Boardgame

Frosthaven – The Corrupted Camp (39)

David Skelector Boardgame, Fantasy, Frosthaven, Play reports

Back to back characters retirement for Mathieu who’ll now be playing the Pain Conduit, an unusual character who benefits from having multiple negative conditions on itself. For this scenario we’re back on Algox territory as we have an objective to complete from a town event. So no seafood buffet this time!

Characters

  • Thousand Teeth the Trapper (David) lvl 5, brings innumerable lethal or helpful contraptions
  • Pantherius Octadine the Pain Conduit (Mathieu) lvl 3, loves the pain, shares the pain
  • Pearce DeWalt the Metal Mosaic (Guillaume) lvl 4, the pressure is rising!

We arrive at an Icespeakers Algox camp to see a dreadful scene: the poor survivors (remember how we massacred this Algox faction) are now beset by evil as Frozen Corpses and Black Imps are attacking them from all sides. In order to win this scenario we must open all 4 doors (each with its own timer) and kill every enemies (not the living Algox this time) including the slain Algox who’ll rise up as Frozen Corpses…

A Kill All Enemies with a Timer scenario.

« That’s a lot of foes. Let’s kill the black imps first, they’re annoying! »
Trapper: « I’ll go see what’s behind that door to the right »
« Oh I see you’ve got a tentacles infestation problem in your shack, ugh, good luck with that » *scampers away*
Things aren’t going so well for those outnumbered Algox warriors farthest from us.
At least we manoeuvre quickly so they’re not caught in a pincer with the foes behind them.
More tentacles? You shouldn’t have let them grow that much! Salubrity is important you know?
The Pain Conduit is generously giving his own afflictions to the enemy.
One more door to open but our allies are dying left and right and coming back as evil undead! That means more work for us, stop dying you useless furry things!
The Metal Mosaic drills this mess into oblivion…
This is far from finished!
Even more of them!
Almost done with this shack! *puts out another trap*
There’s only 3 Algox survivors at this point but we’re rounding up the last Frozen Corpses finally!
Here’s one who won’t get back on his feet! But we still have 2 places full of tentacles to clean up.
Trapper to Pain Conduit: « What’s the plan again? » Pain Conduit:  » You’ll be the target of an Exploding Wound that will hurt you and all surrounding creatures. » Trapper: « Explod… That sounds painful. » Pain Conduit grinning: « Extremely. We’ll do it twice… »
Metal Mosaic, covered from head to toe in grime: « almost done! »

Closing Comments:

  • Well that was an hard one! Took every bit of stamina out of us to win it. The Pain Conduit was even exhausted at the end (we’ve permadeath on, he could have died with a couple of hits).
  • It was a slog too with 4 hours of combat! A victory nonetheless but very demanding.
  • Did the fact that we chose the « bad ending » of the Algox sub-campaign led to a tougher, unrewarding scenario maybe?
  • Of course our allies were mostly useless, as usual, getting cards that did nothing good every frikkin time.
  • Mobility was important to open the doors fast enough for the timer. This we could do with our team.
  • However, we felt that the ability to move allies around (like the BannerSpear could do) would have been really helpful.
  • The Snowdancer would also have been a great asset now that I think of it.
  • Reminds me what we said me and Math that the Haven games would greatly be enhanced with a Troupe or Jazz Band style of play, whereas each scenario you can choose to bring whomever you want as a character. Would add a great strategy element. Just a thought.

Frosthaven – The Edge of the World (7)

David Skelector Boardgame, Fantasy, Frosthaven, Play reports

We’re now an impressive tech-heavy team with the newly addition of the Unfettered Hive character among us. And we’re finally starting the Lurkers sub-campaign, with a more aquatic theming throughout.

Characters

  • Thousand Teeth the Trapper (David) lvl 5, brings innumerable lethal or helpful contraptions
  • 4h the Hive (Mathieu) lvl 3, has multiple robotic bodies, « jumps » from one to the other
  • Pearce DeWalt the Metal Mosaic (Guillaume) lvl 3, the pressure is rising!

