On a bit of a whim, I took a bit of a drive down for a Saturday in Latrobe, Pennsylvania to a Steamroller tournament at SCG Hobby. With my recent change to Skorne for the Company of Iron campaign at Drawbridge, I was itching to try all the newer stuff I’ve completed for my Trollbloods that I haven’t really had out on the table much. Of course, a nice competitive Steamroller is the perfect spot to run a brand new warcaster to me (Doomshaper2) with an odd sort of list. So why not do it? My other list was a Jarl Skuld speedy infantry list variant that I’m pretty familiar with. I just wasn’t going to tell my opponents that I intended to play Doomshaper2 in every match just to get practice.
The list is probably an abomination: Doomshaper2 with two Dire Troll Blitzers, an Earthborn Dire Troll, a Troll Bouncer, a Troll Impaler, a unit of Pyg Bushwhackers with Officer and Mortar UA, a unit of Trollkin Scouts that were the client of a Trollkin Sorcerer, Janissa Stonetide, and some Whelps. The list was Company of Iron stuff plus some pieces I’ve been wanting to try with Doomshaper2, and ended up to be rather Frankenstein-ish to be honest.
So here’s how it went:
The first match I completely forgot to take photos of my opponent Rob’s beautifully painted Retribution army. He fielded Adeptis Rahn, with a list chock-full of Battle Mages. So much pushing and pulling–one Dire Troll Blitzer was dragged about 8 inches forward, then pushed back about (without a single knockdown, luckily). It started to get grave pretty quick, as he got ahead on scenario points by clearing one of the zones. So I had to go for a pretty low-chance assassination. A Dire Troll Blitzer got pretty deep, got a fair number of shots on Rahn (that actually hit), and followed with some Primal Shock action from Doomshaper. While some landed and damaged, it would have taken pretty hot dice rather than my decidedly lukewarm rolls to get the job done. Great opponent and fun game, and taught me some initial lessons about running Doomshaper2 to be sure.
My second match was against Les’ Circle Orboros force–a beast-heavy list led by Kromac.
My list on their side of the battlefield. I was hoping that the Sorcerer could do some work by shutting off Pathfinder–hoping to catch his forces on one side of that center lake with the Sorcerer doing his thing on the far side. Alas, that was hardly what happened.
I lost the Earthborn to the Ghetorix, as Kromac’s ability to get beasts deep and everywhere is just amazing. Sensing the jaws closing again, it was time for another attempt at ill-advised assassination run. Kromac was close enough that my Dire Trolls Blitzers could get some shots on him, and then Doomshaper2 could potentially Primal Shock from the closer one. I did just that, but Dire Troll Blitzers are just terribly awful shots who need to boost too often. Because of that, the hits didn’t quite do enough damage… leaving him able to simply take some of the hits and not transfer, so that as I worked through the couple of transfers I was left without a way to finish the job. He quickly killed Doomshaper2 in return to end the game.
Third game was against Bill’s Mercenary-heavy Caine2 list. I felt like I had a decent shot against this list, as long as I could build my defensive fortress for Doomshaper2 each turn closer to Caine2, I could eventually launch a feat-driven assassination into him to finish him off.
My forces arrayed with a refused flank, ready for the wall of troll warbeast meat to advance right into the enemy guns.
This was probably my best-played game of the tourney. I did a few good things, and felt like I started to get better use out of my two Dire Troll Blizters (not just saving them to be assassination threats). They needed to get work done, and that meant getting situations against multiple targets where they could shoot and swing (and snack).
That said, it all went astray on the bottom of the third turn. I had a good wall against Caine2 (big bodies, stone wall from Janissa, Bouncer close by with Bump up). But there was a slight gap on the side… and Caine2 was too close (as I was intending). He got a move to the line, so the feat just shot me down. Doomshaper2 does not have the ability to stand up against him. I realized I should have had the trolls up, and Doomie2 much further back with the Bouncer and Impaler doing his screening. Too much Madrak2 and Jarl in my Trollbloods experience–they can get a fair amount closer to the foe and be okay. Doomshaper2? Not so much.
