So you have primal staring at you and you're wondering, "What the hell can I do with (insert model name here)"? That's the question I'm going to try to help answer when it comes to Trollbloods.
Trollbloods Initial Overview: The Trollbloods play a defensive game very well. They all have above average ARM and even have a unit, the Krielstone Bearer, which enhances ARM even further. They have tough on every warrior model and regeneration on every warbeast,so it’s an army that does not take casualties easily. The Trollbloods also have a nice balance of ranged and melee capabilities and access to many buffs which can enhance either. The biggest flaw of Trollbloods, however, is this defense and hitting power has to contend with their slow speed. This makes them poor assassins and can make taking objectives in annoying scenarios a bit of a pain. The Trollblood army is much more suited to a slow grind style thanks to it's natural ability to eschew attrition in it's favor while using ranged attacks to pick off or weaken the more dangerous models so they can be more easily dealt with once they get in close.
Keeping track of what types of buffs a Trollblood model can have can be a bit confusing so here is a list of everything that's allowed:
- One Fell-call a turn. Fell-calls do not cancel each other out and only the first one received each turn by a model will have any effect.
- One friendly (and one enemy) upkeep spell per model/unit as per usual upkeep rules with the newest casting of the spell taking precedence and dispelling the older version of it.
- One friendly Animus per model/unit with the newest Animus dispelling the older one on the model.
- Any number of non-Animus non-upkeep spell effects and special abilities like Madrak's Sure Foot and the Krielstone Bearer's Protective .
Warlocks: Trollblood’s three warlocks all have respectable melee skill and are based around supporting your own troops while disrupting your opponent's. Also helpful is the fact that all of these warlocks are survivors by nature in that they are respectably defended and even have Tough as a last ditch effort to avoid losing the game. If you're looking for spectacular feats or abilities that lend themselves well to assassination tactics, then you're looking at the wrong warlocks and probably the wrong army.
Madrak Ironhide: Madrak Ironhide is, bar-none, the hardest to kill model in Primal. In addition to his decent defense and high, and easily enhanced, ARM of 16, he has a ton of wounds, toughness, the ability to once per game ignore an attack and cannot be charged by Warbeasts in his front arc. He has respectable melee capabilities and a high POW, short ranged weapon that can hit two targets. That said his flaws are pretty pronounced as well. He has only 5 fury which, in an army that has few fury management tricks is an issue, and his feat is sub-par and in general won't have as dramatic an effect on the game as it would for other armies. In general Madrak is best positioned on or near the front line keeping him out of the way of major threats and using his axe to soften targets as they close in and to finish off whatever makes it to the front line.
Special Abilities:
Scroll of Grindar's Perseverance: Though it is once per game this is probably a better ability than even his feat and is enough of a deterrence that it can keep your opponent from trying to assassinate him
Talisman of Subdual: This is an awesome item that you need to make sure you remember.
Weapons:
Thrown Axe: One of Madrak's best features is this POW 15 ranged weapon. This is the single highest POW ranged weapon on any Warlock or Warcaster in the game and even has the ability to go higher in POW by simply buffing his strength
Rathrok(World Ender): Madrak has a good MAT(7) to go along with his above average POW weapon more than making up for having less fury to spend on making and boosting attack rolls.
Spells:
Guided Hand: This is a useful spell for trying to land key hits but due to Madrak’s limited fury he will often find better things to spend it on.
Stone Fall: While this is a nice AOE, it is very expensive and less accurate than you'd want for the cost thanks to Madrak's Fury stat of 5.
Sure Foot: In the Early game this is the best use of his fury if you can manage to keep it up each turn.
Feat: Crusher: The problem with this feat is that it only gives you 1" of movement, so you are going to start falling short of new targets very quickly.
Hoarluk Doomshaper: The old man initially looks like he should play the exact opposite of Ironhide with is larger Control range and lower MAT. This, however is quite a bit off since Doomshaper has a couple of things he brings when closer to the enemy. First off, Hoarluk has the highest effective POW of all of the Trollblood forces when he has all of his fury. Second, since there are no arc nodes in Hordes, it’s impossible for quite a few of his spells to be effective unless he's up there a bit more
Special Abilities:
Calming Effect: This ability means that the fury on your dire trolls is far less of a priority to take off since the worst thing that can happen is it frenzies and beats up your opponent's things which, all things considering, is pretty much what it was going to do anyways in most cases.
Scroll of the Will of Balasar: This scroll is fairly situational since you need to have a warbeast that is not in melee range of any friendly or enemy models, or just enemy models for dire trolls, and doesn't have any models with it in their melee range, and has something worthwhile to charge in it's front arc.
