[battle report] Warmachine v Hordes - Cygnar vs Gatormen - Battle for the Bloodsmeath Ruins

So another game of Warmahordes, and this time quite a special one for a few reasons.

1. First use of the Gatorman force, as Calaban's theme force.
2. Playing against Alex (a long time listener of Darker Days Radio and Midnight Express), and thus our first meetup.

Calaban's Bad Religion 25 pts

Calaban
Black Hide Wrastler
Ironback Spitter
Gatorman Posse
Farrow Bone Grinders
Croak Hunter

Stryker Combined Arms 25 pts

pStryker
Centurion
Journeyman Warcaster
Charger
Gun Mages
Storm Blades

It was a No Man's Land mission. So moving to the centre and fighting was key. With the advantage of the theme, the Gators had stealth the first turn, and simply ran to the shallow water templates. The Cygnar army swept about the ruins, as the Croak lurked at the ruins looking get some strikes on the warcaster. Calaban put Carnivore on the Posse, and Occultation on the Bone Grinders. Those Gun Mages were going to have to either get close, or try and hurt the Spitter. Next the Charger was hit with Parasite, and the Spitter got a hit with the  corrosive blast, followed by the Bone Grinders hitting with an arcane bolt. Already the warjack was worse for wear. Of course the Gun Mages and Stormblades all had extra defence and armour thanks to Stryker. So the Gators tried to finish off the Charger. Meanwhile the Croak was now facing the massive Centurion, tying it up, but eventually succumbing to the towering machine.

The Stormblades had engaged some of the Gators and hampered their eventual charge - already they had been slowed thanks to Stryker's Earthquake, and now Strkyer had also dropped his feat, and once more hit the Posse and Calaban with the Earthquake.

With Calaban and the Posse knocked down I needed to use Fury well. Calaban got up, having not upkept certain spells, and proceeded to use his fury to heal the Spitter, and then using his magic to cycle Occultation to himself. The Wrastler charged into the Stormblades, cutting through them and powering up Calaban with fury thanks to the feat. Calaban used that in turn to use the Wrastler animus to get two of the Posse up. The Posse then acted, with those up being able to charge, and those in combat just getting up and fighting. Again, killing more Stormblades and punching through the buffed armour dumped fury onto Calaban, who chose to kept it, as I realised my mistake. Calaban was wide open to the Centurion.The Farrow blasted the Charge, reducing it to a smouldering pile of  scrap.

The Gun Mages moved in and fired on the Farrow, killing them all but one. Calaban's Occultation played havoc for Stryker who instead settled for killing the last of the Farrow, while the Journeyman tried to damage the Spitter. The Centurion failed to get close enough to Calaban, and the single hit was channelled onto the Spitter.

With the Gators killing the Stormblades to a man, and locking Stryker in combat, the Wrastler was free to fight. The Spitter frenzied and waded into the Gun Mages, but failed to strike the quick footed gun fighters. The Wrastler engaged the Centurion, and snapping shut on the warjack, pinned it to the ground and continued to wrestle the machine and smash it. Calaban was free to move and fight.

And that was it. We ran out of time. So a draw, tending to a Gatorman victory.

What was great for me was getting the Gatorman army to work with both the feat and numerous other spells. Leached really helped the Gatorman Posse handle the feat and spell buffed armour of the Stormblades. Only needing a single wound meant that the Gators were able to charge up Calaban in the event of the charge against him being worse than it was.