Originally posted by Sono:

Once you hit swamp trolls arent that much to deal with, especially if you have a good knife or spear and the iron buckler, they turn to mince meat.

Individually sure, but... permadeath - you have to think worst case - so three or four trolls in event that spawns just as you cross the 'within 40 meters of 3 or more player base structures' line, while its raining, and your rested buff is either already gone or just about to run out. You may also be stuck with the worst case food mix compared to what you would want for your preferred method of fighting multiple trolls.

I mean, unlike normal play, you die, it's delete char and world - game over.

Add to that its a no portals run so... you really can't be building massive troll proof defenses since you'll be moving bases much more often.

For me, the answer is to put a simple palisade around the base for other mobs, clear underbrush around the base, and prepare a well marked kiting track around the base possibly with some traps/troll-obstacles. It's light 'em up with fire arrows to both get agg and so you can more easily see them and if good conditions switch to whatever arrows you've been finding a lot of (flint or iron most likely).

During the swamp phase, its really safer and easier to move your base into the swamps up in a tree as soon as you get stone slabs. Alternatively, if there are abominations in the area, just use the top of a crypt (or two or three) and when the trolls come, help the abominations take care of them.