A new pair of boots! - tips on how to defeat Blindwater

I have come across several people that think Gators are actually good. This blows my mind, but apparently this is a real perspective from real people.  There might be some truth to it, since I have seen Gator players who know what they are doing place well while I wallow in the muck of the bottom 25%.

So I have taken it upon myself to sink myself even further into the muck by giving people advice on how to crush my "faction".

Note that I have not played more than a handful of games outside Blindwater for well over a year. Therefore, take any advice I give with a grain of salt. Or several handfuls of salt that you can throw into your opponent's eyes if you are losing while using my lackluster advice.

Here are some general guidelines when facing Gators:

1.  Gators are a melee-centric army. This means they hate getting controlled and snared. They hate being denied the ability to move or make melee attacks. If you can stop charges, you're doing alright irrelevant of anything else.
2. Gators are excellent at delivering themselves in the face of shooting. Don't rely on your guns.
3. Posse are MAT7, 2x POW 13 attacks, charge at +2" against living, can choose to reroll misses vs living/pathfinder/+1 DEF and Terror, and are ARM 16 with Unyielding and 8 boxes. They will shred through any small-based infantry without problem, and are very hard to remove once engaged without charges. Space your squishy guys out.
4. Gator warlocks are difficult to assassinate due to great defensive stats, or other survival mechanics. If you go for an assassination run, make sure the odds are heavily stacked in your favour and bypass their survival mechanics.
5. Gators have pillowfists and have trouble cracking ARM >19 IF you don't include Fury. The highest natural P+S in faction is the Wrastler's P+S17 bite (not amazing). But we can pump out a lot of attacks.

Cygnar

Casters: Haley1+2, eCaine, Stryker2, Siege
Other picks: Centurion, Stormwall, Journeyman

Cygnar's reliance on ranged attacks to deal crushing damage (ie. Siege, Sloan, Hunters, Defenders, etc.) reduces their potency to crack Gatorman armor. Furthermore, disruption doesn't affect Hordes at all so they lose one of their strongest control elements. Fortunately, they have possibly the best control casters in the game in the form of Haley1+2. And we all know how Gators love being controlled.

Centurions are especially nice against Gators because of innately high ARM and the option to Polarity Field makes them very survivable against Gators, and an excellent way to hold a zone while the rest of your force lolerskates around and does its thing (just keep in mind a smart Gator player will probably handle this by throwing the Centurion away every turn). Journeyman is just good because +3 ARM changes heavies from 'difficult to kill' to 'might as well be a Devastator'.

• Hayley1 - Temporal Barrier and you are very safe. Feat on counterattack - if you have enough stuff left to deal sufficient damage, you probably win. If you don't, then you probably lose on scenario.
• Hayley2 - everything she usually does works great against Gators. Time Bomb, TK and super melee Stormwalls are especially ballbusting. I'd hold on to the feat for a while because a clever Rask player will just counterfeat your feat if you expect to shoot Gators to death - it's better if you wait until after initial engagement because then there is really nothing the Gator player can do while you wipe the floor with him.
• Caine2 - While Caine is unlikely to be able to assassinate, what he can do is blow up your entire army during his feat turn at any stage of the game if it isn't protected, and then stay perfectly safe due to Gate Crasher. The one risk is losing on scenario while all this pussyfooting is going on, which makes choices like no-KD Boomhowlers and the aforementioned Centurion really sweet.
• Stryker2 blows things up in general. Just keep your infantry back so they don't all die to a Gator alpha-strike and you should be able to crack through any reptilian armor presented via Positive Charge and naturally high POW weaponry. Just don't do anything risky with Stryker - he is not that tough. 
• Siege - just recently have I played against Siege with Gators and realized that Ground Pounder does not target anything. This means he can blow Gators up from 14" away for two rounds before you get to him, bypassing ALL OUR ANTI-RANGED TECH except for Swamp Horrors. What a load of crap.

Khador

Casters: Irusk1,  Old Witch/Irusk2, Vlad123, eSorscha
Other picks: Kayazy + UA, Clam jacks, Conquest, Uhlans

You have two choices when playing Khador - either you can try to grind down Gators with ARM, or employ super high DEF Kayazy/WG/Nyss. The problem with the first strategy is that the heavy ARM usually gets controlled by rough terrain, the problem with the second strategy is Barnabas' feat.