Straightforward, linear scenario, dotted with many traps (hooray!). We must find the Coral Corpse mini-boss and kill it.

Let them come to us, we’ll prepare a few nasty surprises.
Whom’s armor is the best between the Metal Mosaic’s or the Lurker’s?
Trapper:  » Hmpf, no armor can resist the strength of my traps! »
Look, more of them!
Is that 4h’s legs? Where’s the rest of him?
Oh, there he is. Nevermind.
Yikes! That’s an ugly one!
Come here, yes, that’s it, a bit closer…
And here we go! Pushes*
The Coral Corpse has been pushed through no less than 5 traps and is bleeding profusely. One final hit from the Hive finishes the corrupted beast.

Closing Comments:

  • Cool array of gadgets (and mashed-up star wars minis) from the Hive’s character. Unfortunately, we won’t see him for a while as he’s retiring already! His personal quest, with a stroke of luck, has been quite easy to achieve.
  • The Trapper and Metal Mosaic have a very good synergy between the two characters with the latter being able to spring traps into enemies.
  • Traps are great against shielded enemies as they go right through.
  • An effective use of traps and pushes trivialized the mini-boss but it was fun.

Frosthaven – The Invasion of the Docks (71)

David Skelector Boardgame, Fantasy, Frosthaven, Play reports

Yet another new companion in our party after the retirement of the Pyroclast. We welcome Pearce DeWalt, a sentient metal being of large size and a drill for an arm. We’ve seen weirder than that, no worries.

Characters

  • Thousand Teeth the Trapper (David) lvl 5, brings innumerable lethal or helpful contraptions
  • Britney the Bannerspear (Mathieu) lvl 9, a great leader, might be related to Bruce
  • Pearce DeWalt the Metal Mosaic (Guillaume) lvl 3, the pressure is rising!

This scenario happens inside of the Frosthaven outpost. There’s something going on on the docks, mermen and crabfolks Abael and Lurkers are fighting each other and a desperate dockmaster seems to be caught in the middle. It’s an Escort the NPC and a Timer scenario.

« Have you paid your customs duties, there’s a 25% tariff going on. Hey, no pets allowed on the docks! »
We blitz one Abael and his Piranha Pig pet. Piranha Pig! The silliest mix of two animals one could imagine. They’re great!
« Hey stop sniffing our butts. Ouch! Stop that, that hurts! »
Better go away and… Wtf is happening?! Lurkers are fighting Abael all over the place!
Just passing by, don’t mind me… Here’s a mast and rope, you know what that means, right?
Pearce DeWalt crashes on the other side with great fracas and gets near the poor frightened dockmaster.
Meanwhile the open seafood buffet is quite messy.
« Go ahead, don’t worry, we’re right behind you. » Trapper: « Oh, a treasure chest, see you later! »
Finally, the dockmaster has reached the safe zone in one piece.

Closing Comments:

  • Impressive scenario but a bit cumbersome to manage all the fighting going on.
  • Nice to see new enemies and aren’t the Piranha Pigs the most charming?
  • We finished the scenario in 6-7 rounds. We were kind of too efficient this time I would say as we could have lingered a bit more for loot & xp & fun.
  • Retirement of our lvl 9 bulwark, the Banner Spear. Very useful and versatile character. That’ll be a big change on our team for sure.

Frosthaven – Automaton Uprising (59)

David Skelector Boardgame, Fantasy, Frosthaven, Play reports

Following our success in the previous scenario we managed to get in front of the Orphan and were forced to make a tough decision: try to eliminate him and his fellow Unfettered or try to convince him to make peace with the outpost of Frosthaven. This time (unlike with the poor Algox) we chose diplomacy and much to our surprise, managed to be convincing as of our good intentions. Might be that he doesn’t know many adventurers ha!

Characters

  • Thousand Teeth the Trapper (David) lvl 4, brings innumerable lethal or helpful contraptions
  • Britney the Bannerspear (Mathieu) lvl 8, a great leader, might be related to Bruce
  • Solkan Innis the Pyroclast (Guillaume) lvl 3, the Floor is Lava

Of course it won’t be that simple. The Unfettered, contrary to what we could think, are not hive-minded and many choose to attack us and our new-found ally.

