I -hate- painting units...

Super minor update: Got 3 of the Swordsmen done. Took 3 hours start to finish, so about an hour per guy, which is about what it was taking me to do the Paingivers and Makeda, so sounds about right! 10 more models to go for this segment of the challenge.

The Sapphire Guard - Week Three

Dust wafted amongst her small band as Makeda strode east across the marches, back into Skorne territory. It had been a productive few weeks of travelling, and the skirmishes had easily been grand enough to please the ancestors. Her Gladiator let out a mournful wail behind her, still licking his wounds from the thrashing he had received at the hands of the beast man Kromac, but the Archdomina reached out and soothed his pain enough to cease his whimpers. Normally she would not be so kind, but the titan had proven his worth in that fight, and she had allowed the paingivers to administer extra healing salve. They would replenish their stores soon enough.

Mulling over the strategic retreat she had needed to enact when confronted with the worshipers of the Wurm, she continued to come to the same conclusion. She needed men. Strong men who would fight to the death for her, and charge into battle at nothing more than a nod. Luckily, her reputation was growing, and she had already sent word ahead with one of the paingivers to the many Skorne villages on the outer edges of the marches. Here, on the fringe of their territory, were people of the warrior caste that fought daily to maintain the gloriously growing empire of the Godless. They would serve her well.

Each village was quick to provide their best swordsmen for her cause, men honored to fight by her side. One village even had a young extoler who was willing to guide the souls of the men who were certain to fall in glorious combat sooner or later. Soon she would surrounded by a small army, eager to do her bidding. The young matron of House Balaash could not help but smile.

There would be much blood spilled in the coming days, of that there was no lack of certainty.

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Week 3 has come and gone, and not too much got accomplished. I'm okay with that, though, as I had a lot of important things this week to occupy my time! A wedding and a lot of quality time with my lady, things which are definitely paramount to painting miniatures. Nonetheless, I was able to assemble and prime all 13 models that I will be adding to my army in order to grow to a 25 pt list. New models are in italics.

Archdomina Makeda (*5pts)
* Cyclops Savage (5pts)
* Cyclops Shaman (5pts)
* Titan Gladiator (8pts)
Paingiver Beast Handlers (Leader and 3 Grunts) (2pts)
Praetorian Swordsmen (Leader and 9 Grunts) (6pts)
* Praetorian Swordsmen Officer & Standard (2pts)
Extoler Soulward (2pts)

These models are going to add a few vital things to my army composition:

Bodies: First and foremost, these guys are going to be blocking charge lanes and generally getting all-up-in someone's grill and/or business. They will be the front line of my army, hopefully eating up charges and also dishing out some of their own, particularly with the ability to sidestep (yay ridiculous UA!)

Souls: I guess this kind of ties into bodies, but my new Extoler Soulward will be hot on the heels of these guys, gathering souls, spitting out crazy boosted ghost-sight shots, and giving out magic attacks when needed to key units.

Feat Fodder: Makeda's feat will make these guys virtually indestructible for a round (especially if I throw Defender's Ward on them) and will pose a serious issue. Considering both games that I've played with this army has ended on the 3rd turn, that's 1/3 of the game that they are going to be a serious nuisance to my opponent.

Modeling And Painting

Almost nothing got done with these guys, which is upsetting, but they'll be getting the full treatment this week. I should be able to bust out 3-4 models per night, so I don't foresee any issues with getting them done in time for the end of Week 4.

The Shattered Kriel - Week 3 Report

Over his lifetime of conflict Grim Angus had seen many friends fall because they rushed forward with more enthusiasm than skill. Knowing that such a defeat would crush the already-dwindling morale of the surviving trollkin of Madrot Marsh, he chose to lead from the front alongside his warbeasts to minimize casualties to the amateur trollkin fighters. Coordinating rifle, sorcery, and beast, Grim fought the resistance force’s first battles before the kriel’s warriors had even reached the battlefield.

However, Grim’s troll companions were unfamiliar with the boggy terrain of Madrot, and were proving to be less effective than their long-standing teamwork normally allowed. The time to call upon the shattered kriel’s resources had come.

Grim strode into the small ring of solid ground that had once been the center of the kriel at dawn, flanked by his troll companions. He was immediately irritated at the lack of a watch - the kriel’s trollkin were largely still asleep after a celebration for the previous day’s “victory”, a caravan raid fought entirely by the warlock and his beasts. Grim reached out mentally to Irontooth, his Mauler, and prodded the beast into unleashing a titanic bellow. The trollkin were surprised into action, leaping up and grabbing their weapons to face whatever threat had approached.

Shaking his head, Grim reprimanded the kriel’s survivors for their lax behavior. “We do not have the luxury of rest! The humans have taken from you one thing only and you cannot idle until you take it back: your pride as a trollkin! Take up your weapons and what remains of your krielstone, and come with me. You won’t be returning to these ruins of your former lives ever again!”

