MKI comes to a close... is it the end of Broken imbalances?

I have been playing Hordes now for around 2-3 years, sticking mainly with Trollbloods the vast majority of the time.

With the finalization of the MKII rules eminent and the fact that MKI will most likely never ever be played in our LGS again it is time to retire my MKI numbers and start up some MKII stats. The MKII stats will be more inclusive, there will be a column just for me but I will be collecting stats from around ten other Troll players as well. It is sad to step away from this being a personal thing, but in the future the blog will be better for all the Troll players not just me. It appears the broken imbalances will be erased in MKII, but for now we will have to wait and see.

So here they are in all their glory... the numbers!

The first set of numbers is my overall win/loss percentages with each Troll Caster since the first day I picked up the Troll battlebox. In the first months of playing, my poor Trolls almost never ever won, unless you count 8 tough rolls in a row against rKaya on my third or fourth game when my Impaler then moved in and one shot her. Since that time the numbers have been better putting most my averages at almost 70% win. Here is the list.

Army	W	L	D	PCT
Cygnar	19	8	0	70.370
Cryx	10	19	0	34.483
Khador	14	3	0	82.353
Protectorate of Menoth	13	3	0	81.250
Mercenaries	3	0	0	100.000
Skorne	15	9	1	60.000
Trollbloods	6	1	0	85.714
Circle of Orboros	9	5	0	64.286
Legion of Everblight	14	4	0	77.778
Warmachine	60	33	0	64.516
Hordes	44	19	1	68.750
Totals	101	51	1	66.013
	STRK		W7

As you can see I struggled against Cryx ALOT, but there at the end my winning streak of 7 was the second longest streak of my MKI career, then best streak I had was with Grissel, Horthol and Longriders with 11 in a row.

The next set of numbers I started collecting was killing blows. This stat was to keep track of which one of my models ended up with the caster kill. I started collecting them about the time of the release of the Hero and you don't caster kill every win so the numbers are smaller. Here are my results.
Warcaster/Warlock Killing Blows (top 10)

* Trollkin Hero - 10
* Earthborn Dire Troll - 9
* Borka Kegslayer - 7
* Grim Angus - 6
* Troll Impaler - 5
* Trollkin Champions - 4
* Madrak Ironhide - 4
* Grissel Bloodsong - 3
* Dire Troll Mauler - 3
* Mulg The Ancient - 2

As you can see, the Hero took some names. His MKI incarnation was downright brutal the turn after I sacrificed a few Champs to get the Hero into position. My Earthborn also seemed to always get a caster dead or get him close enough for a few Champs or Grim to pick it off afterword. MKII has killed the Heroes assassination capabilities making him more of an infantry killer but the Earthborn and nowadays probably Mulg will gladly fill those shoes.

My last stat was the caster win stats, mainly because I wanted to see how my goto casters did AND because I can't help myself.

Caster	W	L	D	PCT
Borka Kegslayer	9	2	0	81.81
Calandra Truthsayer	6	5	0	54.55
Grim Angus	29	12	0	70.73
Grissel Bloodsong	19	7	0	73.08
Hoarluk Doomshaper	1	4	0	20.00
Hoarluk Doomshaper, Rage of Dhunia	3	5	1	33.33
Madrak Ironhide	26	10	0	72.22
Madrak Ironhide, World Ender	5	2	0	71.43

While Borka owns the best percentage, by and large my favorite two casters to play were rMadrak and Grim. These two presented each end of the spectrum for Troll playstyle in MKI and were usually the best options to keep my opponents on their toes. If they planned for a Brick they had to hope they didn't see Grim. Grissel needs mention as I won a lot with her and she and Borka are my only two first place tourney finishes.

The new numbers should be bigger, better and more inclusive. Some won't be on the blog for a bit, but they will get there. We will have what was there before, but this time we will include not only each caster's win percentage, but their percentages against each faction.

On a side note I am looking for a way to setup on online form where those giving me numbers can input them on their own instead of sending them to me, then I can just open the inputs and update the blog. If anyone has that expertise they are willing to lend it would be fantastic.

