Hordes is my new hobby

I fell out of miniature gaming for a while but now I'm back with a vengeance. I've for the most part moved on from Games Workshop games, mostly due to their recent pricing decisions. I love their models and wish I had the income to afford all of the new Ogre goodies they just released but alas, I do not.

My Trollbloods however have been growing. Hordes seems to offer far more bang for my buck than Warhammer did. Every new thing I buy is unique and brings something different to the table. Every game I play is a unique experience. That and their pricing scheme and lower model count works a lot better for me.

I've bought a ton of stuff recently, to the point where it is almost easier to list the stuff I don't have than what I do. I've also started to devote some time to actually painting things. The last time I blogged I hadn't even primed a single Trollbloods model.

Recently I basecoated black my entire Trollbloods army. I did it using regular paint rather than spray paint as my main obstacle to painting was that I couldn't spraypaint in my new apartment. With that hurdle out of the way, I went to one of the local stores and picked up the Trollbloods Paint Kit as well as the Privateer Press Wet Paint Palette Kit. I now have quite a few models with their skin painted Trollblood Base and I just for the first time began experimenting with highlighting (beyond just drybrushing) and mixing of colors. It's pretty exciting and I hope to have a fully painted Trollblood some time in the near future.

With that said, I present to you my current work in progress, my Dire Troll Mauler:

From Instant Upload

Trollbloods vs. Khador 1/15/2011

I played my first game of 2011!

I took my Trollbloods against Rob's Khador this past Saturday and emerged victorious. With this win, I am officially undefeated in the new year.

This was also my first scenario game and was the "Convergence" scenario played at 35 points. Rob took a Kharchev list that he will have to detail and I took a pMadrak list.

My list:
pMadrak
Dire Troll Bomber
Axer
Impaler
Impaler
Krielstone Bearer + 3 Scribes
Stone Scribe Chronicler
5 Champions

I got the first turn so I deployed my Madrak brick with the Bomber off to one side and the two Impalers off to the other. On my first turn I advanced as quickly as possible and stopped just short of the center circle zone. I also cast Sure Foot on the axer who was chilling in the middle of my brick. On Rob's turn, he did the same but moved some Bombardiers into the circle to prevent me from getting a free point. The Bombardiers shot at my champions to no avail (dealing only 3 damage to one of them).

On my second turn, I moved the Champions, Madrak, the Axer, and some of the Scribes into the circle. I didn't have the threat range to charge unfortunately. I moved up one of the Impalers and shot at one of the Bombardiers doing only 6 damage (I think), not enough to kill him. I moved up the Bomber and gave him Far Strike hoping he would be able to lob two bombs into the Bombardiers and kill all three for me. Alas, it was not to be. I rolled a 5 on my first to hit roll (boosted even!) and then rolled another 5 on a non-boosted to hit roll. Really horrible luck.

On Rob's second turn, Karchev towed his jacks in so that they could charge into my Champions and attempt to tear my brick apart. The combination of Sure Foot, Defensive Line, and Protective Aura served me well though and the jacks failed to accomplish anything significant. They manage to kill one of my Champions (after he passed 3 lucky tough rolls in a row) but that was it. Rob then proceeded to try and charge another unit into my bomber but they fell short. Finally he had a unit of Turions (I think?) that had 3 spells. He had all of them cast a spray spell at me which actually ended up doing more damage to his own guys than they did to mine. He had a series of rather painful misses that accomplished nothing for him.

On my turn, Madrak cast Carnage and feated. The result was one of my champions that was unengaged charging into his tightly clumped infantry and singlehandedly mowing through almost all of them. My Axer moved into combat with the three warjacks and began Threshering. Now that they were all in melee range of my warbeast, I had the Chronicler trigger Charge of the Trolls on my Champions (they actually attacked at this point). And my champions began to tear apart the warjacks. I crippled the arm on one, did some damage to another, and destroyed the third with a final charge from one of my impalers.

