I got a couple more games in on Sunday, and added some new models to my Trollbloods for the game (as it was non-Journeyman League play). I finished a new warlock, Grissel Bloodsong, Fell Caller. I also added two new other models to run with her, a Fell Caller Hero and a Troll Bouncer. I forgot to get shots of the games, but I remembered to at least take pictures at the end–I was too busy losing both times. I lost a somewhat close one to a Kromac list, as I was able to keep good pressure up and the piece trades okay, only to leave just too narrow a gap between models that let Kromac turn on his animal form, teleport up, and smack Grissel to death. The second game was against a Kreoss2 list, and I squarely lost. I had an assassination opportunity with my ranged warbeasts and took it, but couldn’t quite seal the deal on damage. With 4 hit boxes left Kreoss closed the gaps around him that I had exploited in my failed in my attempt and bricked up, leaving me well behind and eventually annihilated.

So I’m relatively pleased with the paint job on Grissel. I’m not particularly in love with the model, as the face is one of the worst I’ve seen in the faction. Having recently painted Janissa, who has a great expression and look, Grissel’s garbage-can mouth is just a travesty. That said, I’m pleased with how the model looks at a distance–standing amidst a force, the blue “magic” runes pop nicely in my otherwise earthtones plus dull orange army.

This is the model I was most proud of in this group, as I really didn’t think he would turn out as nicely as he did. I’ve seen Fell Caller Heroes in other players’ forces, and never really liked the pose or paint job. But I’ll toot my own horn just a bit on this guy. I really liked how he turned out. He’s not the ideal piece to go with Grissel because their songs cannot stack, but he fit nicely into my thoughts for adjustments to my Madrak2 list and hit a nice 3-point spot that was missing in my first attempt at Grissel.

Yeah, I had to do a Bouncer. I really wanted to get my hands on an old metal one, as his face has so much character to it. But plastic is so nice. And I’m reasonably pleased with his look now that I got him done. He’s the first of my clothed Troll warbeasts that I’ve finished (getting close on the Impaler), and I was worried that while I like the green stones look on the Earthborn, Swamp, and Storm that I painted up, that it would be watered down somehow on the clothed Bouncer, Impaler, and Axer. I think it remained pretty striking, and the limited metal palette I’m using wasn’t so bad here.

Overall, a win day for painting even if resulting in some losses for games. The good thing is the more I play Trollbloods, the more I’m liking the puzzle of how I want to win with them. I’ve seen how others win with them, and there’s lessons to be drawn there. But I’m having fun working out my own ideas. Just means a lot more lumps along the road.

Battles (Privateer Press):
Overall Total 2015: 37 (Win/Loss: 28/9/0)

Skorne:
12 Wins (Fiona, Sorscha, Morvahna2, Ossrum, Borka, Kaelyssa, Stryker, Venethrax, Butcher, Thagrosh, Exulon)   /   3 Losses (Kromac, Kaelyssa/Kaya, Borka)

Trollbloods:

2 Wins (Asphyxious, Stryker3)  /   5 Losses (Kaelyssa, Asphyxious2, Saeryn+Rhyas, Kromac, Kreoss2)

Cryx:

6 Wins (Stryker, Sorscha, Lylyth, Deneghra)  /  0 Losses

Protectorate of Menoth:
3 Wins (Morvahna2, Kaelyssa)   /   0 Losses

Legion of Everblight:
5 Wins (Caine2, Kaya, Sorscha, Rahn)   /   1 Loss (Fiona)

A bit more painting and another game. A bunch of us decided that with all the newer players in the area, a Journeyman league was just the ticket for all of us to “start new” together with them. So my painting of my new-ish Trollbloods force is going to be slowed for a while.

I did manage to add one more piece before this game: the Fennblade Officer UA. Great pose and model, and I’m pretty pleased with how he turned out.

For the game, I faced off against a new foe (Ben) and his Cygnar force led by Stryker3. His 50pt. army had a Reliant for a warjack, supported by the usual Cygnar support personnel. On the units side, there was a big unit of Precursor Knights, a big unit of Sword Knights, and a unit of Storm Lances. The group was rounded out by Aiyana and Master Holt.

