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Post by beardowski on Jan 30, 2019 18:23:58 GMT
I am still pretty green when it comes to playing WarmaHordes (thankfully I have been getting a lot more reps in within my local meta, The Mark Howard Dojo) and I am still finding I am having trouble using the Mauler effectively. Shooty Beasts seem to click with me a bit more, while beasts like Mauler find themselves out of the action the majority of the time, or targeted and taken out. I understand Mauler is generally a late game beast, but I am not positioning him correctly to throw those meaty hands. Perhaps I am getting him too jammed up among my own screening units, or perhaps I am not being aggressive enough with him. Any suggestions would be welcome, and examples with those suggestions would be even better!
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Post by Trollock on Jan 30, 2019 18:56:42 GMT
In general, just keep him back and when something scary attacks your stuff, have the caster Rage the Mauler and eat it.
As we are no longer playing much PoD where you have lots of heavies you probably have a battle group of a mayler and another heavy like a bomber, brawler or EBDT. The mauler can turn any one of those in to a proper melee beater. If you can chose to have your OTHER heavy kill what ever attacked you by putting Rage on it with the Mauler, that is probably the right choice. You certainly want a Mauler alive if you only have one beast alive, so make sure it dies last.
Not super useful info i guess...
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Post by deathbymelancholy on Jan 30, 2019 20:51:41 GMT
Step 1. Facilitate stuff beating on other stuff really good. Step 2. Go beat on stuff himself  |
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Post by Big Fat Troll on Jan 30, 2019 20:59:29 GMT
If you are in Band of Heroes or Storm of the North and you have Champs and Bears who can crack armor, then you don't need a Mauler. Band especially has almost no ranged attacks on its own, though, so I do like the Bomber there, especially if I'm playing Madrak 1 because he can use Far Strike. The Madraks and Borkas all like the Pyre Troll because they do go into melee fairly often. It can also be used to set Fire Eaters on fire.
The Bouncer is a great default because even if your opponent has no guns, it can still hold choke points and zones and be hard enough to kill that your opponent has to commit something that had cost more and you trade up. The Swamp Troll has Pathfinder and can drag solos off of flags, among other fun shenanigans. The Winter Troll has a boostable spray with crit freeze. An Axer should usually be your third warbeast if you need one and have the points because Rush is very helpful then and a boostable POW 14 Thresher is strong right now. The Night Troll and Basher are just cheap, if you need to fill points, and any warbeast can sink transfers.
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Post by beardowski on Jan 30, 2019 21:12:37 GMT
If you are in Band of Heroes or Storm of the North and you have Champs and Bears who can crack armor, then you don't need a Mauler. Band especially has almost no ranged attacks on its own, though, so I do like the Bomber there, especially if I'm playing Madrak 1 because he can use Far Strike. The Madraks and Borkas all like the Pyre Troll because they do go into melee fairly often. It can also be used to set Fire Eaters on fire. The Bouncer is a great default because even if your opponent has no guns, it can still hold choke points and zones and be hard enough to kill that your opponent has to commit something that had cost more and you trade up. The Swamp Troll has Pathfinder and can drag solos off of flags, among other fun shenanigans. The Winter Troll has a boostable spray with crit freeze. An Axer should usually be your third warbeast if you need one and have the points because Rush is very helpful then and a boostable POW 14 Thresher is strong right now. The Night Troll and Basher are just cheap, if you need to fill points, and any warbeast can sink transfers. I am actually digging double bouncers, as they can be a pain to remove, as well as guarding what is near them. I ran a POD list at a scrum game last night, and probably should of had Mauler hang with the bouncer. I also like the idea of bouncer grabbing a +3 strength buff from Mauler as well. The point that everyone is making is pass out Maulers animus often, then pounce. It also makes sense to have Mauler target heavies when he has Rage and +1 strength from the stone on him, my question is how do I get him in pouncing position? Should Mauler have a screen unit in front of him, or should he be more at the army's center, until he can zone in on a potential target? It seems to me an exposed Mauler will get picked off before reaching his target. |
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cuberic
Junior Strategist
Posts: 129 
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Post by cuberic on Jan 30, 2019 21:52:53 GMT
Mauler will always need a screen in front of him. Only doomy3 and ragnor can run them front and center, but still only during feat turn.
