The breeding pens had been set, and the restless howl of the accumulated dragonspawn created a roar in the underground burrows. Thagrosh stalked between the pens, pleased at his plans. Rumors of the bones of a lost kin of Toruk named Vorspark*, and the fragmented Athanc they might contain, were turned up by a group of long-ranging Strider Blightblades. They had captured and tortured a Greylord scholar who tended an ancient archive in the northern plains. He revealed a bit of lore that led to more: Vorspark’s Athanc was indeed most likely hidden near the confluence of the Irkel river in northern Khador.
Yet the location posed a problem. The armies of Khador were spread across nothern provinces retraining and staging for potential southerly pursuits. Even more complicated, the location of the Athanc was right where two large Kriels of Trollbloods had been permitted to resettle as a gesture of good faith by Khador after the Trolls were betrayed by Cygnar. The sheer number of potential foes meant it was time for the Legion of Everblight to strike in true force for the last time.
Thagrosh had summoned all of the commanders, even those he clashed with in the past. The potential of recovering and utilizing another Athanc was too great–especially one that Toruk seemed to have no knowledge about. He sent gangs of captured laborers and the Blighted Ogruns that owned them to hollow out a staging area for the armies of Everblight amidst the winding tributaries of the Tapping River which lay north of the Irkel river. With a huge supply of new beasts created, and tribes of Blighted Nyss creeping southward to support them, Thagrosh and the Legion of Everblight were poised to spread their Wargroups out and drive into the heart of the Irkel river. It would not be long before the ranging scouts of Khador and the Trollblood Kriels would notice them and summon a response in force. It was time to strike, and the howl of beasts in the tunnels would be unleashed in full.
*One of the smaller kin of Toruk, potential “Dragon Y” on the known lore of Immoren.
Get ready for a new Warmachine and Hordes campaign at Drawbridge Games: Carnage at the Confluence. The battle lines are set, and rules on how the campaign will run can be found here.
The map above has the tiles marked with starting positions for Wargroups–the units functioning as a combined army of sorts. The legend below shows which Warcasters and Warlocks lead each Wargroup.
| Legion Wargroups | Code | Khador + Trollbloods Wargroups | Code |
| Thagrosh | T | Butcher and Gunnbjorn | BG |
| Lylyth | L | Sorscha and Grim | SG |
| Saeryn and Rhyas | SR | Karchev and Grissel | KG |
| Vayl | V | Strakov, Calandra, and Jarl | SCJ |
| Absylonia | A | Vlad and Doomshaper | VD |
| Kallus and Bethayne | KB | Irusk, Zerkova, and Madrak | IZM |
| Harkevich, Old Witch, and Borka | HOWB |
While Khador and Trollbloods have shed blood in the past, an uneasy truce exists for now between them. However, the machinations of Cryx, Cygnar, and Circle Orboros operatives in the area may yet drive these erstwhile allies apart.
Campaign games will start on Thursday, May 5th.
They are not particularly good in the game, but they are 10 more points painted toward my totals–which puts me at exactly 1/3 of the way through the painting progress. And with the new edition of Warmachine and Hordes coming in June, there’s hopes that the old models that haven’t been particularly great will get new rules that improve them. Winter Trolls haven’t been good ever (not Mark I, nor Mark II) so perhaps they’ll finally get their moment. 
My Doomshaper2 force. With added Winter Trolls, because well… I just painted them. I also forgot my Impaler at home, so had to borrow a friend’s for the battle, so that’s why he doesn’t match. The basic plan is using the movement boosts and tricks of Doomy2 to yo-yo ranged warbeasts and knock out key models/dent things as they close in. I’m not sure it works (I’m leaning strongly toward the idea that it’s a complete flop). It also definitely suffered from the two Winter Trolls, because…
My opponent Tony fielded Borka2, who makes his whole battlegroup immune to cold, and can selectively give cold immunity to a unit with an upkeep spell. Battlegroup was Mulg, Impaler, Bouncer, and Pyre Troll, supported by minimum Tuffalo, a big group of Fennblades with two pieces supporting them, and a Krielstone.
