Author Archives: darkomenclub

Treewalking with Ravagers

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Welcome to a Model Article by Anthoney Ferraiolo, originally posted on discountgamesinc.com

Treewalking with Ravagers

There probably isn’t a unit more near and dear to my heart than Tharn Ravagers. I have played them since I began playing the game, being the first unit I bought and painted; even played them in my first Kromac build running his Tier (before I knew what that was)! All that silliness aside, I have grown a real appreciation for this unit and thought they would be a great topic for the model redemption discussion.

I prefer playing the unit full fledged with the UA and WA; as I believe one of their best, and relatively unique assets, is the high model count (8 total) for an 8 wound infantry unit. Their defensive stat line does leave a bit to be desired at DEF 13 ARM 14, however I think this is a bit over stated. They are not easily taken off the board if given the right delivery system. When that is done right, they will get the alpha and there are few things in the game that hit harder: MAT 9, POW 15 on the charge is quite simply… amazing. I can make a case for them to be one of the hardest hitting units in the game, and more importantly they are highly accurate. That stat line can, and has, killed casters and locks. Moreover they are equally as effective versus infantry as they are versus heavies; 4 of them can as easily scrap a heavy as take down nearly a full unit thanks to the Heart Eater mechanic. Even at MAT 7 POW 13 they can rifle most infantry in the game. They hit hard enough to wipe opposing ‘bulky’ infantry off the table; they do approximately 8 damage per Ravager vs ARM 18, that one shots pretty stout 8 box infantry; while hitting DEF 15 on 6’s which tags most high DEF models!!! Many times there is a Ravager or two lurking around in the end game that has a corpse token and can get a boosted MAT 9 charge off in the secondary line, or even the caster/lock.

I can hearing you complaining now, “sure they are great IF they get there, how do you get them there???” Fair question; so let’s run the list: pBaldur has the Feat, Cassius has his Feat, Grayle can make them Stealth with his Feat, pKaya can Occultate them, eKrueger has Stormwall, pKrueger has Deflection (better than you think), Kromac has Inviolable Reslove, pMorvahna has Restoration, Mohsar has Pillars, and eMorvahna… well you’ve seen that work already :). Point is, I just ran the list of nearly every Warlock in the faction and they ALL have a reasonably solid way of delivering them. I know, I’m saying you should use a Feat, in many cases, to help deliver them… is that really correct? YES!!! Once they arrive at the opposing lines they are absolutely devastating and not so easily removed. Not to mention they take so much board position quickly which can give you a decisive advantage in scenario play.

Beyond all that help from Warlocks, they help themselves by having AD and being SPD 6 with Reach. So on turn 1, with full run, they are 25”-28” up the board; well over half the board with one move!!! They can effectively threat 36”-39” on the 2nd turn; put a different way that’s basically the opposing deployment zone. Speaking of threat, here’s a fun threat extension fact: Hunters Mark works on them too! How bout a sweet 13” threat (15” with Mirage)!!! Other delivery mechanisms, how about simply deploying to a flank? Often that is where the bulk of the terrain is while limiting LOS and angels to them as they cross the board. On almost every board you can nearly always find a forest to run them up behind. It’s amazing to have them sit behind a forest, threatening everything on the other side, knowing your opponent has literally no way to deal with your beat stick unit when LOS is completely blocked.

Thanks to all that threat and SPD, they can really play havoc on an opponents scenario plans, and be a key to a sweet jam technique for your Circle list. They draw attention, if delivered using the mechanisms above, they will not only make a strong alpha but with Reach and more beef than a single wound infantry unit, they will make it so your opponent must deal with them. This inadvertently becomes a delivery system for the rest of your army AND starts the process of jamming your opponent out of the scenario. This, may in fact, be their strongest asset; they have won me many games via scenario thanks to their strong ability to jam consistently.

So what other complaints to you have? 13 Points is too much? Too much for what? A unit that is super strong in melee vs both infantry and heavies, vs high DEF and high ARM, takes and grants board position, is hard to stop, can kill casters and locks, be strong in scenario, moves quickly, has Reach, has Advance Deployment, 8 boxes, Pathfinder, ignores forests in every way (including models and LOS), is Fearless, has the ability to buy additional attacks, as well as boost attack and damage rolls… Which part isn’t worth the points? The whole package must be considered when evaluating their true worth.

