Boardgame

Frosthaven – The Collection (87)

David Skelector Boardgame, Frosthaven, Play reports

A girl from town wants us to save her two brothers. They’ve been taken prisoners by this weird savvas dude, the Collector, as subjects for his experiments.

This a kill them’ all random scenario but with a twist at the end. It figures a mad scientist/evil genius villain but we won’t see him until next (linked) scenario. We’re accompanied by this enthusiastic militia man named Ormi (road event).

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?
  • NPC Ormi (Math)
Seems like the Collector has hired algox as guards for his abode.
Schlurkt kills the archer in no time and is joined by Ormi and Teabag in melee against the unlucky, poisoned guards.
Meanwhile 4H2 deploys his first apparatus of many, his Sniper Turret.
With the last guard poisoned and on its last leg, Schlurkt opens the door to the next area but takes a step back as two more archers are aiming at the intruders.
Ormi hasn’t learned prudence yet…
We’re ready to fight them now but the Steel Automaton behind is a tough cookie.
Reinforcement from the Hive, with an Armored Tank. Superior numbers will see us through.
The final blows goes to young Ormi!
Schlurkt opens the left door and comes face to face with two ferocious bears. No worries, he’s got help from 4H2 from afar.
On the other side, Teabag will have to fight two fierce lurkers all by himself.
This side is clear.
« targeting » « no targets »
Hold on Teabag we’re coming!
About time, the Infuser is battered and bloodied.
Final area, two more algox and one bladespinner.
We see the captive brothers in the back and we’ll have to act fast before they’re shredded to bits by the bladespinner.
Ignoring the dumbfounded algox for the moment, Schlurkt and 4H2 focus on saving the brothers.
Teabag is probably taking sips from an infusion or something.
With the bladespinner destroyed and the brothers out of danger, we finish the last guards onward to victory!

Closing Comments:

  • Not an hard scenario by any means but made way more complicated by two annoying town challenges cards and also, by the fact that me and Math were both going for masteries on our characters and thus were restricted on our actions.
  • This scenario figured monsters from all 3 major factions, a rare event and a boon to Guillaume for his personal quest.
  • Getting invisible is a big part of the Deepwraith’s abilities but that meant risking the NPCs lives (and getting penalties if they died) so I had to eschew doing it a few times in this scenario.
  • The Infuser managed to fight two lurkers almost all by himself, a testament to this character’ strength certainly.

Frosthaven – The Lurker Problem (78)

David Skelector Boardgame, Frosthaven, Play reports

Hey, we’re back playing Frosthaven! And we’re having two new characters in the team as last time we played we had two retirement at once. Math is reprising his role as the unfettered Hive, a character that was as long-standing as a fart in the wind, so maybe we’ll see a little more of it this time. Guillaume on the other hand will play a brand new character, the Infuser, a character that plays a lot with elements. I’m still playing Schlurkt the Deepwraith; high level, well-equipped, impeccable deck, very efficient, feels good to be a killer crab.

Okay, so in this scenario we’re helping this guy, this Trenchcoat NPC and huh… Who the hell are you again and why does it matters to us? A cavern, an artefact you say? Gyah fekkit, just point us in the right direction…

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?

No matter what, never turn left he says. Yeah, yeah, we can do that.

We begin… already in close combat.
We let the lurkers make their move and they make the best of it. But then it’s our turn and we make the crustacean monsters pay dearly.
We ignore the left door and get into a larger area. We have to kill these monsters in a particular order for some esoteric reason.
Be kind missus eel, it’s not your time to die yet.
You pest, not killing you is the harderst part, I mean it.
Hey 4H, your legs are wandering around again.
« Schlurkt, go into this room, we’ll wait behind the auto-cannon… »
Gasp Oh, only a statue. And what’s that in that chest, a fish hook weapon?
Final room. The Elite Lurker Soldier is calling for reinforcement.
Things are brutal but the Deepwraith let out an Ink Cloud to hide himself and the Infuser so they have a brief respite.
All is in place for the final moment of the fight.
Leggy kicks a lurker into oblivion.
D’ya want to be my friend? No? Stab

Closing Comments:

  • We’re at our last few town challenge cards and they’re the most annoying as it’s those we kept delaying to do. We still picked two but it ramped up the diffulcty of the scenario quite a bit.
  • But we went on not opening doors at our left and that probably saved us a lot of trouble.
  • The gimmick with killing the monsters in a certain order in the second room, aside from being very gamey, made things a lot more complicated and one misplaced 2x hit on a bleeding (wounded) lurker meant that we had to rush killing the 2 others that were earlier in the order. We managed to do it but it was a close one.

