30 March 2009

Outcast Trolls - Hoarluk Doomshaper

Okay its true, I am a sheep sometimes. The idea however is sound. In the spirit of CerealJon and I's upcoming wednesday night battle I will be fielding some of the biggest outcasts of the outcast army. Visit the Trollblood forums at Privateer Press you will almost immediately find out a few things most Troll players just plain don't like. Here are some of the highlights.

Hoarluk Doomshaper
Not the epic one, but the regular old codger himself. Until recently the only Fury 7 caster in the Trollblood arsenal, full of potential he fails miserably. Simply stated his very very low Def and Arm are the reason. And even though his epic version has the same stats, the regular version of him is not nearly as offense minded as his epic self. Troll buffage can get Doomy's armor up pretty high, but it takes alot of points and work and situation to get it there making it difficult to do and unreliable to pull off.
STATS -
Bad Bad, terribad, okay the 7 fury is nice.
FEAT - Dhunia's Rage
You cast a spell or use focus/fury, you take damage.
WEAPON - GNARLROOT
Actually a pretty danged good weapon, one free upkeep per turn AND hits harder for every focus on it. Problem is if rDoomy is in melee he is probably dead already.
SPECIAL ABILITIES -
Scroll of the Will of Balasar - Make enemy beasts that frenzy attack what you want them to.
Calming Effect - Friendly Beasts don't hurt the good guys when they Frenzy.
Tough - Well duh! He is Troll therefore he is tough.
SPELLS -
Accursed - Damage with this one and they have to lose their movement or activation.
Fortune - Reroll missed attack rolls, or made attack rolls.
Dissolution - Enemy upkeep spells begone AND your screwed for having one on you.
Rampager - Force a Threshold check on enemy beasts before they leech and have to check again.
Vexation - Choose whether the model/unit hit activates first or last.
SUMMARY -
He looks good, he really does, but he dies soooooo easy.

Coming soon... Trollkin Thumper Crew.

Trollblood Outcasts.

Hoarluk Doomshaper
Winter Troll
Thumper Crew
Bushwakers
Scattergunners
Chronicler

And my likely list for Wednesday night.
Faction: Trollblood
Points: 743
Model Count: 39
Victory Points: 27

Hoarluk Doomshaper
Pyre Troll
Troll Bouncer
Winter Troll
Fell Caller
Trollkin Hero
Krielstone Bearer & Stone Scribes [4] (0 added)
> Stone Scribe Elder [1]
Pyg Burrowers [6] (0 added)
Pyg Bushwackers [6] (0 added)
Thumper Crew [3]
Trollkin Champions [5]
Trollkin Scattergunners [6] (0 added)
Swamp Gobber Bellows Crew [2]

27 March 2009

This Just In... Impaler Wins Again.

So the polls have been up long enough and if you didn't already know it, the IMPALER is the most hated of Troll light Beasts. The Earthborn beat the Mauler barely, but I think that has more to do with there being more Warmachine players voting. So without much Further Ado, here is my Impaler synopsis.

Trollkin Impaler- paint by Paul
Best light beast/jack in the game... probably.

STATS
For a light his stats are, well... average. With boosts his RAT is decent, and you will always boost to hit when doing a ranged attack with him, with aiming you will be hitting 17's on average. I can handle that. The Rest of his stats also remain average but do not fret, his ranged attack and animus more than make up for it.

WEAPONS
BATTLE SPEAR - The Impaler is good in melee, decent PS and reach give him more versatility than other troll lights other than the Bouncer. Since his ranged attack is so good people often forget that he gets the job done so well in melee.
THROWN SPEAR - This my friends is half of what makes the Impaler so dang good. His Thrown Spear has an awesome critical slam ability. And since it isn't a melee attack you can even roll things that can't be slammed like say a Khadoran Behemoth. Even though his PS isn't awesome it's a throw, that means you get to add in his STR to the POW of the spear when he throws, most ranged attacks have a fixed POW and cannot be buffed. With Troll buffs you can get him to an 18, which is downright spectacular for a thrown/ranged attack. His range of only 8, looks bad at first until you see his animus.

