With Our Powers Combined?!?!?!

Well folks, this has sort of been a long time coming. Handcannon Online, Removed From Play and The Scrum have been fast friends basically from the inception of all 3 sites and it's been tossed around that we should merge for about 2 years now. Now, it's finally happening. And you though the reference from that podcast was a coincidence? So here are the pertinent details and why no one should freak out.

So, without further ado, The Scrum has joined forces with Handcannon Online to leach from its underbelly all the page views we can get! But in all seriousness we are very happy to join the Handcannon crew to bring bigger and better things for the hobby, The Scrum and Hanncannon!



The Podcast
The podcast will actually be hosted, linked and posted on HCO from here on out. This should give a much more consistent downloading experience and a smoother relationship with iTunes. This also means better access to special guests, more frequent content(we hope), and a lot of cross blog content that will be more interesting for everyone.

At this time we have transitioned all podcasts from our main page to Handcannon's Scrum Page. You can get the most current episode here Episode 39 Were we have on super special guest, owner and operator of  Broken Egg Games Jason Flanzer. All further episodes will be hosted from that page.

Articles, Guides and Hobby Content
All the rest of our content will be made available through The Scrum for the time being until we've merged our data from Blogger to Wordpress. So you won't loose access to until until such time that we have everything finished. At that point you will see a direct site redirect.

On a more personal note... Dallas and I, once again, want to thank you guys. The readers and listeners for making all of this wonderful nonsense that we do for you possible. You let us fill your ears and minds with our ramblings and without you we would just be making out spouses crazy. So keep on listening and reading folks so we can all be just a little more crazy and slightly better informed then before!

The Art of Trollbloods War ~ Stone 1 Planning

Prior to waging war there are five major elements that must be considered in order to make a proper evaluation or game plan to achieve success as a Trollkin General.  Before you ever hit the table or even make your army lists there are factors to consider that will make you a more complete player and have you more prepared to expand your horizons in different metas and tournaments:

1) The Moral Law ~ In the Art of the War this is gaining the support of the people.  In our game, this is knowing what each of your models does (i.e. know their card and have ample table experience with them.) and be consistent in the way you use them.

2) Heaven ~ Know your area, seriously, the first time I traveled to play this game I went to Seattle.  Where I live if it rains you wait five minutes and the storm is over.  When I was in Seattle it rained for a few days straight... wish I'd have brought a rain coat.   Check the forecast and prepare accordingly, if it is 100 degrees outside don't wear a coat.

The Art of Trollbloods War by TheGreatBlah

The following series of articles are a summary of the Trollkin Military treatise attributed to Horfar Grimmr, a high ranking Molgur general, bloodthirsty warrior, strategist and tactician, wielder of Rathrok and purportedly greatest Trollkin warrior to have ever walked Caen. 

These ancient runes were found and transcribed into modern Trollkin Runes in 482 AR by Stone
Scribe Elder Gron Runeknuckle and have become one of the foundations in Trollblood military strategy.  The Kriel Stones containing the body of this work can still be found in the heart of the Glimmerwood and many great Trollkin Chieftains have made the trek to study the work in its entirety.  The size and power of this collection of Kriel Stones are great as is the body of work contained within.  In these trying times it is the hope of the United Kriel that's it's location can remain secret to the Trollbloods and the work can be preserved for future generations.  It is purported that some of the greatest Chieftains of the United Kriel have studied it's work including; Madrak Ironhide, Grissel Bloodsong, Grim Angus, Horgle Ironstrike, Horthol, and Calandra Truthsayer.  Rumor persists that all United Kriel leaders have or will study from these powerful stones firsthand.

While studying from them directly is recommended for the power contained within the runes themselves adds much to the process, the runes themselves should be available to all Trollkin far and wide.  It is for this reason that I will attempt to provide a summary of each of the stones so that all leaders in the United Kriel can receive at least the knowledge contained in the runes if not the power of studying them directly.

The Scrum Cast Ep.38

Goris has dropped the mic... go check it out on the Scrum Cast Page.

Episode 38

Trollblood Toolbox ~ Where To Start

Updated 07 July 2014  ~  See The Visual Companion by Celedor


The question on the Trollblood forums that is the most common is where to start and what to begin with when starting a Trollblood force.
There are many good choices in the Trollblood arsenal to choose from and picking the ones to begin with can be difficult. The first stop for any Trollblood player should be the Warpack; the Warpack has a few good things going for it. First of all it has some of the most solid Light Warbeasts available. Secondly is has a caster that helps showcase the way Trolls play and helps you begin to learn when and where to apply buffs. Finally, the cost is good, for what you get the cost is unbeatable.

