Post by Trollock on Dec 1, 2017 12:20:06 GMT
I needed to clear my head after a particularly grueling meeting at work, so i decided to do some quick dojo. I have a little randomizing program (used in the Dojo Lottery Challenge thread) so i selected a random caster to build a "new and exciting" list for. Today, it was Grissel 1.
Grissel 1 is one of our less played casters. Mainly because she received a HUGE nerf to her feat in the MK3 transition. For you youngsters who do not remember, her cacophony used to prevent orders and spellcasting, and her feat made ALL your models/units (including Grissel) in your control be affected by both Hoof It and Heroic Ballad AND all enemy models/units in her control were affected by Cacophony. This was in my opinion THE strongest feat in the game. Now her feat does almost nothing, and Cacophony was nerfed heavily. She did get Boundless Charge and 10" range on Calamity though. Over all, she is MUCH worse, but she is still playable for sure, and she has very interesting builds in ALL themes. She is one of our most versatile casters. To celebrate this, i built one list for each theme for her to share with you. Now these are not the only lists possible for her naturally. There can be a big variety within each theme, these are just some inspiration!
Band of Heroes
Until the theme update, this was a bad choice for her. First of all, it was a bad theme, but she REALLY wants the Runebearer and that was not allowed. Now that it IS allowed, she can pilot this in a reasonable way id say. Long Riders have very nice synergy with Hoof It. They can get a charge by being pretty fast, and then back up a total of 10" to do it again on the next turn. I started there and worked onward to something like this:
(Grissel 1) Grissel Bloodsong, Fell Caller [+29]
- Dire Troll Mauler [15]
- Ice Troll [9]
- Pyre Troll [8]
- Trollkin Runebearer [0(5)]
Fennblade Kithkar [0(4)]
Saxon Orrik [4]
Stone Scribe Chronicler [4]
Krielstone Bearer & Stone Scribes (max) [9]
- Stone Scribe Elder [3]
Long Riders (max) [20]
Trollkin Fennblades (max) [15]
- Fennblade Officer and Drummer [0(5)]
Trollkin Warders (max) [17]
Kithkar could be a Fell Caller, but he allows the Fennblades to be MAT 7 even if they get an extra attack from Grissel. The pseudo take down from the theme means that cleave is less efficient, but with Heroic Ballad and MAT 7, the Fennblades can really mulch infantry. Saxon is there to grant pathfinder where needed, and that too goes around the fell caller skornegy. He is also excellent at scoring flags. Warders are there to protect the fast elements from ranged attacks, but can chip in late game. With all the buffs i can throw at them here, they go to POW 18 on their charges! The battle group is mainly an after thought, but Grissel CAN buff lights to ungodly levels. Having to lights with reach to trigger charge of the trolls allows your normally fairly pillow fisted units to do serious work, and the Mauler will kill anything in the game if you buff him fully and send him in. POW 22, a free charge, MAT 8-10 and a total of 8 attacks (plus the chain attack) kills anything basically
Power of Dhunia
This is the place where most ppl have played her. She can allow any beast to kill anything basically, and the arc node from Mulg is a game changer. I have played her with light spam, and Night Trolls are amazing with her. You could basically pick and chose the flavor of lights you want though. I picked some Bashers since they have Pathfinder and are almost as good at fighting as Night Trolls, A Storm troll to have a gun and a Bouncer to have some protection for Grissel.
(Grissel 1) Grissel Bloodsong, Fell Caller [+29]
- Dire Troll Mauler [15]
- Mulg the Ancient [22]
- Night Troll [7]
- Night Troll [7]
- Night Troll [7]
- Storm Troll [9]
- Troll Basher [7]
- Troll Basher [7]
- Troll Bouncer [9]
- Trollkin Runebearer [0(5)]
Janissa Stonetide [0(4)]
Troll Whelps [0(4)]
Krielstone Bearer & Stone Scribes (max) [9]
- Stone Scribe Elder [3]
Swamp Gobbers Bellows Crew [2]
The idea of the list is simple. Use your 7 point lights to kill a 10-20 point heavy. they will run out of stuff before you do. With Calamity, Stone Strength, Rage, Boundless Charge and Heroic Ballad, your night trolls can make a total of 7 attacks at POW 18. That kills the average Khador heavy, and makes minced meat out of more modest heavies. If you want to have some redundancy, shoot the heavy with a boosted POW 12(14) from the storm troll before you go in.
Oh, and as an alternative to this type of spam list, Grissel works very well with a minion unit in addition to a beast pack. If you keep your stone at a min size, you can still get 75 points of beasts and get your three free things.
Kriel Company
Calamity obviously supports shooting well. POW 15 shots from Sluggers will tear up the more fragile heavies around, and they will make short work out of units as well. Hoof it can allow them to back off and stay safe. Landing Calamity with no arc node and a ranged focused list is tricky though. Luckily, Grissel also has great support for the War Wagon. Allowing it to charge 2" further is really nasty, and being able to back up a total of 10" after having run over an infantry unit is also incredible. Ill base my list around that!