ANIMUS - FARSTRIKE
So the Impaler looks down the shaft of his spear, bends it a little and it now goes four inches farther. This is the other half of why the Impaler is so awesome. Best part about his animus, the Impaler can use it on anything in his army, not just Trollkin. Alten Ashley can now take out a whole spiral of a Hordes beast from as good a distance Cygnar's Black 13th Gun Mage Strike Team. Borka's Bomb, Madrak's Ricochet, Grim's Gun, and even Grissel's Hand Cannon now have respectable range.

SPECIAL ABILITIES - REGENERATION
Force once and get D3 back. Yup all Troll Beasts can do it. When Whelps come out Troll Beasts are getting even harder to kill.

USE IN THE FIELD
Throw as often as possible, and ALWAYS boost to hit. Crit Slam is just that good, plus Farstrike is spectacular for Trolls because our range is so bad. Often I use all three of the Impaler's Fury to cast Farstrike and then boost to hit. Counter-Charge is one of the Impaler's secondary roles and he fulfills it nicely. It's hard to remember that the Imp is worth anything in Melee, but if he gets tied up in melee he can be effective.

25 March 2009

Epic Doomshaper Wins his Debut Match!

Hoarluk Doomshaper, Rage of Dhunia. So I beat the Teleporting Cygnar caster on my second turn in a 750pt pickup game with eDoomy's feat and a Bonded Mauler with a STR 15 Throwing a handful of Storm Knights at the caster killing him with the third toss (Goad here is fantastic). Also the first throw needed boxcars to hit and happened to hit, next time I throw my Kriels for a better chance to hit when I miss. Question is, is eDoomy a one-trick pony like the Borka Bomb? I'd say, you play him SUPER agressive, because he is dead if they attack him.

Second game was a 350 point game with Borka against Menoth.
The dice gods smiled down upon me again when on turn two his Ashes to Ashes spell missed with snake eyes. Since I couldn't shoot him my Impaler with rage on it charged his arcnode jack with the push-back shield and took out the shield on the first hit and the arcnode on the second hit. Sensing his demise he tried to take out Borka but his 17 armor was too much for the auto-hitting redeemer rockets due to some low boosted damage rolls. My Raged, Beer-ed up Borka, charged his caster and ended him in one hit with PS18+4D6.

All in all a good night for the Trolls. I'll post better reports tomorrow since my blurry eyes need sleep.

24 March 2009

Hoarluk Doomshaper, Rage of Dhunia

Dude, he cut off his own HAND!!!

The now epic Doomshaper has finally been assembled and ready to hit the gaming table this wednesday night so it feels like time for a rundown.

So as far as the story goes, some of the Troll elders don't like the way Old Doomy is doing things, I mean, he killed a hospitol train full of Cygnarians for crying out loud. So they set him up to be captured by Cygnar. What they didn't know is that becuase he cut off his own hand to make friends with Mulg he regenerates like a Dire Troll and is friends with the biggest meanest trolls around. Cygnar catches Doomy, break his staff Gnarlroot, and throw him in dungeon. Madrak and Borka find out Doomy is captured and go to save him only to find out that Mulg and a mess of other Dires beat him to the punch. So now Doomy, Madrak and Borka are out to make someone pay while Grissel, Grim and Calandra keep the rest of the Trolls safe...

STATS
Okay his stats, they blow, other than his Fury 7 he is baaad. Protect him or he will die to a stiff breeze. Which is odd since he is supposed to be awesome sauce, but I guess he is rather old so there it is.

WEAPON
Willbreaker is awesome against Hordes players. Bonk their beast on the head, take it over, beat them with their own beasts. When yer done with that Doomy finishes whatever he was doing.

FEAT - Scroll of Grimmar
Doomy and his Dires get double speed for one turn. Yeap a Dire Troll missle is coming your way.

ABILITIES
Calming Effect - Run your beasts hot, they'll go after enemies even if they frenzy.
Goad - Beast kills an enemy and can be forced to move 2". Caster hiding behind a trooper, just eat the trooper first and move on up.
Hyper Regeneration - Doomy gets D3 back each turn, though if Doomy is getting hit chances are he won't be living long.
Tough - I am Troll therfore I am tough.
Warbeast Bond - All one of your Dire Trolls attacks can be power attacks (no Tramples, Slams, or Charges) So one good use for this. Buff a Dire to STR 17 and start throwing Pygmies at your enemies. Thats a 9" plus the base size POW 17 ranged attack.

