Category: Miniature Wargaming (Page 1 of 2)

Posts about wargaming with miniatures.

All Alone in Felstad Pt4 – Frostgrave Battle Report – 2nd solo scenario

Isher’s weapon shop

Durnimlath watched as the unconscious bodies of  Seregthaur and Mothorm became surrounded by a hazy light, flickering from blue to purple and back again. The air was filled with a subtle tang of hot metal which she associated with magic being used. Both the elves became indistinct as the light grew stronger. And then, as the light winked out the two forms were replaced by two different elves, Breged and Calaraglar. Both sat up looking confused.

Two Miniatures for the skirmish wargame - Frostgrave
The new Thugs – Breged On the left & Carlaraglar On the right

“Welcome to Felstad” Durnimlath said with an ironic smile. “Tell me. What were you doing before you arrived here?”

“We were patrolling near the Sentry Oak” Breged replied, standing up and brushing dust from the floor from her leather clothing.

“Yes, and then I heard a sound like screaming in the distance that got closer and became louder until I felt like I could not bear it…” Calaraglar said, her voice trailing off into silence.

“I heard it also, yet I thought it more like the cry of marsh geese, and then we were…here.” Breged continued looking at the nodding Calaraglar.

“I am sorry my friends but it seems that someone or something is using strong magic to play games with us. We were likewise patrolling the boundaries of the forest and then we found ourselves on the edge of this ruined city. It is Felstad and we are at the doorway to an abandoned weapon shop. We here have already fought with strange smoke like serpents to get this far. It is my hope that inside we will find items to aid us in returning to Farran. Until then I fear we may have many adversaries to overcome.”

The Setup

This, the second solo scenario from the Frostgrave “Perilous Dark” supplement, takes the war band to the weapon workshop of Isher, in search of magical items. It begins with the war band having come through the doorway of the ruined weapon shop.

I made a change to my war band after the previous scenario and made Brikolad a captain using the rules from “The Frostgrave Folio“. This lets you have a war band member who can gain experience, in return for a small fee. The initial cost is 100GC and as I’d already spent 75 on Brikolad I just paid an additional 25.

I used some home made, slightly wonky, slightly scruffy, dungeon tiles and various piles of rubble and walls also made from XPS foam plus weapon racks and shelves made from coffee stirrers.

Wargames table covered with xps foam dungeon tiles xps rubble, walls and weapon racks made from coffee stirers.

The object is to get from the door to the opposite side of the board where there is a magical cabinet with a switch on either side. When both switches are pulled the cabinet will open, depositing two loot tokens. Then the war must get back to the door and exit the workshop, ending the scenario. At each corner of the board is a numbered spawn point. At the beginning of the game there are two gnoll thugs at each of the spawn points and two gnoll knights standing in front of the magical cabinet.

Diagram of the board set up
Diagram of the board layout
Scenery pieces for skirmish wargame Frostgrave
Switches on walls made with XPS foam and bamboo sticks with green stuff.
Model cabinet for skirmish wargame Frostgrave
The magic cabinet made with thick card and XPS foam

Out of game spells

Durnimlath and Mirhen both cast Out of game spells Familiar, Brew Potion and Animal Companion (more on that at the end). Only the Animal Companions were successful so they each start the game with a Snow Leopard companion.

28mm Snow leopard miniatures

The following are the highlights (and low lights) of the skirmish.

Turn 1

My plan was to move the thieves and snow leopards up the board as fast as possible to throw the switches and open the cabinet, while the Wizard, Apprentice, Captain and knight move up the board ready to grab the loot. The rest of the war band was to stay fairly close to the door to keep it clear for when the others come back with the loot.

Miniatures on a wargames board for the Frostgrave skirmish game

Durnimlath successfully casts enchant weapon on Daetir‘s dagger – this is useful as it negates the -1 damage penalty that daggers have.

In the creature phase II the gnolls begin moving towards the centre of the board. I decided that the two gnoll knights would however, stay guarding the cabinet.

Turn 2

Brikolad gets first blood taking a gnoll down with his bow and Durnimlath casts another Enchant Weapon, this time on Kirgwaith’s dagger.

Miniatures on a wargames board for the Frostgrave skirmish wargame


Mirhen does a great job casting an Elemental Bolt successfully despite an effective -4 penalty and does enough damage to also kill a gnoll. That laser burned up my whole special effects budget!

Miniatures on a wargames board for the Frostgrave skirmish wargame and a laser line marker

Back near the entrance Calaraglar and Galenglim are attacked by gnolls. Calaraglar takes damage but Galenglim wins the combat and damages the gnoll.

In the soldier phase Calaraglar attacks the gnoll and removes it from the game.

Miniatures on a a wargames board for the Frostgrave skirmish wargame

At the end of the turn a gnoll knight spawns at 2.

Turn 3

Apart from maneuvering and some failed casting rolls nothing much happens until the soldier phase when Gurthbor, Galenglim and a snow leopard all attack and kill gnolls.

Miniatures in a game of Frostgrave
Miniatures in a game of Frostgrave
Snowleopard and gnoll miniatures in a game of Frostgrave

At the end of the turn two gnoll thugs spawn.

Turn 4

Durnimlath begins the turn by casting elemental bolt at a gnoll. She needs to empower it (taking damage) but it hits and kills a gnoll.

In the soldier phase the first war band casualty occurs when a snow leopard attacks a gnoll, loses the combat and is killed.

At the end of the turn two more gnoll thugs spawn.

Turn 5

At the beginning of the turn Durnimlath casts another empowered elemental bolt and kills a gnoll.

Later in the turn Mirhen successfully casts bone dart killing a gnoll.

Miniatures on a a wargames board for the Frostgrave skirmish wargame

In the creature phase 2 a gnoll attacks Calaraglar and removes her from the board.

Miniatures on a a wargames board for the Frostgrave skirmish wargame

The Coming of Borock

Borock is a huge gnoll mutated by magic to be a Minotaur/gnoll hybrid. Big bad and able to send other gnolls into a killing frenzy, he will be a big problem for the war band. There is a chance that he might spawn earlier but if he hasn’t, he spawns at the end of turn 5.

Miniature of Borock a Gnoll/minotaur hybrid

I digitally kit-bashed Borock using Microsoft 3D Builder using a gnoll miniature by Evgenii Tkachenko at Maypole Minis and Minotaur horns from Murray – GameScape3D

Turn 6

Breged rolls lucky attacking and killing a gnoll..

Miniatures on a a wargames board for the Frostgrave skirmish wargame

A Gnoll attacks the remaining Snow Leopard killing it while another gnoll loses its combat with Naru Magol and is killed.

Miniatures and scenery being used for the skirmish wargame, Frostgrave

At the end of the turn a gnoll archer spawns.

Turn 7

The thieves continue moving towards the switches while Naru Magol attacks and kills a Gnoll. Gurthbor and Galenglim both attack gnolls and kill them.

Two elven infantry men miniatures used in the Frostgrave skirmish wargame

At the end of the turn both a gnoll thug and a gnoll archer spawn at spawn point 2.

Turn 8

Daetir reaches the left-hand switch and Kirgwaith is nearly at the right-hand switch but, has a gnoll thug and a gnoll archer (who has already done 8 damage) very near-by.

Galenglim and Gurthbor attack Borock, hopefully keeping tied up and not able to inspire other gnolls to frenzy.

