A Thrilling Warhammer Game That Doesn't Use GW Rules? Stargrave Battle Report
I’ve heard of Stargrave/Frostgrave for many years now, specifically from one of our discord members (shoutout to Hoser40k), I just never really gave it much thought. I was getting too enamored with Warhammer 40K and other GW games, enjoying playing games that have a sizable audience around me. However, as you may have heard on the most recent podcast, I’ve become a bit peeved at the most recent changes to 40K and have been looking at “minis-agnostic” games (games where you can use whatever minis you have). Enter the “Juggz” podcast, a newer podcast featuring 3 ex-GW employees, Rob, Louise, and Chris “Peachy” Peach - a great show talking about a lot of tabletop industry insights.
Peachy has been talking about Frostgrave on the show a bunch recently, and I’m more of a sci fi over fantasy person, so I decided to pick up the Stargrave book and give it a read. While the game recommends 28mm/32mm miniatures, I decided to put together a crew using a bunch of 40K minis, some of which I loved the paint job I did but because of the “meta” hadn’t really used them on the table that much. So I was really excited to get to play with them in one way or another.
In Stargrave, you put together a “crew” of a ship by creating a Captain and a First Mate, then spending 400 credits on other specialized units. I like that there are free generic models so that you can have the max size of 10 total figures and not feel like you need to stretch that 400 credits to get as many figures as you can.
For my Captain, I knew I wanted to use my Librarian in Terminator Armor, so I chose the “Psionicist'' class. For my First mate, I messed around with a few ideas before settling on using my Primaris Techmarine as the “Cyborg” class. Here’s the remainder of my crew, and the models used:
Captain: Librarian in Terminator Armor
First-Mate: Primaris Techmarine
Sniper: Primaris Eliminator
Gunner: Terminator with Assault Cannon
Medic: Apothecary Biologis
Burner: Primaris Infernus Marine
4x Recruits: Primaris Inflitrators
While the book doesn’t mention having a mini for the ship, I decided to grab my Storm Raven and use it to represent my ship. By having it on the board, it could serve as a piece of terrain, plus make the game feel more narrative. In Stargrave, your crew sets out on different scenarios, but the basic game has you attempting to collect physical and data “loot tokens” and escape with them off the board. Having the Storm Raven on the board reinforced the idea of “getting in and getting out” quickly.
Turn 1: I’ve got a bad feeling about this…
My opponent decided to use figures from Star Wars Legion as his minis, so I was facing off against Boba Fett and Bossk, among a few other favorites. He also had some really cool tokens to represent the loot tokens, so we spread those across the board and I threw out a bunch of different pieces of terrain I had. It’s been awhile since I have played a minis game where I didn’t have to place terrain in very specific orientations, so setting up the board was pretty refreshing.
We deployed in our respective corners, and then rolled our D20’s for initiative and began the game! I lost initiative, but in this first turn we were mostly spreading out across the board so it wasn’t a huge deal. In Stargrave, you have sort of an alternating activations type of gameplay: you activate your Captain and 3 other minis close by then your opponent does the same, then you alternate activating your First Mates and 3 other minis. If you have any remaining figures after that, you activate them as a group and then your opponent goes before ending the round.
I spent the first turn getting my crew out from behind the ship, which turned out to be a bit constraining with the increased base size of the models (probably why they want you to use smaller base models). It also didn’t help the way I oriented the ship as terrain, but it was a learning game. My sniper used his movement to get on top of the ship, in order to give him a good view across the map, while still being able to use the engines as cover. My Captain made his way towards the center loot token. He had a “psionic fire” power that seemed thematic for a Librarian and I wanted him to get close enough to use.
Meanwhile, I directed some of my recruits towards the nearest data token in front of the Storm Raven. The edge of the board was not far away from it, so I knew that once they grabbed it, they’d be able to score quickly. My First Mate attempted to use his “Data Knock” power to unlock the crate from far away, but was unsuccessful.
Then, the pain arrived. My opponent's sniper aimed at my sniper across the map, and my cover ended up being no good as he rolled a crit hit, dealing enough damage to kill him straightaway. I did manage to “stun” his Commando with some damage, but he then did the same to my Captain. Stunning reduces the amount of actions you have each turn, which is never good, so I brought my Medic in to reorient him and clear his Stunned status. All in all, I was in a pretty good place to start Turn 2.
Turn 2: The Imperium Strikes Back…
Again, I lost the initiative, as well as saw some of the downsides of spreading out my minis: when my Captain activated, there weren't as many models around to activate alongside him. Plus, I couldn’t get him or my gunner into a decent place to hit many people with the terrain around. I did manage to deal some good damage onto a couple of his units, almost killing his commando. One of my recruits managed to get to a far loot token, but not long before my opponents droids dealt some decent damage to him, stunning him right next to it and far from my medic.
On the plus side, my First Mate managed to complete his second attempt at unlocking the data token nearest him, so my Burner grabbed it and yeeted himself off the board. Score one for the blue guys! A few other guys take some damage, including the Captain who now is facing off against my opponent’s First Mate next to the center loot token.
Turn 3: NOOOoooooooo….
Guess what? I lost initiative again. This time it really bit me in the ass, as during his Captain’s turn my opponent used his sniper to shoot at my Captain. Once again, the sniper rolled a Crit Hit, which KO’d my Captain. I can just imagine the Medic crying out as the Captain’s body slumped into his hands…
The Captain dying was more than just a thematic scene, though. Since I no longer had a Captain, I no longer could activate anyone in the Captain’s phase. Which meant my opponent got to go again and go through his First Mate’s phase. Wasn’t a fan of that at all. He made his way to a loot token I had honestly forgotten about behind some cargo crates (terrain doing its job apparently) and grabbed that loot token. On the other side of the board, his droids finished off my Recruit there, leaving that loot token available to be unlocked as well.
My First Mate and Gunner get up into the fight, ready to start dealing some damage when we had to call the game as we ran out of time and the library we were at was closing. Pretty sure that means it was a draw right?
Conclusion
Stargrave was pretty fun. If you’ve ever played D&D, you’ll understand the combat system pretty well (roll D20, try and roll over X number).
Really excited to try out the campaign system. You get to level up guys and give them extra gear and powers and such.
While I did enjoy using my Ultramarine characters, their asses (bases) are just too big for this setup. I’ll probably switch to using more 32mm base characters, such as my assassin for my gunner. Maybe even pull out the Necromunda squats and use them as a crew! I’m keeping the Storm Raven though…
Note: I generally assume I know nothing. So if I've missed something, let me know in the comments. Or let me know on Twitter or Facebook. If you like these types of posts, consider subscribing to our patreon.