Also I would like to welcome a few new authors to the Scrum. The ever popular and insightful Sevwall is a very experienced Troll player and is quite active on the PP forums. Kaptain Von is a newer Troll player than spends much of his time on the dark side of the game over in Cryx land and will provide an excellent point of view about Trolls. I have always thought Cryx to be the army that is most like Trolls, though many will say it is Menoth or Khador. And finally Josh Gardner a.k.a General Nemo from the PP forums, he has typically been what I would refer to as 'The Voice of Reason' on the forums. I am still looking for a couple more to contribute here if anyone wants a place to post Troll musings AND announce upcoming events in their local LGS.

Escalation Rounds 1 & 2

Riding up to Grissel, Horthol scowled as he gave his message to her from Madrak, "He asks to you take your force as quickly as you can to the other side of the plains. If we can get there quickly we can secure a cache of supplies and weapons deposited there by some Circle of Orbos folk as they moved on. It is rumored there are some relics of great power among them..." Grissel frowned, "You know that means we will likely encounter many groups of Warcasters and Warlocks looking for them as well right?" Horthol knew the truth as well as she did, this would be a dangerous mission.

I went into the shop an hour before the tournament started and showed the shop owner my three escalation lists, rMadrak to eMadrak, Grissel and Grim. I just could not decide which to bring and so the shop owner rolled a D3 and came up with Grissel.

ROUND 1
Put me up against Khador

My list
Points: 319
Grissel Bloodsong, Fell Caller Points: 70
Pyre Troll Points: 68
Slag Troll Points: 70
Dire Troll Mauler Points: 111

His list
Points: 197
Kommander Sorscha Kratikoff Points: 71
> Beast-09 Points: 126

He gambled on his list and it nearly paid off.

Our Terrain was a small forest on the left side of each of our deployment areas and a huge fargin rough terrain hill that got up to 3" high in the middle. I rolled highest and opted to deploy and go first.

Deployment
Trolls - I decided on the left side of the hill and deployed there.
Khador - He deployed almost right in the middle of his side.

As Horthol rode off to gather up some reinforcements Grissel, a Slag Troll, her favorite Pyre Troll, and the Mauler that was indeed smart for a Dire went off to claim this 'cache' for Madrak. It didn't take long for them to encounter a dimiutive Warcaster from Khador with a Particularly battle work jack by her side.

Turn 1
Trolls - Everything moved up 10"
Khador - He advanced forward with Beast and left Sorscha moving forward a hair but staying behind Beast in his Deployment zone.

Turn 2
Trolls - I feated and ran everything and made a huge mistake. I got the Mauler and the Pyre into Melee range of Beast. My Slag went straight towards the forest on the edge closest to Beast. and Grissel went for the forest left behind the slag barely putting my other two beasts in her control.
Khador - He moves Sorscha up to the hill base in between the Pyre and Slag and feats, also casting the spell that makes her def a ton against ranged. Beast moves back on the Mauler and Pyre to get out of thier melee and threshers hurting them both.

Sorscha was indeed suprised at the speed in which the Troll woman and he beasts set upon her, she had no doubt at all that Beast-09 could handle the two that were on him. She sneered at Grissel, "you will feel the bite of cold steel, or run for you life when I am through with you."

Turn 3
Trolls - Since Grissel can still use her calls while stationary I use cacophony taking away all of Sorschas spells. I try to zing a spell at Sorscha (he says I can still cast them while stationary) but cannot hit her high def.
Khador - Beast takes the Mauler and Pyre apart then Sorscha goes after the Slag for the win. She manages to make him stationary with a crit but cannot finish him off.

Still angry and even a little despondant from going on this mission in the first place, Grissel had little patience left for the cocky human in front of her. The woman looked suprised first that she couldn't focus enough to freeze her again, then more suprised again that the Slag Troll was able to brush off her attack. Grissel rushed into the Khadorian weilding her hammer and with a battle cry bashed in her head.

Turn 4
Trolls - Grissel charges Sorscha hitting the charge and the last attack ending her.