Thus, this is an Escort the NPC scenario featuring Infinitely Spawning adversaries to boot.

Things start badly as Robotic Boltshooters do heavy damage to all of us.
This one is cornered and soon won’t be troubling us anymore.
The Orphan does what he has to do but we have to protect him against incoming hostiles.
On his way to the second objective while we fend off a bunch of Ruined Machines and Flaming Bladespinners.
Britney: « We’ve gained enough time, now we retreat before we’re overwhelmed! »
Burning patches from the Pyroclast and traps from the Trapper should soften our foes while they try to get over this chokehold.
And now, onward to the last objective. We’re seeing hostile Steel Automatons in the distance…
The Pyroclast finishes off yet another Boltshooter and then hurries up to join us.
The Pyroclast blocks one way in but one machine manages to jump over.
But a barricade of traps and a tanking Bannerspear efficiently ensures the survival of our new ally.
A special item to collect, some looting and we’re done!
This is Victory!

Closing comments:

  • An Escort the NPC scenario featuring Infinitely Spawning adversaries could have been very annoying but I thought it was a nice and fun scenario.
  • It must be said that our team composition was uniquely well-suited for this one I think. It could have been a LOT harder on other circumstances.
  • Crowd-control from Trapper and Pyroclast was quite useful. Movement-allowance from the Bannerspear was also crucial, saving us several turns of discomfort.
  • We all played very well to our characters’ strengths I will say.

Frosthaven – The Orphan’s Halls (51)

David Skelector Boardgame, Fantasy, Frosthaven, Play reports

Penultimate scenario of the Unfettered thread and the difficulty is ramping up!

Characters

  • Thousand Teeth the Trapper (David) lvl 4, brings innumerable lethal or helpful contraptions
  • Britney the Bannerspear (Mathieu) lvl 8, a great leader, might be related to Bruce
  • Solkan Innis the Pyroclast (Guillaume) lvl 3, the Floor is Lava

Onward in the rusty halls of the Orphan, this is a Capture the Objective scenario with many, many foes. But we’ve been provided with powerful machines-killing/EMP bombs to help us.

Automatons and Ancient Artilleries, should we use our bombs right there? Nah…
3 turns later… we’re still at the entrance are we not?
I finally open the door and… Oh shit!
That’s a lot of foes… The lil’ Trapper is leading the way, and runs farther (emboldened by Britney, +3 move), invisible.
And positions himself for…
KaBOOOM!!!
Two more bombs from his companions and the great Hall is almost quiet!
But not for long, Automatons and Ruined Machines keep appearing. There’s no defeating their number. Quick open that door!
We have to collapse the door behind us asap! Beware, more of them!
I still got one bomb, gnak gnak!
Ahh, that’s better!
The Pyroclast engulfs the door in fire and molten rock, that’ll do the job!

Closing comments:

  • We’ve wasted way too much time on the first room but once we were out things worked out surpringly well for us. Math was confident that we could and should cleaned it out and we mostly did in the end (his Bannerspear doing most of the job), but it drained a lot out of us to the point that I think it almost compromised our mission.
  • I gotta say, I’m quite satisfied with myself with how I did some nice combination of initiative-weaving and pulling, all while being invisible, so that I’ve managed to maximize the effect of my first bomb (it was decided that I was the one bringing two).
  • I feel like it could have been stun bombs instead of insta-kill ones and it could still have been a feasible (if harder) scenario.

Frosthaven – Overrun Barricade (43)

David Skelector Boardgame, Fantasy, Frosthaven, Play reports

We’ll soon reach the conclusion of the Unfettered thread. We know that these robotic beings are led by one of their kind who calls himself the Orphan. Is it the lack of good parenting that turned the Unfettered into murderous machines? Maybe we’ll know!