The lines got pretty mixed, as Borka2’s feat turn left me unable to project much against his forces beyond sending a few Fennblades to their ancestors. The rampage of the Dire Troll Blitzers was blunted by the heavy forces they matched up agaist. I managed to finish off Mulg after this photo, and was starting to put some pressure on controlling the far scenario zone to get an advantage and hopefully grind out a win. 
Sadly, Doomshaper2 got buried under weight of attacks from stragglers as the forces got thinned out, and his utterly feeble old man stats started to show themselves. He was assaulted by a Fennblade and a Fell Caller, lit aflame from a Northkin Fire Eater (the hit also forcing the tough and knocking him down), and finally slain by a shot from the Pyre Troll. Overall a really fun game, as Tony is a great opponent and it really helps me to see how other Trollbloods players build their lists and react to the flow of battle with familiar pieces. 
And I promptly learned that luck would simply not be with me this game. The light warbeasts are tough enough, but with dice going awry they got downright awful. Here they are crashing agaist the Circle menace. 
The most ignoble part of the game came from when I realized that Madrak2 needed to mix it up himself to win. So I put his buff up on himself and rolled up onto the near Argus… only to miss and miss again until I was left with too low a fury stat and a still mostly-healthy Argus. I further complicated my mistake by trying to make up for his misses by going hog-wild with my light warbeasts and forgot to leave open fury on them for transfers. That left me with my defense lowered thanks to my own buff spell–and Madrak2 was unceremoniously laid low by the assault. 
They’re for a mad scheme I have for a Mordikaar theme list, and they’re a fun little unit (that is horribly fury-inefficient). But completing them adds 15 more points to my total. That means I’m up to 112/366 points for 2016, and closing in on 1/3 of the way to the goal!
Dan’s deployment of his Circle. The Warbeasts get advanced deploy because of the tier, and the Skinwalkers got an advance move. His Warlock is Kaya2, run pretty strong side on beasts–a Feral, a Stalker, and a Riphorn led the charge, with support from a Gorax, Druids of Orboros, Skinwalkers with Alpha, and Shifting Stones. 
My force also had a fair amount of advanced deploy. I haven’t completed everything for the Mordikaar tier experiment yet, so I decided to see how the Scarab Packs did without any support–hence, more experimenting with Naaresh. The list is Naaresh, four Scarab Packs, a Gladiator, a Bronzeback, the Company of Iron Platoon components, and some Paingiver Beast Handlers. 
The Paingiver Bloodrunners got into the action fast as they could. The Stalker had reached out and struck down some Scarabs before lightning strike carried him away, so these two brave Bloodrunners sacrificed their lives to close lanes and block. 
More Bloodrunner shenanigans. Their Shadow Play ability is really amusing, and lets me set up some ugly positioning and activation problems for my opponents. The Bloodrunners don’t ever really shine themselves, but their annoyance factor cannot be understated when they can get Shadow Play to trigger. 
It got pretty touch and go in the battle, as I was not afraid to stand Naaresh up close (nor afraid to damage him with my Beast Handlers’ whips). Kaya2 brought herself and a lot of her forces up and into the fight with the crazy rapid strike she can manage. Dan’s forces would have finished me off, but the Feral Warpwolf missed its headbutt attack on Naaresh (which he had a pretty decent chance of getting). Even with the blood tokens from his Pain Monger ability would not have let him live through the following assault if he happened to be knocked down. Once he had committed, it was a matter of finishing off Kaya2’s beasts and threat vectors to win the game via assassination. 
The Trollbloods deployment. The list was Borka with Rok and a Glacier King, plus a max unit of Fennblades with UA, a Fell Caller Hero, and the platoon elements (Stone Scribe Chronicler, Scouts, and min unit of Pyg Bushwhackers). He positioned them ready to leap into the trench. 
My force was the first outing for Master Ascetic Naaresh under my command. His feat seems to translate well for hitty warbeasts even though he’s a bit of a generalist, so I went for a mostly general battlegroup: a Bronzeback, a Gladiator, a Aradus Sentinel, a Cyclops Brute, a Cyclops Shaman, and my new Scarab Pack hitting the table for the first time themselves. That combined with some Paingiver Beast Handlers and the elements of the platoon to complete the list: a Mortitheurge Willbreaker, a Paingiver Bloodrunner Master Tormentor, a unit of Paingiver Bloodrunners, and two Void Spirits. I rushed up the board in the rough block in the picture above (this is after movement), doing my best to use the two linear obstacles that were provided. 
