Frostgrave is
a fantasy warband skirmish game with a strong campaign element. I reviewedit early in this year for the blog.
This game has generated the most supplements of all of the games that
Osprey has produced on their own. Force-on-Force and Bolt Action have generated more, but they were a joint effort with
other gaming companies; Ambush Alley and Warlord respectively. I have no idea about sales but based on
publications Frostgrave might be
their most successful game yet.
This review will look at the following supplements for Frostgrave; The Thaw of the Liche Lord,
Into the Breeding Pits, Forgotten Pacts, and Frostgrave Folio. Since these are all supplements to the main
book the review structure here is going to be a little different. I will not be going over what I like or do
not like about each book as I normally do.
Instead, I will just touch on a few highlights of each one. There is not really enough content in each
book to cover it in-depth individually without giving it all away.
The Thaw of the
Liche Lord
This was the first supplement and it deals heavily with
undead and undead encounters in the Frozen City. It is actually a campaign book and as such
focuses rightly on adding new scenarios linked by a storyline. I will leave it up to your discretion on how
successful it is, but considering that the theme of Frostgrave is RIVAL wizards trying gain loot; it has a tall
challenge ahead of it. I would say the
constraints of the main game are what let the campaign down. More importantly, it adds new scenarios for
you to play to avoid falling into a rut with the game so there is that!
The book adds some new treasures, new bestiary, and a
couple of new spells. There is also a
new path that your wizard can take to become a Liche themselves. I think some of the most exciting elements
are the new soldiers such as bard, Crow Master, and Javelineer. However, the most interesting might be the
Pack Mule that can carry multiple items for your wizard. The new Homunculus spell gives you a way to
avoid wizard permanent death, and the revenant spell does the same for
henchman. Both of these are useful for a
warband skirmish game.
Overall, I am not convinced that this is a must buy.
Into the Breeding
Pits
This book takes us beneath the Frozen City. That means there are new rules for setting up
your board, doorways, ceilings, lighting etc.
One of the most exciting additions is traps. This is something I felt was missing from the
core rules (and were probably originally cut for space) that make a lot of
sense in the setting. I also loved the
idea of trapped treasures as well. There
are suitable bestiary, scenarios, and treasures to go with the new
location. To me these rules add the most
to potentially change up your games of Frostgrave
and keep them fresh. These allow you to
use boards and adventure tiles from other games and really expand what you can
do with this game system.
There is also a new magic form called Beastcrafting. There are three levels and as you progress
you gain more animal-like traits and bonuses.
However, it also becomes harder to recruit to soldiers to your warband. Again, it was a new added and interesting
path that your wizard can take.
There are new soldiers to go with the tunnel theme. This time they added a Trap Expert and a
Tunnel Fighter. Both seem like worthy
additions to a warband.
The biggest change to the game is the introduction of
Reaction Spells. These allow a
spell-caster to act out of sequence and “interrupt” with a spell of their
own. There are a few for some schools
and they generally are weaker than normal spells. However, their introduction gives the first
glimpse of adding a core mechanic outside of the main rulebooks. The rest of the stuff is just chrome and logical
extensions of what is there in the core rules.
I think this book is a worthy buy to add onto your Frostgrave experience.
Forgotten Pacts
This book delves into a new path for your wizard to
follow. It allows your wizard to forge
pacts with extradimensional beings. There
are some trade-offs when dealing with such creatures so in exchange for power
in one area, you are going to have to mitigate some challenge for your
warband. Now, your wizard can choose a
few different paths to go down from pacts, the beastcrafting, to Lichedom; all
are interesting and valid choices.
Like the other supplements this one adds more treasures,
soldiers, scenarios, and spells. This
one also allows you to add summoned creatures permanently into your warband and
make them a bit more unique than the standard ones in the rules. Summoning is one of my favorite schools of
magic so these additions were welcomed by me.
The soldier add-ons were Assassins (everyone’s
favorite?), demonic servants, Monks, Mystical warriors, and Demon Hunters. These are useful in some situations and for a
specific purpose in your warband. Plus,
it will help you theme a warband based on your wizards preference.
The bestiary also introduces Barbarians to the bestiary,
where Into the Breeding Pits adds gnolls, and Thaw of the Liche Lord adds Death
Cultists. However, these Barbarians are
somewhat unique as they also can have semi-magical brands called Burning
Marks. These give them some additional
perks during the game, and are something you can add to your warbands too.
This one I am a bit torn on. I love the added summoning details, but
overall I think it is a book you can pass on if you choose. If you run a Summoner’s Warband the book
maybe of more interest to you.
Frostgrave Folio
This is a compilation of all of the smaller DLC stuff
that Osprey has put out over the last few years of publishing Frostgrave.
That means if you got the DLC you do not need the Folio. I however, passed on the DLC so picked it up
here in one handy book instead. It also
added one new mini-campaign.
There are three mini-campaigns in this book; Hunt for the
Golem, Dark Alchemy, Arcane Locations, and The Ravages of Time. Dark Alchemy is good as it is designed for
starting warbands and solo-play so the challenges are scaled back and the
treasures smaller. It is a good way to
level up a lagging or new warband to a campaign. The Ravages of Time campaign
is also interesting as it is set-up to force cooperation between warbands. This is an interesting direction as almost
all Frostgrave scenarios are
competitive loot grabbing exercises.
Hunt for the Golem and Arcane Locations are more traditional
scenarios.
This book has two big draws. The first is the expanded Potions rules found
in Dark Alchemy. You now have a way to
brew up Elixirs of Life to help avoid Wizard death. In addition, there are now greater and lesser
potions to be discovered.
The second big draw is the Sellsword rules. These are all about adding a non-wizard model
who can level up and gain experience too.
I am all about adding more leveling opportunities in a campaign game
like this. They are a bit expensive in
Gold, but make up for it with gaining skills and giving you another model that
can use Group activate, even if it is more limited. This is a very cool addition to your
games.
I think this is a good book to add for Dark Alchemy and
Sellswords alone. The rest is just icing.
Final Thoughts:
At this time I will simply remind you of this nugget from
my initial review of Frostgrave:
There is no
depth to the mechanics and the games will get samey and stale. You or
your group will have to work to keep building fresh and interesting takes on
the same “Loot” scenario again and again. Plus, the core mechanics are so
streamlined and simple that there is no real strategy or tactics; just parlor
tricks.
After reading through the supplements, I feel vindicated
in this analysis. Essentially, all of
these supplements are an attempt to get over this initial problem in the core
mechanics of trying to make the same scenario interesting over and over again. For the most part, they have succeeded in
adding some needed depth to the scenarios, warbands, and magic. However, they are still more parlor
tricks.
The biggest add-on to actually improving the core
mechanics are the Reaction Spells. These
allow a caster to actually react to actions other than using the alternate
activation mechanics in the core game.
The other big change is the Sellswords material as it also strays away
from what has come before.
In summary, if I could only get one new supplement it
would be Into the Breeding Pits. If I could get a second I would add the Frostgrave Folio. The other two are nice supplements, but they
are just nice to haves.