Damiano and the Trollpit

[Buster]

I've been playing around with an idea of buffing Boomhowlers boys to be more than just a tarpit for my forces. Pretty much it all comes down to centering the list on the trolls instead of my battle group. Here's the list from last night,

Damiano
*Rocinante

Wrong Eye
*Snapjaw
*Bull Snapper

Boomhowlers (full unit)
Rhupert
Ragman
eEiryss
Aiyana & Holt

The plan was to have Rocinante up in the center with Sure Foot on him. Boomhowlers boys crowd around the big guy to benefit from the DEF bubble and no knockdown, a no brainer I know. Death March goes on the trolls to bump that MAT and give them some teeth after taking a lose or two. Rhupert hangs around the back field piping +1 DEF and Terror for the trolls and of course uses the other two songs as needed. Ragman hangs out with Rhupert until the front line gets engaged then gets closer to the action to hand out Dark Shroud for sharper teeth.

This gives me a front line with a heavy using defensive strike and 4+ tough DEF 15 trolls hitting back at effective POW 14 using CMA as needed. It's not without its faults but last night it stood up to a charge of Banes & UA with Tartar support, so not to shabby.

eEiryss is there for the upkeep hate and other silliness. A trick some one here has talked about was to use Rage Howler from Boomie and have Eiryss close enough to an enemy jack. This puts the jack at -2 MAT and not able to receive focus to boost or make additional attacks. Last night this made Erebus a very very sad helljack. Only problem here is not playing to aggressive with her and waiting for the right opportunity.

Aiyana & Holt didn't contribute to the game as much as I thought they would. In all honesty they were only included to give the trolls magic weapons if the need arose, which it didn't. Over all I'm considering switching them out for Blyth and Bull to provide some RFP effects and help deal with anything with tough (like, *cough* Banes *cough*). I know most people consider them to be to high in points for what they do but there's no point in not trying them out.

Wrong Eye and his battle group didn't contribute much to the game either. This was mostly my fault by over extending Snapjaw and watching him get eaten by a Bane charge. The original idea was to just use the Snapper as an animus battery for Rocinante and Snapjaw. That part of the plan worked pretty well but the points spent here could have gone towards something more useful to the list. One consideration I'm thinking is to take Thor with a pair of Blaster bunnies to help counter stealth targets and give the list a little more ranged threat. That will still leave four points to play around with though and while there are quite a few options I'm not entirely sure where to spend those points.

Anyways, I'm open to thoughts and plan on updating this from time to time. Thanks for the read

[Heavygear]

If your not getting much mileage out of WE+SJ, have you considered swapping them for Steelhead Cav? You are not taking advantage of the coin ability without steelhead and the cavalry make good use of both Money Shot and Battle Manuevers. I would swap them out for a full unit and then add another solo of choice.


I am partial to Aiyana and Holt. Maybe instead of focusing on just supporting Boomhowler with them you should look at using them to snipe solos, assasination, etc. Aiyana is there to help your other units , don't let Holt just sit and watch.

If you do go with Thor and the Blasters I would suggest Kayazy Eliminators to use up your four other points.

[Alphadork]

My Damiano "Trollpit" list is a little different from yours

Damiano (+6) Highborn Contract
Gallant - 9 (I prefer him to Roci as my Surefoot target because he hits DEF 15, which is nasty on a heavy)
Mule - 8 (I like having access to a ranged blast)

Max Boomhowlers -9 (can't make a trollpit list without them)
Min SH Rifleman - 5 (with Moneyshot and CRA they can hurt things)
Rhupert - 2 (one of the best support solos in the game)
Harlan Versh -2 (feeds focus to Gallant and adds more magic attacks)
A&H -4 (as Heavygear mentioned, Aiyanna is great, but even without her Holt is a capable ranged support piece)
Sylys - 2 (Damiano has 3 great upkeeps . . . )

Gallant isn't essential, if I ran the above with Roci I'd swap Versh out for Gorman.

Not suggesting my list is better, just giving you a different take on "The Trollpit"