Hrothgorn's Mantrappers
Welcome to our rundown of Hrothgorn’s Mantrappers. Make sure you catch our podcast coverage of the release. For everything out with this release window, follow these links:
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Thanks go to GW for providing a review copy to make this content possible.
Introduction
[D]AVY, [P]HIL, [B]RIAN, [S]KYLER & [Z]ACH
P: The hungry, hungry hunter is back from his time in the Everwinter. Hrothgorn had to essentially be erratad out of the game in first edition so let's see how he looks with a shiny new set of rules.
WARSCROLl
P: The same condition as first edition. I always felt this was a bit of a fun one where you really had to balance when was the right time to get aggressive and pick up that kill. Charge too early and you are at risk, charge too late and you might have missed out on significant action efficiency with your other fighters.
S: Well, it's a bit different (only slightly) but I agree with you on enjoying the decision space of this one! The subtle difference is that it used to be just an enemy fighter being slain while adjacent to your leader.
P: Excuse me, wat? Thrafnir just gets to start almost anywhere on the board? That is pretty crazy. I'm sure the situational play here will be amazing from threatening an early kill, support, or token grab. Just make sure you know Thrafnir can survive just hanging in enemy territory before you use this.
S: Looooove. And you can deploy them onto a Waystone hex to make the most out of that 2-Dodge stat!
P: I love the timing of placing the first trap at the start of the first action. You get to see how the board sets up and then place a trap in the most opportune spot. The 2 damage ping is pretty terrifying, but since anyone can trigger it you need to be exceedingly careful about placement! Probably double check any warscroll you play against just to make sure they don't have a built in push to leverage your trap against you before you place it.
S: Everwinter Ambush and Ravenous Traps together really invoke this feeling of being tracked and hunted. Looking quite forward to seeing where these two placements occur game after game. I hope this is a warband I get to see a bunch.
P: Bushwakka has gotten the rest of the grots trained up! Placing more traps will be great situationally, but since they go out adjacent to a grot you need to be sure there is no way to push that grot into the trap they just set. Also makes for an interesting dynamic of wanting the grots in the mix to place traps but also having them be the only source of more traps so wanting them safe.
S: A cool new wrinkle to the puzzle indeed!
P: I'm not so sure about this one... Being able to reposition the trap is nice, but needing to do so as part of a move from a grot is not amazing and then needing to place it adjacent to that grot feels like asking to get that grot pushed into the trap next activation. Maybe there is something you can do with charging and repositioning the trap at the same time that could be good but I'm struggling to see it. I'll need to play with this one a bit.
S: Same boat! I think what this will be most useful for is bridging the gap between a Charged enemy fighter and the traps current position. Closing a 2-space gap to tee up driveback. The natural next problem then is how to ensure your grot isn't the one that was just teed up.
FIGHTERS
Uninspired
P: I believe this is identical to first edition, and that is no bad thing! Hrothgorn has always been a monster in melee once you get him there and the 4 move is always a bit shocking on such a large fighter. He has to do a lot of work solo though so it makes sense that he has such strong stats.
S: Well Phil, I've just come back from the archives of the before times and can confirm that all but his ranged attack are indeed the same as it once was. This edition tends to steer away from ranged damage, so it makes sense to see a damage traded for an extra attack dice on his R3.
P: Blast, on strike 2, I better step up my game!
Inspired
P: Extra defense is the biggest draw for the inspire in my opinion. You have to keep Hrothgorn alive for this warband to work so the added survivability is an absolute must. The accuracy doesn't hurt either!
S: Remembering just how scary that melee attack is. Wowza. I suppose the main difference here from yesteryear is that his Trap Launcher can only grapple you 1 hex closer instead of 2.
Uninspired
P: Our new assassin cat still has the same great stats as first edition. I personally think they could have bumped the health up 1 point but there is really nothing to complain about here.
S: Aye, especially to help with surviving Thrafs cool, new starting position potential.
Inspired
P: Only gaining cleave means you really don't need this inspire, but it's certainly still welcome against those 2 block fighters.
S: Tech I'm always happy to have, but a little surprised to not see any other increases here.
Uninspired
P: Yeah, they are pretty useless without setting traps... The attack is almost as bad as it gets and the defense is as bad as it gets. Perhaps a saving grace is that these guys still carry weapons pretty well and are likely to survive one hit.
S: Soo ahhh, they had cool abilities once upon a time. Surprised to not see any of those accounted for here. For example, to give the impression of two contributing fighters stacked on top of each other if there were fewer than 2 wound tokens on them, you got to roll an extra attack dice... coulda ahhh... just spotted them that extra dice at the very least.
Inspired
P: More speed, accuracy, and stagger is all very welcome here. You likely care most about the speed to be able to place traps in further away spaces.
S: See! There's the extra dice I mentioned! (Previously Beatin' Club here was 2-Swords 1-Damage, but +1 dice if the fighter had less than 2 wound tokens on it)
Uninspired
P: Essentially the same as Luggit and Thwak, but with less health. That is... Not good.
S: Keep this little glory pinata in the back and away from mortal danger!
Inspired
P: Okay, but extra defense is immensely welcome, along with the speed bump! If you end up using the weapon things have gone pretty wrong.
S: That'll do Quiv. That'll do.
Uninspired
P: Oh God, why did he have to be worse than Quiv? That almost feels spiteful to not just give him 2 swords.
S: Haha, he has been pulled straight from the pages of Beastgrave but I'll say I too did not recall such wanting stats!
Inspired
P: Again, love the defense bump. The attack being the trap feels very thematic, but also very bad. I suppose getting some supports could make this somewhat useful but overall I'm avoiding attacking with the grots at all cost.
S: But every once in a great while, he'll be a hero.
Summary
P: Every bit as terrifying as he was back in Beastgrave, but without the unique upgrades that could make him nigh unstoppable. With this warscroll, I think Hrothgorn will have to show his skills as a hunter much more than his brute strength. If you are able to lure your opponents into a well planned trap, you should eat well. If not… lets just say a hungry ogre isn’t particularly picky about who his meals are.