Xerxis and Reznik both die

Martin and I managed to get in one last game before my miniatures are packed away where I can't sneak them out again. We put 750 point armies on the table and decided to fight with no real objectives other than to smash each other.



I was handling the early game quite well. I tied up his left flank with three Vengers, while the real fight took place in the center.


My Strategy hinged around the Guardian which was a mistake. I forgot why the Guardian had been gathering dust for a year and a half, but I was quickly reminded; it's a piece of junk. It might be worthwhile in Mk2, but while 3 damaged systems can take out a jack, a heavy jack with an Arc node is just not worth fielding. Martin's heavy Infantry didn't quite fill in half the boxes on the Guardian's damage template, but because three systems were disabled, the jack was disabled.



Mid game I was losing and trying to consolidate. Vilmon, The Seneschal and my Paladin were dead, as was the Guardian and the Vengers were looking shaky. it was then that martin made his mistake. He left Xerxis exposed. Reznik branded him a heretic and the Redeemer fired missiles and killed him. Martin's beasts went wild and suddenly the advantage was mine.

I also made a mistake and left a charge lane open to the Ancestral guardian, who swooped in with Five soul tokens and cut Reznik to ribbons.

The fight now came down to Martin's Immortals against my Choir, Zealots and Avatar. The Avatar slowly chopped through the Immortals, who proved (true to their namesake) very hard to kill. Finally my Zealots got there and rained fire bombs down on the Immortals. End of Battle.

My strategy was not sound. I consolidated from the mid game setbacks well, but my victroy hinged on Martin leaving his boss in an unprotected position.

Get out of the way Vilmon

Tomorrow I play my last game of Warmachine for quite a while. Tuesday the miniatures and modeling gear get packed away for the big move and won't be available to me until October... bummer. So 500 pts Mk 1 vs Tom's Cygnar and Martin's Skorne. Do I think I have made the most competitive army? No. Am I happy with my choices? Very.

I love the fluff that goes with Menoth and in my fevered imagination I see a kind of rivalry between the Knights Exemplar and the Paladins of the Order of the Wall. So tomorrow's force is based around knights (only 2 models are not Knights) on the march to war with Vilmon tagging along to see what all the fuss is about.

Here is a crappy snap of the models I am using. Unfortunately the Vengers are nowhere near finished, but they are ok (except the bases) for the table.

Playing Mk1 Warmachine

So to play against Hordes on Monday night I have to play Mk1 rules again. It has been a while since I have played the old rules and I wonder how much of Mk2 will bleed over accidentally. I am going to try and get Gravus painted by Monday so I can use him. He seems pretty cool and it would be nice to have used him Mk1 at least one time.

The ruined fortification

I managed to salvage the terrain feature I was working on, but in the process it came out a lot darker than I had intended.











I am still messing up my photos. Sometimes light is the issue and sometimes it's the camera settings. These ones are the best of a batch of about 50 or 60 taken at different stages today.

Borka vs. Makeda

Skorne List

Makeda (m)

Titan Gladiator (T)

Cyclops Savage (C)

Basilisk Drake (B)

Venators

Cataphract Acuraii (A)

Ancestral Guardian

Trollbloods List

Borka Kegslayer (B)

Dire troll Mauler (D)

Winter Troll (W)

Longriders (L)

Fell caller (F)

Gudrun the Wanderer (G)

Feralgeist

Martin and I played a 500 pt game to break in his new Skorne miniatures. We rolled up the Domination scenario and the following map shows the basic terrain. The Khaki coloured blobs are hills and the dark green are forest.

Domination is about controlling the 9 areas of the board represented with a cross.

Set up

We rolled to set up and I was first. I tend to play pretty aggressively, so a tight bunch in the middle (designed to punch though the opposition) is a common formation for me. The map shows my Trolls as the blue circles, with the code letters referring to the letters by the names of the army lists at the top of this post.

Martin was hampered by a forest (he put it there) in his deployment zone, so he was spread right across the board. His are the red circles at the top of the map.

