I love collecting, painting, converting and scratch building terrain. I even get to play a game once in a while. I'm a big fan of gamification as part of teaching - I'm an elementary school teacher.
This blog covers my hobby work and 'teaching through gaming'.
The Zona Alfa Facebook community is super active and author Patrick Todoroff is making some good competitions over there. There's been a 'make a single human miniature' competition and I decided to enter.
The model is made with Warlord Games bits. Legs, AK and head are from the modern military sprue. The torso and pistol arm is from the zombie survivors. The backpack is a Warlord Games ww2 sprue bit. The straps on the AK and backpack are made from thin paper. He has a respirator in the belt, resin from Anvil Industry.
The colors on the model are inspired from two different bandits from the Stalker PC game.
Disclaimer: I've been send a review copy of Frostgrave: The Wizards Eye by Osprey Games
Frostgrave 1st edition is concluded! Long live 2nd edition!
... not that any of the old expansions are now invalid, no no. But the artwork will now be made by aRu-Mor and no longer Dmitry and Kate Burmak.
Wizard Eye is a collection of every single piece of artwork done from every released piece of Frostgrave up until 2nd edition. It's a mighty hardback tome of 256 pages a4 size - it's huge.
I've never been one for special editions of PC games and that's what I think of when thinking artwork books. I've ordered my share of special collectors editions. The Witcher, Elder Scrolls, Duke Nukem. I've gotten some artwork books from various kickstarters. They've all been given away or sold. Not enough content or depth for me. I love The Elder Scrolls series to death, Morrowind is still the most atmospheric fantasy game I've been in. But artbooks... nah, no need.
But I really wanted this book, the Wizard Eye. Why? Because I love Frostgrave, I have all the expansions and the novels. I've spend countless hours of my life in this game. And the artwork is amazing - having it all collected in one place is awesome. But this book not only has all the art.
All the pieces comes with text, explanations of the art. There's thoughts from Joseph McCullough and words from Dmitry or Kate. This book offers a way to look at the cooperation between writer and artist. A thing Joseph mentions in the intro "I get all the credit, my name is on the book - but the success is from the entire team. The feel comes from art, editing and miniatures as well".
I've spend time now, looking through the book twice. Just flipping through. Reading some of the pieces, not reading from cover to cover. I want to take my time. And you know what? I see new stuff, stuff I've missed despite having flipped through the rule books a hundred times.
This photo right here - the sigilist. It's the cover of The Grimoire, the spell card box and it's in one of the books. I've never once noticed the Witch in the background. And the Wizard Eye will do that, let you see new stuff.
All the double pages in the book contains art, describing a piece, showing the finished one and concept sketches. The book starts with the rulebook and each chapter will then cover an expansion. I'm in awe of this book, it shows just how big Frostgrave really is - how fleshed out the system and setting is (despite not having too much fluff written).
I love these characters, I think it's a great strength that Dmitry and Kate have reused the wizards from the schools, seeing them again through many different situations.
This is another kind of review than normally. There's no rules, campaign, updates or mechanics to go into. Should you get this book as a fan of Frostgrave? If you enjoy the full aspect of the hobby then yes. It's great, perfect for fans. Even if you're not into the miniature game itself, the book is just smack full of inspiration for RPGs.
The Wizard Eye is going to live on my bedside table along some good picture books from Simon Stålenhag (Tales from the Loop etc).
Thank you Kate and Dmitry for your contributions to this amazing setting. Thank you Osprey Games for making a collection of the art, in a publication that acknowledge and focus on this awesome amount of work.
It's gonna be fun to see in four years where Frostgrave is and which characters aRu-Mor will have added to the universe.
Book flipthrough Also flipped through the book, talking some Frostgrave, showing off some miniatures and talking campaigns.
Recently we had Sean Sutter from Metal King Studios for a visit on the Discord community for a hobby talk. Sean is mostly known for his hit skirmish game Relic Blade. Sean the self described eccentric toy maker is also part of the Blaster Magazine, working on Sludge wargame and Mystic Skies.
