Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

Thinking of picking one of these up for my Hordes faction--they both seem to fit my desire to have something beefy, tough and hard-hitting. Beyond that, I'm looking for insight into the differences between the two factions.

What I'm looking for: I want to beat face. Yes, tricksy combos, mobility, shooting, etc. are well and good, but sometimes you just want to solve your problems by punching them.

Nothing quite beats face like a Bronzeback Titan delivered directly to said face. They're elephant shaped freight trains, basically. Skorne have excellent beast support and casters who love their Titans. Molik Karn is one of the top character warbeasts. They have good medium based infantry, but it is costly. The beasts due tend to be a little on the slow side, but Skorne has a lot of movement shenanigans to get them across the board very quickly.

Trolls, OTOH, while they have some very good beasts (Mulg, Mauler, EBDT) have some of the hardiest, best infantry in the game with warlocks (pGrissel, the Madraks) that support using them. Long Riders are in the top two for cavalry units, with an excellent Dragoon that makes them better (but isn't a must have) in Horthol. Kriel Warriors with Caber Tossers can do silly things and Pygmy Burrowers will either tie up or kill way beyond their points typically. This does come at a cost and there's essentially a Troll Tax for having Tough and medium bases (essentially immune to trample) on everything.

Skorne is Highest Damage, Mobility Tricks
Trolls is Higher Toughness, Large Number of Minor Tricks

While skorne's warcasters do not support shooting very well, I find that they still do well in that department. Venators are a solid shooting unit with a very powerful combined attack. Their battle engine can be decent (yeah I said it, so what? you wanna fight about it?) at shooting if you pick your targets and if you can get an aim bonus, then it's gravy. It usually hunts for heavies to pepper on the way into combat. Their shooty warbeasts are quite good. Their colossal has great firepower, while titan cannoniers are comparable to it's Khador counterpart and the cyclops raider can hunt pesky solos or poke at larger targets.

Trolls have better base mobility, but skorne's synergy can get the force moving as fast as you need it. pMorg with a gladiator and paingiver beast handler will turn anything you have into a nuclear rocket.

Skorne can be very flexible in terms of strategy as many of their models borrow ideas from various factions and make them their own. Nihilators borrow from doom reavers, PGBH from choir, extollers from reclaimers, Xerxes from the Butcher etc.

My vote it Skorne, though I am biased. The battle box is better than the Trollblood one (no heavy in the Trolls battle box and you said you wanted to punch things). Also overall Skorne is IMO The Beast Army. No other army can run beasts as well and it is mainly due to our awesome beasts and beast handlers, also pMorg is probably the essential Beast Warlock. He makes them hit harder and move faster and at the same time he himself can take out infantry.
Shopping List:
1. Battle box
2. Pain Giver Beast Handlers
3. Agonizer or Willbreaker
4. Bronzeback
This will take you to 25 and from there it is up to you.

Team Skornergy can probably do more tricks, but the Trolls are better at bashing things with axes and fists, heh.

Plus, the Trolls are all about some beer-swilling savagery,

Thanks for the advice all--I ended up with trollbloods, though Skorne is on my "would like to do someday" list.

ComTrav wrote:
Thanks for the advice all--I ended up with trollbloods, though Skorne is on my "would like to do someday" list.

Everyone I know who plays the game with any sort of regularity has at least 2 armies.

I have 5...And will probably pick up Cyriss before too long.