30 September 2011

Jamming 101

One of the hardest transitions new players make is when they begin to add units and solo's to their army.  It is very difficult for players to figure out how to maximize their new additions.  Quite often these new additions are played too defensively or timidly because the new player doesn't want to lose all his new cool models.  Then the opposite happens as their guys get wiped out, they run the whole unit up in harms way to the same effect... anniliation. 

Let not the sacrifice of your fellow Trolls be in vain!!!

War Wagon Poster

Behold the glory that is the War Wagon!

From here it's tough to say if that's a scattergun or a slugger, but there's some serious fire power happening on this thing.

28 September 2011

Hardcore Warmup - pMadrak vs Kromac

Ok so today I managed to get my second hardcore practice match in, and without further ado, the lists:

Madrak Ironhide (-6).......................Kromac the Ravenous (-4)
> Mulg the Ancient (12)...................> Feral Warpwolf (9)
> Dire Troll Mauler (9)....................> Pureblood Warpwolf (9)
> Earthborn Dire Troll (10)..............Max Bloodtrackers (8)
> Runebearer (2).............................> Nuala the Huntress (2)
Min Fennblades (5).........................Min Tharn Ravagers (6)
> Officer and Drummer (2)..............> Chieftain (2)
Min Krielstone and Scribes (3)........> Shaman (2)
> Elder (1)......................................Min Tharn Ravagers (6)
Min Pyg Burrowers (4)....................> Chieftain (0)
Min Bog Trog Ambushers (5)..........Lord of the Feast (4)
Fell Caller Hero (3).........................Tharn Ravager White Mane (3)
.......................................................Tharn Ravager White Mane (3)

Trollkin War Wagon Speculation

Being afflicted by a healthy dose of speculative energy, here at the Scrum we often ponder the mysteries of the IK universe. This happens with increased frequency shortly before the release of new models happens. As in the past the speculation continues, and though we have been quite a ways off on a few models, we have been surprisingly close on others (we hit the Bomber right on the head).


With the upcoming release of the War Wagon our creative juices have been a flowing. Now it may not seem it, but we do try for balance when we speculate. Though sometimes our desire for the models rock overpower our instinct to balance them effectively. Lock and Load showed us the concept art, and we think that starting with the Khador Battle Engine was a safe place to start.

26 September 2011

Borka vs Calandra Dire Bracket Showdown



















Calandra (Grimsnik)
Dire Troll Mauler
Earthborn Dire Troll
Troll Impaler X2
Fell Caller Hero
Feralgeist
Janissa Stonetide
Kriel Warriors full
Kriel Caber Thrower X3
Kriel Warrior Standard and Piper
Trollkin Fennblades full

VS.


Borka (Skywise)
Pyg Keg Carrier
Dire Troll Mauler
Mulg the Ancient
Pyre Troll
Troll Axer
Alten Ashley, Monster Hunter
Fell Caller Hero
Kriel Warriors min
Kriel Bearer and Stone Scribes full
Nyss Hunters full

24 September 2011

Sid's Saturday Shenanigans #3 - 09/24/2011


Good Day to all you Scrum Bums! This is another edition of the Shenanigans, and I have a special treat for you today. I spent most of last night and a little part of this morning to finish the Troll Sluggers for today's S^3! Before I go into that I would like to give an update on the other projects I have been working on.

I have begun work in the Drakhun and the Scythean, and not much as of yet, due to finishing the sluggers. They will however be featured in future editions. I will continue working on them today. I have the schemes ready to go, and I will announce them next week as I continue to work on these fine models.

I have also been working on my Trollblood Warpack for the Journeyman League that is going on at our store here in Logan. I have been using the same scheme for the beasts as I did with the mauler. I may need to tweek the scheme a little due to smooth surfaces and fewer detail than the mauler, but it will look just as great. Since Madrak is an albino troll, I have given some serious thought into what an albino troll would look like with the skin scheme I have chosen. The scheme that has been sticking out in my mind was a yellow base skin with bone-ish highlights to give it that albino look. I haven't tested this yet, but I think it will look awesome!

Without further delay, I give to you the final product of the Trollblood Sluggers!

