Trolls

Trolls
Home Plane	Myrror
Citizens
	2,; 0.5
	2
Population; Growth	-20 people per turn.
Units
Standard
Racial
Buildings

The Troll race is one of the 14 different humanoid Races found in the world of Master of Magic. Trolls originate from the plane of Myrror.

Trolls are primarily defined by their units' Regeneration ability, which lets them field some of the most formidable Normal Unit armies in the game. As if that wasn't enough, their early units also enjoy +2 and +3 per figure over the standard versions, though this is partly balanced by their reduced figure count. To balance these advantages out Trolls have little else going for them: their production, research, and population growth rates are all awful.

Description[]

Physical Features[]

Trolls are savage, regenerating brutes with sickly-green skin, and are completely unrelated to any other living race. Superlative physical qualities and almost-nonexistent mental ones have accorded them a mixed record on Myrran battlefields. It is common wisdom on Myrror, after combat, to pile up and burn any Troll corpses within minutes of death, or they will all just get up and walk home. Or resume fighting.

Troll blood makes a powerful regenerative potion, though being both disgusting and cursed, it never gained popularity. Some Magical Items use a hidden technique to harness it without unpleasant effects to the bearer, and these are among the most desired artifacts in all the realms.

Society[]

Trolls are among the wildest and most ancient of races; they descend from Nature spirits, cruel and tricky ones, which were expelled from festering Myrran swamps. These ancestors receded into the underworld or seeped into mortal dreams to feast on the strong emotions in those places, but they left strange monsters behind which contained a bit of their nature and appetites. Thus, Trolls.

Trolls have their own animistic religion based on their unique kinship with this eerie side of Nature. The Shaman caste rules troll society, and before sending war parties out they hold bizarre and loathsome rites to reawaken the ancient power running through the veins of every Troll.

Religion is, indeed, the one lane of civilization open to Trolls, and they may opt to build Animists' Guilds and even Cathedral-level places of worship. The extent of Troll academic development is the Library. Trolls often congregate there to chew on the books and brawl with the guards.

To achieve their staggering military potential, Trolls just need some brainpower. A Wizard can work with their simple Spears and Swords by introducing basic hit-and-fade tactics, steering them from hopeless charges and into drawn-out battles of attrition where Regeneration surely wins. With some momentum from victories, he can build up strength at his Fortress. Trolls ultimately have the potential to import plus-sized steel weapons and armor, fight in disciplined formations and stances, and maneuver at full tilt; the advent of War Trolls, as such, represents the trolls' final leap out of primitive warfare and spells certain doom for rival armies.

Army[]

Historically, Trolls were too few in number and too lazy at home to assemble a sure means of victory before throwing themselves into combat. While they could inflict catastrophic losses on their victims before being outmaneuvered and routed, results matter... especially for Wizards.

For a Wizard in charge of Trolls, magic really takes a back seat while innovations in the Normal Unit army define his strength. The magic needs to serve as a toolkit for this army's needs, or there is no point whatsoever in choosing Trolls as a capital race.

Army List[]

Below is a comparative list of all Troll normal units. This list shows all units at their first Experience Level, with no additional modifiers or magical effects.

Icon	Name	Bld		U								Special
	Troll Spearmen		30	1	4	1	3		2	7	4	Regeneration
	Troll Swordsmen		60	1 2	4	1	5		2	7	4	Large Shield, Regeneration
	Troll Halberdiers		120	1 3	4	1	6		3	7	4	Negate First Strike, Regeneration
	Troll Shamans		180	1 4	4	1	4	2	3	8	4	Ranged Attack x4, Healer, Purify, Regeneration
	Troll Settlers		180	1 4	1	1			1	7	40	Create Outpost, Regeneration
	War Trolls		160	1 4	4	2	8		4	8	5	Regeneration
	War Mammoths		240	1 5	2	2	10		6	9	12	Wall Crusher, First Strike
	Trireme		60	1 2	1	2	6		4	4	10	Transport 2

Force Composition[]

Trolls are not good workers. Before creating numerous Troll Swordsmen and Troll Halberdiers, consider specifically what you need the Hammers to achieve. All troops get a phenomenal baseline of Regeneration, +2 Strength, and +3 Health. This makes the Troll Spearmen rather a bargain compared to the other options, which cost 2x and 4x as much for incremental improvements that seem rather small compared to the baseline.

