29 April 2009

No Gaming tonight...

So due to the ending of the semester and a pregnant wife with finals there is no gaming tonight. Hopefully my local buddies will take pity on me and get a Saturday morning game in.

23 April 2009

Mulg Shines in Debut Match... Army loses anyway.


Yup, Mulg hits like a truck and his low speed didn't slow him down at all. Those danged cheeky Circle weenies got me becuase I failed my caster kill run. Mulg killed two heavies in one row and that is pretty danged impressive. All quiet on the wetern front for battle reports, but on a related note Fiona the Black also lost her debut match in MKII against Menoth.

Yup game 100 could have been momentus, it ended up Circling the Drain (pun intended)

20 April 2009

Trolls record Game 100!!!

MKII rules can be forcibly held underwater this week. My 100th game on record and Mulg's first time to hit the tables will be done 'Old School' this Wednesday night. I guess we will have to perform CPR to revive MKII for next week... we shall see.

15 April 2009

350 T&C Borka vs Saeryn

"I will feed you to my Angelius for your insolence Troll!" the witch said, her obvious disdain for Borka almost intimidated him... almost.

For all the marbles and my first chance at being a tourney victor was against Saeryn and Legion of Everblight. The map was a pretty straightforward map with a few small elevated hills and no rough terrain. My list

Faction: Trollblood
Points: 330
Model Count: 5
Victory Points: 12

Borka Kegslayer
> Pyg Keg Carrier
Slag Troll
Troll Impaler
Dire Troll Mauler

his list

Faction: Legion of Everblight
Points: 343
Model Count: 6
Victory Points: 13

Saeryn, Omen of Everblight
Shredder
Shredder
Shredder
Seraph
Angelius

Being an all medium or large-based army the Angelius has always posed a significant threat to me. I was reasonably certain I could deal with everything else and if his caster got too close I'd have been able to toast her.

Turn 1 Trolls - I run but not my full distance, trying to get off the first attack. Borka casts mosh pit and plans to Bum Rush himself for the rest of the fight.
Turn 1 Legion - He plays more conservative than I thought advancing in a similar manner to myself with his Angelius in front of his caster on one side his Seraph on the other and shredders spread out from the middle to each flank. Casting the resurrection spell on the Angelius

Turn 2 Trolls - Impaler moves up to try and Critslam the Angelius over Saeryn... missing horribly to bad as a KDed Saeryn would have been extremely vulnerable to a flying Borka. Slag has luck hitting but not enough damage to do much.
Turn 2 Legion - Seraph spam rolls a 5 and he proceeds to dish out minimal damage to my Slag. The Impaler takes a good hit though. He feats and moves up some shredders into good counter-charge positions. Not being able to melee attack him was just rude.

"Comon boys, if you can't hit sober then get some ale in ya," Borka's voice clearly rang in the night air. Saeryn just chuckled as Borka found that neither he or his army was able to advance.

Turn 3 Trolls - Not being able to hit I try my hand at some ranged attacks not doing much... again. In order to keep the Impaler alive I move the Slag up by the Angelius and a Ravager taking away their charges. Impaler is back further but also chargeable by some shredders but Borka and the Mauler are comfortably back from anything but a Seraph Spam attack. Upkeep mosh pit, and bum rush Borka.
Turn 3 Legion - He bites on the Slag Troll sending in the Ravager first. It hits but doesn't take out a spiral, then gets pushed back from mosh pit and gets promptly killed. Then the Angelius moves up on the Slag killing it in one hit. Realizing the Impaler has reach a Ravager charges it and nearly kills it leaving it with about six health, mosh pit does nothing. Searaph spams but is unable to finish off the Impaler only doing three more damage to it. Final shredder moves up for a counter-charge and gets Bum Rushed by Borka hurting it bad but not killing it.

Turn 4 Trolls - Not knowing what to do with an Angelius I can't kill I decided to try and get rid of the rest of his army. Kenny LQ's Borka and then he feats, Slamming the shredder over into his pal in front of the Impaler killing one and knocking down the other. He then turns on the Seraph who is in range and kills it in a few hits. Borka's high MAT is making him about the only thing in my army able to hit the danged Blighted crap heads. Impaler being able to throw because of the downed shredder finally hits on the Angelius pushing it back four inches and knocking it down as well. Mauler moves up to block LOS to Borka.
Turn 4 Legion - Having both his beasts KD he knows how sqishy his caster can be so he moves her back runs the shredder into melee with the mauler to prevent him from charging and uses the Angelius to blast the Mauler with a ranged attack. Impaler wiffs on the Freestrike and the shredder is in the Mauler's back arc so no mosh pit.