I admit that I am biased towards them, as I do love my Ravagers. In my experience it’s hard to find 8 bodies that will do more for the points than these guys. They were a big part of some of my biggest successes in this game, and I strongly encourage you, if you haven’t done so already, try them out. Put them in a list where they can be delivered and give them an honest chance to be successful. Once you do, you may well be impressed and find you want some more treewalking!

Fane (Pain) Knight Skeryth Issyen.

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Welcome to a Model Article by Dan Berger, originally posted on discountgamesinc.com

Choo, Choo, here comes the Pain Train….Model Redemption, Fane (Pain) Knight Skeryth Issyen.

A model in Retribution that brings a lot of hitting power, yet never sees lists. Pain Knight Skeryth is the Retribution’s Dragoon Model. His key abilities are Righteous Fury, Blessed, Rapid Strike and Weapon Master. The Needle of Lacyr is a P+S 13 Reach, Magical, Weapon Master weapon. I will break down his abilities and some ways to use them.

Righteous Fury:
When a friendly faction model is killed within his command area he gains +2 STR and ARM for 1 round. When leveraged correctly this ability will make your opponent really think about killing things around Skeryth. Skeryth becoming a P+S15 Weapon Master Dragoon with Rapid Strike is very scary. You are Dice -2 on Ferals and Angelii for Damage Rolls. I have had Skeryth kill an Angel with his Impact, Charge attack and Rapid Strike Attack. That is a 5pt trade for 9pts and then he has his dismount ability to make him harder to kill. The armor bonus brings him up to 19 and you can stack this with Discordia’s Imprint or Inviolable Resolve to get him to an Arm 21.

Blessed:
Blessed lets Skeryth ignore armor and defense bonuses from spells and animi cast by a Warlock or solo. This is great for helping him take out high value targets that your opponent is trying to defend with a spell.

Rapid Strike:
This ability lets Skeryth make 2 melee attacks per combat action with the Needle of Lacyr. This ability is what really earns Skeryth the name, the Pain Knight. Those 2 attacks at P+S 15 Weapon Master will do a lot of damage.

Synergies:
The Pain Knight can synergize very well with multiple models in Retribution of Scyrah. I will discuss some of the Warcasters he works well with as well as a brief blurb about some solos, units, and warjacks.

Ossyan: The Pain Knight with Ossyan is interesting. The big buff he would want would be Quicken. This would increase his threat ranges as well as his survivability. He becomes difficult for things like boostable guns to deal with. Admonition on the Pain Knight becomes great when he goes in, does his work, now your opponent has to deal with the dragoon dismount and an Admonition move. This lets the Pain Knight become very harassy and he still retains his hitting power while dismounted so he cannot be ignored by opponents.

Rahn: Its Rahn, Telekinesis, ranged knock down and slams, there are not many models that do not synergize with Rahn.

Vyros2: With Deflection and the ability to give out pathfinder, this warcaster really works well with the Pain Knight. You can dial up that ARM vs. shooting and if you get him behind a wall, now you can charge over it. Pop Vyros’s feat and the Pain Knight gets very scary when he can reposition to threaten a high priority target that has already activated and cannot get away. He may just end a Warcaster or Warlock himself if they already activated their caster and didn’t camp enough.

Issyria: Crusaders Call, Inviolable Resolve, and her feat all help Skeryth out. Crusaders Call gives him threat range, IR gives him the armor, and her feat, DAT FEAT! will turn this heavy hitter into a Hammer. A Signs and Portents type manipulation is roughly a 2 increase on an average roll. You are essentially hitting at P+S 17 Weapon Master, suck it Molik Karn.

