Retribution of Scyrah

[Yarrick60]

I will start this topic with the aim of summarize tactics and troops of Retribution army. In fact, will be a compendium of all information already published, but I will add my "noobish" impressions. With this idea I will start with my actually two warcasters, Ravyn eternal Light and Adeptus Rahn.

Ravyn, Eternal Light:

From Privateer Press:
Ravyn stands as a beacon of hope within a sect consumed by an apocalyptic vision of the future. Off the field she possesses a calm and pious wisdom. In battle some believe her to be invincible. She takes no joy in killing, but neither does she shirk from it. When Scyrah is restored, the warcaster plans to embrace peace as readily as she now welcomes war. Ravyn is seen as a fighting embodiment of the righteousness of the Retribution’s holy cause.

Some tactical information: http://battlecollege.wikispaces.com/Ravyn
More tactical information: http://privateerpressforums.com/showthr ... discussion

Basically she is a good girl inside a psychotic elf army and is the best Warcaster if you are looking for shooting themed force. This is my 25 points list.
Ravyn -6
Hydra 9
Mantycore 8
Invictors full unit 10
Attachment officer and Standard 2
Mage Hunter Assasin 2

Basically you can choose whatever shooting unit because all of them have a good synergy with her. With her feat all range attacks are boosted, and with snipe spell you have 4" more of range in one unit. This last spell added to the mini feat of the Invictors officer (4" more) means a lot of destruction in one turn that can cross almost table board. Drawbacks, if you meet one army with lot of stealth, you will have a really hard day.
Ravyn don´t need nodes, so best options for Myrmidons (warjacks) are Hydra, Mantycore and Griffon. Some people say that 2 Hydras is a really good combination (2x 15" 15 power cannon), but Hydra is not very good against heavy Warjacks (for example Khador), so I prefer to have a least 1 Mantycore that can put a lot of damage in close combat and also have some very nice shoots.

[Yarrick60]

Adeptus Rahn:

From Retribution elf rule book:
” Power can be taken, but not given. The process of the taking is empowerment in itself.”
From Privateer Press:
Among the most powerful arcanists born in a generation, Adeptis Rahn Shyeel is a master of force manipulation and arcane science. His movements send ripples through the air, and with but a thought he can generate storms of kinetic force capable of rending metal and bursting flesh. With a wave of his hand men and machines alike are swatted aside as easily as gnats, and it is just as effortlessly that he brushes away entire volleys of incoming fire.
Tactics: http://battlecollege.wikispaces.com/Adeptis+Rahn
And more tactics from privateer press forum: http://privateerpressforums.com/showthr ... discussion

Basically, he don´t cares about Retribution philosophy or objectives, he is fighting because he want more power for his House (Shyeel). This is the House where battles mages and, more important, Myrmydons (warjacks) comes. In fact he have a lot of control of the war because he can decide which army will receive supplies and Arcanist (mechanicals). Will see what happens with his history but looks like a really bad-ass.
This is my actually 25 points list:
Adeptus Rahn -6
Phoenix 10
Mantycore 8
House Shyeel Battle Mages 5
Houseguard Halberdiers small unit 4
Attachment officer and Standard 2
House Shyeel Magister 2
Arcanist free

I like theme list and using the right troops you can have some advantages. In this case I have Tier 2 that implies one free Arcanist. This Warcaster maybe is one of the best to start because is easy to play with him, but at the same time there are always new things to try and learn. Maybe is not the best warcaster to try assassination but have a lot of useful spells to control the game and win scenarios. His feat is brutal and easy to use it, your mages and Magisters during 1 turn will be killing machines, so more mages and Magisters you have it, better for you. My suggestion is try to use feat always you have a chance to punish your enemy hard, don´t wait for the perfect situation because maybe it will never arrive and your mages will die before (it happens to me ).

[me_in_japan]

Very helpful information

I really like Scyrah. I had to think very hard when I was deciding betwen them and Cryx, but as i already play Eldar for WH40k, I decided to go with the evil army for a change. Still, the Scyrah models are lovely.

[Primarch]

I have only played one game against a Scyrah list. I am not sure which caster was being used, but they had an ability to shoot through walls which was quite nice. They also had a Heavy Warjack which seemed pretty tough with a lot of shooting power, and a wall of infantry. Scyrah looks pretty cool, but most of the units had a hard time dealing with the armour on my Khador 'jacks.
I do like the force fields that the Scyrah warjacks have. They seem very useful.

[Yarrick60]

I have only played one game against a Scyrah list. I am not sure which caster was being used, but they had an ability to shoot through walls which was quite nice. They also had a Heavy Warjack which seemed pretty tough with a lot of shooting power, and a wall of infantry. Scyrah looks pretty cool, but most of the units had a hard time dealing with the armour on my Khador 'jacks.
I do like the force fields that the Scyrah warjacks have. They seem very useful.

I think this ability is from the officer of mage hunter strike force unit (elfs with crossbows), in the description of the power it says that they can kill 1 objective inside a fortress trough walls .I never tried this unit but people say that is very powerful and they are the best way for a fast assassination run, and of course they have the best synergy with Ravyn eternal light. And yes, most of the retribution units can´t touch Khador warjacks, but how many troops can touch them ?

[Yarrick60]

Next step, Myrmydons (warjacks):

I will add some information about Myrmydons, it will be not so difficult because at the moment there are only 6. Main differences with other factions Warjacks is that they have a shield. Myrmydon´s shield can absorb some damage (10 heavies and 6 lights) before they take real structure damage, but when this happens they could be crippled very fast. Shield could be regenerated D3 points using 1 focus and each Myrmydon use his shield to have different powers or attacks.
According to the latest polls (privater press), this the list of popularity:

Top: Phoenix
Manticore
Griffon
Hydra
Chimera
Gorgon

Poor Gorgon, nobody likes it. It is not bad...just strange.

