Gencon Masters Results

Menoth isn't a good tournament army?  The Mountain King
is overpriced and terrible?

Today's post will be pretty quick.  For those unaware, something like 8 of of the 16 players in the Masters tournament were apparently Menoth players - a surprising demographic considering that about the same ratio of Cryx was present at the Templecon Masters.  Perhaps Privateer Press is better at crafting a well-balanced game than some give them credit.  What was perhaps more surprising to many, however, was that Trolls had a great showing, with Flanzer getting defeated in the last round with his Trolls.  What was most surprising, however, was that one of the lists contained the Mountain King.  That's right, a list featuring pDoomshaper also sported the Mountain King - despite all of the cries of its uselessness by Trollblood players.  Granted, the Gencon Masters tournament this year was a 75 point event, but I still derive some amusement that such a "terrible" Gargantuan was not only present at Gencon in the tournaments, not only was it in the Masters, but its general almost achieved first place!  Now there are two things that I'd like to point out as a result of these tournament results.

In Defense of the Mountain King

I meant to originally write this article yesterday but instead decided that since my argument included elements that were common to all Gargantuans, I figured I’d address those issues first.  While the comment was made that all of the elements I listed were common to all warbeasts, I do encourage you to read through each breakdown again because they’re slightly different with Gargantuans since Gargantuans are much more difficult to kill.  They take all of the advantages of having warbeasts over warjacks to a slightly higher level.  I brought up these same issues in my article Gargantuan Possibilities before we even knew what the Gargantuan statlines would look like.  I addressed issues of focus, damage boxes, and animi, and why their careful balance was necessary.  I’m pleased with how they’ve been balanced in general (at least for the two that have been spoiled) and I think the Mountain King is much better than people think.  This is a lengthy argument that requires a holistic approach to looking at the entire Troll faction and playstyle and consequently the article is quite long.  If you're passionate about this subject, I hope you'll be willing to read all the way through to the end because you need the entire picture to see why the Mountain King isn't terrible.