Shooting: Gunnbjorn vs eGrim.
Gunnbjorn is intensely geared towards shooting: his feat and spells make him a great warlock to sit back and annoy the enemy with disposable tarpits while picking them apart with shooting. I don't have much experience with eGrim, but everything he's got (be it spells, feat, or Muggs/Krump's weapons) points towards a solid gunline setup with some later game melee to mop things up. They both work well with Bushwackers (probably my favorite faction unit).
I'll start with Gunnbjorn on shooting - mainly because I actually have the model, and won't need to buy it. With my new acquisition of Kriel Warriors, it also gives me a better unit than Fennblades to jam with (Fenns hit harder from farther, but Kriel warriors will stick around longer, which is what I want with Gunny).
Gunnbjorn is intensely geared towards shooting: his feat and spells make him a great warlock to sit back and annoy the enemy with disposable tarpits while picking them apart with shooting. I don't have much experience with eGrim, but everything he's got (be it spells, feat, or Muggs/Krump's weapons) points towards a solid gunline setup with some later game melee to mop things up. They both work well with Bushwackers (probably my favorite faction unit).
I'll start with Gunnbjorn on shooting - mainly because I actually have the model, and won't need to buy it. With my new acquisition of Kriel Warriors, it also gives me a better unit than Fennblades to jam with (Fenns hit harder from farther, but Kriel warriors will stick around longer, which is what I want with Gunny).
Brawling: pDoomshaper vs pGrissel
They will both need an aggressive playstyle with their army, though they are both back-/mid-field warlocks themselves. Grissel likes to get the alpha-strike to take advantage of her feat, fell calls, and calamity; while pDoomshaper will want to jam the enemy and then mess with opponents through hard-countering spells and focus/fury, all while messing with the opponent's beasts and upkeeps with his spells.
Picking a brawler is a bit more difficult: on the one hand, pGrissel works with a lot of infantry, and I've got 4 units (Kriel Warriors, Fennblades, Scattergunners, and Champions) that will mesh well to fantastically with her, as will the Warders when they come out. The downside is that her feat is a large part of what makes her good, the focus on infantry means I'll be taking fewer beasts, and I'll need to try very hard not to fall into the "too-many-models" trap. pDoomshaper, on the other hand, needs a much more varied army: he likes him his beasts (Goad, Fury 7), but doesn't neglect infantry (Banishing Ward and Fortune), and his feat and spells mess with the enemy (thus benefiting them both -- maybe beasts a bit more). The main downside is that he's squishy as all hell, doesn't synergize that well with himself (great upkeep spells and ability + spell that kills all upkeeps = counter intuitive), and his feat can be hit-or-miss against infantry based or long range shooting armies, or against certain warcasters/warlocks.
I'm going to go with pDoomshaper because he'll work well with Scattergunners (yay), he seems a better matchup with Gunnbjorn, and they can both run the Mountain King (who I need to get more use out of anyway).
Lists:
Now we get to the meat of it - what lists to start out with? If you haven't figured it out already, I like making a standard list to play with each specific warlock, playtest/modify it into effectiveness, and then tweak it as little as possible until I'm more used to the warlock's playstyle. For the moment, I'll make 2 lists for each Warlock - a 35pt and a 50pt.
35pt Gunnbjorn List
Captain Gunnbjorn (*5pts)
* Slag Troll (6pts)
* Troll Impaler (5pts)
* Dire Troll Bomber (10pts)
* Trollkin Runebearer (2pts)
Kriel Warriors (Leader and 9 Grunts) (6pts)
* 2 Kriel Warrior Caber Thrower (2pts)
* Kriel Warrior Standard Bearer & Piper (2pts)
Pyg Bushwackers (Leader and 5 Grunts) (5pts)
Stone Scribe Chronicler (2pts)
They will both need an aggressive playstyle with their army, though they are both back-/mid-field warlocks themselves. Grissel likes to get the alpha-strike to take advantage of her feat, fell calls, and calamity; while pDoomshaper will want to jam the enemy and then mess with opponents through hard-countering spells and focus/fury, all while messing with the opponent's beasts and upkeeps with his spells.
