Thargor starts Frostgrave

[Thargor]

Hi All

A member of our club has decided to start up Frostgrave.  Having watched the threads on here for a while I said that I'd help him get it up and running at the club.

I picked up a rulebook and Thaw of the Lich Lord from Annie the Dice Bag Lady at the Beachhead show on Saturday.

So, I know it says that you should have an apprentice, but do you all agree or would I be better off spending the 200 GCs on extra Soldiers?

[jp1885]

Personally I'd go for an apprentice - gives you a second chance to cast spells (especially out of game spells like brew potion) and earn experience from in-game castings.

[tyrionhalfman]

And do anything during the apprentice phase including three soldiers within 3" of your apprentice. To miss that just allows your opponent to outmanoeuvre you

[Azzabat]

Plus later on your opponent will accrue more gold and buy the better soldiers you started with ... but have a 2nd spell caster. I'd always take an apprentice.

[Drachenklinge]

I think, if the limit of soldiers weren't 10 the 200 bucks might be worth considering, but the limit IS 10 therefore all the points said above are good.
Even more so in single matches.

Later in a campaign gold is most likely not a problem, so use the app and go for it.

But then ... test it your way and live to tell it here.  

[Thargor]

Thanks for the advice guys.  For our first game (rule shakedown) I will go for:

Witch
Apprentice
Tracker
2x Infantryman
2x Archer
Thief

Bang on 500 GCs, a fair spread of ranged attacks and melee.

I'll let you know how it goes.

[Digitarii]

Based on my experience with the game,here's my suggestion:

Since you have 6 soldiers, keep 3 soldiers near each spellcaster at the beginning of the game so you can activate them in the wizard and apprentice phase. Move your thief and tracker out to claim treasure quickly and get them moving off the board as soon as possible. Remember that once they pick up a treasure token, their move drops by half. Keep the infantryman near enough to your casters to be able to intercept any model that tries to get close enough to force combat. Make sure your archers have a clear a line of sight as possible to pick off the opposition. If the archers don't have targets, move them to try to claim treasure tokens or just get better line of sight. Keep your casters casting. Every spell you get off is experience for your wizard, but remember if you muck up the casting roll, you take damage. Remember that if the soldiers move more than 3 inches away from the caster, they do not activate until the Soldier phase. That can actually be to your benefit.

The rules shakedown game should just be the two warbands trying to claim treasure and get it off the table and casting spells. No optional rules (wandering monster comes to mind) or weird scenarios (the silent tower).

Good luck, young wizard!

[Nooblord]

As you have a couple of spare warband slots and your wizard is a witch, Animal Companion may be an idea to get an extra body on the table. A wolf might not look all that impressive stats-wise but numbers are important in hand-to-hand combat and any attack on the animal is an attack one of your more valuable band members isn't taking.

[Bishop Cockthrottle]

As you have a couple of spare warband slots and your wizard is a witch, Animal Companion may be an idea to get an extra body on the table.

We debated this the other day - you can have 2 x Animal Companions in a warband right? One for the wizard and one for the Apprentice?

[Timeshadow]

No only one but you can roll twice (once for Wiz and once for App) to get him.

[Darkson71]

No only one but you can roll twice (once for Wiz and once for App) to get him.

I don't think that's correct.
The spell doesn't say "one per warband", it say's "one per spellcaster" so RAW I'd say you can have two IF you have the slots free.

[Thargor]

Animal Companion was the first spell on the list for my Witch.

If I've read it correctly though, the Animal Companion takes up a Soldier slot and I get a Wizard and up to 8 other miniatures.  So taking 2 Animal Companions will reduce my Soldiers by 1.

[Timeshadow]

Animal Companion was the first spell on the list for my Witch.

If I've read it correctly though, the Animal Companion takes up a Soldier slot and I get a Wizard and up to 8 other miniatures.  So taking 2 Animal Companions will reduce my Soldiers by 1.

Each companion takes a soldier slot....I'm not sure why but I always thought it was one per warband but guess I was wrong.

[Nooblord]

Yes, each companion takes up a slot. The good news though is that with a wizard and an apprentice trying you have a very good chance of getting an animal companion if you only have space for one.

[Thargor]

Well, that was fun!

My Warband:

Witch
Apprentice
Tracker
Infantryman x 2
Archer x 2
Thief

Both the Witch and the Apprentice cast Animal Companion successfully bringing a Snow Leopard and a Wolf and as I only had 8 figures, they both fit into the warband.

My opponent:

Elementalist
Apprentice
Tracker
Infantryman
Archer x 2
Thug x 2
Thief
Warhound

The treasure tokens closest to me were on first floors of buildings on either flank and almost in the centre of the table on an open ruined tower, so I elected to split my warband into 3 .  On the left I deployed the Apprentice, an Infantryman, an Archer and the Snow Leopard.  In the centre was an Infantryman, the Thief and the Wolf.  On the right was the Witch, the remaining Archer and the Tracker.

Getting Archers, the Tracker and the Witch onto the first floor on either flank gave me a good view of the centre of the table.

Admittedly, I had some unusually good dice rolls and my opponent had the opposite.  But my plan seemed to work and when we decided to call it a day I had 3 Treasure tokens and was making my way off the board with them unopposed.  Both of my Infantrymen and the Snow Leopard had taken some wounds and I'd lost the Wolf.  The apprentice had managed to give himself 4 wounds due to miscasts.  My opponent had lost his Apprentice, both Thugs, the Tracker, the Thief, the Infantryman and the Warhound.  He did not have any Treasure tokens.

I think we go the combat, shooting and spellcasting sorted out.

We did come across a few questions:

1.  Compulsory movement action - can you choose not to move and just surrender this action?

2.  You decide to activate your Wizard and 3 figures within 3" - do you have to declare this before taking any actions?  Does movement have to be the first action for all of the figures?

3.  If you take somebody out in melee, do you get to move back 1" just as you could if you had beaten them and they had not died?