New Update 12/17

[rydiafan]

pDoomy loses Death Sentence for Fortune
Snacking wording changed on all Dires to make it optional
Alten Ashley got -2 RNG
Minion Warlocks are all 1 point cheaper
Saxon Orrik gained Takedown.

[CerberusPuppy]

I was hoping for a few more Trollblood changes, but to be honest there's only so much time and resources for PP and they had to work alot more on the Skorne.

I like the change on P-Doomie. Fortune is safer to cast. Maybe I'll try him with Scattergunners now. :D

We still can't Far Strike Alten right? Just thought I'd ask...

[theummhmmguy]

Personally I'd pay 6 points for an Impaler with Farstrike that acts just like the spell snipe. Dunno why we can't use it on minions... just makes no sense to me anyway.

Nerf to Alten hurts a lot, as he was the only minion who didn't need farstrike in the first place.

[Benopotomus]

The new tyrant commander is officially a Fellcaller from MK1... with two characters, more boxes, reach and - a spray. Why did our's lose the rally beacon again?

[grim89]

I'm happy about pDoomie.

The range on Death Sentence made it useless. Now he can be more effective while relaxing in the back.

I'm satisfied with the changes. Plus on the circle side, they nerfed Kromac's outragoues pounce shenanigans which was just plain broken.

[Waaargh]

I don't get why Gladiators cost 8 and Maulers 9. Someone explain it to me :p

[notsoevil]

I don't get why Gladiators cost 8 and Maulers 9. Someone explain it to me :p

Cause we have "synergy".

[Silopolis]

Cause we have "synergy".

Unlike the Skorne.

[Benopotomus]

Gotta have points free for the paingivers to boost it's strength..

[Cannibalbob]

I don't get why Gladiators cost 8 and Maulers 9. Someone explain it to me :p


I was looking at this exact thing as well. Aside from -1spd an (which Skorne is pretty good at getting around) the Gladiator is better. Higher base armor, +2 damage boxes, an extra initial attack at -1pow, free +2" pow-15 slams, and follow up. His only downside if -1 spd and -1 fury.

[Cannibalbob]

Gotta have points free for the paingivers to boost it's strength..


We have to have free points for a kriel-stone to boost our armor...

[Benopotomus]

At the rate Skorne takes our abilities, they might just get a KSB sometime soon.

They stole rush and reville with this new update. :)

[kakita]

I was looking at this exact thing as well. Aside from -1spd an (which Skorne is pretty good at getting around) the Gladiator is better. Higher base armor, +2 damage boxes, an extra initial attack at -1pow, free +2" pow-15 slams, and follow up. His only downside if -1 spd and -1 fury.

And we have a better animus. And snacking. Not sure if it's worth 1 point though.

[Benopotomus]

And we have a better animus. And snacking. Not sure if it's worth 1 point though.

That extra attack is a killer. It really puts the whole thing over the top. Easily equal to the additional fury that the mauler has.

[Redphantasm]

I don't get why Gladiators cost 8 and Maulers 9. Someone explain it to me :p

Because the Gladiator's animus, and other abilities necessitate that it slam. It doesn't matter if it has 3 initial attacks, if it slams it gets only one.

They are great slammers no doubt, but they lose a lot of use (animi and abilites) if they decided to charge instead, or are stuck in combat and forced to fight.

Add to that that the Mauler has a much more versatile animus, and can do all sorts of regeneration shenanigans.

It balances, however roughly.

[Cannibalbob]

They are great slammers no doubt, but they lose a lot of use (animi and abilites) if they decided to charge instead, or are stuck in combat and forced to fight.




Not using a rule does not mean you lose it. He gains a ton for slamming, but he certainly does not stink when not slamming. And being stuck in combat is not a huge problem when you are a damage sponge with 3 initial attacks and a fair amount of fury.

He is like a Rhulic basher on crack for only a single point more.

They have speed buffs all over the place in thier army, and can still boost strength through Paingivers (which are as auto-include as you get). In the context of an actual army they are not really lacking in anything compared to the mauler.


But, I thought the mauler was slightly too much from the get-go. I just ignored it due to looking at beasts in other armies. Now that most of those beasts are going up in ability I think it may be worth reassessing the cost of the Mauler. An 8pt beast would fill a nice spot.

Or, the Gladiator may be a 9 point beast now and need a points buff.

[Yoshi]

My first kneejerk reaction was similar, so I decided to look more closely.

The Mauler have slightly better stat: +1 SPD and +1 FUR but -1 ARM and 2 less damage.
The Mauler animus is more versatile and overall better (no boosted attack, but I prefer +3 STR than auto damage boost)
The Mauler abilities are better (Regeneration, Snacking) are slightly better than the Gladiator one (Follow Up, Grand Slam)
The Mauler have one less attack, but the +1 Fury kind of mitigate that.
Finally, The paingiver/warlock synergy is not better or worse than our kriel/warlock synergy.

The +1 fury can easily translate to one additional attack, making both beast on par for stat. The animus and abilities of the Mauler are more versatile but less powerful than the Gladiator. To conclude. I feel that the Mauler should be a bit more expensive than the Gladiator but not by 1 point, I agree with CannibalBob that putting the Gladiator at 9 would be better, as both beast are currently better than any 8 point beast (example: Rhinodon).

[azaminkor]

I like that we got fortune back. Would have like to seen more troll changes...

Comparing Titans to Dire trolls makes me sad... I mean the bronzeback gives all other titans +1 SPD. The biggest thing I think the EBDT has over it is +2 THR. I would still like an improved regeneration (leadership?) on the EBDT.

