Boardgame

Frosthaven – Frozen Treasure (90)

David Skelector Boardgame, Fantasy, Play reports

Satha, Math’s character has the personal quest of destroying a number of undead monsters whilst using the Axe of the Abyss to do so. The axe is a « spent » item, meaning that a long rest is necessary in order to use it again. So this is one of these funny situation where in order to achieve a game goal you have to completely forego verisimilitude (i.e. resting abnormally often) to be efficient about it…

Characters

  • Zam Boni the Frozen Fist (David) lvl 5, big dude but very graceful on ice
  • Satha the Mayor of Frosthaven (Math) lvl 4, taking matters into her own hands
  • Hail the Irritable Enchanter (Guillaume) lvl 4, will she get irritated enough to care?

We’ll be fighting on 4 different icebergs that often join together (as determined by a random counter). Unfortunately for my character who gets all kinds of benefits from ice, there’s oddly no ice tiles on these icebergs.

This is a straighforward kill them all scenario, except that the frozen corpses are not mandatory to kill but give good money if we do.

Closing comments:

  • Easy scenario, fun, a bit too constrained though (no shooting across or teleporting to another area). We’ve stretched it in order for Math to achieve his PQ. And he did, yet another new character next time!
  • We could afford to kill all the frozen corpses and thus earned good money.
  • Satha was a flexible and useful character, she’ll be missed.

Frosthaven – The Lady in White (86)

David Skelector Boardgame, Fantasy, Frosthaven, Play reports

Math, with his new character, has the personal quest of slaying a bunch of different undead monsters using his Axe of the Abyss. So here we are, with an optional scenario that got Ice Wraiths in it, among other things.

Characters

  • Zam Boni the Frozen Fist (David) lvl 4, big dude but very graceful on ice
  • Satha the Mayor of Frosthaven (Math) lvl 4, taking matters into her own hands
  • Hail the Irritable Enchanter (Guillaume) lvl 4, will she get irritated enough to care?

We have to kill the Lady in White, an evil spirit that hides in the forest. This a simple destroy the objectives (three trees) scenario with a mini boss at the end. There’s one complication though – each time a tree is hit and not destroyed right away, they spawn a black imp.

Satha wants the Ice Wraith for herself. It’s okay, there’s plenty of those pesky Black Imps to kill for Hail and Zam.
We’ve surrounded this big bag of hit points, an Earth Demon.
Let’s smash down this evil tree.
Further in the forest, there’s still work to do.
Where’s the Lady in White?
She has nowhere to hide now!
Satha is having a hard time in a duel againt an elite Earth Demon. Let’s switch places…
This is Victory!

Closing Comments:

  • A real slog of a scenario, it took a long time to kill the monsters (not mandatory, to be fair), the trees and the mini boss one after the other.
  • I coulnd’t do Brittle on the objectives/trees as per the rules, that cut a big part of my game right there. Annoying.
  • Hail, as a low stamina character, has it relatively easy with two tanky companions to protect her at all time. She could even afford to exhaust near the end of the scenario.

Frosthaven – Sunless Trench (42)

David Skelector Boardgame, Frosthaven, Play reports

We’re advancing the lurker sub-campaign as we still have a character to unlock in this one. We’re now playing with two new characters from the newly-available mercenary packs: Satha and Hail, former NPCs and now the real deal!

Characters

  • Zam Boni the Frozen Fist (David) lvl 4, big dude but very graceful on ice
  • Satha the Mayor of Frosthaven (Math) lvl 4, taking matters into her own hands
  • Hail the Irritable Enchanter (Guillaume) lvl 4, will she get irritated enough to care?

A subaquatic scenario (in theming) where we have to loot the five objectives, of course with a lot of baddies in the way within a big map.

We’re surrounded by Deep Terrors and slimy things!
Let’s go on this side first. (Satha grants a move and Zam pulls a DT into a trap).
« Oh so sorry, forgot to tell you my lil’ friend, I’ve put ice on the ground! »
Night Demons also inhabit this sunless trench and they’re not happy to see us…
Hail is irritated, she always is, and start to kill things to blow off steam.
Satha: « cleared ».
This side is completed.
Hail has done good works too! « Don’t stand there like an idiot and open this damn door! »
Frozen Fist: »I think the slimes want to communicate? No? Wait,was that a feeble attack? I can’t tell… »
Sooo, that’s where you meet? Feelin’ lonely down there maybe?
Piss off Night Demons! I have a job to do!
Waitaminute, shiny things over there. Yep, we’re good to go.
Zam Boni has amassed quite the haul!