Opening moves

The map represents the first round and a half. It is mostly accurate, but a few things may be not in exactly the right place as my memory was hazy on some details. My force streamed across the board (claiming the middle ground) in my first turn, while Martin moved forward only a little and got his troops into better positions. My 2^nd turn was based around unleashing my cavalry. I cast Bum Rush (A spell from Borka) and Freezer (an animus from my Winter troll) on them and then the Fell caller sang War Cry and off the Longriders (Cavalry) went.

The Longriders smashed into the Venators and carved them up. I killed half the unit with the charge which was probably to be expected, but I have never really had my cavalry do much before, so I was very pleased.

Mid Game

Martin responded well and there was a point where I thought he was going to tear me to pieces. His Titan and Cyclops and the Acuraii all charged the Longriders and by the end there was only one Longrider left.

Gudrun attacked the ancestral guardian that was accompanying the Acuraii and he was able to destroy it with one hit. From here the game got pretty messy before the end.

End game

Martin’s Titan came running in and smashed my Winter troll quite badly. Luckily my Dire Troll was able to see it and charged. Unfortunately it only hit once and did hardly any damage. It was at this point that the game was in the balance. It all hinged on the Titan. If I could get rid of it I could dictate how the rest of the game went. After much protracted struggling I was able to kill of the Cyclops and then possess it with the Feralgeist. As the Titan focused on the Dire Troll and killed it, the Winter Troll, Borka and the Cyclops went in and managed to kill the killer.

Marin was in a hard position now, but true to his Menoth roots he made a ballsy move. I had accidentally left a charge lane from Makeda to Borka. Makeda came screaming in and with flashing blades almost succeeded in killing Borka. Almost. In my turn all of my monsters focused on trying to see who could eat Makeda first. The Winter troll won. With Makeda dead Martin conceded.

It was a fun game and a good first go at Skorne for Martin. I look forward to playing him again.

Now it looks like I am teaching a potential new player tomorrow night. I’m interested to see how that turns out.

Cygnar smashed

Tom was visiting Martin from England last week and so he came along to the monthly war games night and as it happened he was drawn to play me. As it was only his sixth or seventh game I intended to be a bit instructional as we went along, but I think his background in other war games made him a little too untrusting to really listen.

I made a strong list based around Champions, the Stone Scribe and Madrak Ironhide. I am unfamiliar with Cygnar stuff but Tom had halberd guys, sword guys, Trenchers and four Jacks. I tried to give some advice, but he politely refused to heed my warnings about a few things and so I was able to beat him.

Tom didn't play poorly though and used his feat at the right time. I think the only thing he didn't do was prioritize threats appropriately. He focussed on the Totem Hunter (and eventually killed it) when he should have thrown his light Jacks in against the Champions. He also got really worried about the Longriders when he should have been focussed on the Trolls attacking the hill. I got the Champions into a great spot on the hill and with a Dire Troll and an Axer in Support I was able to throw him off and hold (the hill was the objective) the hill for the victory.

We both enjoyed the game and chatted for a while afterwards, which is a good indicator that no one felt miffed.

I am now looking forward to playing Martin this week. He has a bunch of new Menoth stuff that I haven't faced yet and I am interested to see what it can do.

Completed Winter troll

I Started highlighting in white and realised I liked the idea of white being more than a highlight, so I kept going. I am happy with the final product and he is ready in time for the game tonight.


I'm not sure about the base though.




I am thinking of maybe some snow on the base.

I have Highlighted the Skin with Ice Blue again and the hair with Bonewhite.

I am going to try and get both the hair and the skin to be way whiter. I am toying with the idea of just going straight to Skull White on my next pass. That might even be enough. Jeez I'm lazy.



The background for this shot I quite like. I think I am going to use it for all my shots from now on.

I tried a wash with thinned down paint at this stage. I'm not sure I am happy with the results.

Just to mention the colours I am using. My paints are all Vallejo 'Game Color', although I do have some of the 'Model Color' range as well.

Over a white spray primer
for the skin: Ice Blue* as the base, with a wash of Electric Blue
The skin nodules are Magic Blue and I plan to highlight with Electric Blue
For the hair: Bonewhite with a very weak wash of Skin Wash**
For the loin cloth: Inner sections were done in Cobra Leather and the fur edging was done in
Charred Brown.

*The website lists this as Glacier Blue
** This is 'Game Ink'

Here is the base coloured Winter Troll. I was home sick from work today and all I could do was sit around, so I got a lot done.

