To say that our attempts to successfully complete scenario #10 of Frosthaven campaign – Crystal Enclosure – were crazy and incredible would be an understatement. Enough to say, we played that adventure 3 times, won 2 times, and passed it successfully only once! All of this in slightly different team compositions. How is that possible? Well, let us see!

Our Frosthaven Campaign in scenario order:
#1 Town in Flames
#2 Algox Scouting
#4 Heart of Ice
#5 Frozen Crypt
#7 Edge of the World
#8 Crystal Trench
#9 Glowing Catacombs
#13 Frozen Fjord
#14 Jagged Shoals
#21 Realm of Endless Frost
#22 Ice Floes
#32 Ravens’ Roost
#33 Thawed Wood
#69 Sacred Soil
#112 Raised by Wolves
#114 Work Freeze
#115 Pylon Problems
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

As always I start my report with the team composition. We played this only in 3-character team – and it seems that this will stay till the end of our campaign. However, in this specific case, depending on Attempt, the composition was different:

First attempt at the scenario:

  • Deathwalker (me), Trapper (Kuba J) & Geminate (Kuba G) – that was a pretty interesting composition but one lacking the tank; also, these were initial plays of Trapper so he was not able to show its full potential

Second and third attempt at the scenario:

  • Deathwalker (me) level 5, Trapper (Kuba J) level 4 & Coral (Kuba G) level 3 – here we had a steadily growing in experience tank; also this was maximum combination of characters levels before the difficulty of scenario would grow

Let us now analyze our sessions. Believe, there will be a lot to talk about…

Session report

Here is our adventure:

This is scenario in Algox sub-branch of the main campaign path. The maps is pretty small – only two areas; the goal is also evidently straightforward – just kill all the enemies, what could be more easy? Still, the complexity rating (do not confuse with difficulty!) is two dots out of three. Hm, there must be some catch here! We will probably learn while playing…

Ah, here it is! The ice pillars (those blue overlay tokens on the map) have special ability – they give +1 to Shield to all enemies in range of four! So in the first room all three monsters – Algox Guard and two Algox Priests – have +3 shield! Well, let us try to destroy those strange artifacts before we turn on enemy.

PS. As always, feel free to click on below images for full details.

Scenario Set-up

The overview of the Scenario #10 – two rooms, second much bigger, three Ice Pillars in initial area, giving shield boost to monsters.

First Attempt

First we crushed pillars, then enemies. Not easy, taking time and decent number of traps, but we did it.
Second room proved to be much more difficult and we had too…
…go back to the first room and build wall of traps to prevent monsters from quickly overwhelming us.
We played pretty long, my Deathwalker exhausted, but we did it.

Hurray! We won pretty tough and long scenario! We can proceed further! Wait, what? We won but we did not complete successfully? Why? Because after opining the second room, the first one collapses and you have to remove it! You cannot go back to it and build the trap wall, picking enemies one by one.

Sigh! Well, the only right approach was to try to play that scenario again. But not immediately – we were too much crushed after discovering that error.

Second Attempt

Couple of months later, after summer vacations break, we decided to come back to this adventure. Kuba’s G Geminate was already retired and he started to play with Coral.
What a mess we did in our second attempt! Enough to say, after 5 rounds, we were ready to give up – especially Coral lost so many cards to prevent the damage that there was no chance we will survive second, much more demanding room. Pity…

Third Attempt

We discussed for a while, changed our strategies and… it clicked! Interestingly, we destroyed only 1 out of 3 pylons in the first room but that was enough to get through the enemy shield and crush them.
Then we entered the second room. And properly closed the first one 🙂 With four pillars and six enemies – including Icespeaker – that looked like a true nightmare.
And so it was. Again, thanks to Trapper we started to build the trap wall, channeling the enemies move properly. Then I teleported to the other side, and they changed direction. All the time attacking in whatever possible way.
I took very long to get rid of two pylons and then finally start to kill monsters. Some of our colleagues almost lost heart 🙂 We also tried new game mechanics – Coral Bane did not worked out, but mine managed to do in the Icespeaker.
Just before my Deathwalker got exhausted, we killed last enemy. Dance of death around the traps truly saved us here.

Summary

Never again such mistakes! It takes so much time – and motivation – to correct them later on! On the other hand, we really learned how to play with our characters in most unhospitable environments and with most unpleasant opponents. So there were some positives from this adventure. Getting new scenario from treasure also:

More reports to come – stay tuned!