Without waiting to see the trollkins’ response, Grim spun and marched out of the clearing. Of course, this didn’t stop him from peeking through Jurt’s eyes to see the trollkin survivors hastily breaking camp to follow, determination plain on their faces. In the next fight, Grim would test the resolve of Madrot Marsh.

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After the couple of games I played with the 15pt list during Week 2, I had three glaring problems I wanted to fix:

1) Not enough attacks. With four models (not counting the noncombatant Whelps), I wasn't able to generate enough attacks to handle any enemy that brought infantry at that point-size. Solution: Bring infantry to spread the love around.

2) Not enough bodies. Again, with the selection of models there, only three things could help shield Grim from line of sight. Even with fairly careful placement of models, the enemy ended up getting into melee with my ranged attackers before I wanted that to happen. Solution: Bring a "tarpit" or defensive option to screen Grim from the enemy.

3) Not enough armor! Grim has a wonderful DEF of 16 (coming from Butcher-driven Khador, that spoils me!). He's only ARM 15 however, so once he started getting hit my beasts were collapsing under the transfer damage. Solution: Krielstone!

Without further ado, my 25pt list (this week's additions are in green):

Grim Angus
*Irontooth the Dire Troll Mauler
*Jurt the Troll Impaler
*Swampfire the Pyre Troll
(6) Fennblades
(4) Krielstone Bearer & Stone Scribes
(5) Whelps
Stone Scribe Chronicler


Modeling & Painting:

I knew from the beginning that Weeks 3 & 4 would, together, be my toughest stretch of the Journal. There's a lot of infantry to be added this time, which is always what bogs me down. I'm not a very fast painter as I have a tendency to go back over and over for touch-ups and detail work.

That said, as Week 2 comes to a close I'm basically right at my painting goal. I have my min unit of 6 Fennblades ready to be inked and based after some breakneck (for me) painting this afternoon. The rest of my 25pt list additions are primed, but nothing more yet. I knew that this past week would be a busy one for me, so I don't feel behind on my goals or anything. Likewise, this coming week looks to be a fairly peaceful one, so with some luck I'll be done with these guys before the weekend rolls around.

Close-up on the unit of 6 Fennblades, still in progress:


This coming weekend a few friends are coming down to visit, and I expect to get quite a few games in. I'll take pics and post batreps with the Week 4 report.

Mmmm

Time for some Snacking!


Sorry, inspiration struck while prepping 9lbs of pork ribs for smoking tomorrow, all while thinking about my army. Had to grab Irontooth the Mauler for a quick photo op!

The Shattered Kriel - Week 3 Begins!

For Week 3 of the Gamer's Journal, I'm adding:

Fennblades (6)
Krielstone Bearer & Scribes (4)
Stone Scribe Chronicler

I've assembled, based, and primed my 10pt requirement for this week, and the minimum unit of Fennblades is front and center on my table getting their colors started:


I did some minor conversion work with my Krielstone Bearer. I'd toyed with replacing the stone entirely with a big rotten tree trunk, stump still attached, but threw the idea out thanks to a two week deadline! Seriously, I need to learn to reign in my crazy ideas when it comes to gaming... Anyway, I went with some greenstuff vines wrapped around the 'stone, like I did with my Mauler from last week:


The Fennblades are coming along nicely, but my Thurs evening is lost to attending an awards dinner for a friend. Hopefully I'll be able to use my Fri evening and Sun afternoons for painting. If I can get the Fennblades and SSC done by Sunday night, I'll consider myself in a good position for the week!

2 Gamers, Almost 1 Table

Gemini and I worked on the table more yesterday and today, cutting & attaching inner supports and the legs.

We'd intended to use 2x2" legs, cedar if I remember right, about 36" long. 36" may seem kinda long, but when we were at the hardware store, the pre-lathed 27" legs were so incredibly short we couldn't imagine using them for the table. Well, turns out that 36" is roughly a foot longer than you want! The table at 34" was waaay too high for proper play, and the way we'd mounted the legs lent itself to a surprising amount of wobble. This is the table with tall, wobbly legs:


So today, Gemini hit the hardware store again and picked up those pre-lathed 27" legs and standard table-leg-mounting hardware, and it gave us a perfectly placed table, basically a couple of inches higher than your standard kitchen table. Here is the table frame with new legs:


To describe what you see above a little better: The double supports on either end are going to be where the edges of the 4x4' area and the edges of the two long ledges abut. So the table will be 4'x5'4", with the extra 1' on the long side being split into two 8" ledges. These are basically to hold cards and such, so the 4x4 area is purely for models.