On his turn, Rob went for the caster kill. He towed his one jack that was still in good shape out of combat and into position for it to charge Madrak. It did but failed to kill him due to Madrak's Scroll of Grindar's Perseverance which kept him alive.

When Rob's turn came around again, he conceded. I had almost all of my models left (one champion had died) and was getting ready to finish mopping up his warjacks (and Karchev) and was going to have no trouble keeping Madrak away from him for the rest of the game.

It was probably one of the more fun games I've had in Warmahordes since I started playing. I enjoy playing against the straightforward beat their face in style of Khador much more than I do playing against Steve's sneaky Cryx.

Krielstone Bearers Assembly

I haven't completely assembled these because it occurred to me that attaching the stone to the Krielstone Bearer would make it difficult to paint the stone. I am considering trying to do glowing glyphs for the stone and if I'm going to do that, I'll need to paint the stone before attachment. So for now, I'm going to have to field the unit not completed.

From Krielstone Bearers

From Krielstone Bearers

From Krielstone Bearers

I ran into some minor difficulties shortly after these pictures were taken. I tried to use my clippers to tweak the models so they would fit the slots in their bases more firmly. Unfortunately, the bearer himself has a very weak joint connection in his left foot and I snapped it off at the ankle trying to twist the slotting piece. I had to file it back down and re-glue it. Unfortunately its such a small joint that there isn't much surface area for holding it together and there isn't enough space to try to pin it. I'm not sure how I'm going to keep the model from falling apart in the future.

Pyg Burrowers Assembly

These guys didn't require much assembly. All but the leader were one piece models. I attached the arm to the leader and then twisted their slots slightly so that they'd stick in the bases without glue. I'm not sure how I'm going to base everything in the long run so I don't want to glue them in permanently.

From Pyg Burrowers

From Pyg Burrowers

From Pyg Burrowers

I absolutely love the character of these models and from what I've read online, they can also be quite devastating on the battlefield when comboed properly. Very eager to take them for a test run.

Borka Kegslayer Assembly

Got my second warlock assembled! I'm looking forward to trying him out and seeing how he does. I've been really excited about this guy and can't wait to see him in action.

From Borka Kegslayer

I ended up pinning his hands on because it wasn't the strongest connection. The rest of the model fit together really well and I was quite impressed. After this picture was taken I used some green stuff to fill in the base and stick the peg on his left foot through it. It should hopefully create a much sturdier grip.

Stone Scribe Chronicler Assembly

During my first day of recovery, I've been slowly but surely assembling my recent Trollbloods order. Progress has been slow due to my regular need for breaks to rinse etc. but I have been making progress. Thus far I have most of the new models in various states of assembly. I've washed all the pieces and trimmed off excess mold lines. I even busted out some green stuff to fill in some gaps which you'll see when those pieces are completed.

For now, here's the finished Stone Scribe Chronicler.

From Stone Scribe Chronicler 1

I was actually really disappointed when I realized this wasn't the model I thought it was. I had meant to order myself a Stone Scribe Elder and ordered this guy instead. Whoops. I guess I know what's going in my next order!

Trollbloods vs. Cygnar 8/28/10

I also had a chance to play my first game against a Warmachine faction this last Saturday. I took my Trollbloods warpack against Nathan's Cygnar battle group.

This was a pretty straightforward game with unfortunately few pictures. The map we set on had a river with a bridge for crossing. I used my axer's animus on the impalers to send them through the river to either side of the bridge and moved the axer across the bridge with Madrak behind. Unfortunately, Nathan had some really good dice going for him and in two rounds of shooting, he managed to knock out one of my flanking Impalers before he could really do anything and charge the other impaler with his heavy jack.

On my turn, my last Impaler did manage to put a severe beating on the heavy jack and cripple his Quake Hammer (I think that's what it was called). And my axer charged a wall that his shooting jack was behind but promptly whiffed on his attack rolls.