Characters

  • Thousand Teeth the Trapper (David) lvl 4, brings innumerable lethal or helpful contraptions
  • Britney the Bannerspear (Mathieu) lvl 8, a great leader, might be related to Bruce
  • Solkan Innis the Pyroclast (Guillaume) lvl 3, the Floor is Lava

An escape scenario this time, we must all reach the opposite end of the map in order to win. There’s many foes but we have been granted a special powerful attack that we each can unleash once per rest. A kind of EMP beam or something, given to us by the npc from the last scenario.

Of course there’s big piles of walking junk between us and our goal.
We slowly grind our way forward.
What’s behind that door?
A barricade. And behind? Again those damned machines.
The exit is just over here! The Pyroclast gets a bit excited and lava erupts from the floor!
A scene of utter destruction…
The inexorable flow of our triumphing will…

Closing comments:

  • Steel Automatons are tough customers but the scenario’s added boon more than compensated for their numbers.
  • The bigger worry was to reach the exit tiles whitout being overwhelmed by the infinetely spawning Ruined Machines. We had to time well our special attacks and then move quickly. It went well in the end.

Frosthaven – Scrap Pit (35)

David Skelector Boardgame, Fantasy, Frosthaven, Play reports

Happy New Year everybody! I’m back at work and that means I’m back at blogging too. Still quiet on the ttrpg front but I’m behind on my frosthaven play reports. Here’s one from a session we’ve played a month ago.

We’re back on Unfettered territory with a new companion in our party, the Pyroclast. This time it’s a Protect the NPC scenario, only two rooms – pretty straightforward.

Characters

  • Thousand Teeth the Trapper (David) lvl 3, brings innumerable lethal or helpful contraptions
  • Britney the Bannerspear (Mathieu) lvl 8, a great leader, might be related to Bruce
  • Solkan Innis the Pyroclast (Guillaume) lvl 3, the Floor is Lava
We’re accompanying this little fellow and need to protect him while he rummages through discarded scrap metal & stuff.
Junkyards can be dangerous places.
Follow safety rules at all times. Here’s an emergency kit from the Trapper just in case.
Living Bones and Ruined Machines make for unfriendly company.
Get out of the way will you! How much iron is selling right now pray tell?
The Pyroclast is losing patience, lava erupts from the ground!
But our little friend still hasn’t found what he seeks.
Found it! Just in time ’cause all this messing around was attracting dangerous Spitting Drakes...

Closing Comments:

  • Protect NPCs missions can be annoying but that was an easy one, no sweat here.
  • The Trapper is pretty vulnerable to flying enemies, it has one card that negates flying but it’s pretty awkward to use.
  • With that, we open up some more scenarios that lead to the conclusion of the Unfettered thread.

Frosthaven – The Face of Torment (68)

David Skelector Boardgame, Fantasy, Frosthaven, Play reports

We played this session four weeks ago, my laptop died and huh – me being me, it took this long before I defaulted to another computer…

This is the final scenario of the Aether Outpost personal quest.

The first one was Strong Foundation, the second: Elemental Cores, the third: Core Attunement.

Characters

  • Thousand Teeth the Trapper (David) lvl 2, brings innumerable lethal or helpful contraptions
  • Britney the Bannerspear (Mathieu) lvl 7, a great leader, might be related to Bruce
  • Boson the Blinkblade (Guillaume) lvl 7, Master of the 4th dimension

As befit a final challenge we’re now in a boss fight, against the Face of Torment.

Mr Face is accompanied by 2 regular, blue-collar Chaos Demons and we know that Fire Demons and Sun Demons will join them soon enough. No time to lose.
Mr Face is clearly a in-your-face type. Boson and Britney start to work on him.
The Trapper making sure that we won’t have foes at our back.
Boson stabbing Mr Face in the face like 20 times.
Britney efficiently pushes Mr Face in TWO traps behind him.
The Blinkblade is now in a worrying position, surrounded as he is
But Mr Face takes more damage and faceplants never to get up again.
One last treasure grab and we’re done!

Closing comments:

  • Our second Boss of the campaign and like the first one it took only a few rounds to kill it. The meta seems to go toward tense, quick battle in which unleashing potent damage is more important than safety for the characters.
  • We were quick enough but otherwise having to deal with the incoming Fire and Sun demons would have been painful.
  • Retirement of the Blinkblade, our strongest character to date I think.

