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

Mabrothrax goes to Smogcon

Bring it on.

This will be a quick post as I'm about to go get a train to Heathrow airport to meet a good friend of mine, then we're off to...

Smogcon is currently the UK's only dedicated Warmachine & Hordes convention (it does other stuff too) and this year the organisers have really stepped up to the challenge of presenting an American style con over three days in a hotel, well, two hotels actually because demand was so high they needed a second venue.

As well as Press Ganger duties (an 18 hour straight shift in the Smog Pit (think Iron Arena)), I'm entering the Iron Gauntlet and Hardcore tournaments, and plan to get in as much casual gaming as my body will allow.

I'm trolling all the way and playing both my eGrissel list and Calandra theme force in the IG, and still undecided on eDoomshaper or eGrissel for the Hardcore.

I'm not looking to win big, but I am going to have a great time, and hopefully really learn a lot about my armies and my own playing by exposing it to a multi-national meta of (wannabe?) top players.

Once the sleep deprivation has worn off and I've returned to normality I'll have convention report up. In the meantime, please do follow me and goad/insult/encourage on twitter @unicronsbeard

Keep rolling tough!

Mabrothrax, #trollingtrollswithtrolls & playing like he's got a pair sleep deprivation.

Mabrothrax Muses: Hunters Grim and Gators

Eat, Sleep, Gator, Repeat

I have a hard time with eGrim. Sort of. I was very pleased with the work put into the Hunters Grim challenge by the Scrumm boys, but disappointed that there was no real discussion after that. The only pseudo general consensus is that Scatter gunners are worth taking, and that burrowers are fun on the feat turn.

Mortality is amazing, it gets the job done and is the ultimate turd polisher, the feat gives that one turn of living the dream - assuming you go all out with Trollblood ranged options. Mirage gives a decent amount of movement shenanigans, the other spells are situational. This we all know.

I find that he doesn't handle the Kriel stone well, which is fine - I'm not addicted to it, but many of my units are. His beast selection, in my opinion, is  very open to interpretation. Personally I don't enjoy the Bomber/Impaler plug-in.

I've tried these battle groups and found each of them to be successful:Blitzer, Pyre, StormPyre, Storm, StormBlitzer & Rok

My selection of units has never really settled. My adorable Warders, even with Mirage, don't quite do it right and almost demand the Stone (and a Storm troll) to really get things done which ends up being taxing on eGrim's Fury. Sons of Bragg always perform well, and don't require additional resources although the Chronicler gives them a little something that I like.

Valkine recently posted about his thoughts with pGrim and I'm very interested in his ideas, inparticular how (if) they crossover to eGrim. 

Gatorman Posse look to be a strong unit choice with eGrim. Compared to Warders or Champs...

• Costed between Warders and Champs

• Slightly less armour (does not require B2B)

• Same boxes

• Two initials and Reach

• Faster in most circumstances

• Built in Pathfinder

• Higher P&S

...and so on.

In a similar fashion I think Wrong Eye and Snapjaw give a very good flanking option, and a mean heavy that can make good use of Mortality. Submerge and again their independence takes the pressure off of eGrim and require less investment in Trollblood support pieces.

This is a very sketchy idea at present that needs tearing apart and putting back together again. I would love to have Rok in the list for some beserk action and the ability to Primal Snapjaw when it's needed. The blitzer feels at home with eGrim, and the idea of having a trinity of heavy beasts very much appeals. If I took out Rok, I'd add a unit of Scouts, a Chronicler and a Swamp/Night Troll as a fury battery.

Hunters Grim (+4)Runebearer 2Blitzer 9Rok 11Gatorman Posse 9Wrongeye & Snapjaw 9Pyg Bushwhackers 8Sons of Bragg 6

Alternatively, drop WE&SJ for a 2nd GMP - then Rok seems less appealing, in which case a Slag and five other points on a Storm/Pyre or Scouts.

The bottom line - GMP replaces the need for a lot of support and get as much if not more out Mortality when their prayers and abilities are taken into account. With the exception of his feat, eGrim doesn't need/support many of the Trollblood options, leaving him to get as much, if not more value from out of faction choices.

Also posted on the Muse on Minis forums:
http://museonminis.com/forums/index.php?topic=3375.0

Mabrothrax,
#TrollingTrollsWithTrolls (and this week, Gators)