A single Swordsman or Halberdier added to a larger line of Spearmen can make a cost-effective Troll army. In the name of extreme dedication or flavor, or the existence of other races' units, a 180 Shaman could be commissioned instead, though you may as well build a Fighters' Guild. Good plunder from Myrran Lairs and cities will allow the Fortress to work feverishly towards getting its economic buildings up and developing War Trolls.

Being non-regenerating and fabulously expensive, War Mammoths are only a niche unit for battering at heavily-armored targets late in a game. War Trolls are the strategic landmark that become the mainstay of the Wizard's army once they have been reached. While expensive, teams of these regenerating warrior-giants can tackle extremely difficult battles and head on to their next appointment like nothing happened.

Troll Settlers[]

Troll Settlers are, by far, the hardiest of all Settlers. The unit possesses a total of 40 Hit Points, a high 7 Resistance score, and - most importantly - the ability to Regenerate. This means that even if an enemy manages to actually destroy a Troll Settlers unit, the unit will simply return to life - so long as you ended up winning the battle with your other units and/or spells. This significantly reduces the risk to any Troll Settlers unit, especially when accompanied by strong friendly guards (read: pretty much any Troll unit!).

Of course, like other Troll units, Troll Settlers are extremely expensive, costing 3 times as much to produce as the baseline Settlers. Furthermore, you must pay 4 Gold each turn for their maintenance, so try to make the journey to the intended Settlement site as quickly as possible - to avoid wasting precious Gold.

Troll Settlements[]

One Troll city is usually all a game calls for. Not only can other races utilize land better than Trolls, but they can also chip in and rush-buy its

Production projects, obviating the need to build up a second Troll city from scratch with all the same accessories. Still, if the financial situation is bad and/or the game is shaping up to be a long haul, a player may want to get another military production site running, and must create Troll Settlers to do so.

Place new Troll settlements near a source of Wild Game. As long as the site isn't atrocious, concerns about maximum population and production boosts are minor. Wild Game increases the number of Workers the city can allocate (even at size 1), easing the costs of rushing out buildings and units from beginning to end. Proximity to Coal and Iron Ore never hurts; in fact, the race's inability to produce a Miners' Guild may be offset by them actually using these resources the most if the Wizard favors Troll units for his army.

Troll Spearmen[]

Troll Spearmen are both the strongest and most expensive type of Spearmen in the game. Each Troll Spearman possesses 4 Hit Points, and has the ability to Regenerate. This not only massively increases their staying power, but also means that the unit may be fully healed or even restored to life after successful combat! Trolls will often produce large armies of Troll Spearmen early in the game, and these can be difficult to stop.

On top of this, Troll Spearmen have a much-stronger attack than other Spearmen, at 3. Unfortunately, to balance this out, the unit contains only 4 figures and so is roughly only about 50% stronger than "baseline" Spearmen in terms of overall damage output. Nonetheless, a stronger attack is better at piercing enemy armor.

Finally, Troll Spearmen also possess a higher Resistance score, which protects them fairly well from enemy spells and Special Attacks.

For all of these advantages, the Troll Spearmen unit is 3 times more expensive to produce than the "baseline" Spearmen, essentially slowing down the rate at which Troll empires can expand early on. Nonetheless, only a few are usually required to begin aggressively expanding, and a large group of Troll Spearmen can be very hard to stop. Furthermore, Troll Spearmen still have the same low Upkeep Cost as all other Spearmen, so it is possible to maintain large number of them even after they're replaced by other units. These Spearmen will be essential to reducing Unrest across your conquered empire.

Troll Swordsmen[]

Troll Swordsmen are both the strongest and most expensive type of Swordsmen in the game. Each Troll Swordsman possesses 4 Hit Points, and has the ability to Regenerate. This not only increases their staying power, but also means that the unit may be fully healed or even restored to life after successful combat!

On top of this, Troll Swordsmen have a much-stronger attack than other Swordsmen, at 5. Unfortunately, to balance this out, the unit contains only 4 figures and so is roughly only about 10% stronger than "baseline" Swordsmen in terms of overall damage output. Nonetheless, a stronger attack is better at piercing enemy armor.

Finally, Troll Swordsmen also possess a higher Resistance score, which protects them fairly well from enemy spells and Special Attacks.

