29 August 2011

Hey, You Guys!

Hey, this is Jeff. You may know me by my forum name, worldsdeadliestcomposer. You may also know me as El Beasto, The Cap'n, or some other name. In any case, I am now a contributor to the blog dedicated to those angry Scottish trolls that everyone seems to love. For those of you who don't know me, Legion is my primary faction, and I also play Skorne, Circle and Minions. According to Dallas I am also a modeling expert and like your mom, so these are the areas/factions I will be taking the perspective of in my posts. Farewell for now my fellow Scrummers.

Dire Brackets - Round 2 Matchups

Round 2 is here and the scores are close, courtesy of a couple of upsets.  Here are the matchups for Round 2 along with my own personal opinion of who will win each one, regardless of what my own bracket might say.  Round 2 games will be 50 points and will be played using the radial scenario Demolition.


eDoomy by Goris(4) 1-0 vs Grissel by McCryx(7) 2-0  ~ This game has Grissel written all over it, lets face it she rocks it in scenario play.
Borka by Skywise(2) 1-0 vs Calandra by Grimsnik(3) 1-0 ~ Tough Matchup here, this one is going to be fun to watch.  I think Borka has a very small edge due to the low DEF of Troll models.
pDoomy by AwesomeSauce(10) 0-1 vs Jarl by Sephroth's_Advent(6) 0-1 - Jarl might be in trouble here since pDoomy can shut him down.  Question is how fast can Jarl get in pDoomy's Grill.  I think pDoomy has this one.
pMadrak by DruidsnStuff(8) 0-1 vs Grim by SlaphappySid(5) 0-1 ~ Another grueler, pMadrak can whether Grim's tide since he likes to brick and take the first hit anyway.  Edge pMadrak.
Gunnbjorn by Bakaryu(9) 1-1 vs Winner of pDoomy v Jarl by TheGreatBlah - I can honestly say I think pDoomy or Jarl will beat Gunny in this fight.
eMadrak by Phreaker(1) 0-1 vs Winner of pMadrak v Grim - Opposite here, I think eMadrak will take down either Grim or pMadrak here.  Though I'd like to see how each Madrak fares against each other.


What do you guys think, how do you think each match will go?

27 August 2011

"Hell, It's About Time..."


Guess who just got a new camera so that he can take pictures of painting projects? Yeah, that's right, I did. So are you ready for the final product of the Kiltlifter? I hope you are, and I do apologize again for being late on this post. I tried to take pictures with the phone, but it wouldn't let me transfer pictures to my computer or to my facebook even! I have been saving my funds for a while now, and finally bought my new camera a yesterday. I am excited to be blogging and taking pictures again.

There will be changes to how I will blog painting projects, and I will go into that a little later. When I first started painting the model, I had no idea that it was going to be so daunting. I buckled down, and just started painting away. Cool ideas were flowing as I painted, and I am really excited to show you the final product today. The last thing I noticed on the model was the mercenary pendant on the Kilt itself. I never noticed that before, until the end of the project. Now for the moment you have all been waiting for! I will unveil the awesomeness that is the Kiltlifter!

The Kiltlifter


25 August 2011

Butcher n Harkovich vs Borka n eThagrosh

by Sephiroth's Advent


Borka Kegslayer was prowling the deeps of Fenwood, with his warbeasts beside him, when he heard the unmistakable grinding of warjacks in heavy brush. He spun around holding a big meaty finger to his grinning lips.
"Quiet now lads. We might get a fight out of this yet." With that they headed towards the grinding noises.
They found the source of the sounds in a clearing a quarter-mile away. Five hulking warjacks, several man-o-war and from the looks of it two Warcasters. "You boys know who that is? That's the Butcher of Khardov and Kommandant Harkovich." Borka said answering the stares he got from the beasts. "We bring those two down and Khador will be crippled here. Just think of it, the skies the limit."
Borka's speech got the mauler he was with too worked up and it let out a bellow that shook the trees. It also alerted the Khador Warcasters. The warjacks turned and started lumbering towards the trolls. Before they had gotten far a blast of flame took one of the 'jacks full in the chest. A roar from the trees and a sweep of wings and the Messiah of Everblight himself rushed into the clearing. Meeting eyes with Borka, looking back towards the Khadorans, and again with Borka both Warlocks bobbed their heads flashed their teeth, and threw themselves at the Khadorans.

