Wednesday 12 October 2016

The Living Museum: Three Enter, One Leaves…


A while back I volunteered to put on a Frostgrave game at our local wargames club. Luckily there were a couple of victims members foolish willing enough to give it a go.

So off I went last night and duly set up a table, deciding that it might be interesting to run the Living Museum scenario, rather than just a standard game. I dug out the Necromancer and Elementalist warbands had I pre-generated for the last club game, but also decided to spice things up a bit by taking to the field myself with a scratch warband, headed by my new Heresy Witch.

Yep, this was to be my first three player game!

In between teaching the guys the ropes and playing the game, I didn’t have a lot of time or inclination to take lots of notes or photos, so apologies for what is a very sketchy batrep.

I spent all my gold on some higher quality soldiers, which meant I had a couple of slots left to fill. Happily I successfully cast Animal Companion pre-game, which added a bear to my warband. Alas my Animate Construct spell failed, so I was a ‘man’ short. Moreover I also managed the Familiar spell, giving my Witch some extra health.

We rolled to choose entry sides, and I set up opposite the Necromancer, with the Elementalist coming in on my left. The Necromancer got the first initiative, immediately Bone-Darting my Witch, who I had placed in direct line of sight – d’oh! While the shot hit home, it wasn’t enough to wound/kill my Witch, who replied in kind (missing the mark alas) before ducking out of sight to heal herself.

All three warbands converged on the statues in the centre of the table; the Elementalist making good use of Elemental Bolt to singe the Necromancer’s men with fireballs while his archers climbed up to a higher vantage point.

Following suit, my ranger and crossbowman also went up a storey. Shooting over the ruins, my ranger engaged in a duel with the Elementalist archers for pretty much the rest of the game. I leapt my bear into the midst of the Elementalist’s warband, hoping to slow him down and thus secure my flank, but the poor beast was quickly struck down by his thugs.

My thieves raced into the centre alongside a Leapt knight while my warhound padded around my right to outflank the Necromancer’s band. Meanwhile my Witch summoned a bank of Fog to screen her and her apprentice from any more nasty surprises, which had the unfortunate effect of cutting off the advancing thieves and knight from any magical help.

The other two wizards had also got soldiers into the centre and soon treasure chest were being pulled out from underneath the statues, which duly jerked into life…

Luckily for me, most of them were activating near my opponents’ warbands allowing my soldiers to either make a run for it through the fog, or flee the scene courtesy of Leap spells from my re-positioned apprentice.

With five out of six statues animated, the centre was becoming a massive slug-fest between them and the other two warbands. Fighting also erupted on the fringes of the table, with my warhound stalking the Necromancer apprentice but ultimately being put down.

The Elementalist apprentice, who, like mine, was hanging back to support his comrades, was unfortunate to find a wandering ghoul suddenly appearing at his rear – this creature quickly charged in, only to be seen off by a pair of thugs that raced to protect their master’s trainee.

Any look of smugness on my part at this occurrence quickly disappeared when a pair of wandering wolves turned up sniffing behind my apprentice! They headed straight towards my knight who, battered after fighting statues, had been leaped out of harm’s way with some treasure and was heading home. Luckily he managed to defeat both of these howling beasts.

By now the hour was getting late and I was happy with the three treasures I had obtained (plus the Elementalist's band were starting to probe my left flank and were getting too close for comfort). The Elementalist and Necromancer still had plenty to play for however, and continued to battle for supremacy. One by one they battered each other down until both the Necromancer and his apprentice were dead.

The Elementalist’s apprentice also bit the snow, and he himself was taken down by a (very) lucky shot from my dwarf crossbowman – my final parting shot.

So I snagged three treasures, the remnants of the Necromancer’s band got two, and we allowed the Elementalist to claim the final, as of yet unclaimed, treasure chest. His Templar had done a sterling effort and went down fighting against the statues after all.

A very enjoyable game (for me anyway, and the other guys seemed to like it too). Three players on a 3’x3’ table is utter mayhem and having all the treasures in the middle forced us all into confrontation. Very few fighters emerged without a scratch and I was running out of wounded tokens. Magic for the most part was cast successfully and it was interesting to see spells that I’ve no experience of being used (the Necromancer’s use of Fast Act early on gave him an initial advantage). The result was carnage of the most enjoyable kind!

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