Junior Frostgrave

We played our first game recently, with my Sigilist, Lady Ermengilda going up against my eldest son’s Necromancer, Morgarth.  I completely failed to take any pictures, so will have to do my best to describe the scene.

This was a standard game from the rulebook with two warbands facing off against each other, vying for the five pieces of treasure left scattered in this section the frozen city.  A tower was set up in the middle of the board with the central (and most valuable) treasure on the first floor.

The war bands arrived on opposite sides of the board, with both sides sending out their fastest runners (thieves) to try and grab the nearest treasures.  Lady Ermengilda and Morgarth both headed straight for the tower in the centre,  Morgarth accompanied by three thugs and Ermengilda with a thug, thief and an infantryman.  Both apprentices brought up the rear with the slower moving Templars and Knights.  Ermengilda’s Ranger went wide, hoping to find a good line of sight for a shot.

Ermengilda had brought one more thief than Morgarth, meaning that she was first to put one of her band into the central tower.  However, the lead wasn’t enough and Morgarth and his men rapidly closed to the base of the building.  Ermneglida sent the two other soldiers with her into the tower to support the thief and ran up the outside stairs to the entrance on the first level.  It was at this point that she made a fatal mistake and wasn’t able to get inside the tower.  Cackling evilly, Morgarth realised that Ermengilda was in line of sight and cast Elemental Bolt.  Son number 1 rolled his dice and produced a natural 20, whilst I managed to roll something paltry.  Ermengilda copped an Elemental Bolt full in the face and was stripped of 9 hit points bringing her down to 5.  Staggering from the blast she managed to drag herself into the tower.

Any respite was short lived, as Morgarth and his men scaled the outside of the tower and came in through the windows, moving into combat with Ermengilda’s soldiers.  Outside, each side’s thieves had secured two treasures each and were rapidly trying to make their escape.  Ermengilda’s Ranger loosed off an arrow and although it caught one of Morgarth’s thieves, it failed to do sufficient damage to stop him.

In the next turn, Ermengilda attempted to cast Drain Word in an effort to make it harder for Morgarth to cast Elemental Bolt.  She failed badly and lost another point of health, bringing her down to 4.  In contrast, Morgarth managed to cast Steal Health on one of Ermengilda’s thugs, injuring him and healing Morgarth of the minor consequences of some earlier failed rolls.  Seeing that her mistress was in trouble, Aelflaeth successfully cast Bridge and a thin, golden set of steps appeared in the air, running down from the top level of the tower.

It was at this point that I decided that discretion was the better part of valour and  that Ermengilda would be better off getting out of the tower as the fight was only going one way.  Abandoning her soldiers, she used Aelflaeth’s Bridge to exit the tower.  In the meantime, the rest of the warband started to retreat to the edge of the table.  Both sides thieves had, by this stage, made it off with their respective treasures.

In the next turn, Ermengilda started to make good her escape, heading towards the nearest table edge.  In the tower, Morgarth’s men dispatched one of Ermengilda’s thugs and her remaining two soldiers also took advantage of the Bridge to escape the tower and get to the ground.

Ermengilda’s escape now rested on the initiative role.  Her run to the table edge had left her in the open, but if she could move first she could get into cover and out of line of sight.  We rolled and horror of horrors, Morgarth won the initiative. Barely concealing his delight, son number 1 declared that Morgarth would cast Elemental Bolt.  The dice were rolled and a blast of energy erupted from Morgarth’s fingertips straight into Ermengilda’s exposed back.  Her remaining hit points fell to zero and I had lost my wizard in my first game.  All that was left was for me to extract the surviving members of the war band from the table and cede the victory to Morgarth.

So, in my first game of Frostgrave, I have been handed my backside by a 10 year old and comprehensively thrashed.  I realised afterwards that we had slightly misunderstood the combat mechanics, which somewhat accounted for the lack of deadliness in the fights outside the tower, but this was more than made up for by the dramatic first encounter between Morgarth and Lady Ermengilda.  Fortunately, in the post-game phase, Lady Ermengilda made a full recovery from her injuries having been helped from the battlefield by the faithful Aelflaeth.  What’s more, of the two treasures she managed to salvage, one turned out to be a Grimoire containing the Combat Awareness spell.  Morgarth’s haul contained Potions of Healing and Toughness and Scrolls with Blink and Heal.  We agreed to hold off spending experience points until son number 2 had had a chance to play, so for now, both wizards remain at level one.