Clam jacks (Devastator, Spriggan) are excellent because of their very high ARM, meaning that outside of being thrown around, there is not much Gators can do about them. They can just bulldoze and be really annoying. Conquest is in a similar boat. He is unlikely to ever die, and with Superiority can easily kill a handful of Posse every turn with sweeps or initials. Iron Flesh Kayazy here are worth the points even if they just force the Gator player to blow Barnabas' feat to deal with them - keep this sacrifice in mind however. Uhlans are a bit of a wild card selection, but in my experience playing against them, they have proven a tough matchup because of their hardhitting charges, and ability to then tank Posse reasonably well after the charge (especially with Vlad3). 

• Irusk1: an all-around infantry buffing monster. If you feat defensively (no KD/4+ tough) while your IF Kayazy run into the Gator force, you can pretty much kill every single thing in the list the next turn thanks to Battle Lust. Yay! Sounds fair.
• Old Witch/Irusk2: these are both quite solid all-round control casters that play very differently.  I think they bring enough tools each to allow you to play any balanced list capable of dealing with anything Gators can throw at you (both literally and figuratively).
• Vlad works in almost any incarnation if you build the list well. I have always found games against him to be challenging and not an easy win for either side.
• eSorscha - not as popular these days, eSorscha can be really legit vs Gators on account of her feat alone.Combined with tons of WG sprays, a handful of weapon masters and the amazing Beast 09, eSorscha can deal with almost any armor list.

 

Cryx

Casters: Deneghra12, Lich123, Skarre12, Terminus, Goreshade2...
Other picks: Banes, Satyxis, McThralls

I've already written a bit about why Cryx eats Gators alive. The summary:

• Banes/Satyxis/Mcthralls - they blow Gators up, are hard to wipe out, and are stupid cheap.
• Undead - deny Bloodthirst and a lot of 'living only' effects.

Basically you can more or less auto-pilot a list forward, roll dice, and win. Cryx has clear superiority in the melee department, on top of having heaps of denial, debuff and control tools. The main thing to focus on is to keep your caster safe (not too difficult), and make sure you decapitate the Gator force when it is crying on its knees during your feat turn. NO MERCY, NO SOUL, NO PRETENSE OF BALANCE. I may be somewhat bitter, but it is my sincere opinion that Banes are damn stupid.

• Deneghra1 stops your opponent playing the game, Deneghra2 stops your opponent playing the game IF they are an all-melee force (which Gators pretty much are).
• Lich1 is really good. Lich2 is the best caster in the game, cannot be charged, and his feat pretty much kills most of your army with nothing you can do about it. Lich3 is like Lich1 but with a feat that screws Hordes.
• Skarre1 blows everything up and then has pStryker's feat. Skarre2 stops your opponent playing the game.
• Terminus camps and walks forward, gets your heavies killed, and then casually picks you apart.
• I put Goreshade2 as a caster pick there because recycling Bane Thralls are totally bananas vs Gatorman Posse, although something like a Rask tier list might have a game against it.

You can't spell Cryx without 'cry'.

 

Protectorate

Casters: Harbinger, Kreoss123,
Other picks: Covenant of Menoth, Reckoners, Errants + Piper

The Covenant is a must given its anti-KD and anti-magic auras being excellent vs Gators. Gravus can also do the job here, although he costs more and unlike the Covenant can be killed. Tough no KD Errants are really annoying for melee armies... incredibly so. Reckoners, apart from being the best non-character heavies in the game, bring a -2 to hit aura for living model on top of great melee and ranged capability.

• Harbinger is obvious - great control, feat is damaging enough to kill Posse, Purification, Crusader's Call, Fear of God, and of course, Awe messes with living melee armies real bad.
• Kreoss123 all have some game - pKreoss has Purification, mass KD and a damage buff, eKreoss brings weapon master swarms that can shred anything in your list (but make sure to bring the Piper and the Errant UA to deal with rough terrain!), Kreoss3 is a tank with good defensive and damage buffs, one turn of Purification and Warpath so his heavies obliterate yours.

 

Retribution

Casters: Rahn, Vyros
Other picks: Banshee, Hyperion, anything with giant mittens

Having played against Ret with Gators more than I have played against anything else, I can say that Ret have a really bad matchup against Gators.
First, do not take the MHSF! I have zero respect for them as a Gator player since they have POW 10 weapons and can't really hurt any of my casters.  Second, don't rely much on your infantry like Sentinels, Invictors or Halberdiers. They do not put out enough damage (unless under Ossyan) to hurt a Posse wall and melt in front of the Gator onslaught. Therefore you might want to play a bit more jack-heavy than usual.

