Thursday, November 12, 2015

State of the Lists: Adepticon Planning w/ Gunnbjorn and Doomy3

Well, I've pretty much decided I'm going to Adepticon, so it's time to get those lists going.


50pts Trollblood
Hoarluk Doomshaper, Dire Prophet
* Troll Axer
* Earthborn Dire Troll
* Mulg the Ancient
* Rök
Farrow Bone Grinders (Leader and 3 Grunts)
Krielstone Bearer and 5 Stone Scribes
* Krielstone Stone Scribe Elder
Janissa Stonetide
Lanyssa Ryssyll, Nyss Sorceress
Troll Whelps


Ideally, I'd really like to put in a single unit of Dhunian Knot in this list, but without a certain release date (yet), I'm going to practice without them. 

The Bone Grinders are a new unit for me, but they are there for 3 specific reasons - firstly, Doomy3 has no less than 3 RNG 10 offensive spells, and +2" RNG is a really good idea; secondly, they have a magic attack, and as someone on the forums pointed out, this is probably going to have to be my Cryx drop; and finally, I've got 3 really good Animi (Rush, Primal, and Transmute) that it would hurt to lose on a key turn. More charge blockers aren't a bad thing either, all things considered. If the Dhunian Knot gets a release date before Adepticon, I'll have to decide between dropping them, the whelps, or Lanyssa (plus a point of KSB).

Lanyssa is there for a speed boost and another magic attack as well, since I'll need to pile on Colossals/Gargantuans if I run up against one and I'd REALLY like to get the alpha strike on feat turn. Janissa is a great toolbox here - a wall for protecting Doomy3 and triggering Transmute's +2 ARM, a magic attack with possible knockdown ("Time of the Molgur" is just made for crit fishing), and board control if things turn nasty around the warlock. 

Lastly, Whelps. With Primal in the mix, I'm not sure these guys are as worth it as, say, a Dhunian Knot, but I'll need to give it a good testing to figure that out. We shall see...


50pts Trollblood: The Big Bang - Tier 3
Captain Gunnbjorn
* Troll Impaler
* Dire Troll Bomber
* Glacier King
Pyg Bushwackers (Leader and 9 Grunts)
* Pyg Bushwhacker Officer and Mortar
Thumpercrew (Leader and 2 Crew)
Thumpercrew (Leader and 2 Crew)
Highwaymen (Leader and 5 Grunts)
Troll Whelps

I was building this list to take advantage of as many of the gifts Gunny has gotten in the last 3 books as possible, and he has gotten a LOT - Dozer and Smigg, Glacier King, Mountain King, Bushwhacker UA, Highwaymen, and the Dhunian Knot (sure, lots of Trollblood warlocks benefit from them, but how many of them have Crit Devestation on a giant gun?). I do need to try Dozer & Smigg + Blitzers, but in the meantime  I am loving the Glacier King - his gun is great, gives even more board control nonsense, and he is an assassination threat or heavy killer all on his own (which is good, since Gunny is stingy with melee support).

Anyway, I built the list with a Runebearer and max Highwaymen, when it occurred to me that all that was holding it back from tier was the Runebearer. So, I dropped that, ended up with 3 points (with the tier bonus Bomber discount), said "eh, what the heck", and went full tier 3.

I really like it.

Tier 3 was always a bit dodgy for Gunny since you had to take Thumpercrew, arguably one of the least-optimal units in the faction. However, since the entire list is focusing on shooting anyway, being able to slam and knock down models pairs up REALLY WELL with all the shooting and the board control from the Glacier King and (crit-dependant) Gunny.

With a well placed Snipe and 2 Far Strikes, I've got a unit of CRAing POW 10s with possible re-rolls, a POW 12 AOE 4 mortar, and 2 POW 14 Slam/knockdowns.... all at 18" range AND Advance Deploy, who are probably hiding in Trenches to boot. If I go second, I'm dropping a frightening amount of fire down on the enemy's head 1st turn, and when they close in they have 2 more ranks of shooting to deal with -- Gunny and the Glacier King at RNG 12/16 with Snipe, and then the Bomber, Impaler, and Highwaymen at RNG 8/12 with Snipe. All the while, I have 5 attacks pushing/slamming the big models out of reach and the short range stuff advancing to cover the longer ranged stuff.

If that's not enough, then they have to deal with a downright nasty Gargantuan who has Freeze and a knockdown bubble. I like this list a lot, and I have high hopes for it.

As I've discovered recently, it's big flaw is concentrated Melee or anything that can blunt the ranged element while they close -- namely, Skorne beast bricks and especially Makeda3, who has absolutely destroyed different iterations of this list in my last 2 games with pGrexy. However, I think Doomy3 will be a nasty counter for those kind of lists.

That's all for now - I'm going to try to post up at least 2 battle reports this month, one for each of the lists. Comments are welcome!!

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