New to Trolls & Hordes - Christmas Bundle trolls.

[Garner]

Not very experienced Khador player moving onto a new project with a Troll-bloods army. i plan to get most of the troll models as i enjoy painting, bought the Christmas bundle for my trolls first purchase and now looking for guidance, list criticism, tactics, pointers anything.

35 point list
Chief Madrak Ironhide -5
Troll Axer 6
Troll Impaler 5
Troll Impaler 5
Dire Troll Mauler 9
Krielstone Bearer and 3 Stone Scribes 3
Trollkin Fennblades (Leader and 9 Grunts) 8
Fell Caller Hero3
Troll Whelps

[Geekly]

That's almost exactly the order that I started with so I'd have to agree with your choices! I haven't played with my guys yet, so don't have much to offer in the way of tactics.

[bakaryu]

First up Madrak Ironhide is 6WP not 5 your list still adds up so I will assume thats a typo.

Secondly Madrak isn't good at running lots of warbeasts, so I would highly recommend dropping the 2nd Impaler. This gives you 5 more points to play with, which I would use to add a Stone Scribe Elder attachment to your Krielstone, a Runebearer warlock attachment and the Fennblade Officer and Drummer attachment.

This allows you to fill up your Krielstone to full on the first turn while using the Runebearer's mini feat to cast Surefoot (usually on Madrak himself), while giving your Fennblades a bigger charge range, free pathfinder (leaving your Fell Caller free to boost their MAT), Terror and Fearless for that one important round.

[physxnut]

Its a pretty solid list Im just wondering if you wouldnt bennefit more from a chronicler than you would a runebearer. Whleps are already in the list and should provide you with more than enough furry management.

[Garner]

I've thought of two questions I'd like to ask about my list. thinking about when I'd like to start trying new warlocks and how to expand.

1) Why would i take PMadrak over EMadrak? (probs biggest question, im not sure about the real differences between these guys play-styles)

2) What is another Warlock that will work well with this list without changing too much, except for maby dropping Impalers for another heavy or a few attachements.

i do plan to get almost every model in the troll-blood range, which is why I'd consider any model and every warlock. even if they are no good on the tabletop i like painting as much as playing.

[nosrek]

While the Christmas bundle doesn't give you a very good 35 pt list, it does give you a fantastic start in trollbloods.

You have everything you need to expand your collection into whatever direction suites your play style.

You can pick up Mulg, Janissa, Runebearer, and the ksb UA and go beast brick.

pMadrak

Mulg
Mauler
Axer
Runebearer

Janissa
Fell Caller Hero
4 Ksb + UA
Whelps

Picking up eMadrak and some key pieces allows you to run a powerful infantry swarm.

eMadrak

2 Impalers
Runebearer

4 Ksb+UA
10 Fennblades + UA
10 Burrowers
Fell Caller Hero
Stone Scribe Chronicler
Champion Hero


I mainly wanted to give you some hard lists to show you how easily you can expand into the two extremes of trollblood playstyle.

I agree with Baka, your best bet to get the ball rolling and play some games would be adding the fenn UA, a Runebearer, and a ksb UA. As you can see from my lists above those three purchases will serve you well.

[bakaryu]

The primary differences between pMadrak and eMadrak is playstyle, neither of them really works well with a lot of beasts.

What you will get with pMadrak is a devastating feat (especially vs infantry swarms), an immensely accurate army in melee combat thanks to Carnage and one of the best defensive upkeeps in the game.

What you will get with eMadrak is a feat that makes alpha striking easy (can run a unit into melee and then pop feat for threshing fun), one of the most survivable casters in the game (so long as you keep expendable infantry around him) and a devastating offensive buff upkeep spell in the form of blood fury. eMadrak can easily cut a path through 6, 7 or even more models by himself if there are enough enemies around to feed Tide of Death and many warcasters and warlocks fall to his assassination run (MAT10 POW18 weapon master with War Cry, Rage and Blood Fury will end just about anything).

Two other warlocks that can easily take a pMadrak infantry list and do well with it are Borka and pGrissel.

Borka cannot take the Runebearer as the Keg Carrier also counts as an attachment, but what he gives you is excellent defensive buffs combined with a powerful alpha striking feat and another insanely survivable warlock who most of the time will be immune to stationary and knockdown and can easily be DEF17 ARM21 in melee or practically immune to non magical shooting.

Grissel herself is pretty rubbish, she will hardly ever be the model that wins you the game, what she does for the rest of your army though is the reason you take her. She can take our units and make them insanely fast, Fennblades under Hoof It can effectively cover 18" of ground (17" if they charge under her mini feat). She is our best scenario warlock by a pretty significant margin, being able to prevent enemy models/units from running, charging or casting spells in her control area on her feat turn. She is one of our few warlocks who I will take the full Champion deathstar every time, Hoof It helps them get back into formation to benefit from Defensive Line and three attacks each with Overtake from Skaldi makes them great at mowing through infantry and jacks alike. I have sent 2 Champions with Rage and Heroic Ballad on them into a full health Spriggan and scrapped it with an attack to spare.

One thing both warlocks have in common which pMadrak does not is plenty of Fury each turn to throw around animi so that your army can be buffed to unholy levels of accuracy and power. Most turns Borka will cast Iron Flesh either on himself or your front line unit (DEF17 Fennblades vs charges will put off most attackers), leaving him with 5 more fury to play with. Grissel's only upkeep is situational and I only ever cast it on Mulg if I take him, and without an arcnode to help her cast Calamity or Rift that leaves her 6 fury a turn to spend on animi buffs.