As I mentioned in another post, I was looking for ways to introduce my six year-old daughter to miniatures skirmish games, and decided that an initially stripped-down version of Frostgrave would be perfect. Too perfect in fact, as she proceeded to thrash me in a slightly unexpected way ...
This was the table set up, with our cheap-and-cheerful scenery. We both had bands of six figures each (one wizard, four men-at-arms and a thief), with each wizard having three spells from their own school. The child had an Elementalist, with Elemental Bolt, Elemental Sphere and Wall as her spells. I had an Illusionist, with Teleport, Transpose and Invisibility as my spells. Perhaps most controversially, we ignored the penalty for failing to cast a spell. I might introduce that after a few games, but I thought it would be best to make it as straightforward as possible to start with. My guys are in the bottom of the picture, as they head into the ruined city ...
The child's thief climbed the tower and snatched the first treasure.
My wizard (on the left) confronts the child's wizard - this was where she unleashed her clever strategy of simply running away and avoiding fights! I was left chasing around trying to confront her warband, while she got on with the serious business of hoovering up the treasure and getting it to the edge of the table. (I should point out that she painted her wizard herself ... )
The child's archer makes off with another treasure token - home made, with buttons and sequins.
I grab a token at last ...
...only to drop it and run like a massive coward when confronted by her wizard.
This is where the game really fell through my fingers. I teleported my wizard to the top of the tower, achieving very little and failing every dice roll to recast teleport so I could escape again!
Looking for someone to fight ...
My archer at the top of a ruined pillar.
Archer's eye view of the action. I had some bad dice rolls and failed to do much damage, but I was still pulling my punches very slightly and didn't want to wipe out a six year-old's warband just yet ... a mistake, as it turned out.
The Mad Axeman interposes himself between the child's wizard and one of her warband, who was making off with yet another treasure token. Unfortunately he was killed in a really ill-judged suicidal charge shortly after ...
The child's soldier runs for the edge with the last treasure token ...
...only to die in a hail of arrows, only an inch from the edge! Unbelievably, I still failed to get this last treasure token, because the child's wizard swooped in and snatched it up moments later.
To the victors the spoils ...
Final analysis - Although this was a much-simplified version of the game, and I got a few rule points wrong at the beginning, we both had a great time. I thought my daughter would be reluctant to engage in full-on combat, but I was really surprised how successful her strategy of running and grabbing turned out to be. Movement is all here, and she really played it well. I was definitely being more gentle on her at the beginning, but when I realised that she was going to win I genuinely went all out to stop her - only to face a humiliating defeat at the hands of a six year-old girl.
Can't wait for the next game - revenge will be sweet!
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April 20, 2024, 05:32:01 PM
December 07, 2007, 06:51:43 AM