This week I took a decision to switch my two lists pairing up. I thought it might be interesting to look at why I initially played Doomshaper1 and why I’ve finally bit the bullet and moved to Doomshaper3. Never fear though, I’m sure I’ll be back telling you why you should be playing jank like Skinners next week. *Editor’s Note: Please don’t play a Skinner, let alone Skinners*

I got frustrated with Trolls at the end of last year. I felt, and still feel to some degree that we’re quite a way behind other factions. I even started a campaign to get the Krielstone changed on the PP forums and that got quite a lot of momentum. In the throws of discontent I was in a group chat when the discussion turned to play styles and people brought up the colour wheel from Magic the Gathering. Basically the idea is that certain traits and aspects define certain factions and their playstyles. Blue is control, Red is aggression etc. It’s a fascinating series of articles that are well worth a read and can be found here:

http://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/making-magic/great-white-way-revisited-2015-07-13

http://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/making-magic/true-blue-revisited-2015-07-20

http://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/making-magic/black-revisited-2015-07-27

http://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/making-magic/seeing-red-revisited-2015-08-03

http://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/making-magic/its-not-easy-being-green-revisited-2015-08-10

The conversation then went on to discuss the factions in WarmaHordes and what colours would most represent them. When we got to trolls the general consensus was Green. A Faction that relied on buffs and synergies (Green), it also thematically fits with the tribal nature of a nomadic race in tune with an earth Goddess. The List that I enjoyed the most in MK2 was Runes of War and that list wasn’t just green as it featured a fair amount of control. Sure two dire trolls at arm 22 behind a wall is the epitome of green, but the wall is blue, the forcelock on the runeshapers, which was so underrated was blue., the Tectonic shift, Rampager, Stranglehold and Mulg’s Animus. It’s all control and it was at that point that I realised that what I enjoyed about MK2 trolls was the mix of hard hitting beasts and control. In magic terms I’m all about Green/Blue.

ConTroll

Realising that I wanted to play Control casters was a bit of a relief to be honest. Suddenly I no longer felt a need to play Madrak2, because he was overpowered. I was already playing an excellent Grissel2 list, that I was enjoying and, which unsurprisingly featured quite a bit of control, in the form of a Knockdown Gun, Blast damage AoE’s , Discord, Reposition + a Light Time-Walk on feat, Tectonic shift and Deafen on the Mountain King’s Gun. This is what I was enjoying and suddenly we had a theme force that rewarded us for taking all these things. I suddenly had a plan that would re-energize my love for Trolls regardless of our current state, thus was born ConTroll, a playstyle built around playing Trolls as a Control faction. Grissel 2 would be the rock I would build this style around as she played into most of Warmachine and Infantry heavy Skorne. Grissel2 is probably our strongest all-comers caster in faction right now, but she does have some weaknesses. She doesn’t want to see Lucant across the table or one of those fashionable jack spams where everything is a shield guard: Vyros2, Minions etc.

Gnarly Shaman

This is where the second list comes in and at first Doomy1 seemed to fulfil this role. I imagined in my head moving beasts around the board while safely hidden behind my Northkin Shamans and their clouds. I would cast Dissolution and punish my opponent’s upkeeps. Guardian Beast would surprise my opponents as out of turn activations destroyed their plans. I would feat and punish my opponent’s beasts and jacks. Mulg would use his animus as a ghetto lamentation. I even threw a Storm Troll in for Critical Disruptions and key solo removal. I’ve played the Doomy1 quite a bit over the past two months and he’s been fantastic, winning over 75% of games. He’s especially amazing into Makeda2 where you can feat on her and make her take d6 damage every time she tries to Stay Death. The sad truth though is that a few games against Vyros2 have soured me a little on the good shaman and when I started to look at what Doomy was bringing to the table it wasn’t a huge amount. Rampager is difficult to get off, the feat will damage the enemy, but isn’t as strong as some of the similar time walks (Ragnor, Doomy3) in many situations and there it hates being moved around by Helios’ gun.

