Trollblood Scrum!!!

 Here are some teaser photos from Lock and Load including someone we've never seen before. Stolen from Lost Hemisphere's Facebook.

ScRuMcAsT Episode 9 is up for your pure listenening enjoyment Check it out.

Now with Working LINKS... yay.

Day 1 - My Day 1 schedule was packed, last year I had a job interview the day they opened up signups and didn't get into anything but the Masters Qualifier (which I tanked) so this year I tried to get into all the classes I didn't get to do last year.

First order of business go to the store and buy Sons of Bragg. 

Sid has posted pics of Lock and Load! Go check it out on his site!

Its been a long year, and one where I have at times had to live like a hermit, but roughly one month ago I was finally able to punch the sky and relax, it was official... BakaRyu is coming to Lock and Load!

That's right, coming to a Seattle near you from all the way across the Atlantic Ocean is one borderline sane Welshman determined to sample the American con and tourney scene at least once in his lifetime, and he figured that if he was going to pick any event, he might as well make it PP's very own con.

Having been kindly put up by Goris for a few days before the con to allow myself to get over any jet lag that I might be experiencing has allowed me to concentrate on coming to the tournaments in what will hopefully be my best form.  Those who will be interested, I shall be participating in the Masters preliminaries on the Friday, and should I fail to qualify for the finals (hopefully this won't be the case) then I shall be joining up with Goris and thegreatblah for the 3 Commanders team tournament on the Sunday.

I have picked a couple of the seminars on the Saturday in what will hopefully be a slightly more relaxed gap in the competitive tournament play, but that will not stop me from attacking the Iron Arena in my free time, especially if any new Retribution goodies are available early at the PP Store.

For the longest time I agonised for months about if I would take Trollbloods or Retribution to not only Lock and Load, but the other major tournaments for me this year (Welsh Open and UK Masters).  Eventually I settled on taking the angry elves, though if the Storm Troll and Sons of Bragg were already available then more than likely I would have taken the Trollbloods instead.

The Welsh Open is viewed as the main warm up tournament for the UK Masters, though due to the Masters being held one week early (due to the Queen's Jubilee) lists had to be submitted the day before the Welsh Open started so any last minute changes were impossible.  Regrettably I didn't have one of my better tournaments, in fact the 33rd place (out of 62) finish was my lowest tournament finish in years, though I made some basic schoolboy errors that ultimately cost me my opening two matches, mistakes that hopefully I have learned from and will not repeat on the big stage at the Masters.

Anyways this was originally a simple blog post to announce that I will be at Lock and Load and has turned into something a little bigger so I will end it here.  Hopefully I shall see you in Seattle!  Just look for the guy in the tacky orange bowler shirt with long hair and a funny accent and you won't go far wrong :)

I interrupt my series of Domination Reaction Corners to instead bring up my random musings about my plans for the competitive tournament scene in 2012.  If all goes to plan then next year will be a pretty damn busy one for me in terms of tournament play, first up there is Smogcon in February held down at my local store Firestorm Games in Cardiff, followed by the Welsh Open second weekend of May at the same venue, just two weeks after that then I have the UK Masters in Birmingham and the very next weekend I hope to wrap up the tournament schedule with a journey to Lock and Load way way across the pond over in Seattle.

Admittedly not too much is really known yet about what tournaments will be running at Smogcon and if there was any event that would have to make way due to financial reasons then this would likely be the one.

I have a personal interest in the Welsh Open, having won the event back in 2010 I lost my title to Jamie Perkins last year.  I had the joy of playing Jamie during the tournament but came away unhappy with some of the glaringly obvious mistakes I had made over the course of the match and lost rather tamely as a result.  First off I have to doff my proverbial hat to Jamie, he had a truly astounding year last year cumulating in winning the UK Masters with his Khador.  That said however, as mentioned earlier I have a personal interest in the Welsh Open and will be hoping that I can come up with the goods to take back my title :)

So after weeks (years, from a certain perspective) of waiting, the Scattergunner Unit Attachment (UA) is out at Lock & Load, and the details are in.

**Special note: we've got confirmation that there are going to be additional Epic versions of some warlocks/warcasters, so instead of using eDoomshaper for Epic Doomshaper, I'm going to start using shorthand like Doomshaper2 to avoid confusion for the future.

