Frostgrave warband done.

Hello all, its been a long time but i have completed my frostgrave warband. Its now time to show it to you guys!

My completed warband

Thief and warhound

Infantrymen

My ranged fighters

Thugs

My wizard Sofya and her apprentive Myriil

My warband consists of:

Wizard: Sofya (Enchanter) 
-Enchant weapon
-Strenght
-Telekinesis
-Elemental Hammer
-Absorb Knowledge
-Heal
-Combat awareness
-Poison Dart

Apprentice: Myriil

Archer
Crossbowman
2x Infantrymen
3x Thugs
Thief

Later on im going to add a warhoud.

Our club will start our campaing on next monday, so i still have time to make some changes. I will also try to get some treasure tokens or something like that done.

Feel free to comment.

-Nojis

Frostgrave warband wip

Hiya!

I have managed to get some painting done on my warband. I still need to do work on details and the bases. Sadly both of my children got sick so the tiny amount of painting time that i had goes to other things for now.

Anyways here are the pictures. Feel free to give feedback if you want!

PS. The skin looks more white in the pictures than it really is.

Towards Frostgrave

Hi all.

Today i have something different for you. Today we are talking abaut the icy cold, magical world of FROSTGRAVE. What is this Frostgave you may ask?

Frostgrave is a skirmish scale wargame, set in a world where you lead your wizard and his warband of merry folk into a frozen acient city. That city was once full of magic, gold and other valuables.  For some reason the city was abandoned and surrounded by ice an snow. Ice and snow made it impossible to travel to the city. Now some routes have opened up and wizards are racing there in the hopes of discovering more in the ways of magic and magical artefacts. On the way they recruit a warband of their own to help them on their journey.

So the thing is that i saw a facebook post about starting a Frosgrave campaing by one of my club mate. This year was suppose to be a year without starting new games for me (damm you Jamo)
I had taken couple of views about Frostgrave stuff before, but managed to resist the urge of starting. This time i werent that strong.

One of the great things About Frostgrave is that you can play it without official models, and it doesent specify races. Take a look into your drawers for those spare minis, you might have a warband ready and you dont even know it! Usually the warband consists of a wizard, an apprentice for the wizard and 8 other members which you buy with gold. These can be anything from lowly thieves and thugs to knights and paladins. You just need to have the gold.

My warband

Next we get to take a look at my warband. One of the main things for me starting this game was to keep the cost a low as possible. I took a look into my bits box and was happily surprised when this little gem showed up:

I bought this model used from Sotavasara website. The seller didnt know what this model really is. (If you do, please comment and tell me!) I think i paid something like 4 euros for this. So everyone, meet Sofya. Sofya will be the wizard of my warband. Sofya came into contact with her magical abilities when she was 13. She was sitting in dinner table with her family and was playing around with a fork. She consentrated her mind at the fork and went into a kind of transe. In this trance she were able to manipulate the abilities of the fork. She came out of the trance only to see the terrified looks of her family. It was at this point when she noticed that the fork was pushed halfway trough the thick wooden table. Sofya had somehow made the fork able to pierce objects with ease. A week later her parents kicked Sofya out of the house as they were terrified about what had happened and tought it was unnatural. After this Sofya has taken care of herselft. She has masterded more enchants and has even the knowledge of how to perform teleportation.

As you might have guessed, my wizard is going to be an Enchanter. I really have no idea how that will work out in the game but oh well... Its intresting to see how balanced Frostgrave is. The same goes with my warband. I have no idea what they will be. Prodably Thugs and thieves. Lets move on to the warband.

Warband

Most of my warband members are made of Mantic Basilean bodies. I bought 10 of these with the model for Sofya and paid 10 euros for the Basileans. I were suppose to convert an Empire army out of these, so i got a ton of empire bits with them for free. When i got these into my hands i had to abandon the idea tough. These need some serious knifing before you can even assemble them with their own parts and the quality is a litle Meh.. too. For a small scale warband they are ok tough. They mix good with GW empire bits and those are easier to modify as they are softer. The guy above has his proportions litle mixed up. For example the sword is way too big for the guy if you look for realism, but for me its ok. And with these the goal of keeping the cost down worked. 14 euros used so far.

Next we have a old GW greatsword model. Works for everything from a thug to knight. Good looking model which i really like.



















Time for a guy who can smash things! Armed with a mace, upgraded with a small bell. This will whack the life out of opposing wizards will keeping tune with his bell.

Moving on to my ranged power. An archer. I have done some paint cheme testing with this guy. Im prodably going to go for a rusty armor with blueish color for the main cloth. Im afraid that even painting (which in im no pro) the bad quatily of the basileans cant be rescued. Also my paint palette is rather limited at the moment as i havent use my paints in a long time, so i need to restock the dryed up ones.

