30 October 2013

Tournament prep 101...or how easy is it to forget stuff

Howdy folks, Hollow Echo here.
This Saturday , I'm going to be in a 50 point Steamroller hosted by Static Age Games. I post the battle reports up on my next post .As I'm getting ready for this tournament I decided to make a checklist and share it with the Scrummers... Scrumites....no... Readers .

28 October 2013

Like A Boss: Solo Spotlight - Trollkin Skinner


Greetings and a hearty happy Monday to all of you! Kro here, with the debut of a new spotlight article series I'll be writing called "Like A Boss." Last week I took suggestions on twitter for article ideas and this seemed pretty popular. So, ask and ye shall receive!

The goal with this series will be to give an insight on how I rate our varying faction units/solos/warlocks, and hopefully provide some fun and informative topics for discussion and debate. This week we will be taking an in depth look at the Trollkin Skinner!

Follow along after the jump for all the juicy details!

24 October 2013

Why Our Battlebox Makes Us Better Players

My own painted Battlegroup

Hey folks! Kro here, with my first real article on the Scrum!

When I originally picked up Trollbloods as my primary faction, a number of players in my meta warned me right off the bat: "Trolls are awesome, but their Battle box sucks." or "They are one of the few factions that introduce you to Warlock/Warcaster that essentially does nothing (feat wise) for the beasts they come with." The most popular bit of criticism was the fact that our battle box lacked a heavy chassis. All of the concerns were valid and hard to ignore, yet when I made my initial purchase a small whelp in the back of my head was telling me "Relax! There's a reason why the box is set up this way!"

What can I say, I went in deep and never looked back. 60+ battle box games later, and I can safely say that our box is FAR from underpowered. It is competitive, just in ways that set it apart from the other factions.

Follow along after the jump to find out why!

23 October 2013

Mabrothrax does Madrak (part 1: ‘The Sleeper and the Miracle Warlock?)



So, as I mentioned before, I was inspired by the upcoming ‘Madrak Challenge’ coupled with the realisation that I’d not played pMadrak outside of a battlebox demo (which I reckon is possibly true for a large number of Trollblood players).

Warders are my new favourite unit so my thinking was to make an alternative brick. With a 35 point Steamroller coming up (played yesterday at time of writing) I got a few practice games in at my local club. I played two games against Cryx (Skarre/Satyxis list), Farrow and Legion.

First time I popped the feat against cryx I lived the dream and Madrak cleared out soooo much infantry, as did the warders. Against a beast heavy list and against the Farrow with tough, Crusher was far less effective.
As we all know (or have been told) Madrak just doesn’t die. With his small control radius, you have to play him up close and personal to get the Crusher and Carnage to work, but with Sure foot and the stone, perhaps Janissa’s wall (and Elemental Communion) plus his own tech, you really are presenting a decent challenge.

This comes back to something I wrote earlier about my play style with trolls, about ‘ignorance and synergy’. It’s fairly obvious that posing a tough question (no pun intended)with a brick of Warders, Madrak and beasts sitting on armour anywhere between 17 and 21, not to mention a respectable def and no knockdown in a smaller bubble is both easy to play and hard, if not just plain annoying, to deal with.

From just a few games it’s clear to me that whilst pMadrak doesn’t necessarily threaten an opponent with alpha strikes or broken-ness, he amplifies the trollblood synergisitic defiance. Here’s the 35 point list I played at my club to try things out:

pMadrak
Runebearer
Earthborn Dire Troll
Dire Troll Mauler
Troll Bouncer*
Warders (max)
Kriels Stone & Scribe (min) +Elder
Janissa    

*In my very first game the Bouncer was a Pyre.

The following week I attended the ‘unlucky for some’ (it was on Sunday 13th) 35 point SR at Dark Sphere games, London. Minus T (of the SmogCon crew) was the Press Ganger running the show, and a very smooth event it was. Great Work Tom!

I went with my one list, and only one list, eager to test pMadrak in the tournament scene.

My expectations were, on the one hand, low. One list, a less than highly respected Troll caster, no regard for meta and such. Other the other hand however, I was playing a warlock rarely seen outside of a battlebox, and I was playing one list built to do what I wanted to do, NOT to answer all possible matchups. This gave me a mental advantage.

Round 1: vs Skorne (Close Quarters)

My opponent had pMorghul, a Titan Gladiator, a Bronzeback, Tibereon, Basilisk Krea, Cyclops Brute and two units of beast handlers. It was a straightforward big monster smash.
The game was very close to begin with and we each put out a fair amount of hurt on each other. The Warders took out Tiberion (much to my opponent's surprise), the Bronzeback spent a couple of turns destroying the Mauler. The piece trade continued at a respectable pace. By then both our Warlocks were on each other's flag, and unfortunately with some duff threshold checks and Morghul’s feat I was unable to clear the last few pieces contesting his flag, whilst the Earthborn who was contesting and threatening got taken out by combined efforts from a Cyclops and a Bronzeback.

A loss, but a good one and a tough game.

Round 2 vs Khador (Into the Breach)

My opponent had pIrusk, a Man o War kovnik, Iron Fang Shield Guard, Uhlans and three jacks - two Devastators and a Spriggan.

I have to say that this wasn't a hugely enjoyable game. The guy had no cards and was flipping between the kahdor book a lot and drawing damage grids on paper, plus he didn't seem all that sure of various rules. Anyway. I sat most of my force in the zone and spent forever trying to take out the ridiculous arm 25 warjacks. Irusk went for the flag and so Madrak stepped up for an assassination attempt and knocked the Khador caster down to four boxes, then he missed three attacks in a row. After that it was simply a case of the Spriggan repeatedly poking Madrak with a power lance. Game over.

A second loss. A rather annoying one at that - it is easy to blame bad dice, but to be honest my opponent wasn't playing well. I should have had that one.

Round 3 vs Circle (Supply and Demand)

The Circle army was I guess a kind of beast brick... I don't think it did what it was meant to do. He had Kreuger the Stormlord, Megalith, a Feral and a Pureblood Warpwolf, a Gorax, shifiting stones and the Lord of the Feast.

This really was a simple grind. Despite his best efforts to wear down my buffed warders and beasts I took out all the beasts one by one and went for Krueger. Madrak got the assassination. The only thing left was a single shifting stone.

First win, and a solid one at that.

Round 4 vs Cygnar (Process of Elimination)

The dreaded Epic Haley, but no Stormwalls! My opponent had a Squire, Stormclad, Triumph, Arcane Tempest Gunmages +UA, full Nyss Hunters and a Stormsmith Stormcaller.

In my second turn I had destroyed an objective and started camping a zone... it was just a case of weathering the storm of shooting and clearing out the contesting models. Epic Haley's feat is super annoying but didn't really lose me much. I think it’s far too easy to be intimidated by it. That said, my list doesn’t rely on precise order of activation, and once set up with Sure foot being upkept and the stone doing its thing… well, no big deal. The Warders proved that they are pure gold and under the feat cleared out the pesky contesting Gun Mages. My Mauler took out the Stormclad warjack and although I had lost the Earthborn, I had managed to keep the zone and win on control points.

My second win, and a good one at that playing to my lists defensive strength.

As the dust settled I placed 9th of 18 players, the best of three Troll players as well. I also won best painted army! (pics coming soon)

Of my opponents, only the Skorne player placed higher than me (coming fourth). The top armies were unsurprisingly Cryx and Legion, and all forces except Minions & Cyriss were represented. One of the Merc players actually brought a double Galleon list. Sigh.

So what does any of this mean? Well, going 2-2 is okay I guess and placing right in the middle of the rankings is neither good nor bad. But let’s consider the following:

  • I was playing one list (pretty sure I was the only person doing so).
  • I was playing ‘my list’ and not an ‘answer the meta list’.
  • The only opponent of mine that placed higher than me came in fourth (Skorne amongst a sea of Cryx and Legion).
  • There were two other Troll players, both placed lower and had eGrim/Borka and pGrissel/eMadrak… those are some of the warlocks considered (among Trollbloods at least) top of the heap.
  • I was playing pMadrak, y’know the battlebox guy?

I’m moving in the right direction. I’m looking for some more (preferably 50 point) events to throw Maddy into. I need a second box of Warders, and fancy a Kithkar.

Till next time, keep rolling tough!

Mabrothrax






22 October 2013

Tom a.k.a. Kro

Howdy folks! My name is Tom (aka Kro on the PP forums) and I'm a TROLL-a-holic!

I've been stumbling drunk and kilt lifting for the better part of eighteen months after being rescued from my decision to originally play Cygnar. I'm from Fort Worth, Texas, and have been here for over a decade. I got into WarmaHordes after a two year hiatus and cornea transplants on both eyes(talk about an eye opening experience). 

Within the last six months I've started to up my game competitively and thankfully, my meta has no shortage of great opponents to grind my teeth against(read: I lose ALOT!). But hey, every loss is a learning experience and I've got loads to learn!

It's my hope that over the coming months we can have some open discussions on units, strategies, tier lists and yes, even the Mountain King! I'm not your average Trollblood player either, I tend to go "against the grain" on trends and mainstay strategies. In my meta, we see just about everything list and faction wise, so the "thinking outside the box" mentality tends to serve me quite well.

