Mathieu Raymond wrote: Cool. Thanks. Although I really wished they hadn't added a mini plastic base under the feet. Just makes basing that much more awkward.
Why don't you just cut it down to a slotta tab size?
New campaign looks cool. I like weird magical experimental creatures as a concept -- feels pleasantly pulpy, like a lot of FG so far. And, it'll be good to have another excuse to use my Itar's Workshop dungeon terrain.
Mathieu Raymond wrote: I know some people are leery of introducing other races... do we have anything in the fluff about other races (elves, dwarves, bugbears, etc) in the setting? Making them different enough yet balanced enough takes mad skillz.
Manchu wrote: Don't know much about the fluff yet, we'll have to wait for the anthology coming out in September. On the FB group, someone made racial templates that can be applied to Wizards and Soldiers alike.
I have been reading the short stories. There are dwarves at the very least.
Quite a few former GW employees have contributed to the novel.
Also, is it ten or eleven stories? I'm looking to pre-order it at the Book Depository, which has a ten story softback, while Amazon has an eleven story book
Strombones wrote: Anyone know if someone stocks the plastic soldiers in the States?
I bought everything from Brigade Games here in the US. They got stuff in stock a bit later than North Star did, but they shipped it right away. I was very happy with their service and plan on ordering from them again as soon as the Cultist box set is available.
mdauben wrote: Brigade Games here in the US. They got stuff in stock a bit later than North Star did, but they shipped it right away.
Keep in mind Northstar "makes" them, Brigade is just a US distributor. Golden/FRP Games is also a distributor but I think the plastic soldiers are currently OOS and they don't seem to be offering any discount anyway.
Motograter wrote: Don't fancy reading through all 20 pages. Can someone sell me on this game?
What do I need to play, models I can use, bases, are there any evil dwarfs etc?
The book itself is only like £15, so its not a major sink in your pocket to suck it and see in any case. If you've got a decent fantasy following in your area it aught to be picked up easily enough.
Motograter wrote: Don't fancy reading through all 20 pages. Can someone sell me on this game?
What do I need to play, models I can use, bases, are there any evil dwarfs etc?
The book itself is only like £15, so its not a major sink in your pocket to suck it and see in any case. If you've got a decent fantasy following in your area it aught to be picked up easily enough.
I have to say that is a comically bad name! Maybe the Feral Warrens or Lair of the Beasts or somesuch? But "Breeding Pits" has a creepy vibe for all the wrong reasons.
I get the same amount of money per copy of Frostgrave sold whether you buy the book through Amazon, Northstar, or anywhere else. That said, I would prefer everyone to buy the book through Northstar
because they are major supporters of the game, have helped produce some great minis, and will certainly be more inclined to do so the more books they sell. Also, Nick who runs it, and his team are just good people and really bring a lot to the whole wargaming community. (Also, they will take paypal if you email them, they just don't advertise the fact).
Tales of the Frozen City, the book of short stories, contains eleven short stories. One was added at the last minute and the cover was changed to say eleven, but some people are still displaying the old cover. There is a dwarf in one of the stories, but he is a human with dwarfism. Unless you wish to imagine it otherwise, in which case, who am I to say.
In the same vein, absolutely you can play with skaven. I've seen several people online with skaven warbands - and a rat ogre would make a pretty awesome large construct. The new supplement might just help establish a reason for their existence.
The summoner and his apprentice, who appear on the cover of the new supplement have an interest history. I provided the notes to the artist for the wizard and he painted him for the rulebook. In the rulebook, he is depicted sitting down, but I think he was always meant to be a rather short. However, since the artist never talked directly with the sculptor, the sculptor made him regular sized. The sculptor created the apprentice, with notes from Phil, the Osprey Games Manager. I liked that figure so much, I asked for the two to appear together on this cover. So the artist, who at the time had never seen the two miniatures together, painted the summoner short, as he'd originally imagined him, and the apprentice as average sized. A bit convoluted, but I though you guys might like the story.
Finally, the title to the new supplement is my own. Personally, I think it is creepy and weird in the right way, and matches the tone I'm trying to create, but too each there own.
joe5mc wrote: Personally, I think it is creepy and weird in the right way, and matches the tone I'm trying to create, but too each there own.
I agree. The phrase "breeding pit" strikes the right tone of gross/animalistic. If someone pointed at a hole in the ground and said, that's the breeding pit for ... the things, I would be repulsed. And the person also says, well there is a lot of old treasure down there ... well, I would have to get my adventuring party together then, I guess.
mdauben wrote: Brigade Games here in the US. They got stuff in stock a bit later than North Star did, but they shipped it right away.
Keep in mind Northstar "makes" them, Brigade is just a US distributor. Golden/FRP Games is also a distributor but I think the plastic soldiers are currently OOS and they don't seem to be offering any discount anyway.
That's true, but Brigade also handled the "Nickstarter" for the US, and AFAIK will be doing the same for the next one, saving us Yanks some cost on shipping over signing up directly with North Star.
Can someone explain what a "nickstarter" is? I get that it's crowdfunding but I don't know the specifics. I mean, is it just a pre-order? Is there any discount?
It was just an in-house pre-order North Star Miniatures (North Star + Kickstarter = Nickstarter) used, where people who pre-ordered the book and minis got free extras.
Rulebook
1 x Henchmen box
1 x Wizard
1 x Apprentice
1 x Knight
1 x Barbarian
6 x Treasure Token
3 x Other treasures (armour stand, weapon stand, and treasure chest)
So it's a pretty good deal -- not a massive saving on retail if you just wanted the book, wizard, apprentice, and henchmen, but worth it given the freebies.
Ian Sturrock wrote: not a massive saving on retail if you just wanted the book, wizard, apprentice, and henchmen
Does that 40 GBP include shipping? If not, seems you paid 24% less than MSRP without even considering the treasures. I got the book for almost half off via Amazon (free shipping), so my savings (again before considering the treasures) would have been closer to 12%. That would get eaten by shipping costs, assuming the 40 GBP didn't cover it.
ordered my copy yesterday. I am looking forward to giving this w try. I have been looking for a solid skirmish fantasy game with a decent campaign mechanism for a while. This might be just what the doctor ordered.
Looks like North Star are swapping over the bases on their "Fantasy Worlds" line to use Frostgrave style ones, though why these weren't just sold as Frostgrave products I suppose was up to them. Might want to check out the new releases on the North Star site for any other minis which are sold under different lines, but are clearly intended for Frostgrave in future.
Strombones wrote: Anyone know if someone stocks the plastic soldiers in the States?
I bought everything from Brigade Games here in the US. They got stuff in stock a bit later than North Star did, but they shipped it right away. I was very happy with their service and plan on ordering from them again as soon as the Cultist box set is available.
Thanks for that. Just picked a box up. Little pricey but whatever considering its all I'll need for awhile.
I have plenty of fantasy minis to run a game in a summer forest setting but just felt it wasn't right to not play in a frozen city with the official models.
Looking forward to finally prying our group away from ww2 for a bit....and also building a nice frostgrave table.
Yup, as noted above I had to pay for shipping to the US from the UK-based Nickstarter. I figured it was worth it to support the company, but I think I'll do Brigade games for the next one, assuming that they're able to match what the Nickstarter would otherwise provide.
I have a sneaking suspicion that I may never get to play this game (one of my minis buddies just moved out of town, and, well, our second kid is due in a few months...), so it may just sit in the closet until the kids are old enough to give 'em a try (i.e., when the third edition printing is out?)
I liked the soldiers pack, but these don't seem to offer very much when compared to (say) the £18 medieval farmhouse also on the Renedra site -- especially when you consider how much terrain is expected in a Frostgrave game.
Ian Sturrock wrote: I liked the soldiers pack, but these don't seem to offer very much when compared to (say) the £18 medieval farmhouse also on the Renedra site -- especially when you consider how much terrain is expected in a Frostgrave game.
I think the Warlord Ruined hamlet would be better value than the Renedra sprues though I might get a few just for variation (you know somepoint in the far future when I've dealt with the 6 ruined hamlets I ordered one day...) For me though the stiffest competition for those sprues will be Gale force nine once they have their Hall of Heroes stuff back in stock.
I think Deadzone / Mars Attacks scenery works fine for Frostgrave. May not look very thematic, but you can certainly get all sorts of nooks and crannies, especially if you use the ruined pieces.
