Fast Trolls

[PG_Valkine]

The very first faction I really invested into playing in this game was Trolls but sadly it has been some time since I've returned to my Blue roots and I'd like to fix that. Over this time, though, I've found I don't like playing slow armies and so I want to cast aside some of the classic slower troll lists in favor of playing a blitzkrieg of trolls. Sadly I've barely played my trolls since Mk I so I could use some advise from players with more practice on how to build a decent and fast troll list. Models I can see being helpful for this:

Jarl: has Quicken, Tactical Supremacy, and Weald Secrets, he's basically the biggest speed booster we've got.

Grissel: has Hoof It, I prefer Jarl's quicken as it allows you to charge but still she makes models move a lot farther.

Grissel2: her feat gives Hyper Aggressive which may enable some models to move further. More realistically casting Dash will speed up your army.

Borka: His feat gives +2" on the charge/slam/trample.

Doomy2: Feat + Rush + Earthborn = goes really far.

Grim: can give out pathfinder which can help with mobility.

For fast units I'm primarily looking at Fennblades, Long Riders, and Scouts as the best candidates. The Fennblades UA seems like a must for making the unit even faster. For beasts the Earthborn and the Axer are the obvious choices for speeding up my battlegroup. I also really want to give the Battle Engine a go, it's an awesome looking model and is quite fast which fits in with what I'm looking for.

So those are my thoughts so far, what advise/opinions do you guys have on building a fast Trollbloods list? I know it's possible, I'm just not sure on exactly how to build the list I want. My rough plan is to send a wave of fennblades crashing into my opponents front lines by Turn 2 and then while he's stuck clearing them out the rest of my army comes in as wave 2 with long riders possibly serving as either wave 1 or wave 2 depending on the opponent.

[Jota]

Looks to me that you have narrowed it down good. Jarl is a blast to play, and Quicken on fennblades that mini-feat is a beautiful sight. I once boosted that by putting the EBDT:s animus on two of them for 2" extra speed My opponent was a bit chocked and it really messed up his plans.

I do want to throw in eMadrak here. The forum consensus seems to be that he is purely a infantry lock but I have had fun with him going beast heavy using warpath to good effect. EDBT+Axer+Warpath+charge = 15,5" effective threat range. Sure you need rough terrain, but thats always the case with the EDBT. Some say that eMadraks ctrl is to small but he can keep up if he is moved before the EDBT missile. And he can survive being up in the thick of it. And he offers pathfinder and free charges/tramples as well. Just dont forget to bring the Whelps .

[PG_machine007]

Its a common misconception that Trolls are "slow". This was more so true back in MKI when alot of our abilities required us to either brick up, or move and actually use an action to do something (KSB, chronicler, fell caller, etc.). You should know well, since you played them back then. Nowadays, Trolls are surprsingly fast as almost every single caster that we have has an abillity to augment our speed, as you have in your list of speed augments. In fact let me add a few,

EMadrak: Warpath and kililng ground (For pathfinder)
EBDT: His animus can give the bonus movement to any model you'd like, so far as you meet the conditions.
Grim: His shot can boost the range of a beast charge.
Lanyssa (Minion): Hunter's Mark can boost the charge range once again
Axer: +2" to any beast.


A fast list really depends. Fennblades are an easy choice in this, but if you reallly look at it, the only SPD 5 units we have are kriels (Which can be buffed with swift foot to get up the field, making them comparable to a SPD 6 run, or move 7" charge), sluggers (Which I wouldn't suggest), the KSB (Which in a fast list, you wouldn't have), and Champions.

Depending on your point level depends on what you can build. I personally like Jarl with both Fennblades and Longriders at 50. They are surprisingly synergetic as if you charge fennblades first, you don't have to worry about your cav's impact attacks. Fennblades go insanely fast with Jarl, and No one can match our Cav with Quicken in terms of speed.

Personally, I have run scouts plenty of times, but I don't see them as a fast unit, just a great utility unit with good flexabillity.

[Bahamut]

Mostly related question as I too am now returning to Trolls, having not played them since Mk1, and it goes to the question about speed/threat range.

Can we still throw stuff about that can't be knocked down - I'm thinking sure foot pMadrak or a stumbling drunk Borka - and have said model activate ok after the throw? Apologies for slight threadjack

[PG_Valkine]

Can we still throw stuff about that can't be knocked down - I'm thinking sure foot pMadrak or a stumbling drunk Borka - and have said model activate ok after the throw? Apologies for slight threadjack

Nope, only gators get to pull off that trick now (they have an animus that lets models stand up). If you get thrown and you can't be knocked down you still have to sacrifice your movement or activation if you try and activate in the same round as your thrown (I hope that makes sense...). It's sad that there's no more Borka Bomb but overall it's probably a more balanced system.

[Ogrob]

Can we still throw stuff about that can't be knocked down - I'm thinking sure foot pMadrak or a stumbling drunk Borka - and have said model activate ok after the throw? Apologies for slight threadjack

Fraid not. Throws and slams picked up an extra rule saying that models immune to knockdown that are thrown/slammed must forfeit movement or action anyway. If you land where you want, then yes, you could still attack, but it's a limited use tactic. I've never had the opportunity to do it.

[Bahamut]

Fair 'nuff. Might still open up some vectors for a surprise thrown Rathrok from pMadrak every now and then.

Useful info to have in my head though. Thanks folks.