At the end of the turn a gnoll knight spawns, at 3 right near the left-hand switch!

Turn 9 – Turn 12

This where it all started to unravel. Galenglim and Gurthbor kept Borock busy but Galenglim was brought down before Gurthbor finished him off. The rest of the the war band were slowly whittled away including Mirhen the apprentice. Durnimlath was left all alone and made a break, heading back to the door to leave but was brought down by gnoll archer, inches away from reaching it.

Post Game

Luckily both Durnimlath. Mirhen and Brikolad had good rolls on the Death and Injury table, making full recoveries.

The soldiers rolls were as follows:

Naru Magol – Full Recovery

Gurthbor – Dead

Galen Glim – Full Recovery

Daetir – Badly wounded

Kirgwaith – Badly wounded

Calaraglar – Badly wounded

Breged – Dead

Badly Wounded means the soldier will not be available for the next scenario. I’m going to replace the two thugs with animal companions and the two thieves with new ones as they are free to recruit. They will look somewhat identical to the ones that the replace. Odd that! Gurthbor is replaced by a new soldier a Man At Arms.

I also realised I had miss-read the rules regarding the Animal Companion spell and that they should have taken up a soldier slot. I also forgot that both the magic users had heal spells – doh!

There was some XP and Durnimlath goes up a level and raises her shoot stat, which will help with Bone Dart and Elemental Bolt. This also means that Mirhen’s shoot stat also raises.

The war band have moved into the Treasury to use as their base and found some Gold Crowns so that was some good news.

I’m undecided whether to run through the scenario again or just go on to the next. I think I will run it again but with a changed gnoll spawning table.

I was surprised at how tough the scenario felt. There is a lot talk on the internet about the previous scenario being overpowered, and Joseph has said as much himself, but I thought this one was as tough, if not more so. What, I think makes it difficult is the spawning of extra gnolls at the end of every turn.

As I think it is said in Perilous Dark, balancing solo scenarios is not easy. Of course, if I had had a lot of better dice rolls, my perception might have been different, and you do have a reasonable chance of any downed soldiers surviving which is a plus. I also possibly didn’t have enough scenery as it is suggested that you have a bit more than for competitive games.

I think I will re jig the gnoll spawns to have less knights and only spawns on every other turn. After all Borock is out of the picture so maybe the gnolls are leaving that area now their leader is gone.

Overall i really enjoyed the game and am looking forwards to playing again.

Gnoll mniatures

Northstar Military Figures – Frostgrave Gnolls

Free STL files used,by:

Jaime Blanco at Warpainted Minis

Nicolas Hughes The Jester Mask

Yasashii Kyojin Studio

And a group of “Heroscape: Gnoll Fighters” which I can’t find any details on plus some basic gnolls from an old D&D game.

Let me know in the comments if you have played this scenario and how you found it? Also how do you find campaign play in skirmish wargames? Are there any that get it spot on?

The Silver Bayonet – Black Brunswickers Unit

I think it was in one of Peachy’s videos that I first heard about the Brunswickers. A little  tasty morsel of the Napoleonic wars history that I hadn’t previously heard about. And on looking them up on the internet was then determined to have a special unit based on them for The Silver Bayonet. As someone who habitually wears black clothing the appeal was obvious. 

The “Black Brunswickers” was the nickname of the military unit raised by Frederick William, Duke of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel, the Brunswick Ducal Field-Corps, as a response to Napoleon’s taking of German territory.

Looking around there were a few miniature manufacturers making suitable minis including Perry Miniatures and Gripping Beast. In the end I went for the Gripping Beast miniatures and bought a couple of packs to give me a large choice of figures.  My plan was to try a little bit of minor kit bashing to make them look more like a Silver Bayonet Special Unit. 

In terms of The Silver Bayonet nationality choice you could use the Austrian list or possibly the British as later in the Napoleonic campaigns they were attached to the British army, if I’ve read things correctly! There is also the optional rule ‘Go outside the list’ where you build your unit from any of the soldiers regardless of nationality. For solo play you are the final adjudicator and the game is very much a ‘do what is fun for you’ so I built the unit around what I thought I could kit bash.

I originally photographed the miniatures some time ago and typically for me, got side tracked by other projects then misplaced the photos, the found them and decided that they were not good enough and re did them.

So here they are. Apologies for the not so brilliant photos, they are marginally better than the first attempt, my camera is one without a viewfinder and the display screen looks like it is on the blink, added to that I’ve reached that age where I need two sets of glasses, neither of which helps getting things in perfect focus.

Capitaine Edgar Mandarinetraum & Baal Brecht Veteran Hunter

Napoleonic Brunswicker miniatures

I went with the addition of a rather large pistol from a Reaper Miniatures, Razig Weapons Pack and stakes made from cocktail sticks, which in hindsight are a little too large, in a green stuff belt. Maybe the stakes are for extra large vampires? The hammer is also made from green stuff.

The veteran hunter also has a hammer and a stake plus a rifle from my bits box with a green stuff strap. I also added a green stuff cross, which you can just about see in the photo.

Otto Kehrtwendung – Sapper & Ausgang Gruppe Regiments-Feldscheer (Doctor)

Napoleonic Brunswick infantry miniatures

The Otto miniature started out as a drummer so needed a bit of modification to turn the drum into a powder keg, carving the drum to make it look like a barrel with green stuff for the hoops, fuse and rope handle. The sword came from my bits box. Ausgang had a green stuff apron, doctor’s bag and spectacles added and the shako was cut down to make a cap as I found a reference suggesting that Brunswicker surgeons wore caps. Typically I can’t find the reference again at the time of writing. Not to worry, it was on the internet so must be true.

Whenever I attempt making the smaller scale stuff with green stuff my admiration for those who sculpt minis grows. The spectacles were particularly troublesome and I had many many attempts before I got them to not look like the mini was wearing a couple of dinner plates on their face.

Gemeine Wilhelm Grimm & Gemeine Jacob Grimm Infantrymen

Napoleonic Brunswick infantry miniatures

I left these two un-modified but may add some extras in the future. This photo should possibly have the caption ‘My Brother did it honest Corporal’!

Gemeine Karl Unnütz – Infantryman & Christa Päffgen – Occultist

Napoleonic Brunswicker miniature and north star military figures silver bayonet french occultist miniature

A very basic green stuff torch for the infantryman and the occultist is from the North Star Military Figures, First French unit.

Overall they’ll do for table ready. I think I probably rushed them a little and might look see if I can improve the paint work in the future.

Have you a non standard unit for The Silver Bayonet or is their one you would like to paint? Let me know in the comments.

Painting Killteam Vespid Stingwings

I have been a bit of a sucker for the Killteam big boxes. There is something irresistible about opening a big box full of loads of minis and scenery. I had more or less decided I would stop collecting them though when they were selling out quicker than I could click on a link a couple of years ago.

So when I saw the preview for Hivestorm I thought I wouldn’t get a chance to get a copy. But as it was GW seemed to have made enough to go round this time and I was gifted a Hivestorm boxset last December.

I particularly wanted Hivestorm because the scenery looked excellent and the Stingwings are just awesome. I studied entomology as part of my degree way back in the mid ’90s and have a soft spot for any insect like miniatures. Another incentive to getting the box is that the new Killteam has rules for solo play.

The inspiration for the paint job was easy, vespid is from the family name (Vespidae) for social wasps so I tried to emulate the colouration of Vespula crabro, the European hornet.

