Of Blight and Blood – Part III
Featuring Goris of TrollBloodScrum.com and PG_Bloodrath
Madrak Ironhide, Thornwood Chieftan
With today’s article will each be trying to show some different routes and strategies to try with Madrak Ironhide, Thornwood Chieftain. He is the Warlock that all Trollblood players know because he is the Battle Box Warlock. I recently picked up a Trollblood Battle Box because the new sculpts for the Impaler and Axer are beyond awesome. So I figured a good plan for any developing Trollblood player such as myself and Bloodrath would be to experiment with Madrak1.
Goris as the veteran Trollblood will be providing the experienced outlook on Madrak1 from all his many games battling for Kith and Kriel. Bloodrath and I will be trying to present some interesting uses and ideas from our blighted minds. With the overall goal to get new or old players to give Madrak1 another run on the table. Rathrok demands blood.
Goris of TrollbloodScrum.com
With Madrak1 I really like to run a beast brick and it has really good potential against a lot of lists.
Madrak Ironhide, Thornwood Chieftain {+6}
~Dire Troll Mauler {9}
~Earthborn Dire Troll {10}
~Mulg the Ancient {12}
~Trollkin Runebearer {2}
Krielstone Bearer and 5 Stone Scribes {4}
~Krielstone Stone Scribe Elder {1}
Trollkin Fennblades (Leader and 9 Grunts) {8}
~Trollkin Fennblade Officer & Drummer {2}
Fell Caller Hero {3}
Janissa Stonetide {3}
Troll Whelps {2}
Strengths
Hits like a ton of bricks thrown by a major league pitcher. This list is accurate and will wipe any hard target off the board with ease.
Can take it on the chin and laugh. This list won’t be getting shot off the board and even a charge from a beast heavy list don’t be difficult. Granted you have a screening of Fennblades to make sure you have the best chance at getting your charge off, but we’ll talk about that later.
THE LIGHTNING BRICK: This list is fast. Fenns have a 13″ threat and will almost assuredly hit the front lines turn 2 and if your opponent is kind enough to trigger vengeance for you then all the better. With the Runebearer in the list you can easily dump all 5 fury on the stone and Run everything first turn getting into a good spot. Having Surefoot cast first turn on Madrak really alleviates the fury Problems Madrak has early game. But, being able to run first turn and really get everything into a good spot especially for scenario purposes is strong.
Carnage and the Feat are really hard to stop. It’s going to be really hard for your opponent to stop Mulg from Pac Man’ing his way through their army and just squishing their Warlock/Warcaster. I mean, you try and stop a Mat 9 Pow 23 Warbeast under Crusher from not killing everything on the board…
Weaknesses
Rough Terrain is bad news bears. The core of the army, IE Madrak and his beasts are going to have a hard time getting to stuff through rough terrain. The earthborn is there and he can manage but honestly if you get paired against a Inhospitable Ground Warnoun you are going to have problems. Fenns mitigate this a little but it’s going to be a bit of an issue.
Concentrated shooting could cause some problems. While the core of the army as stated before is going to be very resilient to shooting, the squishy bits in front or behind are going to be really susceptible to strong flanking armies like legion and cygnar. Also with the Advent of the Stormwall, it’s possible to really put a dent in a heavy that’s armor 22 for 2 turns before they get to you. Whelps are in this list to help mitigate that a little bit, but it doesn’t take the danger away. I told you that it won’t get shot off the board before and MOST times it won’t but don’t expect good dice to not happen sometimes or for something else wonky to go wrong, like you losing Janissa to a drifting AOE early game.
So with all that in mind here’s how this list runs for me. Starts out with the Runebearer dropping Surefoot on Madrak turn one allowing him to dump all his fury on the stone and run. Everything hauls ass up the board with Fennblades leading the charge. I try to bait out some ranged fire on the Fenns to increase their threat range with Vengeance. Doesn’t always work, but it’s nice when it does. Turn 2 I am either trying to find a nice pieces of rough terrain to stand next to of optimal charges with my Earthborn or I am sitting in a control zone bunkered up to start contesting or scoring if I can. Next turn I am either looking for a good charges with my beasts to get into the thick of it and cripple or remove their heavy hitters so I can safely expose my beasts a little or if I have been jammed I am planning out
my crusher chains with my beasts and Warlock to get the most out of Carnage and the extra move and attacks. Most of the time this ends in Mulg or Madrak just killing everything and ending the game. Sometimes I have to delay the feat because it’s not an optimal way to triggering Crusher and getting the best out of the feat.