My force was Jarl Skuld run pretty beast-heavy with an Earthborn Dire Troll, a Dire Troll Blitzer, a Storm Troll, a Swamp Troll, and an Impaler. They were supported by a max unit of Fennblades with UA and a min unit of Fennblades, two sets of Troll Whelps (one on the table at the start, one inside and waiting to pop out), and Janissa Stonetide.

The mission was Fire Support, which has both flags and objectives, and the Cygnarians got the first turn.

Jarl Skuld’s feat came very early, to prevent my opponent’s cavalry from crashing into my lines. The more I play Jarl, the more I dig him. He’s got the things that I find too many of my other casters lack: denial, control, and spot removal. Now, maybe that’s because I’ve been playing more Skorne than anything else in some time and I run casters and models that aren’t exactly invested in denial and removal–so Jarl is just a refreshing change of pace.

This battle against Cygnar was pretty evenly matched through most of the fight. I didn’t work my charges as carefully as I could have, and my Storm Troll ended up just short of his target. Yet I was slowly advancing the piece exchange with Jarl Skuld getting a lot of the job done himself.

Finally the Cygnarians reached my lines thanks in good part to a critical feat turn from Stryker clearing good openings. Jarl was left generally under-defended and low on fury. He had to scrape off his fury to transfer the ranged shots that managed to hit him, leaving him facing a dismounted dragoon and a trooper. The Dragoon failed to seal the deal due to mediocre rolls, leaving it all to the charging trooper model. My opponent merely needed to roll a hard 5 or more to finish Jarl… and failed. He should have by all rights been dead twice over at that point, but had gotten away with it by the skin of his teeth.

My retaliation was quick and brutal, as very little cannot be solved by a judicious application of the Earthborn. He took Stryker3 out, thanks in no small part to his Adaptation rule. With such a high power score on Stryker’s weapon, the Dire Troll hit like a truck and finished him off quickly.

Overall it was  great game. Definitely one of those games that I should have lost, but the dice chose otherwise. Jarl managed to dodge and weave his way to success in the face of failure. Another great game on the opponent side as well, as Ben was a really friendly opponent who definitely had me outclassed on the tactical side. I find I learn so much from playing players who know so well what they’re doing with their lists. I’ve done the reading and thinking about the Stryker3 method and list, but nothing beats seeing it in action demonstrated by a skilled player.

Battles (Privateer Press):
Overall Total 2015: 29 (Win/Loss: 22/7/0)

Skorne:
12 Wins (Fiona, Sorscha, Morvahna2, Ossrum, Borka, Kaelyssa, Stryker, Venethrax, Butcher, Thagrosh, Exulon)   /   3 Losses (Kromac, Kaelyssa/Kaya, Borka)

Trollbloods:

2 Wins (Asphyxious, Stryker3)  /   3 Losses (Kaelyssa, Asphyxious2, Saeryn+Rhyas)

Protectorate of Menoth:
3 Wins (Morvahna2, Kaelyssa)   /   0 Losses

Legion of Everblight:
5 Wins (Caine2, Kaya, Sorscha, Rahn)   /   1 Loss (Fiona)

A number of my prior posts have mentioned that I and my buddy Dan have been preparing for a Warmachine/Hordes 50pm team tournament. So this past weekend we made the journey over to Legions Games in Pittsburgh, PA and took part. Dan fielded his Retribution of Scyrah forces, while I took a chance and went with my Trollbloods instead of my Skorne.

The tourney was general Steamroller format, with each teammate submitting two lists. Dan ran a Kaelyssa Force Wall tier 4 list and a Thyron all-comers list. I ran with a Madrak2 End Times tier4 list and a pretty similar variant list overall with Jarl Skuld (same warbeasts, different solos and troop UA location). My lists were admittedly limited because I’m newer to the faction and haven’t acquired all the models I needed, so I had a bit of a split list problem.

