A bit more painting and another game. A bunch of us decided that with all the newer players in the area, a Journeyman league was just the ticket for all of us to “start new” together with them. So my painting of my new-ish Trollbloods force is going to be slowed for a while.

I did manage to add one more piece before this game: the Fennblade Officer UA. Great pose and model, and I’m pretty pleased with how he turned out.

 

For the game, I faced off against a new foe (Ben) and his Cygnar force led by Stryker3. His 50pt. army had a Reliant for a warjack, supported by the usual Cygnar support personnel. On the units side, there was a big unit of Precursor Knights, a big unit of Sword Knights, and a unit of Storm Lances. The group was rounded out by Aiyana and Master Holt.

My force was Jarl Skuld run pretty beast-heavy with an Earthborn Dire Troll, a Dire Troll Blitzer, a Storm Troll, a Swamp Troll, and an Impaler. They were supported by a max unit of Fennblades with UA and a min unit of Fennblades, two sets of Troll Whelps (one on the table at the start, one inside and waiting to pop out), and Janissa Stonetide.

The mission was Fire Support, which has both flags and objectives, and the Cygnarians got the first turn.

Jarl Skuld’s feat came very early, to prevent my opponent’s cavalry from crashing into my lines. The more I play Jarl, the more I dig him. He’s got the things that I find too many of my other casters lack: denial, control, and spot removal. Now, maybe that’s because I’ve been playing more Skorne than anything else in some time and I run casters and models that aren’t exactly invested in denial and removal–so Jarl is just a refreshing change of pace.

This battle against Cygnar was pretty evenly matched through most of the fight. I didn’t work my charges as carefully as I could have, and my Storm Troll ended up just short of his target. Yet I was slowly advancing the piece exchange with Jarl Skuld getting a lot of the job done himself.

Finally the Cygnarians reached my lines thanks in good part to a critical feat turn from Stryker clearing good openings. Jarl was left generally under-defended and low on fury. He had to scrape off his fury to transfer the ranged shots that managed to hit him, leaving him facing a dismounted dragoon and a trooper. The Dragoon failed to seal the deal due to mediocre rolls, leaving it all to the charging trooper model. My opponent merely needed to roll a hard 5 or more to finish Jarl… and failed. He should have by all rights been dead twice over at that point, but had gotten away with it by the skin of his teeth.

My retaliation was quick and brutal, as very little cannot be solved by a judicious application of the Earthborn. He took Stryker3 out, thanks in no small part to his Adaptation rule. With such a high power score on Stryker’s weapon, the Dire Troll hit like a truck and finished him off quickly.

Overall it was  great game. Definitely one of those games that I should have lost, but the dice chose otherwise. Jarl managed to dodge and weave his way to success in the face of failure. Another great game on the opponent side as well, as Ben was a really friendly opponent who definitely had me outclassed on the tactical side. I find I learn so much from playing players who know so well what they’re doing with their lists. I’ve done the reading and thinking about the Stryker3 method and list, but nothing beats seeing it in action demonstrated by a skilled player.

Battles (Privateer Press):
Overall Total 2015: 29 (Win/Loss: 22/7/0)

Skorne:
12 Wins (Fiona, Sorscha, Morvahna2, Ossrum, Borka, Kaelyssa, Stryker, Venethrax, Butcher, Thagrosh, Exulon)   /   3 Losses (Kromac, Kaelyssa/Kaya, Borka)

Trollbloods:

2 Wins (Asphyxious, Stryker3)  /   3 Losses (Kaelyssa, Asphyxious2, Saeryn+Rhyas)

Protectorate of Menoth:
3 Wins (Morvahna2, Kaelyssa)   /   0 Losses

Legion of Everblight:
5 Wins (Caine2, Kaya, Sorscha, Rahn)   /   1 Loss (Fiona)

• Warmachine/Hordes