28 October 2013

Like A Boss: Solo Spotlight - Trollkin Skinner


Greetings and a hearty happy Monday to all of you! Kro here, with the debut of a new spotlight article series I'll be writing called "Like A Boss." Last week I took suggestions on twitter for article ideas and this seemed pretty popular. So, ask and ye shall receive!

The goal with this series will be to give an insight on how I rate our varying faction units/solos/warlocks, and hopefully provide some fun and informative topics for discussion and debate. This week we will be taking an in depth look at the Trollkin Skinner!

Follow along after the jump for all the juicy details!

Wow, well, where do we begin? This solo has the pride and joy of probably being the most debated about in regards to its usefulness for our entire faction.

For a rating system, we will be grading four aspects of the model itself: Stats, Abilities, Attacks and Point Cost. This will be done on a scale of 1 to 5, with 5 being the best, and 1 obviously being the worst. Each aspect will be looked at individually to determine a score. After all of the breakdowns are complete, I will issue a final grade based on the total number of points on the following scale:

  • 0-5 Points - D Grade (Probably useful in some random 1 time occurrence)
  • 6-10 Points - C Grade (Useful under certain circumstances with the correct army composition)
  • 11-15 Points - B Grade (Useful under most circumstances regardless of army composition)
  • 16-20 Points - A Grade (Auto-include, the best of the best that you can bring
I will try to keep these as objective as possible going forward, and remember, these are my impressions and opinions. Your mileage of course, may vary.

Stats

The Skinner essentially has pretty basic stats, running DEF 13, he's a point higher than average troll units, and has the highest defense stat of any Trollblood Solo. At ARM 14 he's a tad on the squishy side however, luckily he doesn't have the worst armor stat as a Troll solo. With an above average MAT score and decent speed, his stats, while being "middle of the road" aren't terrible. Plus he has eight hit boxes, we have multi-wound units with less hit boxes per model.

Score - 2

Abilities

To start, the Skinner gets Tough, Pathfinder and Advance Deploy. The latter of the two will aid him in getting where he needs to be quickly and without any hindrance. On the back of the card he gets even more good abilities in the way of Dismember, Duck, Hunter and Prowl.

So the skinner is essentially a beast hunter, +4 to DEF while targeted by beasts and immune to beast free strikes, not something to ignore. Hunter ensures you can see your charge target regardless of terrain and if your lucky enough to find yourself inside of terrain that provides concealment, you get stealth! Not to mention, when you do get into melee against beasts, you roll an extra 1d6 on damage.

Score - 3

Attacks

The skinner gets one attack per activation. His damage potential while being okay, isn't the greatest we have access to in a solo. However, he is still a weapon master, even at P+S 8, he's going to be averaging 5-8 points of damage on models ARM 15 or lower on a average charge roll. Plus, when he swings on beasts, he's rolling a total of 5 damage dice on the charge. That's not exactly something you can write off or ignore.

Score - 3

Point Cost

He costs 2 points, and is FA 2. But compared to our other weapon master solos, I'm not entirely sure its worth two points.

Score - 2

Overall Score - 10 - C Grade

My Thoughts

Now I'm quite sure some of you are probably laughing at me, and saying "The Skinner sucks!, its not even worth fielding at 2 points for what he does!" Sure, against Hordes armies this guy is occasionally spectacular The Skinner can maim or kill light or lesser beasts on the charge. He can dance around heavies by avoiding free strikes, but lets face it, unless your rolling triple 6's on each attack, he's not going to be much of a threat to the big beasts.

What he can do however is tie up larger beasts by being DEF 18 to their melee, which is nice to have in a pinch. In scenario play the Skinner can also contest objectives on a critical turn, or you can send him in to backup an infantry screen by taking out a model on the fringes. Unfortunately we do have solos that can do this same job that are beefier and more resilient. But if you're looking so shave a point or two when list building, the Skinner can fit nicely into the right army composition.

That's not to say I don't think this model could be improved upon, because I do. Make him ARM 15, STR 7 and give him REAL stealth. Also on his weapons, give him a back swing ability for another attack, or a thrown knife or axe attack so that he has some amount of range threat like the scouts have. I think if those small changes were made in whole (or in part) it would go a long way to making the Skinner a more viable piece on the tabletop.

Which solo would you guys like me to cover next? Let me know!

As always, have a comment/question/suggestion? Leave it below! Agree or disagree with me? I want to hear it! Articles you'd like to see done here on the Scrum? Speak up! I can't write it if you don't tell me you want it!

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Till next time kin, Stay tough and remember...
 

6 comments:

  1. I vote for a review of the Kithkar, and possibly weighing the options of running 1 or 2 of them.

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  2. Kudos for starting with the Skinner. I do actually like him, but it's no secret that there are so many better two point choices that the reasons to field him never show up (although there's always the option to). Interestingly though, this article is a nice segue into the first of my up coming Theme Force articles.

    As for who to do next? How about the Totem Hunter, or perhaps the Stone Scribe Chronicler?

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  3. If the Skinner doesn't get a D, no model in Trollbloods ever will. Might as well take it out of your rating system.

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  4. Why do you say that? The skinner may not be the greatest model but it is far from the worst.

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  5. Informative and thought provoking, thanks :)

    I vote Chronicler :)

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  6. The Skinner is the closest thing to a D solo we have. His ability to put a hurting on a light warbeast isn't something trolls have a lot of trouble with, most of the time. POW 8 weapon master doesn't warrant using him as a solo hunter, especially given his threat range of 9.5 inches. He's stuck at the range of ovetcosted at 2 points but would be under costed at 1.

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