Frosthaven – Apotheosis (76)

David Skelector Boardgame, Fantasy, Frosthaven, Play reports

Final scenario of the Threat from the Deep (Personal Quest), a Boss Fight obviously. We do the Enemy to the Fish King version, as we’re not fools.

Characters

  • Schlurkt the Deepwraith (David) lvl 6, a crab that goes stab stab stab
  • Pantherius Octadine the Pain Conduit (Mathieu) lvl 8, loves the pain, shares the pain
  • Pearce DeWalt the Metal Mosaic (Guillaume) lvl 7, the pressure is rising!

The Fish King is rapidly gaining power and the disruptive Chaos energy that surrounds him means that he’s not entirely of this world anymore. This mean in effect that each time he loses one quarter of his HPs be becomes invulnerable and we have to move into some kind of pocket dimension, kill demons and come back to hurt him again.

Some weird thing is going on with the Fish King…
Gaining access to tentacles is a sure sign of success in life for some people.
One Piranah Pig each for Pearce and Schlurkt but Pantherius is hurting the Fish King bad!
First interlude with Wind Demons.
And we’re back at it. Missed us?
Shadow Demons now? Dispersed.
The Fish King calls in reinforcement.
But he’s getting assailed relentlessly.
Ice Demons now, their retaliate is worrisome.
And now he’s got no more tricks.
Final blow from Pantherius and the Fish King has officially botched his apotheosis…

Closing comments:

  • The Fish King had heavy-hitting attacks but only one per turn so not too worrisome.
  • Dealing with the demons, and killing them fast, was more challenging.
  • Both the Metal Mosaic and the Pain Conduit are retiring so two new characters for next time and a whole new team dynamics for us.

Frosthaven – Infiltrating the Lair (75)

David Skelector Boardgame, Fantasy, Frosthaven, Play reports

Penultimate scenario of the Threat from the Deep‘s Personal Quest.

Characters

  • Schlurkt the Deepwraith (David) lvl 6, a crab that goes stab stab stab
  • Pantherius Octadine the Pain Conduit (Mathieu) lvl 8, loves the pain, shares the pain
  • Pearce DeWalt the Metal Mosaic (Guillaume) lvl 7, the pressure is rising!

We’re infiltrating the lair of the Fish King. Water tiles are harmful (if we end our tun on one) cause they’re brimming with chaotic energy or something. Furthermore we have two explosive charges to use on tunnels inside, to effectively stop enemy reinforcement.

We have a narrow path to navigate and we have to stop the Abael Herder in the back quickly.
But these electric eels are fast and bity.
Pearce jumps ahead and get the fight to the piranah herder.
He’s dead, we move on! Schlurkt, stop messing around and kill your eel already.
Inside, a large room with two more entrances, and more enemies.
Schlurkt, you’re coming or what?
These piranahs are ferocious!
All clear, where do we go?
Pantherius opens the door: « Schlurkt, go set the charge, quick! »
Meanwhile, Pearce has gone to the other area and does the same, no more enemies this way.
But chaotic energy coalesce into two Chaos Demons.
And charge into poor Pearce’s back.
His companions are very far from him.
Pantherius get into the last area where there’s three chests to be found! And Ice Demons…
Schlurkt does his best to go help his endangered companion.
And gets there in time.
Whilst Pantherius is busy on his own and then kill the last enemy. It’s Victory!

Closing comments:

  • Hard scenario with many possibilities to get derailed.
  • I was stuck fighting the eels way for one more turn when I picked the Miss card and was left behind by my ever-rushing friends.
  • Fortunately, we managed well the biggest hurdle of collapsing the tunnels quickly. I had a convenient Teleport 5 at my disposal at the right time.
  • The Metal Mosaic was put in a bad spot as he was suddenly the closest to the appearing Chaos Demons and couldn’t anticipate this turn of event. I got there to help in 2 turns as the Deepwraith has good mobility.

Frosthaven – Gaps in the Road (74)

David Skelector Boardgame, Fantasy, Frosthaven, Play reports

Third part (out of 5) of the Threat from the Deep personal quest that we’re doing for the Metal Mosaic character.