Interview - Doug Seacat

Here at the Scrum we like to spend our time doing meaningful important things.  Like pondering the mysteries of the Iron Kingdoms.  More specifically how Trollbloods fit in that universe and if their domination of all things Hordes and Warmachine is a recent development or if Trollblood supremacy is a constant.  While our own knowledge of Trollbloods must be great, or we just think we're smart, it quickly became apparent that we needed to go to the source.   With our many questions we began a quest for answers. With a little assistance from Simon, and a whole bunch of groveling and begging, Doug Seacat has lent us a few bits of knowledge to quench some of the many questions we sent to him.   Our questions were great in number but Mr. Seacat in his infinite wisdom chose the best ones to answer.  Only one great mystery remains and that is whether or not Trollbloods is Doug's favorite faction or not, we of course know the answer without having to ask...

24 August 2011

work time

Effective meeting notes today...


 I'm pretty sure they're getting their monies worth.


23 August 2011

Dire Brackets Round 1 Points

Round 1 is done and the upsets have rolled in.  Here are the current standings, but the game is still young with the losers bracket on its way up.


eDoomy beats Grim
Grissel beats pDoomy
Grissel beats eMadrak
Gunnbjorn beats pMadrak
Borka beats Gunnbjorn
Calandra beats Jarl


Points~Forum Name
4 TheGreatBlah  
4 Eldrich Scribbler 
4 AlendarPL 
3 AzghalPL 
3 Bakaryu 
3 Skywise 
3 Lycane 
3 Lord Grimlock 
2 Altusvdm  
2 Throsjten 
2 Greggle 
2 Amarel 
2 Grimsnik 
2 mikelizzio 
2 The Happy Anarchist 
2 Loki_333 
1 DruidsnStuff 

22 August 2011

God frowns on eMadrak, Grissel wins.

So I was hired to play eMadrak in the dire-bracket playoffs and it went about as well as expected given my experience level with trolls.

So I've not played trolls much before and it really showed in my performance. EMadrak is hands down the best caster in the troll force and he died to the pesky girl troll. I think if I had a few more games under my belt I would've won. I took it to the wire even though I don't think I cast a spell or animus besides War Path the entire game.

I played:

16 August 2011

Dire Brackets pDoomy vs Grissel

Grissel and Doomshaper had a long history of being at adds with each other.  Though he didn't like to admit it Hoarluk almost respected her and her unique abilities, it was too bad really that she lacked the ruthlessness needed to help him and his Dire Trolls Survive.  Leaping at the opportunity to show her a thing or two Hoarluk jumped at the opportunity to help her with some Wargames between their forces.  He would teach this so called female fel caller a thing or two once and for all.

She had to admit that Hoarluk was fearsome indeed.  His newfound kinship to the Dire Trolls was both amazing and terrifying.  Needing to understand his ways better and wanting to get some needed experience to her troops she offered up some games with the old Troll.  As they arrayed against each other her heart fell a little seeing her Champion Hero 'Eric The Red' fighting on Horthol's side... she told herself it didn't matter since she would never go down that round again anyway and made special note to walk by Gort the LongRider closest to her to let him know what his first order of business would be.  Eric would learn the hard way it appeared.

