In Defense Of: Grim Hammer Captains

Good morning gamers,

Today we travel to the mountain of Erebor to view one of the most underrated generic heroes in the game: Grim Hammer Captains. Once a profile with an out-of-production model (they came out recently as made-to-order), Grim Hammer Captains exist in an army list with a very limited set of profiles. Unfortunately, most players ignore these guys, choosing instead to go with one of the five named heroes from the Army of Thror or the other generic hero option, Captains of Erebor (who also got a model back in production). So today, we'll be looking at what's missing from this model that gives it the bad wrap that it gets - and why they're perfectly good heroes to take.

Why NOT To Take Grim Hammer Captains

Photo Credit: Warhammer Community

Grim Hammer Captains have a great profile - most Dwarf heroes do - but when compared to the other generic hero option in the list (Captains of Erebor), they just don't look as good:

Grim Hammer Captains cost +5pts and have, as you can see, an identical stat line to Captains of Erebor with shields, though they have throwing axes and the ability to fight two-handed instead of being able to shield. For most players, shielding (getting 4 dice to win the Duel and foregoing the wounding roll) looks a lot better on a F5 hero that can't Strike than going two-handed (where you'd get a -1 penalty to your 2 Attack dice to win the Duel and getting +1 To Wound if you win the Duel roll). Shields save lives - and the cheaper guy has one.

An Apologetic for the Stun Special Strike

Hey Reader!

So in his recent ranking of the five special weapon strikes, Tiberius came down pretty hard on my main man Stun, so I thought I'd take a minute to beat a dead horse that probably no one cares about by talking about why this special strike is better than you imagine (and should at least be above Bash on Tiberius's list, if not higher). 

I know, no one asked for this post, but I was sick on a Wednesday morning and was off from work, and this is what my mind decided to fixate on, so I don't know what that says about me, but here we are, :P

I want to first walk through why the Stun special strike is so advantageous compared to the other special strikes, and then walk through how the armies that field this special strike compliment it well, as I think the faction context (short of paying for a weapon swap) is the part that a lot of people miss when evaluating this special strike.

I.  Stun: The Irresistible Special Strike

The first and most important part about this special strike is that it's not an opposed roll: your opponent can do nothing about your attempt to stun them. There's no roll-off like you have with Bash, there's no reduction to your Defense if you lose like with Piercing Strike, no penalty to your fight value like you have with Whirl and Feint, and no fear of damaging yourself like you have with Stab.

So in that respect it's the best special strike: nothing hurts you if you fail to win the fight, and your chances of winning the fight aren't diminished either.

Furthermore, you stun human-sized models on a 5+, and you stun monsters on a 6+. It doesn't matter what the target's Defense value, Strength value, Wounds value, or anything else is: it's a 5 or a 6 based on the type of creature you're targeting. And do you know what's great about that? Melee wounding rolls are overwhelmingly done on...a 5 or a 6, or worse than that, especially with the S2 and S3 models that overwhelmingly have clubs and staves (there are also wizards who are S4, but those are rare, and them using the Stun special strike is even rarer, in part because the two "battle wizards" among them either can get lots of attacks thanks to sleighs or they have a S5 sword and often choose to use that instead). So it's not harder to stun someone than it is to wound someone in the vast majority of cases.

In Defense Of: Azog

Good morning gamers,

Today we come to a TMAT crowd favorite who seems to be absent from much of the competitive circles: Azog. Despite being a member of the of "6-Might-club," Azog has several limitations that make many players look the other way towards his cheaper son, Bolg. For me, Centaur, and my son Gorgoroth, though, taking Azog is a no-brainer and he's head-and-shoulders better than his competitors (especially his cheaper son, Bolg). Want to find out why? Well, let's have a look - Centaur, get us started!

Why NOT To Take Azog

Photo Credit: Games Workshop

Centaur: Okay, so to start off, I think Azog is only worth taking if you take him with the White Warg. This means, full stop, he's expensive for what you get. At 225+ points you're looking at a model that is only at par for wounding D6+ warriors (5s or worse, same as you get on a 100pt Theoden, Faramir, etc.), whereas an evil monster hero for the same cost or cheaper is ripping those warriors apart on 4s or better. He's got a good offensive profile and he's very good at killing heroes (one of the best against heroes generally), but when compared to Bolg he's not dramatically better and is a good 50ish points more expensive.

Add onto this that Bolg gives all of your archers Morgul Arrows (a niche benefit when fighting multi-wound models, but hey, it's a boon against those high Defense multi-wound models that you don't want to have to wound more than once with S2 archery) and potentially access to free Might Points if he can kill enough stuff, and it begs the question whether you need Azog over and against his younger counterpart.

Unexpected Military Formations: Epic Movie Moments, Part V

Good morning gamers,

Over the past year and a half, I've been playing some with Mordor Troll Chieftains - models that are commonly critiqued as being too slow and on too large of a base to be truly effective. During my games with multiple Trolls, I've found it quite difficult to make sure my Trolls get into the action instead of being side-stepped (see this formations post for an example). Because I like Troll Chieftains (and Mordor Troll Drummers), I decided to go back to the source material and take a look at how Trolls are employed in the films - and how we can apply that information to getting more out of Trolls in our games. Let's dig in!

Epic Movie Moment #5: The Main Gate of Minas Tirith

Though the Black Gate Opens Legendary Legion will be our source army for today's post, Trolls play a very small part in that battle. While it is undoubtedly the best list for running Trolls in (you don't have any other options, really), if you want to see how Trolls are used in the films, you actually need to turn to the Siege of Minas Tirith. The obvious place to start is when the non-catapult-manning Trolls are first observed in action: the opening of the gates of Minas Tirith:

Later during the siege, we see a Troll throwing someone in a street:

And we also see a Troll battering down a door to the third level (it could be a higher level, it's unclear from the shot):

These three relatively short scenes give us a few tips for how to use Trolls. First and foremost, Trolls are sent to the front of the lines to batter a hole through the basic guys or draw out resources from the more important pieces of the enemy. In the clips above, we see the Trolls out in front, absorbing archery and forcing the attention of the enemy onto themselves. In the game, Mordor Trolls and Mordor Troll Chieftains are incredibly resilient, wounded by most archery on no better than a 6+ (and often times on double dice). Magic can pose a problem for these guys, but even if they lose a fight, they are usually tough enough to not be one-turn-gronked by anyone (even Aragorn) so long as the Troll can back up.

In Defense Of: Bert the Troll

Good morning gamers,

We've covered a lot of different models in this series - from heroes who make bad army leaders to warriors that no one thinks are valuable. Today, we look at a monster hero (one of the first we've done) who most people forget about - and who, if you face him on the tabletop, you'll probably never forget: Bert the Troll. No, this isn't the guy who chops your big hero to bits (that's Bill). No, this isn't the guy who sneezes on you to half your Fight Value (that's Tom). Nope, this is "the other guy" - and if you don't remember what he does, then you've stumbled across the reason we're covering him today. :-) 

In fact, he's SO unmemorable, that while both Tom (the sneezy guy) and Bill (the choppy-choppy guy) get close-ups photos on the GW website, Bert gets absolutely ZERO close-ups, ZERO screen-time, and is quite literally third-wheeling their gang . . . it's absurd. But let's not let that get us down - let's understand where the critiques are coming from and then view how great Bert actually is!

Why NOT To Take Bert The Troll

Photo Credit: Games Workshop - seriously, there's no solo shot of Bert . . . see for yourself!