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So, I have played 5 games of Warmachine/Hordes, and I have had an absolute blast! They've all been battlebox vs battlebox games, perhaps not the most exciting for vets. But very fun for me.

My list for all the games was as follows:
PMorghul
Titan Gladiator
Cyclops Savage x 2

Game 1 vs Menoth:
p(?)Kreoss
Crusader
Revenger
Repenter

This was my intro game, so I was very grateful for all the help my opponent gave me. Opponent won roll off and elected me to go first. The only obstacles that mattered on the battle field were two walls (linear obstacles) that essentially sat in the middle of the table side by side, with a narrow gap in the middle.

Set up: I basically made a little brick. The gladiator took the center, the two cyclopes flanked, and morghul was base to base with the Gladiator behind him, as I was afraid of his low control range. Menoth deployed right across from me. More spread out. The Crusader and the repenter were both in line with the cyclops, and the revenger stood in front of kreoss.

Turn 1 Skorne:
Everything Ran! I didn't run max, only 8" to make sure the brick stays together. I shed three fury to absorb all the run moves next turn.

Turn 1 Menoth:
Kreoss allocates some focus, runs the Crusader up to one wall, and runs the repenter(?), the one with the flame thrower to the other wall. The revenger (dude with lance and shield) moved to block the gap between the two walls. He casts lamentation, which sucks! Double fury for every thing you cast.

Turn 2 Skorne:
Morghul sucks up fury. Casts admonition on the left cyclops for 2 fury (i'm right outside Kreoss control range) and then abuse on the cyclops on the right for 2. I camp the last fury. The right cyclops with reach and abuse on him manage to get the charge on the repenter. He does negligible damage, taking out the flail arm. He then maxes out fury, buying another attack and boosting damage. Which does a bit more, but no systems are destroyed. The left cyclops moves forward to block charge lanes from crusader and revenger, and daring someone to trigger admonition. The gladiator only advances, and is at this point a few inches behind the cyclops. I wanted to make sure the Glad got to slam. He riles to make sure I can get back full fury on my caster next turn.

Turn 2 Menoth:
Kreoss alocates 3 fury to the revenger, and 1 to the crusader. Camps the rest. He lets lamentation drop. Then he feats. Everybody gets knocked down! Woo! Crusader runs to just outside admonition's range, but it doesn't matter because the cyclops is knocked down. Revenger charges the clops in front of crusader and pummels him, but does surprisingly little damage even with boosted rolls. Repenter moves away from the other lying down clops and sets him on fire for negligible damage. End turn.

Turn 3 Skorne:
Now he's close enough. So I give him a fury to stand up, and he passes threshold. So Morghul has full fury and uses it all on the Glad. He casts rush on him, and abuse, then runs to make sure he's in command range. The pathfinding, 11" threat range, Strength 20 tusks slam the Crusader, and has just enough room to do so as the revenger just cleared the charge lane with its own last turn. He hits and slams the crusader 7" backwards, and just misses knocking over Kreoss. I follow up just enough to put myself beside the caster. At this point, since I slammed for free, I had 3 fury left. I asked if I could start attacking Kreoss. He said I couldnt, and that I had to attack my slam target. Any rules clarification on this? Anyway, I forgot to mention the other cyclops on full fury took some fire damage, frenzied, and took out the repenter's flamer arm. The other cyclops stood up using his movement, and went full fury to smack the shield and movement off the revenger.

Turn 3 Menoth:
Kreoss camps most of his focus, giving two to the crusader to stand him up and charge. Kreoss takes a few whacks at the gladiator and does a surprising amount of damage, but not crippling anything. The crusader that then stood up for a focus and charged for one, managed to cripple spirit and body. Bad news bears. But the glad was still up. The other light beasts and jacks continued their slap fight.

Turn 3 Skorne:
I activate Morghul who is within an advance range of Kreoss. I spend two focus to heal one point in each of my beast's aspects in case I fail to kill him. Morghul uses his three fury, all to buy attacks, and after anatomical precision kreoss has 1 box left. The gladiator turns to his right and punches him with a war gauntlet.

Forgot to use my feat all game. Sad face.

