He's Lesser, but not Least

Hello again fellow scrummers. Today we're here to introduce, for those that haven't met him, are new friend Horgle Ironstrike. So let's get to the nitty gritty and just look at what the big guy can do.

 Picture posted by Celebros on the PP Forums

His stat line isn't bad he's decent SPD 5, so without buffs threats 8.5". He hits as accurately as a fennblade with MAT 6, and his RAT is negligible since he lacks a range weapon. Standard troll def and base 15 ARM, but a nice 17 when under the stone. He's also fearless, tough, and immune to fire attacks. He's got 8 wounds, like a good troll, and fury 4, so with ARM 17 he has some survivability (still better off then some of the Lesser Warcasters).

He's got two weapons, both without reach, and are magical weapons. His POW 11 sword also causes continuous fire, his hammer is POW 12 with Critical Ram. Though with the Stone easily made POW 12 and 13. With his Pyre or Slag animus POW 14 and 15. Or have your caster bring a Mauler and he becomes POW 15 and 16. Add eMadrak and you have up to six MAT 6 weapon master attacks, one at POW 15, the other five at POW 16 and if the target isn't dead it is on fire. So even without beasts this guy can be considered a crazy combat solo for late game.

Even with his crazy melee potential it's crazy not to take beasts with him. Mind you he is limited to Slag and Pyre trolls, though both come at a 1 pt discount if in his battle group. He also has the rule Burnt Meat which situationally allows beasts in his battle group to charge models for free that are suffering from continuous fire. So if he needs a little help in melee they can follow him in for free, or charge in after a Pyre troll sets it on fire with its gun. Speaking of guns Horgle has the 2 COST spell Hot Shot, which boosts the ranged damage rolls of one of his beasts in his battle group. This at first didn't strike me as great, but looking back now I realise that I was just being stupid. On a Pyre troll you now have focus to boost the attack roll and cast his animus on something else, because everything under that 3" AOE is going to suffer boosted POW 6. The Slag can now pay to boost its initial range attack roll, still pay for a second shot, and boost the attack roll, because the spell makes sure you get that fourth die on damage against non-living models. Initially I thought Horgle was going to receive a distance buff to ranged attack rolls, but I'm just as happy with boosted damage rolls.

Horgle's second spell is Molten Metal, an offensive COST 2, RANGE 10 spell that puts one point of damage in every column of a Jack's damage grid. It is a little situational, as it is only effective against Warmachine factions, and while it has a little more threat then his charge, it isn't nearly as effective as actually just charging.

I feel that Horgle will be a fine addition to our future endeavours in the Iron Kingdoms. Many of our casters are focused starved and won't mind a 3 COST melee monster that can also sit back and throw out Slag and Pyre animuses, while they are busy casting other spells or fueling the Krielstone. I can't wait for June to get this guy on the table. 

If you guys have any questions, comments, or suggestions throw me an email here, drop a comment below or pm me on the forums, otherwise have a good week and may all your dice roll tough.

- CrashWest

Never Surrender! For Kith and Kriel!

I like to believe I am decent at this game, not great, but I don't suck. However I do feel I have the bad habit of giving up before the battle is really over. Often I find that my games start with attrition in favour of my opponents. They alpha strike hard and remove pieces of my list I'd thought would be sticking around longer, which is silly, because this game is about trading models for either attrition, scenario, or position. It would be wrong to expect I wouldn't lose models.

My disdain for losing models can then put me in a salt induced nosedive where sometimes I give up prematurely. I don't stop playing, but my heart is obviously no longer put into the game. This is bad and is something I am working to identify and overcome. I am not the only player I have seen do this, and from experience a salty player can sometimes make the game less fun to play. I don't want to be that player, especially when I'm giving up before the game is even over. 

Trolls for all their weaknesses is not an easy faction to remove from the table. Even from a terrible scenario or attrition position a well played troll army can fight its way back. Trolls have a large number of models and effects that can work to bring on a come back. 

