Bier her!

Just a small update, but I got Borka's Pyg keg carrier done. It's the first time I freehanded a kilt and I think it's ok for a first attempt.

I am especially happy that I dared to use the full bright orange on the "skin bumps" as it really makes the miniature pop. (on the Trolls those bumps had much more brown mixed into the orange) I guess I'll have it for fluff reasons that Trolls are much older and longer living than a Trollkin so that's why they have darker bumps as they lose color with age.

I also like how the keg and the stein turned out, you could really think that the Pyg is on his way to a party. ^^

Crosscheck: Colossal damage with the EBDT

After my latest blog post, +Gergely Gati pointed out that the EBDT may not be the best Troll to do damage to Colossals (and Gargantuans) as he may be too pillow fisted despite (or because) of his morphing fists.

Well, time for a crosscheck.

The EBDT has a STR 12 and POW 3 for a P+S of 15. However, the Adaption rule on his claw lets him use the POW of a melee weapon in the EBDT's melee range. So if the EBDT hits a Colossal with (let's say) POW 6 on its melee weapon, the EBDT has a new P+S of 18. Also, the Pyre Troll's Flaming Fists animus adds +2 to melee damage rolls, so the EBDT would hit with a base damage before dice of 20.

So, let's go through al the Colossals and Gargantuans the EBDT may have to fight.

Hmm, I don't like what I see, obviously +Gergely Gati was more right than I expected. The EBDT only gets a mild malus against Hyperion, the Mountain King, and Archangel, whereas trying to hurt a Woldwrath you can basically discard an entire dice.

Also one has to consider that the Colossal's ARM may be buffed as well, e.g. Stormwalls with Arcane Shield (ARM 22) are pretty standard these days. On the other hand, the P+S of the EBDT could be further buffed, too (e.g. by the Stone Scribe Elder), but it's never good to start with a malus on the dice anyhow.

Let's go back to the list:


Borka Kegslayer - WB:  5
-    Pyg Keg Carrier
-    Earthborn Dire Troll - PC: 10
-    Pyre Troll - PC: 5
-    Rok - PC: 11

Gatorman Witch Doctor - PC: 3
Janissa Stonetide - PC: 3

Krielstone Bearer & Stone Scribes - Leader & 5 Grunts: 4
-    Stone Scribe Elder - Elder 1
Cylena Raefyll & Nyss Hunters - Cylena & 9 Grunts: 10
Kriel Warriors - Leader & 9 Grunts: 6
-    Kriel Warrior Standard & Piper - Standard & Piper 2


Rök hits with an 18 on his Battle Axe, 20 with the Pyre Troll's animus. Also he has a higher Fury threshold because he is bonded to Borka. In other words, Rök could be the Colossal killer while the EBDT is being used defensively instead. Or to throw models around, for example at warcasters. Or the EBDT could simply charge the Heavy Warjacks because most heavies have a POW of 5 to 7 points.

Leaving my existing list aside, which Troll has the highest base P+S to hit a Gargantuan? It's Mulg with a 19 on his Mace, also the Dire Troll Mauler with 19 on his two fists if you count in his animus. However, Mulg is 2pts more expensive than the EBDT (and I couldn't play him twice with character restrictions), so he's out of the question. However, the Mauler could be a replacement for the EBDT as he's even one point cheaper. I guess I'll just have to try and see if Borka needs more the EBDT's or the Mauler's animus against colossals.

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year everyone, may you always have enough pressure in your steam kettle or fury in your monster's brain, whatever you fancy more in 2013. :-)

This post is about what the GW glazes can do for you as a PP fan and about my final army lists for 2013 - I gotta get painting!

It's been over a month since my last post as life got in between things - I moved my household so there literally was not time to do anything hobby related. Good thing is now my office is also my painting room, so it's much nicer than my previous spot in the cellar - and the path to the kitchen is shorter. ^^

GW Glazes

First thing I did at the new place was touching up my three already painted Trolls - obviously not very breathtaking. However, I had to do this as I put coats of varnish onto them earlier but was not happy with the result. So these are the steps that I did since I "finished painting":

1. Added a coat of glossy varnish. It's important to have a least one coat of glossy varnish because it protects your models properly, matt varnish doesn't. (I once read on BoLS (IIIRC) it's because matt varnish has lots of tiny little cracks in order to be matt and not reflect the light which in return reduces its ability to protect the paint.)
2. Added a coat of matt varnish.
3. Added a layer of the new GW glazes (Guilliman Blue & Waywatcher Green).