The Walking Dead: Days Gona By campaign is coming to a close. In this scenario the entire band of survivors in the Atlanta camp are asleep in tents or the RV. Then a ton of walkers creep in on the camp. Repair the RV, wake people up and get out of there.
There's a full Let's Play on Youtube, or you can watch it right here.
Setup
Tried setting up the scenario pr specifications in the rulebook. The RV in the middle and a few tents. Then four woods around the camp. I marked out a 20"x20" area with tape, to get a closer and more deadly game.
Slowly building up some bestiary for This Is Not A Test, Reality's Edge and Zona Alfa. All three systems have some nice overlap in the random enemies that might appear. Hit the bit box and found some critters to use.
I'm always motivated to do stuff, that I have an actual plan for. So the rats were done because I needed some sprawl rats for an RE scenario. The dogs was needed for a TNT warband and also saw use in the first Zona Alfa scenario I played.
Giant flies
These are just some cheap halloween decor flies from ebay. There's 50 in a bag, so plenty for all manner of things. I've been basing some of these on lush jungle bases for use in Ghost Archipelago and some with wasteland themed bases.
Rats
These are from some GW Warhammer skaven kit, I have no idea which. Got them from a massive bit box I won on auction and made sure to keep this little buggers. They are cool, small mutations and augments on them.
Mangy dogs
Wild dogs are part of pretty much any system. And I've painted a lot of Mantic Games plague dogs. I've painted versions for Deadzone, I've used them as Frostgrave wild dogs and zombie dogs. And now made these for the wasteland - and I'm finally out. Really been putting a lot of them to use.
A big part of my hobby stuff comes from cheap and lucky auctions. Either kickstarter board games or huge lots of used models. I've become quite good at figuring out, the rough price of reselling stuff.
I got lucky on an auction for a Reichbusters: Project Vril kickstarter pledge with an extra expansion. I've already bought two sets of the 3d doors from the kickstarter, but didn't follow it otherwise.
I don't have any plans of actually playing the board game itself, I just wanted cool miniatures.
Below is a video where I unbox the models, check the quality and talk about which games I want to use them for. There's cool models for pretty much all my games. Cyberpunk games, post apocalypse. Great stuff.
My plan of 'free models' didn't pay off on this one, yet. After the initial resell auctions, I managed to get half the price back. The initial PPM (price pr model) was 0,4 euros - good for biggies and heroes. After resale that price is now 0,15 euro PPM. But I have around 40 miniatures still to flip. So hoping that I can unload them over time and have free models left for myself.
The second game of Ghost Archipelago we ever did. And it's been awhile since we played the game - and we had a fair amount of beer at that point. But! No game should ever go unshown. In this game our two crews have heard rumors of a buried treasure deep in the jungle. Having few funds, just buying ships and heading for the Ghost Archipelago - finding a good treasure would be nice. '
The photos have been mixed up, and I can't really figure out the correct order. But here's a video that showcase the terrain setup for the game.
The treasure was buried central on the board, but fairly quickly my guys were able to make in and start digging for the treasure. I went in heavy on getting to the treasure, sending in three soldiers to help secure it.
A knight from the enemies warband, trying to make it through the thick jungle.
The entire jungle board for the mission, we played on a 3'x4' setup, because we have so much terrain and want to use all of it. The buried treasure in on the hill in the middle of the board, and there's a dangerous pit right next to it.
Both warbands were really greedy and doing everything to get first for the treasure. There was quickly a lot of combat around the center of the board. Both wardens also summoned animal companions to the table, making for even more fighting and mayhem.
The giant snake, summoned by the enemy warband turned out to be too much of a challenge for my savage, he was brought down by the venomous beast.
And archer and crewman from the enemy ship has secured one of the treasures on a rock formation. A perfect vantage point for the archer to annoy the crew members from my ship.
