16Jun
So this weekend was BOBO 2021, delayed for a year due to Covid, BOBO is definitely one of the standout events of the AoS calender year for me and one i will always attend so long as i get a ticket.
For myself, BOBO will always be special, for at BOBO 2019, Trogg and the Troggherd first made their competitive debut.
i fell in love with the models as soon as i saw them when the gloomspite book was released and it helped that my good friend and boss of WS10 Gaming Nick 'Brainsquig' Thompson had already an army of squigs and grots, i quickly brought as many troggs as i could so i could say he copied me, if he all of a sudden got an army too :D
At the time of BOBO 2019, i wrote a list description and summary of the army for the Honestwargamer website (you can find it here http://thehonestwargamer.com/aos-list-rundowns/troggsmash-stuart-hodges-ws10-gaming/) and following a word from Pirate Pete Humpage, to my surprise, Rob Symes of the Honestwargamer actually did a show on it.
That weekend i had a lot of people coming up to me asking if i was Trogg from the Honestwargamer and its sorted of gathered pace over these two years, so much so, that alot of people still actually dont know my real name, and just call me Trogg (its Stuart by the way)
What was your BOBO list?
Above is the list i took this weekend, looking back at the list summary on honestwargamer, i'm quite amazed at how little my list has changed over the years (its probably because there are only 3 pages of troggoths in the book and now 9* units with the Troggoth keyword)
Still the Troggboss as general to make the fellwaters and rockguts battleline, still the madcap and fungoid cave shaman for wizards and i still lean heavily into the rockguts for the battleline units.
i added the newly released mirebrute troggoth and marshcrawla sloggoth as allies as i believed they would add extra to the troggs, (more on this later)
How good are Troggs?
Currently in the meta, i feel that Troggs do struggle, although results from across the pond this weekend argue against this (well done Evan Miller going 4-1!, with a smiliar list i wrote before BOBO, put in the trogg whatsapp chat and then got talked out of) . For me the current environment leans towards monsters and mobile units. Mobility has always been key in the game, being able to engage units quickly to limit their output, grab objectives or react to something on the opposite side of the board, unfortunately Troggs struggle with both these.
Now before i carry on, there are access to monsters and more mobile units in the gloomspite book, but for me i always try to make my list as pure trogg as possible.
So firstly we have no monsters others than the Dankdame (FW Trogghag). This always comes up in my games, with my opponents amazed that the troggboss, or the new mirebrute, do not have the monster keyword. During the past 2 years i have run the dankdame on a few occasions when she was 380 points, but she has recently had a points increase to 405 points, which for a 1 cast wizard with no mortal wound save, i believe is too much.
As shown in my list above, i have leant into rockguts heavily, these are great battleline, 4 wounds with a 5+ shrug save and hit like a truck when their attacks land (ask my final opponent this wknd, Rhys Sallabanks (@RhysSallabanks) when 5 rockguts did 30 wounds to a unit of hearthguard beserkers!), but at 405 points for the dankdame, that would be 6 rockguts and a fungoid that i would have to lose from the army.
Now the obvious answer for an allied monster is a Megagargant. 30 wounds, decent movement and decent attack profile, megagargants are a great distraction piece for a Trogg army. yes they only count as 5 on an objective but whilst your opponent is trying to deal with a megagargant running towards them, they are not dealing with the units of rockguts, who can get up into the enemy lines without losing too many out of a unit, well thats the plan!
So i hear you ask why didnt i take a megagargant to BOBO?
Well BOBO is one of a small handful of events that award best in faction trophies, and a close friend, Declan Waters (@DeclanandEeyore) recently appeared on a show with @AoScoach talking about the state of gloomspite gitz in the current meta. One of the points he made was that Gargants in a gloomspite list, elevates the win ratio of the army considerably.
Now after this show which can be viewed here https://youtu.be/JqP4bZDQs0A , myself and Declan had a side bet. We were both heading to BOBO taking gloomspite armies to compete and get the best in faction award, but if one of us took a gargant we both felt it would be unfair on the other, so after much back and forth we both decided to leave the gargants at home for this one.
Secondly we are slow, despite troggs having big feet we are movement 6" just typically faster than a dwarf, which means we struggle to react to events through a game (again in game 5 against Rhys when both turn 3 objectives landed on his side of the board). Our only access to fast movement is via a teleport spell from the fungoid, however with powerful magicians in the game such as Teclis and Nagash, and more often than not, my inability to roll a 7 to cast, it is something that we cant rely on.
Thirdly we have no unit champions. With the change to AoS 3.0 and issuing commands such as 'All out Defense', 'All out Attack', 'Redeploy' etc , we rely heavily on nearby heroes to issue these commands to our units. Unfortunately gitz heroes don't have many wounds or good saves, although a fungoid cave shaman does stick around a while, much to my opponents frustration with his 4+ ward, but overall it is easy to snipe out a 4 wound 6+ save hero which your relying on for magic and commands.
To counter this i included a Mirebrute Troggoth, a new Orruk Warclan unit he has the troggoth keyword so can be affected by certain buffs, mainly the 4+ regen under the moon and the Troggboss reroll 1's command ability. The mirebrute has 12 wounds and hits like a frieght train when he gets into combat with a potential 10, damage 3 attacks at -2 rend. He also crucially can issue commands to units as he is a hero. so he would be at the front of the combat alongside the rockguts giving them buffs when required. However in most cases this weekend, he wasn't.
The mirebrute has a movement of 5", slower than the majority of the army which struggles with movement. Its probably because he is carrying a silly kruleboy, but that 1" was crucial (my wife can testify) in some games, as he was just out of buff range. He also does not have a ward save, so again he can be picked off by mortal wounds or high rend attacks and as an ally he cannot take artefacts such as amulet of destiny to keep him around. i think in my 5 games over the weekend he survived past turn 2 twice.
