Trollblood Stats for New Players

NOTE: Every player has two lists but may only take one of each character across both lists so give extra weight to anything marked as a character. 

(From WTC 2013)

Warlock Attachment	Count	Percent
Trollkin Runebearer	12	54.55%
Warbeasts
Dire Troll Blitzer	1	4.55%
Dire Troll Bomber	9	40.91%
Dire Troll Mauler	9	40.91%
Earthborn Dire Troll	9	40.91%
Mountain King	0	0.00%
Mulg the Ancient	7	31.82%	Character
Night Troll	0	0.00%
Pyre Troll	7	31.82%
Rok	0	0.00%	Character
Slag Troll	4	18.18%
Storm Troll	4	18.18%
Swamp Troll	3	13.64%
Troll Axer	8	36.36%
Troll Bouncer	0	0.00%
Troll Impaler	8	36.36%
Winter Troll	0	0.00%
Battle Engines
Trollkin War Wagon	0	0.00%
Solos
Fell Caller Hero	14	63.64%
Fennblade Kithkar	0	0.00%
Horthol, Long Rider Hero	0	0.00%	Character
Janissa Stonetide	8	36.36%	Character
Stone Scribe Chronicler	5	22.73%
Troll Whelps	7	31.82%
Trollkin Champion Hero	6	27.27%
Trollkin Skinner	0	0.00%
Trollkin Sorcerer	0	0.00%
Units
Kriel Warriors	7	31.82%
Kriel Warrior Caber Thrower	15	68.18%	taken in groups of up to 3 with the kriel warriors above
Kriel Warrior Standard Bearer and Piper	4	18.18%
Krielstone Bearer and Stone Scribes	19	86.36%
Krielstone Stone Scribe Elder	18	81.82%
Long Riders	0	0.00%
Pyg Burrowers	12	54.55%
Pyg Bushwhackers	0	0.00%
Scattergunners	0	0.00%
Scattergunner Officer and Standard	0	0.00%
Sons of Bragg	2	9.09%	Character
Thumper Crew	0	0.00%
Trollkin Champions	6	27.27%
Skaldi Bonehammer	2	9.09%	Character
Trollkin Fennblades	6	27.27%
Fennblade Officer and Drummer	2	9.09%
Trollkin Runeshapers	15	68.18%	The majority of these are in Doomshaper1 Runes of War theme forces
Trollkin Scouts	1	4.55%
Trollkin Sluggers	0	0.00%
Trollkin Warders	5	22.73%

Night Troll Dojo

This guy looks so sweet that there has to be a way to get some actual use out of him.

Lets start with his abilities:

Stealth - Pretty good on a warbeast, even a light as you aren't going to kill him with blast damage at ARM 15 (17 in most lists). Makes him survivable if he doesn't get thrown into combat however he does not have a ranged attack so if you are keeping him back he's not doing anything. You could sprint him but if you are paying 18 points for Rorsh, Brine and a Road Hog you probably have higher priority targets for the animus.

Man Eater - Free charge against living models. However without reach he is going to struggle to tear up units. MAT 5 hurts a bit too.

Beguile - his animus is a great late game piece (living non-caster models within 5" must advance towards the nearest model with this animus, costs 1). Once you have attritioned your opponent down and they don't have a lot left you can control the movement of some key infantry models or beasts. The short range on it and the lack of survivability of the beast when it gets stuck in means that you probably don't want to be using him early game. It may be cute to put a Janissa wall between him and some non-reach infantry but you really don't want to be wasting the wall on a 4 point light.

Paralysis - both his claws have paralysis, and it's straight paralysis, not crit paralysis either. Takes living models hit down to DEF 7 and stops them from running or charging.

Adds up to - If he's going to have a place it's going to be against in the hordes match up, Circle and Legion in particular (hordes is varied enough that you can't just take an anti-hordes caster). Paralysing an Angelius or a warpwolf will mean that troll beasts have no problem taking them down. And late game you have the ability to exercise some control over that one beast/unit that you are worried about. The stealth will let him survive to the late game but doing that means you are playing 4 points down for most of the game.

