Threat Saturation

[Magnus' Right Hand Man]

Just adding this small tactic that was from the MK I forum, didn't change any part of the original post.

I've thrown around this term in other threads, although I did hear it from someone else so I can't take credit for the term, and I wanted to cover it as a valid Retribution tactic. Now this isn't something that we invented as a faction but it appears as though we do it best. Also I apologize about the bad grammar within this post.
What do you mean by Threat Saturation?

Threat Saturation is providing an excessive amount of threats to your opponent, forcing him/her to prioritize their targets and often allowing one or more of these threats to leak through. I'm not saying this is a fool-proof tactic, your opponent may be able to deal with all of these threats for one turn but the continuous pressure of threats to either key models or even his warcaster should allow one of these to come through. Threat Saturation forces your opponent to play your game by putting them on the defensive.

What are some good Retribution models for Threat Saturation?

Well we couldn't talk about is without going over the Mage Hunter Assassin who may be the queen of Threat Saturation. She is extremely dangerous being able to put a lot of damage onto a single target with Decapitation and Weapon Master, but her true Threat is her threat range which at its base is 14", adding Garryth and Mirage it increases to 16" and using Laenyssa's Hunter's Mark that goes up to 18" to ignore this model would almost be suicide, that and she is cheap at 2 points.

The next in threat would be Narn, who is just great because of Acrobatics, well that and two MAT 8 PS 11 Weapon Master attacks. If ignored he can easily kill a Warcaster or he could kill a tough solo and retreat back to safety to strike another turn. He isn't better then Assassin at Saturation only due to the fact you can only have one of him.

Next comes up Epic and Prime Eiryss, I put these two together because to me it really is a pick your Eiryss poison. Now these two are threats to your opponent mostly due to the danger they have to either their Warcaster, for Prime Eiryss, or their Resources with Epic Eiryss. I refer to resources as the Jacks, and upkeep spells that the opposing Warcaster uses as tools to defeat your army. Now Super Solo casters don't really care if you mess with their army so in that case Prime Eiryss is much more of a threat. Also Eiryss provides more of a psychological threat since she has been a pain in everyone's side since prime so she develops a more guttural hatred by your opponent and some will try to kill her rather than an immediate threat, while a more level headed player will actually prioritize threat and leave Eiryss alone until she needs to be killed.

Next is Nayl, the double-edged sword of threats. If used properly he will simply leave the enemy Warcaster helpless for a brief period of time or he could be placed wrong and leave you vulnerable for a little while. Your opponent will try to destroy Nayl before he gets close to their warcaster so the will have to either draw out parts of their army, leaving openings, or use AOEs or Cygnar to kill him at range.

These four are the premiere of the Retribution for Threat Saturation, I'm not saying other solos or units aren't good at this tactic but these four to me appear to be the best at provide threats to your opponent. Now another model that goes great with these models is our Fane Knight who really benefits from the death of our own troops and could make your opponent think twice about killing any of these threats near him.

The other thing you want to bring is a fair amount of back-up units to capitalize on your threats, such as Mage Hunters, Invictors, Destors, and Riflemen. Now I'm focusing on ranged units here but melee units should work nearly as well but I'll explain. These units are here to take advantage of the movements your opponents make to counter the four primary threats, such as over-extending certain models to deal with say an Assassin running up the flank. These ranged units are going to provide the range so your threats are the main target of your enemy, its basically sitting back and picking off models and units as they approach to handle the threats.

But the real weakness to this army is AOEs, these will absolutely devastate your army and if some can think of a counter besides Rahn please let me know.

How do you use Threat Saturation?

There really isn't a right or a wrong way to do anything, there are more or less successful applications. What I would recommend is spread out your threats to provide multiple vectors of attack and keeping your ranged units back a bit and move up to eliminate anyone that is coming close to deal with any of the four primary threats. That is the real basics of the tactics, now with your primary threats you really need to place them in a position that the majority of them can strike on the same turn either at a Warcaster, an important solo, a jack marshal, anything in your opponent's army he really needs to attain his victory. Its really all about putting pressure on key points in your opponents army so he/she has to react to your actions. Now I'm not a great or even good chess player but it would be like putting your opponents in "Check" on every turn, that is about the best ****ogy I can create for this tactic.

