What's with the Gun Boar?

I've been asked several times already, what that Gun Boar is doing in my list. That's a question I can't answer, because including last night I've had a grand total of two games with it (and in the first game it got to run once and then the game was over).

I can answer another question though: What do you hope it will do?

Solo hunting

I hope it will take out those squishy solo characters that will ruin me if he doesn't. I would love to include a couple of Bloat Thralls to do it instead, but with a single wound infantry brick that's just not feasible. Using his cannon he can hit solo defense almost reliably (with a boost), and a boosted POW 13 will take down most of them. Stealth solos will require a good drift, but things like Anastasia and Gorman will go down to average boosted blast damage if I hit them.

Blocking "game winning" moves

Both Anastasia and Gorman advance to within five or six inches to activate their game winning abilities, which means I get to counter-blast them if I have it up. Assuming there's no need to upkeep Pig Pen, Rorsh can have Counter-blast up as well, and a dynamite and/or cannonball to the face has a fair shot at killing the squishy solos before they get to act.

Throwing/Slamming

I do a lot of slamming, but very little throwing, and while Brine is an excellent pitcher, he'll be to busy killing things. I don't know how much I'll be using it, but having the ability to fling models at enemies is something I've been meaning to abuse for a long time (and it really helps Terminus if their caster is knocked down), and the ability to perform a fully boosted slam without draining a single Focus from Terminus could be useful (although slamming large bases with MAT 5 is problematic).

I have no doubt that including six more Bane Thralls would be the more powerful choice, but I like the options it brings, and it reduces the amount of poor match-ups more than additional Bane Thralls. It also makes my army look stupid, which seems to be a great asset.