Result: Victory for Skorne

Game 2 vs Retribution:
(Didn't really know the list)
Kalissa?
A light jack with two open fists that could phase 2" every move for free
A light jack with a shield and spear
A heavy jack that looked like a beefier version of the first light jack

This was quick and dirty. I got the roll off and elected to go second. He deployed spread out, the big guy guarding kalissa and the two light jacks flanking me on either side (Open fist on left, Shield lance on right. I deployed the same way I did last game. A big brick with Morghul sitting behind.

Turn 1 Retribution:
They all run, fast. Like really fast. I was very surprised! The two light jacks continue flanks in wide arcs on their prospective sides.

Turn 1 Skorne:
I ran. Much, much slower. Running 8" with everything to keep it together. Cept Morghul, he advanced 7" and cast admonition on the left cyclops.

Turn 2 Retribution:
His open fist jack charged my admonitioned clops, who popped three inches away. The light jack didn't do anything else. The other light kept flanking wider, threatening me with a pathfinder, long threat range charge. Kalissa fired a template that made something rough terrain. Can't remember. Big jack followed next to her.

Turn 2 Skorne:
I mess up big time, but I don't know it at the time. Instead of doing the logical thing and just ganging up on the jack thats in front of me, I choose to abuse, rush, and charge my glad at the other big guy on the table. I slam for big damage, but am out of control range so his activation ends. Cyclops 1 moves out of DT and engages the light, doing not enough damage to cripple any system. The other one moves to block the other jack's charge.

Turn 3: Retribution:
I thought I had moved Morghul far enough away, but I forgot about the two inch phase. He phases, grabs me, and two handed throws me into the open. Kalissa shoots me for half my boxes, and takes my only fury for transfers. The big jack takes a free strike from the elephant, which disables a non critical arm, and then shoots Morghul for the rest of his boxes.

Result: Victory for Retribution!

This game had me laughing very hard. I had no idea what was coming to me. All in all, an enjoyable if avoidable loss.

Game 3 vs Khador (1):
Kommander Sorscha
Destroyer
Juggernaut

This one was also comically short. I mentioned to the guy that I was new, but only needed a bit of rules help, I think he may have underestimated my understanding of the game? Or not. I don't know much about this game yet. He won roll off and elected to go second. I deploy in my brick again, but spread out as I hear that the Destroyer has an AOE. He deploys across from me. The juggernaut is to her left and the destroyer is to her right. There are two linear obstacles, both in deployment zones, but blocking charge lanes.

Skorne 1:
You guessed it. I run! I cast admonition on the Glad, for kicks and shed a fury to make sure I absorb it next turn.

Khador 1:
Turn starts by the Destroyer missing two attacks with the bombard, both boosted to hit, incredibly unlucky. On three dice he got 1, 2, and 2 and 1, 1, and 2. Didn't hit the defense 12 of the glad. He then moves his juggernaut aggressively with Sorscha right behind him. They were both positioned behind a wall directly in front of my Glad.

Skorne 2:
I see my chance for assassination, and after hearing about her feat, I think it might be a good time to go for it now. I move Morghul to make sure he'll have command range after the slam and follow up. He casts good ol' abuse on the glad, as well as rush. Gladiator activates and slams, dealing a good chunk of damage. Now we check to see how far he goes. I roll a 1!, but with the special ability of the Glad giving me +2" on the slam, I just manage to hit Sorscha. So, after we get a more veteran player to walk us through what happens when this situation occurs we begin again. My Titan follows up and is just within the half inch melee range of Sorscha. This time we asked the same vet player as to whether my elephant could attack Sorscha or if he had to attack the slam target. He said that I was allowed to attack the caster. My opponent agreed. The gladiator bought two attacks and pulped her with them.

Result: Victory for Skorne!

Fun game, if a bit short. But we all had a good laugh.

Game 4 vs Mercs:
(Once again, didn't really know the list.)
Magnus the Traitor
A light jack with something called an obliterator, that was also an arc node.
Another random light jack with shield and spear
A heavy jack of some kind

So, this game was kinda funky. And I don't remember it all that well aside from the play that decided the game, and the result. I'll give a brief summary. This was played against the local press ganger, who is a hell of a guy.

Mercs 1:
He runs his stuff, then pops his feat and gets close to 2/3rds up the board. I thought retribution was fast!

Skorne 1:
I run in my classic brick. Spread out because I hear bad bad things about the obliteratior.

Mercs 2:
Inconsequential movement.