Hell, Mantic ought to just make some DZ- style fantasy terrain and get it over and done with. Everyone wins.
In other news, I had told my local game store about the game, they ordered it based on my recommendation, sold their initial batch, ordered more, sold those, ordered more,sold those, and are now waiting on backordered books!
Hell, Mantic ought to just make some DZ- style fantasy terrain and get it over and done with. Everyone wins.
That's been rumored to be in the works for some time now...! A supposed Kings of War/ Mantica version of Deadzone. A not-Mordheim, if you will...
Though with Frostgrave and a handful of other new campaign style games now on the market, I wonder what sort of demand for it there will be. It sounds excellent to me.
Hell, Mantic ought to just make some DZ- style fantasy terrain and get it over and done with. Everyone wins.
That's been rumored to be in the works for some time now...! A supposed Kings of War/ Mantica version of Deadzone. A not-Mordheim, if you will...
Though with Frostgrave and a handful of other new campaign style games now on the market, I wonder what sort of demand for it there will be. It sounds excellent to me.
High I would imagine. The buy in for these games is so (relatively) small, that people could happily pick up multiple options in that space without it feeling wastefully redundant. Especially when you could effectively use the same terrain, and even minis across multiple games.
Yea, I would love some very reasonably cheap and nice 28-32mm medieval terrain options. That would be great for everything from Warmahordes, KoW, WoK, Frostgrave, Of Gods and Mortals, maybe even Ronin in a pinch. Basically all the little games I have bought stuff for in the past year The later few really want more terrain than some walls, forests and some gothic ruins, and I just don't have time to scratch build these days, nor the cash to really plunk down on expensive model houses.
Strombones wrote: Anyone know if someone stocks the plastic soldiers in the States?
I bought everything from Brigade Games here in the US. They got stuff in stock a bit later than North Star did, but they shipped it right away. I was very happy with their service and plan on ordering from them again as soon as the Cultist box set is available.
Thanks for that. Just picked a box up. Little pricey but whatever considering its all I'll need for awhile.
I have plenty of fantasy minis to run a game in a summer forest setting but just felt it wasn't right to not play in a frozen city with the official models.
Looking forward to finally prying our group away from ww2 for a bit....and also building a nice frostgrave table.
Whoa! Just got my box from brigade games in three days.
Yeah, now is a pretty ripe time to get some good and cheap fantasy inspired terrain on the market.
There's that wooden Dark Ages fort KS that Menhir games is doing in plastic right now, which looks like it'll have a lot of uses, but it's still not actual buildings.
I'm also happy my local store said they've already ordered some of the plastic figures. I'll get a box for sure just to mess with building random guys.
Wyrmalla wrote: Whether or not it makes it past this initial period of everyone clambering to play it and is still a thing within a year is yet to be seen however. =/
I have to say that at the moment, it's touch-and-go whether we end up carrying on playing Frostgrave but using the Advanced Song of Blades & Heroes rules, because the big selling point of FG over SOBH was better magic rules, and ASOBH gives us that but with better playtesting.
Of course if we get a FG 2nd Edition with the latter...
My next challenge is to talk the guys into carrying Ganesha books, especially once the Advanced rules are out.
The store has churned out a hardcore GW cult over the years, but the employees have been trying to chip away at the owner to carry more stuff for years.
Hopefully their addition of stocking Frostgrave is a step in the right direction.
Doesn't hurt playing up Mordheim nostalgia to that crowd...
Dawnbringer wrote: For me though the stiffest competition for those sprues will be Gale force nine once they have their Hall of Heroes stuff back in stock.
Which I believe is now out of print, forever. That's what GF9 told me, which is why I bought as much of it as I could (at a discount, too!) for Osgiliath/Minas Tirith as well as other applications (including Frostgrave)
Best terrain I've ever purchased!
Dawnbringer wrote: For me though the stiffest competition for those sprues will be Gale force nine once they have their Hall of Heroes stuff back in stock.
Which I believe is now out of print, forever. That's what GF9 told me, which is why I bought as much of it as I could (at a discount, too!) for Osgiliath/Minas Tirith as well as other applications (including Frostgrave)
Best terrain I've ever purchased!
I asked back in march and got the following response:
"Yes we are doing a full year production plan for these as we speak so hopefully very soon they will be available again
Figure they should do very nicely for LOS-blocking, whether I turn them into a square building (Mausoleum style, from the scenario) or use them as one long high wall. I plan to magnetise the doors, so that they are optional.
Hello everyone. First off, I just want to thank everyone for supporting my game, it's been wonderful to see all of the figures and terrain people have painted or made and to read all of the battle reports and backstories people have posted.
It has long been a dream of mine to somehow combine my love of fantasy gaming with doing a bit of good in the real world. Like many, I have been struck by the plight of the Syrian refugees, and wanted to do something to help. So, I've done what I seem to do best at the moment, I wrote a new scenario for Frostgrave. I have posted this scenario on my blog for everyone to enjoy. I am just asking that anyone who plays this scenario or adds it to their Frostgrave collection to please donate £1 to Save the Children. I have set up a MyDonate page with a link from my blog. I'm hoping to raise £500.
Thanks again everyone, and enjoy your adventures in Frostgrave.
He has been ruled Not An Elf by The Powers That Be. Goes along with the dwarf in the short story having dwarfism. I guess this guy just has a case of prettyboyism.
Frostgrave: The Hunt for the Golem PDF is now available from Wargames Vault: http://bit.ly/1L5RBns
For those not in the know, this is a mini-campaign that was originally produced as part of the Nickstarter. It contains 3 scenarios, a unique monster, and a several new treasures. Like to be of special interest for Enchanters and other construct lovers.
Yuck... I hate having content pieced out across too many things. A core book, and eventual expansion books are one thing, but then needing to remember some random .pdf I own for a particular treasure item, etc... is bad form.
This isn't a board-game where you can add cards or something to your card-pool if you're intending to bulk out the game. At least Song of Blade and Heroes had a supported war-band calculator which keeps tabs of where every trait appears, etc.
NewTruthNeomaxim wrote: Yuck... I hate having content pieced out across too many things. A core book, and eventual expansion books are one thing, but then needing to remember some random .pdf I own for a particular treasure item, etc... is bad form.
This isn't a board-game where you can add cards or something to your card-pool if you're intending to bulk out the game. At least Song of Blade and Heroes had a supported war-band calculator which keeps tabs of where every trait appears, etc.
I take it you don't play D&D then haha. I don't see it as any different from GW publishing scenarios and units and such in WD back when they used to do that sorta thing. I mean if you don't like it don't buy/play the supplement then you won't have worry about.
Thanks Joe. I downloaded a copy and am looking forward to trying it out.
I personally think it's cool that creators can pump out little scenarios and such like this without having to wait for a full book release. Keeps the game from going stale.
FGVP02 - Frostgrave Cultists Released 20th November 2015.
Death cultists are mortal men and women who have sworn their service to an undead master, usually in the hope of achieving some form of immortality. They normally come from the lowest rung of society and have few useful skills and little combat training. What they lack in ability, however, they make up for in fanaticism and fearlessness in the face of death. When sent out by their masters, death cultists generally conceal their identities behind masks and hoods, but proclaim their allegiances by adorning themselves with bones, chains and other symbols of death.
The Frostgrave Cultists box set contains enough parts to make 20 different figures. There are multiple heads, arms, weapons and accoutrements per frame, no two warbands will ever be the same.
Cultists feature in Thaw of the Lich Lord as opponents in the scenarios and as random encounters. They should also be used as the soldiers for Warbands of evil wizards, especially ones who've embraced Lichdom.
The Cultists have been designed to compliment the Frostgrave Soldiers plastic box set. By that we mean the arms, heads and equipment are interchangeable, giving you even MORE choice to built a unique and personal Warband.
And as an extra bonus, the Cultist plastic frame includes heads and arms to convert your Soldiers or Cultists into skeletons and Zombies. True Frostgrave Undead! Perfect to represent your 'risen from the dead' ex-soldiers.
The plastic figures are 28mm sized, supplied unpainted and require assembly with glue. We recommend you use glue designed for plastic to get the best results.