Lets go through lists:

Borka (Family Reunion) - His claws are not open fists so he's out.

Calandra - I think I found a home for him here. I love Burrowers with Calandra and she plays them very differently than other casters, she likes to keep them closer to the rest of her army rather than using them as an early rush. What that does is it opens up the possibility of troll gang (charge of the trolls) and having a cheap beast with paralysis to charge whatever the burrowers are after, kept alive with stealth... I think it works.

Captain Gunnbjorn - No idea. Never played this guy, don't intend to.

Grim Angus - No. Grim if I take him is my Cryx match up. Grim is pretty good against circle too (I did have that one epic game where I completely tabled a circle army in one turn) but he's usually bombing beasts to death and you don't want a crappy light engaging them when you do that.

Grissel1 - Another Cryx match up. Grissel wants troops so her warbeast points are very tight. However the extra melee troops does mean that a cheap charge of the trolls target would be nice, however unlike Calandra she needs infantry clearing which means that the thresher on the Axer or the aoe on the Pyre are also needed to contribute. Probably not in this list.

Grissel2 - Grissel2 is an underrated monster in the protectorate match up and provides a real problem for a lot of builds (inhospitable ground, lots of high ARM multi wound troops and great shooting). The night troll does absolutely nothing for her.

Doomshaper1 - Loves the hordes match up and you can fit a night troll in his theme force if you drop a Mauler down to a Pyre troll. I would not do this. He has plenty of AOEs and the Mauler fits better with the ARM skew and helps out against colossals.

Doomshaper2 - Again he can technically fit but you want to take a unit and all the dire trolls you can. The stuff he does is not needed in this list.

Hunters Grim - Maybe. Probably not. I have no where near enough experience with the caster to tell. He does seem like a good hordes match up because of Mortality but I'm not really seeing him wanting beguile or paralysis.

Jarl - I tend to run a lot of minions with Jarl which means he's battle group needs to be able to kill heavies and I want an Impaler for Jarl himself. Again it's a maybe, I need more games with Jarl too.

Madrak1 - He has no place in a stereotypical troll brick.

Madrak2 - Madrak2 lacks a hit buff and he has a lot of infantry. A bit of control would not go astray here. I'm sot quite sure how to fit him into the list but he is an option here. Beguile on Madrak himself seems like a strong move too given how damn near invincible that guy is.

Grim's Feat

Feat: On My Mark

While in Grimʼs control area, friendly Faction models gain Mark Target and friendly Faction modelsʼ ranged weapons gain Snipe. On My Mark lasts for one turn. (Other friendly Faction models gain +2 to ranged attack rolls against enemy models within 5 ̋ of a model with Mark Target that are in its LOS.) (Ranged weapons with Snipe gain +4 RNG).

You might already be aware of this one. It was spoiled on the forums but not having an official source (and not being particularly exciting) I didn't put it up here. The feat has a little bit of skornegy, snipe gives you extra range but mark the target requires you to be close to your opponent. In general it's not going to be a problem, you take Burrowers or Fennblades and you have a unit that it going to be way ahead of the rest of your army anyway. The other issue is that trolls already pay a snipe tax, The Impaler, Swamp, Slag, Pyre and Bomber are all range 8. The troll ranged units generally kind of suck. The Scattergunners and Scouts are at least solid units and the Scattergunners might get the most out of this feat with clear and sprays the RAT 7 is pretty huge. The scouts too will be able to take advantage of this when assaulting and again ignore the target in melee penalty so they can shoot from behind a faster unit. It's a useful feat but not a particularly fantastic one which means that Grim will be carried by his spells and abilities. 

Building an Alpha Strike List

What does it do?The idea behind an alpha strike list is to hit your opponent first and hit them so hard that their counter attack is blunted and they cannot do as much damage to you back. This is not as simple as merely getting the charge. An experienced player will spread out their units frontwise (forwards and backwards, needs to be a word for this, there probably is and I just need to ask someone who actually speaks English). They'll stop you from being able to engage the majority of the unit. Important beasts/jacks will be hidden behind cheaper models (often with someone like Alexia picking up their souls to create more models for your opponent). Other feats and spells will stop you from attacking key models. Some of this in unavoidable and just makes the bad match ups any list faces but if you can't deal with at least some of these tactics your alpha strike list is not going to work very well.

