Frostgrave: the Giant

 Introduction

Among my purchases at Carronade 2021 was a model giant; part of the Reaper "Bones" range.  I stated at the time that I intended to paint him up for use in games of Frostgrave.  Well, I finished this model a few weeks ago and have finally managed to find enough time & enthusiasm to post a quick article, so here he is!

The Frost Giant

I suppose I could have painted this model in human flesh tones - probably as a pale Caucasian rather than anything else.  However, I really wanted to mark him out as something different - a creature firmly rooted in the icy wastes.  To emphasis this, I chose a cold, pale blue for the skin and an even paler blue for his extensive beard and hair.

As a warm contrast (and to avoid iron), I used gold, brass and bronze for the metal parts of the giant's armour and weapons.  The non-metallic parts of his equipment are a dark grey.

Finally, the furs he wears around his shoulders and boots are also very pale.  I think the paint I used for the middle highlight (i.e. the one which adds most of the colour) was called "linen" or something like that.  Whatever it's name, it is a very pale brown with just the slightest hint of green in it.

So, just how "giant" is this model (I hesitate to call it a miniature, because it really isn't - at least when compared to most of my other figures)?  Well, here's a photograph of the frost giant alongside a 28mm human.

As you can see, he's maybe 2.5 or 3 times taller than a man; also this giant is very solidly built.  I'm really glad that this is a plastic (PVC?) model, as if he were metal then the figure's weight would be substantial!

Conclusion

I've wanted to have a frost giant in my collection for some time.  Well, now I've got one!  The model was relatively cheap and (I think) painted up nicely, with only a slight bend in the shaft of his axe to hint at the soft plastic material.  He'll do nicely!

Frostgrave: Assorted Figures

 Introduction

It's been a strange year (and a bit).  We've not been able to go out much because of the various lock downs and so haven't really played any games.  However, this has left a lot of time for painting.

I've been powering through a number of projects and individual figures, but I just realised that many of my recent completions are models for Frostgrave.  It makes sense to document them all together, so here we go.

Last of the old GW Wizards

When I started looking for miniatures with which to play Frostgrave (back in 2015!), I remembered that I had a decade-old collection of Games Workshop plastic wizards.  I re-based and finished painting seven of them (here: http://colgar6.blogspot.com/2015/11/frostgrave-wizards.html), but at the time I couldn't find the 8th model in the set - the Dark Elf sorceress.

Well, she finally came to light and so I've re-based this model for the frozen city.  Considering how long ago I actually painted this figure, I think it's help up well.  Mind you, I can't help thinking that her choice of clothing is not optimal for an icy wasteland.  Maybe the cold never bothered her anyway?

The Old Wolf

This is another old (ancient!) Games Workshop model.  It's one of the figures I prepared for Frostgrave some 5 or 6 years ago, but the snow effect on its base had aged very badly.  Oddly, most of the models I have prepared at that time or since are just fine, but this and maybe one other were yellowing visibly.

I painted over the discoloured parts of the base with white, then used a mixture of white paint and glue to stick down some "realistic" model snow (instead of the bicarbonate of soda I had used previously).  Because of the over-coverage to hide all trace of the yellowing, this is now the snowiest base in my collection!

Medium Constructs

For some time, I have been searching for medium constructs for Frostgrave.  There are plenty of large models of mechanical men, golems and the like and I have a selection of these from various manufactures already (see here and here).  However, I wanted some man-sized items as well.

I was delighted when I came across this set of "Magical Automata" from Midlam Miniatures.  These figures are available individually and I don't really need four, but I just love them!

Painting the grain in the wood was not much fun, but I think it has worked better than I had hoped.  Mind you, the models have no texture on these "wooden" parts and so they could be painted differently (as iron, ceramic or anything else you can imagine).