Core Concepts: Strategy, Tactics, Placement.... Part 1

Hello and welcome to the Scrumcast...

Oh crap, sorry about that. Sometimes I just miss those corny intros.


Intro

So way back I wrote about different strategies and tactics I would utilize to try to get the most effectiveness out of my army. I wanted to bring some of that back but start with a broader topic about the fundamentals of this game.

Now for many of you the topics covered in this article may seem rudimentary. I would urge you to not dismiss them because of this. Knowing these things and executing them in each game, turn, and move is completely different. Doing these things in a timely manner is to master the basics of this game.


Define it for me

So let's jump in by defining what I mean by strategy, tactics, and placement. Strategy is your over all vision of how you see the game playing out. Tactics are the means to which you achieve the milestones defined by your strategy. Placement is how you enable yourself to execute the tactics you are planning to utilize.


Let's Strategize

So once you know the scenario and opponent you are facing you should begin thinking about your path to victory. In this game we have a few paths to victory; Scenario, Caster Kill, and Clock. Now I know someone out there is going to start yelling about their screen "ATTRITION!!!". So let me explain, attrition is a means to any of those victory conditions. If attrition is as deep as your strategy goes, what will you do when you hit end game? For example when you finally choose scenario as your path to victory, will you have the pieces available and in place?

Of course you cannot expect everything to go as planned, after all your opponent has a brain too. So when working out your strategy it is key to identify the pieces that enable your path to victory. If you lose those pieces you need to have a back up plan. This may seem like I am telling you to be precog, but really with some experience you can identify the general flow of the game. And if something does happen that you never expected, in future games you can account for it.

The last piece for working out a sound strategy is identifying the pieces your opponent has that will hinder your path to victory. Again this takes experience and knowledge of your opponents army, so in each game you will be better able to do this. Sometimes you may even have to choose a different path to victory due to certain problem pieces. Identifying this before deployment is key to a winning strategy.

If you can come up with a basic strategy before deployment starts you are on the path to giving your opponent a great game. To wrap up this article lets try to lay out a very basic game plan.


Example???

The scenario is close quarters and I am playing Grim Angus vs. Cryx. I determine my best path to victory is scenario via dominating my flag. I set up 4 milestones;

Score turn 2 and contest the opponents flag
Clear my flag on turn 3 to score again, contest enemy flag, make Grim difficult to kill.
Clear my flag again turn 4 using feat for back to back points.
Clear my flag turn 5 for the win.

I know based on my milestones Grim and my flag cleaners are the key to victory. I can sacrifice much of my army as long as I have enough attacks to continue clearing my flag off. As for my jammers, I just need enough bodies to prevent my opponent from scoring back to back multiple times. Looking at my opponents deployment and army list I can determine the issues they will present and roughly what turn I will need to deal with them.

If I were to lose Grim, its game over, but if my opponent is able to swarm my flag or remove my enough of my flag cleaners I can attempt to audible to a caster kill. Because of the scenario and my mad grab for control points, my opponent is more than likely moving their caster forward to grab points of their own. If all hell has broken loose and there is no chance of getting their caster I will grab as many control and kill points as possible to help my tie breakers.

As for identifying the problem pieces my opponent has we know Raiders jamming into my flag can be a problem. As can a bile thrall getting too far forward and removing my flag cleaners. We won't dig much deeper than that for the sake of simplicity.


Next Time

That's all for part 1 of this series. Next time I will attempt to tackle tactics and give some examples from a game on vassal.

Thanks for reading,
-nosrek

With Our Powers Combined!

Next time on the Scrumcast we have one of our old pals and very special guest on with us to talk about breaking down basic strategy. You'll be pleased to know we are kidnapping Bloodrath from RFP and HCO to rap with us about stuff we know nothing about! You can check out his work here in his Graduate Level Gaming Articles.

List Philosophies: 2 and 3 List Format Theory

Quite a few Scrumcasts ago I spoke about the elusive third list. This sparked my interest enough to actually write about it in addition to rambling in your ear. So this series of  articles will focus on the core Philosophies behind how we build in this meta. These are also entirely my opinion and are most likely false.  So, feel free to discuss with me as we go on this adventure into hyperbole together!


The Goal
I want to foster meaningful conversation about how to choose lists and warlocks for tournaments at the 50pt level. So, with that in mind I will share my ideas based on my experience and what I think is strong for our faction. This unfortunately will mean I'll be discussing lists that not everyone can play. The biggest example would be Runes of War. I'm going to start by using my current tournament builds as examples and then I would use that as a point of reference to build off.

