zomg a Bakaryu BatRep!

Screenshot or it didn't happen :)

In all seriousness though, this year I will be playing Trollbloods as my competitive tournament faction and have already been getting a few games under my belt, but haven't posted up the first few battle reports largely due to playing like a chump and getting used to not overextending on the fury system again.  I have won two out of the three games, but this one here is the first one which I felt that I played well enough in to be considered for a battle report.

This match was Trollbloods against Mercenaries, my Gunnbjorn list had been doing pretty well but this opponent had at least one Galleon in all of his three lists, and so I had opted to go with eDoomshaper for threat range and ARM cracking, my opponent went for Bart so I felt like I had gone with the right matchup here.

Doomshaper2..................................Broadsides Bart
> Mulg the Ancient...........................> Galleon
> Rok..............................................> Galleon
> Mauler..........................................Max Forgeguard
> Axer.............................................Ragman
> Night Troll.....................................Gobber Tinkerer
> Runebearer....................................McDougall
Min Kriel Warriors...........................Aiyana and Holt
> Standard and Piper........................Piper of Ord
> 2 Caber Throwers
Min Krielstone and Scribes
> Elder

The scenario rolled up was Rally point, and the terrain saw a forest on each player's right flank just beyond deployment zones, a hill on the opposite flank and a few rocks as impassible terrain/cover in the dead centre of the board.

Deployment
My opponent won first turn, deploying both Galleons and Bart dead centre of the board, with Forgeguard either side of them, Ragman, Piper and McDougall behind the colossals and A+H just off to my left of the forgeguard, so quite central overall.

I also deployed pretty centrally, with (from left to right) Mauler, Rok, Axer, Mulg and Night Troll.  Kriel Warriors filled the gaps between them and the Krielstone was camped behind but centrally, with Doomie and the Runebearer just off centre to my right.

Turn 1
One each to the Galleons, Bart drops Hot Shot on the the Galleon to my left, his Forgeguard run to make a screen in front of the Galleons who run up behind them.  His various support solos and units hang out at the back ready to give support as soon as it is needed.

Runebearer gives Harmonious Exaltation to Doomshaper, who drops Wild Aggression onto Mulg and 5 into the Krielstone before advancing a few inches.  Mulg runs up, the Night Troll runs directly in front of him to protect him from drags, Axer runs up behind a rock for cover, Mauler and Rok both get Caber Throwers in front of them who are in turn surrounded by grunts for take up to again prevent any drag shenanigans.  Krielstone runs up and gives +2 ARM, focusing on the left side as Mulg is pretty safe.

Turn 2
Upkeep Hot Shot, 3 focus to the Hot Shotted Galleon.  Forgeguard advance up to keep up the screen and are given tough by the Piper.  McDougall gives Artillerist to the powered up Galleon and Aiyana just about manages to get close enough to hit a Kriel Warrior with Kiss.  Fortunately the left hand Galleon rolls terrible for his 2d3 shots, getting 3 of them which thanks to the spacing only kills two Kriel Warriors and a boosted attack roll with the Harpoon misses the Caber Thrower in front of Rok.  Bart switches Hot Shot onto the other Galleon and pops his feat.  The other Galleon only has a few guys in range and again rolls poorly, killing one Krielstone scribe with a scatter and another Kriel Warrior.

Bart's feat I knew would be coming this turn, it doesn't make it any less annoying but I see an opportunity to kill Aiyana and Holt and decide to go for it.  Mauler advances to toe the left zone and puts Rage onto the Caber Thrower, Kriel Warriors use Fervor and run/charge.  One Kriel Warrior runs into the two Forgeguard right in front of Aiyana and Holt and the Caber charges him, the other Kriel Warriors run up to gum up and block charge lanes with two more getting charges onto the right hand flank.  Thanks to Steady and Fervor they only have to put up with being MAT4, managing to kill one of the Forgeguard and then the all important one, he hits the Kriel Warrior and slams him 2 inches, enough to hit two Forgeguard, Aiyana and Holt but falling half an inch short of the Gobber Tinkerer.  One of the Forgeguard dies, Holt dies but Aiyana is left on 1hp, the brave Kriel Warrior sadly does not pass his tough check.  Aiyana needs to die, so Rock advances into Bart's control area and is consequently knocked down, but Doomie arcs a Primal Shock through him which auto kills her.  Doomie also drops Refuge onto the Night Troll, and ditches a fury point.  Other beasts advance, but otherwise remain out of charge range of the Forgeguard.