One more thug / basic dude. I really like the pose of this guy. I used the same shield for allmost everyone in the warband to give them a unified look.

More ranged firepower. This time a crosbowman. I toyed with the idea of taking to crosbows, but as i dont know the rules for them i took an archer instead. Im guessing crosbows might be move or fire type of a weapon.



So now i have a Wizard and 6 members of the warband assembled. I have ordered a model for the Wizards apprentice. I also have a pretty good view for one more member of the group. He will be the guy whose responsibilities are to haul all the stuff for the warband.

Im really looking forward for our clubs campaing and how it wil turn out. I have more than month of time to complete this group. I hope that i will get it done, as i dont have that much of painting time nowadays.

If there are people in my readers who are also going to go and explore Frostgrave or joining the club campaing, feel free to comment below!

First contact with Shaltari (Dropzone Commander)

As you can guess from the tittle. I had my first game against shaltari yesterday. I have played against Shaltari in 1v1v1 games before, but facing them alone is somehthing new to me.

I wanted to play the game with my Pheonix air heavy list. I knew that it would be a bad decision as the Shaltari has the awesome Kukri AA and even the Shaltari Jaguar walkers have AA guns.

Pheonix air heavy
Clash: 1502/1500 points
Standard Army
    Standard Roster [1502/1500 pts]

        Field Command [490 pts]
            Phoenix: Phoenix(General) [330 pts]
            Falcon Squad: 4x Falcon [160 pts]
        Armored Formation [276 pts]
            Katana Squad: 3x Katana [111 pts]
            Ferrum: Ferrum [165 pts]
        Legionnaire Corps [246 pts]
            Rapier Squad: 3x Rapier, Condor [166 pts]
            Legionnaires: 2x Legionnaires, Raven A [80 pts]
        Legionnaire Corps [160 pts]
            Legionnaires: 2x Legionnaires, Raven A [80 pts]
            Legionnaires: 2x Legionnaires, Raven A [80 pts]
        Expeditionary Group [196 pts]
            Wolverine Squad: 4x Wolverine A [72 pts]
            Praetorians: 2x Praetorians, Raven A [124 pts]
        Air Wing [134 pts]
            Archangel Squad: Archangel [67 pts]
            Archangel Squad: Archangel [67 pts]

The game was agains Jamo and his list is below:

Shaltari
Clash: 1507/1500 points
Standard Army
    Standard Roster [1507/1500 pts]

        Gate Group [253 pts]
            Haven: Haven [20 pts]
            Haven: Haven [20 pts]
            Haven: Haven [20 pts]
            Spirit Gates: Spirit [43 pts]
            Eden Gates: Eden [50 pts]
            Eden Gates: Eden [50 pts]
            Eden Gates: Eden [50 pts]
        Court of Elders [241 pts]
            Coyote: Coyote(Shaman) [145 pts]
            Firstborns: 2x Firstborns [96 pts]
        Warrior Clan [275 pts]
            Braves: 2x Braves [70 pts]
            Braves: 2x Braves [70 pts]
            Kukri Squad: 3x Kukri [135 pts]
        Warrior Clan [70 pts]
            Braves: 2x Braves [70 pts]
        Warfist [245 pts]
            Caiman Squad: Caiman [110 pts]
            Kukri Squad: 3x Kukri [135 pts]
        Warfist [315 pts]
            Jaguar Squad: 2x Jaguar [220 pts]
            Ocelot Squad: Ocelot [95 pts]
        Arrowhead [108 pts]
            Warspear Squad: Warspear [108 pts]



(Some of the units above might be listed into incorrect battlegroups, as i have no idea how the Shaltari does battlegroups.)


I wanted to make good use of the UCM Command cards and tought that i would want to have the inniative instead of giving it to hte Shaltari, i took a Pheonix with lvl 5 commander. The Pheonix was paired with a squad of 4 Falcons, for as they say in Orbital Bombardment blog. Together the Pheonix and Falcons are just "Horrible Bastards". This is indeed true.

Rest of the list is pretty standard. Two Archangels so i could benefit from the Ace in the making cards. I had a decent run with these but nothing spectacular as the Shaltari AA blanket was far too good.

Mission (6x4 Board)

The scenario was Targets of opportunity, which has 7 objectives in three difrent waves. 2 objectives at each palyers table side an 3 in the midle line, all in buildings. You can see the placement from the second picture down. All units started in Readiness and Fast movers in reserve. Neither Jamo or me got FM:s to the game on first turn.

