Trollbloods

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Trolls are the lovable blue-skinned brutes of the Hordes universe. Trollbloods traditionally live in loosely organized, tightly knit communities on the fringes of (or completely removed from) the rest of civilization in the Iron Kingdoms. The escalation of warfare in their lands has led to the trolls uniting as a people to defend their "kriels". They are the "protagonists" of the Hordes lore because they seek nothing other than to defend their home and people. That said, some of their characters (especially Hoarluk Doomshaper) are not very nice about it. Doomshaper himself is a mad racist who is totally in favour of wiping out all of humanity. Thankfully, most of the other characters hold him back to less extreme goals.

There are five kinds of Trollbloods: Pygmies, Trollkin, Trolls (Full-blood), Dire Trolls, and the gargantuan Troll Kings. All Troll models fall somewhere in this continuum and are tied together by their regenerative capabilities. Most Trollblood warriors and all Trollblood Warlocks are Trollkin, being the most human-like of Trollbloods, while Pygmies are their diminutive cousins. Full-blood Trolls and Dire Trolls comprise the warbeasts that Trollbloods have access to and are defined by their prodigious natural strength and astounding regenerative capabilities.

Trollbloods for Beginners

Faction Aesthetic & Playstyle

Aesthetically, Trollbloods are inspired by Scottish highlander clans, kilts and all, with a bit of druidic stone-worship.

On the tabletop, Trollbloods are among the most durable and hardest to kill of the armies, able to leverage ARM, DEF, Tough, regeneration, and box count to extreme levels few can match. They also hit hard and accurately in melee. To compensate, they are somewhat slow, and inferior at range to most armies, though fast and shooty Trollblood armies are certainly possible. The nearly universal medium base size makes maneuvering tricky as well.

The key to trolls is synergy, take some time and study how one model can boost another model. Take into consideration how you want to play trolls and build around that. Keep in mind that trolls are a community oriented faction. Their strength is working together or "bricking". Any good army will take into account how spells and animus work together. One unit helps another one. find a style that works for you and use units that aid in that style.

Worthwhile first purchases

The battle box comes with a Troll Axer, a Troll Impaler, and a Troll Bouncer, with Ragnor Skysplitter, the Runemaster as your caster. Place pulverizer on the Impaler on round one; it's likely you'll be throwing a spear before engaging in melee and getting the upkeep out early helps your fury efficiency. You can cycle it onto the axer when you're ready to engage. The bouncer wants to stick close to a model you want to protect. Usually, this will be your caster. Try to work in Ragnor's "shockwave" spell for a knock down to help you with your ranged attacks.

When you get ready to expand your army the Krielstone Bearer & Stone Scribes are usually the first unit you'll want to get. The Dire Troll Mauler is the cornerstone of our gameplan. It's ranged counterpart, the Dire Troll Bomber, is an extremely powerful ranged attacker and is key to our ranged game. The Pyre Troll is a good middle ground beast as it has the damage buff animus of the Mauler and the 2 AOE’s of the Bomber, but is a lot less of a point investment. The Earthborn Dire Troll is our economy heavy hitter and a good initial purchase due to its adaptability with different casters.

For fighting units you can't go wrong with Trollkin Champions. They are the heavy hitters of the Trolls. They are available in 3 of our 5 themes and make regular appearances in many lists. Their attachment Skaldi is also an excellent purchase.

For ranged units we have several options but the Northkin Fire Eaters are a powerful and fun choice.

For additional support Troll Whelps are the cheapest around and slot into 4 of the 5 themes nicely. The Runebearer is also very important as he will likely be one of your first Requisition options.

Worthwhile first Minions

Trollbloods are quite self-contained so don't need much help from Minions, but you'll probably want a few eventually to supplement your Trolls. Especially the 1 or 2 point Minion options that can be used as 'filler' at the end of your list. Many of the Farrow and Gobber Minions are playable with Trollbloods in the new Vengeance of Dhunia theme.

Here are a few non-partisan minion models that 'most' Trollblood players find the 'most' useful:

Solos

  • Lanyssa Ryssyl provides you with Hunter's Mark, which increases your charge range.
  • Feralgeist is a fast, incorporeal solo useful for scoring scenarios. It can also take possession of a dead warbeast.
  • Gremlin Swarm is another fast, incorporeal solo useful for scoring scenarios. It has stealth, and can sabotage warjacks.
  • A Bog Trog Mist Speaker is useful for any ranged Trollblood, as it gives Guidance. Alternatively, playing in Kriel Company and Vengeance of Dhunia offers General Brug who offers a very similar in-faction buff.
  • A Gobber Chef helps with fury management, by brainwashing your warbeasts into thinking everyone is a tasty Whelp snack.

Units

Starting a Theme Force

Theme Forces restrict which models from your Faction you have access to, but give you benefits in return. They are considered the default way to play Warmachine and Hordes because the benefits of playing in-theme are so great that most players never play out-of-theme. Don't overthink it, though. When you first start playing you can ignore theme forces and instead buy a few models you like the look of. Besides, you can't even use the Theme Force rules for games under 25 points. That said, you should start looking into themes sooner rather than later to ensure the models you are buying will all end up fitting into one cohesive theme. If you don't, you'll end up with a hodge podge of models.

