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So a friend has generously hooked me up with some Trollbloods goodies... enough to tell me I like a broad flavor of the faction, enjoy painting 'em, etc... Thing is I don't know how to proceed.

I was wondering if there is any GOOD, higher model count, "shooty" kind of list/warlock/units out there? I LOVE the look of units like the Sluggers, and the Dire Trolls with guns mounted on them... but have no sense for what is viable, and fun.

I own fun items that don't necessarily fit that theme (if it even exists in faction), but have a few hundred to spend buying options and new toys.

I've got the starter set in plastic (so Madrak, an Axe Troll light warbeast, two of the spear light warbeasts), a full unit of Fennblades, the Fennblade UA, and a Fell Caller.

Beyond that, i'd love people's thoughts on different ways to play Trollbloods successfully. We've got a VERY hardcore meta, with a lot of nice folks, but the same folks also play very well (some of major tourny winners/champions), so i'd like options that won't see me outright tabled every game, or laughed out of the room. I'm far from WAAC, but again... want "viable" :-p

Thanks!!!

Trollbloods have traditionally struggled at ranged-centric lists, as outside of things like Sniped Bombers, they're shooting is generally a bit poor. However, that's changed a bit with a few recent releases. eGrim and the currently pre-release "Dozer and Smigg" are excellent pieces for making trolls work at range. They're also getting a new shooting unit (the Highwaymen), though we have yet to see what they do, but it'll bring in a bit more ranged power to the army.

If you like the ranged Dire Trolls, then you'll definitely need to pick up "Dozer and Smigg" (a character Dire Troll Blitzer) as soon as they come out. He gives all your ranged AOE stuff a big buff (so the War Wagon and Dire Troll Bomber), while also giving Dire Troll Blitzers +2 to attack rolls, helping them out a bit.

Grim Angus, or his epic unit "The Hunters Grim", are both great options for warlocks for ranged. pGrim's gives -SPD and DEF to enemies, while eGrim's feat gives Snipe and +2 to hit essentially, both of which help out the Trollbloods ranged options quite a bit.

There's also Gunnbjorn, who looks awesome and is ranged focused, but has always been considered a little mediocre. Since "Dozer and Smigg" is his new Character beast, however, he actually synergises quite well with them, and that might bring him up to being a fairly decent caster.

At any rate, I'm not a trollbloods player, hopefully you'll get some better advice from one of them, but that's just a few ideas for you

I'd hold off on the Dozer & Smigg optimism until we've seen it play, or at least seen the rest of the release (though the card is on War Room now, so it can be proxy tested!). A 9-point model spending two fury a turn to be more or less a Destroyer may not be too hot, though I hope it works out.

I don't know how seriously to take my advice since I don't really know what I'm doing, but -

You probably want to look into the Krielstone & Stone Scribes unit and the Stone Scribes Elder. They are a generally great unit that sees play in a lot of lists.

The Bomber is probably a good one for you. If you want to magnetise the heavy kit then that might be a good choice, though it's a little tricky due to the placement of the pyg on the back.

Grim Angus likes to shoot stuff and is a popular competitive choice to cover certain matchups, I believe, in his pGrim incarnation. eGrim is really cool, but I'm not sure how well he works.

Troll lists usually have some kind of melee attack power animus in them. That can be the Mauler, with its +3 Strength animus, or the Pyre or Slag trolls with their +2 to melee damage rolls. The Mauler is more expensive at 9 points, so often I think you'll see the Pyre or Slag troll instead in a list that already has a Bomber. It's also very common to run the Impaler with the Bomber, to provide it with an extra 50% range.

A lot of the non-epic warlocks are good. Grissel, Doomshaper, Grim, Calandra and sometimes Borka are nice. Actually, I think a lot of the troll warlocks are good - the primary standout is Gunnbjorn, who people generally agree is poor. It's possible he'll be improved by Dozer & Smigg, since he makes them more powerful intrinsically, but it's not yet clear. One big factor that seems to shape people's lists is that a lot of good troll units don't do very well against some of Cryx's popular options, so to some extent they want to make a list to counter them. pGrim is the name that I've heard come up a lot for doing that.

Sluggers are not very good, which is sad because they look so cool.

Lots of other stuff is good! I feel so helpful

So on the flip-side... are there any good high-model count, melee lists? Or is Trollblood more a warbeast heavy faction?

My limited experience with WM/Hds comes from playing Khador. My wife plays Legion frequently though, and I envy that she clicked and found her right faction.

My inclination is to want to go, high model count, shooty, but then I also want to like the fluff/aesthetics since i'll be pouring funds and painting time in.

I will say, I LOVE the look of the E-Grim Warlock unit. Visually it is striking and might be winning me over.

Beyond that, any other recommendations for more staples would be appreciated. Particularly versatile solos, units, warbeast kits (i'm old hat at magnetizing so no worries there)....?

Oh, and do I need any minion solos from the Hordes "neutral" faction? I know with WM certain Mercs were damn near required purchases for one's long term collection, like Aiyana and Holt.

Gobber bellows is a great 1 point filler from minions that is hard to go wrong with if you have an extra point.

Thanks for the help guys.

Trying to see a long view, I tried to mix my current ambitions with enough variety to run other Warlocks and really build up options for the faction. I bought the stuff below, and figure it would let me run good EGrim, or PMadrak lists to some success...

Already own...

- P-Madrak
- Axer Light Beast
- 2x I.... brain-fart, the spear throwing light beast from the starter
- Full Unit of Fennblades
- Fennblade UA
- Fell Caller

And ordered:
I went with...

E-Grim set
Trollkin Runebearer
Mulg the Ancient
Troll Bomber/Mauler kit (i'll magnetize it)
Full unit of Pyg Burrowers
Krielstone Bearer with its UA (The elder... iirc)
Trollkin Champions + Skaldi
Warders
Fennblade Kithkar
Stone Scribe Chronicler
Trollking Champion Hero
Janissa solo
Pyre Troll

That looks like a brilliant start to me. The only thing I'd add is that you probably want to get a couple more casters with that lot, as what you've described there has a lot of potential, and could be used with a few different casters.

I'd look into getting eGrissel if you want to really make your heavy infantry shine - her and warders/champions is often referred to as "miserable meat mountain" because of how long it takes for opponents to cut through them all .

Good luck sir, I just started tolbloods myself, though with a melee focus. Please post what units you hvae success with. =)

Oh, I will. Thanks everyone!

For now i'm just painting my initial items while I wait for my orders to arrive. Hopefully I can get a game or two in Sunday if I assemble quickly. :-)

I've actually heard about the MMM, and will surely try it, but coming from Khador I already did the whole Winterguard Infantry Deathstar with Joe-Tough, etc... supported by Man'O Wars, using E-Irusk, so i'm thinking i'll try a different macro approach with Trollbloods.