Turn 3
Upkeep Hotshot, 3 focus to the left hand Galleon.  The right side Galleon gets Artillerist and Powder Rations before rolling up 4 shots, fires them all at the Night Troll hoping for kind deviations and blast damage rolls.  Two of them manage to land on the Runebearer, but he rolls a triple one for the first damage roll and he passed a tough check on the second one.  The Night Troll comes out unscathed, the Forgeguard clean up most of the Kriel Warriors, with only the standard and Piper left but they pass their command check.  Bart cycles Hot Shot onto the left hand Galleon who opens fire at the knocked down Rok, getting the maximum 6 shots which do average damage, he then hits and drags him in with the Harpoon and he subsequently dies to the auto hitting melee attack.  The piper again gives the Forgeguard tough.

Leech all fury, upkeep both spells.  Time for my feat turn, losing Rok was a shame but it was important to kill one of his two damage buffers and I felt Rok to be more expendable than the Mauler.  Runebearer goes first, giving Harmonious Exaltation to Doomie who pops his feat, is annoying about 1/4 inch away from dropping Rage on Mulg, but also needs to advance closer to the Axer and Mauler, dropping Rage on 1 for 1 fury, and on the other for free.  He primal shocks a Forgeguard just to ditch some of the fury to leech back what I am feeling pretty safe to say will be a lot of fury on the board.  Krielstone uses +2 ARM and +1 STR and then the Mauler charges the Galleon, wrecking him with his last attack and saving the Axer from having to commit there.  He instead walks up to a bunch of Forgeguard and threshers all three of them, killing two out of the three, buying one more attack to kill that last one who had passed a tough check previously.  The Night Troll charges two Forgeguard, killing them both and using Allure and then advancing via Refuge behind them all.  Mulg charges into the other Galleon and proceeds to wreck him too, killing him with his final attack from his affinity.

Turn 4
That was a bad turn for Bart, he has 3 Forgeguard, Piper, Ragman, Tinkerer and Bart himself left and I have everything except Rok and most of my Kriel Warriors.  Bart is forced to charge into and kill the Night Troll so that the remaining forgeguard can actually charge at Mulg.  Ragman walks up and puts up Death Field and they charge Mulg, taking about half his boxes off him.  Piper walks up to try to block the Axer off and McDougall quad fires a Kriel Warrior, who passes the one tough check he had to make as all the other 3 shots failed to break ARM.

I take all the fury from Mulg and the Axer, the Mauler manages to roll a 3 and pass his threshold test.  An unexpected bonus but I will take it, I upkeep Wild Aggression and start with the Runebearer who walks up and uses Harmonious Exaltation on Doomie.  The Mauler walks up and eats the Piper, freeing up the way for the Axer to get into the support at the back.  He proceeds to do so, walking up and threshing Ragman, two of the three Forgeguard and McDougall.  Doomie puts Rage onto Mulg, primal shocks through him to kill the last Forgeguard member and heals Mulg's mind, and Mulg then charges across the wreck of the Galleon into Bart and eats his face off.

Summary
Bart can always be a challenge, and a double Galleon list can bring a lot of hurt if you aren't prepared to deal with the armour.  I still need to work on my unpacking of the list a little, a few guys got in each other's way turn 1 but that will come with practice.  The list worked very well and I am happy with how it plays and the different options it presents.

Doomshaper: 8/10
Kept the army ticking along, throwing out the occasional primal shock and passing around Animi like candy.  His feat as usual just gives so much speed to the list that it was game winning.