Getting Started
After discussing this with other players in my area I decided to expand my original idea from only 3 list events to include 2 list event building as well so that's where we are going to start. But before we get into lists I think it's important to talk about the climate of SR2014.

We are seeing a large shift in the larger meta to Warcasters and Warlocks with a large amount of board control or with control feats to maximize their effectiveness in scenario play. This tends to be a bit of a problem for us as a whole as our standard list builds can tend to be a bit slow over all. This I think is what has caused a recent shift in Troll list building. In addition we have also started seeing a shift toward armor spam from a number of factions. This has not been a huge problem for us in the past. However, to keep up with the changing Meta I feel like we need to focus on what we can do well as a faction to present our opponents with the biggest problems.

So, what are Trolls' greatest strengths?
- High model count tough army
- Fast infantry with reach or AD
- Runes of War
- Resilient Warlocks
- The Beast Brick

Starting out I think there are a few ways to build that work toward a goal of answering bad match ups or asking tough questions. For instance. Here is what I bring currently to a 2 list event.

Points: 50/50
Tiers: 4
Hoarluk Doomshaper (*7pts)
* Troll Axer (6pts)
* Dire Troll Mauler (9pts)
* Earthborn Dire Troll (10pts)
* Mulg the Ancient (12pts)
Krielstone Bearer and 5 Stone Scribes (4pts)
* Krielstone Stone Scribe Elder (1pts)
Trollkin Runeshapers (Leader and 2 Crew) (3pts)
Trollkin Runeshapers (Leader and 2 Crew) (3pts)
Trollkin Runeshapers (Leader and 2 Crew) (3pts)
Trollkin Runeshapers (Leader and 2 Crew) (3pts)
Janissa Stonetide (3pts)

and

Points: 50/50
Grissel Bloodsong (*5pts)
* Pyre Troll (5pts)
* Ršk (11pts)
Krielstone Bearer and 5 Stone Scribes (4pts)
* 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 4 Grunts) (11pts)
Fell Caller Hero (3pts)
Saxon Orrik (2pts)
Stone Scribe Chronicler (2pts)

So here's the gist of why I went in this direction. 
Runes of War start with a solid base leaving my options open. But I compensated for it's apparently lack of mobility with a list designed to blitz across the board and be hard to clear out thus the Grissel list. It's a list that can play out of apparent bad match ups because it can simply make you lose on scenario if you don't address it properly or don't see the gimmick coming. So it really reinforces Runes of War's inherent strength in it's strong beast brick and cheap runeshapers. 

Here's the key with this setup. Both warlocks have serious board control and denail. And you can't just list chicken out of really hard denial either because they are both difficult to fight against. So it puts people in a lose lose situation if they can't charge or cast spells or can't crack armor or...you get the point. 

The Scrum Cast Episode 37

Come listen to the pre Lock and Load excitement in our latest episode.  Post Lock and Load recording commencing.

Episode 37

The Scrum and Handcannon Team Up for Beer and Justice

I am proud to announce a TREMENDOUS collaborative effort on behalf of www.Trollbloodscrum.com and Handcannononline.com ! Coming soon to a Lock and Load near you we will be pleased to deliver a new and exciting hobby tool. BEER!  That's right the Evil Geniuses of The Scrum and Handcannon have teamed up to enhance your hobby experience the best way we know how. So without further ado I would like to introduce you to our....

DOUBLE BARREL HANDCANNON DOUBLE IPA

Have no fear folks the beer is in its infancy now but come four weeks time it will be bottled and ready for enjoyment!  Stay tuned both here and Handcannononline.com for updates on the brewing process including step by step instructions on how we will construct our delicious brew.

New Blitzer! Holy shit!

Ladies and Gentelmen... Our next Dire Troll....

He's Lesser, but not Least

Hello again fellow scrummers. Today we're here to introduce, for those that haven't met him, are new friend Horgle Ironstrike. So let's get to the nitty gritty and just look at what the big guy can do.

 Picture posted by Celebros on the PP Forums

His stat line isn't bad he's decent SPD 5, so without buffs threats 8.5". He hits as accurately as a fennblade with MAT 6, and his RAT is negligible since he lacks a range weapon. Standard troll def and base 15 ARM, but a nice 17 when under the stone. He's also fearless, tough, and immune to fire attacks. He's got 8 wounds, like a good troll, and fury 4, so with ARM 17 he has some survivability (still better off then some of the Lesser Warcasters).

