Count Dragos and his lackeys (April 8: Dragos' final adventure...)

[Malebolgia]

Update!
Tomorrow we're playing the 'Run of the Rangifer' and I wanted to finish some more stuff. Some miniatures and a bit of scenery this time.

Bat Swarm (to be used as Snow Leopard)

Easy and fast paintjob. Not the best one, but in hindsight it would have been better to get it in metal instead of Bones. For a model like this it's a bit too soft. But hey, one more done! And he'll be summoned by my Vampire

Minor Demon & Imps


Once again some fast 'cheats': semi-translucent Bones with a bit of drybrushing and washing. Nothing special but it works.

Zombie Werewolf

One of those miniatures that were in my stash for almost 20 years...so cool to get him painted. And it took only an hour or two! So silly he just collected dust for so long. And a blast to paint too with all those gribbly details. I just love Ridolfi's sculpts
We will be using them for scenario 6 in the 'Thaw of the Lich Lord Campaign'. That game requires a Zombie Troll, which I don't have. But I prefer a Zombie Werewolf so he'll make a great stand-in.

Walkways




So far our games were a bit '2-dimensional' and I really wanted to add some walkways. They were made with sticks from fireworks (collected on January 1 on the streets ) with Storm Sticks wooden sticks. The sticks are quite big, but they work well for walkways and don't take ages to assemble (in comparison to coffee stirrers). And as you can see the walkways are quite long, so lots of options for gaming. I added some plastic icicles to the underside. Bought these 10 years ago from Dragonforge and finally I found a good use for them

And here's a 'battle pic' with two of my recent painted miniatures on top of a walkway:



Friday I will update the thread with a game report!

[jp1885]

Top-drawer work as always. Great idea to use that zombie werewolf!

[Malebolgia]

Cheers mate!

Thaw of the Lich Lord – Game 5: Run of the Rangifer
Me and my mate played our fifth game in the Thaw of the Lich Lord campaign. He had secured himself a Book of Raise Zombie (to complement his Book of Bones) and now was bringing along a zombie. I was bringing a raised zombie and a summoned Bat Swarm (Snow Leopard). Unfortunately I failed to cast Fool’s Gold.
Here’s the table before the game:



I deployed first…Apprentice on the left with two Soldiers, Captain and Barbarian next (to get the treasure in the tower), then my vampire with some soldiers. Raz deployed heavily on my left, in the middle and with a light right flank. Here’s my deployment:



So the Rangifers were looming close by. I hoped to evade them during the first Creature phase…
My wizard and his soldiers advanced, staying out of 10”. My wizard pushed the nearest Rangifer away in the hope of harassing my opponent. His wizard advanced and did the clever thing: pop smoke to stop the Rangifers from jumping on him right away. A bit of a gamble with the thief standing close by, but a cool move nonetheless. My Apprentice used his scroll of Elemental Hammer to make my Crossbowman even scarier (Raz hates him ). The Crossbowman shot his archer…BAM! 6 damage…wounded. And there was much rejoicing. The Treasure Hunter ran up, but he would have a hard time going against a Captain, Treasure Hunter, Skeleton, Apprentice and Warhound…
The rest moved up and we were ready for the creatures. The first Rangifer moved right for his forces:



The second was inches away from his Captain and Treasure Hunter and jumped on them. The combat didn’t result in anything exciting.



But there came the Wraith Knight! He arrived close to the Rangifer and charged the poor creature right away. With two Elfs supporting him he easily skewered the Rangifer. First kill of the game!



So far so good! But then it all changed as the other 4 Rangifers all went for me! One barged into my Barbarian, the next into my Knight (with a third running behind him) and the fourth jumping on my Archer. Oh dear…



So the second turn would be interesting straight away! My wizard tried to Bone Dart a Rangifer, but missed. Raz’ wizard had a VERY SNEAKY move by Leaping his Thief unto the walkway, closing in on the treasure in the tower. But…but…that one was mine!
His Templar attacked the Rangifer in the centre, with support from the Knight. But I rolled a 20 for the Rangifer, ripping the Templar apart (insert Mortal Kombat voice: fatality!). Then his Captain jumped into action. Supported by a skeleton he charged the Wraith Knight with his Sword of Undead Slaying. Raz rolled a 20 and as a result he did a looooooooooooooot of damage, killing the Wraith Knight and banishing it back to the Lich Lord. Awesome move.



