Trolls, Warhammer Unit Chronicles
Trolls have to be one of the most iconic units in Warhammer Fantasy and with their imminent re-release with Orcs & Goblins coming to The Old World, it’s fitting to dive deep into the murky waters of the history of trolls in Warhammer!
“Who goes trip-trap over my bridge?” growled the troll. It’s just us Warhammer enthusiasts going on a trip down the memory lane! Trolls have been a part of the Warhammer Fantasy setting from the beginning and later on became one of the most iconic units in the whole setting with their wonderfully characterful models and fun memorable rules and lore. From very early on Citadel and Games Workshop themselves identified a part of their operation with the trolls, referring to their mail order staff as the “Mail Order Trolls” already in the 80s. This was very evident especially in the 90s with their troll branding on mail order packaging and especially on all mail order advertising, they even had their own dedicated Troll magazine. It was a free monthly magazine that was sent with their mail orders and also along with a White Dwarf subscription that ran for 80 issues from November 1997 until around mid 2004, it was mainly promotional including the latest monthly releases but there were also decent articles on conversions and modelling. You can find some of the earlier issues at Stuff of Legends. With the webstore replacing mail order they have mostly moved away from the troll branding, although recently I was pleased to notice they still have a bit in their order confirmation message about their “in-house troggoths” being excited about the order and so on when I made a purchase from the first wave of Made to Order models for Warhammer The Old World.
Games Workshop has announced the return of Orcs & Goblins for Warhammer The Old World which means the return of trolls as well and they are running a stunning Made to Order campaign in conjunction with their release. It includes the iconic ’93 Perry Stone and River Trolls among other miniature gems like the Marauder Giant! Sadly I probably won’t be able to take advantage of that offer this time even though I have lusted after those trolls since ’98. Some day I’ll get them, some day…
Before we jump into the first ever troll models for Warhammer Fantasy, let’s take a quick look into the history of trolls in fantasy literature and gaming as well as in general.
Trolls, like many other creatures in our modern fantasy settings, have their origin in Norse mythology. They go back at least until the 9th century, but likely even earlier than that. The Norse described trolls in general as dwelling in isolated mountains, rocks or caves, sometimes as families and they are said to be very rarely helpful or kind to humans. There seems to be quite a bit of confusion about the terms the Norse used and there doesn’t seem to be quite an equivalent for something we’d consider a troll nowadays. There was a general category of jötnar in Germanic cultures which referred to various supernatural beings, the Norse had various types of beings (jötunn, troll, þurs and risi) that are all somewhat related to the modern concept of a troll, but not the same. It also seems that during the time the meaning of these words changed as well. In any case, what’s for certain is that the concept of a troll has it’s roots in Norse mythology.
Later on in Scandinavian folklore trolls became their own distinct beings that were considered to be dangerous to humans, not Christian and living in remote places in the wild. Even at this point their appearance could vary greatly, from slow-witted grotesque looking beings to beings that look just like humans or are even fair. Many of these folktales contain elements that we would be familiar with today like turning to stone if subjected to sunlight, living in caves and so on. There are also other types of tales where their main distinction is that they are not Christian, while otherwise being like humans although in the end they usually do something heinous like kidnapping. It could be said that the Scandinavian concept of “troll” was similiar to that of “fairies” in Anglo-Celtic cultures.
Trolls became a fantasy trope through 19th century Britain where fairy and folk tales where very popular during this time and onto the early 20th century. These were originally collected original folktales from various European cultures, although editing and revising was very common, but in the latter half of the 19th century it became more common for British authors to write their own original fairy tales. This continued well into the 20th century and Tolkien was very familiar with this type of literature, which largely through him evolved into the modern literary genre of fantasy. Trolls were of course one of the creatures that came to modern fantasy through this route with Tolkien writing the archetypical description of them based on his exposure to fairy literature and of course his direct and deep knowledge of European mythology.
Dungeons and Dragons compiled an early and very comprehensive roster of various fantastical creatures with traits that we are very familiar today in fantasy settings, it was very influential and especially so for Warhammer Fantasy which isn’t surprising considering that Games Workshop was the licensed reseller for D&D in the UK and that Citadel used to make models for it. That seems to be the earliest source in fantasy for trolls being able to regenerate wounds unless caused by fire, if you are interested in a deeper look into that, here’s a good look into the history of trolls in D&D.
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Warhammer 1st Edition (1983)
Unsurprisingly trolls were included already in the creature list of the first Warhammer Fantasy rulebook as the lineup of creatures was dictated by the miniature range Citadel had available back then, which was made up of models for roleplaying games and historical wargames. What is surprising to me is how their first iteration already establishes pretty much all the elements that would characterize a troll in Warhammer. Here’s how they are described:
“Trolls are large evil creatures, very stupid, ferocious and unhygienic. They have the awesome ability to Regenerate wounds, this makes then extremely difficult opponents.”
That already mentions one of their main characteristics, being able to regenerate wounds, but in addition to that in the rules they are also subject to stupidity. In this version they are also subject to frenzy, cause fear and can have Chaotic attributes. In this edition they are explicitly a chaotic creature as in Forces of Fantasy, the first army list supplement, they are part of the Chaos forces not of the Orcs & Goblins like later on. Stupidity in 1st edition was perhaps surprisingly less harsh than it is in later editions, units affected by it need to roll a D6 at the start of their turn with the following results for a roll of:
1 Unit becomes confused and may not move at all this turn. If attacked the unit may not fight back.
2 The unit becomes slightly confused and may not change formation this turn — but may otherwise act as normal.
3+ The unit is unaffected.
So really only a roll of a 1 has a bad result, granted it’s more harsh than failing a stupidity test in more modern Warhammer, but there’s a much smaller chance of it happening.
The creature list in the 1st edition rulebook contains 4 distinct types of trolls, which include Hill Trolls, Spiked Trolls, Two-headed Trolls and the basic Troll. They have mostly the same statline, with the Spiked Trolls having poisoned spikes (only 50% of the time though!) with some of them having one more wound, attack or a bit more initiative. The Chaos army list in Forces of Fantasy has just the basic Troll variant with the same statline as it had in the rulebook. The Trolls statline is also remarkably similar to what it is even today in Warhammer The Old World, in 1st edition strength was pretty much 1 lower than in later editions due to it’s toughness working differently so the Trolls strength of 4 here is the same as 5 later on. The biggest difference is their toughness of “B” which corresponds more to toughness 3 later on, all the other stats are roughly the same as in later editions.
I always find it remarkable how well Rick Priestley crafted these statlines and rules for all of the creatures right from the get go even if the overall rules were still quite rough at this point. That’s more than evident from the fact that the statlines and the basic rules for most creatures are still the same 40 years later!
Let’s start our journey through the various troll models Citadel and Games Workshop have released during the years, starting with the first ones which were originally sculpted to be used in any fantasy game featuring trolls and moving on to models sculpted specifically for Warhammer.
