Gunnbjorn

Still just getting back into things. Played a fun Vassal game with him so decided to get the real model painted up if I ever got the opportunity to play again.

                                       

Las Vegas Open: The Revitalizing of My Hobby

This is a draft I never finished, but felt like finishing my edit pass and posting since my blog has been so void of content lately. I'm going to add comments as I read this in italics.

I had the lucky opportunity to participate in the Las Vegas Open 2015. My expectations were quickly meet; as I hadn't played enough recently to expect to be competitive. I wanted a fun weekend with a good friend and the privilege to roll some dice versus some quality opponents. I signed up for the Friday team tournament and Saturday's steamroller. I only brought two lists and stuck with them throughout the weekend.

List 1:

Borka Kegslayer

-Pyg Keg Carrier

-Dire Troll Mauler

Fell Caller Hero

Fennblade Kithkar

Trollkin Champion Hero

Viktor Pendrake

Krielstone (full)

-Stone Scribe Elder

Trollkin Fennblades (full)

-UA

Trollkin Warders (full)

Trollkin Champions

-Skaldi Bonehammer

I loved this list. When I go back to trolls I plan on trying to tweak and improve upon it. One of the more enjoyable casters in the game to play.

List 2: Evolutionary Elementalism Tier 3

Calandra

-Trollkin Runeshaper

-Pyre Troll

-Pyre Troll

-Slag Troll

-Storm Troll

-Winter Troll

Janissa Stonetide

Krielstone Bearer

-Elder

Trollkin Runeshapers

Trollkin Runeshapers

Trollkin Warders (full)

Trollkin Warders (full)

Interesting how this wasn't my super comfortable list for the weekend. But EE blew up right after this when Jay won a tournament with his heavy slag variant. Obviously much different then my version. Which now is pretty defunct based on the new errata. Not to argue either way on errata but the warders  were in the list for the heavy hitting.

I don't have a great memory of the Friday games unfortunately. I'll just go over the highlights I can remember. I went 4 and 1 for the day.

• Borka's feat suprises people that Trolls have a speed boost feat. Caught a few players by suprise with threat 11 warders and threat 10' 1/2" champions.
• Most people don't even try to go after Borka via assassination, allowing me to play very aggressive with him.
• I need to learn when there are good mosh pit opportunities. I usually use the fury to fill the stone and cast the rage animus.
• I need to be a lot more aggressive with Borka vs. Haley2. Throw Borka at her with Ironflesh and surrounded by infantry, not try and out scenario her. Big fail moment when I lost against Jay from Chain Attack.
• Calandra's list performed very well in the one match up I dropped it against. I wasn't positive what the list was a counter vs. just that I liked how it felt, very versatile. This is a constant theme into Saturday.

Saturday I was very happy with how my lists performed and had some great matches! I went 5-1 for the day.

• Game 1: Was against a Convergence player who decided to drop Syntherion vs. me. I dropped my Borka list. Caught him by surprise with my feat and smashed into most of his army having taken little damage. Champions destroyed his colossal with a few rages thrown on them. Game ended relatively quickly.
• Game 2: Bradigus tier list. I have never played vs. Bradigus and was caught off guard by a few tricks. Very interesting list. I dropped Borka again. In the future I should've dropped Calandra, I think it would've been a much better match up for me. I ended up getting out attritioned and lost. If I was forced into another Borka match up I would definitely make sure he can't feat and get to my Mauler, as the rage animus was key in the match up.
• Game 3: I don't remember this game. Though I remember it was one of my Calandra matches.
• Game 4: I went up vs. Rasheth tier list: Chain Gang. This was a real blood bath. I got alpha very hard by my opponent who executed it really well. Borka earned the MVP by taking 3 of the titans and 2 gators himself. Lessons learned:Stagger my infantry more so I can't lose too much to Bronzeback's beat back animus. The game ended in epic fashion as Rasheth fired off a nuke on my Keg Carrier who toughed allowing him to contest my opponent who ended with 4 control points instead of 5. The next turn Borka killed Rasheth with only the Keg Carrier and a Agonizer as the only other models on the table.
• Game 5: I went up against Mike Puryear. I dropped Calandra and had a real slug fest vs his Harbinger  list. Most of the game was a slow slug fest of Mike trying to chew threw my Warders and beasts with Errants and Bastions. Runeshapers and Pyre trolls were the main MVPs. A special note was a fully loaded Reckoner charging a Lighting Troll and getting disrupted.
• Game 6: I played vs. an Irusk. Borka absored - This looks like there I had stopped writing. I know I won this game due to his struggling vs. Troll armor.

