The Shattered Kriel of Madrot Marsh - Week One Status

With a resounding crack of a gunshot, the last human of the supply convoy fell to the ground, dead. Grim Angus scoured the roadway ahead through Headhunter’s scope for any movement, and then raised his rifle, satisfied. Out of the swampy terrain on either side of the roadway ran a handful of trollkin clad in brown and yellow, awkwardly carrying their poorly cared-for weaponry. The charging trollkin soldiers came up sharply when they saw that the battle was over before it had even begun, and began rifling through the wreckage of the human caravan. Grim stopped himself from reprimanding the untrained trollkin for their behavior, painfully aware that they were all freshly drafted into the fight.

Two weeks earlier Grim had made a stopover at Madrot Marsh, a fairly peaceful and insular kriel in the western Thornwood region not far from Grim’s home of Wythmoor. When he arrived he found that the entire kriel had been razed to the ground – they had had the poor fortune of being directly in the path of two warring human armies, and as the village center itself was some of the only solid terrain in the marsh, it had become the center of the fight.

Grim and his longtime companion, the Impaler Jurt, immediately began searching for survivors. Over the next few days they had located the remnants of the kriel, living as nomads throughout the marsh to avoid the forces still warring in the area. Offended by both the treatment from the humans and the Madrot Marsh kriel’s despondency, Grim took charge of the trollkin and began organizing them into a resistance force, a weapon with which to inflict some damage to the outsiders.

Taking the most skilled of the surviving trollkin, primarily hunters and trackers, Grim began leading lightning raids against the interlopers, striking equally against all outsiders, human or otherwise. Inadequately supplied and poorly trained, the warriors of the shattered kriel of Madrot Marsh have began to fight back, determined to exact some small amount of retribution for the callous atrocity that had been committed.

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For the Gamer's Journal, I decided to take my completely unpainted and unplayed Trollbloods, whittle down the huge pile of lead into a viable army list, and paint them entirely. Taking models I like the look of the most, here's my 15pt list:

Grim Angus
* Dire Troll Mauler (aka Irontooth)
* Troll Impaler (aka Jurt)
* Pyre Troll (aka Swampfire)
Troll Whelps

Models at the start of the Gamer's Journal:

Models at the end of Week One of the Gamer's Journal:

At the end of Week One, I'm farther behind that I'd like. All the models are assembled, but they aren't even all primed (stupid greenstuffed Mauler!). I have one model, the Impaler known as Jurt (honored with a name only because in the few games I've every had with Trollbloods, he has a 100% Critical Smite success rate), almost done - he's at the inking/highlighting phase. Once he's done and my scheme is locked in, the others will go a lot faster I know (plus Grim is the only other model with clothing and equipment to slow me down).

Speaking of the Mauler and his greenstuffing:

Luckily, the previous week was so unproductive because it was my hectic week. This coming week, Tues through Fri, I have literally nothing going on after work, so I'm hoping for 4-6 good painting hours each night (By comparison, I've had maybe 6 hours to assemble, base, prime, and paint so far, resulting in one nearly-there Impaler!).

I hope to be able to take the Madrot Marsh boys out for a spin at the end of the week, probably against Gemini, painting schedule-allowing.

Final thoughts: I'm confident that I'll reach the "15pts painted" deadline of this weekend, but may need to revise my 25/35pt lists to lower the model counts and go heavier on beasts.