The first troll models by Citadel that were sold to be used in Warhammer Fantasy was the C20/1 Trolls One range. These models were sculpted by Tom Meier and were part of the Fantasy Tribes series of models, they were also manufactured under license by Ral Partha in the USA and by RAFM in Canada. They were also featured in the 1983 First Citadel Compendium as drawings when Citadel moved to using drawings in their catalogues for a few years due to the cost and difficulty of photographing miniatures at the time. These models were sculpted for use in roleplaying games, not specifically for Warhammer Fantasy and would be replaced already in the next year with more specific models. Tom Meier is a legendary sculptor in some circles and I can certainly understand why even if these models aren’t really to my taste. You can clearly see that these are not “Warhammer models”, not that there really was a clear Warhammer style at this point, but most of the other very early models released for Warhammer do have a glimmer of what that would become and thus they are much easier to approach for those of us who aren’t that familiar with early 80s models.
This second range of troll models was sculpted by the ever prolific Alan and Michael Perry in 1984 specifically for Warhammer Fantasy Battles, although certainly during these very early years Citadel model’s were marketed also to be used in roleplaying games generally. As I wrote above, there wasn’t a clear distinct Warhammer style yet, so it was possible to sell these for other settings as well, but even with that I think that these Perry trolls already have something that can be recognized as “being Warhammer”. That might be just because they were sculpted by the Perry twins as their sculpting was such a integral part of creating that Warhammer style, so the familiarity I feel when looking at these might just be familiarity with the style of the sculpting instead of anything distinctly Warhammer. Whatever the case, for me these look what trolls should look like and I think they are very well sculpted especially being such early sculpts. With an appropriate paintjob these would work fine even in a 4th or 5th edition army! The only thing I find kind of peculiar with these models is that as mentioned trolls were a part of the Chaos army, these trolls do not look chaotic at all to me and I think visually they would fit better with the Orcs & Goblins or maybe that’s just my bias looking at them knowing they would become a part of that army.
Already in December 1983 Citadel released a mutated Chaos Troll model, so called Leaping Slomm Two-Face. The First Citadel Compendium had been published in October 1983 and it featured the Mark of Chaos article that had rules for using Chaotic Attributes as well as examples of units with these attributes applies to them along with a name and an illustration. Leaping Slomm Two-Face was one of these, a Troll mutated by the powers of Chaos resulting in various attributes like powerful legs (hence the leaping part of his name) and of course multiple heads which resulted in his famous second head. The unit entry was accompanied by a somewhat humorous but also horrifying illustration of Slomm by Tony Ackland and a model was sculpted of it based on that illustration. Sadly not many of this original Chaos Troll was produced because it was very difficult to cast due to the way it had been sculpted and it has become a bit of an collectors item for the absolute connoisseurs of the hobby. Unfortunately I couldn’t find out any information on who sculpted the model, you can see both the illustration and the model below.
In 1984 Citadel came out with their new two-headed Chaos Troll model, which is the one pictured above. It’s a very impressive model, especially for it’s time, so it’s very unfortunate that I couldn’t find who sculpted that one either. I only know that this one was based on an illustration by John Blanche, but alas, I couldn’t find that illustration either (shocking, I know).
I’m quite impressed by the ’84 Chaos Troll model, it’s very evident it’s a creature corrupted by Chaos and it just looks great, but even more than that I’m impressed with it on a conceptual level as this model is clearly distinctly Warhammer and it’s such an early model. I don’t at least think there were any previous fantasy settings with trolls mutated by Chaos! Sure, the general concept of Chaos was heavily influenced by Michael Moorcock’s Eternal Champion and Elric of Melniboné series as well as other influences, but none of those settings have two-headed chaos mutated trolls! By the way, the 2nd edition rulebook for Warhammer Fantasy has a dedication in the beginning for Moorcock acknowledging his big influence on the setting which I think is a really nice gesture by the writers (Richard Halliwell, Bryan Ansell and Rick Priestley) and something that would never happen today. I do think early on the concept of chaos in Warhammer was more than inspired than others, really almost copying, but I don’t care for the constant harping about such things in Warhammer as clearly the writers where very aware and open about it, it’s not like they were pretending it was their original idea. Furthermore, with constant iteration chaos and other “borrowed" concepts became their own distinct things in Warhammer, so it isn’t fair or accurate to say they stole those concepts from others (at least any more than all writers do!).
Warhammer 2nd Edition (1984)
Warhammer Fantasy Battles 2nd edition came out quickly on the heels of 1st edition, a year and a half later, mainly due to the popularity of it but just as much due to the pretty glaring shortcomings of the first iteration as acknowledged by Citadel themselves. The first edition was originally commissioned from Rick Priestley and Richard Halliwell by Bryan Ansell for specifically Citadel, it was meant as a free booklet to be included with mail ordered miniatures. It quickly grew past that and was published as a boxed set with multiple books, as 2nd edition was as well, but it was still rushed out and tried to be a wargame and a roleplaying game at the same time. The wargaming rules had a very solid foundation even if still a bit crude, but the roleplaying rules were practically unplayable without some major work by the game master and players so that side of the game was mostly discarded with 2nd edition or perhaps more accurately some of it was merged with the wargaming rules to provide additional flavour to the rules.
The third book of the 2nd edition box set, the Battle Bestiary, now included more detailed and much better laid out details on all of the creatures present in the setting. The Trolls are described as follows:
“Trolls are ugly and loathsome creatures of vaguely humanoid appearance. They live like wild animals in small groups, and have little command or understanding of language. They speak a debased version of Norse (very slowly).”
Their physique is described as:
“Trolls are large monsters, well over 10′ tall. Although they may look skinny or comical, their twisted bodies are very strong. Trolls can be of almost any colour, most are brownish or greenish. They are unhygienic, dirty and disgustingly smelly. They can eat almost anything, their powerful stomachs are adapted to regurgitate material that is likely to cause them serious damage. Because of their unpredictable eating habits, Trolls are often covered in the remains of their last meal. They have the ability to regenerate damaged body tissues — so that even a slain Troll can sometimes come back to life.
The Trolls are said to be most common in Norsca and on the increase in the Dark Lands, with some still surviving in the Old World and Worlds Edge Mountains.
Their rules follow on from what was established in 1st edition with more polished rules and now with a statline that works exactly like today with the exception of the addition of “personal characteristics” due to the afore mentioned merging of roleplaying elements into the core wargaming rules. Now the strength and toughness values are directly comparable to modern fantasy statlines as the “To Wound” table is almost the same in 2nd edition as it is in later editions. Trolls are subject to stupidity, cause fear in living creatures under 10′ high and can regenerate damage. Regeneration in 2nd edition is quite powerful (it worked like this in 1st edition too!), instead of rolling when resolving the combat, you roll at the beginning of the turn of the player controlling the trolls and you only roll when the Troll has been slain. You roll for each troll separately with the results:
1–2 the regeneration fails and the model is removed
3–4 the model is still trying to regenerate — you need to roll again next turn
5–6 the model regenerates back to full wounds
Interestingly because of the way this works it might mean that the rest of the Troll unit has moved on so any regenerated models need to try and get back to it’s unit. There aren’t any rules about what happens if a model left back like this is charged by enemy models, but I would assume in that case it would fight like normal. These rules for regeneration feel more like regeneration to me than the modern version that is in practice just another saving throw, of course this version is much more cumbersome and prone to cause unclear situations but I still think it’s a very nice narrative take on the rules.