Turn 5 Trolls - Borka moves up and kills the Shredder, Mauler Rages and moves in on the Angelius and Weapon locks its tail with an excellent boosted to hit roll. Saeryn too far away to hit with the Impaler the Impaler tries to block LOS to Borka again.

Glaring at Borka Saeryn is taken aback at the intelligence posed by an otherwise stupid looking, albeit gigantic Troll. "Aye, see Gug, with enough ale even a Mauler can be smart," Borka chuckles.

Turn 5 Legion - A STR 10 Angelius has no chance at all to break a weapon lock against a raged Mauler so he shoots his Angelius with Blight or something, only hitting the Mauler for three.

Turn 6 Trolls - Mauler realeases the Lock and tries to kill the Angelius the first time hoping Borka or the Impaler can finish it off when it respawns. Boosting to hit each time he hits thrice and kills it outright. It respawns three inches away so the Impaler throws at it but only doing one damage. Borka moves in a uses cooler and not only hits but Crit-hits making it stationary, which is good because he did only one more damage to it.
Turn 6 Legion - He is pretty upset at my antics against his Angelius taking it out of the fight three turns in a row but is still out of position to kill anything with his caster. So he recasts the Respawn spell and moves back.

Turn 7 Trolls - you may ask why I didn't go for his caster at all. Its becuase at 16 Def I had a much better chance at just killing his beasts. Which I did with a charging Mauler and then a LQed Borka.

Seeing her last beast fall, Saeryn flees the battlefield leaving the same stone Borka was looking for on the ground behind her. Underestimating her opponent is not a mistake she will make a second time when she faces those ugly drinking beasts.
(storytelling in the battlereports is something I am bad at, but it looks so good over at Losthemisphere I had to try it.)

My first tournament win against a good Cryx and two good Legion players was very rewarding indeed. First prize = very discounted paint job on my newly aquired Mulg from the best painter in the shop (the shop owner's wife)

14 April 2009

Borka's Bomb. (Trying my hand at storytelling a preview to tomorrow nights finals)

Borka had come to realize that Madrak must have duped him into going after the old stone, he would have to give old Ironhide more credit next time they got in a fight. He couldn't complain of course, it had been eventful to say the least. Borka had seen a handful of casters with small contingints of Warjacks or Beasts.

Madrak must have known Borka would get the action he so clearly craved...

"That pale skinned, cursed Troll is becoming as wiley as an elder shaman... I'll have to buy him a drink," Borka said to the Pyg next to him who was once again bathing in the beer he was supposed to be carrying. At least Borka got to bring his favorite Impaler Gug, but the Mauler and Slag Troll belonged to Madrak and it seemed they were two of the dumbest Trolls he had ever had the opportunity to drink with.

His opinion was fast changing of those two though. His first direct encounter was with a Warwitch from Cryx, and though Gug had a spectacular shot taking out the witch's Jack that she used to bounce spells at him, he had nearly paid for it with his life at the hands of one of those wretched mechanical worms. Borka's rage and greif at losing Gug was short lived though as the Slag Troll of his own initiative walked right up to the worm and broke it clean in half. Borka saw the Cryxian whore smile and wished he was close enough to smash her head in with Trauma. Briefly remembering something Madrak said about flying lessons must have gone accross his bond to the Mauler who promtly picked up Borka and sent him sailing in her direction. Laughing at his sudden turn of fortune Borka caved in her skull. He turned to see the Pyg handing some food to Gug nursing a beer, his bond to Borka reappaering, "Good idea Gug, I'll have one too."

No sooner had the Pyg sat back down to bathe in Borka's beer then they heard the growling of Ravagers. Drinking down the last few drops he used his link to tell his beasts to group up as the Seraph began hitting them with its Blight Strike. "Gug that Carnivean is too far away," Borka said, but Gug just looked down the shaft of his spear and bent it a little before sticking it Roman style into the Carni sending it flying back. The Mauler jumped in front of Borka without hesitation taking the first few hits from the Ravagers and prepared to catch the Canivean. Feeling the Rage of the Mauler seep through the bond and his courage bouyant from the aid of the Pyg, Borka looked over at the Slag Troll, it nodded and lifted Borka off the ground. Borka rolled to his feet and in one motion charged past a Ravager and bringing Trauma to bear against what looked to be Ogrun... or at least it used to be. Even dazed from bearing the brunt of the attack the twisted Ogrun nearly made Borka pay the price for not finishing him when he had the chance... but Troll Blood is tougher than others. One more swing put the ugly Ogrun down for good.