After assembling the model and removing mold lines. I started off with black primer then dry brushed with first grey and then a lighter drybrush with white to act as a guide as it shows up the details. Not quite a zenithal highlight but almost.

Preparation

The base was then prepared with grout. I mostly use grout, Polyfilla (if I have an old tube in the tool box) or sometimes bits of green stuff or Milliput left overs.

Vespid stingwing miniature primed with black paint and highlighted with grey and white

The base colours

For the abdomen and the limbs I mixed a yellowy brown using Army Painter Warpaints Fanatic Tree Ancient, Army Painter D&D Goblin Skin and Army Painter Warpaints Daemonic Yellow in a rough 1:1:3 ratio.

Then for the darker areas, mainly on the shoulders, I mixed a darker brown with APWF Tree Ancient, Army Painter D&D Goblin Skin in a 1:1 ratio.

For the reddish bits on the shoulders, I mixed Duncan Rhodes Two Thin Coats – Berserker Red and APWF Tree Ancient in a 1:1 ratio.

For the mandibles, antennae, claws and wing veins I mixed APWF Tree Ancient and Black in a 1:1 ratio.

For the weapon and ‘tech bits’ I wanted to use a sort of complimentary colour to the main colour so used a dark blue using APW Deep Blue.

For the wing membranes I went for an off white with APW Brainmatter beige, which is one of my favourite paints, I go through loads of it. I haven’t tried the new Warpaints Fanatic version and hope it isn’t very different.

Front of Vespid Stingwing with base colours painted
Back of Vespid Stingwing with base colours painted

Adding washes

With all the colours added I then used APF Strong skin tone and Flesh Wash in a 2:1 ratio over the torso (or should that be thorax?), arms, legs, mandibles, abdomen, antenna, claws and wing veins. The wing membranes were washed with APW Light tone. The tech bits were washed with APW Blue tone. This stage is to add some deep shadows and pick out detail that would have been obscured by the base paints.

Back of Vespid stingwing miniature primed wash over base colours

First Layer

For the first layer I used lighter versions of the base colours, trying to cover all the surfaces except where the deepest shadows would be. I also started to add some hornet type markings to the model.

For the abdomen and limbs I added more Angelic yellow increasing it in the base colour to 4 parts.

On the shoulders, for the brown areas on the shoulders I increased the Goblin Skin parts to 2 and for the reddish area I increased the Berserker red to 2 parts.

For the tech bits I added mixed the Deep Blue 1:1 with DR2TC – Gravestone Blue.

For the mandibles, antenna, claws and wing veins I used just the APWF Tree Ancient and for the wing membranes just the Brainmatter Beige.

Back of Vespid stingwing miniature with first layer of paints

Second Layer

With the second layer I tried to paint a smaller area over the previous layer with lighter paint mixes so adding more angelic yellow and goblin skin for the limbs and abdomen, and the brown areas of the shoulders, respectively and also using goblin skin to lighten the berserker red on the shoulders.

I also added some Army Painter Warpaints Fanatic Deep Grey to the base and the gun ‘spike’. I then washed the spike with thinned white paint before adding a couple of layers of APWP Data System Glow which I aslo added as an edge highlight around the ‘spike’, and added white dot at the tip of the ‘spike’.

The eye ‘lens’ I painted white and then painted over with Green Stuff World Flour – Fluorescent Red

Highlights and Finishing touches

For the highlights it is just a matter of increasing the lightness of the previous mixes and applying in thin areas where the highlights would be, mostly edges.

On the base I added some Krautcover Scenics “a tale of Grimdark” which is quite possibly the most popular basing mix ever. I couldn’t find it on their website but you might be able to get it from various online shops, it does have a habit of going out of stock though.

I also painted the rebar poking out of the concrete with a little rust effect and dry brushed white over the grey.

For the wing membranes I used a little Greenstuff World Colorshift metal – Royal Burgandy but it doesn’t really show up in the photos. I used gloss, matt and satin varnish to finish the model.

Overall I’m quite pleased with the paintjob. There are a few areas I think I can work on though. I’ve started to think that I could possibly go further with my highlights on my miniatures and am trying to work this in on any new ones I paint. I tend to look at each mini painted as a learning experience.

Photos – well they are a work in progress. The quality of some of them in this post are not where I would like them to be. I know I need better lighting but it is a dilemma as I don’t want to pay out for expensive equipment as the photography is a small part of my hobby and I’d rather spend money on new minis. I will try to get by with some lights that I plan to buy that are multi purpose. I’m very sceptical about a lot of the pricing of accessories in this hobby and some of the lighting I see advertised I think are way over priced.

Have you painted any Vespid Stingwings? Which colour scheme did you go for? Let me know in the comments.

Converting a Buzz Lightyear Zurg Fighter Ship for Table Top Gaming

Its been a while since my last post. Brain weasels have been misbehaving. Today though, I have a day off work so have been able to finish a project I started a couple of months ago.

I’m not sure where I first saw the idea. It seemed to pop up all over the internet a while back, converting a kid’s toy for table top gaming, like Stargrave, 5 Parsecs from Home or any number of Role playing or wargames.

I’m always impressed by people who can see the potential of things like this for conversion or scratch building wargames stuff from odds and ends. One of the YouTube Channels I watch, Greig Johnson Making has some great examples. Greig just seems to have an eye for seeing the potential of all sorts of junk and stuff to be used in making amazing models and costumes.

First step was finding a Buzz Lightyear Zurg ship cheap enough and managed to find one on Ebay.

Buzz Lightyear Zurg Fighter ship toy

Preparation

First steps were to glue the canopy shut as I wouldn’t be needing it to open and adding some stuff from my bits box to make the ship look a little different. I also made a mould of some parts from a Kill Team Into the Dark sprue that looked like they could be generic ship parts.

I didn’t think the ship looked like it would have room for more than a couple of crew so I scratch built a compartment from mounting board. It doesn’t have to look totally accurate scale wise just give the impression of having space for a Stargrave crew. The ship will really be set dressing so again it just needs to give the impression of being the crew’s ship. I also added some strips cut from an old tea strainer to top of the jet intakes. The effect didn’t quite work out but I decided to leave them on anyway after the hassle of cutting them and stabbing my fingers multiple times with bits of wire.

After priming the ship with my airbrush and some Vallejo Mecha black primer I painted the whole thing with metallic craft paint. I didn’t want to use up any of my model paints for this so chose the cheaper alternative, which is fine as not a lot of the metallic paint will be seen.

With the metallic paint dry I painted the whole thing with chipping medium and masked off the jet exhausts and intakes with poster tack, before airbrushing the whole ship with Army Painter Angel Green paint.

Buzz Lightyear  Zurg Fighter ship toy painted green
Buzz Lightyear Zurg Fighter ship toy painted green
Buzz Lightyear Zurg Fighter ship toy painted green
Buzz Lightyear Zurg Fighter ship toy painted green
Buzz Lightyear Zurg Fighter ship toy painted green

The next stage was adding some detailing with Two Thin Coats Beserker Red, Warpaints fanatic Weapon Bronze and Army Painter Gun Metal. Then I did a series of dry brushing highlights and washes to get the shadows and darken the panel lines.

I also tried adding some water slide decals with ‘print your own decals’ paper that is supposed to work with a normal printer. The result wasn’t great. The problem is any light colour tends not to have a lot of ink printed on to the paper and so becomes more or less transparent. More experimentation will be needed to perfect the process.

