Golden Troll

What two posts in a day I hear you say ;-)

Myself , Luke Foster et al have decided to go to Golden Troll for the Saturday Open, a 35 point tournament held in Chorley, Lancs, at the end of October 2011. The UK Hardcore Series Final is being held on the Sunday, which is the main event, though there are numerous other activates such as the Saturday Open that Luke and I are attending as well as a couple of Mangled Metal events, see the link here for more details.

Golden Troll is a dual list affair so I firstly I decided to take the same epic Severius list I took to York as it performed well and I liked using it.  I’d probably drop the Daughters of the Flame unit for something better if I’m honest, but they’re painted and I’m not that fussed on getting the list that much more optimal.  For the second list I decided to take prime Severius, mainly because he is my favourite warcaster in the Protectorate faction and I’d have a fairly relaxed painting schedule to complete for the event ;-)

The lists:

eSeverius

*Blessing of Vengeance

*Reckoner

*Reckoner

Choir of Menoth (min)

Exemplar Errants (min)

Exemplar Errants UA

Daughters of the Flame

Covenant of Menoth

Vassal of Menoth

pSeverius

*Blessing of Vengeance

*Vanquisher

Avatar of Menoth

Choir of Menoth (min)

Exemplar Errants (min)

Exemplar Errants UA

Temple Flame Guard (min)

Vassal of Menoth

Both lists are actually very similar, sharing a lot of units and both warcasters are fairly similar in play style.  This is something that will disadvantage me as far as in a competitive sense as the word is to ideally create two very different lists, making it harder for your opponent to choose which to play against you with, e.g. one list jack heavy and the other infantry heavy etc.  To be honest I don’t really care as I’m not expecting to be up there with the best and I’m taking what I’ve got painted and what I like to use!  I’ll probably learn from this experience and perhaps try out some other casters, units etc who will give that diversity and tactical flexibility.

I’ll write a few lines on the pSevvy list as discussion on the epic list can be found in previous blog entries.  This list as noted above shares quite a few units with the epic list, I included Errants again as they are probably one of the best units in the game and pSevvy’s spell list augments them to frightening stat lines with Eye of Menoth and Defenders Ward spells I so often combine, MAT 8 – P&S10 weapon masters is rude, even their crossbows become deadly under EoM.  With Defenders Ward these guys become DEF14 and ARM18, add in some cover and they’re very hard to eradicate.

I chose the Avatar for this list as pSevvy doesn’t have any battlegroup spells and EoM plus the Choir make this jack hit incredibly accurate and hard hitting, +3 to MAT and his weapons P&S.  The Blessing of Vengeance is a must with pSevvy as his Ashes to Ashes spell becomes very powerful indeed with his character jack.

I chose the Temple Flame Guard to accompany this list as they are a decent tar-pit and perform a little better with EoM.  They never really do a great deal in games and just die horribly – a bit like Meatloaf in all of his films – LOL!  The unit was originally ten strong and the list had a Crusader jack instead of the Vanquisher, but reducing them down to a minimum sized unit allowed the Vanquisher to sneak in!

The Vanquisher is the last element of this list to be painted and I decided to replace the Crusader because the Avatar does that job so well I didn’t need a second melee jack.  The 4” AOE of continuous fire is frightening to many opponents and similarly to the Avatar it ends up getting +3 to its attack and damage rolls (Choir and EoM), its blast damage can be deceptively high and can obviously be boosted as well as setting the target on fire.

Vanquisher work in progress, its all magnetised!

I have play tested this list a few times and am happy with how it plays.  I feel that the TFG are a bit slim at 6 models and they basically stand in front of pSevvy as a meat shield, maybe I’d be better spending the points elsewhere, say another Vassal and Gorman Di Wulfe for example, but I spent ages painting them and they’re in the list now!