Troll Warlocks

Haven't cracked out my trolls that much recently and they are a lot of fun to play (even if they lack the depth of Everblight). Wanted to go through the warlocks, what they do, what you see with them and what I think about them.

Grim Angus

Has a great control feat and is really the only control style caster in trolls. You have to be careful when playing against him if he goes first as he will run forward and catch you in his feat to stop you from being able to get into scoring zones. It's particularly dangerous in centre scoring scenarios. Other than his feat he's a sniper himself and wants to be shooting. His offensive spells don't get much of a run he really just uses cross country and puts out animus.

His lists generally contain a Bomber and an Impaler. I've seen him with double bombers and I don't think that's bad. Troll infantry can take down heavies without too much trouble.

No rating for me, I don't have a lot of experience with him. He is generally regarded by the community as one of the trollbloods best.

Grissel1

Another trollblood warlock who doesn't cast her spells, instead of just using one spell like grim though she just uses her fell calls which are spectacular. It makes her lightning fast, able to hit and run or deal out a lot of attacks and she can stop your opponent from charging. Cacophony is model/unit so she only needs one model in her command range and the entire unit cannot charge (or cast spells). It's important to note that she is a lot faster than other troll warlocks because she can use her fell calls and still run.

Troops. She will have a crapload of troops and only a few beasts. She does nothing for beasts except throw out animi with her spare focus.

She gets a mixed rating, some people love her, others hate her. Again I lack the experience to say much about her.

Grissel2

She has dash and inhospitable ground (makes her control rough terrain) which are situationally great. Her feat is meh, especially compared with the ball bustingness of the feat of her prime version. Her main strength is her ranged attacks. If you come against her without pathfinder she'll slow you to a crawl and shoot you to pieces.

She takes long riders, impaler and bomber, sometimes champs instead of long riders. She wants a tough grinding list.

I think she's great. She's not a top tier caster, really she's on the lower end of the scale of troll warlocks but she has great defensive stats, especially with the krielstone and can grind out an opponent pretty well. She's not as fun as trolls other attrition casters though.

Doomshaper1

Purification is awesome (really, really awesome) add in rampager and his feat and Doomshaper is devastating against hordes. We're finally onto a warlock that uses his spells but you still will spend a lot of games using most of your focus on animi. Banishing ward and fortune are actually really good spells, often under-appreciated (particularly by people who don't play doomshaper).

He will be in his theme force. His theme force is fantastic. That means a shitload of runeshapers, Mulg, the krielstone and Janissa (and assorted other beasts)

I love him, first caster on the list I really love playing. He has a grinding style but it really works well. I think he's a bucket of fun but I probably wouldn't think the same if I was on the receiving end. With his tier list he becomes top tier without it he's middle of the range.

Doomshaper2

Doomshaper will put a lot of heavies into your face from a very long distance away and will make you face a very high ARM beast brick. The massive threat (from his feat), accuracy (wild aggression , ability to crack ARM (beasts) and the toughness of this list make it a fantastic list although lacking in tricks. The feat distance adds both to the charge distance and the refuge move so you can yo-yo one of your beasts quite significantly.

Dire trolls. Expect a Mauler, Earthborn and Mulg, a krielstone, Janissa again and at 50 points a unit (fennblades usually).

No longer my favourite caster in the game (that's Vayl1 now) but still my favourite troll caster (though Madrak2 is creeping up on him). He is so much fun to play. He's not top tier because he dies really easily but he's still quite good.

Gunnbjorn

Guided fire makes his beasts very accurate (particularly the sprays) can put down rock wall and can snipe (which is like far strike but it can go on the terrible troll ranged units). His feat is terrible, truly abysmal, quite possibly the worst in the game (competing with Morghoul2), he does have a great gun though it relies on critical hits.

Ranged stuff. You might even see sluggers with him (with snipe they almost work). Generally though ranged beasts as the troll ranged units are not very good.

Gunnbjorn's problem is that he makes the worst stuff in trolls better, the only way to really get around that is to take troll ranged beasts, Trolls at least have some OK ranged beasts though that he can get some mileage from (the bomber though is much better than OK). In my opinion he's the worst caster in trolls but not the worst in the game. I'll post Flanzer's 50 point Gunnbjorn list which he has had very good success with as he actually plays Gunnbjorn whereas I have no desire to. I do put most of that success to Flanzer being a great player rather than Gunnbjorn.