Picking a brawler is a bit more difficult: on the one hand, pGrissel works with a lot of infantry, and I've got 4 units (Kriel Warriors, Fennblades, Scattergunners, and Champions) that will mesh well to fantastically with her, as will the Warders when they come out. The downside is that her feat is a large part of what makes her good, the focus on infantry means I'll be taking fewer beasts, and I'll need to try very hard not to fall into the "too-many-models" trap. pDoomshaper, on the other hand, needs a much more varied army: he likes him his beasts (Goad, Fury 7), but doesn't neglect infantry (Banishing Ward and Fortune), and his feat and spells mess with the enemy (thus benefiting them both -- maybe beasts a bit more). The main downside is that he's squishy as all hell, doesn't synergize that well with himself (great upkeep spells and ability + spell that kills all upkeeps = counter intuitive), and his feat can be hit-or-miss against infantry based or long range shooting armies, or against certain warcasters/warlocks.
I'm going to go with pDoomshaper because he'll work well with Scattergunners (yay), he seems a better matchup with Gunnbjorn, and they can both run the Mountain King (who I need to get more use out of anyway).
Lists:
Now we get to the meat of it - what lists to start out with? If you haven't figured it out already, I like making a standard list to play with each specific warlock, playtest/modify it into effectiveness, and then tweak it as little as possible until I'm more used to the warlock's playstyle. For the moment, I'll make 2 lists for each Warlock - a 35pt and a 50pt.
35pt Gunnbjorn List
Captain Gunnbjorn (*5pts)
* Slag Troll (6pts)
* Troll Impaler (5pts)
* Dire Troll Bomber (10pts)
* Trollkin Runebearer (2pts)
Kriel Warriors (Leader and 9 Grunts) (6pts)
* 2 Kriel Warrior Caber Thrower (2pts)
* Kriel Warrior Standard Bearer & Piper (2pts)
Pyg Bushwackers (Leader and 5 Grunts) (5pts)
Stone Scribe Chronicler (2pts)
The Kriel Warriors are there to jam like crazy and give the Bushwackers, beasts, and Gunny time and room to shoot anyone who gets through them. I chose an SSC over a fell caller to help them jam better rather than hit harder, and the Runebearer seems like a given with Gunny. Once the Sorcerer comes out, I'm thinking it might be good to drop the Slag to a Pyre to fit him in.
50pt Gunnbjorn List
Captain Gunnbjorn (*5pts)* Pyre Troll (5pts)
* Slag Troll (6pts)
* Troll Impaler (5pts)
* Dire Troll Bomber (10pts)
* Trollkin Runebearer (2pts)
Krielstone Bearer and 3 Stone Scribes (3pts)
* Krielstone Stone Scribe Elder (1pts)
Pyg Bushwackers (Leader and 9 Grunts) (8pts)
Trollkin Champions (Leader and 4 Grunts) (10pts)
* Skaldi Bonehammer (3pts)
Stone Scribe Chronicler (2pts)
At 50pts, I need more heavy hitters, so I'm tossing in Champions. They're a fairly independent unit that won't require much from Gunny, have a high enough ARM/hit boxes to pretty much ignore blasts (or make a good target for Bomb Shelter, the Bomber's animus), and can swing their way through most enemy units, especially with Skaldi's benefits. I'll try the list with Kriel Warriors as well in order to see which is the better option.
The Pyre is a bit of a connundrum for me -- I want another beast to benefit from Guided Fire, and the Pyre's animus and continuous-fire AoE are nice things to have vs Legion and infantry (respectively), however it's a bit overkill with the Slag (who benefits from Gunny's spells more with rof 2 and a valid target for Explosivo, and is murder vs warmachine and circle). Plus, for 5 points I could really gear up for slams with a 2nd Impaler or cover some holes in the list with Janissa and whelps. Trial and Error and a little time will tell with this one, but it wouldn't hurt to have some of our avid readers weigh in on this (hint hint, there's a comment section below...).
I'm also considering dropping the Chronicler for whelps. I have a feeling Gunny is going to need them. The KSB I'm keeping at a min unit, as Gunny has too little fury and too many good spells/upkeeps to be able to fully power them up anyway. The Bushwackers are going to be a regular fixture with him, as Snipe is just too good for me not to take them in every list.
35pt pDoomshaper
Hoarluk Doomshaper (*7pts)* Troll Axer (6pts)
* Dire Troll Mauler (9pts)
* Rök (11pts)
Krielstone Bearer and 5 Stone Scribes (4pts)
Trollkin Scattergunners (Leader and 9 Grunts) (8pts)
* Trollkin Scattergunner Officer & Drummer (2pts)
Stone Scribe Chronicler (2pts)
I love just about everything about Scattergunners - the models, the powerful spray attack damage, the awesome benefits and tactics the UA brings, virtually everything - except how they can't hit the broad side of a d@%& mammoth on a sunny day. What fixes this? Fortune. Fortune is AWESOME with Scattergunners! It lets them throw a freaking tsunami of dice across the table to make up for RAT (stinking) 5. They're also exactly what pDoomy wants in a melee unit - they utterly destroy light infantry spam.
