WM: Retribution Tricks

Rahn
Playstyle: Movement manipulation via magic spells.
Feat: Magic spells gain +2 RNG and boosted attack and damage rolls.
Gimmick: Move your opponent's army around into favorable positions for you.
Units: Phoenix, Discordia, Battle Mages, Magisters

Rahn is all about the Feat turn.  When he pops Arcane Alignment, every magic user in his army gets +2 RNG to their attacks and they're automatically boosted.  That means more accuracy, more damage and a lot of rearrangement and death for the enemy army.  This is why most of Rahn's lists are based off of arc nodes, tons of Battle Mages and Magisters.  Obviously, the Phoenix offers the heaviest arc platform at a fairly affordable price and is Rahn's best friend.  The newer Discordia works very well with Houseguard Halberdiers because a reforming Shield Wall under Discordia's Imprint is just insane.  On feat turn, the Battle Mages spring into action to open up charge lanes and other opportunities via push and pull.  The army is very capable of pulling an enemy caster out into the open and to his death.  Rahn's spellpool is also fantastic:  Telekensis moves things around and turns targets around for backswings, Polarity Shield keeps your Halberds safe from charges and Force Hammer is a POW12 slam that can knock things down.  If any of your arc nodes get in trouble, Force Blast pushes enemy models back and the rest of your army can charge them afterwards for a quick kill.

Kaelyssa

Playstyle:  A very solid, balanced warcaster that has plenty of tricks to throw around.
Feat:  Everything in her control range gains stealth and cannot be charged.

Gimmick:  Allowing units to shoot through walls or killing the warcaster with Backlash.

Units:  Hydra, Mage Hunter Strike Force, Sentinels, anything really

Since Kaelyssa is one of the most balanced casters for Retribution, she can run with pretty much anything.  I've seen her do well with Dawnguard units, Houseguard units or Mage Hunter units.  Kaelyssa likes running with two full units of MHSF w/ Commanders just because she can.  The best thing about her  is her ability to give Phantom Hunter to one of her models.  The Hydra is a fantastic choice to give this to because he can shoot a POW15 shot from 15" through a wall and into your warcaster's face.  Her feat denies many opponents from getting the first charge and stealth keeps the army safe from shooting.  To sum it up, her feat is mainly a defensive one but can also be used to get your units into position.  Safety from both melee and ranged threat allows units like Sentinels to move into charge range next turn and force the opposing army into retreat.  Mage Hunter Strike Force(s) also add a great deal of threat not because of their stealth, pathfinder, AD, Phantom Seeker and 'Jack Hunter abilities (lol), but because any jacks with low DEF also fear Kaelyssa's Backlash.  If you think your warcaster is safe from damage because of their obscenely high DEF and ARM, Kaelyssa will just backlash a low DEF jack and go to town with her ranged units.  There's really nothing that Kaelyssa can't do and that's what makes her awesome.

Ravyn

Playstyle: Gunfighter, Virtuoso, Swift Hunter and Quick Work.  Oh, and her Feat.
Feat: Boosted ranged attack rolls for anything in her control range.

Gimmick: Aside from plowing through enemy shield walls, she can also feat for her army.

Units: Discordia, Invictors, MHSF, Stormfall Archers

Ravyn can tear through entire shield walls by herself.  Once she casts Vortex of Destruction and charges into the fray, she can absolutely wreck havoc on tightly packed infantry.  Gunfighter allows her to shoot into combat and Virtuoso allows her to also use her melee attacks.  On top of this, she has Reach and Thresher.  Quick Work gives her a free shot after she kills a model and Swift Hunter brings her 2" into melee range of another target.  With the free boosted damage rolls from Vortex and her excellent stats, not many infantry formations can hold against her.  When she pops feat, Invictors, Stormfall Archers and Houseguard Riflemen gets scary ridiculous.  The same applies to the 10" POW14 spray from Discordia.  Free boosted ranged attack rolls scares the crap out of most high DEF, low ARM warcasters and even Caine with Blur in cover has to worry about a CRA from a full batch of Invictors with mini-feat up.  Speaking of which, Ravyn also has access to Snipe which can give Invictors (stacks with their +4 RNG mini-feat) and MHSF outrageous range.  For Stormfall Archers, you can throw out Brutal Shots from "snipe" ranges.  Veil of Mists can give your units protection as well as allowing them to charge through friendly models.  For that reason, Sentinels also make notable additions to her army as well as Fane Knight Issyen.