Buzz Lightyear  Zurg Fighter ship toy painted green
Buzz Lightyear  Zurg Fighter ship toy painted green
Buzz Lightyear  Zurg Fighter ship toy painted green

The finishing touches

It was time then for the fun part, the grunging! I wet the areas where I wanted chips to the paintwork and using the wrong end of a brush chipped off paint. I then used some Green Stuff World Earth Liquid Pigment – Light Earth, which I added with a sponge on the bottom of the ship. I also painted over the ship’s name transfer with some Army Painter Warpaints Drake Tooth. I gave the whole ship an all over wash using Green Stuff World Dipping Ink – Zombie Dip, which is my favourite for adding a bit of dirt. And so the ‘Quintessence of Dust’ is ready for the table.

Final Thoughts

Overall I am pleased with the results although they are not exactly what I wanted. I think if I do something similar again I will add two coats of the chipping medium as some areas didn’t chip very well. I also might see if there are any generic space ship type waterslide decals to buy and add them later. Another thing I might do is add the missiles that I’ve currently left off. I’d cut them so that they fit flush with fuselage and make them look part of it. That is, if I can find them, I pinged them off somewhere in my lounge and haven’t seen them for a while. Some things don’t change much with age as this was the fate of many of similar darts and the like when I was a kid.

Have you done a similar conversion for your gaming? Or do you have any tips on cool effects you can use to use on similar models? Let me know in the comments.

[Update – I just posted a link to this post on Bluesky and was just looking through posts from people I follow and saw that Mr Peach had posted a video about doing the same conversion about an hour ago! Synchronicity or weird nerdy gamer psychic resonance? Who knows? Any way, to see how to do a similar project properly have look here!]

The Silver Bayonet – Solo scenario 1 Battle Report

Major blunt eyed the patch of forest ahead with not a little trepidation. It just seemed to ooze malevolence. No airy bluebell wood in the spring here. This area promised pain and terror. And somewhere in there was the lost unit.

He looked back and was surprised to see the two privates of his unit standing behind him obviously wanting to get his attention but also not wanting to disturb his reverie.

“Yes?” he asked and Tobias Function stood to attention before speaking.

“Mmffffl flofffm dibl mmmffm fee!”

The problem with Private Function was that what came out of his mouth only sounded like English. You could half grasp that there were words being spoken, but not what they actually were. A brave and reliable soldier nonetheless.

Blunt looked over to Function’s best mate, “Translation Parts?”

“Yes sir, Major sir!”

“He was saying sir, that he has a bad feeling about the woods sir.”

Blunt suppressed a shudder. Private Function’s bad feelings were usually right.

“Nothing to worry about. Just a stroll in the woods. But if it makes you feel safer, load your muskets before we go in.” Blunt replied without much feeling.

If you go down to the Woods today.

In this first solo scenario from the rule book, the unit are tasked with entering a woodland to find orders lost by a unit that had previously entered the woods and perished. The unit starts off in the forest after finding the remains of the missing unit and the sound of wolf howls coming from around them.

Turn 1

The turn opens with Pvt Wullie Mc Feegle and Pvt Ezkiel Parts both shooting at Dark Wolves and missing, while Sgt Maj Podraig Clarsha blasts away with the 7 barrels of his volley gun at a Dark Wolf and draws first blood.

The Dark Wolf runs at Clarsha who dodges a bite and hits back with the butt of the volley gun smashing its skull and killing it.

A Dark Wolf attacks Mc Feegle, sinking its teeth into the highlanders arm. Mc Feegle tries to hit back but only succeeds in driving the wolf back.

Pvt Tobias Function takes a shot and hits, killing the Dark Wolf. Cpt William Sweet shoots at and misses a Werewolf. Dr Pestremus Sussorous seeing Mc Feegle’s bloody arm moves towards him readying a bandage and fires his pistol at a Dark Wolf but misses

At the end of the turn Maj Richard Blunt shoots his rifle at a Dark Wolf but misses and another wolf arrives at the edge of the woods.

Turn 2

Mc Feegle, Pvt Parts and Sgt Maj Clarsha all reload (though for Clarsha this was a bit pointless as the Volley Gun can only be used once per scenario – which represents that reloading 7 barrels would be time consuming).

The Werewolf closes with Cpt Sweet rending him with its claws, sweet stabs back with his bayonet plunging into the Werewolf’s chest but sees that the bayonet hardly scratches the Werewolf’s hide. But he does push it back.

A Dark Wolf attacks Maj Richard Blunt who manages to sidestep.

A Dark Wolf attacks Mc Feegle who burns a fate dice to reduce the damage helping him to survive the attack. Mc Feegle now decides to move back rather than counter attack, leaving the Doctor on his own with a lot more wolf eyes staring at him than he would like.

Cpt Sweet burns the last fate dice to quick reload and manoeuvres putting some distance between him and the Werewolf, shoots his rifle, and luckily Cpt Sweet is one of the unit who has loaded silver shot and does some permanent damage which is enough to kill the beast.

Pvt Function reloads and sees something interesting (a clue marker) and moves towards it.

Maj Blunt reloads and ducks behind a tree. And Dr Sussorous reloads.

At the end of the turn 2 more wolves arrive at the edge of woods.

Turn 3

Function checks the clue marker and finds an ornate silver ramrod (this find adds another power dice to the fate pool) then moves to support Blunt.

Parts also sees something and investigates a thicket. This clue marker is not as useful and reveals another Werewolf! 

A Dark Wolf attacks Maj Blunt drawing blood, Blunt thumps it with his rifle butt causing it to back off.

A Dark Wolf attacks sweet who is overcome by his wounds.

Maj Richard Blunt shoots at a Dark wolf misses.

Mc Feegle shoots at a wolf, hits and kills it then moves back putting some distance from the wolves that were approaching him.

Dr Pestremus Sussorous shoots his pistol but misses.

Clarsha attacks a Werewolf with his heavy cavalry sword but doesn’t even scratch the lycanthrope.

At the end of the turn another wolf turns up.

Turn 4

This turn continues with the unit trading blows with the Dark Wolves and mostly missing.

Near the end of the turn the units luck changes as Pvt Parts, who has loaded silver shot, fires at the Werewolf and hits leaving the werewolf looking badly hurt.

And at the end of the turn another Dark Wolf arrives.

Turn 5

A Dark Wolf attacks Pvt Function doing damage. Function then retaliates with his bayonet, killing the wolf!

Following on from this a Dark Wolf attacks Mc Feegle reducing the highlander to 0 health and putting him out of the fight.

A Dark Wolf attacks Clarsha and takes the Sgt Major out of the fight.

A Dark Wolf attacks Dr Sussorous but misses. The Doctor stikes back with his sword stick killing the Dark Wolf.

At the end of the turn the roll to determine whether another Dark wolf turns up brings a bit of luck as the result is that nothing happens.

Turn 6

Maj Richard Blunt shoots at a Darkwolf but completely missies. Dr Pestremus Sussorous moves towards a clue marker as does Pvt Parts, who also reloads.

A Dark wolf moves in to attack Maj Blunt but misses. The Major retaliates doing a small amount of damage and the wolf moves back.

Now a wolf moves in to attack Pvt Function but misses. Tobias retaliates slashing with his bayonet. And the Dark Wolf backs off.

