Xin's Lair: Cold Wars Frostgrave Game

The Monday morning after a 4 day convention is always depressing. It sort of like a hangover. Your tired, sore, cranky. But it was worth it!

Cold Wars was tons of fun. From shopping in the huge dealer hall(see pic below), bargain hunting in the flea market, socializing, and best of all gaming.

I'm still coming down off the frantic pace I set, in getting the table ready. From Wednesday to Thursday, about 3 hours sleep. We drove out Thursday afternoon and I immediately crashed till it was time to pick up my registration badge. A nice steak at Texas Roadhouse, then it was back to bed.

Friday Morning I slept in and then it was off and running again. I didn't finish the interior buildings to my center Castle, and I forgot a sheet of foamcore at home. So after breakfast we hit Target and picked up some foamcore. Then the Dealer Hall opened and picked up some goodies. One of which I wanted to paint that afternoon for the nights game. I spent the early afternoon printing out the wizard play sheets, from the hotel lobby computer(which I had to fix first, but that is my occupation).

About 2pm I headed down to Distlefink(the main ballroom of the convention) and set up my little workshop. Cutting mat, glue gun w/ extention cord, exacto, rulers, pens, brushes, paint, razor knife, and most importantly Reading Glasses for my old eyes.

I made 4 buildings, 2 for each side that fit in the angle of the castle walls. I also whipped up some ladders for getting on the battlements. I painted up another statue from the LOTR hex game. In the dealer hall, the guy who sells all the single plastic figures, had some LOTR figs. I got a Fountain Court Guard. He would go on the fountain(!) in the inner castle.

That took about 3 hours to make and paint. so by 5 I was unloading the van and started table set up.

Here's the set up. I broke the 8 warbands into 2 teams, Team Good was Enchanter, Elementalist, Druid (Witch), and Cleric (a custom made class based on a D&D Cleric)

Team Evil was a Summoner, Troll Hag (Witch), Skaven Warlock(Chronomancer), and Necromancer.

Each side deployed in the center board edge opposite each other. Almost every building had at least one treasure in it. The treasures that were on the lower level, were worth 1 point, The treasures on the upper level worth 3 points. The team with the most points would win. The upper levels were harder to get too, and had traps and monsters guarding them.

On Saturday I revamped some of the things I did. I made the climb up harder(14+ roll) , I made the teams with Leap deploy further from the edges and added a few more monsters. I also made those treasures worth 5 points to compensate for the more dangerous environment.

One thing to note about the pictures. I had intended to take lots of pics, but once you start setting up, and you are finishing the setup as players gather, then you start running the game, taking pics goes out the window. So the below pics are a combo of the 2 different games I ran. Friday and Saturday night.

Friday's Game, pre figure deployment.

Friday afternoon purchase, Guard of the Fountain Court, got mounted and painted for the Friday night game!

Friday's Game, pre figure deployment.

Friday night game underway

The Cleric Warband making it's way up to the elevated area. Where treasure is more valuable.

A Demon joins the summoner's warband.

A thief try's to steal the Ark of the Covenant. When players picked up Treasures I handed out Chocolate Gold Coins. The Statue animated and then killed the thief.

Another treasure picked up and another gold coin earned. A skeleton will come out of the crypt to the right and track down the treasure thief.

Some soldiers climb up on the bridge. Players had a lot of fun "pushing" the other side off. This went back and forth all game. Lots of fun.

4 Treasures in the Castle, 2 in the inner buildings, 2 on the battlements.

The Enchanter and Druid warband move forward.

And on the other side, The Skaven Chronomancer and Necromancer warband move forward. I think this is Saturday's game.

The bear is blocking the stairs up. The Enchanter's golem was running amok. The evil side cast spell eater on it, and broke the control of it. The good side then used push to shove it over to the evil side. And to make sure it didn't attack them, dropped Wall of Fog behind it so it could only see the evil side.

One of the chests on the Castle tower was a mimic. In Friday's night game, the thug that went up there, didn't come back. This Skellie soldier survived.

The Cultists (summoner warband) are in the castle. I almost killed the Summoner Apprentice, when the statue in the center animated and attacked him. That player had to send in some thugs to save the apprentice.

Late in the game Saturday night. People were getting tired.

Thank god for caffine, That helped get the table built.

Counting up the treasures.

Both Friday and Saturday games were full. All the tickets were taken but I think I had 3 no shows both nights. Actually one guy came up and handed me back 2 tickets saying he couldn't make it. Class act. I put out an alternate sign up sheet, and went down the list till the game was full. Sorry I couldn't take more.

Both games had great gamers, easy going and engaged. Some very creative spell casting going on. It was fun for all, as far as I could tell.

Friday night's game ended up in a tie. 27 points to 27 points. Couldn't ask for a more balanced scenario.

Saturday night's game was a win for the Good team. 27 to 23. It was very close. Actually on the last turn an evil team soldier, the Necromancer's Templar, had a treasure and was near the board edge. The Good Apprentice got off a mud spell and stopped the Templar from getting off the board. That saved the day for the Good team right there.

Highlights for the games(disclaimer: I might have a few details wrong, forgive me)

-In both games the Golem becoming unbound, then each side pushing him towards the other. In the first game he had been buffed up, so was very nasty.

-The Chronomancer casting Crumble underneath the Enchanter Apprentice on the bridge, dropping her next to the unbound golem.

-The mimic eating the Thug

-The evil Witch's Animal Companion Troll(bear) being mind controlled and then ate someone's Apprentice.

PELA award for putting on my game.

Chocolate Gold Coins given to players when they picked up a treasure.

In the end, again, I think everyone had fun. I had a lot of people stop by from here and say hi. which was nice. And on Saturday I won a Pela award for my game, which was great. Thanks to Alan and Lou for helping me put on a great game. Thanks to my wife for not filing for divorce... yet.