Weapon: Gnarlroot: Doomshaper's melee attack is, thanks to furious might, the Highest POW possible for all Trollblood models. Add in the Fell Caller's War Cry to help out his low MAT and Doomshaper can put some serious hurting on any hard targets, even with the decaying scale of POW with each fury spent.
Spells:
Accursed: While this spell is priced some what high at three, the range of 10" is respectable as is the POW of 12. The part that makes this spell particularly good, however, is that it makes your opponent give up half his turn if he was damaged by it, making this one of the most annoying spells you can cast on your opponents warjacks or warbeasts.
Dissolution: This spell basically equates to super Anti-Magic Pulse since, unlike AMP, this one not only gets rid of all the upkeep spells, but threatens to screw over your opponent for putting them on his units to begin with.
Fortune: In case you're wondering, this increases your odds of hitting by less than boosting will in most normal situations, but it does have the benefit of stacking with boosting in the first place.
Rampager: At first this spell looks next to useless, but then you realize that it takes effect during the maintenance phase, which is before your opponent leeches fury, making it only mostly useless.
Vexation: In order to get this off in the first place you have to be closer than is really comfortable (8") to the enemy and it’s effects are sub-par.
Feat: Dhunia's Wrath: Will this feat have a game breaking impact that will make your opponent cry? If so your opponent must be the type that cries way to easily since this is probably one of the weaker feats in the game.
Grissel Bloodsong: Grissel is almost as survivable as Madrak since she has a DEF that's one point higher and only one less wound; though no DEF buffs to go with it nor a scroll of ignore an attack. Her style is a bit different than the usual warlock or warcaster in the respect that her main buffing capabilities is in the form of fell calls rather than spells. Grissel is a great support warlock for any Trollblood army high in infantry count although her melee and ranged capabilities are better than average and can help out when the enemy closes or if you can do so yourself. Grissel is probably most people’s choice as the “most powerful” Warlock available to the Trolls.
Fell Calls: Grissel has two less spells then your average six fury warlock, but makes up for that by having fell calls that for all accounts act as free spells that cost no fury.. Also note the fact that they don't count as spells which let's you ignore Goreshade's Mageblight, the Druid's counter magic, and similar abilities.
Cacophony: This ability does so much that it'll probably be the fell call of choice when you're close enough to use it if your opponent is sporting any type of melee troops or any annoying spells.
Heroic Ballad: Probably the most conditional of all of Grissel's Fell Calls, though it's a condition that comes up quite often none the less. The extra melee attack is definitely welcome and even Grissel herself can use it if she is in melee and needs a point of pseudo-fury.
Hoof it: Definitely her best early game Fell Call since the other two do very little when the opponent is far away.
Weapons:
Hand Cannon: This may be a standard Vanilla weapon, but it's a good standard vanilla weapon.
Resounder: Grissel's POW is a bit above average and her MAT is pretty much on the line, but she can do some respectable damage in melee and Deafen is a nice trick to have.
Spells:
Calamity: This spell is a particularly good debuff when faced with particularly high ARM targets that can be hit easily enough
Uproar: While this spell is significantly less useful then Calamity, and probably a bit overpriced, it's always nice to be able to pull a template weapon out of your ass when your opponent screws up and clusters his figures to close together.
Feat: Fell Chorus: Not only do you get all of Grissel's fell calls at once from this feat, but they're extended 3" and now affect all of your army, including the warbeasts, instead of just target warrior model/unit.
Light Warbeasts: The Trollblood light warbeasts play more of a super foot troop role since they can hide in the ranks and add to the hitting power, of your main force.
Troll Axer: The Axer has the highest POW of all the light warbeasts in any faction and has a respectable MAT of 6 to go with that weapon. Unfortunately, while he is more then capable of ripping any light warbeast/warjack a new one and poses a threat to most warlocks/warcasters as well, he doesn't have the resources to take on most heavys.
Weapon: Great Axe: This is the highest POW weapon of a light anything anywhere in the game. Unfortunately, in spite of its size, it lacks reach which would make the thresher on the Axer a truly threatening attack.
Animus: Rush: This spell is basically good old Boundless Charge, only cheaper and unable to effect enemy models
Troll Impaler: While the Impaler doesn't have the MAT or POW of the Axer, it does come close. What really puts this warbeast over the top, however, is it gets a ranged attack with a high RAT and High POW. Initially, the thrown spear looks like a short ranged weapon, but combined with it's animus this weapon can go a respectable 12" and not only do some considerable damage to whatever it hits but get a critical slam ~40% of the time if boosted.
