I recently took my Trollbloods force to a local Steamroller, and managed to win the event. I was really pleased with the success, as I have a fairly competitive meta here in the Western PA, Eastern OH, Northern WV area. I was lucky and faced one newer player, but still had to push through two tougher ones on my way to the win. It was a three round event, with strength of schedule as first tiebreak and control points second.

Here are the two lists that I brought. Certainly nothing absurdly special with them.

I’ve seen lots of variations in the Doomshaper2 list that are close–I like the Trollkin Warders personally, but others can vary on the sort of defensive package they give to the old man Troll. As for the Grissel2 list, I’m hardly sold on it as an approach. I tested it exactly once after painting her up, so it was much more theory than practice.

However, because the event had no Divide and Conquer restrictions, I simply ended up playing Doomshaper3 in all three matches. Only in the third match, against Skarre1, did I find myself thinking that maybe Grissel2 would have been better. But Doomy2 proved able to exploit my opponent’s moves well enough that I managed the win.

I took the Armory as my objective in both, as this list has some severe problems with incorporeal troops–and we have a player who frequents the locale of this store who had been prepping games with a many-incorporeals Ghost Fleet list recently. Being able to hand out magic weapon didn’t come up in any of my games, but it would have been handy if I needed it.

Game One was against Larry IV’s Circle Orboros list, helmed by Kaya3. His other list was Kromac2, and I recognized that both had enough meat and enough transfers to likely survive Grissel2 assassination attempts. So Doomy2 it was. Kaya3 took an aggressive stance with her beasts and stones, which would be a good plan against many forces–but Doomshaper2 can get his Warbeasts WAY further than people expect. Mulg was able to crash up into his Warbeasts and take one out and a stone. Rok came up on the other side and mulched a full unit of Skinwalkers, leaving his force in a vice between them–with two other heavies trailing. He was unable to clear either Mulg or Rok, and that meant that they slowly caved in the sides and ended up taking out Kaya3. 

Second game was against Dave’s Oracles theme list led by Absylonia2. I had never played Dave before, so it was great to meet a new player–and he’s an amazingly interesting guy. Looking at his options, again there was no way that Grissel2 could get the assassination done. Plus, Doomshaper2 has good ways to make warbeast-heavy lists have to play conservatively. So it was Doomy2 again. Thanks to Doomy’s Agitation, I was able to get the game to the point where Absylonia2 felt she needed to go for objective. That meant I could take a shot at killing her. I took two free strikes (from a Neraph and a Nyss Sorceress on Hellion) on Mulg, but had pre-placed a whelp just in case adjacent to his landing zone. I got lucky with the damage done to him, and he was able to reach Abby2 on Feat turn–and Mulg was able to finish her off. Dave was a great opponent, and I felt like I managed to eke out a lucky win against him. Next time I definitely will not be that lucky. (note that I forgot to take a picture with Mulg standing there before I packed up, so the above shot is just Dave’s great-painted Abby2 and company). 

My third game was against Ian’s Cryx force. I last played Ian in a tournament at the end of Mark II, also facing Skarre1 then (that time I was fielding my Cryx). It was fun to revisit our old clash. As I said above, I thought about Grissel2 as I would have on-paper liked her into this list more. But the threat of Gaspy3 as his other list led me to think that I’d need the caster who could power thru a Gaspy3 Feat turn on damage if I needed to. He ended up dropping Skarre1, so the battle was on. I got lucky in the way that he spaced his jam unit, allowing Rok to just start chain-killing them right down the line. He then counter-charged his two Seethers into Rok. A spawned whelp from the damage let me repair the branch that I lost from their attack, and go right into killing the pair of Seethers and even getting up to damage Deathjack. More importantly, though, the counter charge left a straight path for Mulg to reach Skarre1. Again, the distance the “slow” Trolls can get on Feat turn can really surprise opponents. Mulg finished it off with ease, and that left me in the top spot for the tourney. 

 

Overall I had a really fun time with the tourney, but I’m going to take it for what it is. Doomy2 definitely is a “fool me once” kind of Warlock. Once people know how he runs and what he can do, they can better space and obstruct and really limit his game. I’m definitely inclined to keep fielding him, but I recognize I’ve got to get to the point where my other lists are able to do heavy lifting too. That said, it was good to get a tournament win and I’m looking forward to testing my Trollbloods mettle in the future.

365 Points Challenge Progress (2017):

273/365

Battles (Privateer Press):

Overall Totals 2017: 64 (Win/Loss 45/19/0); 2016: 123 (Win/Loss: 74/49/0); 2015: 43 (Win/Loss: 29/14/0)

Trollbloods:

12 Wins (Gaspy1, Terminus, Barnabas, Gunnbjorn, Kaya2, Helynna, Stryker2, Craye, Venethrax, Kaya3, Absylonia2, Skarre1) / 1 Loss (Feora3)

Protectorate of Menoth:

3 Wins (Kaelyssa, Magnus2, Skarre1) / 7 Losses (Makeda1, Deneghra1, Thyron, Kozlov, Kryssa, Fiona, Gaspy3)

Convergence of Cyriss:

9 Wins (Maddox, Haley2, Rask, Helynna, Makeda1, Gorten, Kaelyssa, Vayl2, Gaspy1) / 2 Losses (Venethrax, Helynna)

Skorne:

8 Wins (Kaelyssa, Nemo3, Zaadesh2, Makeda1 x2, Kaya3, Grayle, MacBain) / 4 Losses (Makeda2, Venethrax, Grayle, Horgle2)

Retribution of Scyrah:

13 Wins (Tanith x2, Venethrax x2, Malekus, Gaspy1, Ragnor, Zaadesh2 x2, Grayle, Borka1, Makeda1, Strakov) / 5 Losses (Zaadesh2, Thyra, Xekaar, Tanith, Gaspy1)

 

• Warmachine/Hordes