ROUND 2
I found myself facing Menite Jon from Lost Hemisphere and his Harby list.
My Grissel list I decided to add only five more model to bring me to 500 keeping her feat and my mobility in mind.

My List
Points: 498
Grissel Bloodsong, Fell Caller Points: 70
Pyre Troll Points: 68
Slag Troll Points: 70
Dire Troll Mauler Points: 111
Horthol, Long Rider Champion Points: 66
Trollkin Long Riders [4] (1 added) Points: 113

His List
Points: 489
Harbinger of Menoth Points: 107
> Hierophant Points: 19
> Fire of Salvation Points: 113
> Reckoner Points: 126
High Paladin Dartan Vilmon Points: 38
Paladin of the Order of the Wall Points: 19
Wrack Points: 5
Doc Killingsworth Points: 19
Lady Aiyana & Master Holt [2] Points: 43

The Harbringer was a little afraid to face this Troll woman that had caused so much trouble for the PKA. She was confident in her ability to destry her though, and set out to pin her army between the lone farmhouse and one of the walls near it.

Our Terrain was a 4x6" farm right in the middle with a low wall on the right side and a few inches up from each of our deployment zones. I rolled highest and once again opted to go first.

Deployment
Trolls - I Spread the Longriders out from the middle to the right with Horthol going up the table edge. The Mauler took the gap between the farm and the Wall with my two lights and Grissel right behind the wall.
Menoth - H&A deploy across from Horthol. The Paladins directly across form my wall and a wrack on the empty side of the farm house to prevent me from circling around it with my LR and flanking him. His jacks deployed across from the Mauler with Harby behind them with Doc and the Heirophant behind her.

Turn 1
Trolls - Each LR went forward 7", the Mauler ran straight up 10" and the lights and Grissel hit the left edge of the wall in front of me and I was done.
Khador - His wholy army pretty much did the same moving up about 4".

Horthol rejoined the fight with Grissel along with a few Longriders, "More is on its way but I fear they will not be here to help us in this fight." Horthol reported. Grissel shook off her weariness and sang to her Trolls wathching them all sprint accross the field catching the young floating woman and her army before they could prepare a charge of their own.

Turn 2
Trolls - Grissel Advanced 6" forward and feated. Mauler runs and hoofs it to engage the Reckoner. The LR run up and hoof it two of them get around and behind to engage harby, one gets behind the Paladins and engages them and the Leader puts himself behind A&H, Horthol runs with them and puts himself behind the Paladins and the Reckoner. The two light beasts take up positions in front of Grissel by about 1".

Her suprise at the speed in which the nomally slow Trolls caught up to her was short lived. She reacted by blowing apart the ones nearest to her with a cataclysm of holy fire. She then used her connection to her jacks to have them mop up what she had not finished already.

Khador - So I didn't know about Harby's Spell cataclysm, it friggin rocks. He takes out the two closest Longriders with it. A paladin turns to hit Horthol and dies to a Free Strike from a LR now behind him, but the other pally hits him for a litte. The FoS finishes off Horthol, the Reckoner takes down another LR and Holt pins the leader down.

Turn 3
Trolls - Aiyana dies a horrible death and that LR is done. Grissel Rages the Mauler and the Slag Troll then takes away the spells via Cacophony from Harby. The Mauler then throws the Reckoner into Harby knocking the Reckoner down and getting a PS15 off on the Harbster, the Mauler proceeds to beat up the Reckoner leaving it with a coule points in movent and cortex. Slaggy beats the FoS pretty good too leaving it armless as well. The Pyre Troll then burns the Paladin to Ash.

Power flowing through her she reacted instantly to each new threat and dealt with it, but for some reason the Troll witch's song made it to hard for her to concentrate on spell casting. Unable to rely on spellcasting she moved in on the big troll to deal with it herself, which she did easily, slicing it to piecies with a grace and power that defied her size and age.

Khador - Holt tried again to pin down the LR who could have a lane to Harby but acutally misses one attack. Harby moves around to take out the Mauler which she easily does, with no spells though she is finished with her activation. He bashes the Slag for some damage and is done.