SPELLS
Agitation - Add fury to enemy beasts. Aww you can't transfer damage anymore because your beasts are full.
Mayhem - Free Charge +5, not as good as Rush, but still pretty good.
Mob Mentality - Units need more movement too, hit an enemy with this and your troops move toward it.
Primal Shock - It isn't as good as an arcnode, but from a Dire its a POW 12 blast and Doomy can use it three times a turn.
Sunder Spirit - I take your animus for a round... yeap I own it.

SYNOPSIS
Still squishy as heck, but aggressive like crazy. He is definetly stonger against Hordes, but can still lay it down against Warmachine. We will see how much I like him once he hits the table.

Epic Doomshaper on Battle College

20 March 2009

Trolls vs Cryx... King of the HIll

So after some debate, and once we found out our game affected the top three more than we thought, we decided to make time for a game. No matter how much we pissed off our wives!

Seeing as how I was already playing a losing battle (that's how I always feel about Cryx) I decided to bring my brick and try for a scenario win. King of the Hill was the scenario rolled and my Trolls got to go first.

Trolls Turn 1 - My Kriel Warriors open up first, Fel Called for Open Road they run and spread out right for the hill, with In-Step from the piper and 2" from the Shaman three of them make the hill on the first turn, banner dude mini-feats for tough on 4-6. My brick advances up behind them with my Scattergunners on the right and my Gators on the left. Score one point for Trolls.

Cryx Turn 1 - He runs his arcnode up to the hill base and proceeds to fry the Kreils on the hill, two of them tough roll, he also picks off a few more of the front line. He runs with his Biles and jacks to get to the hill leaving one bile next to the hill. His Banes and another arcnode move up towards the flank side the Gators are on and he his done. Giving me another point he is confident I will die a horrible death long before I can score more than three points. Thats the way our games often go. Score Trolls another point.

Trolls Turn 2 - Kriels again run their faces off to tie up as much of his Biles as I can leaving a Kriel that had to stand up, the Piper and the Shaman on the front of the hill. The Brick advances to the hill and half of it makes it there, with Surefoot, Gobber smoke, and the no continous effects aura I hoped to survive as this turn would prove costly for me, my Slag Troll does manage to take out his front arcnode though. The Scattergunners move in on the Biles but only two of them are in range to die from sprays. The Gators move up to try and keep the Bane Knights away from the Brick. At this point my only hope is to clog up the hill long enough to score five points before he kills everything I have and/or my caster. Score Point Three for Trolls.

Cryx Turn 2 - Trollblood slaughter commenced, between a crap-load of purging and arced spells my Kriels were pretty much done, somehow the Banner survives the onslought with some lucky tough rolls but was the only one left in that unit. One Champion Dead, a couple of dead Scribes, one Hero half dead, and two Scattergunners running to the Fel Caller for help... it was brutal. One of his jacks also makes the hill, his Bane Knights destroy my over-extended Gators and Tartarus gets into position. With a couple tough rolls I had hoped to have more on the hill but did not. Score Point one for Cryx.

Trolls Turn 3 - Impaler gets a lucky Critslam pushing the jack off the hill opening him up for the Slag Troll, no longer needing to boost to hit melts it. My Brick moves up and tries to clog up the hill with every model available forcing him to kill them and take their places to get points... which he could easily do. Score point 4 for Trolls.

Cryx Turn 3 - He feats, I am screwed. One Hero dies, 3 more Champs die, the Fel Caller dies, the Slag Troll dies, The Impaler has 4 health left, all the Scribes die, the Elder tough rolls and the Stone is still up. When it was all said and done. I had one less on the hill than him and Feel, VERY VERY DEAD!!! Score point Two for Cryx.

Trolls Turn 4 - I only need one more point to win and have only one chance to pull it off, I move up my remaining Champ, Madrak, the last remaining Scattergunner, and the Impaler onto the hill, the Impaler can't hit the broad side of a barn, Madrak feats and the Hero proves to be the Hero of the game... He was buffed quite well from all those dieing Champions and could actually hit something. Tartarus dies to the Hero and so does his arcnode and his last jack and BK then dies horribly to a shift. I now have one model left on the hill more than he does and so end my turn. Trolls 5 Cryx 2. One Turn longer and Every single model on the table that smelled like a Troll would be dead dead dead.

