Harkevich Only Has One Spell

I managed to meet up with Dru for another game at last. I was running the same 50 point list as my last game, but with Harkevich subbed in for Strakhov:
Harkevich
- Beast 09
- Decimator
Nyss Hunters
Alexia & the Risen
Aiyana & Holt
- Valachev
Widowmaker Marksman

Gru brought:
Maelok the Dreadbound
- Blindwalker
- Ironback Spitter
- Targ
Gobber Chef
Bellow Crew
Gatorman Posse x2
Gatorman Witch Doctor
Croak Raiders


Pre-game:
Gru hadn't had a game since the start of MkIII - in fact he probably only played once or twice in this edition - so we decided to play without a scenario. After two ties Gru finally won the roll and chose to go second.


Deployment:
I deployed my battlegroup centrally, the Risen on my left where there wasn't any terrain to deal with, and the Nyss on my right where the forest wouldn't be a problem.

Gru deployed his battlegroup opposite mine, a unit of gators on each side, and his Raiders in the forest in front.

Round 1:
Hark cast Mobility and fail-charged forwards. Everything else ran up. I tried to keep Alexia behind a wall of Risen.

Gru advanced his Croak Raider aggressively. One Posse got bogged down by the forest, while the other moved outwards towards the hill.

Round 2:
Hark cast Mobility and walked forwards. The Decimator moved in front of him. My Risen ran to engage the Raiders. A few got a charge off and managed to kill one who was close enough for Alexia to get a corpse. Beast 09 ran into the forest, managing to engage a Raider. The Nyss Hunters advanced cautiously; a hot roll on a four-man CRA took out a Gatorman.

Gru killed some Risen with the Raiders. One Posse ran/charged my Nyss (I don't remember if any charged without running, but either way they didn't kill any Nyss). Maelok moved up and cast Mortality on Beast 09, then the Blindwalker ran in front of him. The Spitter put two shots into Beast thanks to Ancillary; I think he did about a column and a half of damage.

Round 3:
Harkevich cast Mobility and feated, then walked around the Decimator to stand just behind the forest. Alexia sent a few more Risen into the Raiders, doing nothing, and created a Thrall who charged the Raider blocking Beast's path but missed the attack. Valachev used his spray spell on Beast, doing no damage as Beast is immune to cold but managing to kill the offending Raider. Then Aiyanna used Kiss on the Blindwalker, while Holt did nothing. Finally Beast 09 charged in and managed to take out the Blindwalker (it was close). He then repositioned forward into base contact with Maelok. My Nyss Hunters all landed their melee attacks but did no damage to the ARM 20 Posse, except one who rolled hot and one-shot a Gatorman. I had originally planned to use the Decimator to block LOS to Hark, but I forgot and ran him forwards into the forest instead.

Gru popped his feat and walked Maelok away from Beast. He couldn't make line of sight to Harkevich so he cast Mortality on Beast again. Targ used Ancillary Attack on the Spitter to allow it to shoot the corrosion-immune Raiders in the back and kill an engaging Risen, allowing them to aim and shoot at Harkevich, leaving him on three boxes. A Gatorman was able to walk into the forest and take a swing as well, but missed his attack.

Another Gator killed Aiyana while a third killed Cylena. The Gobbers charged the Decimator but couldn't do any damage. The Spitter went in on Beast 09 and took out his movement and left arm.

Round 4:
Harkevich cast Mobility and missed an attack against the Gatorman. Beast 09 shuffled over to Maelok and started swinging. His first attack scored the crit, and his last left Maelok on one damage box (he was against ARM 21 after all). The Decimator then walked up and finished the job. I had another Decimator shot, a charge lane with the Thrall, and Alexia was ready to Dominator a Gatorman and have him take a swing too.

Post-mortem:
If you were paying attention you might have noticed a pattern to how my turns went... yeah, Harkevich cast Mobility every turn and... that was all he did. It's pretty much the only real spell on his card. While he does bring more to the game, he's not really very active himself. He's basically a buff-bot, but one that doesn't even need too make decisions about who to buff.

With only slightly better dice Gru would have killed Harkevich. If his list had been better built to take advantage, possibly by bringing some faster melee models, then he probably would have won. I actually really think his list needs a bit of tweaking: he doesn't really have any armour cracking, and he should probably bring Saxon for Pathfinder (one of his Posse spent the whole game bogged down in a forest). The Feralgeist didn't get to do much this game as we weren't playing a scenario so he couldn't contest (plus I did have Aiyanna and a few native magic attacks), and Maelok makes his warbeasts Undead so he couldn't be used to reanimate them.

