Hordes: Trollkin Highwaymen
“Along the coach roads I did ride. With sword and pistol by my side” – Johnny Cash
When the last of the Exigence spoilers finally hit, it seemed like the Highwaymen were one of those rare moments when a new release inspired almost universal applause from the players they’d be fighting for. So what is it about these guys that has Trollblood players so excited?
I think a big part of it is versatility. These guys can go both routes bringing a high volume of attacks to combat infantry spam, or put serious dents in heavy armor. While the pistols the Highwaymen use are about as lousy as they come (RAT 5 RNG 8 POW 10), they do carry two of them each. This means a full unit can put out a truly impressive 20 shots per turn.
If they kill a model, Swift Hunter will let them move 2.” With the Highwaymen’s very decent SPD 6, this can let them advance up to 10″ up the board even when shooting. And it can help them find targets even with their short range. If you aren’t worried about controlling zones with Highwaymen then Swift Hunter might even occasionally get them out of range of an enemy charge by letting them move away from what they’ve just been shooting at.
To help them a bit with their miserable DEF and mediocre ARM, the unit has camoulflage, to give them that extra plus 2 when they have concealment or cover. But they don’t come with Pathfinder, so be careful sticking them in a forest or something without a Fell Caller handy.
But the really exciting part is that they also have CRA. This means they’re useful in every role you might want them for. Do you have a high ARM Target? The Highwaymen can spit out two P+S 20s. Do you need to bring down some Medium Infantry, or higher DEF targets? The Highwaymen can spit out ten RAT 7 POW 12 shots. And of course there’s everything in between.
If you’re worried about what will happen to this unit when they get stuck in, don’t worry, they have Gunfighter. They’re almost as effective in melee as at range, but since you can’t make Combined Ranged Attacks against models in melee, they obviously won’t be able to do this against models they are engaging. It’s always important to remember the differences between Gunfighter and it’s sister Point Blank – especially since the ever-popular burrowers use Point Blank so it’s easy for troll players to get them mixed up. Gunfighter is the one that let’s you make ranged attacks at targets in your melee range. You can’t get an aiming bonus with Gunfighter attacks, but you won’t suffer a Target in Melee Penalty against a model you are engaging. The part you need to worry about most is that if your attacks miss, you still have to randomize with other eligible targets as with any ranged attack. If you have a friendly model nearby, you might hit them. The upside is a lone highwaymen in melee with two or more models will get a chance to hit another one of them if his first shot misses. The attacking model isn’t an eligible target when randomizing who gets hit.
For Trollbloods, the big downside to Gunfighter over Point Blank is that the ever popular War Cry Fell Call won’t help your Highwaymen hit better if they’re in combat. But there’s a general advantage to Gunfighter: if a Highwaymen kills the only model it’s engaging with its first shot, it can make its second against anything within its 8″ range. This wouldn’t be the case with Point Blank. Point Blank attacks are melee attacks, and you can’t do both during the same activation.
Fortunately even without War Cry there are plenty of warlocks with tricks to make sure these guys can hit. My top picks for best Highwaymen Warlocks are, in not really any kind of order, pHoarluk, pGrim, Grim2, Gunnbjorn, and Grissel2.
With Purification, PHoarluk will make sure your Highwaymen never have to worry about Blur or Defender’s Ward interfering with their aim. And with Fortune, two man CRAs can be expected to hit kind of reliably against even DEF 15 models. But since you can only bring one pHoarluk list to a tournament, the question is whether or not he’s better in his tier.
Highwaymen are an auto-include with Gunnbjorn. He’s a really obvious choice because of Snipe. Additionally the Double wall templates from him and Janissa can help keep them from being engaged so they can make CRAs for that much longer.
Highwaymen can take advantage of Grim 2’s feat in melee, which is pretty hilarious. But even though Highwaymen work pretty well while engaging, I’d still rather they be able to shoot normally. With Mirage, they can easily sneak out of melee at the start of your turn – then get an aiming bonus against whatever was engaging them – unless it was a reach model that was base to base. Last up there’s Mortality which will put them at an effective RAT 7/ POW 12 against anything under the spell’s effect. And it prevents healing so no Tough Rolls.
PGrim has similar tools to Grim2, but his feat will halt your opponent’s advance to maybe give your Highwaymen an extra turn of shooting before they engage. Marked for Death serves a similar role to Mortality obviously. The spells have some key differences and of course one will be better in some situations than others. Cross Country is also good, since it can go a little ways to helping the Highwaymen get around behind enemy models to take advantage of Braylen Wanderheart’s Opportunist ability. I can’t believe I made it this far without mentioning her yet. She does so much for the unit it seems wrong to not include her in every part of the conversation. In fact she’s key to why I’m so excited about fielding Highwaymen with this next Warlock.
EGrissel’s Dash and the immunity from freestrikes it gives your models can let them take advantage of Opportunist like no other Warlock. Plus she comes with Inhospitable Ground which is yet another way to help your Highwaymen take a ton of shots before they become engaged.
Calandra also has some good abilities, but I don’t see her as one of my top choices. Befuddle is a good way to make sure you can use Opportunist. She has other ways to help but they are hardly specific to Highwaymen. My only real objection to taking them with her is that she has a great Theme List that they aren’t in, and I think I’d rather use her with Evolutionary Elementalism than not.
Since Braylen isn’t out right now, I think I want to go with this list for my first Highwaymen force.
Captain Gunnbjorn – WB: +5
– Trollkin Runebearer
– Dire Troll Bomber – PC: 10
– Troll Impaler – PC: 5
– Dire Troll Blitzer – PC: 9
– Slag Troll – PC: 6
Janissa Stonetide – PC: 3
Trollkin Highwaymen – Leader & 9 Grunts: 8
Trollkin Highwaymen – Leader & 9 Grunts: 8
Krielstone Bearer & Stone Scribes – Leader & 3 Grunts: 3
– Stone Scribe Elder – Elder 1
I think two units of Highwaymen will be great in many lists, but with Gunnbjorn being able to cycle cast Snipe easily with the Runebearer, he’ll be particularly good to double down with. On his feat turn those Highwaymen will be DEF 18 against shooting and immune to blasts. In fact, since they have Camoulflage, you could almost argue for going Tier 2 with Gunnbjorn since it gives you those Trench Templates. But you can’t actually fit that many Highwaymen in them anyway. Besides, two walls are so cruel, I think Gunny needs the Runebearer, and those trolls can really use the Krielstone. With 12″ pistol shots, it will be tempting to hang back with the Highwaymen to get an aiming bonus. It will be important to stay aggressive to keep from losing out on objectives.
Once Braylen is out, I think I’ll start trying out this list.
Grissel Bloodsong, Marshal of the Kriels – WB: +6
– Dire Troll Mauler – PC: 9
– Storm Troll – PC: 5
– Swamp Troll – PC: 4
Braylen Wanderheart, Trollkin Outlaw – PC: 3
Sons of Bragg – Wrathar, Tor & Rhudd: 6
Trollkin Warders – Leader & 4 Grunts: 8
Trollkin Warders – Leader & 4 Grunts: 8
Krielstone Bearer & Stone Scribes – Leader & 5 Grunts: 4
– Stone Scribe Elder – Elder 1
Trollkin Highwaymen – Leader & 9 Grunts: 8
This time Highwaymen are less of a focus and more of a piece in the puzzle. While the Warders get stuck in, the Highwaymen will try to get through the lines with the help of Dash, and get into trouble further backfield. There aren’t a ton of models in this list, but I’ll still have to be careful to keep everyone from getting into everyone else’s way.
~Hope you enjoyed the article. How are you guys planning on running Highwaymen?