For one we have tough, and as much as I hate this rule it does aid trolls in attrition. Every time I roll that die its a gamble, and I hate that. I know that sounds weird coming from a guy playing a game driven by dice, but I don't feel the dice as much as I do when I'm rolling a tough check. The whole game can ride of a tough check on a simple 1 in 3 chance. I realise logically all games probably hinge on a similar fraction or statistic, but I don't find it nearly as transparent as when I'm rolling tough for Madrak or Grissel. Tough irritates me to no end, it can make and break the game, and I hate that the whole faction is balanced around it. I try to ignore it, but when its a core mechanic of your faction and you spend a large portion of the game rolling tough checks, it can be hard. 

In trolls we have some really great attrition feats, especially those belonging to p and eMadrak. Both have feats that can completely change the board state and both can do it with very little models. It always amazes me how much work so few models can do during these feats. pMadrak's feat should have been called Pacman, as that is pretty much how your models behave as they cut through your opponents army like Indiana Jones does through a jungle. pMadrak and Mulg alone can decimate a whole army during feat turn, and god forbid that the opponent leave a trail of breadcrumbs to their caster. I have yet to live that dream. 

I personally am a fan of eMadrak and am always amazed at the work he himself can get done. His feat is ball busting amazing, and combined with Rathrok's Awakening and Tide of Death Madrak can become Death incarnate. I love watching him eat an entire unit of Iron Fang Pikeman. It shocks me every time I pop his feat and watch the enemy army disappear. A few Fennblades here, a two warders there and maybe a little Blood Fury for seasoning and you have yourself a game changing feat. One of the reasons I love playing eMadrak is that whenever I start to feel tilted I just have to pop feat, and more often then not I feel a lot better.

One of my favourite things in this game are Warlocks and Warcasters that are hard to kill and I hate squishy casters that I have to worry about dying to stiff breeze, and man oh man is Trollbloods the right faction for me. Borka and the Madraks must be in the top 5 for Most Survivable Warcaster/Warlocks, and even warlocks like Doomie and Calandra are more durable then most, even with their old man stats. The krielstone alone provides more then most other factions do. Its a +2 ARM buff and can get rid of and prevent status effects, like continuous fire, which has a nasty habit of killing warlocks and warcasters. So when you take that with warlocks like the Madraks and Borka then your really having a party. Here take a look at how bullshit these guys really are:

Borka

• Stumbling Drunk - Borka's companion the Keg Carrier can give him the rule stumbling drunk, which prevents him from being knocked down, and if he is hit by an attack he stumbles away three inches in a direction determined by a deviation template.
• Unyielding - gains +2 ARM if engaged in combat
• Iron Flesh - +3 DEF, but -1 SPD, this isn't for early game, but for when you know he is going to be attacked, so he doesn't need to move far
• Wind Wall - Borka protects himself and any model completely within three inches of him from non-magical shooting, but protected models can also not shoot

Borka is incredibly hard to kill. With all these rule in effect and the in the Krielstone's aura Borka is ARM 21, DEF 17, may walk out of combat if you do mange to hit him, and can't be shot, except by magical guns. With all that he also has 3 fury to fall back on. This guy might be the harder model in the game to kill.

pMadrak

• Scroll of Grindar's Perserverence - once per game before the damage has been rolled Madrak can negate the roll's outcome
• Talisman of Subdual - beasts can not charge Madrak
• Sure Foot - a spell that provides +2 DEF and steady to models within 3" of the model who the spell is cast on

Not quite as hardy as Borka, but has some solid defensive abilities. A once per game damage negation is pretty handy, and immunity to beast charges is pretty nice, and sure foot is a spell so good it can be the focus of a list build. 

eMadrak

• Grim Salvation - if Madrak takes damage a friendly trollkin model within an inch of him is removed from play and Madrak suffers neither the damage or effects triggering on damage, however this rule is mandatory

In an eMadrak list each infantry model is an extra transfer and it may seem that using models as wounds may seem like a bad attrition choice, just remember all the work he alone can do and the effectiveness of his feat. eMadrak only needs a few choice warrior models and a few beasts to get work done. This rule can be extremely frustrating opponents to work around. Their is a rule people in my meta live by and that is "Don't try and kill Madrak".

