Fur-grave - Mikedemana's Ghost Archipelago spin on things (2nd game AAR Pg5)

[mikedemana]

I had been curious about Frostgrave after seeing numerous bloggers displaying their inspiring, wintry terrain and ruined cities they created. It seemed to be creating quit a buzz in the miniature gaming community, so I figured the rules had to be good and the games enjoyable. So, when a friend asked me to come over and try out Frostgrave, I jumped at the chance. I honestly knew nothing about Ghost Archipelago, thinking I'd be paying the icebound version. I was actually glad it turned out to be G.A., because I have tons of appropriate terrain for that period and zilch for a frozen, ruined, northern city!

This thread will be to track my progress in preparing to run Frostgrave: Ghost Archipelago for my usual Sunday night gaming crew. I'll update it as I paint up new warbands or create new terrain for the battles. I figured I'd start with the terrain, though. A couple years back, I ran a series of Pulp games set in SE Asia, with ruined temples and other scratch-built terrain galore. So, here's a refresher on what I created, and what will be appearing in my games. My apologies for the Pulp figures that appear in the photographs below...

The Big Temple

Three-quarters view of The Big Temple

This one is my favorite of all the temples I created. It was quite elaborate, and takes up quite a few entries on my Lead Legionaries blog. If you'd like to see how I created it, click on the five-part blog entries entitled, "Snowed In? Build a Temple" from 2014): https://leadlegionaries.blogspot.com/2014/01/snowed-in-build-temple-part-1.html

Close up view of the roof of The Big Temple

View of the entrance to the temple and the styrene brick pattern sheet and Hirst Arts blocks entranceway

Photo of the interior of the temple with the printed architectural patterns

Stay tuned for more temples and scenery, and figures. Oh yeah...some of you may be wondering the reason for the title, Fur-grave. As I mentioned in some earlier posts, I will be using Splintered Light Miniatures 28mm line of anthropomorphic animals for the player's warbands. I've been collecting the figures for years, and this is a perfect opportunity to use them. More on this later...

Mike Demana
www.firstcommandwargames.com
http://leadlegionaries.blogspot.com/

[Bloggard]

oh wow, Mike, that's fantastic.

looking forward to further posts n' pics.

[mikedemana]

Thanks, Bloggard! Here's another temple. I called it the Forbidden Temple, because I used it as the climactic location for my Pulp campaign, housing the treasure they were all seeking. The main feature of this temple is the huge warrior statue atop it. I picked this one up from a pet supply store -- it was in their lizard aquarium line.

The Forbidden Temple (scratch-built...well, not counting the warrior statue!)

The detailing of each of the two actual levels of the temple comes from images of Angkor Wat, resized and simply glued onto a paper mache box. Various wood trim was added to decorate it, and even more various bits on the roof. This was actually the quickest of my SE Asian temple scratch builds. I'm actually very happy with how the printed exterior looks. I'm normally a 3D guy, and not a big fan of printed cardboard terrain. However, finding something along the lines of this temple in 3D could be a bit of a challenge.

Another view of the printed exterior of the Forbidden Temple

The interior was similarly printed and glued into place. Also inside are a resin Buddha from Miniature Building Authority and a spiral staircase constructed with Hirst Arts block. I can definitely see me storing a treasure marker inside her in Frostgrave scenarios!

The interior of the Forbidden Temple

More temples and terrain to follow...!

Mike Demana
www.firstcommandwargames.com
http://leadlegionaries.blogspot.com/

[beefcake]

Very nice. I really like that last one!

[critsmash]

Your mix of prints and 3d terrain are on point! Do you print on regular paper?

[Bloggard]

yet more magnificence!

[mikedemana]

Your mix of prints and 3d terrain are on point! Do you print on regular paper?

Yes! Color laser printer on ordinary paper. I think cardstock would work just as well, if not better, too. Thanks for the kind comments everyone!

On to the final temple terrain installment for Furgrave....

Two Small Temples and a Stupa

These are nice, small scratch-built terrain pieces that will doubtless have Frostgrave treasures inside them. I have a fairly extensive series of entries on my blog about their construction. To read it (8 parts, believe it or not!), go to:
http://leadlegionaries.blogspot.com/2013/10/southeast-asian-temple-part-1-materials.html

Temple A





Temple B





The Round Stupa

I hope everyone enjoyed this preview of the temples that will be centerpieces of my tables. I'll take a break from terrain in the next installment, and begin posting pictures of the figures we will be using. Thanks again for the comments!

Mike Demana
www.firstcommandwargames.com
http://leadlegionaries.blogspot.com/

[Bloggard]

another cracker Mike - your mix of printed matter is inspired.

