Trollblood Warlock Pairings: Adepticon Prep and Post-Erratalypse

I've been doing a lot of thinking lately about what warlocks and list types pair well together for tournament lists, now that Meat Mountain, Runes of War, and Evolutionary Elementalism aren't the automatic Be-all and End-all of Trollblood competitive lists (Runes of War is still valid from all accounts, but plays slightly less aggressively and is no longer an auto-include, which I think is a good change).

In the last year, I feel like Trollblood tournament players have been effectively ignoring innovation and personal style in favor of the cookie cutter "play this and win" idea, and I'll be honest - I don't like it. When every single player is bringing the same (admittedly very powerful) lists, not only does the Trollblood player community effectively stagnate tactics-wise, it also downright ticks off other players.

I haven't been a very active player in the last year or so, and it's been at least that long since I was in a tournament, but I'm going to Adepticon this year, and I need to prepare. I've worked out a handful of lists, and I'll be testing them as much as possible in the coming weeks - I've already tried the Grim1 list vs pGrexy, and it needs some serious tweaking.

Lists after the break.

Battle Report: Zaal 2 vs. Grim 1, 50pts

First battle report in a while, and another one with Zaal 2!

I managed to get a game in against Caleb's Trollbloods.  We're both experimenting with our lists for Adepticon.  I'm signed up for the Masters qualifier, and we're both going to do a bunch of casual play as well.  As I mentioned in this post, I'll be taking Makeda 3 and Zaal 2.  This time, I was running Zaal 2 with the same list I talked about:

Zaal, Ancestral Advocate (*6pts)
*Cyclops Shaman (5pts)
*Basilisk Krea (4pts)
Cataphract Cetrati (Leader and 5 Grunts) (11pts)
*Tyrant Vorkesh (3pts)
Immortals (Leader and 9 Grunts) (8pts)
*Extoller Advocate (2pts)
Nihilators (Leader and 9 Grunts) (8pts)
Venator Slingers (Leader and 9 Grunts) (6pts)
Tyrant Commander and Standard Bearer (3pts)
Paingiver Beast Handlers (Leader and 3 Grunts) (2pts)
Hakaar the Destroyer (4pts)

This seems like a good attrition list.  The objective is to get into a scoring position, and grind my way forward until I've won on scenario or managed to kill the opposing 'caster.  There are a lot of bodies to chew through, and most of them will give Zaal extra Fury when they die.  It should grind well against rival infantry lists.  Armor will be tougher, but there are a decent number of attacks, and Zaal can boost a lot of infantry damage rolls with Transferrence.

Caleb is experimenting with 4 lists he likes, and here's the one he took against Zaal:

Grim Angus (*6pts)
*Glacier King (18pts)
*Troll Impaler (5pts)
Trollkin Fennblades (Leader and 9 Grunts) (8pts)
*Fennblade Officer and Piper (2pts)
Trollkin Scattergunners (Leader and 9 Grunts) (8pts)
*Scattergunner Officer and Standard Bearer (2pts)
Dhunian Knot (3pts)
Fell Caller Hero (3pts)
Trollkin Fennblade Kithkar (2pts)
Stone Scribe Chronicler (2pts)
Whelps (2pts)
Trollkin Sorcerer (1pt) - Client: Fennblades

Grim is a solid Warlock who can lock down armies well with his Feat, debuffs Def with Marked for Death, and generally supports his army pretty well.  The list has a good jamming element in the Fennblades, and a lot of power to clear infantry in the Scattergunners.  Grim and the Glacier King provide some heavier long-ranged shooting.  The list's biggest weakness is that the Glacier King is the only model that can really tackle heavy armor.

List Discussion for Adepticon Post

I have a pretty limited amount of time to finish painting my lists for Adepticon this year, and I'm thinking of running Makeda 3 and Zaal 2.  They seem to cover different matchups pretty well, and they certainly run different kinds of list.

Suggestions and criticisms are very welcome!  I don't have much time to paint before Adepticon, so anything that can help pare down the models I need to focus on would be great.

Here's what I'm thinking for Makeda 3.  It's currently untested, so I may end up wavering and going back to something more familiar, but I'm definitely going to try it out.

