Forcefields, Crossbows, and Mittens: What new Mage Hunters should know!

[joelker41]

This intro to the pointy eared human hating Retribution of Scyrah is intended to help new players to both Warmachine or just Retribution as a faction to better understand the models/strategies involved in the faction!

This isn?t intended as you ?you should buy X models? introduction, just an encouragement towards synergizing with your favorite casters and what they like to bring! The Retribution has a lot to offer that differs from many factions and those qualities make them truly a unique and fun play experience for you and your opponents!

Included in this intro are links to various articles written by fellow Retribution players to help you get started but seeing many different viewpoints and discussions on the models. Not all models have articles written for them yet but we're working on it!

Links To Retribution Resources: Syvash Stronghold


General Retribution Strategy:

Retribution?s primary strength is their versatility and ability to adapt to many situations. Off the wall helpful attributes such as the majority of our Myrmidons having Magical guns and many having magical weapons in addition to obnoxiously high command on many of our units may not be immediately noticeable but they come in handy.

Ret is what is called a ?combined arms? faction. We like having balanced lists with powerful shooting but we also like to stab things with pointy sticks/swords/etc. The level of Blessed/Arcane Assassin/upkeep ignoring that we have is a very powerful tool on many of our models. Oftentimes Retribution goes around the opposing army and just destroys the caster/support for the first few turns. We can also fight a drawn out attrition style fight with our excellent infantry in both melee and ranged aspects. This once again is why we are the faction built on versatility.

Retribution lists tend to do their best when they have the majority of their points invested in Myrmidons and Units. The solos we have available are very good and provide great tech support (Magister, Mage Hunter Assassins, both version of Eiryss for example) and they complement our units and Myrmidons very well.

There is no real designated starting Warcaster for Retribution. Kaelyssa is generally considered our starting Warcaster in Leagues and such but any of our Warcasters can be used to learn the faction with as virtually none of them play the exact same. In other words, PLAY WHO YOU WANT!


Here is a brief analysis of the leaders of our little band of pointy-eared human haters, the Warcasters!

Each warcaster brings with them an interesting mix of abilities and all have different strengths/playstyles that can suit virtually any player. You can gunline with Ravyn, mash in melee with Garryth/Vyros, be a pest with Kaelyssa, or manipulate the board with Rahn and Ossyan.

This also includes suggestions for models to use with each caster, these are just general and basic suggestions so play what you want! Solos were not included with most casters because most of them are useful with any of them!


Kaelyssa, Night?s Whisper

Article by joelker41
Article by Dawnlord_Ed

Stats/Spells/Feat:

Kaelyssa is one of the iconic casters for Retribution and she brings a plethora of weapons to the table between stealing Focus/Fury with her weapons as a way to be a nuisance and a serious assassination threat, her extreme hate on opposing Magic with Witch Hound and Banishing Ward/Arcane Reckoning, and last but not least her excellent defensive feat that also is a catalyst to setting up her list?s offense. Her primary challenges are her low armor and relatively low powered weapons, but she doesn?t usually do the heavy lifting alone in her lists so she is more of a complimentary/setup caster rather than charging in and ending the game herself.

She is also the only model currently in Retribution that ignores Stealth directly with her True Sight. That is a great boon to aid her when combined with an Arc Node such as a Phoenix or with her gun combined with Phantom Hunter to ignore the Line of Sight Requirement to start taking down solos or a caster!

She is Retribution?s ?unofficial official? battlebox caster. There are two introductory versions to her, with the journeyman league list of her, a Manticore, a Chimera and a Griffon. The other isn?t an official battlebox but her with a Phoenix and a Banshee was included with the Bundle packages.


What you will learn with Kaelyssa:

She really teaches players that use her about proper board spacing maximizing her feat and the Runebolt Cannon. Her anti-magic tech is situational in many games but she generally does well throwing the proverbial monkey wrench into spell slinging caster?s plans such as Cryx and Menoth Casters.

She also influences the battle somewhat indirectly with Backlash providing indirect damage to opposing Warcasters but also having decent anti-Hordes tech robbing Fury off of beasts and Warlocks making them damage themselves for more fury on most turns. She also supports a wide variety of models so list building with her never gets boring.

In many ways she is the epitome of what Retribution is about with her versatility and slant vs Retribution?s storied hate Vs. opposing Magic. She is a very good warcaster to start with because no two games with her are generally ever the same.


