Got another game of Hordes onto the table this past week, playing a 50 point game against Joey, his first game at that point level!

I decided I'm going to focus on getting my Minions built and legal and playable for Mk3, so decided to take them in this game. Turns out, I don't actually have all that much assembled for them, but did have enough to put 50 points out. Here's the list I took:

https://conflictchamber.com/#cb200O_-0vcr4c4djMk7k64nkckc2N

Minion Army - 50 / 50 points
[Theme] The Blindwater Congregation

(Rask 1) Rask [+27]
 - Blackhide Wrastler [16]
 - Bull Snapper [5]
 - Ironback Spitter [14]
Croak Hunter [3]
Thrullg [5]
Totem Hunter [0(6)]
Gatorman Posse (max) [16]
Gatorman Posse (max) [16]
Swamp Gobbers Bellows Crew [2]

Really, this is basically all of my assembled Minion miniatures so far.  I chose Rask because he has a great feat, and great spells (and importantly for this game, Fury), and his gun is pretty handy.  One thing to note, even though I put a Croak Hunter in the list... I completely forgot about it, and didn't actually put it on the field. Oops! 

Otherwise, I wasn't too unhappy with what I had available- Gatormen can take a bunch of damage in Blindwater, and Snacking will help keep them on the field.  The Blackhide Wrastler will give me some extra game against Heavy armor.  I don't know, feels like a good mix of stuff.

Joey fielded everything he had assembled:

https://conflictchamber.com/#c6200O_-0mb_94939395it989hiririq

Mercenary Army - 50 / 50 points
[Theme] Hammer Strike

(Ossrum 1) General Ossrum [+28]
 - Ghordson Driller [10]
 - Grundback Gunner [6]
 - Grundback Gunner [6]
 - Wroughthammer Rockram [14]
Hammerfall High Shield Gun Corps (max) [16]
 - Hammerfall High Shield Officer & Standard [5]
Herne & Jonne [5]
Horgenhold Artillery Corps [0(6)]
Horgenhold Artillery Corps [0(6)]
Horgenhold Forge Guard (max) [16]

From my perspective, the Wroughthammer was new, as I've never seen it on the table before, but reading it, I wasn't overly concerned. Of much more concern was the second Artillery Corps- that thing can do a ton of damage to my army, and seeing a second one was not very exciting.  Ugh.

We roll up our scenario, getting Spread the Net.  That gives me a slight advantage, as Joey has no solos for the flags, and tends to want to keep his caster central, and not babysitting one.

Joey wins the roll to go first, and elects to go first.

We deploy!

Deployment
Nothing too notable about the deployment. There's a forest in the middle of the table, which will help keep our casters safe, and if I can park my warlock near there, I can support both sides with Fury as needed. That's the plan at least!

Turn 1:
Joey runs most of his things up. Ossrum goes around the rock and casts Fire For Effect on one of the Artillery units, and Snipe on the other Artillery.
The Dwarves advance...

I also run many of my things forward, getting into the zone on my right, getting the Totem Hunter B2B with the flag on my left.  I have the Ironback Spitter advance and shoot, hoping for a favorable scatter, and get lucky, as the AoE scatters onto the High Shield Gun Corps, killing one (and taking another down from Corrosion at the beginning of his next turn). First blood!

I advance Rask up behind the forest, cast Fury on the Gatormen Posse on my left, Admonition on my Wrastler, and cast Veil of Mists for the heck of it near the forest. I give it some thought, and decide to pop my feat. That'll help keep my army alive for my next turn, when I can get my teeth into his army. The feat ends up covering everything but a Gatorman on my right, and the Totem Hunter on my left (who has Stealth, so I'm not super worried).
End Turn 1
Turn 2:
Joey decides not to upkeep Snipe, since his artillery is basically in range. He spends a bit trying to plan what to do, with most of my army difficult to attack, but decides to go for the easy target first, and has his one Artillery Corps shoots at my lone unprotected Gatorman, killing it, then Repositions up.

Ossrum activates and cycles Fire for Effect onto the other Artillery, casts Energizer to get his jacks further up, then pops his feat and advances out of the Killbox.

With the feat, his army has the speed to advance up and get some damage on my army, and he gets to work.

Herne & Jonne advance up and put Artillerist on the left-side artillery, who attempts to shoot at the Totem Hunter, hoping to control the deviation enough to kill the solo and clear the flag.  Unfortunately, none of the scatters were helpful, and instead he has to advance the nearby Gunner into range, which shoots at the Totem Hunter, putting 6 damage on it.

The other Gunner hops into the forest, and tries to shoot at the Thrullg, but fails to hit. The Driller decides to finish the job, advances into the forest, and kills the poor Thrullg. Poor Thrullg! :(

The Rockram moves up and shoots at a Gatorman, forcing him to take a Tough check, which he passes.

The Forge Guard on my left run up to contest the flag the Totem Hunter is on. That'll be a blast to try to clear.

The High Shield Gun Corps, on my right, advance up to get within 5" of the Gatorman, and start shooting, eventually killing two Gators, as well as a Swamp Gobber. He then passes the turn.
The armies get stuck in...
I upkeep Fury, then have the left-side unit of Gatormen Posse charge into the Forge Guard, killing five, as well as Jonne. Pretty good activation!

The Ironback Spitter moves into the rectangular zone on my right, and shoots at the Gun Corps, failing to kill any, but corroding a whole bunch of them. I then send the remaining two Gatormen Posse in, but they fails to kill any because of Ossrum's feat.