Mauler: 9/10
One rounded a colossal worth double his points, and his animus was useful all over the board.  Caber Throwers with Rage do a lot of direct damage, and POW10 collateral is enough to threaten most infantry.  Also ate the piper and passed a threshold check, so two thumbs up for that achievement.

Rok: 6/10
Didn't do anything this game, but was used as a sacrificial pawn to kill off Aiyana which by itself justified his sacrifice.  Would have been safely behind cover if I hadn't failed to roll a 6+ to kill her with the Caber bowling.

Mulg: 9/10
Murdered yet another colossal, tanked three Forgeguard charges and them proceeded to kill an ARM22 Bart without batting an eyelid.  Easily justified his inclusion for the caster that I think gives him more than any other caster in the faction.

Axer: 7/10
A steady performance from the Axer, he killed five Forgeguard, McDougall and Ragman and so earned his points back no problem.  Never needed rush in this game, but was always an option that the opponent needed to be wary of.

Night Troll: 8/10
Played two key roles in the game.  First of all he protected Mulg from being dragged by the second Galleon, and when my feat turn came around the Refuge Allure combo forced Bart to commit to killing him right in front of Mulg because otherwise the Forgeguard couldn't get to Mulg.  Major impact.

Runebearer: 7/10
Kept Doomshaper's fury efficiency ticking over, and actually passed a tough check for once.  Quiet but efficient.

Kriel Warriors: 8/10
Steady justified their inclusion over the likes of Warders or Fennblades, Kriel Warrior bowling should have killed Aiyana with below average dice but she survived only to be Primal Shocked to death.  Proved to be a pain for the entirety of the game as they usually do.

Krielstone: 8/10
The Mauler would not have killed the Galleon without the +1 STR aura, as he filled in its final box exactly with his final attack.  Other than that, the +2 ARM didn't really do much over the course of the game, but the utility always justifies its inclusion.

Mabrothrax goes to Smogcon

Bring it on.

This will be a quick post as I'm about to go get a train to Heathrow airport to meet a good friend of mine, then we're off to...

Smogcon is currently the UK's only dedicated Warmachine & Hordes convention (it does other stuff too) and this year the organisers have really stepped up to the challenge of presenting an American style con over three days in a hotel, well, two hotels actually because demand was so high they needed a second venue.

As well as Press Ganger duties (an 18 hour straight shift in the Smog Pit (think Iron Arena)), I'm entering the Iron Gauntlet and Hardcore tournaments, and plan to get in as much casual gaming as my body will allow.

I'm trolling all the way and playing both my eGrissel list and Calandra theme force in the IG, and still undecided on eDoomshaper or eGrissel for the Hardcore.

I'm not looking to win big, but I am going to have a great time, and hopefully really learn a lot about my armies and my own playing by exposing it to a multi-national meta of (wannabe?) top players.

Once the sleep deprivation has worn off and I've returned to normality I'll have convention report up. In the meantime, please do follow me and goad/insult/encourage on twitter @unicronsbeard

Keep rolling tough!

Mabrothrax, #trollingtrollswithtrolls & playing like he's got a pair sleep deprivation.

Mabrothrax on Trollblood Warlocks 2013

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.

http://privateerpressforums.com/showthread.php?165564-Trollblood-Tournaments-2013

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

To Theme or not to Theme... Epic Doomshaper

To Theme or not to Theme; that is the question

Theme forces are an often maligned part of the game. Whilst some are considered good, and very few considered amazing, the majority are forgotten about. Whilst “Runes of War” (pDoomshaper) and “Family Reunion” (Borka) get a fair amount of exposure, the rest are dismissed for not being top tier tournament lists. Well, guess what? We don’t all play tournaments all the time! It’s good to experiment and have fun, take a break from everything the internet tells you to do!

This sporadic series will look at the Trollblood Theme forces and give a brief break down and a series of ratings…

eHoarluk 50pt level by Beckman

eHoarluk, 50 PT level.

