Hoarluk Doomshaper, Dire Prophet & Scroll Bearers

Template:Trollbox2 This model is playable only in an Unlimited format.

Hoarluk Doomshaper has cemented himself by word and deed as an essential pillar of the United Kriels, preaching a violent rhetoric embracing aggression and the annihilation of all foes. He has proven that victory cannot be attained through peace, but instead requires strength and ruthless ferocity. He has scoured every sacred site and spent endless hours collecting a wealth of ancient teachings. A number of stout pygmy trolls volunteered to help shoulder the legendary shaman’s burden, bearing enough scrolls and cases to rival the weight of equipment borne by heavily armored kriel warriors.

Basic Info

Doomshaper

• Template:Warlock Unit
  • This unit is made up of Doomshaper and the Scroll Bearers.

Feat: Blood of Dhunia

1. While within Doomshaper's Template:CTRL range, models in his battlegroup gain an additional die on melee attack rolls.
2. When a model in Doomshaper's battlegroup that is in Template:Control range is hit by an enemy attack, after the attack is resolved remove d3+3 damage points from the model.

Blood of Dhunia lasts for one round.

Abilities

• Template:Officer
• Template:Tough
• Template:Hyper-Regeneration
• Field Marshal [ [[:Category:{{{ability}}}|{{{ability}}}]] ]

[[Category:{{{ability}}}]]

• Template:Trollkin - Doomshaper is a Trollkin model, but the unit isn't.

Weapons

• Kriel Staff - 2" reach, P+S 13 melee weapon
  • Template:Magical Weapon
  • Template:Critical Smite

Spells

{{Category: Template:AdmonitionTemplate:ImplacabilityTemplate:RepudiateTemplate:StrangleholdTemplate:Unminding }}[[Category: Template:AdmonitionTemplate:ImplacabilityTemplate:RepudiateTemplate:StrangleholdTemplate:Unminding ]]

Scroll Bearers

Doomshaper's unit comes with a single Scroll Bearers model (it's a plural because are several Pygs on a single base) Template:Infobox-Model

Abilities

• Template:Tough
• Template:Pyg - The Scroll Bearers is a Pyg model, but the unit isn't.
• Template:Scroll Bearer
  • Template:Scroll of the Call of Troqal
  • Template:Scroll of the Hand of Yolandi
  • Template:Scroll of the Strength of the Molgur

Weapons

• Template:Unarmed

Theme Forces

• Trollbloods
  • Template:Band of Heroes. In this theme he gains "Optional Take Down".
  • Template:Kriel Company
  • Template:Power of Dhunia. In this theme he can start the game with friendly upkeeps in play.
  • Template:Storm of the North. In this theme he can upkeep spells on (almost) any friendly model for free.
  • Template:Vengeance of Dhunia. In this theme he gains Attuned Spirit [Trollblood/Minion Warbeast].

• Other Factions
  • Minion players can also use this warlock in the Vengeance of Dhunia and he gains Attuned Spirit as mentioned above.

Thoughts on Doomshaper3

Doomshaper3 in a nutshell

Doomshaper3 is a defensively focused warbeast warlock, healing almost all damage from his trolls before throwing them back into the fray. He's absolutely terrifying to people who aren't expecting him, but is possible for some factions to tech against so he'll never disrupt the metagame too much.

Maximising his feat and spells

Warbeasts! Then more Warbeasts. Put simply, whilst any combination of beasts can do the trick, between his feat and Implacability, Hoarluk3 is ideal for delivering full-blooded trolls into enemy lines.

Gargantuans work well thanks to being immune to Greivous Wounds, so they invariably make the most of his feat (with the MK and GK build being the most common).

It’s worth noting that Hoarluk3’s feat contains an offensive component (the additional die on attack rolls). If you can ever get the alpha strike off in order to make the most out of the offensive and defensive nature of the feat, then by all means (in these cases many opponents can struggle to do any meaningful damage at all in the following turn). However,, his feat is generally seen as suited to absorbing the alpha, then countering very hard with still-alive warbeasts.

Drawbacks & Downsides

• Anyone who knows they are going to be facing Doomshaper should be able to bring something that shuts down healing. At that point his feat and his Hyper-Regeneration become a whole lot less threatening. At least there's the double gargantuan build (if you're planning on Dire Trolls then Doomshaper 2 doesn't have this weakness).
• Unminding only matters if you are vs a hordes army. Even then you can reduce the threshold and prevent the use of an Animus on a construct Warbeast.

Tricks & Tips

• The scrolls can be used at any time. So you could, for instance, move Doomshaper B2B with the Pyg, then use a scroll, then move the Pyg away (to avoid AOEs etc).
• With the free animus scroll up Mulg can use Arcane Vortex on himself and essentially become fury6 for one round.

List Building Advice

Strategy

His main method of winning is probably attrition and bullying your opponent off the objective with seemingly impossible to kill beasts (again, unless your opponent has plenty of healing prevention!).

Notable inclusions are EBDT for versatility, Mauler for Rage, Gargantuans as they are immune to Greivous Wounds and a Bouncer for a Shield Guard (he’s an easy target after all).

Of course once you've picked his strategy he still wants a Krielstone and the obvious support as well - Whelps to add fury management to the list whilst a Runebearer can help with with getting off the occasional stranglehold or reducing costs of spells.

Theme thoughts

He's very clearly a warbeast warlock. Prior to 2020 this essentially locked him into Power of Dhunia, but with the new Vengeance of Dhunia theme he has options.

Comparing VoD to PoD:

• In VoD you lose access to Troll Whelps and the Runebearer but you gain access to Farrow warbeasts.
• In PoD you can start with upkeeps in play (admonition only), whereas in VoD you can cast one animus per turn for free.
• The free animus in VoD means you might not need to use the scroll of Troqual as often, freeing you up to use one of the other two scrolls. Likewise the reduced cost of animi in PoD can make the scroll of Torqual fairly redundant.
• VoD has more infantry options than PoD, which means the scroll of Molghur scroll might get used.

Vengeance of Dhunia Combos

• Farrow Valkyries - ranged grievous wounds is rare but can still mess with Doomshaper3s plans, having these ladies catch bullets for your beast while under the Krielstone is very handy.
• Ledfoot & Tredz - a very handy speed up to get a key model in position.

Battlegroup

Doomie3 likes scary big, scary tough warbeasts - and there are two basic schools of thought with him:

• The most common anti-doomshaper tech, Grievous Wounds doesn't work on Gargantuans. So take a couple of them and they are very hard to kill. So the most common beasts to take are the Mountain King, the Glacier King, and the Sea King
• Between Hyper-Regeneration, Implacability, his feat, and the scroll of animus-spamming you get the most mileage out of the most beasts - and under the Krielstone troll beasts are pretty tough. So take a lot of lights and just let them frenzy.

Other

Trivia

Released in Hordes: Devastation (2015)

Video Battle Reports

• 2019.04 Deathclock Dave, vs Locke1
• Template:VBR