Though the small female's performance against her Mauler was impressive Grissel's fuse had grown shorter still. Leaning over to the Pyre Troll she held out her mace. The Troll grinned and spit on it covering it with burning pitch. Grissel once again let out a warcry that split the ears of those remaining on the battle field as she sent yet another human woman home with a headache they would remember each time they fought against her Kith and Kriel.

Turn 4
Trolls - Grissel once again takes matters into her own hands, the Pyre Troll gives her his animus and she charges Harby, hitting on the charge then missing a couple. One last attack to see if I can get her and Grissel rolls just enought to hit and then again just enough damage to box her.

Synopsis - Against Sorscha I really screwed up running both my beasts to base Beast09 when the Pyre Troll could have done the job himself hopefully giving the Mauler one more round of survivability.

Against Harby was a fun game, I almost lost it because I didn't know her very well, but once again getting up into their face with my feat finds my opponent in melee and makes it to hard for them to get the position they want allowing me to caster kill.

Round 3 and the last tourney finds me fighting to first place against Cryx and eDenny I think. That should be interesting for sure. I will take the camera for this game and have at least one pic per Troll turn for you.

Madrak Ironhide, World Ender vs Grand Exemplar Kreoss

Madrak had a bad feeling about coming this close to the PKA's territory but he felt there was no choice. If they succeeded in securing the land they were scouting it could mean a new place for his Kith to settle in. The unrest of his army lately would lead to foolish mistakes if he could not find and outlet for them soon...

Tournament practice for our Escalation tourney coming this Wednesday. We played saturday to make some last minute adjustments. Which is to say, which caster am I going to bring, Madrak or Grissel.

My Army
Points: 748
Madrak Ironhide, World Ender Points: 74
Dire Troll Mauler Points: 111
Mulg The Ancient Points: 138
Fell Caller Points: 35
Stone Scribe Chronicler Points: 19
Trollkin Hero Points: 38
Trollkin Hero Points: 38
Krielstone Bearer & Stone Scribes [6] (2 added) Points: 50
Stone Scribe Elder [1] Points: 18
Trollkin Champions [5] Points: 106
Trollkin Champions [5] Points: 106
Swamp Gobber Bellows Crew [2] Points: 15

His Army
Army Points: 745
Grand Exemplar Kreoss 73
Hierophant 19
Redeemer 81
Redeemer 81
Fire of Salvation 113
Knight Exemplar Seneschal 34
Choir of Menoth (Full) 22
Knights Exemplar 69
Knights Exemplar 69
Exemplars Errant (9)118
Exemplar Bastions (3)66

We used this Steamroller Map

He rolled highest and opted to go first.

"Grand Exemplar," the Scenshal reported, "We have indeed found a large contingent of Trolls moving thorugh the lower marshes... Madrak himself is with them, I suggest we move to attack immediately while our presence in unkown to him."

Deployment
PKA - He put one KE on each flank with the EE towards his left flank and Bastions towards his right flank with the rest of his army right in the middle.
TROLLS - Mulg Left, Mauler Right, and umm... you guys know the brick right? Eveything bunched up right in the middle with Champs up front.

TURN 1
PKA - His EE spread out towards my left and the KE run wide up each flank. Bastions move up towards my middle right and the Rocket jacks toss a few errant shots the rest of the main group heads up the middle. He puts upkeeps on everything, damage back to me on the fires and activation loss for killing crossbow dudes.
TROLLS - Champs run just to my right of the closest wall some even covering with it. Mulg takes the left Mauler take the right, Chronicler uses the first chapter of the left unit of Champs closest to the crossbow dudes. Everything else bunches up behind the wall of Champs. Maddy casts his upkeep and I finish by using the you can't move me and I am immune to bast damage aura then gobber smoke between crossbow dudes.

TURN 2
PKA - He shoots with is rocket jacks doing piddily, but his crossbow dudes manage to kill one Champ. His KE move to flank even more taking advantage of my grouping up and heading up the middle. His Bastions and Fires of Salavation end just outside of charge range and he is done. Rocket jacks shoot to no avail as the blast damage is useless against me. Admittedly some armies would just get destroyed by that barrage with rof3 each.

