So, a while ago Martin had created a blog post on his start in Frostgrave, another game which he has taken up, with a small collection of models.
At the time I hadn’t the time to look into it, or much of an idea of the system or what models were available or useable for it.
With University finished for the next 3 weeks it has been a chance to catch up with some gaming, with our Infinity saga continuing, including yet another loss in the league, (making me into the Cleveland Browns of the Aberdeen Sphere, with a current 0-4 record...), Martin has also convinced me to start a Horus Heresy Ultramarines force, which is being rapidly built at this moment, and a Malifaux tournament next week, with fixed master format, which the choice of master is so far eluding me.
After a recent gaming night, I realised I had little to read in between building the Emperors Finest, so asked to borrow the Frostgrave rules from Martin (bad mistake), and after the initial skim reading, I had Robbie Coltrane's voice bouncing around my head "You're a Wizard, Harry!"
I then borrow both expansions we currently own, to read up further and plan a small warband to build and paint, with the idea of getting a few games at some later date. However, then I noticed a post on the local Facebook gaming thread about a local tournament/campaign day next Sunday, giving me a new challenge. I will have to buy, build, paint and learn the rules for the game within 8 days!
This gave me something to do for today's nightshift at work, I would read through the book, whilst choosing models to use for my Warband, and order them, to hopefully be dispatched first thing Saturday, with the hope they will turn up early in the week.
Having read the brief blurb on the different schools of Wizard on offer, I decided a Sigilist was the one for me. I loved the idea of a bookish wizard who had read all the theory to spells and adventuring, and had now been thrust into the reality! I had previously owned the Jolie Female Scribe from Reaper, and I felt this would be a perfect choice. Now I had to find the rest of the models to go with her.
I decided Hasslefree would be the best place to look for my apprentice, as I had in mind Alys, who is carrying a large cat, which I thought could be quite a characterful addition, as she looked like a maid, with a large household pet, which I felt could be my scribes ill tempered moggy, with long suffering cleaner who has been pressed into service, with the promise of teaching as a reward.
That was two models down, now I had to decide what to bulk the band out with. There seems to be a lot of choice on offer, although with 300gp left I wasn’t going to fit many of the 100gp models in, whilst still having some numbers. With this in mind I decided to opt for some of the 80gp soldiers, with some cheaper backup, hopefully giving me a good balance of quantity and quality.
At this stage, I had penned in a Man-at-Arms, an Infantry Man, an Archer and a Thug, with 100gp still to allocate. I thought I would find a theme for the soldier models, before deciding what to buy.
So it was back to the Hasslefree website, as I've always loved the personality within their models. It was at this stage that I spotted the Medieval Kids set, and a plan was formulated. I decided the theme would be that the warband was a plucky set of street urchins and medieval school kids who had been brought up on tales of chivalry and heroism, and had begged, borrowed and stolen equipment to venture forth to the ruins of Felstad to seek their fortune and write their chapter into these tales.
Following in the footsteps of Enid Blyton and C.S Lewis, it would be the kids who succeeded where adults could not!
This meant that Jolie was dropped from the shopping cart, andAlys's, contemporary twin Alyx the Wizard would be taking up the Sigilite mantle. Alys would still be my Apprentice, carrying the streetcat Jinks who had been a playmate of the twins growing up.
This left the soldiers, which the initial models would be filled by the Medieval Kids set, giving me an option for an Archer, a Man-at-Arms, an Infantry man and a Thug. I then decided I would round out the collection with Albert and the Village Children. Albert would make a 2nd Man-at-Arms with the addition of a shield, and I would make a thief out of one of the Children.
So the Warband currently looks like this:
Margery 'The Wise' – Wizard (Sigilist)
Joanna 'The Keen' – Apprentice
Gwendolyn 'The Bold' – Man-at-Arms
George 'The Stout' – Man-at-Arms
Henry 'The Mighty' – Infantry
Isobel 'The Eagle Eyed' – Archer
Fredogar 'The Brash' – Thug
Judith 'The Silent' – Thief
I have no idea if this is a good selection or not, so I will have to see, hopefully they will arrive relatively quickly so I can get them built and painted in time for Sunday, thankfully the models are relatively straightforward in terms of detail, so I can always paint them basically, and then add embellishments later. I will opt for a fairly rough looking colour scheme, with muted earth tones as my colour palette, to fit with the street urchin theme. I will need to do some converting on Alyx, as her outfit is more modern, so it may require a bit of tweaking to fit with the rest.
Hopefully will have some photos soon, and maybe even a battle report.