[00] Captain Gunnbjorn (0 / 5 WB)
[02]  >> Trollkin Runebearer
[09]  >> Dire Troll Blitzer
[09]  >> Dire Troll Blitzer
[10]  >> Dire Troll Bomber
[06]  >> Slag Troll
[05]  >> Winter Troll
[05]  >> Troll Impaler
[03] Janissa Stonetide
[02] Troll Whelps
[03] Krielstone Bearer & Stone Scribes (3 grunts)
[01]  >> Stone Scribe Elder

Madrak1

The quintessential brick caster. Madrak has carnage that makes everything hit more accurately, his feat gives everything more attacks and he has sure foot to make him (or a selected heavy) very difficult to kill (especially when you add in his defensive abilities). 

You generally see him in a brick, champions, beasts, krielstone... Everything high ARM, everything hitting like a truck.

The lack of threat range when playing him feels limiting but the way the list just shrugs off anything that tries to kill it is fantastic. Madrak himself is a beatstick as well and that can be a lot of fun, especially when he upkeeps surefoot on himself. He's a solid middle of the range caster who can be very difficult for anyone who doesn't have a way to crack ARM.

Madrak2

My second favourite caster in trolls. Madrak2 is all about aggression. The exact opposite of him primal form. He will rush up into your face, feat and destroy your entire army in a single turn. Blood fury makes everything especially deadly and his feat lets you run and still kill everything. Thanks to grim salvation you need to kill pretty much his entire army before you can put a scratch on him. He is quite possibly the least assassinatable model in the game (the closest to him being probably Borka).

Burrowers with blood fury kill everything. Fennblades with blood fury kill everything with their vengeance move, kill it again with their activation and then get a reach thresher with weaponmaster (and the bonus from the fell caller so they hit) from the feat which wipes out whole armies. Sometimes you also see long riders with him, both the mount and the rider benefit from bloodfury and the riders have reach for the feat. I still prefer fennblades though because 11 reach weaponmasters with thresher are better than 5. 

He is a ton of fun to play and absolutely top tier. Quite possibly the best warlock in Hordes. 

Borka

Iron flesh and moshpit combine with a feat that increases threat range, helps slams and power attacks and a near invincible caster. Stumbling drunk is both hilarious and awesome, his high ARM with the krielstone with unyielding and iron flesh if you want that as well makes him pretty much invincible. 

Long riders, Nyss hunters, Burrowers, Fennblades, Champions, it's usually a solid build of troll melee units and some of the melee dire trolls. Borka has a really good theme force as well especially at 75 points. He can really take anything and make it better, or at least you can take all the good things in trolls and make them better. 

I love Borka. He's hilarious, particularly when your opponent attempts to assassinate him and he just stumbles away. He is not in any way toolboxy which brings him down from the top tier but he's definitely great.

Calandra

I don't own Calandra but I do know that star-crossed is ludicrously good. That and fate blessed are what she spends her focus on. Her feat makes everything really good for a turn. 

She takes anything with even slightly high DEF. Burrowers at DEF 13 qualify, Nyss are pretty hot as well though of course they can't take advantage of fate blessed. Fennblades often show up because of set defence. 

Calandra is another one with mixed reviews. Trolls can't really do high DEF enough for star crossed to be game breaking but it is still pretty bad even with the stuff she has. She's also a bit one dimensional which holds her back out of the top tier. 

Jarl Skuld

He's the tricksiest of the troll casters which you think I would like but I'm very meh about him (might need to play him more). He doesn't quite bring all the abilities he has together, feels like he's missing something to make him awesome. He does however do quite well as a supersolo able to kill key solos and UAs quite easily using magic bullet. 

The Nyss tend to make another showing in his lists but really he adds threat range which trolls like and supersolos so you see a lot of different builds with him. You can speed up the slow stuff so it's fast and hits hard or you can speed up the fast stuff and blitz across the table. 

Another one in the bottom half of the troll casters. Magic bullet is definetely nice as is the speed and the tricks from tactical supremacy and wealed secrets. His feat is something the high reclaimer does every single turn. Stupid Menoth.

UPDATE: Gave Grissel1 and Grim Angus a run today. I really like Grissel1, I was able to see just how well her abilities work on the table. I'm ready to say that she's good and I like her, though it will take seeing how she performs in a bad match up before I can say she's top tier. As for Grim his feat seems really good but I'll need more play with him before I decide if I like him.