All in all a fun event. I was good playing three brand new players, and I got a crash course in what makes Doomshaper2 tick (and not tick). Primal Shock in particular is not nearly what I thought it would be in planning the army, mostly due to order of operations. Warbeasts cannot use the feat movement to advance into amazing spots for the spell, as they cannot go in the middle of the Warlock’s turn. Still, I’m liking some of what Doomshaper2 can do–and with more practice I hope to improve on him a fair amount.
366 Points Challenge Progress (2016):
73/366
Battles (Privateer Press):
Overall Totals 2016: 20 (Win/Loss: 13/7/0); 2015: 43 (Win/Loss: 29/14/0)
Skorne:
8 Wins (Butcher, Deneghra, Shae, Sorscha2, Feora2, Severius, Skarre)/ 1 Loss (Rask)
Trollbloods:
1 Win (Karchev) / 3 Losses (Adeptis Rahn, Kromac, Caine2)
Cryx:
4 Wins (Caine, Karchev, Skarre, Vlad) / 3 Losses (Asphyxious, Lylyth2, Goreshade3)
Pyg Bushwhackers add 5 points to my total. I think they turned out really nicely. 
The Skorne Void spirit on the right adds another 2 points. I also added the Heap of Corpses that I created and painted myself as we’re doing some terrain modeling competition as part of the league. 
My Hexeris2 list with the Platoon included. The list is pretty shooty, with the Platoon intended to be a skirmish screen and contest objectives while the shooting core whittles the foe down. 
My opponent Ryan’s Cryx. Led by pSkarre and containing the Cryx Platoon, this was going to be a tough fight for my force.
Platoon on Platoon action… the Void Spirit slowed the Black Ogrun crew down, and took a free strike at the last one to leave his range (but missing, of course). 
The center was a jammed, overlapping mess. Skarre has a real advantage in a grind situation, so I had to get some quick success or Hexy2 would not be able to finish things. 
The Cannoneer is normally a shooter, but this time he had to clear the path with his melee ability (and present his back to Hexeris2 as a Ashes to Ashes target should I need an easy defense to hit). Skarre was on only a single Focus point, so Hexeris2 charged and lit into her with his spells (all the more powered by his feat). He cut her down with a final blast of magical force. 
The second game saw my Skorne Platoon defending a safe house that my opponents were trying to get a military officer into. It’s a great little mission that plays well with the small forces. 
Andy’s great-looking Minions Platoon for the league were my opponents. 
The clash with the Croaks was just too much for my forces in this scenario. I had a couple of shining moments where the granted Poltergeist ability for the Platoon made for good protection, ultimately I wasn’t able to seal down enough space nor able to reach out and take out the Military Officer. 
The platoon gathered. It’s composed of a minimum unit of Pyg Bushwhackers, a unit of Trollkin Scouts, and a Stone Scribe Chronicler. I love the Trollkin Scouts models–the one stealing the pig is priceless. 
His force, arrayed to protect the safehouse from being reached by my Officer. 
I managed to sneak my officer (represented by the Pyg Keg Carrier companion of Borka) just far enough around to make a run for it. The Legionnaires almost caught me, but he managed to slip free and get to the safehouse. 
His deployment and cluster of warjacks around Karchev. 
My force after my first turn of movement–sending the Scouts and Pygs on both edges to clear out his support, and hoping Borka, Janissa, an Impaler, and two Dire Troll Blitzers can stand against the onslaught of Jacks down the middle. 
My feat turn was going to be perfect. One of his Warjacks had ended slightly in the water of the river. With Knockdown on all my models, and the Devastator Open after shooting, it meant that a charging Stone Scribe Chronicler had a pretty good shot at knocking the warjack down thanks to Borka’s feat and his engine going out. It was a great plan until the Trollkin missed his attack roll. 
The conclusion was climactic simply because of how long it took. Karchev got a shot at killing Borka personally. So he took it, only to have Borka stumble away after the first attack hit him (and transfer the damage). Then it was my turn, and despite Borka’s attacks, the Blitzer’s full compliment of firepower, and Janissa’s armor piercing swing, Karchev lived. His next turn saw Borka stumble away yet again at the improbable last moment… And I finally finished him on my following turn. 
Quite the deadly group.