The stupidity rules have been updated for 2nd edition and how now become a test against the personal characteristic intelligence of the unit, it works like a leadership test in later editions so rolling a 2D6 and trying to roll the same or under as the characteristic, which in this case would be the intelligence of 4 of the troll. I couldn’t find any way of mitigating this like being able to use the generals intelligence or something like that, if there really isn’t a way to do that, then the trolls with an intelligence of 4 will fail the test around 83% of the time and suffer from stupidity. I’m really not that familiar with 2nd edition, so it’s very probable that there could be some mitigating factor here. If the stupidity test is failed, then the unit is subject to all of the following rules until the start of their next turn:
1. If already in combat half of the unit will suddenly stop fighting, stare blankly around and wonder where they are. For leaders and characters you need to always roll, on a roll of 4+ they can fight. There’s rules for how to determine which models fight if you have uneven numbers.
2. If not in combat the unit will forget quite what they were doing and will move off as indicated by a D6:
Roll of 1–3, move directly forwards at half-pace. Anything in the way, friends, enemies, doors, trees etc. will be charged and attacked.
Roll of 4–6, the unit merely stands around in a confused and ineffective manner.
That’s pretty harsh!
Usually at this point in these articles we take a look at the unit’s lore and rules in 2nd edition’s army list supplement Ravening Hordes from 1987 as that is a quite extensive publication, but in this case there isn’t a separate entry for any type of troll as far as I can see which is strange. Trolls are however listed now as a part of the Orcs & Goblins army with the cost of 66 points each so I assume you are meant to use the Battle Bestiary entry we already looked at. The only added detail is that they can be taken in a unit of 1–6 and that the unit needs to be lead by an Orc champion model (a minor or major hero). There are no new models for any trolls in 2nd edition, so that’s all for the very early period of Warhammer Fantasy, let’s move on to the most extensive ruleset ever published for Warhammer, 3rd edition.
Warhammer 3rd Edition (1987)
Warhammer 3rd edition came out in November 1987 and it was the most detailed and crunchy Warhammer ever got with distinct rules for just about anything you could imagine. It sure seems like a fun time to me, but not something you’d want try out willy-nilly! It was the first time all the rules had been crammed into just one book as this time it’s a hardback book so it was possible to have a much higher page count. The production quality is also quite impressive for it and it’s a joy to just look through the book as it has a familiar layout to anyone who has read the later rulebooks while at the same time being very different as it’s from the 80s era of Warhammer. There’s colour sections, painting and hobby guides and so on — everything you’d see in later editions.
The bestiary section of the book carries on the theme of the book being very detailed with lore descriptions, illustrations and full rules for each creature. The description for the trolls is longer than previously, but there isn’t really anything crucial there that wasn’t mentioned previously so I won’t quote the text here. There’s just a bit more detail about every aspect of them like the mention of their digestive fluids being one of the strongest acids existing in the Warhammer World, in the previous text it just mentioned that they can digest nearly anything, now there’s the added bit about the digestive fluids. The same applies to other aspects of the trolls.
The trolls have very comprehensive rules with them having 8 distinct special rules! For a modern player getting used to the Old World that doesn’t sound that impressive, but for early Warhammer that’s quite a set of rules for one unit. As before, they cause fear in creatures less than 10 feet tall, are subject to stupidity, can regenerate damage, they may make a single special regurgitate or thump attack instead of their normal 3 attacks, their attacks have -2 armour piercing and if a troll wears armour they cannot regenerate (due to the metal affecting their metabolism somehow).
Let’s shortly go through some of those in a bit more detail, the regurgitate special attack can be made only once per battle and should be done by all the trolls in a unit once, that’s the troll vomiting it’s very acidic digestive fluids onto one unlucky opponent, resulting in 1 strength 5 automatic hit against which no armour save can be taken and which causes D3 wounds. Pretty nice! The thump attack means that instead of the normal 3 attacks the troll gets one attack with +2 WS, +2 S, -3 AP and D3 wounds.
The stupidity rules for 3rd edition are in effect very similar to the 2nd editions ones we covered previously, so I won’t go through them here for the sake of brevity. As for most rules in 3rd edition, there’s added results and detail as well as clarifications, but in essence it’s the same.
In 3rd edition you could take basic trolls but in addition to that you could take troll characters using the character level system (5 to 25) as with most other creatures, below you can see the statlines and point costs for doing so.
October 1988 saw the release of Warhammer Armies, arguably the best army list supplement ever released for Warhammer Fantasy. I do prefer the later army books with all the possible wonderful detail that allows, but there is something to be said with having all the armies in one book and the armies you could build with this book just tickle the imagination and it’s a very well made book all around. Specifically for trolls there isn’t too much to be said, the biggest thing is that now they are included in both the Chaos and the Orcs & Goblins army rosters with the latter allowing more of them to be taken. There is no difference between the Chaos and Orcs & Goblins variants, they are exactly the same in all respects although you could give chaos mutations and the like to the Chaos variant and make them quite distinct that way. Below are both of the unit cards from the book, first the Chaos one and then the Orcs & Goblins one.
We’ve been through quite a bit of rules since the last models so happily there’s quite a few trolls models to look at from the period of 3rd edition, let’s start with the 1987 Citadel Trolls.
The 1987 Trolls were sculpted by Aly Morrison, in some of the catalogues each of them were labelled as a specific type of troll which were Marsh Troll, Cave Troll, Hill Troll & Warrior Troll (starting from the left in the picture above). I think it’s a bit unfortunate that they are all different types of trolls as there’s only one miniature for each type so you couldn’t run a unit of just one type of troll, you’d always have to have an eclectic mix of trolls. They don’t look too wildly different to have in the same unit, but I do prefer the way it’s in other editions where all the trolls in one unit are of the same type. There’s also just 4 variations of trolls which is on the lower side especially for 3rd edition! You could run them in units of up to 20 so it would quickly look very repetitive for such larger miniatures that are representing a unit that is the opposite of disciplined so shouldn’t have uniformity. Other than that they are quite nice models and clearly technically a step up from the previous Perry trolls, they are cast from a better lead alloy and the moulds have been improved so there’s a better level of detail. Even with all of that I do personally prefer the previous Perry trolls, they are so characterful and have that very classic troll look which works for me personally.
Those wouldn’t be the only trolls to be released during 3rd edition, fans of trolldom were blessed with another range and by none other than Marauder Miniatures!
