Gatormen.....why?

[kommander_redfinger]

I have come into some extra funds, and I am pretty happy with where my Skorne collection is sitting. I have some nice options for beast heavy pMorghoul lists and nice options for troops with eHexeris. So I was thinking of picking up a unit of Gatormen becuase I can see how they can fit into a pMorghoul list and eHexeris.

But why take them? What is all the rave about? And lastly, just to clarify which solo is it that I need to take to run them?

Ashton

[gaminguy]

The solo is the Pain Giver Task Master, the why is that Gators are a fantastic unit with a plethora of self-buffing abilities. They are a good middle ground between our other multi-wound models; more attacks, melee threat range, and accuracy than either of the Cataphracts, more durable than anything but the Cetrati (and more durable period if there are mittens or druids around), and more hitting power than all but the Acuarii with the Task Master.

[Legend55021]

The question isnt whats so great its whats not so great. Mat 7 means they hit most things on average rolls except for those pesky nyss but on that later, two pow 13 weapons one of which has reach. I have wrecked heavy jacks/beasts with a full posse charge. Arm 16 base which becomes 18 when engaged due to unyielding. Ive had a gator charged by a heavy and not die. They charge living models 10" +2" for reach = a crazy threat range. They have a prayer that lets them reroll attacks against living giving you 2 changes to roll that 9 to hit that pesky def 16 model, a prayer that gives them +1 def and terror making them some what harder to hit at range and give enemies charging into you those pesky command checks, and a prayer that gives you pathfinder. Oh and btw they also have 8 wounds. Oh and did i mention skorne have a model that gives them +2 str making pow 15 on charge = wrecked anything and tough on top of 8 wounds and 18 armor. Check please im sold

[kommander_redfinger]

Great, thanks for all the feedback guys!! So the next question is unit size, what point levels do you run min unit, what point level for max? I was thinking of running a min unit in my 25pt list w/ pMorghoul.

Ashton

[Kurgash]

I keep not wanting to buy them because I am somewhat of a purist but since Dominar Hedonism Bot came into my fold my mind can't help but wonder what joys they will bring.

[Brawl977]

As someone who uses dominar bob hope it is very cool

[PG_carnage4u]

Gatorman weakness with skorne is many of our buffs/feats wont help them. You cannot put defenders ward on them, almost no feat in any list will help them either. (they dont need the help to be good, but they just dont gain the benefits)

I do agree they are still great on their own and task master is great for them, but just remember you do lose some syngery with them.

I do use 1 full unit of gatorman, slaughterhousers with Rasheth T4 and I love it. I also think they are a great for reinforcements for any Streamroller event.

[whitekong]

I really love them with skorne, I think one of the best things about them is that they don't need warlock support to get the job done. I really favor them with pmorg, his feat does help them and they are fast enough to keep up with him and his speedy battlegroup.

[gaminguy]

Gatorman weakness with skorne is many of our buffs/feats wont help them. You cannot put defenders ward on them, almost no feat in any list will help them either. (they dont need the help to be good, but they just dont gain the benefits)

I kinda see that as a benefit:

- Cetrati need Defender's Ward, Press Forward, and possibly Paralytic Aura to justify the point cost. Gators do not, and they can benefit from PA anyway.

- Acuarii are too fragile for DW to really fix them, instead they really want a buff like Carnivore or Death March to bump their accuracy up since they don't have CMA. Gators self-buff for accuracy, and some of our MAT buffs work on them anyway.

- Ferox need to charge to compete for accuracy and hitting power, and they're awfully fragile even at 14/17. Road to War or Revive can make a huge difference to them, and they're also hard to justify if you don't have a good way to deliver them.

Basically if I feel my list would benefit from the toughness that Cetrati bring (for example) but I'm not playing a caster that works well with them Gators are almost always the next best thing and the space between the faction unit without the support and the Gators is usually pretty narrow.

[gaminguy]

"Smart" phone my *#$%.

[PG_carnage4u]

I can see your point, and I do like gatorman. I was just trying to be devils advocate in general. Not getting benfit from feats really is never a bonus. Less target choices for spells isnt bad I suppose. I do use minions fairly often, so I really feel they are worth it in many lists, even if they cant benefit from some feats.

[PG_petegrrrr]

They benefit from our debuff feats, like Rasheth, or Morghuls no tough no heal.

But feats only last one round. Taskmaster's on the other hand last as long as you can keep them alive

[PG_dungeongod]

I have enjoyed my gatormen, especially with Rasheth. Some lists they obviously don't want to be included in, like either Makeda, Zaal or Xerxis, but they can fit in to a lot of 50 point lists, in my experience

[hamsandwich50]

I have enjoyed my gatormen, especially with Rasheth. Some lists they obviously don't want to be included in, like either Makeda, Zaal or Xerxis, but they can fit in to a lot of 50 point lists, in my experience

I've had some luck with running them with Xerxis since fury can affect them and P+S 18 gators are awesome and they don't need pathfinder from xerxis so he is free to give it to another unit or use one on his other battle plans.

[PG_dungeongod]

I ... had never thought of that hamsandwich... hmmm.... thinking...thinking....thinking....

[gaminguy]

Think P+S 18 Gators are good? Try P+S 16 Slaughterhousers. Average damage roll 30 after the first wound, tasty. Get a Swordsman in to plink it first and they will drop an otherwise healthy closed Demolisher in one go.

(This is why we won't ever get decent single-wound Weapon Masters in-faction. )

[stormshaft]

They are also excellent with pHexeris as his feat doesn't take into account whether you are friendly faction or not, and Death March is pretty evil on reach POW15 (from the solo) models.

They are also quite nice with Naaresh as they are affected by Iron Flesh, taking them to DEF16 ARM18 in melee, with 8 boxes.
Yup yup.

Oh, and did I mention the awesome feeling of putting a whole unit of huge aligators on the table?

[gaminguy]

PMorg, PHexi, Rasheth, and Naaresh are completely faction-blind. EHexi is close, so is EMorg but he's garbage so it doesn't matter.

[PG_petegrrrr]

Gators are better than Slaughterhousers, even at killing damaged models, since they only average 1 less damage per attack vs damaged models, but they get 2 attacks. They can also reroll misses vs living models, and they are much, much harder to kill.

Slaughterhousers SEEM like a good option, but I took them out of my rasheth list months ago for a second gator unit and it has performed so much better than the slaughterhousers ever did, since they don't die to blast damage and ranged plinking, and can be def 13 if needed.

[Thamarite Merc]

Bring a Witchdoctor to drive Cryx players to tears and SacStrike gators into squishy solos/casters, that are too nimble to be eaten. Tough, undead crocs, that explode on command rule anything softer than a Khador 'jack. Bring Saxon Orrik for Pathfinder.