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This is the list I have been running lately. I went 4-1 the last tournament I took it to. I'll give the list then some thoughts.

Throgg

Exalted Hero BSB on Chariot w/ Halberd and Stream of Corruption (modelled as pirate maneater on a dinghy covered in junk, pulled by warhounds with goblin and gnoblar "assistants").

17 Chaos Trolls (a horde with Throgg)

8 Chaos Trolls

4 Ogres w/ great weapons and MoK

Giant with MoS

6 Dragon Ogres with great weapons

General deployment is Throgg goes in the horde, usually dead center with the 8 Trolls directly adjacent on one side. I can cheat slightly to one side or the other depending on terrain if necessary but I want Throgg to be in effective range of the other troll unit and the ogres. Chariot deploys behind them, both for cover and to give the important BSB reroll. Dragon Ogres go on the extreme flank along the table edge. Giant deploys between Dragon Ogres and Trolls where needed, keep in mind there isnt a lot of open ground between these units since I tend to fill roughly half of my deployment width - 36" - and the troll horde is 240mm, 8 trolls is 160mm, 6 dragon ogres is 120mm, and a giant is 50mm; in total 22" before being spaced out. Ogres sit slightly behind the line and on the weak side, to protect the horde's flank and deter enemy units sweeping around the edge of the line. I used to run 3x2 with Chaos Armor and no marks, but the current configuration covers more frontage, is 60 points cheaper, and only loses 2 attacks. MoK does hurt on occasion but hey its not 100% optimized, what can I say. Basic refused flank.

In general turn 1 for me is merely advancing everything to midfield. I do this against almost everyone, as I cant do anything unless I'm in melee. Dragon Ogres can get just over the halfway mark thanks to move 7, and I will try to run them down a flank, charge in on turn 2 and crush whatever's there, and reform so I'm pointing down their line. If the enemy isn't backing up yet, I have a chance to pull off a turn 2 charge. If people are backing up, turns 2 and 3 depend on what they do - try to get into melee asafp, but I'm not above having Throgg run out of the horde and using the breath weapon on something big and important. Shooting that isnt taking off entire trolls at a time can just be ignored - in fact I love it when people shoot the trolls with arrows or handguns or whatever, anything that gives me a chance to get the regen rolls early and often to power up the horde with EotG. Once you get into melee, you will wreck most units save the hardest anvils and then they aren't doing much damage to you.The chariot risks being left behind as the army surges forward, so I try to keep him in the best position possible to make supporting charges or just cover the main line against fast flanking units.

Very nice

I like the configuration of almost all of your units. I would have expected the ogres to be run in 2x2 formation, is this just for the extra stomps? You mentioned more frontage as if it was a good thing.

I am curious about the troll horde... it seems that facing lore of death or shadow they could die very quickly . Also, it seems it'd be pretty easy to hex that unit as it would be prior #1.

I like the MoS Giant especially and the GW Dragon Ogres... they cost a lot but you have no wizard or general so there's extra points to allocate to them.

Overall, I'd love to see a game with this. My last concern, and largest, is that people would simply feed the trollstar little units (eagles, hounds, etc) tilted such that they can't overrun and need to re-form, and thus it gets left behind. Or when it does hit the lines, it is hexed really badly... but with so many attacks it may not much matter.

But a single purple sun could probably kill the majority of that unit, so that's why I've taken to running units of 8-10 and leaving off that 3rd rank...

I also really like the chariot BSB! I'm converting two chariots up right now, and might consider making one a character chariot now...

Ogres 2x2 would be slightly easier to maneuver but I'm not looking for subtlety here and I generally don't need to finesse my way around the battlefield - I want to catch things and eat them. By using them wide it reduces the amount of space people have to get around me, plus with MoK I would lose the extra attack if I had a second rank fighting.

PSoX, Pit of Shades, and other big spells are going to wreck stuff, but thats true no matter who you are. The speed of the army lets me close the distance quick and If im facing those spells I accept the hexes and whatever else and save my dispel dice for the big spell. The nice thing about the troll horde is that I can take 6-8 casualties and still retain most of my combat effectiveness, plus with multiple large units of monstrous infantry and cav its too many threats to stop all at the same time. Approaching the game knowing that you're going to eat a Purple Sun or whatever lets you plan accordingly and say, OK go ahead and cast it but you get one shot and after that I'm on you. One of the local players has a flying vamp that always flies out and uses a power scroll to shoot Purple Suns at me, so Im used to it.

