Kriel Warriors

Kriel warriors are the heart of the armies of the trollkin. These bands of warrior brothers march to war in defense of their people wielding shields, hand weapons, and an indomitable spirit. They are often accompanied by mighty caber throwers, who put their prowess in the traditional sport of their people to lethal use against all enemies.'

Hurling cabers, stone columns that seem too big to lift, has proven a surprisingly effective and devastating attack in battles throughout the centuries. These weapons have more than justified the backbreaking effort as they tumble forward with bone-pulping power in a nearly unavoidable and crushing attack. Anything caught in the caber's path is usually reduced to paste.

Basic Info

Abilities

• Everyone (excluding the Sorcerer)
  • Template:Tough
  • Template:Unyielding

• Leader, Grunts, & Piper (CA)
  • Template:CMA

• Standard (CA)
  • Template:Granted (Template:Rise-alt)
  • Template:Standard Bearer
  • Template:Take Up

• Piper (CA)
  • Template:Granted (Template:Reposition 3-alt)
  • Take Up

• Caber Thrower (WA #1)
  • Take Up
  • Template:Carapace
  • Template:Easy Target
  • Template:Mobile Cover

Weapons

Leader, Grunts, & Piper (CA)	Hand Weapon File:Sword icon.jpg  RNG   POW   P+S  1 5 11
Standard (CA)	Template:Unarmed
Caber Thrower (WA #1)	Caber File:Sword icon.jpg  RNG   POW   P+S  2 8 14 Template:Momentum Template:Single Shot

Sorcerer (WA #2)

As with all Trollkin units, the Kriel Warriors can attach Trollkin Sorcerer(s), whose information has been omitted for brevity.

Note you can only have 3 WA total (not 3 of each). You can have 1 Caber & 2 Sorcerers, or 2 Cabers & 1 Sorcerer, etc.

Theme Forces

• Template:Band of Heroes. They gain "Option Take Down" in this theme.
• Template:Storm of the North. They become Northkin models and gain Immunity: Cold in this theme.

Thoughts on Kriel Warriors

File:Kriel-warrior-standard-bearer-and-piper.png

Command Attachment

Kriel Warriors in a nutshell

Kriel Warriors are cheap and tough troops that don't kill much. Able to shrug off an unboosted POW 10, their best use is jamming the enemy and making them work to kill you. They are poor troops at doing anything except catching bullets and blocking charge lanes. But sometimes quantity has a quality all of its own and the WA is a great support piece in its own right.

The purpose of the vanilla Kriel Warriors unit is to be 10 models for 11 points - and at that price you get what you pay for and will probably not be disappointed.

Thoughts on the Attachments

File:Kriel-warrior-caber-thrower.png

Weapon Attachment

The Caber Throwers dramatically change the unit by offering small bubbles of Carapace and a little more hitting power at the cost of almost 2 grunts. Given that you will almost certainly be running a Krielstone this potential +6 armour can help see even the lowest armour solo or medium based warbeast across the table. It's not an aura that does much for the other members of the unit,partly because when they are dirt cheap you actually want your enemy shooting them rather than your more valuable targets.

The Command Attachment is more expensive than basic kriel warrior without adding that much to a unit that should always be running or charging. Rise and Reposition are nice but hardly worth 3 points unless you take the unit with all the trimmings at max size.

Combos & Synergies

Caster Combos

• Calandra1 makes them moderately hard to hit if they also have concealment or cover.
• Madrak Ironhide, Thornwood Chieftain can give use Even Ground to make them a real nuisance to kill.
• Madrak3 - Battle Lust lets them crack ARM, Spell Piercer lets them ignore defensive buffs and Defender's Ward makes them a nuisance to kill. Spamming Kriel Warriors also makes excellent use of his feat!
• Ragnor1 with so many bodies on the field they are a great Pulverizer target and his feat makes them a reliable anchor.

General Support

• Fell Caller Hero available in both themes they feature in you take the hero because you actually want these troops to be able to hit something.
• Trollkin Champions with Carapace are night unassailable to guns.
• Stone Scribe Chronicler helps turn them into a tarpit at range and helps models in range of a Warbeast fight better.

Storm of the North

Playing in SotN opens them up to all of the specific Northkin buffs, passively they gain immunity cold which is highly situational but useful. They can also have spells upkept on them for free allowing more resources to be used for cycling or supporting better models.

• Hooch Hauler as Northkin models they love the +1 to hit rolls and stumbling drunk.
• Northkin Elder - Moreso than just an armour buff, some speed and strength really helps the warriors.

Drawbacks & Downsides

• Interesting, fun, effective. It's arguable that the standard Kriel Warriors and CA fit none of these categories.
• MAT 5, SPD 5, POW 11, DEF 12, ARM 15. None of these stats are that great, they are an ungodly mixture of inaccurate, pillow fisted, slow, easy to hit. Their job is to take hits and they need the caber thrower to do this at range and the Krielstone to do this in melee.
• Other units are only slightly more expensive but actually get some work done.
• the Caber Thrower doesn't bring the armour cracking you may expect from a giant stone pole landing on your face.
• all those medium bases in a full 15 man unit are a pain to navigate around without tactician if you spread them out for jamming be sure not to jam yourself

Tricks & Tips

• Jam away.
• Keep a caster in Carapace range.

Other

Trivia

• The CA and WA were both released in Hordes: Evolution

Other Trollblood models

Index Trollbloods