In 1989 a new range of trolls came out, this time under the banner of Marauder Miniatures. They were sculpted by Trish Carden (Trish Morrison back then) who together with Aly Morrison had founded Marauder Miniatures the previous year. They both sculpted previously for Citadel Miniatures and would come back to work for them when some of the Marauder miniature ranges were folded into the Citadel range in 1993 after they stopped as a separate business. Marauder was always closely connected to Games Workshop and their miniatures were just as official for Warhammer as Citadel miniatures, it’s a peculiar arrangement and I’ll have to write an article about it to understand why it was done. Whatever the reason is, everyone is glad it happened as Marauder Miniatures released many of the most classic fantasy miniatures ever.
The troll miniatures themselves have a very clear 3rd edition look to them and this time there’s a nice range of 6 distinct models that are all the same type of troll so I’m sure they look great in a unit. I think these are overall the best 80s trolls for Warhammer and look really good, these wouldn’t look out of place in a Orcs & Goblins army from around 6th edition or even later with a more modern paintjob. My personal favourites are still the ’84 Perry trolls, but they would certainly look very out of place even in a 4th edition army while these Marauder trolls would work well.
Warhammer 4th Edition (1992)
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Warhammer Fantasy Battles 4th edition was perhaps the most radical change the game ever went through in one edition change, brought on mostly by the changing focus and target groups of Games Workshop after Bryan Ansell sold the company in a management buyout. The new management wanted to expand their market globally into new countries outside of the UK and US and turn the whole organization into much more commercially driven although it would take over a decade until in my view the design studio itself was mostly commercially driven. I think it’s great Warhammer has gone through many of these eras so each of us can find the one we like the most, there’s enough material there in a few editions to last a life time if you really want to collect the armies and get them painted. If you really adore one army you can even collect multiple armies with models from different eras, for some ranges you could have 4 full armies made up of miniatures from different eras for the same army!
In terms of rules 4th edition was a definite change of direction compared to 3rd edition and it was made consciously as the last few years of 3rd edition had seen a noticeable drop in the sales of Warhammer Fantasy and in addition to that the very clunky and detailed ruleset of 3rd certainly wouldn’t have been a suitable vehicle to take the game to a younger and global audience (both in terms of difficulty to learn it but also in terms of the challenges of translating everything for new markets). Then again what we perhaps lost in the rules we certainly got back in lore, art and pictures with every army getting their own dedicated book from now on!
You could find both rules and lore for trolls in multiple publications for 4th edition, they have a section in the Battle Bestiary that was included in the starter set (the first ever Warhammer Fantasy box with both books and miniatures!) and also in the 4th edition Warhammer Armies booklet that was also included in the set. As the name suggests, it was an army list supplement with rules for all of the armies for 4th edition right from the beginning, that had to be included as the rules changed so much you couldn’t easily just use the previous army lists and rules. 4th edition ushered in the time of the army books and there would be 2 army books with sections for trolls which are again Chaos and Orcs & Goblins. Both the lore and the rules are mostly the same in all of these publications, so I’ll cover them all in one. Of course the army books have a much longer lore section than the Battle Bestiary or Warhammer Armies and the army books add in Stone Trolls and River Trolls.
The lore text is shared by both army books with the exception of the last paragraph where they have changed a few words about joining either Chaos warbands or Orc & Goblins armies. It’s not a very long section of lore and as the lore in these 4th edition army books is pretty foundational for modern Warhammer Fantasy, I’ll quote the whole section here.
“Trolls are large and hideous creatures, bestial and foul with long gangling limbs and cold damp hides. Their warty, slimy and sometimes scaly skins can be almost any colour. There are many different kinds of Trolls — spines are not uncommon, while two headed Trolls have sometimes been sighted travelling with Chaos warbands.
Trolls are not very intelligent, but they are extremely strong, and can easily rip a man apart with their bare hands. Trolls are greatly feared because of their unthinking ferocity and indiscriminate appetite. They can and will eat anything — flesh and bone, wood, rocks, bits of metal. The stomach of a Troll contains some of the most powerful acids known in the Old World, and it’s digestive juices are highly valued by alchemists and wizards.
The other unusual and perhaps best known characteristic of Trolls is that their flesh is able to regrow almost as quickly as it is damaged. If a Troll’s clawed hand is severed a fresh one will grow from the stump. You have to cause a great deal of damage to a Troll to stop it regenerating. The only thing that Trolls cannot survive is fire. If they are burned they cannot regenerate, so fire is the greatest ally of the Troll fighter.
Trolls can be sometimes be persuaded to join Orcs or Goblins as they march to battle*, although it is doubtful if they really understand what is going on. Left to their own devices, the chances are the Trolls will go wild or become soporific, but if led by a more intelligent creature they can often prove to be dangerous foes.”
*Chaos book reads instead:
“Trolls are wild creatures that live either alone or in small groups with others of their kind. They can be sometimes persuaded to join Chaos warbands…” with the rest of the paragraph being the same as in the Orcs & Goblins army book.
There’s also separate short flavour texts for both Stone Trolls and River Trolls, which I’ll include below as they are new to 4th edition:
Stone Trolls
“Stone Trolls live in the rocky regions of the Old World, amongst the mountains and craggy hills. Like all Trolls they will eat anything and through force of circumstance they tend to eat a lot of rocks. Trolls tend to acquire physical attributes as a results of what they eat, and Stone Trolls are craggy with cracked flesh like weathered stone. Rocks and stones absorb sluggish Light magic, and because the Troll eats a lot of rocks his body naturally absorbs a large quantity of magical power. This makes Stone Trolls extraordinarily resistant to attack by magic.
River Trolls
“River Trolls live in marshlands or bogs, and beside untamed rivers where the banks are broad and muddy. They are both slimy and scaly, with vile green-coloured skin and lank hair-like growths. The slime they exhude is obnoxious and slippery, and has the dual effects of choking anyone too near the Troll and also making it extremely hard for an attacker to land a blow.”
There we go, that’s all the 4th edition troll lore! The general description didn’t really add anything new, but it’s a nice flavour text so no harm in including it but for future editions I’ll only mention any possible changes or additions to the lore. For the Stone Trolls I didn’t quite grasp what they are referring to with the “sluggish Light magic” bit, I guess Light magic in particular is somehow sluggish and gets trapped in rocks and stones?
On the rules front the statline remains exactly the same as it has been since 2nd edition with the only exception of the personal characteristics having now been cut out and merged into just leadership. Trolls have the special rules Fear, Stupidity, Regenerate, Fire, Vomit, Stone Trolls and River Trolls. The rules for Stupidity are again mostly the same as in 2nd and 3rd editions, but now you of course test against the leadership of the unit. That now also allows the unit to use the leadership of the army’s general if he’s within 12″ of the unit which makes it much more tolerable than it would otherwise be. The regeneration rule has been significantly simplified, now you simply roll for each wound after the combat has been resolved and on a roll of 4+ the wound is regenerated and also not counted for combat resolution (fire based attacks stop regeneration). The vomit attack is very similar to the 3rd edition version, it’s the same 1 automatic strength 5 hit with no armour saves although now it’s just one wound instead of D3.