While this title feels misleading it is true. I did paint and play a lot more trolls in the 2015 year. Very enjoyable time with the faction as opposed to last year. 2016 is going to be the year of Retribution for me. I usually pick a faction to focus on every year to prevent me from getting too distracted and actually get some painting done.

Time to remember why I keep quitting Trollbloods...

With my goal for Convergence complete I needed to paint something different. I've always loved painting trolls and wanted to pull them out for a few games. Hopefully this time around I'll get over Tough being a bad mechanic (future article) and just enjoy the hilarity that can ensue.

Here is what I've painted for the Calandra Elemental list.

I already had Calandra, Mountain King, Kriel Stone, a lightning troll, Janissa and some whelps painted up. The competive version is supposedly more Warders and no mountain king but this is what I currently own so I'll start there.

Calandra +5 (Tier Bonus is all beasts are 1 less point)

Mountain King 19

Pyre Troll 4

Pyre Troll 4

Slag Troll 5

Lightning Troll 4

Lightning Troll 4

Warders (5) 8

Kriel Stone (4) + Elder 4

Janissa 3

Hopefully I can get some games in and post a few battle reports. I imagine I'll grab some things to tweak the list after a few games. Let's see where this goes!

Mountain King Finished!

It's getting late so I'm just going to throw up the pictures. It's hard to take pictures of shinny obsidian.

Mountain King! (work in progress)

I am really loving this model. I find it monstrous and intimidating. I have played 3 games with him and have had good success. I am 2 - 1 with him where two of my matches are vs. Thyra one of his worst nightmares.  48 boxes is enough to survive most alpha strikes that would kill most other heavies. You still have to keep an eye out for Bronze backs, Mulgs, Blood of Martyrs or equivalent nasties.

The build time on him was roughly 8 hours if you count in all the puddy work. The paint time is roughly 6 hours for base coating the red, 3 hours for dry brushing the stone and a 4 more hours of random details and gloss coating the rocks. The gloss coat on the rocks looks bitching in person and is a bit weird in the picture.

I am hoping to finish him by Sunday so I can use him in the unbound game I plan on playing at the Grand Opening at Mercenary Market. (Quick address call out to Mercenary Market - 2263 Fairview Dr., Costa Mesa CA)

My complete collection of WARMACHINE/HORDES

I'm moving soon to a new place still in Orange County and decided to spend a day reorganizing all of my models. Thought it would be fun to get it all together and take a picture.

Close up of minions

Close up of Circle

Close up of Skorne and Retribution - Nicole's forces

Close up of Mercs

Close up of Cygnar - cut off some Rangers and Kraye

Close up of Trolbloods

This showed me two things.

1. I'm crazy.
2. I have lots of painting to do.

Super Painting Weekend!

This weekend started off very slowly. I played a quick 35 point game of Trollbloods (look at last post for list) vs. a new Khador player. Then my wife and I had a mellow dinner Friday night and went to sleep at a decent time.

Our normal gaming day of Saturday was slowed to a crawl with one of our regulars being sick, his brother who usually comes with him didn't come by himself, we lost another gamer who was committed to finishing his Legion battle engine this weekend 

and then Mass Effect 3 claimed another. My wife and I found ourselves with a very slow relaxing Saturday with nobody over. What to do?