Cultists

As part of a recent "NickStarter" campaign from North Star, I received a bonus sprue of official Frostgrave cultists.  It seemed appropriate to build them (note that I've only made 4 of the 5 models on the sprue), though there's nothing particularly different or unique to distinguish them from anybody else's cultists.

I've finished the cultists with a brown theme.  This helps to identify them as a coherent group and also separates them from my other Frostgrave figures, none of whom are predominantly brown.

The Wandering Mage

Here's another North Star "freebie", recently finished.  She's a somewhat generic wizard or apprentice, though I imagine that the figure could also be used as a thief, healer or pretty much anything else that isn't combat-oriented.

Mind you, now that I look at the model again I remember I had intended to paint the robe with classic wizard's stars and moons to identify her as a wizard - but I forgot.  Hmm, is the figure truly finished?  Should I go back and add the intended detail?  I'm not sure.

Gnolls

Another part of the recent "NickStarter" was a sprue of Gnolls (hyena men).  Again, these seemed useful for Frostgrave and so I've completed all five figures.  This time they're painted in a dark grey or black theme, though there are splashes of other colours from their mismatched assortment of clothing and equipment.  Gnolls should be very useful as wandering monsters, or even as hirelings for the less scrupulous wizards.

Conclusion

That's all for now!  I think this pretty much cleans out my stash of unpainted models for Frostgrave, though no doubt I'll find a few more if I look properly through my storage.  And there's always the possibility that I might buy further models in the future...

Zomtober 2017, Week 2

<== Week 1 is this way

Introduction

I've had to plan ahead for this article, since it's school holiday time here and some of the family (including myself) are away from home.  So if this post appears on the second Sunday of October, 2017 then I'll have set up the schedule properly for my Zomtober entry.  Otherwise you won't see it until much later and I'll be annoyed with the technology...

Ice & Snow

This zombie/survivor duel is a bit of a departure for me.  Always in the past, I've presented modern, Western figures for my Zomtober articles.  However, just this once, I have a medieval setting instead.

The story goes something like this: a lost traveller is battling his way through a snowstorm in an attempt to find shelter.  It's growing dark and the wind is howling; flurries of snow are swirling all around.  The man sees movement in his peripheral vision; is it just the wind howling or is it something more sinister?  He draws his sword hurriedly and calls out "Who goes there?"

Both of these models are official figures for Frostgrave, in case you hadn't already guessed.  The swordsman is a plastic henchman; he's the first miniature that I have completed for my "red" warband.  The "blue" warband was finished quite some time ago and can be seen here: Blue Warband.

The zombie is one of the special objectives from the Ulterior Motives expansion.  All the other objective pieces are static terrain; I described them here: Ulterior Motives.

Personally, I like the swordsman a lot.  The Frostgrave plastic kits are very adaptable and can be built into some excellent models.
I'm less certain about the zombie; the figure isn't particularly well sculpted or cast.  It's acceptable, just not a really good model.

So, who will win this fight?  On the face of it, the swordsman should be able to chop the zombie into little chunks quite easily.  But what if he's cold and tired?  His sword might slip in his chilled fingers, or his boot fail to grip on a patch of ice.

Even if he wins this encounter, he might lose all sense of direction during the melee and end up wandering until he drops from exhaustion.  And what if the zombie isn't alone; there might be further horrors lurking in the snowstorm...

This way for week 3 ==>

Frostgrave: Ulterior Motives Terrain

Introduction

It's been a while since I posted anything about Frostgrave.  I haven't abandoned the game; it's just that other things have been higher up the priority list for a while.  However, here's some stuff...

A little while ago, the "Ulterior Motives" expansion was released for Frostgrave.  This is a set of cards that list a hidden agenda for a wizard and his entourage; one card is dealt to each player at the start of a game.  Each card is keyed to a location (so, "search the ancient tomb for a relic") and gives bonuses to the wizard who achieves that goal.  To make it harder for opponents to guess the task, the cards also list a further set of locations to be placed as decoys; only the player who holds a card will know which is which.