Final Product: Sluggers

22 September 2011

Gorten's Highborn vs Grayle Farstrider

Gorten didn't have a lot of direct experience with the so called 'blackclad' from the Circle of Orboros but he certainly didn't expect to be having a conversation with one of them.  Gorten was certain he wouldn't take this job though, the shifty druid seemed controlled but there was something more wild in his eyes suggesting that he was in trouble and expected Gorten to get him out of it.  In a quiet raspy voice the blackclad continued, "it is not our way to deal with issues in this manner, but we are otherwise occupied," his voice controlled he continued but again his eyes seemed to give him away, "Apparently there are two Grayle the Farstriders, we have a small force to confront the one who we think is the real Grayle."  Gorten held up his hand to stop the blackclad, "and you want us to deal with your trash?"  Gorten left the question hanging for a minute intent on denying the shifty little man, that is until he dropped the large purse on the table.  The blackclad continued, "that is half, the rest will come after the job is done and this probable imposter is brought to us at our contact point."  Not a man to let opportunity pass by Gorten began forumlating an argument to milk these druids for every coin, but as he looked up the blackclad had simply vanished in a crackle.


The job would be difficult, he would have to hire the best, and it so happened he knew just the woman who had experience with druids.  Now if he could just find the wiley Nyss leader fast enough.

21 September 2011

Round 2 Beginning Results.

The first few games of Round 2 have been completed.

pDoomshaper and his Fenn Blades held off Jarl as he tried (and nearly succeeded) in taking him by scenario, giving Doomy an upset win and knocking our newest caster out of the brackets for good.

Borka and Calandra went back and forth, tough rolls were a flying, but Calandra left Borka Star Crossed in the end.  Borka will be looking for revenge as he tries to climb his was back to the top in the losers bracket.


Current Standings


Champion  
Runner Up  
3rd Place  
4th Place  
5th PlaceBorka (2)1L
5th Place  
7th PlaceeMadrak (1)1L
7th PlaceGunnbjorn (9)1W 1L
9th PlacepMadrak (8)1L
9th PlaceJarl (6)2L OUT

17 September 2011

Sid's Saturday Shenanigans #2 - 09/17/2011

Welcome back scrum bums to the second installment of Sid's Saturday Shenanigans! Where in this post I continue to paint the Trollblood Sluggers, and bring these models closer to finishing, and be table-top ready.Recently, I've been commissioned to paint more models, and I will be showcasing these models as well. The first being a Man-o-War Drakhun for Adam, A.K.A Sephiroth's_Khador, and then followed by a Legion heavy warbeast; the Scythean. It will largely depend on how much I will be able to paint in the coming week, but my goal is to have at least the Drakhun done by Saturday, then the following Saturday I will then have the Scythean painted and ready to be showcased in S^3 #4.
Well, that is all for announcements. Let's get down to it shall we.....


Trollblood Sluggers - Session 2



Paint and Model Like You Got a Pair!! Part 2

Hi all. Last week I discussed 3 basic tips on how to get the most out of the painting and modeling experience. Today, I would like to discuss a few more tips, focusing on your work area. And again, I'm doing this from work, so please, please......don't tell my boss.

Part one can be found here.

Tip #4) Don't be a Slob! Keeping your work area clean is a bigger deal than one might think. You don't want to hunt through a huge mountain of paint bottles, empty Mountain Dew cans, and snickers wrappers to find that one thing you are looking for. Keep your area clean, your brushes and tools organized, and your paints arranged properly. This will not only give you room to work, but can cut down on unnecessary time searching for things.

15 September 2011

Skaldi Bonehammer Drinking Buddy - AKA Lil'Borka

Skaldi Bonehamer Drinking Buddy - A Tactical Breakdown for League Play
By Goris

If ever there was a partner in crime for Borka, Skaldi was it from the beginning.  Now, thematically, he fits it to a tee and makes Champions and Champ Heroes follow suit.  So here I will break down the key differences and what it will mean for the overall play style of Champs and Troll during the Sand Narrows league.


Breakdown  
Skaldi's new form does not boast a change in his stats, but a large switch in his rules.  Here are the Changes.


  • Skaldi is now a Solo and what a Solo he is.  This means you can take him as a potent beat stick outside of a unit of champs putting him along side our other amazing 3pt solos.
  • Skaldi now has an Elite Cadre rule that gives Champion Heroes Unyielding(+2 ARM while engaged) and Stumbling Drunk, Borka's signature ability granted by the Keg Carrier.  Holy crap we took the one real downside of Champ Heroes which was the survivability and turned it on it's ear.  They are now even tougher to kill, hit back with Retaliatory Strike and stumble away when you hit them.  All the while moving through each other or other champs if they can or want to.  Pair this with Skaldi having these abilities normally and you have quite the potent combo.  This makes me happy I own 2 Champion Heroes!
  • Skaldi is now a Veteran Leader of Champion models and they gain +2 Mat while Skaldi is in their LOS.  Champs rarely had problems hitting before but Holy Crap if wintergaurd won't be crapping their pants now with MAT 11 Troops with crazy armor and 2 attacks heading for them.  

