30 January 2013

Painting Competition Winners!

Sorry for the delay folks I know I have been keeping the winners hanging for months now.  Just insert whatever lame excuse you want in here and we can get on with the Winners!




First Place: Anthony Winter!
With his Beautiful Mountain King and whelps! Also that poor Angelius...




Second Place: Kevin Bashford
With his rowdy Borka and Drinking Crew and his theme aptly named "Celebration Gone Wrong"!

Honorable Mention: Svirfneblin
With his amazing Tartan work on his Kriel Stone unit.



29 January 2013

Whelp Factory



Short post with a humble request.  Please send me a picture of your fully painted whelp(s).  I think they are truly a fun set of models (wether I acutally play them or not) and I want to see what your whelps look like.  There are no prizes only GLORY.  Once I'm done collecting pics of your whelps I will put them all up in one awesome post of Whelpy Goodness.    JoeDJ I can't remember if your Wagon has a whelp shooting from it, but it should be included for the sake of AWESOMENESS!!!

Simple

Send me an email as follows. thegreatblah@trollbloodscrum.com

SUBJECT LINE: WhelpFactory <your forum name or name>

BODY: Anything glorious written here will be included... so caption your whelps baby.

ATTACHMENT: Attach your pic(s) of said whelps here.  If other models end up in your pic... like a whelp covered Mountain King, or whelp shooting from your War Wagon that is highly encouraged.   We will pick the most awesome and include you on the podcast if we can... or at least tout your awesomeness.


PRIZES: Honor and glory, plus the admiration and respect of your peers... or something like that.  Plus I'm diggin the triple period thing this post... ... ... ... Don't know why.


DEADLINE: I will be posting pics no later than FEB 14th... It will be our day of Whelp Love.

26 January 2013

Mechanik's Heaven: The Skorne Menace

Little did the Mechaniks know, their battle with the traitors had been observed, and the information collated. The Skorne had been watching for some time now and the word from the Iosan's that the city was unprotected was first met with disbelief, but the little escapade with the traitors convinced them that there may be some truth to the news.

And so one of their own was sent with a battle force to test the city. Not an all out attack yet, the Skorne didn't have the resources in place to hold such a conquest but enough to really test if this was all the city had. A battle force including one of the Bonzeback Titan's and lead by none other than Master Tormentor Morghoul. A force of Praetorian Swordsmen and a Basilisk Drake and Krea finished out the force sent against the city. Morghoul plan wasn't to push fully against this, he knew if he pushed too hard things might unravel on the strategic scene, and if the Cygnaran's pushed harder or seemed to be withdrawing for no reason he was to be wary, but the opportunity seemed too easy to turn down.

For our hero's this battle would be the most serious they had faced to date.

24 January 2013

This Just In... I like EGrissel

It's taken a while for me to admit it, but she is fun to play and I have good success with her.

"Hi, my name is TheGreatBlah... and I like eGrissel."

Since the release of our Marshall of the Kriels I have been reluctant in my support of her.   Not even cautiously optimistic, I'd say my attitude has been one of feigned indifference.   Her base stats are great, fabulous upgrade from her original incarnation, unless you look at her spells very hard.  For the most part I envisioned an even better troop supporter than her original, especially with the name Marshall of the Kriels. 

22 January 2013

RFP Championship Battle Report

The RFP Championship (removedfromplay.com) was held at Card Kingdom in Seattle, WA on January 19th, 2013.

32 players, 5 rounds, 3x 50pt lists, Divide and Conquer, SR 2013 rules (as much as possible).
Folks from as far afield as Portland and Bellingham, and in-between came to play/compete.

I don't get to play in tournaments often, as a Pressganger it's my job to run 'em :)
When I can, I play my Trollbloods in tourneys, and this time we fought our way to the Finals (2nd place), and this was the path...

My three lists were:
pMadrak
Axer
Bouncer
EBDT
Rok
Runebearer
KSB min + SSE
Fennblades full + UA
Fell Caller
Thrullg
Feralgeist
Swamp Gobbers

pGrim (yeah, thaz right, he gets a 'p' now!)

Pyre
Axer
EBDT
EBDT
Runebearer
Fennblades full + UA
Scattergunners min + UA
Gatorman Witch Doctor
Thrullg

Calandra
DTB
DTM
EBDT
War Wagon
Greygore Boomhowler full
Pyg Burrowers min
Farrow Bone Grinders
Whelps

Note the distinct lack of Mulg and Janissa?  I'd pre-made four lists to consider for this tourney, and chose those three, not realizing until after the first round (doh!) that those two CHARACTERS were in my unused pDoomie list...Crutch free, right?!

I knew each list would have to potentially deal with 1-2 Colossal/Gargantuan(s), and/or heavy ARM, and still be able to deal with volume Weaponsmaster infantry.  These builds were my attempt to have an answer to those 'issues'.

RD 1 vs. Steven (Trollbloods),  Scenario "Close Quarters"

I chose pMadrak

Steven's:
eMadrak
EBDT
DTM
Axer
Longriders min
Horthol
KSB min
Burrowers full
Fell Caller
Runebearer
Janissa
Swamp Gobbers

Trolls vs Trolls is usually a grind out type of match and this one was no exception.
Highlights of my play were:
1.  Taking over Steven's killed Axer with my Feralgeist.
2.  Using Fenns to take NO impact effects or impact damage from his Bullrushing LRs/Horthol.
3.  A timely Rok Crit Freeze of one LR and kill of another.
4.  Using the Feralgeist to contest the opposing flag, saving me the game after Janissa Tectonic-ed my other three models away from contesting the opposing flag.