[Yarrick60]

I will start with Phoenix heavy Myrmydon:
From Privateer Press
House Shyeel has brought the power of its formidable myrmidons to the Retribution, fighting machines enhanced by sophisticated arcanika systems. The Phoenix enters battle in a blaze of blue-white flames as liquid fire ignites along its massive thermal blade.

Tactical information form wiki: http://battlecollege.wikispaces.com/Phoenix
More tactical form PP : http://privateerpressforums.com/showthr ... discussion

I am not sure 100%, but I believe is the only one heavy warjack with arc-node in game, and this is very important, because you have a strong node that can survive through the battle and stay in the middle of most ferocious combats. Main drawback, it is so good in combat that you want always to start mele combats and if you are engaged you can´t use node, but it is not so bad because sword has reach (if you are in mele range but not in the mele range of your enemy you are not engaged). Phoenix has a lot of tools to deal with almost everything, a powerful canon with aoe and crtical fire (good for sthealty troops), a big sword to engage enemy warjacks and the thing that I love it, "combustion special attack". Combustion means that everything in 2" (yes your own troops too), have an automatic hit of continuous fire, perfect against infantry. To finish, just to say that Phoenix shield regenerates free d6 points in your maintenance phase, plus spend 2 focus points means a full regenerate shield in 1 turn .
My suggestion if you want to engage a big tough warjack/beast use a arcanist to boost phoenix strength, is Phoeny alone is not enough (I realized this problem against a Deathjack). Of course if you warcaster don´t need arc-node you can use a cheaper heavy.

[ennui]

I'm the one that fought against Prim's Khador army. I used Kaelyssa, and my 15 point list was:

Kaelyssa
Hydra
Full Invictors + UA

I like to use the Hydra with Kaelyssa because of the Hydra's ability to store focus. That, with Kaelyssa's 7 focus, means lots of focus all over the place!! Unfortunately, the Hydra almost always underperforms. I always want to give it just ONE MORE CHANCE though.

Kaelyssa has an upkeep awesome spell, Phantom Seeker, that lets her or her warjack ignore Line of Sight, meaning shooting through anything. It's important against Khador because the Retribution units can't effectively deal with Khador heavy jacks, so we need to go for the assassination. Instead of pouring all our shots into the warjacks, we need to find a way to go straight for the caster. This last game, I rolled poorly and didn't get so much as a scratch on the Butcher, but hey, them's the breaks!

Kaelyssa is my main warcaster and she's just a versatile as the warjacks are. Her problem is that she's too weak, so really any 1 good hit is likely to kill her. She needs to stay in the back and use her awesome gun. Oh yeah, her gun steals focus, too. She really likes focus. The spells I use the most with her are Phantom Seeker and Rift, which is an aoe that puts a 4" circle of rough terrain down. That, along with her feat that makes her forces unchargable and stealthed, makes sure that she ALWAYS gets the charge first. Oh yeah, it doesn't hurt that the Retribution jacks have the highest speed (6) of any in the game. I think only Cryx comes close..?

I have also been using Vyros. He is not quite as tough as the Butcher, but he synergizes REALLY well with the Griffon and the Invictors. He can give the Griffon a speed boost with Mobility, have it charge, then charge with the invictors and then finally with himself (he also gets the bonus from mobility). All those invictors, as well as Vyros himself, get bonuses and an extra dice for Flanking with a warjack. Honestly, out of all the warjacks in the Retribution arsenal, I think the Griffon has been the most useful to me. They outlast the heavies and have more opportunities for attacking, AND are perfect for giving flanking bonuses because of their reach. And they're dirt cheap.

I can get more into detail but I need to finish packing by today!!!!

[Yarrick60]

Very interesting information, thanks a lot. I did not try these two warcasters, but both looks nice. Which one do you recommend me for my next warcaster ? I know it is a difficult question, I like Vyros miniature, so maybe him, but Kaelyssa have nice spells...
And about Hydra, I have same feeling like you, I like miniature, I like their powers and battery, but always underperfoms (9 points is a lot), so now I am starting to play with Manticore and I can tell you, no so bad. Specially nice the covering fire area.

[Yarrick60]

Manticore Heavy Myrmydon:

From Privateer Press
House Shyeel has brought the power of its formidable myrmidons to the Retribution, fighting machines enhanced by sophisticated arcanika systems. The Manticore is equally as formidable in melee or at range, thanks to kinetically augmented attacks and its Cyclone Cannon.

Tactics: http://www.privateerpressforums.com/sho ... discussion
Anothe tactical article: http://battlecollege.wikispaces.com/Manticore

In my opinion, this is the best Heavy Myrmydon for retribution if you don´t need an Arc-node. I have started recently to use it and now I can´t live without. Manticore can shot with a decent damage, can fight with normal infantry with pow 15 normal attacks, can fight heavies with pow 20 and can put damage in super heavies with one impressive 23 pow. The main problem, it is focus dependent, is a focus vampire, so it is important to have Arcanist in your army. With an Arcanist you can reach very powerful attacks (combo strike, shield generator, arcanist = 25 pow attack ). For shooting is important to try to have aiming bonus, RAT 5 is not so impressive. If you don´t want to spend focus with him, you can also use defensively with Covering fire special action very useful sometimes.
Finally the most important thing: is our cheaper heavy Warjack.