Rahn Vs Dr. Arkadius, 50 points, Batrep.

One of a large number, of battle reports sitting in my to do box.

This was my most recent game however. 

My opponent gave me the option of playing against Pigs or a real faction. 

I thought the fairest thing to do was dice it and let fate decide. I'm happy to get what I consider an easy game but expected at least Lord Carver when the dice chose Pigs.

Alas I went off to buy snack food and mull over a list while my opponent made his. Then, I returned knowing I would play Rahn and not much more. Unpackaged from its container was a rather beastly looking Pig force and standing out as brazen as a pair of shaven rat balls were 2 Goraxe.

"Dr. Arkadius I presume?"

Let's see here.

Dr. Arkadius  

Slaughter housers

3 War Hogs

Road Hog

Bonegrinders 

Targ

2 Goraxe 

5 Razor boars. 

End of Pigs turn 1 Squeeeee!

Adeptis Rahn Shyeel.

Imperitus

Chimera

Sylys

Battle Mages

Storm Fall Archers 2

Sentinels with UA

Arcanist

Magister

Artificer

Aiyanna and Holt.

Do not be mistaken.

I think this is a pretty bad Rahn list and I threw it up on the spot.

Well in a way. For example I almost never take Sylys with Rahn, normally Sylys improves on a Warcasters accuracy for an assassination or helps keep focus costs down. But I find with Rahn I'm seldom doing anything but Telekinesis and the odd force hammer that I'm not hurting for the spare focus and with foc8 and free boost on feat the pseudo boost is often redundant.

Imperitus is just there cause he is Imperitus. How is it not good? Telekinesis him and or the target that's 4 inches extra threat and done in the right order effective mat 9. 

The rest of the infantry is just what I figured a general brick cracking type of Rahn list could use.

Retribution turn 1

So there was a Forced Evoloutioned Road Hog staring me straight in the face, with a couple Razor Boars looking dangerously close.

Activation order

1. Chimera mirage forward.
2. Rahn allocates 0 focus.
3. Arcanist advances and gives the Chimera a focus.
4. Chimera runs to position between Road Hog and Razor Boar to have both inside Telekinesis  range.
5. Rahn activates, Feats Telekinesis' the Road Hog and Razor Boar forward and gives the Battle Mages Polarity Shield.
6. Aiyanna advances Kisses the Road Hog and Holt shoots it a couple times.
7. Road Hog Wild Aggressions into combat with my Magister.
8. I realize his beasts have Wild Aggression.
9. Artificer advances and Magno Blasts the Road Hog disengaging it from combat. Now the road hog is out of Dr. Arkadius' control. 
10. Storm falls Brutal Damage and put it down while another hits the Razor Boar and it Wild Aggressions into the edge of the forest.
11. Battle Mages advanced and force bolt 2 more Razor Boars pulling them in and Knocking them Down.
12. Storm fall Archers put Brutal into the Boars killing them.

What I did do.

Killed the Road Hog and 2 Razor Boars.

What I should have done.

Not forgotten about Wild Aggression.

What I didn't do.

Move enough stuff further up the board or clear myself out of the Kill Box.

First turn Feating was pretty ballsy but I think it paid off.

Pigs turn two.

What he did.

Primaled a Razor Boar and charged the Chimera. 

Ran his gun Boar close enough to Primal Shock Aiyanna to death. Quite horrifying.

Repositioned his forces.

Feated to get his Gun Boar closer and deliver the Razor Boar with a free attack.

What he didn't do.

Jam bacon down my throat. -I know polarity shield must have been a pain in the loin but I was expecting everything to run into my front line and then for him to feat and frenzy-

Holt passed his morale check and just half the Chimera got wrecked so it was still good for another turn.

Retribution turn two.

Imperitus assassination run.

In the hopes if this was a quick game I could have a second, I saw a pretty big opening for Imp and took it.

Activation order

1. Rahn gives Imperitus 3.
2. Chimera mirages out of combat.
3. Chimera advances to a safe distance to ark a Telekinesis at Dr. Arkadius.
4. Sylys gives Rahn Arcane Secrets.
5. Rahn rolls a boosted Telekinesis and grabs Dr. Arkadius and spins him round 2 inches closer. Rahn then Telekinesis' Imperitus forward.
6. Magister advances and whipsnaps the closest War Hog, moving Imperitus another 3 inches forward.
7. Arcanist gives Imperitus concentrated power. 
8. Imperitus charges Dr. Arkadius and connects. He sidesteps off the charge to be unengaged with the Goraxe. The Warlock has 2 transfers. Imperitus leaves him on 3 health and no transfers.
9. Storm Fall Archers roll like bosses on the right flank killing 2 Razor Boars.
10. Storm Fall Archers on the left fire star falls at the Goraxe setting him and Arkadius on fire.
11. Sentinels charge the War Hog and Gun Boar.
12. Battle Mages also charge the road hog and gun Boar,  between both units both beasts die.
13. The Artificer uses Pathfinder to charge the Slaughter Housers over the fence. The first attack misses but the second connects and he uses beat back to advance into a blocking position.