I'm a beast player at heart, but I like to have the best matchups that I can across the board. This is a problem, since infantry likes to eat beasts. So what's the answer? Ranged attacks. The bomber eats the infantry that eats the beasts and doesn't do badly against beasts. Let's take two. Good. Let's throw in an Impaler for the extra range. What if they have Solid Ground? Well, we'll throw in a Pyre for the Continous Effect: Fire and Strength Animus against high ARM. Add an Axer for the movement and pathfinder. I'm throwing in a Bouncer because I like Shield Guarding against CRAs and the Reaper's Drag. Add the KSB in for extra durability, some whelps, and the Runebearer (for the fury reduction on your animi) and you're good to go.

Alright, but which caster?

Grim is a good one. He has a SPD buff for your beasts on his gun, He can knockdown the enemy, can debuff DEF, make your beasts get Hunter, and has tremendous board denial - BUT the beasts run REALLY fury hot, and as a 6 FURY caster, it's hard to handle.

Calandra is also a good one, but she has no speed buffs for your troops or debuffs to speed for the enemy. She can make your beasts SING with rerolls, Star Crossed, and Soothing Song. Without her feat, your troops aren't really that great in melee. She doesn't have DEF debuffs like Grim and Stealth Lists are a serious problem.

Initially, I just considered the above two... as they were the ones that came to mind. I had developed a preconception that a certain angry old troll only wanted to work with a diversity of Dire Trolls and Mulg. Oh how wrong I was.

Finally, the list:

Awesome Armies ~ Hoarluk Doomshaper, Rage of Dhunia by Just Cabal

So here it is, our final installment of Awesome Armies.  Just Cabal was nice enough to put together his version of the eDoomshaper list he likes to run.  Included on the left is a poll about the Five armies contributed.  Which do you folks like the best... you can vote for multiples if you like.

(E) Hoarluk Doomshaper +6

Earthborn Dire Troll - 10

Dire Troll Mauler - 9

Krielstone Bearer (full) - 4

- Stone Scribe Elder - 1

Trollkin Champions - 10

Troll Whelps - 2

Troll Whelps - 2

Trollkin Champion Hero - 3

Total 35 Pts

Awesome Armies ~ Hoarluk Doomshaper, Rage of Dhunia

I have to post it for one simple reason, at the 25point level, this army is undefeated for me with seven wins.  When I reduced the point level to 15 points it lost and when I upgraded to 35 points it lost.  25 seems to be just right.  So here it is, the list I have aptly named 'The Dire Three Way'.

Dire Three Way
Hoarluk Doomshaper, Rage of Dhunia (*6pts)
* Dire Troll Mauler (9pts)
* Earthborn Dire Troll (10pts)
* Mulg the Ancient (12pts)

eDoomy vs Reznik

Last night I faced off againt Menoth in a 35 pt battle.  It was fairly one sided and standard, but a text book example of how Mulg still eats face.

Points: 35

Hoarluk Doomshaper, Rage of Dhunia (*6pts)

* Troll Axer (6pts)

* Earthborn Dire Troll (10pts)

* Mulg the Ancient (12pts)

Farrow Bone Grinders (Leader and 3 Grunts) (2pts)

Kriel Warriors (Leader and 5 Grunts) (4pts)

* Kriel Warrior Standard Bearer & Piper (2pts)

Swamp Gobber Bellows Crew (Leader and 1 Grunt) (1pts)

Saxon Orrik (2pts)

Stone Scibe Chronicler (2pts)

Hoarluk Doomshaper, Rage of Dhunia vs Kommandant Irusk

Mulg was certain he was smarter than most other Dire Trolls, he was also certain he could kill and eat pretty much whatever he wanted..  Krol sat in front of him though, flexing his new hand again, for some reason it made Mulg's stomach churn a little and his appetite wane... a little. 

My buddy texted me for a quick 25pt game and I accepted.  Usually he plays Khador with a bunch of heavy jacks and the Butcher or Karchev.  I figured we'd do a battle of the bigs so I brought some heavies of my own.

My List

Hoarluk Doomshaper, Rage of Dhunia -6

Dire Troll Mauler +9

Earthborn Dire Troll +10

Mulg the Ancient +12

He decided to throw me a curve though and he went infantry heavy.