Hoarluk Doomshaper, Shaman of the Gnarls (-7)
*Dire Troll Bomber (10)
*Dire Troll Bomber (10)
*Troll Impaler (5)
Fell Caller Hero (3)
Janissa StoneTide (3)
10xKriel Warriors (6)
*3xKriel Warrior Caber Tosser (3)
*Kriel Warrior Standard & Piper (2)
Stone Scribe Chronicler (2)
Trollkin Champion Hero (3)
10xTrollkin Scattergunners (8)
*Scattergunner Officer & Standard (2)


Grissel Bloodsong (*5pts)
* Pyre Troll (5pts)
* Troll Axer (6pts)
Kriel Warriors (Leader and 5 Grunts) (4pts)
* Kriel Warrior Standard Bearer & Piper (2pts)
Krielstone Bearer and 3 Stone Scribes (3pts)
* Krielstone Stone Scribe Elder (1pts)
Pyg Burrowers (Leader and 9 Grunts) (6pts)
Trollkin Fennblades (Leader and 9 Grunts) (8pts)
* Trollkin Fennblade Officer & Drummer (2pts)
Trollkin Long Riders (Leader and 2 Grunts) (7pts)
Fell Caller Hero (3pts)
Horthol, Long Rider Hero (5pts)
Janissa Stonetide (3pts)

Our board had a 6" forest on each side of the table on each players left hand with two walls right in the middle perpendicular to our deployment and about 12" apart.  Grissel rolled highest and chose to go first.

Deployment
Grissel ~ He put his Longriders on his right accross from the forest on my side of the table.  His Kreils right in the middle right and Fenns middle left, Pyre Troll on their right side Axer on their left framing in the Stone and Grissel Directly behind the Kriels His Burrowers he would later AD by his forest accross from my Scattergunners.
pDoomy ~ My scattergunners I put opposite from his LR away from my forest to allow them to try and gain a flank, to my dismay he later AD his Burrowers accross from them..  My Kriels I put in the middle but stretched them to the forest.  pDoomy I also put on my left away from his LR Bombers accross from either wall with the Impaler and support solos spread out in back.

Turn 1
Grissel ~ He would run his Kriels right up the middle.  His Burrowers alos ran but not quite thier full distance.  Grissel would dump it all on the stone and hoof the Kriels.  Long Riders advance and Horthol runs up his right side of the table using the forest on my side to keep him well hidden from my ranged.  Stone activates and moves up behind the Kriels with Grissel and Janissa right in the middle of the table with the axer on their left.

Horthol Chuckled at her aggressiveness, she was good he had to admit.  Though she had misjudged slightly.  One of his Bomber's instantly reacted to his prompting as the Impaler increased its range.  The laughter from the Bomber was eery as his exploding kegs landed amist the Pygs.

pDoomy ~ Wondering what I'm going to do with Fenns and burrowers going up that side I decide to allow him the flank on the Horthol side and commit to trying to take out the Burrowers and Fenns.  Far Striked Bomber does his job by killing a Fenn and Three Burrowers.  My Kriels go for the counter jam and I run four of the way up leaving them rest back as far as I can to counter.  My Fel Caller and Hero move to countercharge the LR and Horthol. My scattergunners Advance. pDoomy puts Banishing Ward on the Kriels and Fortune on the Scattergunners.

Turn 2
Grissel ~ His Fenns Vengeance then the Burrowers Burrow.  The stone pops the aura and his Kriels go after mine but in most cases there are no lanes so its a move to attack killing a few Kriels.  Fenns go next charging a couple of Scattergunners the rest are out of range. Horthol runs around the forest going for the flank.  His LR charge one going for a Kriel the other going for my hero that was just a hair too close.  Kriel warrior lives, Hero and LR reduce each other to one wound.  Grissel puts hoof it on the Fenns and moves up a little Janissa walls and Axer frames her in then feats.  Fenns Hoof it up and engage most the Scattergunners. His Pyre lobs at my bomber and lights it on fire and my Krieltough rolls.

Matching her aggressiveness with his own shouldn't have been so unexpected.  Old Doomshaper was crafty though and seemed to beging to exploit every weakness she presented him.  Stepping up a little closer Grissel begain calling her Cacophony to remedy the situation.  Seeing the old Troll try to shake the buzzing from his ears she knew she had at least taken care of his ability to take over her own beasts.

pDoomy ~ I start with my own Kriels who kill a few Kriels.  Bombers toss some bombs taking out one LR and his Kriels all tough their faces off.  Scattergunners start with the two in back that arent engaged and start spraying freeing up their buddies who then return the favor by spraying some more leveling most of the Fenns. pDoomy can't do much so he shifts to the corner of the killbox behind some Scattergunners and Janissa walls. My Fel Caller charges horthol failing the charge by a hair but getting in Horthols way.

