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malfred wrote:You've got doomshaper and epicdoomshaper, but so much
of trolls strengths come from their infantry synergies that I
have trouble seeing their beast smash options. However, I'm
biased toward infantry.

One of the features of Hordes that I like over Warmachine is the use of a warbeast's animus. You just get what you get with a warcaster, but a warlock's spell list is added to by your beast selection. Does that change the trolls much? I guess that's a matter of opinion. They only have a couple of animi that I would build into my overall strategy and several that I could see being really hand "if...".

These are the Animi you'll find yourself using again and again.

Axer's Rush for movement and pathfinder (single target warbeast)
Mauler's Rage for STR (single target model)
Impaler's Far Strike for RNG (single target model)

Everything else (in my opinion) is utility, i.e. situational.

Relying on an animus is tricky because you need two assets in order
to use them, the warbeast and the warlock. If you have a problem
with one, you might lose out on the animus altogether.

Of the Warlocks, I think you can most reliably run warbeast heavy
with Epic Doomshaper. He saves fury by using the animus of a dire
troll for free (all heavies are currently dire trolls of one form or another),
he gives them mobility with his feat, and he can goad them to make
additional attacks.

Other warlocks might have the fury multipliers but not the fury management.

Take Epic Madrak. Killing Ground lets them charge or power attack for
free. The trouble he will have will come from his limited Control Area and
fury pool. His warbeasts can only reliably put out 5 fury a turn without
risking a frenzy. His 10" control area limits how far he can operate from
his 'beasts. At some point, running beast heavy is going to get Madrak
in trouble. He needs infantry to mitigate this.

Borka Kegslayer. He has a feat worth using for power attacks, and the
keg carrier can supply him with extra fury for casting animi or spells, but
he also has a 10" control area and potential difficulty managing his
warbeasts. On top of that he doesn't do much for the warbeasts outside
of his feat turn. He needs infantry.

Captain Gunnbjorn multiplies fury with ranged attacks by boosting the
ranged attacks of his battlegroup. Your Dire Troll Bomber, for instance,
spends 1 fury point to throw two high POW RNG 12 AOE 4 bombs each
turn, and this can be very handy. It won't help you much if enemies
engage your warbeasts or limit your shooting. Guess what helps prevent
that? Yeah, infantry.

I'm wondering about Calandra, though. Soothing Song manages her fury,
she has a high Fury stat of 7, and she can protect a single warbeast
with Bullet Dodger and defend the rest with Star-Crossed. However, boosted
attacks or Combined attacks will get around both defenses, and she'll find
herself wishing she had more bodies to benefit from Good Omens. What
good are rerolls when you're making a limited number of attacks?

If you are looking for 'jack heavy armies, look into Khador, they honor and favor their 'jacks, in fact Karchev the Terrible is literally dubbed the man inside the machine! If you want completely pure 'jack armies, play a Mangled Metal game! Mangled Metal means 1 caster, 'jacks, and no infantry allowed. If you play a 15 point game of mangled metal, which is common for my meta, and you play Khador with the caster Vladimir the Dark Prince, just use 4 berserkers as your army. A normal berserker costs 6 points, so you're probably thinking that 4 berserkers is more than 15 points! Well, with Vlad's tier list, if you have I believe 3 or more Berserkers in your army, they all cost 5 points instead of six, so 4 berserkers = 20 points, and Vlad gives you an extra 5 points towards warjacks. 4 Berserkers = 20 points, -5 for Vlad = 15 points. There ya go, a 15 point game with only warjacks!

For question 2, the most common point totals for games around my LGS is 15, 25, or 35, but of course it's up to you and your opponent to decide that!

For question 3, you really have to expect some brutal synergies between the caster/lock and the beast/jacks/infantry. Some lists are just plain nasty, as an example, some spells just work more well with some models than others do. Scan around privateerpressforums(.)com for some professional advice from the pros on lists that work.