Let's Play: Frostgrave - Solo Battle Report (2nd Edition)  

" If he was trying to push out something huge, that could have been painful." - Best line in the video!

Frostgrave is very friendly for creating DIY scenarios, rules tweeks, new monsters and so on. Simple elegant rules offer endless options. One of the reasons I dont miss GW games :o

Did not realise solo mode was possible. Damn, guess I'm in then!

I love that more monsters can just show up. Makes the city seem more alive... or undead in this case.

Frostgrave really seemed to help shine a light on the potential for solo rules. If you also consider Mr. McCullough's work on Rangers of Shadow Deep, coupled with the events of 2020, I'm glad to see solo rules becoming more of a serious consideration.

How to get more views: Change the title to "Gerry watches Justin playing with himself and tells him how to do it"

Heard a lot of Frostgrave. reminds me a lot of good old Mortheim everytime.

Perilous Dark for 1e still works with 2e, and is an amazing scenario-creation and/or solo play guide for any game, not just Frostgrave.

I’ve only started getting in to wargaming over quarantine and have been keeping an eye on Frostgrave as a possibility. This whole week of Frostgrave has convinced me to finally do it.

I love the fact I can basically custom all my minis for this

Scenarios really make or break solo games like this. Great to see this video and how it plays, fantastic work all.

Play throughs are always appreciated. Thanks guys.

When JERRY talked about the wandering monsters rolling up and mentioned it could be "Zombie Knight" on a high roll....I immediately heard it as "Zombie Night" and had this picture of him rolling a 20 and having to deal with an endless hoade of Zombies coming from everywhere going "brainsssss...brainssss".

Love solo elements in tabletop miniature games...I do not have very many friends that are into tabletop games. Trying to turn them on to how much fun they are. Frostgrave looks like a great gateway into tabletop games.

Pretty cool! I just recently got the first edition of Frostgrave. Played it once and really enjoyed it. Looking forward to BIG world of Frostgrave. Thank you for posting these vids.

Love the variety of videos for Frostgrave week!

In quarantine solo mode with frostgrave. Great times.

In my 1st game I gained 2 levels. I found the spell Invisibility, so I learned that and then reduced the casting cost by one. During gameplay I found my wizard was often off by himself not within 3 inches of soldiers. My hope is to use Invisibility to stay close and out if danger so I can maximize my troop activations every round of play. I have not had the chance to put this theory into practice. Hopefully this weekend I will!

I've been wanting to play FrostGrave for awhile now. Thanks for the tutorial!

Love that there are solo rules!

I love Frostgrave! It's fun to play, the mechanics are simple, the scenarios are interesting, and you can use your existing collection. Thanks Joe.

The solo rules (along with Rangers of Shadowdeep) are what's helped me get through the months of lockdowns. Thank you Joe!

Very cool to see some solo mode. Frostgrave was always just on my radar before, but definitely has my attention now.

Frostgrave is probably one of the best entry level games to show non-wargamers what the hobby is like.

Various comments, based on the rules as written, since this is a bit of a demo for new players. As noted, feel free to play by whatever rules you want, they're your toys: A weapon with +1 to hit is strictly better than a weapon that has +1 to damage. If you have a bonus to hit, it will increase your chance to hit, reduce your chance to be hit, and (because damage is determined by the total "to hit" number) will also increase the damage done when damage is done at all. There are two ways to activate multiple characters during the same wizard or apprentice phase. You can do a "Group Activation", in which each character must move (or pass) as its first action. Note that no movement is required for this option, but any first action can only be movement. This is very useful for bum rushing a single enemy and then all attacking at once. You can also do a regular multiple activation, in which each character does its full turn before the next character does anything. This rule has never been written very clearly, but a perusal of the comments from the author on the Lead Adventure Forum make this clear. Glad you caught your damage error so quickly. It becomes particularly obvious in melee if both characters end on the same number, when both hit. It's entirely possible for both characters to die when the difference between rolls is 0. Ties do not allow a pushback at all; there is no choice for either attacker or defender. Intervening characters (friendly and enemy) do count as obstructions, for a -1 per character in the path of fire. (See Intervening Terrain on page 58.) There is no limit to the number of characters who can get a benefit from friends in a fight. Each set of die rolls is considered to be an entirely new combat. The rules about only a single figure in a combat getting a bonus are simply about bonus cancellation when both sides have support. Critical hits are an optional rule. But if you're using them, monsters can absolutely get crits. Some monsters are immune to crits, though. Per the rules, the only ways to get out of combat are to win a fight or for a caster not in combat to use certain spells on the character in combat. You sort of mention this, but allow an exception (your game, your rules). I only mention this for anyone else watching. Note that when the wraith critted your thief at around 1:11:00 of the video, the fight happened as the wraith's first action. He would have been able to move after eating the thief. I strongly prefer wizards to have a Heal spell, since it can be usefully cast even if you would normally miss the cast. As long as you're within 5 of what you need, you can cast the spell with no net cost and still get the experience. And if you can roll better, you even get hit points. 8-) I would recommend increasing Fight for your wizard by one each game until it's maximized. It _really_ increases your chances of surviving games for both wizard and apprentice, both because you can never tell when you're going to be in melee, and because you use fight to resist missile weapons and damaging spells. Also, if you can't win a melee round, you can't get out of the combat and get back to casting.