The cultists with their faces covered look pretty sweet. I've just picked up a box of the Frostgrave Soldiers which I'm very happy with, loads of variety and spare parts so I'm sure the cultist heads with exposed faces won't need to be used at all.
Still not shown are the extra undead bits included in the set...
Nick (from whence Nickstarter originates) owns North Star Miniatures who are co-producing all of the figures in conjunction with Osprey. The Nickstarter is just his name for his pre-order/rewards system he developed.
Those Cultisits are great. Sure there was an ugly face or two in the first pic, but they are suppossed to be evil antagonists, so butt ugly is good thing. Even if you don't like their ugly mugs, the hooded, zombie , and skeletal heads should make up for it.
Barzam wrote: They look about like I expected. Are there random encounters with cultists, or just the odd undead stuff and animals?
Cultists feature in Thaw of the Lich Lord as opponents in the scenarios and as random encounters. They should also be used as the soldiers for Warbands of evil wizards, especially ones who've embraced Lichdom.
BobtheInquisitor wrote: I'm not a big fan of the cultists, but I'll buy some of those Klingon-looking heads off of anyone who isn't using them.
I'll be your huckleberry.. when I get a box of these I'll shoot you a PM to see if you found some and work out what's what.
I'm all over those cultists for Mordheim but they are extremely iffy about the combinations you build those in without sculpting. I like the covered and half covered faces but the hoods just don't do it for me... which is a shame. I could see myself sculpting the hoods out more to finish out the original art's look but off the sprue they're just really really bizarre looking to me.
For D&D and general purposes the soldiers look pretty sweet for bandits, town guard, etc.
The sculpts are just decent. There are no neat ideas, like little touches that make you say, oh that is creative. So that puts them in the average category. But that is also a strength considering that they are meant to be generic. The inarguable flaw, however, is that some of the detail is really soft/blobby; e.g., daggers on their belts.
Yep, researching gun arms for these guys that aren't just "lol, Cadians!".
Maxmini, Mad Robot, Victoria miniatures, Puppetswar, and Kromlech are your best bets. There's a few others but I've done business with most of these companies and have had good experiences. Puppetswar can be a little slow on the shipping, Mad Robots tend to be a little on the bulkier side. Maxmini and Victoria are my favorites for quality and customer service.
Yep, researching gun arms for these guys that aren't just "lol, Cadians!".
Maxmini, Mad Robot, Victoria miniatures, Puppetswar, and Kromlech are your best bets. There's a few others but I've done business with most of these companies and have had good experiences. Puppetswar can be a little slow on the shipping, Mad Robots tend to be a little on the bulkier side. Maxmini and Victoria are my favorites for quality and customer service.
Gang War on Shapeways also has some good Necormundy guns.
I have/had soooo many of the 2nd ed sprues. The ones with the big chunky guns and axes and stuff and some of the ones with the super curvy weird bolters. I think those had some plasma pistols. The ones I couldn't keep long enough were the ones with the Space Marine power fist and flamer pistol.
As a side note.. Victoria just released some stuff that's along the lines of what you're talking about.
Wouldn't a sci-fi version of this just be WarMachine?
The rules are up cheap on Amazon if people are trying to find them. Last I looked they were on Prime as well if you've got that service.
Looking there, the other games on offer from Osprey are also equally cheap so I'm thinking of giving them a try.
Also, there are some pretty good play through videos on youtube for anyone like me that's only barely heard of Frostgrave. It looks like a system that's very friendly to pickup games.
MLaw wrote: One would think that since Osprey has recently had several wargaming releases and none of them have a news and rumor thread that discussing them here would be fair game. Hmm. .fair.. what an interesting word.
There actually is a separate thread for all their new releases on this very forum in this very N&R section. Just saying.
OT, my FLGS just got the Frostgrave soldiers in this past week. Nice to see some retail outlets starting to get this stuff.
They really put some effort into these, and I'd really like to give em a try at some point. The posts before they came up with the rules detail their thoughts and reactions to the game and are worth a read.
The XP bonuses for elimiating foes with the wizard are to encourage the wizard to actively participate inteh battle, instead of just hiding at maximum range. Bad Karma does away with them and increases the XP reward for casting spells. Spells which they were going to get XP for casting anyways. This elimiates any real incentive for the wizard to directly enter combat and exponentially increases XP rewards in general.
The Bard Karma rules limit the amount of between game actions, which are already limited by available gold. Then allows you and your apprentice to complete one each. Since the time between battles isn't daily, or regimented in any way, and GOLD is still the most improtant determinig factor to any of this, they seem like a needless complications to the system.
Scour the Ruins just gives anyone who isn't shopping or reccruiting a free treasure and 25xp. Neither is needed, and both push advancement even faster.
They eliminate the only serious setback to a warband, wizard death, with the left for dead rule.
Allow you to maigc away permanent injuried on a 12+ with a 100GP donation to a church.
Carrier pigeons, probably the least useful upgrade in the book, instead of saving 5Gp for each recruit, which is utter crap, allows you to recruit a henchman and full GP cost without using one of your two between game actions.
I feel that all of these rules needlessly complicate something that works fine as is, or actively work against the original intention of the rule they replace.
Who are these creatures? Kev has taken the undead heads and arms included on the Cultist frame, and added them to Frostgrave Soldier bodies to show you what you can do with them. Plus the Cultist on the right is a Soldier body with Cultist head and arms.
The XP bonuses for elimiating foes with the wizard are to encourage the wizard to actively participate inteh battle, instead of just hiding at maximum range. Bad Karma does away with them and increases the XP reward for casting spells. Spells which they were going to get XP for casting anyways. This elimiates any real incentive for the wizard to directly enter combat and exponentially increases XP rewards in general.
The Bard Karma rules limit the amount of between game actions, which are already limited by available gold. Then allows you and your apprentice to complete one each. Since the time between battles isn't daily, or regimented in any way, and GOLD is still the most improtant determinig factor to any of this, they seem like a needless complications to the system.
Scour the Ruins just gives anyone who isn't shopping or reccruiting a free treasure and 25xp. Neither is needed, and both push advancement even faster.
They eliminate the only serious setback to a warband, wizard death, with the left for dead rule.
Allow you to maigc away permanent injuried on a 12+ with a 100GP donation to a church.
Carrier pigeons, probably the least useful upgrade in the book, instead of saving 5Gp for each recruit, which is utter crap, allows you to recruit a henchman and full GP cost without using one of your two between game actions.
I feel that all of these rules needlessly complicate something that works fine as is, or actively work against the original intention of the rule they replace.
I have to disagree. My group has been using them to great affect.
The changes to the ways wizards gain experience helps out players who don't want a front line spell blasting mage - say an enchanter who wants buff spells, or a druid that wants to throw lots of mud and fog onto the table. In the original version, damage dealing wizards can quickly outpace party-buffing wizards. It means that my Sigilist will never level as quickly as a damage-focused Elementalist, especially since Out of Game spells don't count for exp. This does not 'exponentially' increase the exp gained, as spells are still just as likely to go off as they aren't, but a spell that kills the enemy wizard will still give you 20 exp, not 100.
The out of game steps help restricts players and makes them think about what they want to do. A player that managed to win a few 5-1 or 4-2 games in the original version can quickly outpace everyone else as he quickly gets his pick of magical items and support buildings. Scour the Ruins only applies to warbands that managed to get no treasure tokens off the table - very difficult to do, unless your game went very, very badly.
As for the other rules, they're optional, so play as you like. Personally, I like the idea of a wizard pulling himself out of the ruins, basically naked and terribly injured, but pissed off more than anything.
Additionally - the Bad Karma rules do more to make Frostgrave a game about collecting treasures than killing the other warband. The five turn limit means I can't keep a treasure token on the table and spend the whole game hunting down your warband, and then get all the treasure from the game when you've been tabled. Additionally, since any treasure remaining on the table awards experience to both players, it makes collecting treasure all the more important.
I say try the recommended rules changes out that the very least.
XP for wizards killing enemy soldiers is broken, in the original rules, because it massively advantages direct-damage style wizards (e.g. elementalist), to the point where there's no reason to take a sigilist or enchanter or similar. Plus it doesn't make any sense that a fireball cast by your elementalist killing a thief gets you XP...but an arrow, shot by your archer and enchanted by your enchanter, doesn't.