Other synergies include Lanyssa Ryssyll for Hunters Mark to increase his threat. The Banshee or Arcantrik Force Generator has the ranged knockdown which helps the Pain Knight do work. Battle Mages can potentially knockdown targets but they also can help drag something into the Pain Knights threat range where he won’t have to go as deep into enemy lines to do work. Lady Aiyana and Master Holt grant Harm to a target and that obviously bring up the Pain Knights Damage Potential letting him deal with meatier targets. Lastly, one of my favorites is the Mage Hunter Assassin. I would run 2 with him as escorts and that 9 point package is capable of crippling even the heaviest of armors. This module is dangerous on the flank and if they can get delivered to a heavy or even Gargossal, they will potentially put a lot of damage on the model so then you can clean it up with the bulk of your army more regularly.

Closing Thoughts:
In closing, the Pain Knight is a hard hitter in a faction that does not consistently hit very hard, and relies on burst damage. He has Commander to help keep troops in place and removing him can be deceptively tough, or require more points than his worth. This turned out to be not so brief but I hope you enjoyed the read and I hope to see more Pain Knights in the future.

My New Main Man Mo’

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Welcome to a List Article by Anthoney Ferraiolo, originally posted on discountgamesinc.com

Mohsar seems to have been at the bottom of the Circle stable since I started playing the game at the onset of MkII. This past November I was given the Omnipotent Warlock as a birthday gift, and as such I was compelled to put him on the table; what I found is that I think there is something we may have all missed. Here is my list:

Mohsar
Megalith
Ghetorix
Pureblood
Gorax
Bloodtrackers (x10)
Bloodweavers
Shifting Stones w/ UA
Gallows Grove (x1)
Gatorman Witch Doctor

List Strengths:
Hits incredibly hard
Causes activation problems for opponents
Has a lot of answers

List Weaknesses:
Feat has little effect on Warmachine
Can be difficult to play which will burn your clock
Mo’s old man stats

Overall I built the list starting with my two character heavies and went from there. What I found is that the list is way more powerful and balanced than I originally thought. The list can put out (up to) 5 reliable sprays per turn, which clears 10-15 models without a lot of issues; and all that is without the help of the Bloodtrackers. The list has 15 ranged (and magic) attacks, something I didn’t really think about until I had a dozen games under my belt. It also has a ton of board control thanks to Mohsar’s huge control area, and what may be the best on demand terrain creation spell in the game: Pillars of Salt.

Additionally the list hits as hard as any list I’ve ever built, and that comes from somebody with a strong competitive Cryx background. Access to Wraith Bane, Primal, and Curse of Shadows is no joke. It also has ways to debuff DEF, with Megalith’s animus, and remove upkeeps with the Bloodweavers Dispel option on their Sacral Blade. Something opponents won’t see coming is the Bloodweavers arriving at MAT 8 POW 11 Weapon Masters; POW 13 if the target is under CoS and MAT 10 if the target is within Undergrowth. Put plainer, if they get to a Gargantuan, which have an average of

What else do you want? Threat extension? How about Mirage, for a 2” place! That takes a bit more planning, but it’s not as hard as you might think. Deliver your piece this turn, then activate your Geomancer or Warlock and rotated the spell to the piece you want to deliver next turn. Fury 8 makes your offensive spells very reliable and fury efficient. So what about a Feat? Who needs a Feat when you have Pillars of Salt! I may be exaggerating, but this spell is incredibly powerful. Early game it can really screw with your opponents order of activation, and often burns their best ranged attack options. This makes the list very resilient to shooting, which is something I didn’t discover until I played the list. Late game, it can be back breaking, especially when your opponent often has limited activations, and limited things that can actually deal with a Pillar, let alone 2 or 3. The possibilities with Pillars are immense, and are still being explored, but it’s also cover on demand, and completely blocks LOS, even to Gargossals. So when I say it’s as potent as a Feat, I truly feel it is as big of a deal as many CNTL feats.

