When I decided to get into Trolls and back into Warmahordes, a buddy snagged me a second hand Trollbloods Battle Box as a gift. To say I jumped in the deep end is putting it mildly. Within a month I had 6 Warcasters and over 150pts of new toys. That all sounds well and good, but as a person who averages 20 games a year, the urge to use all my different options overruled an important facet, knowing the models inside and out.
To that, I have put together a list I believe to be fairly balanced. While I don't think it will shut down any particular list, I do think it balanced enough to not have any particularly terrible matchups aside from skew lists.
Jarl Skuld, Devil Of Thornwood
* Troll Impaler
* Dire Troll Bomber
* Earthborn Dire Troll
* Trollkin Runebearer
Trollkin Fennblades (Leader and 9 Grunts)
* Trollkin Fennblade Officer & Drummer
Trollkin Long Riders (Leader and 4 Grunts)
Horthol, Long Rider Hero
Janissa Stonetide
My goal is to play this list 10 times, unedited.
Stregnths
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The list started with a core of things I consider myself comfortable with (EBDT) or extremely comfortable with (Fennblades). My objective here was to combine those with models that I would like to play better, namely the Tuffalo units (shout out to the blog title of course!) and Jarl. My final step was to round out the last 12 points with what I felt would be most useful, Impaler for Jarl and Bomber, Janissa for, well, Janissa, and Runebearer as Jarl feels like he isn't the best as camping Fury.
My goal is not to win games here, though if that happens, awesome. My goal is to lock these models down. I want to be able to write Horthol's card from memory, or look down at the board and immediately identify Magic Bullet targets.
Jarl seems to have a somewhat cult following in the Troll circles, and I think for decent reason, he brings a decent amount to the table. Trevor from Chain-Attack played a 50pt match with him recently against pKaya, and during discussion the hosts noted that while Jarl's package is okay, he doesn't do anything better than another Troll caster. To be fair, I agree with them, but I don't think that is bad, especially in casual play. It is the options he brings to the table that make him interesting for me.
Challenges
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Originally I wrote the list as a "Troll Allstars" list where the Runebearer and EBDT were replaced by Mulg. Mat 7 Pow 19s are no joke, but I feel like, for this list, the Earthborn (backed by Horthol) is hitting at Mat 6, Pow 18s with an extra swing, has two open fists, and I am a huge fan of Elemental Communion, especially with Janissa in tow. Of course Mulg has Protective Fit, but I feel like with how squishy Jarl is, and the fact that he will probably be running low on Fury stack, that the trade off is worthwhile.
There is a possibility I would switch out the Runebearer for a Fenblade Kithkar when he comes out, as Vengeance and possibly Tactical Supremacy movements letting the Fennblades move through each other would be nice. Additionally, if I find I am having trouble with high defense, I may have to drop Janissa in favor of a Fell Caller, if I did that I would probably bring Mulg back. Finally, there is an outside chance that I would drop the EBDT for a Mauler and a Sorcerer to make sure the Fennblades don't get anything dumb dropped on them/add a Magical Attack.
Conclusion
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I need a goto list, and I think this has the makings of it. We'll see where 10 games take me, with number 1 (and hopefully 2) happening tonight! I am going to hold myself to only one change at a time, and require 10 games between changes.
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