The other changes focus the game on the treasure (as it should be) and maintain a low-fantasy feel (which is a personal preference thing but fits with my preferences -- I don't like bad D&D style "magic shops").
The EXP rewards for the wizard defeating opponents is to encourage him to do something other than hide in the back, and acutally interact with the enemy warband.
An enchanter who hides in the back, steals treasures and runs off the board is BORING to play against.
Removing the combat related XP destroys the risk verses reward ratio. It allows for a wizard hiding out of combat to spam an easy to cast spell to earn the same amount of XP as wizard risking his neck while casting higher difficulty combat spells. Wizards who want to sit back in safety progress more slowly.
Also, the nonlethal seplls are not useless.
The Enchanter can be use Telekenesis to steal additional treasures while his animated construct is running amok
The sigilist can push his henchman towards the treasure, while his apprentice TKs it closer.
What's 40XP for dispatching a minion compared to 50XP + Gold & Magic for stealing a treasure ?
XP for wizards killing enemy soldiers is broken, in the original rules, because it massively advantages direct-damage style wizards (e.g. elementalist), to the point where there's no reason to take a sigilist or enchanter or similar. Plus it doesn't make any sense that a fireball cast by your elementalist killing a thief gets you XP...but an arrow, shot by your archer and enchanted by your enchanter, doesn't.
The fireball killing a theif puts the wizard in harms way, and comes at a higher difficulty to cast, while the enchanter can hide while his minion runs around with that enchanted bow, that was easier to enchant than casting said fireball.
In D&D it would be like arguing that the guy sitting in his layer enchanting items should earn as much XP as the adventuring wizard fighting monsters.
I think BadKarma has some pretty interesting ideas. Whether or not you use them probably comes down to the kind of group you play in. My own group is pretty casual, more rpg-lite style players, and rules work great. If you are more used to kill-the-all style games, you might want some house rules to further emphasis the treasure hunt aspect.
Basically, I would say, try the game as written. If after a few games you think there are issues, try BadKarmas ideas, or create your own house rules.
Whichever way is the most fun is the right way to play.
Even dropping XP for directly killing enemies (which we did after the first couple of games), we found that direct-damage specialist wizards were significantly more powerful than buff-type wizards. They really don't need the added boost of inherently faster character advancement.
squall018 wrote: OT, my FLGS just got the Frostgrave soldiers in this past week. Nice to see some retail outlets starting to get this stuff.
Any idea where your LGS got them from?
He got them from his regular distributor, not direct from northstar. He has had them on order since the game went to retail, so they took awhile to get. But he got about 10 of the books, four boxes of soldiers and one each of all the metal blisters.
In D&D it would be like arguing that the guy sitting in his layer enchanting items should earn as much XP as the adventuring wizard fighting monsters.
It's more like the magic user healing and buffing his fellow adventurers should get as much exp as the magic user that's running around throwing out lightning bolts and fireballs. Which is what happens in D&D.
It's more like the magic user healing and buffing his fellow adventurers should get as much exp as the magic user that's running around throwing out lightning bolts and fireballs. Which is what happens in D&D.
In D&D it would be like arguing that the guy sitting in his layer enchanting items should earn as much XP as the adventuring wizard fighting monsters.
It's more like the magic user healing and buffing his fellow adventurers should get as much exp as the magic user that's running around throwing out lightning bolts and fireballs. Which is what happens in D&D.
I know that guy, he's the cleric, and I'm pretty sure he's not afraid to get his hands dirty.
infinite_array wrote: Right, because every single cleric has to be the warrior-priest, right? And no magic user would ever do anything other than cast damage spells.
It's more like the magic user healing and buffing his fellow adventurers should get as much exp as the magic user that's running around throwing out lightning bolts and fireballs.
No, I've played D&D enough to realise that wizards don't have access to healing spells, and most of the buff spells are divine in nature.
In D&D where you have multiple player characters, it is perfectly possible for one of the player to adopt a support role.
In Frostgrave, the wizard is supposed to be the leader of the warband. If he wants to lead from behind, nothing in the game prevents him from doing so, or even penalizes him for doing so.
Frostgrave rewards wizards who take greater risk with greater reward.
Sigilists and Enchanters make free magic items(create grimoire, write scroll, enchant weapon/armor, animate construct, etc..) , gain free XP (absorb, knowledge) and it's not like they are barred from taking combat related spells. (Push and Telekenesis are insanely useful, and Enchant has GRENADE)
Frosgrave is a "Fantasy Wargame". if you choose to avoid combat and concetrate on treasure aquisition, you are making the decision to forgo possible XP gains for greater safety and loot.
Having played a fair bit with the rules as written... I am definitely taking a direct-damage specialist to Frostgrave Day (haven't yet decided which). Anyone who has access to a Difficulty 8 or 10 direct-damage spell and a couple of utility spells is significantly better in the early campaign than anyone who doesn't... and using rules as written, they will advance more rapidly too (while admittedly being at a slightly higher risk, but only slightly -- the wizard is unlikely to get one-shotted, and the apprentice can always be the one who always takes the 'risk' while Wiz hangs back and buffs/heals).
kestral wrote: Here's some painted ones from C'mon (not my work). I do like the look, and this is a sprue worth it seems.
Spoiler:
Are these the Frostgrave soldiers? I really like the look of these now that I've seen some properly built and painted (if they are the soldiers) but they definitely feel far less organized than soldiers. More like militia or brigands or something. I think it's lack of a uniform or consistent equipment. Either way, I do like the actual models
Alpharius wrote: Yes, those are from the plastic Frostgrave soldier kit.
Spoiler:
Thanks. I think I might've seen that picture but wasn't sure if that was 100% just the soldier sprue.. one of those guys looks like he's got a prospector's head and it's kinda crowded and hard to tell what's what.
Given that many European historical armies relied on levies that were responsible for providing their own equipment, I would say these guys probably aren't far off. certainly, they wouldn't be representative of elite heavy infantry, but leave an army in the field a while and the get pretty ragged pretty quickly. If not kept in check, they would often despoil the land around them (even in "friendly" land) and soldier-brigands were not uncommon.
For mercenary dregs willing to risk injury and death relic hunting for some oddball wizard, these guys seem pretty well kept! ;-)
Thaw of the Lich Lord is a complete campaign for Frostgrave that will challenge both new and veteran players. Through a series of linked scenarios, players discover the existence of a new power in the Frozen City, one who was old when the great city was still young, and who saw both its rise and its disastrous fall. Warbands will confront the Lich Lord's minions, race against his agents to seize possession of mysterious artefacts, and brave the perils of Frostgrave in search of his lair. Eventually, they will need to muster all their courage to venture into the depths of the city and face the Lich Lord himself. Not all wizards will seek to stop the Lich Lord,
however, and full rules for giving into his corruption and following the dark road to becoming an undead lich are presented for those who crave power and immortality above all else. While the campaign presents many new threats against which wizards and their warbands must test themselves, including an expanded bestiary, it also offers additional resources, such as new henchmen that can be recruited and unique magical treasures that can spell the difference between survival and oblivion.
Released NOVEMBER 20th 2015
Level One Zombie £10: A copy of the Thaw of the Lich Lord Supplement. Every supplement. comes with 3 free Lich Lord tokens (Each player in Thaw of the Lich Lord needs 3 Lich Lord tokens, as markers to represent the magic items the Wizard parties are seeking. Our Level One Zombie Lich Lord tokens are round bases with different treasure items sculpted on.)
We’ve teamed up again with Osprey Games to bring you the official Frostgrave Thaw of the Lich Lord figures. We’ve based them on the illustrations in the book, painted by artist Dmitry Burmak. Nickstarter Pre-order Program The official release date for Thaw of the Lich Lord is the 20th of November 2015.
Nickstarter THAW OF THE LICH LORD free items may go on sale at some point in the future.
Our Refund Guarantee We will charge you straight away for any Nickstarter order, with delivery time expected November 2015. If at any time you change your mind before the shipping date, we will refund you immediately, even if it’s just part of the order. Also, if you make a small order, then choose to add more later, we’ll make sure you are only charged the right amount including postage and that you get all the free Nickstarter figures.
Here at North Star we are delighted to announce that in conjunction with Osprey Publishing, we are producing a licensed range of 28mm sized metal figures.