Somewhat strangely there’s only an entry for “Trolls” in the books with Stone Trolls and River Trolls just being special rules mentioned under them, both of these give bonuses to the unit but neither of them cost any extra points so of course you would always take either the Stone Trolls or River Trolls. The Stone Trolls get extra magic resistance, if a spell (friendly or enemy spell!) is directed towards the unit, on a D6 roll of 4+ the spell is dispelled — that’s pretty nice! The River Trolls get a -1 to hit against them in close combat (to a minimum of 6), which is arguably even more powerful. In addition to these special rules the Trolls have their own rules about how to build the units as in 4th edition there’s a universal rule of all units requiring a minimum of 5 models per unit, but some more powerful models like Trolls can be taken in smaller units. You can even take just 1 Troll, but if you take more you can’t just have them in units of 1 — the rule states that when taking up to 5 models of Trolls they have to be put in the same unit and when taking more than that they need to be divided into 2 units divided as evenly as possible (e.g. 7 Trolls would be divided into a unit of 4 and a unit of 3) and there’s rules for dividing larger amounts. That’s there to stop the player using them as just units of single Trolls as that would be very powerful in game.
Now we are in for a real treat with the next troll models, these are legendary!
Nearly a decade after the first Citadel Trolls by the Perry Twins, Michael Perry got to return to the subject with the 4th edition Stone Trolls — and what a return it was! Really I don’t think there’s enough superlatives around to be thrown at these models, they are simply so great. I honestly don’t think you could improve upon that in any way, these aren’t good just because of feelings of fluffy nostalgia or because “they look charming” — these are simply superb models, a masterclass of miniature sculpting. They are really quite simple, but they don’t need anything more, Michael has managed to capture the essence of trolls with these sculpts so anything else is just extra or might event detract from it. If I had to choose the most iconic Warhammer models ever released, these would be in the top 3 at least.
Michael Perry is at it again with these 4th edition River Trolls being released just a couple of months after their stony brethren so most likely they were sculpted very closely together. I don’t think it comes as a surprise to anyone that I absolutely love these models as well, although I don’t think they are quite on the level of the Stone Trolls. They are very close to that level and in some aspects even superior, but something that I cannot define leaves them ever so slightly below. I really appreciate how well both of the troll types visually represent their living environment and diet, that’s even better evident on the River Trolls. My favourite head is the one with the narrow long spiky kind of fishy looking teeth, he looks very nasty! It was also a great decision to have the heads as separate for both of the trolls as that allows more variety in a unit of them which is especially needed for the River Trolls with just 3 variants of it available.
It’s very well known that both of the Perry twins much prefer sculpting historical models, that makes it perhaps even more impressive that Michael was able to sculpt such fantastical creatures to such a fantastic level! I think some of the approach to sculpting that the Perry twins have actually is part of the reason why these models are so good, at the very least it explains why I in particular think that. That approach is the very grounded and realistic approach the brothers have always taken to sculpting, they always approach all of their sculpts from the basis of the subject being a real living creature in a real environment with it’s own history. Usually that comes “free” with historical subjects, but for fantasy subjects they of course have to imagine all of that based on all the established lore, illustrations and so on. Obviously no one always hits it out of the park, but both of the Perry brothers certainly have multitudes of absolutely superb sculpts and they are very respected by both hobbyists and professionals in the industry so clearly the approach works.
Warhammer 5th Edition (1996)
5th edition brought us the fantastic starter set with Bretonnia and Lizardmen so there were plenty of scaly dumb creatures about in the world of Warhammer Fantasy, but unfortunately specifically for trolls we didn’t see anything new published or released.
White Dwarf #225 from September 1998 featured some very cool converted Chaos Trolls, so let’s quickly look at them as there’s nothing else happening on the troll front with 5th edition. It’s a very clever conversion using the Stone Troll bodies with the River Troll heads, just that gives them a new chaotic look, but to make it truly a great conversion there’s also added greenstuff work with the furry / hairy parts, horns and huge blades. These were done by Giorgio Bassani for John-Paul Brisigotti and they feature in a fun battle report of him playing his Beastmen against the Perry twins playing the Dogs of War army (they sculpted most of the models). These have to be some of my all time favourite conversions, with a little bit more work these could have been easily official Chaos Troll models.
Warhammer 6th Edition (2000)
With the change of the millennium Warhammer Fantasy was due for a change as well, the last few years of 5th edition had the game already progressing in a visually new direction, back to a darker more mature and realistic style. The first few years of 6th edition were really another golden period for Warhammer Fantasy with the writers and designers firing on all cylinders, their passion was very evident from what they were creating and they created a lot of classic publications and models for the game. Sadly the pressures of the organization and changes in the market burst the bubble by the end of the edition and with that the magic was gone for me, sure they still did a lot of great work all the way until the end, but the game was living on the greatness of the past without being able to recreate it. Let’s hope Warhammer The Old World will be able to capture that magic all over again, they are certainly of to a good start with the rules, but we’ll see. To be honest it would require something absolutely miraculous for them to be able to make a grognard like myself feel that magic, but I’m not giving up on hope!
For 6th edition there was a bit of a shift in the forces of Chaos and as a part of that Chaos Trolls are now a part of the Beasts of Chaos army instead of a general Chaos army, although the rules do still allow the building of a fully mixed Chaos army. I know many were and are critical of the split in Chaos and feel it should have been done along the lines of the Chaos Gods instead and while I do have sympathy for that argument I personally quite enjoy the Beasts of Chaos roster and rules. For Orcs & Goblins trolls remain a mainstay of their army with the same 3 types available as in the previous army book. The lore text in the Orcs & Goblins army book is a totally new one and while it’s very well written, there’s only a few small tidbits that haven’t been mentioned before or that is a change. The first one is that now trolls are a very common scourge in the Warhammer world as previously they were described as being quite rare and the one new tidbit is that apparently troll blood is effective in the treatment of an ailment called ‘Breton Rot’. Not sure if you are supposed to ingest the blood or rub it onto the affected area, but perhaps we shouldn’t think too much about that!
Previously in the 4th edition Chaos army book the lore section for trolls was nearly identical with the Orcs & Goblins one but now in 6th edition the trolls in the Beast of Chaos army book are actual distinct Chaos Trolls, not just the usual types of troll, so they have their own short description which I’ll include here in full:
“Ordinary Trolls — if such things could be said to be ordinary — are horrifying creatures. Massive, twisted parodies of the human form, they are ugly monstrosities possessed of enormous strength. They have the barest minimum intelligence, and the ability to heal injury almost as fast as it an be inflicted that, together with their natural resilience, can make them almost indestructible. Much taller than even a Beastlord, even a single Troll is a deadly for and capable of rending a soldier limb from limb — when they gather in packs to feed, Trolls can be counted amongst the most dangerous creatures in the Old World.
Even more deadly are Chaos Trolls. All Trolls have been affected by Chaos to some extent, as their species is the result of thousands of years of warping influence from the corrupting power of the north. Those that are sometimes seen accompanying warbands of Chaos worshippers, however, have been altered by the power of Chaos more directly. They sport all manner of mutations, making them even more hideous than their common cousins, and the power of the Winds of Magic stokes their natural aggression and strength, turning them from mere monsters into some of the most terrible beasts in the armies of Chaos.
