35 Calaban A cry for help

[HoodooDoll]

Hello,

I've got about two games of warmachine/hordes under my belt now and have settled upon a Blindwater list as I hate steam punk (I know I know). I really fell in love with the Calaban model (Gator witch doctor, whats not to love?) and so I've built a 35 point list around him. Since I really don't have a good grasp on the game/rules yet I'd really appreciate some feedback. Thanks in advance!

Calaban
Wrastler
Spitter
Bull Snapper
Gatorman posse 3
Gatorman posse 3
Feralgeist 2
Totem Hunter
Thrulg
Gobber Bellows

Was trying to build a well rounded list that could take on anyone. Thoughts? Opinions? Thanks again.

[TinRobot]

Your list is good and very similar to what I run in most of my games but I would highly recommend bringing one if not both of the posses to the full 5 man unit. The posses really are our bread and butter and the more the merrier from my experience at least. 2 full squads gives your opponents a lot to worry about, gators threat range and damage out put is very scary for a lot of armies. Also for calaban's feat 2 full squads gives you a lot of destructive potential for even more spells.

Also from a numbers perspective its almost always better to run 1 full posse instead of 2 min, a full posse is 5 models with 2 attacks each 10 total and 2 min is 6 models at 12 attacks but its basically paying 3 extra points from one more gator. I know with 2 squads you can flank better or do different voodoo prayers but at 35pts I usually do see a lot of flanking going on successfully anyways. Also in terms of buffs its better to have 5 gators that have occultation on them then 3 that do and 3 that dont.

What you have is pretty solid and a good start for gators.

[Darth_Fraggle]

I'd also agree on the Posse unit sizes. I'd never take a min unit unless I already had a max unit. I almost always prefer to run Calaban's tier. The Farrow Bone Grinders are just a really cheap handy unit for him. It's not too hard to give up the Thrullg since he also has Hex Blast for nasty upkeeps.

[HoodooDoll]

So I've tweaked things a tad...

Calaban
Wrastler
Snapper
Spitter
Croaks x2
Feralgeist
Gatorman Posse 5
Gobber Bellows
Totem Hunter
Thrullg

So do y'all think this will be better or worse then the first list. Dropping to one maxed uint of gators sounded like a good idea to me. Does the comunnity as a whole think Calaban is better off with his tier list or what? It just seams to me that all the units I would be missing out on taking doesn't make up for the benefits of the tier list, Also the thrullg just sounds to good not to use against a warmachine army? Any thoughts on this guy? Am I better off dropping him for something else? Thanks again guys

[whatawookie1]

What TinRobot said is correct,

You need two max units of gator posse, they really are one of the best units you can field, and the number of attacks they can output will really fuel your feat turn.

Also, consider running Calaban in his tier and get a min unit of bone grinders. Calaban really needs the extra 2" of spell range that craft talisman can give him, he's not a front-line caster by any means.

[HoodooDoll]

Thanks for all the advice guys. So here's the third draft...

Calaban
Wrastler
Spitter
Snapper
Gatorman posse 5
Gatorman posse 5
Bone grinders 4
Feralgiest

So I think the list is solid. With the Bone grinders it's tier 2. Do y'all think fitting in wrong eye is worth it for the tier 3 benefit tho?

[thag-rush]

I run:

Calaban
-Wrastler
-Snapper
-Snapper
Gatorman Posse 5
Bone Grinders 4
WE/SJ
-Spitter

and I've been doing VERY well with it. The ADing spitter is a dream, but you could always switch it around so Calaban is running both the wrastler and the spitter instead.

[GlassJaw]

All the advice in here has been pretty solid but just as a head's up - and not to sound too negative - Calaban is very tricky to figure out, nevermind for a new player. I'm a veteran player and started playing Gators about 2 months ago and I'm still getting a handle on Calaban.

He's good but suffers from some pretty bad matchups that can be frustrating to deal with. He also has a lot of rules that are dependent on living models and rules that deal with both removed from play and destroyed so he's not a simple caster to learn.

I would highly recommend playing some 15-pt games with Barnabas to get comfortable with the rules. I wouldn't consider him a "starter" caster either but he's more forgiving than Calaban. Good luck.