I have in the past tried to do a painting blog, but I lost interest very quickly. I will try again here to post updates of work in progress. So here are my assembled and green stuffed:

Winter Troll


Gudrun the Wanderer


I think the next pic will be of the one I have decided to concentrate on. Likely I will not put up a shot of a miniature that has been spray undercoated because that seems a waste of time. I will concentrate on proper painting stages, so the next one will be fully base coloured.

Madrak vs. Reznik

Tuesday night Martin and I played a hardcore match. Because it was hardcore there was no time for photos at the time, so I set them up later on and took a few. I think I need to get new lights or at least fiddle with my lighting technique, so as I don't wash the subject out too much.

Anyway the main battle took part in the center, which really suited me, as my flanks were really only distractions and the right one crumbled in the first turn and ran screaming away from the enemy skirmishers. My Champions really acquitted themselves quite well and smashed his heavy troops and broke through to attack his warcaster.



I love the Champions and I really can see why people hate fighting against them. On the other side of the coin, I hate fighting against Vilmon. If I didn't win the game in round three, Vilmon was going to give me a good lesson in body bagging.

Kriel Stone Bearer

I just finished this unit. I started them 13 days ago and am happy with the result.



Here is a detail shot



Detail from the back

The Totem Hunter

Here is the predator.



Side view.



I finished him on Saturday in time for Subcultures in Utrecht. I am mostly happy with him, although I think I could do more with the gray; maybe make it a little lighter.

Bad showing for the Trollbloods

I did very poorly in the tournament in Utrecht on Sunday. When I say poorly, I mean I cam last. Am I embarrased? A little perhaps. Am I annoyed? Not really. If I had won my last game (and I should have except for the rules my opponent broke) I would have finished fourth or fifth due to the decent amount of victory points I scored in my previous matches. Ah well.

It is difficult to explain to people why I lost without it sounding like sour grapes, but that's why I have a blog. Yay! Basically, my opponent was rolling an extra dice on the charge attack damage of her heavy warbeast. She did this three times and I didn't realise she couldn't do it. I am also sure she didn't know either. However this did mean that my stuff was falling apart rather quickly as she targeted it.

The worst mistake though was that she charged the same warbeast at my warlock, even though he was standing behind other figures that screened him. By this stage I was already trying to argue that the charge wasn't legal (according to the rules) for a different reason and after I lost that argument I didn't realise it was illegal from the screened perspective.

The arguing I was doing wasn't with my opponent though and this was the thing that actually pissed me off. Our game was dragging and so the other players filtered over to watch the end of our game as they finished theirs. Advice a plenty was wafting down from them to my opponent. I wonder if they would have been so keen to help if she had been a fat 40 year old man instead of a pretty 25 year old woman. Anyway, it was with them I was always arguing my case and it was clear that they wanted her to win. That is the only thing I am a bit sour about.

My Tournament Army

I have finally finished painting my 500 point Trollblood army for the Subcultures tournament in Utrecht tomorrow.



I am mostly happy with them, although I could be happier with the Fell Caller (Front Left) and the Pyg Keg Carrier (Front Right). I just didn't spend enough time on them. Also, I didn't paint the Earthborn Dire Troll (Back Right), I inherited it in a job lot that I paid almost (about 25% store price) nothing for.

Eventually I will get the camera settings correct so that stuff isn't so shiny. Maybe I should spray the big yellow guy with matt varnish.

Dire Troll Mauler

Here he is:



I just finished him and immediately took a photo. This is the guy that got swamped by those damned scouts of Martin's.

I am in the process of finishing my Fell Caller and my Totem Hunter as well, so that by Sunday I should have a fully painted force for the tournament.

Borka vs. The High Reclaimer

Background
Martin, Mike and I are playing in the Subcultures tournament in Utrecht on November the 2^nd. The Tournament is 500 pts, which is a bit lower than we are used to and there is a time limit, which we are definitely not used to, so getting some games in before hand is a must. We built our armies and had a practice game last night.

