When
playing the trollkin, I often got frustrated that my assassination run always
bit on nails. Either, I miss-attacked on high-DEF enemy models and couldn’t
clear necessary charge lanes / shooting lines. Or I got stuck within too many
tarpits and my opponent smashed his assassination beasts right into Jarl. I
ended up being a good damage dealer, but on all the wrong targets.
Therefore
I rethought my ideas with Jarl Skuld and gave him an attrition list, which is this:
Jarl Skuld +6
- Bomber 10
- Pyre Troll 5
- Impaler 5
Fennblades (10) 8
+ UA 2
Fennblade Kithkar
2
War Wagon 9
Kriel Warriors
(6) 4
Fell
Caller Hero 3
= 48
(42
points is a very common army size on tournaments in Germany. For what reason I
cannot tell.)
This
list has a single approach on the sever attrition of the opponent’s force. I
blast away on short range and spam through the holes in the enemy force’s
defense line. Then I turn directly all boostable shots on important targets.
AOE-barrage sponsored by Dhunia
 |
| Four is a party |
The
Bomber has 2 shots of AOE4 Pow 16 on 8”.
The Pyre
Troll has AOE3 Pow 12 on 8”.
The
Impaler has no AOE but Pow 13 at 8”.
Jarl has
2 shots with no AOE with Pow 12 on 12”.
The
Impaler is part of that battlegroup for its animus. Forcing him to use his
animus and having Jarl cast the spell I can improve the range of four models.
So one will get no boost, but that’s to take. When I do this, then Jarl has no
Fury left - not for transferring, not for boosting.
That’s
why I need to consider heavily what unit needs the extra 4” of shooting range
most. I mostly give it to the War Wagon
and the Bomber, since they deal more damage with their base Pow 16. Also Jarl
can give a model/unit +2 SPD (for 3 Fury it’s very expansive, but it’s an
upkeep, too, so with smart casting in round 1 or 2, that’s no great problem to
have the right the spell on the right unit at the right time).
Jarl’s
Enliven and the Impaler’s Snipe help to improve all the shooter’s thread
ranges. The War Wagon comes to 21”, the Bomber and the Pyre Troll to 19”, Jarl
even makes 22”. So with the right positioning and strategizing on what enemy
model will be engaged on what turn, there’s a good potential to have the War
Wagon and the Bomber with a great thread range at the cost of Jarl’s total 6
Fury and the help of the Impaler. That’s a lot but helpful, too. I could
improve all model’s thread range by taking in a Troll Axer (its animus gives
+2SPD and Pathfinder), but since this fella has no shooting attack and comes
for 6 points, I can see him fit that well on Jarl’s ambush-style.
When certain
multi damage models are bombed down to a few damage points or certain enemy key
models got knocked down from the War Wagon, the Fennblades charge in. Since
they’re always placed on the front line, they can use their mini-feat for a very
nice thread range of 13” and finish the left overs. Or they just go in front
and keep the shooters save from wacky charges.
The
positioning is the alpha and the omega in this list, but that’s something
experience will teach nicely. To provide more immunity against charging there’s
still Jarl’s awesome Feat where I place d3+3 AOE4 fog clouds that do not cover
friendly model’s LOS. So Jarl is putting that fog line between the shooters and
the Fennblades and still can shoot through it. It’s no one round of total
invincibility, but it’s a problem not every opponent can cleverly cope with.
That feat is no game winner, too, but it helps preparing the kill strike, when
the attrition is done and there’s still a Warcaster/Warlock dares to live.
If it
comes to the Fennblades, they feel well under Jarl’s spell Enliven. They can
run 16” or charge (with their mini-feat) 15”. Considering a wisely used
Vengeance-move makes it even 18”! The Fell Caller gives them an effective MAT8
and the Kithkar teaches them to jump over other Fennblades’ bases, so there ain’t
no big problem of positioning either. The unit leader has an effective DIS12,
so I can spread them widely on the field. This way I can engage opponent units
with a lot of strikes or stress on flank the opponent most likely cannot afford
to ignore. The Fell Caller has another nice song, to make all models within 9”
stand up. Those are all great enemy model pounding capabilities for not that
many points.
The
Kriel Warriors can basically do the same. They can have a thread range of 10.5”
(or 12.5” with Enliven) but will most likely be slower, since they rather sing
their song of +2MAT/+2POW instead of +2SPD. They are included more to absorb damage than
dealing it. They’re cheap and they got Tough. Adding the UA or making them a unit
of 10 could be nice too, but I rather have lots of Fennblades so the Kriel
Warriors have their job in the second wave of attacking.
That’s
it.
This
list has an assigned mission on every game. It has an awesome Robin-Hood-style
Warcaster. And the list got a finished paint job. It’s all I could ask for.
What do you think?
------------------------------------------
Not so
long ago, Privateer Press gave a preview video to the next Expansion Book for
Hordes: Exigence.The video you can finde here:
On 05:29 is a new trollkin unit is shown. Pistoleros. Jarl's fanboys, most likely. I will get them definitely and add them to Jarl's Ambush Attrition. Me is getting excited for the new Hordes book (even more excited for the release of "Vengeance").