Closing Comments:

  • It seemed like everything went our way this time around. We have three great characters that work nicely together, that helps a lot.
  • Math already unlocked one mastery, « granting » to his allies every single rounds. Very useful character and will be great under Math, a natural puppet master :P.
  • Hail has probably the best theming of any haven characters imo, with cards names like « beneath me », « crazy antics », « can’t be bothered » and her irritation mechanics!
  • The Deep Terrors were pretty ineffective all along, attacking in straight line with no targets and so on.
  • The brittle-giving strategy is proving to be absolutely brutal, doing short work of otherwise hard opponents.

Frosthaven – My Private Empire (107)

David Skelector Boardgame, Frosthaven, Play reports

We’re playing a random scenario, chosen mainly because it can advance both the Infuser and the Hive’s personal quests, with their subsequent retirements afterward. Also, I’m playing a new character fo this one, the Frozen Fist, with a huge mini compared to what I’ve got before (trapper and deepwraith were especially small).

Characters

  • Zam Boni the Frozen Fist (David) lvl 4, big dude but very graceful on ice
  • 4H2 the Hive (Math) lvl 7, refurbished robotic assembly, ADHD
  • Teabag the Infuser (Guillaume) lvl 7, no, no, not this kind of teabag or is it?

This a long one, with a strange premise of being invited to a kind of run the gauntlet game in 5 « episodes » and we could stop after any one of them and call it a day.

We’re here, start the damn thing!

Closing Comments:

  • We did all 5 episodes but it was a close thing, we did not have many cards left at the end at all.
  • Stamina and mobility are obviously really important for this one if you want to go through in one go.
  • Episode 4 in particular, with flaming bladespinners and boltshooters could be quite brutal I’d imagine with a bit of bad luck or if not handled carefully.
  • I didn’t inflict a lot of damage with my Frozen Fist but I put a lot of BRITTLE conditions throughout that my companions could then use to do massive damage, very powerful ability, I like it.

Frosthaven – Relic (79)

David Skelector Boardgame, Play reports

We’re doing a side-scenario, a « job posting » that comes from a Town Hall event if I’m not mistaken. Anyway, as usual we’re doing this only to advance our own goals…

Characters

  • Cassandra the Diviner (David) lvl 5, forgotten diviner (mercenary pack)
  • 4H2 the Hive (Math) lvl 7, refurbished robotic assembly, ADHD
  • Teabag the Infuser (Guillaume) lvl 7, no, no, not this kind of teabag or is it?

Pretty big map, we have to move our « sled » all the way to the back in order to break an ice wall with it, somehow. Also, one push (forego a top action) of the sled sends it hurling forward, possibly slamming into foes. A gamey mechanic but quite satisfying nonetheless.

Frost Imps, but they seem surprised and are slow to react to our presence. We kill them in no time.
But there’s more incoming and dangerous Ice Wraiths with them.
The Hive seems in a hurry and jump ahead.
While the Infuser and Diviner deal with the last two foes, the Hive opens a new area.
Revealing many more monsters, and way behind, our objective.
But for now, a tactical retreat despite the Hive’s urge to get it done quickly,
we’ll deal with the monsters together.
The monsters swarm the Hive’s turret and silence it but it gives us time to deal with them.
It’s now safe to proceed further.
Bringing the sled with us. « oh sorry, was that your feet Teabag? »
And opening the way… Two Polar Bears are irked by this great fracas but we just go our way and leave them behind…

Closing Comments:

  • Lots of Imps, hard not to get the brittle condition from them and we received great damage from the ice wraiths because of it.
  • Moving the sled around was somewhat of an hindrance and slowed us down a lot, our hands of cards were pretty thin at the end.
  • Finished my personal quest of slaying 15 imps, took only 3 scenarios to achieve, that was fast.
  • Trials continue to add a lot of complexity, Math had to guess how many turns it would take us and was a bit on pressure to press forward accordingly.

Sub Terra: mille et une façons de mourir sous terre

David Skelector Boardgame, review

Sub Terra, du game designer français Nuts!, est depuis son acquisition il y a quelques mois rapidement devenu notre jeu de prédilection à jouer en famille et j’ai décidé de vous en glisser un mot.

C’est un jeu coopératif à la base, nos personnages (qui ont chacun des capacités spéciales) sont sous terre, dans un réseau de caverne infesté d’horreurs et doivent s’échapper en trouvant la sortie.