Paint! Nicole my wife had finished converting up her Archidon last weekend and decided to start painting it. I couldn't pass up the opportunity to get some work done myself and grabbed my paint brush.

These pictures are of her beautifully painted and converted Archidon. She did an amazing job, you can't even tell that she's relatively new to the hobby with about 3 years of off and on painting. She used the new gallows grove branches to help convert her nest. I love how this came out.

With that model coming out so well she was inspired and quickly grabbed another model. She had her Razor worm since it first came out, and now finally threw some paint on it. Her paint scheme for the skorne has been blue's and purples with some great transition work. Since she had decide to commit to fully blue on the Archidon she decided to do the opposite on the Razor Worm.

I really enjoy how she uses Chinese lettering to mark the models facing.

 Next on the chopping block was the Ironback Spitter. We both love this model for it's goofy yet impressive battlefield presence.

I really enjoyed the natural color scheme she went with him. Works really well with the rest of the gators.

With him out of the way she decided to do some basing work on completed models. Gundrun is a model painted by a friend of ours as a gift. So we decided to base him real quick too.

The boneswarm proved to be the next target, and quickly grabbed a paint job. Simple bone job for the model before she moved onto the final model for her this weekend.

The final model Nicole finished this weekend was her Eyriss. This model had been started about half a year ago, but never found the inspiration to finish it. I requested her finish it though as I wanted to run the model for the new Krueger2 tier list from NQ.

 Before I talk about the models I painted this weekend I had finished up this troll during the week. Real quick job, but I like the scheme and matches the rest of the troll army.

The first model I decided to paint was a pair of gallows groves. I like how they play with Baldur2 and have been looking forward to them coming out. I painted up a 3rd, but during the pictures the last one was missing some dry brush work.

Then I grabbed my Gorax. Now I really don't like this model. I was going to buy the rescuplt but didn't like him either, though he was an improvement.

I decided to experiment on him with a painting transition. I did a simple grey base coat across the model then applied 3 different washes from the base being brown to black to blue. In the future I should really water down the washes. Then I applied another grey dry brush and picked out the details.

Didn't come out as well as I hoped, but the paint job was clean and out of the way.


Baldur2's list being almost completely painted now with the gallows done meant I needed to get to him done sooner rather then later.

I miss the epic bases they used to give models so I did a very simple conversion with his base to call out his rock manipulation abilities. The rock comes from the Earthborn model. I was happy with the quick conversion and still think he's a great model.

I had really hoped to get a solid list ready for strategicon but ended up with running Baldur1. I do feel confident in taking him to Kingdom con though.

At strategicon I played Morvhanna for 3 rounds of the tournament. I really enjoy her unique play style, and just need to avoid upkeep removal lists. Her list is getting close to painted and decided she has earned her paint job.

I wasn't sure how to paint her and decided to use her name as inspiration. I went with yellow and orange autumn colors to stay true to an Autumn theme. I really enjoyed how vibrant she came out.

I haven't painted this much so quickly in awhile. I really enjoy putting painted models on the table and can't wait to field my newly painted models.

Troll War Wagon Lists

I am really enjoying my distraction of trolls lately. It all started with my buddy buying me a Troll War Wagon as a gift. After I cranked out the model I went on a bit of a painting spree painting up a Bomber, Mauler, Impaler, Grim Angus and Trollkin Champion Hero. I've also been getting quite a few games in with Grim and Jarl. I'm really loving both with the battle wagon.  Here are the two lists I've been playing with. ( Grim is 35 pts, Jarl is 50pts)

Grim Angus (*6pts)
* Troll Impaler (5pts)
* Dire Troll Bomber (10pts)
War Wagon (9pts)
Kriel Warriors (Leader and 9 Grunts) (6pts)
* 3 Kriel Warrior Caber Thrower (3pts)
* Kriel Warrior Standard Bearer & Piper (2pts)
Krielstone Bearer and 3 Stone Scribes (3pts)
Fell Caller Hero (3pts)

