Back on March 8th, the 2nd Annual Golden Troll Warcry Tournament was played out in Montreal.
I was fortunate to attend again (even if the logistics of two kids and a long drive complicated things a bit).
While I won last year’s event (after a brutal tie-breaker rematch), I came in 3rd out of 6 this time around.
I’d like to say it’s becaues it was my first time playing a new warband or that I didn’t want to win this year (partially true), but in truth I gave it my all and still got outmaneuvered and outclasses by two of my opponents who brought seriously good warbands and ideas to the table.
I’ll cover the exact lists in another post, and spend today’s going over the big picture of the tournament.
Tournament Setup
Players: 6 (down from originally aimed for 14! so less than half who expressed interest / were expected to show up made it — blame the bad weekend… It was spring break so everyone ended up with other plans).
Tables: 3
Terrain: 2x Heart of Ghur, 1x original set
Games: Every player played 3 games, each with a different opponent and scenario.
Duration: 6 hours were blocked off for the tournament. Games were given 90 minute slots with 30 minutes in between for breaks and overtime.
The tournament went slightly over expected duration, so I wasn’t able to stick around for the festivities afterwards this time around.
Matchup Assignments: Matches were assigned by a number which was drawn by each attendant at the time of their arrival. So if you drew #1, you knew you would fight players number #6, and so forth.
Scenarios: Each player played the same 3 scenarios, in the same order. Over the course of the night, everyone would have played each scenario once, and each board once, facing off against 2 different opponents.
- Scenario #1: No Quarter (Core Rules)
- Scenario #2: Supremacy (Rumble Pack)
- Scenario #3: Lay Lines (Core Rules)
Scoring: Assigned three priorities. If there was a tie on the first priority, it would go to the second, and if there was still a tie, it would go down to the third.
- Priority #1: Tournament Points
- Priority #2: Kill Points
- Priority #3: Victory Points
Tournament points were the top priority and awarded based on the outcome of the match, ranging from Major Victory, Minor Victory, Draw, Minor Defeat, and Major Defeat. All outcomes save for Major Defeat awarded Tournament Points.
The difference between Major and Minor was weather you were able to take down half or more of the enemy’s models, so even a losing player who slew most of the opposing team would earn a few points.
Because of this, Kill Points took second priority (and was what ultimately decided the tournament).
VP was given the lowest priority as only one of the scenarios really offered them (the Rumble Pack mission).
Prizes: The grand winner had their name inscribed on the Golden Troll trophy (where mine was written last year).
They would also walk away with a handsome, 3D printed Golden Troll Trophy Head.
Consolation prizes were also handed out for “Favourite Warband” and “Favourite Opponent” (as voted on secretly by the players present).
Tournament Results and Recap
The table below lists the warbands along with their standing at the tournament once the results were up.
| Player | Warband | Tournament Points | Kill Points | Victory Points |
| Scott | Ironjawz | 45 | 1,865 | 24 |
| Joe | Ogor Mawtribes | 45 | 960 | 34 |
| Alex | Slaanesh Sybarites | 35 | 1,415 | 12 |
| Steve | Questor Soulsworn | 30 | 1,030 | 10 |
| James | Thunderstrike Stormcast | 25 | 1,100 | 12 |
| Laure | Gloomspite Gitz | 5 | 1,175 | 11 |
As you’ll have noticed from the table above, there was a tie in the Tournament points which meant it went down to whichever of those two players had the most Kill Points as the second priority.
In that case, it was a clear sweep by Scott’s Ironjawz, who had nearly double the Kill Points of Joe’s Ogar Mawtribes.
Some overall thoughts on the warbands that came to the tourney:
- My Slaanesh Sybarites were built around the centrality of its 3 heavies: Lord of Hubris, Painmaster, and a strength buffed Wargoat… I mean Fiendblood. With support from some Twinsouls and 2 humonculi, my aim was to move fast, hit hard, and die spectacularly. Overall, that mostly occured – by having the second highest Kill Points and (I would suspect) the highest losses of the tournament thanks to my generous, if reckless, use of the Warband’s battle trait (which inflicted even more damage on me).
- The big surprise warband of the tourney was Joe’s Ogor Mawtribes. Rather than go something classic like 4 big bruisers and some chaff, he went 1 Tyrant and 13 chaff for a total of 14 pieces! It was by far the largest warband (mined was 2nd in size with 8) and the hardest to figure out. It worked out for him in the end as he tied Tournament points and I was forced to feed him units in my own battle against him.
