Into the Frozen City

Concept:
For the inaugural Spotlight article, we're looking at the Black Order's first steps into the world of Frostgrave! Or more accurately, into the city of Rîmagrad. Ancient beyond measure, Rîmagrad is a city long ago conquered by the Dark and transformed into a necropolis. Functionally, it's a perfect proxy for Felstad.

The 'hook' for the Order's Frostgrave warband came when I played a couple games with some friends, and liked the system enough to try a campaign: Thaw of the Lich Lord. This suits the Order perfectly thematically as it's about preventing an ancient lich from rising and reconquering the lands of the living - ideal for the Ne Cede Malis setting.

In the first game we played, the Thaumaturge I created (Seven Mountain Wounded Elk, as he's known to his mates) was taken out of action and the entire warband slaughtered by undead. Rather than take this as a sign that the Order's stars were ill-fated, I decided this would be an excellent hook for the Order to redouble its efforts - and send one of its captains into the city with a band of veterans to discover just what became of Seven Mountain.

For the longest time I've had the urge to do an 'out-of-combat' diorama for my warband, showing the various warband members resting, recovering, training, and generally preparing for the next encounter.

Something like a 'party screen' in a video RPG, or, if you're old enough to remember it, the actual camp area in a game like Dragon Age: Origins.

Using my SAGA display board and some old scenery pieces, I've started to mess around a bit with an out-of-game area for my warband, as seen below:

Models:

This is a pretty mixed bunch:

-Vaclav, Mikulas and Reiftyr: Fireforge Spanish Heavy Infantry bodies with a Fireforge Templar head and another from the Fireforge Russian kit, Fireforge Forgotten World Northmen arms and Fireforge Templar shields - plus obligatory green stuffed fur pelts.

-Knight-Initiate Casimir: Pretty involved! A Fireforge Living Dead body greenstuffed to cover up wounds and holes, with Frostgrave Soldier arms, a heater shield of unknown provenance, and a helm from a third party STL for the Conquest game by Para Bellum downsized slightly.

-Leif and Torrek: Wolves from Iron Gate Scenery.

-Knight-Captain Tyr: Body from Guillaume le Pélerin by Mierce Miniatures, arms from the Perry Miniatures Foot Knights set, sword from Gripping Beast Viking Hirdmen, and a helm from the Vile and Valiant STLs.

-One Jackal Laughing Slaughter: Body from the Tibetan sherpa set by Crusader Miniatures, spade from the Fireforge Living Dead Peasants sprue, bird from one of the Frostgrave Wizard kits.

-Bjaering: Body from Perry Agincourt English archers, head from Gripping Beast Dark Age infantry, cloak from Fireforge Templars, fur sculpted.

-Tolmir: Body from Otherworld Miniatures, head from Gripping Beast Dark Age infantry.

On the tabletop:

So far (we're on scenario 4 at the time of writing) it's been a blast. I'm using the Heritor rules from Ghost Archipelago to represent Knight-Captain Tyr, and as you'll see above, I've chosen Heritor abilities which suggest martial prowess or great resolve, rather than magical ability, befitting a mortal human.

For the rest of the warband, I've gone with a pretty straightforward set of melee fighters to support Tyr (as befits the Order's way of fighting) with a single Ranger to scout ahead, as well as a pair of war hounds to give Tyr those critical outnumbering bonuses in combat! Meanwhile, One Jackal - the sole spellcaster in the group - uses a healing spell and a lightning bolt spell to provide a bit of ranged support and keep the enemy's shooters from putting too much pressure on the Order's knights.

Now back to the corpse-city of Rîmagrad - on to scenario 4!