Rules/tactics: Menoth player, new to hordes (noobish questions).

[Gosford]

Cheers!

I didn't feel as if my questions were worthy enough for the rules section as to how "noobish" they will seem so I decided to put them here.

I am a menoth player who plays in a heavy warmachine area. I really don't know any hordes players and when I'm at my flgs, i usually spend my time just talking about warmchine or actually playing my menoth.

So, I am infatuated with Trollbloods and picked up the warpack, eHoarluk, Mulg and a Mauler for pretty cheap. My buddy(Khador) and I played a small game (20pts) the other night and I just felt like I was getting a lot of stuff wrong (only have hordes quick start rules but know warmachine rules)

So here are some of my questions and concerns;

1. In the control phase, if I have 8 fury distributed among beasts and my warlock has a fury of 7, can I leach 7, upkeep and then leach the final one or do I have to do all my leaching before I upkeep, etc.?

2. Can I cast an Animi on the model casting it or can I only cast it on another friendly model?

3. Are animi forced or do you just obtain fury from them? (I'm pretty sure it's forced but just want clarification.)

4. Crippled spirit sucks (not a question)

5. Aspect circles: These things are confusing. I have a hard time determining if the inner circles belong to 1 or 2, 3 or 4, etc. Any clarification on this?

6. Are there every any advantages to letting a beast frenzy tactics wise?



I'm sure some of these questions are pretty noobish and but I do appreciate all feedback provided!


Thanks!

[RayofPaintStudios]

Welcome to the forums! There's no question too newbie for the New Players Area, so always feel free to ask.
1- Leech it all at once, so you'll have 1 beast making a threshold check.
2- A beast (or warlock) can cast the animus on itself, provided the animus itself doesn't have anything preventing it from doing so (i.e. target warbeast, target warrior model...)
3- You force the beast and add X Fury to it, or the warlock can cast it by spending X fury. X=animus's cost.
4- Yep, and you dirty Hordes players deserve to have it broken!
5- I think they count as both. I.e. if 6 takes 10 damage, you mark all the way down to the center, then jump over to 1. Or if 5 were to take 10 damage, you mark down to the end, then finish the rest of the damage on 6. I can't find anything in the rulebook stating otherwise, and not being a Hordes player myself I can't say for certain, but judging by how the spirals are drawn that sounds right. (edit: that sounds so confusing, let me try to clarify. The Mind Spiral essentially has three bubbles: 1, 2, and 1&2. When you've maxed out the bubbles on 2, you continue marking 1&2. I really hope that makes sense! )
6- Tactics wise, not really. It gets a single attack with boosted attack and damage, so you could potentially be saving yourself from managing 2 more Fury (1 Fury for the boosted attack, 1 Fury for the charge/boosted damage). I suppose if you were maxed on Fury elsewhere, it's more a tactic of who you can afford to let Frenzy, or who you need to maneuver less at that moment. It also lets you get a beast out of your control range and still have them charge. But really, I'd be careful not to just throw your resources away.

Let me know if you need any clarification, but I hope I've cleared some things up!

[Falkman]

3- You force the beast and add 1 Fury to it, or the warlock can cast it by spending fury equal to the animus's cost.

Correction, you force the beast and add as much Fury as the animus costs.

[RayofPaintStudios]

Correction, you force the beast and add as much Fury as the animus costs.

Holy cow, I'd never caught that before! Thanks, Falkman.

[rham7649]

1. Leeching is done all at once as Face Stabbity said.
2. Once again Stabbity answered this correct.
3.You either force the beast and place the number of fury for the cost on the beast, or the Caster can pay the cost and cast it Him/Herself.
4. Yeah it's pretty crappy it's always the first aspect out on my poor Earthborn.
5. The life spiral is weird I have to admit. The Earthborn Dire Troll has 10 damage boxes in his Mind. 4 boxes in the 1 and 4 boxes in the two and then there are two shared boxes. Now when the beast takes damage to the 1. I mark all 4 boxes and the two shared boxes then move the two because I feel it is easier to keep track of. I hope this helps a little.
6. This one is tough to answer. Yes and no. If you run him hot and have him maxed on fury and you pass your threshold check, that fury stays on him you can't take it off. So if you need to transfer to him during your next opponents turn you can't, but if he would have frenzied you could have taken off that fury and then transferred. If that makes sense at all. Although I have never come across an instance where I thought "Hmmm I think it will be a good idea to frenzy this turn."

[Gosford]

Thanks for the quick replies! This helps a lot!

A couple more questions!

Snacking. It says when I box a model I can heal D3 hitpoints. Can I only box grunts or any base size smaller than me? Lorewise, trolls have iron stomachs so I didn't know if I could snack on light jacks or not. /shrug

If I leave one fury on my DTM and pass my threshold, do I keep that fury?

[RayofPaintStudios]

I think snacking is living models, no? Basically, everything you read will tell you what you're allowed to do. If it says "when this model boxes a living model," then anything with organs will make a tasty treat. So doesn't have the Undead or Construct advantage should be fair game. Lore-wise, you could argue that while he could digest a warjack, he's not going to get any nutrition from it.

And you leave Fury on beasts who pass their threshold checks. Likewise, if they fail then it falls off.

[Tyras]

Living models only, except for the slag troll which snacks on constructs instead.

[rham7649]

Yes you can only snack on living models and it's any living model regardless of base size I'm quite certain. Oh I just killed your whole unit of praetorians, let me heal myself back to almost full health hahaha

[Gosford]

Living models only, except for the slag troll which snacks on constructs instead.

Okay, that's what I might have been thinking of. I knew I read something in store about snacking non-living models. Thanks! My trollbloods hardcover copy should be here in a couple days so that should help with some of these silly questions :P

Yes you can only snack on living models and it's any living model regardless of base size I'm quite certain. Oh I just killed your whole unit of praetorians, let me heal myself back to almost full health hahaha

Sounds awesome (and delicious!)

[rham7649]

I have been playing for a little over a year now and I still learn new rules everyday, well how to use them correctly anyway. I spend a lot of time in the rules forums just searching for stuff. Always remember if you don't want to ask the question right away, the search tool is your friend in the rules forum. It has helped me a lot anyway. Also everyone in the Trolls forum are all glad to help. Most of the time it sparks banter and arguing but well that's what happens in the troll forum and it can be quite entertaining as well.