As always, more games during the week so another update. First the painting, then the three games.
Mark III of Warmachine and Hordes is on the horizon, and that means a new battle box and a new Journeyman league. While I’m loving my Trollbloods lately, I think that I’m going to head back to Cryx for the start of Mark III. That means that wanted to finish up the pieces for the new battlegroup box, so I painted up a Slayer and a Deathripper. When I started Cryx, I started in with an alternate starter (Asphyxious), so I needed to get the Slayer done. And another Deathripper never hurts.
This week I got in three games, two for the Carnage at the Confluence Campaign that we’re doing at Drawbridge Games, and one with a good buddy of mine Tom who’s just starting up with the hobby.
I played Ryan in my first game of the day, bringing a Doomshaper2 list with two Dire Troll Blitzers, a Troll Bouncer, Champions, and Scouts. I faced off against Lylyth, commanding a Carnivean, Scythean, and a Shredder, plus Blighted Ogrun Warspears with UA and Striders with UA. Representing the earthworks the Trollbloods have been building in the campaign, the board was littered with trenches.
Ryan’s Legion inflicted some nasty attacks on my forces, but Lylyth’s range got stretched thin. The Scythean also got a horrible case of “miss every roll ever” disease when trying to finish off the Trollkin Scouts, which helped a lot. Doomy2’s feat turn got me up into her face past her beasts, which meant the next turn the two Dire Troll Blitzers were able to roll in and finish her off.
Second game I was again in the bunker, this time with Jarl Skuld against Kevin’s Thagrosh. I decided to try an infantry-heavy list, so ran only a Troll Axer and a Swap Troll as my beasts, plus Trollkin Scouts, Trollkin Fennblades, and Pyg Bushwhackers.
I pretty much just fed my troops into the meat grinder, slowly shaving away hit points on his heavy beasts. I didn’t want to kill them because of Thagrosh’s feat, so the lack of heavy-hitting power was tolerable. Because the mission forced Thagrosh to make his way into the trench on my side of the board, turning the board into lines of slow-slog progress through tough troops paid off, and Thagrosh ended the game short of getting into the bunker.
As I mentioned above, the third game I got in against Tom’s Cygnar force. It was a starter box game, and I knew that Tom had played against Hordes before so I thought I would bring my Cryx to give him a Warmachine foe to face. Thus, it was Deneghra’s battle box that hit the table. It was a great-looking game, as I love Tom’s green color scheme for his Cygnar.
While I got a lot of attacks in, it wasn’t quite enough. The Slayer and some Venom-baths just couldn’t quite seal the deal on Stryker when I went for assassination. I should have sacrificed an arc node to get a deep Crippling Grasp up on Stryker in a prior turn. Alas, his defense and poor rolls combined to leave me just short. And with that, his Lancer finished Deneghra off with ease the turn after. It was a really fun battle, and very close–a slightly better attack roll with a second Slayer fist or with a second Venom and I would have had the win.
366 Points Challenge Progress (2016):
177/366
Battles (Privateer Press):
Overall Totals 2016: 40 (Win/Loss: 25/15/0); 2015: 43 (Win/Loss: 29/14/0)
Trollbloods:
9 Wins (Karchev x2, Vayl2 x2, Lylyth x2, Kaya, Skarre, Thagrosh) / 7 Losses (Adeptis Rahn, Kromac, Caine2, Borka2, Kaya, Rhyas, Ashlynn)
Cryx:
4 Wins (Caine, Karchev, Skarre, Vlad) / 4 Losses (Asphyxious, Lylyth2, Goreshade3, Stryker)
Skorne:
12 Wins (Butcher x2, Deneghra, Shae, Sorscha2, Feora2, Severius, Skarre x2, Kreoss2, Borka, Kaya2)/ 5 Losses (Rask, Xerxis, Butcher3, Thagrosh, Zerkova2)
Here are the offending Trollkin Scouts, complete with hog underarm, tooth and tail trophies, spyglass, moonshine mug, and of course: whelp banjo player. This was the most complex Trollblood unit I’ve painted in terms of everything going on with them, so it was a lot of fun to work on even though it took a bit of time. 
Ryan’s growing Legion of Everblight force was commanded by Vayl2, and featured a Carnivean, a Scythean, a Shredder, a full unit of Warspears plus their Chieftan, and a Beast Mistress with three additional Shredders. We faced off and I got the first turn, so my forces rushed forward to contest the zones. 
The newly-painted Trollkin Scouts performed admirably, as they can hit pretty well with their gang ability, and under Borka’s Mosh Pit spell effect, that makes their strikes all the more destructive. 
Borka did as Borka does, managing to survive a frontal assault from a Carnivean as a trap to lure the nastiest heavy close to my lines. Once the rest of his force finished off all of Vayl’s beasts, Vayl had no choice but try and spell-blast her way to victory, but came up short. Borka wandered up and finished Vayl off with a few melee strikes. A fun game as always against a great opponent. 
Skaldi Bonehammer and a Stone Scribe Chronicler. I forgot to finish the base of the Stone Scribe in this shot, and I did a few more highlights on his face, but they’re basically finished. I’m very pleased with how Skaldi turned out. 