For all of these advantages, the Troll Swordsmen unit is 3 times more expensive to produce than the "baseline" Swordsmen, essentially slowing down the rate at which Troll empires can expand early on. Nonetheless, only a few are usually required to begin aggressively expanding, and a large group of Troll Swordsmen can be very hard to stop.

Note that Troll Swordsmen also have a higher Upkeep Cost of 2 per turn, requiring the empire to grow rapidly in order to afford more and more of these.

As Troll Halberdiers become available, production of Troll Swordsmen is normally halted. Troll Spearmen are cheaper and better for defending your towns, and Troll Halberdiers are much stronger on the battlefield. Thus, there is little reason to continue producing Troll Swordsmen later in the game, though existing Troll Swordsmen should still be attached to advancing armies - if only to boost their numbers!

Troll Halberdiers[]

Troll Halberdiers are both the strongest and most expensive type of Halberdiers in the game. Each Troll Halberdier possesses 4 Hit Points, and has the ability to Regenerate. This not only massively increases their staying power, but also means that the unit may be fully healed or even restored to life after successful combat! Trolls will often produce massive armies of Troll Halberdiers which can be nigh-unstoppable well into the mid-game.

On top of this, Troll Halberdiers have a much-stronger attack than other Halberdiers, at 6. Unfortunately, to balance this out, the unit contains only 4 figures and so is roughly as strong as other Halberdiers in terms of overall damage output.

Troll Halberdiers possess the Negate First Strike ability, which allows them to confront enemy cavalry charges much better than the "baseline" Halberdiers. Troll Halberdiers should therefore be used to intercept enemy cavalry and protect Ranged Attack units from cavalry.

Finally, Troll Halberdiers also possess a higher Resistance score, which protects them fairly well from enemy spells and Special Attacks.

For all of these advantages, the Troll Halberdiers unit is 3 times more expensive to produce than the "baseline" Halberdiers, essentially slowing down the rate at which Troll empires can expand even when their Halberdiers become available. Troll Halberdiers also have the highest Upkeep Cost of all Halberdiers, at 3 per turn.

Troll Shamans[]

Unlike other Shamans variants, Troll Shamans are quite dedicated combat troops. This is thanks primarily to the main innate bonus of the Troll race: Regeneration, but this is definitely not the only advantage.

With Regeneration, Troll Shamans no longer need to avoid combat, they travel within the army stack that they are servicing. While with a large army, preferably one constituting of many other Trolls, Troll Shamans are normally safe: as long as the army keeps winning battles, the Troll Shamans will constantly be restored to life and fully healed - even if the unit is destroyed during combat.

Strangely enough, this is also the reason why Troll Shamans are far less useful as support troops. Since most Troll units can Regenerate during and after battles, Troll Shamans are not required for their healing abilities. Instead of providing support off the battlefield, Troll Shamans provide it during combat.

Other than Regeneration, Troll Shamans also possess a Melee Attack of considerable strength, equal to that of Cavalry units. They are actually expected to advance and engage the enemy after expending their Ranged Attacks. Further assisting their survival is a whopping 4 Hit Points per Shaman, and very high Resistance to enemy magic. Both of these will serve to keep the Troll Shamans advancing and pounding their enemies.

Thus, with no other Ranged Attack troops in their ranks, Trolls use Troll Shamans as combat troops. They may also come in handy when non-Troll units are mixed into the army.

On the other hand, Troll Shamans are extremely expensive, at 3.6 times the cost to produce compared to the "baseline" Shamans, and an Upkeep Cost of 4 per turn. Most empires cannot afford produce them early on, and may not be able to keep many of them. If possible, Troll empires tend to acquire Shamans from other races to handle any Purification duties and/or service smaller armies.

War Trolls[]

War Trolls are unique to the Troll Race, and can only be built in Troll towns, for the Construction Cost of 160. The town must already contain a Fighters' Guild for this to be possible.

War Trolls represent the epitome of the Troll unit, possessing a formidable Melee Attack, a strong Defense, plenty of Hit Points, and of course the Regeneration ability. They are the strongest Troll unit that possesses Regeneration, and thus make the ideal Troll unit for both offensive and defensive operations. They have several advantages over Troll Halberdiers, but the primary one is the increased Movement Allowance of 2, which allows the War Trolls to effectively disengage from enemy targets and Regenerate on the move. An army of War Trolls is incredibly difficult to defeat, though it is expensive. Nonetheless, it has much better combat performance than any other Normal Unit army. War Trolls require an Upkeep Cost of 4 and 1 to maintain.