A crew member from my ship have been sneaking through the jungle to get a treasure, a small crystal skull. Because of the dense terrain, the ulterior motives and random monsters - there's always a couple of uncontested treasures to grab quickly.
My own heritor, Fernando Rodrigo Gonzales was quickly at the center of the board. The plan was for the crew members to secure the treasure, while he would heroically hold the enemy away with his superior fighting skills.
The enemy heritor, a prince from a far away court, he was brutal and killed a lot of my soldiers i nthe game. With his mighty hammer he fell many sailors this day.
... see how messed up the photos are for this game? Well, he're my crew just after landing in the jungle, having used small boats to get in there.
The enemy heritor, a savage and crew member. A powerful trio is staying together to fight.
Close to the table edge where my guys entered the board, I was able to climb some cliffs with both my archers. It was a good vantage point and gave me an opportunity to give to covering fire to protect my own soldiers.
There was a few tribal warrior protecting some areas of the jungle where the treasure was burried.
Okay... so not each and every written battle report is too good. Sometimes the photos just turn out bad, too much time pass before I get around to writing the words... and the details get fuzzy.
But this game was still a nice game of Ghost Archipelago. Both teams, in the end got away with a decent amount of treasure, good XP and no serious damage done to the teams. After this game my warband sailed back to the mainland, sold a lot of bad treasure and invested the money instead - on a good amount of new reinforcements.
My team would be very strong in the upcoming battle. ... that'll be described in much better detail.
A new episode of Garage Talks is out now, where you listen to podcasts. Hear all previous episodes on Anchor or right here on the blog.
Garage Talks are recorded talks with prominent people from the hobby. They are invited into the Discord server, an excellent hobby community in itself. And here we have a talk about their part in the hobby. You're welcome to check in there, see if the platform is for you.
Curtis Fell runs Ramshackle Games and have written the games Nuclear Renaissance and Mini Gangs. recently Curtis have started the company Soul Forge and taken over production of orc model line 'Da Green One'. He's also a commission painter and has a cool blog.
We're talking about this, community, hobby history, hobby evolution, gaslands and much more.
I've painted a lot of Curtis stuff over the years. Here's some of the stuff.
the first three expansions were written at the same time. Battlesworn, Oathbreakers and Bane of Kings.
the release order was messed up by Covid19, Oathbreakers should have been first.
From the text on the back of the book, this expansion should contain:
elite units, unit progression from battle to battle
rivers and boats
mini campaigns
In this review, I'll be getting a look at the three things promised. When I first flipped through the book, I turned on the camera. So you can see that here, before reading the actual review below.
Setup, editing, artwork
We're not going to spend a lot of time on this bit. The book is well edited, the table of contents shows everything in it and where to look. Super easy and done in the same style as the core rulebook.
There's a few new art pieces in this expansion, they look good. Same artist as the core book, so it's all familiar. Nice and old school looking stuff. Check the video above for a good look at it all.
Everything has been slowed down from Covid. North Star has multiple new plastic kits planned, metal miniatures for specialist units and monsters. There's a lot of Oathmark stuff coming. I think it'll be interesting to see future supplements containing photos of it all. Frostgrave 2nd edition has so many different photos and art work - collected over the years.
And this will be good for Oathmark as well, as the photos and art doesn't bring a lot of new stuff in this expansion. Goes to show the timeline for releases on these books. There's not a single shot of dwarf heavy infantry or elf light infantry in the book, and those kits have been out for some time now.
Anyway. .. if you want more words on layout and such, go check out the core book review. Same good work in this expansion.
1. Battle Honours
This is the part I was most excited about with this expansion. I had a very clear idea and expectation of what this should be like. Classic skirmish style XP, levels, skill gains and injuries - like in so many skirmish games. Play long enough and you'll hit a point going 'this dude has so many cool skills, but he's missing an eye, a toe and is shell shocked - do I keep him?'
This is what I expected from the text. This is not what we got.