• Heavies

• Infantry

• High ARM

• High DEF

I also need for my alpha strike:

• Threat Range (the maximum distance away your model can be from mine where I can still attack you). I have to be able to out threat my opponent in order to alpha strike. High SPD is good, reach is good, pathfinder is also important.
• Damage Potential - I need to be able to kill what I hit.
• Protection on the approach. If your opponent can shoot you to death or set all your models on fire then you won't have enough for an effective alpha strike.
• A way to clear screening units/models. I want to attack as many models as possible. My opponent is going to attempt to place his models to minimise that. I need to be able to kill, move or otherwise get past those models to attack the bulk of his army and in particular the valuable models. 
• Caster protection. When your army is tearing across the table instead of standing and shooting and when you need to throw in as many models as possible to blunt your opponents counter attack you'll find your caster is more exposed. 

What do I want to put in the list?
Firstly generic stuff. My list needs to be able to deal with:

Alpha Strike - I want to go fast and I want to hit hard. I want reach if possible. I want protection on the approach. If I'm alpha striking my plan is to hit my opponent so hard they don't have enough left to counter successfully. I want a way to clear cheap screening units. I have to also look more closely at how I'm going to keep my caster safe, I don't have quite as many screening options when all my stuff is charging in compared to a gunline.

Example
I've talked about my Madrak2 list before but it's the best alpha strike list I have. It has some shooting to clear screening models, madraks spells to increase damage, madrak's feat lets me run and attack and everything is fast anyway. That's a pure alpha strike list but I didn't want to talk about the same list twice so I'm going to look at Doomshaper1 instead.

1. Doomshaper - feat gives +3 SPD to his beasts. Wild aggression makes them hit very accurately, refuge lets me pull back a key beast so that I protect at least one model from counter attack. Great at throwing out animus, goad allows you to move after attacking a screening model. 
2. Runebearer - lets me protect two models from the counter attack or cycle wild aggression so two models attack extra accurately. 
3. Earthborn + Janissa + Krielstone - Gives me +4 ARM to all my beasts so they make it to the alpha strike alive. Also a damage buff with the elder.
4. Mauler - Damage buff so I kill what I hit, also benefits from the +3 SPD feat. 
5. Mulg - Best beatstick in trolls. With Reach and Wild Aggression and Goad and Rush and Feat can get most anywhere and kill most anything. Gets an extra attack with doomshaper.
6. Axer - rush for more SPD. +3 SPD is good. +5 SPD and pathfinder is fantastic.
7. Fennblades - got to balance the list. All beasts is fine but sometimes you need bodies to get in the way of things or to go do something out of doomshapers control area. Sometimes your opponent has anti beast tech and you need something to go kill it. Fennblades don't synergise at all but give you balance which can be important. Reach also allows them to kill things while still leaving a path the heavies can charge through. They are fast enough to alpha strike as well. 

Trollbloods
Standard Army
PCs: 50 / 50
24 models

[00] Hoarluk Doomshaper, Rage of Dhunia (0 / 6 WB)
[02]  >> Trollkin Runebearer
[12]  >> Mulg the Ancient
[10]  >> Earthborn Dire Troll
[09]  >> Dire Troll Mauler
[06]  >> Troll Axer
[03] Janissa Stonetide
[03] Krielstone Bearer & Stone Scribes (3 grunts)
[01]  >> Stone Scribe Elder
[08] Trollkin Fennblades (9 grunts)
[02]  >> Trollkin Fennblade Officer & Drummer

Sometimes I drop the Axer, take some whelps and a chronicler max the stone and take the bellows crew. If I do that sometimes I switch the fennblades for a bomber. I used to play him a lot but I've been giving him a rest lately. Might be time to crack him out again. 

The Grim Angus Diaries

(this is a post I started writing ages ago, mainly to help me organise my thoughts on Grim Angus, figured I may as well put it up).