Like what you see here or have a question? Ask away! Always glad to lend my brain to help solving problems or theory-machining lists and strategies!
Till next time, stay tough and remember, "Horthol, apply directly to the forehead."

Hollow Echo's big debut


Please allow me to introduce myself, I'm a man of wealth and taste ,I've been around for a long, long year .... Actually since 2010 , My name is Zach but you can find me on the Forums as PG_Hollow_Echo. Im from the Heart of Dixie. My local store ,The Foundry , is 35 miles away. I try to play every week but real life happens (RLH). As for my geek cred, I started playing dungeons and dragons in 6th Grade when a friend of the family let me play a thief...I lasted a whole two hours...but the hook was set. Cut to the summer of 1995,I had seen had a pretty box of dudes in red armor fighting Orks for sale and with my birthday coming up.it was all I asked for. The sweet,sweet, taste of plastic "krak" had begun. Then in 2008, I went to GenCon  I had seen the adds for Warmachine and Hordes. So I stopped buy the booth ,got a demo in, and bought a figure ....Reinholdt... Or as I called him " Waun" I painted him up and used him in a D&D campaign as the side kick of the party. Two years later I'm picking up a Cygnar box set and a Menoth box set ...I applied to be a Pressganger within a month. Now your saying that's great man, but we came here for trolls,let me state this ,I love Gunnbjorn. I own a tier 4 list for him ..but I also love competitive play with all the combos and tricks of the trade. Over all I rather lose a great game then win one by "cheesy" move and arguing a rule. In my off time I love building terrain. So with all that in mind I will be writing some articles that will be about a myriad of topics.
Have Fun!
 

The Hunters Grim Challenge ~ Win Percentages Warmachine

Today we look at the simple win percentages against each Warmachine facitons for The Hunters Grim.  You'll notice a few things right away that you knew already and a few others right away that you maybe suspect should be otherwise with a larger sample.  Our Warmachine sample was just over two hundred games.

Each Faction Square percentages are in relation to the games played within that faction.  The totals at the bottom are the sum of all Warmachine Factions.


21 October 2013

CrashWest

Hello all, my name is Brian, or CrashWest, on the forums. As you’ve probably guessed I am a Trollbloods player. I have been playing for a year and 4 months, and frequent the Good Games CBD, and Good Games Burwood stores, in beautiful Sydney, Australia. The meta is normally pretty casual, but recently we’ve turned it up a notch and every second week, we play to tournament standards for practice. Currently a lot of my practice and dojo has gone into preparation for CanCon 2014, probably the biggest Warmachine/Hordes tournament in Australia held in the nation’s capital, Canberra, in January.


16 October 2013

Mabrothrax aka Alex



Gamer. White Metal & resin addict. UK Press Ganger. Troll.

I am all of the above and more – generally known as Mabrothrax on any forum I sign up to. The Scrum guys have been on the lookout for more content for the blog, and I’m stepping up, offering a whole bunch of ideas and nonsense.

My first Trollblood Warlock was epic Doomshaper, mainly cos he looked badass, but also because he was a beast centric ‘lock and beasts is what attracted me to Hordes over Warmachine. What’s not to like about giant monsters beating each other to death? And of course like a bitter and twisted Saruman wannabe, Doomshaper is the ideal troll for leading big hungry monsters on a genocidal rampage.

What I love about the Trollblood faction is its sheer bloody minded resilience. So what if it’s not got top tier casters? Does it matter if most of its choices are sub-par? (note I may not subscribe to these points of view). Like I care.

When I put Trolls on the table I’m saying to my opponent “I’m gonna play my game, deal with it”. For me, when you play trolls it’s all about ignorance and synergy. I choose not to try and answer every question a meta can throw at me, my tough trolls simply do their thing asking their own question – “What you gonna do about it?”

Recently I’ve been playing pMadrak. Inspired by the upcoming ‘challenge’ I realised I’d never played him outside of a battlebox demo and thought it was high time to give him a proper field test. So far so good, and at the time of writing I’m a day away from a 35 point Steamroller where I’m gonna use him exclusively to see how he handles it (and how bad my games has gotten!)
I’m gonna blog my pMadrak experience, my troll thinking, and general PP musing. I even paint and convert models and will certainly be getting some of that going on here. (I subscribe heavily to the ‘play it painted’ school of thought. I play like I’ve got a painted pair).
That’s all for now, in the words of the great Marc Bolan –
“Get it on, bang the gong, get it on.”

A bassist or bass player is either the most revered or most pitied member of a musical group, depending on the genre. Because of the wide range of music types that utilize the bass, and the varying amount of talent required to be successful within each, bass is a highly desirable instrument for players of all levels. Alongside drummers, bassists are often the most accomplished musicians within a band, or an unemployment benefits queue.

