My first time playing with CoC

Technically, it would be my second time since I have played a couple of proxy CoC Box games. But this is my first time playing with someone else's CoC. It began badly, when in my enthusiasm to demonstrate proper dice shuffling technique, I sent plastic Syntherion flying off the table and breaking one of his little plastic arms. Boy did he fly. I broke that CoC good. It was not easy to fix. I don't like plastic CoCs.

Axis, the Harmonic Enforcer (*6pts)
* Corollary (3pts)  (CoC Squire)
* Diffuser (3pts)  (Hunter's Mark light)
* Galvanizer (3pts) (Repair light)
* Cipher (9pts) (Double Pistons/Gun Face)
* Inverter (8pts) (KD Hammer guy)
Obstructors (Leader and 9 Grunts) (6pts) (shield wall infantry with reach flails)
Optifex Directive (Leader and 2 Grunts) (2pts) (CoC Choir)
Enigma Foundry (3pts) (CoC Necrosurgeon)
Steelsoul Protector (2pts)  (Shield Guard)

+2 more points (probably some bodge servitors or Flare servitors)

Much like new Protectorate warjacks, the names of these models mean nothing for a few months and you just use descriptive names for them instead.
I played a standard 35 Barnabas list: Wrastler, Spitter, Snapper, 2 Full Posse, Totem Hunter.

Good view of hammer hands and elephant feet.

The scenario was Incursion, and the middle flag dissapeared. 

Round 1:

• He went first and ran some stuff up and put up upkeeps.
• I ran some stuff up and put up a Swamp Pit and Warpath.

Round 2:

• He moved everything like 2" forward and turtled in Shield Wall since he was afraid of all the Gatormans. Razor wall was put in front of the Obstructors as a joke. Moved some jacks to contest flags.
•  I shot a clump of Obstructors in Shield Wall with the Spitter, killing my target and triggering Warpath to move the Wrastler up (the other 5 guys I hit all died to Corrosion next turn - yay!). Barnabas moved up inside a Swamp Pit and feated, catching all the CoC except for the Cipher and Galvanizer + Protector who were on my left + right flanks respectively. The Wrastler charged the steady Inverter (taking 1pt from Razor Wall) and managing to kill it on my last damage roll needing an 11. Yay. I jammed one unit of Gators up into the Cipher/ Diffuser/ Obstructors, and the other unit sat in the middle of the table non-committedly (my only big mistake).

Round 3:

• He shakes with Axis and holds the rest of the focus. Some Obstructors return to play thanks to the Foundry - the 1" leash on its return ability is really restricting! But at 3pts for ARM 18 and 8 boxes, repair ability, repairable and easy access to a Shield Guard, can't really complain too much. Anyway, the Obstructors do nothing, most of the army does nothing so Axis decides to take matters into his own hammers - pops his feat, casts Onslaught for the pathfinder, charges a Gator in front of Barnabas, beats it back. I wanted to counter-charge with Barnabas and place him directly behind this Gator so he could not have been moved and thus forcing Axis to spend more focus than he wanted to get to Barnabas, but -2 SPD from Axis' feat stops charging. He uses his second attack on the nearby Spitter to make his way over to Barnabas, fluffs 4 of the 6 extra attacks and leaves him at 9 boxes.
• Spitter headbutts, Barnabas kills Axis with auto-hitting boosted POW 12s.

Postgame thoughts

In retrospect, had that second unit of Gators just run 2.1" in front of the Obstructors I would have been safe from assassination and weathered the feat turn better. -2 STR and SPD is very damaging to Gators so my retaliation would have been very poor that turn - even killing Shield Walled Obstructors would have been tough with POW 11 Gator attacks. I probably would have only just killed the Enigma Foundry with a Spitter shot and Flesh Eater, and just put Spiny Growth on everything to try and weather the next round.

I also didn't have Spiny Growth on Barnabas due to Fury issues (Wrastler at 4, Spitter at 1) but probably should have put it up and let the Wrastler frenzy as he wasn't going to do much under Axis' feat anyway. Assassination would have been even more unlikely in that instance. The Swamp Pit also helped by protecting Barnabas from those Flare guns.
Scenario was a non-issue during the game since he skillfully placed warjacks with Countercharge 3.9" away from each flag, warjacks that were tough enough to take a couple of Gator hits without too much fuss.

The lack of living models in CoC really sucks for our threat ranges and many living-only abilities, and the armor stacking potential is a worry. Axis in particular will become quite nasty as more CoC models are released because his feat really shuts down Gator lists for a turn, he is capable of dishing out significant damage in a melee grind situation, and he has access to a ridiculous number of push effects to set up almost any charge lane he needs.
My first impression is that it seems a bit like a Skorne matchup, which means Rask will again prove to be the best all-around choice. But they are pretty fun to play with and against (at least until Lucant comes out, that guys is going to give everyone fits).