Celebrating not one, but two victories this day Borka drank to his good fortune and vowed once again that he owed Madrak a drink for getting him the fights he'd been looking for. "Get out of my beer you stinking Pyg and pour me another drink," Borka chuckled, this Keg Carrier was unique and had lived longer than most of his Keg Carriers of past battles. After a few hours of rest and heavy drinking a sharp warning came accross the bond from Gug, his excitement at the prospect of more Ravager meat for dinner was clear.

Borka's roar was barely distinguishable from that of the Mauler as he welcomed the sight of more Everblight fools, this time a competent looking female standing over the remains of a heavily armored Cynarian.

11 April 2009

Mercs and MKII


So here's the deal, Mercs, they aren't fantastic in MKI and they look like they have stayed that way in MKII. Being a Troll player and looking for a second faction, Broadsides Bart immediately caught my attention for one reason only. With the right Merc jacks Bart can lay down some serious ranged AOE action, Troll can do nothing of the sort, so Bart became my second army. Honestly, the whole Focus thing always messes me up, Fury really is much easier to deal with. So I dusted off my Merc army for some MKII playtesting yesterday. Both armies looked something like this

Bart
Mule
Mariner
Mariner
Solos and other Crap.

The first game went pretty good actually, I played against Menoth at 25 points and cleared out most of his stuff pretty easily, except the danged Avatar. Now you would think that two Mariners and a Mule could take on the Avatar... needless to say in this game they couldn't. The Avatar rolled three sixes on damage on a charge, then on two more bought attacks rolled boxcars BOTH times. Yeap thats right SEVEN sixes in a row for damage on dice plus 3 or so kills two Merc heavies pretty quickly.

The Second game didn't go much better but largely due to mistakes and not knowing my Mercs as well as I do Trolls. You can find that battle report over at HaleyCasstsTBYouLose

So my initial reaction to MKII is this.
Jacks are indeed much better.
Units and Solos haven't changed much except because Jacks are that much better, the units and solos die much more easy.
AOE's aren't what they used to be. With the new unit formation rules it is much harder to catch too many guys in a 3" AOE, 4" or 5" gets more but they are no longer devastating. Most units that bunch up now have high armor.
Merc Breakdown, from what I played
Broadsides Bart - Lost a spell nobody ever used and stayed otherwise dang good. GRAVY!
MARINER - I'll miss the reach, but with Thresher changing I can see why it has gone increased RAT by one makes a huge difference.
MULE -Crit is cleaned up and much faster to figure out, but it loses some effectiveness for it. Reach is actually pretty nice on him.
I tried out Boomhowler and found him to be almost exactly like Kriel Warrios with their own Fel Caller and a really bad ranged attack. The Fel Call to force the command check and lower Jack stats is pretty nice.

So Fiona looks wicked good, purchasing her has become a priority and Searforge is getting more appealing too. MKII is definetly streamlined and faster but it feels like something is missing. I'll have to get a few more games under my belt with the new rules before I decide.

Only two games played with my Merc army and already my Trolls feel lonely.

08 April 2009

Tooth & Claw/Mangled Metal Tourney.

For this tourney I opted for the Borka Bomb instead of my usual Grim list. The list I brought was;
Faction: Trollblood
Points: 330
Model Count: 5
Victory Points: 12

Borka Kegslayer
> Pyg Keg Carrier
Slag Troll
Troll Impaler
Dire Troll Mauler

Our leagues is used to seeing Grim and rMadrak, most of them have heard of the Borka Bomb but never seen it. Figured it was time to give it the old college try.

ROUND 1 - CRYX

So first round I got paired against Tremshaun from Misc.BrainPurge. I think he Brought;
Faction: Cryx
Points: 350
Model Count: 4
Victory Points: 12

Warwitch Deneghra
> Cankerworm
> Defiler
> Deathjack

TURN 1 - This board was the forest board featuring three forests and some high grass. He moves up with the Cankerworm on one side in the forest the DJ on the other side and the Arcnode in the middle. My turn I advance up Farstrike and boost hitting the Arnode for 9 damage taking out the node.





