When/Why would you play Hoarcat Pride?

[Grim]

I have Marcus crew: plastic starter, Waldegeists, Raptors, Blessed of December, Molemen, Canine Remains, and a Dawn Serpent. I was wondering if Hoarcat Pride will add anything to my menagerie. If so, when would you use them? Thanks

[Kadeton]

I would use them in a Rasputina list for fun. Paralysing people and letting the cats eat them is good times.

In a Marcus list I'm not sure how useful they'd be. They put out solid damage for cheap, I guess?

[SurreyLee]

Against Gremlins....from memory they can eat height one models without being paralyzed? I've never managed it but it would be tre amusing to pull off.

[Adran]

They are fairly cheap and durable for scheme running. Also pretty handy at facing enemy scheme runners. There is no hard and fast rule for what they are best at, but they are probably slightly more durabe and hitty than a canine remains, although slower and costlier. Better at protect territory and out flank, less good at break through.

[AnythingBut]

They're good with both raspy and Marcus against anything particularly shooty or anything with lots of Ht1. So the perfect selection if you face Ophelia who ticks both of these boxes!

They have both manipulative AND small target. Meaning shooting models who target them before they activate must pass a Wp12 duel or their action fails and then if they pass this duel shooting attacks then suffer a negative flip due to small target.

Their melee attack is also rather more punishing than most people would expect with a 3/4/5 track as long as the pride has more than three wounds plus a double positive damage flip if you get a ram trigger which both Rasputina and Marcus don't have many uses for anyway.

I also find the wendigo and Hoarcats devour under rated against living crews. People are always expect Raspy to blast blast and blast some more but people often forget how potent her paralyse spell coupled with a charging wendigo or Hoarcat can be to effecting one shot an over confident tanky model.

[Uktena]

I use em when I expect to need pass through or want to speed my crew up. Once they ended up with the Cerberus in a list with Raspy and some acolytes. That works shockingly well. I just wanted 9 cat heads on three bases.

[brdparker]

Marcus can also Howl at the enemy before they activate, making them even more difficult to target. I'm ashamed to say, I haven't used the buggers yet, but I'll try them out next time I break out the beastmaster and see how they do.

[decker_cky]

They're really resilient for their cost with their stats, manipulative and small target. If you expect a decent amount of shooting, they're great. They're a great threat against anyone you expect to have a decent amount of Ht1. Devour isn't actually that great at Ml4 needing a suit, but it's a huge threat that can create huge swings. 

 

Marcus seems like he's the #1 place for them, but they're very slow compared to Marcus's typical objective runners (particularly not being unimpeded), and aren't as hard hitting as Marcus's typical beatsticks. Still...solid beasts that are very generalist - resilient and hard hitting for the cost, he can get some value. I like the howl idea...it's a nice little synergy.

 

For Rasputina, they can raise paralyzed models from being a serious issue to a crisis anywhere on the table along with the coverage the Wendigo provides. 

 

I think they're solid models for Colette and Kaeris. I had a first test game with 3 hoarcats in a Kaeris crew. Went badly, but it was more in bad tactics that left me exposed than in the models themselves (which were frustrating for my opponent who had to burn through cards to target them). Chances are, they'll do pretty well in reconnoiter where you're more likely to see numerous cheaper models (which are more likely to be Ht1 and therefore devour targets). 

 

BTW, overall I speak a lot of devour, and I don't think it's really that effective at Melee 4 without suit, but it's a threat that can change how the game is played, and it's likely enough that opponents have to respect the threat. It's something that affected opponents react to more than you actually get direct use out of it. Even ignoring devour, they have decent speed, great offence and great defence for the cost.

[Omenbringer]

BTW, overall I speak a lot of devour, and I don't think it's really that effective at Melee 4 without suit, but it's a threat that can change how the game is played, and it's likely enough that opponents have to respect the threat. It's something that affected opponents react to more than you actually get direct use out of it. Even ignoring devour, they have decent speed, great offence and great defence for the cost.

With Devour there is a fine line between "effective" and dominating to the point where it shuts down entire crews. It is definitely a threat against Gremlin's and if it were higher Mi or had the required suit included it would be a huge NPE for Gremlin players. Were talking similar to 1st Edition pre-fix Hamelin NPE for Gremlin crews.

 

I agree with others though, the Hoarcat Prides are a decent piece and bring a lot of value for the package. I particularly like them with Rasputina (cant help but enjoy the crazy cat lady list).

[decker_cky]

I know...I wasn't complaining. There's a reason that even at Ml4 it's a legitimate threat to be respected. Against the right target, if you can tie, they're dead. How the Wendigo got through with it's silly high devour is beyond me.

 

My first test with Kaeris was actually a 'girls and their cats' list. Kaeris, Angelica, Cassandra, Myranda, 3 hoarcats (and 2 raptors to break theme). 

[FertileSpade]

so would they be a good option to take if facing Perdita and the Ortega family, since they're shooty as well?

[dgraz]

Sure.

I think they get overlooked because there's nothing special about them that jumps out at you. They're just a solid 5ss model.

[decker_cky]

Amazing against Perdita crews actually. Bullet bending doesn't even work against Small Target since it isn't cover. That means all   attacks in the crew and Perditas    are at  against Hoarcats, which is nice. Not unkillable by any means, but it makes them a bigger headache than expected against the crew (against Guild crews in general I imagine).