1. Trolls look cool
2. The newer plastic Troll battlebox was on clearance at Miniature Market.
Now, I made this decision over a couple of *minor* counter-indications, notably:
1. I own over 50 points of Legion, most of it still unassembled, from the last Journeyman, and
2. I own over 150 points of Khador, about a third of it unassembled, and much of it unpainted.
So, naturally, weighing these facts, I concluded that the best course of action was to start a brand-new army. Onward and upward!
I played about a dozen games with the Trolls over the course of the Journeyman's 6 weeks, and now own 70-ish points (including a Mountain King which will remain dormant in its
Now, with that out of the way, here's some notes on how they played!
The Troll battlebox has the following models in it:
Troll Axer (light warbeast)
Troll Impaler x 2 (light warbeasts)
Madrak Ironhide, Thornwood Chieftain
So that's it. Four medium based models.
The universal consensus on the Troll battlebox is bad. Really bad. Like the dad-from-Foxtrot-who-never-wins-a-game-of-chess bad.
What makes it bad? Let's look at a couple of things.
1. No heavy warbeast! The light warbeasts are pretty good, but just don't have enough stopping power against some other faction heavies -- for instance, against the Carnivean that is present in the Legion Battlebox or against the two Khador heavies in that battlebox.
2. Madrak is a a very good infantry caster, but there is no infantry in the battlebox. Madrak's feat has no synergy with the warbeasts, and all of the beasts have a 2-fury animus, which is challenging with Madrak's 5 fury stat and no fury management available in starter games
3. The battlebox weighs in at only 10 points. This is pretty unevenly matched against other boxes.
It looks like PP is reworking the battleboxes; hopefully the Trolls get a redo in that sweep.
Now, once we moved out of battlebox, life got better. I added:
Full unit of Fennblades
Fennblade Officer and Drummer (UA)
Fell Caller Hero
Troll Whelps
Swamp Troll
Dire Troll Mauler
And played various combinations with these models at 25 and 35 points.
Here are some thoughts on them:
1. Fennblades are pretty good tarpit models. Reach is awesome, although at P+S 12 and no way to boost damage on them, they don't have the stopping power I'd like (for instance, against ARM 19 Cinerators in a recent game). Also, they are only 1 wound, and the Tough rolls don't save as many as I'd like.
2. Vengeance on the Fennblades is really awesome. It really helps extend their range. Vengeance movement plus the No Quarter mini-feat gives them fearsome range.
3. I'm still learning to use the Fell Caller Hero well. He's a P+S 10 Weapon Master with two attacks who can hit realibly. I'm still trying to discover the sweet spot for that, although the +2 attack Fell Call worked well on the Fennblades
4. The Mauler seems very good, although he made my opponents nervous, and they worked hard to kill him quickly.
5. Everybody said the Impalers were unimpressive, but they pull their weight well and their crit attack has turned out to be great
6. Madrak is actually a really, really good caster... just not in the battlebox. I'm getting used to the low Fury (5), but with Surefoot on himself, he is a respectable DEF16/ARM18 and very dangerous in combat.
7. Placing whelps to block escape routes makes me snicker.
Coming up, I have:
Trollkin Champions
Skaldi Bonehammer
Trollkin Champion Hero
Borka Kegslayer
Mountain King
The Champion "brick" has lots of positive reviews on the web, so we'll see how that works. I'm looking forward to trying Borka also. It will be a while before the Mountain King is ready for the table, but that will be fun. In the future, I will probably add a Krielstone unit to complement the brick.
Well, that's it for now... gonna play me some more Trolls, and try to figure out how to win!
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