In previous outings with Trolls my second caster had always been EMadrak. He was the first Troll model I painted and I had been advised that he had a relatively short learning curve. In some parts of the UK tournament scene he had been (un)affectionately nicknamed 'Skilldrack' in reference to the perceived lack of skill it took to spam Blood Fury onto Burrowers/Fenns/Champs and that at times his 'A Game' felt a little one dimensional. I personally quite enjoyed playing with him but the release of SR2012 Beta pack left me looking for a caster with a more 'toolbox' feel and one that could take real advantage of the new 'reinforcement' complication
[ A word relating to SR2012: There were two aspects of the new SR pack that leapt out immediately. One was that a number of the scenarios required your caster to be 'up table' in order to claim control points, the second was the introduction of reinforcements. The 'up table' requirement is one I am still pondering but the reinforcement complication seemed to have some clear implications. Credit goes to Max for pointing out that casters/'locks with feats that effect the enemy could be extremely powerful as your reinforcements could take advantage of your feat from a long way away]
Grim Angus
I must confess that I had always wanted to use Grim, it was only my inexperience that was holding me back. In learning EHaley, Jamie had constantly drilled into me the importance of focusing on the scenario when using a support caster with a debuff feat (admittedly, probably the best debuff feat in the game...) so I was keen to see if I now had any transferable skills. EHaley excels in controlling the board, buffing her ranged support and launching a stormclad into a casters face. It seemed to me that Grim could do similar things but in a more trollish fashion, it also happened that he didn't really want any character models that others were using...(barring Janissa who I would take in every list given the opportunity)
2 or 3 List Environment
Grim Angus
Earthborn Dire Troll
Dire Troll Bomber
Troll Impaler
10 Bog Trog Ambushers
10 Nyss Hunters
Horthol, Long Rider Hero
3 Trollkin Long Riders
Swamp Gobber Bellows Crew
(Reinforcements: 5 Gatormen and Feralgeist)
Ahhh, challenges, challenges, now I actually have to learn to play this game. It has soon become apparent through some very early playtesting that Grim is nowhere near as forgiving as Calandra and requires a level of finesse to play well (no wonder I am struggling). The idea is that this is supposed to be a well rounded 'combined arms' list that should function well in most environments. The combination of Bog Trogs, reinforcements, speedy Cav, Nyss and Earthborn mean that this is an extremely mobile force. It is not however resilient or simple, I am going to need a lot of practice with model placement and am currently really struggling with judging how far to let Grim get up the table to maximise his feat. This will be default list for practice games in the foreseeable future - any advice on a postcard to this blog please!
EDoomy and the wacky 3rd list...
I don't believe I am alone in struggling with 'third list' problems under the new character restrictions for masters tournaments. It is my opinion that this has been a true masterstroke by PP as it is not necessarily that great a challenge to share out a faction's characters over just two lists.
I wanted something a little different for my third list, something that might surprise a few people. I know Edoomy is a popular 'lock, well regarded by many forumites but I simply haven't seen him regularly in UK tournaments, possibly because he does have a range of hard counters that he really struggles with. This said, he does give me an interesting option when playing against Khador, an extremely popular faction with some fairly predictable builds (Jamie P's patented Old Witch Mercenary List, any Iron Flesh caster with Nyss/WGDS/Kayzay)
3 List format only.
EDoomshaper
Mulg the Ancient
Rok
Earthborn Dire Troll
Troll Axer
10 Bog Trog Ambushers
4 Krielstone Bearer & Stone Scribes
Troll Whelps
Janissa Stonetide
Swamp Gobber Bellows Crew
(Reinforcements: 5 Gatorman Posse and Feralgeist)
It's weird how the wackiest list with all the hard counters is by far my favourite, I simply love the combination of MAT 7, Primal and Wild Aggression. Whilst the advent of Domination has heralded new ways to deal with the DEF stacking meta trends it will take a while before players abandon their high def infantry 'jammers'. Until this point I really need an answer to Iron Fleshed Kayzay that isn't a Dire Troll Bomber and a berserk Rok being goaded through the unit is an hilarious prospect. I also like the idea of being able to pop down the Janissa/Transmute/Krielstone/Girded brick and wander across the table feeling pretty impervious.
Unfortunately this list is probably the least well rounded of the 3 and will end up being dropped in 2 list steamroller tournaments, freeing up Janissa and Mulg for use with Calandra.
With the theorymachining done for now all that remains is practice, practice, practice. The early games that led to these lists can remain in the past, what I need to do now is learn to use these, minimise the silly mistakes and not be tempted to change casters for an 'easy' fix. First game of the blog era will be tonight at the North West Gaming Centre against Max and whatever Khador filth he is testing today.
No comments:
Post a Comment