Underworld Warpstone Troll: +1 STR or Block?

So, Wyrmwood played its last game of the season and Gorbo leveled up again. As you know, last time he leveled up he rolled two sixes, and I had to choose between +1 STR, Block, and Pro (I chose Block, and have been happy with it).

This time, Gorbo rolled 11. Sadly, +1 AG is sort of useless on a troll, where it would have been great on any other player I have. Oh well.

I was planning on giving him Tentacles and then Break Tackle, but I'm wondering if I should go with BT first because he has Block. It would make him more able to selectively blitz, obviously. Then again, blitzing with the troll (even a Block troll) seems like a bad idea most of the time. Also, I've already got a skaven blitzer with Claw/MB who can more reliably blitz (albeit with less strength behind his blitzes).

I *think* Tentacles first is the way to go, but I figured it wouldn't hurt to check in here. Looking forward to a season in Ostland with fewer than three Chaos Dwarf teams!

 

I agree with Dreamy - Tents then SF. Cause then you can truly take advantage of Gorbo the Blocking Wolverine fanboy.

 

Without a doubt take Block! This skill will make big guys so much more reliable and useful, and the opportunity to give it to them should NEVER be passed up in my opinion.

 

I was about to give him tentacles, and then I wondered -- "What about Guard?"

Something is telling me that I should do something different with Gorbo because he has Block -- but what?

 

Well, he has two killing skills from level up, and has the third one which helps as a starting skill. Since he's effectively a Killer right now, merging that into Roadblock Troll would work well. The only realistic alternatives to Tentacles are Break Tackle, Stand Firm, Grab and Guard.

Break Tackle would allow you to make dodge rolls with his ST5. Once a turn. Hardly a big deal. Especially when you consider the fact he's a Block Claw Troll, so he ought to throwing blocks, not dodging away from them. And if you need to move through a TZ with your Troll to thwart an enemy action, or to make a specific play, it's either something gone horribly wrong or you aren't making the right choices. So no.

Stand Firm is a great skill. The problem though, is that Tentacles is a better one - SF just means that you make sure the opposition can't a) move Gorbo through blocks and b) that there is therefore always a player next to him if he's blocked, and often if he's blitzed. Tentacles secures the opposition more often than not better than SF can, and offers other advantages.

Grab would allow you to control the single player you blocked each turn, but honestly using Tentacles first to secure players so that you can simply block them to start with would be more useful. Grab could is supplementary to Tentacles in this case. So Tentacles, then SF, then Grab for player control.

Guard obv. allows you to grant more assists, but it's unlikely that you'll manage to manoeuvre Gorbo into a position which allows him to support a block, but ONLY if he has Guard. Considering that the only other time it would be useful would be if he's in the tackle zones of two players at the same time BEFORE he moves, and it's a less useful skill than normal.

Tentacles meanwhile allows you to keep people close to Gorbo, because at STR5 that's a 6 on ST<3 players (natural 6 is critical success obv.) and 5+ on a ST4. With block and some players placed so no assists can occur, in theory, those players are staying in Gorbo's TZs, allowing you more blocks.

It's why it's the clear winner, even if he's being developed as a Killer. The other skills will definitely supplement it, but not replace it at Lvl 3 on a singles.

 

The Trolls job is to get into annoying positions and stay there.
Block just gives him more chance of not getting knocked down.

He has a 1 in 3 chance of not breaking the tackle so if you want a BT troll you should have gone for Pro.

Tentacles is a 2d6 roll needing a 6 to break free ( subtract ST diff from dice roll ) so works over half the time against ST 3

 

OK, looks like it's Tentacles for Gorbo! I'm all too happy to see him mutate further.

Thanks guys!

 

I thought that it was a Strength Test for Tentacles. So it's d6 + dodging player STR - Tent player STR. If that = 5+, then the player leaves the tackle zone. If less than 5, then the Test is deemed a failure and that players action is over.

 

It's a 2d6 roll on Tentacles. Dodger's str minus Tentacles str. If total is 5 or less they are stuck.

So Str 3 needs to roll an 8+ on 2d6 to get away from str 5 tentacles.