Im going to do the odd game focus so if you’ve not played the game and fancy it, this article will give you a brief overview of the game. First off is Frostgrave which I happened to play after a long break on a recent club night. Frostgrave is a small skirmish based game set within the ancient city of Felstad. Your war-band consists of a wizard, an apprentice and a group of misfits following them such as thieves, knights or war hounds. The goal is to search the land and find the most treasure.
Frostgrave is now in its 2nd edition which hasn’t changed too much since it launched rules wise. The new edition has reduced the power of the over powered spells and got rid of the useless ones. You build you warband centred around a wiazard who chooses his powers from one of 10 schools of magic. His apprentice also gets the same spells but, being a newbie, finds it slightly harder to cast. Casting, as well as fighting and shooting, is all done via a D20 and is usually down to a single roll off adding modifiers depending on the armour, skills etc to see who wins.
What I enjoyed about my game was that there was a fair bit of randomness in regards to collecting the treasure. The game was in the balance until the end however no matter how much skill you had the game always came down to a dice roll. Personally some find this slightly frustrating as any skill you have can be taken away in an instance but I enjoy it, as you can’t take it seriously. Also the goal of collecting treasure means kills mean nothing other than making it easier for yourself.
Spells are quite hard to cast and some can be seriously damaging but others such as the ability to create a magic wall or make one of your warband fly make for some really fun times. The best bit about the game however is the fact you can create your warband with whatever minis you choose. Mike, whom I played with and is fully setup for this game, uses a collection of minis he has for D&D which are ideal. I am using some old orcs from Warhammer Fantasy (rip square bases). I’m adding to this with some goblin archers and mages.
Overall a very enjoyable game that can be picked up very cheaply. The rule book costs around £15 (make sure it’s the second edition) and minis cost as little or as much as you wish to pay. Well worth getting into due to its simple rule set and fun gameplay.
Dice and Bolter 