by Peter Atkinson
I hope your woman loves you like Stu Hodges loves his Troggs. Cobber sent me three lists for the October Challenge, and they were all Troggoths, all the time. I was tempted to give him the entire podium to himself in recognition of his total dedication to the craft, but one of them had a Mollog in it so fuck that.
We’ve also got our mate Nathan playing on Hard Mode with what must surely be the worst Army that will ever be released. Instantly dumped onto the scrapheap of history by most Orruk players, Taco has had a red-hot crack at the Grunta Stampede, so fair fucking play to him I say.
As a reminder, your challenge this month was a very straightforward one: we were looking for your Dawnbringer 3 Armies of Renown lists, which meant the Troggoth one, the double-tapping KO one*, the Big Pigs one or the King Brodd one.
We’ll also throw down the November Challenge in this article – if you’re a gambling man, bookies are currently offering $1.01 on where we’re going with that, so now’s the time to place your bets.
Ready? Let’s go.
*We’re already dancing on that bastard’s grave. It will not be missed, although it might feel very quaint once we all start getting shot off by Fusiliers in the not-too-distant future.
List of the Month: Stuart “Troggboss” Hodges, Trugg’s Troggherd
Danks for the Memories
– Army Faction: Gloomspite Gitz
– Subfaction: Trugg’s Troggherd
– Grand Strategy: Overshadow
LEADERS
Trugg (320)
Dankhold Troggboss (210)*
– General
– Command Traits: Ceaseless Growth
– Artefacts of Power: Loonstone Teef
BATTLELINE
Dankhold Troggoths (380)*
Rockgut Troggoths (340)*
Rockgut Troggoths (340)*
Fellwater Troggoths (170)*
Fellwater Troggoths (170)*
TERRAIN
1 x Bad Moon Loonshrine (0)
CORE BATTALIONS
*Battle Regiment
TOTAL POINTS: 1930/2000
Let’s start at the start shall we? Everyone who plays Troggs will be well aware – and outraged – that they are not “Elite”, so they’re fucked without someone to issue them with CAs. Well the good news is, with Troggboss being your chosen general and Trugg having the Warmaster ability, you’ve now got two 18″ CA auras to work with.
As a reminder of the tech choices in Stu’s list, he’s chosen the correct ones, giving him extra army-wide healing in both players’ hero phases as well as an extra Monster for all your Roar and Terrain-smashing needs:
Credit: rules by GW, helpful graphic via Zo from the Gitz Discord
In terms of the unit selections, I love what Trogg has done here. He’s got a splash of summoning potential – 3x free Rockguts is worth it, and 3 Fellies coming back as 2 always feels good too. The Double Danks are the true giga-damage unit for when you need to get shit done, and he’s just oozing with secondary threats from 2x 6 Rockguts, both fightin’ heroes and skirmishing Fellwaters.
The reinforcements are spot on: I hate putting single units of Rockguts in starting Troggoth lists, because with only 6 dice they’re liable to do absolutely nothing in melee. That reinforced unit gives them the critical mass of dice and makes them terrifying with the enhanced All Out Attack from the Troggboss. Meanwhile Fellwaters in MSU are perfect: throwing 15 attack dice right off the bat and supporting other units with their vomit and -1 to hit aura, they’re great at both skirmishing with isolated chaff or dogpiling a key enemy unit.
Not everything in your army can take the 5++ ward well (it’s essentially wasted on Rockguts), but not everything needs to: you won’t hit the result you want every time, so it’s good to have an oven-ready Anvil for all the times you don’t hit lucky. Getting the wards on Trugg, Troggboss, the Danks and the Fellwaters is plenty of mileage – you don’t need to hamstring your army chasing diminishing returns on every single unit. I reckon Stu’s hit the sweet spot here.
My only question would be that eyebrow-raising Triumph bid: would you be better off upgrading one unit of 6 Rockguts to a second unit of Danks? Maybe – you’d be coming in at 1970 which is still competitive, but 2x 6 Rockguts is a competitive staple for a reason. Either way, you’ve got solid Battle Tactic potential and the army will look amazing on the table.
Big, big fan of this list. Well done mate.
