Friday, April 12, 2013

The Trials of the Mountain King, part 1: Flanks, Distraction, and Attrition

I'm still torn on what to call my new focus on pDoomshaper and Gunnbjorn -- Doombjorn is winning, but Gunnshaper isn't quite out of the running. Gunndoom, Doomgunn and Bjornshaper just sound silly and were knocked out after the first round. Shoot'n'Scoot would be more appropriate with eDoomshaper and Gunny, Gunns&Doom sounds like the title to a bad '80s cop drama.... well, needless to say the nicknames are a bit endless. I'll just declare Doombjorn the winner and move on.

MOUNTAIN KING!

Just look at this majestic bastard!


(I didn't paint this one)


Gander at that devilishly handsome grin!


The gorgeous modeling!


The massive scale!


He is terrifying to behold!


Awe inspiring to comprehend!


So, his rules suck. Lets just get that out of the way right now - the model is fantastic, the fluff is amazing, and the rules... well, the rules for this guy came straight from the crapper of a poorly sanitized truck stop bathroom on burrito night. In Nebraska.

'But Caleb', you say, 'it can't really be that bad'. No no, my poor innocent friend, let me assure you - I've spent 8 solid hours driving across Nebraska (twice, in the same week, alone, in Summer, and on my birthday no less), and let me tell you - I do not use that analogy lightly. Words cannot properly describe the massive let down this majestic specimen of troll-hood brings for his rules. This magnificent embodiment of all that is Dire and Troll-y brings a set of abilities so counter to his awesomeness that the closest analogy would be if the Statue of Liberty ceased to represent liberty and instead came to symbolized smelly toenail fungus.

However, screw that. This guy is $125 of awesome modely goodness, and I'll be damned if I'm going to let him languish on the shelf next to that poorly-thought-out unit of Assault Kommandos (stupid impulse buy...). Much like the humble Dire Troll Blitzer and oft' disparaged Trollkin Scattergunners, the Mountain King can be made to work just as well as any other troll model - all it takes is a bit of thought, some trial and error, and finding him the right niche.

Luckily, I just started using 2 warlocks that can get more out of him than the bulk of Trollkin warlocks. First, however, let's break down the Mountain King's mojo and see what we have to work with.

The Breakdown:

Stats - STR 15, ARM 19, and SPD 5 are the high points here - the strength is about at a level to make him a deft hand (or double hand. Heh, puns...) at throws and STR based power attacks; ARM 19 is better than 18 (the normal troll staple) and can be easily boosted to an annoyance-worthy 21; and decent speed means he'll be able to keep up with the rest of your army just fine.

Fury 5 is nice as well (I'm sure not taking it for granted), and a Threshold of 6 just takes the uncertainty away from a potential frenzy (come on, the thing spawns whelps like dandruff - if he's even taking a threshold check, you're doing something wrong or you're facing Mohsar -- and shame on you for not planning ahead). DEF 9 is DEF 9 - not gonna win any awards, but what do you expect from a troll the size of an actual barn?

That's where it starts going downhill fast -- MAT 5/RAT 5 truly is the Mountain King's major stumbling block; his Achilles heel, his tragic flaw, the Moriarty to his Holmes, the worm in his otherwise golden apple, etc, etc. For all his potentially ludicrous damage output, he's going to first have to actually hit something. For something this big that costs a whopping 20pts, there really is no reasonable excuse for anything below MAT 6 - Privateer Press screwed the pooch. Royally. But, like a midlife crisis and a sports car, this is something we can compensate for.

Abilities - he's no Mammoth (see previous chatter, aka Mammoth-envy), but he did at least get some toys from the toy box before the other Gargantua ran off with them.
 - Kill Shot: pretty straightforward - kill/snack on something in melee, get a free ranged attack. This is a nice ability that frees him up to focus on melee every turn, as he'll get the 10" spray fairly easy regardless. Plus, once you get stuck in, he can get an aiming bonus against models not in melee with him if he stays put.
 - Snacking: this and Sweep can be a pretty nasty combo - box a living model, heal d3 damage, deny souls/corpse tokens, repeat. This again runs into the issue of having to actually hit the enemy model, but whatever.
 - Whelp Shedding: ever feel like you have too many whelps? Me neither, and this guy brings them to the table in droves. Trying to nickel-and-dime him to death (say, with Praetorian Swordsmen) now becomes a horrendously bad idea, as it will quickly flood the table around him with more bits of troll than a stabscotch tournament at a Pygmy beer festival. This is the Mountain King's signature ability, and will force the enemy to throw this biggest, baddest thing (or things) they can at him to kill him in one turn rather than cry like babies as he heals halfway up to full from a half dozen little snacks.

Attacks - Here's where they let out most/all of the stops. The MK's damage output is truly inspired, and given the gruesome level of attacks he can put out (spray, sweep, 5 fury, etc), pretty damn dangerous.
 - Big Meaty Fists: POW 19 is amazing. POW 19 open fists are even better, but pretty much all the gargantuas and colossals have open fists so meh. This is lessened quite a bit when you consider that Mulg has the same P&S already, can make almost as many straight attacks with it, and costs 8 pts less, but whatever. What Mulg doesn't have is....
 - Deathly Roar: Spray 10 and POW 16. This thing is bonkers, and a good chunk of the Mountain King's effectiveness is tied up in it. Barring bad rolls, Kill Shot means there's no reason this shouldn't be used every turn once the big lug is engaged.

