Gators vs Retribution - Garage Style

Battle reports! The most exciting of all posts - especially when there are no photos.

The majority of my games are played on Tuesday evenings at a highly unofficial gaming community named 'the Garage', which is located in the depths of Mt. Roskill, down a treacherous rocky path featuring more holes than a Star Wars Episode 1-3 plot. I haven't played in over a month so it was a pleasant surprise to go show up and see the place had been tidied up and made very spacious and cozy.

I played two games against nChris (1), one of the Garage stalwarts and generally classy individual who also likes talking linguistics with me. He's also the guy who beat Luke at Rallypoint. What a boss.

Game 1 -Barnabas vs Vyros - 35 pts

Scenario: Overrun

Barnabas
Wrastler
Spitter
Snapper
2 full Gatorman Posses
Totem Hunter

A pretty standard old-school Barnabas list, not much to say here. I preyed his caster as there weren't really any key solos or units to go after.

Vyros1
2 Banshees
Aspis
Min Halberdiers 
Min MHSF + UA
2 Arcanists
Wyssnalyrr
Lanyssa

I think that was the list. I have so little respect for elves in general that I don't really pay much attention. The Banshees are kind of annoying as they stop charges within close proximity and don't die to a single gatorman.

I have trouble seeing how someone playing Barnabas can consistently lose to Retribution. You hop Barnabas in and out of swamp pits so he doesn't get shot, you upkeep Warpath to get a movement advantage with your heavies, and you throw out Iron Flesh on a Gator unit to make them hold a flank pretty effectively. Easy, right?

The only problem of course, is when they are playing Vyros and he spends most of the late game at ARM 23+. Thank PP for scenarios!

That's more or less what happened here -

1. Swamp Pits get put down and Gators stand inside. 
2. MHSF cry and shoot stuff to no effect.
3. Gators charge and kill lots of infantry. Warpath moves trigger.
4. Ret counter attacks and kills maybe 2 posse and Spitter.
5. Barnabas feats. Posse kill all infantry, Warpath allows Wrastler to kill a Banshee. Remaining Posse get Iron Flesh + Dirge of Mists and jam remaining Banshee.
6. Vyros camps focus + Inviolable Resolve for about 4 turns (the amount of time it takes for a full Gator Posse to kill an ARM 19 Ret heavy, apparently).
7. Eventually manage to throw Vyros out of the zone so I can win on scenario.

Most exciting game of all time. I should get a warlock with a damage buff or focus removal to deal with this crap....

Game 2 - Maelok vs Ossyan  - 35 pts

Scenario: Process of Elimination

Maelok
Swamp Horror
Snapper
2 Full Posses
Wrong Eye + Snapjaw
Witch Croctor

I almost took a Boneswarm, but came to my senses at the last second. The main reason is that a 4 pt model doesn't fit well in Gator lists. And Snappers are much better.

Ossyan
Hypnos
Manticore
Full Invictors + UA
Full MHSF + UA
2 Arcanists

Again not 100% sure on the lists, see reasons above in Game 1. All I know is I said I wasn't going to play Barnabas, which apparently translates as 'take heaps of guns'.

This game was equally simple, but for entirely different reasons.

1. Gators win first turn - run up Posses with Dirge. Put up Death Patch on Posse #2 and Malediction on Maelok (I always regret it if I don't cast it turn 1) and move so that only a couple of MHSF would be able to shoot me next turn. Submerge/charge with WE + Snapjaw, put Spiny Growth on Maelok with Snapper (so it doesn't get ignored by MHSF). Zombify Posse #1.
2. Chris decides to cup his balls in his hands, casts Quicken on Ossyan, feat and charges forward. Then proceeds to unleash mighty boosted POW 10s on ARM 16 Gators, killing maybe 2. Pro move.
3. I charge both Posse into the Strike Force, kill many. Get myself entrenched in both zones. Charge Snapjaw with Elasticity into Ossyan, hit once for about 10 damage.
4. Snapjaw dies to Manticore after getting headbutted by Hypnos. I kill more stuff.
5. He decides he will kill Posse #1 (the one with Zombify) using all the ranged + magic attacks he has left. Invictors, Ossyan, Hypnos, Manticore. I think I made 4 or 5 tough checks with a single Posse member, which made him want to flip the table. What a broken rule. The Posse leader survives with a single hit box, which means I still contest that zone.
6. Swamp Horror pulls Hypnos out of the other zone, giving me a point at the end of the turn. But it doesn't matter, since I revive two Gators from Posse #1, pop my feat and they kill Ossyan on their first of four attacks (who was exposed from his attempt to kill the last Posse member).

Reviving Gators and charging living casters = pretty legit. Also using your feat to plink Gator Posse turn 1 with POW 10 shots, only so your caster gets charged by your opponent's heaviest warbeast Turn 2 is not a recommend tactic.

Pro tips!

nChris was reasonably demoralized after losing to a terrible player playing the worst faction in the game (2). The problem for him is dealing with two full Gatorman Posses, usually with a survivability buff of some kind. The answer we came up with was 'Sentinels + UA' (3).

As a Gatorman player, I have 3 principal things I respect:

1. ARM 19+
2. Weapon Masters or equivalent, usually with reach.
3. Weapon Master, Tough, Undead and/or Recyclable infantry that cost next to nothing and probably out-threat me on account of their Undeath or AD (which are also often immune to blast damage and KD).

Although Gators have no trouble killing Sentinels or out-threating them, the fact is they are P+S 12 reach weapon masters with Vengeance. This means you can have 2-3 of them out front as bait, effectively blocking charges past them with reach, and ready to trigger Vengeance attacks. At 3d6-6, even Vengeance attacks can do sizable damage to the Posse. And you will definitely kill them on the charge. It is a very good matchup for the Retribution player, and the Gator player doesn't really have the ranged options to deal with it cleanly. Iron Flesh + Dirge + Tough can still be a problem, but the volume of attacks should be able to overcome those buffs. Also, eEyriss.

The one long-shot that Gator players have in that match up is to hopefully snipe out the UA with a ranged attack or spell, which is very unlikely to happen given that Gators are seriously lacking in that department.

Other pro tips:

• As a melee heavy force, it is extremely not sweet to get pushed around by Rahn and Mittens. 
• Mage Hunter Assassins are broken.
• Stormfall Archers are also pretty flexible and deserve more credit than Theorymachine gives them.
• Don't expect to win on attrition with the majority of lists. Squishy elves are squishy, although as time goes on you have more options in that department.
• Don't rely on a ranged assassination. Barnabas has Swamp Pits, Maelok will be at least ARM 19, and Calaban has Occultation. However the Gator player can't protect everything all the time, so you can usually snipe out key models to open up charge lanes.
• Eyriss, every list. If you're not gimping yourself by picking a crap faction like me, you shouldn't gimp yourself by not taking 100% legal models, even if they make your opponents whine endlessly.

(1) The 'n' can stand for 'newphie', 'noob' as in 'didn't play in Mk1', or 'no really, that guy who beat Luke at Rallypoint'.
(2) Well, second worst. There is Thornfall, after all.
(3) My initial answer was 'play another faction that isn't elves, doofus', but he wasn't having any of that.