Characters

  • Schlurkt the Deepwraith (David) lvl 5, a crab that goes stab stab stab
  • Pantherius Octadine the Pain Conduit (Mathieu) lvl 7, loves the pain, shares the pain
  • Pearce DeWalt the Metal Mosaic (Guillaume) lvl 7, the pressure is rising!

We have a clue for an artifact we’ve been seeking for a while but the path going there is narrow and flooded.

In this scenario water tiles aren’t just difficult terrain as usual but full-on obstacles. We have the option of « killing » trees, felling them in order to get over the water.

Algox archers are shooting at us from the other side.
Pearce brings the fight to them while Schlurkt prefers looting.
It’s hard to manoeuvre into such a narrow place.
Schlurkt gets into the next area, quickly kills another archer but gets peppered by the remaining three and is badly wounded.
Fortunately his metallic companion takes the lead.
Schlurkt teleports to the other side, soon followed by Pantherius and Pearce, after the latter made a proper path to walk on (destroyed an obstacle). Pantherius does what he does and kills the enemies after they’d hurt him.
Still more Algox trying to stop us, assisted by Faery Imps.
Pearce is now heavily damaged but is killing foes left and right.
Pantherius clears the northern side of the room.
The last remaining archer is hidden behind traps and a tree.
Nothing that would stop an annoyed Metal Mosaic.
He then takes on a swarm of Piranha Pigs almost all by himself (with some minor help from Schlurkt). We’ve vanquished our foes but the objective was already taken away by the insolent Fish King…

Closing Comments:

  • As I understand it, the scenario changed (slightly) to adapt to a previous choice we made, whether we’d accepted the deal offered by the Fish King or not.
  • With all the options of getting invisible I have with the Deepwraith, I still managed to open a room and get plain visible in the middle of it and then lost a card to not die. Bad play this one.
  • Guillaume and his Metal Mosaic really pushed the pace and was, once more I felt , really reckless. He explained to me afterward that he hasn’t much choice with this character, with its pressure mechanics, it must be played accordingly. He did a lot to win the scenario mind you but one tiny bit of bad luck and he’d would lost his character (permadeath on) it seemed to me.
  • I’ve looted everything I could in this one, both because of a battle goal but also because we’re short on resources to further build in town. It felt underwhelming, less impactful than killing enemies let’s say, but it is a part of the game.

Frosthaven – Ruins of the Equinox (105)

David Skelector Boardgame, Fantasy, Frosthaven, Play reports

This is the unlocked sequel to Ruins of Solstice (104).

In Ruins of Solstice there was a gimmick with the Earth and Ice elements, now is the turn of Wind and Fire.

Characters

  • Schlurkt the Deepwraith (David) lvl 5, a crab that goes stab stab stab
  • Pantherius Octadine the Pain Conduit (Mathieu) lvl 6, loves the pain, shares the pain
  • Pearce DeWalt the Metal Mosaic (Guillaume) lvl 6, the pressure is rising!

First area is a long corridor with gusts of wind pushing us backward (in one line at a time). More importantly there’s 2 Savvas Lavaflows, dangerous summoners, and 4 (!) Wind Demons. Not an easy crowd. Furthermore, to complicate things one of our town challenge will add 3 Hounds at the start of the third turn.

Let’s kill the summoners fast!
Pantherius start to work on them but also gets in harm’s way as the Wind Demons have both high mobility and are pretty rangy.
A big blow from Pearce but the enemy is not down yet.
Meanwhile Schlurkt has moved further and killed two Wind Demons and is finishing a third. This and Pearce’s efforts gives breathing room to Pantherius to heal himself back into combat shape.
Just in time as now the Hounds have catched up with us!
But Pantherius does short work of them.
Pearce and Schlurkt got across the interminable corridor and opened the door into a large and overly warm room (we take 1hp of damage per turn). We disturb angry Rending Drakes and Flame Demons.
Pearce is hit by an attack from a Flame Demon but reflects it back, killing his foe.
Pantherius was lagging behind a little but is still in time to capture a softened up Rending Drake to put in his pokemon ranch (his personal quest).

We’ve cleared the place!