Makeda and the Exalted Court (*2pts)
*Molik Karn (11pts)
*Bronzeback Titan (10pts)
*Titan Sentry (9pts)
*Titan Gladiator (8pts)
*Basilisk Krea (4pts)
*Basilisk Drake (4pts)
Paingiver Beast Handlers (Leader and 3 Grunts) (2pts)
Agonizer (2pts)
Orin Midwinter, Rogue Inquisitor (2pts)

Specialists
*Cyclops Brute (5pts)
*Cyclops Brute (5pts)
*Cyclops Shaman (5pts)
Extoller Soulward (2pts)
Mortitheurge Willbreaker (2pts)
Swamp Gobber Bellows Crew (1pt)

The base list is a modification on my original Brute Squad list that replaces the pair of Brutes with a Titan Sentry, and squeezes Orin Midwinter and a Basilisk Drake into the list with the spare point.  The Sentry and the Exalted Court will have to bear the brunt of any alpha strikes I take, although access to Locker will make it much easier against some lists, and allows me to deal with dodgy denial tech.  The list has some good control game, good infantry clearing, and a solid group of heavy hitters.  The Titan Sentry could be an Aradus Soldier, but I think I prefer the higher durability and control options offered by Locker to the extra offensive power of the Soldier.  Practice with the list could prove me wrong.

The specialists let me switch up my support and beast loadout to handle specific matchups or switch out some of my beasts for the defensive shield of the double Brutes.  I'm not 100% solid on most of the specialists - I need to see how the base list plays before I decide what it really needs help with.


And here's the Zaal 2 list I'm workind on.  Several people on the Skorne forum (Joelker41 and Kurgash) have had good results with eZaal, but I don't have the models available to run either double Nihilators or the theme force right now.

Zaal, Ancestral Advocate (*6pts)
*Cyclops Shaman (5pts)
*Basilisk Krea (4pts)
Cataphract Cetrati (Leader and 5 Grunts) (11pts)
*Tyrant Vorkesh (3pts)
Immortals (Leader and 9 Grunts) (8pts)
*Extoller Advocate (2pts)
Nihilators (Leader and 9 Grunts) (8pts)
Venator Slingers (Leader and 9 Grunts) (6pts)
Tyrant Commander and Standard Bearer (3pts)
Paingiver Beast Handlers (Leader and 3 Grunts) (2pts)
Hakaar the Destroyer (4pts)

Specialists
3 Ancestral Guardians (9pts)
Cyclops Raider (5pts)
Legends of Halaak (4pts)

This seems like a pretty aggressive attrition list.  It's not terribly well equipped to crack armor, but that's usually what I'll drop Makeda for.  Otherwise?????  I don't really know what I'm doing with eZaal yet.  I've run him twice with the Cetrati brick when the rules were spoiled, and once with a shooty beast loadout and 3 AG's when the model came out in stores, but that's not really enough to get a feel for him.  I'm planning to play him a bunch in the coming weeks to see what I can pull together.

I'm scheduled to play tomorrow, and I'll hopefully be able to try out both lists.  Expect reports!

They Believe in Nothing!

I'm still here.  I just got derailed by life for a bit.

As of posting this, I've finished my Nihilators.  Behold!

And I'm looking forward to running the painted unit.  I'm still on the fence for who to bring for Adepticon.  Makeda 3 is locked in, and since I want to do ADR, I'm torn between eHexeris and eZaal as a second list.  I have a pretty good idea of a shooty eHexy list I want to run, but that requires a hoksune of a lot of work if I'm going to meet Adepticon's painting requirement.  I'm still considering what I want to run for eZaal.  I suspect it will take more games to find out.

Army List: pMadrak 50pts, Winter Kin Tier 4

There doesn't seem to be a lot of hype about the new Madrak tier, which is odd to me - it seems pretty good. I figured I'd run through it quick, just for the heck of it.

Bear in mind, I'm not exactly a competitive strategic powerhouse when it comes to list building, so comments would be very helpful.

Battle Report: Doomy3 vs. Makeda3 (50pts) - Battle of the Bricks

pGrexy and I got a game in on Tuesday, and decided to pit my newest Doomy3 list up against the tried-and-true Makeda3 brick that has been my nemesis for so many months now.

Also, HEY I'M WRITING A BATTLE REPORT! It's been a while since I wrote one of these, I am sooo far behind Maxtermynd and pGrexy...

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.