(Grissel 1) Grissel Bloodsong, Fell Caller [+29]
- Dire Troll Bomber [19]
- Mountain King [36]
- Trollkin Runebearer [0(5)]
Braylen Wanderheart, Trollkin Outlaw [0(5)]
Dannon Blythe & Bull [5]
Krielstone Bearer & Stone Scribes (max) [9]
- Stone Scribe Elder [3]
Trollkin War Wagon [16]
Trollkin War Wagon [16]
First list you see with Blythe and Bull? They are basically there to be a cheap scoring unit, but they can probably do enough work to be an OK choice. They even benefit from the kriel stone here, which makes them slightly harder to shoot down. Having 3 huge bases sounds like a lot, but when one of those can easily go 21" on turn 1, i think you will not be crowded. Get to their side of the board, keep the fight there and try and score your side with Braylen or DB&B. No idea if this is good, but it seems pretty fun at least. Maybe this can be refined enough to be valid.
Storms of the North
Last but not least, we have our newest theme. Several models available here can be found in other themes, and work as well or even better here than there. If you liked Long Riders that go 21" on turn 1, and that can back up 10" after a charge, how about long riders that go 24" on turn 1, and that can back up 11"? For this list i basically threw together some random northkin stuff until it felt good. The list feels all round enough for me to suspect that it can handle lots of different things.
(Grissel 1) Grissel Bloodsong, Fell Caller [+29]
- Dire Troll Brawler [16]
- Rok [19]
- Trollkin Runebearer [0(5)]
Fell Caller Hero [0(5)]
Gremlin Swarm [3]
Valka Curseborn, Chieftain of the North [0(6)]
Krielstone Bearer & Stone Scribes (max) [9]
- Northkin Elder [3]
Long Riders (max) [20]
Northkin Bear Handle & Battle Bears [10]
Northkin Bear Handle & Battle Bears [10]
Northkin Fire Eaters [7]
Northkin Fire Eaters [7]
One could probably make a list that is more ranged focused, with the HHH and Raiders and so on. Kriel Warriors are bad fighters we all know, but if they become POW 14, and MAT 10 and have 2 attacks with support from Grissel, the NK elder and the HHH, they are really scary. It would not surprise me if 30 kriel warriors are a totally valid strategy!
There we have it. Enough Dojo for the day. Maybe some one found it interesting. Back to work now!
Grissel 1 is one of our less played casters. Mainly because she received a HUGE nerf to her feat in the MK3 transition. For you youngsters who do not remember, her cacophony used to prevent orders and spellcasting, and her feat made ALL your models/units (including Grissel) in your control be affected by both Hoof It and Heroic Ballad AND all enemy models/units in her control were affected by Cacophony. This was in my opinion THE strongest feat in the game. Now her feat does almost nothing, and Cacophony was nerfed heavily. She did get Boundless Charge and 10" range on Calamity though. Over all, she is MUCH worse, but she is still playable for sure, and she has very interesting builds in ALL themes. She is one of our most versatile casters. To celebrate this, i built one list for each theme for her to share with you. Now these are not the only lists possible for her naturally. There can be a big variety within each theme, these are just some inspiration!
Band of Heroes
Until the theme update, this was a bad choice for her. First of all, it was a bad theme, but she REALLY wants the Runebearer and that was not allowed. Now that it IS allowed, she can pilot this in a reasonable way id say. Long Riders have very nice synergy with Hoof It. They can get a charge by being pretty fast, and then back up a total of 10" to do it again on the next turn. I started there and worked onward to something like this:
(Grissel 1) Grissel Bloodsong, Fell Caller [+29]
- Dire Troll Mauler [15]
- Ice Troll [9]
- Pyre Troll [8]
- Trollkin Runebearer [0(5)]
Fennblade Kithkar [0(4)]
Saxon Orrik [4]
Stone Scribe Chronicler [4]
Krielstone Bearer & Stone Scribes (max) [9]
- Stone Scribe Elder [3]
Long Riders (max) [20]
Trollkin Fennblades (max) [15]
- Fennblade Officer and Drummer [0(5)]
Trollkin Warders (max) [17]
Kithkar could be a Fell Caller, but he allows the Fennblades to be MAT 7 even if they get an extra attack from Grissel. The pseudo take down from the theme means that cleave is less efficient, but with Heroic Ballad and MAT 7, the Fennblades can really mulch infantry. Saxon is there to grant pathfinder where needed, and that too goes around the fell caller skornegy. He is also excellent at scoring flags. Warders are there to protect the fast elements from ranged attacks, but can chip in late game. With all the buffs i can throw at them here, they go to POW 18 on their charges! The battle group is mainly an after thought, but Grissel CAN buff lights to ungodly levels. Having to lights with reach to trigger charge of the trolls allows your normally fairly pillow fisted units to do serious work, and the Mauler will kill anything in the game if you buff him fully and send him in. POW 22, a free charge, MAT 8-10 and a total of 8 attacks (plus the chain attack) kills anything basically
Power of Dhunia
This is the place where most ppl have played her. She can allow any beast to kill anything basically, and the arc node from Mulg is a game changer. I have played her with light spam, and Night Trolls are amazing with her. You could basically pick and chose the flavor of lights you want though. I picked some Bashers since they have Pathfinder and are almost as good at fighting as Night Trolls, A Storm troll to have a gun and a Bouncer to have some protection for Grissel.