And I needed that cover because of the shooting onslaught. The Glacier King’s deadly shots, plus the spell of the Sorcerer, were directed my way time and again. Luckily the cover, the high defense on some of the models, and the additional armor bonus on the Aradus Sentinel blunted the threat considerably. 
The mission makes the attacker (me) win by getting their Warcaster or Warlock into the enemy trench, and then start their following maintenance phase inside. I had a moment of opportunity when the Fennblades panicked from the nearby Void Spirit, so I took my shot. The Paingiver Bloodrunners cleared a model inside the trench then used their ability to draw the model that hit him out of the way. I ran the Cyclops Brute up for protection, and then managed to get Naaresh into the trench with his Cyclone spell. With Iron Flesh upkept upon himself, some damage tokens boosting his armor from a friendly whipping, and the Safeguard Animus from the Brute, he was going to be hard to shift out of place. 
That didn’t stop Tony from trying. He had the Fennblades flee away, and basically had a shot from Rok (who got into the trench, so had a chance to hit even my high defense) and then melee from Borka to try and finish Naaresh off. Borka got really close, but not close enough. I took some damage, and had to transfer twice. But in the end Naaresh was still standing in the trench at the start of my Maintenance phase which won me the game.
Master Ascetic Naaresh completed. This model was a pain (haw haw), as his skin is all broken up by the bladed piercings that litter his body. I like the look overall, but felt that the skin was somewhat too busy to pull the model together well. Dunno. He does add three points to my painting total (warcasters get points for their base size).
I also finally finished another part of my platoon: the Paingiver Bloodrunners unit. These murderous assassins are pretty fun to play, as their Shadow Play ability can let some really wacky things happen. They also net me five more points for painting progress. 
The second unit I got done: a Skorne Scarab Swarm. Sorry for the bad picture, I’ll take more when they hit the field for the first time. But hey, five more points to the painting totals. 
This is the one I’m really proud of. I finally finished the big boy: my Siege Animantarax. Not only is he a great model, but he adds nine more points to my progress. I managed to finish it on March 31st, which brought me to 31/31 for the March painting challenge. And leaves me at a crazy 97/366 for 2016. Just over 25% of the way done–which is exactly right given that I’ve done three months of “paint a point a day” progress. 
My line of battle for the big game versus Menoth. Mordikaar is the Warlock I’m riding pretty heavily in the league–he’s the one in the fluff of the Platoon that they are working for, and he’s a good match for the units included. It was a pretty heavy melee and beast list, with a Titan Cannoneer included to help thin a bit of infantry on the advance. 
And oh, what infantry there was. Terry’s force was led by Kreoss2, and in addition to the Platoon there were two other units of troops (not even including the max Choir). Mordikaar had his work cut out for him. 
Especially because Kreoss2’s feat completely denied my feat. I looked at his card and everything before the game, but somehow I missed the “attacks automatically hit” and saw only the additional attack portion. I should have known, as I’ve faced Kreoss2 plenty of times in the past. So of course my not remembering led me to near-complete disaster: I rushed my jammers and relatively higher defense beasts right into a bad spot and hoped that +3 Defense and Poltergeist would minimize the damage. I was so wrong. 
Kreoss2 did all this safely from behind a warjack screen, and I simply did not have the leverage to fair-fight my way to possession of the flag on that side. So it was time for what Mordikaar does best: a last minute assassination attempt. 
My Cyclops Shaman got a shot off on Kreoss2 as he got close to the flag–ignoring line of sight problems and landing a few points of damage. The the Bronzeback got rush put on him (from the Cyclops Shaman) and dashed forward with a charge. After the first swing, a bit of beat-back allowed him to drive more deeply into the enemy forces toward Kreoss. I parked an “insurance” Bloodrunner behind him just in case, had my Willbreaker put Puppet Master onto my Warlock, and then activated Mordikaar. Another Essence Blast assassination vector off a warbeast did the trick. The hit comes at such HUGE strength off a Bronzeback, that it blasted away the last of Kreoss2’s hitboxes with relative ease. 