To mark the release of this expansion, North Star Miniatures produced suitable models for all the Ulterior Motives pieces; these are the items I will describe in the rest of this article.

The Statue

This is a resin model of an old statue.  I've done a very simple paint job on it; just an undercoat and wash on the stonework.  However, the base has been imprinted from the Basius II "Dungeon" pad before the statue was stuck to it; this makes it slightly more interesting.

The Tomb

The sarcophagus is another model of a piece of masonry, cast in resin.  It has a reclining figure carved onto the lid and runes & other decoration around the base.  This time, I built the flagstones on the base from rectangles of thin card.  Since it's (likely to be) indoors, I didn't even use any grass, snow or non-stone colours for details; it's probably one of the quickest models I've ever painted!

The Trapdoor

The trapdoor is quite a small piece, so I've placed it on a larger base.  Once again, the base was pressed from green stuff using a Basius II pad.

When the green stuff had set a bit but was still somewhat malleable, I cut out a square to fit the trapdoor, taking care to preserve some of the chain which was snaking across the floor.  This short length of chain was then draped over the edge of the trapdoor and worked into position; I think it looks fairly seamless!  Though it does beg the question of why a trapdoor needs to be opened with a long length of chain, presumably from quite a long way away?

The Standing Stone

The menhir/standing stone is another simple resin block, though this time with carvings on both sides of it.  As with the previous items, I based it for stability.  The base was then decorated with grit, snow and grass.

The Mystic Circle

This resin piece is a thin circle of flat, carved stones.  I've placed it on a much larger base (from some ruined Games Workshop model that my son acquired from a schoolfriend) and added extra, smaller stone disks to make a path leading to the main item.

I tried to paint each of the segments of the mystic circle as if they were glowing in different colours.  This didn't really work the way I had hoped; the colours are visible but really don't look as if they are magical lights.

The Crater

The Ulterior Motives crater is a simple, small crater - pretty much exactly what you might expect.  I decided that it was a little bit smaller than I wished, so I mounted it on a large disk of MDF.  Filler was then used to blend the resin piece with the base.  Painting was very easy: just earth/dirt colours.  Some snow was added around the edge to help blend in with the gaming table.

The Portal

This strange, free-standing archway took longer to build and paint than any of the other pieces in the collection.  Why?

Well, it took longer to build because the back was just flat resin; I smoothed this off and added extra buttresses and stonework detail (not visible in this picture).

The portal took longer to paint because I decided to try painting the stonework as marble.  I also tried to make the runes above the arch glow in a strange, blue colour.  I'm reasonably happy with the result, though not completely delighted.

I also spent time wondering whether I should try to model some type of shimmering effect in the doorway itself, to hint at the magical nature of the doorway.  Possibly this could be done with translucent plastic painted with a swirling pattern of some colour?  In the end I felt that this would need to be done exceptionally well or else it would just look naff, so I decided not to do it.

All Together

Here are all the Ulterior Motives pieces together.  Note that I've extended/enhanced each of these, so they are all quite a lot bigger than the simple resin parts.

Some of you may know that there are 8 Ulterior Motives items altogether.  I've only shown 7 here, so what's happened to the last one?  Well, the 8th item is a zombie rather than a terrain piece and frankly I don't think it's the best model of a zombie that I've ever seen.  I will paint it up and use it; you'll hear about it in a future post - but not yet (I have a special idea for it).

Finally, you may remember that I had acquired several MDF entry tickets when visiting the Carronade show in 2016 and 2017.  At the time, I remarked that I really ought to use these pieces as bases for something, but couldn't quite work out what.  Well, they were perfect for this job, so 4 of the Ulterior Motives terrain pieces are mounted on "Carronade" bases!

