Tuesday, September 1, 2015

After playing my first game...

Keeping in mind we surely played much of it wrong (see red for things I know were wrong), as first games usually go, the Pros and Cons of Frostgrave:

We played the following 350 point warbands:

SoldierSoldier
Summoner w/ SwordThaumaturge w/ Staff
Apprentice w/ SwordApprentice w/ Staff
Tresure HunterTemplar
Thug
Archer
Archer

Summoner's SpellsThaumaturge Spells
Summon Demon12TouchSumBlinding Light10LOSTha
Bind Demon10LOSSumDispel12LOSTha
Leap8LOSSumHeal8TouchTha
Bone Dart10LOSNecCombat Awareness14TouchSoo
Curse12LOSWitPush10LOSSig
Elemental Sheild12LOSEleTeleport12LOSIll
Willpower14LOSSooMud14LOSWit
Monstrous Form12SelfIllEnchant Weapon12LOSNec

We played the Mausoleum Scenario. We used Warmachine, Hordes and Reaper Bones models for our warbands.

Pros:

- Designing the Wizard and his warband.
- The variety of spells.
- The simplicity of the basic mechanics.
- The ability to affect a large portion of the table with your mage's spells as most are Line of Sight.
- Odd tactical depth to the "group activation" mechanic in it. Roll initiative, winner's Wizard and up to 3 soldiers within 3 inches of him move/perform first action, then they perform their second action. Then your opponent's Wizard does the same. Then you apprentice and up to 3 soldiers within 3 inches of him move/action, then their actions. Then your opponent's apprentice ... Then any soldiers of yours that haven't activated, then your opponent's soldiers. Then creatures (yours, your opponent's, the "wild" creatures).
- BIG ACTIONS are possible. For instance, my Templar (a soldier) killed Dan's apprentice AND his archer in one round (we totally played that wrong btw. A soldier can only get two action IF one is movement-oops!).
- Interesting scenarios.
Cons:
- It is ALL about the Mages. The soldiers are basically there to execute your plans, though they can get magic items and whatnot. This is not all bad, but it is much more of Mage and Apprentice and a bunch of dudes rather than a warband.
- My opponent (his first game too) disliked the extreme randomness of the D20. Didn't bother me, a little chaos is in my blood.
- It felt like it needed a time limit, or turn limit, but for the life of me, I couldn't find one. I actually think with more dudes the game would go faster, as counter-intuitive as that sounds. We played a 350 point game - warbands of 4 and 5 dudes. With more bodies on the table, you would get the treasure moving off the board quicker (which is really the object of most games). Plus, the only other thing that really slowed the game was picking spells, which would get quicker over time, of course.
- The ruleset could be clearer on most things.
- There needs to be quickstart guide and a qick reference chart.
Those are my initial thoughts...


BTW, it did end in a Wizard duel atop the tower, which is awesome!


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