Chilli Wizards

I finally managed to get in a game of Frostgrave!

We had a four player bash on Monday, with my starting band joining in with Andy and Ric's ongoing campaign, and Douglas decided to pitch in with his band as well.

We played the manor house scenario, which involved teleportation discs and a large pile of treasure in the middle of the table (4 players meant 12 treasure tokens so there was plenty up for grabs!).

I brought a Sigilist, with her apprentice and in support was a warhound, thief, thug, knight and ranger.  I started to get a bit worried when I saw the sizes of everyone else's warbands.  Spell wise I opted for:  Push, Create Scroll, Furious Quill, Dispel, Teleport, Telekinesis, Awareness and Fast Act.

The game started fairly quietly, and I decided that I would be quite happy with getting of the board with the three treasure tokens closest to me, so that would be my objective.

Early game and I ran for the treasure. Luckily Andy was opposite me and was more interested in making off with the treasure that was in the middle of the table, while Douglas seemed content to fight against Andy and also try to take the treasure from the table centre.  To my left Ric decided that he would try and get his hands on one of the treasure tokens that I was after so there was going to be a fight there.  Early in the game Ric managed to get a few pot shots of at my band, reducing my warhound and ranger to very low wounds.  I did a little bit of damage to one of his warriors, but little else.  luckily I had Telekinesis and managed to sneak a treasure token out from under him and into the waiting arms of the thug who was brought solely for the purpose of lugging treasure chests around. I had also managed to send the thief out to nab the treasure token on my right, so had managed to secure two out of my three objective.  Elsewhere on the table Andy and Douglas were starting to have at it, while Andy tried to make off with as much treasure ash e could. 

Mid game and I had a flurry of good luck, getting the initiative and succeeding in most of my spell casting. I managed to take out another of Ric's men, while pushing on of them a mighty 17" straight away from my shocked apprentice.  I also managed to steal a treasure token out from under Douglas's nose with another handy use of the Telekinesis spell, landing it right in front of my rather surprised looking knight.

Elsewhere on the table all sorts of nonsense was going, with various zombies being summoned, and troops being possessed all over the place. casualties were starting to mount up for everyone else, while I managed to stay intact largely thanks to staying out of everyone's way.

Late game and everyone decided that my warband was not a threat so I was left to leave the table with my three treasures, and with no casualties I considered the game a success.  Andy had a lot of casualties and Douglas managed to get away with 4 treasure tokens. Ric had a terrible night and was not very successful at casting his spells.

I managed to successfully cast 10 spells, which coupled with 3 treasure tokens earned my wizard 350 experience points, which boosted him up to level 4. I opted to improve the casting rolls on a few spells and also out my wizards health up slightly. I am unsure what happened to every one else's bands as they opted to deal with the campaign side of things at another time.  I also had enough cash to expand the warband slightly, as with only 7 models it becomes difficult to actually grab treasure and get involved in any kind of a fight.

I quite enjoyed the game and am starting to get a feel for the best way to use my spell selection. I deliberately avoided any direct damage spells as I wanted to see if it was viable in a campaign or not.  I think it makes for a more interesting game but the campaign system is loaded towards wizards that can deal damages as that is where all the experience lies, so I think this may be more a problem in later games when my band is large enough to get a bit more involved. 

I'm also not sure if the difference in warband ratings was a big difference as I never really went up against anyone. I think I would need to play a one on one game to find that out.

All in all a good game, with the extreme vagaries of the D20 based system providing most of the entertainment.