Pondering about zombie trolls

[MarkG]

Opinions on Zombie Trolls from the One Northern King Undead army review:(Army Review: Undead – One Northern King)

Zombie Trolls

Photo credit: Mike Adkins

Luis – 8/10
I love Zombie Trolls. I just love them. It maybe just that I love their aesthetic but I play them really often.

They are a mid-range point value unit with: great defensive stats, good offensive value, average speed, reasonable small footprint. They are a great addition to any slow shambling line. One of their best qualities is that they synergize very good with Necromancers’ Vicious aura and other units with the zombie keyword. They are very resilient and maybe don’t seem a very good hammer but with the aura and a Banechant nearby they put 9 dmg on average which is amazing for their points.

They really shine when things get close and personal, as if properly positioned they will get many flank-surge charges opportunities. I prefer them in hordes and I tend to take more than one paired with at least one Necromancer and some screening units. They really need screening units as they will be almost always out charged and they also need protection from shooting. I don’t usually give magic items, but I sometimes give them: Pipes of Terror, Healing Brew, Hann’s Sanguinary Scripture or Brew of Sharpness.

I also see value on the regiment size as screening units or thick chaff, but there are many competitors in the army and I usually pick other units for that role.

Photo credit: Zae Agethor

Mike – 7/10
I’m a fan of Zombie Trolls. Their stats are solid enough at a decent price to make for a good battle line unit. I usually put a Necromancer with the Vicious Aura and Inspiring Talisman behind a couple of hordes of them along with a Goreblight for a solid battle group.

Photo credit: Luis Serra

Pat – 8/10
Solid and dependable. The ability to gain Vicious from Necromancers can make the Zombie Troll a great all-rounder. If I was investing in shamblers and surge, I’d be hard-pressed not to include two hordes of these guys to anchor a portion of the battlefield.

Tom – 8/10
God are these cheap. A great mix of points efficient offense and defence. 18, CS2 Me4 is enough of a hammer to make it stick when they attack and -/17 with Lifeleech is right on the line for what can be considered a resilient unit. There’s some great (as we all know by now) support options available, the super cheap Necromancer sporting the Vicious aura combines solidly with the innate surge and cheap Bane Chant. The roster is tailored to get the best out of every Undead unit and with the cheap cost I think people miss these in favour of Wights etc. You can build a solid line with three hordes of these and a Necro, at that point the trolls are almost matching Werewolves and Soul Reaver cav, that Necro is almost free!

The four of them rate them quite highly.

[Sceleris]

To be fair, most of the whole undead army rated pretty highly - which is exactly the trolls problem

[Vince]

Yesterday I did a battle again to retry the zombie trolls (maybe I missed something in the first couple of tests) so I retried them, this time in a battlegroup of:

-Zombie horde x2
-Zombie troll horde x2
-Necro, vicious aura, surge, inspiration

My other battlegroup consisted of dual soul reaver infantry, skeleton spear horde, rev. king (surge) and the goreblight.

The battle went great (I played against a ratkin lightning list) but the z-trolls didn;t live up again. In one crucial charge, they dual-charged a ratkin warrior horde who already had a wound or 2. One horde was hindered, the other was not and they were within the necromancer aura.

All in, the hindered z-troll horde did 4 wounds, the other 9. Together, they did 13 wounds, combined with the 2 already there makes 15. The horde of ratkin had (rallied) 21/23 nerve, so they predicatably held.

Roughly said, I have a dual charge with my hammer units, supported by a necromancer with the buff aura on an already damaged throwaway unit, did average-ish wounds and could not rout them on a 7+.

So even though I really want these Z-trolls to work, their average damage is not enough to warrant inclusion. 400 points (2x trolls + aura) is a nice budget for a hammer unit or two.

[DarkBlack]

You’re expecting too much.

@Vince

All in, the hindered z-troll horde did 4 wounds, the other 9. Together, they did 13 wounds, combined with the 2 already there makes 15. The horde of ratkin had (rallied) 21/23 nerve, so they predicatably held.

That’s what I would expect from large infantry hordes.
You’re more all-round; decent damage and decent durability. Not spectacular at either.

2 damage on a horde with more than 20 nerve is barely a scratch.

@Vince

400 points (2x trolls + aura) is a nice budget for a hammer unit or two.

Is it? What would you get?
Good hammer units are generally around 230 points.

[Palindra]

Didn’t want to open a new topic for my question…

Husband is assembling his Mantic zombie trolls right now and the arms seem to be way too small for the area at the torso. Do they all need greenstuffing? Or are there bits missing to cover the gap?

[Gerrcinn]

not built any myself but this may give you the answer Trolling
it looks like the flat area is quite large.

[FredOslow]

any metal models like that, I would drill and pin the arms to the torso. if I do green stuff work after that it would be to make it look better but not being dependent on the green stuff for it to stick.

[Palindra]

@Gerrcinn

not built any myself but this may give you the answer Trolling
it looks like the flat area is quite large.

Yeah! It is!! I will need a lot greenstuff to create some additional muscels. I am glad they are zombies - so I don’t have to be too accurate
I was just wondering how you guys worked that out, therefore I asked here in this thread

[Gerrcinn]

glad it helped, always ask the collective first we’re like google but don’t sell your information

[Palindra]

Haha! I try to avoid google and such as best as I can , we even dumped our Smartphones!