Garryth

Playstyle: Melee assassination using a fragile warcaster.

Feat: Everything in his control area can't cast spells, use place effects or spend focus.

Gimmick: Get in and murder the enemy warcaster.

Units: Chimera, Phoenix, MHSF, MHA.

Garryth is a really hard warcaster to use.  He's fragile, precise and needs to execute correctly and perfectly to win battles.  I would say he's probably the most difficult warcaster I've used so far (in 4 armies).  For that reason, I don't have enough feedback for him yet.  I've been experimenting with his T4 list and so far I've been pretty successful.  The entire army save for the Chimera is stealthed and AD.  With +1 to the roll to go first, I basically run everything into position to do as much damage as possible.  Here's the list:

Points: 35
Garryth, Blade of Retribution (*5pts)
* Chimera (6pts)
Mage Hunter Strikeforce (Leader and 9 Grunts) (8pts)
* Mage Hunter Commander (2pts)
* Soulless Escort (1pts)
Mage Hunter Strikeforce (Leader and 5 Grunts) (5pts)
* Soulless Escort (1pts)
Mage Hunter Strikeforce (Leader and 5 Grunts) (5pts)
* Soulless Escort (1pts)
Eiryss, Angel of Retribution (3pts)
Mage Hunter Assassin (2pts)
Mage Hunter Assassin (2pts)
Mage Hunter Assassin (2pts)
Mage Hunter Assassin (2pts)
Nayl (0pts)

My Tier2 Rahn list

Cygnar is a great faction and I love playing with them, but sometimes you just need something different!  That's why I chose Retribution as my second army.  Nobody around here really plays them, no one understands them and the rarity of the faction is what really appealed to me.  Just because no one really plays them (there's like 5 Cygnar players here) doesn't mean they're bad.  In fact, I find Retribution to be one of the trickiest factions to play against.  They have strong shooting in the form of Invictors and MHSF, powerful melee thanks to Sentinels and Halberdiers, and ridiculous manipulation in the form of Battle Mages (mittens).


I actually picked up Adeptis Rahn before I knew what he could do.  Maybe it's just my natural affinity for randomly picking competitive casters (like how I started Cygnar with eCaine), but I really liked the fact that he's portrayed as one of the most powerful spellcasters in the world.  As most of you know, one of the reasons I picked up High Elves was because of Teclis.  Thankfully, Rahn isn't as ridiculous as Teclis, but in some ways, he can be just as bad.

Here's my current army list for Retribution.  It's Tier2 Rahn and it's geared towards maximizing Feat turn while maintaining two heavy 'jacks.

Points: 35
Adeptis Rahn Shyeel (*6pts)
* Phoenix (10pts)
* Discordia (10pts)
House Shyeel Battle Mages (Leader and 5 Grunts) (5pts)
House Shyeel Battle Mages (Leader and 5 Grunts) (5pts)
Houseguard Halberdiers (Leader and 9 Grunts) (7pts)
* Houseguard Halberdiers Officer & Standard (2pts)
Arcanist (0pts)
House Shyeel Magister (2pts)

The Phoenix is pretty much a given considering how he's an arc node in heavy armor stats.  With Phoenix Shield, the ability to heal and ARM18 w/ DEF12, he's one of the best arc nodes in the game.  Don't even think you can swarm him with infantry and tie him up, his *Attack Combustion makes sure everything within 2" of him takes POW12 Continuous Fire hits.  Throw in the fact he also has a P+S17 Reach weapon that automatically lights things on fire when he hits and you've got yourself a real winner.