To be honest I can't believe Dr. Arkadius survives, not only a fully loaded Imperitus but the fire goes out next turn. The good news is he still has to kill a full health Imperitus in one turn with just 2 War hogs. 

Farrow: 2 points. 

Rahn Kill Boxes himself

Pigs turn three.

What he did.

• Goraxe kills the Chimera.
• 2 War Hogs one Primaled are used to kill Imperitus, just.
• It takes 3 Slaughterhousers to kill the Artificer.
• Dr. Arkadius sits in the wreck of Imperitus and casts Crippling Grasp on the Sentinels.
• Bonegrinders move into a blocking position.

What he didn't do.

I'm not sure if he had many better options. Crippling grasp on the Sentinels was sound and having to kill Imperitus essential. Taking out the Chimera was also good play.

Retribution turn three.

At this point it is concievable to play long and go for scenario, even with Crippling Grasp a full unit of sentinels hurt enough and the Battle Mages to help on Scenario. However I think it more prudent at this point to point the ailing warlock out of his misery so I go for a second assassination attempt.

Dr. Arkadius was on 4 transfers and in a wreck for cover with 3 hit points left.

Activation order

1. Sylys gives Rahn Arcane Secrets.
2. Battle mages walk into combat with the blocking piggies and with 2 attacks and beatback dispatch them and clear the lane for Rahn
3. Rahn Telekinesis' himself over the rock then advances.Then casts a Force hammer at 12 inches at Dr. Arkadius slamming him into Targ behind him.
4. Sentinels activate and kill a couple Slaughterhousers, 2 Sentinels kill a Battle Mage who is in the way of the second unit of Storm Fall Archers.
5. First unit of stormfall archers deliver Brutal Damage shots into Dr. Arkadius one misses and 3 connect the damage transfer kills a Goraxe along with a shield guard.
6. The second unit advance to use the space created by the Sentinel and unload, the second and third transfer kill a War Hog and the third Stormfall nets the kill.

Is this a good Rahn list?

The thing that gets me about Rahn is I'm never quite sure how to build his lists. You could go jack heavy or even light jack heavy he can use them, but then I find it lacking punch. Sentinels are great but he doesnt really help deliver them like eVyros, Ossyan or Gareth does.
Stormfalls are also cool but all of that blast damage redundancy kind of hurts, especially when your playing games on the clock and you want to spend 2 minutes thinking about how best to use Force Blast or Telekinesis and not rolling deviations on the Storm Falls.
Imperitus failed to do the job, but so far I'm not surprised, in the previous game it couldn't kill a Carnivean. Rahn could improve the threat but only almost as much as again pVyros, Ossyan, Garyth or even Ravyn. 2 Inches for 2 focus or with Rahn 4 for 4. If I didnt need to cast the second Telekinesis a Force Hammer for knock down would have been a safer play. Here is me thinking mat 9 p+s 19 jack with 4 attacks would be enough.
I think Rahn would still prefer a Pheonix or two Mage Hunter Assassins and maybe Infiltrators.

Fukuyama Warmachine Steamroller.

Did not happen for me.

I was prepping for this tournament for months ahead of time. I am quite disappointed that I didn't attend.  3 days before the event I canceled my place to let someone else get in.

Why? 

Well it was a culmination of events and work related stresses. I have not willfully abandoned a tournament since Flames of War back in 2010. 

First off there was some miss communication about time at home between me and my partner. I assumed or had previously thought until it was changed (not sure what happened first)

Thinking it was a one day 3 round steam roller I should be finsihed up by 5pm which gives me plenty of time for the 40 minute train ride back to the overnight bus to take me home.

Actually it was 5 rounds which means even with assassination all over my game play I would still miss the last round.

This wouldnt have been a problem if I had communicated to my partner that I wanted to take the bullet train home and not an overnight bus. I really cant sleep while traveling.

So there was scheduling issues, best of cases I would get in for 4 games and then have to bail. Potentially big dick move.

Secondly a Typhoon was rolling in. Typhoon number 19 was set to hit right on the day that I would be playing, not a great concern for me but I was worried about my partner again. She would spend most of the day cooped up inside either surrounded by geeks or a crammed Japanese hotel room. I felt bad about this situation.

Also my employers voiced concern about traveling during the Typhoon and expressed a desire for me not to go with the risk of the Typhoon. I'm doing a good job where I am and I'm sure the inconvenience of having to get someone to fill my position because I was injured or otherwise left unable to do my job, would greatly inconvenience my employers.

Lastly I thought I would be conveniently close enough to Hiroshima to do some sight seeing before playing some games. It was actually a 2 hour train ride between cities and playing in Fukuyama would mean I miss out on Hiroshima completely, or risk being exhausted.

Well lets be frank, I give no fucks about the typhoon. If it was just me I would bullet train down and back and Typhoon, Earthquake, Ebola or Volcano be damned there is Warmachine to be won.

The thing is I didnt want to duck out of my last game especially if I was winning and I didnt want to miss out on Hiroshima.

4 Days before the event I canceled my entry and told the girlfriend to can the tickets. But she couldn't get a re fund. So we figured what the heck lets try to dodge the typhoon, just go down take the train to Hiroshima and come back without the stress and tiredness of fitting in 4 games of warmachine in between.