Perhaps if the Titans saw a -1 STR across the board (It angers me that the Bronzeback is 13 STR) or a point increase. Dunno. I don't get to play against Skorne.

[Creaux]

Azaminkor, have you held the bronzeback model? That guy definitely deserves STR 13.

The increased fury is good for cheap fury generation and getting more boosts and leaving room to transfer.

Also, the mauler's animus is very helpful to a majority of troll models, rather unlike Trainwreck. Thrown weapons, champs, 'casters, light beasts that need something dead and many more all love rage. Trainwreck is fun when there are a lot of dudes hanging around the target, but strictly OK when it is only a single target, particularly when it's quite feasible to have paingivers massage the fury away afterwards.

Regeneration is just great, as is snacking--getting to bring your beast to full (unless your spirit is out) before your 'caster activates is dandy!

I'd love to get some good games in, and re-create the Primal cover, though!

[theummhmmguy]

Straight-line cost comparisons between factions never EVER consider all the buffs and goodness its own faction brings to it. When you compare costs that way, you will easily find disparity as you are comparing just the model without any of its bells and whistles. Factor in all the goodies "that you will surely do when building you army" and you find better cost comparisons.

[Ravir]

I wish they'd have taken another shot at the dygmies, and that Snacking didn't negate Goad or Crusher. That was about all I was really hoping for.

p.s. if you missed it, they also re-worded Goad the same as Crusher "one OR MORE enemy models with a melee attack" so that you can't get Goad a Mauler 4 times if tramples a unit.

[Goris]

they only changed the wording on pDoomy's card though!

[Waaargh]

eDoomy is so overpowered! Nerf him! *Bring out the nerf fork and torch*

[bakaryu]

They did change snacking to be optional, it now says that this model CAN heal d3 damage points. If it does so remove the enemy model from play.

[petegrrrr]

No fennblade changes makes me a little sad.

Really, at this point fennblades and scattergunners need tweaking, and that's about it.

Well, perhaps -1 pow to Mulg as well, but everything else seems about right in the world of units/beasts.

Some casters need a tweak here or there.

[ChronoCrusher]

Then feedback crazy about the fennblades.

[Negative9]

I worry that these updates are becoming more of an arms race than a issue of game balancing. It seems that all the factions are clamoring to put more and more awesome stuff into their own faction in response to other factions getting something cool. Case in point, Mulg finally got decent, so legion railed hard to get Typhon buffed. Xeris got some major buffs and now trolls are trying to get the same for Borka.

[Magnus0740]

Did they do anything with that horrible companion rule for the lesser warlocks? I did notice they dropped them by 1 point

[ChronoCrusher]

No, all they did was drop them a point. And say that Rorsh can only control Farrow beasts and Wrongeye can only control Gatorman beasts.

[Waaargh]

Fennblades - I can't find out if they triumph regular KW. In theory not, but the few games I have played with KW I find Reach would have been better than CMA and Fervor, and the 2" over two turns haven't done anything. Still, they are two near identical units which is a luxory... which comes at the expense of covering two different areas.

Scattergunners - to me they just seem meh. Perhaps useful in a large game, with several lines, reserves and flanking forces. Oh had I saved my money...

The two units are not something I miss, since their role is covered by other units/models. Now there is a problem.

Mulg - I am a Mulg fan and highly biased, keep that in mind (j/k). But seriously, STR 12 or 13 doesn't really matter IMO, with the big arsenal trolls have at their disposal they wreck what they want to wreck. To be honest STR 13 is more a case of showing Mulg is above the other dire trolls, it's a flavour "ability". He does beat face more than any other dire troll, but beating face with different toppings is what trolls is about, right?

What I have given most thought in this update is Snacking, originally Snacking worked with Crusher and all kind of stuff. With this third update PP shows they consider this new variation the model to continue working on.While I like this far better than Snacking overriding a handful of abilities, I'd prefer if Snacking just destroyed the target. I thought optional Snacking was just a get by solution till PP posted the next (current) update.

[Sevwall]

Rorsch also isn't a Warlock anymore. He has no battlegroup ;)

[Invader Larb]

I'm, pretty happy with Doomshaper now. He is not a top tier warlock, but he works and is able to do his job. His job now seems to be some warbeast shenanigans (Goad, Rampager), some denial (Purification, Banishing Ward, feat), and some boosting for his army (Fortune). I was goijg to test him with Jackhammer this weekend as a suggestion tyoo. But he looks okay.

I like how Snacking now works. Either the Trollcan eat, heal, and RFP a model or it can continue doing its work and benefir from Crusher, Goad, Overtake, etc.

I'll miss my 18" range Alten. But that really was awful. At range 12 we will have to make an extra effort to keep him alive.

[Magnus0740]

In all honesty I'm cool with Alten getting his range cut to 12". For the power his gun has it's still a monster of a weapon. When you add that to Wrongeye's spell you've got a dead warbeast.

[beakerkd]

the one change I find a little diff is the change to wrong eye Gatorman Warlock - This model can have only Minion Gatorman warbeasts in its battlegroup and rorsh Farrow Warlock - This model can have only Minion Farrow warbeasts in its battlegroup.

I am also a very big fan of the changes to snacking.

I change to AA is good and bad. its good when going against him since my bushwhackers can out range him then move back to stay out of range. Its also not as cool when using him since he cant have far strike.

[McStompersmashcrusher]

yeah i am not really sure how these new minor warlocks work, so if you take the cajun sensation, he is still a minor warlock yeah?


if someone could give me a lil more info i would be really happy, thanks.