This guy is supposed to be great and while I can see lots of great pieces when I look at him I can't see how they all come together to make a great list. I'm going to jot down my process here in figuring him out.

1. Have a look at his rules. His gun can give a warbeast +2 SPD on a charge or knockdown whatever it wants to kill if it is close enough not to need the speed boost (Melee beast). His feat drops SPD and DEF which will stop my opponent from being able to charge me if I hang back a little which suggests I want some ranged threat. He can give a model/unit pathfinder and hunter (good for everything that doesn't have those abilities), has a spell that drops DEF, gets rid of stealth and allows targeting regardless of LOS but is dangerously short ranged which suggests more ranged stuff. Lastly he has return fire which will let a model shoot back if it gets shot at (ranged beast).

Trollbloods are the most infantry heavy faction in hordes but they still have great beasts so generally you are looking for a mix of beasts and infantry in your list. If you take a troll melee beast though you will need a damage buff (which means Mauler, Pyre Troll or Slag Troll). So from looking at his abilities I'm thinking:

Good Stuff
Bomber - Trolls best ranged beast
Impaler - really needed for the bomber and will help Grim out as well
Mauler, Mulg, Earthborn - A melee threat
Pyre Troll - Might need a damage buff and it shoots as well.

Champions - Grims feat will stop them from being charged so they will be very very hard to kill.
Long riders - Love cross country and will love the feat.
Runshapers - shooting
Scattergunners - A unit with sprays, ignores all your own models and Grim fixes the problem of their lowish RAT (5). They look great with Grim.
Burrowers - fixes their low MAT problem and they are otherwise awesome.
War Wagon - it will have no problem hitting directly under the feat, it has great ranged firepower and it can fight too.

When building a list you generally want to avoid the models that are overcosted and do not benefit significantly more than more appropriately costed models from your warcasters abilities. In this case that's Sluggers, Skinners and Bushwackers. I'd probably also avoid Blitzers, Bouncers and the thumper crew.


2. What is the prevailing wisdom? Whenever I'm putting together a list for a new caster I'll have a look at what other people are doing to see if there are any tricks other people have thought of that I have not. Here I ran into a road-block. You can often find good advice if you have a look at lists that have done well at tournaments. At least you can find a starting point or some synergies you have not thought of. There's nothing on Grim though, which is a bit weird as he is generally considered one of the top troll warcasters. There is a summary of Troll tactica on the forum and the one for Grim is old and bad (from before the release of the troll army book). Even Chain Attack played Grim in their first episode and didn't have any special ideas I had not picked up on.

3. What do I want the list to do? Good lists should do something, they shouldn't just be a collection of random models there should be an idea behind it, a plan of sorts. For example my Constance list is all about jamming with infantry, my doomshaper2 list is a high ARM beast brick. It should also be balanced, it's not just about taking the best synergies. A lot of my everblight lists have legionnaires in them just to die but to die in preference to my more important beasts. You may need a cheap unit of infantry just to get in your opponents way, you may need a model with a ranged attack just to get rid of those annoying blocking models your opponent has put on the table.

So what I want the list to do is to feat and slow my opponent down while my beasts shoot stuff to pieces. I'm going to need a heavy hitter to take down high ARM stuff and I'm going to need a fast unit to get in the way of stuff (always important when you have shooting). So I want:

Melee beast that can kill a heavy
Bomber/Impaler
Fast unit that does not require warcaster support.


Trollbloods
Standard Army
PCs: 50 / 50
32 models

[00] Grim Angus (0 / 6 WB)
[02]  >> Trollkin Runebearer
[10]  >> Earthborn Dire Troll
[10]  >> Dire Troll Bomber
[09]  >> Dire Troll Mauler
[05]  >> Troll Impaler
[03] Janissa Stonetide
[03] Fell Caller Hero
[02] Troll Whelps
[04] Krielstone Bearer & Stone Scribes (5 grunts)
[01]  >> Stone Scribe Elder
[06] Pyg Burrowers (9 grunts)
[01] Swamp Gobber Bellows Crew

The Burrowers can rush the zone while I advance up my beast brick. 