14 September 2011

The Scrum Cast.

Here at the Scrum we strive to bring you all things excellent with Trollbloods... heck we even try to bring you tasty tidbits from all Hordes and Warmachine.  In our pursuit of this goal we have provided you all with the glory of listening to some of us ramble on about the goings on in the Trollblood universe.  We bring you the first, and hopefully not last, ScrumCast!!  Hang on to your kilts, tie down your Axes, keep your hands, feet and tentacles inside the cart at all times and enjoy the ride.

In this Feature packed Pocast we have for you:

- A super special Guest!
- Introductions for all our contributors
- News Pertaining to Troll Releases
- Domination and Wrath Discussion
- Lock n Load Reflections
- Warlock Spotlight by Mike Davies
- Masters Tournament Format Discussion

(Note Audio streams from both ears, if you have one ear you will only hear some of us... TrollbloodScrum, quietly discriminating against headphone listeners who only use one ear since 608 AR)

Episode 1 
Download V.1 
Alternate Downloand



Stay Tuned for More All Scrum Podcasting.

13 September 2011

Mangled Metal/Tooth & Claw 15 pts with pDoomy

For the first time since Lock and Load the opportunity has presented itself for me to play in a Mangled Metal/Tooth & Claw tourney at our leagues.  Being able to compete instead of being the TO will be interesting and immediately the planning stage set in.

With the high cost of Trollblood beasts it is likely the games will start with my army being outnumbered, to me this is a huge disadvantage in this game format for Trolls with no cheap option for a heavy.  So the decision has to be made with which beasts to bring.  Depending on the caster Trolls can usually fit in one heavy and two lights so long as it is not Mulg, or two heavies one can be Mulg.  With so very little amounts of bodies on the table some casters will be able to assassinate without much trouble so bringing a more durable caster is paramount.  To list some of the threats and weaknessess of my own army here is what I think will need to be overcome in an all comers Mangled Tooth & Metal Claw event.
  1. High ARM lots of wounds heavies (Khador comes to mind)
  2. Swarms of Light or Lesser Beasts (Legion)
  3. More models on the table
  4. Faster Armies
  5. Denial Casters

10 September 2011

Dire Troll Smasher ~ Homebrew

"As the huge beast smashed our Lancer to bits, the Pygmy on it's back laughed maniacally while lobbing grenades into our trench. When the smoke cleared all that was left of our journeyman was his boots." ~Cygnar Trencher Commando

Dire Troll Smasher
Trollblood Heavy Warbeast

Smasher
SPD...STR...MAT...RAT...DEF...ARM...CMD
4.........12......5.........4........10......18(22)......5
Fury 4
Threshold 9
FA U
Wounds (Same as Bomber - 28)
PC 10

Paint and Model Like You Got a Pair!!

I was planning a few in-depth painting and tactics posts, but between re-modeling my basement and the gawd-awful amount of overtime I've been working, I decided to keep it simple this time. Instead, I will make the first post in a small series with various tips and tricks meant to inspire any wargamming hobbyist of any skill level. I am also writing this from work, so please.....don't tell my boss! :P

I've been gaming since the late 80's, and have been painting miniatures for roughly 17 years. While I don't consider myself an expert painter or modeler of any sort, I am, however, quite adept at putting out fantastic looking, battlefield quality armies in relatively little time. The following is a few tips for anyone looking to enjoy the hobby side of miniature gaming.

09 September 2011

Elite Khador Jacks vs. Budget Khador Jacks

Hello Scrummers, Im back from my hiatus in the mountains of Switzerland. I went on a soul searching, 5 week hike through the Swiss Alps and...You're not buying any of this are you? Ok, so I actually just have a bad habit of falling off the planet. But Im back for awhile.

Today I want to talk about WarJacks, and more precisely, you guessed it, Khador WarJacks.
Now in Khador there is a very large disparity of funcitonality between our elite 'jacks (ala Drago, Beast, and Behemoth.) And our rank and file 'jacks(pretty much everything else.) Many tournament Khador lists have been almost exclusively single 'jack lists with one of those elite 'jacks. However there has been an influx of cheap 'jack armies recently that have been running four, five, and even six 'jacks.