A Dark wolf attacks Parts but misses. Parts strikes back but does no damage. The Dark Wolf backs off.

Just before the end of the turn Function reloads.

At the end of the turn another Dark Wolf arrives.

Turn 7

Major Blunt sees something in the leaf litter and investigates and finds the missing orders! Now the unit can leave the woods. With the orders found Blunt draws his pistol and shoots at a Dark wolf and kills it. And shouts to the unit that it is time to leave.

Function begins legging it towards the edge of the woodland.

Dr Pestremus Sussorous also notices something in the leaf litter and finds a bag of silver shot. Grabbing it he starts moving to the edge of the woods.

The wolves are not going to make it easy though, and a Dark Wolf attacks Maj Richard Blunt, but misses. Maj Blunt then hacks at the Wolf with his sword killing it.

The Werewolf attacks Pvt Parts rending him with its claws putting him out of the fight.

Turn 8

Pvt Function. Major Blunt and Dr Pestremus Sussorous all move off the table ending the game.

Post Scenario Stuff

After the battle, in campaign play, you roll on an injury and death table for each of your unit who were reduced to 0 health. For once the dice were with me and all my downed figures survived.

Thoughts and musings

I know I missed a few odds and ends, like reloads and strike backs but that’s fine and noted for next time.

I tried something different for this battle report and used a voice recorder as I went along rather than making notes with pencil and paper.

The plan was to then run the audio files through a text to speech app and edit that for the battle report. Well, it sort of worked, mostly. Some of the audio got garbled and some of it just failed to be transcribed.

Another thing I need to remember to do is to make a note of when I take a photo and set my camera to number the photos for the battle report, so when I note ‘photo 1’ then the filename of the image will tally with that.

My plan is to make the battle reports a little more ‘narrative’ but its only my second ever so still a learning experience.

Overall, I really enjoyed playing The Silver Bayonet and am looking forwards to another game. I can’t decide whether to continue the British Unit campaign or re-run the scenario with another unit.

If you’ve played this scenario let me know in the comments how your unit fared.

The Silver Bayonet: The French Unit (L’Unite Français)

The original plan was to have just one unit for The Silver Bayonet. But as often happens with miniature based games, the ‘I’ll just buy the minis for one warband/gang/army’ promise to oneself rarely lasts.

You’ll be reading through a rulebook or supplement, or innocently looking at some miniatures online to see how people are painting them and a hitherto unseen seed of inspiration doesn’t just begin to germinate, but explodes in to a humongous great forest complete with a thriving ecosystem of tiny furry creatures! So it was with this unit. I was just looking online and the North Star Military figures – The French Unit popped up and two of the minis jumped out at me shouting ‘paint me, paint me! I’d be really good as…’ – insert character idea. So I ordered the box and got painting.

Major Armand d’Hubert – Officer

Napoleonic French Dragoon Miniature standing firing a pistol and holding a sabre in left hand

The mini is a French Heavy Cavalryman from the North Star set but I wanted it as my officer and went off script, as it were, and added some hussar’s braids, or cadenettes as they were called at the time, to what is more of a Dragoon mini. Greenstuff to the rescue for some very basic kit bashing. This was to represent the protagonist from the film The Duellists which is Ridley Scott’s first film, and an absolute masterpiece to my mind. Beautifully shot and oozing with atmosphere. Based on a short story by Joseph Conrad titled ‘The Duel’ or in some cases ‘A Point of honor’ , that follows two officers of the French Hussars through Napoleon’s campaigns. One of whom repeatedly calls the protagonist out to duel.

I gave the officer the cavalryman trait as it seemed appropriate and so needed a mounted version.

This one required both the beard and braids added. The miniature is a Perry Miniatures Napoleonic Line Dragoon.

Captaine Didier de Malherbe (Veteran Hunter) and Jaque ‘oncle’ Tati (guard)

Both mini’s are from the North Star box where they are the Veteran Hunter and the Grenadier. I have a suspicion that the veteran hunter has a bit of inspiration from the film ‘Le Pact Des Loups’/’Brotherhood of the Wolf‘, which was one of the things that made me want the box set. I’m quite pleased with the distressed/aged leather look of this one. The names are from the French jazz musician of the same name and the French actor and film maker, Jacque Tati.

Sgt Sylvain Faison – Sapper and Cardinal Jean de Plesis – Champion of Faith

Both of these minis are from Warlord Games. Warlord Games Napoleonic French Peninsular Veteran: Philippe Berthet and WarlordGames Cardinal Richelieu, The Red Eminence. Back story for Faison is that he always goes into battle with his lucky pheasant, to the chagrin of his fellows. The runic apron was inspired by artwork in the rule book. There is a sapper in the Northstar box but I really liked the addition of the pheasant and tatty uniform of this Warlord Games mini.

For a French Champion of Faith it had to be the cardinal and he doesn’t look too out of place despite being from a couple of hundred years before The Silver Bayonet’s setting.

Pvt Jean-Jaques La Cible and Pvt Aimant de Balle – Infantrymen

The privates are a Warlord games Late French Line Infantry (1812-1815) and a Victrix French Napoleonic Infantry 1807 – 1812 with names picked from a french dictionary, except Jean-Jaques, which is from Mr Brunel of the band The Stranglers.

I really enjoyed painting these minis and now have the bug for The Silver Bayonet Units. I have another already painted which I will blog about in the near future (he says while thinking about the number of posts that are in the ‘preparation’ stage).

Do you play The Silver Bayonet? And if you do how many Units do you have? Have you just stuck to one or are you building a collection? Let me know in the comments. Au revoir for now!

The Silver Bayonet: British Unit

My First The Silver Bayonet Unit

It wasn’t a difficult choice to make, and like many The Silver Bayonet Players I chose a unit that takes inspiration from the “Sharpe” TV series based on the novels by Bernard Cornwell. Though in the end I chose three of the characters from the TV series and made up the remaining members of the unit using other minis.

I had so much fun finding miniatures to represent the members of my unit and painting them. I found that reading through the rules had ideas popping in my head for all sorts of characters.

Major Richard Blunt and Sgt Major Podraig Clarsha

Miniatures representing representing Major Sharpe and Sgt Major Haper from the Sharpe tv series.

With a little wordplay I decided that Richard Blunt was a suitable name for the unit’s officer and Podraig Clarsha would take the role of Veteran Hunter and Blunt’s right had man. Both minis are from The Wargames Atlantic British Riflemen box of plastic miniatures. You get a good amount of minis and options and could easily have all your unit in rifleman green.

Private Wullie Mc Feegle – Highlander and Captain William Sweet – Rifleman

Miniatures of a Napoleonic Highlander and a miniature inspired by the character William Frederickson from the Sharpe TV series

I wanted to also have a highlander in my unit so got some Victrix British Napoleonic Highlander Centre Companies. Again a great box of minis with more than enough options available to get some great figures. The name is a wee nod to Sir Terry Pratchet’s Wee Free Men. The other mini another Wargames Atlantic rifleman is based on the character of Captain William Fredrickson, with minor kit bashy green stuff eye patch and hair. His sword is a little wonky because I am a little clumsy and am constantly breaking bits of my miniatures. This one didn’t repair very well and I keep meaning to re-do it, but inevitably get side tracked with new minis to paint.

Privates Ezikiel Parts and Tobias Function -Infantrymen

Miniatures of two Napoleonic British Line infantry soldiers

The two infantry men are from the Perry Miniatures British Napoleonic Line Infantry box.