ENDS NOVEMBER 2nd
North Star Military Figures Here at North Star we are delighted to announce that in conjunction with Osprey Publishing, we are producing a licensed range of 28mm sized metal figures.
Spend Total £02833.00 Spent So Far
As you can see from the information to the left, there are lots of advantages to buying into the Nickstarter pre-order program. But it gets better! Spend Goals You’ll see from the counter above, we’re monitoring how much money the Nickstarter program is bringing in. As the number grows, that frees up funds to make the Nickstarter even better! There are various Spend Goals, and as we reach them, it releases special rewards and offers for parti- cipants. We are only listing the first three Spend Goals right now, more will be revealed as the offer grows.
Spend Goal 1: £8000
Level Two Wraith Knight £15: A copy of the Thaw of the Lich Lord supplement and Wizard pack, containing the Lich Wizard and Apprentice. Also included are the 3 Lich Lord treasure tokens. This is a cheaper option than buying the items individually.
Level Three Lich Apprentice £35: A copy of the Thaw of the Lich Lord Supplement and Wizard Pack’ and a box of the plastic Frostgrave Cultists. The Wizard pack contains two metal figures, a Wizard and Apprentice. The 3 free Lich Lord tokens that come with the supplement. This is a cheaper option than buying the items individually.
Level Four Lich Wizard £60: This buys you one of everything in the Thaw of the Lich Lord release. A copy of the Thaw of the Lich Lord supplement, the 3 Lich Lord treasure tokens, a box of plastic Frostgrave Cultists, and one pack of each of the metal figure releases: Lich Wizard and Apprentice, Bard & Mule, Crow Master & Javelineer, Ghoul King, Wraith Knights, Armoured Skeletons. Order this level and you will also receive a bonus Gnoll Chieftain!
SPEND GOALS
Here at North Star we are delighted to announce that in conjunction with Osprey Publishing, we are producing a licensed range of 28mm sized metal figures.
If you haven't got into Frostgrave yet, but don't fancy committing to the Level 5 Lich Lord deal, why not buy the Frostgrave Starter Deal to go with your Nickstarter order. You can add any other Frostgrave item to your Nickstarter, so if you want to add a Frostgrave Soldiers box set, please do. Once you place a Nickstarter order, you have access to add more Thaw of the Lich Lord product. They are available by following this link. http://www.northstarfigures.com/enter_code.php You'll receive the code to enter those pages once you've ordered a Nickstarter deal. Extra new stuff only Lich Lord Nickstarter Participants can pre-order. The Frostgrave Spell Deck, Genie and Lamp, Snow Troll, Frost Giant. We will be adding to this 'new stuff' section all the time, make sure you keep coming back to see what has been added.
Every Level 3, 4 & 5 will receive a free metal model of a new Templar figure.
Spend Goal 2: £16000
Every Level 3, 4 & 5 will receive a free Frostgrave Soldier Frame
Thaw of the Lich Lord & Frostgrave are copyright Osprey Games 2015. Miniatures are all copyright North Star Military Figures Limited & Osprey Games 2015.
free with the Level Five Lich Lord bought. More than one thousand years ago, during Felstad's glorious age, a great wizard turned his mind to dark places. Seeking knowledge from forbidden books and the writings of madmen.
Early Bird Rewards Our normal postage terms apply to the Nickstarter pre-order deals. As an Early Bird Special, any order for the level 3 or above deals will be sent Post Free in the UK and subsidised postage of just £5 to anywhere else in the World. Plus, once you have bought a Nickstarter deal, you'll have access to the Thaw of the Lich Lord shopping pages that'll include the Frostgrave Spell Card deck for £7.50 rather than £10.00.
I just wanted the book and the cards. I purchased the book and got an order number, but have had no email confirmation, no code numbers. I have no idea how to get the cards added to my order.
Gimgamgoo wrote: I just wanted the book and the cards. I purchased the book and got an order number, but have had no email confirmation, no code numbers. I have no idea how to get the cards added to my order.
Is this normal?
It took me a good few days to get my email confirmation in the last Nickstarter.
So is it that the "Spell Cards" will only ever be available via a pre-order here, or do they have an expected release?
Do they represent all the current spells?
As odd as it sounds, that is the item I am most excited about, and will gladly piggy back on someone's pledge if they don't mind snagging a set for me?
joe5mc wrote: I believe all of the confirmations and codes are sent manually, and they aren't working on the weekends. So you'll probably get it early next week.
I've held resin masters of the Wraith Knight and the Armoured Skeletons and they are some of the best sculpted undead I've seen in a long long time.
Thanks for the info. At least I know something's not gone wrong with the order.
I can't wait to see the new scenarios/additions. Of the dozens (and dozens) of miniature games I've had over the years, Frostgrave is one of the few that my wife will actually ask me to play with her, rather than me have to persuade her. - Surprisingly Bolt Action and Deadzone are the only other two she ever asks to play - and we've been gaming since the 80's.
re: soldier terminology - yeah, I woulda thought irregular or militia or something along those lines but I guess in places that don't have a standing army it works.
The nickstarter - the layout for that really makes it hard to work out what I'm looking at without some kind of diagram or flowchart. I am trying to find an overview thing that's basically a dollar amount and a picture of what's involved. Kickstarter seems to have spoiled me.
EDIT: I do see one that's like that but all over the place there's little "if/then" type of statements for things like Early Bird.. maybe I'm reading too much into this layout.
Gimgamgoo wrote: I just wanted the book and the cards. I purchased the book and got an order number, but have had no email confirmation, no code numbers. I have no idea how to get the cards added to my order.
Is this normal?
I put in my order this morning and just got the confirmation email with code for the webshop (took about six hours). In the previous Nickstarter I had problems with this though; I never got any of their emails and had to contact them via Facebook (where they responded swiftly and helped me sort it out). So I say give it a few days but then maybe try to contact them if you haven't heard anything.
Just got my confirmation code through. Off to get some extras - however I would like to know if there's any new spells. I'd hate to buy a couple of the spellcard decks only to find there's missing new spells as some new ones appear in this or the already planned supplements.
I didn't think the North Star page was all that confusing, but since I ordered through Brigade last time, and had no issues, I'll probably do so again!
As for spell cards. There are a few new spells in the new book that don't appear in the spell deck. There is a very practical reason for this. The new spells are all Out of Game spells with very complicated instructions that would never fit onto a card. They are not the kind of spell you will use often, and certainly not in the heat of battle (or during a game).
It's available in the hidden section (for £6) together with the cards and all the other add-ons, which you get access to once you purchase one of the Nickstarter packages and get sent a code.
So what is the level 5 missing from the first nickstarter? It says it contains "almost" all of the stuff from it but it's quite difficult to figure out what is missing.
I believe the things not included in the Level 5 that were in the last Nickstarter are - the resin weapons rank, the 'free' templar figure - which wasn't actually a Frostgrave figure, and The Hunt for the Golem mini-campaign which available to buy as a PDF from wargames vault.
NewTruthNeomaxim wrote: Any information regarding the spell-cards yet? Specifically, will they be available elsewhere/later?
Right now I really do just want the book, so the Nickstarter/Brigade is a really round-about order if all I want is the card deck. :-p
If I do go the Brigade route, how do I get access to the "exclusive" items?
To get to the exclusive items make sure you click into the deal you want. The extras will be listed down the side so you can just check off what you want.
@Adamsouza, yes I had the same problem and requested an invoice. It arrived in about 10 minutes and I pledged for Level 3 as well.
Automatically Appended Next Post: I wish the Nickstarter would update the pledge amount to see where it stands. I believe the 3rd SG has been achieved.
The Nickstarter page says you are charged straight away, but I ordered a week ago (and got confirmation) and the money is still in my account. Anyone else in a similar boat?
I figured I would buy the book and the cultists anyways, so it's like getting the Wizard, Apprentice, Templar, 5 soldiers, objective markers, and shipping all for $10 more.
Can't tell until they update the total, but it would be sweet if we hit the additional stretch goals.
I might have asked before, but could someone explain the "nickstarter" to me? Is it just a different name for a preorder on their site, or is it another site entirely? We should probably get a link in the OP!
RiTides wrote: I might have asked before, but could someone explain the "nickstarter" to me? Is it just a different name for a preorder on their site, or is it another site entirely? We should probably get a link in the OP!