My sincerest apologies 

To the event coordinators and participants, I really hope my spot was filled and I am sorry I missed it. I am however not sorry that I spent 2 days in beautiful Hiroshima and saw some more of this amazing country.

I wanted to do 3 things in Japan.

1. Find a well payed comfortable job that makes use of my education.
2. Experience a different culture and explore foreign lands.
3. Meet more wargamers and play Warmachine with them.

Considering...

I had to decline 3 friends invitations to play Warmachine, for the sake of going to the tournament which I canceled, despite my busy work schedule. I got to spend time with the one I love discovering parts of the world it has been my life long dream to see. I think I'll call this a great success.

Ossyan v eKaya 35 points batrep

 7

Minute

Turns.

 fml

 35 points

•  Ossyan
• Hypnos
• Halbs + UA
• Invictors + UA
• Artificer
• Arcanist
• Houseguard Thane
• Magister

Circle turn 1

•  eKaya & Laris
• Gettorix
• Pureblood
• Tharn Ravagers + UA
• Shifting Stones
• Winter Argus

I let the new guy who was learning and watching this game pick my caster. My opponent chose his. eKaya is a headache for Ret at the best of times but against Ossyan this was going to hurt, stealth heavies are so not cool.

Ret turn 1.

 Herp Derp

What I did

1. Quickened the Halbs.
2. Put Admonition on Hyperion.
3. Sat behind a hill.
4. gave Halbs Desperate pace with the Thane.
5. Ran the Halbs to engage and spread out.
6. Advanced with the rest of my stuff.

What I should have done

1. Quickened the Halbs.
2. Admonition Hyperion.
3. Advaned with Invictors, Mini feat, combine ranged attack on Ravagers.
4. Activate Thane give Halbs desperate pace.
5. Charge with Halbs engaging up to 3 Ravageres, with Mini feat potentially 6 Casualties.

Result: Here ravagers kill half my army and have a load of Heart Tokens because the pressure of having to take my first turn in under 7 minutes is way too much.

 

Circle turn 2

 He has me right where he wants me.

 Ravagers charge and kill stuff, eat many hearts.
Army advances into a nice threatening positon.

Ret turn 3

 Damage Control.

 What I did

1. Ossyan gives 2 focus to Hypnos, Feats, aims and shoots at a Tharn but fails to hit. hangs out.
2. Invictors advance and drop CRA's into the Tharn  killing a couple. Everything that can tough does touch at least once.
3. Houseguard Thane gives the Halberdiers desperate pace. 
4. Hypnos advances to withing 5" and Shoots at Laris Void Locking it.
5. Artificer is called upon to dispatch a Ravager hoping to clear a charge lane from my Halberdiers to the Pureblood. He fails due to tough.
6. Magister steps in to dispatch pesky ravagers blocking charge lane for Halberdiers, he also fails.
7. Halberdiers settle for charging the Ravagers finishing off all but the Chieftain. Forget to reform.

What I should have done.

1. Nothing. Fuck tough, its broken as shit .Fix please PP.

Circle turn 3

Everything is under control.

• Pureblood tramples over a few Halberdiers killing them
• Gettorix charges Hypnos who Admonitions to safety
• but is then charged by the Winter Argus.

Ret turn 4

 Might trick me once...

1. Ossyan puts Admonition on himself and wonders off to the right.
2. Invictors Melee up on the Pureblood while others CRA the Chieftan and a Shifting Stone.
3. Hypnos walks around the Argus and completely fails to achieve anything.

Circle turn 4

 But your not gonna... oh wait.

•  Winter Argus gets in the zone
• Gettorix charges Ossyan who Admonitions again.
• Laris charges the Thane and misses
• Pureblood forgets to activate.

Ret turn 5

Oh yea, that.

1. Hypnos gets into the zone and fails to do anything else.
2.  Ossyan backs around Gettorix and shoots him to soften him up for the Invictors. But this triggers Hyper Aggressive and Gettorix advances into Ossyan.
3. because the Invictors cannot shoot at either gettorix who is engaged, or Kaya who was stealth but is now engaged with Hypnos, they stand around and pull their dicks.

Circle turn 5.

 Wow so many mistakes.

Circle victory on assassination.

On both sides but mine were pretty epic. The pressure of 7 minute turns is something else all together different from chess clock or time pool.

The Circle player activated the rest of his army in an attempt to use a feat facilitated move to box Ossyan in so he couldn't admonition away. He was trying to move 0" but I had to tell him to forfeit his movement in order to simply not trigger my Admonition and kill me.

Garyth vs Cygnar, Siege. Battle report.

Cygnar vs Retribution

Quick Battle Report

Garyth vs Siege

50 points

Deployment

  I was actually pretty terrified of what I thought siege could do and generally imagined this as a terrible match up for me

Ret first turn

 Discordia advances and imprints, standing close enough for the Sentinels to come up and benefit from the imprint.

Dalia full advances and casts Haunting Melody, Skarath runs and riles for 1.

Garyth advances and puts Mirage on the Sentinels.