The main goals of this list is to abuse knockdown as much as possible. Clear a lane and assassinate the Warcaster. Bonus side affects is 3 great aoes to clear low armor infantry. I went with Kriel warriors since they are a great cheap tar pit unit that supports the knock down theme. Use a caber tosser with fell caller to get mat 9 and knockdown high defense models. Then use the knocked down model as a great target for War Wagon. The pow 8 aoe can potentially kill the Kriel warrior, but with Krielstone getting them up to armor 17 its unlikely. The list proved simple but effective.

Jarl Skuld, Devil Of Thornwood (*6pts)
* Troll Impaler (5pts)
* Dire Troll Bomber (10pts)
War Wagon (9pts)
Kriel Warriors (Leader and 5 Grunts) (4pts)
* 3 Kriel Warrior Caber Thrower (3pts)
* Kriel Warrior Standard Bearer & Piper (2pts)
Krielstone Bearer and 5 Stone Scribes (4pts)
Trollkin Long Riders (Leader and 4 Grunts) (11pts)
Fell Caller Hero (3pts)
Horthol, Long Rider Hero (5pts)

This lists goals are very similar to my 35 point version. I went with Jarl instead because I felt less need for the Grim feat. The tuffalo are great to slam targets into a direction I need a 5 inch knockdown. Jarl offers more ranged punch for the assassination, plus tuffalo in clouds make them Def 14 for a round making them a vicious road block, after they slam some targets. It is really hard to protect casters from assassination with so much knock down. Once I finish polishing these lists I'll have a great supplement for my Madrak2 list.

Troll Mauler

When I first got into trolls I purchased an army from a buddy of mine. His army was cool looking, but didn't fit my theme. I've started to repaint some of his models and his preference to not fix every little bit of the model is obvious on certain spots. Overall though I think the paint scheme came out really cool. Let me know what you think!  Experimental paint schemes seem to be my thing lately, so much fun.

Troll Bomber

This is easily one of my favorite beasts in the troll faction. Thematically he is hilarious with the concept of a crazy torch wielding whelp is hanging for dear life just to light powder kegs so the bomber can hurl massive explosive devices. On the table top being able to throw two pow 16 shots is amazing, especially in a faction with so much knock down.

I experimented heavily with this guy, so please let me know what you think. I don't typically repaint anything but advice will influence future models.

Troll Battle Wagon

I received a great gift Wednesday from my good friend Steve. He purchased me the troll battle wagon. I've been on a circle kick for awhile and felt very successful in the painting depeartment with them. When I got the Battle Wagon I struggled with the concept of moving on to Trolls again.  But my hobby ADHD kickes in. I cracked this amazing model out in 4 days. I normally don't have that much drive but I knew I wanted to paint the crew separate from the wagon and I don't like playing with incomplete models and above all I really wanted to place 5 inch pie templates that knock everything down.

My first game with the battle wagon was vs. a good friend of mine Roman. Roman brought a very nasty Vyros list that included 2 mage hunter assassins. My first shot of the game being the first  time I've ever used the wagon I got a lucky scatter onto both of them and blew them to pieces. After that beautiful display I am now left wondering if I have a new favorite model in Warmahordes.

Troll Battle Wagon Photo's

I really enjoy the look of the battle wagon, the crew have great character and the impressive cannon on top is very cool too see on the table top.

As with most of my painting I tried something new on this model. I decided to try and rust out the metal. The results worked out really well and I was quite happy with the ease in which my idea which was a variation on the technique Steve uses worked well. 

1. I simply applied a coat of cold steel, washed it with devlun mudd. 
2. Then applied a stippling of mecharius orange then washed it was devlun mudd again.
3. Then I stippled vermin brown onto the mecharius orange following it up with an ogryn wash.

Get ready for some pain!