Banshees are great in this matchup since they prevent orders (namely, charges) after engagement, which greatly decreases the Posse' potential output and threat ranges (stops those two Gatormans charging your caster way in the back and killing your caster). Hyperion is also good because he has so much ARM (especially with pVyros) and you can get some pretty good sweep power attacks against Gators, or throw a few points of damage on unprotected heavies with your meganuke cannon. Finally, Mittens' ability to push, pull, slam and generally douche models is quite potent against grindy Gators.

• Rahn - In my opinion the best matchup vs Gators. He lacks a damage buff outside his feat, but brings enough control to the table that he can systematically take apart your army and protect his forces over a few turns while winning in more places than Charlie Sheen. At least one unit of Mittens to make use of the feat, a few jacks (including a Phoenix) and smart use of Polarity Shield are your friends.
• Vyros - Both Vyros' are ok vs Gators because of their armor and damage output.
  pVyros can camp a few focus to be tough to kill, while buffing his troops and tanking you with an ARM 21 Hyperion. He can also hit very hard himself with Flank, and make his jacks fly.
  eVyros is good if and only if you play a Synergy-focused list. Griffons can take a few hits from Gators and with Synergy can dish it out hard too. He is boring as hell to play that way but that's the way it is.

Mercs

Casters: eMagnus, MacBain, BartGalleon
Other picks: Orin Midwinter, Alexia... Gorman and Galleon

Orin is incredibly annoying to deal with when you don't have guns. He can usually get close enough to mess with the Blindwater warlock as they tend to play midline. Alexia is probably one of the best roadblock grinders in the game and will do a great job of making Posse waste their attacks on useless Risen, on top of all her other cool shtick. Gorman is also kind of alright - barely playable.

• I like Macbain in this matchup for his ability to jam like a pro - throw some 1+ tough Steelheads in the Gators' faces to stop them in place for a turn, followed by flanking Steelhead cav = dead Posse. Then Galleon can clean up your heavies under the effects of Fail Safe (bring a Bokur to Shield Guard Rask's pitiful attempt at dispelling it). By then you probably win on scenario scenario or slowly grind them down.
• eMagnus is also quite good given his control feat and Calamity.
• Bart Galleon is as good as ever, but note that this not one of his best matchups ever since 2d3 won't be doing all that much work on ARM 16+ models. However, you can only stop so many ranged attacks and one of the heavies is bound to get dragged in an killed at some point. An ARM 22+ Galleon is pretty much impossible to 1-round for Gators, even cycling Fury. Just focus on keeping Bart safe while at low FOC.

Skorne

Casters: eMakeda, Rasheth, Xerxis, Zaal
Other picks: Agonizer, Bronzebacks, Sentry, Cetrati

Skorne are basically Gators 2.0, without the specific animi and anti-shooting tech, but better everything else (including better Posse). Bronzebacks are exceptional in this matchup since they can quite easily kill Posse and heavies without needing to spend much Fury, and Beat Back is a great ability to have in a grind situation. Sentries and Cetrati are both high ARM models that can be buffed to the point of unkillable, and Agonizers are just really annoying all the time.

• eMakeda delivers heavies in your face so they kill all your stuff first. Not a good place to be for a fast melee army.
• Xerxis and Zaal can both make things hit ridiculously hard to crack that Gator ARM, and attrition in their own ways. Both suffer a little bit with the release of Rask, but still have the tools to make it work.
• Rasheth with lots of Titans is really hard to chew through. The one risk of course is that Rasheth dies to basically anything that gets into melee with him (ie. a Flying Wrastler or a single Posse member), so you have to really watch your positioning.

Legion

Casters: Vayl1+2, Saeryn, Thagrosh2 / Kallus, Thagrosh1
Other picks: Scytheans, Typhon / Swordsmen, Legionnaires + UA, Blackfrost Shard, Incubi, Spawning Vessel

The main thing to keep in mind is that the common anti-infantry snipers like Striders/Deathstalkers are next to useless and are just expensive points sinks against Gators, and a pure ranged attrition game won't do too well in a scenario situation. However, sprays are pretty good at getting around targeting restrictions, either by targeting something behind the target, or targeting your own stuff in front of the target, and Legion have some really killer sprays.
I think Legion attrition with Kallus and pThagrosh have some game against Gators with a mix of ARM buffs and troop recycling, eventually you will grind the Gators down due to numbers, and Incubi hitting pretty hard on charging combo strikes. Alternatively, there is the classic beast heavy style that picks the enemy list apart and runs off. Scytheans, Typhon and Carniveans can deal a great amount of damage if you protect them well against retalation, either via the use of defensive animi, feats or keeping your distance.