I get the feeling that these two might not be around for long.

Dr Pestremus Sussorous – Doctor

Miniature of a "plague doctor"

The company avoid getting wounded as much as possible as this keeps the Doctor away, no one is very comfortable around him.

I didn’t have a mini for the doctor until I remembered that I had some STL files for Plague Doctors by Black Scroll Games. They don’t look to out of place given the Gothic Horror setting. I need to reprint the mini at some point on the newer of my printers as this one was done on an older printer and lost a lot of detail. The pistol is from a Reaper Miniatures Razig weapons pack.

Inspiration

There is a lively Facebook group, The Silver Bayonet Official Players Page and also a Reddit sub-reddit r/TheSilverBayonet that have people posting pictures of their minis if you are looking for inspiration.

I’ll hopefully get a solo battle report up soon.

Let me know in the comments what your first unit was.

The Silver Bayonet Review

The Silver Bayonet Rule book front cover

While looking at Frostgrave supplements on the Osprey Publishing site I began looking at another game by Joseph McCullough, ‘The Silver Bayonet‘. I’d seen it mentioned here and there but never really looked at what it was about. After reading the description, and realising that this was a great excuse to paint some military miniatures from the Napoleonic period, I grabbed a copy as soon as I was able.

I’ve always liked the idea of having a big army of miniatures from the Napoleonic era but have always held off because it would require spending a lot of money that is already earmarked for fantasy and sci-fi gaming and I probably would never get round to actually having any battles. So, The Silver Bayonet is perfect for going someway to scratching an itch. You don’t need a large amount of miniatures, the rulebooks and supplements are very reasonably priced and, the rules are fairly straightforward.

The rule book is very well presented and has been styled to look like an old hardback book with stains and damage. This is carried through the whole book with the ‘marbled’ style end papers and there are odd stains on some pages like the bloody finger print pictured below.

Napoleonic Gothic Horror

The Silver Bayonet is a skirmish wargame set in an alternative history where during the Napoleonic wars, fuelled by the deaths on the battle field, entities known as the Harvestmen began to cast their influence on the world, using their powers to release a horde of supernatural creatures previously thought of as myth or legend.

Britain is the first nation to respond to the threat forming units of special troops to hunt down and destroy these supernatural foes, awarding success with The Silver Bayonet. Other nations soon form their own special units.

The game oozes a swashbuckling vibe sort of like a ‘boys own‘ story produced by Hammer Horror. It can be ‘Sharpe’s Vampire’ or ‘Hornblower and the island of zombies’ or anything your imagination can conjure up for the Napoleonic era.

Specialist Units

The focus of play are the specialist units. These are formed by first choosing a country, Britain, France, Prussia, Spain, Russia and Austria, in the core rule book but there are options for other countries in the source books. Different soldiers are only available to some countries – the Highlander, for example being only available to Britain, but there is an optional rule to make up your unit with whatever soldiers you like.

The book also suggests that if you want to play a nation not on the list there is no reason not to. Simply grab some minis and choose one of the countries that fits. As with all optional rules, its good manners to make sure your opponents are happy with your choice.

What you need to Play

You will need up to 8 miniatures to represent your unit, one officer and up to seven soldiers. Plus some terrain, miniatures to represent the monsters, pencil and paper, a unit sheet – photo copied from the rule book or downloaded from the Osprey site and some d10s ideally in three different colours. The game is miniatures agnostic so you can use any miniatures you like. There is a great range of ‘official’ Silver Bayonet figures by North Star Military Figures. I have to confess I got badly bitten by the miniatures for The Silver Bayonet bug and now have three units (which will feature in future blog posts) and also have my eye on the North Star Russian Unit but am holding off for a bit as my pile of shame/possibilities needs reducing (and I just got my hands on a copy of Kill Team Hive Storm).

First you create a commanding officer who will lead the unit. There are some choices of increases to various starting stats so you can customise your officer a little. Further customisation involves the choosing two attributes. Attributes is a catch all term for skills, innate talents and special abilities in the game.

Next the officer needs to be equipped with a number of equipment slots to fill from two lists of equipment, a general list for standard weaponry with some items taking up more than one equipment slot, and a special list, items like silvered weapons and holy symbols, useful for fighting supernatural entities. A maximum of two items are allowed from this list though some of them are modifications to weapons and so don’t take up an actual equipment slot. Both are kept fairly small to keep things simple. A one handed sword or axe or club are all covered by the Hand Weapon, for example.

Next a company of up to 7 soldiers is chosen from a list of various specialists in keeping with the troop types during the Napoleonic era and. As well as military persons the lists there are also civilians whose skills make them useful to a Silver Bayonet unit. There is also the option of disregarding the country restriction and just choosing your soldiers as you wish. As is the case with much of Joseph’s game design the rules of fun and cool override those in the rulebook. Although it would be polite to check your opponent is okay with this in a competitive game.

The Game

The rules are similar to the Frostgrave rules, a point I am in agreement with Mr Peachy about, if it ain’t broken, don’t fix it, but there are some differences, the main one being is Silver Bayonet uses d10s rather than d20’s as mentioned earlier. These come in three varieties, and is why it helps to have three different colours, some of which you keep in a pool to be used to affect rolls.

Turns are split into phases each of which is either your minis or your opponents (in the two player competitive version) and a phase for any monsters. Solo and co-operative play have slightly different phases but are essentially the same. A figure generally has two actions in their phase one of which can be move and the other shooting, melee attack, investigating, or other actions. A lot of the game depends on the scenario that you are playing and there are both competitive and solo/co-operative scenarios included in the book as wells a guidelines for creating your own.

Campaign Play

You can play the game as just a one off scenario or skirmish but I think where it shines is with campaign play. Campaign rules are included and guide you through the advancement of your unit as it gains experience.

Another Review

This is a fairly short review and doesn’t cover everything but Peachy over on Peachy Tips has done a nice The Silver Bayonet review and an excellent kitbash idea for making some zombies (round about the 23:49 mark) which is well worth watching. I also had a go at kitbashing a zombie for the game.

The Silver Bayonet Supplemental Rules and Settings

At the time of writing there are four supplements available for The Silver Bayonet, The Carpathians – Castle Fier, Canada, Egypt and Italy. Each adds new monsters and troop types as well as scenarios to play. It has also just been announced that the next supplement will be ‘Britain: Bones of Albion’.

Minature Battles Score

My one very small criticism of the rule book is the lack of photos of miniatures on the table. However, I can see that this may have been a design decision, photos possibly not fitting with the design aesthetic of the book, which is very well done – I particularly like the cover being styled to look like an old, stained book. So it is a really really small criticism. I would have liked to have seen some photos of miniatures, possibly in a gallery as an appendix after the main content, there is after-all a photo on the last page.

It is a very small criticism though. This game, like Frostgrave, has been a breath of fresh air and gets my imagination sparking away like a, well, a very sparky thing!

I’m giving it a d12, only because of the lack of inspirational photos. I’m trying to be fairly strict with my reviews otherwise the majority will score d20s!

Have you played The Silver Bayonet or are you intending to? What nation did you choose? Let me know if the comments!