The newest edition to my army list is the Discordia.  He's the newest edition to the Retribution warhost and he's got some insanely impressive abilities.  The stats for him is basically a Manticore +1 MAT/RAT and 2x P+S16 Open Fists.  His ranged weapon is what really sells this 'jack.. considering how Retribution has a overwhelming weakness to stealth and infantry hordes.  The Discordia comes with a RNG10 POW14 Magical spray.  That is just amazing.  His other abilities include being bonded to Rahn, has an Imprint: Kinetic Field that allows him to spend a focus to make this model and other friendly models within 3" of it gain +2 ARM vs. ranged attacks and not suffer blast damage.  Throw on Rahn's Force Field and have him stand next to some Halberdiers in Shield Wall and things get quite ridiculous.

As for the rest of my list, I get a free Arcanist because of Rahn's T2 bonus and I fill in the rest with Halberdiers and Battle Mages.  Two squads of Battle Mages to capitalize on Feat turn and the Magister just because I can.  Believe it or not, but I love the Magister's Combo-Smite.  Being able to charge in with MAT7 and knock something on its ass is just great.  As for the Halberdiers, I think they're absolutely amazing.  Great stats all around and the fastest Shield Wall in the game because of Reform gives me extreme flexibility.  ARM20 vs. ranged attacks with Discordia's Kinetic Field up is just demoralizing to armies like Cygnar.

So what ya guys think?  I'm loving this list.

BR: 35pt Rahn vs. eVlad

So I played another game yesterday and this time it was against my friend's eVlad list.  Here are the two lists:

Points: 35

Vladimir Tzepesci, the Dark Champion (*5pts)

* Berserker (6pts)

* Berserker (6pts)

* Drago (8pts)

Great Bears of Gallowswood (5pts)

Man-o-war Demolition Corps (Leader and 4 Grunts) (9pts)

Widowmakers (Leader and 3 Grunts) (4pts)

Widowmaker Marksman (2pts)

Points: 35

Adeptis Rahn Shyeel (*6pts)

* Manticore (8pts)

* Phoenix (10pts)

Dawnguard Sentinels (Leader and 9 Grunts) (9pts)

* Dawnguard Sentinel Officer & Standard (2pts)

House Shyeel Battle Mages (Leader and 5 Grunts) (5pts)

Arcanist (1pts)

House Shyeel Magister (2pts)

House Shyeel Magister (2pts)

Mage Hunter Assassin (2pts)

The deployment was pretty standard.  I let him go first and he set up his army relatively close to eachother with Drago on this right side and everything on the left.  My deployment was basically a wall of infantry with my two 'jacks behind me.  The MHA advance deployed slightly further up from my infantry getting ready to head into terrain.



His first turn was what all Khador players do:  Cast upkeepable spells and then run everything he got.  He puts Hand of Fate on his Widowmakers, Assail on Drago and loops him around to join the rest of his army.  His Widowmakers also pushed up and tried setting up infront of a building.  My first turn saw my entire army moving up with run.  This meant that everything I had was within 14" of his army.  The Phoenix got into position to arc a Chain Blast over in attempts to kill some Widowmakers, but no serious damage was done and I managed to only kill one sniper.  Polarity Shield was cast on the Sentinels and the turn passes.

Next turn, Widowmakers with Hand of Fate kills two Sentinels.  His Zerkers run in front of his snipers after they shoot to offer them cover, cleverly sandwiching his snipers between a building and themselves (or so he thought!).  The rest of his army moves up slightly because he wants to get the combined charge next turn.  On my turn, things get slightly more interesting.  I put 2 focus on my Phoenix, upkeep Polarity and keep 5 for myself.  My Sents use Vengeance to move up slightly more in front of my army and then shifts to the right, away from the mass of his army on the left.  My mittens do the same and the Magisters shift towards the left.  The MHA slightly behinds the mittens.  The Manticore Covering Fires in front of the Demos/Bears.  Now comes some Elf trickery and Rahn casts a Force Hammer through the Phoenix and into the Zerker in front of all the Snipers.  He gets hit, slammed 5 inches into the building behind him and the snipers get their faces smashed in; caught between the giant warjack and the wall.  The Phoenix also fired his Halo Cannon and managed an awesome roll of 4 (matches 18 ARM) on the other Zerker.  With one of his Zerkers now knocked down and his snipers crushed beneath it, my opponent gets desperate.