With warlocks this hard to kill as this and with the ability to do work themselves really need to stop getting discouraged when attritition starts to go poorly. Even if most of my infantry is dead, my opponent still has to deal with my crazy hard to kill warlock, and hope they don't lose too many models trying. It isn't uncommon for them to commit their caster out of necessity, but fail to make the kill and then losing their own warlock/warcaster to a toughed Madrak or Borka.

I love models like Champions and Warders that are very hard to remove from the table and while they may seem out numbered, in a prolonged match, they can often out attrition most other infantry. Enemy models are like waves hitting ineffectually against the shore, except the shore has blunt instruments with which it beats the waves back into submission. This however can be slow and when I'm salty I sometimes don't realise that losing 3 Warders is acceptable, because his unit of 12 is going to break before my 5, its just going to take awhile. The trick is to remain calm, because what I am often told after a game is just how frustrating the same situation is for the opponent, and objectively they probably have more reason to be angry, since attrition will eventually favour me as a troll player. The trick is to be patient.

When I look at units like the Warders and Fennblades who actually receive benefits and buffs from being attacked, I start to see that this is how the faction is designed. This seems to indicate that trolls are designed to be on the receiving end of an alpha strike, rather then alpha striking ourselves. We are built to absorb the hit and strike back from a disadvantaged position. Thats why often during the early game when it looks like we are losing, however it is late game where we really shine. When both of us are on our last legs, troll models are just that much more durable and will probably outlast most opponents.

Trolls are the anvil upon which the hammer strikes, and that hammer will keep striking until it breaks. As trollblood players I think I have to learn to receive a lot of punishment before I can really see hope of victory. This means I have to be psychologically prepared to be on the losing end of attrition for most of the game. If I can manage to keep a cool head and an open mind, I will often start to see all the options left open to me and making moves towards that oh-so satisfying comeback. This isn't only true for trolls, if you do play another faction don't lose your head if your game is going bad, every faction is built with some way to come back from a few bad turns, you just need to stay cool and look for it. This is a problem I do struggle with sometimes, but I am working to fix that. For those of you out their who find they have the same trouble I hope this helps, but I feel the best way to overcome this is to accept it, and to just play through it. If we come up the other side we will all be stronger players for it.

If you guys have any questions, comments, or suggestions throw me an email here, drop a comment below or pm on the forums, otherwise have a good week and may all your dice roll tough.

Musing on MoM's Armour Spam

On the latest Muse on Minis podcast episode 122 Chad Shonkwiler, American WTC participant and Trollbloods purist, explores the concept of an almost entirely ARM 21 list. Here is the 50pt list he and the other members of the Muse Crew put together:

pMadrak or eGrissel
Bouncer
Bouncer
Mulg
Earthborn
Janissa
Max Krielstone + UA
Max Warders
Max Warders

For those of you who haven't listened to the podcast (which I recommend you do) the basic concept of the list is to present so much ARM 21 that the opponent can't chew through it all. Lots of lists have dedicated ARM crackers, but when your entire list is built of ARM 21 is one or two dedicated units/models enough? Most of the time the answer is no. Eventually they will trade their ARM cracker away and then they will be left with no answer to what you have left. Let's look at the models they have included to make the list work.

You may have noticed that their are some pretty obvious inclusions in this list: Warders, Mulg, Krielstone, Earthborn, and Janissa. They are all obviously chosen to skew towards a high ARM stat and they all do work outside just having high armour. Some have high damage output (Warders, Mulg) and others further skew the lists ARM (Earthborn and Janissa), but what does the Bouncer add to this list. Being ARM 21 is not enough, it has to provide more to keep it from being dead points. So what could this maligned beast do?

