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

Templecon Keynote... Mabrothrax ponders

Hurry up and wait

Well, it happened...

The new book will feature female Warlocks for Farrow and Gators as well as battle engines for both Minion pacts, a rather splendid heavy Nephalim character, units of mini warbeasts (as if shredder spam wasn't enough), Xerxis on a Rhino, what looks like a new Circle character beast...

our  'Lesser Warlock' Horgol Ironsmith, who'll have an affinity for (and reduce cost of) Slag and Pyre trolls:

Sounds like a fun guy, and I welcome the idea of Lesser Warlocks as pseudo Fury management. One pic that appeared was these guys... 

Highwaymen? I'm betting two hand cannons CRA or Gang, possible assault and maybe gunfighter. Scouts on steroids. At least I hope so, I was never sold on the light cavalry idea.

Another brief pic is this one of Calandra, with an axe (not her dagger, 'salt'), I assumed a sneaky hint of Epic Calandra, but apparently it's an old IKRPG piece of artwork. Can anyone verify this?

The only other things of note, for Trollbloods at least - "no reach in the book", "no warbeast units for trolls (in this book)"
No preview of a Warlock, though teh Skorne cavalry Warlock bodes well for a Troll on a Tuffalo, and te comments about crazy stuff and battle engines has me wondering.

Meanwhile the Hordes Faction dice have officially been previewed...

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10152227899715242.1073741837.23665620241&type=1

Lots to moan and speculate about on the forums. See you out there!

Mabrothrax
#TrollingTrollsWithTrolls

Bring the Pain!

So here is my shortlist of my new favorites in MKII. Yeah there are some other good and awesome things, Borka and Fenn Blades I'm looking at you two.

rMadrak - I have always loved him and his surefoot defense buffing goodness. Add in some Carnage and Snap fire and good gravy he is better than usual.

Grim Angus - A feat that is to die for, this Troll controls the battlefield better than he ever did in MKI. Now with the ability to grant hunter, a gun that will blow your shorts off, and a netgun that will make you wish you didn't get too close this Troll is the complete package for scenario play.

Sevwall's Fieldtest Thoughts: Warbeasts

My thoughts on each model as it is now in MKII, with potential Feedback possibilities if the model fails to live up to my expectations. I will try to evaluate all models as if it were the only rules they ever had, unless I am suggesting feedback, in which case I reserve the right to draw on old rules. I will revisit this later on.

Models I have not played with are left blank

Models rated 1 to 5.
1 = Total Junk
2 = Underpowered
3 = Balanced
4 = Overpowered
5 = Broken

Mauler – 3
Perfect. Expensive, but with a killer animus and capable of trashing most heavies in a turn, especially if he gets his own animus thrown on him. Great stats. Good chain attack. Pretty close to perfect, ina balanced way

Possible Feedback: None

Blizter – 3
Another model that I feel is fine. I will say that I think its high time they standardized all of our heavies at 5 fury, but I would really hate it if his points increased, so I’m fine with 4. The ability to charge and boost is extremely good, especially since instead of riling he can just boost shots at people and hope for a hit. And if he hits, a boosted 13 can really put some hurting on, well, anything. Two handed throwing a model (maybe your own) followed up by a boosted 13’s and 0-2 additional unboosted 13’s is a pretty cool and efficient way to end a game. Again, he suffers for his cool ranged junk with reduced, but still effective, melee potential.

Potential Feedback: Make his animus push people 3”, to standardize it with ‘bump’ and affect people with reach. That, or make it cost 1.

Eathrborn – 3
We have some pretty balanced heavies. At the cost of 1 point, he trades the reliability of the Mauler’s animus for the ability to steal the POW of opponents weapons. This will easily get him to P+S 17 or higher against most heavies, so unbuffed he exceeds the Mauler, minus the chain attack. He is also a pathfinder, and has a great animus, which he gets inbuilt. He is incredibly versatile, and well worth the extra point over the mauler while being a completely different type of model. A wonderful way to create diversity in a faction

Possible Feedback: None.

Mulg – 3 (Flawed)
Mulg is an interesting model. He has the distinction of being one of the few models almost guaranteed to kill [I]anything[/I] in his melee range, almost more so than a buffed Mauler. Reach is incredible, as is his MAT and the P+S on his weapons. The main problem comes with his SPD, which is very slow at 4, and AYGTET (Are You Going To Eat That) makes up for it in a way that is quite possibly broken. You see, AYGTET is a nifty cornercase thing, and its hard to trigger it yourself because tough will screw you up a decent amount of the time. In come the whelps. With poor DEF and no tough, they easily trigger AYGTET. So, Mulg moves 4”, and starts charging around corners 16”, which is a problem.