Weapons:
Thrown Spear: The initial range on this weapon, while easily improved, is generally pretty poor but the damage is high for a ranged attack and the critical effect is very nice.
Battle Spear: While the MAT is a little lower on the Impaler than it is on the Axer and this weapon is POW 13 instead of 15, the Impaler is still a very capable melee combatant. Part of this is thanks to the one thing the Impaler has that the Axer doesn't reach
Animus: Far Strike: This animus is probably one of the best in the Trollblood army. While it is single target only, it is not faction stamped and will work on any minions you might be taking as well as the Impaler himself. This can give Alten Ashley an effective range of 18" standing still as well as improving the striking capabilities of Madrak, Grissel, a Blitzer, or even the Pyre Troll
Pyre Troll: The Pyre Troll is pretty much the weaker cousin of the Impaler with a bit of a twist: fire. The Pyre Troll may be 7 points less than the Impaler, but he does lose a point of RAT, ARM and POW from his ranged weapon as well as reach and two points of POW from his melee, though he does get a second natural attack giving him a set of claws and an AOE of three on his ranged weapon in exchange for that significant list of losses.
Weapons:
Spew Fire: While this is the only AOE available to the Trolls the short range, low POW (6 for blast damage) and low RAT means you would rather have an Impaler in every situation I can think of.
Claws(2): While the POW on these claws is fairly low, this is a pretty moot point vs. your average light infantry which makes his extra attack an attractive option. The other usefulness is that this light beast can perform a double-hand-throw.
Animus: Flaming Fists: While this Animus is pretty much bluntly worse than Rage since for the same amount of fury you get a less versatile +2 on melee damage rolls instead of the +3 strength and the less than stellar critical fire
Heavy Warbeasts: Dire trolls are the big-boys of the Trollblood army, and are two of the nicest Heavy’s currently in Hordes.
Dire Troll Mauler: The Mauler is arguably the most damaging melee combatant in the game(The Behemoth being it's closest competition). If it decides not to buff itself it is the only model with five fury in addition to it's two weapon attacks at a POW 16, as high as any warbeast goes, and a nice
chain attack as well. The real power behind the Mauler, however, is the spell Rage which, for the cost of 2 fury, can give it two POW 19 weapons and a POW 15 chain attack as well as leaving it with 3 fury to spend on all of the above.
Special Abilities:
Chain Attack - Chomp: While this won't really go down as the best chain attack in the game, I'm not really complaining about getting an extra POW 12 attack for free that can aim at any column or branch that it wishes too.
Snacking: While fighting swarms of small things isn't really the specialty of the Mauler, this ability can be fairly efficient if you are surrounded by Foot troops for whatever reason or even if you are just given a good opportunity to do some trampling.
Weapons: Big Meaty Fists(2): This is probably the silliest name for claws in the game, but they are effective as a melee weapon none the less. While these fists have all the power attacks available to claws, their use in such endeavors is a lot more unnecessary when compared to the Pyre Trolls. This is because, unlike the Pyre Troll, the Mauler is entirely capable of ripping it's opponent apart instead screwing around with weapon locks and double-hand throws.
Animus: Rage: This is probably the most powerful offensive buff in the Troolbloods arsenal, 3 added to a model's strength is about the equivalent of boosting damage on every attack while still leaving you with the option to boost.
Dire Troll Blitzer: While the Blitzer doesn't quite have the hitting power of the Mauler in melee, it is more than capable of causing severe damage on it's own. In addition, the Blitzer has the added capability of a ranged weapon that's independent from the dire troll which is probably it's biggest problem with said weapon: you can't use fury to boost attack or damage. This makes the RAT on this piece a bit sub par and makes the gun more of a secondary feature than the main selling point.
Special Abilities:
Pyg Ace: While this does mean you can't boost attack or damage rolls with the gun, it is given a number of advantages to make up for it. First off all models in melee range, whether enemy models or not, are ignored for LOS purposes. Furthermore, it can run, charge, or slam and then shoot it's target which can be the model you just slammed which can alleviate the sub par RAT problem.
Snacking: Again, see the Mauler above for all the details since there's not really much of a difference between POW 15 and POW 16 on the small unit people you're likely to be eating.
Weapons:
Slugger: As I've said before, the good thing about this weapon is that it can fire no matter what the Dire Troll may be up to. The bad part of this weapon, however, is the fact that a RAT of 5 is a bit low for a ranged weapon that can't be boosted.
Claws(2): While the Blitzer's melee attacks aren't as potent as the Mauler's, they are fairly effective as well as allowing for a Double-Hand throw with the added insult of being gunned down by the Pyg on top afterwards. Another side effect of being a mobile gun platform is having the highest RAT on any model able to perform a Double-Hand throw which makes actually hitting your target a lot easier.