Skorne 2:
Inconsequential movement and light beast charges and sparring. My gladiator also charges.

Mercs 3:
Some how, some way. It ended up being Morghul and a cyclops vs the Traitor warlord and his arc node jack. He tries something "flashy" as he put it. And arcs some spell into my back arc after he moves his arc node (Damn thats a lot of arcs). He unfortunately rolls painfully low on boosted dice, leaving Morghul with around half his health. That was a boosted pow 12 shot, so I got really lucky.

Skorne 3:
With Magnus out in the open, I cast the Glad's animus on myself and charge in. After several bought attacks, a few doing decent damage, a few doing anatomical precision. He goes down, and I have 1 fury to spare.

Result: Skorne Victory!

This was another weird but fun game. We honestly spent more time talking about how I have "Faction-itis" and how cool the universe is than playing the game.

Game 5 vs Khador (2):
List was same as Khador 1.

Running out of steam with writing this, gonna just gloss over most of the details.

Khador Turn 1:
Two Bombard shots miss my gladiator again! On boosted hit rolls! This elephant is lucky as hell. Movement.

Skorne 1: Movement, admonition on Glad.

Khador 2: He charges and is drawn into the trap as Glad moves 3" back. Sorscha shuffled.

Skorne 2: Cyclops engages bombard carrier. Glad and Cyclops wail on Juggernaut and slag him. I move Morghul a bit too far this turn, and realize it next turn.

Khador 3: Sorscha can see Morghul. So she pops feat. He's frozen. She charges 13" and as he attacks with a strength 26 hit (enough to kill him as he'd had 2 points nicked off some way or another), I move to transfer. We get confused, as he says I can't transfer while frozen. I've never run into this, so I give him the benefit of the doubt and the GG.

Result: Victory for Khador! BUT WAIT!

Later that day as I was watching some folks play, he comes back to me and apologizes profusely. He'd found some more experienced players and looked around the rules and found that you can transfer damage while frozen. So, we both decided to call it a draw, as the outcome was not clear with Sorscha only having 2-3 focus left, and Morghul having 3 fury for transfers. With a rematch in the future.

REAL RESULT: Draw!

So having my first 5 games going 3-1-1, I was quite pleased. It was probably mostly luck and a bit of help from others, but I had an insanely fun time. What I love most about this game is that their is always a way to win. Even when it looks near impossible. The aggressive nature of the Skorne seem to suit me well, and I rarely find myself having to wait more than a turn to get engaged. Can't wait to start expanding.

So tell me what you think, all comments appreciated!

Welcome to Warmahordes.

I'm glad you had fun. I still enjoy starter box battles just as much as larger battles.

As a Menoth player the Menoth battle report confused me a bit haha. As most of the starter boxes are full of Warjacks and Warbeasts the Repenter has problems doing damage with it's flame thrower, so I generally use it as charge bait. I hold the Crusader back a bit to demolish whatever charged the Repenter. In starter box battles the Revenger is the MVP for me though. It's repulser shield keeps it pretty safe from non reach attackers and the arc node allows for the much feared pop and drop caster assasination. I can cast lamentation on turn one and upkeep it for the remainder of the game, playing Kreoss defensively in the rear of the army, careful to use the Crusader to block LOS from ranged attacks. Once I've got the enemy caster in my control area I feat and then arc three immolations from the Revenger. In most cases that's game. If not, I've still got Kreoss fourteen inches away.
Of coure that is a best case scenario. If a Warlock has Fury they can just send all that damage off to their warbeasts, and if a Warcaster has Focus the damage could be reduced enough to allow them to weather the assasination attempt. It is my favored tactic in starter box battles though. Watch our for it, because I'm not alone in that =)

Ha, thanks for the tips! Glad to hear you enjoy the battle box games.

I got absolutely stomped a few days ago by Minions. I'll be working on getting that one up and seeing if people can't help me analyze what I did wrong, not that it wasn't obvious!

Good reps thanks for sharing!

I am curious if you can use the Glad's follow up move and stop short and then hit something else... Anyone?

We've been playing at the club that the glad can choose to follow up any distance up to the distance slammed. But I don't know if that is official.

Yeah you can do that, but if you stop short, i.e. next to the caster, can you then use the rest of your attacks on the caster?

We played that as long as you were still in the warlock's command range and had the fury to buy attacks, then you could.