Frostgrave Terrain Tiles - Part 3

Previously, on Frostgrave Terrain Tiles

So I have now painted up all of the terrain tiles bar one - which had come unstuck from its base. The plan to vary the colours on the mosaic tiles has been shelved for the moment, simply because getting just the grey colouring down was taking an AGE. The texture required quite a bit of work to get all the blue covered by the Paynes Grey. Once the basecoat was completed the dry brushing went fairly swiftly, though. The biggest issue was ensuring that the effect remained constant between boards. I'm happy to have a bit of variation, but I didn't want any glaring discrepancies.

I had previously been vexed by a way to stop the tiles sliding around, but a trip to the local Poundland furnished me with a selection of stick-on felt circles, designed as anti-scratch pads to go on the bottom of furniture. I stuck five of these to the bottom of each tile, one in each corner and one in the centre, and then spread out a sheet of black felt used for space-gaming. The felt pads grip onto the felt sheet and hold the tiles in place very securely. If it's good enough for Fuzzy-Felt, it's good enough for Frostgrave!

With the tiles completed, I took the opportunity to set them up with the MDF modular dungeon now being sold by John at laser-model.store. John has picked up the old Figurebitz line and offers a range of quality, affordable MDF kits - th Tudor style houses are gorgeous (if only I had the space to store them) and he's a very approachable chap. I have the spy/sci-fi version of the modular dungeon still in kit form. I thoroughly recommend his wares.

Anyway, here's the eye-candy:

32 years worth of miniatures battle it out.

They're statues. Just plain, ordinary, statues, honestly (secretly rolls initiative).

"Nevermind how a giant dragon got in through that door, hit it!"

Ice wall made from acrylic ice chunks hot glued together.

Sneaky spiders prepare for a rear attack...

The stone effect is just a light over spray of white , brown and black. I need to add some washes and maybe a bit of flock here and there as dungeon mould and lichen. 

The bars are actually metallic, but the flash washed them out. some rust effects might pick them up.

Nine tiles in a 3x3 grid on the black felt underlay. Solid as a rock.

Slight gaps between tiles where the knife wasn't quite vertical. 

 I'm extremely happy with the way the tiles have come out. I intend to make some moveable snow drifts and ice patches for Frostgrave, but these boards can serve double duty for all sorts of games. With the right dressing they could be used for any sort of urban terrain. I can see them with chain link, rubble and ruins for use in some sort of GrimDark future or as an arena for some sort of gladiatorial game.

Frostgrave Terrain Tiles - Part 2

Following the test piece I looked at in the last post, I have moved ahead and created my first full board. It actually began as another experiment on one of the "bad" pieces of foam. I wanted to test the glue I had chosen, so I took one of my 30cm square pieces of MDF and stuck the "bad " piece to it. I have used Uhu All Purpose, solvent free glue for this, available from places like Amazon and Hobbycraft amongst others for about £3 per tube. 

I chose this because it's polystyrene friendly and will cure in the absence of air, which PVA and wood glues won't do. I often see people use lashings of PVA to fix large areas together, like sheets of styrofoam for terrain projects, but what they don't realise is that whilst the glue around the edges will cure, it will stay liquid in the middle. I've taken large pieces of terrain apart that have been in use for years and found the PVA still wet in the middle of large areas. It also needed to be solvent free, as solvent based glues will melt the polystyrene.

I applied the glue to the MDF and affixed the XPS (extruded polystyrene) sheet to it. In a couple of places I had been a bit generous and glue squished out the edges like an overfilled, sticky doughnut. Once I cleaned up the excess I found that the corners had lifted away, so added some extra glue there and used some small clamps to hold the sheet down. The glue set quickly and the piece was solidly stuck within about 30 minutes. I left it overnight just to be sure.

I checked the next day and there was no sign of melting or warping, and the sheet was firmly attached across its entire width. I then decided to try out the slabs effect on a larger scale (area 4 in the previous post). I gridded the sheet with 25cmm squares using a ballpoint pen. I also cut out the damaged area of the sheet, making it into a square recess. I plan to create a couple of drop-ins for this area; a trap door from balsa, a grating from some wire mesh and maybe a well or pool of some kind as well.

I then grabbed my handy rock samples and began to press them into the foam. I'd done about half the sheet when I decided to try out another technique. I must confess I have completely forgotten where I first heard of this, but I do remember one of my dad's old model railway books talking about using crumpled tinfoil to create rock faces.

I took a sheet of tinfoil and scrunched it into a tight ball. I then rolled the ball around on the sheet of foam, pressing it into the surface. The effect was remarkably similar to that produced by using the rock samples, but much easier and less time consuming to do. 