Elara casts Battle Charged

Cygnar first turn

 His entire army advances. I dont really know siege as much as I dont really know Cygnar.

Journeyman Defenders Wards the Trenchers.

Trenchers at the vanguard combine and kill 2 Battle mages between 6 of them. Other shots made at the Battle Mages behind cover miss.

One of the jacks shoots Discordia for some damage.

Ret second turn

Activation order.

•  Garyth upkeeps Mirage
• Mirage.
• Dahlia leeches and upkeeps
• Elara gives black Griffon 1 focus and green Griffon 2 focus.

The best way to deal with a gun line is by jamming it.

1. Sylys gives Garyth Arcane Secrets.
2. Garyth advances to the wall. I was actually pretty terrified of what I thought siege could do and generally imagined this as a terrible match up for me. This is why I didn't rush out and feat sooner but let Eyriss run interference.  Casts Death Sentence on the trenchers and shoots 2 with his hand guns.
3. Arcanist gives Discordia 1 focus.
4. Discordia advances, Imprints and then sprays down about 4 using Death Sentence to ensure accuracy.
5. Skarath advances and sprays down 3 Trenchers, boosting to hit.
6. Dahlia runs behind the objective
7. Green Griffon imprints for +2 spd and runs to engage the group of Gun Mages and some Black 13th
8. Artificer advances and gives Black Griffon a Focus.
9. Black Griffon runs and engages Jacks and more Swans.
10. Battle Mages advance and kill a Trencher each.
11. Magister kills another.
12. Sentinels get a run charge, 2 hit the front line and kill 2 more Trenchers while the rest huddle around Discordia.
13. eEyriss runs through the gap that is now created, she positions in a spot which gives Technological Interference with all of his Jacks.

Cygnar second turn.

What he couldn't do.

• Give focus to his jacks

What he did do.

• Kill a large chunk of sentinels with Ground Pounder
• Shoot at Discordia
• Shoot at Skarath
• Engage in melee combat with the Griffons.
• Charge his Journeyman at a Griffon
• Some shooting into combat 
• Knocked black Griffon down.

What he didn't do but I thought he could or should have.

• Kill Eyriss, either by dropping a ground pounder on her or using the Black 13th
• Use Black Penny, with anything
• Achieve anything useful in general.

Retribution turn 3

 Vengance, Vengence, Vengeance. 

• Skarath frenzies and charges and crit consumes the last remaining Trencher
• The green Griffon with 3 focus kills the Journeyman Warcaster
• Sentinels sweep up the flank killing the jack.
• Sylys activated and gave Garyth sexy whispers
• Garyth death sentenced the mechanics and shot a couple.
• Discordia sprays down a handful of the mechanic goblin things. (they looked menacing)

Cygnar turn 3

 What he couldn't do

• Give focus to his one remaining jack
• Achieve anything without disengaging his Gun Mages
• Use his light jack because the Journeyman died

What he did do

• Ground pounded more Sentinels to dust.
• Shot the Griffon with push back rounds out of combat and down the table.
• Repaired his jack.
• Left his caster far enough away that Garyth cant charge him.

 What he didn't do

• He still didn't kill Eyriss
• He didn't feat (not that he might have had any reason to at this point)

Retribution turn 4

 3 control points for Retribution.

What Garyth has been afraid of all this time.

I don't really know what siege does but I had a suspicion if he feated and hit Garyth with a Ground Pounder or something like it he was dead, very likely dead.
I probably could have gone for the kill but.

1. Its good practice to score scenario points
2. I didn't want to make it look like it was so easy
3. I was genuinely concerned about cracking armor 17 even with 4 pow10s and 2 pow 12s

•  Skarath Charges and engages more Gun Mages
• Green Griffon does the same.
• Battle Mages charge the Objective and fail to destroy it
• Garyth charges the objective and finishes it off.
• Sentinels and black Griffon mop up in center.

Cygnar turn 4

•  Gun mages get up and try to melee with Skarath
• Darius stands up and makes his attack hitting Discordia

 First lesson in the assassination game.

1. Knock them down, if you have any way of doing it then use it. 

Ret turn 5

 I could have given Discordia 2 and made sure he knocked Siege to the ground but I didn't.

Garyth charging has 8 melee attacks, at mat 8 and arcane assassin you would think this is a sure thing.

Its not.

Garyth charged Siege, hit with first attack rolled below 6 damage on 4 dice.

Miss.

Miss.

Miss.

Miss.

Miss.

Hit and some damage leaving him on 5 boxes

Hit and killed

 The dice gods saw fit to remind me in the first lesson of assassination and let me kill Siege with only my final 2 attacks.

 Retribution win on assassination and 4 control points.

 

Garyth vs Circle, Kromac. 35 points

Circle vs Retribution

Quick Battle Report

Garyth vs Kromac

35 Points

First turn Circle

Retribution                                                  

Garyth                                                              
Discordia                                                              
Sylys                                                                 
Sentinels with UA                                                  
Arcanist                                                               
Arcanist                                                               
Magister
Elara
Griffon
Griffon
eEyriss

Circle

Kromac
Ghettorix
Pureblood
Winter Argus
Shifting stones and UA
Skinwalkers and UA

First turn Retribution

 Ret advances into position to be able to strike next turn without taking massive casualties.