Animus - Amuck is... well, it is. At first glance, it seems pretty cool - it'll make the big guy pretty deadly with sweep attacks, the Axer even more deadly with his Thresher, and give Troll Heavies some serious threat on tramples, as in all cases you're effectively boosting all the attack rolls with 1 fury. The drawbacks become apparent when you realize what the Mountain King can't do with it -- namely, use sweep on a charge or trample effectively itself.

The animus isn't great, but at least it has it's uses (limited though they may be) and it's downsides -- the most noteworthy of which is that you don't take a 20pt beast as a support model. Beyond that it's a very lackluster animus better served on something like a Circle light beast--- oh, wait.


The Lists

Enough pointless brain smacking, lets get down to the lists. pDoomshaper and Gunnbjorn are two of the best warlocks in Trollbloods (barring pMadrak and eDoomshaper) for getting the most out of the Mountain King, and I'll elaborate as I go.

pDoomshaper 50pts
Hoarluk Doomshaper (*7pts)
* Pyre Troll (5pts)
* Earthborn Dire Troll (10pts)
* Mountain King (20pts)
* Trollkin Runebearer (2pts)
Kriel Warriors (Leader and 9 Grunts) (6pts)
* 2 Kriel Warrior Caber Thrower (2pts)
* Kriel Warrior Standard Bearer & Piper (2pts)
Krielstone Bearer and 5 Stone Scribes (4pts)
* Krielstone Stone Scribe Elder (1pts)
Janissa Stonetide (3pts)
Stone Scribe Chronicler (2pts)

What pDoomy Brings: Fortune, Purification, Banishing Ward, Rampager  -- the first handily helps solve the MAT/RAT 5 issue; the second and third make certain he won't be slowed down by enemy spells; and the the fourth provides both a handy way to position enemy models to his advantage and a rather interesting way of getting rid of the Bane of all Gargantua, Gorman de Wolfe.

This list is pretty straightforward - the EBDT's animus, combined with Janissa's wall and the KSB, boosts the Mountain King up to ARM 23. Combined with a strategic placement of the wall and the Mountain King's generic gargantuan-style immobility, this provides one hell of an anchor to a flank, and allows the Kriel Warriors, Cabers, and Earthborn to swing around the other flank while the squishies (Janissa, KSBs, pDoomy, and Runebearer) hid behind the utterly massive immovable base and wall. The Pyre is there to boost the EBDT's damage, provide Immunity: Fire against those sneaky Legion games, and toss out an AoE to light things on fire (you know, as one does). Banishing Ward on the Kriel Warriors will keep them going through just about anything, though I see the lack of pathfinder to be a bit of an issue for them. We'll see how big of one.

Gunnbjorn 50pts
Captain Gunnbjorn (*5pts)
* Troll Impaler (5pts)
* Dire Troll Bomber (10pts)
* Mountain King (20pts)
* Ršk (11pts)
Krielstone Bearer and 3 Stone Scribes (3pts)
* Krielstone Stone Scribe Elder (1pts)
Pyg Bushwackers (Leader and 5 Grunts) (5pts)

What Gunnbjorn Brings: Guided Fire. Yup, that's it, just a single spell. However, that spell makes the POW 16 Spray 10 downright stupidly deadly.

Combine Guided Fire with, say, Rok's animus (Primal) and the Mountain King becomes the murderous mountain of death and destruction we always knew he should have been to begin with. Gunny and the rest are basically just there to watch, chow on whelp popcorn, and toss out ranged attacks to clear the way while the Mountain King and Rok kill, maim, destroy, snack, and spray their way across the table. Pop Gunny's feat at the end, and you're forcing the enemy to deal with the two big nasty beasts in their midst before they can even think of taking out the ranged backup sitting behind cover, a wall, and immunity to blasts and laughing like fools.

The downside of this tactic is that the MK will Frenzy next turn (if he lives through the retaliation), but that's less important than you think. If the enemy ignores him for a turn and tries to kill the rest, he'll be left around to beat the shenanigans out of them, and if they instead try and bring him down first, it lets the ranged element get another turn or more of highly damaging bombs, spears, and explosive shells in. That's right - the huge, terrifying, frenzied, foaming-at-the-mouth mountain monster is the distraction.

The bulk of this list was inspired by a list over at Trollblood Scrum, and while Janissa and a runebearer would be a nice addition, I'm more interested in seeing how Bushwacker backup helps out.


Conclusion:
So, there you have it - two lists that use the Mountain King. They don't look much like any other 50pt trollblood list, and for good reason: a 20pt model leave a pretty big footprint (hehe, puns) no matter which way you throw it. I'll be trying them out in the next few weeks to get a good feel for 'em. Battle Reports to follow!

No comments:

Post a Comment