What she likes in her lists:

Kaelyssa is all about versatility. She prefers a good deal of Ranged units but also supports melee infantry well with Banishing Ward and her Feat to prevent your enemy from getting the first strike. It is a good idea to include an Arc Node with her in most lists because of her potent spell list. She also can runs multiple Myrmidons very comfortably. Fielding 2-3 of them in all of her lists is a common tactic since Arcanists and Witch Hound provide a lot of help for them.

Popular Models with her include (Not limited to these but they have proven synergy with her):

Myrmidons:

Phoenix (Continues the theme of Versatility with the Arc Node, Combustion, and high speed)
Banshee/Hydra (Great long range Phantom Hunter targets and Banshee continues her anti-magic slant with Wailing)
Discordia (Imprint protects Kaelyssa and is really mean when Witch Hound Triggers with a Spray!)
Chimera (Cheap Arc Node to get Backlash and Rifts off with)

Units:

Mage Hunter Strike Force/Invictors (Great ranged units that are in the sweet spot damage wise to aid with Backlash)

Sentinels/Halberdiers (Hard Hitting Infantry with Reach really helps clog up the middle letting her shooting models have breathing room turn after turn)



Ravyn, Eternal Light

Article by daner0023

Stats/Spells/Feat:

Ravyn is one of the classic Retribution warcasters with her absolutely terrifying support for our shooting models. With Snipe and her Feat she can turn models with average stats into super accurate terrors! She is one of more well rounded casters we have as well with Locomotion to support her Myrmidons and Vortex of Destruction to really make the attacks of her army hurt like crazy!

With Veil of Mists she also provides some protection vs many opponents for herself or anything behind the cloud.

What you will learn with Ravyn:

Statistics. Her feat is all about them. Boosted ranged attack rolls and Swift Hunter are great tools to give you a very powerful turn of shooting. The reason I say statistics is because she is generally paired with ranged units such as the Mage Hunter Strike Force and Stormfall Archers, with only RAT 6 and Rat 5 respectively it will be apparent early on that while you are averaging hits vs many targets you are certainly not guaranteed them! Statistics are based on a curve not a straight line!

That said, she isn?t solely based in range. With Vortex of Destruction she can pump serious damage out with her gun/blade in melee, and her Myrmidons or engaged friendly models can really tear anything she is engaged apart. Locomotion will will also get her the first strike with her Myrmidons or allow them to move out of the way after it performs it?s activation.

Models that have great synergy with her include (again, not limited to, but are iconic and powerful):

Myrmidons:

Discordia ? Often considered her trademark jack. Imprint protecting both Ravyn and many of the low Armor shooting models she traditionally brings will increase the survivability and long term damage output of your list. Often is the only Myrmidon included in her list but certainly she can one more comfortably.

Considering the majority of our Myrmidons have good speed and the ability to shoot, there aren?t to many that are bad with her!

Units:

Mage Hunter Strike Force with Unit Attachment ? The Iconic combination known as ?Snipe-Feat-Go? features this unit with Snipe on it moving or standing still and aiming on feat turn and annihilating low armor casters, units, or even many Warjacks. The Arcane Assassin ability combined with Phantom Seeker on the unit means there are very few defensive abilities that will help when these guys come to play!

Stormfall Archers ? She supports these guys arguably the best out of all our casters, with Ossyan being the other contender. Super long range artillery that hits hard, also are a great snipe target to make their threat range with POW 12s and brutal damage is just plain evil.

Invictors ? These guys with Snipe and their once per game additional +4 range ability (it stacks!) means you can shooting something 18 inches away with a RAT 8/POW 14 with a reroll if you miss from their Unit Attachment. That is a very fun trick and on feat turn there are very few things in this game you won?t hit consistently.



Adeptis Rahn

Article by Lord Xalys

Stats/Spells/Feat:

Generally considered Retribution?s most powerful warcaster, Rahn provides his army with a myriad of spell support that facilitates his army incredibly well. Telekinesis, Force Blast, Force Hammer, Chain Blast are all spells you will use quite frequently and his Force Field and Polarity Shield spells make assassinating him and destroying his troops with AoEs a difficult prospect.

Rahn?s Feat supports magic attacks very well, and we have many models that take advantage of that such as House Shyeel Battle Mages, Magisters, and even Artificers.

What you will learn with Rahn:

What a tried and true army support caster is supposed to look like. He supports multiple Myrmidons, Units, and can get mileage out of virtually every solo in our arsenal as well.

He is a very strong scenario caster with Telekinesis and Force Blast, he often will be moving the opposing army more than his own, particularly on feat turn. He also lends himself to assassination very well with his feat boosting Force Hammers to hitting a ridiculous 18.5 defense on average!

What Rahn cannot do very well is fight in melee, and he only has a defense of 14 in melee, making anything with MAT 7 or greater or anything that can boost vs him a very dangerous situation to try to live through. He prefers Arc Node Myrmidons like a Phoenix or a Chimera in most of his lists, he also appreciates Arcanists to power boost his Arc Nodes to run them where he needs them as he likes to keep the majority of his Focus for casting spells.

Models Rahn gets particular mileage out of:

Myrmidons:

Phoenix (You?ll see this name pop up a lot in this intro, a really powerful and iconic weapon for us)
Chimera (Cheap Arc Nodes are great with a Spell slinging caster)

Units:

Battle Mages/Magister Solos: These guys were built to aid Rahn in his endeavors, they get rather ridiculous on feat turn.

Nyss Hunters/Sentinels: Both are very powerful melee units. Nyss get good use out of the protection that Force Field brings by making sure they don?t get annihilated by AoEs and Sentinels with Polarity Shield on them keeps their low defenses and moderate threat range safer than normal.

[joelker41]

Garryth, Blade of Retribution

Article by Dino-Czar

Stats/Spells/Feat:

Retribution?s foremost assassin both storyline wise and on the tabletop, Garryth provides a wide variety of ways to bring the pain to his opponents. With his built in Stealth, high-normal defense, and high speed he can get where he wants to and be relatively safe while doing it.

Armed to the teeth with two decent POW pistols and Weapon Master blades combined with Arcane Assassin (That is on ALL attacks, not just melee!) AND Grievous Wounds means that if he reaches his target he will do serious damage if not just outright remove them from the battlefield. With Mirage as an upkeep he also can be rather sneaky with his threat ranges, and since it is on a friendly model/unit he can put it on himself, his Myrmidon(s), or his units. Death Sentence and Psychic Vampire are very good peripheral spells to hate on enemy Magic and make sure he and his allies hit.

At first glance his feat appears to be mostly geared to fight Warmachine armies, but preventing placement effects and spell channeling still hurts hordes pieces like Spell Martyrs, Shifting Stones, Gallows Groves, etc. Preventing enemies from spending Focus means Garryth?s army will be hard to hit, damage, and reach without the ability for many Warjacks to spend focus to charge/boost.

What you will learn with Garryth:

Similar to Ravyn: statistics. He isn?t a very hard caster to kill with his low stats, and his feat while harmful to many strategies still leaves him open to a luck shot or two. Also, with his heavy bent towards Assassination he oftentimes will be relying on rolling strictly average or above average to end the game vs enemy Casters/Warlocks. You will learn quickly that just because he can reach the enemy doesn?t necessarily mean he will be able to take them out.

He is a caster based on managing risk vs reward. He also suffers a bit by not really supporting his army as much as many of the other Casters in the faction. He is a very unique caster with a lot of tools at his disposal and is fun to play.

Models that help Garryth particularly well:

Myrmidons:

It isn?t so much about which ones really help him, just the amount of them. He generally doesn?t run more than 1 or two as well as someone like Kaelyssa or Ossyan would. He likes to keep his focus!

Units/Solos:

Halberdiers/Sentinels/Invictors: Garryth can?t be the only thing on the board hitting hard. With their average to above average accuracy all of these units can be good first strike/finish off models for him.

Madelyn Corbeau/Magister: These two figures are included in most Garryth lists because they make him and the rest of his army very mobile at the right time with Intrigue and Whip Snap. Between Mirage/Whip Snap/Mirage and a Charge Garryth can hit something very far away every turn!



Dawnlord Vyros

Article by thecsharian
Article by NEoJoe

The big daddy of them all. With a great set of stats and passive abilities Vyros can and will be a thorn in your opponent?s side pretty much every game. With Bird?s eye, Inviolable Resolve, and Mobility he gives his army unique advantages and creates a lot of versatility in his lists.

With Flank he hits VERY accurately and VERY hard. He oftentimes can end games with a 1 box Myrmidon providing him Flank, with this bonus he becomes one of the hardest hitting casters and the most accurate caster in the entire game not named Harbinger (dirty round ears!).

Inviolable Resolve is a versatile spell handing out a decent armor buff to any friendly model that is useful on infantry, myrmidons, and even himself if you expect an assassination run on him. With Sylys upkeeping it on him for free his armor is on par with even Terminus, Karchev, and Gorten while they are camping it.


His feat is a very interesting topic. It will be very useful in some games and not come into effect in many others. If you are bringing Vyros, it generally isn?t for his Feat as it isn?t designed to be his strength. If it works for him in a game, it can certainly make his alpha-striking turn much better.

What you will learn with Vyros:

As I said earlier, his statistics afford you a much larger amount of forgiveness dice rolls wise. With a good defense and good armor he is also our hardest caster to assassinate, so if you make a mistake or two with his positioning wise it won?t necessarily lose you the game.

With Bird?s Eye and Mobility, you gain a lot of interesting options, ignoring terrain and models for line of sight and terrain for movement is a powerful combination with the speed boost from Mobility. It affords him and his Myrmidons a VERY long threat range.


Models that Vyros gets particular use out of:

Myrmidons:

With Bird?s Eye and mobility he literally makes any of our Myrmidons terrors. The powerful long range shooting of the Hydra/Banshee with Bird?s Eye, the charging first strike of a Phoenix/Griffon with Mobility, or the interesting synergy between an Aspis and his feat being the energizer bunny that can just keep going through entire units with Beat Back are all great examples of the wide range he supports.

Even middle costed heavies like the Daemon and Sphinx can be great with their guns and providing Flank for an inexpensive cost.

Units/Solos:

You name it, he can get use out of it. He is a caster that can have his Myrmidons knock down the enemy and just have Infantry be the finish off, or make the Armor of a Dawnguard Sentinel/Invictor unit or a Halberdier unit sky high and be virtually immune to low POW shooting or AoEs. He appreciates units that don?t require a ton of support to be useful like Halbs/Sentinels.



Lord Arcanist Ossyan

Article by Watchtower


Stats/Spells/Feat:

Ossyan is the undisputed king of support spells in Retribution. Quicken, Admonition, Chronomancer, Shatter Storm, etc all are spells uniquely suited to bring a totally different playstyle from his peers. Right off the bat you notice Ossyan has very average to below average stats for a Warcaster. His low-average defense and armor combined with his lackluster melee ability make him a very ?squishy? caster and he generally needs Admonition and a bigger base in front of him to keep him safe.

Quicken?s versatility in speeding up a unit or his Myrmidons while adding defense is something that is a great addition to Retribution. Dawnguard Units and Halberdiers are the most common targets of it as the extra speed combined with extra defense lessens their weaknesses significantly.

Admonition gives him a lot of survivability on either him or a Myrmidon and generally gets swapped around on a few different targets throughout a game. It is most commonly on him to avoid assassination runs on him.

Shatter Storm and Chronomancer are both situationally useful spells that will be useful in many games as well. His gun is worth mentioning as one of the best pieces of tech we have. Moderate range and POW but absolutely devastating special rules that neuters the threat ranges of models and lowers defenses in a large AoE, you will have a lot of fun with this gun and Hypnos?s affinity on his Void Locking gun.

What you will learn with Ossyan:

Balance. Knowing that he is not particularly hard to kill but also that his spells and feat are very good creates a lot of tight-rope walking to balance out damage output with survivability.

His feat turns normal shooting models much more powerful per shot but it requires enemies to be in his control area, and that is the catch with him. If whatever you are shooting survives and has a long enough threat range he can be in a world of hurt. There are also plenty of things in this game with a shooting range longer than his control area, and that can be an issue for the defensive aspect of it. Even a normal pow 14 or 15 shot in his control area can still hurt him fairly badly with a boost if there are enough of them.

In short, do what you think is necessary to protect Ossyan, then do even more!


Models that synergize particularly well with Ossyan:

Myrmidons:

Hypnos: This almost goes without saying. Hypnos?s affinity locking down opposing Jacks/Beasts and preventing them forcing/boosting is GREAT. With Ossyan?s gun locking down one heavy and Hypnos neutering another, you can consistently make your opponent work much harder than normal.

Heavies that can shoot ? Primarily the Banshee or Hydra. The Phoenix isn't as needed as his gun is shorter range and Ossyan doesn?t really need a second arc node. The Banshee knocking down a heavy then just destroying it at range with Stormfalls, Invictors, or other heavies is a common tactic.

Units/Solos:

Invictors/Stormfalls/Mage Hunter Strike Force: These are the three units you will primarily see fielded with him. The Stormfalls really bring the pain with their brutal shots stacking with the Feat to hit as hard as Sentinels on a Charge! Invictors are highly accurate long range shooting models that with Quicken and their mini-feat can cover almost 2/3 of the board with their threat range while moving! MHSF annihilate Jacks and knocked down Casters on Feat turn as well.

Halberdiers: Great Quicken target. Having high defense vs Charging, Shooting, AND Spells with Quicken gives you a lot of help keeping them alive, and they out-threat most other faction's melee units. Sentinels also benefit obviously.

Heavy Rifle Team/Houseguard Riflemen/Destor Thanes: More damage on feat turn is always good!



Vyros, Incissar of the Dawnguard

Stats/Spells/Feat:

First of all, his stats are amazing. High speed, high MAT, high RAT, and the best base defensive stats in the game, with the tradeoff of being an easier to target lard base. Being a Cavalry model allows you a lot of mobility for ride by attacks to set up Synergy chains or just put a boostable shot into something.

Spell wise he is the definition of multi-tasker. With Synergy to help his Myrmidons, Deflection to protect his troops, Easy Rider to give Pathfinder to a faction devoid of it in many of it's models/units, and the passive Inspiration and Bird's Eye abilities can be very useful.

Feat wise it will be sort of tricky to use at first. Moving your model when one of your models die can be a blessing and curse. If you move up something important it could just get charged, if you move back, you could put yourself out of threat range. However, you could stick one warrior model in a zone, get it killed, and move another one in. Just keep one going to keep contesting your zone or if Mulg is on his rampage through your lines with Goad you can just remove a goad target and end the chain prematurely. In other words, the Feat requires precision timing, much like Ossyan's feat, only Vyros is much harder to kill than Ossyan on most turns.


What you will learn with Vyros:

How to be a battlefield manipulator and how to be a precise positioner. Between his feat, Easy Rider, Bird's eye, and his being an extremely mobile cavalry model you will be able to reach models and areas of the board with your models that no one else in the faction can do with the ENTIRE army just not shooting with Phantom Seeker on MHSF or Kaelyssa tossing out Runebolts ignoring pretty much everything line of sight/targetting wise. It's a risk vs reward prospect however, with his large base and tendency to not camp focus because he probably allocated or cast a few of his spells he'll often be at or close to that 18 base armor most turns. Watch our for mass shooting and/or Armor Piercing!


Myrmidons that are good with Vyros:

Any. Literally. With Synergy even pillow fisted ones like Hydras are fieldable because Synergy for up close and Bird's Eye to pick off targets at long range it's quite the option list. He prefers more than 1 or 2 though, so it will be an investment in points and from the wallet to get use out of Synergy. He simply makes Myrmidons better.

Griffons are the obvious preferred cheap Synergy chain creating monsters, and the Aspis provides cheap ranged defense so the lights aren't out of the question either.

Units/Solos that are good with eVyros:

With Easy Rider and Deflection he can run pretty much any faction infantry well. Tanking a unit of Sentinels up to 19 ARM with Deflection+Defensive Line or Halberdiers up to 20 ARM with Shield Wall are two primary examples.

In his tier list, he makes Destors cheaper and gives them an incredible speed boost on the first turn. You can decide whether to play them but playtesting to make sure would be a good idea since they are a large investment.

Solos wise he likes the mobility increasing options. Madelyn Corbeau, Lanyssa Ryssyl, or even the spare Magister can be great with Whip Snap to increase the already long threat ranges posed by eVyros' lists. Arcanists go almost without saying.

That's it for our Warcasters!

[joelker41]

Our Myrmidons:

Many factions use their Jacks/Beasts to deal the majority of the damage. Retribution Myrmidons are altogether different. In many games they are the setup pieces like a Phoenix combusting to remove models in the way of a key Solo/Unit charge or arcing powerful spells into the enemy. Or a Banshee slamming the opposing caster to get finished off by the rest of the force and dimishing their spells and unit's effectiveness. Or Discordia providing powerful defenses and a great spray, or even the humble Manticore just putting down Covering Fire and redirecting the opponent’s army wherever it needs to.

Starting out, it is a good idea to have a decent variety of Myrmidons. It is highly recommended that you get a kit for the Phoenix/Manticore/Hydra/Discordia chassis and a kit for the Banshee/Sphinx/Daemon/Hypnos as they provide you with a great combination of power levels and versatility to match our various casters. If you have the time/means magnetizing these jacks is a great way to save money and always have the model of Myrmidon you want in your lists.

Many of our lists feature a combination of a Phoenix (Article by thecsharian), a Banshee (Article by Gho5t), and/or Discordia (Article by NeoJoe). They are the holy trinity of Retribution’s heavy hitters. All three do multiple things that make your opponent want to pull their hair out special ability wise while hitting hard enough to threaten most other heavies. You don’t have to own or play them, they are just very good pieces to start out with and all our warcasters get great use out of one or more of them in every game. Magnetizing (Article by thecsharian) also lets you experiment with different combinations at the same time. That said, just getting a kit and making a Phoenix and a Banshee is a great way to start out the faction if you don’t magnetize!

Our light Myrmidons are also cheap additions to many lists that are useful as well. Griffons (Article by thecsharian) are speedy and very survivable lights for how cheap they are, Aspis (Article by Mastershake) protects our models from shooting and is also hard to kill, the Chimera (Article by thecsharian) is a great cheap arc node that won’t hurt you to bad points wise if you lose it in combat, and the Gorgon (Article by Kallas) has a very unique Force Lock ability to tie down enemy models.

All our lights (except the Chimera as you can only Arc spells from whoever is controlling it) are great for marshalling to Sentinels, Invictors, and the Scyir. It’s a cheap way to add versatility and extra punch to your units. Sentinels are especially good at it with their Drive: Pronto, letting whatever Myrmidon they are marshalling to make a full advance out of activation. This also works great with Daemons!



And last but not least: The big daddy: Hyperion.

Hyperion is an excellent addition to the faction in that he adds a lot of durability to many classic Ret lists that often can't take a punch. He's especially good with pVyros (Bird's Eye + Inviolable Resolve), Ravyn (Absolute terror with Snipe), Rahn's No Quarter Tier (In game bonuses and Polarity Shield protects him a lot), and can work comfortably with any of our warcasters although eVyros tends to prefer quantity rather than quality and Garryth and Kaelyssa are usually doing other things with their focus on a given turn. Ossyan has the unique ability to speed him up and make his guns absolutely terrifying on feat turn.

Either way, he's darn solid. The ability to Crit Consume coupled with POW 20 fists and a metric ton of damage boxes makes him a unique and powerful tool in our arsenal. If you are just starting out with Ret, you would probably do better to focus on the big three of Retribution (Phoenix, Discordia, Banshee) and get your feet wet with them before shelling out the dough for Hyperion. He's good, he just isn't necessarily needed to start you out on your mage hunting journey!

Units:

Retribution’s infantry is generally some of the best in the game while also being very unique. A general base collection of general use units like these are a great starting base to expand on:
Mage Hunter Strike Force (MHSF) (Article by firesflames4)
Invictors (Article by booker)
Battle Mages (Article by Lord Xalys)
Sentinels (Article by Demeritus)
Halberdiers (Article by thecsharian)
Stormfall Archers (Article by Lord Xalys)

One VERY important part of our units is if they have a Unit Attachment (UAs), you want to use it. The Sentinels, Invictors, Halberdiers, and MHSF all get markedly better with their UAs. The abilities both Granted and Tactics wise are a very pungent mix. Sentinels with Vengeance/Drive: Pronto, MHSF with Phantom Seeker on top of Stealth and Arcane Assassin, Halberdiers with their Team Effort ‘mini-feat’ and reform, and Invictors with Combined Arms and their Mini-Feat are all worth 2 points and then some!

There isn’t a generally preferred melee option between Halberdiers, Sentinels, and Nyss Hunters (Article by Gho5t). All three bring different strengths and hit hard when they need to. These three often end games more often than our casters or Myrmidons!

Units such as the Heavy Rifle Team, Houseguard Riflemen, and Destors are more specialized units that, while still unique and effective in their own right, are generally more used to expand your base army once you achieve a mix with the above units first. Nyss Hunters are not faction models but they are still a great unit. The disadvantage to them is that they do not benefit from faction-only effects like Ravyn and Ossyan’s feats. Odds are if you are expanding into Retribution you will already own them because, well, they are GREAT!

Another great and useful unit is Lady Aiyana and Master Holt. Their combination of handing out Magical Weapons (Neutering Passage from Menoth’s Choir, Wind Wall, Incorporeal, etc) to our ranged or melee units is a great ability to have for their cost. Kiss of Lyliss (also referred to as ‘Harm’) makes it so every damage roll rolled vs a target hit by it makes our weapons hurt that much more as well.

Last, but not least, Soulless Escorts are a Weapon Attachment that you can attach up to 3 of on any Retribution unit. They are very cheaply costed and have some fantastic anti magic benefits with mage static and Disbinding. It would be a good idea to get at least one of these little buggers, they are better on 10+ man units so you get more advantage from their abilities. Sticking them on a unit of Stormfalls or Battle Mages isn’t quite as effective as protecting a full 12 man unit of Sentinels for example.


Our Solos:

This is where Retribution goes from fun to really fun. Great pieces like both versions of Eiryss, the Fane Knight, Destor Thanes, Magisters, Arcanists, etc etc etc are all great for their cost.

While most Warmachine Factions can and do run Eiryss and Sylys Wyshnalyrr, we get the special rules that turn them into a faction model! That means with Ravyn she will have boosted ranged attacks on feat turn, Kaelyssa will make them immune to being charged and Sylys stealthed, etc. Both the Prime and Epic versions of Eiryss are very solid inclusions in any and all of your lists, and starting out getting at least one version of her is a good idea as she complements our casters and playstyle very well. Sylys is just a great model that saves our casters focus, makes them more accurate with spells, and extends their casting range. Nifty for a cheap price tag!

Mage Hunter Assassins can be one of the more powerful figures in the game. The ability to hit something 14” away with Decapitation AND Weapon Master AND Arcane Assassin makes these things ridiculously scary for a cheap cost. Starting out having at least one of them is a good idea.

Destor Thanes and Ghost Snipers are good cheap ranged solos that address various issues that Ret can have. Thanes are commanders and give their amazing CMD stat to friendly models nearby, so them fleeing is rarely going to happen, and with Multi-Fire and ride by he is a mobile gun platform that is a ridiculous terror with Ossyan or Ravyn. Ghost Snipers are good in virtually any list for putting key damage where and when you need it with Sniper. If you leave a few points on a jack’s system or a Beast’s aspect you can easily just tap some accurate damage into whatever column you want as long as you hit.

Off the wall pieces like Madelyn Corbeau, Lanyssa Ryssyl, and Dahlia/Skarath are also more of an expanding option. They aren’t bad but you won’t need them in most lists as much as standard faction models. That is of course not including Garryth, who usually has Madelyn Corbeau in most of his lists.

Narn and Nayl are two characters Solos that are used less often than the MHAs. Nayl explodes on an enemy's attack neutering their offensive potential within him command area, but most people will just chuck him at your lines with a beast/jack or just flat out ignore him as he doesn't hit particularly hard. Narn is a great melee solo with Stealth, Sprint, and two Arcane Assassin swords to walk up and just start messing with the opponent's support. Acrobatics ensures he also gets where he wants. He's a great Solo/UA/light jack/beast hunting solo.

Last but again not least are Arcanists. Super cheap mechanics that have Power Booster to increase our focus efficiency, Concentrated Power to make our Myrmidons hit harder, and last but not least a good repair skill to keep our machines of destruction working and destroying! These guys are Field Allowance 2, but in lower point games it is perfectly acceptable to play just one of them. You will (and I mean WILL) be playing 2 of them eventually because of their cheap cost and versatility.


Good luck and go punish the filthy round ears!

[Safstrom]

Great read!

[Kalki]

Excellent summary of the faction.

[Alatriste]

Thanks for this great write up and the work you've put into it.

For the upcoming Journeyman I'll be playing the angry elves.
Don't know my caster yet, but after reading your guide it narrowed down to Kaelyssa, Ossyan or Garryth. :-)

Greez Alatriste

[Gho5t]

This is a great write up. It seems like a great snapshot of the Faction. Excellent work!

[joelker41]

Thanks for the compliments guys!

[joelker41]

Updated with quick entries on eVyros and Hyperion. Someone needs to get Articles up for these guys so I can link them!

[Gho5t]

Also, good to bump this with the influx of new players taking up the ears.

[Demeritus]

Good additions, as we all get practice with them we will definitely be adding those write ups.

[Delta57Dash]

Was eVyros being on a "lard" base an intentional jab at him being fat, or is that a typo?

[Ndaehn]

Garryth 2013! Just Do it!

[joelker41]

Bumpity.

Lots of new people asking for info on where to start recently.