Why (only) Blindwater?

I often see Minion players classify themselves as exclusively 'Gator' or 'Pig' players. This behavior is also exhibited by certain merc players, who play Rhulic casters or Pirates only, although these are rarer than their Minion counterparts. Why be a contract/pact monogamist?

1) Your wallet

I am pretty cheap. I find I get more out of approaching life with a conserver (1) mindset, rather than a consumer mindset. I find that I appreciate things more this way. Playing only the Blindwater Pact allows me to restrict myself to a small subset (Gators) of a subset (Minions) of HORDES, resulting in a low entry-point and a low on-going maintenance cost given the lower number of new releases each expansion relative to a core faction.

Additionally, Privateer Press has decided to design the two viable Minion Pacts with absolutely ZERO overlap in terms of models (2).  One of the most common answers to the Gator Armor problem is 'it's your own fault for restricting yourself to Gators and not playing Carver'. Which is logically true, but should also be rewarded with a swift kick to the nuts and the theft of said person's wallet so they can put their money where their mouth is.

2) Crocodiles are awesome

A crocodile uses a death roll to detach the leg from a Zebra.

I once read a paper regarding the physics of the death roll (3), which concluded that the death roll manoeuvre helped alligators exert far greater additional concentrated force than their physiology should allow them to, and allows them to basically kill and dismember any living thing of any size. Essentially, they are making up for having little stumpy legs by being awesomely ruthless and using mathematics.

Not to mention that they are basically dinosaurs who didn't get the memo that they should have gone extinct, and somehow manage to keep on truckin' irrelevant of what the planet throws at them. Kinda like a shark, but Privateer is unlikely to release a faction of dinosaur-riding, guitar-playing sharks with laser beams attached to their heads, so Gators will do.

3) Models, Fluff, Aesthetics

The thing that first sold me on Gators was seeing Barnabas' art and model:

Everyone knows that not being able to see makes you badass.

 After that, the awesome just starts piling up: giant wrestling alligators, malevolent zombies, voodoo rituals and the best medium infantry in the game!


 Another good thing about the faction is that they are dirty swamp dwellers - the colour scheme is drab and earthy, the models don't have complicated highlights details (I've always disliked the WHFB tendency to highlight almost every miniature to bright white), the basing is simple yet effective. This contrasted quite a bit with my previous factions - the boldness of Khador, the white and gold robes of the Protectorate, the insane detail of Skorne, and my bright orange Trolls (which I sometimes see being bounced around on Trademe as 'pro painted').

Also, the whole Pact is based around a Gatorman who is so awesome and bored that he decides to spend his time ascending to godhood. Pretty standard, right?

4) Playstyle - "Tactically Strong, Strategically Weak"

I've been playing Warmahordes since around the time Superiority came out (late 2006). I've played about 5 full factions in that time and liked/dislike certain things about each of them, until I eventually found Kommander Orsus Zoktavir aka. Butcher2, eButcher. This guy is by far my favourite caster in the game. I played almost nothing but eButcher for a year after painting his model. I ranked average at tournaments, I lost about half my games, but I enjoyed almost every game immensely. Besides being a one-man army (I literally once beat a 35pt Cryx list over 3 turns after it had killed every other model in my list), he had rage drives.

Rage Drives allow you to actually run two heavy warjacks effectively at any points size. Rage Drives allow you to make free power attacks, free charges and sometimes get a SPD and MAT boost. I think I won most of my games on account of power attacks - nobody expects a Juggernaut to actually throw things! Gators play like a tankier version of my balanced eButcher lists, but trading the weapon master and huge P+S numbers on everything for board control and denial.

• Warlocks: Tough, survivable, supportive and physically imposing enough to be a threat in the endgame, but certainly not paragons of destruction.

• Beasts: Many beasts have great and unique animi (Rise, Spiny Growth, Elasticity, Submerge), while others have Ornery. All heavies besides Snapjaw have open fists and you better learn to use them! I use several power attacks per game, from 2-handed throws to pushes to locks. On the flipside, the beasts have pretty crappy stats and are costly relative to their faction counterparts, and don't have access to the same array of buffs. Also, the Boneswarm f*cking sucks.

• Troops: Gatormans are amazing, extremely flexible, very survivable hard-hitting medium infantry. These guys are why you play Gators. They are probably the best medium infantry in the game and are very self-sufficient, becoming really amazing with any kind of buff. That said, they are expensive, and are all you've got for the moment besides Bog Troggs (which are useful but you can't build an army out of walking fish with tent poles).

• Solos: You have the Totem Hunter! That guy is a boss. 100% self-sufficient, great for scaring people or sniping out key solos like Kovnik Joe or Tartarus. He will probably die every game, but do his job. You also have Thrullgs and Croak Hunters, which kinda suck for their cost but have their part to play in the Gator universe.

Strengths: Attrition, armor, tactical options with power attacks and good charge ranges, good denial options (especially anti-ranged)
Weaknesses: No power combos and fewer options (ie. strategically weak), reliance on power attacks, and not usually strong on assassination.

This "tactically strong, strategically weak" playstyle leads to my next point...

5) Deserving every victory

This ties back into the 'conserver' perspective I mentioned earlier. It is commonly accepted at the moment that Minions are the weakest faction in the game and have few to no great matchups against the core Warmachine and Hordes factions. When you win a game, you earned it on account of pulling off a brilliant tactical manoeuvre (tm). Either that or you Revived three gatormans and charged your opponent's caster (1 trick faction ftw).

You don't have Gorman or Eyriss to make a mockery of game balance, you don't have swarms of dirt cheap hard-hitting endlessly recyclable infantry, you don't have no-risk gun lines or buffs that stack up to +15 STR on 2-3 models, you don't have game-stopping control feats or character heavies like Molik Karn. You just have a few tactical denial and control options, and very limited application of force. The outcome of the game is much more tied to your play than the power of your models.




(1) Funny how Blogger's spellcheck does not consider 'conserver' a word, but it accepts 'consumer' :)
(2) Ok, this isn't 100% true. Victor Pendrake can be taken by both Pacts, and Farrow Bonegrinders can be taken in Calaban's 'Bad Religion' theme force. 
(3) Fish, Bostic, Nicastro and Benesci. 2007. Death roll of the alligator: Mechanics of twist feeding in water. The Journal of Experimental Biology. 210. p 2811-2818. doi:10.1242/jeb.004267