Jake here, and I have another guest article for you today, a Trident Realm review from Matt Gee, fishperson general extraordinaire. A big shout out of thanks to Matt for taking the time to write this review!
Lore
Fishmen are not a new fantasy trope and have been seen in various formats, but I am not sure anyone has done them in quite the way Mantic has. I love the concept of it being a faction of all races; almost refugees that are coming together to guard the water that they call home.
The new rulebook has some hidden gems; there are actual pictures of some of the new units! They look like concept sketches, and those such as the Depth Horrors are already striding out of the waves from the League of Infamy board game. It seems Mantic is pushing their IP hard this year to fill out their unique races and TRoN have benefited.
Despite being called fishmen, all Naiad warriors are female, and the new books does a good job of character profiling them. There’s a strong emphasis on a no-nonsense, vicious cruelty, that almost feels like it’s bordering on the Twilight Kin. Comments like:
Neriticans will always attack rather than defend, always sally forth rather than be besieged, and always fight to the bitter end rather than allow any to taint their natural habitats.
This perspective gives a lovely amount of grit to the faction.
The unit lore and lengthy descriptions of fighting style is great and ties in very well with the theme of a hit-and-run, out-of-the-waves fighting force, but there is one page of the book that excites me the most. Hidden away on page 172 of the hardback book is what I’d been looking for since I read of the Trident Kings and their realms.
The sense of identity and belonging to a city or community of people is relatively easy to attribute to other factions. Humans can sally forth from fortress towns, beasts can protect their glades and woods, even Abyssal Dwarfs have their home. All of these are easier to relate to as they are displayed on maps. Place names to conjure with are littered across Pannithor, accompanied by a feeling of their size and topography.
Finally with third edition there are definite homes for the Neriticans. Medu’Syth, Myrrhimm and Ilythish allow army builders to theme their lists around a place of origin. I love the concept of a Giga-heavy Myrrhimm list, modeled with bases of “iridescent towers,” or the narcissistic naiads taking on a more dark vibe with their penchant for cruelty in Ilythish.
What does the new pool of options look like?
On the surface, the core of the Neriticans have not changed; but there is a certain amount of tinkering around the edge that makes the army play a little differently. There are a number of small point-difference tweaks that were probably needed as I think some units were a touch too cheap. There are also brand new units that have been added to support Mantic’s vanguard line being added to Kings of War.
Building a TRoN list is always an act of balancing complementary units; spamming one thing rarely works. There are no super heavy hammers of flying hordes for an alpha strike, and although they have war engines, they lack the punch and support of shooting units to make a gun line. This hasn’t changed in third edition.
Two huge changes in third edition are the reduction in Crushing Strength across all armies and the nerf to shooting/piercing from ranged units. Bane Chant being combat only and the Heart Seeking Chant running out of words are big differences. This makes the lower defense of TRoN not as much of an issue as previously. Ensnare still has the same killer impact that it used to, making the army overall more durable in combat.
Unit Breakdown
Army-wide Special Rule
The Poison Frog special rule feels nice, but it’s pretty niche. One-use rerolls appear all over the third edition lists and are just called different things. It’s kind of a nice bit of flavor, but I am not sure they hugely benefit the TRoN list.
Infantry/Heavy Infantry
There’s a bewildering choice of units, which means you can build a list in a variety of ways for TRoN. Going berserker heavy with Thuul is considerably more pricey, and the 20-pt bump to a regiment makes me want to look at using them more as flanking troops to support other blocks. They’re always good in a fight with their speed and high attacks threatening flanks.
Placoderms are boosted by the news that Mantic will soon be producing models but have also been knocked a bit as they are not available in hordes. I suspect this may be to do with the impact that Phalanx and Defense 6 would have in the new rules, making them all-but impossible to shift. Running them with supporting Thuul in a chessboard layout could be fun.
Riverguard had previously been a great little supporting unit; their speed and Fly ability, along with the CS and shooting, allowed them to be a threat wherever they went, and a unit in cover needed some attention to shift. Mantic have split out the stats into two units: a shooty Irregular option and a fighty melee unit. I think that this impacts their use a bit, but it is in line with the reduction across most factions of the ability to have Nimble fliers with CS zooming about all over the place. I never ran them much but have seen armies comprised entirely of them be a nightmare to pin down, and layering shooters and fighters in waves could still work well, especially supported by the other frogs in the list.