Finally our battleline only count as 1 on objectives, yes we have 4 wounds which doesnt allow us to be classed as 'elite' and count as 2 models on objectives. Now i hope this could be fixed in the rumored Christmas dataslate update that GW have announced is coming for AoS, maybe with something like 'counts as 2 models on objectives if....' because 3 fellwater troggs being capped on objective by 1 thin stormcast model with their new rule of counts as 3 on objectives is a bit hard to swallow.
Now the plus side. DOBBY.
Dobby the marshcrawla sloggoth was amazing. He is there for the +1 to hit bubble wholly within 18" which is monstrous, whats better is that it naturally happens, so unlike a lot of other gloomspite abilities which happen on a dice roll, this + to hit bubble naturally occurs so the rockguts and troggboss ultimately then hit on 2's and coupled with the troggboss command ability of reroll 1s, really do Troggsmash!
So how did i do over the weekend?
Well as i did at BOBO 2019, i went 0-5 this weekend. thinking about it, i havnt actually won a game at BOBO, ill have to change that next time! Declan managed to win 2 of his games and lost the other 3 by small margins which meant he came away as best git! well done mate.
I had 5 incredible matches against 5 wonderful people so thank you to :
Game 1 - Luke Alford @tacticalflukes - Daughters of Khaine
Game 2 - Jack Mayland @Tzaangorjack - Double Crusha IJ
Game 3 - Simon Par @PAR_Simon - Slaves to Darkness
Game 4 - Leigh Edwards @Aethercast_AoS - Kharadron Overlords
Game 5 - Rhys Sallabanks @Rhyssallabanks - Fyreslayers
For me, whilst it always feels nice to win, the friendships ive made with people ive met in the hobby is what make it and i have great time catching up with people at events and the games are an added incentive. the first 3 games were against guys ive known for a while so we spent most of the time chatting about random stuff, whilst the games on day 2 were against people i had never met before but again were 2 awesome games, chilled games.
Hanging with my fellow WS10 members at the pub on friday night where we were joined by Age of Chumps & Glasshammer guys and the bar Saturday night with Scribes of War, Rob, Jon Green & speccles, was great. It was a shame more people werent out like a few years ago in rock city but hopefully at the next BOBO we can relive those times.
Congrats to the all the winners of the weekend, I had a great chat with THE Owen Jackson early sunday, talking armies and stuff in general so congrats on the win, likewise a great chat with Rob Symes in between his streaming again chatting about general stuff and what i was going to do going forward after i told him my news. so congrats to you for your show, thanks for letting me be apart of it and thank you for the initial list run down in 2019! And Jon Green and Jonny Statham, from that initial BOBO in Lincoln when only the listeners of Bravery One podcast turned up (BTW we want it back on the airwaves) to consecutively selling out 200+ player events, as i mentioned at the start it really is a staple event for me to attend.
Also congrats to my brother Andrew on winning Best Sporting player with 4 votes! who the hell voted for you when you were running Gotrek! really made up for you, and your face was a picture when Jonny announced your name! likewise to my mentor and fellow gloomspite enthusiast Nick Thompson, on taking second best sporting! really does show the cores of our club WS10 Gaming when we take home 1st and 2nd sporting which is the best one to win.
So whats next to Troggsmash?
Well with BOBO being my final event of 2021, and also being the 2 year anniversary of Trogg & the Troggherd, ive decided to let Trogg go for a little hibernation / regeneration until the new Gloomspite book is released.
Ive ran the troggs for 2 years solid and now feel its best for a little refresh. my next event planned is Bloodshed in the shires in Feb 2022 so this should give me ample time to decide what im going to concentrate on next. Im not shy on a horde of grey sprue and boxes in the shed of shame, although after just moving house im a little short of cash (btw thanks to those that congratulated me on the move the weekend, it was appreciated) so will be something i already own. So its a choice of Soulblight, Bonereapers, Orruk Warclans, or Stormcast.
So your giving up the Troggs?
NO!!!!!!!!!
Troggs are and always will be da bestest! and ive had some amazing moments with them, i won an award at Throne of Skulls at WHW, appeared on Thehonestwargamer stream streak day 25 (still da bestest one!), appeared with AOSCoach twice and has enabled me to meet some incredible people. I will still be actively encouraging people to play Troggs because they are so fun and already i have changed up my list from the weekend so drop some underperforming units and add is some alternatives, for example i would drop the mirebrute, fellwaters and endless spells and potentially a wizard which could free up 480+ points i do like a gargant but i have been tempted to see what a killaboss on vulcha would be like.
it fits into the ally points allowance with the marshcrawla, its a monster and it has 14" movement with fly. Even at its lowest bracket it moves 8" so it can do everything i have mentioned troggs struggle with above. it also has the commanding view ability to issue out the same command to 2 units, such as double all out attack, double all out defense & double inspiring presence. i have heard from some kruleboyz players he doesnt hit hard but i have the rockguts and troggboss for that should i need it.
Maybe trogg may have a small rest, and find himself invigorated to troggsmash some silly grots or ummies in shiny armour at some local 1 dayers but going forward you'll see me rocking up at the table with a new army, so Speccles beware as i grudge you first game at the next event we are at to finally find out who is da bestest!
but for now.....
Trogg go asleep in cave. Trogg have good dreams of eating mushrooms, bugs and long walks in dankhold. Silly fungoid cave shaman try to wake Trogg. but Trogg in deep sleep. fungoid cave shaman decide to leave trogg alone. clever fungoid cave shaman,
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