• Saeryn is an all-round amazing warlock with a feat that crushes Gator balls, Breath Stealer, and the ability to stop healing/transfers with ranged attacks. Deliver those heavies and watch them rip things apart.
• Both Vayls have huge control areas so should be able to play a bit further back (not to mention making arc nodes THAT ACTUALLY WORK and Spell Martyrs), and have some defense mechanisms to stop that one Gatorman that manages to get in her face. Both bring good board positioning that rewards smart, safe play. Vayl1 also has Incite, which will usually result in Posse dying if they try to jam you too fast in order to get ahead of scenario, and Rampager which is amazing against any Hordes list.
• Thagrosh2 - heavy warbeasts with signs and portents can cut things up good. This includes ARM 18 multi-wound models and heavy warbeasts.

Circle

Casters: Kromac, Morvahna2, Krueger2, Baldur2, Kaya2, Mohsar
Other picks: Stalkers, Ghetorix, Woldguardian, Megalith, Skinwalkers + UA

With Circle, you will have to rely on your beasts and hit and run tactics, using terrain like forests to control Gators. Squishy Tharn units do not deal enough damage to Gators and they will die easily. Like most Circle lists, your choice of troops will depend on your choice of caster. I think Stalkers are good in any Gator matchup if played safe (Lightning Strike), Ghetorix can tank reasonably well, Woldguardians and Megalith I have found especially annoying, and Skinwalkers with the UA are basically evil Gatormans that benefit from Circle buffs.

• Kromac can play quite a few beasts, brings an ARM buff, has an amazing denial spell that is great vs midline casters (Bestial) and Warpath, allowing him to play support in the early game and beast out and smack things when things quiet down.
• Morvahna2 is arguably the best attrition caster in the game and brings a solid denial toolkit as well. She will also be quite safe most of the game since Gators suck at shooting.
• Krueger2 has a monster control feat that will easily allow you to get two alpha strikes against a Gator opponent with your beasts if you play safe, and then he has Telekinisis and Gallows. What a douche.
• Kaya2 - more hit and run with beasts. Yay.
• Mohsar's strength is in the Pillars of Salt spell - these are very annoying to deal with in a low model-count melee list. On top of that you have a pretty strong feat against Hordes, Curse of Shadows, and the ability to run lots of beasts. I would hate this guy so much if he didn't have the best fluff in the game (Grade A douchebag).

Trolls 

Casters: Madrak1+2, Grissel1, Calandra
Other picks: Champions, Tuffalos, Burrowers, Axer, Mulg

Trolls play similar to Gators, relying on their physical superiority to grind you down and control the board. Unfortunately for us reptiles, Trolls tend to be better at counter-attacking than we are and those bricks are hard to crack. Champs and Tuffalos are great here as they are super survivable and can hit quite hard. Mulg is great in general, but does especially well vs Gators on account of his animus being a mass denial to animi.

• Both Madraks can take AND deal out respectable damage, given the right list. Blood Fury on Madrak2 is a gamechanger in an attrition context.
• Grissel's Fell Calls are pretty amazing. You can: a) deny charges (big deal against Gators), b) get an extra attack out of each champion (big deal against Gators) or c) run away at the end of your activation (big deal against anyone). Then you can do all three on your feat. Oh, we'll also throw in Calamity just because.
• Calandra is incredibly annoying to deal with for a melee army. Then she has a pretty great feat and a pseudo-TK spell.

Grim2 might have some game because of Mortality, and Scattergunners with Mortality can do some serious damage while hiding behind a screen.

For some reason, I'm also tempted to believe the Mountain King would be pretty legit. I'm not even trolling - Gators rely on a lot of attacks to deal damage since they don't have any heavy hitters, and with a few ARM buffs (very easy to find in Trolls), the MK is unlikely to get 1-rounded. This is even easier to pull off if you bring the Bouncer to Shield Guard (who also brings a decent animus in this matchup). Then he can animus sweep DEF 12 stuff after getting back to full health, and you repeat and win. Then again, I could be completely wrong.

Pigs

Casters: Carver
Other picks: Slaughterhousers, War Hogs

This isn't a hard choice. Carver is amazing and makes everything amazing. Having high ARM pathfinder beasts in your face the whole game is not encouraging. Especially not when followed up by tough quasi-weapon masters with Take Down.

Midas might be ok because of his huge damage output potential, but he is a little squishy.

Summary

So that is my write-up. I seriously lack experience against a lot of matchups and don't really know what I am talking about, so feel free to make your comments and criticize constructively, preferably using correct grammar and punctuation while sober.

Enjoy your new shoes.