Naiads haven’t changed much, and like the Riverguard they come in shooting and fighting variants. The shooters have had a nice buff with Steady Aim inherited from the previous Clash of Kings pack. With their Range 4 and Piercing (1), they’ll make anything getting around your flanks think twice about coming too close. They have lost Pathfinder, which makes them a tactically weaker option. It’s not as easy to camp out in some woods and threaten a flank when you’re hitting on 6s in combat! The close combat Naiads are still as great as they ever were, an anvil that’s nigh impossible to shift. As mentioned above, all the infantry units at lower Defense get a nice buff by the reduction in piercing and CS.
Swarms
Swarms have changed a lot and now make for some interesting tactical decisions. Tidal Swarm were an auto-include for me; outside of fliers, such as Gargoyles and Phantoms, they made some of the best chaff in the game. If placed well, with cover, they often survived a charge, couldn’t be Wavered, and had enough attacks to really hurt if given a Nimble charge to the flank. While they have lost a few attacks, they have had a points drop for troops and now get Scout! This seems a great boost. Two or three of these scouting up to hold positions while your footsloggers come up, or providing protection for Knuckers, etc. works very nicely.
Nokken appear to have a different role now that they have lost the Scout ability. Along with the abolition of breath weapons, I am not too sure they are worth a go, but maybe in regiments supporting a mobile Riverguard force they could work?
Large Infantry/Monstrous Infantry
Depth Horrors are still Depth Horrors; they are great.
Water Elementals crucially gained Strider, which makes them a really nice threat in flanks now. There was no point in them having Pathfinder for moving about. Combined with multiple Sirens and some Windblast, it could be a solid, and fun, way to build out a list.
Gigas are now a very different prospect.
Cavalry
Wyrm riders got massively hit with the nerf bat. Borderline useful in second edition, they now appear to be pretty useless, with a drop in speed and being unable to damage consistently. A strong pass for me on them in third edition.
Dambusters look an interesting but expensive option. Plenty of tricks to play and the Enthral ability can work really nice with some shooting and war engines. They are no slouches in combat either, and as they are frogs, they get access to the Poison Frog reroll upgrade. Nimble is huge on them with the ability to hop out and threaten flanks a solid strategy.
Monsters/Titans
Monsters for TR fill similar roles but in different ways. They are all blockers or anvils, designed to slow advance rather than hit things. The Coral Giant (rightly) got a points increase, but it is still really good. The Water Elemental, as with its smaller cousins, gained Strider, but I think the biggest impact is the Kraken’s Wild Charge. It can now sit and present a very long threat range, and the square base allows for some good maneuverability. The defined number of attacks means getting them in a flank is a big deal. A double Kraken list, backed up with Heal and some Ensnarers, is going to be a nightmare to shift.
Knuckers took a reasonable ding. They got shorter and lost a bit of punch, but as a flank threat with Pathfinder they are still very real. Sadly you can’t jam up dragons like you used to.
Heroes
Where the heck to start?
Several heroes haven’t changed, but my word many have. Mythicans now come in two flavors: a fighty aggressive one and a weaker support option for helping out your Surge ability. Sadly, the Wings of Honeymaze option means the flying Mythican may be consigned to the dustbin. Envoys kept some of the previous Clash of Kings boost, but sadly they lost the ability to Weaken. Eckter is still the crazy thing he used to be but sadly can no longer be Teleported — for now.
The Siren deserves being highlighted. She used to be incredible for disordering fliers; stick a Tidal Swarm in front of Elohi and then use the Siren to pretty much auto-Disorder and laugh. Now she’s just got the Enthral ability, but you can take multiples. Definitely a good thing to build on with Surge.
The Dambuster hero looks like a tidy little disrupter who can get in flanks with the small base and Nimble Fly. It’s a lovely model, too.
All the others heroes are pretty much as is, and the key is to take the heroes that support your build. There are so many keyword specific inspiring sources!
War Engines
The Leviathan’s Bane now have a big improvement: they not only hit on 4s, but they have the ability to Enthral. This seems to be the theme across the factions to try and boost War Engine use. It’s a lovely bit of synergy to build around.
Summary
You can build a huge variety of lists with Trident Realm. Whether it’s a full Depth Horror list backed up with Eternals, or waves and waves of berserker Thuul and their Mythicans, the fighting prowess is there if you can guide your flimsy units into position. Surge used to be a partial option, but now it’s real.
There are far more sources of spells to move your opponent around now, and still cheap(ish) access to Surge. And who doesn’t like the idea of a force completely comprised of frogs, or frogs riding frogs, endlessly hopping about and getting in the way.
I love the faction; it’s now really starting to develop more lore and depth. It’s got so much flavor, an almost complete Mantic line, and unless you are after an alpha strike army, TRoN can in a pinch play most play styles. It also has the hidden gem of Ensnare, which really catches people out, combined with low Defense negating the benefits of high Crushing Strength.