My first Random Boss was 
I got lucky, and that’s exactly what my opponent fielded. It was a Thornfall Alliance force with a heavy line of Brigands and Slaughterhousers, backed up by some beasts. His randomized caster for the round was 
The Roadhog grabs my Bouncer’s shield as the two tussle in the zone. I put a lot of pressure on his force, with the Blitzers’ Guns and Calaban’s spells (especially on feat turn) putting the hurt on them badly. But the sheer brute force of the Roadhog helped keep my Trolls in check. Finally my caster was killed, thought we were each down to just three or four models each at that point. Absolutely bloody but fun battle with a great sport of an opponent–who seemed to love the raw power of Grissel’s feat turn especially. 
My second Random Boss was 
My opponent fielded Cryx, led by Random Boss 
A lone Troll Whelp stands up to the withering menace of a Bane Thrall. Too much work had to be done by Kara in this one: she was the only magic weapon, but it was only ranged, so a lot of her shots had to go into Blackbane’s incorporeal models. But with her ability to see Stealthed models, she was the only one that could really project any threat on the Banes. While the feat helped, it really didn’t stem the tide. 
Vindictus himself rolled up to push the attack and clear the zone. Kara was not assassinated, as he was well back on a flag on my half and killing things as they got close. But the Banes cut my warbeasts to ribbons and eventually left him able to out score me with dominating the central zone. It was a fun game, and I’m not sure what all I could have done to be the victor in this one. 
My third Random Boss was 
My opponent had a Khador force that was quick and deadly with Black Dragons and Doomreavers. His random Boss was 
What proceeded to happen was a strange maneuvering game, with very few casualties at first. I got a quick turn of nabbing 2 points of the objective, so I was well on my way. Once his forces started to hit home I could see that I wasn’t going to with the actual battle. So I had to be creative–thank goodness I had the Dire Troll Blizers and their Repulsion animus that pushes opponents away. Through creative use, I was able to slow him down and score again. It finally ended in a situation where if I could just get a few key models pushed away, I’d win the scenario 6 points to 5 points (as he had been getting the middle one flag for a while). Drake did his job, pushing a unit away, Energizering, pushing a few others away, then moving and pushing out a third group. All that was left was the completely healthy Blitzer needing to animus near him, then suffer but a single free strike on his way to move and animus away the last two models. Victory was almost in my grasp. Till the Black Dragon Pikeman’s free strike rolled doubles, and my Dire Troll suffered the Critical Knockdown effect which ended his turn before he could shove out the last two foes and causing my opponent to win 5-4. It was a blast of a game, and my scenario play was a race against his killing power. Really fun time. 
I did up the trophies for the event, as you’ve always got to give out trophies to reward players, as I wrote about 
A shot of the winners with their prizes. Matt won the overall Who’s the Boss victor, going undefeated for the event. Andy won best painted for his nifty, and bloody, Minions warlock Midas. And Ryan won the Boss Nass worst caster luck award largely on getting 
Hoarluk Doomshaper, Rage of Dhunia counts as 5 points for the painting challenge (Warcasters earn points on Base Size). He was a fun model, as I tried to work on the blue rune glow coming from his staff–making the ones directly under his hand light up like he was pulling magic from them. 
I also finished a second Dire Troll Blitzer (the one on the right is the new guy). I made his pose as different as I could from the other one to set them apart a little while still being the same. This is probably my favorite model in all of the faction (though the 
I also finished up five Troll Whelps. These little dudes are the Fury management system for Trollbloods, and while they’re a pretty bad Fury management system compared to the other Hordes factions, at least they’re something. I got two groups of them at the same time, so I did the similar models together: two shed from Earthborns, two shed from Blitzers (I think, because they’re running?), and one that seems to be an Impaler whelp (the quiver). 
The force was led by Severius, with Errants, Bastions, Choir, two heavies, a light with an arc node, and a paladin solo. Despite being a dangerous force, Terry’s classic Protectorate painting work is absolutely beautiful. 
My force at the start of turn two. The problem with Morghoul2 is that he needs to get a lot of work done himself to contribute at all, so he’s got to rush up with the rest and hope his high defense holds. 
My Warlock after diving into the Errants and clearing out most of them himself. There was a good landing spot where he could take out a number of them with Flashing Blade–then all that’s left is to move the beasts into position around him to minimize attacks back.