He's got two weapons, both without reach, and are magical weapons. His POW 11 sword also causes continuous fire, his hammer is POW 12 with Critical Ram. Though with the Stone easily made POW 12 and 13. With his Pyre or Slag animus POW 14 and 15. Or have your caster bring a Mauler and he becomes POW 15 and 16. Add eMadrak and you have up to six MAT 6 weapon master attacks, one at POW 15, the other five at POW 16 and if the target isn't dead it is on fire. So even without beasts this guy can be considered a crazy combat solo for late game.

Even with his crazy melee potential it's crazy not to take beasts with him. Mind you he is limited to Slag and Pyre trolls, though both come at a 1 pt discount if in his battle group. He also has the rule Burnt Meat which situationally allows beasts in his battle group to charge models for free that are suffering from continuous fire. So if he needs a little help in melee they can follow him in for free, or charge in after a Pyre troll sets it on fire with its gun. Speaking of guns Horgle has the 2 COST spell Hot Shot, which boosts the ranged damage rolls of one of his beasts in his battle group. This at first didn't strike me as great, but looking back now I realise that I was just being stupid. On a Pyre troll you now have focus to boost the attack roll and cast his animus on something else, because everything under that 3" AOE is going to suffer boosted POW 6. The Slag can now pay to boost its initial range attack roll, still pay for a second shot, and boost the attack roll, because the spell makes sure you get that fourth die on damage against non-living models. Initially I thought Horgle was going to receive a distance buff to ranged attack rolls, but I'm just as happy with boosted damage rolls.

Horgle's second spell is Molten Metal, an offensive COST 2, RANGE 10 spell that puts one point of damage in every column of a Jack's damage grid. It is a little situational, as it is only effective against Warmachine factions, and while it has a little more threat then his charge, it isn't nearly as effective as actually just charging.

I feel that Horgle will be a fine addition to our future endeavours in the Iron Kingdoms. Many of our casters are focused starved and won't mind a 3 COST melee monster that can also sit back and throw out Slag and Pyre animuses, while they are busy casting other spells or fueling the Krielstone. I can't wait for June to get this guy on the table. 

If you guys have any questions, comments, or suggestions throw me an email here, drop a comment below or pm me on the forums, otherwise have a good week and may all your dice roll tough.

- CrashWest

Epic Borka

Start the rumor mill folks. Borka's concept art has been leaked and he's everything I ever wanted in life... In all seriousness though I don't see how this could be bad in any way possible. So let's hear it... I want to hear your wild speculation on what he does!
- Goris

High DEF Trolls?

Last week I shared my thoughts on an ARM skew list, which is undoubtably trolls easiest and most common skew. ARM skewing is possibly one of trolls greatest assets and we possibly pull it off the best. With ARM buffs coming out our wazoo it doesn't surprise anyone these days to see a heavy armour troll list across the table, however not so many expect a DEF skew from trolls.

In trolls we aren't without our DEF buffing warlocks. Calandra, Borka, pMadrak, Gunnbjorn, and Jarl all have the tools to help raise the DEF stat in some way. 

Calandra has her Star-Crossed and Bullet Dodger spells to skew our trolls chance of avoiding attacks. 

• Star-Crossed - this is the main reason to take Calandra, it basically is a reverse Signs and Portents, which means that enemy models in Calandra's control area roll an extra attack dice, but drop the highest. It's pretty sweet and can be very upsetting for some opponents. 
• Bullet Dodger - this spell only works on a model and provides them with +2 DEF against ranged attacks and gives the model dodge. It isn't as great as star-crossed, but it does help protect her base DEF 14 fat ass.

Grim Angus, Trials and Tribulations Part 1

One year when visiting my father for the holidays he introduced me to the great game of Warmachine & Hordes. I was instantly drawn to the hordes side of the house. The Grim Angus artwork and blurb drew me into the Trollblood faction instantly. After numerous defeats I shelved Grim and moved on to other casters. Now almost two years later Grim Angus and I have been hitting the dojo and it's time for his triumphant return.

First things first lets have a look at my Grim list. 
Grim Angus
*Earthborn
*Bomber
*Imapler
 -Runebearer
 Gatorman Witch Doctor
Stone Scribe Chronicler 
Scattergunners
-Scattergunner UA
Burrowers
Krielstone Bearer & Stone Scribes
-Stone Scriber Elder
Min Farrow Bone Grinders
Swamp Gobber Bellows Crew

If I could define Grim Angus in one word it would be Versatile. I wanted to compound this strength by making his list as versatile as possible. I do run a great risk of having too much overlap thus making the list a heaping pile of shit. However, each model in the list is fairly proficient at multiple roles so the trick will be making the most of each piece. I am very light on armor cracking in this list which could also pose a problem. The list is meant to be paired with a beast brick and longrider caster though, so I can potentially avoid an armor skew match-up. If I find myself in an armor skew match-up (which I will do in a battle report) I hope the list has enough jam and denial to squeeze out a scenario victory before I am forced to deal with the armor.