Turn 3
Grissel ~ Grissel decides to be a jerk and calls cacapohony again His Kriels and mine change blows again.  His now popped up burrowers go to town on a Bomber and Impaler nearly killing them both. Then his axer finishes them both off along with a couple burrowers.  Horthol fails to kill my Fel Caller but hurts him and his LR finishes off a Kriel and my Hero. 
pDoomy ~ My Scattergunners move around and clear out nearly all the burrowers.  My remaining Kriels take out some of his and get in his LR way.  My Fel Caller dismounts Horthol. My remaining bomber drops one on Janissa reducing her to 1 wound, then she tough rolls. pDoomy shifts around a little and feats.

More annoyed than anything else about disrupting sonic abilities Hoarluk pulled at the strands of magic connecting to Grissel and her beasts.  He would make her pay horribly for attempting to cast any spells near him.  Looking up at her, he saw that she understood what had just happened.  She just set her jaw and called her disrupting Cacophony yet again in defiance.

Turn 4
Grissel ~ Grissel moves up to try and Calamity pDoomy but misjudges the distance so He decides to go after my bomber with his Axer and hurts it a little.  His Pyre lights a few things on fire and the Kriels continue killing each other.  His stone scribes join the fun and put another small dent in my Bomber but are unable to free up the Kriels blocking his LR.  Horthol finishes off the Fel Caller who tough rolls. 
pDoomy ~ This is it so I give it a go.  Scattergunners lay into Grissel hurting her much less than I had hoped.  Doomy charges Grissel and reduces her to four wounds but she still has two fury left on her.  Bomber takes a free strike from the Axer then punches Grissel twice but through transfers neither of her beasts is dead and she remains standing.

Hoarluk could not believe that so many shots from his scatterguns and even swings from his own Staff had not put her into the ground.  He knew he had hurt her, but she still clung to her chance at victory stubbornly.  Hearing his Bomber howl in rage he knew that luck had been on her side as he looked up at her Axer's upraised axe and her own Maul ready to swing in.

With Grissel and her Axer in pDoomy's face and no fury for transfers I conceded him the match.

Grissel just shook her head amazed at his Audacity.  Even in Defeat that old Troll would not yeild her the victory.   She just hoped that something had been learned by all else involved in the mock battle.  Even Eric The Red Fought off a charging Long Rider to seemingly defy her.  Angrily she stomped up to her tent only to come upon Eric.  Eric said nothing to her just nodded Grimly as he handed her a mug of the best ale available.  No dobt brewed by his Pygmy friends the whelp ale was just what she needed.  As she began to refuse him, Eric walked away not even allowing her to chance to refuse the ale.  Not willing to give him the victory she drank the contents of mug in one large group and aimed it at the back of his head... 

15 August 2011

Dire Brackets Round 1 Update

Results have began rolling in and games have been tight.  Small upsets and business as usual here are the first of the results.

pDoomy vs Grissel - Grissel survives a full round of sprays and a few wacks from pDoomy's staff to take the win in a 50 point Killbox game.
Gunnbjorn vs pMadrak - Gunnbjorn throws pMadrak all around for a grueling grinding win also in a 50point Killbox game
Calandra vs Jarl Skuld - Jarl's Champs were confused and Befuddled enough to help Calandra eek out a victory in a 35point Incursion Matchup.

Remaning Round 1 games should be completed this week... GAME ON!!!

Battle Reports and more games to come this week.

12 August 2011

Taste Like Chicken

"Listen up you stinking TROLLBLOODS, it seems you just don't get it.
Well I've been appointed to inform you, your days are numbered.
You would cry, you would scream
If you knew half the things I see.
Please, please just do as I say,
Repent and leave your KRIEL ways.