Closing Comments:

  • Tense fight in the corridor, with the Pain Conduit in particular getting low in hps and pretty much surrounded.
  • A very possible outcome to this scenario is the Wind Demons disarming the player characters with one of their cards and Lavaflows summoning early, probably leading to defeat.
  • Not mentionned above but the Metal Mosaic opened the door and got immediately jumped by Rending Drakes and fired upon by Flame Demons and took heavy, heavy damage.
  • The Deepwraith then teleported in and had lot of options of crowd control and damage-dealing and things went well.
  • Another scenario that the Pain Conduit did heavy damage initially but couldn’t keep up with his low mobility and got very late in the second area,

Frosthaven – Raven’s Roost (32)

David Skelector Boardgame, Fantasy, Frosthaven, Play reports

We’re back in the Lurkers‘ sub-campaign, this scenario following Frozen Fjord (13). We get to see more of these dangerous Shrike Fiends, monsters made of swarms of ravens.

Characters

  • Schlurkt the Deepwraith (David) lvl 4, a crab that goes stab stab stab
  • Pantherius Octadine the Pain Conduit (Mathieu) lvl 6, loves the pain, shares the pain
  • Pearce DeWalt the Metal Mosaic (Guillaume) lvl 6, the pressure is rising!

This is a 2-rooms scenario with an objective to destroy (inflict hp loss) in second room.

These Frozen Corpses will change into more dangerous Shrike Fiends if they don’t lose any hp in a round.
But no way will this happen, we’ll make sure of that.
Those two last ones are bleeding profusely and are not long for this world.
Pantherius opens the way and his companions quickly traverse, ignoring for the moment those Harrower Infesters, to get to the eponymous Raven’s Roost.
Harrower Infester: « I feel disrespected… and sad. »
Schlurkt stabs multiple time the Shrike Fiend guarding the roost.
We’re all three together now but the Harrower Infesters are putting pressure form behind, and more Shrike Fiends are due to appear from the roost too.
The Deepwraith steps back and inflicts a shit-ton of negative conditions on the Harrowers (including a bane!).
Another Shrike Fiend appears but too late, the roost is destroyed! We win!

Closing Comments:

  • Harrowe Infesters and Shrike Fiends together, we thought we were in for rough one but it went pretty smoothly (still tight though).
  • I was sure that more transforming Frozen Corpses would wait for us in the other side. getting us to splitting our efforts in dealing damages on the figuress and on the objective but no, the scenario was simpler than that.
  • The objective had an impactful retaliate ability, that cost us a lot of hps.
  • While the Pain Conduit and Metal Mosaic inflicted heavy damage on the roost, I went back to crowd control (and kill) the dangerous Harrowers as I had no more hps to spare anyway.

Frosthaven – Derelict Freighter (127)

David Skelector Boardgame, Fantasy, Frosthaven, Play reports

Third scenario in a row where we’re on a boat! Could it be a coincidence? I think n.. err, yes, yes it was.

This time we have to get some crates out of a ghost ship. I think we agreed to this some time earlier (from an event). Did we? Anyway, this is the kind of stuff we do, boarding a ghost ship to strip it bare!

Characters

  • Schlurkt the Deepwraith (David) lvl 4, a crab that goes stab stab stab
  • Pantherius Octadine the Pain Conduit (Mathieu) lvl 6, loves the pain, shares the pain
  • Pearce DeWalt the Metal Mosaic (Guillaume) lvl 6, the pressure is rising!

We have to Loot crates/objectives (the more the better) and then get out (get back to starting tiles).

The ship’s welcoming comittee formed of Icy Wraiths and Ancient Artilleries.
Canons facing inward, I think it’s a bit hazardous.
Schlurkt and Pearce finish the last congealed foe before getting further inside the ship.
What’s there behind?
That’s one crate for me!
Nothing else on the main deck, we should go check below.
Pearce goes downstairs, and again.
A crate, a chest! But also Frozen Corpses…
The Metal Mosaic is hard pressed and alone…
Meanwhile the Deepwraith is busy with another crate, is invisible again, and mostly ignores the monsters.
Chest picked up!
Pantherius is fending off enemies that swarm the main deck from below.
Another crate…
Hey, I’m doing all the heavy-lifting!
Ugh, not really…
We’ve got what we we’re here for, let’s get out!
Yes please, I’ve had enough of them!
Let’s get the f*** out!