Love Gerry's "super easy, barely an inconvenience" t-shirt! awesome reference

This was really helpful for me trying to start a solo campaign for myself.

What a luxury having a Gerry to direct a game. Wish I had one of those!

Very cool board. That terrain room is beyond a kid in a candy store

I like the breakdown of each step in conversation- very helpful! Thanks gents.

A steady and explanation heavy tutorial. Excellent for those just finding their Frostgrave feet.

The closing of 2020 is greatly improved by Frostgrave coverage.

Love seeing the solo videos. With covid, been doing a lot of solo gaming.

I ve been wanting to try solo Frostgrave for a while now. Thanks for the play through.

For me Its really important for solo play. My local group only really plays GW, and I love do many other games. Plus it will let me learn the game, should I be able to get others interested. And its a great way to know how to play when introducing my children into gaming.

Oh. Solo more as well. I didn't know it had that. Very cool. Looks even more appealing now.

Enjoying the freedom this game allows.

Nice to see a battlereport again!

That was a lot of fun to watch. Interesting game mechanics as well. It’s different from most I’ve ever seen

Thanks for doing this! Solo mode is a great way to learn the rules. I'm finding that co-op delves are my preferred way to play nowadays.

This was fun to watch. As for what to improve I think I would want to focus on a favourite spell to make it easier to cast.

Love the solo play option of Frostgrave. Was one of the things that appealed to me most and got me involved with it.

Love the fact that Frostgrave can provide solo play

Nice set of solo rules and a deceivingly “easy” scenario. Get in. Grab the loot. Get out. Should be back before tea, Love.

Nice demo of the game. Table looks great in action as well!

Rule 1 for Frostgrave: Always bring some kind of healing Rule 2 for Frostgrave: Have a plan to deal magic damage. And a reminder for Justin (probably way too late): You can only give soldiers equipment of the same sort they're already using. So a Thug (having an ordinary hand weapon) can't wield a magic two-handed weapon. Have your wizard do it, if you don't have any soldiers carrying big things.

I do love the Frostgrave designs and models.

So noticed 2 errors. The major one: Supporting Figures. The one figure per combat refers to the opposed roll. So in this case the player warband should have had the +2 on all fight checks against that skeleton. Edit: It is literally the first example in the book for that type of situation. The minor one: Damage. You use the total of the combat roll which is the Dice + Fight/Shoot modifiers when determining damage. So if you rolled 12 with a Fight Score of 3 against a target with 10 armor you would deal 15-10= 5 damage to said target.

7:00 Bit late on this (but what's a couple of years between friends?), but formal "group activations" are an optional thing - activating soldiers during the Wizard/Apprentice phase does NOT constitute a group activation unless you specifically declare that's what you're doing. If you aren't, you just activate model A, do both their activations in any order, then activate model B, etc. Nobody ever reads the FAQ...

Fantastic. I just ordered the 2nd Ed hoping there were rules for solo play and it's great to see that there are and that they work well for a close game.

That looks like a lot of fun! Can’t wait to see what other content you guys put out about frostgrave. And the table looks great!

