Some sort of popularity contest?
This post is more a bit of fun than an in depth statistical
analysis, because to be frank, I find those dull. After seeing the (ongoing)
post about trolls needing to be fixed based on some tournament result stats I
noticed the ‘Trollblood Tournaments 2014’ post, and went and looked back at the
2013 edition.
Over the course of a year people have
posted their wins and losses with our faction’s Warlocks, some go into detail
about their games, but not in any quantifiable way. What we end up with though,
is an interesting snapshot of how the people who frequented the Trollblood
forums in 2013 were doing, who they were playing with and winning with…
Here’s the final results with win/loss
for each Warlock as reported:
|
Warlock
|
Games Won
|
Games Lost
|
|
pGrissel
-
|
30
|
12
|
|
eGrissel
|
12
|
6
|
|
pGrim
|
22
|
21
|
|
eGrim
|
30
|
32
|
|
pMadrak
|
39
|
18
|
|
eMadrak
|
53
|
25
|
|
pDoomshaper
|
100
|
35
|
|
eDoomshaper
|
44
|
24
|
|
Gunnbjorn
|
8
|
6
|
|
Borka
|
35
|
6
|
|
Calandra
|
21
|
9
|
|
Jarl
|
39
|
35
|
|
|
|
|
Representation: Which were the most played Trollblood
Warlocks?
1. pDoomshaper
2. eMadrak
3. Jarl
4. eDoomshaper
5. pMadrak
6. eGrim
7. pGrim
8. pGrissel
9. Borka
10. Calandra
11. eGrissel
12. Gunnbjorn
No surprise that the most represented Warlock was
pDoomshaper, and I’ll bet you a significant amount of those games were played
with Runes of War. What is surprising, to me at least, is how high up Jarl is
and how low on the list Borka is. Are people tiring of Family Reunion? Early
last year you couldn’t move for all the Family Reunion lists!
I don’t see Jarl talked about that much that often,
probably about the same as Calandra, however eGrissel, the marmite queen, comes
up in conversation a lot. I guess it goes to show that what goes on on the
boards isn’t a true reflection of what goes on on the tables (with one obvious
exception).
At the bottom looking sad and lonely is the much maligned
Gunnbjorn.
% Own Wins: Which Warlocks won most of their games played?
Borka 85%
pDoomshaper 74%
pGrissel
- 71%
Calandra 70%
eMadrak 68%
eGrissel 66.6%
eDoomshaper 65%
pMadrak 58%
Gunnbjorn 57%
Jarl 53%
pGrim 51%
eGrim 48%
S Strangely enough we see Jarl and Borka in opposite places,
with Borka being the most successful warlock and Jarl just breaking even.
eGrim’s less than stellar performance can be put down to him being new and the
experimentation going on with him during 2013. Everyone else has a decent show
of success, even Gunnbjorn!
The bottom three look like people struggling with ‘finesse’ or
‘control’ Warlocks, although that doesn’t account for Calandra’s strong
position. I guess dice manipulation is a thing, who knew?
None of these stats really translate to anything other than
some sort of popularity contest, and to a lesser extent giving us some glimpse
into which casters (for whatever reason) are harder to win with. Personal experience will always contradict the general
consensus. I’ve no doubt some of you play Gunnbjornn frequently, and sometimes
win with him, or maybe eGrissel is your go-to girl who stomps your opponents,
or maybe, just maybe, you’ve got it together to purchase a Runes of War list
but just can’t get the success you read about.
The big switcheroo
If you are doing badly with a Warlock, what do you change?
Is it the battlegroup or list as a whole that’s actually the problem and not
your Warlock choice? Thinking back to the Hunters Grim challenge, it was clear
that there was a lot of building to the feat and going for all the ranged
pieces we have, but slowly a more combined arms approach was seen to be being
adopted… with greater success.
Regarding the lists I’ve been playing and am continuing to
play for the foreseeable future I’ve tried it both ways. With the Calandra theme
force I found that I needed more angles, range and versatility and that the Warders
were actually hampering me because I was convinced that they hold their own all
the time (which to be fair they do, but that’s not always what you need).
Kind of the opposite happened with the pMadrak ARM 21 pseudo
brick, where the list worked like a charm but was soooo sloooow. Not that
pMadrak was a ‘problem’ but swapping for eGrissel has answered a problem I had
whilst maintaining the lists functionality and offering a better ranged threat.
Try something new.
Most players will have their favourite Warlocks, and
probably have their tournament lists more or less locked in for the next 6
months, but there’s always casual games – which are R&D for competitive play
really, so how about you take one of those less popular/less successful (either
by the stats above or better yet your local meta) Trollblood warlocks and give
them a shot?
I got to be honest and say I’m comfortable with my current
warlock selection, but if I get 10+ comments I’ll try someone different and
document my experiences with whoever semi-regularly.
You decide out of these who I should go for:
·
Jarl
·
Hunters Grim
·
Gunnbjorn
·
pDoomshaper (NOT in RoW)
I’m done, enough rambling.
Keep rolling Tough, #PlayitPainted2014, and for the good
of the interwebz #SpreadtheHatred
Mabrothrax