Madrak underestimated how much unrest his forces were, they were edgy and seemed to be reacting just a hair too slow. This was uncommon as he had the best of his Kriel with him today. With the grimness of death around him he began to issue orders, "Blood group go get those rockets, Death group core out the middle, we will leave the big Warjack to Mulg..."

TROLLS - My front line charges he Bastions and his Fires jack with one unit of Champs killing a bastion, the other unit running around the Fires to engage the shooty jacks. Madrak heads over and uses ricochet to plink a KE and the unit leader on the right side and uses a token to move 1" back into the brick. Mauler uses one kill to move 3" so he can now charge the rest of them. Hero moves up to absorb the counter attack from that side. Mulg also used the 3" movement to get a clear lane to the Fires and moves in hitting the first two attacks, whiffing the third and rolling under 4 on the last three leaving the Fires with his cortex and mace. Hero on the left Charges the Senschal and KE flanking to tie them up and gets the Scenschal good. KSB you can't move me aura and gobber smoke on the Bastions.

"They have taken the bait and are almost completely surrounded my lord though our left flank is collapsing," reported the runner from the Exemplar Errants. "Excute the manuever and destroy them," Kross smiled, he knew how tough Trolls were, but he had no doubt he could clease even their best from the world of the living today.

TURN 3
PKA - He feats, and the proceeds to kick the poop outta me. Seven Champions die the last one to Kreoss himself. There was even eight tough rolls in there but it didnt keep them alive at all. Mulg dies, the Mauler gets reduced to four wounds. Thats pretty much it, I have Stone Scribes two Heros way out of position, some gobbers and my Mauler left. He is still largely unhurt.
TROLLS - It's time to go for it, since it is clear I am done on the next turn, so I do. KSB pops the +2 Str aura, Mauler rages Madrak then Tramples his whole choir eating them all, healing up all but two wounds. Chronicler charges the Fires and finishes it off (yeah how about that, he actually did something). Madrak moves up as far as he can and throws at Kreoss with a PS20, boosting to hit and nailing him for nine or so damage, he then ricochets into the Heirophant killing him and getting a blood token. Madrak then feats, and proceeds to throw at Kreoss again killing him. (As I type this I am unsure of if his feat affects himself or not, I didn't think about it untill just now).

Seeing his units execute their ambush perfectly made Kreoss nod approvingly as he moved in to finish a Troll himself. These Trolls had gained a large repuation against his countrymen recently and he was happy to put them down for once.

As he looked up to survey the battlefield, he hoped to find Madrak and end his menace for good. Seeing Madrak struggle to salvage what was left of his army he saw the bastions and his Fires of Salvation fall. Kreoss began issuing orders to finish Madrak when he saw him stand up on the wreckage of his Fires of Salvation and throw his big axe right at him. Trying to dodge out of the way the axe glanced off his shoulder sending pain down his arm. He watched the axe bend around him and embed itself into his Heirophants chest. A courageous move, but it would cost Madrak his life. As he regained his bearing and began once again to issue a kill order on Madrak, that same axe appeared in his chest. Not quite understanding how that had happened he vaguely remebered his own Redeemers carrying him swiftly from the battlefield pausing slowing to fire rockets at any possible following Trolls. Then his conciousness faded to blackness...

Synopsis - He kicked my tail, and I got lucky pure and simple. This game reminded me why Madrak likes to bring an Impaler. Mulg is out, and Axer and Impaler are in.

PKA Tries to stop Grissel with eFeroa, Grissel Sends Feroa home trussled and tied.

"Madrak's bad luck seems to be our own," Grissel commented to the young Fel Caller. She had sent the young Caller ahead with the unit of Kriels and the two beasts just two days ago and already he had returned with a particularly nasty Slag Troll and an Earthborn that was just a little too smart for a Dire Troll. "We saw a contingint of Menites heading straight towards you on our way to Madrak so he sent back some firepower for you," the young Fel Caller grinned as he pointed over at the Earthborn, "He has been teasing the Slag Troll the whole way here, he keeps pouring seasoning on the Slag every time it isn't paying attention." Grissel was always amazed at the antics of the big beasts, but she remained wary of all the Dire Trolls preferring some of the smaller more intelligent beasts over their larger cousins. Where were the Imaplers, Axers, and Bouncers when she needed them?