The Gatormen Posse have been nerfed quite a bit; 5 boxes is one thing, but MAT 6? On expensive heavy infantry? What the hell PP? Yeah, they get much better in one theme, but still, they level to which they've been nerfed seems frustrating. I think Gru might be best off playing in theme since he's always been fond of his gators and has at least three units of them.

Minions can crack armour now?

Strakhov again. I ran the same list as last time but swapped the Spriggan for Black Ivan (for to be shooting at evil baby elephants) and Sylyss for Valachev (for reasons that will soon become clear).
Strakhov
- Torch
- Black Ivan
- Berserker
Alexia & the Risen
- Valachev
Nyss Hunters
Croe's Cutthroats
Widowmaker Marksman
Kell Bailoch


I played against Gru and his Minions. With the reduced model restrictions Gru was running a whole bunch of new models that he wasn't familiar with yet. For now there were some proxies being used.
Rask
- Blackhide Wrassler
- Ironback Spitter
- Bullsnapper
- Bullsnapper
- Targ
Wrongeye
- Snapjaw
Nyss Hunters
Croak Raiders
Gatorman Witch Doctor


Pre-Game:
We rolled the scenario with two flags and two objectives. Gru won the roll and chose to go second, picking the side with the forests. I chose the Effigy of Valour (that lets models stand up for free) and he chose the objective that heals beasts and lets you tank hits with your heavies.


Deployment:
I deployed Strakhov in the middle with his jacks around him. The Risen went on the left with the Nyss behind them. He deployed his battlegroups in the center, and his Nyss opposite mine.

I put the Cutthroats as close to the left flag as possible, and one sniper on each side (Kell got the side with the nearby forest). His Croak Raiders then went opposite the Cutthroats.

Round 1:
Superiority went on the Berserker. Everything ran up and spread out. I actually screwed up here and put Strakhov too far from models that he wanted to put upkeeps on; not very smart on my part.

Gru moved everything up. A few of his Croaks got close enough to shoot my front line of Cutthroats, killing a few models. He put a Veil of Mists cloud in front of my Widowmaker.

Round 2:
OK, it was time for the jank to begin! Last turn Alexia had stepped out Valachev's command range, leaving her out of formation; this meant the unit no longer had Spellward, allowing Strakhov to cast Occultation on a Risen! Alexia was then able to step back into formation, allowing me to upkeep the spell. My Stealthy Risen were now invincible!

Strakhov also put Overrun on the fully-loaded-up Berserker. The plan: to Overrun off a Croak and destroy the objective. Unfortunately, there were two problems with this plan: first, the Objective could not be attacked yet. Second, the Berserker whiffed all four of his MAT 7 attacks against the Croak. Impressive. Well, at least he passed his Instability check.

The Widowmaker stepped into the could and shot down a Nyss Hunter, likewise Kell stepped forwards and killed a Croak. The Cutthroats moved up to attack the Croaks, killing a few. The Nyss Hunters took a few shots at Warbeasts (I think).

The Spitter killed my Berserker. The Croaks killed Kell and some more Cutthroats. The Nyss Hunters charged up and killed the Marksman and the front line of Risen. The Snappers charged some Nyss Hunters and whiffed. I think Wrongeye cast Starcrossed.

Round 3:
My Nyss Hunters gunned down most of his and the Risen killed one or two more, giving me a stack of corpses. Alexia created a Thrall who charged the nearby Snapper, leaving it on one box. Strakhov swapped Superiority over to Torch, who charged the Spitter. Sadly he couldn't finish him, meaning Sprint didn't trigger. I think Black Ivan shot the objective, but rolled crap for damage.

The Spitter frenzied, smacking Torch with a respectable hit considering he had lost some aspects. Rask tried to shoot Torch but missed, pinging the Spitter but doing no damage. The Wrassler put Rage on Snapjaw, who then charged Torch and proceeded to roll an amazing number of 3s. Even with the Ancilliary Attack from Targ, Torch was left with 5 boxes. What's more, Gru had been quite unlucky with his damage rolls, leaving all of Torch's systems running.

His Nyss Hunters killed Valachev, meaning Alexia would not be able to benefit from Strak's feat. The Croaks finished off the Cutthroats and starting pinging Black Ivan. One Spitter whiffed against a Nyss Hunter again, but the second killed the Thrall.

