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Dang, when's the retail release? I want a box now

The Gnolls are now available through North Star: http://www.northstarfigures.com/prod.php?prod=8419

I just stumbled across this Kickstarter for apprentice wizards. I thought they might be fun if I ever actually get to play this game...
Wizard's Apprentices Fantasy Figures from Midlam Miniatures

joe5mc wrote:
The Gnolls are now available through North Star: http://www.northstarfigures.com/prod.php?prod=8419

North Star's shipping is awful. Wayland carries FG for $22 a box for the plastics so I'll wait for them to get them in. Free shipping and super cheap = don't mind a 3 week wait.

I don't think I've ever seen Frostgrave stuff that cheap Judge Doug. Best price on gnolls I can find so far is about 32 with shipping included out of the UK to California.

Is that price through their website or their eBay page?

Every time I've ordered via Wayland's eBay page I've gotten it ridiculously quick, but usually I'm only ordering 1 or 2 items.

Here you go:

http://www.waylandgames.co.uk/frostgrave/30415-frostgrave-cultists?search_query=cultists&results=31

They don't have the gnolls yet, obviously.

 judgedoug wrote:

joe5mc wrote:
The Gnolls are now available through North Star: http://www.northstarfigures.com/prod.php?prod=8419

North Star's shipping is awful. Wayland carries FG for $22 a box for the plastics so I'll wait for them to get them in. Free shipping and super cheap = don't mind a 3 week wait.

Wow... Thanks for the head's up, Doug. I didn't realize how cheap Wayland was, even shipping to the US for Frostgrave. I love those Soldier/Cultist/Gnoll kits, and always need more... snuck a 3x3 mat into my order, and boom... free shipping.

Wayland also offers free shipping to the US for orders over a certain amount, excluding items designated "bulky."

EDIT: Ah I see you already noticed

Yeah, sadly, Deep Cut Studios Neoprene mats were "bulky" and only available within the EU, whereas their cloth ones were neither, and dirt cheap, putting me into free-shipping. :-)

I can't overstate how much I love the FG soldier kits. As modular kits go they have so many options, and just a nice, flavorful 90's Perry Bros Empire kind of aesthetic.

Just FYI on Wayland.. they list things that aren't in stock sometimes.. and don't notify you that it's not in stock or when it might be.. I ordered some things from them a while back and a month later had not heard anything so tried to find out what was up. They acted like I was insane for thinking they should've already shipped it (after they FINALLY responded) and gave me my money back. I've heard they've gotten better but thought I'd make sure that was out there.

As to other distributors.. Warlord sells Frostgrave stuff and while it's not really discounted, they are running a free shipping promo from the 27th until August 3rd.
Coupon code - JOHNSBIRTHDAY

They do have Frostgrave as well as various terrain that's usable and other goodies..

Wayland lists each product as In Stock or Available to Order. Whenever an order does not ship to me within a week or so, Wayland sends me an email explaining that something is still not in stock. I can log in to find exactly which items are still not in stock. In one situation recently, a few weeks went by and they finally offered to ship what was in stock and let me either cancel or wait on the remainder - all for free - but I declined because I was in no rush. As it turned out, the tardy item came back into stock a day or so later and the order shipped out. I have been using Wayland for the last couple of years and I have been ordering a ton of stuff from them lately (thanks Brexit!) and I have had all positive experiences.

 Manchu wrote:
Wayland lists each product as In Stock or Available to Order. Whenever an order does not ship to me within a week or so, Wayland sends me an email explaining that something is still not in stock. I can log in to find exactly which items are still not in stock. In one situation recently, a few weeks went by and they finally offered to ship what was in stock and let me either cancel or wait on the remainder - all for free - but I declined because I was in no rush. As it turned out, the tardy item came back into stock a day or so later and the order shipped out. I have been using Wayland for the last couple of years and I have been ordering a ton of stuff from them lately (thanks Brexit!) and I have had all positive experiences.

In fairness, I did say I heard they had improved.. this was sometime between 2010-2013 I want to say that I had my experience..

I ordered some stuff from them late last year that they pretty much accepted they weren't going to be able to get to me any time soon, after a few weeks of back-and-forth helpdesk tickets (some Otherworld and some Mantic minis). Took me some more back-and-forth to get a full refund. So I am not sure they have improved all that much.

Edit: Wayland, that is. My orders from North Star have mostly been pretty smooth, though I've stopped ordering Nickstarters because it feels like you can usually get their new releases cheaper in an FLGS or elsewhere.