PG_Bloodrath the Agressionator
Madrak Ironhide, Thornwood Chieftan {+6}
~ Pyre Troll {5}
~ Troll Axer {6}
~ Mountain King {20}
~ Runebearer {2}
Krielstone Bear and Stone Scribes {4}
~ Stone Scribe Elder {1}
Sons of Bragg {6}
Trollkin Champions {10}
Troll Whelps {2}
When this project started we made our list all separate from each other. Then right before this article was due I get an email from Omnus with his list and my jaw drops. My list is nearly identical to his. The concept of knockdown plus Madraks feat just seems like a great combo. There are a lot of Cryx in my meta and it seems like a good way to deal with infantry spam and incorporeal annoyers. Just today we had joked that we would both love Runeshapers in legion, fantastic models, great rules. We both have a very similar taste in what we like to play we both just play it very differently. It’s one more reason I love working with Omnus. Great minds think alike but the best think together. I didn’t want to impede on ~Om’s~ hard work so I had to go back to the drawing board. I apologize ahead of time for the briefness and lack of detail in my portion of the article. I promise more material in future collaborations.
I have been looking at different ways to use some of the new stuff out now. I feel my list combines the newest and some of the oldest for a fun spin. Here is an overview of the big choices in my list that I want to spotlight and others I’m only going to briefly touch on. I have been on a determined path to make the The Mountain King work. Even if he never sees the table in big competitive play I enjoy the challenge of taking an ok piece and making it shine. I cannot praise the model enough, every time I look at the picture of it on my phone I want to find the sculptor and give him a hug. The King can already pulverize anything he is close enough to beat on. Being able to make a high volume of attacks from a huge base with reach means he can really abuse Madrak’s feat mulching infantry and getting more attacks. He may not be able to use the Overtake portion because of the gargantuan rules but free attacks are still good.
Spells and Animi
Carnage: This helps the MK’s one shining weakness bringing his MAT up to a respectable 7.
Amuk: This can make the Axers thresher silly on Madrak’s feat turn. Being able to boost all the attack rolls on that big sweep and then he gets to go on a killing spree from the feat.
Tactical Tip: Be careful on positioning your thresher. If you kill all your targets in reach and have nowhere to overtake you will be disappointed in wasting the free attack. Set up your charge where you thresher and then overtake an inch kill that target and keep on killing down the line.
Rush: The strengths here are obvious but I can see TMK and the Axer trade their animus a bunch depending on where they are needed.
Flaming Fists: The Pyre is in there for some ranged support and a damage buff when I feel it is required. I can also spread it around defensively if I am playing against Fire typed attack. And coming from playing Legion I can tell you how frustrating it is to see the Pyre Troll’s animus when I have a Ravagore or Typhon. But I’m very sure I don’t need to explain to anyone how good the Pyre Troll is.
Trollblood Infantry
Looking into the infantry I wanted quality attacks that can make the best use of a volume of attacks if the opportunity presents itself. I feel that the Champions can crack a hard target if they need to or mulch infantry. Multi-purposed like the Mountain King. They both can play clean up. If I need to screen TMK from the brunt of a powerful charge the Champions are there. If I need to screen the champs from a high volume of ranged attacks TMK is there. One goal with the list is that I didn’t ever want to feel out of position or cut off from the part of the battlefield that I want my army to reach. A savvy opponent will use the huge base against you to cut off an angle of attack. It’s a tactic I have used and know to be aware of it being done against me
Tactical tip: When you come up against a huge base right in the middle of the table use its own size to your advantage. Pin it down with something not easy to kill and then position your key models on the opposite side of the gargantuan blocking charges from a unit on the opposite side. When you have the right model for the job and the placing works out, you can play ring around the rosy as long as you can keep that big thing occupied and stuck in. This is easier to do with Trollbloods than most factions because of all the medium based models can’t be trampled.
I’m not sure just how good the Sons of Bragg are going to be but I was faced with the decision of brining Bonehammer and a Champion or the Sons. Since the sons haven’t got a ton of table time I want to use them with different list and see if I stumble on to some fun synergy. If nothing else the Sons are good as a standalone unit and they are beautiful looking on the table top. The rest of the support is exactly that and is there to help the list flow smoothly.
I feel that the list looks fun on paper and I enjoyed the challenge of coming up with this. I often watch the “in the moment” competition shows like chopped on food network. I am always hoping to find myself in situations that challenge me as a player and a press ganger. I felt like writing this today was exactly what I like. Hope you enjoyed reading it as much as I did writing it because it worth exactly what you paid for it.