I think the list has many strengths and I would sum them up as follows; jam, counter-jam, and denial.

Show me your Kithkar ***Entry Extension***

Competition entry will be extended throughout the duration of the painting competition. Meaning as long as you let me know you want in and follow the instrcutions in the original post, then your model will be considered and voted upon when this is done. GET YE TO PAINTING!!!

Geek Garage

One of my favorite things to do when I am glueing and painting models, or even just thinking real hard about getting starting is perusing other sites that have helps on how to accomplish this.  Really lets face it, I need all the help I can get when painting models right.  A site that I frequently visit is Geek Garage (Check the banner on the right).  They often run competitions, they have a forum that you can ask questions or seek advice on and they post a little bit on local events.  Check them out when you have time, and if you are overly ambitious you can get something painted up for the intermountain cup (yeah it's in two weeks, but you hardcore painters can do it, I know it.)  See the flier below for more info and go check them out.

The Geek Garage Painting Competition at Intermountain Cup returns as the:

Salty Dwarf Painting Competition!

March 15th at the IMC in Ogden Utah, we the Geek Garage, will be hosting an open painting competition. Complete with prizes!

Here are the details:

$10 Registration fee per entry ($5 if pre-registering*)

2 Categories

1st Category any models on a small or medium sized base (40mm and smaller)

2nd Category models on large bases and bigger (50mm and larger)

Prizes will be awarded for top three in each category!

Competition Rules:

-Entrant must have painted the

fig themselves. No commissions.

-Entries must be received by 12 noon

-The fig will be on display throughout

the day. DO NOT enter a fig if you

plan to use it in the tourney as well.

-Entrant must be present to collect the prize.

 Winners will be announced after round 3

 (between 5pm and 7pm) of the IMC.

-You do not have to play in the tournament

 to enter the painting competition.

-By entering the contest, you give the

 Geek Garage rights to post/publish pictures

 of the figures and Artists where we deem necessary.

*Pre-Registration details: Send Pay Pal payment to thegeekgarage@gmail.com leaving a note with a name and

  category along with payment.

Any questions feel free to contact us at thegeekgarage@gmail.com

Now grab those brushes and start slinging some paint!!

-Geek Garage

Show Me Your Kithkar ***Competition Update****

We have expanded the model selection for the 'Show Me Your Kithkar' painting competition to include additional models from our most recent release.

You may paint the following for this competition:
Trollkin Fennblade Kithkar
Night Troll
Trollkin Sorcerer
The Hunters Grim
Trollkin Warders
Mountain King

Additional models that were completed previous to the competition date can submit pictures of those models for a chance to win a Trollbloodscrum Dice Set or Patch.

See the Competition Announcement http://www.trollbloodscrum.com/2014/03/show-me-your-kithkar-painting.html for more details.

Show Me Your Kithkar!!! (Painting Competition)

Our newest painting competition is up and ready to go.   As you can see by the new logo on the side of the page.  Lawn Battle ship is starting off a kickstarter (More information on it coming soon) and they have generously offered to sponsor this painting competition by giving two lucky winners a $25 gift card to either amazon.com OR Discount games... they're deciding okay.  Anyway here is the nuts and bolts.

1)Enter the competition by emailing thegreatblah@trollbloodscrum.com no later than MARCH 7th.
  a) Subject Line of the email should be 'Show Me Your Kithkar'.  If you don't use this subject line, I probably won't find it.
  b) Please give your Name, forum name if you have one, and any other information you deem pertinenet.
2)Obtain a Trollkin Kithkar or any model release for Trollbloods in Gargantuans (The Hunters Grim, Sorcerer, Night Troll, Warders or Mountain King) and send a pic of your unpainted, or partially unpainted, or painted but no yet complete, kithkar in the email.
3)Spend the next few weeks painting said kithkar.
4)Send a photo of your completed kithkar by March 28th for us to review.

That's it, its that easy.   Trollbloodscrum will post your completed kithkars as they come in and announce the winners on April 1st.  YES April Fools day.

Notes: Members of Trollbloodscrum CAN participate, but you probably wont win.  It will still be awesome though.   Also, you need not OWN the kithkar you paint we just want to make sure you are the one that painted it.

The Scrum Cast Episode 34

Go check it out and keep yer eyes peeled here for our new painting competition.

http://scrumcast.trollbloodscrum.com/2014/03/the-scrum-cast-ep34.html