Here's a more "realistic" picture of the gnoll kit from facebook. It looks more to me what an average person would do.

Not bad. I'm still of the opinion that they look fine with a modest paint-job.

I think the soldiers/cultists are excellent kits, and would put these behind them, but will still get a set to populate "Into the Breeding Pits" monster encounter table.

I think they look good. The three toed feet bug me, but otherwise, not bad. I'd field them.

I like the "regular person" paintjob much better than the retail pics. I have to look past Northstar's studio style most of the time. Not saying it's bad, just not to my taste.

I think a lot of critics around these parts also forget how hard it is to make modular kits that also look natural in any combination of parts, as well as cool.

People at large are so used to dynamically posed, engineered models, that they forget that the function of kits like this is to be able to WYWIWYG a HUGE variety of gear onto a model, usually for campaign games where characters/models may come and go frequently, and you'll often be painting up a new guy here or there, as you add them to your warband.

 Manchu wrote:
I like the "regular person" paintjob much better than the retail pics. I have to look past Northstar's studio style most of the time. Not saying it's bad, just not to my taste.

There has been a push in recent years for studio paint jobs such as GW, Mantic, etc al, to highlight to white, and the end result looks really bad. I also prefer the more realistic Perry Historicals or LOTR style paint jobs, if you know what I mean.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 MLaw wrote:
Just FYI on Wayland.. they list things that aren't in stock sometimes.. and don't notify you that it's not in stock or when it might be..

Thankfully it's not like that anymore. It's very clear when you look at an item whether it's in stock, or available to order. When it's available to order, you have to wait for a) Wayland to order from distributor b) distributor to order from manufacturer c) manufacturer to send to distributor d) distributor to send to wayland.

Order all items that are "in stock" and ships next day. However, I pretty much accept a multi-week wait for any of my orders with "available to order".

Amusingly I placed an order July 5, all of it was "available to order", within a week, everything but one item was allocated to the order. They shipped everything but that one item to me on their own accord because apparently they received word that the one item I was waiting on, a £6 item, was being remolded by the manufacturer and would be help up further. So I'm quite happy with 'em. The low pound, big discounts, and free shipping to the USA threshold more than makes up for a few weeks wait versus buying from Northstar or other UK based people and paying ridiculous things like 25% shipping rates or not having VAT removed LOL

I got my Gnickstarter in yesterday, and I'm very pleased with the whole package. I ordered a Level 4, and even knowing what I was getting, actually seeing the amount of metal in the box with the plastics and book was a bit shocking!

I also love the rules. The dungeon rules are just what I'd expected from Frostgrave - simple, yet just crunchy enough to be interesting without being overwhelming.

I also like how the Gnolls bestiary entry directs you to use the stats for normal warriors, plus these two statblocks for the cheiftain and shaman. I love the system where a "Gnolls" entry on the random encounter table will send you to a seperate chart for a variety of different possible Gnoll warrior + character combinations. I'm planning on reverse-engineering that comcept to my Death Cultists, as well.

 judgedoug wrote:

 Manchu wrote:
I like the "regular person" paintjob much better than the retail pics. I have to look past Northstar's studio style most of the time. Not saying it's bad, just not to my taste.

There has been a push in recent years for studio paint jobs such as GW, Mantic, etc al, to highlight to white, and the end result looks really bad. I also prefer the more realistic Perry Historicals or LOTR style paint jobs, if you know what I mean.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 MLaw wrote:
Just FYI on Wayland.. they list things that aren't in stock sometimes.. and don't notify you that it's not in stock or when it might be..

Thankfully it's not like that anymore. It's very clear when you look at an item whether it's in stock, or available to order. When it's available to order, you have to wait for a) Wayland to order from distributor b) distributor to order from manufacturer c) manufacturer to send to distributor d) distributor to send to wayland.

Order all items that are "in stock" and ships next day. However, I pretty much accept a multi-week wait for any of my orders with "available to order".

Amusingly I placed an order July 5, all of it was "available to order", within a week, everything but one item was allocated to the order. They shipped everything but that one item to me on their own accord because apparently they received word that the one item I was waiting on, a £6 item, was being remolded by the manufacturer and would be help up further. So I'm quite happy with 'em. The low pound, big discounts, and free shipping to the USA threshold more than makes up for a few weeks wait versus buying from Northstar or other UK based people and paying ridiculous things like 25% shipping rates or not having VAT removed LOL

That certainly seems to be the case - MLaw seems to be using outdated info/experiences.