Then my Captain jumped into the combat with the Rangifer, did some damage and slammed the beast 3” back with his Club of Battering. This gave my Barbarian the space to zip into the tower, going for the treasure. The ghoul roared while sprinting up the stairs, ready to clobber the Elf Thief.



My Tunnel Fighter drank his Potion of Burrowing to move through the crystals, giving support to the Bat Swarm. They swarmed into the Rangifer, tearing it to bits. They were pleased with the steaming flesh.
My Knight sliced a Rangifer apart…and another! The Rangifer on my flank simply ripped my Archer aside (Mortal Kombat voice: fatality!), taking him out in one blow. Ouch! He advanced into Dragos the vampire…I was a bit worried.



But my Knight helped his boss and killed his third Rangifer. For a newly employed soldier he did VERY well. On my left flank my Treasure Hunter went for the treasure close by. My Bat Swarm swooped in to help. His Captain held back to see who he could charge. My apprentice had summoned an Imp who harassed his forces, taking out a Warhound before being killed by the Treasure Hunter. His Treasure Hunter killed my Bat Swarm and was then leapt away to his table edge. Curses! His thief was scrambling away from the ghoul with the treasure and was also leapt away. CURSES! My wizard did a sneaky move by casting Control Undead on my mate’s Skeleton. His Champion swunghis blade and killed the Skeleton straight away. So annoyed…his Apprentice raised a new one . Meanwhile, my Knight climbed the ruins to get to the nearest treasure. By then my Tunnel Fighter had secured a treasure, as did his Archer in the centre and his Barbarian on the right. So it was looking to be 3-2. A Banshee had appeared too, but fortunately she stayed on the flank.




My Barbarian was in a killing mood, so jumped down the walkways and joined the fray…now with the Captain. A Treasure Hunter and Barbarian, should be easy eh…not really. The Captain deals damage to both, rams them away and then quickly moves back towards the table edge. The Elfs now have secured the 4 treasures…so why stay fighting?
I agree and back up everything, but the Knight grabs my second treasure and it promptly attracts a Frost Wraith…close by! The Frost Wraith sees the Knight and runs into him. The Knight is in a killing mood and stabs the wraith…but instead is hurt himself! He stays standing on 4 wounds…oh dear…
My Apprentice manages to cast Control Undead on the Banshee and runs the Banshee closer to the fight to support (but honestly we were a bit confused on how a controlled Banshee actually works!).


So my Captain quickly scrambled over the ruin, while my Knight dodged the Frost Wraith. My Captain swung the Club and smashed the Wraith apart…and that ends the game!



Aftermath
A cool scenario. I killed 4 Rangifers and a Frost Wraith, while Raz killed 2 Rangifers, Wraith Knight, Imp and Skeleton. We didn’t kill a lot of each other’s models, but the city was filled with a lot more dead creatures afterwards!
It’s a bit of a shame it’s so hard to let the Rangifers live. They’re too close and too aggressive, so jumped on us instead of running away. Oh well, so we killed them.

After the game it turns out my Archer was killed…noooooo! Matei was a part of my warband since game 1. He will be remembered as a zombie. The Bat Swarm was fine. Raz’ Templar turned out to be killed by the Rangifer, while his doggies were fine.
For Raz his 4 treasures he found a second Book of Bone (+250 gold), a Grimoire of Wall, some scrolls and potions and lots of gold. So he upgraded his base and bought a Soldier, while learning the Grimoire of Wall. His wizards gained 4 levels IIRc.
My wizard gained 2 levels, found another Vial of Starlight, a Grimoire of…Control Undead and lots of gold. So once AGAIN I find a Tome for a known spell. Doh. So I sell the Grimoire and Vial and buy a Grimoire of Brew Potion.
I roll for spells and my Zombie returns, I get off Fool’s Gold AND I manage to brew a potion (Potion of Teleportation for my Crossbowman). So although the game didn’t go that well for me, good results.