Yes, that's basically it.
And the more people that pre-order, the more 'freebies' that get unlocked.
A bit 'safer' for them than a Kickstrater, though they probably don't raise as much - and they're probably OK with that!
pancakeonions wrote: I got a receipt saying the money had been paid by credit card, so I assume it's gone through. I wonder if they're having trouble with the payments?
I took Level 1 on the 26th September then added 2 sets of spellcards as extras the following day.
I used my visa card and had confirmation of my orders (on the same days - a few hours after ordering), but as of the middle of October, they've yet to be billed to my credit card.
Also, I'm sure when I ordered the spellcards they were £7.50 a set. They're now showing up as £10 when I go to the addons page.
Anyone know anything about this?
pancakeonions wrote: I got a receipt saying the money had been paid by credit card, so I assume it's gone through. I wonder if they're having trouble with the payments?
I took Level 1 on the 26th September then added 2 sets of spellcards as extras the following day.
I used my visa card and had confirmation of my orders (on the same days - a few hours after ordering), but as of the middle of October, they've yet to be billed to my credit card.
Also, I'm sure when I ordered the spellcards they were £7.50 a set. They're now showing up as £10 when I go to the addons page.
Anyone know anything about this?
Apparently they process the payments manually so may not have got to yours yet.
The cards were definitely £7.50 when I ordered them so they have gone up, not sure why. An unofficial early bird thing? Apparently they were really popular so maybe a bit of cheeky profit making going on there too?
-iPaint- wrote:So....what's this code thing, because I backed through Brigade Games and there's not been any code I've seen...
~iPaint
There's a section (on the North Star minis site anyway) whereby entering a code that you only get by backing the Nickstarter, it allows you to order otherwise unavailable items . No idea how it works through Brigade though, sorry,
pancakeonions wrote: I got a receipt saying the money had been paid by credit card, so I assume it's gone through. I wonder if they're having trouble with the payments?
I took Level 1 on the 26th September then added 2 sets of spellcards as extras the following day.
I used my visa card and had confirmation of my orders (on the same days - a few hours after ordering), but as of the middle of October, they've yet to be billed to my credit card.
Also, I'm sure when I ordered the spellcards they were £7.50 a set. They're now showing up as £10 when I go to the addons page.
Anyone know anything about this?
I ordered first day of campaign, and credit card was billed on 9th October...
I'm a Brigade buyer as well, and nothing "new" seems to show up anywhere. Its frustrating as I have a guess that its some kind of deal on the plastic Soldier sprues, and I would've gladly added those to my order.
The Brigade Games version of the secret code page seems to be the add-on section that is on each level's preorder page. I had a quick look between the two and the only thing that seems to be missing from Brigade Games is a post nickstarter bundle that contains metal cultist versions of the metal soldiers. It doesn't come with the nickstarter and will be sent out later.
NewTruthNeomaxim wrote: I'm a Brigade buyer as well, and nothing "new" seems to show up anywhere. Its frustrating as I have a guess that its some kind of deal on the plastic Soldier sprues, and I would've gladly added those to my order.
These are the add-on items currently avaiable if you have joined the Nickstarter.
It's all the new items. No special deals on the previous releases except going in for the Nickstarter at Level 5.
Add-ons:
Deal X - The post Nickstarter deal
This is a bundle of new cultist figures that will not be available at the time of the book's release.
Our Price:£36.00
FCARDS - Deck of Frostgrave Spell Cards
Our Price:£10.00
FGV111 - Lich & Apprentice
Our Price:£6.00
FGV206 - Bard & Pack Mule
Our Price:£6.00
FGV207 - Crow Master & Javelineer
Our Price:£6.00
FGV307 - Snow Troll
Our Price:£6.00
FGV308 - Frost Giant
Our Price:£12.00
FGV311 - White Gorilla
Our Price:£6.00
FGV312 - Wraith Knights
Our Price:£6.00
FGV314 - Armoured Skeletons
Our Price:£6.00
FGV401 - The Lich Lord
Our Price:£6.00
FGV402 - The Ghoul King
Our Price:£6.00
FGV403 - Genie & Lamp
Our Price:£6.00
FGVP02 - Frostgrave Cultists
Our Price:£20.00
Hope that's of some use.
And a pain up the a** to format when typing on a mobile phone. Lol.
Also, I'm sure when I ordered the spellcards they were £7.50 a set. They're now showing up as £10 when I go to the addons page.
Anyone know anything about this?
It was an early bird offer, I think if you ordered before 5th October you got a discount on some stuff and free shipping. I managed to place my core order during the early bird and missed it for the add-ons. I believe the free shipping offer remains in effect though if you add other stuff, but you no longer get any new discounted add-ons.
We seem to have slowed down a bit at £34,860 though. I'm really hoping it'll get to £40K. Might need to get that exclusive IX offer too (a new set of cultist characters).
I don't believe any of it is exclusive - it's just a pre-order. One of the previous ones had some exclusives but they were very clearly marked as such.
Nick said that some of the prices, most notably the spellcards were part of an early-bird offer that has since expired.
Everything in the Nickstarter should be available in the future with the possible exception of the Dark Cauldron. A few of the special treasure items from the last Nickstarter have never been made available. This all has as much to do with casting as it does intent. All of the character and monster figures will definitely be available afterwards.
If you've got the code, you can just re-enter it to see the hidden items.
For what it is worth, I have had tremendously good customer service from Brigade. More than once now they have added on to, or changed my Nickstarter "level" for me, and let me just pay the differences. They're fast to respond and a real pleasure to deal with.
My wife tells me a large parcel has arrived from North Star. The only thing I'm waiting for from them is the current Nickstarter stuff but isnt it a bit early to receive stuff (ie its still running and the email said hopefully shipping w/c 9th November).I'm at work so can't check what it is... has anyone else received anything?
Taaloc wrote: My wife tells me a large parcel has arrived from North Star. The only thing I'm waiting for from them is the current Nickstarter stuff but isnt it a bit early to receive stuff (ie its still running and the email said hopefully shipping w/c 9th November).I'm at work so can't check what it is... has anyone else received anything?
Come on fella! Don't leave us hanging.
Did you get your Thaw of the Lich Lord stuff early or not?
Taaloc wrote: My wife tells me a large parcel has arrived from North Star. The only thing I'm waiting for from them is the current Nickstarter stuff but isnt it a bit early to receive stuff (ie its still running and the email said hopefully shipping w/c 9th November).I'm at work so can't check what it is... has anyone else received anything?
Come on fella! Don't leave us hanging.
Did you get your Thaw of the Lich Lord stuff early or not?
Sorry, forgot about this! It wasn't the Thaw of the Lich Lord stuff come early, but it was all the stuff from the first Nickstarter as I was in at level 5. So I guess the rest will come in a couple of weeks!
The Nickstarter has ended!!!
Our pre-order program for #frostgrave Thaw of the Lich Lord has ended. A huge thanks to everyone who got involved. The final spend total was £46764.54.
MySpace ? They could probably reach more readers by scrawling messages on the walls of busy rest room stalls.
NickNorthStar wrote:The Thaw of the Lich Lord Nickstarter is over.
A massive thank you to everyone who participated.
We now have the hard work of sending out £46K+ worth of orders while trying to run the rest of North Star Laugh
Seriously though, the figures are all ready. We're just waiting for the book, the spell decks and the free cauldrons, and we're ready to start shipping. I would hope it'll be end of next week.
The new book is a campaign of 10 adventures, new soldiers, new monsters, and a new school of magic. It's all optional, and the book will be available end of the month at retail.
adamsouza wrote: The new book is a campaign of 10 adventures, new soldiers, new monsters, and a new school of magic. It's all optional, and the book will be available end of the month at retail.
The Nickstarter was just nice to get free swag.
Thanks, do we have any info on the new school of magic and new soldiers?
The Cultist Sprue doesn't have all the weapon options the Soldiers sprue does.
The soldier sprue has tons of extra weapon options, all of them really, and the sprues are compatible, so the used some of the real estate on the Cultist sprue for more fluffy things, as well as skeleton and zombie conversion bits.
Cool. I think the one next to it might actually be a hand holding arrows. All the open palms look like lefties, but if I can use bits from the soldier sprue I should be alright.