Meanwhile....JACKS drop from the sky,
KITH disappear and bullets fly.
Little UNDEAD men are coming YOUR way,
(Tastes just like chicken, they say.)
Actually they're all around.
Secret bunkers underground.
Round 'em up, skin 'em alive,
Rolling, rolling, rolling, rawhide. "

10 August 2011

Benelux Masters - Laying the Foundations

So another big tournament is coming up, this time the Benelux Masters which is being held in the Netherlands (Holland for the geographically unaware) during the last weekend of October.

The competition for this tournament is sure to be tough, I anticipate even tougher than at the UK Masters if for no other reason than the tournament format.  For this tournament I am going to be required to bring six lists: three different 50pt lists which all must be used during day one's three games and three different 35pt lists which again must all be used for the three games on the second day.

A number of eyebrows amongst those who know me were surprised at the UK Masters when I took my Retribution instead of Trollbloods, especially as I have been a hardcore trollblood player ever since Evolution in the MkI days of Hordes and Warmachine.  I explained my reasoning for this to be purely because of the issues Trollblood armies faced against the top tier matchups where they lacked the speed to close in on the best shooting armies and fastest melee armies, and the adaptability to deal with the best combined arms lists.  I still stand by my decision and my reasons for why I left my trusted Trollbloods at home and I had a hugely enjoyable and successful tournament finishing a respectable 12th place out of 120 players, losing only to the eventually 3rd and 4th placed players (one of which was the previous year's UK Master).

09 August 2011

Dire Bracket ~ Last Chance

Today is the last day to get your DIRE BRACKET in for a chance to win a tin of Troll dice (among other prizes)  Fill out a bracket and send it in.



Dire Brackets Tournament info
Get your brackets in by 09 August, 2011 by midnight for a chance to win.
Round 1 'Buy in Games' are 50pt armies with the 'Killbox' scenario.
Round 1 games are 35pt armies with the 'Incursion' scenario.
All round 1 games will be played over the next two weeks.
Future round game size and scenario are TBD.

Get your bracket by downloading the excel file HERE! One bracket per person please, multiple brackets by a single person will get you fed to a Dire Troll...  or just removed from the competition.
Send your bracket to thegreatblah@trollbloodscrum.com


06 August 2011

Delay in Kiltlifter and Apology

I do apologize to everyone for the delay in the painting posts for the Kiltlifter. I had the unfortunate event of losing my camera, while I was hiking in the canyon. It had all the WIP pictures of the kiltlifter, and I raged for a while and then proceeded to call myself a noob for losing my camera and not saving them on my computer. I will do what I can to take pictures with my phone of the final product of the model, and make another post.

Once again i do apologize profusely to you guys, and I hope to get a new camera soon, and post more of my projects.

05 August 2011

Dire Bracket - Borka Kegslayer by Skywise


I gotta admit, I was a bit nervous when asked to play in the Dire Bracket Tourney since my experience with Trolls is a bit limited. However I was pretty relieved when I was told I will be playing Borka Kegslayer in the tourney. You see, I'm primarily a Merc player, so I feel right at home with the In-Your-Face play style that Borka brings to the table. In fact, Borka draws several comparisons to my favorite Merc caster, Drake MacBain. Both have great offensive and defensive buffs, both are tough as nails in combat, and both enjoy a nice cold one after (or in Borka's case, during) combat.

My list at 35 points looks like this:

04 August 2011

Epic Grissel & Lightning Troll pics

Couple of previews for you guys from Gen Con.  Well sort of, Grissel was at Lock and Load but here is a better pic.


