sweet. Less sweet was when his archer put down my barbarian, Crom. Hopefully his survival roll goes well.

The campaign into the Frozen City continued tonight. It was a pitched battle, with one particular treasure costing two lives, and it still remained on the board when we had to call it for time. I cast a record 6 spells, including TWO castings of Planar Walk. That is a really cool spell but hard to achieve. In the end, the battle was mostly a draw, but much fun was had.