I suffered some pretty heavy losses to the enemy attacks. As is often the case with Skorne, I had a big turn of killing Bastions and putting the hurt on Warjacks and Errants… only to be followed by an equally bloody reprisal turn. The Razor Worm had eaten a Choir member, allowing him to do his Drag Below action to get right up into Severius. The Paladin missed his attacks, so Severius turned around to kill him in melee. While he finished the worm, that left Severius open to my forces getting to him and finishing him off in my subsequent turn. 
As a Skorne player, it was my fault in forgetting Counter Charge. I knew that Barathrum has it, I knew I needed to be careful about it, and yet… My plan to set up a top-of-two assassination shot on Skarre by running my Mortitheurge Willbreaker forward (for control range to allow the slamming Gladiator to buy attacks after the fact) was foiled by Barathrum simply Counter Charnging the Willbreaker and putting him into the dirt. Luckily (or not) he used Drag Below to go back to a point that I could still pull it off. But the Gladiator would end out of control range. For some reason I still made that play, which in hindsight both helped (made a huge distraction for his force by having a Gladiator standing over Skarre) and hurt (I lost my Gladiator). 
Meanwhile, Morghoul2 was the only source of magic weapon I had besides the Cyclops Shaman. So he spent his turn putting up Beat Back, charging Blackbane’s Ghost Raiders, and then sliding around using Flashing Blade to clear them out. 
As the battle continued, as always with Morghoul2, my side started to lose the attrition war. Too many weaponmaster Bane Thrall attacks took their toll on my medium and heavy warbeasts, and things were looking grim. I had placed Morghoul2 up near the Banes thinking he’d have to do some fancy footwork with more Beat Back to clear them all out. Then I realized that Skarre was standing at the edge of the zone and was likely within range–and was without focus. I just needed to hit with the fan to blind her, and while it was close (he is kinda feeble for a Lord Assassin) he finally managed to finish her off. 
I ended up choosing Hexeris2, knowing that my shooting would be blunted a bit by his magical protections but having more diversity of options than the Morghoul list I’ve been working on sorting out. My list had the Siege Animantarax, Aradus Sentinel, Titan Cannoneer, Cyclops Shaman, and Cyclops Raider all adding to the volume of fire–plus various support staff and sexy Hexy. The above was my initial deployment (still waiting to deploy the Aradus Sentinel with AD–he’s close to the final spot I set him in. 
Scott’s Protectorate force. Feora2 and a battlegroup with a Judicator, a Reckoner, and the Hand of Judgment. Supporting them were a Choir, two Vassals, a big group of Exemplar Errants with UA, Alten Ashley, and Saxon Orrik. Scott got the first turn, and rushed his forces up to claim a deeper line of battle. 
I made an initial mistake with my Aradus Sentinel and its positioning in the worst possible spot to see through the forest in between the two zones. 3″ is such a short distance, and he doesn’t have eyeless sight like the Razorworm (which I run very often with Hexeris2 as his bonded channeler). He recovered well with his Carapace special rule boosting his armor against the assaults of the Errants and Alten Ashley. Then he managed to line up a charge that let him eat both Ashley and Saxon Orrik on the same turn. 
I managed to take an early points lead when the Protectorate Warjacks didn’t move up into my zone. Hexeris2 braved the long range firepower of the Judicator and toed in, scoring me three points over bottom of two and top/bottom of three. At that point, I was starting to take heavy losses so my game plan became block and score as best I could. The Siege Animantarax, the Titan Gladiator, and the Cyclops Brute all laid down their lives drawing the colossal and heavy jacks toward my zone. Skorne armor is good, but it wasn’t standing up to the sheer beating that Scott’s Protectorate forces were meting out. 
Meanwhile my ranged warbeast package were nibbling away at the Errants holding the enemy zone. The Hand of Judgment moved to bring pressure onto my zone, so I just needed a round of good shooting and supported by a quick dash to the middle by Hexeris2 to provide control area for the shooty beasts to get the job done. The Cyclops Shaman eventually downed the objective with a Mortitheurge-assisted shot, and with my beasts controlling the zone I managed to squeak out 5 control points before what was sure to be the inevitable smashing of Hexeris2 by a combination of Judicator shots and Reckoner assault. It was a really fun game, one of those down-to-the-wire can I survive long enough to get the last points kinda games that make for good drama. Scott is a great opponent as well, which always helps with enjoyment of a match. 
