help defeating a 35pt rahn force

[shahryar]

Unfortunately I dont know specifically what I'll be facing tomorrow

I just know rahn, mittens and probably the mitten solos, mhsf, one heavy mymidon either manticore or the discordia if he picked up the kit. I know that's not much to go on.
I have 4 warcaster to choose from ecaine, phaley, pnemo, ehaley. the only ones I have some semblence of an army built however is ecaine and e haley.

A) Captain Allister Caine
Ironclad
Squire
Arcane Tempest Gun Mages (Leader and 5 Grunts)
Arcane Tempest Gun Mage Officer
Charger
Black 13th Gun Mage Strike Team
Greygore Boomhowler & Co. (Boomhowler and 5 Grunts)
Lady Aiyana & Master Holt
Captain Arlan Strangewayes
Reinholdt, Gobber Speculator
and the last 2 points to another solo, maybe harlan versh

B)Major Victoria Haley
Thorn
Ironclad
Squire
Black 13th Gun Mage Strike Team
Greygore Boomhowler & Co. (Boomhowler and 5 Grunts)
Captain Arlan Strangewayes
Journeyman Warcaster
Charger
has 4 points left but not sure what.

The first time I used ehaley I used 2 arcnodes which for the most part did well, but I should have used domination to walk his warjack into range of my big guns instead of using it to try and sow chaos on his battlelines.

what I have left to work with that I didnt mention above
lancer, sentinel, thunderhead, and cyclone.
units not mentioned alexia sword knights and devil dogs
solos I got tons victor, lanyssa, gorman, taryn, Anastasia, madelyn, an ogrun, rhupert

any advice for taking on rahn?

[admanb]

Both lists are solid. No glaring weaknesses I can see. Tailoring lists to your enemy is a weak way to play, imo (I'm not accusing you of that, I think those are both very general lists.)

General tips: until he's popped his feat or all the mittens are dead, hide your warcaster waaaaaaaay in the back. Boosted attack rolls on pulls and boosted damage rolls will destroy you.

Force Bolt means you can never assume that, say, Thorn is safe from a 'jack charge unless he's out of range of every single model in the Ret army. With that in mind, expect to lose models you don't think will die, but make him work for it.

Mittens are super easy to kill with Gun Mages, but don't even bother shooting them with the trolls. Use the trolls to engage troublesome models -- but don't expect them to protect you.

[shahryar]

I really don't like the idea of tailoring lists. It's actually what has been keeping me from using ecaine vs his ravyn mhsf army. It made me feel like I was.

Most I do is switch casters on an almost constant basis, but that might be more add the strategy lol. Although I've lost twice to his ravyn army so have been really tempted to take thunderhead lately haha.

here is an odd question does ryan's magestorm affect battlemages and rahn?

[serrasin]

Thunderhead would be a good way to clear out the mages. They are immune to blast damage, but that doesn't include all AOE and they are otherwise squishy. If you can trade it for a significant amount of his mage force than its a good exchange for you. Expect him to pop his feat as soon as possible to get the most use out of his mages before they thin out. If you can, get him to use them on inconsequential but in the way units like trenchers or something. If you can tease the feat out of him with minimal losses then you are in a much better position. If you can, try to snipe mages from out of their range.

Most Rahn players go with the Phoenix because its an arc node, keep an eye on it if you see a myrmidon with a big sword. It also has an auto-hit AOE so don't clump troops up within 4-6 inches of the fool thing, they will all die in blue fire.

Finally yes, Rahn's Feat works on all friendly faction magic attacks.

[shahryar]

hmm so some more expendables might be in order?
with my haley army I might be able to stick a min unit of sword knights in there

Major Victoria Haley
Thorn
Ironclad
Alexia Ciannor & the Risen (Alexia and 9 Risen Grunts)
Arcane Tempest Gun Mages (Leader and 5 Grunts)
Arcane Tempest Gun Mage Officer
Black 13th Gun Mage Strike Team
Greygore Boomhowler & Co. (Boomhowler and 5 Grunts)
Captain Arlan Strangewayes(not sure if he fits to well now)

this one is probably a step backwards but was just messing around before bed.

[serrasin]

Well I guess what I was trying to get at is that you want to try and force his hand to use the feat before his mages are all dead [thus taking the teeth from the feat], but have that feat turn have minimal impact on your win conditions and ideally your war caster.

Many Rahn lists will use the feat turn to try and get a critical hit [rolling three dice increases the chance for a crit] from the mages to knock down your caster while reeling him in close enough for a back rank Mage Hunter Assassin or Fane Knight to get a charge with auto hits.

[admanb]

here is an odd question does ryan's magestorm affect battlemages and rahn?

Sure. Why not? Mittens have no particular defense against magic attacks (beyond their +2DEF).

[shahryar]

ah I was more wondering because of the force barrier that makes them immune to blasts didnt know if that affected aoes in general.

well with taht somewhat silly second list I made I was planning to send the atgm to take on the mittens using snipe but have alexia stand just far enough back to absorb the casualties so if the charge of the gunmage brigaide fails there is an extra cushion to soften it, and if it succeeds then I would have them trade places.

I have a feeling my friend built this as a preliminary mittens army on a budget(we are both short on funds) so I have a feeling the invictors from his ravyn army will be in there somewhere. and that team was a full team plus officer and standard just like his mhsf was max unit plus ua

infact now that I think about it if I had to guess at his army I picture something like this

Adeptis Rahn Shyeel
Manticore
Dawnguard Invictors (Leader and 5 Grunts)
Dawnguard Invictor Officer & Standard
House Shyeel Battle Mages (Leader and 5 Grunts)
Soulless Escort
Lady Aiyana & Master Holt
Mage Hunter Strikeforce (Leader and 9 Grunts)
Mage Hunter Commander
Arcanist
Ghost Sniper
House Shyeel Magister

[Derangedgamer123]

Epic Caine can take rahn so can Pcaine But they both need support from rangers too do so!

[shahryar]

sorry dont have the time nor money to order rangers before about 1pm

[haunter1029]

If I was a Cygnar player I would first take out his nodes asap then use your superior CRA sniped ranged (longgunners) to take out his mages.

[shahryar]

I have a feeling at least feat wise he will still favor his MHSF for the feat.

[shahryar]

woot I won. wasnt a true full rahn army, I posted a summation battle report in the appropriate forums