The choice of Rök over Mulg is difficult; on the one hand, Mulg is amazingly deadly, and will kick the crap out of just about everything. However, his animus doesn't synergize well with pDoomshaper's feat and spell list, and he's a slowpoke (which ordinarily wouldn't matter, but I need a faster main beast here). Rök's animus, however, works well as a fury-management tool and gives a better chance to hit, which is what this list really needs. Berserk (with Goad!), assault, and a POW 14 spray will also make him particularly brutal against heavy infantry, which I see as being a problem for the list otherwise.
50pt pDoomshaper
Hoarluk Doomshaper (*7pts)
* Troll Axer (6pts)
* Dire Troll Mauler (9pts)
* Rök (11pts)
* Trollkin Runebearer (2pts)
Krielstone Bearer and 5 Stone Scribes (4pts)
* Krielstone Stone Scribe Elder (1pts)
Trollkin Champions (Leader and 2 Grunts) (6pts)
* Skaldi Bonehammer (3pts)
Trollkin Scattergunners (Leader and 9 Grunts) (8pts)
* Trollkin Scattergunner Officer & Drummer (2pts)
Janissa Stonetide (3pts)
Stone Scribe Chronicler (2pts)
The choice of Rök over Mulg is difficult; on the one hand, Mulg is amazingly deadly, and will kick the crap out of just about everything. However, his animus doesn't synergize well with pDoomshaper's feat and spell list, and he's a slowpoke (which ordinarily wouldn't matter, but I need a faster main beast here). Rök's animus, however, works well as a fury-management tool and gives a better chance to hit, which is what this list really needs. Berserk (with Goad!), assault, and a POW 14 spray will also make him particularly brutal against heavy infantry, which I see as being a problem for the list otherwise.
50pt pDoomshaper
Hoarluk Doomshaper (*7pts)
* Troll Axer (6pts)
* Dire Troll Mauler (9pts)
* Rök (11pts)
* Trollkin Runebearer (2pts)
Krielstone Bearer and 5 Stone Scribes (4pts)
* Krielstone Stone Scribe Elder (1pts)
Trollkin Champions (Leader and 2 Grunts) (6pts)
* Skaldi Bonehammer (3pts)
Trollkin Scattergunners (Leader and 9 Grunts) (8pts)
* Trollkin Scattergunner Officer & Drummer (2pts)
Janissa Stonetide (3pts)
Stone Scribe Chronicler (2pts)
The Runebearer and Janissa are there to help/protect Doomshaper, while the Champions + Skaldi just seem too good to pass up in this list, and make a great target for both Rage (Mauler's animus, +3 str) and Banishing Ward. The champs will also serve as a good second line to the Scattergunners, and I can throw them at heavy infantry, enemy light jacks/beasts, and anything the Scattergunners don't kill with a fair amount of confidence.
Once the Warders come out, I'm considering dropping the Champions for them. It will slow down the 2nd line a little, but it will give me an extra body, more armor, and free up a point for an upgrade somewhere. Plus, Warders look like they're able to brick up even better than Champions, letting me play the attrition game as well. The extra point might be well served upping the Mauler to an Earthborn, but it'll be a bit before I need to look into that.
So, here are my lists! I'll focus on pDoomy and Gunny for the time being, so I should have at least a couple of battle reports up after this weekend (if for no other reason than to forestall further skorne fanfic posts...). I'm also working on a post on using the Mountain King with Gunny and pDoomy - hey, I have the model, might as well get some use out of him...
Expect a battle report after this weekend, and a future post on the benefits/downsides and in-depth analysis of one of the greatest questions of our time -- Rök or Mulg?
So, here are my lists! I'll focus on pDoomy and Gunny for the time being, so I should have at least a couple of battle reports up after this weekend (if for no other reason than to forestall further skorne fanfic posts...). I'm also working on a post on using the Mountain King with Gunny and pDoomy - hey, I have the model, might as well get some use out of him...
Expect a battle report after this weekend, and a future post on the benefits/downsides and in-depth analysis of one of the greatest questions of our time -- Rök or Mulg?
I'm looking forward to playing against these guys. Now that you have trolls down better, I think you'll get a lot of use out of pDoomy. I know I'll hate Purification. Eww.
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