Mirage goes on to the Sentinels.

Circle turn 2

Kromac advances and throws out a rift which deviates into a pretty useless place.

Wild aggression goes on to Ghettorix

Pureblood warps spell ward and advances. It sprays down a Sentinel

Winter Argus advances on the flank and with 2 sprays boosting to hit, kills 2 Sentinels.

Ghettorx advances into a threatening position, just a little bit too close.
 

Retribution turn 2

Assessing the situation it was time to seize the opportunity my opponent created. Because Garyths main use of his feat against this list is limiting his teleportation and placement potential I needed to use the feat in a way that I could jam him up or slow him down.

Since my opponent had placed his entire army relatively close it was the perfect time to take advantage of his over aggressive positioning.

Mirage and Vengeance put the Sentinels into position to charge Ghettorix.

The Griffon on the left side of the right flank takes 2 focus.

Discordia gets 2 focus.

The Sentinels charge and leave Ghettorix on 4 hit points.


Eyriss shoots off Invoiable Resolve from the back Skinwalker.

Elara and the other Griffon kill the Skinwalker engaging the left hand side Griffon.

The Griffon imprints for speed and charges, finishing off Ghettorix.

Gayrth charges the Pureblood landing short as he knew he would and feats.

Discordia advances and puts a spray down just failing to kill a shifting stone and putting 9 damage on to Kromac which he transfers to the Winter Argus.

 With Garyths feat up the Circle player cannot use his shifting stones, cast spells or even leap with Kromac.

Circle player plans to simply kill the Griffon and deliver Pureblood to face.

Circle turn 3

Plan fails.

Somehow Kromac with feat couldn't kill the Griffon. I say somehow but I remember playing with Kromac back in the day and I remember him always failing to kill things and generally fail to achieve what I expected him to be able achieve.

Winter Argus tries to clear out the Magister to no avail. Actually I suspect he used it on the Griffon too but his dice must have been so horribly bad if that was the case.

Pureblood ends up having to kill the Griffon its damn self.

Skinwalkers also fail to kill Elara. Good turn for Ret.

Retribution turn 3

The Magister goes first and executes an unlikely combo smite, slamming the Pureblood over Kromac.

Garyth charges a knocked down Kromac and dispatches him.

The Houseguard Thane, Retribution Solo

Lark, lark lark, lark lark lark lark lark.

Well lucky, lucky us.

Here we can see a general example of the excitement people expressed when they first saw the House Guard Thane. 

The house guard thane does not take his name from guarding houses. The house guard thane does not like house music. The house guard thane is an illustrious member of the house guard. Those members of Ios who have been entrusted to search for the lost god House

The House Guard Thane is the best thing to happen to the Retribution since. Well since ever. Obviously the god House is a mighty one, because the abilities that the House Guard Thane brings to the battle are so impressive, you could almost say they were faction breaking.

This piece of intelligence was recovered from a Legion outpost. It clearly demonstrates the effect the House Guard Thane has had on the Retributions fighting potential.

The House Guard Thane is easily mastered for a Retribution player.

The god House in mid war cry, the war cries of House Guard Thanes give lesser Houseguard fearless resolve.

First keep him far away from things. House is a bit of a celebrity, he doesn't like to get swamped down with the rest of the common folk, thankfully he has spent many years acting and has a commanding voice so you can be up to 9" away and still hear him clearly. Also just one member of a unit needs to be within 9" of house and in coherency. So if he gets shot first you are terrible at game,  uninstall.

All Houseguard units listen to the Thane and benefit from his fearless leadership.

The House Guard Thane has 2 key abilities.

Wide stance, the first stage required for executing desperate pace.

• Desperate pace.

The House Guard Thane instructs the Houseguard to spread their legs further apart, thus allowing them to cover more ground upon the advance.

The god House depicted with his monocle of true sight. 

• Firing solution. 

The House Guard Thane instructs the lesser Houseguard to don their monocles of true sight, thus allowing them to target otherwise stealthy or hidden adversaries.

Using these abilities is pretty straight forward, you should not often find yourself where you need to use both at once but...

• Use firing solution when your Riflemen can reach a target with their range.
• Use desperate pace at any other time.

Thus the House Guard Thane does 2 things for Retribution players.

1. Increases the threat range of Halberdiers and makes them fearless.
2. Let's any Ret army take a unit of Riflemen who can shoot directly at stealth targets. 

In case it has been understated, this is an exceptionally big deal.

 It looks pretty deadly but they don't actually do anything with it.

It's vitally important that for 75% of the game your House Guard Thane sits back and stays well clear of trouble. Only after turn 2 or 3 should you even consider shooting at or charging the enemy. The Thane for the most part is more valuable alive than dead and although he possesses some martial skill he is only slightly better than your standard troops, thus it's often not worth risking him until he has no troops left to lead.

House Guard Thane for President.

Worshippers of the god House have benefitted exponentially from the arrival of the House Guard Thane.  Namely the Riflemen and Halberdiers.

While Halberdiers were considered productive members of society Riflemen were generally disdained. 