Pics courtesy of Lost Hemisphere

Dire Brackets - pDoomy by TheGreatBlah

Maybe I'm a glutton for punishment for picking pDoomshaper for this thing but it just couldn't be helped.   Yeap his defense is pretty bad, yeap he dies to a stiff breeze if someone gets a bead on him, but I'll be darned this old troll is just a lot of fun to play.  Unfortunetly for pDoomshaper, Grissel is his first opponent.  Say what you will but she is the one Troll caster who couldn't give a lick about his feat.  She doesn't need to use fury and usually doesn't bring a lot of beast which automatically hoses pDoomshaper's feat and one of his best Hordes screwing spell.  Combined with the fact that Goris is a dirty rotten scoundrel on the battlefield and well deserving of his cutthroat agressive repuation and Old Man Doomy could be in trouble.  That and since Goris beat me the last time we played means it's time for vengeance.

Not to worry though I have a plan. 

03 August 2011

Author Breakdown

With all the new additions I though I could give you all a breakdown of what each person here at The Scrum is in charge of.  Keep in mind that we encourage our authors to spew whatever they wish all over the blog, but these are their areas of expertise should any of you feel the need to contact them or generally harass them out things.


TheGreatBlah – Blog Layout, Tagging, Battle Reports, Foregin Relations Diplomat. Admin
Goris – Quick and Dirty Painting, Podcast, Trollkin Competitive Strategy. Admin
Saerko – New Model Reviews, Guidelines, Regeneration Participation Encouragment Officer. Admin
Bakaryu – Battle Reports, Welsh Lore, Guidelines, European Clothing Styles, European Events. Admin
DruidsnStuff – Correspondent (Circle, Legion, Protectorate), Scroll and Runekeeper, Scattergunner Cigar Roller, Munchie Distributor.
Grimsnik – Correspondent (Cryx, Mercs, Circle, Legion?), Officer in Charge of Trollkin Supremecy Enforcement Tactics.
McCryx – Correspondent (Cryx), General Theory & Strategy, Blighted Trollkin Mercenary Warcaster.
Phreaker187 – Correspondent (Cygnar, Minions), Swan Diving, Fluff Writing, Mergers and Acquisitions of Cygnarran technology..
Sephiroths_Khador – Correspondent (Khador), Public Relations, Axe to Mouth Practical Application Specialist.
Skywise – Correspondent (Mercs, Legion), Quick and Dirty Painting, Painting Service, Makes Tough Rolls In Real Life.
SlapHappySid – Correspondent (Khador), Quick and Dirty Painting, Painting Service, Has a Perty Mouth.
AwesomeSauce – Correspondent (Legion, Skorne, Minons), Modding Expert, Quick and Dirty Painting, Likes our Moms.

Dire Bracket - Goris - Grissel

So Grissel has been chosen for me to face off against the other mighty warlocks in the Trollblood arsenal and I couldn't have been happier because it gave me the opportunity through vassal to field a tier 4 Grissel army with all the kriels and pygs that my heart so desires!  After a little thought though for the sake of the results I decided a more balanced take all comers list would be preferable.  So instead of 50 Warrior models on the table I will have a little more Balanced approach to this competition.  So, TheGreatBlah, you have been spared a horrible pokey death by 28 Kriel Warriors.

The general consensus about Grissel is that she is a scenario MONSTER, which she is, but, she sufferers in kill box because she is more of a Grind Character then most and has a hard time assassinating things because she doesn't run beast heavy.  I've tried to bring a few heavy hitter in my lists here to help with that deficiency.  This works in theory but you'll see over the coarse of these balanced lists if it works out.

02 August 2011

Dire Brackets - BakaRyu

So the warlocks for the Dire Bracket tournament have been decided and allocated to the scrummers, I have found myself given...... Captain Gunnbjorn!

While at first admittedly I felt a little underwhelmed at who might possibly be my second least played warlock (after Grim who I have never even purchased) I have had a little bit of time to soak it up and think about my first matchup for the tournament, against pMadrak (one of my most played warlocks).
When he first came out I tried a lot to try to make Gunnbjorn work but could never really seem to pull it off, for scenarios he never worked because you used all your range options to clear the enemy off the objectives but rarely took any melee options yourself to then occupy the objectives yourself. As a gunline caster for killbox he is pretty good, but objective driven scenarios see him struggle somewhat.