I'd like to say I played a masterful game, but I won by opposing Deathclock time-out, with both of us at 4 Control Points, and Steven one ranged-attack missed model (my Feralgeist) from winning by Scenario.  I only killed 28 pts of his army, he a few less of mine.  The time in this match spent in re-killing things after Tough rolls was ludicrous...

SR2013 notes:  The ability to earn 2 CPs from Dominate makes a durable warlock valuable.  But more importantly, a durable model to prevent opposing Dominate CPs is especially valuable, if not essential!

RD 2 vs. Randy (Cryx) Scenario "Into the Breach"

I chose Grim.

Randy's:
eGoreshade  Tier 2
Kraken
Skarlock Thrall
Full Bane Knights
Full Bane Thralls
Bane Thrall Officer & Standard
Min Bane Thralls
FREE Bane Thrall Officer & Standard
Bane Lord Tartarus
Necrotech & 1 Scrap Thrall
Necrotech & 1 Scrap Thrall
3 Scrap Thrall
3 Scrap Thrall

20 Tough Banes, and 10 Knights, and probably 8 returning Banes minimum at some point.  Oh, AND a Colossal.  Fun.

Can my 11 Fenns, and 7 Scattergunners kill enough Banes to get my EBDTs to that Kraken?

My highlights of this match were:
1.  On Feat turn, after a Bait-the-Line on the Kraken, Scattergunners and Fenns barely creating a double wide alley for my two Rushed- EBDTs to get to the Kraken, leaving it at 3-4 points, including his Cortex (stupid Kraken has POW 3 weapons).
2.  The Kraken, after 1 Necrotech repairs for 6, flailing with 3 Focus and failing to kill either EBDT even with Dark Shroud.
3.  Zombified Fenns cannot become Banes, suck it Tartarus!
4.  Killing the Kraken with Tartarus via Witch Doctor's Dominate Undead, then shooting him in the back to death with a Scattergunner.
5.  Scattergunners killing Banes over and over again, but not hitting their friends.
6.  Grim using the back of his gun, RFG-ing 3 Banes in B2B with him from Goreshades Feat.
7.  The healthier living EBDT trampling 3 Banes (2 killed) and Skarlock (killed!) on his way to getting one lucky hit off on Goreshade at POW 20 (Goreshade's got a POW 8 weapon, te-he!)
8.  Grim aiming/boosting at the medium based eGoreshade, Snare-gunning. Then the other, barely alive but with all aspects, EBDT trampling one Bane to get to eGoreshade with P&S 22 (Flaming Fists) for the win.

We were so much up in each other's grill in this match the Scenario did not come into play at all.  Considering all the attacks and Tough flying around, it's a surprise neither of us really had time problems, finishing this game with double digits on both clocks.

I'll describe the following two Rounds and Final in my post next week!

PG_joedj

15 January 2013

The Scrum Holiday Painting Exchange

Well folks, it's finally here.  I know it's long over due but I apologize for my slackness.  Check out all the awesome models sent out to the wonder participants of this exchange   This will be a yearly event for sure! Enjoy and happy holidays!
























If your model is not pictured here I did not receive the photo. Send it to me asap!

Mechanik's Heaven: The Traitors

Our Mechanik's charter had quite the good deal. 230 crowns a day! Just to keep their jacks running full time and deal with whatever showed up. But what would show up? Nobody knew that the cities defenses had been dealt such a blow after all.(As a note, runnning the four labor jacks full time is costing us approximately 100 crowns of coal/water per day so our profit per day is 130 crowns)
Or did they? Little does the party know that the Retribution's plan wasn't just to deal that blow but to drive Cygnar's enemies through the breach. And to do so they've sent messages to the Skorne, and to Magnus, as well as others of the weakness in the city.
The party on the other hand had it's hands full keeping their jacks running full time, and in making sure they could get some time in for repairs and time to try and salvage material from the other broken jacks. Those retribution jobs seemed like they had a solid chassis, even if how they worked was beyond the group. The plating and metals could be reused, and combined with parts that the company could Scrounge from around town, they should allow the group to get some Talon equivalent jacks up and running, if they can find the cortex to run them. They had learned some though from the encounters and now put their new skills to use(2xp from the last encounter put us at the first level of experience, each session would generally gain us 2xp going forward)

14 January 2013

Clan Kilbride's Debut

The Doctor here and today was my first foray into the realms of running an actual Trollblood army. And I have to say I'm liking it.

Over christmas I convinced myself to go ahead and buy the models I was thinking of because well, I liked them. And I keep waiting for my children to get old enough for full on RPG's, though almost 2 and almost 4 is just not quite there yet. Especially not with models.

I digress though, so I stopped in at my old LGS while on vacation, as they have 20% off coupons when purchasing over $100 and well. I knew that was going to be easy. So here's what I found and purchased:

10 January 2013

State of the Forums - Comradery, Discussion, and Trolling

Looking in from the outside on the forums I carefully pick and choose my words because what I say definitely has in impact on the community as a whole. However, more and more I see there are voices among us without that restraint. It has brought on a toxic feel in our happy community. It needs to stop.


Tenure
I, like a lot of the respected voices among our community have been here a long time. I've seen the fluctuation in attitude and tone over a fair number of years. On the whole, the Trollblood forums have been haven of kind, introspective voices eager to help people and further the knowledge of the faction. I've seen eagerness to help newer players just starting out despite the constant inability to recognize we have a sticky thread that's designed exactly for them.  (Sorry newbies, we love you but, L2R) I've seen teamwork during leagues and an open discussion about ways to make models and the faction work in new and different ways.  These things I have seen have endeared me to these forums and this community much like many of our players. So the point I am making, rather longwindedly, is that seeing all this I cannot help but wonder WTF is going on in our forums right now. This is a place to nurture ideas and conversations, not tear one another down constantly. So, I hope you can understand what I am going to talk about here does not come without a bit of perspective.