Trolls win, barely, Luck and Tough rolls were the only thing that gave it to me... As usual Geoff decimated me and he had half his army left alive, he has my number for sure.

Battle Pictures to come

14 March 2009

How a Troll Assassinates a Master Assassin... You Don't

Lord Assassin Morghoul on Battle College

The Killing Fields scenario vs Lord Assassin Morghoul. It seemed my best chance to avoid being killed outright was the bring my high model count 'Modified Brick' and clog my caster with medium bases. Using Surefoot and the KSB aura that ruins blast damage my caster would seem safe.

Turn 1 starts with Trolls, The plan was to camp my main force on the center point and make her split her army to go for each side if she wanted to get points. My Kriels ran up the right side and mini-feated and used In-Step to get as close to the point on the right as possible and survive the Ferox charge if possible. The left side of the board had my Scattergunners and min unit of Gatormen running to that point. The center point was ran to by my Champs, rMadrak, the KSB and SSE, Slag, Impaler, Fel Caller, and Hero Pair. Skornes turn the Ferox goes for my Kriels and her main force moves up on the brick without attacking.

Turn 2 my Kriels grab the right point and run again to tie up as much of the opponent into melee as possible prevent that side of her force form being able to advance, the also scored the first kill on a combined melee against the Totem Hunter. My Brick lands on the center point Gobbers smoke up, Madrak Surefooted and camps there. The Gators and SG get the left side and prepare to flank. My turn ends with three points scored. Her turn ends with a couple dead Kriels and some Ferox and Certari who cant get the right side point because they had to kill Kriels. The Canoneer takes out a Kriel as well and her cyclops shadow walks up to the Fel Caller killing it... almost, yep we love tough. The Gladiator does the same thing on the left side one shotting one of my Heros. Agonizer out of range to hurt my beasts and Morghoul moves up to setup his assassination run for the next turn, then feats hitting my front line of Champs meaning they will for sure Camp that point on their next turn because if they move they can't attack anyway. Her turn ends zero points.

Turn 3 I give up on the right side and use my remaining Kriels to tie up the Agonizer. Main Brick sits on the middle point but I change the aura to +2 Str. The Slag moves up and hurt the Gladiator a bit to set him up for a charge from the Gators who subsequently kill him. The Scattergunners move up and shoot a few killing a couple of her support models. The Gobbers move over and take the left side point and my turn ends scoring two more points. Her turn ends up with the assassination attempt on Madrak as there was no way she was going to get enough points to win, lucky for me there wasn't quite enough space for her to fit so the other Hero bites it instead. Knowing that was her last chance she ends her turn so I can take my Turn 4 and win scoring two more pints.

Hoorah victory for the Trolls!!!

On a side note, Grim also ran a stinky Menite off the table in a pickup game earlier today.
All in all a good day for the Trolls.

Grand Exemplar Kreoss on Battle College

10 March 2009

How a Troll Assassinates a Master Assassin...


Paint by Marie
Round Three pairing for the tourney at my local Leagues and who is it that the Trolls have to beat down? Lord Assassin Morghoul!!! Skorne v Trolls is always an epic matchup, one of my buddies started on Skorne about the same time my Troll army began its plight so the Skorne army is no mystery. Trolls can handle everything Skorne has except for one minor detail. Lord Assassin Morghoul is quite capable of assassinating any caster he wishes... so this begs the question. How does a Troll assassinate a master assassin?

I'm working on a strategy to not only survive the Inevitable attempt at my life from a DEF 17 caster that won't let me have tough or transfer damage. Something outside of the box most likely, something CerealJon is intimately familiar with because he has been victim of it. It's a long shot, but will be glorious.

Battle Report and strategy to come... wish me luck.
Skorne on Battle College
Lord Assassin Morghoul on BC

09 March 2009

Trollblood Trample.

paint by myself.
Okay, if you play Trolls you know how painful a mass of infantry can be. The biggest obstacle for Trolls is how to efficiently clear out infantry without committing to much effort to do it. Problem for Trolls is that we lack any semblance of credible ranged Threat outside an Impaler, Grim, and Grissel. So how does a Troll army kill a mass of Infantry... Trample them under your feet brothers.