[mikedemana]

another cracker Mike - your mix of printed matter is inspired.

Thank you! I appreciate the kind words...

And now it is on to some figures. The whole "Fur-grave" title of this thread is because I will be using Splintered Light Miniatures 28mm anthropomorphic animals (boy, that's a mouthful!) as my player warbands. I had quite a few of these painted up and individually based as leader figures for a yet to be playtested fantasy miniature battles rules set. So, I figured this was the perfect time to use these figs -- and to paint up more of the miniature mountain of SLM figs that I'd collected.

Here are my first couple warbands...

Splintered Light Miniatures Jungle Rats - the warband's Heritor is the dark rat front left, and the Warden is the white rat in the center

Jungle Rats
These guys were not painted up specifically for this project, but instead for a grand finale, Lead Painters League entry (see photo below). SLM's take on Jungle Rats is they are savage tribesmen -- perfect for the South Seas theme to Ghost Archipelago. The line has an obvious shaman figure (white one, front center), which will be the Warden. Plus the dark-colored jungle rat with the stone hatchet seems a good leader figure, which makes him a good choice for a Heritor. The rest of the figures are warriors. I like the variety that SLM added to this line. It is not always the case for some of their more obscure animals, but they seem to go all in when it's rats, for some reason. I especially like that they have missile armed troops -- blowguns in this case. Now obviously, G.A. doesn't have rules for blowguns (despite one of the paintings depicting them ). I think I will just count them as bows. I know, I know, blowguns don't have near the range of bows. However, these are special jungle rats with enhanced lung capacity that spend their lives practicing to shoot them at high velocity out to range...ala English longbowmen practicing into adulthood to be able to pull such a powerful bow. Make sense? Ah well, if it doesn't then just remember line of sight in a jungle setting will be more limited, so effective range is more influenced by the terrain rather than the weapon.
 

My "Frog-gigging Gone Wrong" entry from the very first Lead Painters League I entered

Pine Martens
This warband uses figures from SLM's Pine Marten line. I have to admit, I had never heard of a pine marten before I bought the figures a number of years ago. Apparently, they are a type of weasel more common in Europe. There are only a handful of Pine Marten poses, so it is a good thing that I am planning on smaller warbands for my campaign. Each warband will consist of 5 figures, but I will usually be painting up a sixth one for some variety and player choice. This is half the size of a standard Frostgrave player force, but we have a pretty big crew on Sunday nights, so I am worried about games taking too long. Another local group ran a Frostgrave campaign with smaller warbands, as well, and everyone seemed to have a good time, I hear.

The assembled Pine Marten warband of 5 figures, plus a spare tire

The leader of each force in G.A. has magical powers, but a Heritor is often a skilled warrior, as well. His family bloodline has remained pure tracing ancestry back to those that drank at the magical Crystal Pool, which explains his greater powers. The figure below on the left is the one I plan on being the Heritor (although the player who uses them is free to choose a different one, I guess). I gave his chain and plate armor bronze with gold highlights. The fur pattern is probably the one I think turned out best of the group. Next to the Heritor is his assistant, the Warden. In G.A., these wizards use elemental type magic -- based off of water, air, earth, etc. They are not allowed to wear armor or carry shields (but are free to use whatever weapons they choose). So, this figure with a halberd and billowing cloak worked great, I thought. It his hard to tell in the photo, but the cloak is painted in four bands of colors -- pink, burnt orange, red-brown, and dark brown. A wizard has to have a fancy cloak, right?

https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-VhyI3XSYyVA/Whyr6VHq0aI/AAAAAAAAAeI/USkvsXFoAxoXdj9sHGui0aWVMdbk3iVywCLcBGAs/s640/PineMarten_HeritorWarden.jpg
My Pine Marten's Heritor on the left and the Warden on the right

Next up is a group of ordinary soldier types. The SLM Pine Martens do not come with any archers or missile troops. I decided that I would modify a figure as an archer in case players want missile troops. I thought about cutting off the axe, drilling out the hand, and then inserting a bow. However, I am not very good at converting figures. So, I decided to simply glue a bow to the figures back. It is much more noticeable if I turn the right-hand figure around to see the backside, but I was happy with how it came out. The left-hand figure with the morning star turned out well, too, I thought. I especially liked how the pattern on his tunic looks.

Two Pine Marten warriors -- one with a morning star and the other with an axe and bow strapped to his back

As mentioned, there is not a lot of variety in the Pine Marten line, so you'll notice duplication here. The left-hand figure is a repeat of the axeman above, while the swordsman is the same pose as the Heritor. Although I love the SLM line of animals, that is one drawback of some of the creature types. Some have only a few poses, some more, some even less. So, it's probably a good thing that I went with the smaller warbands! I would have had to do a LOT more figure modification otherwise.