For the team tournament, each team was paired with another team and had their player A’s match up against the opponents’ player A’s (with B’s in the same manner). Once per tournament you could choose to swap and have A-B and B-A, and once per tournament you could pause the timers (52 minute rounds) and confer strategy with your teammate. First round we got paired up against a Khador (Butcher3) and Cryx (Gaspy2) team. That meant an uphill slog for both the Trollbloods and Dan’s Retribution. I chose to go with Jarl Skuld to give me some measure of protection from Gaspy’s feat if I played a bit back, and the ability to project some removal into his backfield and threaten with range and speed.
My foe’s Asphyxious2 list was pretty standard stuff: Deathjack, Cankerworm, and an arc node, big units of Bane Thralls and Bane Knights, the necessary Bile Thralls, and some supporting mercenaries in Gorman and Saxon. He got the first turn, and the mission was Destruction.
Ah, distance, my old foe. I knew to be ready for Excarnate. I thought I had range of relative safety and a tasty enough lure closer to my objective. Yet a few Trollkin Fennblades died foolishly from it anyways. Bringing a new Bile Thrall so close simply hurts.
I got fairly lucky in some rolls and movements of my foe, and landed more than a few points of damage on Asphyxious in the clash between some fast-moving Fennblades and the ever-reliable Magic Bullet spell. With Gaspy2 engaged by two Fennblades, I was hoping that Jarl’s Fog of War would postpone the feat turn by a round and I could go for an assassination myself. Aspyhxious counted on bad troll melee rolls, and was rewarded. Even with the bonus for free striking he managed to escape combat intact and reach close enough to bring back his spectral army inside the clouds–allowing them the charge on Jarl. And that spelled goodnight for my round one.

I was pretty proud as I had hurt Asphyxious pretty well (if one of the two free strikes had been pretty lucky at the end it could have gone my way), and I at least earned one control point for my team’s record. Plus, my opponent Vic was a great guy. Really fun to play with and with good spirit about the game. Not to mention a lovely and classic theme Cryx force.

On the other side of the team, Dan’s Retribution had played a close game as well–unfortunately attrition against Khador didn’t end in the elves’ favor. So we fell to zero points for the first round. At least our second round foes would be in the same boat!
For round 2, our pairings were me facing against a Cygnar force and Dan facing off against an Everblight list (an unappetizing menu of either the Twins Saeryn and Rhyas or Abyslonia2). As I had more experience with Everblight, we decided to use our team feat and swap it around–ending with Dan and his Force Wall facing Stryker3, while my Madrak2 End Times tier list would go against the Twins.
My opponent’s force was the usual icky tournament fare of Everblight. I try to always remind myself that every army is potent, but somehow the hugeness of the heavies in Everblight seems oppressive. With two Angelius warbeasts and Zuriel, that sense of massive looming doom was all the more increased by wingspan. The rest of the force was a Cauldron and a Naga, a Spell Martyr, a Strider Deathstalker, and a unit of Croak Raiders. Mission was Outflank, so we had two big zones of scoring to contend with. The Cauldron and a poorly-chosen charge target were the two big mistakes for me in the match. I engaged the beast side pretty well, and panicked the Croak Raiders who took multiple turns to rally. I let too many little shredders spawn from the Cauldron, though, as my ranged support was on the wrong side of the table. And the Earthborn ended up nearly useless for the match because I charged a poor target that left him out of position to really make much impact.

Madrak2 did pretty well for me overall, and I had a chance at taking the match. I suffered the alpha strike of Rhyas, killed her, then suffered the revival and killed her again. While things were getting thin for my forces, it was hardly over. Madrak had the best shot of it, getting two throws of his axe on his feat turn, with focus to boost the to-hit on each, against Saeryn. She was in a very good defensive position, but I needed high doubles anyhow–Critical Grevious Wounds would have meant that she couldn’t transfer the hit away. Alas, my aim was off both times and he missed with each. The rest of the ranged attacks I tried to land on her had fallen pathetically short. With dwindling protection (and lit on fire from two turns prior), Madrak was indeed on his End Times. Clearing the last of the Trollkin around him with the Deathstalker, my foe moved the Angelius in for the successful kill.

Again, a great game and a really fun opponent. David was a fun player, and his finished models looked great (I didn’t face his Absylonia2 list, but she looked so great with a cool whirling-water base I included a pic of her below). I could have done better if I remembered a few things, but I reminded myself that I’m horribly new at Trollbloods–my Skorne or Everblight may have been the better choice for the tourney setting. On my teammate’s board, Dan and his foe Ben were having a rollicking clash. Ultimately, it came down to death by clock for Dan–his time ran out. He was in decent position for the game, but the sheer number of activations that the Force Wall list includes got the best of him.