Highlights:


Granted: Quick Work--If a model kills something, it gets to shoot its gun.

Tactics: Combined Melee Attack (CMA)--It's in Primal if you want the details, models can get bonuses for ganging up on a target.

Tactics: Clear--Sprays don't damage friendly models.

It's an officer and Standard, so the officer is most likely +1 MAT/RAT above the rest, and the Standard has Take Up and allows CMD check rerolls as per usual.

Cost: same as the Kriel Warrior UA or a Stone Scribe Chronicler.

Really, it's a big bird

Since time is coming short and I doubt my list composition will be earth shaking I'll post one of my masters lists and give a tactical Break down of how I see it playing out on the table.

So without further ado...I bring you my eMadrak Masters list.

Points: 50/50

Madrak Ironhide, World Ender (*5pts)
* Pyre Troll (5pts)
* Troll Impaler (5pts)
* Trollkin Runebearer (2pts)
Kriel Warriors (Leader and 5 Grunts) (4pts)
* 1 Kriel Warrior Caber Thrower (1pts)
* Kriel Warrior Standard Bearer & Piper (2pts)
Krielstone Bearer and 3 Stone Scribes (3pts)
* Krielstone Stone Scribe Elder (1pts)
Pyg Burrowers (Leader and 5 Grunts) (4pts)
Trollkin Fennblades (Leader and 9 Grunts) (8pts)
* Trollkin Fennblade Officer & Drummer (2pts)
Trollkin Long Riders (Leader and 2 Grunts) (7pts)
Fell Caller Hero (3pts)
Horthol, Long Rider Hero (5pts)
Janissa Stonetide (3pts)

This list is very focused and is for specific purposes. Mostly a grind game and to deal with heavy armor. This will be my list to deal with Khador other Trolls and possibly Legion depending on what their comp might look like.

Battlegroup
Going extremely beast light here is by design. Everything in this army is a heavy hitter and very few things in this list will have a hard time hitting what they are after, Long Riders the least. The Pyre and Impaler provide the oh so need ranged support and give the list 3, 12" ranged shots if need be and a sweet damage buff. This will help Madrak for getting into the mix or throwing his axe if need be. This choice to go beast light also leaves extra points for infantry and solos which this list is chock full of.

Troops
Holy crap infantry. With the exception of Champs everything that's scary in our army exists in this list. I mean it's a solid wall of Trolls that just have to be dealt with otherwise your opponent will be eating a crap tone of weapon master charges. You do not want to mess with a pow 17 weapon master caber at MAT 9! Anyway, gushing aside we all know this has true output potential. The big thing here is it's versatility for scenario play. Kriels can be super hard to remove from an objective and under good tough rolls your opponent will be infuriated at trying to clear them off. Also, everything in this army is fast as hell. So, for the capture the flag stuff, or the take and hold on your opponents side of the board stuff, this list can handle almost all of it and Kriels give you that buffer. You could also use them as Grim Salvation fodder and just keep them back as body guards. Using the caber tossers as a conduit for Grim Salvation and loose placement of your Kriels makes eMadrak nearly impossible to kill. Overall, every pieces of infantry in this list is solid.

Solos
Standard load out. You guys know the drill. However, I left the Chronicler out for a few key reasons. I won't be using this list against gun line armies most likely. I won't need Charge of the Trolls and I only have 1 reach beast. My solos will be back line if I can help it and making sure I always have the necessary buffs. The selection is pretty strait forward.

Strategy
The strategy for this list is pretty simply jam you up with infantry and try for a big feat turn or kill my opponent with waves of infantry trying to deny them control points. Either one should work as well as you might expect. This list will not be meant to deal with faction I perceive to have too many tricks available to them. I really enjoy playing this list as my opponents struggle to address everything on the board as every piece can be deadly.

Since I'm not certain how well I'll do AND since I'm certain it won't change what others bring I have decided to post my tourney lists for Lock and Load.  My first list is pretty simple all comers list designed to be well rounded without losing a good kill condition.  The first caster I chose is the caster I have played the most with in MKII and am the most comfortable with, Grim Angus.