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04 April 2009

All Medium Based Brick... Except for Gobbers of Course.

My record with a variation of the 'Classic Brick' is decent and many have asked for my army list, strategy, and deployment. This strategy won't work for everyone but it has been working quite well for me with a win ratio of 70%. I used Vassal to illustrate my turns, obviously in a real game pieces would be dieing off each turn but you can use your imagination.

Army Composition. The whole idea behind this army is to use a large mob of medium bases to block los to everything but the front line. Here is the list I typically use using Table Top Commander.

Faction: Trollblood
Points: 750
Model Count: 40
Victory Points: 27

Madrak Ironhide
Slag Troll
Troll Impaler
Fell Caller
Trollkin Hero
Trollkin Hero
Kriel Warriors [9] (3 added)
> Kriel Warrior Standard & Piper [2]
Krielstone Bearer & Stone Scribes [6] (2 added)
> Stone Scribe Elder [1]
Trollkin Champions [5]
Trollkin Scattergunners [6] (0 added)
Gatormen Posse [3] (0 added)
Swamp Gobber Bellows Crew [2]

DEPLOYMENT - Click the pictures to see the names of where I put things.
Typically my army is divided into three groups. The main brick, The left Flank and the Right Flank.
My main Brick consists of Champions, Both Heroes, Madrak, KSB, Gobbers, the Impaler and the second beast which is a Slag or Pyre depending on what I am playing.
The left and right flanks are interchangeable, one of them includes the Gators and the Scattergunners. The other Flank is usually my Kriel Warrior Mob. The Fel Caller is usally floating between the brick and the Sacattergunner flank.

FIRST TURN
*I like to go first if I can, but if not I typically play the turns the same way.
My flank with Kriel Warriors mostly Runs and the War Shaman gives them two more inches. About four of them and the Standard should get about twelve inches out and spread out and here is where the Standard usually uses his mini-feat, the rest of them conga line back so the War shaman and piper are way back.
*The Scattergunner flank also runs but conga-lines back more with the Gators outside of them. The Gator Bokur's abilities are not special actions so don't foget to use them, typically the swamp happens early game. Use terrain to help protect this side of the army to get into a good position to attack.
*The main Brick runs but not their full distance usually I line them up with whatever gap of terrain they can get through the easiest. Typcially the Champ front line goes about seven inches and gets into a V-formation. Madrak moves up next dumping all his fury on the Kriel Stone. Kriel Stone gets right up next to Madrak and the Scribes spread back usualy with the Elder Scribe one Scribe away from the stone and in the back of the brick the Aura is +2ARM here usually unless I am playing Menoth or Cryx then it is the no continuous effects and you can't move me aura. Heroes go on each end of the front line and the beasts hide in and behind them. Gobbers pick a side and drop the smoke cloud up front OR hit the Champs with concealment.

SECOND TURN
*By this turn things should have started dieing, probably Kriel Warriors but they are a speed bump anyway. If the KW can kill something then great, if not their goal is to tie up whatever possible likely running to engage. Kill whatever flankers you can with your own flankers and start to move them in to hit the sides of whatever your Champs are zeroing in on. Scattergunners are effective at clearing out a lot of models and the Gators will take out most nasty flanking solos. The Fel Caller should be close enough to hit the Scattergunners with Pathfinder or War Cry if necessary.
*The main brick moves on up, get a Pyre, Impaler, or Madrak ranged attack off if you can. The Pyre is a good damage buffer here. Madrak casts Surefoot and the KSB will do the previous aura unless your Champs are already engaged then it becomes +2 Str. This turn and the next you want the Champs to take the most hits if they are hitting the center of your army. Hero's being back a little make spectacular counter-chargers and it allows your beasts to hang back to use their ranged and support a bit longer. Scribes are not there for decoration if anything does slip in between a flank like a Pistol Wraith then Scribes and beasts have to deal with them.

END GAME
So by this point your flankers are either dead or hitting them from the sides. There should be some dead Champs and maybe even a hero. For the KSB the +2 Str aura is the name of the game here. Once you are in melee Crusher becomes fantastic with Heroes. Crit Slams with the Imapler are fantastic and start looking at something in the Front line that the Pyre can either throw into them OR throw back to Madrak and the Impaler to kill. After four turns the game should be coming to a close and you should be looking for a caster kill if possible, but more likely you are trying to finish off your opponents biggest damage dealers. The brick is better at killing everything on the table than it is at assassinations all your medium bases make it just as hard to get to Madrak as it does for Madrak to get to them. This is a good thing, Madrak should only enter the Fray when he is ending the game or he will likely get killed.

That is it, not a terribly hard style to master playing, personally I find the addition of the Hero and Elder Stone Scribe fantastic for the brick. So tell me what you guys think and feel free to critique and/or ask questions.

8 comments:

  1. Hmm... now my question is, can you give your unit a run order and still use the mini-feat? Hmm indeed.

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  2. Yes, mini-feat is not a special action just an once per game ability.

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  3. Just wondering because your caster can't run and feat. It would make sense that your units couldn't either.

    Guess that's why they have to re-do the rules so stuff doesn't contradict like that.

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  4. Well if so I have been playing him wrong for some time.

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  5. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  6. Hey man, just drop me an email and I'll send you the code to that table

    ray(dot)guimond(at)gmail(dot)com

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  7. oh good lord! I just found the gobber errata because I couldn't understand how you were placing the cloud so far from them. Yayyy, their usefulness just went through the roof :)

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  8. Yessir, gobbers are fantastic

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