More Frostgrave - AAR

The setup with the nine treasures circled in red (click on picture for a larger view). 

Thomas, my son David and I had another game of Frostgrave last week. We actually had one the week before but that game lacked sufficient cover and became an archer and crossbow extravaganza where they, and the spell Bone Dart, totally dominated the game. We learned our lesson and though we filled this table with buildings and stuff (some of mine and the rest from the vaults of Little Wars gaming club (you should really join if you live close by)) there were still too many killing lanes (We'll skip the roads next game). Well, we’re slowly getting there and I’m slowly buying and building more and more terrain J. 

Thomas' Summoner with his gang

My trusted Witch leads half the warband while the Apprentice leads the rest

Here comes David's Necromancer and his warband. Shudder.

The game starts with the Summoner succeding with a Summon Demon spell. Sort of informative - I'm up against a Necromancer and a Demon-lover...

My Witch and the gang close to her moves up. We have two treasures in our sights. The Witch tries to cast Raise Zombie but fails. (I should really  have tried Telekinesis here, though.)

The Necromancer advances into the ruins

My Apprentice cast Telekinesis, moving one treasure closer to my side. An excellent spell!

Meanwhile the Summoner and his warband advances cautiously.

Here's my warband, already in contact with three treasures

The Summoner warband advances further. Most of the soldiers seem to concentrate on the Necromancer and his gang. Good for me! They have a Construct made by the Summoner in contact with a treasure on the ziggurat.

The Necromancer and gang spread out and into positions. 

One of my heroic thieves grabs a treasure while the witch fails with a Telekinesis spell.

The Necromancer has at last got some momentum. 

The Summoner cast Leap on a soldier who leaps up to the top of the tower and the tresure there. Smart move! The Apprentice casts a Fog spell and effectively stops all missile fire in that part of the gaming area.
This is starting to be really fun as we set off a wider variety of spells compared with the earlier matches.

The Necromancer's apprentice starts climbing up the ruins, to get to a vantage point later on.

The Summoner warband advances on the flank and also secures one of the treasures.

Two of my soldiers retreats laden with treasure.

Meanwhile the Demon attacks my soldier defending the thief that has secured my fourth treasure.

While they are fighting my Wolf animal companion sneaks up behind the Demon and attacks it from behind.

My Apprentice casts Telekinesis on another treasure, moving it closer to one of my Rangers, but before she can snatch it the Necromancer fires off a Bone Dart that fells her. 

The Fog dissipates which is unfortunate for the Summoner's gang, but all missile fire on the soldier with treasure on top of the rock misses.

One of the Necromancer's soldiers reaches the treasure on top of the ruin while the Necromancer himself looks menacing.

A Leap spell on the thief and he makes his escape into the shadow of a building. My fourth treasure is safe.
The archer tries to hit the Necromancer but misses.

The Necromancer's apprentice is now in position while some other gang-members are advancing on my positions.

The lone Necromancer zombie is attacked by soldiers from the Summoner gang, but it holds the flank for now.

Climbing down the tower is slow going. The dice show how far he has climbed. A long way to go still.

Another Fog spell hides the soldier retreating with one treasure.

The zombie finally falls...

...and this flank of the Necromancer suddenly looks rather shaky as their lightly clad ranger is attacked by a soldier.

The fight between my soldier and wolf vs the Demon isn't going great as my soldier is wounded and pushed back.

A great opportunity to snatch that forgotten treasure, I think, and moves that hapless soldier towards the middle of the board. When that is done I remember that the reason she was pushed back was because she was wounded in the fight with the Demon. She's got just one wound left...

The rest of my treasure-laden soldiers are nearly off the board.

Now something annoying happens when the Necromancers Apprentice, from her vantage point on top of the ruins, casts a Bones of the Earth spell and from the ground in front of my Witch, that has moved to be close to the apprentice, shoots a skeletal hand that holds her in a strong grip. She cannot move from the spot unless she destroys the hand or uses magical movement. The skeleton will symbolise the skeletal hand (Thomas will make a couple of suitable hands to use in our future games)

A have this idea of my apprentice helping out in the fight against the hand. It's not an altogether bad idea, as a lot of Necromancer soldiers are fast approaching. The attack on the hand misses, by the way.

And there goes the wolf. Ah, well, I can always summon another for the next game.

A fleeing soldier with one hit point left, a Witch and her Apprentice locked in combat with a fricking skeleton hand, an archer trying to hold back the horde of Necromancer soldiers and a lone thief frantically trying to escape. Copuld it be worse?
YES!
You might not have noticed it, but you have not seen any battles between Necromancers and Summoners for a while. You might ask yourself why.
The answer is that the scumbags have a cease-fire while they take care of me as I have far to many treasures already (in their oppinion) and they don't think I should have any more.

The opposition advances on my Witch and Apprentice. Thing are looking grim. But it could be worse...

And it is, when the Necromancer wins initiative and casts another Bones of the Earth, this time trapping my Apprencice, too!
It's amazing that I could have raised such an evil son. You should have heard his laughter when he succeded with that spell. (Well, I'm rather pleased actually. Signs of a true gamer. Mission accomplished!)

But his laughter is cut short when both my Witch and Apprentice casts Leap on themselves, succeeds and jumps to freedom.
With that we call it a day as Thomas retreats and let David have the last treasure.

That was a great game!

It’s the first time we have used a plethora of spells to good effect and that showed how powerful your wizards can be. I think we altogether cast one offensive spell (maybe two) during the game and the rest were defensive or supporting, and it really worked well.

Great fun and there will be more games to come.