(Grissel 1) Grissel Bloodsong, Fell Caller [+29]
- Dire Troll Mauler [15]
- Mulg the Ancient [22]
- Night Troll [7]
- Night Troll [7]
- Night Troll [7]
- Storm Troll [9]
- Troll Basher [7]
- Troll Basher [7]
- Troll Bouncer [9]
- Trollkin Runebearer [0(5)]
Janissa Stonetide [0(4)]
Troll Whelps [0(4)]
Krielstone Bearer & Stone Scribes (max) [9]
- Stone Scribe Elder [3]
Swamp Gobbers Bellows Crew [2]
The idea of the list is simple. Use your 7 point lights to kill a 10-20 point heavy. they will run out of stuff before you do. With Calamity, Stone Strength, Rage, Boundless Charge and Heroic Ballad, your night trolls can make a total of 7 attacks at POW 18. That kills the average Khador heavy, and makes minced meat out of more modest heavies. If you want to have some redundancy, shoot the heavy with a boosted POW 12(14) from the storm troll before you go in.
Oh, and as an alternative to this type of spam list, Grissel works very well with a minion unit in addition to a beast pack. If you keep your stone at a min size, you can still get 75 points of beasts and get your three free things.
Kriel Company
Calamity obviously supports shooting well. POW 15 shots from Sluggers will tear up the more fragile heavies around, and they will make short work out of units as well. Hoof it can allow them to back off and stay safe. Landing Calamity with no arc node and a ranged focused list is tricky though. Luckily, Grissel also has great support for the War Wagon. Allowing it to charge 2" further is really nasty, and being able to back up a total of 10" after having run over an infantry unit is also incredible. Ill base my list around that!
(Grissel 1) Grissel Bloodsong, Fell Caller [+29]
- Dire Troll Bomber [19]
- Mountain King [36]
- Trollkin Runebearer [0(5)]
Braylen Wanderheart, Trollkin Outlaw [0(5)]
Dannon Blythe & Bull [5]
Krielstone Bearer & Stone Scribes (max) [9]
- Stone Scribe Elder [3]
Trollkin War Wagon [16]
Trollkin War Wagon [16]
First list you see with Blythe and Bull? They are basically there to be a cheap scoring unit, but they can probably do enough work to be an OK choice. They even benefit from the kriel stone here, which makes them slightly harder to shoot down. Having 3 huge bases sounds like a lot, but when one of those can easily go 21" on turn 1, i think you will not be crowded. Get to their side of the board, keep the fight there and try and score your side with Braylen or DB&B. No idea if this is good, but it seems pretty fun at least. Maybe this can be refined enough to be valid.
Storms of the North
Last but not least, we have our newest theme. Several models available here can be found in other themes, and work as well or even better here than there. If you liked Long Riders that go 21" on turn 1, and that can back up 10" after a charge, how about long riders that go 24" on turn 1, and that can back up 11"? For this list i basically threw together some random northkin stuff until it felt good. The list feels all round enough for me to suspect that it can handle lots of different things.
(Grissel 1) Grissel Bloodsong, Fell Caller [+29]
- Dire Troll Brawler [16]
- Rok [19]
- Trollkin Runebearer [0(5)]
Fell Caller Hero [0(5)]
Gremlin Swarm [3]
Valka Curseborn, Chieftain of the North [0(6)]
Krielstone Bearer & Stone Scribes (max) [9]
- Northkin Elder [3]
Long Riders (max) [20]
Northkin Bear Handle & Battle Bears [10]
Northkin Bear Handle & Battle Bears [10]
Northkin Fire Eaters [7]
Northkin Fire Eaters [7]
One could probably make a list that is more ranged focused, with the HHH and Raiders and so on. Kriel Warriors are bad fighters we all know, but if they become POW 14, and MAT 10 and have 2 attacks with support from Grissel, the NK elder and the HHH, they are really scary. It would not surprise me if 30 kriel warriors are a totally valid strategy!
There we have it. Enough Dojo for the day. Maybe some one found it interesting. Back to work now!