We have a price and release date for the cultists, 20 UKP and Nov 20
Spoiler:
FGVP02 - Frostgrave Cultists
Released 20th November 2015. Taking pre-orders now.
Death cultists are mortal men and women who have sworn their service to an undead master, usually in the hope of achieving some form of immortality. They normally come from the lowest rung of society and have few useful skills and little combat training. What they lack in ability, however, they make up for in fanaticism and fearlessness in the face of death. When sent out by their masters, death cultists generally conceal their identities behind masks and hoods, but proclaim their allegiances by adorning themselves with bones, chains and other symbols of death.
The Frostgrave Cultists box set contains enough parts to make 20 different figures. There are multiple heads, arms, weapons and accoutrements per frame, no two warbands will ever be the same.
Cultists feature in Thaw of the Lich Lord as opponents in the scenarios and as random encounters. They should also be used as the soldiers for Warbands of evil wizards, especially ones who've embraced Lichdom.
The Cultists have been designed to compliment the Frostgrave Soldiers plastic box set. By that we mean the arms, heads and equipment are interchangeable, giving you even MORE choice to built a unique and personal Warband.
And as an extra bonus, the Cultist plastic frame includes heads and arms to convert your Soldiers or Cultists into skeletons and Zombies. True Frostgrave Undead! Perfect to represent your 'risen from the dead' ex-soldiers.
The plastic figures are 28mm sized, supplied unpainted and require assembly with glue. We recommend you use glue designed for plastic to get the best results.
Limited Time Offer: Purchase the main Frostgrave rule book from us and get $5 off your order of Frostgrave Miniatures over $25. Mention Rulebook coupon in your order comments section. We have to make this adjustment after your order is placed. Limited time offer.
Frostgrave Rule book only orders will get a coupon code emailed for use in a future order of Frostgrave miniatures over $25. Mention Rulebook coupon in your order comments section.
Basically puts the rule book about the same price as ordering it on Amazon, when you order some figures.
Now that I have the Fristgrave Soldiers box in hand, I can confirm they are great figures. Lots of options, nicely sculpted, and it will only get better when we have the cultists to mix bits with.
15 minutes ago on FB they posted that they are waiting on their shipment to arrive and will ship the Nickstarters out as soon as they have them. Should be any day now I gather.
Makes sense I'm on the same side of the Atlantic as the factory which always helps with distribution.
Here's the General Scale shot you asked for Kid Kyoto
Malifaux Multi-Part kit, Militia Crossbowman, Cultist, GW Arbitrator, AoW Corruptor of the Apocalypse
I'll also do a more in depth review in this P&M Blog http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/270/231101.page
Kid_Kyoto wrote: Thanks, so a bit smaller than GW? would GW limbs work on them?
I've used GW's Empire Militia heads, arms and weapons on my Frostgrave minis, and they were fine.
The potential of these minis (and of the Cultist minis which I'm buying tomorrow) is huge. My kids love them too and make up their own games.
AegisGrimm wrote: Is the game and it's mechanics hugely dependent on the frozen city setting? Or would it work in other fantasy settings?
I wouldn't say hugely dependent at all. The game assumes a lot of terrain, both ruined buildings to be climbed up and entered into and scatter to block LoS. The scenarios are written about things like temples, wells, libraries etc that you'd find in a ruined city, but there's no reason you couldn't adapt this stuff to a different setting. I don't think the 'frozen' aspect has come up in any of the games I've played.
And I've just assembled and undercoated my Cultists this weekend, they are really nice and it's a lot of fun to play about with what's on the sprue to make a warband of unique guys.
So I just played my first full game of Frostgrave. Not impressed.
The mechanics strike me as deeply flawed: A single good roll kills anyone. If you take cover, range can still just one-shot you since it does nothing to detatch 'high hit roll results also in high damage'.
The wizards, while neat, are still disappointing: You fail your spells half the time of worse, and they're just not that interesting.
Having played MANY skirmish games, I'm not entirely sure why this one has gotten so much particular attention when it's in reality, generally devoid of flavor :(
I may be overly critical, but I was looking forward to it and had picked up the book and everything. But just in practice, it's bland. Your minions have no differentiation from each other, as the little stat modifiers do next to nothing. 'Magic Weapon +2' is the least cool way to possibly describe the stuff you could find in a fantasy setting. And the core scenario of hauling off treasure is a good idea, but it just doesn't work out in practice as interesting. It's almost non-interactive to do it best, and the rewards for fighting are minimal at best except for your wizard, who's encouraged to take the one or two powerful attack spells.
I figured the lack of flavour was actually the point. While they're creating a range of models for it, making everything generic lets anyone jump in with any range of miniatures they have.
That's not going to be a draw for everyone, but there's lots of old timers out there with piles and piles of Fantasy models that never get pulled off the shelf. This games lets you easily use that stuff.
But, only having cursory knowledge of the game, I might be way off.
The Wizard is your character. The soldiers that follow him around are faceless minions.
The stat lines for soldiers are within a few points of each other, That however makes it the opposite of meaningless. Those little differences make this 10% better at melee, that guy harder to kill, and only a few of them have ranged attacks, so just the different equipement makes a huge difference in what they accomplish.
When I read through the game the first time I thought everything was too similar to be meaningfull, but it's not the case. The differences are nuanced and while playing not as obvious as they may be in other games.
Yes, if you roll a 20 while fighting an unarmored foe, they tend to go down, but that's kind of the point. You got the most perfect shot possible in. An Arrow in the eye tends to put people down. It makes, almost, every combat potentially lethal.
As for spell casting, I'm curious what you didn't find interesting about it ? 80 spells covering most of the staples allow for a huge amount of diversity amongst casters.
You mentioned failing 50% or more. That's part spell selection and part that you were likely playing a starting level wizard. They get easier to cast when you level them up.
I do admit that Frostgrave's strength is campaign and scenario play. Playing one off games with starting warbands would be like showing up to play D&D with 1st level characters every week.
Kid_Kyoto wrote: Thanks, so a bit smaller than GW? would GW limbs work on them?
I don't have any in hand, but imagine how they would look if the GW Empire guy was to stand up straight like the Frostgrave guy, I don't think they are compatible at all.
This may be a bit long, I'm sorry. But my game design senses just got tingling and I saw a lot of issues.
adamsouza wrote: The Wizard is your character. The soldiers that follow him around are faceless minions.
That's fine. It's a neat concept in fact, if it works out.
The stat lines for soldiers are within a few points of each other, That however makes it the opposite of meaningless. Those little differences make this 10% better at melee, that guy harder to kill, and only a few of them have ranged attacks, so just the different equipement makes a huge difference in what they accomplish.
It's absolutely meaningless. Most soldiers are +1 or +2 off each other in their stats, which, when it comes to it doesn't actually add up to anything. Why? Because an 'accurate hit' (ie, a single good roll on d20) is far superior to any stat improvement.
Let's look at 3 cases: One, Attacker Misses, Two, Attacker grazes target for 2-3 points, three, Attacker hits target for 9+ damage and kills them instantly.
The instant any random, poorly aimed shot (such as from my incompetent archer, firing while moving, at a target that's through woods, a bad storm, and hiding flush against rock) rolls a 19, I'm not only unlikely to dodge it (less than 20% for most units), but then the hit's will do 8-11 damage to any unit it hits, which is enough to kill nearly anyone. There's no way to mitigate this sort of thing.
Or perhaps my Thug (armor 11, +3 fight) is engaged by a superior enemy, a thug with a magic weapon! It... doesn't actually change anything. A 5-10% difference is all one can really get in the game, and it doesn't mean anything when the most meaningful rolls are those sorts of runaway successes. Because of this, there's no strategy. You throw dice without care for quality, and the sheer number of attempts will eventually get crushing hits.
When I read through the game the first time I thought everything was too similar to be meaningfull, but it's not the case. The differences are nuanced and while playing not as obvious as they may be in other games.
It's not only not as obvious, but also not as existant. The game does not have hidden depths of complexity, you're extremely restricted in what you can do.
Yes, if you roll a 20 while fighting an unarmored foe, they tend to go down, but that's kind of the point. You got the most perfect shot possible in. An Arrow in the eye tends to put people down. It makes, almost, every combat potentially lethal.
