Getting Trollbloods ready for the OETC 2012

Jarl Skuld, Devil of the Thornwood

Well, it's two weeks until the OETC and the Swiss team is partially struggling with getting the final paint jobs done whereas the other part can lean back and relax. Luckily I belong to the second part with Jarl Skuld being the last mini for the OETC I had to paint.

I made the effort and collected all Trollbloods lists that are going to be played at the OETC, you can find them publicly shared in my Google Documents.

I didn't really find that many surprises in the Trollbloods lists for the OETC except for Andrew Galea's lists - they are in tab "Australia 2 (AG)" in Google Documents. His pDoomshaper list is pretty standard except he's getting all crazy with Runeshapers. From my point of view, however, his really interesting list is the one with Grim Angus. It's like a Swiss Knive that has something for everything - I don't see any special strength in any part, but I don't really see any weaknesses either. I am curious to see how it will be doing.

For both lists, you can see Andrew explain them himself:

Test from my Nexus 7

This is just a test post from my new Nexus 7 to see how the Blogger app is performing.

On a more serious note, I finished painting Jarl so the Trollbloods are officially ready for the OETC. :-)

Lyle is writing back

Something happened that I actually wasn't sure that it would happen, that is Lyle Lowery (Marketing Manager of Privateer Press) actually wrote an answer to my open letter concerning the launch of War Room. Lyle writes:

Hey Philipp,
Thanks for the email.  War Room had a rough start but we're continually working to improve it and I think we have made some great strides.  We've also learned a lot of lessons from this launch and we'll be sure not to make the same mistakes again.
Thanks for emailing me.  Maybe I'll see you at the next WarGamesCon or Lock & Load!

Lyle Lowery

Marketing Manager

Privateer Press

Well, this is more than I thought I would get since Lyle surely has been busy and had tougher problems to solve than writing back to me. On the other hand, this letter shows that Privateer Press *does* care about their customers even if this means they write back way later - but they do write back and don't forget!

Frankly, I am still not totally happy with War Room as I love to browse the cards, but I miss a serious list construction tool and the ability to quickly access damage boxes in games. I just finished assembling a Dire Troll Mauler made of metal and during the process (all pieces naturally fit together) I was thinking "man, if their War Room just had the same awesome quality as their miniatures!" Well, I trust that Privateer Press will do the right thing and I am looking forward to the improvements that are supposed to come!

Not playing pDoomshaper

My OETC pDoomshaper list.

Well, unlike what the title implies I am not saying that pDoomshaper is bad and/or should not be played. I am still convinced of the contrary, namely that he is one of the best Warlocks in the game with Purification already reason enough to take him.
Point is, I am not going to play pDoomshaper at the OETC (most likely) because I agreed with the Swiss team that I will be the reserve player. My motivation for this decision was mostly driven by the fact that I already was playing at Wargames Con (with my Cygnar) this year, so I am not in a hurry to play in another large tournament, plus I am still fairly fresh to the Trollbloods while all other team members have played their factions for months (if not years) already.

So this would have been my pDoomshaper army list for the OETC:

War Room Army
ARMY - Trollblood - Guiden För

57 / 57 (50+7) Warlock(s) : 1/1 Warbeast(s) : 3 Battle Engines : 0 Solos : 2 Units : 3

Hoarluk Doomshaper, Shaman of the Gnarls - WB: +7
- Earthborn Dire Troll - PC: 10
- Mulg the Ancient - PC: 12
- Troll Bouncer - PC: 5

Fell Caller Hero - PC: 3
Janissa Stonetide - PC: 3

Kriel Warriors - Leader & 9 Grunts: 6
- Kriel Warrior Standard & Piper - Standard & Piper 2
- 1 1 Thrower's: 1
Krielstone Bearer & Stone Scribes - Leader & 5 Grunts: 4
- Stone Scribe Elder - Elder 1
Trollkin Fennblades - Leader & 9 grunts: 8
- Fennblade Officer and Drummer - Officer & Drummer 2