Two more Pine Marten figures from Splintered Light Miniatures

Frogs
I still have not decided if I am using this group or not as a warband. I am thinking of making them my Fur-grave equivalent of G.A. Snake Men. I don't own any 28mm snake men, and honestly, these frogs are some pretty cool figures. I have a lot of them, so they'll make good enemies. Plus, you can't have frog men without giving them the Amphibian trait. How do you cost out giving a player's entire force Amphibian? So, maybe I won't offer this one to my players -- despite the obvious leader figures who would make good Heritors and Wardens. Either way, I did want to show another close up photo of them.


My collection of Splintered Light Miniatures frogs

On the painting table now is another warband about halfway done. Plus, other warbands have 1-3 figures already painted up, so hopefully I will be cranking out these quickly. More to come soon!

Mike Demana
www.firstcommandwargames.com
http://leadlegionaries.blogspot.com/

[beefcake]

Very cool. I like the jungle rats and the frogs most. I like how you have done the water effect that the frogs are moving through in the 2nd pic.

[Bloggard]

all great stuff.

as with beefcake - really like the effect of that 'water' material in the frog-riggin' pic above - what's is it if I may ask?

I'm pleased enough with crushed velvet as a cheap and easy solution as per my post - but, at least in your pic, the material you're using looks very effective indeed.

[mikedemana]

The material, I believe, is called a "Sheer." It is a shiny translucent material often used in curtains I found at JoAnne Fabrics -- a craft/fabric store that always has stuff with interesting gaming applications.

And as always, thanks for the kind comments. Just finished some ruins pieces for my games today. Will take pics tomorrow and post, hopefully. Also working on the Badger warband -- interesting timing since my alma mater is playing the Wisconsin Badgers tonight in college football! 

Mike Demana
www.firstcommandwargames.com
http://leadlegionaries.blogspot.com/

[mikedemana]

Splintered Light Miniatures with Hirst Arts ruins pieces flocked to represent overgrown jungle terrain

Back to some terrain for this update. I have my "big pieces" -- the various sized temples. Now, it was time to do some small pieces that can be scattered here and there across the board to help fill up the open spaces. Earlier this year, a friend of mine, Tim Peaslee, very generously handed me a box of Hirst Arts plaster pieces of ruins, caverns, boxes, barrels, etc. When I decided to begin my Frostgrave: Ghost Archipelago campaign, I pulled the box back out and sorted through the pieces. I organized them by size, and the full scale of Tim's generosity finally sunk in. There were a LOT of pieces, here! And many were perfect, I felt, for giving the board the look of an overgrown, ruined city.

A couple merged photos showing what I called the "Single Pieces" -- roughly 1 inch square

I decided to paint up some of them as broken down and overgrown ruins of various temples, palaces, or other stone buildings. There were three basic sizes, and at least two different styles within each size. There were what I called the "Single Pieces" -- small, square ruins pieces about one inch (25mm) square. First, I glued them to a square of styrene or bass wood. Then, I spray painted them flat black. Once dry, I went over the black thoroughly in a 50/50 mixture of glue and water -- my typical method for painting resin terrain. A dark gray then dark dry brush followed. After flocking the bases, I added Woodland Scenic clump foliage to show the ruins beginning to be overrun by the jungle.

The Double Pieces measuring roughly 1"x2"

The Double Pieces were about 1"x2" rectangular sections of crumbled ruins. One of the styles included the stump of a tree growing out of the wall. This was particularly appropriate since you see that time and again in SE Asian ruined temples such as Angkor Wat, in Cambodia.

Finally, there were the Large Ruins pieces, which measured roughly 1.5"x3". There were two main styles, both of which had a tree stump growing out of them. I suppose I could have hunted and found a tree to fit on the stump and have it be a live tree, but I wanted to keep these pieces quick and simple. They did paint up very quickly. Just as much time was spent flocking the bases as was on prepping, priming, and dry brushing them. They did not take long to paint up, and felt they looked great. The clump foliage glued onto the stones themselves really give them an overgrown look.

Next up is another batch of ruins created with Tim's Hirts Arts. Here I will be assembling pieces to recreate a crumbled down staircase, gallery of statues, and section of columns with statues atop them. Stay tuned!

Mike Demana
www.firstcommandwargames.com
http://leadlegionaries.blogspot.com/

[Bloggard]

very nice indeed.
lovely collection of figs and scenery you're putting together.

thanks for info on 'sheer' material - going to try and pick some up, see if works with the crushed velvet ...

[kuba]

The temples are great, so much better than just using aquarium decorations