The lowest armor is 10. The highest armor is 13. Rolling an unmodified 20 is going to deal 14 damage against even these armor 13 guys, which is enough to kill anyone in one shot.
As for spell casting, I'm curious what you didn't find interesting about it ? 80 spells covering most of the staples allow for a huge amount of diversity amongst casters.
You only can cast once per turn, and generally have difficulties between 10-14 for the most part after accounting for cross-school. There's a lot of garbage spells. 'Curse' reduces a target's roll stats by 1 per casting... or I could just kill them dead with a poison dart or elemental bolt. Or use slow or other debuffs. Likewise for numerically insignificant buffs, like Alertness. Other spells, like Invisibility or Elemental Bolt, are absurdly powerful meanwhile.
You mentioned failing 50% or more. That's part spell selection and part that you were likely playing a starting level wizard. They get easier to cast when you level them up.
The game really should be fun at every level. The rules also don't really seem to allow you to become better by much: Each 'level' only gives +1 to casting a single very, specific spell. If you forgo other benefits. This is increeeddibly slow progression.
I do admit that Frostgrave's strength is campaign and scenario play. Playing one off games with starting warbands would be like showing up to play D&D with 1st level characters every week.
I must disagree after giving the game a chance. It's just not as interesting as similar campaign/scenario games, as it fails to tell a story. I can just go and buy ancient artifacts on e-bay, or the extremely descriptive '+1 sword'. Many of the campaign elements don't even do much of anything, such as the 'base' selection and improvement.
Sorry if it sounds scathing, but I must be critical of flawed mechanics. It may be to some people's tastes which is absolutely fine. But there's certainly elements that mathematically don't do much of anything. It's incredibly swingy, and both weak and average rolls do nothing, but great rolls just get everything done. We had no attack in the course of two games do anything but 'hit someone for 1/10th of their health' or 'kill dead in one stroke'.
I'm fine with you not liking the game. I just find your complaints about it to be hyperbolic.
You throw dice without care for quality, and the sheer number of attempts will eventually get crushing hits.
That just about sums up any and all tabetop wargames. If you throw enough dice at something, it will die.
Also, the only way your doing 14 damage to an armor 13 guy is with a modified attack roll of 27. (Which requires a successfully cast Elemental Bolt getting an attack roll of 19+, or severely outnumbering someone in melee)
It's just not as interesting as similar campaign/scenario games, as it fails to tell a story
I'm genuinely interested in what games you are refereing to, please elaborate.
Thanks for giving my game a try, I'm sorry it hasn't worked out for you. It was designed to be somewhat generic, expressly so players could use any miniatures they wanted. Actually, to be completely accurate, it was designed that way so 'I' could use any miniatures I wanted! There are definitely some people that find combat in the game to 'swingy'. I think a detailed look at the mathematics shows this isn't actually as great as most people think (i.e. a thug cannot one-shot a knight, unless you are using the optional critical hit rule), but regardless, it is a matter of personal preference. I like combat to be dangerous, and the outcome hard to predict. Yes, the knight will usually beat the thug, but you can't count on it.
Anyway, all I can ask is that people give the game a fair shot. It sounds like you did, but it wasn't for you. That's cool. If we all agreed on what made a good game, we would only need one! Thankfully, there are lots of great minis games on the market, so we can hunt for the one that suits us best!
In practice, the high-end fighters (knight, templar, and barbarian, in particular) are unlikely or impossible to kill with one shot, which is a large part of what makes them so worthwhile.
Automatically Appended Next Post: I think it could do with some minor rules tweaks for balance -- be nice to have more spells to start with, but for some of them to have to be utility rather than direct-damage, for example, and I think some of the soldiers need a small stat tweak or two. It definitely doesn't feel as thoroughly playtested as A Song of Blades and Heroes, for example (but very few games do). It's still a lot of fun.
So, which other Dakka-ites are heading over to Frostgrave Day in Nottingham on Saturday? I will be there, with my son. Come over and say hello if you spot me (usually, I am the only one with dreadlocks and tattoos, but who knows, this time?).
Thanks for giving my game a try, I'm sorry it hasn't worked out for you. It was designed to be somewhat generic, expressly so players could use any miniatures they wanted. Actually, to be completely accurate, it was designed that way so 'I' could use any miniatures I wanted! There are definitely some people that find combat in the game to 'swingy'. I think a detailed look at the mathematics shows this isn't actually as great as most people think (i.e. a thug cannot one-shot a knight, unless you are using the optional critical hit rule), but regardless, it is a matter of personal preference. I like combat to be dangerous, and the outcome hard to predict. Yes, the knight will usually beat the thug, but you can't count on it.
Anyway, all I can ask is that people give the game a fair shot. It sounds like you did, but it wasn't for you. That's cool. If we all agreed on what made a good game, we would only need one! Thankfully, there are lots of great minis games on the market, so we can hunt for the one that suits us best!
Thank you for making a game, nonetheless. I'm well aware that not everything is for everyone, and I don't begrudge anyone for liking what they do.
Generic mini friendly is of course a great draw. We all have huge piles of random models. However, we never over the course of the last 4-player game for example, saw a single model get taken down by attritional damage. It was either meaningless pokes, or full 10+ point hits and kills. Hell, the first shot of the game decapitated one of the wizards with a natural 20. Nor did 'taking cover' do anything really, as a natural roll of 18+ probably is fatal or near fatal, no matter how much cover one takes against ranged fire. That also rankled the group, as it seemed that the most apparent defensive action against missile fire (taking cover) actually does little to stop the real danger (natural high rolls that also do naturally high damage)
I wish the best of luck for your game of course. We're in a new golden age for minis wargaming, and especially skirmish games.
I kinda agree with all Killionaire is saying and in addition the campaign system isn't great. I still play it as it is barrel of laughs and going into I you have to realise it is not in anyway shape or a serious tactical game in the likes of Infinity or campaign structure of Necromunda/Mordheim! I love playing it as it is quite funny and will be demoing it to new players as just that.
However, we never over the course of the last 4-player game for example, saw a single model get taken down by attritional damage. It was either meaningless pokes, or full 10+ point hits and kills.
I really suspect you are not determining damage properly.
The cheapest Thug has an armor value of 10. Not only would you have to fail the opposed toll to get hit, but that modified roll would have to be 20 or higher to take him out in a single hit. You subtract the armor values from the modified attack roll. Most soldiers in the game are rocking a whole +2 to that roll, and armor values of 10+. Which would mean that the cheapest human soldier is injured on a 11-17, and taken out on a 18-20 .
Hell, the first shot of the game decapitated one of the wizards with a natural 20.
Wizards start with 14 hits and an armor of 10. That natural 20 would still need a +4 modifier to take out an uninjured level 1 wizard, who wasn't protected by any magic. At range, that would require 1 of the 2 most deadly spells in the game.
Nor did 'taking cover' do anything really, as a natural roll of 18+ probably is fatal or near fatal, no matter how much cover one takes against ranged fire. That also rankled the group, as it seemed that the most apparent defensive action against missile fire (taking cover) actually does little to stop the real danger (natural high rolls that also do naturally high damage)
Partial cover makes you harder to hit, reducing the chance that you are even taking damage at all. That's frequently how cover works in games. Off of the top of my head the only game I can think of where cover doesn't work that way is 40K, which doesn't use penalties to hit as a mechanic, at all.
But yes, Frostgrave's combat in general has about a 5-15% chance of dispatching unarmored foes, who failed their opposed combat roll. Combat is an oppossed roll. They only take damage, if they effectively failed their armor save, and if the attack roll is higher than their armor rating.
Actually, it comes from the D20. Since the variation is greater than a D6, obviously results are much more random. It's the same for Infinity because of that. And 1st level characters in D&D know perfectly how it is dangerous to fight.
Let's just say Mordheim and Necromunda, games that are famed in a certain way by players, aren't that great as a skirmish game system, actually. They have a lot of flaws - but people don't care because of the campaign system and all the good memories they have from their games.
So going generic is actually a good idea for Frostgrave - that gives a lot more freedom to "forge the narrative", which is a core key in these kinds of games after all. Like in RPG.
Plus, it's easy to learn and play. I still have nightmares from my time with Infinity and its special rules for litteraly each miniature/weapon system....was a great pain to remember everything when you are someone who plays many different games!