Frostgrave: Small Demons

Introduction

It's strange: I'm frantically busy building and painting models, as well as working, looking after the family &c, but I just don't seem to have much time for blogging these days.  I want to give more attention to blogs - both my own and those of other hobbyists - but there aren't enough hours in the day for everything I'd like to do.  Oh well, I'll just need to keep things in perspective: many people in this world have far worse problems than I do...

Frostgrave Imps

I haven't written about it much recently, but that doesn't mean that I have given up on Frostgrave!  Here are some new monsters I painted up recently.

Demons in Frostgrave come in 3 different sizes: man-sized, smaller than a man and larger than a man.  In the latter category, I am already quite well provided, with a couple of Reaper Bones models: http://colgar6.blogspot.co.uk/2015/11/frostgrave-demon-bones.html .  I have used one of these older models as a regular, man-sized demon before, but he/she/it is really a bit big for that.

As part of my Christmas present to myself last December, I bought a Mantic "crazy box".  This is a random assortment of models, but at a much cheaper price than if they were bought at list price.  You pays you money and takes your chances...

On this occasion, one of the items in my crazy box was a sprue of hard plastic "Lower Abyssals"; classic demons with goat's feet, horns and a tail.  Excellent - I built up a pair of these to act as my man-sized demons in Frostgrave.

The sprue has (from memory) 5 of these demons on it, so I could build another three if I wanted.  However, just the two will do for now.

As well as the man-sized demons, each Lower Abyssal sprue has a few much smaller creatures on it.  These will make excellent Imps, I think.

The Imps are quite small figures and are probably a little bit fragile - especially the winged one, who is only touching the ground with one foot.  We'll just have to be careful with them.

Conclusion

I would never have thought to look in the Mantic catalogue for such creatures, but I think they'll work very well.  I believe that the same faction (for Kings of War) has larger creatures of a similar form as well.  Those would make excellent large demons for Frostgrave, if I was so minded.

Overall, I'm very pleased with these models apart perhaps from the Imp with the staff.  The varnish on that model has frosted slightly - though I suppose you might just say that the creature was caught in a snowstorm and being slowly encased in ice.!

Let it Snow...

Introduction

Earlier this year, I completed some stepped pyramids as scenery for my games.  So far, they've been used exactly once in an arid setting (Doctor Who and the Pyramids of Venus), but hopefully that will change soon.

Even at the time I made them, I intended the pyramids to be used in multiple different types of terrain, such as in frozen wastelands and steaming jungles.  However, the bare masonry wouldn't look quite right anywhere other than a desert, would it?

Snowdrifts

Fortunately, I still had a large number of offcuts of the blue polystyrene from when the pyramids were built.  Even better, the edges of these scraps were already cut to the same angle as the sloping sides of the models.

It was a simple matter to take my hot wire cutter to the fragments of polystyrene and sculpt them into irregular shapes.  I cut the ends on some of them square so that they could fit against the staircases; the remainder were rounded off all along their lengths.

Once the pieces were cut to size, they were painted white, with a little fine sand added to the paint for texture.  This took rather longer than cutting the pieces out, as I needed several coats of paint and had to wait for each one to dry before applying the next.  Still, it wasn't exactly an onerous task!

Conclusion

Although I haven't used them in a game yet, I think these add-ons should hold in position fairly well.  They are very light, but there's still quite a lot of friction between them and the main building so I don't think they'll be knocked out of position too easily.

The white drifts will allow me to use the pyramids in a snow-and-ice setting.  I'm wondering now if I could do something in this line for jungle?  I could use similar offcuts and paint them brown, then cover them with vegetation.  To look effective, I suspect that such jungle "drifts" would need rather more effort than the piles of snow, but maybe it could work...

Frostgrave: A Diet of Worms!

Introduction

Once again, we had 4 players for a game of Frostgrave.  Steve and his boy came round last Saturday and we ventured into the frozen city once more.  We also played a game of Pulp Alley - more on that another time (i.e. "listen again next week for another exciting installment of...The Adventures of Tarzan, Man of the Jungle!")

