Question about trolls' playstyle, from a non-troll player

[Arractur]

As some of you know already, I am playing Menoth. Its just to know.

I am really fascinated by trollbloods - for me, fluff-wise and look-wise they are the best Hordes faction (along with farrow. hruuuurgh! ^^) If everything be ok, I am going to start a Trollblood army in October(for my birthday).

However.

I've been carefully observing TB games in my meta - pDoomshaper, eDoomshaper and Borka. Borka infantry heavy, Doomies more beasty. But all games(they was against different opponents - cryx, cygnare, scorne, circle, khador, almost everyone) shared the same sad trait - trollbloods showed themselvesas as an extremely passive army(though a winning one, can't take it from them. They spent tremendous amount of time to fling and juggle buffs and animi and then do almost nothing - a bit of advance, occasionally charge... I expected that such army must be insanely tough and hard to kill(no, I dont mean kind of tough), but they die as easy as anyone, sometimes even easier it seemed.

The only casters I am going to play are Gunnbjorn, Calandra and Jarl, maybe also Grim Angus. Absolutely don't like any others, no matter how strong they are. Also going to try to make them as beast-heavy as possible - I am absolutely not a fan of units, 1 or 2 is a maximum. Playsytle-wise I prefer attrition - love to exterminate enemy army. So can you tell me please, is this passiveness pelicular to all trolls? Or it's only those particular casters or even only that person's playstyle? Cos It was clearly uninspiring and boring way to play for me.

Thank you!

[Flindo]

Trolls can be passive or agressive, it all depends on the player.

[Goris]

Trolls can be passive or agressive, it all depends on the player.

Being a passive Brick player is both deceptive and misleading. The strengths of the faction lie obviously in it's synergy and it's alpha strike potential. We can hit the lines just as fast as some of the best in the game right now. We are not the take it on the chin faction anymore and passive play will only net you losses. This game favors the aggressor. Play the in your face game like trolls are known for, but get there first and bring your army in waves. The nuances of play will come but if you play passively you will not have a good experience.

[hooligantuesday]

If your local eDoomshaper player is playing passive then he's doing it wrong. The core of an eDoomie beast brick is that you out can get some obscene threat ranges out of your beasts and get a crippling alpha-strike off on just about any list in the game.

[EvilFuzzyDoom]

Sounds to me like you're looking for a pMadrak.
He bricks-up pretty good and does deceptively well running beast-heavy.

That said, while our beasts are great our units do a lot of the heavy lifting. I can't speak from experience with any of the casters you're looking at except Grim, but my impression is that Jarl in particular likes his Fennblades.

Also listen to Goris. Feller knows his stuff. I've been playing Trolls overly passive and had my butt handed to me repeatedly. It's only been when I really started picking my spots and really going for the alpha strike that I've started winning games. That may be because I play against Cryx most frequently, though. Playing axe-to-mouth is also much more fun to execute; there's nothing more depressing than watching your opponent systematically pick apart your army while your big threats go for the wind-up. Hordes are front-heavy in terms of effectiveness and the sooner we win, the easier.

Remember that there are only two steps to any Trollbloods battle plan:

1. Apply buffs.
2. Wreck face.

[The Happy Anarchist]

I dunno. I didn't have much luck popping eDoomy's feat for the alpha as usually there was enough infantry in front that I was trading infantry for heavies. I found much more success bricking up and saving the feat for a trample/end run round to the caster.

That said, yes the beast brick is a very passive list - if by passive you mean the doom of inevitability. You basically pose them a question and if they can't answer it (which a shockingly large number of lists can't if properly supported by screening infantry or anti-flanking) then you win.

If that is not your play style than you have a decent set of other options in the lists you chose. Also consider eMadrak - pretty much balls out aggression all day every day, at least with most lists that take him.

[Lucius]

Passive or aggressive is more how you want to play them... I wouldn't take the play style of people who are constantly losing to be a good style of play.

I play agressive and it seems to work.

Your demands are rather high.. You want to play x casters with x blah blah.. You can play any lock with anything you want but to be effective you need to play a lock to his/her strengths (just like any other caster.)

If you want to play beast heavy then eDoomie is your man and he is very aggressive.. Just watch what he does with rók and goad...

Next question would be what size games are you playing? At 35pts I hardly ever have more than 1 unit.

[PG_Celedor]

After reading your whole post, I'd say give Gunny a shot.

Throw in the Earthborn Dire Troll, Janissa (for Rock Wall + EC), and the Kriel Stone +UA as your one unit. This way you have two rock walls for opponents to attack over and you can get some key models to +4ARM, makes for the resilience through synergy I think you might be looking for.

Consider Rok, since he has been unofficially dubbed his character beast and for good reasons. I love the Bomber and Slag for him, ROF2 makes Guided Fire a lot more potent.

Whelps go a long way towards increasing the regenerative capabilities of your beasts and helping to manage fury. Runebearer is a great solo for Gunny too.

If you don't mind adding one more small unit, SoB are an elite combat force also capable of displaying some resiliency. Or maybe Runeshapers, depending on how your points work out.

Have fuuun!

[Kyuss]

Think of them as a naturally passive army, which the more aggressive you play them, the better it gets...

[DogFog]

After reading your whole post, I'd say give Gunny a shot.

Sounds like a very similar list to the one in this Dire Brackets game for Gunny (worth a read): http://www.trollbloodscrum.com/2012/...s-emadrak.html

[Da-Rock]

I will say that I think your assessment of how those Troll Warlocks and lists play is off, but to get to the point of the post:

Jarl -

Can run 3 Beasts well. You can go a few ways with Jarl, Mr. McNasty Mulg with Quicken is great! Max unit of Long Riders plus Horthol and Quicken is crazy fun and aggressive. Jarl is my favorite caster and I have yet to lose a League game with him. He does require a lot more thought and he likes terrain and coming at opponents side ways.

Gunnbjorn - one of my favorite models, but I dislike lining up my gunline and shooting.

Calandra - I haven't played her. If you can get past the look of her model she will be fun to play.

Grim Angus - Great Warlock and one you should look at as he can run a good mix of Beasts and infantry.

If I were to narrow down my opinion I would say you should look at =

1. Jarl Skuld
2. Grim Angus

[zor]

Grim and Jarl are a great pair. You can build their lists with enough difference that you can successfully use those two as your pair for 2 list steamrollers without a hitch.
The best third list for them is some type of bricky army, either beast or heavy infantry. Thinking here like a Borka/Madrak champ brick, e/pDoomy beast brick/runeshaper brick...a Calandra Brick is a potential...

[Arractur]

Thank you very much people! You gave me good food for thoughts. I think I will stick to Bjorn, Jarl and Grim.

Calandra - I haven't played her. If you can get past the look of her model she will be fun to play

I actually wanted to play her BECAUSE of her model!

[Spume]

I actually wanted to play her BECAUSE of her model!

I agree, I love her model.

[Lucius]

I agree, I love her model.

+1 !!!!!