Underworld Warpstone Troll Overview:
| ### | MA | ST | AG | AV | Skills | Norm | Doub | Cost |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 0-1 | 4 | 5 | 1 | 9 | Loner, Always Hungry, Mighty Blow, Really Stupid, Regeneration, Throw Team-Mate | MS | AGP | 110k |
An Underworld team is one of the weaker races in Blood Bowl so the addition of a Warpstone Troll to their team gives them a boost in both strength and resilience. Nearly identical to a more standard Troll, the Warpstone Troll benefits from normal access to mutation skills like the rest of their Underworld team mates. Their general role on the team would be to tie up opposing players and hopefully soak up the damage from the opposition. You can also however utilise their strength to try and dish out some hurt to the other team. Like most Big Guy players they can be unreliable and Trolls also need baby sitting, which can be tricky if you get out numbered.
Road Block Underworld Warpstone Troll:
- Normal: Guard / Tentacles, Stand Firm, Grab / Break Tackle / Claw
- Doubles: Block / Pro
- Stat Increase: +ST
Using your Troll in a support role is usually the safest ploy as it means avoiding dice rolls with your Loner player as well as the possibility of them going stupid and losing their tackle zone. So you can either start by getting Guard as it is a skill your team doesn’t have much natural access too and it can help both on defence and offence. Another popular option is to make use of the mutation access and get Tentacles. This can be a massive problem for some teams to deal with, especially if you can get them next to their weaker players. Stand Firm helps control position on the pitch and avoids them simply being pushed away to free up opponents. Grab involves a bit of risk as they may go stupid but can make use of their high strength and Mighty Blow skill to keep as many opponents in base contact as possible. This can combo really well with Tentacles and Stand Firm. Break Tackle will help avoid them getting isolated away from where you need them on the pitch by a cheap disposable Lineman. Claw is also another mutation that will combo well with Mighty Blow, especially good against high armour teams.
For doubles like is standard on all big guy players the choice is really between Block or Pro. Block will let you be a bit more aggressive with them, while Pro will help with reliability. For stat increases I would only really consider taking strength, especially if you have or are planning on taking Tentacles. Agility is wasted, armour is nice but I’d rather have a skill and skills are also preferable over movement as ideally a lot of turns they won’t be moving anyway.
Underworld Warpstone Troll Summary:
To combat the reliability issues most coaches will look to get them placed to occupy as many opposing players as possible. While you can use their strength to try and hurt opponents that is something you can develop your Blitzers to do. However if you do manage to get both Pro and Block early on, then I would revisit the option of being more active with them, just be careful to realise those turns where you would rather they kept their tackle zone by not using them.
Problem with the roadblock Troll build for Underworld is how bad the rest of your time is at taking hits when they get into the scrum. Sure your Blitzers can assassinate pretty much any player they want with a few skills, but with only two av8 players if you get into a melee your entire team falls apart all too quickly. So Guard on the Troll just doesn’t help that much as you either crowd around him and get mauled anyway, or the Troll gets isolated and usually ends up being knocked over. Plus he’s pretty slow so is unlikely to get anything hold of anything too valuable with Tentacles.
It’s probably simpler to just build him with Claw first, as at least then he’s liable to scare the hell out of your opponent when he’s not going Really Stupid.
There is some logic there, thanks for your input. Guard on the Troll though can help you avoid getting in a scrum by providing an assist to ease pushing the opposing players away.
The problem I’d see with that is while it might help your linerats/throwers against an agi team or maybe a team like Necro/’Zons, but you go up against a solid bash side with str4 and/or plentiful guard and that one guard on your Troll is still not going to help much. If at all.
A skill I’m surprised you missed out for a road block and one I’d be tempted to even take first if I wasn’t planning to block with him is Foul appearance. Sure it’s not going to work often but when your opponent’s big guy tries to block yours giving him a second chance to fluff it can be deeply entertaining when you can then block him back for free.
It’s easy to overlook the less often taken skills, I could certainly see a place for Foul Appearance at some point.
Horns > Claw > Tentacles
*Block
The team doesn’t start with horns, so it’s very tempting to have it on at least one player (but obviously is dead weight if given to too many players). Most opposing coaches will see your troll, and match him with their ST 5 players, so it’s useful to be able to reliably overpower and eliminate their big guy.
I’ll also second that foul appearance choice. Without the support of ST 4 players on the scrimmage line, you’re warptroll is alot more dangerous to focus fire than the average big guy.
No point in giving a Troll horns. Horns only works on a blitz, and you don’t want to be potentially wasting blitzes with a troll when you’ve got 2 skaven blitzers on the team.
Hi there, I too don’t think Guard is a great skill here, you just aren’t going to be doing a lot of scrimage blocking to make it worth it on the Troll as your first skill.
Claw gives you the ability to take out some players and that is far more useful, and scary for your opponent. They will waist dodges getting away from the troll and can fall down sometimes. The second skill I’d get is then Tentacles so that you can alternate between Blocking and just standing still to hold a player. If you went Tentacles first though your SPP development will just stop at 6 and you won’t be going up anywhere anymore. Gaurd is probably only a skill I’d consider much later in development, and maybe even then I’d rather take Stand-firm / Break-Tacle or Foul Appearance as my 3rd skill.
Thanks for the comment, I can’t fault your logic.
I got lucky with my Troll and got Block First skill then i went Claws then Tenacles after 32 Games 22 injured and i Killed by troll LOL
Rolled well on my Warpstone Troll’s second level up — two sixes!
He already has Claw, now trying to decide between Block, Pro, and +1 STR. Any advice?
I know +STR will make Tentacles more viable, and I was planning to take Tentacles.
But giving up Block (or maybe Pro — I’m leaning towards Block because it involves less decision making)? Yikes. Not sure that’s a good idea.
Basically, would you put +1 STR on a Warpstone Troll who didn’t already have Block?
That’s one of those situations where some people will and some people won’t and in some games it will have been the right choice and in others the wrong one.
Few things to consider, how active are you with him, more active Block is probably better. If you are going for Tentacles and thus want to avoid using him when in a good square, then +ST is probably better. Though +ST could also be better if you want someone to blitz into cages (especially if you can get Tentacles on the ball carrier.
Having Claw already would point towards being more active, though without Block and Stand Firm you will find players will tactically hit him with a negative two dice block to push him away. That can leave you with chances where they roll attacker down to get use out of Claw.
Ultimately if you can’t decide making a forum thread with the full team roster on it can lead to some more specific advice and you can always create a poll on the thread as well!
Thanks, Coach. My gut is telling me to go Block, although I may be kicking myself when I roll double twos on next level up! Posting my team roster is a good idea; also, the league I am in is very chaos dwarf heavy, which points me to Block. I have indeed been more “active” with him in the past — although oddly enough he has been very effective at throwing (and eating) gobbo teammates!