1. Shield Guard - keeps your models safe from ranged attacks, with the coming release of Eiryss3 his stock is going up
2. Brace for Impact - reduces the slam distance by 3 inches, if slammed 0 inches it does not become knocked down, and collateral damage does not knock this model down. Great for scenario at ARM 21 and hard to slam out of zones it will stick around a lot longer then your enemy will want
3. Chain Weapon - ignores ARM provided by shields and the shield wall order, it's situationally good, but I see a lot of Iron Fangs in my meta and love this trait
4. Bump - pushes away the first model to make a melee attack against a model with Bump cast on it, while it can be played around it does make it more difficult to plan a turn around killing an ARM 21 list
5. Reach - always nice to have and on a POW 13 boostable attack it's not bad

The Bouncer is a scenario piece. It will sit on an objective or in a zone and the enemy is going to have to over commit to remove this 5 point model. This is good news for us since it will mean they aren't killing our business pieces. 

You will notice that the list has two casters, pMadrak and eGrissel. During their discussion these are the two warlocks that Chad and the Muse Crew were considering for leading this list. 

• pMadrak has carnage a spell increasing the MAT of models in pMadrak's control area by 2. Along with his feat which gives Overtake and additional attacks for killing a model, to models in his control area pMadrak allows this very tough list to chew through infantry. He also solves the problem with high defense models, but also fixes the Bouncer's MAT 5.
• eGrissel can use her feat to give models in her control area Hyper Aggressive, when a model takes damage it advances directly towards the model that made the attack, and Unyielding, and additional 2 ARM while in melee. She also has the spell Dash, which gives models in her control area plus 1 SPD and ignore free strikes. She allows the list to get up the board and properly contesting scenario, she also further skews the list's ARM stat with her feat.

Between these two casters we see two different approaches to what this list wants to do. pMadrak fixes its MAT problem, and can crush infantry spam lists. eGrissel plays to scenario by getting models in zones and making it very difficult for the enemy to score and prevent her army from scoring. Both these strategies look like they'd would be very effective on the table and I'm keen to try them out. However when I was listening to the podcast I couldn't help, but feel they were missing another option for amongst our warlocks. That warlock would be pGrim.

I think pGrim would be an excellent warlock to lead this ARM 21 monstrosity. pGrim helps the list in very similar ways that both pMadrak and eGrissel do separately. His feat decreases the DEF and SPD of enemy models by 3 and prevents them from making special attacks. This helps his army hit enemy models, and rather then speeding his army up, he hinders the enemy army from moving as far forward. This allows him to draw the line of engagement closer to the enemy's side of the board and even keep them from getting in the zone. His spells are pretty toolbox allowing his army to ignore forests (cross-country), from moving as they please (lock the target), and outside feat help his models hit as well as stop stealth and incorporeal (marked for death). He even has the tools to deal with a match up Chad points out as being a weakness for this list, pDenny. For a pDenny (pDeneghra) match up the list does need a few tweaks.

pGrim

Bouncer

Bouncer

Mulg

War Wagon

Thrullg

Sorcerer/Gobber Tinkerer

Max Krielstone + UA

Max Warders

Max Warders

So you as you can see I've ditched the Earthborn and Janissa package in place of a War Wagon, Thrullg, and either a Sorcerer or Gobber Tinkerer. The reason for this is in this list I don't think that the extra 2 ARM is needed, it's nice, but not necessary. The wall and the other utilities that the Earthborn's animus provides will be missed, but I think that pGrim can work using his own toolbox. The purpose of the War Wagon is that it provides another gun to the list, still remains an ARM 21 model, and a huge base to hide Grim behind. The Thrullg is often ignored, because he's a poor man's Eiryss, but I think in this list he has a place. He hides behind the lines and will be used to knock off any enemy upkeeps, with such high armour we also don't need to worry about him killing or damaging anything. It does have some other shenanigans, but I don't think he'll be used for those very often. The Sorcerer and the Gobber Tinkerer are both good options for the list. The Sorcerer is another form of debuff management, but is less effective then the Thrullg. He does have some late game potential, but mostly would be brought to deal with debuffs. The Gobber Tinkerer is another one point filler, but can help keep the War Wagon up and running. At 22 boxes and ARM 21 it may survive a committed attack, and the Gobber Tinkerer can be there to help keep it on its feet. The one point option is really about personal preference, and I can see Swamp Gobbers or a Feralgeist as good alternatives.