Wow, that really makes all trolls, but especially the Chaos Trolls sound like absolutely terrifying foes on the battlefield! Sadly that isn’t quite reflected in game, especially for the Chaos Troll as it shares exactly the same statline and rules as Common Trolls with the only exception of having one more attack. Sure, one extra attack is very powerful but it would have been nice to have some more special rules for the Chaos Troll. Then again if I have understood correctly, you can give your Chaos Troll unit Marks of the Dark Gods which can really be useful. You could have them re-roll all failed psychology tests (including stupidity!) with the “Mark of Chaos Undivided” or even be immune to psychology with the “Mark of Slaanesh” which would get rid of stupidity if I’m not mistaken. If you want to go crazy with them, give them the “Mark of Khorne” for frenzy — giving them 5 attacks per model! Alright, if they can take marks, the become pretty darn powerful.
For Orcs & Goblins there isn’t much new on the rules side, all the same special rules still apply as before and those special rules work mostly the same way. For Stone Trolls their magic resistance is now different, they now have Magic Resistance (2) in accordance with the rules of 6th edition, which is quite good. River Trolls retain their great -1 to hit modifier.
That’s it for the books, now let’s take a look at the new for 6th edition Chaos Trolls!
August 2003 saw the first new dedicated release for Chaos Trolls since that 1984 two-headed Chaos Troll, this time by the very talented Trish Carden who is famous for sculpting most of the best animals, monsters and strange creatures for Warhammer. While these do not evoke the same level of awe in me as the Perry Stone Trolls, I do think these are among the last great miniatures produced for Warhammer before the style changed too much in my view. They have been cleverly sculpted so it’s possible to mix and match the heads and weapons for all 3 bodies to get a lot more variation out of them. I suspect the models aren’t quite as chaosy as perhaps some would have liked, but for me that really works as it shows that trolls aren’t inherently creatures of chaos, these poor ones have just gotten corrupted. I can imagine them wondering into the Chaos Wastes snaking on rocks all the way and never realizing they have been corrupted and twisted! They also share a bit of the Stone Troll look, so perhaps they are corrupted specimens of that type and as they are very magic resistant that’s why they aren’t sprouting extra heads, mouths on their stomach or the ubiquitous tentacles.
Warhammer 7th Edition (2006)
Warhammer 7th edition was a continuation of 6th edition in terms of the core rules with a few minor modifications and fixes which are widely considered to be quite good. Where the trouble comes in is the army books of this period as they have a reputation of being quite unbalanced and this is the first time a clear power creep becomes evident so that the most recent army book is pretty much always the most powerful one. In terms of the miniatures this was also a kind of transitory period with a lot of models still being released in metal, but with the overall intent of moving over to plastic. The style of sculpting for even for the hand sculpted metal miniatures saw a quite drastic change compared to earlier, really it’s a natural evolution of the 6th edition style, but for me personally it goes too far from the classic older style of miniature scupting. There certainly are still many very nice miniatures coming out during these years and for those of you who enjoy modern miniatures, the plastic sets become much more “advanced” during these years compared to previous.
For our trollish friends there really is very little to mention in terms of lore and rules, the only difference in the Orcs & Goblins entries I could find that now in addition to having Magic Resistance (2) the Stone Trolls also got a 5+ scaly skin armour save which I think is a great and flavourful addition that suits their concept and models very well. Otherwise every other rule remains the same, fear, stupidity, vomit and regenerate.
Somewhat strangely for the 7th edition army books Chaos Trolls were once again switched around — now they are a part of the Warriors of Chaos army instead of the Beastman army! I guess that’s because they added new units to the Beastman army and as they already had Minotaurs gameplay wise they have a better place in the Warriors of Chaos army even if thematically I think they were a better fit with Beastmen. Then again Warriors of Chaos still have Ogres in their list… Well, I’m happy that at least they weren’t dropped! The lore section in the Warriors of Chaos army book contains a few things which I would consider changes to the earlier versions, they are overall described as being a bit more inherently tied to Chaos and as being drawn to those who “bear the favour of Chaos” when in previous iterations they mostly just wandered up to the wastes and happened to join Chaos warbands instead of being drawn in by Chaos. They are also described as being the perfect hosts for Chaos mutations due to their ability to regenerate which allows them to spout new mutations to replace severed limbs etc. I don’t necessarily mind that, it’s not a major change, but I did prefer the version where trolls are not so directly tied to Chaos. Sure, they were always the result of corruption by Chaos energies, but they weren’t of Chaos in the way for example Beastmen are. This new description doesn’t necessarily make them creatures of Chaos, but it does tie them in more directly.
The rules for Chaos Trolls are now again mostly the same as for Common Trolls as they have lost the extra attack they gained in 6th edition, although they do at least have one special rule that only the Chaos Trolls have. That is that if they regenerate 2 or more wounds in any one phase, they can roll on the Eye of the Gods table which can give them all sorts of bonuses. That’s a very fluffy rule that’s tied directly to their description about regeneration and mutations so I do like it very much, but I’m not sure how often it comes up. Then again it affects the whole unit, so if the whole unit regenerates two or more wounds then it comes up, so it actually does probably happen quite often. In 7th edition the Eye of the Gods table is quite forgiving, it’s a 2D6 roll where only the result of 2 causes anything negative — it causes the unit to suffer from stupidity, so in the case of the Chaos Trolls it wouldn’t have any effect. All the other results are positive bonuses ranging from +1 attack all the way up to getting a 4+ ward save! Usually these kind of upgrade mechanics don’t have too much of a chance to affect a game, but it is possible to end up with an absolutely monstrous unit of Chaos Trolls — which is obviously very cool!
Battle for Skull Pass, the starter set for Warhammer Fantasy Battles 7th edition, included the first ever plastic troll model released by Games Workshop. As far as I know it’s representing a “Common Troll” as it looks more like the later models for them than anything that came before. The superb paintjob in the picture above is doing a lot of favours for the model, this one and all the models in the Battle for Skull Pass set have always been a massive disappointment to me. All of the models look like cheap knock offs and not up to the level we had been used to with Games Workshop until their release. Some of the models in the set are simply shocking, like the plastic Troll Slayer model that still floods all the second hand markets for Warhammer models as no one wants it. It’s not the only shocker in the set, but it’s certainly the worst offender. Compared to all of those the Troll is alright and it would look alright in a unit of Common Trolls. Coming from all the previous superb troll models this one is a disappointment but when trying to judge it by itself I guess it’s acceptable. I wouldn’t personally use one, but I wouldn’t mind seeing one in an opponents army.