Now the GW glazes don't add a drastic effect that would even be visible on the pictures - just compare yourself:

Old

New

However, the glazes did

• reduce the effect of the varnish where I applied it too thickly;
• it makes the blue/green pop more due to higher color saturation;
• it brings together the various layers of color (e.g. different parts of the blue skin) and makes transitions even smooter.

All in all I think the glazes are definitely worth it and from now on I will apply them to all my models as they are extremely useful.

Trollblood Army Lists For SR2013

The second topic today is army lists - I gotta get started painting for the upcoming tournaments. The first milestone will be the Swinnish Tournament as it has hardcore painting requirements.

Now for my army lists, I changed them after all these rumors about a 14" killbox and warcasters/locks being able to dominate mission objectives. In other words, one should bring two very resilient Trollblood warlocks. My original picks were Borak and Madrak (either pMadrak or eMadrak, though I favor pMadrak as his spells are more useful to support units IMO), but I felt afraid to drop Grim as he fills a gap that every Trollbloods army has otherwise. Therefore, after much consideration, I decided to go for Borka and Grim.

Here are my two lists plus explanations:

Borka Kegslayer - WB:  5
-    Pyg Keg Carrier
-    Earthborn Dire Troll - PC: 10
-    Pyre Troll - PC: 5
-    Rok - PC: 11

Gatorman Witch Doctor - PC: 3
Janissa Stonetide - PC: 3

Krielstone Bearer & Stone Scribes - Leader & 5 Grunts: 4
-    Stone Scribe Elder - Elder 1
Cylena Raefyll & Nyss Hunters - Cylena & 9 Grunts: 10
Kriel Warriors - Leader & 9 Grunts: 6
-    Kriel Warrior Standard & Piper - Standard & Piper 2

Borka is a beast as he can easily have DEF 21 (Iron Flesh +3, Cover behind Janissa's wall +4) and ARM 21 (Kriel Stone Aura +2, EBDT Animus +2), so try to move that off a mission objective. Furthermore, the Pyg makes Borka stumble away if being hit.

The EBDT and Pyre Troll are working together to counter any colossal I may be facing - the EBDT's morphing fists with the Pyre Troll's animus on them puts out serious damage. If playing against the Protectorate, the Pyre Troll's animus comes in handy for protection as well.

The Gatorman Witch Doctor now makes things truly nasty together with the Nyss Hunters - Borka can put Iron Flesh on them so they are DEF 18(and they don't care about the -1 SPD as they are excellent marksmen) and the Gatorman Witch Doctor makes them Tough and Undead - woohoo! The Nyss Hunters will simply walk behind the Kriel Warriors, take shots at whatever they like, and charge in as a second wave to kill anything left standing with their weapon master.

Janissa can provide her wall to either protect key elements of the army as explained above or to prevent colossals from charging (this current list evolved out of my anti-colossals list), which will be quite handy for all the colossals we're going to see in 2013.

Grim Angus - WB:  6
-    Troll Impaler - PC: 5
-    Dire Troll Bomber - PC: 10
-    Earthborn Dire Troll - PC: 10
-    Pyre Troll - PC: 5

Fell Caller Hero - PC: 3

Kriel Warriors - Leader & 9 Grunts: 6
-    Kriel Warrior Standard & Piper - Standard & Piper 2
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

My Grim list starts traditionally with an Impaler, Bomber, and Pyre Troll, plus I couldn't help but add the always reliable EBDT for the heavy lifting and some extra protection. The Kriel Stone is a must have, too. After that I leave traditions as one would normally expect nyss Hunters, but they are a No GO here because of character restrictions that every SR tournament has these days. Well, I simply filled up the ranks with infantry because 25pts games with Grim made me realize that his battle groups firepower can dish out a lot of hurt, but they are really fragile to counter attacks even with Grim's feat. So put simply, the infantry has one job to do: hold the line to keep the battle group firing as long as possible.

I really wonder what the new eGrim model will bring to the table - expect this list to be tweaked again once it hits the shelves.