My Rocks' Pets: Trollblood Minions (and Mercs)

The minion minis are some of my favorite in PP's line, and the Thrullg is amongst the best of those: I was pretty excited when it was announced that this weird beastie was making its way out of the sewers of the (original) Iron Kingdoms RPG and on to the battlefield.

I tried to get some strange blending in there, to highlight how unusual it was, and am pretty happy with how it stands out as different, while having a sombre, natural look.

Another favorite from the RPG, the Swamp Gobbers are one of the best ways I've ever seen to use up that last point. I wish that more of Hordes had this mix of chemistry, nature, and crude technology...

Last, but first, Boomhowler's Trollkin unit represents the very first appearance of Trollkin in Warmachine and Hordes, and, I think, was the second time Trollkin appeared in any part of the setting.

With a little work, I was able to bulk out these trolls slightly, so they fit in more with the current line, mostly adding bigger chins...

Battles 2 & 3

Before getting in the League, I finalized my core list with something radically different from the Mauler/Impaler list that I played in my first game, partially because I had been playing it incorrectly, and partly because I wanted to try a melee-heavy list (which I nearly never run).

My new list:
Grim
-Axer
-Earthborn

The basic principle is compounding speed bonuses and maneuverability, with the Earthborn and its animus situationally helping, and Grim providing covering fire.

The first game I played was against a thoroughly obnoxious Sloan list:

Sloan
-Hunter x2
-Minuteman

Over the first two or three turns, due to a combination of a list designed to best battlegroups, good rolling on his part, his feat, a mistake on my part, and some uncharitable behavior on my opponent's, he had me down to an injured axer and half-health Grim, with only one damaged warjack on his side.

Sensing doom, I decided to start gambling more than I normally do... Grim put up Return Fire and used his Feat (for the defensive penalty), moved up, and plugged Sloan, who used her Return Fire to strike back, which triggered Grim's Return Fire, for my second shot.

This got Grim down to three health, but Sloan was in bad shape, too. For insurance, I cast Rush on the Axer, and sat on my remaining Fury.

The Axer disengaged the Minuteman for negligible damage, and, with the aid of Bait the Line, Reach,  and Rush, was able to easily get in melee with Sloan, which ended the game.

Game 2 was against another player who was decently familiar with the game, but new to his army. He ran:

Morghoul
-Gladiator
-Bronzeback

The game was in a field with almost no forests, but a lot of obstructions, which meant I was playing a very different game, due to the Earthborn: I didn't have access to my speed bonus, but could reliably get +2ARM

This game had a much less climactic finish: we had similar speeds and compositions with our battlegroups.

Early game, he sent his Bronzeback in, and traded it for my Axer and around half of Grim's health (due to some clever positioning and Train Wreck).

The rest of the game was basically spent dancing around with the regular report from Grim's rifle, and both sides trying to get the edge in with spells. The game ended when I got lucky with a high damage roll against Morghoul, who was slightly exposed.

It was a pretty well balanced fight, with the unbalancing factor, we both agreed, being Grim's rifle: it meant that, while both of us were hesitant to commit our heavies, I was able to pick away at his army.