We just finished week one of the Carnage at the Confluence campaign at Drawbridge Games–check out all the progress and story here.
This post focuses on my games in the campaign, but of course first is my painting progress:
I finished a minimum unit of Trollkin Fennblades. Painting units is always the big challenge in Warmachine and Hordes, so I’m proud of getting them done. They add 5 more points to my painted model total.
I also finished the Drummer model of the Fennblades Officer and Drummer unit attachment. I’ll give myself half points for him (+1), as the Fennblade Officer was one of the first models I painted up to test my Trollbloods scheme (in November!).
I also completed a Troll Axer, for another six points painted. I’m really pleased with how he turned out. Despite all my Trollbloods play, I have never fielded this model until today. Odd, given how much I use my Titan Gladiator to pass out the Rush animus to my Skorne forces.
Given that it was the first week of the campaign, games were simply bring and battle with rolled Steamroller scenarios. I faced off against three different Legion players over two days: Rico’s force led by Rhyas, Ryan’s force led by Vayl2, and Brandon’s force led by Lylyth.
The more I play Madrak2, the more I believe I simply do not get him as a caster. I had a good game against Rico, clearing a lot of his stuff and playing defensive to try and get points. But eventually he whittled through my defenses enough to get to Madrak, finishing him with a Scythean. I think I need to run him with troop spam, and just get right up into my opponent’s face and dare them to take him out. Dunno, not my style.
I played my second game against Ryan’s Vayl2 force, which he is doing in a great blue color with some yellow/orange elements. It really pops nicely on the table. For this game I fielded Jarl Skuld, who is much more my style than Madrak2. He plays cautiously, takes out selected pieces to enable a favorable match up to end the game. I finished Vayl2 off with some heroics from Janissa Stonetide’s Rock Hammer spell and Jarl finishing the knocked-down Vayl2 with a charge.
The next day I snuck in a game against Brandon’s Lylyth force. We took our time, as he is a Cygnar player who is just starting to explore Hordes and Legion of Everblight through the campaign. I took Borka, who proved to be too much for the Carnivean to handle. His high defense when he puts Iron Flesh on himself, and then becomes Stumbling Drunk, is just too good. The one shining moment for Legion was when a Shredder’s attack caused Borka to stumble directly backward toward my table edge, leaving the Carnivean out of melee and with a perfect shot down the line of my Troll Bouncer and the full group of Fennblades. While I took some pretty brutal casualties from that, the Earthborn on the opposite side finally made range on Lylyth and finished her off.
Overall a great set of games and good opponents. So far so good with the campaign, and if nothing else lots of people are playing new armies because of it.
366 Points Challenge Progress (2016):
145/366
Battles (Privateer Press):
Overall Totals 2016: 34 (Win/Loss: 20/14/0); 2015: 43 (Win/Loss: 29/14/0)
Trollbloods:
4 Wins (Karchev x2, Vayl2, Lylyth) / 6 Losses (Adeptis Rahn, Kromac, Caine2, Borka2, Kaya, Rhyas)
Cryx:
4 Wins (Caine, Karchev, Skarre, Vlad) / 3 Losses (Asphyxious, Lylyth2, Goreshade3)
Skorne:
12 Wins (Butcher x2, Deneghra, Shae, Sorscha2, Feora2, Severius, Skarre x2, Kreoss2, Borka, Kaya2)/ 5 Losses (Rask, Xerxis, Butcher3, Thagrosh, Zerkova2)
The story so far:
Imperial star charts map the United Systems of Atreidia where the green N’dras sept marker rests in the lower right. 
Now, a movement has started underground to violently resist the Tau oppression. Rumors tell of a charismatic, angry leader that is spreading the word of a new set of goals and leadership for the people of the United Systems of Atreidia. The slogan “Make Atreidia Great Again” has been appearing on graffiti across the planets. Those who are closer to the movement speak of the quasi-religious overtones being adopted by the human resistance. They speak of something buried in the race-memory of man and of ancient practices that are unique to mankind’s culture and unknown by the Tau. The more citizens connect with these ideas, the more unbridled rage and anger seems to suffuse their speeches and their actions. To identify each other, adherents have been crafting symbols of their affiliation: small wooden or brass carvings dyed red.
I’m really pleased with how the model turned out. I’m not the best painter, but I’m proud of what I worked out for my Trollbloods. Finishing Borka and the Pyg Keg Carrier also gets me to 133 points of models painted this year!
The Winter Trolls took the brunt of the Karchev Warjack bundle. The Freezer animus helped somewhat, leaving two of the advancing jacks who ran up into my face stationary. But that didn’t save the Winter Trolls the following turn, as they were pretty easily cut down after an ineffective turn of spraying his models hoping for more stationary effects. 
On the other side, I was doing much better. There was a large obstacle that split the battlefield in half. Because of my shooting, the Man-o-Wars advanced slowly in shield wall, which let me get into my opponent’s zone quickly and sneak some early points. The Swamp Troll proved to be a fantastic ally to the Pyg Bushwhackers. He pulled Man-o-Wars out of formation with his drag, leaving the other isolated ones to be shot down without the benefit of shield wall. Then the Slip Away order for the Bushwhackers UA allowed them to drop out of combat without free strikes and do it all over. 
While Karchev managed to dominate my zone eventually, that early turn of getting a quick point paid off. I managed to clear the last of the Man-o-Wars in his zone with a charge from Borka, leaving the Swamp Troll controlling that zone. Scored me my fifth control point on the same turn when Karchev dominated a second time (giving Colton four). It was a really close match, and if I hadn’t grabbed that early turn point with the Pyg Bushwhackers he would have definitely won the match. 
A Feralgeist and two more Void Spirits added 5 points to my painting total, taking me to 127/366 for my one-point-per-day painting challenge. 
The one wrinkle about this tournament was that each round expanded the number of points. The first round was 15, second 25, third 35, and fourth 50. The above is a picture of my full 50 points list. At 15 it was Mordikaar, four Scarab Packs, and the two free Void Spirits that came with it. Going up I added the additional Void Spirits, Feralgeist, and a Cyclops Brute to hit 25, the Bronzeback for 35, and the rest at 50. 
To say I didn’t play so well would be a fair assessment. That said, I also think the list didn’t help. Even with 10 boxes each, the Scarabs fold under almost anything trying to attack them. And in return, they cannot muster the hitting strength to do much. In a later game, I had all four packs go all out–and they managed to only kill six Doom Reavers. And that was maybe their most productive round across all four games. 
I faced (in order) Larry’s Skorne, Matt’s Khador, Andy’s Legion, and Scott’s Khador. The only game I was remotely close in was against Andy, but I couldn’t keep enough pressure up on the flag that Thagrosh was dominating to be able to win myself (the game ended with him clearing the center zone, and going up 6-5 on control points). My force simply didn’t have any staying power beyond the Bronzeback–and that’s not enough in a Legion match-up.
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.
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. 
Red Ones Go Faster 