Closing Comments:

  • Went mostly well, was kind of a push-your-luck scenario with the numbers of crates picked-up being optional. We took them all.
  • I’ve picked up 3 with my Deepwraith, with invisibility helping a lot.
  • Guillaume’s Metal Mosaic going for the farthest/deepest crate was the real gutsy move of the session as going down 3 sets of stairs meant spending a lot of movement, just to be cornered by 3 enemies, all alone as it happened.
  • I found annoying that the scenario rules were nerfing my teleports actions, that limited my movement a lot and meant that I could hardly go further than midway.

Frosthaven – Ice Floes (22)

David Skelector Boardgame, Frosthaven, Play reports

Our little misfortune of having been shipwrecked our last going hasn’t discouraged us from sailing out again into the vast blue sea.

And we’re attacked again. Onboard our own ship this time.

Characters

  • Schlurkt the Deepwraith (David) lvl 4, a crab that goes stab stab stab
  • Pantherius Octadine the Pain Conduit (Mathieu) lvl 5>>6, loves the pain, shares the pain
  • Pearce DeWalt the Metal Mosaic (Guillaume) lvl 5>>6, the pressure is rising!

Lurkers have climbed aboard and we need to repel them. Simple.

Let’s wait for them to get closer.
Two variety of Lurkers: heavy, tanky Clawcrushers and more polyvalent Wavethrowers.
Are you okay with the stairs Pearce? CLUNK « just need to… proceed… » CLUNK « sideways »
The fight is on!
We combine our attacks on the two frontline Clawcrushers.
Hey Schlurkt has switched sides! Just kidding. Stab Stab Stab
Take a break Pearce, we’ll take care of those.
How did they got below deck? These critters have pierced the hull of our ship! Good thing they’re inside though, we can actually kill them.
The water is rising, are we sinking again?
Pantherius to his companions: I’ll deal with these two, go attack those on the back! »
Guess our next meal will be seafood again!

Closing Comments:

  • Nothing we couldn’t handle with our potent damage-dealing team.
  • Once we killed those first ones above deck, a double-timer activated (the spreading of water and damage to hull).
  • The Pain Conduit has no jump cards, not a single one, and was forced to fight the frontliners. He’s a powerful character no doubt about that, but that’s a serious drawback for sure.
  • The Metal Mosaic and Deepwraith both have good multi-targeting attacks that made the combat a lot easier.

Frosthaven – Flotsam (73)

David Skelector Boardgame, Fantasy, Frosthaven, Play reports

Third scenario of Pearce’s personal quest (Threat from the Deep), after:

Invasion of the docks (71) and A Giant block of Ice (72).

It seems like we’ve been sailing on the wrong waters, our boat has been sunk!

Characters

  • Schlurkt the Deepwraith (David) lvl 4, a crabman assassin
  • Pantherius Octadine the Pain Conduit (Mathieu) lvl 5, loves the pain, shares the pain
  • Pearce DeWalt the Metal Mosaic (Guillaume) lvl 5, the pressure is rising!

All tiles are water (movement penalty) but we can embark on flotsam and bravely paddle forward…

These Electric Eels think we’re food…
They couldn’t have been more wrong!
Schlurkt: « Hmm, what’s that floating there? »
Now we see Abaels and their Piranha Pig pets and more eels.
We’re getting there, wait for us, any moment now.
Here we are!
The Piranha Pigs attack ferociously the Metal Mosaic.
But this was mere distraction so that Pantherius could capture one with his special net!
Our true enemy reveals himself. The so-called Fish King with more of his minions.
Schlurkt has been distracted by a floating chest and is very far from the action. Fortunately Pearce seems to handle things quite fine.
Pantherius joins him and does what he does best: inflict pain!
Wounded and all alone the Fish King offers us a deal but we promptly rejects it. He flees the coward but we’ll see him again, no doubt about that!

Closing Comments:

  • Fun scenario with the special rule of the flotsam movements. My Deepwraith’s many teleports were very useful and offered me freedom of movement on an otherwise difficult to navigate map, only fitting for a Lurker in a water environment.
  • We had the leisure to loot almost all we wanted this time so, easier scenario than the previous ones.
  • The Metal Mosaic was hit by several big attacks and was almost down but as soon as he got a little respite he managed to heal himself back quite nicely. He’s hard to kill for sure.
  • The Pain Conduit put many, many curses on the monster deck and they did come in handy at the end of the scenario.
  • We also had many curses on our decks because of the town challenge that we picked (one every rest) so we had to be careful on not being overconfident.