Next Step: First game. Ok so Grim's feat was devastating and I tabled my opponent on his feat turn (he had left a unit of bloodweavers way out on the flank, wolf lord Morraig badly wounded and his caster and that was it, he had killed a single whelp). I already see a problem though. The beast brick is slow. I can run it first turn to get it into the zone but I feel like I want more speed. I don't  think an Axer will solve the problem either as I want to run Grim first turn to get him up to catch my opponent in his feat. 

Maybe I'm just to used to playing Legion. For now the list remains unchanged.

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. 

Flanzer's Trolls at GENCON

My brain is fried so I'm going to take a break from uni shit and think about warmachine. In particular I've been meaning to analyse Flanzer's lists from GENCON. Jason Flanzer is one of the top players in the US, he changes factions pretty regularly and of all the players he's the one I look out for the most becausse he tends to play very different, very interesting lists. He definitely did that at masters taking a mountain king into the final. He lost but the fact that he made it that far with a mountain king tells you that it can be made to work. So lets have a look at his list:

Trollbloods
Runes of War (Hoarluk Doomshaper)
(Tier 4)
PCs: 75 / 75
34 models

[00] Hoarluk Doomshaper, Shaman of the Gnarls (0 / 7 WB)
[20]  >> Mountain King
[12]  >> Mulg the Ancient
[10]  >> Earthborn Dire Troll
[09]  >> Dire Troll Mauler
[06]  >> Troll Axer
[03] Janissa Stonetide
[02] Troll Whelps
[04] Krielstone Bearer & Stone Scribes (5 grunts)
[01]  >> Stone Scribe Elder
[03] Trollkin Runeshapers
[03] Trollkin Runeshapers
[03] Trollkin Runeshapers
[03] Trollkin Runeshapers
[03] Trollkin Runeshapers

So first thing to note. ARM buffs, this list has them. With the Earthborn, Janissa and the krielstone the MK will be ARM 23 most turns without using his upkeep slot which  means you can then throw banishing ward on him. That means no enemy spells may be cast at him which makes it very hard to drop his ARM unless you have purification. The wall from Janissa also helps to keep him safe. Still you're starting off with 10 less health than a regular colossal and the wall can't completely protect him and the DEF bonus it gives isn't really going to help. While your earthborn hides behind the wall only reach weapons can hit him and he's DEF 14 if they do. MK behind a wall is DEF 11 in melee swinging over the wall or you can just go around/over it. I suppose the key here is that the earthborn, krielstone and Janissa are already in the list so you that ARM buff was already there.

Offensively - You have fortune which helps both his MAT and RAT and with a 10" spray that's actually pretty useful. You've got rage to take him to P+S 22, rush to give him 12" threat and the strength bonus from the krielstone if he needs it. The key here is the runeshapers. They bring a shitload of knockdown to the table. They can make sure he actually hits his targets. 

So add all this together, does that make the mountain king worth taking. Almost definitely no but talking this tier list at 75 points, then yes he's worth including. Not an auto include but not silly to take either. Quick explanation: The benefits of the tier list are fantastic but it is really restrictive, you can only take two units: the krielstone (and only one unit of krielstone bearers) and Runeshapers. There are already 5 units of runeshapers, that's not only a lot of models to buy but they all do the same thing and that's put out short range shots and knock down stuff. They are only middle of the range in melee, doomshaper needs his beasts to really tear things up in melee but he's only fury 7 and in his 50 point list he already has 3 heavies and a light (it's this list minus the mountain king, a unit of runeshapers and whelps). He'll struggle to take two more heavies, even if he takes a bunch of whelps his fury management is going to be really difficult. The mountain king won't do as much as two heavies but it also is easier to manage the fury from. And it will do slightly more for it's fury than a beast that is not Mulg. 