Omnus the Attritioneer
I knew I would have to play Madrak1 much more aggressive than I am used to. He reminds me of playing Thagrosh1. Medium base, 14 def and 16 armor. Krielstone replacing Spiny Growth and Surefoot replacing Death Shroud. Madrak is faster with higher Rat (6 vs. 5 in both cases) but 2 lower Fury. Here is the main idea that I had in my head trying to build a Madrak1 list.
I love to make Beast Heavy lists that have a built in way to deal with large amounts of Infantry. With Bethayne I can slaughter them with Eruption of Spines, with Lylyth2 she just shoots them down herself or Saeryn can Blightbringer and Breath Stealer her way to victory. I may feel like Madrak1 could play like Thagrosh1 but Madrak has a much better built in way of dealing with infantry…his Feat. In a way, his feat gives all the Earthborns you want an omega version of Beatback (Think Bronzeback Titan) but they don’t have to buy attacks. So Madrak’s beasts can advance up field, use the feat to clear as many troops as they can to get to the heavies hiding behind them. With all this in mind…I want the best heavy beasts that Trolls have to offer!
Madrak Ironhide, Thornwood Chieftan {+6}
~Axer {6}
~Earthborn {10}
~Earthborn {10}
~Mulg {10}
~Runebearer {2}
Krielstone Bearer and Stone Scribes {4}
~Stone Scribe Elder {1}
Trollkin Runeshapers {4}
Trollkin Runeshapers {4}
Swamp Gobber Bellows Crew {1}
Feralgiest {1}
Feralgiest {1}
Yes, I am one of those guys that would play two Earthborn Dire Trolls. I already purchased and painted both of them.
Runeshapers: I am starting with these guys because they are probably the choice that will catch the most people off guard. I wanted the models out of my battlegroup to be very self-sufficient. The Runeshapers can block los to Madrak, they benefit a great deal from the Krielstone but most important things to we were what they could do without support. They provide an option to kill Incorporeal model without losing the Str or Continuous Effect protection from the stone. They have built in Pathfinder. I can send each unit after different objectives or zones. Tough + 5 Boxes + Steady can provide a difficult situation for an opponent to remove.
As a new Trollblood player I am trying very hard to avoid depending on Tough. It is unreliable to say the least. What I am trying to use tough for is to force my opponent to plan his resources around the unpredictability of Tough. If my opponent wants to kill all 3 Runeshapers that are holding a zone, he has to plan for potential Tough rolls. I want him to send those resources whether they end up needed or not. Anything that gets sent at them to prepare for Tough Rolls ends up being wasted whether I make the rolls or not.
Feralgiests: I stuck these guys in the list as another option for contesting zones or blocking charge lanes. Coming from Legion, I know how long charge lanes can be. But that won’t matter if the Feralgiest is chilling in the spot that the Angelius wants to land in. Or my opponent flings a spell at the feralgiest. I am fine with that to. Any Fury or Focus spent to kill the 1 point model isn’t used to take down my beasts. And the goal is to have one of my Beasts end the game for me.
I still may drop the Giests for Lanyssa or Whelps. It will take some playtesting to know for sure.
Krielstone Bearer: This should go without saying. 18 Armor heavies are not as good as 20 Armor heavies. And Madrak going from 14/16 to 14/18 is much better. Especially when you start factoring in Surefoot.
Swamp Gobbers: Surefoot gets Madrak to Def 16. What’s better than Def 16? Def 18. Madrak is going to be marching up with the beasts and I want every tool in place to make the odds of assassinating him to be as terrible as possible.
Runebearer: Troll Moses needs to be in the list to help manage the Fury on Madrak. Having the Runebearer casting Surefoot on turn 1 allows Madrak to dump all 5 of his Fury into the Krielstone.
Mulg, Earthborns and Axer: I don’t think I have to explain these choices to any Trollblood players. Combined with the Feat these beasts should be able to wipe out any Tarpit in front of them and then keep going into the juicy targets behind them. Afterwards they can be 20, 21, or 22 Armor looking at your opponent’s army with just one thing to say. “Got Kriel?”
Thanks for Reading! Goris and Bloodrath…thanks for joining me. You guys can listen to us on the 12 Episode of The Scrumcast which you can find…HERE!
~Omnus
You can find the the first part of my other series here…
Here is the full list of articles in the “Of Blight and Blood” series…
Part I Where it all begins…
Part II Jarl and Minion Magic!
Part III Three outlooks for Madrak1
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