Another Thursday night of gaming, and more battles cataloged for my Trollbloods. But first up as always, new painting to display. Two Winter Trolls ready to go, though now that I look at the pictures they look a bit darker than the others. I might want to highlight their skin back up a bit more.

They are not particularly good in the game, but they are 10 more points painted toward my totals–which puts me at exactly 1/3 of the way through the painting progress. And with the new edition of Warmachine and Hordes coming in June, there’s hopes that the old models that haven’t been particularly great will get new rules that improve them. Winter Trolls haven’t been good ever (not Mark I, nor Mark II) so perhaps they’ll finally get their moment. 

In terms of gaming, I got two matches in this week. First, a Trollbloods vs. Trollbloods battle against Tony, and then a smaller battle-box sized game against Roger’s fox-colored Circle Orboros. First the big Troll clash:

My Doomshaper2 force. With added Winter Trolls, because well… I just painted them. I also forgot my Impaler at home, so had to borrow a friend’s for the battle, so that’s why he doesn’t match. The basic plan is using the movement boosts and tricks of Doomy2 to yo-yo ranged warbeasts and knock out key models/dent things as they close in. I’m not sure it works (I’m leaning strongly toward the idea that it’s a complete flop). It also definitely suffered from the two Winter Trolls, because…

My opponent Tony fielded Borka2, who makes his whole battlegroup immune to cold, and can selectively give cold immunity to a unit with an upkeep spell. Battlegroup was Mulg, Impaler, Bouncer, and Pyre Troll, supported by minimum Tuffalo, a big group of Fennblades with two pieces supporting them, and a Krielstone.

The lines got pretty mixed, as Borka2’s feat turn left me unable to project much against his forces beyond sending a few Fennblades to their ancestors. The rampage of the Dire Troll Blitzers was blunted by the heavy forces they matched up agaist. I managed to finish off Mulg after this photo, and was starting to put some pressure on controlling the far scenario zone to get an advantage and hopefully grind out a win. 

Sadly, Doomshaper2 got buried under weight of attacks from stragglers as the forces got thinned out, and his utterly feeble old man stats started to show themselves. He was assaulted by a Fennblade and a Fell Caller, lit aflame from a Northkin Fire Eater (the hit also forcing the tough and knocking him down), and finally slain by a shot from the Pyre Troll. Overall a really fun game, as Tony is a great opponent and it really helps me to see how other Trollbloods players build their lists and react to the flow of battle with familiar pieces. 

My second game of the day was a quick battle-box sized skirmish against my buddy Roger who is just starting out with the game. He’s got a beautifully painted fox-colored Circle Orboros group that he’s working on and playing, so it was good to get a quick game in. I didn’t bring the pieces I needed to do a proper battlebox, so I looked through what I had for what would work okay and settled on Madrak2, Two Winter Trolls, and a Storm Troll.

And I promptly learned that luck would simply not be with me this game. The light warbeasts are tough enough, but with dice going awry they got downright awful. Here they are crashing agaist the Circle menace. 

The most ignoble part of the game came from when I realized that Madrak2 needed to mix it up himself to win. So I put his buff up on himself and rolled up onto the near Argus… only to miss and miss again until I was left with too low a fury stat and a still mostly-healthy Argus. I further complicated my mistake by trying to make up for his misses by going hog-wild with my light warbeasts and forgot to leave open fury on them for transfers. That left me with my defense lowered thanks to my own buff spell–and Madrak2 was unceremoniously laid low by the assault. 

All told some great gaming, and really nice looking forces to play against. I’m committing to Trollbloods for a while, at least at Drawbridge, as I want to get better at playing them. First stop: a completely changed list from the nonsense I was running with Doomshaper2!

366 Points Challenge Progress (2016):

122/366

Battles (Privateer Press):

Overall Totals 2016: 26 (Win/Loss: 17/9/0); 2015: 43 (Win/Loss: 29/14/0)

Skorne:

12 Wins (Butcher, Deneghra, Shae, Sorscha2, Feora2, Severius, Skarre, Kreoss2, Borka, Kaya2)/ 1 Loss (Rask)

Trollbloods:

1 Win (Karchev) / 5 Losses (Adeptis Rahn, Kromac, Caine2, Borka2, Kaya)

Cryx:

4 Wins (Caine, Karchev, Skarre, Vlad)  /  3 Losses (Asphyxious, Lylyth2, Goreshade3)

• Warmachine/Hordes