I then used the same painting techniques as I used on the sample piece; dark grey (Payne's grey) base coat, mid grey drybrush and then a light ivory highlight.

The completed piece

Close up detail. 

Stack of XPS sheets glued to MDF squares.

"YOU SHALL NOT... oh, alright then, off you go."

I am very pleased with the outcome, and will probably be using this technique for most of the rest of the sheets. The longest bit is applying the Payne's grey basecoat, as you have to get every nook and cranny or the blue shows through quite glaringly.

With the success of this piece I decided to try experimenting some more, and have started doing a few "character" pieces. The one below is a mix of cobblestones and slabs. AGG suggested that the cobblestones could be painted as a mosaic or even use different colours to reflect the use of reclaimed stones.

I also have some smaller sheets, about A5 size, that are much thicker, at least 25mm thick. I plan to texture these as-is to use as risers to add some 3-dimensional interest to the city. Finally, I also have some very large sheets in the shed that are also around 25mm thick. I may use these to create some dramatic terrain pieces like docksides or a stepped plaza of some kind. Watch this space!

Frostgrave Terrain Tiles

This week I have been working on some terrain tiles for Frostgrave. For those who have been living in a cave or on the dark side of the moon and aren't familiar with Frostgrave it is a fantasy skirmish game set in a magically frozen sity of Felstad. Each player controls a wizard and their apprentice and a band of merry cutthroats and vicious warriors. Wizards fight to recover treasures amongst the ruins with the ultimate aim of becoming powerful enough to cast a spell that allows them to discard their mortal shell and ascend to a higher plane of consciousness.

It's a fun game with some nice, if fairly rudimentary, campaign rules and myself and AGG have been thinking about playing it for a while. I have a variety of terrain pieces, a mixture of GF9 Battlefield in a Box, Pegasus Hobbies Gothic Building Sets and various Conflix pieces, plus some odds and ends from an old Mordheim campaign that I will re-use. I've also been painting up some of my 28/32mm Fantasy figures in preparation, including this 30 year old Citadel Winged Fire Demon.

I have been considering various different options for the base terrain for Frostgrave. Initially I was going to use some textured wallpaper glued to MDF boards. I now have two different rolls of textured wallpaper and neither are quite right. I then saw a post showing buildings made from 6mm XPS under-floor heating insulation boards. These boards are made from the ubiquitous "blue foam" extruded polystyrene (hence XPS) and are available from an array of sources including Amazon, Ebay and a variety of online retailers. I have seen them as low as £3.50 for a 600mm x 1200mm sheet. They are also available in differing thicknesses as well, so you can get 6mm, 8mm and 10mm.

Blue foam sheets. Not the most exciting picture I have ever posted.

I picked up two for less than £10 from an ebay retailer and they arrived very quickly, with free shipping as well, which was nice. I cut the boards into 30cm squares using a long ruler and a Stanley knife with a fresh blade. The foam will quickly blunt the blade on your knife, so as soon as you see it dragging or tearing the foam instead of slicing, it's time to swap blades. I have no idea how such of soft material blunts the blade so quickly, but it does. 

The sheets were advertised as 600mm x 1200mm, but they were ever-so slightly larger, probably about 610mm by 1260mm, so I had to trim the edges slightly. I used a set-square and a long ruler to make sure the cuts were all at right angles and switched to 30cm non-slip ruler and a standard craft knife once the long cuts were done. It's important to try and keep the knife vertical whilst making the cuts, or the tiles won't line up evenly after you have cut them.

The two sheets gave me 16 30cm x 30 cm tiles, enough for a roughly 4ft x 4ft grid. I'm intending to try Frostgrave on a 3ft x 3ft board first and see if it's the right size. Two of the tiles included areas that were damaged in transit, so I relegated those to test pieces. That means I have enough tiles for a 3ft x 4ft board at the moment, with two spare "good" tiles and two "bad" tiles.

The plan is to affix the foam tiles to 30cm square 6mm MDF tiles which I had cut from a larger 1220mm x 606mm sheet by my local hardware store (B&Q for those in the UK - if you buy your wood from them they will cut it for you free of charge in many stores). The plan is to add the EVA tiles to the MDF to strengthen them and add a bit of weight to stop them sliding around. I'm tentatively thinking of some way to join all the squares together to avoid moving everything around whilst they are in play, but haven't go very far with the concept. At the moment it's either going to be a collapsible framework or possibly just velcro strips and dots on the undersides.