His other list:

Trollbloods

Family Reunion (Borka Kegslayer)

(Tier 4) 

PCs: 75 / 75

39 models

[00] Borka Kegslayer (0 / 5 WB)

[00]  >> Pyg Keg Carrier (Companion)

[09]  >> Dire Troll Mauler

[02] Stone Scribe Chronicler

[03] Trollkin Champion Hero

[03] Trollkin Champion Hero

[03] Trollkin Champion Hero

[03] Krielstone Bearer & Stone Scribes (3 grunts)

[01]  >> Stone Scribe Elder

[05] Trollkin Champions (2 grunts)

[09] Trollkin Champions (4 grunts)

[09] Trollkin Champions (4 grunts)

[03]  >> Skaldi Bonehammer

[09] Trollkin War Wagon

[09] Trollkin War Wagon

[03] Gudrun the Wanderer

[09] Greygore Boomhowler & Co. (9 grunts)

Another theme force, another fantastic list. This one is surprisingly fast, is full of weapon masters, everything is really hard to kill and it has a lot of ranged threat as well. Great complement to the first list as it really does play quite differently. The first list is more defensive and attritiony, this one wants to get to get up in your face and does so quickly. I suppose the only surprise to some would be that Borka only has one beast. He only really needs one, the mauler stays back and is there almost entirely for his animus. Troll infantry is good enough that quite a few lists scrape by with only one beast.

Mountain King

http://i374.photobucket.com/albums/oo190/samhordes/M1960005.jpg
http://i374.photobucket.com/albums/oo190/samhordes/M1960006.jpg

click to embiggenate.

So the rules for all the colossals are out now but this is the first Gargantuan and I'm not impressed. I loved the Stormwall and the Galleon and I loved the mountain king model but I am much less enthused about the rules. It's a point more than the Stormwall but it's got less ranged potential and less melee abilities, significantly less damage boxes and the stormwall has better DEF and better special abilities. Even when you consider the in faction buffs, the mountain king can get rage and the krielstone but you can take the journeyman warcaster and give the Stormwall arcane shield and Cygnar is full of shooting buffs.

That said that spray is going to be very good, spawn whelps looks like a fantastic ability. This thing is going to be good with epic Doomshaper. It needs wild aggression in order to be able to function but then it will kill anything it touches, he can put rage on it for free and the extra threat range he provides is going to be pretty essential, when you take into account the spray and the special shooting rules for colossals it's going to be a serious threat. It might be useful with some other casters, trollbloods have been crying out for a reach heavy other than Mulg...

The thing is without help it can only just destroy a Cygnar heavy in melee (meaning close to half the time it won't), and it's not going to be able to scrap a cryx heavy without some kind of buff (DEF 13 means 8s to hit, which means boosting to hit so only 3 good attacks). It has a lower damage output than Mulg (big difference between MAT 7 and MAT 5) only 14 more health and it's special abilities are not as good. Maybe I need to have more of a think about it and maybe see it in play but from looking at it now I think I'd rather have Mulg regardless of points cost and there is an 8 point difference there.

I may just need some more time to think about this. That spray is pretty good... I'll have more to say on this.

On beating my trolls

So I have an hour or two to kill right now so I thought I'd talk about how I would beat my lists. Lets start off with eDoomshaper:

Trollbloods
Standard Army
PCs: 35 / 35
13 models

[00] Hoarluk Doomshaper, Rage of Dhunia (0 / 6 WB)
[02]  >> Trollkin Runebearer
[12]  >> Mulg the Ancient
[10]  >> Earthborn Dire Troll
[09]  >> Dire Troll Mauler
[03] Janissa Stonetide
[04] Krielstone Bearer & Stone Scribes (5 grunts)
[01]  >> Stone Scribe Elder

How to beat it:

Assassinations: the weakest link in this list is doomshaper, low DEF, low ARM and his spells are short ranged. I'm actually more confident about the krielstone bearer and stone scribes in a fight. If you have a list that can get something to him he's dead meat. Low model count also makes it hard to protect him.