If you're on a bit of a tight budget, you'll want to buy stuff that can fit into more than one theme. Thankfully, unlike many factions, Trollbloods has a number of models that can be taken in multiple themes.

  • 5 themes
  • 4 themes
  • 3 themes
  • 2 themes
    • Trollkin Long Riders - cavalry, they are a strong unit and fit into the SotN or BoH themes
    • Northkin Raiders - excellent screening unit who can be taken in SotN and KC. A bit pricey moneywise but excellent on the table
    • Northkin Fire Eaters - similar to the Raiders, can be taken in SotN and KC as well
    • Trollkin Barrage Team - they are the furthest threatening ranged option in faction.
    • Dhunian Knot - can often cause support bloat but are worth owning at least 1 unit of

Theme Forces

Band of Heroes

Band of Heroes allows you to field an infantry-heavy force of pure melee.

The models allowed in Band of Heroes are:   [Show/Hide]

This list was last updated: 2020.11   (Edit)

Warlocks

  • All Trollblood warlocks

Warbeasts

  • All non-character Trollblood warbeasts
  • Character warbeasts can be taken, but only if they have a bond and they're in their bonded model's battlegroup.

Units

Solos

Minions

  • One solo
  • One unit
(★) Since Boomhowler3 is a Champion, he doesn't use up a Minion slot.

Power of Dhunia

This is the Trollblood warbeast-centric theme plus the spellcasting models in Trolls, namely Runeshapers.

The models allowed in Power of Dhunia are:   [Show/Hide]

This list was last updated: 2019.07   (Edit)

Warlocks

  • All Trollblood warlocks

Warbeasts

  • All non-character Trollblood warbeasts
  • Mulg the Ancient
  • Other character warbeasts can be taken, but only if they have a bond and they're in their bonded model's battlegroup.

Units

Solos

Minions

  • Up to one solo
  • Up to one unit

Storm of the North

This is the Northkin kriels, a rabble of rowdy brawlers with a focus on cold and cold immunity effects.

The models allowed in Storm of the North are:   [Show/Hide]

This list was last updated: 2020.12   (Edit)

Warlocks

  • All Trollblood warlocks

Warbeasts

  • All non-character Trollblood warbeasts
  • Rök
  • Other character warbeasts can be taken, but only if they have a bond and they're in their bonded model's battlegroup.

Units

Solos

Battle Engines

Minions

  • One solo
  • One unit
(★) Boomhowler3 is a Champion so does not use up a Minion slot.

Kriel Company

This is the Trollblood heavily shooting-oriented theme list.

The models allowed in Kriel Company are:   [Show/Hide]

This list was last updated: 2019.12   (Edit)

Warlocks

  • All Trollblood warlocks

Warbeasts

  • All non-character Trollblood warbeasts
  • Dozer & Smigg
  • Other character warbeasts can be taken, but only if they have a bond and they're in their bonded model's battlegroup.

Battle Engines

Units

Solos

Minions

  • Up to one solo
  • Up to one unit
(★) These Partisan models are allowed via the "model/unit with a ranged weapon" entry, so don't use up your Minion slot.

Vengeance of Dhunia

Gunnbjorn has formed an alliance with all races who worship Dhunia, you get access to Farrow beasts, Farrow infantry with guns as well as Ogrun and Gobbers - here you have a great expansive list of mixed arms models and an ok theme benefit to back this up.

Models

Warlocks

Borka1 Borka Kegslayer
Borka2 Borka, Vengeance of the Rimeshaws
Calandra1 Calandra Truthsayer, Oracle of the Glimmerwood
Doomshaper1 Hoarluk Doomshaper, Shaman of the Gnarls
Doomshaper2 Hoarluk Doomshaper, Rage of Dhunia
Doomshaper3 Hoarluk Doomshaper, Dire Prophet
Grim1 Grim Angus
Grim2 Hunters Grim
Grissel1 Grissel Bloodsong, Fell Caller
Grissel2 Grissel Bloodsong, Marshal of the Kriels
Gunnbjorn1 Captain Gunnbjorn
Gunnbjorn2 Brigadier General Gunnbjorn
Horgle1 Refer to Trollblood solos, below
Horgle2 Horgle, the Anvil
Kolgrima1 Kolgrima Stonetruth, Winter Witch
Leto -1 Leto, Blood Brother of the Kriels (Not tournament legal)
Madrak1 Madrak Ironhide, Thornwood Chieftain
Madrak2 Madrak Ironhide, World Ender
Madrak3 Madrak, Great Chieftain
Ragnor1 Ragnor Skysplitter, the Runemaster
Skuld1 Jarl Skuld, Devil of the Thornwood

Warbeasts

Battle Engines

Units

Special WA

Solos

Minions that work for the Trollbloods

Refer to Who works for Whom and/or Category: Trollblood Minion

But basically, as of 2018.08, Trollbloods have access to all Minions except:

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