Hopefully Wayland keeps it up and ends up becoming (or staying) a really good source for USA customers.

Gnolls look ok but certainly nothing like the awesome cover art that got me interested in the first place.

 JoshInJapan wrote:
I just stumbled across this Kickstarter for apprentice wizards. I thought they might be fun if I ever actually get to play this game...
Wizard's Apprentices Fantasy Figures from Midlam Miniatures

Thank you, thank you, thank you for that link.

Just bought six apprentices.


As it happens I already had good apprentice models for adult apprentices, but teens work as a nice alternative and are very good for the price.



Gripping Beast Arab spearmen and archers - you can buy them by the sprue on eBay.

Combine them with


Gripping Beast Dark Age Warriors

Nice cloaks can be found fro the Fireforge games Templar and Teutonic infantry sprues. You can make some very ice low level mages this way, plain and unassuming unlike most wizard miniatures, and thus a good counterpart to serve as apprentices.

With my metal teen wizards incoming as well my Frostgrave group will be spoilt for choice.

I'd like to see some of those apprentices you kitbashed. They sound nifty.

Huh. Never thought of using some Fireforge bits with the Arabs and Dark Ages to kitbash a mage together.

I had planned on grabbing some fireforge guys anyways, I'll see if I can slap something together too....

Hey, so I havent read the entire thread, but was hoping you guys could answer some basic Frostgrave questions. My understanding is its a skirmish game, but the ad blurbs seems to indicate there is a campaign mode as well, similar to Mordheim. Is that the case? Can you level your guys up between battles, buy more gear etc? Is there any mechanism in place to help someone catch up in such a campaign? My buddies and I had a ton of fun with Mordheim back in the day, but it was frustrating to lose the first match or two and then be utterly handicapped to the point where you'd just get rolled by game 4-5. Thanks!

Yes there is a campaign mode where you can do all that. As only the wizard and apprentice levels balance is less of an issue. Also it is highly luck based if a 20 turns up anything can die. I think there is also a levelling scenario as well.

I'll go a step further and say this is a campaign game above all else. One-off games aren't particularly satisfying at all, and all the heavy-lifting design work goes into the campaign, leveling-up, new gear/potions/spells, etc...

 Bossk_Hogg wrote:
Hey, so I havent read the entire thread, but was hoping you guys could answer some basic Frostgrave questions. My understanding is its a skirmish game, but the ad blurbs seems to indicate there is a campaign mode as well, similar to Mordheim. Is that the case? Can you level your guys up between battles, buy more gear etc? Is there any mechanism in place to help someone catch up in such a campaign? My buddies and I had a ton of fun with Mordheim back in the day, but it was frustrating to lose the first match or two and then be utterly handicapped to the point where you'd just get rolled by game 4-5. Thanks!

Our group has been running the campaign mode very informally, because it works so well. Playing a game with your levelling warband? Fine, keep recording your treasure and XP.

The game doesn't worry about XP for soldiers, as they're expendable mercenaries your wizard hires for gold to help him search out the ancient secrets of magic lost in the recently thawed city. That flattens the xp gap between two warbands significantly, as only the wizard and his apprentice, maybe an optional captain, will show the effects of levelling up. The opposing warband's soldiers will be exactly the same as yours, except maybe some minor (+1 or +2 to a stat, damage, or armor, maybe). It also helps that the scenarios don't have "win the game" conditions - there's a limited number of treasure tokens that you will want very much, with various complications in addition to the opposing warband happening per the scenario rules. Getting a treasure off the table also removes the model carrying it from the game, so I find that our games have been more tactical finesse games than strategic overwhelm-the-opponent affairs. These factors meant that in a recent game with my Level 10 Necromancer vs a friend's Level 3 Summoner, we didn't notice any real disparity. My archers was the same as his archers. My wizard was just a little better at casting out-of-school spells than his was, and my knight had a +1 sword.

As far as catch-up mechanics, there's a scenario published online for when one wizard has a huge level advantage, but we haven't needed it yet. It introduces three "neutral" trolls that still use the wandering monster AI, but will only consider the advantaged warband as enemy models for the purposes of triggering a charge or fight response, etc. As I noted in the paragraph above, we haven't noticed the need for it yet, despite playing with warbands of varying leveled wizards. The campaign section also suggests that if a new player enters an ongoing campaign and is worried about being outmatched, that the experienced players should start a new, side warband to play with in games against the new guy until he catches up.

Cool, thanks for the info fellas! I'll add it to my "to buy" pile