The House Guard thane has been more successful at finding employment for riflemen on the battlefield than any other previous Iosan political leader. 

Thus the House Guard Thane has been heralded as the best thing to happen to the Retribution and the best thing that could have happened to Riflemen.

For this I think it is vitally important to give thanks to the god House and all he has done to make Ios a better place by getting riflemen out of the pubs and brothels and back on the the battle fields.

The House Shyeel Magister, Retribution Battle Mage solo.

This guy, took a page right out of the book.

Magister

From Latin magister (“a master, chief, head, superior, director, teacher, etc.”), from magis (“more uor great”)

Welsh, maestr.

Master; sir: -- a title of the Middle Ages, given to a person in authority, or to one having a license from a university to teach philosophy and the liberal arts.


The possessor of a master's degree.

Magisters in the Retribution of Scyrah are:

1. Possessors of Masters Degrees in arcane law
2. Act as if their training in the liberal arts and philosophy make them better than everyone else. 
3. Deeply envy and answer directly to Artificers.

Masters of arcane law and philosophy

In order to become a Magister for house shyeel prospective trainees must acquire a master's degree in arcane law, which is the study of law in regards to transporting medieval live stock and Philosophy. 

Because of the amount of time this takes Magisters can never become Artificers and are consequently horrible dicks to everyone else who doesn't know as much as they do.

Because of this educational training coupled wih mastery of arcane forces and a suit of bad ass shyeel arco fist armor, Magisters act like and generally are a Boss.

Magister in the pose required for receiving his armor.

The delusion of being the boss has its benefits. It let's them do things like:

• Beat back.

Whenever a new up and comer or hard worker thinks they have done something to merit reward or recognition the Magister uses beat back to push him back in line.

• Whip snap.

Cracking the whip is an ancient way of making your slaves work harder, just because it's the modern era doesn't mean we need to dispense of this effective motivational tool. A well placed whip snap can send your hard workers to positions where they can fully apply their potential.

• Force bolt.

By glance the Magister can direct the force of his learned pontifications to ensnare and draw in would be by standers or push them away shunning them.

• Combo smite.

The Magister has perfected the art of back handing his intellectual lessers.  To such effect that it can slam them with great force and deadly effect. Don't always look for the linear application of this ability.

• Force Barrier

Don't shoot the messenger is taken very literally with this guy. 

The delusion of the Magisters self importance is deep set. The following dialog is taken from a Magister Symbyrg who was reprimanded for Whip Snapping a friendly into the path of an oncoming warjack.

Mr. Symbyrg, thanks for coming to your performance review.

No problem.

So you're in charge around here, is that fair to say?

Absolutely, I'm the boss.

Well, so take us through a day in the life of, "The Boss".

Well the first thing I do is--


Talk to Scyrah (like a boss) 

• Magisters derive their power through our goddess Scyrah.

Approve memos (like a boss)

• Magisters are entrusted with maintaining the flow of information.

Lead a workshop (like a boss)

• Magisters are also entrusted with motivating their colleagues.

Remember birthdays (like a boss)

• Magisters are the keepers of Retribution personnel files.

Direct work-flow (like a boss)

• Magisters will Force bolt, Beat back, whips snap and combo smite until fiscal goals are achieved.

My own bathroom (like a boss)

• The armor of magisters contain built in sanitry functions.

Micro-manage (like a boss)

• Using his skills and special attention to put one enemy in one place or one friendly in another to make the most out them is what he does.

Promote synergy (like a boss)

• The very presence of the Magister allows greater threat ranges, and his ability to back hand things to the ground has a myriad of uses for the rest of your army.

Your Magister and you.

Much like a boss a Magister usually has no idea what's going on.
I find the Magister will usually stand around and look important. This is not a bad thing, because they stand around and look important they may cop a lot of flack, and it's flack that the more important harder working members are not getting.

The Magister I believe can be used in 2 ways effectively.

1. If by closing 3" of distance between one thing and another wins you the game or gives you a serious advantage, do it. This could be Garyth getting close enough to kill, or parking your Phoenix in the zone cause you forgot to do it during its activation.
2. As a late game enabler.

I think the Magister shines mid to late game.
Ok he already brings survivability a magical attack and 2 magical fists to the party but the ability he has to move other models around becomes more and more influential when the lines have closed and there are fewer models on the table.
They could be hiding at just the right angle until a whipsnap gives you the slither of vision you need. Maybe they parked an un touched heavy jack right on the corner of the zone and you can't possibly kill it, just push it out.
Maybe there is something large or un kill able in melee, but knocking it to the ground will let you get around it or shoot over it.

Combo smite is your best ability, all of the Magisters abilities are good but a well delivered combo smite might knock it's target into the thing you really want to kill, knocking them both to the ground. Or simply used to disengage your gun line from something that spent it's turn running right at it.

A Magister is a cheap replacement for a Unit of Battle Mages. However I think you are better off for putting an Artificer and a Magister in your list before a unit of Mages,  simply for the versatility and support they bring.

The Soulless Escort, Retribution weapon attachment.

Google can't find stock art of the Soulless. So this is the next best thing.