Here are the “Common Trolls” mentioned above, these are hand sculpted models cast in metal so unsurprisingly they look much better than the plastic one above. They were sculpted by Mark Anderson and they came out in May 2007. They do certainly look like trolls and they have their own distinct look compared to other troll types so I would consider these good models. If I had a choice I certainly wouldn’t select these as my trolls, but I wouldn’t mind using them either. I’m sad though that these have been selected to become the standard trolls in Warhammer The Old World and the stunning Perry trolls will only be offered for one week on Made to Order. If they are going to not use the more modern plastic trolls as the default trolls, to me it’s a strange choice to go with these metal ones instead of the Stone Trolls and I suspect most would agree with me on that but hey were at least getting some metal trolls to be available all the time (well, if they have stock!), so it’s still great. I will certainly do a Orcs & Goblins army in the future so it’s highly likely I’ll end up getting these as the better ones won’t be available when I have managed to better my financial situation, but I have moaned enough about that already so let’s move on swiftly.
May 2010 saw the release of these new plastic River Trolls by Seb Perbert and what a difference a few years can make! If you compare these to the Battle for Skull Pass plastic troll the level of detail and overall quality is much higher on these. I like that they are quite faithful to the original River Trolls by Michael Perry, just with a bit of a meaner look to them. Now, for me the originals are such iconic classics that realistically anything coming after is bound to be a disappointment. Keeping that in mind and my general bias against digital modern sculpts, I do think these are good designs, for me they just suffer from that plastic digital look quite badly (sort of smooth and rounded look) and include sculpted on effects like the vomit that in my opinion never really work on models (flames or smoke especially!). These are still in use in Age of Sigmar as “Fellwater Troggoths” so happily we got other trolls for Warhammer The Old World, although obviously anyone is free to buy them and use them in fantasy if they so choose to.
Warhammer 8th Edition (2010)
Warhammer Fantasy Battles 8th edition was to sadly become the swan song of Warhammer Fantasy, but it certainly didn’t begin that way. It was the first major update to the ruleset since 6th edition and while I personally really do not like it at all, it did have a pretty large group of dedicated players — many of whom continued to play it up to the release of the Old World or even beyond! It certainly did have some good changes and it saw the release of many new plastic kits which most of the hobbyists really liked. Unfortunately it also saw the transition from metal models to Finecast models, but the less said about that the better!
Trolls continued to be a part of the Orcs & Goblins roster as well as the Warriors of Chaos roster, both of which got a new dedicated army book for 8th edition. While I really do not enjoy 8th edition for various reasons, I have to say that the army books made for it are really well done. For the first time they are full colour and they include a lot of new art, John Blanche was especially prolific during this period and his characterful art can be seen on many pages of these army books. Even now it certainly wouldn’t be a waste of money to get one of these books just as a reference for lore, art and miniatures as these books also contain the longest lore sections out of any edition.
As mentioned, there’s a long lore section about trolls in the Orcs & Goblins 8th edition army book which I recommend to read, but as there’s nothing new in it I won’t go deeper into it. The same applies again for the rules, the statline remains exactly the same as it has been since 2nd edition! The special rules are the same as they have been since 4th edition as well. Of course the points cost has varied throughout the editions, but I haven’t mentioned that in this article since there’s enough to go through without it.
The Chaos Trolls have been sadly made more dull again, they are now exactly the same as Common Trolls and do not have any special rule or stat change to distinguish them from other trolls which is a real shame. That’s also a bit strange since Chaos Trolls are apparently were good in 8th edition if taken with the Chaos Troll character Throgg, but that’s likely due to their cost and becoming core choices if Throgg lead the army. I won’t go deeper into that as I certainly do not have enough experience to comment on it any deeper. Throgg himself has quite powerful rules, now he has the rule about regenerating 2 wounds and getting to roll on the Eye of the Gods table instead of normal Chaos Trolls.
The models Forge World released until a couple of years ago are some of the only modern miniatures I really like, so it’s unfortunate for me that they never did that many models under the Warhammer Forge label for Warhammer Fantasy. These Bile Trolls from 2011 sculpted by Steve Whitehead are a great example of the Forge World style which is more adult, dark and realistic if you can use such a word in this context. Their style suits Chaos models especially well as can be seen from these monstrosities! Forge World were at their best when creating models like these which were alternatives to what were available from mainline Games Workshop, they had generic Chaos Trolls but nothing specific which gave Forge World the perfect opportunity to create Nurgle specific trolls and these certainly look the part! I much prefer the older style of Nurgle that is represented by these models, they are clearly mutated but there’s no tentacles coming out of everywhere and the main way the Nurgle corruption is shown is the diseased and decayed look of the models, which Forge World were particularly great at. Just compare these or the old Plague Marines (especially the Forge World version!) to the modern Death Guard range and you’ll certainly see what I mean about how they changed the Nurgle aesthetic from decayed to tentacles.
By the way, these Bile Trolls and other Nurgle themed units for Warhammer Fantasy were meant originally for a totally different Tamurkhan book than the one we got, before leaving Games Workshop Rick Priestley was tasked to do a “soft reboot” of Warhammer Fantasy and the Tamurkhan book was meant to be the first part of that. It would have involved Chaos winning, but not destroying the Warhammer World and a whole new basis for the setting. This never happened as it was seen as too radical and Alan Bligh rewrote the Tamurkhan book into the campaign book we are familiar with today. Of course ironically just a few years later Games Workshop would end up doing something much more radical with the End Times, the version of “end times” by Rick Priestley sounded much more interesting and way better thought out than what we got but if that had happened we wouldn’t have Warhammer The Old World now, we would probably have a skirmish game in a setting that resembles Warhammer Fantasy but isn’t it so in a very roundabout way I think the End Times and all that came with it was the best thing ever to happen to Warhammer Fantasy! It meant that the setting and it’s models were left in stasis for years protected from modern Games Workshop and now we got a new version of it which is implicitly honouring it’s legacy in all forms while still giving us a ruleset that is fresh enough so I’m very happy with how it all turned out. That’s totally unrelated to the topic at hand, but since I included the Bile Trolls I wanted to mention that interesting tidbit from Rick Priestley which he mentioned on the 60th episode of the podcast Cast Dice.
I saw this Throgg the Troll King model by Seb Perbert for the first time only quite recently when I heard that in 8th edition Warhammer Fantasy a Chaos Troll army was apparently very good. Anyway, I do think the model is quite good for a modern model, but there’s something about it which quite doesn’t fit the Warhammer aesthetic. To me this looks almost more like a Warmachine Hordes model or something along those lines, obviously not quite as cartoony, but more in that direction than I personally think Warhammer should venture. It’s certainly not a bad sculpt, in fact it’s quite striking, but to me a Chaos Troll should look more like the 6th edition ones or even those Forge World Bile Trolls. This was sculpted by hand as far as I know which shows that Seb Perbert is very skilled in both hand sculpting and digital sculpting which is always very impressive, I’ll certainly admit that even though this or his River Trolls aren’t to my taste.
The Troll Hag by Trish Carden from April 2014 is certainly a very striking model! You can find a short interview with Trish Carden about sculpting the characterful Troll Hag White Dwarf Issue 26 (26 July 2014), that was the very rough weekly version of White Dwarf but there’s still some interesting tidbits even in those issues. I found it fascinating that she sculpted the net bag the Hag is carrying by first sculpting all the inside bits and then she wove a real net from waxed cord on top of it, which after being turned into a mould and cast in resin looks like an integral part of the model. She also mentioned using a sponge to create the realistic wood texture on the staff.