His List

Kommandant Irusk -6

Kodiak +8

Great Bears of Gallowswood+5

Iron Fang Pikemen (Leader and 9 Grunts) +8

Iron Fang Pikemen Officer & Standard +2

Winter Guard Rifle Corps (Leader and 9 Grunts) +5

Kovnik Jozef Grigorovich +2

Sevwall's Fieldtest Thoughts - Warlocks

My thoughts on each model as it is now in MKII, with a list of 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 out.

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


Madrak - 3
Seems quite acceptable. Surefoot is a spectacular defensive spell, and as an upkeep it allows him to send people off under its effects without having to recast it every turn. Stonefall is a poor offensive spell, but really his axe is all he needs to affect things at range.

I am undecided if he needs any changes. I feel like he needs reach, but that may just be wishful thinking. I’m going to say he is probably fine as is.

pHoarluk - 2
Wow, he has really turned into a true denial caster. Purification is a nice ability, especially since it can remove animi now, and there are some nice defensive animi out there. Past that, he seems nice if a little underwhelming. He works well with beasts via Goad, but his offensive potential is very limited, and Death Sentence and Stranglehold are very short ranged for him. One major problem is that he needs to recast his upkeeps when he Purifys, and that he is often out of easy range to recast his spells. So range is a problem, and he is a tad underpowered…..

Possible feedback: Something as simple as a bond that turns a beast into a channeller seems reasonable. It lets him effect the battle without putting himself at too much personal risk. Since his repetoire of offensive spells is limited, this should not swing him over into the ‘too good’ range.

Borka – 2
Borka is a weird one. Obviously Mosh Pit is hugely powerful. He gets an extra fury each turn through the keg carrie. Yet he seems… lacking. Boring maybe. Bum Rush is very hard to pull off, since it is much, much more limited that Counter Charge in that you have to move in a straight line. Cooler may as well be blank for all you will cast it. Yet he isn’t really bad in any way. Just slightly lacking. He seems to be geared towards beasts, yet has such little capability to run them.

Possible Feedback. Forget the pseudo Fury 6 from Keggy, just make him a 6. It helps him run the beasts than his feat and his spell list want. Keggy would lose Top up, and gain nothing in return. This keeps it as a small buff. Keggy would then have a sigular, but important purpose.

eMadrak - 3
Played with him a few times. He seems alright, just fine really. He is one of the two casters who seem to make Mulg a bit over the top. But Warpath is otherwise cool, he threatens nicely in melee with his big axe and even a possible Vortex of Destruction. The feat still rocks.

Possible Feedback: He wouldn’t be broken with reach. If pMadrak gets it, eMadrak would too.

eHoarluk - 3
What can I say? He is fun now, he has a cool but not crazy spell list. Wild aggression is a huge buff, but Warmachine shows how balanced it is. Refuge is simply cool. The only real issue is the feat. If you do not have a turn where you can charge (as happens in games vs fast opponents or opponents with shutdown feats) you do not have a feat…..

Possible feedback: The feat should grant +3” of movement regardless of whether you charge or not. Aside from that it seems fine.

Calandra – 4
We run into a problem here. Calandra is fine. She really is. Not overpowered. But Befuddle is. It is the answer to every problem you can face on the field. Unit? Turn them around to give you backstrikes and prevent them from charging. Or just clump them and send an axer or a scattergunner to wipe them out in a single attack. A possible 20” threat on the spell (Rush + Bonegrinders.. its even further if you charge) is just a little too much for this crazy spell.

The rest of it is fine. Her new feat was a stroke of genius,

Posssible Feedback: Befuddle at RNG 10 is too much. Make it RNG 8 again.



That was the easy part. Tommorrow….. Warbeasts!

eDoomy Has Bad Dreams About eDenny... They Come True

Denny kicked eDoomy's but, my heart wasn't in it from the start as I began throwing Champs at him because I forgot to bring Kriel Warrior Fodder. Learned a few things about how to play him though. I will post a full report in the morning. Story Report can be found at McCryxian Domination HERE

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)

Epic Doomshaper Wins his Debut Match!