I have used one of the "bad" tiles to test a number of possible finishes. One of the advantages of XPS foam is that it is strong and dense and can be carved and scribed without crumbling into the little balls that the more common expanded polystyrene (EPS) suffers from. It does have the same drawback that it reacts badly to solvents and many aerosol propellants. Spraying EPS or XPS with rattlecans will cause the surface to melt and shrink and give off stinky fumes. So, hand painting or airbrush is the way to go.

I textured the board in a variety of ways (see below), then painted with some cheap craft acrylics from The Works. I used a dark blue-grey for the base, then a cool grey for a heavy mid-tone drybrush. The final highlights were made using a light drybrush of an ivory/off white. The image below shows the various finishes.

Area 1 is comprised of "crazy paving". This is simply a pattern of random shapes drawn into the foam using a ballpoint pen. It crushes the foam and leave s a nice seam between the slabs. Some areas were "scribbled" on to mimic the depression left behind by a missing stone.

Area 1 - crazy paving

Area 2 uses a rough 1 inch grid to represent more regular flagstones. I lightly drew a grid on in pencil then used the ballpoint to draw around each flagstone. Drawing round each one, rather than just drawing a grid, gives a more natural feel to the flagstones, and rounds off the corners slightly. Cracks and missing pieces were added randomly.

Area 2 - Flagstones

Area 3 is comprised of small cobbles or bricks drawn by hand. small O's abd C's are drawn into the foam using the ballpoint pen, so they abut one another. This is a very time consuming process and there is a tendency for the foam to tear if you aren't careful.

Area 3 - hand drawn cobblestones

Area 4 is perhaps the most interesting. This has been created by pressing the rough end of a broken piece of rock into the foam (actually two pieces of rock, a sample of granite and basalt from my OU geology sample set). The random texture of the rock creates a very realistic rock-like effect (which is probably to be expected since I'm using a rock to simulate rock). The gaps between the slabs were created using the sharp edge of the rock samples, and aren't as defined as I'd like.

Area 4 - stone slabs

Area 5 is cobblestones created using a pen cap and the eraser cap from a propelling pencil. In both cases they were simply pressed into the foam to create an overlapping pattern. I have also seen an example of cobblestones created this way using a rectangular shape made from reshaping some brass tube. There is still a bit of space on the sheet, so I may see if I can find a suitable tube to try this out with.These methods have the advantage of being fairly quick, but the results seem to be much less controllable than the other methods. The pen cap is far too large, but the eraser cap from the propelling pencil looks OK. 

Area 5 - cobblestones again

I have also tried a 6th technique on the other "bad" piece, which is to scrunch up a ball of tinfoil and roll this around on the surface, pressing it in. This leave a random texture similar to the stone but is MUCH quicker and easier to do. This sheet is in the process of being painted right now, but I'll add it once complete.

So, which option do you think looks best? I'm torn between the cobblestones and the rock-effect slabs. I may actually mix it up, and add in some designs to the slabs, so I can mix the techniques up a bit. I also think a variety of styles will make the frozen city much more interesting. Let me knw your thoughts in the comments below.

Mighty Armies Campaign Game 5

My two nephews, Orc and Goblin, came over today to continue our irregular series of campaign games for Mighty Armies. We're slowly putting together a nice set of simple campaign rules, and have now introduced favoured units, random events and attrition.

The attrition rules are simple. Each leader can raise as many armies as he likes. Each turn that an army fights it has to be paid for in Gold equal to it's AP cost (usually 44). This represents wages, tribute, the cost of ingredients to keep undead troops animate or dead rats and shiny things for the Lizardmen (who love their bling). After each battle replacements for the the lost troops then also have to be paid for in the same way, or the AP cost of the destroyed units are deducted from the available pool in the next battle as reserves are drawn in to fill the ranks. After each battle the winning side also gains plunder and loot equal to 1d6 x 10 Gold. The losing side gets nothing. In addition to the two villages that generate 20 and 10 gold each, each lair now also generates 20 Gold per turn.