Speaking of the Feat, while it is mostly non existing versus Warmachine, it still shuts down channeling for a turn. That means it’s not completely worthless and can allow you to buy a turn to get up on attrition before dealing with offensive spells coming at you, or saved for late game to take a spell assassination off the table. That said about how it plays versus Warmachine, it is very powerful versus Hordes. It has often lead to many reliable assassinations. Mohsar only has to get the Warlock within his Feat and that complete stops him from Leaching Fury (no you can’t cut for any either!); an unsuspecting Warlock may leave himself on a single Fury, or worse, none. At that point there is almost nowhere on the board Mohsar can’t get them under his Feat thanks to Sands of Fate and SPD 7 models to get where he needs them. That means the following turn is extremely painful for your opponent. Their beasts are frenzying all over their own army, and the Warlock will usually have to take himself out of the game to not die next turn. If he does, you should be in a position to take apart the unsupported army; if he risks it, and stays in the game, you have a plethora of ways to assassinate a low Fury Warlock with the array of DEF and ARM debuffs, fast movement and long threat ranges from ranged and melee.

All in all he’s better than you think, much better. My initial experiences with him have been very surprising, and he is very capable in all aspects of the game. He was good enough for me to main list on my way to Masters at TempleCon and I encourage to put him on the table and if you need a start point with him, begin with this list and then take it where you want to go… you might find yourself liking him Mo’ and Mo’!!!!

Fires From on High

Posted by darkomenclub on

Welcome to a list article from Dan Berger, originally posted on discountgamesinc.com

This is the list I paired with Ravyn when I qualified for Masters at The Warstore Weekend. I also played this list at WarMachine Weekend and TempleCon. It is my take on Rahn’s Fires From on High Theme Force.
Adeptis Rahn – 6
Hyperion – 18
Hyperion – 18
Chimera – 6 (5)
Stormfall Archers – 5
Soulless Escort – 1
House Shyeel Magister – 2
House Shyeel Magister – 2
Eiryss, Angel of Retribution – 3
Arcanist – 1
Arcanist – 1
Tier Bonuses:
Tier 1 – Magisters + Field Allowance
Tier 2 – Huge and Large Based Jacks gain +2 SPD first Turn
Tier 3 – Stormfall Archers gain Advanced Deployment
Tier 4 – Warjacks with Arc Node are -1pts
This list was designed to fight the prevalence of Circle and Legion in my meta. The typical Retribution Infantry heavy lists were not cutting it so I went with a skew that can also do work against infantry thanks to the Hyperions and Stormfall Archers.
List Strengths
– Strong Spot Removal due to Magisters pulling things into Hyperion Range.
– Force Blast on Hyperions can clear zones for easy Control Points.
– Strong Assassination Potential due to Rahn and plenty of Ranged Attacks.
– Advanced Deployment Stormfalls can Snipe shot into opponents Advanced Deployment Lines on Top of 1.
List Weakness
– Low Model Count, more susceptible to bad rolls
– Anti-Magic shuts it down
– Relies Heavily on Hyperions
– No Sylyss.
The Magisters and Stormall Archers are in the list due to the tier requirements. The Chimera is in the list since Rahn really needs an Arc Node jack. I decided on double Hyperion since it can skew and cause pairing issues for opponents. When faced with 2x Hyperions or Ravyn with MHSF I was typically able to win the list off. I added Eiryss to the list to drop defensive buffs or strip an enemy caster’s focus so that the Hyperions and Stormfall Archers could kill them.
The list was designed to deal with enemy lists that excel at clearing infantry which Retribution is known for running a lot of. The speed bonus for the Hyperions lets them get into zones and then Rahn can put Polarity Shield on one to protect it from being charged adding to its survivability. The Arcanists can dial up the Hyperions fists to hit harder or give it a focus that Rahn won’t have too so that it can boost its Starburst Cannon shot to try and remove enemy infantry or solos from the table. The Chimera’s apparition ability lets it get out of engagements so can Rahn can channel spells through it or you can leave 3 focus on it and get it behind a wall to make it def 17vs Melee or Def 19 vs shooting and magic. The soulless escort brings the Stormfall archers to a 5 man units instead of 4 so if you lose 2 models you do not have to take panic check. It also gives them protection vs enemy magic early in the game. If an opponent wants to put up an Arc Node to try and spell them, they typically come up short due to Mage Static and then you can remove that Arc Node with little penalty.