With us falling at two losses again, we ended up seizing the Third Round Bye. Which was generally fine with us both. We’d done well, and were pretty close in all our games. A little mistake here and there, plus some dice luck, is often the difference between top and bottom at an event like this.
All in all it was a great tournament, with some really well-painted stuff (Dan’s first round opponent, Justin Shannon, gave me permission to share his awesome Ruin and Butcher3). It always impresses me at how quickly people can paint such gorgeous forces–I’m excited to see what everyone has added by the next month.

Battles (Privateer Press):
Overall Total 2015: 28 (Win/Loss: 21/7/0)

Skorne:
12 Wins (Fiona, Sorscha, Morvahna2, Ossrum, Borka, Kaelyssa, Stryker, Venethrax, Butcher, Thagrosh, Exulon)   /   3 Losses (Kromac, Kaelyssa/Kaya, Borka)

Trollbloods:

1 Win (Asphyxious)  /   3 Losses (Kaelyssa, Asphyxious2, Saeryn+Rhyas)

Protectorate of Menoth:
3 Wins (Morvahna2, Kaelyssa)   /   0 Losses

Legion of Everblight:
5 Wins (Caine2, Kaya, Sorscha, Rahn)   /   1 Loss (Fiona)

As I’ve mentioned before, I’m getting pretty heavily into a Trollbloods army. I added two more models to my painted totals for this week, and snuck in a small-sized game of Mangled Metal/Claw and Fang against a player who is just starting up a Cryx force.

It was perfect timing, as he was fielding Lich Lord Asphyxious, while I painted a new warlock for my force: Jarl Skuld. They make a perfect pairing for a duel in the Thornwood–no doubt some members of a Trollkin Kriel stumbled upon a hidden necrotech factory. As Jarl Skuld rushed the place with a few of his Dire Trolls, Asphyxious, a Helljack, and swarm of Bonejacks found a stalling defense action–hoping to take Jarl Skuld down. In addition to Jarl Skuld, I painted up a Dire Troll Blitzer to add to my force. I just love the look of the model, so I had to run one. They may not be the perfect warbeast, but they can sure dish up a lot of attacks with a lucky turn. Plus, the pyg gunner atop the model makes me laugh whenever I look down at him. 

The battle itself was relatively quick, as small Mangled Metal/Tooth and Claw bouts tend to be. The Cryx harried Jarl Skuld somewhat early on, with spells and a spray attack from a Defiler. The Trolls for their part answered in kind–bonejacks are flimsy, fragile things. Especially with an Earthborn Dire Troll absorbing their high power weapons and turning them against your forces.

The Cryx jacks managed to kill the Blitzer relatively quickly, while Asphyxious blasted away with spells and feat, hoping to finish it off and win the game. He got very close, but not close enough. The Earthborn turned and sunk its meaty claw right into the last remaining Cryx warjack–winning me a victory when it was destroyed. While it was a small game, it had been a fun one–with each of us using very different tactics to try and wrestle a win.

Battles (Privateer Press):
Overall Total 2015: 26 (Win/Loss: 21/5/0)

Skorne:
12 Wins (Fiona, Sorscha, Morvahna2, Ossrum, Borka, Kaelyssa, Stryker, Venethrax, Butcher, Thagrosh, Exulon)   /   3 Losses (Kromac, Kaelyssa/Kaya, Borka)

Trollbloods:

1 Wins (Asphyxious)  /   1 Loss (Kaelyssa)

Protectorate of Menoth:
3 Wins (Morvahna2, Kaelyssa)   /   0 Losses

Legion of Everblight:
5 Wins (Caine2, Kaya, Sorscha, Rahn)   /   1 Loss (Fiona)

I did a thing. I started a new force. I mentioned in a prior post that after enough standing around and watching people play Trollbloods, I finally gave in and grabbed some myself. That means there’s only one thing to yell: TROLL!

