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.