I've drawn up a simple random event table, and once each turn the players roll on it to see what happens:

Roll
2	Omen from the Gods: Your priests receive a fortuitous omen from the gods. You get three re-rolls to use in any of your battles this turn, and instead of automatically routing you get to choose if your army breaks when it reaches 50% strength.
3	Mercenaries: Two stands of Dwarven mercenaries (standard troop types only, no special abilities) offer to join your side for a share of the spoils. You can recruit them for double their AP cost to fight in any one battle.
4	Scouts: Your advanced scouts have found important information about your next battlefield, giving you a tactical advantage. After army setup you may move one of your units by 3 inches in any direction.
5	Healer: A healer offers to join your army for one of your battles. Once, when a unit is destroyed, roll a die. On a 4-6 that unit is instead moved back to your base-line. May not be used on flying units.
6	Struck Gold. One of your mines discovered a rich vein of ore this turn. Gain 10 Gold.
7	No event
8	Famine! One of your villages is stricken by plague and produces 10 Gold less than normal. If you have no villages left, you lose 2 AP from the next battle.
9	Plague! For the first battle this turn your troops fight at an additional -1 in for the first three turns
10	Bad Information! On your first turn of the first battle you get 2 MP less than the rolled number. If you roll a 1, you also lose 1MP from your roll on turn 2.
11	Deserters! Some of your units have fled. You have 2 AP less for your first battle this turn.
12	Raiders! You must fight off an additional attack from raiders this turn. They will have a 40p army with no flying units or spell casters and will attack the closest un-invaded territory to your HQ. Any unengaged army can be used to fight them off. If you are beaten, that territory produces nothing this turn.

I've also created a turn tracker with different seasons on it, so we can start to do some interesting things with weather if battles take place in the winter, for instance, or with gold for harvest time and planting in autumn and spring.

We rolled events for this turn and Orc, running the Barbarian Hordes, got a Famine. Goblin, running the undead army got Plague, and queried how undead troops could catch the plague. I suggested it could be an infestation of rats or bloodworms or a magical malaise that had come over the controlling necromancer. I got Bad Information - so not a great turn all round.

There are four battles this turn, as the campaign map below shows.

We fought Orc's Barbarians attacking the town (Alchemist), defended by Goblins Undead.

Both sides created their armies using 44 points and including flying units. This battle saw the début of some new units for both sides. The Barbarians had some Berserkers (Heavy Infantry, Horde, Fearless) and the Undead had a bone Chariot (chariot) and some Spectres (Heavy Infantry, Flying, Horde).

The battle lines were drawn up:

We ruled that the walled compound to the south could be entered and units placed inside, but the walls blocked line of sight and halted movement (as you had to climb over them. The round tower and the watchtower were impassible to all but flying units and the other building delineated an area of the town that blocked line of sight and was difficult going, so we'd just move them around as needed to accommodate units moving in and out of the town.

I've had a few people comment that the previous reports "helicopter view" wasn't the best, so I've tried to get a few more action shots this time. I won't do a full blow by blow account, but try and let the pictures show the sequence of events:

Skeleton scouts in the village.

The Spectres take flight and advance on the left flank, but the Barbarian Shaman binds one of them in place.

The bone beast moves up in the centre, as the Wolfpack advances on the Undead right flank.

The Spectres elect to leave the bound unit behind and continue their advance.

The Undead chariot decides to switch flanks, and races across the Undead rear area

Turn 3. The Barbarians have been plagued by low MP rolls, whilst the Undead have had good rolls. The Barbarian Berserkers are trying to engage the Wolfpack on the left, but their slow speed is hampering them, and all they can see is difficult terrain in front of them.

The Lich (general) moves up to support the bone beast and scouts in the village.

The Spectres charge the Barbarian shaman and rout him....

But are counter charged by the Barbarian King and his favoured unit of Bison Cavalry. They have the Shieldbreaker spacial ability, so get to roll two dice in the first round of combat. 

The Spectres lose a unit and are pushed back, just in time for the Shaman to blast them with a fireball.

Meanwhile, the Direwolf is charged by the Wolfpack. The Wolfpack is the Undead favoured unit and have Dragon Forged Lances (or claws, in this instance) giving them a +1 bonus to charges. They beat the Direwolf, forcing it to retreat, but their rampager ability allows them to follow up and move back into contact!

The Direwolf defends himself and routs the Wolfpack, killing one of them. He is then joined by the Barbarian King and Shieldbreaker cavalry to face the Lich. The Barbarian Shaman binds the bone beast and chariot in place, as the Beserkers slowly move into the village to try a rear attack. 

The Barbarians charge the Lich, but are driven back (terrible roll for the Barbarians, great for the Undead), losing a stand of the Shieldbreaker Cavalry. The Bone Chariot picks off the birdman who had been spotting for the Shaman. 

The Barbarians re-organise and prepare to receive charge, The Beserkers just aren't fast enough to get through the town in time to help.

Barbarians Rally, Bone Chariot snipes the Shaman and the Lich Rallies as the Beserkers amble through the village.

Barbarians decide to charge again, and are beaten back, again.  Berserkers emerge from the village, but are still too far away to help. The Barbarians only need to lose one more unit to rout.