Anyway, Frostgrave...

The Worm Hunts

One of the scenarios in the base Frostgrave rulebook is called "The Worm Hunts".  It's basically an excuse to get a giant worm model on the table, though (like many Frostgrave monsters, I think) this isn't quite as terrifying a prospect as it might be.

We were playing with 4 warbands rather than the 2 for which the scenario is designed, so we decided that there would be twice as many treasures as in the basic description - and twice as many worms as well!  Since I only have 1 giant worm model, the second worm would only appear after the first one was slain, if indeed that happened!

The Warbands

Mysterio the Soothsayer

My own warband is led by Mysterio, with assistance from Little Annie.  I'm mostly using my recently-finished "blue" set of Frostgrave miniatures for this group, though Crom (the huge barbarian) and Edric (the halberdier) are from Black Tree Design.  Watch out for Quirrel, the crossbowman.  None of us had used crossbows before, so nobody knew what to expect from him!

Peltar the Goblin

Peltar's group is run by Steve; the warband consists of large numbers of archers and thugs.  They rarely seem to do anything with just one goblin, preferring safety in numbers (or "ganging up", if you prefer).   Oh, they have a pet wolf as well...

Some of the models are mine, but Steve is making progress with his own goblins and wanted to use them for most of the followers.

Baryn the Timeless

Baryn is a chronomancer, run by Steve's son (AH).  His band are a fairly motley and diverse crew; they've recently hired a goblin treasure hunter to replace some previous loss.  He also raised a zombie (not shown here) - just for practice, I think!

The massed archers, the bearskin-wearing barbarian and the yellow knight are worth watching out for during the game.

Ellie's Elementalists

In our last game, my son's wizard ("Malcolm Firestorm") was slain.  Rather than create a new warband, AD chose to promote his apprentice "Ellie" to full wizard status, albeit at somewhat lower rank than the rest of us.  She duly hired an apprentice of her own, who bore a striking resemblance to the deceased wizard.  I wonder if she passed on some of the old master's clothing and effects?  Other than that, her band was somewhat smaller than everyone else's due to a lack of money.

The Game

In the first turn, all the players rushed for the nearest treasure markers and grabbed them.  This was hardly surprising, but it did give a big bonus to the die roll which would determine if a worm appeared.  One such monster duly burst through the frozen soil, just in front of Peltar's goblin warband.  Well, I wasn't too unhappy about that, I can tell you: let it wreak havoc with someone else's followers, not mine!

To counter this, Peltar ordered his wolf to attack the monster.  The faithful mutt did as it was instructed and charged at the worm, snapping and growling.  However, the pet was promptly swallowed (whole!) .  Oh, dear...

Baryn's archers took several long range shots at the worm and wounded it, but didn't manage to kill the beast [hmm, I think I would have just left it for the goblins to deal with, myself!  Maybe AH thought he could kill the beast and claim the experience himself, though].

The coup de grace was administered by Peltar's apprentice with a well-executed grenade spell.  An extravagantly lucky combat roll meant that the enchanted missile didn't just kill the worm, it blew it to pieces!  I hope everyone nearby kept their mouth and eyes closed!

In a small, long range grudge match in the south, Ellie's archers shot at Mysterio's crossbowman.  They all missed, but he didn't...

There were plenty more treasures to be collected, so over the next turn or two all the bands advanced.  Although there were a few squabbles around the edges, for the most part this was surprisingly peaceful.  I guess that no-one wanted to be the first one to stir up any serious trouble!

Baryn and his apprentice had been steadily casting his signature Fast Move spell on all his followers, thus allowing his barbarian to run for the treasure near the felled worm.  2 of Peltar's thugs tried to double-team him, but the unnaturally quick barbarian barely broke a sweat as he carved first one goblin and then the other into little chunks!