This photo was taken at the start of Round 4, after I had converted my corpse tokens to Risen.

Round 4:
Torch finished off the Spitter and turned his attention to Snapjaw, but left him on two boxes. I succumbed to temptation and took a shot at Rask with Ivan, but missed. Risen did nothing as I needed them all on the flag, but Alexia killed a Nyss Hunter with a boosted hand-cannon shot. Nyss Hunters... didn't do very much. Something killed a Snapper. I finally scored a point on the right flag.

Snapjaw shuffled over a bit to base the flag before finishing off Torch. The rest of his models killed a few Nyss Hunters and Risen and continued pinging Ivan down, after Rask disrupted him. I scored a second point.

Round 5:
Alexia was amassing a nice big horde of Risen at this point, enough to seriously threaten the Wrassler should he get too close. She did spend one to kill another Nyss Hunter though. Strakhov gunned down the remaining Snapper while Black Ivan shot at the objective again, not doing very much without focus. I scored again, putting me at three points.

Using Boundless Charge and Veil of Mists, Gru was able to get Snapjaw into Alexia. I burned the Risen to try to keep her alive, but it was all for naught. He wasn't quite able to kill the last Risen though, so he didn't actually score this turn. I think Black Ivan lost his cortex this turn.

Round 6:
Black Ivan took another shot at the objective, putting a few more points of damage on it. Then Strakhov cast Overrun on himself and moved up to finish it off. After my first shot hit however Gru passed it on to the Wrassler. Oh yeah, I forgot the objective could do that. Strakhov used his second shot to hit Targ, but he toughed. This was a problem, as Strakhov was standing completely unprotected out in the open and needed to trigger Overrun. Luckily the Cinder Bomb scattered in the right direction and reached Targ; a boosted damage roll finished him off and let Strakhov move back behind Black Ivan.

Meanwhile the Nyss Hunters charged Snapjaw, but Wrongeye had Star Crossed up and two missed. Cylena herself was out of range and landed a hit, but it wasn't enough.

Snapjaw killed two more Nyss Hunters, Snacking giving him back a couple of damage boxes. Rask and the Croaks shot Ivan, putting some damage on him - he was getting low on boxes now. The Wrassler moved up to threaten my stuff.

Round 7:
Cylena put a couple of points of damage on Snapjaw. Black Ivan shot the Croaks in front of him, but many tough rolls were made. Strakhov then used his gun, cinder bomb, and magics, but many more Tough rolls were made and in the end one Croak was still left contesting the flag.

The Wrassler killed Black Ivan. Snapjaw killed Cylena. The Witch Doctor charged Strakhov, rolling high and putting seven damage on him despite my spending two focus to reduce the damage. Gru scored the flag on the right this turn, giving him one point.

Round 8:
Strakhov moved out of engagement with the Witch Doctor while still basing the flag - luckily the free strike missed - and gunned the Croc down along with the Croak. Ram pushed the Wrassler just far enough to clear the flag. We both scored this turn, bringing me to four and him to two.

Wrongeye moved up to base the right flag while Snapjaw charged and destroyed my objective. The Wrassler ran around the forest to bast the left flag, which Strakhov doesn't contest. This meant Gru scored three points this turn, bringing him to five and winning the game.

That Nyss Hunter at the bottom had actually been trying to destroy the objective for several turns but was not getting the damage rolls he needed.

Post-mortem:
That was a very long game, but I enjoyed it a lot. Our lists were quite well matched: we both had two beatstick heavies, a shooty heavy, and two shooty units, with some other bits and pieces on the side. His heavies hit harder, but I had better threat ranges, and also Alexia winning me the war of attrition on the infantry side (until Snapjaw happened).

I made some mistakes, but probably nothing too major; the biggest one was probably forgetting that he can pass off hits to the objective and trying to destroy it at range rather than focussing my fire on his warbeasts. Letting Alexia die was a shame; she had accumulated a lot of Risen, enough that things were looking good for me for a bit there.

Rask seems like a good Warlock: Boundless Charge and Veil of Mists are great for getting to important models, and Fury gives his army the armour cracking that Gru's lists have tended to lack. All that and also a boostable RAT 7 gun that removes upkeeps, disrupts warjacks, or steals Focus? Sounds good to me. The Wrassler getting the Rage animus feels like a really good thing for Minions too, something that they probably needed.