Frosthaven – Core Attunement (67)

David Skelector Boardgame, Fantasy, Frosthaven, Play reports

We’re advancing once more the Blink Blade’s agenda with the third scenario out of four of his personal quest.

The first one was Strong Foundation, the second: Elemental Cores. This series has been very challenging to date and the trend did not change this time.

Characters

  • Thousand Teeth the Trapper (David) lvl 2, brings innumerable lethal or helpful contraptions
  • Britney the Bannerspear (Mathieu) lvl 7, a great leader, might be related to Bruce
  • Boson the Blinkblade (Guillaume) lvl 7, Master of the 4th dimension

It’s a timer scenario, we start in the middle and must protect the four pillars for 12 rounds as more and more enemies (demons) appear from both sides of the map to threaten us.

Four Chaos Demons are already there. Eager to fight us.
Thousand Teeth: « Give me time, I’ll put some traps around… »
our foes are closing in.
Boson quickly gets in melee on the left. Britney calls reinforcement.
Two Chaos Demons jump on the Banner Spear, will she be overwhelmed?
And more demons start to emerge from the corners.
Meanwhile the Trapper has been very busy.
The foes won’t relent.
But at least the pillars are still in good shape.
A litlle reshuffling of traps confuse the enemies.
Is the Trapper overdoing it a little? A Chaos Demon is stunned after having step on a trap and is the target of the archer.
This Earth demon hurls a huge boulder on the pillar and nearly topples it!
Fortunately, time is up, the Core as been attuned. Our job is done!

Closing comments:

  • Close call, we couldn’t have held on much longer I think.
  • The scenario item was on the bottom of the deck unfortunately. That’s annoying, I think we have earned it!
  • This scenario was the first to really made my Trapper shine with his ability to create a massive maze of traps. The monsters AI, as in the rules, make them never willingly step on a trap unless they have no other path. This can be exploited to make them wander around and around…
  • A few ranged attacks got through (and one 2x damage) but not that many.
  • One last scenario (next one) for the Blink Blade for his retirement. Always thrilling to see another character in play.

Frosthaven – Prison Break (99)

David Skelector Boardgame, Fantasy, Frosthaven, Play reports

We’re doing another optional scenario, this one unlocked by a town event. There’s no timer, that feels good.

Characters

  • Thousand Teeth the Trapper (David) lvl 2, brings innumerable lethal or helpful contraptions
  • Britney the Bannerspear (Mathieu) lvl 7, a great leader, might be related to Bruce
  • Boson the Blinkblade (Guillaume) lvl 7, Master of the 4th dimension

We have to break in this long-disused prison. Of course, it’s disused but not without its inhabitants.

« Hey, nobody told us anything! Still waiting for my paycheck you know! »
We can’t stay long on the main room as there’s robotic boltshooters above us, on each side, that will rain projectiles on us.
The Blinkblade quickly gets there with his teleport ability.
The Bannerspear has brought her mysterious longbow-woman friend.
Whilst the Trapper will try to eliminate the defenders above on the other side.
As both the Blinkblade and Trapper step on pressure plates, the locked door below opens, liberating rusty machines and a Frozen Corpse.
That will promptly get peppered by arrows from Britney’s teammate.
Meanwhile, the rusty machines slooooowly get out in orderly fashion.
And try to acquire a target.
Meanwhile the Trapper still hasn’t cleared his room and he’s barricaded himself behind all manners of traps.
The blinkblade jumps down just when a Steel Automaton managed to climb up.
With the last defenders falling under our weapons, we’re free to loot the place and get to the objective!

Closing comments:

  • That went incredibly smoothly. And it’s really nice to have time to loot after many scenarios where we couldn’t afford to
  • It took me three rest cycles to kill only 2 enemies, that’s incredibly long, but at least I was never in real danger.
  • Math had the PERFECT plan for this scenario, with his well-placed archer summon boosted by a banner of strength.
  • It’s great that a special rule of this scenario, specifically the one that allowed figures from above to make range attacks on the main room below without range limitations could also be used by the players to their advantage.