Continuing from Part 1, in this part I'll delve into the pieces Trolls have that I feel line up particularly well against the Dragonfather's forces. No list builds, because in all honesty, these are out there in spades, but just an assessment of pieces.
Casters
So, taking a few of these ideas into
consideration, the next obvious question is where to start caster-wise.
Some of our casters simply manage this better than others. I would
argue against a brick-style build - such as a Runes of War, or the
Miserable Meat Mountain - particularly because it gives the opponent
some high value targets to hit. Cryx, more than most any faction, loves
to see high value, lower DEF, even high ARM targets, because they can
and will crack it with Banes, Parasite, Scything Touch, etc. Even Mulg,
the king of our beasts, can fall when a 5 ARM swing brings him down to
effective ARM 18 (assuming Earthborn and Krielstone) so he's only being
hit at D-5 and 6. It takes fewer shots than you'd think on a charge to
finish that.
I won't go through every caster, but here are a few highlights for me:
Grim
Angus (prime): Sweeeeeet! Grim brings to the table elements you
really, really want here: he can disable Special Attacks with his feat
(Purge), he slows down the opponent on the way in with the feat, he can
remove key targets himself from 17" away (23" with his advance), and he
drops DEF remarkably. Grim turns on pretty much every element we have
that you can want him to here. Additionally, he has ways of removing
Stealth and Incorp, plus he can give Hunter, which can aid in board
position.
Hunters Grim: I'm starting to really see it
with these guys. His feat gives our guns snipe, he has Mortality so he
can shut down Tough or bring down the armor of models such as Knights,
and his feat brings our shooting into a good hitting range, needing 5's or 6's much of the time. Less with a good aiming bonus. Additionally, he can use Mage Sight to see key portions of the field (although this is limited), and Mirage can un-engage our forces to allow better use of guns, better field positioning, etc.
Calandra: Against a lot of Cryx armies, Star Crossed can help a lot. Their MAT values are OK, but SC can help keep unexpected models alive. This declines with Tartarus or Skarre's Dark Guidance, but definitely has merits. Additionally, her ability to grant rerolls help ensure that we're hitting and getting the damage we need to where we need it.
Jarl: I pointed out earlier that Grim can spot remove. As long as it's not Stealth, Jarl does it as well or better. RNG 16 shots, Swift Hunter, and Magic Bullet put your shots where you need them. His spell list helps get your army into their lines faster - useful with models like Fennblades if you want to jam to bring up other models - or repositions to minimize damage. His feat is OK against Cryx, but not wonderful. Blocking off LOS for a turn is absolutely nice, for sure, but it stinks that the -2 doesn't work. Definitely don't overlook him, however; he has some very interesting abilities, and he himself can do work turn after turn against Cryx.
pGrissel: Grissel presents a somewhat interesting case. She wants to hit the board with infantry, which isn't always wonderful against some Cryxian lists, but she has some brutal denial and shutdown abilities - particularly Cacophany - that can hose a lot of their lists by preventing them from receiving orders. I like Grissel a lot here; the right list builds can really cause a ton of problems for Cryx.
Units/Solos/Beasts:
Fenns/Kriels/Scouts/Burrowers: All of these have their pluses. I would add to this any cheap Minion units, too, that won't cost you a lot. These trade up fairly easily because they have low points value, although they're all susceptible to Bile Thralls, too. YMMV. But they should definitely be mentioned because their fairly steady game generally works just fine against Cryx.
Scattergunners: These boys can do WORK. Their RAT 5 is generally not nearly as bad against the DEF 12 you'll see with Cryx, Quick Work and Clear can get them unjammed, and POW 12 is reliable kills on most Cryxian models. Susceptible to the Raiders, but that's not precisely uncommon. Particularly with the Grims, these boys can do some serious work.
Storm Troll: Oh yea. C'mere boy, lemme get some electro-leapin' action. The Storm's POW 10 on his shot or on his animus are relatively reliable kills against most Cryxian infantry, doubling the work our models can do. Bonus points here for working with the Fennblades; Reach lets you really spread your guys into fantastic positions for good e-Leaps. There's a lot of potential work that can be done here.
Bomber: I'll mention this guy, although he potentially suffers a bit. He's got POW 8 blast damage, but that's far from guaranteed against Banes, doesn't work until the Sea Witch is out, and Incorp is a thing on the Blood Witches. So... It's awkward. He can do work, but you really may need to give him a little help. Bonus points for eGrim, where Mortality - if landed - makes him POW 10 blast, so Banes start getting a little nervy.
There are a number of other pieces that can work - arguably the Blitzer has ways to do work, and Runeshapers are relatively cheap options that have a good amount of utility also. Bushwhackers could also potentially do work, if you can mitigate RAT problems, since POW 10's will be relatively fine against most Cryx models.
If you're interested in seeing some serious anti-Cryx tech, look up Jason Flanzer's WMW 2013 pGrim list, or look for Chad Shonkwiler's pGrissel list. Both of these have serious game against Cryx; Flanzer relied on Scattergunners and Grim's spell list + feat to buy himself time, while Chad's liberal use of Cacophany helps limit Cryxian retaliation. Plus, with Chad, you can see Long Riders used in a near perfect manner, being bounced in and out to wreak havoc and prevent retaliation.
These are just some early thoughts; there's plenty of other ways to go about it. In theorycrafting, I would argue pDoomshaper has game, too, outside of Runes of War - the flaw to this is that I think it starts negating some of Doomy's best assets, which lie in his anti-Hordes game and the fact that Runes is a brutally well-tuned list.
That's just some thoughts; as always, email me if you're curious or disagree, and I'll be glad to discuss. Keep on Trollin'!
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