I love the Spitter's model, but it has some of the worst defensive stats on any heavy I've played against: DEF 10 ARM 18? Any yet Torch didn't kill him on the charge (and my dice weren't bad). That P+S 17 is kind of depressing; I'm not happy about it anyway. Torch went from a decent beatstick with a lot of situationally useful abilities, to a mediocre beatstick who is also a mediocre gun platform who has a lot of situationally useful abilities; it kinda feels like a more dedicated jack would be more valuable (especially with Strakhov wanting to alpha and all that). His bond with Strakhov is so good that I can't help but take him though.

Putting Occultation on Alexia was entertaining and might have helped force the Nyss Hunters to come to me, but after that turn it wasn't important and I dropped it for the focus. I probably should have re-cast it on Strakhov, but I figured he was immune to most of the shooting that was still on the table.

So far the Berserker has just not been working out the way that I keep feeling he should. He is a cheap way to start the piece trade however, which is not such a bad thing.

Cor Blimey! Look at all those Crocs!

I finally got the chance to try MacBain!!!! against Gru's gators. I brought the Freebooter because it's amphibious and I really like the model. This list included pretty much all the Merc models I have.
MacBain!!!!
-Freebooter
-Sylyss
Nyss Hunters
Croe's Cutthroats
Alexia & the Risen
Aiyana & Holt
Kayazy Eliminators
Kell
Maddie
Ogrun Bokur (proxied by MOW Kovnik)
Reinholdt
Thor
-Blaster (2)


Gru had a new trick in his list: ambushers!
Barnabus
-Spitter
-Bullsnapper
-Boneswarm
Gatormen (5)
Gatormen (5)
Gatormen (3)
Witchdoctor (2)
Bog Trog ambushers (10)
Gobber Bellows Crew
Victor Pendrake


Pre-Game:
We got the scenario with three flags. I won the roll and chose to go second. I picked the side with the forests because Nyss Hunters.


Deployment:
He deployed fairly symmetrically. I put my two big Pathfinder units on my left, behind the forests. This left my jacks, solos, and Alexia on the right.

Round 1:
Gru put out some swamps and ran into them.

I couldn't shoot at him because of the swamps, so I spread out my models around the flags. He had Iron Flesh on the central unit of Gators, so I put Fortune on the Freebooter, as it was probably going to have to try to do something about them. Maddie hugged Alexia, to extend corpse collection range. The Blasters flanked hard to my right. Kell ran up and stood just in front of the house.

Round 2:
His Gator unit on the left killed a couple of Cutthroats. The Bog Trogs moved in and killed another, along with some Nyss Hunters (CMA is a thing). The central unit walked into another swamp, while the rightmost unit hid behind a smoke cloud. He made some order-of-activation mistakes and ended up leaving his Witch-doctors very far back.

Kell put a respectable amount of damage on a Gatorman from the left unit, then the Cutthroats charged in and finished it off. Nyss Hunters killed some Bog Trogs. Eliminators ran up to be ready to counterpunch. Risen jammed his central unit. The Bashers walked up and shot at the Gobbers, killing one. MacBain!!!! threw out a Rift, the idea being that if he used Pathfinder to charge my stuff it would prevent him from using one of his other abilities.

Round 3:
The Spitter shot at the Freebooter, catching MacBain!!!! and Reinholdt. Did you know Reinholdt has ARM 9 and only 1 damage? I think he's the flimsiest solo in the game (well, if you can land a hit). That meant that Gru only needed to roll a 3 on the Spitter's blast damage to kill him! Guess what he rolled?

Wah waah waaaah...

Barnabus feated, catching most of my Nyss and Cutthroats. The Gatormen and Bog Trogs then killed everything, leaving only Cylena - who failed her command check - and the Eliminators. The middle unit of Gators cleared out the Risen, and the remaining gobber charged in and killed one himself! The last unit of Gators charged the Blasters, leaving the nearby one on two boxes.

Sadly Reinholdt died to the acid after all. The Freebooter ran up under a full load of focus and killed one Gator, then Macbain!!!! used the rest of his focus for Jackhammer attacks, which all missed, before advancing backwards (which is funnily enough not an oxymoron in Warmachine). The Eliminators charged a Gator, killing it. Cylena ran away and rallied. Alexia threw more Risen at the central unit of Gators to keep them busy. One Basher took a freestrike to walk backwards and shoot up the rightmost Gator unit, putting a bit of damage on them. Kell missed a Gator. Holt killed some Bog Trogs. The Bokur moved up to protect MacBain!!!!