We’re REALLY looking forwards to the next scenario (House of Longreach), that really sounds like an awesome scenario with potentially hilarious teleporting going on. It’ll be a month, so time to get more painted.

[Raz]

Really nice photo's you took and another great write-up! Again, lot's good fun, I thoroughly enjoyed all the sneaky stuff Too bad the rangifers were all beaten after two turns. I can't figure out how to make them survive the game, apart from hiding behind scenery, but that would make for a very interesting game... But with one wizard going for lichedom and another casting skeletons, I guess, we wouldn't be on a friendly footing with them. With the help from absorb knowledge, my wizard actually gained 5 levels! Offcourse the first one was spent reading through the newly acquired grimoire of wall. It was nice to get most of the treasure for a change, all that gold, awesome! My outpost got some extra ooh shiny stuff! Now onto scenario 6

[Malebolgia]

Tomorrow another game (scenario 6 from the Lich Lord Campaign...the House of Longreach!), so time to paint some more miniatures. Having the new expansion, I wanted to field some of these straight away!

Assassin

I really like the Assassin and I can see him working together with my Captain for a lot of fun. For this warband I am now only using miniatures with lipped bases to make them fit in...and since I don't want to base any new miniatures on lipped bases, I am using stuff from my existing assembled miniatures if possible. This miniature (a Warmachine Khador Kayazy Assassin Underboss) is perfect IMO: it has that eastern European/Russian look and fits as a badass assassin. Not the Assassin's Creed type, more of an Eastern Promises type. So a hardcore fighter who kills for money, but isn't all stealth and ninja. He's just hardcore.
Painting went nice and fast. I was a bit sloppy here and there, but he will do. Not a big fan of the yellow turf I used on the base, as its dye apparently stained the snow. Oh well...don't eat the yellow snow then.

Bile Hounds

I try to paint at least 1 creature (type) before each game, so this time I wanted to finish one too. I found these two awesome miniatures in my stash and saw them as perfect Bile Hounds. They actually are mounts for the Mage Knight Horned Hatchetkrugg #109 and the Mage Knight Horned Impaler #117. Honestly, I think they look absolutely terrible as mounts...but as demonic creatures I think they're awesome! I simply tore off the rider (and binned it) and applied some green stuff to the hole. Then primed it black...drybrushed it with green, orange, orange+white and white...painted the bone...painted the purple....done! So fast and I like the end result. I almost applied some slime around around their mouths, but in the end I liked how they looked now. So kept it this way.
They are big creatures though:

Maybe a bit big for Bile Hounds, but I like them as they are.

Tomorrow game 6 and Friday a report...and then it'll be time to paint a new miniature for my wizard, so all of them are on lipped bases.

[jp1885]

They're flippin' brilliant mate - nice work! I particularly like the assassin.

[LiamFrostfang]

assassin is very cool!!! also the table looks great in those pics. 

[Reed]

Excellent choice for an assassin. The name should be Ivan, ofc.

[Malebolgia]

Yesterday we played another game of Frostgrave and it was time for the 6th game from the Lich Lord campaign: The House of Longreach. We were both looking forwards to this game, because of the random nature of it. It looked to be a bonkers game. We would see…

Table layout




We had some fun with the walkways, making a weird crossing, but it looked cool! My mate Raz made a 1’ square dungeon room for the lost treasure chamber. The treasures were guarded by two Frost Wraiths.
My deployment:


(left my Knight, Tunnel Fighter, Warhound. Left centre my Bat Swarm, Archer, Wizard, Treasure Hunter. Right centre my Captain and new Assassin. Right the Apprentice, Crossbowman, Zombie and Barbarian)

The game started and my mate had the initiative. His archer, skeleton and wizard advanced and the archer tried to take down the zombie…but missed. His skeleton picked up the treasure, but no creature appeared. My wizard had a sneaky idea and advanced with the Treasure Hunter. He saw the Skeleton in the distance and cast Control Undead. The creature was powerless against my vampire and he was now all mine…MINE! Mwuahaha. And the skeleton carried a treasure too!