TURN 2 - Cankerworm pretty much finishes the Impaler who was out front but his caster moved up to deliver the finishing blow. My turn LQ and Rage Borka, Mauler tosses him at the Arcnode, Borka then Charges his caster and kills it in one hit. So in a game this small the Borka Bomb was much easier to pull off than I thought, but with such a low model count there just wasn't enough to get in the way.

ROUND 2 - Legion of Everblight Championed by Jefferson.
He brought
Faction: Legion of Everblight
Points: 347
Model Count: 6
Victory Points: 13

Thagrosh, Prophet of Everblight
Shredder
Shredder
Shredder
Seraph
Carnivean

For me Legion is hard for all the same reasons. This game turned out to be a bit harder only because he is soo much quicker than me and hits just as hard. This game I got to go first this board had lots of blocking terrain.
Turn 1 - I run up to some blocking terrain and sit back. He moves up into excellent counter-charge range and stops.
Turn 2 - I stay pretty much where I was but throw with the Impaler Crit-Slamming the Carnivean back. His turn the Seraph moves up and shoots me alot but doing little damage past the initial hit to the Mauler. A Turkey runs to engage the Impaler.





Turn 3 - Mauler attacks Seraph and hurts it good but misses the chain attack. Slag hangs back with bum rush on and Imp stabs the turkey. His turn the Seraph flies over to try and shoot Borka but the Slag Bum Rushes him. Carni and Turkey attack Mauler nearly killing him Thagrash moves up a bit to keep his beasts in his control area.
Turn 4 - Mauler engaged by the Cani casts rage on Borka after the Keg carrier LQs him. Slag takes a free strike from the Seraph to Throw Borka. Borka charges Thagrosh hitting him twice, killing a turkey on the second hit and reducing Thagrosh to 1 wound... CRAP. Thagrash can't do spells and crap but he is good in melee and proceed to swing at Borka miss, miss, miss, boost to hit, boost to damage = dead Borka BUT Borka rolls his tough. He moves a Turkey back to have a transfer target but is out of Fury anyway.
Turn 5 - Borka finishes what he started and Thagrosh goes POOF.

So that puts Trolls and the other Legion army in the final Showdown. I have never played against the other Legion player, but he must be either pretty good or pretty lucky to Beat McCryx in Round 1 then CygnarBrian in Round 2. Those two don't lose very often. Final round next Wednesday, let us hope his premature boasting about how easy Trolls are to beat comes back to haunt him. Current Standings posted on the left sidebar near the top.

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.

03 April 2009

Epic Fail Battle Report

So my plan with this army was to bring all of the models/units that were considered by large to be points better spent elsewhere and make them work. Instead of posting another battle report you can read it HERE.

I would like to go over some of the things I learned about what many consider to be the Worst of the Trolls.

THUMPER CREW
So here is the deal, it is actually a decent ranged option for a Troll army. Too bad you HAVE to use Farstrike on it to get it that way, and the random D6 bounce hurts. The pow on the bounce is higher than half damage on AOE blasts but still unreliable.
CONS - No Move and Shoot
No Arcing Fire
D6 Bounce instead of AOE or a fixed distance
PROS - Good Range for Trolls, one of our best actually.
If you do hit with it the pow is decent enough to kill most single-wound infantry and dent higher armor targets.

BURROWERS
As with all the Pygs these guys have awesome fluff. The turn they emerge they are fantastic, but with the low range and small area to emerge in taking a full unit of them is hard to do. Also if the unit leader dies they are pretty much ineffective. They have a very good high pow shot and create some really good board control. In fact, I have even killed a caster with them once because he left them alone thinking they couldn't do that much damage.
CONS - Difficult rules for burrowing and emerging (at least for me)
Very slow when burrowed.
Very squishy when not burrowed.
Very short range making hitting reach targets hard on the emerge turn.
Expensive to field.
PROS - Hit quite hard on emerge turn.
Board control is pretty effective.

BUSHWACKERS
I have grown quite fond of my unit of these guys actually. Especially in my Grim lists they are great for anti-flanking while Grim bores a hole to their caster for the EBDT. Rarely do they get Advanced Deployed in my games, and often do they sit back and cover one or both flanks. Usually my army has 6 or 7 of them.
CONS - Expensive to field
Very Squishy
Short range for a CRA unit
PROS - Fast as far as Trolls are concerned
Pathfinder
CRA
One of the only Advance Deploys Trolls have.

