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!

Epic Fail Battle Report

So my plan with this army was to bring all of the models/units that were considered by large to be points better spent elsewhere and make them work. Instead of posting another battle report you can read it HERE.

I would like to go over some of the things I learned about what many consider to be the Worst of the Trolls.

THUMPER CREW
So here is the deal, it is actually a decent ranged option for a Troll army. Too bad you HAVE to use Farstrike on it to get it that way, and the random D6 bounce hurts. The pow on the bounce is higher than half damage on AOE blasts but still unreliable.
CONS - No Move and Shoot
No Arcing Fire
D6 Bounce instead of AOE or a fixed distance
PROS - Good Range for Trolls, one of our best actually.
If you do hit with it the pow is decent enough to kill most single-wound infantry and dent higher armor targets.

BURROWERS
As with all the Pygs these guys have awesome fluff. The turn they emerge they are fantastic, but with the low range and small area to emerge in taking a full unit of them is hard to do. Also if the unit leader dies they are pretty much ineffective. They have a very good high pow shot and create some really good board control. In fact, I have even killed a caster with them once because he left them alone thinking they couldn't do that much damage.
CONS - Difficult rules for burrowing and emerging (at least for me)
Very slow when burrowed.
Very squishy when not burrowed.
Very short range making hitting reach targets hard on the emerge turn.
Expensive to field.
PROS - Hit quite hard on emerge turn.
Board control is pretty effective.

BUSHWACKERS
I have grown quite fond of my unit of these guys actually. Especially in my Grim lists they are great for anti-flanking while Grim bores a hole to their caster for the EBDT. Rarely do they get Advanced Deployed in my games, and often do they sit back and cover one or both flanks. Usually my army has 6 or 7 of them.
CONS - Expensive to field
Very Squishy
Short range for a CRA unit
PROS - Fast as far as Trolls are concerned
Pathfinder
CRA
One of the only Advance Deploys Trolls have.

SCATTERGUNNERS
Like the Bushwackers I really like my Scattergunners. The Spray on them is quite effective especially when they are Fel Called to hit better. My rMadrak brick sees 6 to 8 of them in 750 point games and they combo well with Longriders for me. Usually I run them in a conga-line from front to back much like a good Cryx player runs Bile Thralls. It gives the front couple the ability to spray into a unit while the rest of the unit is back in relative safety to be used on the next turns. Often I will use Longriders to screen and I run the LR conga-lined as well.
CONS - Like all the other bad Troll stuff, they just aren't as tough as Kriels let alone some of our better stuff like LR or Champs.
Pretty much that's it for cons for me, an ability like 'Duck' on them would be sweet but not having it doesn't take away from them for me.
PROS - Fast by Troll standards.
Spray Attack - What we lack in AOEs we make up for in a good Spray attack.
Decent, if situational charge ability.

WINTER TROLL
Many a bad thing has been said about the Winter Troll and not without merit. Low PS and high point cost make him much less appealing than the Impaler. Honestly, I bought him about a month ago to complete my Troll collection and have played him twice as of last Wednesday night. It appears to me that he will see more action in the near future to find out if he is worthy to field competitively or not. The biggest Problem when compared to the Pyre is this, the Pyre's ability to buff the army is quite good while the Winter's abilities to defend require your opponent to take action instead of yourself.
CONS - Situational Animus (Can be effective, especially with Borka)
Low PS
High Point Cost
PROS - Rime is fantastic
Spray is decent because you can boost with a beast.
Two open fists = power attacks. No army has more two open fists than do Trolls. If you're not taking advantage of that your doing something wrong.

Really that's it. Good players like the Chronicler, also the Slag and Bouncer, though situational have been good to me when I bring them. So that would be it for me on my rundown of the worst of the Troll army. Let me know what you think and if I have missed anything.

Trollblood Rejects VS Menoth's Least Wanted 750

Righto, I modified the list for the Trollblood Rejects game last night just a hair.

Faction: Trollblood
Points: 750
Model Count: 39
Victory Points: 27

Hoarluk Doomshaper
Troll Impaler
Troll Bouncer
Winter Troll
Fel Caller
Trollkin Hero
Krielstone Bearer & Stone Scribes [4] (0 added)
> Stone Scribe Elder [1]
Pyg Burrowers [6] (0 added)
Pyg Bushwackers [6] (0 added)
Thumper Crew [3]
Trollkin Champions [5]
Trollkin Scattergunners [6] (0 added)
Swamp Gobber Bellows Crew [2]

I had to swap the Pyre for an Impaler, I needed a little more firepower. Also, the Chronicler wasn't put in because even though I never play him, he seems to be decent for some of the more experienced Troll players out there. I will post my battlereport tonight and it will be infinitely better than the CerealMan's report.

Link to the Menoth list.