Animus: Repulsion: This Animus is somewhat conditional in it's uses, thanks to it applying to both allies and enemies it can be fairly versatile if you apply some imagination to it.
Units: All Trollblood units come with Tough which helps them in winning out the attririon game, the key to a good Trollblood force is Combined arms whittling down the enemy with ranged attacks and finishing them in melee relying on superior survivability to win out the day.
Trollkin Champions: The Trollkin Champions answer that age old question, "What would Knights Exemplar look like if they didn't suck?” The hitting power of the champions, while a bit subtle, is undeniably potent. While one Champion by himself can kill a couple of trooper models he happens to get into base contact with, it does take all of them and probably a charge to damage some of the more heavily armored targets. That said, what sells these guys the most is their shear endurance both when getting to the enemy and even after reaching them.
Special Abilities:
Brothers in Arms: This ability is pretty easy to get off considering the fact that you usually have to get your models closer together when you charge anyways and adding an extra +2 to your defense is huge when facing something with a weapon heavy enough to punch through your high ARM
Concert: The real hitting power of the Champions comes from concert. The added bonus to both attack and damage is welcome. With the whole unit attacking, the last two attacks are at an effective MAT 11 POW 16 which is far better than most melee troops can manage.
Fearless: Always a good ability to have.
Weapons: Hand Weapons (2): Not bad weapons, there are two of them but the biggest problem they suffer is a lack of reach..
Trollkin Scattergunners: If you were to take a look at scattergunners in a vacuum, you'd probably come to the conclusion that both they and said vacuum have something in common, sucking. Scattergunners have a few things going for them, they have a 14" threat range, for a ranged unit they’re fairly well armored, have tough, and have decent, melee capabilities.The problem lies in their points cost and their relatively low RAT and lack of a CRA, which means they will need 8+ to hit def 13 and makes hitting anything tougher a futile exercise.
Special Abilities:
Slaughterfest (Order): Since you have to damage the model you charge, this is obviously useless vs. normal infantry, the extra damage roll can be useful if your opponent put something like a light warbeast or a multi-wound unit in front of them.
Weapons:
Scattergun: The spray template and decent POW from the gun is nice, but the main thing hurting this weapon is the RAT of the unit is too low to hit reliably.
Gun Blade: Everybody needs a shank for when the enemy gets into melee with you, unfortunately for the Scattergunners, their shank is a bit low on POW.
Kriel Warriors: The warriors are the cheapest melee unit in the Trollblood army, and they give you far more than what you're paying for them. Thanks to a combination of
their resiliency and their melee capabilities the Kriel Warriors make excellent front line troops who can screen your more expensive models. In a war of attrition the Kriel Warriors are a great resource to have thanks to their endurance and the sheer volume that you can have.
Special Abilities:
Prayers of Dhunia: In general the only ability worth a damn if you're not in melee is swift foot, it’s increase in speed makes it so this unit has an above average charge speed which is a rarity for Trolls. If speed is not an issue, then decide whether to use Potency or Quick Strike depending on the opponent you are fighting. In general if the second attack being made, whether individually or with CMA, has a decent chance of hitting and is at most Four points under your opponent's armor then you want Quick Strike.
Combined Melee Attack: This is a useful ability to have, however, Trollkins medium bases and lack of Reach prevent them from using this to it’s fullest extent.
Pyg Bushwhackers: As the major ranged support unit for Trollbloods, Pyg Bushwhackers have the capability to deliver high POW attacks from a respectable distance of 10" and then Bushwhack away. In addition to this, they are the most mobile unit in the Trollblood army with both a 6 SPD and pathfinder. The point cost of this unit is reasonable and the small base size makes them easier to protect.
Special Abilities:
Advance Deployment: This is an ability that can easily get a lot of your models killed if you're not careful about it.
Bushwhack: When models get too close to Long gunners they usually back up and take a few shots at the opposing unit. Bushwhackers suffer from a much more limited range which makes this ability a nice way to compensate.
Combined Ranged Attack: The main selling point of the unit, lets them hit reliably for high damage.
Pathfinder: The mobility provided by pathfinder is very useful to a model with bushwhack since it'll easily let them retreat far enough into a forest that your opponent couldn't retaliate vs. them.
Weapons:
Rifle: While there are more impressive guns with better range and/or POW, this isn't a bad ranged weapon and still allows for a decent threat range of 16”.
Sword: Try to keep the Bushwhackers out of melee as much as possible.