Nice game, solo rules are excellent fun - Perilous Dark is a great add-on. I'm a big fan of the North Star plastic minis - lots of kitbashing potential between the kits and good value for money too.

Thanks for showing solo mode. I've been wanting to see how this works.

Love the terrain! Solo Warband moving into Falstad this Christmas Eve. Great video guy's.

Very helpful! Glad to see it can be played solo... Cheers! Merry Xmas!

Love this weeks coverage. Such an awesome game. Easy to learn hard to master.

Loving this series !

Personally I’d improve my Wizard’s ability to cast spells. That’s literally his only job, casting spells. Might as well make him good at it.

Yay. Solo play. Loving this

My first exposure to Frostgrave, and it looks super fun. So excited for the giveaway, thanks for another awesome video!

Nice battle report, and very nice table buildings, helpful example of solo play. thanks

Really looking forward to trying 2nd edition- Frostgrave is one of my favorite tabletop games, there’s so much thought and flexibility built into the system.

Solo play is a rad feature! I’m loving this game right now

Great fun. Feels similar to Rangers of Shadow Deep, which is awesome, but the spells and the apprentice phase give Frostgrave its own flavour.

solo mode that's so great. I love how you set your tables its very eye catching

I'm totally obsessed with all things tabletop top wargaming..was a heroin addict for 10 years and now tabletop war gaming is my zen and is my go to and has filled the void drugs left behind

That was fun. Now to get acquainted with solo mode.

Just getting into Frostgrave with a friend! This video will help a lot

Great narrative around that action, with the big zed horde appearing n the dramatic beat. I’d probably bump up that wizard’s spell casting options to avoid or buff his combat

Thanks for doing a video covering the solo aspect of the game!

Great walk through! I finally got my son to play a game with me after we watched it! Thanks! Have a great New Year!

Love frostgrave, and solo rules are clutch !right now

I don't know when or if I'll ever get to play this particular game, but that table set up is just inspired.

I'd raise a spell. Your deadliest-offensive spell! Your wizzy-dude can get into the fight!

Hmm, never really looked much into this game before, but it sure is tempting me now that I see more of it!

Glad you did a solo game , as I hope to get Into The Breeding Pits rolled up in my Xmas stocking.

That play with yourself joke deserved a laugh 😂

That terrain has come up lovely on the table. I've never actually played a solo game before, it's definitely going to be an option from here on out.

The terrain looks brilliant in that play through!

Yer a Wizard, Justin! Have fun with Frostgrave.

Time to start breaking out all the craft stuff to make new terrain! I am so hyped for the new addition of Frost grave!

This is great to know. Awesome way to get to learn how to play

Thanks for the battle report. I’m starting to get into Frostgrave and this is giving me a good feel for the game

The solo play looks fairly well thought out.

Cool! We need more solo modes for games!

That's a really good battle report. It shows well the mechanics of the game. I have to try it !

I always love these videos. I want games that have solo mode but then all I want to do is play against opponents.

Any game that is easy to Solo play at the moment is great and this is certainly peeking my interest

Interesting Video, I own the 1st edition books but have never played a game. After watching the first 15 minutes of the game, I too thought it was too easy and that Justin would just walk away with the win. BOOOOOOOM on come the zombies, Wraiths and even an undead troll and down goes Justin's thugs and thieves. The 2nd half of the game, very impressive and enjoying the rules much more now!

I love the look of this game. I haven't got any of the rule books but own the Frostgrave gnoll and soldier set. I originally bought them for use in D&D, but I'm now really interested on the actual game. Great vid! Have subscribed for more.

Just getting into Frostgrave so this is just what I needed!

Great report!!

Wooop Woop. Merry crimbo. love a bit of frost grave

Love the coop option.

A great game with three modes of play. Plenty of expansion packs too.

I love the idea of a game that can go solo as well as pvp

Just getting into Frostgrave,this will help me learn the rules and solo play and to play with myself until we can start gaming together. The Frostgrave minis are highly recommended and a joy to customise especially with parts from other sets. Stargrave next year highly anticipated.

Thats was a good introduction to the game and enjoyable to watch.

Solo game is the best thing that could happen to Frostgrave, I love the idea ...

Love the look of this game, can't wait to give solo play a go!