I had two Trollbloods blisters lurking around my stuff from the past (about 3-4 years ago I had a Trollbloods passion for a hot minute), so broke them out and used them as a basis: Madrak Ironhide World Ender and a unit of Troll Whelps. I loved the whelps too much to dispense with them, and Madrak2 is just too epic a pose to give up. I may have even had plans to use him in a role playing game: every game can benefit from an awesome looking Troll about to swing a huge axe. In any case, I literally dusted them off, as they were in my hobby box beneath a pile of unused Everblight bits. And I nabbed a few new models to start to make a force. 

I wanted to get my paint scheme for the warbeasts sorted out first and foremost, as that’s the core of a force in Hordes. While I like the blue skin with darker blue stone/scales that is used in the fluff/demonstration models from the company, I wanted something different for my own force. I decided to give pale skin with green crystals a try. I’m reasonably pleased with how it turned out, and I have an idea for how some of the various models in the faction will look. For instance, my Earthborn Dire Troll is above, and you can see the way the green works. I made it so he was “absorbing” the rocks down by the ground, so I worked in some stone-looking ones on his arm there. With his Elemental Communion ability, I figured that he could be like a terrain chameleon in that manner–absorbing the look of the surroundings. I like the effect, and that means for some of the other elemental-style trolls it will be something I can continue (e.g. the Mountain King can have stone mountains but also surrounding green gem protrusions). 

I also painted up one other warbeast in the testing phase: a Swamp Troll. I simply like the model, and I wanted to see how a model with far smaller stone protrusions would look with the green color I went for. I’m pretty happy with how he turned out. In painting him, I decided that as the trolls of the force got smaller they would be brighter and brighter shades of grey–so that the true Trolls, the Trollbloods, the Pygs, and the Whelps all have lightening hues (in that order). In addition to painting, I got a starting game in with my forces. I had a few abortive test runs with the Trollbloods before, but this was the first game where I fielded painted models so it’s the first one I’m blogging about. I faced off with a 35-point Madrak2 list against my buddy Dan’s Kaelyssa-led Retribution force. He was testing out a bunch of new solos, and I am still getting the feel of Trollbloods so both our lists were a trifle out of the norm.

As is always true in tabletop wargaming, painted models perform better than unpainted ones–and my Earthborn Dire Troll and Swamp Troll were the two more successful models on my side. I made a number of errors, often due to limiting my charge and movement lanes due to intervening models with medium-sized bases. I have one medium infantry unit so far with my Skorne, and a whole set of Blighted Ogruns for my Everblight, but for some reason with Trollbloods the base-size issues seemed to get in my way. 

The elves got ahead in points for the battle (Steamroller 2015 Close Quarters), so I was forced to make a last-minute play for caster assassination. I got really close, too–most of the opposing force was eliminated, but they were dominating their own flag. I managed to get Warpath up on Madrak, use his feat to chop a hole, then warpath the Swamp Troll as far as I could so it could move on its activation and take a shot at dragging Kaelyssa with its tongue. It hit, and did fair damage on the tongue. I even had enough to boost the attack roll after the Drag in hopes of finishing her last few boxes but missed with that swing. At the start of her turn, Dan sat on all her focus thinking she’d have to survive a free strike as she moved back to the objective. Then he realized that little old Sylys Wyshnalyrr was hanging out and could simply run over to control the objective and score the final point to win the game for the elves at 5 to 4 points.

Overall it was a great game. I got frustrated at my own mistakes, but I quickly recognized that it was just growing pains with so many medium-based infantry clogging the field. Soon enough I’ll get the hang of it. Now to get the rest of the gang painted!

Battles (Privateer Press):
Overall Total 2015: 22 (Win/Loss: 18/4/0)

Skorne:
11 Wins (Fiona, Sorscha, Morvahna2, Ossrum, Borka, Kaelyssa, Stryker, Venethrax, and Butcher, Thagrosh)   /   2 Losses (Kromac, Kaelyssa, Kaya)

Trollbloods:

0 Wins   /   1 Loss (Kaelyssa)

Protectorate of Menoth:
3 Wins (Morvahna2, Kaelyssa)   /   0 Losses

Legion of Everblight:
4 Wins (Caine2, Kaya, Sorscha)   /   1 Loss (Fiona)