La mécanique du jeu est ainsi faite (le temps « s’écoule » via un paquet de carte, à la dernière carte nos lampes frontales s’éteignent et les chances d’être dévorés sont extrêmement élevées) qu’il est préférable de se séparer pour explorer plus efficacement. Comme tout bon film d’horreur quoi! D’ailleurs le jeu fait énormément penser au film The Cave, 2005 (et dans la même veine, à Sanctum (2011) et The Descent (2005)):

Pas le meilleur film du monde mais un bon divertissement en soi, avec une introduction (église de templier construite au-dessus d’un grand réseau de cavernes) absolument inspirante pour fans de rpgs je dois dire.

Entre les secousses, les éboulements, les poches de gaz, les inondations et bien sûr, les horreurs, l’exploration n’est jamais de tout repos.
L’exploration avance, l’agent et le chef y vont en duo mais l’éclaireur et la géologue sont bien loin de leur côté maintenant!
Une soudaine montée des eaux a mis l’agent inconscient le chef est à côté de lui et pourra le réanimer heureusement.
Un nid d’horreur, tout près…

Les parties durent environ 60 minutes à quatre joueurs. La difficulté est présente, nous échouons une fois sur deux à facile, mais échec ou succès les parties sont toujours enlevantes. Je recommande!

Frosthaven – Thawed Wood (33)

David Skelector Boardgame, Fantasy, Frosthaven, Play reports

The temperature forecast for Québec tomorrow is minus 30 celsius, Frosthaven really doesn’t seem so inhospitable, except for the small matter of monsters maybe…

Characters

  • Cassandra the Diviner (David) lvl 4, forgotten diviner (mercenary pack)
  • 4H2 the Hive (Math) lvl 6, refurbished robotic assembly, ADHD
  • Teabag the Infuser (Guillaume) lvl 6, no, no, not this kind of teabag or is it?

A scenario inside the Radiant Forest, which is described as warm and old-growth, an oasis of life protected from the cold. We’re here to find Radiant Stones to keep our ballz warm.

Hostile wildlife incoming!
The Hive leads the way, helped by his Arcing Generator, but he seems plagued by malfunctions: « I Attack this, NO! Can’t say the word… »
Meanwhile, the Infuser seems to be commited to loot everything by himself and have a nervous breakdown when that doesn’t quite happen. Get ahold of yourself guys!
Nonetheless, the area is soon cleared of hostiles, time to advance further in the forest.
The radiant stones are somewhere in this Fire Swamp.
Where are those damn stones?
Found two, only one more. Die you annoying imp!

Closing Comments:

  • This scenario is as much a puzzle than a tactical challenge. But Math, using the superpower of math, efficiently calculated the easiest course to collect the radiant stones (remember that we can move tokens around to make it work) and it went smoothly from there.
  • Math and Guillaume both had super annoying Trials to accomplish and Math in particular had his character almost die because of it (had to refrain from saying some words in game).
  • I have to kill imps for my personnal quest and this scenario provided me with an abundant source of them, that was good.

Frosthaven – The Realm of Endless Frost (21)

David Skelector Boardgame, Frosthaven, Play reports

This play report is in fact our second attempt at this scenario, we failed our previous one, our first failure of the campaign in 50+ sessions. It’s a tricky one for sure. The fact that I’m playing a brand new character didn’t help either. Interestingly, I’m playing a non-frosthaven character, one of the four newly-released « mercenary pack »s.

Characters

  • Cassandra the Diviner (David) lvl 4, forgotten diviner (mercenary pack)
  • 4H2 the Hive (Math) lvl 6, refurbished robotic assembly, ADHD
  • Teabag the Infuser (Guillaume) lvl 6, no, no, not this kind of teabag or is it?

We’re trapped in this underground Realm of the Endless Frost and its mischievious master doesn’t intend to make it easy for us.

Frost Demons and Living Spirits make for a cold welcome.
The fight is on!
We go in the second room and find one of those prevalent evil altar, we must destroy it fast less we become overwhelmed by Living Bones (keep appearing until destroyed).
What’s all that clutters? Undead are not good at home staging it seems.
Living Spirit: « I was about to open the box, but then I realised I needed to put some shelves first, and then I tought, I should paint the walls first and then… »
We’ll help you make some order out of you mess alright.
*Smash everything to bits »
There you go, there’s place to walk now.
Further, we meet face to face with the Prince of Frost, he’s an imp!
And of the summoning, super-annoying kind to boot.
We have him properly surrounded now.
With their prince dead, the other imps lose their will to fight.