War Mammoths[]

War Mammoths are unique to the Troll Race, and can only be built in Troll towns, for the Construction Cost of 240. The town must already contain both an Armorers' Guild and Stables for this to be possible.

War Mammoths are essentially a very powerful type of cavalry, capable of outflanking enemy units and destroying them rapidly. They are particularly useful against Multi-Figure units thanks to the First Strike ability, which allows them to kill several enemy figures before those figures can retaliate. War Mammoths are also capable of knocking down City Wall segments during combat. Unfortunately, War Mammoths are the only Troll units that cannot Regenerate, making them significantly less survivable than the other high-tier Troll unit, the War Trolls. Therefore they often require different tactics, and are not as capable at taking on Fantastic Units. War Mammoths require an Upkeep Cost of 5 and 1 to maintain. Along with their high Construction Cost, this makes War Mammoths one of the most expensive Normal Units.

Trireme[]

The Trireme is a Ship which can transport up to 2 Walking units across bodies of water, and can travel at a fairly good rate. Early in the game, Triremes can help empires expand rapidly across short continental gaps or large inland seas. This is very important for Troll empires, particularly when looking for suitable races to conquer before the mid-game phase occurs.

Triremes are not very effective in combat. If one is lost, any units it was transporting at the time will sink with it, so it is important to avoid combat. Try not to rely on these for long trans-oceanic journeys.

Citizens[]

All Troll Towns contain Troll citizens. These have the same initial output as most other citizens, at 2 per Worker, and they will produce 2 Food and 0.5 Production per Farmer.

Troll citizens look like this:

Troll Farmer.

Troll Worker.

Troll Rebel.

Technology[]

Trolls are closely linked to the nether realms of spirits, but they have had long ages to obtain simple technologies from battle with other Myrran civilizations. Just so, they have partial access to urban industry project trees, and a more intuitive understanding of those buildings dealing in spirituality (culminating in the Cathedral and Animists' Guild). Their academic level is virtually nil.

In practice, the Troll economy is likely to stagnate and its technological advancement languish. This is a matter of opportunity costs. Each Troll version of the regulars to which they gain access (Spearmen, Swordsmen, Halberdiers, and Shamans) is far-and-away the strongest and most expensive unit of its class among the races of either plane. Trolls absolutely must remain focused on military projects, working towards the Fighters' Guild and training as many of their super-warriors as Upkeep Costs allow.

Note, in particular, that this race never got to the point of being able to train its own Engineers (or perhaps Troll Engineers would be too expensive to be practical anyway), meaning that the Wizard should stop at nothing to capture a Beastmen or Dwarven city, and put them to work building the arteries of the Troll war machine.

Trolls' initial and end-stage productivity is compared below, taking their available productivity-enhancing Town Buildings into account, and assuming a Tax Rate of 2 Gold for comparison.

Profession	Initial	End-Stage
Troll Farmer	2, ½, 2	3, ¾, 3
Troll Worker	2, 2	3, 3

Troll Rebel

The Building Chart[]

The chart below shows all Town Buildings that can be constructed in Troll towns, as well as the buildings that cannot be constructed. It also shows the requirements to construct each building.

Key:
	= Available
	= Not available
	= Available only if the town is constructed next to a Shore
	= Has no prerequisites.

Interracial Relations[]

Trolls are held in particular contempt by Dwarves and both Elven races. Fortunately, they are not likely to excite much racial strife on Arcanus. Trolls have had no contact with the light world for eons, if ever, and in any case have no overbearing ideas on law or administration (commensurate with their lack of ideas in general). They will leave races in relative autonomy after they've rampaged through.

The table below breaks down all race relations regarding Troll empires. The same values are used for Troll towns controlled by empires of different races.