Round 4:
The Gators in the center put some damage on the Freebooter, then the Boneswarm charged in and did a bit more, knocking out his right clamp. The Gators and Bog Trogs on the left put everything they had into the Eliminators but only managed to connect on one attack, killing one. One the right, one Gator killed Thor while the other two finished off the engaged Blaster. Pendrake killed Sylyss and the Spitter killed the Bokur.

Things were not looking good, but I saw a potential Hail Mary: Barnabus had spent all his Fury putting out Spiny Growth and swamps, leaving him with no camp. First Maddie triggered Intrigue off the Gator that killed Thor, using it to move Alexia up, who was then able to drop a Risen on the left behind the line of Gators. I dropped Fortune and gave the Freebooter three focus. The last Blaster (would be a good name for a band) aimed and shot at the two Gators that killed it's friend, doing very little. Maddie then walked up and Seduced the Gator that had killed Thor, getting it to walk back and finally kill one member of the unit.

MacBain!!!! moved up a bit and cast Failsafe on the Freebooter, then shot the seduced Gator in the back, killing it. This left the Gatormen unit on the right unable to score. The Freebooter used a double-hand throw, boosting all the way, to toss the Boneswarm (don't ask me how you pick up and throw a pile of bones) into Barnabus, knocking them both down. Alexia activated next; three Risen finally took down the scrappy little gobber, while the one behind the Gators leveled-up into his evolved form and slapped Barnabus for a respectable amount of damage.

Aaaand... this is the part where I screwed up. I moved Kell to be able to shoot at Barnabus through a gap in the Gators, and somehow derped completely and moved him up into engagement with the Gator wall. The rest of my army pretty much just whiffed on everything.

Round 5:
Barnabus killed the Thrall to trigger Warpath, allowing the Spitter to walk over the wall then charge the Freebooter. With help from the Gators they finally put the jack into the dirt, along with Kell and Alexia. The last Gator on the right killed Maddie. The ones on the left whiffed on the Eliminator. The Bog Trogs killed Holt.

Well, I had a plan: if I could get MacBain!!!! over the flag on the right and keep clearing it, and if the Eliminator could survive for five more rounds, then I might still have a chance. Hey, it can't be worse than the chance of winning the lottery, can it? Hmm, maybe it can.

MacBain!!!! charged and killed the last Gator on the right, then Energized as close as he could to the flag (not close enough). The Blaster walked over to shoot at a couple of Gators for no damage. The Eliminator killed a couple of Bog Trogs.

Round 6:
The Gators finally killed the Eliminator. So much for that plan. The Blaster survived because the Gators couldn't reach him under Iron Flesh, but in my desire to get as many Gators as possible with his spray I had forgotten to get him in to contest the flag. Pendrake killed the single contesting Risen model, allowing Gru to score two points this turn for controlling two flags.

Well, I wasn't going to win on scenario, so it was time for plan C: get...

Shot dooooown... in a blaze of gloooryyyy!

A Risen missed his attack on Pendrake. Aiyana tried to Kiss the central Gator unit and whiffed. MacBain!!!! charged in and spent his stack to kill 3 Gators, showing the rest of his army what they should have been doing the whole time. Well, obviously they couldn't actually see it because they were dead, but I like to think that somewhere in Urcaen, they were feeling pretty bad about themselves.

Round 7:
The witch-doctor killed the last Risen to free up Pendrake, who knocked down MacBain!!!! with his bola. Well, MacBain!!!! could still survive the Gator and Spitter, all he needed to do was pass seven consecutive Tough checks. It could happen, right?

He passed one.

Postmortem:
My infantry do not like getting knocked down! In retrospect I might have been able to protect some Nyss Hunters from the feat by hugging the Freebooter, except then I expect they would have died to a Spitter shot or something.

I put both Pathfinder units on the left to take advantage of the forests, and ended up putting Alexia on the right to have a Risen screen for my jacks and solos. This meant that I wasn't able to collect most of the corpses from my units. I think perhaps it would have worked better to balance out my forces a bit more; putting one infantry unit and a battlegroup on each side.

Gators are a very well rounded unit, and they get really tough when you put Iron-Fleshed on them. I might have been able to wear the other units down eventually if it hadn't been for that feat, but my Mercs don't really have a solution for Iron Flesh right now, so the best I probably could have done about the middle unit was keep jamming him with Risen.