In the occurrence of a pDenny match up I think pGrim has a game, at least better then most lists. It is still uphill, but I feel pGrim has more options against pDenny then most. With his 13" POW 13 magical gun, a -3 DEF feat, and Marked For Death, Grim is a threat and makes his army one too. With the aid of Thrullg and a Sorcerer he has some way to deal with Denny's debuffs. Grim and his army also answers a lot of the different units Denny likes to bring, pirates, Nyss Hunters, Croes Cutthroats, and Banes. The War Wagon's gun can be used to clear a lot of that high DEF low ARM infantry and if it gets lucky even knock some down, Grim's feat really helps with hitting as well. With line breaker on a huge base the War Wagon can also clear infantry in melee pretty well, it sounds nicer then then it normally is, but the option is available. Also being able to charge, impact attack, shoot a 5" AOE, and an spray 8" all on one turn can be pretty devastating, especially on feat turn. The War Wagon also is unaffected by Croe's poison, so that can be situationally handy, it also means if Croes are in the list it won't necessarily die in one turn. Everything also being ARM 21 remains to be a pain, especially after feat turn when only a few can actually suffer debuffs. pDenny is still definitely a threat, but I feel pGrim still has some good answers.

I am really keen to try this list in both iterations and with all three casters, but I do feel pGrim really provides more for the list then either eGrissel or pMadrak. Chad's idea really caught my imagination and I can't thank him and the Muse Crew enough for all the stuff they do for the online community. I can only hope that his idea can reach other troll players, and inspire them as much as it did me.

Thanks for reading,

Crash West

Any questions or comments you can reach me here

Gunnbjorn: The Troll We All Love To Hate

Have you ever been to a restaurant and saw a mighty fine piece of pie being displayed? You might have thought, "Mmm that looks like good pie" and order it with your meal. After eating a hearty delicious meal you receive your piece of pie, only to find it a little less appealing then you had when you walked in. Taking a bite you aren't too impressed. Between your initial expectations and your full stomach you really regret buying that piece of pie. If that restaurant were Hordes, then the meal is Trollbloods, and that pie is Gunnbjorn.

So what did that ridiculous metaphor mean? Well I think it comes down to the fact that Gunnbjorn isn't really awful, he's just not the warlock we expect to find. You look at his stats and you find decent speed, average RAT and MAT, effectively DEF 15 ARM 18, and typical FURY 6. Is that bad? No, for Trolls it's pretty solid. He can get up the field, hit when he needs to (with a boost if necessary ), and he's not easy to kill with transfers and sitting behind your army. His stats are solid.

If it isn't his stat line, is it that he is not pulling his weight? His bazooka is range 12, has an AOE 3, POW 14 and has Critical Devastation. It can only be fired once, but thats pretty standard in Trolls. It is definitely threatening. A POW 14 boostable gun that has and effective range of 16" can do work and then some, also while it isn't something to depend on, crit. devastation is nasty when it goes off. How effective is it really though? Honestly most opponents I've played may not respect Gunnbjorn, but they do respect his big ol' bazooka.

You know and I both know that Gunnbjorn is generally despised, but I haven't really gotten as to why. Well it starts at his spell list. Gunnbjorn's spell list screams gun line, especially beast heavy.

CrashWest

Hello all, my name is Brian, or CrashWest, on the forums. As you’ve probably guessed I am a Trollbloods player. I have been playing for a year and 4 months, and frequent the Good Games CBD, and Good Games Burwood stores, in beautiful Sydney, Australia. The meta is normally pretty casual, but recently we’ve turned it up a notch and every second week, we play to tournament standards for practice. Currently a lot of my practice and dojo has gone into preparation for CanCon 2014, probably the biggest Warmachine/Hordes tournament in Australia held in the nation’s capital, Canberra, in January.