Hordes: The New King of the Trollbloods
What do you need to know about the new Glacier King?
The first new Gargantuan is here, and he’s a Trollblood. It’s probably safe to describe Trollblood players’ reactions to the older Mountain King Gargantuan as less than enthusiastic. In the end people found a few lists that worked for the guy, and he also got an errata making him a little bit better. But no one has ever been as enthusiastic for the Mountain King as they are for this new Gargantuan. So why is that?
Glacier King 101
Stat-wise the two gargantuans have identical profiles. MAT, ARM, Damage Boxes… they’re all the same. The first noticeable difference between the two is their gun. With Range 12, POW 14, and ROF 3 the Glacier King looks like a gun platform to be reckoned with. But there’s a lot more to him than that.
The Glacier King is an absolute monster when it comes to objective play. Not only does that gun of his hit hard, it also has Thunderbolt. This rule allows it to push enemy models back D3″ with each hit, causing knockdown on a critical – after the push. This can help keep really hard hitting models like Bronzebacks out of charge range a little longer. It will also keep them away from scoring or contesting objectives, which is easily even more important.
The Glacier King’s Animus, Frozen Ground, also brings help against some of the popular swarm lists out there. Any model that ends its activation within 3″ of a Glacier King with its Animus up will be knocked down. I guess he doesn’t freeze them so much as the ground and make it all slippery. With a Krielstone Aura, it will be tough to bring down the Glacier King with mobs of infantry. If he gets charged by a unit that can’t take him down, they should be a breeze to kill with a single Sweep attack. You should even get to heal a lot of wounds with Snacking. It’s a risky strategy though so be careful.
If you’re looking to crack hard targets, the Glacier King is just as good for the job as his Gargantuan brother. With Fury 5 and two initial attacks he can crank out 7 P+S 19 attacks. With some of the animi at the Trollblood’s disposal you can crank that up even higher. The Glacier King really excels at killing models with somewhat higher DEF like certain character beasts/jacks or those annoying Warpwolves. The Glacier King compensates for his lousy MAT by packing melee weapons with Freeze. Anyone he hits will go stationary, provided they don’t have Immunity:Cold. That means most of the time he’ll only have to spend Fury to boost the first attack.
All this and he even has a helpful buff that he doesn’t have to spend Fury to activate. His Snowfall will grant Concealment to friendly model’s within 3″. Given that two of my favorite units are Highwaymen and Scouts, I think this one will come in handy. It will put your opponent into a real bind. Try to take your army out with shooting and they’ll have to deal with all that concealment. Charge in and they risk getting knocked down.
Does He Have a Downside?
The Glacier King’s biggest weakness will be other Gargantuans and Colossals. He can’t push them and he can’t freeze them. Fortunately with the right Animus it shouldn’t be too hard for him to bring them down. The problem will be when they get the drop on him. He’s a fairly beefy guy, but even if he’s in the aura of a Krielstone most other Gargossals will be able to one round him. You can always do the whole Earthborn Animus thing, but then he won’t be using his own Animus. Or you can take advantage of the Trollbood’s many SPD buffs and make the Glacier King the alpha striker.
When it comes to list building, most things that work for the Mountain King work for the Glacier King. Defensive Animi are less important though since the Glacier King already has one of his own. Frozen Ground does give him some interesting prospects that the Mountain King doesn’t have. I’m kind of interested in trying him in a pBorka list since the Warlock can be tough enough to kill that I want to see what happens when I put Frozen Ground on him. I also want to see how I can get it to interact with Grim Angus Feat. It’ll be easier to freeze them if they can’t run away.
Of course that’s all just thinking out loud so to speak. My first serious thoughts went to Gunnbjorn. Not that original I know. Everyone seems to like Gunnbjorn with the Glacier King. He just brings so many great tools. There’s Snipe for extra range. There’s Explosivo so the King can make magical ranged attacks. This will let him kill Incorporeal models or push back Protectorate warjacks under Passage. Rock Wall can make it a lot trickier for your opponent to charge the Glacier King. And of course there’s Guided Fire so the big guy can rattle off three ranged attacks boosted for attack and damage. The only thing he has that won’t help the Glacier King is his feat. Here’s my first go at a 50 point Gunnbjorn Glacier King list.
Sample Glacier King List
Captain Gunnbjorn – WB: +5
– Trollkin Runebearer
– Glacier King – PC: 18
– Pyre Troll – PC: 5
– Troll Impaler – PC: 5
Braylen Wanderheart, Trollkin Outlaw – PC: 3
Troll Whelps – PC: 2
Trollkin Highwaymen – Leader & 9 Grunts: 8
Krielstone Bearer & Stone Scribes – Leader & 3 Grunts: 3
– Stone Scribe Elder – Elder 1
Trollkin Highwaymen – Leader & 9 Grunts: 8
Hopefully it’s pretty self explanatory. It can dish out a ton of ranged pain. The Impaler will Snipe the Glacier King and Gunnbjorn will cycle it between the two Highwaymen. With the Glacier King’s three boosted POW 14 shots, and the Highwaymen doing big CRAs, this list can really put on the ranged hurt. Unlike most gunlines, everything in this list functions pretty well in melee. If I play my cards right, the Glacier King’s Animus should be able to compensate somewhat for his and the Highwaymen’s low MAT once everyone gets stuck in.
~Hope you enjoyed the article. What are your big plans for the Glacier King?