I should mention that near the end it was getting late and we were both getting fatigued. We started making a lot of mistakes in the last few rounds; I don't think MacBain!!!! would have killed very much at all if Gru hadn't forgotten to upkeep Iron Flesh. I really should have cast Fortune on him the turn before. That's something I need to remember to do: when I start running out of models, put Fortune on MacBain!!!! for the inevitable last hurrah.

Primer and Bare Metal

Game 1:
I swapped the Decimator for a Demolisher; the idea is that it's a durable piece that the opponent can't ignore for risk of being frozen, and with the bond and eSorscha's feat it should hit hard enough if needed.
Sorscha II
-Demolisher
Doomreavers
Nyss Hunters
Croe's Cutthroats
Alexia & the Risen
Reinholdt

Beanpole threw something together:
Mordikaar
-Gladiator
-Bronzeback
-Krea
Nihilators
Incendiarii (4)
Paingivers (4)
Saxon Orrick


Pre-Game:
We played a simple mission with two flags. I won the roll and chose to go first. As our games tend to take a rather long time, we decided to play ten minute timed turns for a change.


Deployment:
I aimed the Demolisher at Beanpole's flag and Sorscha at my own. Alexia went in the center with the Risen positioned to run up ahead for a change. Nyss went on the left.

Beanpole put the Bronzeback and Incendiarii on my right, with the Gladiator and Nihilators on my left.

I decided I would rather the Cutthroats face off against the Incendiarii than the Doomreavers, so they went on my right and the Doomreavers on the left.

Saxon went on my right, so he could help the Incendiarii through a patch of rough terrain.


Round 1:
I ran stuff up. Cutthroats got Iron Flesh, the Demolisher used Boundless Charge for the extra inch, Sorscha used Cyclone to move up farther. The Nyss caught up with the Doomreavers but passed their leadership check.

Beanpole advanced agressively and feated, giving his army +3 DEF and Poltergeist. The Nihilators got Hollow.

Round 2:
I dropped Iron Flesh for the focus and so I could declare a charge with the Cutthroats, but then remembered the feat and decided to just run and jam. I made sure to engage the Bronzeback with my first move. I had very intelligently put Risen in front of Reinholdt, meaning he couldn't reach Sorscha to use Lucky Charms. Sorscha moved over to hide behind the well and froze the Nihilators. The Demolisher ran up to cover Sorscha. The Nyss killed a bunch of Nihilators, but several survived thanks to tough rolls. The Doomreavers killed a couple more, leaving just the one survivor. I ended up using my extension this turn.

That is a big pile of souls...

Mordikaar now had something like 16 Fury. He brought back a couple of Nihilators, then between Mordikaar, the Paingivers, and the Incendiarii, Beanpole cleared enough Cutthroats for the Bronzeback to charge and Beat-Back it's way to Sorscha. Result: dead Sorscha.

Game 2:
The last time I played Gru I was impressed by his fully painted army, so I put together a list that used as many of my painted Warmachine models as I could. The only one missing is the wardog, who it seems can't be in the same list as Sylyss. Perhaps the elf is alergic? I went for the Kodiak for the free run, and Destroyers and the Demolisher so I wasn't trying to charge my entire army into melee in one go. I threw the Kovnik in there at the last minute for a laugh, but didn't think to actually put a warjack on him, which I really should have done; the Demolisher wouldn't have been a bad choice. We decided to go ahead and play at 50 points.
Strakhov
-Black Ivan
-Destroyer
-Demolisher
-Kodiak
-Berserker
-Sylyss
Alexia & the Risen
MOW Kovnik
Koldun Lord
Widowmaker Marksman

Gru just brought lots of gators, but for some reason brought the Spitter instead of the Wrassler. Perhaps he was anticipating my usual infantry horde when he wrote the list.
Barnabus
-Ironback Spitter
-Bull Snapper (2)
Gatormen Posse (5)
Gatormen Posse (5)
Gatormen Posse (3)
Gobber Bellows Crew
Witch Doctor (2)
Croak Hunter (2)
Thrullg


Pre-Game:
We left the table as it was. I won the roll, and decided that I had better pick the side with less rough terrain in my way, so I chose sides and Gru chose to go first. No timed turns this game.


Deployment:
Gru put his whole army on my left, facing his flag. I think he may have deployed his advanced deployment models in his regular deployment step?