The Shaman is a great support and shooting light warbeast for Skorne, and his 5 points brings me to 18/29 for February and 50 points total so far in 2016. 
My Bronzeback and Void Spirit flank the cluster of forest, and draw the line of battle close to the emerging point of the Wurm’s gibbering mouths. 
The might of Khador advances in formation toward the site of danger. So many Winterguard, supported by the Great Bears and two deadly Warjacks in the distance. 
Spacing, my old foe. I got too aggressive with my Warbeasts, and lost both the Bronzeback (to two Warjacks) and the Gladiator (to the Great Bears) in a single round (thanks to Sorscha2’s feat). Leveraging threat was hard in this game because of the unpredictability of decisions being made by the Wurm player (placing huge spots of rough terrain, clouds that blocked line of sight, and simply removing key support models by swallowing them whole.
With both my heavy warbeasts lost, and Mordikaar standing way too close to danger, I had to make a play to assassinate Sorscha2 before it was too late. The good news was, I had a void spirit that had been lurking amidst the magic weapon-less Winterguard. Within Mordikaars control area, it received boosted attack rolls, and with a high MAT and Annihilator to do an extra dice of damage to living models it was able to take a healthy chunk out of Sorscha2 when it charged her. She was on zero focus from powering her Warjacks to reach and take out the Bronzeback, so the hit certainly hurt. Then Mordikaar simply did what he did best: an essence blast spray attack using the Void Spirit ended the game with an assassination of Sorscha2. 
There were some shining moments for the force and their deadly old character cannon, but Morghoul and his rampaging Titan Gladiator proved to be too much for the piratical forces. 
I also finished up a Cyclops Raider. He’s mainly a support beast for his animus (which gives Snipe), but he can get some work done in shooting himself if needed. His best ability is that if he takes the time to aim, he ignores Stealth–which is huge for cutting out those frustrating solos in an enemy force that rely upon Stealth to protect them. With these two added to my painted total, I hit 13 total points painted in February, and 45 total points finished so far in 2016. It’s a long road to 366, but not that long!
The Great Bears made a mess of my Aradus Sentinel, as Beast 09 and a Kodiak watched. Colton’s awesome-looking Khador filled the center with very tough models, which meant I had to focus on the sides and be careful about my placement in the middle. 
I got out to an early lead thanks to the flanks. On the left, two light beasts finished off some solos while pMorghoul himself did a dance of death through the Widowmakers who had ran up to take a shooting position. On the right, my Void Spirit grabbed a quick point facing down the intimidating Man-O-War Shocktroopers. They weren’t quite within range of the flag, and their lack of magic weapons meant they simply had to bypass the Void Spirit and leave a trailing couple of members to contest the flag in the later turns. 
I finally managed to finish off the Great Bears, and drew Beast 09 to the right, which left a straight shot for my Titan Gladiator to slam the Kodiak right through the Butcher. With the Gladiator’s follow-up ability, he rolled right up to the Butcher and bought a couple of attacks to finish him off for assassination. It was a good game, and I was lucky to get the kill as things were starting to get pretty beat up on my side of the table–and the Man-O-Wars were about to mop up all the damaged light beasts on my right side. 
My second game was against Ryan’s excellently painted, classic-look Cryx. His force was heavy on infantry with Bane Thralls and Blackbane’s Ghost Raiders, along with a couple of arc node bonejacks and Barathrum. I started realizing that I had only a couple of magic weapon options, so Blackbane’s were going to be a definite concern. I decided to play Morghoul up and make a tight line of my stuff on their side, hoping that he would come to me an jam with the Incorporeal models. He did, and that let Morghoul have a turn of absolute destruction. With his super-high MAT, 
Then of course, it was Deneghra’s turn to shine. Her feat is utterly crippling for a turn. I had to try and weather the storm–the only model that wasn’t caught in the feat was the little Agonizer. He used Spiritual Affliction to deny Barathrum and a Bonejack focus for the turn, which bought me some breathing room as I traded blows and suffered heavy losses from the Bane Thralls. 
