Ironback Spitter - not-so-ninja mutant turtle

Overview

The Ironback Spitter is a gator beast that takes the form of a giant turtle. It is slow, unremarkable in melee, has low DEF and mediocre ARM for a heavy. It also has a pretty garbage animus. However, it does have an amazing gun which provides Blindwater with its most reliable method of removing support models and sniping out key targets. Its other redeeming feature are its dual open fists and stunning smile.

Here are its rules:

• Amphibious
• Back Plates - deals d6 damage to models that make free strikes against it. More fluff than anything, but there's no downsides to the rule, so no complaints.
• Girded - immune to blasts with ARM 18? Awesome! Not really, but if we ever get squishy support models (like sacrifical Trogs for Rask), then they can hug him for dear life against AoE spam.

Angry old man.

Damage

In melee, it has 2x P+S 13 fists and 1x P+S 15 jaw. Nothing stellar, lowish MAT but a good number of initial attacks. Might do well with Elasticity at clearing medium infantry, but I've never tried.

The Spitter's main feature is its ranged weapon, the Spit Blast. This is a RNG 12, POW 14, 3" AoE that deals corrosion damage (ie. cannot kill Gorman) and causes continuous corrosion (ie. awesome at killing mid-ARM infantry with splash damage). With RAT 5, it's also not bad at actually hitting.

Survivability

Not terrible for a heavy beast, but far from stellar. DEF 10, ARM 18 and 27 boxes. Yay. Being primarily a ranged beast does help it stay on the table a bit longer, since its gun is useful pretty much the entirety of the game. Being a heavy, it can take a few hits if you need it to roadblock, but don't expect it to tank like Barnabas.

Utility

Sniping out softer support targets with a sweet gun. That's about it. For Blindwater, having this option is a big deal. The only other thing we have that has a similar role is Bog Trogs, and maybe Croctor Sacrificial Strikes.

I have never used its animus (Ornery) ever, since the number of circumstances where a retaliatory strike is worth more than Spiny Growth are few. So few that I can't even think of a situation where I would have used it in retrospect. If it gave a defensive strike instead, it might be a lot more actively useful. But having to get hit and then make two dice rolls to have any effect seems to be a lot of hoops to jump through for potentially nothing. Are Circle players even finding this useful on a melee monster like Ghetorix?

As mentioned, it can also protect softer targets with Girded, but there are not many of those in Blindwater at present. Even our support solos like the Thrullg and Croctor tend to be ARM 16+.

Tactica

I like to place it in the front line during deployment, usually close to the center in order to maximize its coverage. If I get first turn it will run, if I don't it might get a chance to shoot some squishy AD models with AoE deviations. In any case, you will want to keep it about midline and look out for tasty targets - usually with guns, but sometimes there is a good opportunity for a slam or a charge against a few clustered mid ARM targets.

One good use of its open fists is to throw the Wrastler and set up a Rise Gator Missile. Doing a two-handed throw, it should be able to beat the Wrastler's STR of 12 with two dice and give you a good 5" head start.

• With Barnabas, you can also use this guy to throw enemy warjacks into Swamp Pits.  He is also quite good at putting the last few points on an enemy caster during a Pop n Drop assassination, and benefits hugely from Warpath, almost doubling his movement that turn. I always take one with Barnabas.
• I don't usually take one with Maelok, since Spirit Door allows my Gators to get backfield and kill things just fine. I would probably prefer a Swamp Horror most of the time in a grind context.
• With Calaban, keep in mind that his feat favours ranged attacks as it triggers when a friendly model in his control makes a killing blow, irrelevant of where the enemy model was. Also, Parasite makes everything better. This guy might even kill something in melee if it has Parasite on it.
• I think the Spitter (or 3) is also a really good for Rask 3 Posse lists. This is because 15 Gatormans with Fury can both hit really hard against high ARM and put out a lot of attacks for infantry swarms, but they need to get the charge to do all that. Spitters are great at clearing lanes and sniping out key support pieces, and can generate that fury Rask needs to be a douche. Furthermore, his Girded ability can help protect some of Rask's squishy trog friends from AoE spam. Rask's feat also synergizes amazingly well with a ranged force, which makes me think Blindwater will never get really good shooting options (which is fine).

Conclusion

The Ironback Spitter is one of our only sources of ranged support. Being a warbeast with a gun is extremely good due to easy access to boosts, and this guy is no exception. He has a place in almost any Blindwater list. He's also a fun model to put together and paint. Go turtle!