Strakhov aimed for the flag. I put the Kodiak behind the forest on my left as it was the only other model that could run through it. I put the Kovnik behind the house as I was scared of the Croak Hunters' poisoned weapons - in retrospect I should have put him near Strakhov so I could give him Occultation (assuming I could ever spare the focus). The rest of my jacks went in the middle, with everything else on the right or behind the jacks.

The largest number of painted Warmachine models I've ever put on the table! Sad huh?

Round 1:
Gru put Iron Flesh on the three-gator Posse and ran everything up. The Croak Hunters hid in the trench.

I put Superiority on the Berserker with the intention of sending it in as a "first wave". Everything ran. Alexia starting accumulating Thralls.

And even more painted models thanks to the Thrall!

Round 2:
Gru advanced cautiously and hid the bulk of his army behind swamps and clouds (well, OK, one of each), casting Spiny Growth one each of the three Iron Fleshed Gators.

I realised at this point that I had stupidly positioned my "first wave" where it couldn't attack because of the well. So I hatched a Cunning Plan^TM! Strakhov gave the Berserker three focus and kept three for himself, then he advanced to shoot at the Gobbers in order to use Overrun to reposition the Berserker. Unfortunately they were too far away, so he threw a cinder bomb and a Rift instead on the off-chance that they provided some protection or something. The Berserker simply ran around the house instead, while the rest of the jacks ran or walked and shot, doing very little.

The Marksman then walked forwards and fired at the rightmost Gator. He landed the shot and rolled an amazing double 6 to perfectly one-shot the big lizard! What a champ! Alexia advanced and summoned a second Thrall.

Round 3:
One Bullsnapper frenzied, and took a big chunk out of the other, knocking out an aspect. Barnabus triggered his feat, knocking down several of my models. The nearest Posse charged the Kodiak, but only a few manage to reach. The Croak Hunters put a few boxes of damage on the Kovnik. The Gobbers moved up and put a cloud in front of my Berserker. He put Spiny Growth on a couple of the Iron-Fleshed unit. The rest of his army mostly just held it's ground.

I realised that my Kodiak was out of my control area and thus I wouldn't be able to shake, meaning he wouldn't be able to do anything useful this round. Neither would the Kovnik. So I hatched a Cunning Plan^TM to get some use out of them.

The Berserker got three focus, the Destroyer two, then they both shook. The Kodiak and Kovnik both sacrificed their actions to stand, and moved into position. The the Destroyer slammed the Kovnik, hoping to send him over the Croak Hunters. Sadly the slam distance was an inch short. I wanted to slam the Kodiak as well, but I realised that the Destroyer was in the way, plus I probably wouldn't have range anyway. So the Demolisher just ran forwards.

The Berserker trampled over the Gobbers, boosting his attack rolls and killing them both. Hang on, the maths doesn't add up; did I forget to pay for the trample? Perhaps I used Strakhov's feat but forgot that it doesn't give free tramples, only charges and slams? Either way I guess I screwed up somewhere. Anyway, the Berseker promptly exploded and put a few boxes of damage on the min unit of Gatormen.

Black Ivan did very little with his bombard. The Marksman shot another Gatorman but did not manage a repeat performance, only doing a few boxes of damage this time. Alexia summoned a third Thrall (proxied by Reinholdt). Strakhov based the flag to score a point.

Round 4:
One unit of Gators charged and killed the Marksman. Revenge! The Croak Hunters finished off the fallen Kovnik. The Gators swarmed around my jacks, slowly chipping away at the Kodiak. I scored a second point.

With the Berserker dead I would be wanting to re-cast Superiority. But who would get it? Well, with the Demolisher engaged, he would pretty much have to open up now, so perhaps a couple of extra points of defense would help keep him alive. However, he was too far away from Strakhov. So I hatched a Cunning Plan^TM (are you seeing a pattern yet?). Strakhov kept all his focus, moved up to cast Superiority on the Demolisher, then cast Overrun on himself and tried to gun down a Gator in order to be able to move back onto the flag. I rolled three shots, but the only unit in range had Iron Flesh so I missed them all, even with the boost.

Alexia created a fourth Thrall (proxied by a Nihilator). A pair of Thralls charged an Iron Fleshed gator and missed, while the newborn charged a regular Gator and also missed. The rest of my army then stood about flailing ineffectually.