On his next turn, he puts focus on Drago and charges him at my mittens.  He misses by about 2".  The way I moved my mittens last turn guarantee I would deny the charge since he couldn't charge my Sents on the frontal arc.  The Drago 'jack only had 10" threat afterall.  He spends focus on the KD'd Zerker and runs both of them in range of my Sentinels and the Phoenix.  Sure, he didn't charge but he was now in melee range of my guys next turn (or so he thought!).  The rest of his Demos push up dangerously close to my, separated by the small bit of terrain on my left flank, and the Great Bears looped around behind them.  They avoided the Covering Fire but it slowed down their advance significantly and that's what I needed.  I had to make a difference on my turn or things will go terribly wrong.  You never want a Khador army to be this close to you.  Ever.

Here it is.. my big turn.  I drop Polarity, put 3 focus on my Manticore and keep everything else on Rahn.  Rahn activates, pop feat and uses Telekinesis to move Drago almost next to two of his Demo Corps and turn his back to me.  I use Force Blast on my Phoenix and it pushes both Zerkers 4" away from him.  My Sentinels activate next and charges the two Zerkers in front of me.  I send 5 into each one.  They completely wreck one and leaves the other with 1 damage box left.  The Magister closer to him shoots into combat with 3D6 to hit and damage and kills him.  The Phoenix shoots at the Drago with his back turned and does nothing with his Halo Cannon (I rolled like a 3) and my Arcanist puts +2 damage on my Manticore.  The mittens activate and knocks down 2 of the 5 Demo Corps and pushes them back near the Great Bears, further denying them next turn's charge.  The Manticore now charges the back of Drago and spends a point for +3 more strength and goes to town on him.  Effectively MAT8 on the charge, he severely damages Drago in time for my other Magister to charge and combo-smite his dead corpse into two Demos, doing significant damage.

We call it here.  The Khador army was in shambles and the Elves of Ios emerge victorious.  My opponent had no idea what to expect his first time playing vs. Retribution and Rahn.  He knows now the trickery of the Elves and next game will definitely be different.

BR: 35pts Retribution vs. Protectorate

Before we begin, yes, I have a Retribution army.  I caved in, bought and assembled the army over the weekend.  My wife hates me a little.. but I promised her this is going to be my last big purchase in a long time!

Anyways, the game was 35pts, Retribution of Scryah vs. Protectorate.
It was Adeptis Rahn vs pFerora.

His list consisted for Ferora, max unit and full command of Errants, Templar 'jack, Vaquisher 'jack and the Avatar. Oh, and the standard Choir and a Vassal.

My list is as follows:

Points: 35
Adeptis Rahn Shyeel (*6pts)
* Manticore (8pts)
* Phoenix (10pts)
Dawnguard Sentinels (Leader and 9 Grunts) (9pts)
* Dawnguard Sentinel Officer & Standard (2pts)
House Shyeel Battle Mages (Leader and 5 Grunts) (5pts)
Arcanist (1pts)
House Shyeel Magister (2pts)
House Shyeel Magister (2pts)
Mage Hunter Assassin (2pts)

The game starts out with him going first, pathfindering and moving up his Errants and they're immune to spells.  I try to kill the dude that grants that bonus and I need 5s to hit on two dice with my Manticore. I miss twice. I shoot again, hit and then roll double 1s for damage when I need a 5 to kill. I knew instantly its going to be one of those games.

I cast Polarity Shield (no charging the unit at the front arc) on my Sents, run them up in front of my jacks and move closer up. Cast Force Field on Rahn and that was the turn. On his turn, he gambles and tries to kill the Mage Hunter Assassin with a charge from his Errants and her superior def stopped him. Only one of the Errants get to attack. He also tried to shoot one of his own guys with the Vanquisher in hopes of scattering into my dudes, but Rahn's Force Field says no and I threw the template back on his units. 3 Errants die. The Next turn, my Sentinels with POW12 Reach and Weapon Master shits on his unit and with combined fire from the rest of the Battle Mages (mittens), I killed the entire unit.