The end.... surrounded on all sides and charged from the rear, the Barbarian King is defeated.

A bad day for the Barbarians, who fail to seize the town from the Undead. They also have to fight off an attack from the Lizardmen this turn. The undead gain 50 Gold from the victory, but also have to fight off the Orcs at the Town, and are attacking the Orcs at the Fletchers. Could be a costly round for them...

Mighty Armies Campaign Game 3 - Orcs Vs. Undead at the Fletcher's Cottage

Our third battle of the Mighty Armies campaign saw Goblin's Undead face off against MBB's Orcs (actually my orcs, but MBB has no 10mm fantasy, so it was that or face off against the 3rd Reich in 6mm). It also saw the return of my patent pending "Shake-a-tron 3000 Blur-o-matic" mobile phone photography technique. Next game I WILL remember the proper camera.

The Orcs and undead legions were facing off for ownership of the Fletcher's Cabin. As a reminder, possession of this upgrades archers by 1 level, so from shooting 1 to shooting 2, shooting 2 to Long Ranged and Long Range to Artillery Range. The Undead started with possession, and also had the explosive ammo for their catapult as a result of holding the town with it's attendant Alchemist from the invading barbarian hordes in game 1. 

The cabin was placed in the centre and then 5 stands of trees were placed, alternating placement by each side with a random roll giving the Undead first placement. Goblin made a bit of a boo-boo here and placed three of the stands near his baseline. He had quite a shooty army build, with Long Ranged archers and the exploding ammo of his catapult, but he reduced their effectiveness by putting them all behind the LOS blocking trees. The Orcs Flying Beast had Scout, so could setup further forward than the other troops.

Setup

Turn 1
Turn 1 started with the undead making an aggressive charge up the centre with their wolf packs, and the bone beast levitating into the air to confront the Orcs flying beast. The Bone Beast and Flying Beast would proceed to dogfight for the next 3 turns, diving away or drawing in combat each turn.

The Orcs responded by advancing across the board, with all units pushing forward.

Turn 1

Turn 2
Limited movement on turn 2. The Undead moved up their heavies, the Vampire and Mummies, on the right and began to move their archers forward, looking to get out of the woods. The Orcs began to consolidate their right flank, advancing the Trolls and the Orc archers.

Turn 2

Turn 3
The limitations of the Shake-a-tron 3000 show up here, as all the other pictures apart from the one below of turns 3 and 4 are useless. On turn 3 the Undead advanced their wolf packs to the right and the Vampire and General straight forward setting up to threaten the flanks of any Orc cavalry charge. Unfortunately they were a bit premature, as the orcs general split off from the cavalry and advanced around the woods to allow the cavalry to use their mobility and charge the wolf packs and destroy them all. The undead archers continued to stroll through the woods as the trolls and Orc Archers moved into a position guarding the Orcs right flank.

Turn 4
On turn 4 the archers reached the edge of the wood and a gentleman's agreement said that the two half-stands that were out of the woods were as good as a single stand, so they had a pot-shot at the trolls. The mouldering bowstrings of the skeleton archers proved effective and one unit of trolls met their end. On the opposite side of the battlefield the Vampire Lord split off from the mummies to meet up with the single stand of undead cavalry and form another attacking force. The mummies advanced through the woods.  The dogfight between the bone beast and flying beast was concluded as the magics animating the bone beast were disrupted by the flying beasts attacks and it fell to the ground in pieces. On the Orcs turn the cavalry trampled over the corpses of the wolf packs to charge the Mummies. The now unoccupied Flying beast dropped down behind the mummies to support the attack. The combat was very close, and a single stand was destroyed. The mummies would have been pushed back, and thus destroyed by their retreat being blocked by the flying beast behind them, but they were fearless, so didn't need to retreat.

Turn 3/4

Turn 5
Turn 5 was over quite quickly. On their right flank the Orc archers fired on the skeleton bowmen emerging from the forest and killed one unit. On their left flank the Orc wolf rider cavalry and bone beast once again attacked the Mummies and destroyed the last stand. With more than 50% of his forces destroyed, the Vampire Lord was forced from the field and the Fletcher was left to the tender mercies of the Orcs.

With the first full campaign turn over the campaign map looks like this:

The Orcs and Lizard-men both own 4 territories and 2 special locations. The Undead have 3 territories and 1 special location and the Barbarians have been pushed back to just 2 locations. Next turn sees the Barbarians attack the Wizards Tower, the Orcs attack the Town, the Undead attack the Mill and the Lizard-men attack the Barbarians +10gp location. Favoured units will start appearing at the end of the next campaign turn too.