All jokes aside.

It's too easy to make jokes about gingers, prostitutes, Julia Roberts or Keanu Reeves, emos and everything else that a soulless escort could be. 

The truth is the soulless are one of the coolest and most interesting things about the entire Iron Kingdoms universe and especially the elves.

They are it is conjectured, the greatest threat to Elven society since... well probably since ever. I mean the rivening was pretty awesome and terrible but that was a once off. Then there was that whole dragon business, dragons on the scale of things are pretty terrible. But at least you can see a dragon, you can fight it. 

Having your population slowly being born souless and euthanized,  you slowly start to look like modern Japan.

Soulless are like a horrible genetic disease. It's like... downs syndrome for nazi elves.

Maybe I'm just feeling particularly nice today but I still don't want to make fun of window lickers.  Retards are usually pretty nice people and having personally known quite a few they are generally not as bad as the people who I would openly call retards.

 Complicating things further.

As much as it is too easy to make fun of Soulless escorts, it's just as hard to explain them effectively in application.

A particular rule they possess or a couple of them make them, an oddity not only in fiction but in reality.

It is said that Iosan units generally disdain the presence of a Souless attachment, like most people generally disdain gingers who shave themselves to hide the fact they are ginger... (oh dammit let that slip)

Tag along: This guy does not gain the abilities of the unit to which he is attached.

But the presence of one in a unit has the certain benefit of mysteriously being able to absorb or inhibit the ambitions or motivations of others much like any other emo teenager. . .

What I mean to say is they inhibit the abilities of others around them to effect them magically. In the same way Julia Roberts magically inhibits the ability of romantic movies to be romantic...  or what I mean is much like an escort gifted to young men inhibits their ability to have a magical romantic experience later in life... wait no.  

Mage static: Enemy magic attacks targeting the group this guy is escorting have reduced range.
Thanks to her pimp summoning powers she can keep other whores out of effective range.
Disbinding: When this guy does Disbinding enemy up keeps on this guy's group expire.
Just when you hope you will get what you paid for, extra charges are incurred. 

Thankfully they not only bring this gaping mystical yaw of apathy but also in the same way as Keanu Reeves, they possess great ability in martial prowess without actually being able to express any emotion at all.

Flank: This guy is good at fighting alongside people he is in a group with.
Look at him go.

They have the special oddity to be able to take orders or advance deploy or even be effected by mini feats, yet can't perform simple tasks the rest of the unit could.

This kind of autism leads them into strange situations where, for example: they could receive the shield wall order and go into shield wall, yet won't reform. However they will get the teamwork bonus from the mini feat yet still won't be able to have beers with the squad after training. 

Tag along: This guy gets to hang out with other groups, he does what he's told but can never really be one of the guys.
Character soulless unit concept art.

Also when Souless die no one much cares, except for those people who make a habit of collecting souls. Generally what they find are collections of dark angst poetry, piles of black clothes and Smashing Pumpkin albums.

What can be said about a Souless Escort unit attachment is this

• Much like japanese school girls they will come in groups of up to but not exceeding 3.
• They will attach themselves to any Retribution unit.
• They have magical swords. When your own species has the habit of killing you on sight at childbirth and no other species is particularly fond of you, it's in your best interest to have a magical sword.

Because of this it raises an interesting point about the future of Retribution war caster releases. If the Retribution gets a War caster unit, you could possibly attach Soulless to it.

However Souless can amusingly be attached to these things:

• Battle Mages.  Having defense 15 to shooting and immunity to blast isn't enough, why not give them pseudo anti magic stealth too.
• Halberdiers, because when they mini feat they turn into mat 9 p+s 11 weapon masters. 
• Heavy rifle teams. Because it's funny.
• Every other Retribution unit, because you are net decking against your opponents magic heavy list.

The Bottom line.

A soulless is one point, a magical weapon and some handy defense tech. More specifically a Souless is one point, so if you're full up on Arcanists might as well grab a Souless. 

This is because there are basically no 3 point solos in Retribution that you would upgrade a 2 point solo to become. There is however one 2 point solo you should downgrade to be 2 Soulless. 

They are not always directly useful for their passive ability. Their *action is almost a joke, if someone goes to the length of putting an upkeep on the unit in the first place it's probably the kind that stops you from using abilities, or your opponent is a moron.

That aside they are still good little solos for what they do, if you already have the other essentials like Artificers, Arcanists, Magister then you could consider putting in a Soulless Escort.

The Mage Hunter Assassin, Retribution solo.

You can't see it, but she's totally about to mess with that bunnies head.

Shits and giggles was the phrase on the concept design panel for this one.

sadistic

səˈdɪstɪk/

adjective

1. deriving pleasure from inflicting pain, suffering, or humiliation on others.

   "she took a sadistic pleasure in tormenting him"

   synonyms:

   callous, barbarous, bestial, perverted, vicious, brutal, cruel, savage, fiendish, cold-blooded, inhuman, ruthless,heartless, merciless, pitiless More

Deriving pleasure from inflicting on others...

1. Pain
2. Suffering
3. Humiliation

Mage Hunter Assassins specialize in...