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Post by Big Fat Troll on Jan 31, 2019 1:39:57 GMT
Yeah, in that case, the Bouncer would be within 3 inches of the Mauler, but between it and the enemy models. So they would have to go through the Bouncer to get to the Mauler, depending on terrain, or at least take a free strike.
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Post by elricaltovilla on Jan 31, 2019 16:10:06 GMT
The Mauler is a 15 point buff bot that can also do the fighting once your other beasts bite it. It's better to keep it back and use it to support the rest of your battle group unless you are taking multiple maulers.
I'm not really a fan of the Mauler's design in this regard. I always felt it should be used to, you know, maul stuff.
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Post by Trollock on Jan 31, 2019 17:43:47 GMT
I mean, you COULD just play double Mauler and fight with both...
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Post by elricaltovilla on Jan 31, 2019 20:58:45 GMT
I mean, you COULD just play double Mauler and fight with both... I have done that. It's less effective than I would like, even using Doomie2 who is probably the best battle group caster in trolls for that sort of thing. I'm learning that I'm apparently very picky about my models. |
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Post by Big Fat Troll on Feb 1, 2019 5:59:58 GMT
I mean, you COULD just play double Mauler and fight with both... I have done that. It's less effective than I would like, even using Doomie2 who is probably the best battle group caster in trolls for that sort of thing. I'm learning that I'm apparently very picky about my models. Granted, it's been out of the meta for a year or more, but the Mark Gerow Doomy 2 list was great while it lasted. conflictchamber.com/?c7201b_-0b539D9DiRiRjp0hjq7d6R0l0mTrollbloods Army - 75 / 75 points [Theme] The Power of Dhunia [Doomshaper 2] Hoarluk Doomshaper, Rage of Dhunia [+27] - Dire Troll Mauler [15] - Dire Troll Mauler [15] - Earthborn Dire Troll [14] - Earthborn Dire Troll [14] - Mulg the Ancient [22] - Troll Axer [10] - Trollkin Runebearer [0(5)] Janissa Stonetide [0(4)] Troll Whelps [0(4)] Krielstone Bearer & Stone Scribes (max) [9] - Stone Scribe Elder [3] |
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Post by elricaltovilla on Feb 1, 2019 13:17:53 GMT
Yeah that's a lot like what I was using. Still mostly ended up with the Maulers being buff bots because you just can't afford to lose access to rage.
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joedj
Junior Strategist
Posts: 513
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Post by joedj on Feb 6, 2019 7:14:42 GMT
Early in MK3, double EBDT, double Mauler with Ragnar was my thing to combat Khador jack spam. That's long gone now, this being the era of 40mm opposing infantry hitting way above their weight class. Threat area of heavy infantry coupled with their ability to spread out for defense, Toughness, and also Steady makes a Mauler's namesake job difficult to accomplish. Perhaps could be renamed Dire Troll Buffer  Yet I still field one often as necessary for those encounters with opposing buffed ARM. |
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Post by deathbymelancholy on Feb 6, 2019 12:50:17 GMT
Early in MK3, double EBDT, double Mauler with Ragnar was my thing to combat Khador jack spam. That's long gone now, this being the era of 40mm opposing infantry hitting way above their weight class. Threat area of heavy infantry coupled with their ability to spread out for defense, Toughness, and also Steady makes a Mauler's namesake job difficult to accomplish. Perhaps could be renamed Dire Troll Buffer Yet I still field one often as necessary for those encounters with opposing buffed ARM. A mauler animus on an Overtaking Brawler seems like he'd be okay into a lot of that.... |
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Post by robbleyourworld on Feb 19, 2019 17:14:08 GMT
As has been said and you point out yourself the mauler is a late game piece. He spends most of the early game hanging out aggressively beating his chest in the relative safety of the mid to back line.
I tend to bring him when I feel like my beasts need to have the ability to crack armor in melee. When I bring him my package is often just a mauler + bomber or two lights. I've been playing a lot of BoH so I tend to position him in the mid line behind some champions. this means that if I need to send him in to one round whatever they send in to deal with the champions (something they probably have to do) I can easily retaliate against it.
Of course this is easier said than done but its just my general plan. If you can keep the mauler alive to turn 5 he can really start to be a big problem for your opponent.
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Yet I still field one often as necessary for those encounters with opposing buffed ARM.