Race	Unrest
Barbarians	+10%
Beastmen	+20%
Dark Elves	+30%
Draconians	+20%
Dwarves	+40%
Gnolls	--
Halflings	--
High Elves	+30%
High Men	+10%
Klackons	+20%
Lizardmen	+10%
Nomads	+10%
Orcs	--
Trolls	--

In essence, while a Wizard's Fortress is inside a town inhabited by Trolls, Gnoll, Halfling, Orc, and Troll towns belonging to this Wizard will feel no racial antagonism toward his government, and accordingly suffer no adverse effect to their Unrest levels. Similarly, Troll populations captured by a Wizard of one of these races will suffer no additional Unrest. The level of Unrest in any such towns is based only on the current Tax Rate and other external factors.

Any Myrran race which captures a Troll town will, like as not, face stiff resistance.

If you possess the Move Fortress spell, or come into a situation where you are allowed to relocate your Fortress at will, this can be useful where any Myrran race is concerned, including Trolls, due to these races' tendency to have mortal enemies. Consider the population distribution, and choose the town of a race on the best terms with the widest swath of citizens, to minimize empire-wide Unrest levels.

Settling a friendly Arcanian race on Myrror to host the Fortress (preserving the greater Power of a Myrran Fortress) is not unheard-of.

Complementary Magic[]

Taking Trolls as a starting race strongly slants the Wizard in favor of realms and spells that widen the capabilities of Normal Units. Trolls have very pointed strengths and weaknesses, and expanding the strengths will probably move their game along faster than shoring up the weaknesses.

The Myrran retort is, of course, required to select Trolls. Other retorts to consider would be Warlord, whereby Normal Units gain otherwise-unobtainable Experience Levels, and Alchemy, whereby Trolls gain otherwise-unobtainable Magical Weapons. Going wild with retorts damages the wizard's spell selection and research potential, but this race makes a strong case for them.

Life[]

The Life Realm's numerous unit-boosting spells are crowned, arguably, by Heroism. Elite and Ultra-Elite Trolls thrown onto a new map will flatten neutral city garrisons and perhaps even open up possibilities with hard Lairs. Life continues to deliver more powerful unit protection as the realm matures, adds Town Enchantments, and abets the strongest line of heroes to lead or replace the normal army— but these assets may not end up having any real value except in pursuit of the Spell of Mastery. By the time you can seed tons of towns with Stream of Life and develop heavyweight Champion Heroes, the rival wizards could already have been crushed by your Troll army.

Nature[]

Some ranks in Nature Magic can speed Trolls up immensely with Earth Lore, Water Walking, and Path Finding. As with Life, this realm plays extremely well to the race's opening moves.

Deeper ranks can get the wizard research access to interesting battlefield tools to tip hard fights in favor of his Trolls: Web, Entangle, and Call Lightning being foremost.

Sorcery[]

Depending on how quickly the Trolls can drag a Sorcerer along to his full potential, he can reward them with some of the sharpest strategic edges available in the realms: Flight, Spell Lock, Magic Immunity, Invisibility, and Wind Walking. Until some of these are available, the game may be rather difficult.

Among the other options, Sorcery is an unusual choice.

Chaos[]

While generically useful, red Unit Enchantments are more limited in scope than with the above colors. The Combat Instants also do not fit the Trolls' particular fighting style any better or worse than it would another race, save for the Magic Vortex (which like Call Lightning, is deluxe attrition).

This realm might call for a slower initial pace and multiple unit production centers, to leverage the eventual strength of Doom Mastery, Chaos Surge, and Warp Reality. Decipher the runes in your spellbook to see if these are available for research, and if so, build a Troll Settler or two and spare no expense looking for an Armsmaster hero on your way there.

Like Sorcery, Chaos makes an unusual choice for Trolls.

Death[]

Units touched by Black Channels normally cannot heal. Trolls invalidate this weakness, and what is left is a regenerating, undead fiend that has no Upkeep Cost at all save for the black channel itself (which can be canceled voluntarily). Death is popular for Trolls for this spell alone, and several of the realm's combat and global enchantments can work beautifully with it. Even without maintenance worries, though, the up-front costs of 500, plus 100 in overland casting time and cost for each unit targeted are a serious concern. Furthermore, Black Channels can never be selected by a Myrran wizard at the start, and requires 8 Ranks to guarantee its availability.

Trolls can forge an interesting, simple-to-manage "evil empire," where the Wizard limits subjugated cities' urban teching to religious buildings for Dark Rituals, and pursues Black Channels at full-speed.