[BiggaBullfrog]

Originally Posted by Cleon

I never said anything after this and I meant to, sorry I missed responding back to when the reviews happened. Even though I was really hoping these dudes would make it in, I’m not trying to argue or resubmit or something further with the unit (unless someone else loves them too and pushes for them ). And I think the reviews were well said.

I will say though these are some of my favorite customs I’ve come across and would love to see them had they been in the original game. I think everyone agrees the theme and flavor is top notch, the idea of mercenaries fighting and then gradually considering fleeing as their numbers dwindle is super cool. They also fill a void in my opinion as they’re strong cheap melee you can splash. I don’t think there’s really anything quite like them in the game other than the Tarn, but they’re only a single unique squad for 50. The Catalan provide a universal option of beefy common melee in high numbers for only 120-200pt. (I guess you could experiment with x1 and x2 too)

If you don’t mind me asking, what armies did you guys test with the Catalan? I’m interested to see what you ran them with.

Great question! And I'm very much agreed that the design/theme for these guys is super! Unfortunately I've deleted most of the files I was using for notes at the time, but I remember running a lot of different combinations (this was easily the card I ran the most tests with as I was trying to reach a decision, helped by the fact that there are so many options for the Mercenaries and I love army building). Early on was mostly running Mercs x4-5 with high point cheese like Q10+Cyprien, dragon+support, etc. just to get a feel for how they played. Then I started trying lower numbers of x2-3 as well to see how Cut and Run worked with smaller groups.

The x2 armies especially were more to see how well they were as defenders for a Raelin-junky army since 6 defense is awesome and if the army got pushed they could hit back with four attacks of 3. (IIRC the go-to army for that build was Mercs x2, Raelin, Krav, Eltahale at 400, then I would add or substitute figures as I tested further.) x2 wasn't bad and a viable tech option, though the low mobility did hurt when trying to keep the figures together.

x3-5 is definitely the preferred amount for them. Since they're so strong against melee forces, a lot of the testing I did when getting into the meat of it involved spamming a bunch of Mercenaries with some anti-range to round out their matchups, like Krav Maga or Sgt. Drake 2.0. Throw in a special attacker like Kaemon, Q10, Nilfheim, Eltahale, etc. depending on the composition and it made for a super solid army with an answer for everything. Nakita were also a personal favorite with the Catalan as all-around good range to help the all-around good melee. I was able to find a few remaining files from these games, so some specific builds for the interested included:

Mercs x4, Drake 2.0, Q10 (480/18 )
Mercs x4, Drake 1.0, Nakita (390/20)
Mercs x4, Krav, Nilfheim (445/20) (add in another squad for ~500 point games)
Mercs x3, Eltahale, Krav, Rygarn (450/17)

I remember also getting some 550-600 point games in too, but don't remember those exact builds. As you can imagine it was the same-ish structure, though, with something like Mercs x5, Nilfheim, Cyprien, Zetacron as an example that I'm pretty sure I played.

Another format of note that I spent time with was Heat of Battle, where their high numbers and stats wouldn't be as hurt by their low move. They were really good there, but after testing against other stupidly good armies for that format (10th, Ashra, and those stupid Cathar Spearmen) I didn't find them overwhelmingly OP for it.

Throughout the testing process, I did also try a couple dungeon crawl-esque scenarios with them as mooks for bigger baddies, like Mercs x3 + one or two stronger heroes (Asterios, Master of the Hunt, Sgt. Drake, etc.) against a team of heroes on a mission, and they were great thematically for those scenarios.

The most ridiculous test I ever ran with them was when I was really curious about their power in numbers and how that balanced out with Cut and Run, resulting in a smackdown of a grand total of 12 squads of Mercenaries vs Cathar Spearmen x5 + Airborne Elite. (Take that all you who say that competitive tournament play is all that SoV judges care about! You ain't got nothin' on this guy! )