Closing Comments:

  • Well, the power of foreknowledge helped a lot. The altar must be destroyed without delay. The Boss is in the fourth room, after three big fights, we have to be careful with our cards management in this one. The fist time we tried, we lost too much cards in the second room and knew we had no chance against the boss.
  • We’ve finished the town challenge deck but now have the Trials unlocked, which are even worse (more annoying). Mine isn’t combat-related but Guillaume and Math were and it further hindered our ability to succeed.
  • The diviner is a bit different from the one in Forgotten Circles, a few tweaks here and there. A complexity 5 character, powerful enough from I’m seeing at the moment.

Frosthaven – Call of the Harbinger (56)

David Skelector Boardgame, Frosthaven, Play reports

This scenario is linked with Carrion Ridge (21) in the algox sub-campaign which was pretty easy and straightforward (no play report). This one is neither of those things.

This is a Defeat the Boss scenario but with said Boss being physicaly split in two and defeating it forced to be made in three parts, each time having to destroy an altar so one of us (only one) can hurt the Harbinger for a third of its hit points. Phew.

Characters

  • Schlurkt the Deepwraith (David) lvl 7, a crab that goes stab stab stab
  • 4H2 the Hive (Math) lvl 5, refurbished robotic assembly, ADHD
  • Teabag the Infuser (Guillaume) lvl 5, no, no, not this kind of teabag or is it?

We start with an invincible and shadowy beast breathing down our necks and monsters ahead.
Black imps are protecting an evil altar.
The Infuser gets munched a little by the Harbinger.
The Deepwraith destroys the altar and get pulled into the Harbinger’s realm, the duel is on!
Meanwhile his companions go further into this hellish place and find more enemies and a second altar…
The Hive has his full panoply deployed.
The Deepwraith has reappeared, none the worse for his duel and will have to help quickly, the situation is perilous.
The poor Infuser is yet again the target of the Harbinger.
Let’s destroy this altar.
Now is the turn of the Hive to fight one on one Hive-Assembly vs Harbinger + summons.
This will drag on a bit…
Yet another altar and more monsters to boot.
The Hive is back, now to the altar.
And who gets bitten again?
Let’s finish this… (Deepwraith stabs the Harbinger a gazillion times)
Victory! Loot!

Closing Comments:

  • Hard one, and quite a bit cumbersome as a scenario I feel, jumping through every hoops at the right moment-style.
  • The Deepwraith was especially well-suited to kill the Harbinger really fast, that helped a lot I think.
  • The Hive took on himself to do it once but in retrospect it wasn’t the greatest idea as it took (understandably) several turns to do the job.
  • And with that the Deepwraith has achieved his Personal Quest and will retire. Very strong character, with a very high ceiling. Really enjoyable too, he’ll be missed.

Frosthaven: Collection’s Capstone (88)

David Skelector Boardgame, Frosthaven, Play reports

Our fiftieth scenario of our frosthaven campaign! The three of us are each at our fifth character and there’s not many left to unlock. The eponymous town of Frosthaven is now pretty advanced in buildings/upgrades. On the other hand we still have many scenarios available (dozens?) and we haven’t put much time on the main puzzle recently so we still have a long way to go to finish the game if we wish to be completionists.

This scenario follows our actions last time against a villain called The Collector whereas we messsed up his collection pretty good. This time though we’ll be fighting him and try to put an end to this evil hobbyist.

Characters

  • Schlurkt the Deepwraith (David) lvl 7, a crab that goes stab stab stab
  • 4H2 the Hive (Math) lvl 4, refurbished robotic assembly, ADHD
  • Teabag the Infuser (Guillaume) lvl 4, no, no not this kind of teabag or is it?
First room we’re against a savvas icestorm and a savvas lavaflow, two powerful summoners.
They’re not the only ones to bring reinforcement though, the Hive brings out his Arcing Generator.
One summoner down but the other has brought forth an Ice Demon.
We push forward and now face two lurkers.
« targeting » « no targets »
Leggy is here, we’re sure to prevail!
We open the door and find The Collector. Oh, you want to add us to your collection? We’ll see who collects whom.
Teabag engages the enemy, helped by the 4H2 but what’s Schlurkt doing? Looting, really?
Teabag: « It’s not working, he’s too tough! »
But the Deepwraith finally joins the fray and he stabs the Collector a gazillion times!
One round of utter carnage. It’s not long after that before we overcome the Collector.

Closing Comments:

  • Easy scenario, the savvas are strong foes but without much time to summon they weren’t that bad.
  • The Collector had 75hp but no shield or retaliate and so was a prime target for my Deepwraith. 8 attacks in one round boosted by a power potion, that was satisfying.
  • Yet another scenario where we couldn’t pick the special item that was buried at the bottom of the loot deck.