Battle honours are a set of pretty simple rules. Standard units (not monsters, slaves or militia) can receive battle honors. At the end of each battle you fight, you can chose to award one surviving unit battle honours. Consider this unit an option for future battles (you don't have to include it in your army - it's just part of your kingdom).
This unit will have a single re-roll on a morale or activation test during the game, and the unit cost goes up 10%. I've not played Oathmark enough, but it seems pretty expensive for one reroll, especially if it's already an expensive linebreaker unit.
If the unit ever dies in battle, you roll to see if they lose the battle honours or can still be recruited. After each battle you can award a new unit battle honours or give even more rerolls to a veteran unit. You can only bring one battle honoured unit to the table, so consider having multiple units tools in your kingdom tool box.
I asked Joseph about this rule - and he said it's simple on purpose. Use it or don't, it won't break the game and add a ton of record keeping. And the 'normal character progression' thing I was hoping for, will be in Oathbreakers for heroes.
2a. Engineers
These are not mentioned on the back of the book. But all armies can now bring engineers onto the table. Engineers are small units, that can make or break battlefield cover during the game. Fairly simple. I'm not sure how it's gonna work, with moving around and activation. But for attacker / defender scenarios it might be fun, adding a few barricades during the game.
Perhaps engineers will get a bigger role in a future (crossing my fingers) siege expansion. But for now, they seem... not that useful. But they play a part in the mini campaign included, and it's a good reason to convert some cool miniatures.
2b. Rivers and Boats
Of all the things that could be brought out first, this seems a bit weird (again, give me siege rules) - but Joseph writes the rules he has ideas for and the release order was messed up.
The game Oathmark takes place in The Marches, so it makes sense that there's a lot of water around. In the book are simple rules for small and large boats. I like that the rules are simple. Boats themselves are free, but you must pay a cost for some crew. Players are encouraged to agree upon using boats, when setting up a scenario with enough water.
The rules are super simple and that's good. River move the boats automatically because the river has a current. Then a boat can move as normal with activation. Archers can shoot from and at boats, which provides cover. If boats ram each other the units in the boats have to fight. A small boat can have 1 unit and a large boat can have 2. No model count, no need to place then on the boat. One or two units - done. That keeps things simple.
The rules for boats and rivers are nice to have, to spice up a scenario. And should be considered as such, another tool for the sandbox of Oathmark.
There's new water based spells for each army as well.
3. Military Expeditions
This part is really what makes the book worth getting. Just like I've come to expect from Frostgrave expansions. In Oathbreakers you get three small mini campaign military expeditions to play out. Connected scenarios, that carries small consequence from one game to the next.
So there's 10 new scenario in the book (four, two and four). And they're all centered around the rules for engineers and boats. All the military expeditions have the possibility of adding new special territories (in the outer ring) to you kingdom. Unique ones being an abandoned temple, island of flowers or gold mine.
For me at least, that's a lot of extra gameplay for a few buck. And the scenarios can probably be played fine as one offs as well.
Should you get the book - is it worth it?
Battlesworn is a neat little expansion and it's not that expensive. Is it a must have for Oathmark? No - it isn't. Battlesworn is a small expansion of the sandbox. If you're in a group and want to build cool ships - then get yourself battlesworn. Make a hobby project to all build some ships for the campaign.
The battle honours thing might be fun for some, it adds options. Nothing game breaking or must have. I would still have liked more comprehensive 'battle honours' and tracking of progress for units. Never mind the extra bookkeeping if you're not playing competitive gaming. It could have added a lot to the story of an army.
But nothing that fundamentally change the core rules or gameplay. I like that about an expansion. It doesn't break the core game, it doesn't add anything in terms of unfair advantage.
Any last words ... punk?!
Yes, please. If you enjoy reviews like this or the book flipping above, please consider helping out the blog. I enjoy the hobby immensely, also this entire 'news' angle to it. You can help this be dropping some follows on the below social media.
It's not like I'm ever gonna make money of the bloggeverse, and I'm not aiming for it. But exposure is cool and it drops of a few extra books for me. Cheers,