Mysterio clashed with the goblins over one of the chests in the forest.  He cast Combat Awareness on Crom the Barbarian and ordered him forward to retrieve the treasure.  When the goblins interfered (and slew the archer standing beside Mysterio), the soothsayer retaliated with several very successful Blinding Light spells.  This put Peltar himself out of the game; all he could do was stagger around and hope not to bump into anything for the rest of the scenario.

Ah, but even more goblins, led by their apprentice, were coming to their boss's aid...

Further off, Little Annie was also successful in blinding an opponent.  Ellie had planned to attack the presumptuous apprentice and assist her bowman, but was distracted by a wandering bear.  Indeed, it took several turns for her to finish off the annoying creature.

However, when Little Annie ran forward to claim her prize, the blinded bowman managed to stumble into her.  Annoyed, she tried to fight him off but was knocked out when he lashed out at the nearby movement [Aargh!  After setting everything up so nicely, to be cheated by fate at the last moment is cruel!]

Back in the centre, another worm erupted in full view of most of the parties.  Once more, Baryn's archers plinked away at it and inflicted some injuries.  Once more, they failed to kill the beast.  Instead, the 100XP for that feat went to Ellie's apprentice, who manoeuvred himself to a position where he could see the creature and then unleashed a ridiculously overpowered Elemental Bolt at it.  Once again, the target was blown to smithereens and everyone close to ground zero was showered in gobbets of worm goo!

Baryn seemed to take this all rather personally.  He charged towards Ellie's apprentice and started batting at him rather ineffectually with his staff.  It didn't take long before some of his followers noticed the fight and came running on Fleet Feet to help their boss.  The red apprentice disappeared beneath a scrum of muscular archers and wasn't seen again.

In the north, the remaining goblins were interrupted from their posturings towards Mysterio by the appearance of a wandering armoured skeleton.  In typical goblin fashion, they rushed it as a mob rather than risk individual combat.  The undead knight couldn't handle the massed attack; it was quickly reduced to small fragments of bone.

Elsewhere, Ellie's last 2 soldiers played "king of the hill" with Baryn's knight.  Even though the yellow knight was outnumbered 2:1, he slew first the enemy knight and then the other soldier.  Obviously, Baryn's followers had eaten a proper breakfast before taking the field, even if the wizard himself was a bit feeble!

In the dying moments of the game, just as we reached our self-imposed turn limit, most of the remaining warbands started to disengage.  The goblins in the north gathered around their still-blinded leader to escort him from the field, whilst most of the other warbands had already left (or were knocked out!).

The exception to this was a much more aggressive than usual Baryn.  His archers strode forward and took shots at Ellie and at Mysterio's barbarian (who was diligently hauling away the chest that he had won off the goblins earlier).  Even though the range was long and the shooters had moved, both targets were felled.  A bit petty, I think - but then I would say that, wouldn't I; it cost me a treasure!

Conclusion

I think that everyone was happy with the result of this game.  All the bands got away with at least some treasure and those who got less often made up for it by scoring more experience points for other things.  When the recovery rolls were made, none of the major characters (and not many of the followers) died.

In addition, each of the wizards was quite successful with their spell-casting:

• Baryn gave pretty much all of his followers Fleet Feet; he also used Fog to cover himself from attack by fireballs.
• Peltar and his apprentice are proving to be dangerously effective with Grenade.
• Ellie's sidekick got off a very telling Elemental Bolt (and as importantly, didn't suffer a long string of backfires - unlike previous games!)
• Mysterio & Little Annie had a very good run of Blinding Light spells, as well as realising how useful Combat Awareness can be.  Mind you, every time that Little Annie attempts to Leap, she fails and ends up face-planting!

One last thought: adapting 2-player scenarios for 4 sides is difficult!  Any neutral resources (treasures, monsters, specific terrain) need to be scaled up in some fashion, else the scenario will be unbalanced and not offer the experience that the author intended.  Hmm, perhaps we really should have had 2 worms appear at the same time?