I activate Rask, and have him cast Fury and Rage on the Wrastler.  Then I move up, and shoot at the Rockram, disrupting it. The Blackhide Wrastler then moves up to the Gunner and Rockram, and begins to beat on them.  I have some poor rolls, and coupled with the feat, I can't quite get it done, but I spread out my attacks, and satisfy myself crippling all of the weapons on both the Rockram and the Gunner.

I pass turn, and score a net of one point because of the Spitter in my right zone- he had moved his Gunner out of his corresponding zone, giving me an early 1-0 scenario lead.
End Turn 2
Turn 3:
Corrosion triggers on the High Shields, killing two of them, and knocking two others down.

Ossrum upkeeps Fire for Effect allocates a bunch to the Driller, and activates first, casting Energize, trying to free the Driller from the forest to get back in the action.  Unfortunately, he can't figure out a way to get the Driller to the Blackhide Wrastler, even with this and potential Bulldozes.

He tries to move the Gunner from out of combat with the Wrastler, but my free strike destroys it.

The High Shield Gun Corps on my right throw some attacks into the Gatorman Posse, but can't do any damage. The Driller, freed from the forest by Energize, attacked one of the Gatorman on my left and wasted it.

The Rockram, with its disabled weapons, figures it can't hurt the Blackhide, and instead moves around and throws an attack at the Gatorman, but again, fails to break armor (yay Unyielding!).

Herne, without Jonne to do major damage, charges into another of my left-hand Gatormen Posse, and throws one damage onto it. The Forge Guard follow up and begin attacking that unit as well, but only manage to bring one down. The Gunner, however, moves back to control its zone, and kills another Gatorman, meaning both of my Gatormen Posse units are down to two members apiece.

The Artillery throw some shots around, one at my left-side Gatormen Posse unit, and one on my Ironback Spitter, but neither deals damage.

Joey ends his turn, and we both control our rectangular zone, so the score remains unchanged at 1-0.
Mid Turn 3
Unfortunately, my Snapper frenzies, charging the Ironback Spitter, and dealing two damage. A small inconvenience.

I upkeep Fury, then start my turn by activating my Totem Hunter, who kills on Forge Guard, getting me ever closer to clearing the flag, and putting extra scenario pressure on him.

On my right, my two Gatormen Posse manage to kill one High Shield Gun Corps.  I have the Spitter start working on the nearest artillery, killing one member of the unit. The Wrastler finishes off the Rockram, freeing himself for causing some havoc next turn. I send Rask around the outside of the Forest, and have him shoot at the Driller, disrupting it, and casting Fury on the two Gatormen Posse members on my left, who kill three of the Forge Guard, but unfortunately still don't clear enough for me to score the flag.  The score remains 1-0.
End Turn 3
Turn 4:
Ossrum upkeeps Fire for Effect again, then moves up and attempts to cast Stranglehold on the Wrastler, but fails to hit. He's understandably nervous about it, but unfortunately, has to figure out a different way to handle it with Strangehold missing.

Both of the Artillery fire at the Spitter, dealing a total of 16 damages, destroying its Mind and Body aspects.  The High Shields on my right attack Gatormen, as does the Gunner and the Forge Guard on my left, but they aren't able to kill any of my mighty Gators. The Driller moves in front of Ossrum, hoping to protect him, and since none of the scoring situation has changed, he passes the turn, with the score still 1-0.
A lot less on the table as the game winds down
The Gatormen on my left finally clear the flag, killing Herne and the remaining Forge Guard. Rask then moves around, spends Fury to heal the Spitter, and casts Boundless Charge onto the Blackhide, who rages itself and charges and kills the Driller.

The Spitter fires at the previously shot at Artillery, and manages to kill off the entire unit.

The Gators again chew on the High Shield Gun Corps, but don't make any progress.

I pass the turn, but this time, I'm scoring one from my rectangular zone, and one from the flag, putting me at a net plus one, putting the score at 2-0.
End Turn 4
Turn 5:
The Gunner shoots at the Wrastler, dealing five damage, and Ossrum charges in, dealing 17 more, which unfortunately leaves the Wrastler alive, although pretty heavily beat up.

The Artillery was engaged by the Swamp Gobber the previous turn, and decided to try to clear him off with melee attacks, but fail to hit his high DEF.

The High Shield Gun Corp move around my gators to contest the circular zone.  Once again, I score a net plus one, and am up 3-0.

On my turn, I can win by clearing the center zone, or contesting the far rectangular zone... but instead I have Rask heal the Wrastler, cast Fury on it, have the Wrastler use Rage on itself, and killed Osrrum in one attack.

Minions win!

Thoughts:
This was a slog for both of us.  Two tough sets of infantry getting stuck in with one another, gradually working to wear the other down... whew, what a tough time.  I focused on going for a scenario approach from the beginning again, which again was the right choice. I'll have to make sure to bring something able to handle all of the scenario elements in the future, which will be a challenge in the jack/beast heavy lists, I think.

Anyway, I'll try a different warlock next time I run Minions, but I'm curious how Bloody Barnabas would handle this- he doesn't have a way to boost the damage of his army, how would I break all of this armor?  Hmmm...

Something to consider for the future.  I'll probably run Maelok next, as he'd be good with the models I currently have.

Anyway, thanks for reading!