- The Ironjawz were my pick for scariest opponents on the table. All were tanky, heavy hitters, and the Mega Boss was definitely the second most dangerous piece at the event (after only the Tyrant). In my battle with them, I went all out with Lord of Hubris sacrificing himself in bloody glory to take out an Ardboy boss and try to mess up as much as he could before inevitably being crushed. One big surprise was how badly the Ironjaws slagged the Thunderstrike SCE in their first game which I would have given advantage to the Vindictors just for their range.
- The Gloomspite Gitz warband that Laure played was a strong warband, with three trolls and support units. However, some bad rolls really played against her, with pretty much every opponent managing to kill off her heavy hitters more easily than expected.
- The strangest warband, in my opinion, was Steve’s Questor Soulsworn which only had 3 questors if I recall correctly – being made up of Lizardmen allies and an Annihilator Prime.
Tournament Point Recap per Game
| Player | Warband | Game 1 | Game 2 | Game 2 |
| Scott | Ironjawz | 20 | 15 | 10 |
| Joe | Ogor Mawtribes | 10 | 20 | 15 |
| Alex | Slaanesh Sybarites | 20 | 5 | 10 |
| Steve | Questor Soulsworn | 10 | 5 | 15 |
| James | Thunderstrike Stormcast | 0 | 20 | 5 |
| Laure | Gloomspite Gitz | 0 | 0 | 5 |
At a glance:
- The first game had 2 major victories, 2 ties, and two major losses.
- The second game had 2 major victories, 1 minor victory, 2 minor losses, and 1 major loss.
- The third game had 2 minor victories, 2 draws, and 2 minor losses.
Some thoughts on how things played out for my warband:
- In game 1, some lucky dice rolls on my part (and very unlucky on part of my opponent) let me secure a couple of unbelievable kills, knocking out two Trolls in 2 turns by units who really should have gotten clobbered. With the main force of the Gloomspite Gitz shattered, I was able to fend off enough quadrants easily for a win.
- In game 2, I was annihilated by my14-man Ogor Mawtribe opponent (yes, 14) against my 8 unit Slaanesh Sybarites. It was a 6 objective match, where you had to hold 2, 3, or more than your opponent for VP. Right from the first turn, he had me on objectives taken, early all 3 VP conditions, and held the maximum number until the end of the fourth round. My only way forward was to aim for a minor defeat, which I did (and it wasn’t easy, hunting down 13 bastard who constantly ran while a Tyrant made his own moves on any objective I held). I simply didn’t have enough pieces to compete. Ouch.
- Game 3 was a hard-fought match that could have gone either way between myself and the Ironjawz. By the mid-way mark, I was within reach of a 1-point victory when his big boi Mega Boss double planted on two objectives and remained there until the end of the game. He was virtually indestructible and guaranteed that I would be at a disadvantage trying to recoup the other points, but it still ended in a draw.
Kill Point Recap per Game
| Player | Warband | Game 1 | Game 2 | Game 2 |
| Scott | Ironjawz | 865 | 465 | 535 |
| Joe | Ogor Mawtribes | 290 | 400 | 270 |
| Alex | Slaanesh Sybarites | 630 | 310 | 475 |
| Steve | Questor Soulsworn | 245 | 475 | 310 |
| James | Thunderstrike Stormcast | 145 | 615 | 340 |
| Laure | Gloomspite Gitz | 230 | 440 | 505 |
At a glance we can see that:
- The IronJaws were all around slayers, followed not even all that closely by my Slaanesh Sybarites.
- Afterwards, the remaining the warbands were all more or less in a similar total range hover around 1,000 points, with the Ogor Mawtribes having only gotten a good killing streak against me in game 2.
Victory Point Recap per Game
| Player | Warband | Game 1 | Game 2 | Game 2 |
| Scott | Ironjawz | — | 18 | 6 |
| Joe | Ogor Mawtribes | — | 24 | 10 |
| Alex | Slaanesh Sybarites | — | 6 | 6 |
| Steve | Questor Soulsworn | — | 4 | 6 |
| James | Thunderstrike Stormcast | — | 10 | 2 |
| Laure | Gloomspite Gitz | — | 0 | 3 |
Note – the first game did not include victory points. The only results were simply victory, draw, or loss.
Consolation Prize Winners
Favourite Opponent: Laure and her Gloomspite Gitz. Though she lost all her matches, everyone who fought her agreed they were among their most fun and that she took her losses in stride.
Favourite Warband: James’ “Stabby Cans” Thunderstrike SCE took it home. He rolled with the now classic 7-man all Vindictors squad that was a more pointed (har har) take on his Tin Cans all SCE from the previous year.
