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Made in us
Bloodthirsty Bloodletter





Glen Ellyn, IL

After playing Warmachine for a couple months I decided to pick up a Hordes faction for fun and ended up choosing Trollbloods. Originally I wanted to go with Blindwater but I figured that I should probably pick one of the main factions this time around since I play Mercenaries in Warmachine. Regardless though my current meta already has multiple troll players so I want my army to be different. One thing I'm considering doing is running shooting heavy trolls because it's something haven't seen anyone else do it but I'm not sure.

What are some nontraditional or peculiar ways of running trolls?
   
Made in au
Tough Tyrant Guard







Do you want to run shooting-heavy trolls or shooting heavy trolls? Are you trying to win the Iron Gauntlet or just to play against random lists?

Trolls get a number of shooty units, but Bushwhackers aren't really competitively costed and Sluggers are poor in most lists and in any event nearly impossible to justify now that Highwaymen are out, as Highwaymen do nearly everything they can do better and more. Scattergunners are very good but their poor RAT can cause problems without some kind of aiming assistance, which trolls have some trouble providing.

I'm not sure what people have managed to do with Highwaymen. They are certainly Interesting. It is quite difficult to manage a 10-model medium based shooting unit, though, and their range is extremely short unless you can provide them with Snipe (Gunnbjorn, considered a weaker caster, or Hunters Grim on the feat turn).

Fire Eaters are also very fun. I don't know if the players in your area are using them a lot yet, but setting them on fire so they get boosted attack and damage rolls is great.

If you are looking to be a unique and beautiful snowflake, maybe you would enjoy Gunnbjorn. He perhaps not the strongest warlock around, but he has a great model and a bazooka and a synergy with Dozer & Smigg (one of the best-looking models in the game), who has synergy with the War Wagon (also amazing-looking), so at least your models would look really cool as you remove them from the table.

To mention the ranged heavy beasts, the Bomber is very good and the Blitzer is not very good. Perhaps you could run the Blitzer with Dozer & Smigg, but then you throw in a pyre or slag troll for the animus and you are at a very large number of points already and your army doesn't even have any infantry in it.

When considering lists for trolls, I find I usually want to include some kind of melee damage-increasing animus. These are found on the mauler (with its +3 strength animus) or the pyre or slag trolls with their +2 melee damage, which is a bit weaker but applies to things like mount attacks that aren't affected by strength.

You mentioned you play mercenaries - Raluk Moorclaw works for trolls, though he's not a faction model for them. I haven't found any way to put him in a list that actually makes the list better, but you could run him for style points.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Trolls can run a lot of the minion units. Do you have Boomhowlers? There is a No Quarter theme force for prime Borka that makes the Boomhowlers and Gudrun the Wanderer friendly faction, which is sort of cute.

I've seen someone try to run a lot of minions with trolls before, like the lesser warlocks. That would be pretty weird! I forget how the game turned out, but I'm pretty sure it was not well for the troll player.

This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2015/04/11 06:25:33


 
   
Made in us
[MOD]
Madrak Ironhide







What warlocks/lists are you saying? If they're netlisting, it's
probably some kind of double warder list. Or they're running Runes
of War and/or Calandra with all the light warbeasts.

Family Reunion isn't cute, it's gross until you have to face a control
caster. You don't even put Gudrun in the list. Just Boomhowler's
and Champs and more Champs.


DR:70+S+G-MB-I+Pwmhd05#+D++A+++/aWD100R++T(S)DM+++
Get your own Dakka Code!

"...he could never understand the sense of a contest in which the two adversaries agreed upon the rules." Gabriel Garcia Marquez, One Hundred Years of Solitude 
   
Made in us
Bloodthirsty Bloodletter





Glen Ellyn, IL

I know one of the troll players in my meta often runs Calandra or Jarl with a bunch of Burrowers and Warriors, while another runs Madrak or Hoarluk but I'm not entirely sure what else they use.

That's a good point though regarding minions, can trolls truly benefit from running a lot of them?

This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2015/04/11 22:13:09


 
   
Made in us
[MOD]
Madrak Ironhide







Some warlocks can, sure.

I'll go into more detail later.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Boomhowler can be good with Jarl, or as part of Borka's Family
Reunion Theme force. Slaughterhousers make for nice play with
Madrak2. Hunters Grim like the Farrow support unit with the mortar
pestle thing going on. Trolls love having Pendrake to deal with
high DEF beasts. Alten Ashley is a cheap alternative to the Fell
Caller. The Thrullg gives you upkeep removal as needed (pricey
at 3 points though).

Some people will also use the Nyss Hunters. I still can't stand the
models, so I haven't painted them up yet. I'm sure there are others.

The only thing is, all of these options are situational and pretty
warlock specific. Nyss Hunters are probably one of the better
choices that can go into most lists.

This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2015/04/12 04:33:38


DR:70+S+G-MB-I+Pwmhd05#+D++A+++/aWD100R++T(S)DM+++
Get your own Dakka Code!

