"Coming in July: Frostgrave: Fantasy Wargames in The Frozen City" Topic

It would be interesting to get an idea of the rules before committing to buy.

See some excerpts, a battle report, anything.

Exactly!
Kickstarters, Nickstarters…
All very nice and understandable, but why should we players always spend our money in advance without really knowing what will be in the mail some time in the future?
The entrepreneur should take the risk of financing a new project as he will also gain the profits.
I will definitely be very careful in supporting any future "starters".

It's a pre-order not a crowd funding project. The name is misleading.

pre-order, crowd funding – it doesn't matter. Payment in advance is expected from me/us anyway…

I'm in! I loved Mordheim.

Hey guys, I'm the author of Frostgrave, and will do my best to answer any questions you might have.

There are a few reports of playtest games scattered around the net. Here is one I played with the game's editor: link

Here's one from a playtester: link

As for the Nickstater, I would just like to say that it is not a crowd funding project. The book, all of the wizard miniatures, the plastic soldier box set, they are all already paid for. The incentives for the Nickstarter really are a case of – if this is popular, we'll make more stuff for it.

The book and all of the core miniatures will be available in July, which seems very far away for me…

Thanks, Joe, that's what I was looking for.

Hope you don't mind if I pepper you with questions ;-)
It sounds like a game that could scratch some of my itches. (And fit perfectly with a gorgeous fantasy town a friend just finished.)

If you would describe the rules and the game, what would you say it was like?

I understand that the initiative is alternating activating parts of your force at a time, and that combat uses d20's.

How does magic work?

And what about the 'frost' (and 'grave') bits. Are they 'only' setting or is it reflected in the rules?

Saw the miniatures at Salute and they looked lovely. Wish the plastic soldiers/henchmen were up for pre-order seperately as I'd like them for AHQ.

Interesting that the play test had dwarfs versus goblins, as everything I'd seen about this suggested human warbands only. Are different races catered for?

The plastic will be released at the same time as the book, so you won't have to wait long!

Magic – basically each wizard starts with 8 spells: 3 from his own school of magic, 1 each from the aligned schools of magic, and 2 from schools neutral to his own. Casting a spell is a D20 roll based on the difficulty of the spell modified by how close the school of magic is to the wizard's own. Some spells with then require a second attack roll for direct attack spells, or for the target to make a will roll for. Wizards can increase their spell roll by spending their own health to empower the spell.

The rules should work pretty well for any setting. You might want to come up with your own random monster tables and some of the scenarios would have to be modified, but the core rules should work fine.

I suppose the game has elements of classic fantasy skirmish warband game, with a bit of Dungeons & Dragons, just a touch of Magic the Gathering, and a really developed campaign system so your wizard gains experience, can learn new spells, increase his stats, hire new warband members and even establish an HQ.

The rules sound interesting but I'm less sure about the figures. The wizards are mostly clad in furs, as would be expected but the plastic troops all seem dressed for more clement weather – not a fur cape among them – I suppose it is too difficult to render in plastic.

Reading more about it on LAF and a couple of blog posts linked from there I'm sold.

As for the preorders – if I take a lvl 3 wizard, will I then be able to later add more wizards to my preorder?

If you are ordering through North Star, after you place the order for lvl 3 you will be sent a code that takes you to a special ordering page that allows you to add additional items, including any of the other wizard packs. That is handled manually however, and the North Star team are at a show this weekend, so you probably won't hear anything for a day or two.

pre-order, crowd funding – it doesn't matter. Payment in advance is expected from me/us anyway…

There is a difference. With Kickstarter your money is out there and you have a chance of never getting it back (it's already happened to me).

Nickstarter is a pre-order. Much like when I go to my local gaming store, see something I want and leave a deposit on it. North Star has been around for a while and Nick's reputation is stellar. I signed up at LVL 3 and I'm sure I'll be getting what I ordered and a quality product.

"The wizards are mostly clad in furs, as would be expected but the plastic troops all seem dressed for more clement weather – not a fur cape among them – I suppose it is too difficult to render in plastic."

Some of the troopers you see in the photos are actually the Fireforge sergeants figures – these will not have all the cold-weather clothing.

These are from the upcoming Frostgrave troopers set, if my understanding is correct:

link

No fur capes, but definitely something around the necks and padded or fur-lined boots.

Yes, I saw the three-ups at Salute. Still would have liked more fur, although at least many of them have gloves.

The game sounds really interesting. I've been more and more drawn to skirmish level games as I get older. I just don't seem to have the time or inclination to paint up hundreds of miniatures or play out big mass battle games anymore.

That said, I have to say the wizard and apprentice miniatures just don't really grab me. They seem perfectly servicable scupts, but I don't go WOW! when I look at any of them.

Plastic Fur. It was a design & moulding issue that stopped us doing it. Bit of green stuff?

I've noticed a kind of passive aggressive mood from some people in regards to pre-ordering. I've seen it here, 'why should I buy something I've not even seen or know how it plays'.

The attitude does baffle me a bit. Of course you're right, why should you buy something you don't want? But why tell everyone what you're not buying.

I'm going to stick a smiley here now because I'm not that bothered, just passing comment.

The author has a couple of pics from the rulebook up at his blog
link

'why should I buy something I've not even seen or know how it plays'.

I think it's more that some people (me being one of them) are interested in the idea but would like to find out more about how it plays before commiting funds to it.

A few more game reports – with the final complete set of rules – would certainly get me on board, as would knowing whether non human races are catered for eg Dwarves and Elves.

The game does not have specific rules for playing classic fantasy races like dwarves or elves. That said, a lot of the playtesters used the models for their gangs. All of the soldier types are generic and it is really only their equipment that matters, so elf, human, orc makes no difference.

We should hopefully have a new game report up this week. As for a full set of rules…you'll have to wait until the game is released for that!

Here's a nice blog from one of the play testers using Dwarves and Goblins: link

Are you planning any supplements?

A 'Thaw of the Lich Lord' is mentioned. Is that more scenarios, or will it include other things? (Rules, more spells? New troops? Undead?)

Yup, Thaw of the Lich Lord is the first supplement for the game due out in November. It includes a campaign of 10 loosely connected scenarios. It does also include a few new spells, a couple new soldier types, some more monsters, new magical treasures, most of them with an undead theme.

For those who might be interested, I have just posted a blog about creating a wizard for the game: link

Hi Joe5mc.

What I meant by "final complete set of rules" was could we have an AAR played with the finalised rules? Sorry if that wasn't clear. It's just all the write ups I've seen advertised seem to stem from playtesting last year.

Hope that helps.

Norris – got ya! Yes, hopefully one coming very soon.

I have posted a little battle report on my blog, hope you enjoy it: link

Thanks Joe5mc.I think I'll go ahead and order the rules based on that.

Seems to be a wargame with elements of D&D eg D20s.

Joe, could you give us a flavour of what each wizard is like? I'm not after spell lists or anything like that, just an idea of how they play.

I'm thinking of going in for the Nickstarter but don't know what wizard to go for so knowing how they play could help.