All Alone in Felstad Pt3 – Frostgrave Battle Report – 1st solo scenario

In which the witch Durnimlath Gul leads her merry band of elves in to the depths of the frozen city and wishes she hadn’t…

Finally, I found some time to play some Frostgrave. The scenario is the first of the solo and cooperative scenarios presented in the ‘Perilous Dark‘ supplement. Perilous Dark is a great supplement for Fostgrave that presents rules for playing Frostgrave solo and cooperatively, as well as lots of tips and ideas for creating your own solo or co-op scenarios. My notes definitely got confused at times so there are some inconsistencies in the following report so please excuse them.

The scenario involves the warband pitting themselves against wispy but deadly Vapour Snakes and crossbow weilding constructs as they move towards a door to a wizards workshop in the city of Felstad.

The Party’s Background

Durnimlath Gul, together with her trusty apprentice Mirhen and a group of loyal soldiers, has inadvertently stepped through a portal near their forest home, Farran Wood and found themselves transported to another world. The portal has delivered them to the outskirts of a strange frozen city.

With the portal only working one way Durnimlath now needs to search for another portal or means to return home.

The spirits of the group are at first low but are soon raised a little as they find a nearby inn selling a wine, that is not as good as the fine elven wine of their homeland, is nonetheless passable.

The inn keeper seems not at all suspicious of the strange coins that Durnimlath hands over, excepting gold as gold with a smile. The inn is like many in there own world and they soon learn that the strange city is named Felstad and they also hear tell of an old wizards workshop that might contain items of magical power.

Hoping that a portal or means to create one will be found among the frigid buildings, Durnimlath leads her party into the streets of Felstad.

Setting up the table

The party start in one corner of the table, which is a bit comfy but will sort out as soon as they start to move.

Miniatures for Frostgrave skirmish game clustered at the edge of the wargames table
The Warband in the starting position at the bottom right corner of the table.

A door on the opposite corner to where the party start is guarded by two crossbow wielding constructs. Exiting through the door is the goal of the scenario.

Five spawn points are placed on the table, one near each corner and one in the centre. Additionally, two treasure tokens are placed near the two corners that are not the party start point or the exit. A Large Vapour Snake is placed at each spawn point.

Each turn of the solo game is split into four phases, the Wizard phase, Creature phase 1, for creatures above a certain health level, the Apprentice phase, Creature phase 2 for all other creatures and the Soldier phase for any soldiers not activated in either the Wizard or Apprentice phase where up to three figures can be activated if they are within range.

I won’t list the phases in this report and just summarise each turn. I’ll also for each first appearance of a figure link to the relevant section in my previous post about the warband.

Some spells are cast out of game so both the wizard and apprentice try and cast a few. Both successfully cast ‘Familiar’, and the wizard casts ‘Summon Animal’ for a wolf to join the party for the game, and the apprentice casts ‘brew potion’ for a healing potion. I decided to use the optional critical hits rule that automatically wins a combat on a natural 20 .

Turn 1

Naru Magol, Gurth Bor and Galenglim moving towards a Vapour Snake

Durnimlath Gul, Naru Magol the Knight and the two infantrymen Gurth Bor and Galenglim all move towards the Vapour Snake that is directly in front of them.  None of them have enough movement to engage. 

Durnimlath Gul casts Enchant weapon on Naru Magol’s sword but fails. In Frostgrave failing a spell causes damage to the caster, the greater the failure the greater the damage. Durnimlath is reaonably lucky and only loses one point of health here. 

Mirhen casts Bone dart at the Vapour Snake but fails and takes a point of damage. Kirgwaith and Daetir. The thieves spot a suitable wall that offers higher ground to spy out the terrain and move towards it. Daetir has enough movement to climb the wall.

The Warband ready to take on the Vapour Snakes

Most of the monsters on the table have no line of sight to the warband so make random moves, but three of the Vapour Snakes do see the warband and move towards them. The closest Vapour snake moves to attack Naru Magol.  In Frostgrave both figures roll when combat is initiated with the winner having the chance to inflict damage. The Vapour Snake wins the combat but luckily the Knight’s armour blocks all the damage.

Turn 2

Gurth Bor and Galenglim move to support Naru Magol and Galenglim attacks the Vapour Snake, but it wins the combat and two points of damage get past the infantryman’s armour.

Durnimlath Gul casts Bone Dart at the Vapour Snake but it fails and she takes one point of damage.

Galenglim and Naru move into combat with a Vapour Snake

Naru Magol now attacks and wins the combat rolling a natural 20 and kills the snake. First blood (or first some sort of smokey stuff) to the warband! 

A Vapour Snake moves to attack Gurth Bor wins the combat and does 6 damage.

Serethgaur the thug, attacks the Vapour Snake and wins but no damage gets through the armour

Turn 3 

Draug the Wolf comes of worse in combat

The wolf attacks the Vapour Snake but the snake wins and does a significant amount of damage killing the poor pooch.

Durnimlath casts bone dart but fails the casting roll but not by enough to take damage. Mirhen is more successful casting heal on Gurth Bor.

Meanwhile, Naru Magol attacks rolling a critical hit and killing a Vapour Snake. 

At this point I see that I have blundered with Durnimlath being a little isolated. A Vapour Snake moves in and attacks but is the one who takes the damage.

Durnimlath trying to fend off two Vapour Snakes

Another two Vapour Snakes are however both successful and reduce the wizard to 0 health.

Turn 4

Mirhen attempts to cast an elemental bolt but fails and takes damage.
Seregthaur attacks a Vapour Snake and does a small amount of damage. Galenglim then finishes off a Vapour Snake.
Snake attacks Sereg and kills him. Snake attacks Galenglim but dies in the process.

Now one of the Ballista II constructs has moved into line of sight uses its heavy crossbow, targeting Naru but misses.

Brikolad the archer targets a smoke snake and finds out that arrows do very little damage to them.


Gurth Bor attacks a smoke snake and her sword destroys it.

Turn 5

Mirhen successfully casts Plague of Insects,

Mirhen casts plague of insects on the Ballista II which will lessen its effectiveness for and fighting shooting, she needs to empower the spell for it to succeed so takes damage. The spell is helpful for Brik as he is the target for its next attack which misses.

Unfortunately the Ballista II then makes a willpower test and the plague of insects is no longer effective.

Brik shoots his bow at the Ballista II and hits, but its armour stops the damage.

Daetir sees some treasure and moves to secure it. Picking up the treasure spawns another Vapour Snake, though only a small one.

Turn 6

Mirhen casts heal but fails and takes damage. The Ballista II shoots its crossbow at Naru Magol whose armour protects her from damage.

The remaining members of the warband continue moving towards the door using any cover they can find.

Turn 7

Combat with a Ballista II

Both the infantrymen and the Naru Magol attack the Ballista II. The Infantrymen don’t fair well both failing to win the combat, Galenglim being reduced to 0 health. Naru Magol is more successful and wins the combat with a critical hit and doing damage.

Mirhen casts heal and empowers the spell to make it successful so takes some damage.

The Ballista II retaliates and attacks Naru but loses the combat and is destroyed.

Brikolad who has a small smoke snake moving towards him moves up some stairs and shoots at the small vapour snake but misses.

Turn 8

Mirhen casts heal again but fails and takes damage. The small vapour snake attacks Mothorm wins the combat and does damage. Mothorm retaliates and wins the combat doing a small amount of damage.

Brikolad takes advantage of the small vapour snake’s distraction and moves to pickup some loot. This also spawns a small vapour snake.

