Another week and another adventure in the world of Frosthaven played with our regular group. That was a very merry meeting, as after last scenario all our characters reached level 2 – thus we were able to test new toys – i.e. new cards and perks! That is one of the best aspects of Isaac Chiders games – all those adventurers progression and eventually unlocking new ones!

Our Frosthaven Campaign in chronological order: 
#1 Town in Flames
#2 Algox Scouting
#4 Heart of Ice
#7 Edge of the World

Some interesting materials about Frosthaven World:
Frosthaven – first look – starting characters (1/2)
Frosthaven – first look – starting characters (2/2)
Frosthaven – monsters analysis & strategies – Lurkers
Frosthaven – monsters analysis & strategies – Unfettered

Now, as for our campaign, just a reminder that we follow the Lurkers campaign path. We decided we would like to know more about those creatures. After playing first installment in this story branch (#7 Edge of the World) we could make a decision whether to build a boat and follow-up via sea or choose the path along the coast instead. As we opted to spend resources for other needs, we knew we will need to enter the #13 Frozen Fjord.

That is pretty tricky scenario. The group starts divided (I think first such set-up, really like it!) and if monsters cannot attack us, they attack the ice bridge which has some number of HP. If it accumulates enough damage, it collapse and we lose! So the plan was simple – press forward and press hard!

We gathered our team for this exciting adventure. Here was our composition:

  • Blinkblade (me) – level 2
  • Banner Spear (Kuba J) – level 2
  • Geminate (Kuba G) – level 2
  • Drifter (Konrad) – level 2

Reaching level 2 after already 4 scenarios was much slower achievement than in Gloomhaven. Fortunately, with new cards we started to accumulate those points much quicker so maybe after another 2-3 sessions we will have further level-ups!

Session report

With the preparations finished we approached Scenario #13:

We travelled pretty far as first we resolved… 2 Road Events! (one for this scenario and one omitted and forgotten from previous!). Good they were pretty ok and did not caused us too much trouble.

PS. This was already second scenario we played on Hard difficulty.

Set-up of Scenario #13 – two separate paths, where we divided team in Banner & Geminate and Blinkblade & Drifter groups. In first turn there was no way for us to reach monsters so the bridge got 12 hits… 1/3 of its total durability. Not a perfect start.
The only way was to use our characters as targets for enemies. And those bird-made monsters (just look at their details) were using pretty often very annoying “Angry Cloud” ability, not only hitting us hard – twice, as there were 2 monsters – but also putting retaliate on them!
And even when we had advantage, the “dice” laughed in our face – above you can see my two attack with advantage – the one to left nicely got +1, the one to right – of course it has x2 but I lost the bless card as it counted as used in such situation!
Ok, first room cleared and what we have in second? Even more monsters – so let us run to them to protect the bridge!
We stayed in groups, Kuba & Kuba taking care of Wind Daemons…
…and me plus Konrad fighting the bird-made creatures! Fortunately, all were dispatched before substantial damage to the bridge was done.
Another room and 5 enemies?
And in secodn path also 5 enemies? Well, the goal said “kill all enemies” so we methodically were eliminating them one by one. Imps were even dying after one hit 🙂
This is how our map looked like in the end, after successfully completing scenario. I marked also paths of all characters – Spear, Geminate, Drifter and Blinkblade. It is easy to spot who was running around like crazy 🙂

Well, the scenario looked really daunting but our audacity and quick push forward prevented the bridge from collapsing!

Outpost Phase

Once scenario was finished, Outpost Phase was awaiting us. First thing was to gather scenario rewards and then resolved the Frosthaven event. It was pretty good – although a bit costly – giving us further benefits in form of barracks upgrade. Truly a fantastic thing, increasing defense of our settlement.

Let us see some other, main developments:

First, we updated campaign diagram and map. Above you can clearly see our first 5 scenarios played. Now we again have a choice of going with #21 “Realm of endless frost” – or #32 “Ravens’ Roost”. We will continue with latter to get rid of those ugly birds.
As for the buildings, we further invested in our production abilities, by getting Mining Camp. We can now buy pretty decent amount of resources each round.
Something which I was not mentioning earlier – there is a pretty cool mechanism of brewing potions in Frosthaven. You gather various ingredients and when you have two, you get to uncover some kind of elixir. So far we have four, one for each of characters.

Conclusion

First of all, the story again was very interesting and scenario with great special conditions – bridge being attacked, separated company, multitude of monsters. Secondly, we are now halfway through summer so it is high time to prepare for winter and – from what author suggested – waves of attacks on outpost. Last but not least, I think we grasped enough mechanics – especially of Outpost Phase – to play in much smoother way than initially. Stay tuned – next report in a week!

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