Dwarf Troll Slayers

Dwarf Troll Slayer Overview:

For a bashing team that has no ST4 or 5 players like the other teams, Dwarf Troll Slayers make up for this somewhat with their Dauntless ability to stand toe to toe with stronger players. They also have the benefit over the stronger players because they start with Block like most other Dwarfs. Their Frenzy ability also gives them a higher success rate of knocking players over and can make space to advance a cage, or push opposing players into the crowd. This means they tend to do a lot of the hitting on the team and help get numerical advantage to help negate the slowness of the team.

The downsides to them though is that they have average AV8 compared to AV9 like most of their team mates. This alone makes them a target for the opponents to hit and their damage causing abilities makes this even more desirable for the opposing team. You will find they tend to get picked on a fair amount if there is a choice of players for the opposition to hit. This is tempered somewhat by the fact their AG3 team mates will also draw some attention in order to hinder the ball handling ability of your team. Frenzy and Dauntless can also lead to trouble, you have to be careful that your second Frenzy hit is in your favour as much as the first, or at least not to the opposing teams favour. When doing this against stronger players as well, failing Dauntless can leave you doing a block at a disadvantage, it pays to cover this by having assists to provide a one die block if you fail.

With their low agility, Troll Slayers aren’t likely to be dodging around and handling the ball all that much, so you can concentrate on building them to hurt the other team. This frees up some of that responsibility from your Blitzers who may be doing some ball handling. When taking skills on them it pays to pay attention to the opponents you are likely to take. If you are in a Dodge heavy league for example, you will want Tackle at some point even though a lot of your players already have it.

Damage Causing Troll Slayer:

• Normal: Mighty Blow, Tackle / Stand Firm, Piling On / Guard / Pro
• Doubles: Dodge / Side Step
• Stat Increase: +ST

You want to start off with Mighty Blow, I don’t recommend this for many players but you already have Block and Dwarfs can do with getting numerical advantage. It will also help him get SPP quicker to get more skills. After that you have a lot to choose from, Tackle in Dodge heavy leagues, otherwise I’d not bother with it, Frenzy can compensate somewhat by getting two hits on Dodge players. Also if you start pushing them towards the side of the pitch they might elect to not use Dodge anyway to avoid getting put into the crowd. Stand Firm is good for ensuring you stay next to players to get hits in on them and stops you getting put into the crowd yourself if you pushed someone else in there. They are fairly slow so often can’t move away from the side if you blitzed over there, or their low agility means you don’t really want to try and dodge away if you end up in a tackle zone. Piling On is an option if you want to cause more hurt, though it does slow down your already slow team and leaves them open to fouls. Guard is always useful, especially on your lower strength hitting style team. Pro is also a very good choice for Troll Slayers, there aren’t many players I advocate Pro on usually, but these guys can use it on failed Dauntless rolls, you can try and reroll double pushes on block dice. It can come in very handy for these spots where you don’t want to use a reroll.

Doubles you have two main choices, Dodge if you want to keep him upright more and opens up a bit more times when you may need to dodge someone. Bear in mind your team will be Dodge light so anyone who takes it can be easily singled out by opposing Tackle players. The other option is Side Step, though don’t take it if you already have Stand Firm. Side Step is fantastic for Frenzy players and anything that helps you on the movement side is handy to have. Otherwise I’d probably stick to normal skills. The only stat increase that I would take is +ST, it makes Dauntless vs ST5/6 players easier and means you don’t have to worry about it against ST4 players. It also makes him harder to hit helping against the lower armour. While more agility can be useful for a Dwarf team it doesn’t really aid his role in the team too much and +MA can be good, but early on taking skills is going to help you far more.

More on page 2…