Dhalia appeard at Grissels side, "It is Feroa as pompous as ever, she intends to make you pay for taking down that Butcher fellow last week." Grissel Grimaced at the thought, first they had a whole section of the Cygnar army trying to prove themselves by wiping out her race and she keeps running into these PKA folks. Why Khador and Menoth would ally themselves might be of concern for Victor next time she saw him, for now she just wanted a long drink from the newest brew out of Borka's Pygmie brewers. They called it Whelp Ale, and though she was reasonably sure they didn't acutally make it out of Whelps, she had taken a liking to it.

"Longriders take the flank to the East when the ground is more open for your Buffalo the rest of us will take to the Trees and hit them from the other side." Grissel grinned inspite of herself, her primal instinct to fight coming out after this errand had become one battle after another. Even though she didn't want to kill them for no reason, she did enjoy battle. She saw the Menites arrayed in standard formation accross the field and so begun her advance singing to lighten the feet of the Longriders as they went. The Menites looked suprised at her speed, but did not seem to be caught off guard. She heard Dhalia call out from her right and saw her surrounded by some very dangerous looking Menite women while her pet snake seemed affixed on a big big Jack in front of him. As Grissel and her beasts moved to deal with them her own beasts began advancing on the jack immediately after killing them all. "Go get em boys," she sang loud enought that her whole army surged forward to smash the Menite front lines

She sang a song of Battle to her Champions as two large explosions erupted in front of them spewing fire all over them. Truely those were the best of the Troll crop as they continued to fight even as they burned to death. Her Longriders seemed to be bogged down with some particularly crazy looking Menites, but they were killing them hopefully fast enough to help on the flank. Through her bond she found the Slag and Earthborn actually egging each other on and competing with each other to see which one could take out the Menite steam jacks the fastest, she encouraged them on watching the Eartborn rip the large jack apart with his bare hands that looked shaped like giant swords while the Slag Trolls Spittle dissolved the rocket firing jack. She let out a chuckle that seemed to mirror that of the Earthborn as they all turned their attention on Feora and the big jack in front of her. She was proving to be difficult stepping into fire at one place and emerging from one a small distance away lighting everything on fire as she moved away from it.

True to form the burning Champions were already hacking away at the lone remaining Menite jack while one of thier Hero's went after a unit of tough looking well co-ordinated Menites that had caught the Eartborn's attention. "Time for us to put this fool caster down," Grissel said to Dhalia as a stray rocket knocked her out of the fight. Grissel began a song of hope to her army that seemed to buzz in Feroa's ears.

Ready to use her fire to retreat, Feroa began casting the spell when for some reason it wouldn't work. She shook her head to clear her mind but found herself unable to do so. Looking up to get her bearings she found herself face to face with Grissel and the very large Troll beast responsible for tearing her Avatar apart. Still pious to the end Feroa glared at Grissel, "You will pay for my destruction you sub-human whore." As Feora brought her staff to bear, Grissel's own hammer resounded from Feroa's skull knocking her unconcious.

When she awoke she found that she was in a secluded clearing with Grissel and her big Troll. "Do your worst my God will protect me," Feroa spat at Grissels feet.

"Your God does not save you this day woman, I do," Grissel spat barely able to keep herself of smashing in this woman's skull and making it into a soup bowl. "I seek only the survival of my people, not the murdering of anyone in the Iron Kingdoms. Know this, if you attack my people again you will pay for it with your life."

At that Grissels song lifted and Feroa stepped into her fire to get as far away from this Troll woman as possible. Feora would have to rethink her position on the intelligence of the Trolls, she did not think however, that she would rethink her feelings that they were an abomination that needed to be rid of from the Iron Kingdoms. She would see this 'Grissel' again, and the next time she would make her pay with her life for her insolence.

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.