In his next two turns, Nathan finished off the impaler and moved his heavy jack into combat with Madrak. He also managed put a severe beating on the axer. I made one last valiant effort to get Madrak into combat with Nathan's caster but whiffed all of my attacks and then conceded the game. Nathan was well on his way to slaughtering me to a man.

Trollbloods vs. Legion 8/28/10

I played my first game against Rob and his Legion warpack. He took the warpack and I took a modified list consisting of pMadrak, 3 Trollkin Champions, and two Impalers.

We set up the board.

From Hordes 2010-08-28

And then deployed.

From Hordes 2010-08-28

I had the first turn and had no choice but to advance.

From Hordes 2010-08-28

Rob moved his stuff up and into the forest. I quickly realized that Eyeless Sight and that forest in his deployment zone were going to be major pains. On my turn I rearranged my guys and advanced a little more. One of my Impalers critical smited one of his many Shredders knocking it back out of the forest by 5 inches.

On his second turn, Rob began his assault shooting with both Lylyth and the Carnivean to kill one of my Champions. Then it was my turn to try and get even.

From Hordes 2010-08-28

I moved my Impalers to the flanks and took shots at another Shredder and the Carnivean. I managed to critical smite the Carnivean and knocked him down. On his turn, Rob sent one of the Shredders in to tie up two of my Champions and used Lylyth's shooting to knock out another Champion.

From Hordes 2010-08-28

He then had his Carnivean charge one of my impalers where it promptly demolished it.

From Hordes 2010-08-28

On my turn I had Madrak take potshots at the Carnivean, the two champions kill the Shredder, and the remaining Impaler advance and also take a shot at the Carnivean. I missed with the Impaler and hit with Madrak but didn't do a whole lot of damage. I had my last Trollkin Champion charge the Carnivean and do quite a bit of damage to him but it was unfortunately not enough to have any lasting impact.

On his turn, Rob had Lylyth shoot at and kill the champion in combat with the Carnivean and then moved the Carnivean into combat with Madrak. At this point it was all over.

From Hordes 2010-08-28

It's a real shame the Trollbloods Warpack and the Legion Warpack are so different points-wise as I would have really liked to have been able to take my axer against Rob but the points just didn't work with the models I have.

Hordes Battle Report 8/26/10

Asmo and I played our third game of Hordes during lunch and I finally beat him. Pretty soundly too I might add. Suck it Asmo! =P

He'll probably slaughter me several times this week to make up for that last comment.

He's been writing a series of articles analyzing the troops he's been taking from the perspective of a long time Warmachine player. It's good stuff, I highly recommend checking it out. You can also check out his version of our game on 8/24/10.

So anyways, we played 15 points again. He took the same list as last time but swapped Morghoul out for Makeda. So he ended up with 2 Cyclops Savages, a Titan Gladiator, Makeda, and 4 Paingivers. I took pMadrak, 5 Trollkin Champions, an axer, and an impaler.

I've started to get a hang of how to play pMadrak a little more. We tossed down random stuff on the table again and after my previous games, I've realized that I need to wait for him to come to me. There's no real need for me to rush him. So I turtled up behind an impassable obstruction. I sent an impaler around the far side to take shots at the approaching Skorne foe. I stuck my Champions on the other side with the axer nearby for support and I hid pMadrak in between it all.

In the middle of the Skorne approach path was some rough terrain. Asmo sent each cyclops around a different side of it and Makeda and the Titan straight through. He tried to approach slowly to draw me out but I refused to bite. My impaler started taking potshots at one of his cyclops' and he finally caved and launched his attack. His titan charged into my champions and easily killed one but then got bogged down by the sheer amount of defensive power. His cyclops charged the impaler but failed to kill it.

On my turn, my champions and axer did some major damage to his titan. Those guys are nasty! and Madrak and the impaler took out the cyclops. He sent in his other cyclops to back up the titan but it was too late. Madrak and the impaler started taking shots at Makeda who tried to help the dying cyclops in combat. With most of his beasts dead, I moved in for the kill and finished him off.

I'm really eager to get my Krielstone Bearers assembled and try them out with Madrak. Even more defensive power will make his turtle shell even more difficult to break through.

More Minis

I have wisdom teeth surgery coming up next weekend so I placed another order for stuff to work on building over the weekend. I'm going to be on painkillers so I decided that spending my time painting was not going to be the best decision I could make.

From Trollblood Orders 2

From Trollblood Orders 2

From Trollblood Orders 2

From Trollblood Orders 2

From Trollblood Orders 2

From Trollblood Orders 2

From Trollblood Orders 2

From Trollblood Orders 2

From Trollblood Orders 2

From Trollblood Orders 2

From Trollblood Orders 2

From Trollblood Orders 2

I hope to have them all assembled and ready to join my games within a week!

Hordes Battle Report 8/24/10

So, real life has been hitting me hard this week and my blogging has lagged behind. Been extremely busy at work and home and also had to deal with a cold that took me out of commission several nights this week.

I'm feeling better now and have a lot of exciting hobby stuff coming up. I'll be getting a game of 8th edition in against The Vermin Lord this weekend as well as some games of WarmaHordes with Rob and Nathan and BK. I also should get some time to do some painting.

Anyways, Asmo and I have continued to play games of Hordes during our lunch breaks. I've been running with pMadrak and my warpack as the base and Morghoul's warpack as his. For our second game, we decided to up the points a little and I dropped an Impaler in favor of my Dire Troll Bomber. This brought me up to 15 points. Asmo added a unit of Paingivers to his warpack to bring it up to 14 points.

I played terribly. I had a shooting list with a caster not really designed for it against his close combat list. On my first turn, I moved my guys up to take shots but my impaler was short and I forgot to fire twice with my bomber. Instead of using cover to force him to come to me and take a beating from my guys, I left all of my guys exposed and watched as his Titan slammed my bomber, followed up, and killed him in a single round.

Luckily, he moved his cyclops and his titan out of Morghoul's control area which bought me a turn. He also forgot to pop his feat when he needed to. I did end up in combat with Morghoul but his high defense and my poor rolling resulted in very little damage taken. I conceded after it became clear that his titan was going to charge in and demolish madrak on the next turn.

You can check out Asmo's take on our previous game here.

Dire Troll Bomber Assembly

This model is really really cool. It might be my favorite model in the entire Trollbloods line. Giant nasty troll running around with explosive powderkegs? Yes please. I don't know how effective he'll be in game but I absolutely had to pick one up. The detail on this model, like the other Trollbloods I have put together is absolutely topnotch. To top it off, it is the most easily assembled metal model of its size I have ever put together. The edges are clearly defined and all of the pieces just fit without any extra filing and work. It was a little more difficult to pin than the other models due to the way the joints go together and I was only able to pin the head, and all of the arm pieces together. However, I think pinning on this model may have been overkill because of the way everything fits together so nicely. On a model this big, I would have thought it a necessity and I really don't think it is.

Here's the finished work. I might green stuff a little bit later but I'm not actually sure it's even needed.

From Dire Troll Bomber 1

1st Foray Into Hordes Mk II

I played my first game of Hordes during my lunch break on Tuesday. It was a lot of fun but its definitely clear I need to secure a better understanding of the rules. Unfortunately no pictures as it slows things down too much and my lunch break has a time limit.

I took my Trollbloods warpack against Steve's Skorne warpack. It was a pretty close game but Steve's familiarity with Warmachine and what is in my opinion, a better set of models for pitting against another warpack, Steve managed to win.

We set up some terrain (carrots from my lunch as a forest, salt & pepper shakers, etc.) and started our first game. He advanced his Titan and Morghoul through the carrot forest and sent his two cyclops guys around. On my turn I moved my impalers up into range with their animus and shot both of them at the titan doing quite a bit of damage. I had the axer move to intercept the two cyclops. Madrak cast Stranglehold on the Titan as well to hold him in place on the next turn.

On the second turn, one cyclops charged madrak, the other charged the axer. The axer took quite a bit of damage (after Madrak transfered the damage he took) and had his body crippled. On my turn, Madrak and the axer managed to kill off one of the cyclops. My rolls were terrible though and he should have died much sooner. I did force my axer to regenerate and heal his body so it was no longer crippled.

On the third turn, the Titan slammed one of my impalers and knocked him really far back. He then spent fury on additional attacks into Madrak. Morghoul popped his feat to keep me from forcing my warbeasts and transferring damage. On my turn Madrak leached all of the fury he could and almost finished off the titan (4 health left, damn my rolling sucks). The axer couldn't be forced so he only managed a little damage against the other cyclops.

On Skorne fourth turn, Morghoul charged Madrak and using his fury on additional attacks knocked him down to about 3 health left. The cyclops went next doing just enough damage to Madrak to finish him off and I failed my Tough roll. End of the game.

Things I learned:
My turns were too long. I need to go into these games having a much better grasp of what I can do.
I need to remember that Madrak also has a ranged weapon. It's really good and I had completely forgotten about it.
I hadn't realized that Madrak had a really fantastic upkeep spell and I should have cast it on the first turn.
Madrak's feat is not very good for facing other warpack armies. It relies on being able to kill guys in one attack and keep moving through them to mow down large groups. That doesn't work really well against only warbeasts.
Definitely a fun game. I'm looking forward to playing more.

Trollkin Champions Assembly

I managed to get my Trollkin Champions assembled as well. These guys were a lot faster since they didn't require pinning but I am stumped about one thing. The models come with these 5 little barrel pieces and I cannot for the life of me figure out where they are supposed to attach to the models. If anyone knows, please fill me in as I have been unable to find any pictures online that show the location.

Here are the barrels I'm talking about:

From Trollkin Champions 1

Now for the models themselves, these guys are really cool looking. Lots of detail. So far I've been EXTREMELY impressed with the quality and level of detail on Privateer Press models. The only thing I'd ask for is a little more variety would be nice. There seems to be only two grunt bodies and one leader body and it would be nice if there was a way to make all five guys in the unit look unique.

Leader:

From Trollkin Champions 1

Grunt 1:

From Trollkin Champions 1

Grunt 2:

From Trollkin Champions 1

Grunt 3:

From Trollkin Champions 1

Grunt 4:

From Trollkin Champions 1

Warpack Assembly

I spent some time meticulously cleaning and assembling the Warpack box that came with my order. In the past, I've never been particularly careful at the assembly step so I wanted to make sure I did an extra good job with the start of something new. I took the advice of my friend Asmo and cleaned/filed all the mold lines. I then soaked the models in a bowl of warm water and dishwashing liquid before scrubbing them down with a cheap toothbrush. I've never done any pinning before but I wanted to go the extra mile with these so I asked Nathan who I know had pinned his Cygnar army together for some advice on what to pick up. I ended up pinning everything but the heads and Madrak using the Gale Force Nine pinning kit.

Here are the results!

Madrak:

From Trollbloods Warpack

Axer:

From Trollbloods Warpack

Impaler 1:

From Trollbloods Warpack

Impaler 2:

From Trollbloods Warpack

Group Photo:

From Trollbloods Warpack

I think they turned out really well. The joints are all pretty solid and I'm very pleased with how easy it ended up being. Once I got the hang of it, it didn't take much time at all. I want to green stuff the gaps and crevices with green stuff still which is another new thing for me so hopefully that will go as smoothly.

It Begins.....

From Trollbloods Order

From Trollbloods Order

From Trollbloods Order

From Trollbloods Order

From Trollbloods Order

From Trollbloods Order

From Trollbloods Order

From Trollbloods Order

From Trollbloods Order

From Trollbloods Order

From Trollbloods Order

From Trollbloods Order

From Trollbloods Order

From Trollbloods Order

From Trollbloods Order

From Trollbloods Order

Let the building commence!