Trample as defined by Battle College
Trample is a warjack/warbeast special attack which allows it to perform melee attacks against multiple infantry in it's path. It is useful to break up formations of troops and take out large quantities of lightly armored infantry in a single turn. Warjacks require a focus point to trample, and warbeasts must be forced. Only heavy warjacks or warbeasts may perform trample attacks. It is an option which needs to be used with some care however, as the 'jack/'beast is unintuitively quite vulnerable during the trample attempt, and it's entirely possible for it to end up wrecked/dead at the end of the action if its targets are not chosen carefully.
For details on how to Trample see Primal p.49


Now don't get me wrong, Trample, is NOT a cure-all tactic and can be dangerous for your heavies lifestyle if not attempted under the right circumstances. Trolls on the other hand are uniquely situated for Trample and here is why... SNACKING. Yup you missed one of those buggers and they take a free strike, no problem you just eat his friends on your way by. My favorite Trample combo is Grim Angus and the Earthborn Dire Troll. Grim for his spell 'Lock The Target' and the Earthborn for his superior movement to all our other Dires.

Most Dangerous Trample to Date - EBDT killing 13 Bane Knights and surviving.
Most Successful Trample to Date - Blizter taking out a whole unit of Longgunners and ending his movement at the feet of the Black 13 boosting for more attacks, killing Ryan and hurting another with FULL health when said and done.

07 March 2009

Madrak Ironhide... Oldy and Goodie!

Picture Courtesy of Battle College

My favorite caster, non-Epic, good ole boy, Madrak. There is a lot of hate for his favored play style coined, "The Brick" but I love it. With the advent of new models from Metamorphasis the brick is better than ever.

Here are a couple write ups on my favorite caster from the forums at Privateer Press and Battle College. Both of them are older and in the interest avoiding redundancy I will post some of my own Favorite Combination with him and leave some of what has already been done alone.

First of all here is my latest BRICK list 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]

Some might wonder about my lack of beasts, but with my Play style I use them strictly for support until they are absolutely needed into the Fray. Usually there is at least one Impaler and some other Ranged light depending on if I Play against Warmachine(Slag Troll) or Hordes(Pyre Troll). Of note with rMadrak since the newest release is the Stone Scribe Elder and the Hero.

The Elder brings versatility to the Brick, which is an otherwise very one-dimensional way to play, and he helps with survivability against armies with lots of blast damage and continuous effects like Cryx and Menoth. The Elder also extends the KSB protective Aura to a Maximum of 11" though it takes Madrak two turns of dumping fury on the KSB, he will still have enough left for Surefoot by Turn 2.

The Hero on the other hand, is tailor made for the Brick and Madrak's Feat 'Crusher'. Even without a couple of deaths by Champions, this guy will almost always surprise your opponent by striking out from the Brick to go kill something. Bringing two Heros just gives you two waves of killing goodness. Plus with Reach and Crusher he can wade through your enemies, making it so Madrak and the Fel Callers can stay back in the Brick to Finish things off.

Don't know what a brick is, BC Brick, PP Brick

06 March 2009

It Begins...

Inspired by McCryx and CerealJon I have begun my very own blog about my table top gaming experience. It all started a little over a year ago when I walked into Phoenix Games and saw the shop owner play-testing Hordes and Warmachine from Privateer Press Nedless to say I was almost instantly hooked. Knowing little about the game I tried to pick up a faction that was the least popular, just so I could have some different from the rest of the players from my local area. Many of them play Warmachine and the new Hordes players had picked up every faction but Trolls, and so it began. With much tolerance from my wife, even support, and a lucky pickup from a friend my Troll army began its journey. Quickly Trolls and I fit together like a glove, they are like Rugby playing, beer drinking, Kilt wearing, maniacs, with little fear of much, and a willingness to throw themselves into the fray with reckless abandon. Trolls as a faction are wonderful, they are the jack of all trades and master of none, with the ability to take a hit on the nose and then swing back. With larger models than most armies they are typically outnumbered when the model count hits the table. Not the hardest hitters or the fastest, they are capable of supporting each other in a way only Menoth can compare with. Even the most average unit in Trolls can easily be turned into a force to be feared with just a little help from a few models. And so, I will report here the goings on with my Trolls with reference to McCryx and Jon so as to not be redundant.