Round 5:
Barnabus finally based his flag, but didn't score as my jacks were contesting. The Ironback Spitter nailed Alexia with a double-boosted loogie. If I'd had one more Risen (or the one Risen that was also in the AOE was a little farther away so I could pass damage off to it) she could have traded them to survive it, but Gru had rolled the exact damage needed to kill her, so I let her die and hung on to the Risen. The Croak Hunters hit the Koldun Lord, landing him with Corrosion, but poor damage rolls meant he survived the attack.The Gators killed three of my Thralls and kept chipping away at the jacks. I think this was the turn that the other Bullsnapper frenzied, taking a big chunk out of Barnabus.

Strakhov handed out three focus to the Destroyer and kept three. The Destroyer, using all three focus, finally managed to kill a single Gator. My flag was starting to look like a dangerous place to be, so I decided to focus on killing stuff with Strakhov. I wanted to charge him into the two Croak Hunters, but due to poor positioning I didn't have a line on the far one, so I charged the near one, killed it and Overrun into the second, but whiffed my attack. Finally Strakhov sprinted away, taking some damage from a free-strike.

The Risen simply regrouped (did you know they have CMD 3?). Ivan moved in to melee since he wasn't having much luck with his gun. The Koldun Lord lost another damage box to Corrosion.

Round 6:
The Gators finally managed to finish off the Kodiak. The Spitter moved in and, with the help of a couple of Gators, knocked out the open Demolisher's arms and cortex. The rightmost posse killed all but one Risen. The Thrullg disrupted Ivan.

Well, I really didn't want to move Strakhov over to my flag now. The Destroyer was the only jack left that I could allocate to; I couldn't even use the Koldun Lord to try to give Ivan focus as he died to Corrosion at the start of the turn. It occurred to me however that Barnabus was injured and on zero camp; perhaps I could put some damage on him this turn. The idea was to move Strak up, kill a gator, cast Ram at Barnabus, then sprint to a position of relative safety. It was a risky play, but the alternative was just to continue chipping away at Gators and lose the game from attrition / him scoring on my flag. So I went for it.

First I tried to free up Strakhov with the Demolisher, but a freestrike killed him. It's a shame, but at least he was out of the way. Strakhov then charged one of the Iron-Fleshed Gators (the freestrike from the Croak Hunter missed) and boosted the attack roll. The attack missed. This was a problem; I couldn't afford to just stand there, I had to try to reposition to somewhere a little safer with the sprint, so I spent the rest of Strakhov's focus trying to kill the Gator, but failed.

Sylyss ran to engage the Croak Hunter. The Destroyer killed another croc. Black Ivan took a swing and missed. The sole remaining Risen charged a Gator and missed.

Round 7:
Two Gators killed Strakhov. If they hadn't managed to finish it the Ironback would have.



Postmortem:
It's a completely different experience when you're on the clock. I would say it was exciting, but also somewhat stressful of course. The added pressure meant that I didn't play very smart and made stupid mistakes, like moving Sorscha into range of the Bronzeback. I think it might be worth playing with timed turns every once in a while, but probably not with the infantry spam lists I'm currently playing, and probably with a slightly more generous time limits to start off with.

It was fun to run jack-heavy again; in fact I think this is the jack-heaviest I've ever done. Strakhov is clearly not the right caster for it though. I love using Overrun for janky little plays, and I spent all game trying and failing to pull that kind of thing. I guess the Hoff really likes easy to kill targets for triggers, and Gators are not exactly easy to kill; I think I only took out three of them the whole game.

The terrain was part of the problem; it funneled us into a rather narrow skirmish line where we couldn't get enough of our larger-based models into engagement, drawing out the game a little. Iron Flesh didn't exactly help; DEF 16 is obviously not as bad as DEF 18, but it was still enough to give me trouble.

Actually, I think both our dice were pretty poor overall. I had some good rolls early on, then he had a few at the end when he killed Strakhov (whole bunch of 8s for his attack rolls...), but for most of the match I think we were generally rolling below average (my attacks kept missing, his kept failing to do damage).

That Marksman though! Man of the match! I should have used Swift-Hunter to move him back to maximum range after his first attack though, I just forgot how fast Gators can be when charging living models.

Looking at the photos, I think Gru could have gotten that posse around the right flank a lot sooner if he'd been more agressive; with the forest in the way they could have flanked without much risk of my jacks catching them, then put pressure on my flag sooner. In hindsight, knowing now how much trouble my jacks had with his Gators, I would say that if he'd moved the main complement of Gators up faster he could have jammed me off his flag and started scoring fairly early on.