Turn 9

Not wanting to risk another failed spell as her health is low, Mirhen drinks her health potion.

Another large snake now has line of sight on the warband and moves towards them.

Brikolad shoots at the nearest small vapour snake reducing its health by 1.

Turn 10

Mirhen casts bone dart at the small smoke snake and the 1 point of health is enough to reduce it to 0 health.

Turn 11

No combat takes place this turn as all the warband move to find cover and continue their progress towards the exit door.

Turn 12

Warband using the ruins to their advantage

Brik moves into position to shoot at the second Ballista II but misses.

Turn 13

Brikolad is now in line of site of both the Ballista II and a small smoke snake both of which move towards the warband. The Ballista II shoots at Brikolad but misses. The archer retaliates and does some damage, then moves back into cover.

Kirgwaith moves to attack the small vapour snake and and reduces its health.

Turn 14

Mirhen casts bone dart at the Ballista II but fails and takes damage. The Ballista II takes aim at Mirhen skewering her and leaving her with 0 health.

The small vapour snake attacks Kirgwaith and and reduces the thief to 0 health.

The last large smoke snake attacks Daetir but loses the combat and takes damage from the thief.

Brikolad moves and shoots at the Ballista II but missies. Naru Magol attacks the large vapour snake, wins the combat and does damage. Gurth Bor follows this up with an attack on the large smoke snake finishing it off.

Turn 15

Ballista II moves to attack Mothorm, loses the combat and takes damage from the thug.

Naru Magol attacks the construct but loses the combat and takes damage.

Turn 16

The remaining members of the warband make it to the door

Balista II attacks Naru Magol but loses, takes damage and is destroyed.

The warband now move towards the door and make the roll to open it and leave the table.

Post Game

In campaign play figures reduced to 0 health are not necessarily dead (maybe they are mostly dead? Cue Miracle Max quote!). You get to roll on either a table for the Soldiers and/or a table for the Wizard and Apprentice.

Durnimlath Gul and Mirhen, Galenglim and Gurth Bor all made a full recovery! Seregthaur unfortunately succumbed to his wounds but Mothorm was only badly wounded so will be able to join the warband again after recovering for one scenario.

Experience wise Durnimlath Gul gains 2 levels with some xp left over in the bank.

I then rolled on the loot table for the two loot tokens recovered and the warband is now 40 gold crowns richer, has a curse scroll and a pair of gloves of strength.

So all in all not a bad outcome.

Wait I hear you say (or maybe it is my conscience) didn’t you forget some stuff? I realised that I missed out a few things. Firstly, Vapour Snakes should have spawned at the end of each turn after the third. Ah well, I’m not too worried about missing that as Joseph McCullough has stated that he made the scenario a little more difficult than intended. So I sort of balanced it a bit without realising.

Also I missed out some situational modifiers for combat, particularly for when there are more than one figure attacking another, which I need to re-read and shooting modifiers for cover and the like, which I completely forgot, but as they were not used for the monsters or the warband that is a balance of sorts.

I plan before playing the next scenario is add names to the bases of the minis, so I don’t confuse the two infantrymen, two thugs and the two thieves. I think I may also try using a voice recorder app for the notes. Juggling, rule books, camera, minis, dice, pencil and notebook got a bit chaotic at times so anything that helps will be welcome.

What do I think of Frostgrave now I’ve played my first solo scenario? I love it! It played a little slowly but that was my bad decision of writing my first ever battle report on my first time playing the game. So there was lots of note taking (much more than I really needed) and checking the rule book. Next I need to paint up some minis for the next scenario and decide on which advances Durnimlath is going to take.

Making a table top terrain Cottage from corrugated Cardboard

Recently while hunting for hobby related videos on YouTube I found
Selrahc Games
and some great videos about making terrain with corrugated cardboard.

I have a terrible habit of holding onto cardboard packaging, after all, its bound to be useful for something someday, right? I’m still fairly new at terrain building so I’m still learning and trying out new techniques is very useful.

Making terrain from something that was likely going to end up in the recycling bin is a very appealing. I’ve mostly been using XPS foam which I really like, but, while you can get good deals on it, is not cheap. You also end up with a lot of off cuts, which I tend to hang on to rather put in the bin. I have some plans to make some terrain pieces from off cuts at some point so will write about that when I do.

I wanted to try out the method seen on Selrahc Games and decided to make a small cottage which would be useful for Silver Bayonet, D&D or a other games.

To start off I made a rough template for the ends of the cottage. This will be a guide for getting the height of the walls and the pitch angle and rise of the roof.

corrugated cardboard template for cottage end
cardboard end and side wall for model cottage

Next, using the template I drew out then cut out two pieces of card, one for each side and end of the cottage.

The cottage will of course need a doorway and windows so these were added to one of the pieces.

cardboard model cottage end and side with doorway and window cut out
cardboard cottage with bricks added

After cutting cardboard strips and cutting these again to the size I wanted for the bricks, the individual bricks can be added to the wall of the cottage. I use a quick setting wood glue, in preference to standard ‘school glue’ PVA, but either will work. PVA has one of those smells that always takes me back to primary school and making stuff with ‘sugar paper’. Actually why is it called that, I’ll look it up, the hive brain is sure to know.

This next step is the bit that I think really makes this method work. Over the bricks covered with glue, you add a layer of tissue paper, bog roll works really well. As the tissue develops small wrinkles as you add it it will give the bricks texture.

cardboard cottage brick wall covered with a layer of tissue paper
cardboard model cottage roof

For the roof I added pieces to get the shape and help keep the roof in place. My plan is to have the roof be removeable so that miniatures can be easily placed inside.

With both the pieces added and the glue dry the roof is ready for the next stage.

cardboard model roof

I then painted the walls dark grey, the dry brushed a lighter grey and then added some bits of wooden coffee stirrer for the window frames.

For the roof I was planning to add roof tiles made from thinner card but I had a change of mind.

unravelled twine used to make model cottage thatch

What I wanted was to model thatch. I considered making it from cardboard but found a couple of great videos on YouTube one from The Crafting Muse and one from Miniature Wizardry about using jute twine or as I’ve always called it hairy string, to make the thatch.

The twine is unravelled and then glued to strips of cardboard with more wood glue. You want the cardboard strips to be about half the length of thatch.

Starting with the bottom most part of the roof the thatch strips are added. You want the thatch to extend below the roof a little.

This part of the build is messy and time consuming, but sort of satisfying.

Strip of twine 'thatch' added to model roof
two layers of thatch added to model roof

More strips are added until the roof is covered. The last strip is twice the width of the others so that it can be folded to fit on the roofs peak.

For the ends of the roof I just dabbed on some glue and added small bunches of twine to cover the corrugations.

It was also about this point that I found out about plumbers hemp from another video about making model thatch roofs from LNR Models

model roof end
miniature model cottage

And that was more or less it. I gave the thatch a brush over with some black acrylic ink to age it and added some of my basing mix, a melange of Games workshop static grass, Geek Gaming Scenics Foam scatter – Mid green I think, Some old GW gravel, ‘play pit’ sand and some tarragon.

Overall I am quite pleased with the result. The thing I would change for the next time I use this method, is the size of the bricks and to use cardboard with smaller corrugations as the cardboard I used had quiet large ones and this made some of the bricks a little weak.

What do you think? Is this something you would try for your own gaming table? Do you prefer xps foam for terrain building? Let me know in the comments.

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