Frostgrave Wizard Battle (1 of 2)

 

The Mordheim 5-a-Side project was a success, with several of us getting the core of a skirmish force finished and ready to hit the table.  With Frostgrave 2nd edition due to be released (and on sale by the time of writing), I thought that adding a pair of magic users to the five figs from the 5-a-Side project would be a fun and achievable goal, hopefully made all the more so by doing it in concert with a few others.  The guidelines were:

PAINT A MAGIC USER AND THEIR APPRENTICE, APPROPRIATE FOR USE IN FROSTGRAVE.

(NB, if these two match the theme of your Mordheim Challenge, then you now have a playable Frostgrave force).

The criteria were intended to be broad enough to allow people to paint figures to match a previous project, or head off on a tangent.  I liked the idea of the projects stacking on top of each other, breaking down the substantial task of painting a table worthy force into smaller chunks, but it was up to everyone involved to individually decide whether they wanted to take that approach.  The goal was to get as many of us involved and collaborating as possible, rather than get worked up about very strict guidelines.

Below is what five of us came up with, more to follow.

Axiom – Thaumaturge Assaul Arev and apprentice Ryek

‘Since you painted up a Mordheim warband,’ says Cheetor ‘why don’t you paint up a pair of matching wizards, and then you can play Frostgrave as well?’  Just two more models to convert my Mordheim warband into a playable Frostgrave band?  I could definitely get on board with that.  The Frostgrave Challenge was a nice neat way to maximise potential gaming opportunities, and unlike the lengthy gestation period with my Citadel Guard these were spontaneous figures made on the hoof from the depths of my bitz box.  And so I present to you my Thaumaturge Assaul Arev and his apprentice Ryek.

Assaul Arev is a high priest of the religion known as the Children of Ar.  Worshippers believe that positive energy (and the powers of the priesthood) come from a solar deity known as Ar.  Unlike most Thaumaturges, priests of Ar show their devotion with extravagant costumes of gold-dyed cloth, heavily laden with golden ornaments.  Most striking of all are the sunburst golden masks that each member of the priesthood wears.

I painted this pair in a loosely inverted colour scheme to their accompanying soldiers – going heavy on the yellow and gold.  Assaul Arev is made from the upper body of the Empire character Balthazar Gelt, with plastic legs.  Ryek is an old Citadel fighter with an added staff and mask.  I’m looking forward to using both wizards and their warband in some skirmishes in a ruined city of one kind or another!

Sean - Ambiguously Magical Duo Magnus and Telor

Who can tell me the spell component for the “Flames of Death” spell.  Ooh!  Ooh!  Pick me!"

I have to say I love wizard models.  I have many in my “collection” and most are unpainted, but there is just something fun about them in a way that the other fantasy tropes just don’t grab me.  Perhaps it is because of my love for Ralph Bakshi’s Gandalf the Grey, Merlin in Excalibur and Tim the Enchanter in The Holy Grail.  And of course let’s not forget Adventure Time’s Ice King, with his stank old wizard eyes.

As Cheetor talked about his idea for a Frostgrave Wizard and Apprentice Challenge and how the Advanced Heroquest and Heroquest wizards are a natural Sorcerer and Apprentice pair, I got excited to paint more of my AHQ figures.  So I appropriated his idea and got to work on Magnus the Bright.

My overall concept was that as you progress through the colleges of magic you get progressively darker colors.  Think martial arts belt systems.  So Magnus got a orangey red frock.  Telor got a yellow cloak.

At some point I may try to print the gamedecor wizard as the grandpa wizard, but I need to work out my 3D printer settings.  My attempts at printing Telor all failed and I had to resort to an eBay purchase.

Bazpaz – Paulus and De’Bora

Excerpt from Wizards Wives Weekly – ‘Well what is it that first attracted you to Paulus? Was it that he had the biggest wizard’s staff, or maybe the snazzy matching green outfits? or maybe it was his secluded Wizards Tower deep in an enchanted forest?’