He sent in his Knight, who simply crushed the skeleton. What a shame! My Captain and Assassin advanced and went for the gate on the right. The Assassin went through…and was teleported straight to the treasure room! Ha! But then he found he was quite alone..with two Frost Wraiths spotting him…Poison against Undead? Nope. Assassin bonus when fighting alone? Nope. He felt a bit troubled.



The Captain had also jumped through…but he got fizzled and suffered 2 damage…but nothing else happened. Curses!



My Barbarian also hopped through, but he was displaced to the other side of the table. My Crossbowman fired at his archer, but missed and then hopped through. He also appeared on the other side, close to the Barbarian. My Warhound jumped through a gate and appeared next to the Crossbowman. The hound jumped on top of the temple and closed with the Elf Archer. The Captain jumped in, but he was bitten by the Warhound. Instead, the Elf Archer took him down.



My Knight jumped through and smashed right into the Elf Knight! The Elf was caught off guard and my Knight skewered him on the Vampire Blade. First kill!
But then the Barbarian, Warhound and Templar joined the fight. My Knight managed to wound the Barbarian, but was slain by the Templar.



His Captain decided to man up and jump through a gate…appearing on the other side of Felstad . His Captain is becoming a bit of comic relief by now . My Bat Swarm fluttered across the walkway through a gate and also appeared next to his soldiers…and my Barbarian too! This was turning into a big melee!



Meanwhile my archer and his archer and Apprentice duked it out with shooting…but all shots flew wide.



My Wizard had jumped through a gate and appeared on my left flank. Drats! He was in position to Bone Dart now…but missed the Treasure Hunter. The Elf was chasing my Crossbowman who was running away with his unloaded Crossbow!
My Treasure Hunter and Tunnel Fighter had secured treasures, while his Thief and newly summoned Skeleton did the same.
Meanwhile my Captain had also reached the Treasure Chamber and had easily smashed a Frost Wraith into a thousand ice crystals. My Assassin got  tiny cut from the Frost Wraith before crushing the creature. The treasure’s all mine…MINE! Turned out the Assassin found the Fire Heart Gemstone and the Captain found a regular treasure.



By now the Warhound and Treasure Hunter had caught up with the Crossbowman, who was wounded by the combined attacks.



They were grinning, they easily had the upper hand…until four Death Cultists and a Zombie Werewolf showed up next to them. Uh-oh…



The Cultists charged in. The Warhound tore the first one’s throat out, but was then taken down by the others. The Treasure Hunter managed to take out 2 of them! The Elfs were going through the like a hot knife through butter.



My Archer continued the firefight with his Archer and managed to wound the pesky Elf. Take that!
My Crossbowman got stabbed by the last Cultist and now the Treasure Hunter was facing off against both of them. Even then he inflicted a heavy hit on the Zombie Werewolf! The Elf was on fire!!



Back on the other side the Elf Barbarian and Elf Archer were taken out of the game, while my Barbarian duked it out with the Wizard. Although the Wizard downed the Barbarian, he was taken down to 5 wounds. My opponent cast a Bone Dart and had to cut for 1, wounding him. But it paid off, as the Bone Dart took down my Archer. My Bat Swarm was also taken out of the game, but it managed to wound the Templar. By now my Zombie had shuffled all the way to his lines and joined the fray.



Finally my Wizard had managed to reach the treasure chamber. He cast Fleet Feet on the Captain and the three prepared to jump through the fun fair gates again.



The Treasure Hunter dispatched the Zombie Werewolf and was ready to take out the Cultist.



His Treasure Hunter also dispatched the last Cultist, making him the man of the match. 3 Cultists and a Zombie Werewolf...awesome score
My Apprentice was slowly backing away from the action…but I missed the small Construct roaming the snow. The small creature leapt into my Apprentice and wounded my lackey. Uh-oh!



