Like A Boss: Solo Spotlight - Raluk Moorclaw, The Ironmonger

Good Monday morning to all of you in Scrum land! Kro here with a brand new Like A Boss column for the week!

Last week we took a look at the Fell Caller Hero, which you can view here. Now over the last few months, I've gotten requests to do some of our Mercenary Solo's. So I figured that I would start with one of our newest addition to the Trollblood family.

The easiest place to start is always at the beginning. So, the reason behind this choice is two fold. 1.) New Solo, New Strategy and 2.) He's still new enough that most players in our faction have NO idea what to do with him.

Moorclaw is the first accessible Trollblood Mercenary Solo with the Jack Marshall ability which is new territory for us as a faction. With this new territory comes a good amount of questions, none of which are easy to answer. For players, the big one is: "Why should I field this model?" secondary to that question is: "What questions will he make my opponent answer?"

Bearing these two questions in mind, I'm going to go into extra depth with this article, and provide additional insight on what to run with Moorclaw. (More on that later)

Follow along after the jump to see how deep this rabbit hole goes!

RAGE HOWLER - Re-intro and 2 Tone Priming

I would like to start out with an apology to those who contribute to this blog and those who read the blog on a regular basis.  It has been far too long since I have contributed to Trollbloodscrum, and though life does tend to get in the way sometimes, I still feel bad for my lack of contributions and hope to make up for it in the future with semi-regular blog posts.

For those who don't know me, I am Skywise here and on the PP forums.  My original intro on Trollbloodscrum and be found here.  I still consider myself a Merc player, though I dabble a little in Legion, Cygnar, and Cryx, the Mercs are where my heart is.  Though I don't play Trolls (yet), I feel a kinship with the faction due to the amount of Trollblood Mercs that find there way into my lists.  Boomhowler makes it into about 75% of my Merc lists and Dannon & Bull show up more than is healthy.  I plan on contributing more on tactics, focusing mostly on Mercs and Legion (both for and against).

I also bring 20 years of miniature modeling and painting experience to the table.  Where I don't consider myself a pro or a competition painter,  I am very adept at putting nice, fully painted figures to the table top in a relatively short time.  I also tend to do a lot of basing, converting, and terrain making.  All of these will be sharing in future blog posts.  Anyways, enough babble, time to get along to an actual article: Two tone Priming!

Two Tone Priming

My latest painting/modeling tip is called to tone priming.  It is a highlighting technique using different shades of primer. For more tips on priming, I have an old post that can be found here. 

1 - Prime your figure using a darker color.  If you prefer to paint over black primer, then prime your figure black.  If you prefer to paint over white primer, then prime your figure a light or medium gray.  For Bosun Grogspar, I chose black:

2-  Spraying from a high, downward angle, use a lighter shade of primer to simulate natural lighting.  For black primer, use a dark or medium gray.  If you primed gray, use a light gray or white.  For Bosun Grogspar, I used a medium gray:

It is hard to see in the above picture, but there is still a good amount of black on the underside of the model. And now for a top view:

3- The two tone primed figure will help add some natural highlights to your figure.  One very important tip to remember when painting this figure is to thin down your paints.  If you fail to do this, the highlights from the two tone priming may not show through.

Next blog post I fill finish painting Bosun Grogspar to show off how priming this way effects the finished model.  Until next time.

Paint and model like you got a pair,
Skywise

For more updates and other gaming nonsense, follow me on Twitter @Skywise76

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.

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:

Skywise's Guide to the Merc Life: Bounty Hunters!

-You're wanted dead or alive. Just draw- Dead is a lot easier. -Dannon Blythe

Dannon & Bull take down a Legion Forsaken.

In order to make my first tactica post Trollblood related, I decided to focus on a Merc unit that will actually work for Trollbloods - Dannon Blythe & Bull. This unit is actually a tier requirement for a Grim Angus theme list! I've been using them in quite a few games lately, including them in my Drake MaccBain slow-grow league list, so I will share a few tips and tricks with them. To start, I would like to address a few questions that pop up on the Merc boards frequently:

Q: Are Dannon & Bull worth their point cost? - A: No, not really. At a whooping 4 points for a character unit, that puts you in the same range as Aiyana & Holt, the Black 13th, Min. Steelheads, Min Kriel Warriors, almost any 2 Merc solos, etc. All of the mentioned are better values for the points.

Skywise's Guide to the Merc Life: Greetings!!

Hello Scrummers!! Allow me to introduce myself. I'm Skywise (same name on the PP forums) and I have been asked to be the Mercenary correspondent for Trollblood Scrum!! I will be writing articles on Mercenary tactics such as how to run Mercenaries in your existing armies (Yes, Trollbloods have access to a few Merc models!), how to play Mercenary armies, and giving advice on how to counter Mercenary armies using Trollbloods. I also plan to write a few Quick and Dirty Painting articles to help players get painted models on the table in no time flat! In addition to the painting articles, I pan on helping Sid part time with his painting service!

I would like to take some time during my first post to discuss Mercenaries in general. Let's tackle a couple questions that appears on the PP Merc forum often: