Axer skin and face done!

In a fit of painting I finished off the Axer's skin. Now to start work on his armor plates and Axe. I am going to try to go for a full NMM look this time, instead of the weird hybrid look with the Impaler.

Finished Impaler...Starting Axer!

I finished the Impaler today, finally! He was actually a lot of fun to paint, but as usual, it took me a lot longer than I thought to finish mostly due to real life, and a lot of experimentation (with NMM this time).

Better Pics of the Finished Mauler

I never really liked the first pictures I put up of the finished Mauler, so here are some more, in better light, and a better backdrop.

Chief Madrak and his Champions take the field

Played my first game with Madrak and his Champions tonight against the same Amon list from last week. It was definitely very different from my normal Doomshaper beast-heavy army. I liked having a lot more models on the field and it was definitely easier to manage positioning on the board with so many extra models.

The Champions showed me how tough they could be, With Surefoot and Brothers-in-Arms, they were sitting comfortably at a nigh untouchable DEF 16, and with the KSB, ARM 19. Only one champion was felled all game. They were even able to bring down a Castigator heavy warjack, though it did take a few turns of melee. They also finished off a paladin and Amon on the last turn.

Madrak didn't do too much this game besides casting Surefoot. I might need to be a lot more aggressive with him next time - I'm just used to shielding my warlock from harm while playing Doomshaper, who is much more frail.

Some notable events: pretty much the worst rolling I've seen in a long time on Broken Zealot's side. I think his horrible rolls pretty much lost him the game. He couldn't do any damage, couldn't hit, and just didn't get along well with his dice. He might need to set a few ablaze as a warning to the other dice to get their act together.

One other interesting note: the Mauler charged in for the caster kill on the third to last turn, but just couldn't hit with the last two attacks to finish the job. The next turn he was utterly mangled by Amon. I still need to keep in mind that Warcasters are tougher than I think, and I really need to devote more resources to the caster kill before trying to pull it off.

I can't really say I had a worst performer this game, as every model (including the Fell Caller!) did his part. The best performer would probably be the Champions. They were able to dictate the pace of the battle, and presented a wall of troll that could not be broken through.

Hopefully, next time Broken Zealot's dice will be more accomodating, so we can have a closer game. While it wasn't as exciting as last week, I did enjoy having the unkillable champions. :) I'm definitely looking forward to using them more in the future, and the models are starting to grow on me more now. I've got one guy set up kind of like the jumping guy in 300 (the one who flew through the air to chop off the emissary's arm). I think it'll be pretty fun to have him painted.

New Hordes Evolution Models

Someone on the Privateer Forums was able to snag a bunch of photos of the new Circle, Skorne, and Everblight models coming up for Evolution. I am really liking the ninja theme and I hope they stick with it. The Tharn Bloodtrackers on wolves I pretty much expected, and they look pretty nice too.

Sadly, no troll pics. BAH!

Didn't make it to the Hordes Tournament today...

Just too much work to do for next week. I really wanted to see what it was like...but c'est la vie.

Insert frowny troll face here.

Amazing battle against Amon ad-Raza

Wow. I had a great game tonight. Probably one of the most interesting thus far for me, as Broken Zealot (EDIT: his excellent summary located here) took a pretty neat warcaster, Amon ad-Raza. There were models getting knocked around left and right on both sides, with huge rolls and horrible misses by both of us too. Made for a really exciting and bloody game. On the last turn I only had Doomshaper, a Blitzer and a Fell Caller. He only had a Devout, the choir and Amon.

The Fell Caller actually did some useful things this game! He killed a paladin, some choir, and most importantly he made my warbeasts stand up after getting knocked around by the sandblasts coming out of the arc node. I think the difference this game was I really made an effort to hold him back as long as possible, and only use him to mop up injured units.

Doomshaper once again gets the MVP for throwing around tons of Accursed spells on things, doing quite a bit of damage and shutting down warjack actions on several turns. Other than Doomshaper though, most of my units were fairly useful tonight. The Impaler sacrificed himself for the greater good, with a courageous (and incredibly damaging) charge into a Castigator, the Mauler helped a lot with casting his animus on folks, and I actually used the Blitzer's animus to get him out of melee! I needed to regroup one turn, and the animus actually helped him avoid some free strikes so he could move away unmolested.

The only guys who didn't do much were the KSB and crew. They died pretty quickly to a few sandstorm blasts early on.

At first we tried to play some steamroller 3 scenarios, but gave them up quickly at the end of the first turn since it was clear that it was impossible for me to win since I was too slow. The scenario objective was to hold two points on the field at the end of your turn to win. Even though I ran full speed toward one point, I couldn't get there before Broken Zealot would get his second turn and hold both points. We ended up switching the scenario to Pendulum, and the game came down to the normal caster kill. I probably need to rethink my list in terms of tournament scenario viability, but for this Saturday's tournament I'm stuck with what I've got.

I'm really kind of disappointed with the quality of the Privateer Press scenarios, as they don't seem very well thought through, and definitely favor extremely fast armies. Broken Zealot pointed out that it would have been much better if you had to hold those points for an entire round, not just have an instant win situation, and I'd definitely have to agree. All the GW scenarios I've played have similar requirements.

Overall though, a very enjoyable game, though it ran a bit long. We didn't finish until 9pm, which is pretty late for us. Hopefully he didn't get in trouble with his wife!

Pics of Impaler progress so far...about 90% done now!

Here are the pics of the Impaler to date. I've just got a few last things to paint tonight and then he'll be finished!

I really like how the Beige leather came out, and it adds a nice mellow tone to the guy. I think I'm going to be using this color for other parts of my warband too. I think it goes very well with the red-brown leather.

To paint this beige color I started with a base coat of Bleached Bone (took about 3-5 coats to cover up the black primer...grr). Then I washed with a *very* watered down wash of Snakebite leather to give it that yellowish-beige 'old' feel. Then I just highlighted with Bleached Bone again and then finally with Skull White on the very edges.

I did his eyes in yellow, like the Mauler.



I also started the leather (cloth?) wrappings on his spears. I've been using Bubonic Brown with a light Brown Ink Wash to get the recesses and then highlighting again with Bubonic Brown. Honestly though I'm not sure if I like how it so far. On the one hand, it matches his leather foot wraps, but on the other hand, it's coming out looking somewhat dirty. I'm not sure if this is because of the old paint, or just my technique.

Looking at these pictures I can also see that I need to do a better job with the studs on his leather pants (the beige part). They don't seem to be showing up very well..I may need to use a darker metallic color to get them to stand out from the beige.

So now all that remains is to finish up the leather wrappings on his spears, the spear wood, the gem on his belt, and touch up his facial skin. I think I'd like to make the highlights a little more prominent in some places as it does look somewhat flat at the moment. Oh, and his wrist wraps, I'm still undecided what color I'm going to make those...maybe beige also?

Finished leather armor on Impaler

Did a little bit of work on the Impaler tonight between studying. I used a light beige color for the leather armor on the top and bottom of his quiver and also his kilt. I like the beige look as it's pretty unique and will look different from all the browns that other people do. I'd like to tweak it a little more though before posting as I think it really needs some more shadows to make it "jump" out more.

Pictures maybe tomorrow.

Ignominious Defeat Against the Menite Hordes!

Just a quick batrep update, I played another game against Broken Zealot's Feora list. We had originally planed to play a 4-way troll bash, but two of the people couldn't play/make it. As usual, I had my standard army. It was a really fun game, quick and brutal. I think it only lasted 3 turns total and as par for the course I had a lot of trouble with the zealots again. Their monolith bearer and the fire bombs really mess me up badly. I really need a trade/tie up unit to deal with them, which I just don't have when going beast heavy.

Overall I think I did do a little better than the last game though. I went straight for the caster assasination this time instead of trying to kill all his troops. On the last turn I went for the assasination with Doomshaper and just missed the kill by 2 hitpoints. In doing so, I had no fury left on me for transfers and so she blasted me in return, killing Doomshaper. As usual though, I forgot to roll my tough roll. Doh. I think I need to write it on my sheet next to his life bar. That way when I go to cross of his last box, I'll remember to roll. Ah well, guess I'm learning the hard way. :)

Terrain wasn't really an issue at all this game, and I almost feel like maybe there should be more terrain on the board to make things more interesting. I almost feel like we're just playing on a wide open field some games. Maybe we just need more toward the middle of the board and less on the outskirts where it doesn't really matter anyway.

The Fel Caller did nothing again as usual. I'm really not liking this guy much, at least against Menoth. The Blitzer was actually really nice today, using his Blitzer gun to take out the Choir leader and the Piper, as well as throw and slam some jacks around. The KSB was totally awesome, and his aura absorbed tons of damage throughout the fight. In the end though, I feel that I just don't have enough models on the board to deal with the hordes of Menites running across the field at me. Broken Zealot did a great job surrounding and outflanking my smaller army. Champions are definitely in order for the next game.

Broken Zealot should have some pictures up of the battle on his blog at some point I think, and you can find it here.

Second attempt at NMM

Here's my second try at the NMM on the Impaler spears. I think it's coming out a lot better. I only did one side of the spears though and I still need to do the other side (the opposite side of what's pictured). I basically wet blended from Shadow Grey mixed with Black up to Skull White on the edges. I think it captures the reflective quality of metal better than they used to, and I tried to imitate the photo that I posted a few days back.

I also did a lot of the leather armor he's wearing. I really like the reddish brown leather colors as it contrasts fairly well with the troll skin. I used a Scorched Brown base coat, and then covered most of that with Terracotta (I'm not sure if GW makes this color anymore...it was part of my 20 year old Space Marine paint set).

Next came a wash of 50:50 Brown Ink and Water. I then highlighted the edges with a mix of Golden Yellow and Terracotta, I think around three parts Terracotta and one part Golden Yellow. Doing this adds a nice "worn edges" look to the leather.

I also did the armor plates he's wearing on his forearms. I did these in metallic paints before I had decided to give NMM another try. Even so, I think they came out looking pretty nice, but it doesn't quite fit stylistically with the NMM spear tips. I'm undecided if I should redo all these armor plates or just leave them.

I do like the rusty, dirty look so I may just leave it as is. At least for now...maybe after I finish all the other models I'll come back to it and decide then whether to redo them in NMM.

All that's left to do now is to finish off the last parts of his leather armor (top and bottom of his quiver, and his loincloth). Oh, and his little wine barrel. While it's taken me a long time to finish up this guy, I think he'll look pretty sharp when he's finally in full color. I only wish I had more free time to paint, but sadly real life has gotten really hectic with multiple exams, projects, and taxes needing to be done. I hope I'll have him finished by next Wednesday though!

Some work done on the Impaler

I did a little bit of work on the Impaler today. I did the metal armor plates and some more of the leather armor he's wearing. I didn't get to work on him long though...just only about an hour or maybe an hour and a half. For his armor plates I just went back to metallic paints...I'm going to give up on NMM for now I think...it's just out of my ability range at the moment. I may try coming back to it later at some point in the future though...maybe redoing some of these early guys when I have more skill.

EDIT: Ok, after browsing on the PP forums and seeing this picture, I'm inspired to try NMM again with the Impaler. I think I can do the paint techniques, it's just that I have a really hard time with knowing what needs to be bright and what is dark.

And I think I may have found something that will really help me get the right effect, namely this picture, which shows what a vertical "spear tip" should look like. I'm going to try copying this lighting and see if it helps.

Once more into the breach

I had another game this afternoon against Broken Zealot at GameKastle with my 500pt. Trollbloods force. This time I was going up against his Tournament 500pt list so I knew I was in for a tough fight! Once again it was another nail biter and came down to the last few models battling to the bitter end. We played a straight up battle, no special scenario yet. I'm definitely looking forward to trying some different scenarios out though.

The Lists

Menoth
Feora
Revenger
Repenter
Devout
Zealots x10 w/ Monolith Bearer
Choir x8
Vilmon
Gorman
Piper of Ord
Wrack x2

The Trolls
Doomshaper
Dire Troll Blitzer
Dire Troll Mauler
Troll Axer
Troll Impaler
Kriel Stone Bearer (min.)
Fel Caller

Deployment
Once again, the Trolls are outnumbered about 2:1. Just the way we like it! Most of the terrain didn't come into effect 90% of the game except for a centrally located forest about 8 inches long and 6 inches wide. Most of the fighting in the game took place in or around this terrain piece. I deployed with the Blitzer and Impaler in front, Axer on the right, Mauler on the left and KSB, Doomshaper and the Fel Caller behind. Menoth deployed mostly in a line across from me, with Jacks on my left side, Zealots on the right. Feora deployed in the middle next to Gorman, and both the Piper and Vilmon deployed near the Zealots.

Turn 1 Trolls
I ended up winning the roll to go first and so my general strategy was to use the forest to hopefully funnel some of his troops down there to be more easily dealt with. I ran most everything forward to a low wall in formation and ended my turn.

Turn 1 Menoth
The Piper increases the movement speed of the Zealots, and they all run forward with Vilmon nearby. They are just in the woods. Vilmon is out in the open a bit. The Jacks on the left also run forward and Feora and Gorman both move up behind a low wall. The Choir chants the no shooting prayer. Grr. Fortunately for me, the Choir is lined up itself for a nice Impaler bolt next turn.


Turn 2 Trolls
The Impaler walks up, casts far strike on itself and boosts the attack to hit the front Choir member. The spear throw scores a critical slam, knocking the front member back into the warpriest, killing them both!

The Mauler moves up somewhat behind the Impaler ready to countercharge should the Repenter or Revenger charge the Impaler. Doomshaper casts Rush on the Blitzer and it charges into combat through the woods into the Zealots. He picks up and eats two of them, then shoots another 3 with his chain gun.

I move the Axer up toward Vilmon. I was thinking that I would use him to take the initial charge and to protect Doomshaper from getting charged. I wanted to cast Acursed on him with Doomshaper, but he was just short. The Fel Caller moves over to get a good charge lane on Vilmon. KSB moves up and sets up the Protective Aura.

Menoth Turn 2
The Repenter moves up and fires it's flamethrower at the Impaler and Doomshaper, not doing any damage to the Impaler and missing Doomshaper, but setting the Impaler on fire. Unfortunately for my opponent, because of the way the Repenter moved, the Revenger can't charge the Impaler now, so just moves for a charge next turn.

The Zealots, who are not in combat anymore with the Blitzer move through the forest, with a song from the Piper giving them pathfinder, and throw bombs at the KSB. They manage to kill two scribes and almost kill the KSB but I make my tough roll. The monolith bearer also now makes them invulnerable next turn. Vilmon then charges the Axer, swings twice, and takes it down to about half.

Gormon moves up and throws an Oil bomb at the Blitzer making it blind and basically unable to hit anything. The Devout and Feora then walk over the low wall and attack the Blitzer, who is also taken down to about half.

Trolls Turn 3
The Blitzer tries to hit the Devout but just misses all his attacks. Darn black oil! The Axer hacks down Vilmon into little bloody chunks. Doomshaper casts fortune on the Mauler, then he casts Rush on the Fel Caller. The Fel Caller then charges into two of the Zealots to tie them up so they can't throw more bombs at my guys next turn. The KSB and remaining scribe also charge two Zealots to keep them from bombing Doomshaper next turn.

The Impaler charges the Revenger and does a bit of damage to it, but not enough to really damage it. The Mauler charges the Repenter, casts Rage on itself and rips both arms off the jack.

Things are looking pretty grim for the Trolls at this point...they are pretty much outnumbered and surrounded now.

Menoth Turn 3
Feora casts Engine of Destruction and kills the Blitzer. She then casts her feat and sets everyone except Doomshaper on fire. Zealots fail to hurt the Fel Caller, but some are able to throw bombs at the Axer and kill it, though one also dies in a throw that deviates onto itself. A lone Zealot kills the last scribe in hand to hand. The Choir charges the Impaler and do no damage. But add more bodies to tie it up. The Revenger hurts the Impaler, who is dropped to about half.

Trolls Turn 4
Lots of fire checks all around. The last scribe burns to death, and the KSB almost dies too, but makes his tough roll. The Fel Caller kills two Zealots, Doomshaper blasts one with Acursed (but it makes it's tough roll from the Piper), casts Rage on the Mauler, and then Feats. The Mauler kills the Repenter. He then takes a hold of the Revenger with two hands, and chucks it straight toward the Devout, kocking them both down, and destroying the movement of the Revenger. The Impaler kills a couple of Choir. It's now looking a little more even, but with the

Menoth Turn 4
I forget exactly how, but Feora takes about 8 damage from Doomshaper's feat from using focus for something...I think she may have killed the Fel Caller with spells. I forgot to make a tough roll for the Fel Caller here. Gotta remember to make tough rolls! One of the Zealots gets close enough now to throw a bomb at Doomshaper, and he has to transfer the damage away to the Mauler. Gorman then walks over and throws another oil bomb at the Mauler. Arg! The Choir then walks into melee range with the Mauler to keep it engaged. A zealot hits the KSB but fails to do damage.

Trolls Turn 5
The KSB burns to death, fires go out on the Impaler and Mauler. The Impaler who has an extra fury on it fails his Doomshaper then goes for an end run against Feora. He's got 7 Fury. But to get to her with a spell he'll have to first kill a Zealot in the way. So he walks into combat with a Zealot and a Monolith bearer and...rolls snake eyes and misses. Arg! He has to use another fury to attack again and then easily dispatches the Zealot.

Ok, moment of truth, Doomshaper targets Feora and casts Acursed on her. He needs a n 8 to hit, so I boost the attack roll. Hit. Roll to damage with a boosted die. All I need is 8 damage (13+ on 3 dice). Or really any damage at all since she'd then have to forfeit movement or action. Sadly, the roll is so low I don't even get through her armor. Ugh. I can see the end now. The Mauler then leaves combat and runs in a desperate attempt to block off Feora's LOS to Doomshaper.

Menoth Turn 5
Gorman tries to move away from the Impaler toward Doomshaper, luckily the Impaler kills him with his free strike. The Monolith Bearer and the Zealot that Doomshaper is engaged with walks out of combat. Doomshaper takes his free strike and misses with snake eyes again. Doh! The Zealot throws a grenade and does 7 damage to Doomshaper, and he transfers it to the Mauler.

Feora then pulls out her flame spray guns. She hits with one and does 7 more damage, which Doomshaper then can't transfer. Feora then fires again, and just *barely* hits Doomshaper....had she rolled one lower she would have missed. But she hit, and killed him. Unfortunately I forgot that Doomshaper has Tough and I could have tried a tough roll, which would have actually won me the game, since the Mauler was in position to wail on Feora and probably kill her next turn. MEGA DOH!


Conclusion

Well this was another really close game that could have gone either way several times during the game. I love these kinds of games, win or lose. Doomshaper will have to retreat back from the Menoth for now...but he'll be back!

Things that worked well:
The Mauler and the Impaler once again did a good job handling the flank and taking care of the jacks. The two hand throw by the Mauler was nice. Overall though I really can't think of any real stand outs this game. Something that worked fairly well was engaging the Zealots so that they couldn't throw any bombs. They're pretty weak in close combat so keeping them there works fairly well. Rush helped a lot in many cases, where I would need the extra 2" to get into close combat or to rush through the forest.

What didn't work so well:
Trying to channel the Menoth through the forest didn't really work so well since the Piper just gave the Zealots pathfinder anyway. Plus, since the warbeast I had would kill the 2-3 in base contact after one round, the rest will no longer be engaged and can then walk out away and throw more bombs at people. The Fel Caller also disappointed again this game, only managing to take down two zealots before getting blasted by Feora.

I'm seriously thinking about swapping him out with Alten Ashley. I could definitely see Alten being a lot more useful in this game than the Fel Caller. The ability to pick off unit leaders and solos would be really really useful.

And lastly, I need to remember to roll TOUGH rolls! ARG! :)

For the Hordes tournament coming up this month, I think I need to bite the bullet and drop the Blitzer for a unit of Champions. I'm finding that I really need more model count in my games, especially against Menoth. I'm also lacking a unit that has more staying power...two Dires are nice at times, but they are still fairly fragile and can go down fast. With the low model count I'm just not able to protect Doomshaper well enough...the enemy models can easily get around my guys and assasinate Doomshaper fairly easily. I think that's why I did better in the previous games too, since I could hole up in a defensive position, I was better able to protect him.

Did some work on the Impaler tonight

Quick update: I worked on some of the leather pieces that are on his clothing tonight. Not a lot of work really, so no pics for tonight. In fact, I just haven't had a lot of free time to paint lately as classes have really picked up, and I'm working on another side project (work related).

Basically I did the belts and wrist wraps. I also did his head spines and touched up some places of his skin where I missed the first time through. I really like how his wrist leather pieces came out, but am not so happy about how his footwraps look. I think they turned out badly though because of the consistency of the paint. Yea, I'm going to blame the paint! Seriously though, it is a pretty old bottle and I think it's just gotten "clumpy."

On a positive note, I'll be playing another 500pt. game this coming Wednesday, so look for a battle report then!