This model will be returning for sale with the release of the Orcs and Goblins for the Old World and I’m very happy to see that, the more we have of Trish Carden’s sculpts available, the better! She is certainly the master of sculpting animals and all sorts of monstrous creatures like trolls. I wouldn’t personally use this model in my army as it doesn’t quite fit the more classic aesthetic, but it’s a very impressive model nonetheless!
Age of Sigmar (2015)
A few years into the era of Age of Sigmar in 2018 saw the release of a new faction into the setting, the Gloomspite Gitz. They follow the Age of Sigmar formula of taking a sub faction or a unit from Warhammer Fantasy, distilling it’s main elements and then turning that to 11! There’s certainly a lot of people who that appeals to, but unsurprisingly I’m not one of them. I’m very glad it exists for those hobbyists who like it’s design ethos, to me sadly it’s pretty much the opposite of what I look for in all respects.
The Gloomspite Gitz are of course based on the Night Goblins and trolls of the original Orcs & Goblins army from Warhammer Fantasy, featuring many types of trolls or Troggoths as they are now known for purely artistic reasons (not copyright!).
The Rockgut Troggoths are the successors to Stone Trolls, they basically feature all the same design elements as the original ones, now just executed digitally and in the Age of Sigmar style. Comparing these to the ’93 Michael Perry Stone Trolls is pretty much the perfect example for me on why I prefer the older style. To be fair, these Troggoths are very well designed and they fit the Age of Sigmar aesthetics perfectly. Still, I’m left wondering do these represent the absolute pinnacle of fantasy miniature design in the same way that those ’93 Perry Stone Trolls did for their period? Perhaps it’s not a fair comparison as today we have so many miniature designers around the world compared to just a handful of professional miniature sculptors in ’93…
I hear that people refer to those older sculpts commonly as “goofy” or “cartoony”, but at least in my view these Troggoths are much more cartoony and goofy than the ’93 Stone Trolls. Sure, the ’93 ones are kind of cartoony in a way as they are very whimsical, but they still have an air of realism, something that makes them believable. I can imagine that when Michael sculpted them, he was thinking what would a Stone Troll look like if it was a real living breathing creature if the world of Warhammer Fantasy was an actual place but for these Troggoths I don’t think that was an consideration. In any case, a model being “goofy” or “cartoony” isn’t necessarily even bad, just look at the 4th edition Kev Adams Orcs & Goblins range! Well, we’ll leave it there, I don’t want to bang on too much about that and if you like these models I’m very glad for you, doesn’t make you any less of an Warhammer enthusiast.
Everything that I wrote above about the Rockgut Troggoths applies here with the Dankhold one, in some respects even more so. Then again, I do much prefer this Troggoth as it’s a much more original design and not just plundering past glory from Warhammer Fantasy. I also really like the elements that tie the model to the world (realms?) of Age of Sigmar, with the cannon hanging on his neck as some kind of ornament and with the head of his hammer having being made of a piece of Dwarf statue. That’s a good step in the direction of believability that I mentioned above, although otherwise for me this model lacks all the other elements of believability that the Perry trolls have. Still, it’s a nice looking model and most certainly fits Age of Sigmar.
In 2021 Age of Sigmar got a new Orruk faction, the Kruleboyz. While I’m not up for that name, they are visually my favourite faction in Age of Sigmar. I really enjoy how the designers took a lot of inspiration from 80s Warhammer Orcs and from a more traditional Lord of the Rings style of Orcs. I especially enjoy the shields which are very John Blanche and Oldhammer inspired! Even with that heavy inspiration I feel the faction is it’s own thing and something original, it’s not a copy of the old Warhammer Fantasy Orcs, just heavily inspired by their look and attitude.
The faction includes two new troll units, the Mirebrute Troggoth and the Marshcrawla Sloggoth, both of which are ridden into battle by Orruks. For me personally both of these are a bit much because of the riding element, but they do fit the faction well both visually and thematically. I don’t have too much else to write about them, I think it’s good the setting has multiple kinds of trolls, I would have liked to see even more varieties of trolls in Warhammer Fantasy as well. Commenting just on the Troggoth and Sloggoth models themselves without the rider or howdah, I think these are the best looking troll models in Age of Sigmar.
Here is where we go totally off the rails with Trugg, to me this model is an exemplar of what us grognards stereotypically think all Age of Sigmar models look like. It’s just festooned with all sort of detail, it’s huge, totally unrealistic and very cartoony. For me this represents pretty much everything that I don’t like about modern miniatures, I truly honestly think all the early 80s troll models were much better models than this thing.
Again, that doesn’t make me better than anyone who thinks this model is great, if that’s you — I’m very happy that your tastes are being catered to by Games Workshop! I did get a comment saying it represent an ancient powerful Troggoth who has slept under his treasure hoard and that helped me appreciate the model a bit more as that’s a cool narrative. It’s still visually too cluttered for my taste, but I can appreciate it a bit more and designing something like that certainly isn’t easy!
Warhammer The Old World (2024)
Warhammer Fantasy is back and all the trolls are back in town! There isn’t very much to write about it yet, but we do have some intriguing changes to the rules of the various trolls. Really this is the most extensive change in their rules ever! It’s nothing crazy, but every type of trolls has some changes to it on the detail level from what they were previously, so let’s quickly go through the changes.
The statline remains almost the same but there are subtle changes like the Common Trolls and Chaos Trolls having initiative 2 instead of 1, the Stone Trolls having leadership 5 instead of 4 and the biggest one, the River Trolls now have 4 wounds instead of 3. All the trolls can also now be equipped with either extra hand weapons or even great weapons! They’ve never been able to take any weapon options previously so that makes them quite interesting I think. For special rules all of the have Armour Bane (1) and Regeneration (5+) with the usual Stupidity and Fear. They are all also Close Order and Flammable, on top of that the Stone Trolls get Armoured Hide (1) and Magic Resistance (-1). They can still make a Troll Vomit attack but now it’s only strength 3 and -2AP automatic hit instead of strength 5 and no armour saves, but what makes it good is that the troll model gets this vomit attack on top of this other attacks instead of having to choose normal attacks or the special attacks. It happens after all other kinds of attacks, even after Stomp attacks, but it’s still a nice extra thing that can potentially swing the combat your way.
That’s really surprisingly radical with all those additions and small changes to the rules of trolls! I have to say I’m quite impressed by all of that, overall the unit rules in Warhammer The Old World are really good at making the unit feel like it should feel, so that when playing a troll unit in game, it acts and works like you imagine they should. The only disappointment here in terms of rules for me is that Chaos Trolls are now again exactly the same as Common Trolls and sadly they cannot even be given any Marks of Chaos to customize them and make them more distinct. Oh well, at least the base rules for them are good.
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