The battlefied

Objective placement (Red dots)

Turn 1 and 2

I started out pretty strong getting my two squads of legionaires into the objective buildings in my table side. I Also got the light dropships wit legionaires next to the midle objective building and the far right objective building in the middle line, ready to occupy next turn.

My Pheonix and Falcons came in to the board from my right table side and started to pound the objective building in the far right, at Jamos table side. I got it down to 4 damage points with Pheonix, Falcons and Katanas firing at it. I had hoped that Jamo would have gone in to the building with some infantry before i started the demolition works, but he didnt. Now it was far too dangerous to go in to the building so i had secured one objective from Jamo.

Jamo got into the other building with objective at his table side. He also moved gates next to the middle building. The objective in my side on the left also started to take some hits from the Ocelot and Caiman which arrived via ground to the battle. Also two squad of Kukris materialised from the gates in Jamos side.

On turn two i made a huge mistake. I didnt activate my Preatorians and occupied the middle building with first activation. Instead the Shaltari got into the middle building first. I retaliated with Ferrum drones and took down the small gate which was used to get into the middle building. After this a squad of Kukri showed up and gunned down 7 of the 8 drones. This luckily left me one to give command range to the middle building for me to play cards to the Preatorians.

I tried to search with my both of me legionaire squads in my own table side, but neither found objective. Shaltari didnt find objective at their table side either. For turn two me and Jamo had got all our FM:s to play. I made a pass with both at a gate in Jamos side, one was aided by Ace in the making and got in some hits but they were saved by Shaltari cheese... i mean Shaltari shields...

 

Jaguars materialised into the middle of the board, ready to take on my Katanas and Rapiers in my side. Ocelot and Caiman gunned down the objective building in my table left side, taking my legionaires with it.

One objective building gone from my side.

Turn 3 and 4

Preatorians and Firstborns fought it out in the middle building. Braves had lost one to falling masonry. Preatorians got 5 hits in but all were saved by those darned shields... I lost 5 Preatorians, but i played a card to negate one failed morale test.

Took a beating with the Preatorians

Shaltari had a far to good AA coverage with 2 squad of Kukris and the Jaguars for me to do anything with my air units.

Shaltari AA Blanket

Turn Four the Ocelot one shotted a 10 damge point house. My Ferrum crew were going trough the field manuals like never before, searching for the part talking about "Ferrum out of cover", which only said "Have fun in the afterlife".

I had some time to lauch some new drones before the Ferrum would be gunned down, so i headed to the left objective in the midle line where shaltari got infantry into the objective building. The midle building were also reinforced by Braves to free up the Firstborns with the objective. I found objectives in the middle right buildings in the middle line and my side. I got these both out. My Preatorians whoopped the Braves, but couldnt do anything to prevent the Firstborns from leaving.

Shaltari Found the objective in their table side and got it into the gate which allmost managed to fly out of the table. I sent my Archangels after it. I lost one angel but whith the fire from both i got the gate down. The objective was now on the groung, but an infantry gate picked it up. I had antisipated this and moved my Falcons into position next turn to counter this. They came in 12" and fire at the infantry gate. They took fierce reaction fire, but only one went down. I killed the gate.


Turn 5 and 6

I flew back and behind the objective house with 4DP:s left and went to the deck. I lost one Falcon to this and were down to last 2. Shaltari infatry gate materialised on top the same objective that i prevented from leaving last turn.  Jaguars and Caiman shot at my Katanas killing some and taking 2 DP:s in return with one Jaguar.

It was now time to send the Falcons to earn their bread again. They came in 12" and faced same reaction fire again. I didnt lose any Falcons and they fired their shots. One hit the infantry gate. I rolled to damage but didnt sucseed. I sent one remaining Archangel to kill the same gate, but i was gunned down before it could fire.

Now the whole game hung on the objective and the middle line left side building. shaltari were inside and had found the objective. They had lost one from the six braves. I fired with the Phenix doing 10DP:s to house. 6 Falling masonry and the Braves went down. The game was now tied at 2-2.

We played of and the Shaltari cleaned the table from allmost all of my units. The game ended with Shaltari winning with kill points.


All in all, another great game. The Shaltari seems to be a tough nut to crack with my UCM. I just dont know how to face them. I need to get my new units painted and then start working on a anti-Shaltari plan.


Feel free to comment and if you like my Dropzone stuff, Subscribe! I try to do reports every time i can. Also i have been thinking about starting a small serie to talk about difrent factions and their units and what i think about them. I am by no means no guru in this game, and we might do things a little diffrent in our meta. For starters that we allwas paly on a 6x4 board.

-Nojis