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.