Upon adding the legs, we took our plywood and attached it to the table. This is exactly the 4x4 gaming area:


We cut the ledges and nailed them in. The pic below shows two boards stuck in the gap between the ledges and the table proper - THESE WON'T STAY THERE! We placed them there for the picture so that you can see kinda the effect we're going for. Instead, a thinner board will go in there, between 1-2". This will go on the non-ledge sides too, basically boxing in the 4x4 area. This will let us have a sunken gaming area in the middle into which we can place our foam table pieces. The ledges won't be lipped like the 4x4 area, but a table skirt of 8" wood will go around the whole thing to hide the underside and make it look less "puny".


The last picture has the 4x4 foam laid out on the table, showing you the size and placement of the ledges:


Remaining steps:
* Cut and attach "lip" around all sides of the 4x4 area.
* Cut and attach "skirt" around entire table outer edge.
* Stain and varnish the whole damn thing.
* Texture and seal the foam.

The Sapphire Guard - Week Two

The List: (numbers link to close-up pictures of the model)

Archdomina Makeda (*5pts) [1][2]
* Cyclopse Savage (5pts) [1][2][3]
* Cyclopse Shaman (5pts) [1][2]
* Titan Gladiator (8pts) [1][2][3][4]
Paingiver Beast Handlers (Leader and 3 Grunts) (2pts) [1]

Preparation/Painting/End Product:

Wow! Just, seriously... wow! I am blown away by the fact that I painted these guys. I -love- the color scheme, they pop on the table and really look amazing. They're by far the best models I've ever done, and considering I'm painting them as fast as I can, I'm very happy with them. Due to a lot of different factors, I wasn't able to finish them up in the two week time period, but I'm only going to overshoot it by a day, and I'm happy with that. The next models are much smaller and should go much faster. As an example, all four of the Paingivers took me only two days. Makeda was about an hour. The Savage and the Gladiator took the most time, with the Gladiator taking a whopping 2 days of solid painting to finish. But, in total, he was still probably only 4-5 hours worth of work.

Battle Reports:

Battle 1 - Sapphire Guard vs. Shattered Kriel (Trollbloods of StarmanTTLB)

The pictures are a little hard to see, but we played this game on a board that had shallow rivers running through it, which we counted as rough terrain. Perfect for the swamp trolls, obviously. Deployment was fairly basic, across from each other, each of us deploying near the bridge that spanned a large pond. Starman went first, moving his Impaler up by the end of the bridge, the Mauler moving up in front of Grim, and the Pyre running off to one side to start a flanking maneuver on my army with the assistance of Cross Country.

I cast Rush on my Gladiator and Savage, running them both out in front of the army, the Savage to one side of the bridge, the Gladiator in front of the main force. Makeda put Defender's Ward on herself, Savagery on the Paingivers, and then moved up behind the Titan. Rest of the army moved up. [end of turn 1]

Turn two began with the Impaler throwing a spear at the Savage and boosting the attack roll, looking for the crit slam. Roll was super low and the spear wiffed. Next up, Grim moved up and attacked the Gladiator, hoping to get the extra 3" of charge range that his gun gives when it hits a target. Amazingly, he missed that shot as well, even though the Gladiator had only DEF 12. The Mauler moved across in front of Grim and off to one side, ready to intercept the Gladiator on the next turn. And the Pyre Troll lobbed his fire shot at the Gladiator, hitting and lighting him on fire, but doing no damage. The Gladiator would fail to remove this fire over the course of the game, but never took damage from it.

I began my activation by upkeeping my spells. The Shaman moved up and cast Rush on the Savage and shot the Impaler for a little damage, then the Paingivers moved up and one of them Enraged the Gladiator. Next, Makeda moved up and cast Carnage, making sure that every troll except the Pyre was in her control area. The Gladiator then activated, used his Rush animus on himself, and with the extra distance and pathfinder was able to slam the Mauler. Rolled a 3 for distance, and because of the Gladiator's bonuses was able to slam the Mauler 5" back, clipping Grim on the way and landing the Mauler about 2" behind Grim. The Gladiator used his follow up, but stopped once he was b2b with Grim, leaving the Mauler out of reach. Bought 2 auto-hitting attacks against the knocked down warlock and forced him to transfer the damage rolls to his Mauler and Pyre troll. The Savage ran around the end of the bridge and engaged the Impaler. [end of turn 2]

Turn 3 began with Starman attempting to shake knockdown on his warlock and Mauler. Grim stood up, but the Mauler was unable to because it's Spirit was out and couldn't be forced. All of the beasts that had taken damage ate whelps to get health back, and the Mauler moved up, forfeiting his attack. The Pyre charged the Gladiator in the back, hitting, but not doing much in the way of damage. The Impaler moved around and also attacked the Gladiator, taking out his Mind spiral, but not damaging him enough to kill. Grim couldn't walk away for fear of taking a freestrike that, even if transferred, could have possibly killed any of his beasts.