• Humiliation

It's an odd fact that being trained in the martial discipline of chain weaponry has a detrimental affect on the students disposition.

There are 2 important things to know about people using chain weapons and or flails.

1. There is always a chance they could fuck up and kill themselves
2. Because they are so highly trained and obviously still alive, the first point obviously didn't happen to them yet. Because of this they are probably extremely confident in their own skill and are about to either murder you horribly or fuck up and kill themselves in a spectacular way.

It is likely that because they are either aware that they don't know what they are doing and gambling with their lives and the lives of the people around them,  or are extremely skilled murdering machines that this is why they are generally not nice people to be around.

There are also 4 very important things to know about the Mage Hunter assassins of the Retribution of Scyrah.

1. They are extremely good at what they do.
2. Their chain weapons are exceptionally sharp and nasty
3. They are the most sadistic creatures in existence.
4. They are all women, some may argue that stating this is irrelevant because women are naturally sadistic when it comes to messing with people's heads, however Mage Hunter Assassins can mess with people's heads in whole new ways.

Evil, evil women.

Now many people would be saying, "hey hold on a second, I'm pretty sure the Skorne factions whole style is built up around kinky S&M stuff." To which you are right,  Pat yourself on the back.
However no one in the entire Skorne empire or indeed Immoren either has the ability to kill almost any other thing, man, beast or machine with a single flick of its chain. No other single man sized creature wields the power of a Mage Hunter Assassin.
Because of this, they are quite rightly mad.

You see a Mage hunters power complex, which feeds their sadistic tendencies doesn't come from the fact that they will kill you in the blink of a rather fortunate eye, but rather that they could.

They are extremely good, at what they do.

Mage Hunter Assassin training begins in hidden Retribution training camps in the forests of Ios. Here they are taught to stalk and mercilessly slaughter baby deer, bunnies, hedgehogs, mice, wild piglettes particularly cute or pleasant sounding birds. Also to generally trod on anything slightly enjoyable such as toad stools and saplings and generally treat life with the same contempt as cancer. This is the first stage.

We are not talking about some kind of life enriching spiritual rebirth social experiment behind the liquor shop malarkey here.

The second stage (and this is the real doozy). They learn with utter control, to stare manically,  cold heartedly, unflinchingly into the face of their victims. As if into the face of death itself and not blink, or wince but gently smile. As the terror and helplessness in their prey rises to defecating effect ...
they miss, not only do they miss but they give it a cuddle and a kiss and a pat on the bum, giggle like a lunatic and then slope off to torment another soul.

What we are talking about, is utter bastards.

Mage Hunter assassins are trained and employed by the Retribution because they CAN horribly murder things. The problem the Retribution has with Mage Hunter Assassins is that sometimes they simply choose to mess their targets up psychologically in stead.


So...

Because of their training on woodland creatures Mage Hunter Assassins have the pathfinding ability, they also have stealth and advanced deployment. How else are you going to get the jump on that baby badger.

Mage Hunter assassins love to mess with people's heads. Whether it's wrapping a razor blade embedded chain around them and ripping them off or its getting inside them and psychologically tormenting them.

Mage Hunter Assassins are sadists. Just because a Mage Hunter Assassin missed it's charge on its target it doesn't mean it's not messing with someone else's head, more often yours.

Because of this you can never rely on them not to be fucking with you in some way.

In order to use a Mage Hunter Assassin within the Retribution you must:

1. Be comfortable gambling, there is no telling what way the dice will fall and a 2 point investment might be worthless or net you a 10 point Warpwolf, it's all in the dice.
2. Be ballsy and have fun. It's only 2 points. You could save it for late game and try to kill the enemy war caster with it but they have stealth, advanced deployment and a 14 inch charge range for a reason. It's much more fun to deliver 30 points of damage to Tiberion or the Avatar, or watch you opponent poop his pants when your Mage Hunter Assassin comes screaming out of the woods for their war caster. 
3. Be able to laugh it off when it misses.

Mage Hunter Assassins work well with:

Everybody.
Seriously there is little reason not to fit at least one in every list you can.

Mage Hunter Assassins love to target:

1. Shifting stones, they genuinely hate those things and delight in killing them
2. Heavy or light beasts or jacks equipped with shields or bucklers. 
3. Enemy warcasters when they are not looking
4. Enemy warlocks when they are not looking and when they are not camping fury.

Mage Hunter Assassins should not be used to target:

1. Most infantry, unless they really can't do anything else.
2. High defense solos unless they are the only viable target or you can lower the defense. 

Special tricks to mastering these vindictive sadists:

Don't leave them within an enemy models melee range after you have finished moving, before you have made your attack, if you can help it. If they do decide to mess with you and miss or better yet leave Ghettorix on one box they at least have the decency to withdraw their chain and leave themselves un engaged, so you can shoot the target.


Chain weapon is 4" reach only during your activation.


As much as they love to mess with the heads of cute woodland creatures and us, they also mess with the heads of your opponents and sometimes the psychological stress of seeing one across the table will lead your enemy into panicked thoughtless actions to kill something that might just otherwise have done nothing but delivered self defecation, hugs and giggled like a lunatic.