A step further into Frostgrave

I played my first campaign game of Frostgrave last week and my second is coming up tonight. It was fun. I still hold a few reservations about the game but more on those later. The game played far better than the first. Mainly because we understood the rules a lot more and how the various interactions work. The nuances of group activations still escape me but I assume the main tactical benefit is derived from support in combats. We also were slow to take advantage of pushes in combat. I imagine they are an interesting rule to interact with. Also forcing combat hasn't quite worked as we thought it might. We have played it two ways now and we are not sure which is correct. Firstly the intention seems to be in preventing an enemy model moving past and engaging something behind. Effectively it allows someone to protect an area. However what happens if you begin within that inch? Can one simply move away? Can they circle around an opponent. I believe that they can move away as long as they do so directly to begin with. I don't think they can circle the opponent. Being able to move away makes sense and interacts well with the combat push idea. However it isn't clear from the rules if this is possible.

As to the negative points we hate the Critical Hits rule. While it is optional we started off using it as we were told that most people did. It just doesn't work in my opinion. As we move through the campaign we are not going to continue using it. Leap is the next bone of contention. It is simply too powerful and I don't see any reason not to have it. It would seem, in my admittedly small time spent playing, to be the most powerful spell in the game. A 10" move disregarding all penalties in a game supposedly packed with terrain and where the main win condition involves moving slowly with treasure off the board. That disadvantages any side without the spell severly. Its application is just too wide and far too powerful.

Finally the continuing story of my struggling Sigilist: