What do you look for in a doubles pairing?

[Prof-Chaos]

Today a buddy of mine asked me to pair up with him at an upcoming local doubles tournament. It'll be 25 points per player. This will be my first time playing a doubles game, and I'm looking for some feedback from some of you guys and/or gals with some experience here. I'm not so much looking for list building suggestion or caster pairings, but rather more general thoughts on the matter. What type of caster works best with Ret, is it better to try to build one side to complement the other or build two armies that can function seperately from one another, etc?

[Rogue Sun]

I did this a while back. It's usually good to have some general synergies with one another, but you'll find that many spells are faction specific. Merc casters are the best for doubles tournies as the majority of their spells and feats simply specify friendly.

We did a few practice games with Shae and Garryth, treating Garryth as a super solo with the movement shenanigans from Shae. It was surprisingly effective and fun, but ultimately we didn't run those two.

[Seriade]

Well the first thing would be what does your friend play?

The second point would probably if your looking in generalities probably pHaley, p/eDenny, Moshar, Khromac, and Calandra could be a few dirty choices that would annoy the hell out of your opponent.

[joelker41]

The most effective while still being unexpected that I saw was Calandra with Digmies teaming with pSorscha. The devastation was...epic to say the least.

[Rampaging Elk]

I did one of these with Vyros not long ago. My teammate had pMagnus. Using one warcaster as a super solo and the other as a ranged support was phenomenal. By the end, I had lost everything but Vyros and a Ghost Sniper where my teammate had hardly lost anything against a Mohsar and pGaspy. I had done another one before as Bethayne with my teammate as Venethrax in a team tournament. Venny went super solo, Beth stayed back and supported with spells. Once again, it was awesome.

I really like the idea of having one caster be all super solo in the enemy's face and letting the other play it more safe and throw spells around. Rahn could be excellent at this with board control. Vyros and Garryth would be great for super soloing. Kaelyssa would be interesting as more of a ranged super solo. I can't remember if Ossyan's spells are mostly faction only. If so, not a great choice. Same with Ravyn. If they work with nonfaction friendlies, they could have some devastating synergies. ELylyth with Ossyan double feat would be hilarious if Ossy's works with her.

[Cyryst]

From experience Ive seen the feat synergy worked on the most, then its hinging on a spell that one caster can give to the other. Like the sniper Cygnar caster (name escapes me) paired with esorsha for a horrible painful double damage over armor+ lots of shooting from the battlegroups light jacks with armor pen during feat turn.(its the only one of many combos I have seen which I remember specifically.)

From memory in Ret only really ossyan had a feat that friendlies could benefit from (defensively) and a spell buff that worked on friendly models, not just faction. So we tried to run with that. Mage hunter assassins with str or mat buffs or hitting targets with arm debuffs like curse of shadows + a kiss of lylys or ferox under makeda with quicken and the UA so they get some stupidly obscene threat range. many of our solos will have something to gain from other factions warcasters, more so than their solos from ours. magisters are particularily good as the whipsnap works on friendly models.

[absent]

I would look for something with deadeye for mage hunter strike force, or a mat/damage buff for mage hunter assassins, personally. Or both if such a thing exists.

[joelker41]

I would look for something with deadeye for mage hunter strike force, or a mat/damage buff for mage hunter assassins, personally. Or both if such a thing exists.

P Skarre with MHAs...or is she friendly faction?


Anyone actually managed to play a game with Siege, eSorscha, and Hunters LOL?

[joelker41]

I would look for something with deadeye for mage hunter strike force, or a mat/damage buff for mage hunter assassins, personally. Or both if such a thing exists.

P Skarre with MHAs...or is she friendly faction?


Anyone actually managed to play a game with Siege, eSorscha, and Hunters LOL?

[absent]

Pskarre is friendly faction i am pretty sure, on all her stuffs.

i think just pcaine + ossayan might be good. Snipe feat go with ossayans feat added in is ouchy time. Pcaine can do ravyns feat and still provide snipe every single turn. Another thing people do is use rahns great ability to make holes in an enemy army, and key knockdowns, with a really good caster killer like emakeda. Basicly infinite threat range through almost any models that are in the way.

Meh with 2 caster unlikely allies you can come up with a ton of BS you just have to figure out what BS you want and build it up, then hope that it happens to counter the enemys BS in some way =) I love the format though =)

[joelker41]

Pskarre is friendly faction i am pretty sure, on all her stuffs.

i think just pcaine + ossayan might be good. Snipe feat go with ossayans feat added in is ouchy time. Pcaine can do ravyns feat and still provide snipe every single turn. Another thing people do is use rahns great ability to make holes in an enemy army, and key knockdowns, with a really good caster killer like emakeda. Basicly infinite threat range through almost any models that are in the way.

Meh with 2 caster unlikely allies you can come up with a ton of BS you just have to figure out what BS you want and build it up, then hope that it happens to counter the enemys BS in some way =) I love the format though =)

Well Force Blast + Molik Missile would be amazing.

Gorten + Rahn would be nuts. You could move your opponent's army more than they do LOL!

[Syfer22]

Wow... A 2v2 tourney? You guys are seriously lucky; me and Demeritus can barely get any casual 2v2s going as is. =(

The last one we did, it was me on Rahn and him as Kaelyssa going up against eLyllith and eMadrak. While our opponents complained a bit about how they were two different factions and we, as 2 of the same faction, had more synergy and could cover each other better, well...

... I'm pretty sure they wouldn't have been any happier with me as Cryx and Demeritus as Menoth.

That aside, I would say pick a Cryx player as your partner. While a few buffs are in-faction, and some are friendly, anyone can take advantage of a debuff. You want to increase the accuracy and damage of the MHSF? Say hello to pDenny.

Or take Cygnar; Cygnar has a lot of friendly abilities. Oh, and Fire Beacon from the B13.

[Plover Elf]

I'm trying to remember the details - I think it was eSorcha with Ossyan. Iron fleshed Iron Fang Pikemen followed by Quickened Demo Corps. Then 2 units of Storm falls shooting jacks with Brutal shots at 4 dice with doubled damage under both feats. It was pretty.

11" threat range Demo Corps are fun. We've also done this with different Khador casters to battle lust them.

The question I have though, under eSorcha's feat, does a Mage Hunter Assassin do quadruple damage with what's rolled over the armor? (Basically are we using math of damage x2 x2 or damge +100% +100%?)

[Demeritus]

Wow... A 2v2 tourney? You guys are seriously lucky; me and Demeritus can barely get any casual 2v2s going as is. =(

The last one we did, it was me on Rahn and him as Kaelyssa going up against eLyllith and eMadrak. While our opponents complained a bit about how they were two different factions and we, as 2 of the same faction, had more synergy and could cover each other better, well...

... I'm pretty sure they wouldn't have been any happier with me as Cryx and Demeritus as Menoth.

Not to worry, the next league apparently has Cryx and Menoth teamed up.

[Syfer22]

Not to worry, the next league apparently has Cryx and Menoth teamed up.

...

.....

They are gonna be so pissed. >.>;;

[Demeritus]

...

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They are gonna be so pissed. >.>;;

Haha Yup

10 char

[Cyryst]

I'm trying to remember the details - I think it was eSorcha with Ossyan. Iron fleshed Iron Fang Pikemen followed by Quickened Demo Corps. Then 2 units of Storm falls shooting jacks with Brutal shots at 4 dice with doubled damage under both feats. It was pretty.

11" threat range Demo Corps are fun. We've also done this with different Khador casters to battle lust them.

The question I have though, under eSorcha's feat, does a Mage Hunter Assassin do quadruple damage with what's rolled over the armor? (Basically are we using math of damage x2 x2 or damge +100% +100%?)

Nope pretty sure that the double damage over armor doesn't stack. Cant remember why I thought that was the case but a room full of players came to the conclusion a while back now and thats what I remember.

[Prof-Chaos]

After reading over all of this I'm thinking of either an Rahn/Ashlynn combo dropping admonition and quicken all over the board and general dice manipulation on feat turns, or Rahn and eStryker for control and super soloing. My partner plays Cygnar and Mercs. I have to say, the thought of running Gorten and Rahn is extremely appealing hahaha.

Now that I've got a bit of an idea how to go about this, I'm going back on what I originally said and want to know some of the caster pairings you guys would suggest.

[Demeritus]

After reading over all of this I'm thinking of either an Rahn/Ashlynn combo dropping admonition and quicken all over the board and general dice manipulation on feat turns, or Rahn and eStryker for control and super soloing. My partner plays Cygnar and Mercs. I have to say, the thought of running Gorten and Rahn is extremely appealing hahaha.

Now that I've got a bit of an idea how to go about this, I'm going back on what I originally said and want to know some of the caster pairings you guys would suggest.

Epic Haley and Ossyan since she can use deadeye on the strike force if you want to run them. Not to mention you have two time mages or pHaley and Ossyan since TB debuffs everything and makes the MHA even more accurate. Rahn and eHaley for two 8 focus tk casters. You could do Siege and any of our casters for his feat plus MHA shenanigans. Strangely you could have them bring Reinholdt since his ability specifies friendly warcaster and use that with Ossyan. There are a lot of options but definitely ask your friend to bring th Black 13 for fire beacon stealth solutions.

[CHaoTiCTeX]

Not to worry, the next league apparently has Cryx and Menoth teamed up.

I thought I read at the end of NQ#41 that Retribution and Menoth would be teamed, I thought Cryx had gators or some other minion pact.

[Demeritus]

I thought I read at the end of NQ#41 that Retribution and Menoth would be teamed, I thought Cryx had gators or some other minion pact.

The next league based on the spoilers in the Cryx forum says the next one not the current one will have Protectorate and Cryx teamed up.

[CHaoTiCTeX]

ah, the next one, my league is a little behind (we had a journeyman start after the last war-torn, so olgunholt hasnt started yet) so I got a little confused there lol

[CHaoTiCTeX]

also, that combination terrifies me, especially since i live with a menoth player and a cryx player

[ForceFields!!!]

Nope pretty sure that the double damage over armor doesn't stack. Cant remember why I thought that was the case but a room full of players came to the conclusion a while back now and thats what I remember.

Had my own discussion with local gamer group and decided it would stack but not the way you would think. Since they are two different abilities they stack, but it say for each point over armor it doubles the damage. So it is regular damage, regular damage again, regular damage again. It works out to be X3 damage not X4.