So remove it, and give him snacking, right? Well, no, because then he is lackluster. Sure, he kills things, but he costs a ton, isn’t too much more survivable than a Mauler, and has an animus that is possibly the worst in the game.

So he is a 3, because overall he is both underpowered and overpowered, like two huge weights on a balance beam, and as such sort of balances out. But he could be tweaked to be a balanced model

Possible Feedback: Remove AYGTET for snacking. Increase SPD by 1. Change Runebreaker animus to be a 3” ‘disenchant’ that causes Enemy Animi and Enemy Upkeeps within 3” of the caster of the animus to immediately expire. He gets a bit better overall, gets a real animus that is worth paying heavy points for, and loses the insane threat range while still retaining a threat advantage over normal trolls.

Axer – 4
Okay, reach thresher on a MAT 6 beast with POW 15 is a touch over the top. Just a tiny, tiny touch. The real problem is Befuddle, because in combination with an Axer, you can arrange units in semicircles and get an axer a backstrike thresher at MAT 8 ignoring shieldwall. Pop the feat and you cannot miss DEF 14 or less with this tactic. Add a Mauler animus and there is hardly a unit you will not completely remove from the table.

But enough about that. The axer by himself is almost fine. Its not the beast so much as the animus that really puts him into ‘always take’ territory. But that’s just because it’s an animus that fits us so well, its not really a broken animus. So he is fine. Mostly. Boy this one rambled.

Possible Feedback: Reduce POW of the axe by 1. He is less effective at killing heavies, but not much else.

Bouncer – 3
Its funny. He hasn’t done much in my games, but his reassuring presence makes me fear range much less. Personally, I’ve stopped taking him so much, because I’ve been facing more melee lists that ranged lists. But in a tournament I might take one to help guard my caster. Bump is a slightly underpowered animus because most opponents can position around it, but its acceptable. He hits well enough for a light. Another all around good beast.

Possible Feedback: Increase POW of shield by 1. Tiny tweak to make him a bit more palatable.

Pyre – 3
Well, I’m less happy giving this guy a 3, but his animus is okay, he automatically sets people on fire in melee and at range, and he hits well enough in melee, especially if you buff him. Solid. Just Solid.

Possible Feedback: +1 RAT. I see no reason why it would overpower him, and since these beasts are supposed to be at the least all arounders, an incredibly low RAT is very painful. You will get used to this feedback.

Slag- 2
Possible Feedback: +1 RAT. I see no reason why it would overpower him, and since these beasts are supposed to be at the least all arounders, an incredibly low RAT is very painful. He is also not quite as nice as an Axer. The extra STR does not do much for him over his cheaper bretheren. That said, his animus is the same as the Pyre, so if you are expecting heavier targets, take him, and if not, take the Pyre.

Possible Feedback: +1 RAT, +1 ARM. If he is going to be a 6, lets make sure he earns it.

Winter – 2
Again, lackluster. Not bad, just meh. Really, for a ranged beast, this guy really has trouble hitting broads and barns and whatnot. The inbuilt stationary effect is quite good at preventing jacks, beasts and casters from targeting the Winter troll. Luckily for them, his bad DEF and ARM make it easy to whittle him down at range enough that a single charge attack will waste him. He just needs a little tweek to be okay.

Possible Feedback: +1 RAT, -1 point. I see no reason why it would overpower him, and since these beasts are supposed to be at the least all arounders, an incredibly low RAT is very painful. Why is this guy 6 when the winter is 5? Is auto-stationary really all that much better than auto-fire? One kills infantry, one stops models. Seems almost a wash for me, especially after playing him a few times. He drops just as fast as a Pyre. He should cost the same amount.

The Animus Conundrum – 2
So, the Slag and the Pyre have the same damn animus. The difference between crit fire and crit corrosion is so unnoticeable and meaningless that is only bears mentioning so that I can summarily dismiss it.

I get two beasts with the same animus. Both the Brute and the Protector have Safeguard. But they are in different factions. In a game where animus are important and influence what beasts you take (See: Axer) having two similar beasts (all arounders) with the same animus is so very strange. Why exactly would you take the Pyre and the Slag in the same list? If you do, why should you be punished for it by being deprived of another animus? If the animus is so critical that you double up, you damn well double up, or take Bone Grinders so that you have a backup.

One of them needs to lose the animus. Ironically enough, I think Acidic Touch works better on the Slag than Flaming fists work on the Pyre. So I’m thinking the Pyre should lose his animus for something else,

What should it be? Well, I’m not lucky enough to be a designer (yet… hire me!) so its not really in my prevue to create an entire new animus. But if the Slag is anti-heavy, and so is his animus, then it makes sense to give the Pyre an anti-troop animus. I like the idea of giving “It Burns” out as an animus. But again, I am not a designer.

Tommorrow…. Maybe nothing! But maybe Units.