Kolgrima - A Tour Of Trolls

For my first Tour of Trolls post, I decided to go with Kolgrima, our newest warlock.  

When she went through CID I was utterly meh on her and was too focused on all the other changes to the faction during the few playtest games I was able to conduct and report on the forum.  I had no idea how wrong I was about her!

Even when she came out I didn't really dojo with her, all the other changes really commanded my attention until it came time to find a tournament pair for the inevitable Madrak1 list I had cooked up.

I really think I've got a winner with this list, it pairs great with Madrak1 Band of Heroes and it's frankly terrifying in its own right:

War Room Army

Trollblood - A Song of Ice & Fire
Theme: The Power of Dhunia
3 / 3 Free Cards 75 / 75 Army

Kolgrima Stonetruth, Winter Witch - WB: +28
- Trollkin Runebearer - PC: 0
- Dire Troll Mauler - PC: 15 (Battlegroup Points Used: 15)
- Earthborn Dire Troll - PC: 14 (Battlegroup Points Used: 13)
- Earthborn Dire Troll - PC: 14
- Mulg the Ancient - PC: 22
- Troll Axer - PC: 10

Northkin Shaman - PC: 0
Northkin Shaman - PC: 0

Croak Raiders - Leader & 9 Grunts: 16
Krielstone Bearer & Stone Scribes - Leader & 5 Grunts: 9
- Stone Scribe Elder - PC: 3

THEME: The Power of Dhunia

The Theory Behind the List

I wanted something that could answer gunlines, especially Cygnar with Haley3 Grave Diggers coming up as a particularly scary boogeyman in the meta.   I think Kolgrima clearly prefers having a classic Troll Beast Brick given that she gets an incredible amount of use out of the New Mulg™.  This means we're going to be playing Power of Dhunia (PoD), which really limits our infantry choices.

The problem with nearly all Power of Dhunia (PoD) lists is that if your opponent has more than one infantry unit, it's very easy for your opponent to bog down a big beast brick and take you down, and the Runeshapers you can take as your own infantry just don't do very well against a lot of other opposing dudes.

My eureka moment was realizing that the single minions unit we can take with the new theme changes really can change how PoD plays.  Farrow Brigands, Nyss Hunters, and Croak Raiders all seem to be strong choices as a ranged anti-infantry option.  I already owned some Croaks from MK2 and they were both the cheapest option (once you consider the near mandatory Brigand Warlord) and they were recently buffed to POW 11 on their guns and given Pathfinder natively.

What's better is that Kolgrima really turns these guys on as an anti-infantry option with her spell Cursed Fate.  The Croaks become effectively RAT 8 and it doesn't matter what armor your target infantry has, they just take an auto point of damage when hit!   

Things like Iron Fang Pikemen, Dawnguard Sentinels, or Houseguard Halberdiers, or Banes under the Wraith Engine Aura that would all normally be a huge problem for a PoD beast brick to deal with suddenly melt away under these guns.  

But wait, there's more! Kolgrima has an insane SP10 POW12 spell that has effectively Signs and Portents for attack and damage. With Mulg as a quasi arc node, you can cast out multiple Cursed Fates on different units and then simply spray them all down.  She even deals with nearly impossible to take down at range troops like Satyxis Raiders since she's using a spell, not a ranged attack.

If this is all that Kolgrima did, she'd already be a strong caster for any PoD list given that she really helps take down infantry that would otherwise give you fits, but there's still more!

Kolgrima can build a cloud wall in trolls, where playing in PoD lets you take Northkin Shaman as free solo options, which can further extend your cloud wall.  On top of that there is Kolgrima's feat, which is effectively a Hard-No on guns: any enemies in her control area when she feats can't make ranged attacks! On top of this they get pushed 2" directly away from her, lose Pathfinder, Eyeless Sight, and Flight.  

She can be a very strong answer to things like Haley 3 Grave Diggers and can really help deliver a full Troll Beast Brick, possibly even giving you the alpha due to the cloud wall.  This was all the theory I had going in, and here's what I realized on the table.

My Results

I've played this list into two Khador lists: Irusk2 with 30 Iron Fang Pikemen + Conquest and an Old Witch 2 list with 7 heavies in Jaws of the Wolf.  I won both games on scenario, despite both lists being wildly different.

Gamer Dad's have to go to extreme measures to get our games in some times!

Against Irusk2 we played Standoff.  Irusk2 can answer the cloud wall with his feat, but I was fortunate enough to be able to go first in our game.  This enabled me to use the Croaks and Mulg's arc node ability to wipe almost 20 Pikemen from the table on my second turn.  All the while I was slowly scoring points, and by turn 3, I was able to deny my opponent from scoring any points at all, letting me get ahead a little.  Once my opponents first 20 pikemen were dead, I was able to send my beasts into his Colossal and get ahead on piece trades while staying up a little on points and eventually his remaining pikemen unit was too busy trying to deal with the beasts in the only zone he could score to stop me from scoring elsewhere to win via 5CP.  I think the matchup is harder for Kolgrima if she can't go first, but it's still doable if you position properly.

Against Old Witch 3 I was facing down 2x Marauders, 2x Juggernauts, 1 Spriggan, and 2 Marshalled Destroyers on the Pit 2 scenario.

I was forced to go second and used my clouds to protect most of my heavies and my Croaks.  My opponent had to either walk into my threat ranges or just toe the zones for his turn 2, he opted to just toe the zones with heavies and some infantry, not realizing she could get into a position to feat him out of all the zones. 

I was able to live the dream in this game and line it up so Kolgrima was in the center of the board and had her feat push every enemy model out of all the zones, with me sending in an Earthborn to kill an objective to get 4 CP's on the bottom of Turn 2!  From here out I would be fighting to come up ahead against 7 heavies to 4 Heavies + 1 Light, but when my opponent went in on Mulg with a Boundless Charged + 3 Focus Spriggan, Mulg was able to Primal Rage and get a very lucky Crit Slam to send the Spriggan away. This swung the game from an attrition race for me to score the last CP's as his heavy advantage came to bear to an easy victory on my part.  I still think I would be able to pull out a win with how the board position was, but it would have been dicey.

Conclusions

Kolgrima feels really, really strong especially as a pair to a troop heavy Madrak1 list that I'm currently running.  She's a quasi-control caster with LOS denial and shooting denial, as well as a feat that can really help you get ahead on scenario.  All the other changes we got in CID helped her list immensely: Arcane Repeater on the Runebearer and the Stone generating its own Fury really help her spend her 7 fury down on her feat turn where you can largely use distance to keep her safe from assassination.  I haven't even really had to make use of her Owl's Wisdom spell denial, but she can do it to herself to prevent any spell assassinations when you feat to deny shooting, and use distance to keep yourself safe from melee threats.

I'm sure Kolgrima can be built to deliver an infantry or balanced Troll list if you wanted, though it certainly seems like right now she's best using Power of Dhunia and a shooting minion unit to support the beast brick.   She's definitely got a lot of power and options for us to explore going forward, and I look forward to experimenting with her more.