Frosthaven

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.

Frosthaven – Caravan Guards (116)

David Skelector Boardgame, Fantasy, Frosthaven, Play reports

Freed from the Spire at last! We decide to do the last mission of a series related to the establishment of a new trading path linking the now-booming Frosthaven outpost with the capital to the south.

Characters

  • Thousand Teeth the Trapper (David) lvl 2, brings innumerable deadly or helpful contraptions
  • Britney the Bannerspear (Mathieu) lvl 6, a great leader, might be related to Bruce
  • Boson the Blinkblade (Guillaume) lvl 6, Master of the 4th dimension

We’re basically protecting caravans in their first run on the new path through the mountains. Remember how we’ve blown-up rocks and, huh, animals blocking the way? Now all is set to a first try-out. Could it be uneventful? No, it couldn’t…

We see algox warriors on the distance preparing to attack the convoy.
I don’t know how he does that but the Blinkblade cross three quarters of the map almost instantly. The Bannerspear activates her strange magnet and covers the distance too!
Just in time to protect the first wagon.
More Algox arrive on the scene but the Bannerspear barks some orders and the two head wagons moves at double speed.
And now three angry Algox Archers (left) take out their frustration and decide to transform the poor frail Trapper into a pincushion. Ouch!
Meanwhile, the first wagon is out of danger.
The Blinkblade ruthlessly stab enemies one after the other.
And it seems like the other wagons will make it.
But another big wave of enemies dashes our hope of an easy success. Two wagons are quickly destroyed.
The Bannerspear to the survivors: « keep moving, faster! »
One kamikaze Algox stand in front of the last wagon but is simply rammed aside.
3 out of 5 made it. Phew. The price to pay for prosperity?

Closing Comments:

  • I had some apprehension on this one as the previous scenarios of this particular series were very hard and now I was starting with a new character, so it means I’m underlevelled and underequipped compared to my teammates. And, yeah, I almost died.
  • I’ve put some traps on each side that prevented some foes to pursue easily but the remainder of the time I was focused on surviving only. Tense.
  • Of course the Bannerspear and Blinkblade were much more useful than that, particularly the Bannerspear that could make the wagons move on her turn. I’d say it saved 2 out 3 wagons in this manner. Great tactic for sure,
  • Meanwhile the Blinkblade is an absolute killing machine and did his best but the fact that our town challenge added 2 hit points to all ennemies, and there was so many of them, meant that we still ended overwhelmed and were in a bad way when the last wagon crossed the line.

Frosthaven – Top of the Spire (34)

David Skelector Boardgame, Fantasy, Frosthaven, Play reports

Final scenario of this thread of three and we’ve got a Boss to defeat, the Chaos Lord, Lord of Chaos? Something like that. Hey, I’m just a player, don’t ask me to remember everything. Or half. A few sketchy details maybe?

Characters

  • Lazy Liz the Deathwalker (David) lvl 3, sun-averse, why walk when I can teleport
  • Britney the Bannerspear (Mathieu) lvl 5, a great leader, might be related to Bruce
  • Boson the Blinkblade (Guillaume) lvl 5, Master of the 4th dimension

There’s some kind of energy beam active and if we step on it it’s bad.

Or as Guillaume put it, welcome to the dance floor!
The Evil Dude has finished his monologue, with the usual threats to end the world, yada yada yada. The fight is on!
We all teleport behind him, too bad for his plan of frying us with chaotic particles.
The bannerspear has put her Banner of PAIN on the ground, all our attacks do more damage.
The Evil Dude’s minions has finally caught up, about time ’cause half their boss’ health is already gone.
The Bannerspear seems to be in a bit of a pickle, surrounded as she is.
Or not. (Imperviously shielded)
Meanwhile, all of my shadows are in place, time for one last big attack to kill the Evil Dude.
Triumph and banner swirling!

Closing comments:

  • Okay that was easy. The obvious strategy of getting behind and our ability to ditch out massive damage (particularly the blinkblade’s multi-attacks with the help of the banner and poison) meant that it was a foregone conclusion.
  • Or in other words: one big pinata party with this non-moving big bag of hit points (143).
  • Retirement of my deathwalker, fun character, I liked her. Her biggest flaw is that it takes time for her to get going and she can’t do much the first round at the very least, a big downside in many scenarios.

Frosthaven – Upper Spire (24)

David Skelector Boardgame, Fantasy, Frosthaven, Play reports

As we’ve just realized the previous scenario, this one and the next are all linked together. This means we can’t go back to town to upgrade our characters, buy/craft stuff or retire as in my case, etc. So we have to soldier on.

Characters

  • Lazy Liz the Deathwalker (David) lvl 3, sun-averse, why walk when I can teleport
  • Britney the Bannerspear (Mathieu) lvl 5 a great leader, might be related to Bruce
  • Boson the Blinkblade (Guillaume) lvl 5, Master of the 4th dimension

After defeating the Chaos Demon last time we could choose to inspect the spire’s basement or we could be bold, some would say foolish, and jump into the unknown through a teleporting light beam. Of course we chose the latter.