08 September 2011

Borka, What am I doing Wrong.


A question about how to use Borka better came up on the forums this morning and I wanted to add one of the responses to the Borka Tactics Section.

Q: Borka, What am I doing Wrong.
I've played at least one game now with most of our casters and I've been thus far able to figure out how to make them work with the exception of Borka. I've taken him in several games now and I just seem to be missing something. How do people use him to success? What sorts of combos do people find to be effective?

Every time I've taken him, the only useful thing I've been able to do with him is cast Iron Flesh. His feat has seemed to be sub-par, giving me an extra 2" movement that I can never seem to get to work with an alpha strike (due to my opponent hanging back), and Mosh Pit seems to be impossible for me to get any value out of due to his terrible fury stat and the fact that everything else I take with him easily outdistances him.

For the record, I have read the Trollblood Scrum guide to Borka but I'm just not seeing much out of him. I have taken him against Khador a couple of times, Skorne once, and Cygnar once with no success and pretty disastrous results (the games weren't even close).

07 September 2011

Hardcore First Test

Today I managed to get in my first playtest match in the buildup to the Hardcore Tournament last weekend of November, Madrak1 (gotta get used to using that system) versus Kraye.
Madrak Ironhide................Kraye
> Mauler............................> Centurion
> Earthborn........................> Hammersmith
> Mulg...............................> Defender
> Runebearer......................> Cyclone
Min Fennblades..................> Hunter
> Officer and Drummer.......> Hunter
Min KSB and Scribes.........> Charger
> Elder...............................> Sentinel
Min Burrowers
Min Bog Trog Ambushers
Fell Caller

Upcoming Trollblood Releases of Interest

Figured I'd put up a few of the release dates on things you Trollblood (and non-Trollblood) Players might be interested in.  Yeah I didn't list all the warlocks, but all the Hordes Warlocks of a similar make become available at a similar time.

September
PIP71059 Trollblood Trollkin Warlock Jark Skuld, Devil of the Thornwood (white metal) $17.99PIP75037 Minion Gatormen Warlock Maelock the Dreadbound (white metal) $22.99
PIP NQ38 No Quarter Magazine #38 $7.50

November
PIP1047 HORDES: Domination Softcover $32.99
PIP1048 HORDES: Domination Hardcover $42.99
PIP71060 Trollblood Trollkin Warlock Grissel Bloodsong - Marshall of the Kriels (white metal)(1)  TBD
PIP75033 Minions Farrow Warlock Sturm & Drang (white metal)(1) $23.99
PIP75041 Minions Gatorman Posse (repackaging)(white metal)(5) $49.99
PIP NQ39 No Quarter Magazine #39 $7.50

03 September 2011

Sid's Saturday Shenanigans #1 ~ 09/03/2011

Hello to all Scrummers out there on the internets! As promised I have brought you the first edition of Sid's Saturday Shenanigans, where I, SlapHappySid, will showcase my own painting projects of your models that you have commissioned me to paint or my own Khador or Trollblood models, that I have neglected to paint in a long time! In this issue I will showcase TheGreatBlah's Trollblood Sluggers and where I am right now in painting this hard hitting unit. I was going to showcase my Man-O-War Shocktroopers, but there was a complication. As I was spraying my shocktroopers with a sealant, the sealant decided to flake onto my models, and even concentrate itself in unwanted places. I was furious! So I apologize for the inconvenience. I will have to go back and see if i can fix this issue, and if not, I will have to strip the paint and start over.

Anyways, enough of the bad news. You guys want to see the good stuff. Now let me present to you the WIP pictures of the Trollblood Sluggers!

01 September 2011

Hardcore and Benelux Masters Update

OK I will throw out the update first of all, sadly my plans to attend the Benelux Masters currently looks like a no go due to personal problems meaning my intended travel partner is unable to make it, leaving the trip unfeasibly expensive to travel alone.  Disappointing, but tempered with the news that I still get one last big tourney before the end of the year and an interesting one for me, my first Hardcore 50pt tournament last weekend of November.

This represents a new experience for me, as Hardcore as a tournament format has never really kicked off here in the UK until this year, and personal commitments meant that I was forced to miss the qualifying heats for the UK Hardcore Invitational.  It also gives me plenty of incentive to finally crack on with painting my trollblood force, something which admittedly has somewhat fallen to the wayside as I have instead opted to work on painting up my Retribution in recent times.