My Wizard jumped out of the gate and appeared close to his lines. He raised a new zombie and together they prepared to take down his Wizard. But his Wizard got the Initiative at the right time and the wounded Elf managed to limp away. He even managed to fend off an Imp, before leaving the field. Next time…
His sneaky wounded Archer shot at the combat between the Construct and Apprentice and the arrow skewered by Apprentice who went down. Noooooo! Finally, my Captain and Assassin carried the treasure away and we called it a game.

Post Game
I had a LOT of casualties (Bat Swarm, Warhound, Crossbowman, Archer, Barbarian, Knight, Apprentice) but fortunately I only rolled a ‘miss next game’ for the Archer and Bat Swarm!
For Treasures I found 3 Grimoires! ANOTHER Grimoire of Lichdom (+250gc), a Grimoire of Illusionary Soldier and a Grimoire of Crumble.
My Wizard gained 5 levels…so read the two tomes, improved Animal Companion,  Lichdom and Control Undead.
I secured a lot of gold, so decided to buy something cool: A magical crossbow with +2 damage. Raz HATES the Crossbowman, so this seemed to be the best choice . I rolled for Out of Game spells…my Wizard made a Potion of Healing, a new Zombie arrived, I summoned a fake treasure…but failed my Animal Companion and Illusionary Soldier spells.

So a very cool game. Loads of fun with all the whacky teleporting. My gamble of jumping through with lots of models actually paid off, since I ended up in the treasure chamber with the right models and managed to stall his forces with the others. This gave me enough time to secure the treasures. And I was lucky with my injury rolls.
But excellent scenario…also very nice for one-off games. You can’t really plan ahead and weird things are bound to happen. What’s not to like?

[jp1885]

Sounds like absolutely madcap fun - great stuff! That treasure chamber look amazing - actually, the whole thing looks amazing!

[Malebolgia]

Dragos...the Eternal
“Three Rings for the Elven-kings under the sky,
Seven for the Dwarf-lords in halls of stone,
Nine for Mortal Men, doomed to die,
One for the Lich Lord on his dark throne
In the City of Felstad where the Shadows lie.
One Lich to rule them all, One Lich to find them,
One Lich to bring them all and in the darkness bind them.
In the City of Felstad where the Shadows lie.”

We're completed more than half of the Lich Lord campaign and I felt it was time to "upgrade" my Vampire Dragos. His 25mm washer base started to bug me when the rest of his lackeys is on a 30mm lipped base. Instead of rebasing him, I decided to paint a new miniature. I found this Reaper Skeletal Champion at my local games store and really liked him. One thing though...he is HUGE! So Dragos would have gained a lot in power...and stature. But then again, he is level 32, has the Staff of the Leech (+2 damage magic staff), Gloves of Casting, a potion of restoration and the Fire Heart Gemstone. So he deserved a grand miniature! I did snip off the silly spikes on his helmet and only kept the "Daredevil" horns.
Had a blast painting him. Kept the colours mostly the same and I think they work well on him.



And here's a comparison with good ol' Dragos:



He will see action in 9 days!

[Argonor]

Wonderful minis and terrain! 

I have just browsed through the entire thread, but did not read all the text; you may have mentioned it, but what kind of scenic snow are you using, please?

[Malebolgia]

Thanks man!

For scenery this:
http://leadadventureforum.com/index.php?topic=93295.msg1184980#new

For miniatures I use Vallejo Still Water with Scenery Workshop ground glass. I mix it up and apply it to the base. I then add a dry topping of the ground glass and let it dry. Blow it off and done.

[Argonor]

Thanks man!

For scenery this:
http://leadadventureforum.com/index.php?topic=93295.msg1184980#new

For miniatures I use Vallejo Still Water with Scenery Workshop ground glass. I mix it up and apply it to the base. I then add a dry topping of the ground glass and let it dry. Blow it off and done.

Thanks, I'll have a look at that 

[Reed]

Good old Dragos surely has prospered in life 
Excellent painting, as always.