I guess you could focus everything on the horde and cripple it, but what about everything else? And when it gets into combat it still hits like a truck and has 4+ regen; fire is easy to get but the flaming banner cant be everywhere at once. The thing I tend to lose to are not conventional armies - Wood Elves that I cant bring to bear, Bretonnian buses that can turn a flank, and Tzeentch flying circuses (I @#$% hate flamers) but those are not typical armies. Most tournament armies bring big blocks of troops and the troll horde loves big blocks. I can go through a tarpit like 100 skaven slaves like a hot knife through butter and the abom just kinda bounces off me, ya know? The troll army just works well against what most people tend to bring to tournaments I guess, dont ask me Im stupid on LD4

Dogstar34 wrote:The troll army just works well against what most people tend to bring to tournaments I guess, dont ask me Im stupid on LD4

Nice

How do you deal with the flying vamp? It seems to me like it could just hop behind your battle line and be in business? (Or does the BSB stay far enough back to cover most of the rear of the flanks?

I may give the list a try and see how it goes sometime, too

RiTides wrote:How do you deal with the flying vamp? It seems to me like it could just hop behind your battle line and be in business? (Or does the BSB stay far enough back to cover most of the rear of the flanks?

I don't deal with it. Im not going to win by chasing a flyer around the board, so If I get a chance to charge it I will take it but overall I want to be in combat with his blocks as soon as possible. The troll army has very specific limitations, and once you realize what they are and how to mitigate them, you can stop worrying about how to punch and counterpunch and just focus on playing to your strengths. You almost have to play overly aggressive and be willing to sacrifice units, or induce your opponent into focusing on one unit so another unit can get into combat where it will excel. The key is applying your multiple high S attacks to as broad a frontage as possible so the enemy can't say, ok Grave Guard get ASF and regen and I danse my ghouls into your flank and I dump all my power dice into Purple Sun - you hit multiple units so he has to deal with Dragon Ogres and a Giant and a troll horde and Throgg all at the same time. Its a lot of fun to play, that's for sure.

Make no mistake, a lot of people look at the list and immediately dismiss it. It doesn't fit the mold of what the internet says is good, so you hear a ton of reasons why it wont work - dragon ogres are too expensive. Throgg's LD isnt high enough. You arent putting out the 6 spell in a given lore. No magic items. X unit is better than Y unit. Or, you get people that say 'Oh I would just use flaming attacks and you get no regen' or 'I cast infernal gateway and kill the horde in one turn' or things like that. Those things do happen, but in actual play its much more difficult to put those things into practice and it is rare indeed for an army to have all the tools it needs, all at the same time, right when it needs it.

I agree! My only concern was I've had a scouting beastmen caster dance around me before, and eventually kill my army almost single-handedly.

I.e., even if you blow by the caster and annihilate his line by Turn 3-4, he'll have several more turns to cast that purple sun and possibly take out most of the army (if he can get it down the line from the flank, for example).

But I like the concept, and it's similar to how I ran my tree army for wood elves- all combat and nothing else! And could sometimes overwhelm people... so I am somewhat familiar with it from that.

I especially like the dragon ogres and MoS giant on the flank that you have in there, it's a nice touch

:( I feel like Im the only one not running the Trolls in horde formation at this point!

It is a very interesting take on the Troll horde however, I like it. I seem to notice my own Trolls doing well in tournaments as well, even without the horde formation, and I would definitely say its because its not expected, and most armies aren't prepared to handle a list like this.

Personally, I find running my blocks of Trolls in units of 6 to work wonders. It just tends to give me alot more to work with, and in combination with the Drogre block, alot of people cant seem to take em even when its just 6. Im considering moving them up to blocks of 9, but thats up for debate.

I love the MoS Giant, I've been playing with one in my own Troll army and it works wonders, though Im still quite fond of my Hellcannon/Shaggoths.

The Drogres are awsome, I myself tend to run a unit of 8-12 though Im considering running them in a horde. They almost always make up there points one way or another, especially since like the army itself, most people aren't ready for them and don't expect the 4 wounds ea. etc.

I haven't tried the chariot so Im not too sure there, looks like it might be worth trying though.

How are you fairing without magic? When I first started the army I was consistantly being crushed due to a lack of magic (for theme reasons) and then I converted and added my disc sorcerer which helped, but as of late I've gone without and done surprisingly well. Just curious to know how you deal with it.

I suppose I might have to try this Troll Horde Formation once more. Maybe I was playing all wrong when I did it last time!

*I might just post up the list that I've been using as of late. If so I'd love to see what your take on it is, since you seem to have a very different play style with the army.

If Dogstar didn't object, it might be nice to see your list in this thread to compare. I think his does well because it just overwhelms the opponent with combat bodies- and a subtle range of them suited to different things, at that.

My own trollstar experiment only lasted one game and failed miserably (possibly because I didn't have the range of units which he has, and actually brought an ogrestar, too...), which is why I was interested in this. I've been using units of 8... but would like to compare your lists and think about going up/down on my unit sizes

Both of your thoughts are inspiring me to break out the Giant and Drogres again, which I had shelved due to their not performing up to their cost level (Drogres) or at all (Giant but I had no MoS).

Edit: Buttler, I'll be trying out the chariot character most likely at some point- that one seems like a pretty great idea, imho!