I sent two Sents charging at the Avatar, which activated Enliven and he decided to move into melee reach range of my Phoenix. I activated a Magister first, hitting and then combo smiting the Avatar away from the Phoenix. The other Magister Whip Lashes the Phoenix into a better charging arc by shooting at the Avatar and then the Phoenix charged in with his POW19 (thanks to the Arcanist) Thermal Blade and cuts the Avatar down a good amount. My Mage Hunter Assassin comes out of nowhere and with some decent rolling, puts the last few hitboxes of damage on the Avatar and he falls.

His next turn sees Ferora moving up and casting her Feat.. which basically sets everything on fire within her control range. Being an Infantry heavy army, this was quite painful. I asked earlier about the Templar having reach or not and I was told no.. but apparently when I was in the bathroom, it was a simple error that he indeed had range. This meant that the Templar had the counter charge on my Phoenix and managed to rip both its arms off. The shooting from the Vanquisher killed a good deal of Sentinels who were bunched together. Next turn, and this happened through the entire game, I forget about Sentinels having Vengeance (move 3" and free attack if a Sent was killed) and charged what I could at the Templar. I took my fire damage and some more infantry die (the MHA was left with 1 box) and the Arcanist repairs the arms on the Phoenix and the Phoenix swings for dear life. He manages to rip the mace arm off the Templar and damages his movement. I do some more elven tricks and get my Manticore into charging position from using Telekensis and Whip Lash with 3 Focus, charge a naked Feora and whiffed every attack even with boosted hit rolls. Failed assassination attempt #1.

I pop Rahn's feat on this turn and basically turn the Mittens into push/pull/KDers on a good amount of units and still fail epically to do any damage except for KDing the Vanquisher and pushing him out of Ferora's control range. Next turn, Feora casts some insane damage on herself and with full focus, kills the Manticore. I use more Elven BS, kill the Templar by combo-smiting his face in with a Magister, slamming it into some units to free up a charge lane, cast TK on the Phoenix and move it into move range of Ferora and let loose with 2 POW19 continuous fire attacks with boosted hit rolls (since she has def 15) that FAILS TO KILL HER even though she had no focus (leaves her with 2 boxes). Failed assassination attempt #2.

On her attempt, she risks the free strike from the Phoenix but he catches her with +2 to hit and a free damage die and she falls over. It was her attempt at ending the game there and killing Rahn, but I think she should of just raped the Phoenix and chance the next turn.. even though I'd probably just boost a Force Hammer at her face and end it with charging Sents + Magister.

But man.. what a game. By the end of the game we had 3 wrecked Warjacks nearly stacked on top of eachother: Avatar, Manticore and Templar, and a ton of Infantry dead on both sides. It was a bloodbath.. we had a hell of a lot of fun.

Two main rules questions came up and some minor errors on my part since it's my first game as RoS. Rules first!

1. I had 3 Sents in charge range of the Templar but my Officer and another Sent had their backs turned at Feora (in melee range) at one point. I declare a charge with my Sents at the Templar but I wasn't allowed to just turn around with my 2 Sents near Feora and swing at her. It was argued that I could only charge + attack the Templar because that's what I charged. I argued that charge is simply an order and that any model in the unit can charge/move/attack at any units they so please.. so I could have turned around and just hit Ferora with my 2 Sents if I wanted to. Anyways, no biggy.

2. This is probably an easy one.. but I managed to kill the Templar with a combo-smite from my Magister. Does the slam rules still come in effect even though the model dies from the attack? It opened up a charge lane but I was still able to move and swing at Feora in the end so it wasn't a huge deal.

Now for my RoS blunders:

1. Forgetting about Vengeance on Sents. This one is huge.. 3" of free move could of easily generated a ton more threat and charge range.. not to mention free attacks with my Sents near Feora. Damnit.

2. Not moving Battle Mages more aggressively and not taking advantage of the Magister's Combo-Smite as much.

3. Forgetting about Phoenix Shield every turn after the first turn the Phoenix took damage and forgetting about the Manticore's spend 1 FOC for +3 Str. Not that it would of helped much because I didn't HIT anything.. but being able to double-hand throw Feora into charging Sents and the Phoenix would of worked out a lot better. Oh, and I keep forgetting that the Thermal Blade from the Phoenix has continuous fire.

Great game, had a lot of fun and learned a lot!