"...he could never understand the sense of a contest in which the two adversaries agreed upon the rules." Gabriel Garcia Marquez, One Hundred Years of Solitude 
   
Made in us
Bloodthirsty Bloodletter





Glen Ellyn, IL

I'm not terribly concerned with running a super competitive list, just a more practical and original one. Although based on what your saying it sounds like having more than a single unit or two of minions is too much for trolls. I also don't have Boomhowlers unit and wasn't really planning on getting it, especially for a particular theme list.

I've only owned a small troll force for about two weeks now and I'm already disappointed with the decision.
   
Made in au
[MOD]
Not as Good as a Minion






Brisbane

What sort of merc armies are you finding yourself enjoying? Perhaps we can find a Troll army that is out of the box that plays a similar way to those merc armies, so if you like your mercs ranged we can look at ranged trolls, if you like them stacked with jacks we can look at beast trolls, and figure out something that's a bit fun and new there

I wish I had time for all the game systems I own, let alone want to own... 
   
Made in us
Bloodthirsty Bloodletter





Glen Ellyn, IL

I switch between Shae and pMagnus currently, with few jacks.
   
Made in au
[MOD]
Not as Good as a Minion






Brisbane

Well pGrissel's theme force will have you remembering Shae's mad pirate scramble fondly, crazy fast infantry shooting across the board, Kriel warriors on the opponents side of a centre zone, stuff like that. It's beautiful.

I wish I had time for all the game systems I own, let alone want to own... 
   
Made in us
Bloodthirsty Bloodletter





Glen Ellyn, IL

What appeals to me the most about pirates is the whole motley crew thing they have going on, which is why running a bunch of minions with trolls appeals to me. It just doesn't seem like a good idea though, since apparently there are really only a handful of ways to play trolls well.

This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2015/04/12 21:23:23


 
   
Made in au
[MOD]
Not as Good as a Minion






Brisbane

Honestly, you seem like you want to be negative about it, rather than explore. Maybe Jarl, he likes riders, fennblades, highwaymen, a real hodgepodge of units and unit types?

And trolls actually have a LOT of ways to run them, their casters seem to be very well balanced against each other (mostly), with either Grissel, Madrak, Doomie, Calandra and even the Borkas being viable picks in several different ways (and personally I think Jarl as well, the only one I'm not much a fan of is Gunny).

I wish I had time for all the game systems I own, let alone want to own... 
   
Made in us
Bloodthirsty Bloodletter





Glen Ellyn, IL

Your probably right, I'm going to go weigh my options.
   
Made in au
Tough Tyrant Guard







Gunnbjorn may be widely recognised as bad but I've had a bunch of fun playing him. Snipe lets you run Sluggers (though as mentioned there isn't a great reason to run them now as Highwaymen basically do their thing but better), his affinity with Dozer & Smigg helps run them and critical devastation is always fun.

If all you want is a motley crew then I would've thought literally any troll infantry would be fine. They are almost all pretty motley!

Personally, I very much enjoy slamming and throwing stuff around the table. Long Riders are great, the War Wagon is great (it doesn't throw, but a 5" knockdown template is a good alternative, and it's hard to get more motley), Kriel Warriors with Caber Throwers are great (though trolls have so much great melee infantry they have some stiff competition). Fire Eaters are just bizarre and, in my experience, quite dangerous.

malfred can probably give you a much broader perspective than me, since I just play in a tiny local meta, but if you are not super competitive there are a billion different ways you can run the faction and the main thing you need to figure out is which way is to your taste. Without more information on what it is you think you would enjoy it's hard to provide more specific advice.

My list building strategy for trolls goes, broadly:

- pick a warlock.
- look for things that might synergise well with that warlock's spell list. For example, I think Sluggers or Highwaymen are interesting Snipe targets for Gunnbjorn; I think Nyss Hunters are good Iron Flesh targets for pBorka; I think Burrowers are good feat triggers for Hunters Grim.
- I usually add a Krielstone Bearer & Stone Scribes with Stone Scribe Elder unit attachment. It is possible to run lists without this sometimes, but it's such a versatile and powerful unit that skipping it is usually a bad idea.
- I usually find that it is good to have either a Dire Troll Mauler, a Pyre Troll or a Slag Troll, as each has an animus that increases melee damage. The Krielstone with the Stone Scribe Elder can also provide +1 strength for a total of +3 or +4 to a model's melee hits, which makes even the ranged heavy beasts very dangerous melee combatants if you can get them to the right target.
- equipped with my krielstone and melee damage-boosting animus, it's now time to add whatever I want to the list!! Hooray, creativity! A trick here is trying to avoid adding too much support, especially at lower points levels. Trolls in general have heaps of great little supporty solos and it's easy to put so many in that you could've just taken an entire extra unit and been more effective.

There is nothing in the faction that is so bad that you'll lose the moment you put it on the table. There are some models that are a bit weak (mainly: Sluggers, Bushwhackers, the Dire Troll Blitzer, the Night Troll, the Skinner). There are some models that are a bit strong (Warders are the standout here, I think, but Pyg Burrowers, Janissa and Mulg probably deserve a mention). But you can avoid running Warders and Mulg and Janissa and still have a great time using everything else in trolls and not get the wooden spoon.

What are you running at the moment? Maybe that would help shed some more light on what is going on, especially if you started with the battlebox.
   
 
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