I don't object, my list started out very different from what it is right now. I used to run units of 6 and while it gave me a bit more flexibility, I didn't get the overwhelming combat res necessary to win combats without question. Thats also partially why I switched from 6 ogres to 4, I was seriously considering phasing them out at one point because they don't have the LD to operate independent of Throgg and the BSB.

The Dragon Ogres have always been superstars, but I use them as flankers so they rarely hit a big block head on - they'd do wounds but would take more in return as opposed to trolls who can bounce almost anything.

Post your list, Im interested to see how others run the Throgg army!

Ok well heres the list I've been using these past couple months, and its been doing surprisingly well...

Chaos Lord- MoK, Juggernaught, Shield, Armour of Destiny, Runesword- 385 (Modelled as a Troll riding two Juggernaughts... such a fun conversion)

Exalted- MoN, BSB, Daemonic Steed, Talisman of Preservation, Charmed Shield (not enchanted... silly me), Stream of Corruption- 275 (Modelled as a Troll on a Palanquin. Used to use the palanquin but it was too slow)
Throgg- 175

6 Trolls- 270
6 Trolls- 270
6 Trolls- 270
5 Hounds- 30
5 Hounds- 30

8 Dragon Ogres- AHW- 584

Hellcannon- 205 (Im currently converting a Troll thats loading the hellcannon... don't tell anyone!)

Total- 2494

I generally just run up and punch everyone in the face and that seems to do amazing! The Lord has really made this 10x more viable, he has ridiculous hitting power against both units and characters, and his very hard to kill with his 1+/4+. Since I tend to run him with the 8-12 Drogres, I am almost always able to take units head on and dish out far more wounds than whats given in return.

Throgg odviously goes with one of the Troll units, and the BSB joins a different one giving the 6 man units enough hitting power, especially when as you said, they get hit by pathetic shooting attacks and make those regens!

The hounds make for some pesky pests and help me keep my flanks somewhat safe and even occasionally killing a warmachine (thanks to RiTides for realizing there potential!).

I usually end up charging the Hellcannon more times than not. People constantly try to get around to my Trolls flanks, so that Hellcannon definitely takes people by surprise when I charge!

Magic still really hurts the list though :(

See, I have issues with juggernauts and demonic steeds and the like. Since they're on 50mm bases they stick out of the unit, get shot, and don't get a LoS roll.  That's the reason my bsb is on a chariot even tho it's not my ideal solution.

You're definitely more character-centric than I am, and I know full well how brutal chaos characters are. 

Buttlerthepug wrote:
Exalted- MoN, BSB, Daemonic Steed, Talisman of Preservation, Enchanted Shield, Stream of Corruption- 275 (Modelled as a Troll on a Palanquin. Used to use the palanquin but it was too slow)

This is illegal. You pay the 15 points for an Enchanted Shield in your armybook, not the 5 points from the main rulebook. Take the Charmed Shield instead, it's 5 points.

Awesome to see how dragon ogres are working for both of you guys, I am definitely going to have to break them out again... and commit to them (i.e. bring a bigger unit) and see how they fare. I've tried units of 3 and 4 with no luck.

Also, I think characters look OK in a unit- you have to just stick them on the side now, but that doesn't look too bad with how large the base is (kind of blends in).

I will post up my list here, too... I don't have a set one but I have borrowed some things from Buttler (the jugger mount although with a BSB instead of a chaos lord) that I am planning to include... or maybe I'll put up my optimized one with 2 disc characters. I am starting to think that a list that is a little more out of the mainstream might be better, like some of the things you guys are posting... as maximizing hitting power on a unit like the drogres (by making them large and include a character) seems like it could really catch people by surprise.

My lists at this level definitely include a daemon prince, though... 400 points, but oh so worth it, imho!

Tzeentchling9 wrote:

Buttlerthepug wrote:
Exalted- MoN, BSB, Daemonic Steed, Talisman of Preservation, Enchanted Shield, Stream of Corruption- 275 (Modelled as a Troll on a Palanquin. Used to use the palanquin but it was too slow)

This is illegal. You pay the 15 points for an Enchanted Shield in your armybook, not the 5 points from the main rulebook. Take the Charmed Shield instead, it's 5 points.

My apologies, it is infact Charmed Shield that I have been using and not Enchanted Shield. Warmonger33 would gladly confirm this too
Was just a simple mistype.

Yeah I don't have much of a problem with the characters joining units. The protective gear tends to help against warmachines and the such, but so far I haven't lost anyone to shooting.

I think the army itself generally takes people by surprise, but it definitely does when theres a Khorne Troll on Juggernaught swining at their face! I havent tried a DP in a while so I might have to bust it out again.

After a bit of a search, it seems I don't have a "current" list . Shows how much WHFB I've gotten in lately...

Will come up with one and post it in here with where I'm at in my current thinking, though . I certainly have a lot more ogres in my lists than you guys...