SCATTERGUNNERS
Like the Bushwackers I really like my Scattergunners. The Spray on them is quite effective especially when they are Fel Called to hit better. My rMadrak brick sees 6 to 8 of them in 750 point games and they combo well with Longriders for me. Usually I run them in a conga-line from front to back much like a good Cryx player runs Bile Thralls. It gives the front couple the ability to spray into a unit while the rest of the unit is back in relative safety to be used on the next turns. Often I will use Longriders to screen and I run the LR conga-lined as well.
CONS - Like all the other bad Troll stuff, they just aren't as tough as Kriels let alone some of our better stuff like LR or Champs.
Pretty much that's it for cons for me, an ability like 'Duck' on them would be sweet but not having it doesn't take away from them for me.
PROS - Fast by Troll standards.
Spray Attack - What we lack in AOEs we make up for in a good Spray attack.
Decent, if situational charge ability.

WINTER TROLL
Many a bad thing has been said about the Winter Troll and not without merit. Low PS and high point cost make him much less appealing than the Impaler. Honestly, I bought him about a month ago to complete my Troll collection and have played him twice as of last Wednesday night. It appears to me that he will see more action in the near future to find out if he is worthy to field competitively or not. The biggest Problem when compared to the Pyre is this, the Pyre's ability to buff the army is quite good while the Winter's abilities to defend require your opponent to take action instead of yourself.
CONS - Situational Animus (Can be effective, especially with Borka)
Low PS
High Point Cost
PROS - Rime is fantastic
Spray is decent because you can boost with a beast.
Two open fists = power attacks. No army has more two open fists than do Trolls. If you're not taking advantage of that your doing something wrong.

Really that's it. Good players like the Chronicler, also the Slag and Bouncer, though situational have been good to me when I bring them. So that would be it for me on my rundown of the worst of the Troll army. Let me know what you think and if I have missed anything.

02 April 2009

Trollblood Rejects VS Menoth's Least Wanted 750

Righto, I modified the list for the Trollblood Rejects game last night just a hair.

Faction: Trollblood
Points: 750
Model Count: 39
Victory Points: 27

Hoarluk Doomshaper
Troll Impaler
Troll Bouncer
Winter Troll
Fel 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]

I had to swap the Pyre for an Impaler, I needed a little more firepower. Also, the Chronicler wasn't put in because even though I never play him, he seems to be decent for some of the more experienced Troll players out there. I will post my battlereport tonight and it will be infinitely better than the CerealMan's report.

Link to the Menoth list.

01 April 2009

Trollkin Thumper Spew... I mean Crew



I am at a loss for words, it is so cool looking and yet fails so miserably on the table it is almost depressing. The Thumper Crew is ALMOST, yep almost as good as the Sunburst thingy from Menoth. So Here is my rundown of the worst artillery piece in the game. "Hey you guys all line up for me would ya... crap I rolled a 1"

Trollkin Thumper Spew

STATS - They are essentially Kriel Warriors without the shield, so you know, they die pretty easily.
WEAPONS - One big Cannon and some hand weapons for when you really screw up and get into melee with this thing.
UNIT ABILITIES
TOUGH - Um yep... saw that one coming did you.
WEAPON CREW - Apparently it takes three big trolls to move this gun just as fast as a couple small Khadorians. Man those Thumper Crew Trolls must be Kriel Stone Carrying rejects or something. The big weenies.
CREWMAN - They help you aim, if they die you don't hit the broad side of the barn. This would be okay IF it was an AOE but it's not.
THUMPER - Yeap the gun itself. It's light atillery which means you can't shoot and move or ever run. MOMENTUM - Here is why the Thumper is soooo fantastic compared to other artillery, ther is no AOE, nor Arcing fire, when you hit or miss the initial shot (which is respectable) you get a D6 bounce in a striaght line. If it was like the caber and was a fixed line this would almost be okay but it is not. On top of that, the pow on the bounce is terribad. One inch bounce... Spectacular.
SYNOPSIS - Even though the range is good on the cannon Alten Ashly packs near the same punch for the exact same points. Just compare the Thumper to other things of like value.
Fel Caller (or even a second Fel Caller)
Totem Hunter
Alten Ashley
Swamp Gobbers + Welps
Hero
Gudrun
Saxon Orrick
Pendrak
KSB
Lynessa
Bone Grinders...

Okay the list goes on, but you get the picture. For roughly the same point value you can take something that brings a whole lot more to the table.

GAME NIGHT
All that said, the Epic Fail battle is tonight so a battle report complete with photos will be forthcoming.

Coming Soon... Cryx Playstyle and Troll Playstyle. Why Cryx Players win even though their stuff is so fragile, and what Troll players can learn from it.