Welcome to the slap-fight. Deneghra got aggressive, moved up and used Crippling Grasp to further limit Morghoul, then laid into him with melee attacks. However, he didn’t quite get finished off and was sitting at a miserable 2 health boxes at the end of the Cryx turn. While I didn’t have a way to shake the Crippling Grasp (my kindgom for a Cyclops Shaman!), I was right in her face and had most of my Fury plus one for Maltreatment (having to shake Shadowbind was a pain), so I thought I’d return the favor. The Cyclops Raider set up the attack, slamming a Bane Thrall into Deneghra–knocking her down and killing the Bane. Yet even with the flurry of attacks Morghoul was coming up short. P+S 7 was simply not getting the job done. I got too close to empty Fury and she was still reasonably healthy–so I put up Admonition and took a swing at another close model and killed it to be able to Sprint away. I rolled my Razorworm up and he finished the job of the assassination. It was a fun game, and while my blending through Blackbane’s was a morale buster, the fight could have cut either way multiple times throughout the battle. 
This brings me to 37 points painted this far in 2016. I’m a 10th of the way to having painted a point per day! I did him in the colors I’m doing the rest of my Cryx in, as he’s likely to only ever hit the table alongside my Cryx force. 
First up was a pretty balanced Skarre list run by Ian. My Shrike actually did a pretty impressive job in this game. I got jammed by a group of Satyxis Raiders early, so to make sure I could contest I had to use Goreshade3’s feat on the top of turn two. The good news was, that meant the Shrike auto-hit on a long line of tramples and he soared a whopping 13 inches (thanks to Infernal Machine) and obliterated one half of the jammers in a literal fell swoop. The rest of the game he spent dodging attacks from the Bane Knights thanks to his high defense, until one finally tagged him and destroyed the little birdjack. 
Skarre’s alpha strike really hurt, especially the Soulhunters simply annihilating my Revenant Crew. However Goreshade3 was able to rush back and apply some scenario pressure, dominating the zone and getting some points for me while my opponent never quite cleared their zone. It meant that Skarre needed to go for the assassination, but it didn’t quite take. Goreshade was left in range of Skarre with a Helldiver behind her: the little jack surfaced, headbutted her to the ground, and Goreshade3 finished her with a charge. 
Round Two I faced Cryx again. This time I was facing Ryan, who dropped his Goreshade3 versus mine. Our lists were pretty different except for Mechanithrals and Bile Thralls, and Ryan got the first turn–which proved to be pretty decisive. He played his Bile Thralls up, charged and destroyed some with Goreshade3, then used Mockery of Life to get them placed even further up the field. A variation I should have done to him if I had gone first–but instead I had to play a bit defensively and creep around the sides. 
My Goreshade3 played up to the objective between two forests, recognizing that if I was going to do anything I’d need to increase the scenario pressure a bit. 
The problem was that I had to keep flooding the middle to keep him from scoring, and the Kraken and Bane Riders kept him well ahead of the curve. I kept the pressure up as much as I could, but once he got my objective dead and dominated the center for a round, it was all over but the taxes for most part. I crowded the zone once more, but his Kraken did its thing and I was too little too late. Still a fun game, as Ryan is always a great opponent who I learn a lot from when I play (he went on to win first place in the event). 
My third round match was against Justin’s gorgeously painted Khador force. Just look at that Behemoth. He fielded Vlad, which meant that my forces would have to sell themselves dearly–whenever he attacked me he was sure to hit and damage because of the added dice. I started my pressure early with the Mechanithralls and Revenant Crew, and while they did indeed die in droves they at least took some stuff with them–in particular heavily damaging the Behemoth. 
I ended up winning thanks to the death clock–Justin timed out for the round. It was a lucky thing too, as I was definitely losing the attrition game. My jacks were intact, and I was deciding whether I could try to scenario or simply had to nudge an arc node up and hope for a Hail Mary assassination through spells. Thank goodness for the Revenant crew in this game–I think a lot of time was spent dealing with them. Though I never got any back from their unit’s ability (only through Captain Rengrave adding models), the question they ask of “can you kill enough and then get the job done on the unit leader?” is a time sink for the opponent. Overall a great game, as Justin was a really fun player to face and his army was wonderfully painted.
Red Ones Go Faster 