I activated, casting Carnage with Makeda again and camping the rest of my fury, then moving my paingivers up and getting one close enough to the Gladiator to cast Medicate. Gladiator healed his Mind spiral, then activated. I attacked Grim with a Headbutt and boosted the attack roll, succeeding and knocking him down. After buying two more attacks, Grim was out of fury to transfer with, and had lost about 2/3's of his health. The Savage activated, moved up to Grim, and killed him with his first attack. [end of game]

Thoughts: This list is fast! As a Menoth player, I'm not used to being able to get speed like this, and from what I've read this is a new experience for Skorne players as well! Definitely enjoyed the synergy of the models and felt I played extremely well.


Battle 2 - Sapphire Guard vs. Circle (played by PPS_Mod:Garvin!)

Grant was kind enough to oblige me with a game against his Circle, and it was a fantastic game. I won't give the play by play, as I did above, but the end of the game was truly epic. Grant brought Kromac, a Pureblood, a Gorax, and a min unit of Wolfriders. We also played on a board that included a bridge in the middle. By the end of turn 2, the Wolfriders had swept around the bridge to engage my Savage, and the Pureblood charged straight across the bridge to finish it off. My paingivers stripped the fury off of the Pureblood before it ate a charge from my Gladiator that killed it fairly quickly, leaving the Gladiator at the mouth of the bridge. (This is important)[pic from right about this point]

Kromac beasted out and charged the Gladiator with 4 fury, tearing into him and buying attacks, then feated, getting 7 more fury, and continuing. after all of this, the Gladiator still had 8 health! The wolfriders tried to move into a position to finish off the Titan, but my paingivers were blocking that with their reach weapons. Two of the wolfriders managed to do 7pts of damage to the Gladiator, and one ate a freestrike from a paingiver that did just enough damage to box it instantly (go whip dudes!) The Gorax couldn't move up far enough to attack the Titan, so he was sitting at the end of the bridge with 1hp and engaging Kromac, who only had 1 fury to transfer with!

I activated, attempted to Medicate the Titan, and rolled a 1! I could only heal one spiral, so I healed his Spirit, and the last remaining health had been in his Body, so he was currently rolling 1 die for attacks. Knowing I couldn't hit Kromac reliably, I attempted to two-handed throw the wolfrider next to me point-blank into Kromac's face! Boosted the attack roll and failed! The Titan bought an attack at that point and boosted, killing the wolfrider.

I now had only the Shaman and Makeda left to go, but the Gladiator was blocking the way! So, what would I do? Thinking like a Menoth player: attack my own guy! I declared that the Shaman was going to shoot the Gladiator in the back, I hit, and on rolling damage I rolled a 20! I only did 1pt of damage, which -didn't- kill the Gladiator because of the 1pt I had healed on him!

So, now it was Makeda's turn. She charged the Gladiator in the back, killing him easily, then attempted to use her sidestep to get to Kromac, but couldn't make it! So, I instead side-stepped her to a Paingiver, killed him, and side-stepped from there to Kromac! Bought extra attacks and... took Kromac to 2 health. Grant activated and killed Makeda. [end game]

Thoughts: Well, if I had rolled anything other than a 1-2 on my die roll for Medicate, I would have won. If I had charged my Gladiator with the Shaman instead of making a ranged attack, I probably would have killed it and Makeda would have had a direct charge path to Kromac, and I would have won. If Makeda had upkept Defender's Ward and cast Carnage before charging the Gladiator (I would have reaved 4 fury off of him when he died, putting me back to full fury) I would have been a +2 DEF, +2 ARM, and +2 on my attack rolls, and probably would have either killed Kromac, or survived the next turn and killed him on that turn. So, I had a few planning errors and some bad luck on dice rolls, but again the army played very well. Circle is superfast and I wasn't ready to have his stuff attacking me that fast, which was an error on my part.


Expanding To 25 Pts:

I've already ordered the models to do so, and my 25pt list will add the following:

Praetorian Swordsmen (Leader and 9 Grunts) (6pts)
* Praetorian Swordsmen Officer & Standard (2pts)
Extoler Soulward (2pts)

The full Swordsmen unit plus the UA is just insane. 11 models with 2 attacks that can auto-plink beasts/jacks, a mini-feat that gives them Anatomical Precision for a turn, granted side-step, and tactics ranked attacks. All for 8pts. Phenomenal. The Soulward will follow behind that unit, collecting souls and spitting them back out with boosted ghost shots and the ability to grant a model Eyeless Sight and Magical Weapon for a turn. The Swordsmen will also be great with Makeda's feat, which is currently fairly useless for the 15pt list, only keeping the Paingivers alive for a turn.

Very excited to continue this!