Runner Up: Nathaniel Sudek, Grunta Stampede
Hoo boy. Most artists walk into a studio and expect to see oil paints and sable-hair brushes; and here’s Taco, trying to paint a masterpiece with sticks and mud. Grunta Stampede is not for the faint-hearted, but it’s gonna take more than crap rules to stop Taco doing what he loves.
Nothing but nothing but Big Pigs. If you love these minis and are determined to play them in their own faction, I reckon Nathaniel’s direction is the way to go.
I love the Battleline Big Pigs, but biggest structural issue I have with making Big Pig your general to unlock that is that his CT options are bleak. He’s kinda easy to kill so Taco has gone all-in on addressing that, with an extra wound from the generic list of CTs, a 6+ ward and ignoring rend -1. He’s still no King Brodd, but as a package it’ll definitely help.
Nullstone Icon gives you the unbind, and we always love to see that counter-charge on the 3rd Gruntaboss. Those Mount Trait options are a good reason to take multiple Tuskbosses, and it does put a decent chunk of your army on 3+ saves.
I’m on the record that I think GW chronically undercooked the Momentum mechanic, because it bleeds out way too quick, but at least in the Stampede you kinda get back to where you maybe should have started. It has a knock-on effect to making your (important) Monstrous Rampages achievable, as well as the stat buffs, so together with the minor charge mortals the units will at least feel like they are rampaging around the board.
You’ll miss the Warchanter, of course, and Mighty D – I’ve been working on Ironjawz and Big Waaagh lists for the Big Pigs, which might be a more competitive home for them. But if you want to go all-in on the theme, I reckon Nathaniel has understood the assignment and this is the way to do it. Well done on stepping up to the challenge mate.
My service to the Troggoth Community
I mentioned at the top of the article that Stu chucked Mollog in one of his lists, and he’s popping up in a few of the Trugg lists I’ve seen floating around currently: partly because there are so few units to choose from, partly because the points often land awkwardly in Trugg lists with the unit selection available, and partly because there’s untapped long-term demand to run a cool mini that never sees the table. Of those, only the final one is a good reason to put him in your lists.
The most common place I’ve seen him taken is with MSU Dankholds. I can see the appeal in running this list archetype, where everything is a threat in its own way and it creates a different type of headache for your opponent. MSU Danks also give you a whole bunch of nom-noms: hilariously, when they are reinforced the second and third models lose their pluck because RAW it’s just one for the unit (regardless of the unit size):
So where am I going with this? Never run a Mollog, even with MSU Danks. Swap them for 9 Rockguts or Fellwaters at your preference.
Dank + Dank + Mollog = 190 + 190 + 130 = 510 points
3x Troggs + 3x Troggs + 3x Troggs = 170 + 170 + 170 = 510 points
This could be a giga-chad unit of 9 of either type; it could be 6 Rockguts and 3 Fellwaters; or it could be 3x 3 Fellwaters if you’re determined to keep that MSU thing going. They all have their advantages but whichever way you go, it gets you a bit of summoning online, and I’d argue that it’s always and everywhere better than two good units and a throwaway.
Friends don’t let friends run Mollogs.
November Listbuilding Challenge: Moar Armies of Renown
Plot twist! Not really, probably the most predictable Challenge yet but eh, sometimes you’ve got to play the hits. Everyone is already energised to work on these new batch of AORs right now, and who are we to fight against the tide?
What we’re looking for in November is your 2000 point lists from any of the following Armies of Renown:
- Sylvaneth (Evergreen Hunt)
- Ogors (Roving Maw)
- Stormcast (Draconith Skywing)
- Fyreslayers (Lofnir Drothkeepers)
Show me what you’re working on and you might see your name in lights. What an early Christmas present that will be, hey?
I’ll finish off with a quick mention for Gap Games: for our Aussie readers, they offer a market-leading 21% discount so if you’re buying stuff anyway, you might as well go through them. We’re slowly building up affiliate credit in there, 100% of which will go to prizes for the Listbuilding Challenge and other competitions we run, so eventually there’s gonna be something more on offer than a virtual pat on the back.
And as for those of you who don’t live in Australia? Well, you have my commiserations.
You can email me your November entries at PlasticCraicAOS@outlook.com, or inbox me on twitter, whatever works for ya. Have a good weekend nerds – see you on the other side.
Credit for the cover image to Games Workshop
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