Game two of week three started with a flying stop, as my Skorne Platoon simply crumbled against Brandon’s Cygnar platoon as they attempted to escort a military officer to the safe house. It didn’t help that the Bloodrunners managed to be just a little too close to the gunmages, so their stealth didn’t protect them. My mistake in placement, which compounded by failing the command check afterward. 
I blame Victoria Haley. She was the Officer model that Brandon was fielding for the mission. And I have yet to win a game against her in my entire span of playing this game (dating back to my brutal Khador-gap warjacks in 2003). This one was no exception, even if she was just the stand-in for the Officer. I rallied the Bloodrunners and they got up to her, and simply failed to seal the deal. The missed her attack, so the Poltergeist effect for the platoon starting promotion triggered–leaving her out of melee range, and letting the Gun Mages mow down the last of my Skorne troops. 
Week Four of the event I only managed to squeeze in a single platoon clash–largely because there was great turn-out and everyone was getting games in. My Platoon faced off against Colton’s Khador again, this time with me protecting the objective in the center that he was attempting to sabotage. Above, you see the abysmal failed charge of my Void Spirit at his Widowmaker Marksman. Lack of Incorporeal (and thus caring about the movement penalty of the stream) strikes again. 
I mounted a pretty solid defense against his models, with the Bloodrunners doing great work cutting through the Doom Reavers and the Bloodrunner Master Tormentor being a thorn in the side of the Widowmakers thanks to the nice combination of Stealth to protect the approach, Reach, Thresher, and Sprint. However, I couldn’t stop the Manhunter from reaching the objective obelisk and setting the charge. The remaining Doom Reavers moved away, and the Widowmaker advanced and died from the free strike. And just like the last game against Colton’s Khador where I got a lucky explosion on the first attempt, he got one here and won the game. 
I just love the character of these models. The officer especially. They add 2 more points to my painted total as well. 
Ryan (whose Cryx you may often see on these posts) completed this awesome double-size Trench for the special mission as part of the League. He’s also working on a similar bunker for the other mission. Andy’s pigs on display in the trench to give a sense of scale. 
This smaller platoon game was the “
The fun thing about this mission is getting to deploy all-around the central models. The above is a shot of my attempt at envelopment. 
Well, the Void Spirits are just sad in this match-up. Denied their Incorporeal protection, and with Khador’s starting promotion making the entire army fearless, these boys had little to do. Even hiding behind the hedge for the good defense bonus couldn’t save them. That said, I was able to slip my Bloodrunners in close enough to the cabin to set a charge, then got lucky when I pulled away and managed to detonate it on the first roll. Finally, a win for my Platoon–which gives a promotion that makes them slightly better in large games (pretty much all of the Skorne platoon promotions improve their abilities in the bigger games, not platoon combats). 
I was the defender in the second game. Colton had to merely get Sorscha2 completely into my trench and then start his maintenance phase with her still standing there (before the end of the eighth turn). I brought a force led by Mordikaar, as he’s my preferred slow-down and denial caster for the faction–the ability to bring back grunts in annoying places to force you to deal with them again really helps delay opponents. Otherwise it’s my usual shooting-focused beast package, which hopefully had the oomph to soften up his forces at range. 
The besieging Khador force. Winterguard deathstar in the middle, platoon on the right, and Sorscha2 with Beast 09 on the left. 
Close up of Mordikaar, his Cyclops Shaman, and a Void Spirit as they hold firm in the trench waiting for the advance of the enemy infantry. 
My shooting decimated the enemy infantry, but that didn’t stop Beast 09 and Sorscha2 from drawing up into range of my forces. Too little shooting too late, but I didn’t have to defeat it–I just needed to keep her out of the trench. 
Of course, that’s easier said than done against a caster with the Cyclone spell. As time started to run out on the game, Colton had to take a chance and rush her forward and hope she survived. She ended up in one end of the trench, with Mordikaar at the other. Then it was just a hope to weather storm. Unfortunately for Sorscha2, she couldn’t quite get it done. My Cyclops Raider managed to get up into position fully within the trench and land a bit of damage on her, only to be followed by his insides exploding all over her in a shower of gore (good old Essence Blast from Mordikaar) and finishing her off. 
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). 
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. 
Red Ones Go Faster 