Hoarluk Doomshaper, Rage of Dhunia. So I beat the Teleporting Cygnar caster on my second turn in a 750pt pickup game with eDoomy's feat and a Bonded Mauler with a STR 15 Throwing a handful of Storm Knights at the caster killing him with the third toss (Goad here is fantastic). Also the first throw needed boxcars to hit and happened to hit, next time I throw my Kriels for a better chance to hit when I miss. Question is, is eDoomy a one-trick pony like the Borka Bomb? I'd say, you play him SUPER agressive, because he is dead if they attack him.

Second game was a 350 point game with Borka against Menoth.
The dice gods smiled down upon me again when on turn two his Ashes to Ashes spell missed with snake eyes. Since I couldn't shoot him my Impaler with rage on it charged his arcnode jack with the push-back shield and took out the shield on the first hit and the arcnode on the second hit. Sensing his demise he tried to take out Borka but his 17 armor was too much for the auto-hitting redeemer rockets due to some low boosted damage rolls. My Raged, Beer-ed up Borka, charged his caster and ended him in one hit with PS18+4D6.

All in all a good night for the Trolls. I'll post better reports tomorrow since my blurry eyes need sleep.

Hoarluk Doomshaper, Rage of Dhunia

Dude, he cut off his own HAND!!!

The now epic Doomshaper has finally been assembled and ready to hit the gaming table this wednesday night so it feels like time for a rundown.

So as far as the story goes, some of the Troll elders don't like the way Old Doomy is doing things, I mean, he killed a hospitol train full of Cygnarians for crying out loud. So they set him up to be captured by Cygnar. What they didn't know is that becuase he cut off his own hand to make friends with Mulg he regenerates like a Dire Troll and is friends with the biggest meanest trolls around. Cygnar catches Doomy, break his staff Gnarlroot, and throw him in dungeon. Madrak and Borka find out Doomy is captured and go to save him only to find out that Mulg and a mess of other Dires beat him to the punch. So now Doomy, Madrak and Borka are out to make someone pay while Grissel, Grim and Calandra keep the rest of the Trolls safe...

STATS
Okay his stats, they blow, other than his Fury 7 he is baaad. Protect him or he will die to a stiff breeze. Which is odd since he is supposed to be awesome sauce, but I guess he is rather old so there it is.

WEAPON
Willbreaker is awesome against Hordes players. Bonk their beast on the head, take it over, beat them with their own beasts. When yer done with that Doomy finishes whatever he was doing.

FEAT - Scroll of Grimmar
Doomy and his Dires get double speed for one turn. Yeap a Dire Troll missle is coming your way.

ABILITIES
Calming Effect - Run your beasts hot, they'll go after enemies even if they frenzy.
Goad - Beast kills an enemy and can be forced to move 2". Caster hiding behind a trooper, just eat the trooper first and move on up.
Hyper Regeneration - Doomy gets D3 back each turn, though if Doomy is getting hit chances are he won't be living long.
Tough - I am Troll therfore I am tough.
Warbeast Bond - All one of your Dire Trolls attacks can be power attacks (no Tramples, Slams, or Charges) So one good use for this. Buff a Dire to STR 17 and start throwing Pygmies at your enemies. Thats a 9" plus the base size POW 17 ranged attack.

SPELLS
Agitation - Add fury to enemy beasts. Aww you can't transfer damage anymore because your beasts are full.
Mayhem - Free Charge +5, not as good as Rush, but still pretty good.
Mob Mentality - Units need more movement too, hit an enemy with this and your troops move toward it.
Primal Shock - It isn't as good as an arcnode, but from a Dire its a POW 12 blast and Doomy can use it three times a turn.
Sunder Spirit - I take your animus for a round... yeap I own it.

SYNOPSIS
Still squishy as heck, but aggressive like crazy. He is definetly stonger against Hordes, but can still lay it down against Warmachine. We will see how much I like him once he hits the table.

Epic Doomshaper on Battle College