Here’s the whole thing in all its splendor! We start at the bottom and have to defeat the mobs to go up.
The illuminated tiles have random effects if one walks over them as this poor living bones discovered after being pulled by the Bannerspear and suddenly became all brittle. He was not long for this world…
Here’s the Bannerspear again, fearlessly charging the enemies.
Is it a shadow monster behind her now? No, it’s her cheerleader! Go Britney, go!
Cleaning up the second level of its last minion. Both the Bannerspear and the Blinkblade are seriously depleted by this time.
And the last level won’t be easy…
« A bit crowded over here, we need back up! »
Time for the Deathwalker to fully unleash her dark powers!

Closing Comments:

  • Math, ever the perfectionist, wanted to improve his splendid decor even more but hadn’t enough time.
  • Tough scenario, particularly for my deathwalker who’s a slowstarter character in the best of case and even more so here as I couldn’t afford to quickly bring forth shadows that would be lost after teleporting. Tricky.
  • As it went, we each did a great job on one particular level.

Frosthaven – Ancient Spire (15)

David Skelector Boardgame, Fantasy, Frosthaven, Play reports

We’re still doing the unfettered thread of the campaign and this time we’re entering the eponymous Ancient Spire, which I thought we already did but it was some other place we’d entered previously. Anyway, here we are.

Characters

  • Lazy Liz the Deathwalker (David) lvl 3, sun-averse, why walk when I can teleport
  • Britney the Banner Spear (Mathieu) lvl 5 a great leader, might be related to Bruce
  • Boson the Blink Blade (Guillaume) lvl 5, Master of the 4th dimension

We soon find ourselves in front of a scene of utter carnage as robots are carrying body parts (they don’t discriminate on species) and dump them in a pit. The boss of this macabre operation, a Chaos Demon, directs the machines against us.

Hello friendly lil’ robots, are we intruding on your covert dismembering operation? Is that a kidney over here? Not that it’s any of our business…
But wait there’s more going on: DJ Chaos Demon is on the floor! Or on the scaffold thing above us, whatever.
But the Blinkblade isn’t here to dance, one robotic boltshooter down!
Deathwalker and Bannerspear summon shadows and banner to improve the ambience .
The Blinkblade quickly gets above, leaving us to deal with the noisy assembly below.
The Blinkblade warps space and time and is now behind the clueless Chaos Demon! He then proceeds to shower us with love (healing) and damage our foes with, huh, the accounts differ on what he showered them with exactly. Was it pebbles, acid rain, melting pee, who knows?
He picks up a chest and now has the DJ station all for himself! Way to go!
Blinkblade: « I’ll kill this dude in no time » Deathwalker: « No, no, please take your time. You know me, killing ruined machines is like the thing I enjoy the most in life. No really, I insist. » Blinkblade: « Fine, fine, let’s procastinate some more, »

Closing Comments:

  • Easy one complicated and delayed by the fact that I needed to kill Ruined Machines for my personal quest. I needed five and now it’s done!
  • This scenario is a bit too rigid on its concept (only one character can go above), limiting artificially our abilities (shadows, teleporting, items and so on), a bad case of suddenly you can’t do this anymore.
  • Chaos demons are, yes, chaotic. Their abilities are all over the place, that’s fun, good design.

Frosthaven – Rusted Tunnels (25)

David Skelector Boardgame, Fantasy, Frosthaven, Play reports

Ahh, I’m not much of a multi-tasker (don’t ask my wife what she thinks of it). I’m always missing several cool moments that I should definitely have taken pictures of but didn’t ’cause I’m too busy with managing my cards or something. This time was worst than usual, don’t know why.

Characters

  • Lazy Liz the Deathwalker (David) lvl 2>>3, sun-averse, why walk when I can teleport
  • Britney the Banner Spear (Mathieu) lvl 5 a great leader, might be related to Bruce
  • Boson the Blink Blade (Guillaume) lvl 5, Master of the 4th dimension

After the last scenario with the elevator we had a choice opened to us, go to the quatryl library or to the rusted tunnels. One sounds a lot cooler than the other but, the fact that there was an alarm system activated on the rusted tunnel was lure enough for my character as she hates ruined machines (her personal quest).

Boson: « Why oh why didn’t we go at the Quatryl Library? »
Britney pierces through a Flaming Bladespinner: « Bah! That’s not so bad! »
« Ok guys we’ve reached the door, now here’s the big question: short or long rest? »
There’s no end to these unfettered coming at us. Let’s collapse the whole thing! No, wait! There’s treasure to take first!
No treasure? Some more Xp then and we’ll call it a day…

Closing Comments:

  • This one should be easy for any party sticking to the scenario goal. Or could go really bad otherwise!
  • The treasure is a good tactical dilemna though as the Blink Blade going for it got surrounded pretty quickly by spawning enemies and thing got a little hairy for a moment. As it was, the Blink Blade gave me the opportunity to kill several ruined machines. I hesitated to continue the destruction of ruined machines but in the end I got ahold of myself and destroyed the debris pile with a good shadow attack less things got too risky for us.