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.

Big SLC Tourney

She looks like a Troll right?...

So a few of us from Logan went to SLC for a big tournament. I took my Trolls, McCryx came with Cryx of course, and as expected Cygnar Brian brought Cygnar. We played a Steamroller4 format and had four rounds.

It started off great for Trolls, I managed to roll over my first opponent who brought the new Skorne caster. It was a great game and the new Skorne caster is awesome, I managed to overwhelm his flank with my Longriders and Grissels feat ate up Molik Karn with Champs giving them a lane through his Shaman and then into his Krea and caster. VP of the Round, Champs for sure killing three times their points to bring.

Second round went badly but Grissel managed to squeeze one out by getting some extra fury from a dieing beast. Making Terminus fail his assasination run and dieing with a Mauler in his back. VP Grissel for being tough as nails.

Third round was epic, it was against Saeryn with Typhon and all that Legion crap. I brought Caladanra and a mess of troops and it was spectacualar. Giving and taking dice from Legion kept alot of my stuff alive much longer than it should have been. My minimum unit of Scattergunners did an awesome job of clearing out his swordsmen. I rerolled a hit against Typhon with my Impaler hoping for a crit slam that would have devastated him and probably won me the game. Instead he was able to clear a lane with a lucky throw distance roll of six from Typhon, which he needed a six to hit Calandra and knock her down. Close game and I don't think he expected Trolls to give him so much trouble. VP Scattergunners.

Fourth Round was against eGoreshade, the air was let out of my sails when Grissels first longrider died to a countercharge on my first turn. He outplayed me in everyway, and my list ditch effort to toss a hero into his caster failed from another countercharge taking out the Maulers Spirit and the Pyre missing a throw. VP Slag Troll for actually killing something.

Win/Loss
2-2
Wins - Terminus and Mordikarr
Loss - Saeryn and eGoreshade

Fun tourney and it was nice to play some other people, I learned a few tweeks for my lists and also learned that I missed rMadrak horribly in Steamroller4.

How a Troll Assassinates a Master Assassin... You Don't

Lord Assassin Morghoul on Battle College

The Killing Fields scenario vs Lord Assassin Morghoul. It seemed my best chance to avoid being killed outright was the bring my high model count 'Modified Brick' and clog my caster with medium bases. Using Surefoot and the KSB aura that ruins blast damage my caster would seem safe.

Turn 1 starts with Trolls, The plan was to camp my main force on the center point and make her split her army to go for each side if she wanted to get points. My Kriels ran up the right side and mini-feated and used In-Step to get as close to the point on the right as possible and survive the Ferox charge if possible. The left side of the board had my Scattergunners and min unit of Gatormen running to that point. The center point was ran to by my Champs, rMadrak, the KSB and SSE, Slag, Impaler, Fel Caller, and Hero Pair. Skornes turn the Ferox goes for my Kriels and her main force moves up on the brick without attacking.

Turn 2 my Kriels grab the right point and run again to tie up as much of the opponent into melee as possible prevent that side of her force form being able to advance, the also scored the first kill on a combined melee against the Totem Hunter. My Brick lands on the center point Gobbers smoke up, Madrak Surefooted and camps there. The Gators and SG get the left side and prepare to flank. My turn ends with three points scored. Her turn ends with a couple dead Kriels and some Ferox and Certari who cant get the right side point because they had to kill Kriels. The Canoneer takes out a Kriel as well and her cyclops shadow walks up to the Fel Caller killing it... almost, yep we love tough. The Gladiator does the same thing on the left side one shotting one of my Heros. Agonizer out of range to hurt my beasts and Morghoul moves up to setup his assassination run for the next turn, then feats hitting my front line of Champs meaning they will for sure Camp that point on their next turn because if they move they can't attack anyway. Her turn ends zero points.

Turn 3 I give up on the right side and use my remaining Kriels to tie up the Agonizer. Main Brick sits on the middle point but I change the aura to +2 Str. The Slag moves up and hurt the Gladiator a bit to set him up for a charge from the Gators who subsequently kill him. The Scattergunners move up and shoot a few killing a couple of her support models. The Gobbers move over and take the left side point and my turn ends scoring two more points. Her turn ends up with the assassination attempt on Madrak as there was no way she was going to get enough points to win, lucky for me there wasn't quite enough space for her to fit so the other Hero bites it instead. Knowing that was her last chance she ends her turn so I can take my Turn 4 and win scoring two more pints.

Hoorah victory for the Trolls!!!

On a side note, Grim also ran a stinky Menite off the table in a pickup game earlier today.
All in all a good day for the Trolls.

Grand Exemplar Kreoss on Battle College

How a Troll Assassinates a Master Assassin...

Paint by Marie
Round Three pairing for the tourney at my local Leagues and who is it that the Trolls have to beat down? Lord Assassin Morghoul!!! Skorne v Trolls is always an epic matchup, one of my buddies started on Skorne about the same time my Troll army began its plight so the Skorne army is no mystery. Trolls can handle everything Skorne has except for one minor detail. Lord Assassin Morghoul is quite capable of assassinating any caster he wishes... so this begs the question. How does a Troll assassinate a master assassin?

I'm working on a strategy to not only survive the Inevitable attempt at my life from a DEF 17 caster that won't let me have tough or transfer damage. Something outside of the box most likely, something CerealJon is intimately familiar with because he has been victim of it. It's a long shot, but will be glorious.

Battle Report and strategy to come... wish me luck.
Skorne on Battle College
Lord Assassin Morghoul on BC