Raynair

I just checked my final Wave 2 PDF and it is not in there. I believe it was cut and explained why in the Beta forums, but I can't remember why.

Not yet, they are all Neverborn for the time being.

Sounds like you're not putting much stock into their action to push nighmares around... that is an incredibly powerful tool and makes them worth every bit of their cost alone.

Horror and WP duels are technically not the same thing... but a WP duel is anything which involves WP. In other words, in order for a model to attempt a Horror duel, it must use its WP stat... which means it becomes a WP duel, thus causing the model to suffer damage if it fails it within the Misery aura.

For Vanessa, the heal is nice, but not really necessary. Its her 0 action obey that is really great if you are running a Pariah of Iron Levi list (an extra action for Lazarus, Mechanical Rider, Ashes and Dust, Joss, etc. is just awesome). Add that to her incredible shooting action and she synergizes very well with Levi. Joss is an amazing model all around in any list, but is very useful with Levi due to his ability Creative Salvage. Its not hard to kill stuff with Joss and getting those extra Scrap Markers can allow Rusty to summon an Abomination every turn without having to use up her 0 to drop one herself. The Mechanical Rider is an amazing objective runner + summoner from turn 2 on. A Metal Gamin every turn is very useful as they are pretty sturdy on their own for a 4 Wd model and can help out your Abominations with tar-pitting models. Plus, the reactivate on turn 5 for any of your non-leader models is pretty good. The Hodgepodge is good for exactly as you described: cover and SS generation. Levi excels at picking a model every turn and saying "that is going to die", so that extra SS from killing a model with Levi is very reliable. I can't speak on the Necropunks... I generally run a list with all expensive models and rely on summoning through the game to out activate, which leaves me no room when building the list to add cheaper models.

Vanessa, Joss, Mechanical Rider, Convict Gunslingers, Hodgepodge Effigy, or Howard Langston would all be excellent additions. Of course, if you went with the Mechanical Rider, you would also want to look at getting a box of Metal Gamin as well.

Well, except that you don't HAVE to bury Leveticus. Without his whole death / rebirth cycle, he is still a force to be reckoned with. You might have had to play a little more conservatively, but the fact that you could have not ever buried Leveticus (except for maybe once or twice in a dire situation) is a counter to Tara's tactics.

Convict Gunslingers are good in just about any Outcast list.

No point in doing this with the Rat Catcher. The trigger to get a free rat has the "enemy model" stipulation.