Warbands!

I've always really liked small skirmish 25mm games, where a single model really counts for something.  So, for now at least, the edition of Warhammer Fantasy I will be playing for the time being is... Frostgrave! A great game, it is very easy to adapt to almost any modelling style as the unit types are sufficiently generic. The only thing that was a hurdle to wrap my head around was that all expeditions into the destroyed city are led by wizards, no exception. I knew what kind of warband I wanted to paint, but it took me awhile to figure out what kind of magic using characters might go with it!


A fun new game by Osprey Publishing, Frostgrave has that utmost of advantages, a regularly meeting group of players, who are all people that I actually like being around.  Frostgrave, for anyone who has missed it, is a skirmish game very similar in background to Mordheim, which was a great game that I have played on and off since its release some 15 years ago.  Anyway...  Frostgrave Warbands are slightly smaller than in Mordheim, being for the most part limited to 10 models.  Interestingly enough, both games require you to start by recruiting a warband using "500 gold crowns".

I played my first couple games with a re-purposed models from my collection, but this week I was able to assemble and paint 8 models kitted out to the specifications of a 500 point warband.  I made most of these guys out of Fireforge crusader sets that I'd gotten a year ago just because they're too good NOT to have around (a box each of Foot Sergeants and Templar Infantry, to be specific) along with some GW bits for details.

Thus I made a party of warrior priests, (the Ashen Order, to be exact) based on old RPG characters my friends and I played in college.  Since SOMEONE never reads his friends blag, this will come as quite a surprise to the group tomorrow! I do love showing up to a regular group with a fully painted army or unit that no one knew I had!



First thing you have to create a wizard who is leading an expedition to the ruined city to retrieve magic items and lost knowledge. I made my wizard to be the archetypical DnD cleric type, he'll be a Thaumaturge in the game. This was simply a matter of giving a guy next to no armor, a big flowy cloak, and to be gesturing with a sword while reading from a book.  I am not happy with the lines I painted on the pages of the book, I will have to redo those later.  Next up is the wizards apprentice, I gave him a crossbow because handing out missile troops to the apprentice is actually the cheapest way to get them into your warband. I could have given one to the wizard but couldn't figure out a way to make it look cool, and besides, he should be casting spells, not shooting a bow. I wanted to optimize the warband for shooting but was unable to, for reasons of storytelling and roleplaying. Maybe if they get enough loot at tomorrows game, I can recruit/paint a couple more shooty-types.



My favorite to make was the "thug", a cheap model who comes equipped only with hand weapon and light armor.  I need one to bulk up my numbers a bit. I couldn't figure out why anyone would find themselves in Frostgrave with such bad equipment on purpose, so I burdened him down with a backpack, pouch, canteen, and spare ammo for the bow and crossbow.  He is the working stiff who has to haul the gear for the party! So that explains to my satisfaction why he can't carry more than a mace and basic armor. I really should have given him an axe instead of a mace, to chop the wood for the campfires!  Any gamer who was active in the 90's should recognize the archer, and probably have 50 or so rattling around their basement.  The knight in maille coif is based around my own medieval re-enacting kit, and for the time being represents me on the tabletop.



The warhounds are metal, from Gripping Beast, painted to match the dogs my old high school wargaming friend had back when I started into this mad hobby. To represent my mate, I simply added a knight to the warband, and put a leash on his belt and made him gesturing as if giving commands to his dogs.

To keep some discussion going, what other skirmish games do people recommend?  And on an unrelated note... any practical advice for getting the chaos game Path Of Glory up and running?  I have the "new" one that came out free in White Dwarf circa 2003, but am unsure how to actually get that mutated ball rolling.  Maybe get a group of gamers to chip in for a plastic chaos battalion and kit bash the heck out of it?