The combatants were, Martin’s menoth against my Trolls:

Menoth List

The High Reclaimer
Revenger
Exemplar Seneshal
Exemplars Errant
Idrian Skirmishers
Zealots
Vengers

Trollblood List

Borka Kegslayer
Earthbore Dire Troll
Dire Troll Mauler
Trollkin Champions
Fell Caller
Totem Hunter

We played a standard 6 round game where you could win by holding the hill in the middle for two rounds. Holding the hill seemed to be only an afterthought, as we both went straight for each other in an attempt to grind ourselves into foul smelling paste.

Observations
My only mistake was misusing my Dire Troll Mauler, which got it killed. Martin’s mistake was relying on Zealots to do something useful.

I charged my Dire Troll at the Zealots and managed to contact and kill a couple of them. Unfortunately, the Idrian skirmishers poured down off the secondary (read: unimportant) hill, surrounded the poor dumb beast and over the course of a couple of rounds, killed it. Of course he did eat a couple of them, but because he was frenzying, I couldn’t control him to choose sensible targets.

Zealots can be very effective in the right circumstances. Unfortunately, even in the right circumstances they can still prove a little unreliable. Martin always chooses Zealots (I used to as well) and his fortunes with them (against me) have not been so favourable. Last night he managed to get them into range twice to throw fire bombs and the only models they managed to kill were themselves.

Conclusion
Overall, luck was with me and definitely made the difference as both Borka and the Totem Hunter survived rounds where with average rolls (Martin's damage rolls) they would have been toast. I don’t want to put my victory all down to luck though, as we both played a pretty good tactical game, which was decided on victory points because the round limit was up. I think I am going to use this army in the tournament, because it showed it could do well against a predominantly infantry army; I just need to make sure I use both my Trolls to full effect.

Trollbloods vs. Protectorate of Menoth Hardcore

Last night I played a hardcore match against Martin. The only rule we ignored was that the miniatures had to be painted. I understand that painted miniatures are an integral part of a real Hardcore match, but in game terms it made no difference. We played 7 minutes turns and the objective was to kill the other persons Warcaster/Warlock.

The forces:

Martin (Menoth)
Amon (Warcaster)
Crusader
Revenger
Devout
Avatar
Exemplar Seneschal
Rhupert Carvalo
Reclaimer
2 Units of Knights Exemplar
Vengers



Me (Trollbloods)
Borka Kegslayer (Warlock)
Dire Troll Blitzer
Dire Troll Mauler
Earthborn Dire Troll
Trollkin Champions
Trollkin Longriders
2 Fell Callers



I would love to write a battle report, but there were so many rounds in our 90-100 minute game that I would get it wrong to try and recount it. What I will do is mention the main events.

Left mid table
The Vengers circled round our left flank but they were very cautious, possibly too cautious, so I charged my Longriders straight into the avatar. The fight there lasted the rest of the game, with the Avatar really messed up by my charge that it lost its ability to move. The Devout joined it and so the remaining longriders focused on it as they were out of the 1/2 inch reach of the Avatar. After a couple of rounds they managed to destroy the Devout's ability to move as well.

Left rear table
The Vengers threw caution to the wind as the rest of the battle was unfolding without them and advanced to close to the Earthborn that I had left back to watch them. On my next turn he charged in and ate the first Venger with his first attack. I riled him and left him outside the control radius of Borka. In my next turn he frenzied and polished off the remaining two Vengers that had done him some damage.

Mid table
I charged my Blitzer into the Revenger and trashed it, while the Gobber on his back nailed a few knights with his machinegun. Unfortunately, the knights charged in their turn and slaughtered the poor old Blitzer. I sent the Mauler in who took out the Exemplar Seneschal and what was left of the Revenger.

Right mid table
The Champions advanced and were charged by a half strength unit of knights and the Crusdaer, but because of some luck, the ones that were taken out made their toughness rolls and stayed in the game. A Fell Caller charged the Crusader as well, but did little to it and was soon dead.

After we tore each other to pieces over the course of about ten or 11 rounds the game came down to Borka Kegslayer, vs. Amon one knight and the Reclaimer. That was it, there was nothing left on the table Borka moved out of combat with the Reclaimer (not worried about the free strike, which Martin didn't think I would do) and blasted Amon to pieces. Then for good measure (spite) I shot the knight.

Victory! The closest game I have ever played. All I had left was my Warlock and Martin had a Reclaimer.