The only rule regarding lists was that you had to at least change your caster if you lost. That way losers paired against winners would be able to netdeck a bit. Here are the Gator lists I used:
Maelok
Wrastler
Horror
Snapper
2x Full Posse
Thrullg
Totem Hunter
Croctor
Feralgeist
This list usually tends to work out pretty well. The lack of ranged support or Bog Trogs has not really proven to be a problem as Maelok's feat usually allows a Gator or two to get back there and wreck havoc. I'm guessing you could drop some of the solos for Shamblers, depending on what those do. At 50 you'd probably just add in a 3rd Posse/WE + Snapjaw and lose the Feralgeist.
Barnabas
Wrastler
Spitter
Snapper
2x Full Posse
WE + Snapjaw
Feralgeist
This one was a bit of a trial for me. I'm still unsure whether a min unit of Bog Trogs + some support would be more useful than WE + Snapjaw, but given Barnabas' pillow-fisted approach to war, a quality heavy for a good price seems better. The rest of the list is super solid however.
Support by Fire
I thought this scenario was kind of stupid, although it would have been less stupid had we played it with the proper rules (we played it that the guns can shoot anywhere rather than just zones and things close to flags/objectives). I generally don't like the scenarios that introduce new game models or interactive pieces, and didn't feel differently about this one. In my mind, the purpose of a scenario is to stop people hiding in corners and playing like elves. Scenarios are there to provide alternate win conditions to caster kill in case the enemy caster is over ARM 22 (ie. nigh unkillable to Gators). A high POW AoE 4 that causes rough terrain can hurt a lot of lists quite bad, depending on terrain placement.Nevertheless I lost this one to insane dice. Specifically, over two turns, I had Maelok with Death Pact, Spiny Growth, feat, and a couple of transfers get shot by 2 obliterator rockets, the scenario gun turrets, Ayanna, Holt.... then killed by 2 Kayazy Assassins I wasn't able to kill with 4 rerollable Gator attacks. How hard is it to roll 9s on 2 dice? Very, apparently. Unless you're facing me, where missing and rolling below expected value on damage rolls is unheard of. I got curious and moved Maelok up to grab a point to see how domination would work out - follow that up with some crazy to-hit and damage rolls, and there you go.
Ah Barnabas, where are you when I need you......
Sacrifice
I didn't really get to test the scenario in this game since I took Barnabas vs Morvahnna and wiped nearly everything off the table by turn 3. It turns out by opponent suffered from a vicious combination of intoxication and lack of knowledge regarding Gatorman threat ranges - a deadly combination. Barnabas ended up taking 4-5 Primaled Stalker hits to the face (all hit with above average damage rolls) as a reward for moving up and popping his feat, but Spiny Growth + Unyielding + transfers is the real deal.We did have someone win this on scenario however. It's basically dual control (zone + flag) with a little extra POW 20 (!!) damage roll thrown in every now and then - a pretty strong incentive not to dominate with your ARM 14 caster. Interesting twist that adds depth to a basic scenario.
Outflank, Outfight, Outlast
My favourite scenarios ever are Prime's No Man's Land and Mosh Pit (despite their complete lack of balance), so naturally a scenario with dual Mosh Pits appeals to me. I was pretty tired at this point (alcohol is not the best brain food) so made lots of little and extremely obvious mistakes - for example, forgetting the extra points that could be brought by dominating and having Barnabas about 1/2 inch outside the zone for two turns in a row.I played Barnabas again vs an eMadrak Champs brick. Highlight for me was managing to kill Jaenyssa early with a fluky Gator reach attack, and lowlight was that the Stone unit took a stupid long time to die, despite being hit by Spitter fire every single turn - the corrosion either went out or they toughed. Stupid tough.
Champs and Mulg under the Stone aura are pretty much unkillable to Gators, so I focused on taking out the support stuff (Stone, Fell Caller, Janyssa) so I could use Swamp Pits and knock down to force Madrak so spend his resources on Pathfinder and shake off rather than on killing everything. I ended up winning on scenario in the end by having a Feralgeist hold a zone while the rest of his pieces were jammed up with Gators.
Conclusion
In the end, our colorful Cygnar player managed to go 3-0 with some Kraye list featuring Ol' Rowdy, Hunters, Gun Mages + UA and then a whole bunch of crap nobody takes like Trenchers and Grenadiers. He won most games on scenario, ironic enough since he spent most of time last year raging about how scenarios suck. What a boss. I don't know how he felt having to play Kraye three games in a row, but it was a pro effort nevertheless.
The two biggest changes for us were the smaller Kill Box, and the domination rule. These really seemed to force casters to come forward at least a little more than before, and gave some advantage to tougher casters like Barnabas or Kraye in being able to push for that extra CP IF you could benefit from it greatly (ie. win this turn). I think that most of the time, it'll still be better to stay back and play for attrition, but if you enjoy playing like you have a pair (which, stupidly, I do), then at least you are given this bonus to make up for being reckless. Even if you do chose to play back, the smaller kill box will make quite a difference on the scenarios that use it. No more hiding behind a wall just outside your deployment zone...
These changes reduce the huge distance advantage of squishy support casters with a ton of focus like Severius or Haley. Likewise, I can foresee that this tendency towards more aggressive caster play will in turn advantage really brutal assassination casters like pDenny or Rahn. But then again, if your caster can take 5 Primaled Stalker hits to the face, spit out the blood and grin, what have you got to be afraid of?
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