Krielstone Bearer and Stone Scribes: Unlike the rest of the units in Trollbloods, this one is meant to play a purely supportive role and it does an excellent job of doing so. The bonus provided by this stone to ARM brings a stat that is already high for most of the army to even higher levels making it even harder for your opponent to damage them.
Special Abilities:
Fury Vault: While it can be painful to put fury on the krielstone later in the game, generally there's not much you need to do with it on your first turn, which makes this somewhat less of an issue.
Protective Aura (*Action): This is one of the best buffs in Hordes, mainly because it's not only universally useful, but it applies to everything at once over a large area, including minions.
Self Sacrifice: Since this ability has a good 3" range on it, you can spread the unit out fairly well and still take advantage of it which can help vs. template weapons.
Fearless: Good to have but not an important ability.
Weapon: Battle Axe: This unit isn’t made for melee but if it comes down to it they can throw down with their POW 11 axes.
Fell Caller: The fell caller is probably one of the best models you can buy in Trollbloods and definitely one of the highest quality solos available to any faction. For a relatively cheap cost he keeps things from running away, melees fairly well, and can buff up your other models with his fell calls. In addition to this, he's a bit more survivable then your average solo and comes with a ranged attack, even if it is a pretty poor one.
Special Abilities:
Inspire: While it's rare that any unit is within 6" of a charging model before it's activated for the turn, any bonus is helpful sometimes, and this ability can come into play if it's a unit that charged you instead of the other way around, which is pretty likely with this army due to it's slow speed. Also, this bonus does apply to any attacks made beyond the charge attack with the fell caller himself which can be helpful if you charged multiple targets or one with multiple wounds.
Rallying Point: This ability lets Trollbloods pretty much ignore CMD checks for the entire army, which can be quite nice to begin with, but the fact that it makes your fleeing units go towards the fell caller instead of towards your table edge, which is normally pretty useless, makes this even better than the usual banner ability, though the area of coverage for the fearless ability is smaller than a banner.
Victory Howl: More models are fearless than not, especially if it's a melee unit, but this can still be helpful in the rare situations that it applies since the more command checks a unit has to make, the more likely they are to fail one.
Weapon Master: Normally POW 10 weapons wouldn't be that great on damage, so this ability helps quite a bit and can even give him the potential, however unlikely, to damage some of the heaviest armored targets. Don't rely on this ability to let him take down most warbeasts single handed, however, since they usually have enough wounds to keep you from killing them in a couple good hits.
Fell Calls (*Action):
Open Road: This is a very useful call, the ability to give any unit Pathfinder forces your opponent to reconsider standard tactics of using rough terrain to prevent charges.
Reveille: This fell call is useful as it let's you ignore knockdown, even if you did it to yourself by slamming or throwing your own model. Add to this the fact that this army has tough which can leave you with a lot of knocked down models and this ability starts to look more and more inviting. Note that this fell call is an exception to two rules, it will work on non-warrior Trollblood models, and it does not target, making it not stop other fell calls from doing so on a unit.
War Cry: This is the fell caller’s most useful fell call since it buffs both ranged and melee attack rolls, making it useful at almost any point in the game. There is pretty much no warrior model/unit that doesn't want a buff to one of these stats at least once during a battle, which can make for a fairly busy fell caller. The only real flaw of this fell call is its limited targeting and it's relatively short range of 6".
Weapons:
Sonic Blast: While the fell caller does come with a spray template, its bad RAT makes it pretty much unusable vs. all but low DEF targets or highly bunched up mid defense ones.
Sword (2): With a high MAT and good damage, the fell caller is as respectable at melee as he is at support. The fact that he gets multiple attacks even makes him decent helping out vs. units.
Minions: While there are a lot of faction stamped abilities in Trollbloods, there's a notable amount which can be taken advantage of by certain minions.
Alten Ashley, Monster Hunter: If you are playing against another Hordes player, then there is no reason not to take Alten in a Trollblood army, especially if you have an impaler that can far shot him to 18” range when necessary.
Totem Hunter: The Totem Hunter is a melee oriented solo which makes him somewhat redundant in a Trollblood army and the points can usually be spent better elsewhere, one thing he does bring to the table however is good mobility and this can help if you find your list struggling with mobile solo’s that you cant get your hands on with slower units.
Farrow Brigands: This unit emphasizes defence in a similar way to in-faction choices the Trollblood player has but they are generally an inferior choice. Their small bases mean they can’t screen anything but Pygs, their capability as a ranged unit falls short of Pygs and their melee capability falls short of pretty much every unit but the pygs.
Swamp Gobber Bellows Crew: These two gobbers are pretty much a one trick unit, but it's a pretty useful trick and comes with a nice cheap price tag.
To discuss this Article with fellow Trolls stop by this thread.