'None of these really. We are not married.  Have you ever smelled him' answered De’Bora?’  I just wanted to escape from that shithole village where I demonstrated nascent wizarding ability in and not be burnt as a witch.  I wouldn’t touch him with his own staff’

Another fun challenge, this time from Cheetor.  The release of Frostgrave 2, future Mordheim projects and the current Rangers of Shadow Deep campaign will all benefit from the addition pf a couple of mages.  I wanted to try out a few things with these Frostgrave barbarian wizard figures. Not too sure if they worked, but live and learn.

Captain Crooks - Thijs Sterrenkijker and Eva

Thijs Sterrenkijker smiled, his crow's feet crinkling unashamedly.  His charge, a street urchin named Eva, had managed to produce a single spark of magical fire using little more than her own innate abilities, and the shock had made her jump clean off of her stool.

"Aha!" the old wizard cried, "now you see don't you?  This hocum pokum as you say, it is real, is it not?"

Eva stared at the scorch mark on the bench before her, the colour slowly returning to her grimy cheeks.  She had let her guard down, shown the old man her surprise, and was inwardly cursing her lapse.

"Proves nothin'", she huffed, replacing her look of shock with her usual defiant mask, "you probably mixed some black powder when I wasn't lookin' and lit it up with a flint or somesuch."

Thijs' shoulders shook slightly with his suppressed chuckles.  "You give me too much credit my dear, would that these old hands could perform such sleight of hand!  You have taken your first liddle step towards the door to a much much bigger and more mysterious world.  Come come, let's see if you can do it again!  Come!"

Eva frowned, torn between her long held conviction that this old wizard was a crackpot, and her unwillingness to admit there were things in this world she couldn't do.  The streets taught you to show no weakness, not even to harmless crazy old men.  Still, she had felt 'something' when that spark had gone off, like a tingle in her mind, a sizzle in her soul.  She took another pinch of the powdery concoction from the mortar on the workbench and muttered the incantation again.  This time there was no denying it - her fingertip was alight, and though she shook it out immediately in fright, no burn appeared there when she checked.

"This is just a beginning my dear," murmured the old wizard from somewhere close to her ear, "I felt the power in you when first we met."

Eva turned to reply but the wizard was gone.  "Where have you got to old man?" she frowned.

"I am everywhere and nowhere all at once - just like magic.  It exists in all things.  All you have to do is reach out and take the power you need."

Eva felt a tap on her shoulder, and span around - the old man wasn't there.

"Quit messing about you old fart!" she snarled, turning about.  She gasped as she saw her reflection in the wizard's full length mirror - he was behind her, laughing merrily.  She turned once more and this time, he remained, still chuckling with good humour.

"Can you see how this power might be of some service to one such as yourself?" Thijs said, gently.  Eva bit off her angry reply as it occurred to her, the number of times in her life she had craved invisibility.  Maybe the old man was onto something after all...

"Alright," Eva muttered, "I'm listening."

"Excellent, yes indeed, let us continue in earnest my dear!" beamed the wizard.  At last, he thought, an apprentice with some promise!  Hopefully she'll last longer than the last one...

Cheetor – Korrat, Knight Katastros of Clan Skryre and Dr. Weil

Frostgrave is all about the magic users.  Even the shiniest knights, oiliest barbarians and poweriest rangers are there just to keep pressure off the guys in the fancy bathrobes.  That emphasis means that wizards come in a lot of different flavours.  I chose the technomantic Warlock Engineers of Clan Skryre to function as “Enchanters” the next time that my skaven visit The Frozen City.

The wizard is the second “Ikit Claw” skaven special character miniature, still available as an “Arch Warlock”.  The apprentice is the Warlock Engineer from the Island of Blood/Spire of Dawn sets.  I particularly like the way that the pose of the apprentice – Dr. Weil – echoes the pose of the wizard Korrat.

More Wizard Battle coming up.