Also finished a unit of Trollkin Champions to go along with Skaldi. I’m really liking the mostly dark armor with mixed lighter bits. Felt like they have a nasty look to them that way. 
And finally, I finished a second unit of Troll Whelps. That makes two blocks of five total, so I’ve got about as much fury management as I can possibly fit in (it also helps me toward a different tier list goal). 
The first Thursday game was against Terry’s Cryx, led by Skarre. The game was 35 points, and I fielded by Borka Drunk and Disorderly tier in the game. We played Outflank, the Steamroller scenario with the two big circular zones. Because there were two big obstructions (two houses) that kind of split the board (in the pic above you can see the gap between the zones), the game ran pretty fast… I managed to clear the zone on the side I went for first, so I got a lead in scenario points and the Cryx couldn’t keep up. A fun game, as Terry is a great player to play against–especially because he has some amazingly gorgeous paint jobs (the image above doesn’t do them justice). 
The second Thursday game I got in a smaller points match-up (25) against Roger’s great fox-colored Circle Orboros army. I ran Grissel just for a change of pace. I managed to survive a pretty nasty assassination run from Kaya and a Feral Warpwolf, thanks to good old Tough. Then Grissel finished the job herself the following turn. Definitely a fun match-up. 
For the game on Sunday, I brought my 50 point Borka Drunk and Disorderly tier 4 list. Almost completely painted–just needed a bit more work and touching up of the Trollkin Scouts. I faced off against my opponent Savage’s Ashlynn Mercenaries list that was a Galleon and stacked with Gun Mages and other shooting threats. I managed to weather the storm of her feat turn fairly well, and the grind got to the point where Borka’s sheer defensiveness was becoming a problem. My opponent went for the assassination, managing to get the pieces in place to “lock” Borka down and not stumble away. Ashlynn did her best to kill him personally, but came up just short. And then the Freezer animus from a nearby Winter Troll left her stationary. It looked like Borka and crew would easily finish her off, but one activation remained. Savage took a shot with his Mule Warjack, targeting his own caster in the back. He managed to hit her (stationary and back strike but in combat), and the shot didn’t kill her. But the AOE damage rolled just enough to finish Borka off and a Tough roll didn’t save him. It was a great game, and the way he won the game was super-memorable. I was laughing pretty hard at the absurdity of it. Great fun. 
I finished a minimum unit of Trollkin Fennblades. Painting units is always the big challenge in Warmachine and Hordes, so I’m proud of getting them done. They add 5 more points to my painted model total.
I also finished the Drummer model of the Fennblades Officer and Drummer unit attachment. I’ll give myself half points for him (+1), as the Fennblade Officer was one of the first models I painted up to test my Trollbloods scheme (in 
I also completed a Troll Axer, for another six points painted. I’m really pleased with how he turned out. Despite all my Trollbloods play, I have never fielded this model until today. Odd, given how much I use my Titan Gladiator to pass out the Rush animus to my Skorne forces. 
The more I play Madrak2, the more I believe I simply do not get him as a caster. I had a good game against Rico, clearing a lot of his stuff and playing defensive to try and get points. But eventually he whittled through my defenses enough to get to Madrak, finishing him with a Scythean. I think I need to run him with troop spam, and just get right up into my opponent’s face and dare them to take him out. Dunno, not my style. 
I played my second game against Ryan’s Vayl2 force, which he is doing in a great blue color with some yellow/orange elements. It really pops nicely on the table. For this game I fielded Jarl Skuld, who is much more my style than Madrak2. He plays cautiously, takes out selected pieces to enable a favorable match up to end the game. I finished Vayl2 off with some heroics from Janissa Stonetide’s Rock Hammer spell and Jarl finishing the knocked-down Vayl2 with a charge. 
The next day I snuck in a game against Brandon’s Lylyth force. We took our time, as he is a Cygnar player who is just starting to explore Hordes and Legion of Everblight through the campaign. I took Borka, who proved to be too much for the Carnivean to handle. His high defense when he puts Iron Flesh on himself, and then becomes Stumbling Drunk, is just too good. The one shining moment for Legion was when a Shredder’s attack caused Borka to stumble directly backward toward my table edge, leaving the Carnivean out of melee and with a perfect shot down the line of my Troll Bouncer and the full group of Fennblades. While I took some pretty brutal casualties from that, the Earthborn on the opposite side finally made range on Lylyth and finished her off. 
The story so far:
Imperial star charts map the United Systems of Atreidia where the green N’dras sept marker rests in the lower right. 
Now, a movement has started underground to violently resist the Tau oppression. Rumors tell of a charismatic, angry leader that is spreading the word of a new set of goals and leadership for the people of the United Systems of Atreidia. The slogan “Make Atreidia Great Again” has been appearing on graffiti across the planets. Those who are closer to the movement speak of the quasi-religious overtones being adopted by the human resistance. They speak of something buried in the race-memory of man and of ancient practices that are unique to mankind’s culture and unknown by the Tau. The more citizens connect with these ideas, the more unbridled rage and anger seems to suffuse their speeches and their actions. To identify each other, adherents have been crafting symbols of their affiliation: small wooden or brass carvings dyed red.
The Dark Muse 