(I just realized how many spelling errors this War Room apps has)

The plan with this list is to be defensive mostly against Cryx and other armies with debuffs. In other words, pretty much no matter what a Cryx player would play, I'd play this list.
This list has a solid core with Mulg and the EBDT plus Janissa and the Bouncer protecting pDoomshaper. Then the list is also very infantry heavy with a full unit of Fennblades and Kriel Warriors to max out on pDoomshaper's Fortune spell.
The full Krielstone unit and a Fellcaler are just the usual additions every one takes.

With that list I was facing Robi's eBaldur list and this is how the battle went:

This is how we set up.

Robi was going first moving his infantry quickly through the woods as expected with the Warbeasts and Shifting Stones lagging behind.

I moved everything forward, too, with my center buffing the infantry on the left and right flank. However, here I started to notice a serious flaw in my set up: while the center did buff both flanks, I failed to realize that most spells don't affect units within a certain area, but models in a certain area. In other words, the models on the very left and very right were not benefiting from the spells at all - which was quite bad since Robi came in on my left flank.

In his turn, Robi's Bloodtrackers started to dissolve the Kriel Warriors. This was quite frustrating as they were so close yet seemed to be out of reach moving down my first row with their ranged attacks smartly used.

Now things got nasty with the Kriel Warriors charging the Blootrackers and the Fennblades charging the Druids. Looking back, all of my Fennblades should just have walked through the pond with Pathfinder rather than one part walking around the house.

This is where things got really annoying: the Bloodtrackers were able to do enough damage to the Kriel Warriors to make them flee after a failed command check. The Circle Warbeasts zoomed in on Mulg and killed him in one turn. My lesson for the day was that I need to shield even something as mighty as a Troll with infantry. On a more positive note, the Druids didn't really do anything against the Fennblades.

The Kriel Warriors rallied, but once again were shot into pieces by the Bloodtrackers. In the center, the EBDT ran hot trying to hold the line for everyone. On the right flank, the Fennblades continued their carnage.

The remaining Kriel Warriors charged the Bloodtrackers once again trying to hold them off the center where the EBDT and Bouncer continued their desperate efforts. On a positive note, the Fennblades were now working their way through the Circle's backyard.

End of the game. The Wold was able to take down the EBDT and both the Warpwolf and eBaldur were able to charge pDoomshaper.

My basic insight from this game was that this list is solid, especially the Fennblades if played well, but in a next step I really need to figure out how to set up and move everything for maximized effect.

Speed

Well, as the title suggests, I was able to get quite a bit of painting done on Sven's Trollbloods in the last couple weeks. (he is lending his Trollbloods army for me for the OETC since I don't have one of my own yet.) In the picture above you see the result of a long day of work, but let's do this step by step:

This picture shows the Fennblades halfway through the painting process.

Here the Fennblades are almost finished with only the swords and small trinkets left to be done.

This picture shows Brok & pDoomshaper as they were basecoated (and quickshaded) by Sven. Grim  & Gunbjörn take a bath in the jar to get rid of said basecoat and quickshade (Sven gifted those to me).

The same picture a couple hours later with the two Warlocks finished and the other two stripped.

Front view of Borka and the Pyg carrying the Keg.

Back view of Borka and the Pyg.

Front view of pDoomshaper.

Back view of pDoomshaper.

All in all I am pretty happy with the results. These models were painted with speed in mind and I think the quality is acceptable.

Working with these models once again confirmed my dislike for the Army Painter Quickshade. Grim and Gunbjörn who took the bath needed some major and extended rubbing with an old toothbrush to have the paint and the Quickshade come off. Also, the Qickshade heavily collected on the mace on Borka's back; the loss if detail there is heartbreaking. On the positive side, I now definitely see why you don't need to put varnish on your models after a dip in Quickshade, this stuff really seals everything.