One of the biggest advantages of Doomy1 is Goad and quite frankly I’m not sure any of our beasts can one-round an opponent’s heavy or caster if they’ve already spent 1 fury on a charge and another on a goad. That’s 3 unboosted attacks from Mulg, it’s kind of underwhelming. There is also a real issue with damage output. Outside of the Kings, Mulg or Doomy2, trolls can’t travel more than 9 inches and one round a heavy on average dice. You choose between Rush and Rage and it’s an unexpected problem. At the start of Mk3 people thought we’d just spam Maulers and it would be great, but watching a Pow 17 charging Mauler fail to kill a 10 point Khador Heavy on average is sad times, but it’s the world we live in. Instead you need to take a punch and have enough stuff left to hit back hard. This is a uniquely troll problem, because Skorne can Enrage, Rush and Prod so an average Skorne beast brick will out threat you and hit your first. Minions have Rask who makes them hit hard, with free charges from Boundless charge and Lanyssa. My opponents often ask me my threat range and I’ll tell them 11 with rush. They’ll advance and sit just outside of 11, but honestly if they were wise they would sit just outside 9 inches and they’d essentially be safe from me one rounding their heavy in most circumstances.

Play Doomy3

????

Prophet

So here comes Doomy3, he brings several advantages that help us against the problems outlined above. Doomy3 takes an alpha strike better than almost any caster in the faction. He walks into your threat range, feats and knows he’ll have enough to do work. Doomy also brings free animi. Our heavies have amazing animi, but too often they can’t use them as they need rage and a few brought attacks to kill a heavy. With Doomy3, Mulg can go in with Fury, kill a heavy and then cast Arcane Suppression. Now the earthborn can kill a heavy by that water terrain and animus at the end of killing it meaning he’s in their face, immune to knockdown and defence 14 (Def 14 Arm 20) Troll beasts are not easy to remove. It also hugely helps the Mauler who can get rush, threaten 11 inches and cast rage once he gets there so he’s hitting at Power and Strength 20. Finally with Doomy3 he is who he was born to be. The list I’m taking also brings admonition, which I feel is super strong when you can’t be knocked down.

Also we have the free solos from the theme force. Shamans are literally the best they can ever be with this guy. Mini feat turn they have Signs and Portents on their sprays. They are you infantry clear. Their cloud wall allows Doomy to throw out a key Repudiate or Unminding from far up the table. Chiller also fixes the list’s biggest issue from when he first came out, the lack of hit buff outside of feat turn. Doomy1 has Fortune and Doomy2 has Wild Aggression. Doomy3 at least has Chiller to help deal with issues like High Def Stalkers or being jammed by Raeks.

Doomy3’s most important ability though is Implacability. A lot of the lists he wants to play into want to move you around. In a world where Legion have Proteus dragging you in after a melee attack (Remember that whelps can’t stop that.) and Hellmouths dragging in your heavies. Circle have just had Loki arrive and he wants to drag you in, admittedly whelps stop this, but it makes you play cautiously with them until he’s dead and that can be problematic. Circle also have Wurmwood with Hellmouth and it hampers him to take that away. As already mentioned this spell is money against Vyros2 and finally lucent. Watcher is a lot less impressive when you can’t be knocked down by the attack.

Sample List

I’m still experimenting with Doomy3, but I wanted a mountain king as the ability to place rush on it, threaten 12, cast rage for free and then scrap two heavies is excellent.

Doomy3

– Mountain King

– Mulg

– Earthborn

– Axer

– Storm Troll

Max Stone + UA

Shaman (Free)

Shaman (Free)

Whelps (Free)

You need to pair Doomy3 with someone who threatens the enemy caster. Unfortunately certain casters are insane when they can camp zero and know they are absolutely safe.

This is a job I consider for Grissel2. Grissel2 will just randomly kill you if you don’t respect her and that’s excellent.

Grissel 2

– Mountain king

– Bomber

– Axer

– Storm Troll

– Swamp Troll

Min Stone + UA

Dhunian Knot

Janissa

Shaman (Free)

Shaman (Free)

Whelps (Free)

The main issue here is that both lists feature a Mountain king which concerns me. It telegraphs what you’re trying to do and Stranglehold is always an option.

Also, the real worry is that neither of these lists would work well in the new Steamroller pack as it looks at the moment. We don’t run troops well at the moment and that could lead to us struggling to score. That said if a whelp can control a zone as a warrior model, we might be ok.

Conclusion

Doomy3 was always heralded as the new king when he came out, but many players found him lacklustre compared to Rune of War. A lot of people are going to be playing Doomy2 and brute forcing their way to victory, but if you personally prefer the control style and the tricks from RoW then I feel Doomy3 is where you need to look right now. He’s incredibly fun and as he came out nine months before the edition change he got kind of lost in the shuffle. Power of Dhunia is exactly what he wants though so why not give him a try?