Trading: You can pick what the dire trolls kill. For example in Grahams place I would have taken first turn, advanced forward as far as possibly first turn and then second turn put the swordsman out in front blocking off the trolls from attacking anything good and feated. Snacking only removes a model from play if the dire troll heals and you can't heal when you aren't damaged (I realise now that Graham probably didn't know that, the wording on the card isn't always clear at first glance). At the very least you force me to trample which takes away a free boost for damage and all my initial attacks. By spreading out your units judiciously you can make it very difficult for me to kill a whole unit and then they all come back. Other lists can do it well too, you just have to make sure that the things I would want to kill are well hidden behind things that you don't mind me killing. Quite a few casters are designed to play that way anyway (Kallus, Constance Blaise, Morvhana)

Low model count: There are really only three models in this list. Nothing else is really going to kill anything. If you have a warcaster who can shut down a few models then you can really cripple this list. For example pDeneghra with crippling grasp and parasite can cause a great deal of difficulty for this list especially as it has no upkeep removal. eSkarre is another one, Moshar (pillars of salt is painful in a list where I don't really have anything that I can waste a whole activation just to get rid of a pillar), anyone with stranglehold. 

Trollbloods
Standard Army
PCs: 35 / 35
15 models

[00] Madrak Ironhide, Thornwood Chieftain (0 / 6 WB)
[12]  >> Mulg the Ancient
[09]  >> Dire Troll Mauler
[03] Fell Caller Hero
[03] Krielstone Bearer & Stone Scribes (3 grunts)
[01]  >> Stone Scribe Elder
[10] Trollkin Champions (4 grunts)
[03]  >> Skaldi Bonehammer

The issue with this list isn't the threat it's that everything is ARM 20 or 21 and has multiple wounds. That and the champions will wreck an entire army single-handedly on feat turn (MAT 11 from carnage and war cry POW 11 weaponmasters two attacks and a free 1" move and another attack every time they kill something, get them into infantry and they won't stop killing things).

This list is actually pretty easy to beat, whenever you go to a tournament you need to make sure at least one list has the ability to take on for example Karchev or Saern or eNemo, that the list has the ability to kill multiple heavies. As the list is so slow you will almost always get the charge against it. Just charge in with weaponsmasters or heavy beasts/jacks or use something that reduces ARM. 

List Building - Madrak

Trollbloods
Standard Army
PCs: 35 / 35
15 models

[00] Madrak Ironhide, Thornwood Chieftain (0 / 6 WB)
[12]  >> Mulg the Ancient
[09]  >> Dire Troll Mauler
[03] Trollkin Champion Hero
[03] Krielstone Bearer & Stone Scribes (3 grunts)
[01]  >> Stone Scribe Elder
[10] Trollkin Champions (4 grunts)
[03]  >> Skaldi Bonehammer

I think we need one more example, this is a list built not around a caster but around a tactic, that tactic has the rather unexciting name of "the brick" and it's about as hard as one. It's almost the polar opposite of the Doomshaper list and makes a good second army for steamroller tournaments for that reason. So what's in the army and why:

Madrak - Small control range is not a big issue as this army stays close together. His feat allows every model to advance 1" and make an additional attack whenever they kill a model with a melee attack. He has a spell Carnage which adds +2 to melee hit rolls. His other spells are good too but not so important in making the list. He has 5 Fury so you want enough beasts to generate that even when you have lost your biggest one. His feat and spells mean you are looking at the melee beasts.

Mulg - simply the best troll beast. High MAT and high P+S + reach. Will destroy whole units with ease on feat turn and anything else at any time. Protective fit means that as long as he is close to your warlock anything attempting to harm your warlock will have to kill him first or be willing to sacrifice itself. His slow speed is irrelevant as this is a defensive list. 

Mauler - Not only is the mauler a force of destruction but it has a strength boosting animus. That's the important thing here that distinguishes him from the Earthborn. Sometimes you need the ability to hit harder than is entirely sensible and the other strength boosting beasts are shooters. 

Any more beasts and we'll need to take whelps for fury management so lets move onto units

Krielstone - This makes the list. It'll give you +2 ARM to everything and immunity to continuous effects or +1 Strength or no incorporeal models. That will put your beasts at ARM 20 and 21 and your champions at ARM 20 as well. With your entire front line at ARM 20 or greater your opponent will find it very difficult to kill anything with infantry and jacks and beasts will struggle to do much damage without strength boosts. 

