List Building Again

This is another post borne out of a dicussion at the club. The comment put to me was that there is a tendency towards trying to take "premium" models rather than something more along the lines of "I like this model I'll try it out". There is really nothing wrong with building towards models that you like both in a casual and a competitive sense. I was a bit thrown by the comment and it took me a while to pin down why, it's because I don't build lists like that anymore. I don't build a list by asking what are the best models with this caster I instead come up with a way I want the list to work and then pick models to do a job in the list.

I'll try and explain with the help of a list I have refined and am pretty happy with, my Madrak2 list. I'm picking him because I ended up playing him very differently from the way I played him the first time I put him on the table.

Madrak2
My second favourite troll caster. Your caster's abilities are going to be key when deciding what you want your list to do Madrak has a couple of important ones

Blood Fury - Additional damage dice for model/unit. Better on units because they have more attacks for the same spell cost so put out more damage.

Desperate Hour (Feat) - Everyone instantly makes a thresher attack that only targets enemy models. Works with blood fury.

Grim Salvation - If you hurt Madrak you instead remove a warrior model from within 1" of him. Unless it's a Musician or Standard Bearer or Weapon Attachment in which case they can pass it on to someone within 1" of them.

Warpath - Whenever you kill a model in his control a warbeast in his battlegroup can move 3".

When I started with him one of the first things I took was Mulg. Seemed like a high MAT reach beast with the feat was a good idea and Mulg's only drawback is his low SPD which is fixed by warpath. I also had an Earthborn and Janissa so I could being up his ARM and keep him safe, figuring the Earthborn would also get a lot out of warpath. The problem is that is a lot of points (At some stage there was a mauler in here too but I can't remember if I ever had all three together), these are points you can't use on troops. Points that do much less attacking on the feat, points that get less value out of blood fury, points that do not help keep Madrak alive. So the list was altered. I dropped one and then both heavies and started to have a plan for the list rather than a bunch of models I thought would be good.

The plan was a pretty simple one: Surround Madrak with infantry so he is unkillable. Alpha strike (or let your opponent alpha a tarpit unit then counter) and feat with blood fury killing everything.

In order to carry out this plan I need: reach for the feat, speed for the alpha strike, a way to deliver stuff for the alpha strike, I want a hit buff (so I hit on all my weaponmaster, reach, thresher attacks). I also need some beasts but I don't want many, the infantry will do the heavy lifting so the beasts should be able to contribute to the battle from relative safety.

Good units for this plan:

Kriel Warriors (you can take a weapon attachment with reach and they are cheap to stand around Madrak, they can go faster or hit harder and more accurately)
Borrowers (no reach but fast and high pow to abuse blood fury, also very cheap and will always make it alive)
Long Riders (fast and reach and hit hard and high MAT but expensive)
Fennblades (fast and reach)

I can take any three at 50 points. All have their own justifications there are no right or wrong answers. Burrowers are one of my favourite units so they are in, they always make it to the battle too, guaranteed as they can burrow. They also can't benefit from the feat which is good because it means I can cycle blood fury to them after the feat and I don't lose anything. Fennblades are a big unit with reach which is fantastic for the feat and the Kriel Warriors add to numbers to keep Madrak alive and I can put them in front of the more important Fennblades. If I take a Runebearer (Moses) I can upkeep blood fury on the Kriels, charge and kill stuff, runebearer it onto the fenns, charge and kill, feat and kill more stuff, have Madrak cast blood fury onto the burrowers and they can kill anything still standing. I need a fell caller so the Burrowers can hit and I want a second fell caller for the Fenns as they are going to be making a shitload of attacks (I've made more than 30 attack rolls in a single turn with them).

The burrowers don't need any help getting to the enemy but the fenns and kriels do, so add a krielstone to make them pretty much immune to blast damage and immune to fire and corrosion (KS elder). Since I have so much infantry I'll take a chronicler too as he can give them concealment and his best ability, if you kill a model in melee you get knocked down which makes it very hard to get through the unit and means the survivors will kill everything next turn as well.

I need some beasts with ranged abilities and or useful animus as they are going to stay back, I want ranged stuff in particular so I can kill annoying models my opponent has left in front of his army to disrupt the charge. The Impaler means Madrak can shoot 12" with his axe which is good and it has a good ranged attack. The Pyre's animus gives me a damage buff (always love a damage buff) and immunity to fire makes Madrak even more unkillable. That's 47 points, the last 3 points are a Thrullg if it's a tournament list (stays back removing offensive upkeeps until the late game) or Janissa if it's not. Janissa is a lot better than the Thrullg for this list but I tend to run Madrak2, Doomshaper2 and I need Janissa in my Doomshaper2 list.

Trollbloods
Standard Army
PCs: 50 / 50
52 models

[00] Madrak Ironhide, World Ender (0 / 5 WB)
[02]  >> Trollkin Runebearer
[05]  >> Pyre Troll
[05]  >> Troll Impaler
[03] Janissa Stonetide
[03] Fell Caller Hero
[03] Fell Caller Hero
[02] Stone Scribe Chronicler
[04] Krielstone Bearer & Stone Scribes (5 grunts)
[01]  >> Stone Scribe Elder
[06] Kriel Warriors (9 grunts)
[02]  >> Kriel Warrior Standard & Piper
[03]  >> Kriel Warrior Caber Thrower (3 Caber Throwers)
[06] Pyg Burrowers (9 grunts)
[08] Trollkin Fennblades (9 grunts)
[02]  >> Trollkin Fennblade Officer & Drummer


A few more things and then I'll shut up. I've seen a lot of Madrak with Champions. Madrak is great with champions, blood fury makes gives them 5 dice on the charge and 4 dice on their second attack. If they hit a heavy it disintegrates but they never hit a heavy. They spend the whole match killing Legionnaires and slowly dying to ravagore shots until I can finish them off with a Scythean.  That said I've also seen Madrak with champions as a second wave unit where the fennblades and burrowers kill anything that can take ARM 20 champions and the champions then just chomp through the rest of the rest of the army while puny infantry just bounce off. The plan is more important than the models. What do they do? why are they in the list?

Lastly you need a plan for how you are going to spend your focus/fury. This can be as simple as camp the lot or Caine shoots stuff. Here I want Blood Fury on 3 things so I need the Runebearer to cycle it. When the runebearer is not using his once per game spell casting ability (stupid Skarlock Thralls) that'll mean Madrak has 3 fury left. He's got plenty to top up the krielstone or snipe and throw his axe. He does not need to camp a lot of fury as his troops keep him alive. You need to remember if you want your caster to cast a lot of animi or if you need to fuel jacks and cast spells that you need a plan for how you are going to spend your focus.

This may make no sense, I'm very tired. I may put up a post about different things I build lists to do at some point.