Sunday, June 6, 2010

The Shattered Kriel of Madrot Marsh - Week 5 Final Report

Here we are at the end of Gamer’s Journal #1, and I’m happy to report that I met the final deadline: My 35pt Grim Angus-led Trollblood force is 100% painted and ready to go!

Without further ado, meet the Shattered Kriel of Madrot Marsh:

(click for larger)

More group shots: group 2, zoom 1, zoom 2, zoom 3.

The final 35pt list is as follows (entries in green are new additions for this week):

Grim Angus
* Irontooth (Dire Troll Mauler)
* Jurt (Troll Impaler)
* Swampfire (Pyre Troll)
(6) Trollkin Fennblades
(3) Trollkin Champions [pic 1 | pic 2 ]
Krielstone Bearer & (3) Scribes & Elder Stone Scribe [ pic 1 | pic 2 ]
Fell Caller [ pic 1 | pic 2 ]
Stone Scribe Chronicler
Troll Whelps

Modeling & Painting:

Whew, glad this thing is over! I’m not a fast painter by nature, so I was dealing with tight deadlines for all five weeks of this Journal. I managed to meet every deadline along the way, but it definitely ate up all of my free time!

I challenged myself with some minor greenstuff detailing and fairly epic (for me) bases on this army, and intend to stick to this theme as I expand this force out into the wilderness of 50pts and beyond. For anyone looking at this final update, I used this tutorial from the Terrainthralls and Envirotex Lite to make the swamp bases for my army.

I still love the color scheme after painting it for five weeks without pause. The yellows aren’t quite as eye-catching as I’d hoped for, probably due to the way I’ve been “rusting” my silvers into a shiny brown. Regardless, the army looks great on the tabletop. This is the brightest army I’ve done so far, so it’s (to me) surprisingly eye-catching from across the store.

Close-ups on the new additions for this week. First, the Fell Caller:


(3) Champions:


Elder Stone Scribe (Krielstone unit UA):


Play, List-Building, and Growth Beyond 35pts:

I didn’t have a chance to play this past week, so I can’t report on how the 35pt list works. It was solid up through 25pts, however, and I only added pure awesome (whee Champs!) in this update, so I don’t expect any unpleasant surprises when I hit the table with these guys.

My next step(s) with the Shattered Kriel will be to paint up (4) Fennblades, (2) Champions, and (2) Stone Scribes. This will max out the existing units I’ve got, definitely an important step. I have a few models to choose for where to expand after that, although I expect Alten Ashley, the Champion Hero, and a Troll Axer will be the top of that list. I also have a pile of warlocks to choose from, and no real idea where to begin. Grissel and pMadrak will likely come first as they both work well enough with the list I’ve got together now.

Overall Thoughts/Gamer’s Journal Summary:

I’m very pleased with my participation in Gamer’s Journal #1. I’ve owned my Trollbloods since the Hordes release, but never played more than 3-4 games with them in that time. This challenge provided me with the motivation to paint up some of that bare metal and to get in actual gameplay experience with them. I had intended to sell/trade off much of my excess Trollbloods after the challenge (using the Journal to build a working list and discarding the rest), but now my interest in the blueskins (greyskins?) has been rekindled. I was looking at my unpainted stuff this morning, and couldn’t firmly decide what, if anything, I wanted to sell off! I mean, Water Buffaloes, right? :D

I think the GJ was a great motivator for many of us, and having so many other great folks modeling and painting alongside me is definitely what forced me to stick to my brush. I'd definitely commit to such a challenge again, although not for a little while yet ^^

Thanks to all of my fellow participants, Naahz for organizing the event, and the forumgoers who stopped by to give us praise and critiques!

Now, what should I do with all of my free time now that the GJ is done?!

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