Champions - In because of their high ARM and multiple wounds. Skaldi gives the overtake and pathfinder on a charge (both very useful) and the solo lets them walk through each other. This generally means you want to have Skaldi behind the unit and them have him countercharge through the unit. The solo has reach and thresher and weapons master. A very nasty combination. 

What you get is a list with an ARM 20 front line equivalent MAT 9 or better except for the Mauler which fights like MAT 8 and high POW or POW 12 weapon masters. And on feat turn every kill means another step forward and another attack. It's slow but most things bounce off it so it doesn't mind going second. The only problem is that it does not split up very well other than that it is a very difficult list to fight. 

List Building - another example

More on list building this time with my other favourite caster epic Doomshaper. Since I've already gone through the basics I'll start with my list and then explain it.

Trollbloods
Standard Army
PCs: 35 / 35
8 models

[00] Hoarluk Doomshaper, Rage of Dhunia (0 / 6 WB)
[12]  >> Mulg the Ancient
[10]  >> Earthborn Dire Troll
[09]  >> Dire Troll Mauler
[06]  >> Troll Axer
[03] Janissa Stonetide
[01] Swamp Gobber Bellows Crew

eDoomshaper is in many ways the exact opposite of eCaine, his feat only helps beasts, his spells only help beasts, and he has two abilities that work with beasts. He offers nothing to troops. It should not be surprising then that his list is composed entirely of beasts.

Why those beasts though? Mulg is without a doubt the best troll beast, he has reach, ridiculous P+S on his main weapon, magic weapon (rare for a beast) but even more he has an affinity for doomshaper that will allow him to make an extra attack for free if the thing he is smacking is not dead yet. Also doomshaper is able to cast the animus of a dire troll for free, Mulg's animus is meaningless for this ability as eDoomshaper should not be close enough to the enemy for it to do anything.

That leaves the other dire trolls. eDoomshaper's feat and wild aggression both work for melee beasts so that leans you towards the earthborn and the mauler, also the bombers animus is not particularly useful for an all beast army (no blast damage for one model and those B2B) and the Blizters has a range of self and again Doomshaper should not be close enough to the enemy to use it. So again doomshaper's synergies point you towards the Earthborn and Mauler. I've taken one of each. The Mauler has a great offensive animus and the Earthborn a great defensive animus. The Mauler is a more general beatstick but the Earthborn is able to use the POW of your opponents weapons which makes it great for destroying casters especially with Wild aggression (which boosts to hit rolls, casters tend to have high DEF and high POW weapons).

Next the Axer. Mulg's feat and if needed the earthborn animus is often enough to give you all the charge distance you need but just in case you can throw in the axer too. If gives you extra movement and pathfinder so you can get your beasts across rough terrain as well as giving them a greater threat range. The other thing that is great about the axer is reach and thresher. It will destroy infantry and it can be run light on fury to give Doomshaper something to transfer damage to, it also benefits from eDoomshaper's feat.

Janissa has rock wall. This is one of the best abilities in the game. Put it right in front of a beast and you cannot charge that beast unless you have reach and you get bonus DEF against enemies shooting or stabbing over the wall, put it further away and you can't charge unless you have pathfinder and it gives you a ready made obstacle for elemental communication (which the earthborn can give other models with it's animus) which gives you bonus ARM. In this list she is here to put a rock wall in front of two of the beasts (it only fits that many), have eDoomshaper give out the earthborn animus and have everything +2 ARM.

Swamp Gobbers. I had one point left over. Swamp gobbers can smokescreen your caster (and maybe Janissa too). It's an extra layer of protection for your caster.

In addition to the obvious stuff this list has some tricks. Refuge Mulg into a very threatening position (preferably into melee with your opponents caster) and force your opponent to use all his heavy destroying resources to destroy him leaving your real assassin the Earthborn safe. Goad, Wild aggression and Rage on the Earthborn should be enough to destroy all but the most heavily protected caster. Alternately Refuge one of your heavies back behind Janissa's wall.