What is the best Warcaster for Threat Saturation?

It would have to be Garryth followed closely by Ravyn then Kaelyssa. Garryth himself is truly the greatest threat within his own army and I don't believe that is really up for debate, he is absolutely deadly to a warcaster. Also with the combination of Death Sentence and Mirage he makes the Primary threats so much more deadly. Ravyn comes in a close second because of the support she can provide for the range support, Snipe alone allows your units to sit back even farther to support the primary threats but the problem is that they can sit back too far which eliminates some of the saturation because they themselves have almost been eliminated as a threat to the main components of your opponent's army. Now Kaelyssa, she makes it so you don't actually have to threaten the enemy warcaster personally you can threaten his/her jacks, also she opens up many other models as primary threats, for example Hydras and Ghost Snipers. Now Vyros and Rahn bring up the rear, now I'm not saying they are bad as caster for Threat Saturation but that they aren't the best, Vyros makes your Jacks the true threat but doesn't quite have that level of saturation needed and Rahn really can control the field and add a little survivability.


I am not saying this is the end all tactic for the Retribution or this is the only way apply threats to your opponent, this is merely an option for a Retribution player.



*Here is some more information written (again from MK I forums and unchanged) and defining threat saturation slightly more:

Now I'll explain a little about my original post, I wrote it as a primer for the tactic itself and everyone has done a great job adding to it. I don't believe any one tactic should be the end all of tabletop gaming but another option to defeat our opponents. I'll explain a little more on the tactic itself and my reasoning behind certain choices. I'll cover Primary and Secondary threats along with support. Primary threats are the obvious four solos within the first post they are in your opponents face and are supposed to provide a visceral threat he can't forget about and will really force a reaction and you probably will lose a high percentage of these models but some leaves must fall to attain victory.

Now secondary threats I really haven't covered much but are important, these many of you have brought up as valid threats, which they are but don't force your opponent to react quite as much as the primary threats. Secondary threats are the strike that follows up, it takes advantage of the wholes in your opponent's army that where created by the primary threats. They really are very destructive and include for one the Hydra who, dependent on his placement within the army, can be either a primary or secondary but in my opinion it is better to keep him back as the model your opponent forgot about because of the focus on the primary threats. Some excellent secondary threats include but not limited to: Hydra, Destors, Mage Hunters, Thanes, Riflemen, Invictors, and Ghost Snipers just to name a few. In all honesty most models within a Retribution army can serve as a secondary threat. Think of the secondary threats as Alexander's Companion Cavalry, they struck at the right place and at the right time to attain victory.

Now support units, which seems fairly self explanatory, models that support and make the threats better or help the threats better reach their targets. One unit I consider support are Battle Mages, yes they are threat in their own right but by moving models in the opponent's army you create additional opening for your threats to strike into.

Hopefully this helps to clear things up but also don't take anything as canon, it is merely my thoughts on a simple Retribution tactics that can be used many different ways. Also let me know if I should add this to the original post as an clarifying amendment to what is already written.

[Mazinger]

This is an excellent post, but I have to question Ravyn being over Kaelyssa. Kaelyssa removes your opponent's entire army when it goes to hitting the 'caster and is far more dangerous than any of the other 'casters in that respect. Garryth maybe dangerous in melee, but getting him there can be difficult, he has no way to get to the 'caster except gallows and mittens units to support him.

You may want to write more on Rhan and Vyros. Explain how they can use threat saturation rather than just writing them off.

Rhan can make "Team solo" an absolute impossible force to stop. While he isn't killing stuff he can give them access to any model they want. With his board control it's impossible for your opponent to protect against the solos hitting their targets. He can even extend their range with tele to push them 2".

Vryos is more difficult since he's kind of a 'jack caster in the sense that he rams Griffons down your throat at speed stupid a turn. And against opponents with super solo casters like Caine you can get an arc node near him and slap him with stranglehold. Which maybe all it takes to let your solos get him pinned down or force him to stand still a turn and take some of them out so the others can hit.

I think this is a good piece but could be expanded on. You may want to add "Getting Retribution : " to the start of the topic, since this is a solid tactics article, putting it with the other Retribution tactic articles would help newbies find it.