15 October 2013

The Hunters Grim Challenge ~ Impact Models

In expanding off of usage rates you can find some interesting information about how effective a model is based on how much you use it.   There is a few caveats with the data here.  For one, Impact models with a low usage rate need more data before their place can be fully realized.  Two, Some of this is Subjective (i.e. the MVP selection).  And Third, some models impact the game heavily without actually doing something specific to become MVP or Winning the game... like the Krielstone for example, his impact on the game is statistically significant but when it plays out on the table their impact FEELS more intangible because their buff is mostly passive or the Pyre who is used mostly passively. 

What you can glean from the added information to usage is which models are strong enough with Grim to end the game for you with a victory.  The Impact Model Column is a combination of MVP and Killing Blow statistics.  For most the percentages are lower than you would think, don't be distracted by that, put it in relation to the rest.

Feast of Blades: Recap Part 1

After a long nap I am finally recuperated from the weekend. Feast was a good time and I hope to see it continue to grow. They have hopes of becoming a Warmachine Weekend Qualifier and I would love to see it happen.

Before I get into my games and lists I wanted to point out some of the pluses for Feast.

First and foremost you could drink in the gaming hall and they were selling beers right outside the hall. I personally feel this is absolutely key to having a good convention. The hotel also had great prices, none of this $6 beer bull shit. The beer was $3.50 for a 12 oz cup. It seemed they just brought out random kegs because it was Coors Light at first then it switched to 1554 a personal favorite of mine.

There were some other good things too like a vendor area with lots of different gaming widgets, mekanika studio's trays, air brushes, hobby stuff, and some models for different games (I was able to pick up some things for Malifaux).

11 October 2013

The Hunters Grim Challenge ~ Usage Rates

This will be the first post in a series of numbers based of our Hunters Grim Challenge.   This first part is 'Usage Rate'  Which shows the frequency and number (out of 90) that each model was used in this test.

ModelUsageUsage Rate
Burrowers Max6370.00%
Impaler6268.89%
Runebearer5965.56%
Fell Caller5156.67%
Chronicler4853.33%
Scattergunners UA4145.56%
Blitzer3538.89%
Slag Troll3437.78%
Fennblades UA3336.67%
Fennblades Max3134.44%
Bomber2831.11%
Whelpsx52831.11%
Bone Grinders Min2730.00%
Scattergunners Min2527.78%
Mauler2224.44%
Krielstone Elder2022.22%
Krielstone Min1820.00%
Scattergunners Max1718.89%
Storm Troll1718.89%
Mulg1415.56%
Sons of Bragg1415.56%
Thumper Crew1213.33%
Pyre1011.11%
Scouts1011.11%
Bouncer910.00%
Earthborn88.89%
Mountain King88.89%
Krielstone Max77.78%
Kriels Caber66.67%
Janissa Stonetide55.56%
Kithkar55.56%
Pendrake55.56%
Rok55.56%
Saxon Orrick55.56%
Warders Max55.56%
Winter55.56%
Bushwackers Max44.44%
War Wagon44.44%
Champion Hero33.33%
Fennblades Min33.33%
Gatormen Max33.33%
Sluggers Max33.33%
Axer22.22%
Burrowers Min22.22%
Kriels Max22.22%
Kriels UA22.22%
Sluggers Min22.22%
Swamp Gobbers22.22%
Witch Doctor22.22%
Champions Min11.11%
Gatormen Min11.11%
Horthol11.11%
Long Riders Max11.11%
Long Riders Min11.11%
Skaldi11.11%
Swamp Troll11.11%

Public Service Announcement

Trolbloodscrum needs writers. 

Qualifications - Desire to write stuff on this blog about Trolls some of the time. About Privateer Press Stuff most of the time.

Reqirements - To post something short once or twice a week to fill in the gaps.

Rewards - The respect of your peers maybe?  PLUS a Trollbloodscrum email address of your choosing.

Commitment - Individual must commit to writing something (1 paragraph at least once per week)

How to Apply - Send an email to thegreatblah@trollbloodscrum.com  if you are interested.



Honestly folks, we have good content but we aren't consistent enough.  We would like a few folks to put pen to paper and fill up our down time. This makes it so the blog has consistent content and so Goris can focus most his time on the podcast and Blah can focus his time on promotions and sepcial projects.  Plus we like having our writers on the podcast  and when we do get Scrum Stuff they usually get first pick (it happens infrequently, but it does happen). 

10 October 2013

The Scrum Cast Ep. 32

Is up and ready to go over on our Scrum Cast Page. http://scrumcast.trollbloodscrum.com/2013/10/the-scrum-cast-ep32.html