Sorry about the lack of an update yesterday - I've felt like my face has been in a vice grip and I hate my sinuses right now. Instead, I will create a bonus post for Saturday in preparation for Templecon (next week! AHHHHH!!!) on preparing for such an epic event. Today, however, I want to talk about my favorite board-control warcaster: Adeptus Rahn Shyeel. Last year I went through almost all of the factions or at least considered all of the factions as I wanted to build my Warmachine/Hordes collection. For a short period of time I had actually owned a small Retribution force and had even converted them a bit. They seemed like a lot of fun and I played some games with them, but never got the 35-point level to which I was aspiring. Rahn controls the board like no one else, has a very easy-to-use feat, and has one of the few competitive theme lists among the Retribution warcasters. Let me share with you my thoughts on Rahn Shyeel.
First off, as much as I'm not a fan of some of the Retribution models, Adeptus Rahn is probably one of the more badass looking models. The Retribution of Scyrah have a very sci-fi feel to them while still fitting into the Iron Kingdoms universe, and I think that's pretty neat. You might not like the look of some of the models either, but I think that Rahn has access to some of the better looking models for the faction without succumbing to "impractical weapon/armor" syndrome. Although, people do lovingly call the Battle Mages the "Mittens."
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First thing to look at with Rahn is his feat:
Arcane Alignment - all friendly faction models gain +2 to the RNG of non-channeled spells and they gain boosted attack and damage rolls (note:
boosted, not
additional die!). This is a really solid, if one-dimensional feat, considering how much magic is prevalent in Retribution. Naturally, we'll want to take some Battle Mages and some Magisters to make the most of this feat, but Rahn will also save himself some focus points on his feat turn to cast his spells more accurately and to cause more damage with them.
Rahn has one of my favorite spell lists out there, with all of the tools he needs to control the board (which is what he does best). His first board control spell is
Telekinesis, which really doesn't need much exposition. It's a solid repositioning spell and on his feat turn, he can use it even against harder-to-hit targets like warcasters.
Force Blast is also a solid spell that can be used both offensively or defensively, depending on the position of the warjack (or even himself). If you run a warjack behind it's intended target, you can push him 4" closer to the rest of your army - pretty solid!
Force Hammer is basically the opposite of
Gallows but it's a slam (so it won't affect incorporeal models, but that's not really a problem for a Rahn force anyway) so it also knocks the target down. The utility of
Force Hammer is incredible, as you can use
Force Bolts from your Battle Mages to bring targets closer, only to cast
Force Hammer to slam them back into the enemy lines. You can also use this to slam models into walls and other obstructions for extra damage, and have all kinds of fun! You should be casting
Force Hammer often!
Force Field prevents Rahn from getting knocked down and let's him redirect deviated AOEs (but it's not all that spectacular as you can have a whole army with him that's immune to blast damage anyway), and
Chain Blast is fun for dealing with massed amounts of low-ARM infantry, but is a bit situational. Lastly,
Polarity Shield isn't exactly board control, but it does
prevent your opponent from charging a model/unit with the spell on it.
This is a pretty solid spell with lots of utility to prevent your
opponent from getting that extra distance they need to charge you or to
get that boosted damage if it's non-warjack/warbeast. Overall, Rahn has a fantastic spell list that literally lets him rearrange an entire opposing force on the battlefield, allowing all kinds of situations where you can open up charge lanes to warcasters.
I will actually be providing two lists for your perusal, as at the 35 point level I think that Rahn can go with either his theme list or a normal list. At 50 points, I think he will shift in performance more towards his theme list, but for now let's look at these two lists and compare and contrast them.
Charge of the Battle Mages 35 points (Tier 3)
Adeptus Rahn Shyeel (+6)
- Discordia (10)
- Phoenix (10)
House Shyeel Battle Mages (5)
House Shyeel Battle Mages (5)
House Shyeel Battle Mages (5)
Arcanis (free*)
House Shyeel Magister (2)
House Shyeel Magister (2)
House Shyeel Magister (2)
Adeptus Rahn Shyeel (+6)
- Discordia (10)
- Phoenix (10)
- Sylys Wyshnalyrr (2)
House Shyeel Battle Mages (5)
- Souless Escort (1)
House Shyeel Battle Mages (5)
- Souless Escort (1)
House Shyeel Artificer (3)
House Shyeel Magister (2)
House Shyeel Magister (2)
Like I said, I think that at 35 points you have some real flexibility as to which list is better, but I think at 50 points the ability to take more than just 2 units of Battle Mages will prove to be quite the boon in spite of the limitations, but we do have some similarities that are worth discussing before we discuss the differences. For both lists I decided that, although they are expensive, a Phoenix and Discordia are going to prove to be quite useful. The Phoenix is, in my opinion, the best warjack that Retribution has. It has
reach, a high-P+S weapon, the ability to clear out lots of infantry, resilience with it's
Phoenix Field,
and an arc node! This is as close to an auto-include as you can get for Rahn, let alone Retribution as a whole. Discordia is included to make sure to have some other form of heavy-hitting and the magical P+S 14 spray is also key for removing anti-magic models for this force (like Druids or Orin Midwinter). While the
imprint might not seem too useful, it's worth noting that it gives a +2 ARM boost in addition to the DEF boost that most of the rest of the force will get against ranged attacks. Discordia will also make a great target for
Force Blast and can sit behind a
Polarity Shielded Phoenix, giving it +2 ARM against ranged attacks - situational but it's nice when you need it.
You'll also notice that we stack Magisters, as
Whip Snap will be key to catapulting that Phoenix or Discordia across the battlefield on feat turn when the Battle Mages clear out a charge lane for you. In a pinch they can actually deal some decent damage in melee too, if your opponent seems to enjoy preventing you from casting spells on him (like Circle). While anti-magic will be a problem for this list, it is worth noting that Battle Mages still have 2 basic attacks with a decent P+S. It's not going to threaten any heavies, but they can seriously put some hurt on infantry.
In the second list we'll notice some differences. The first is that we miss out on that Arcanist - which is a nice support solo for your warjacks - and we lose out on one of our Battle Mage units. What we get in exchange is access to Sylys Wyshnalyrr - who is
very useful for Rahn. Rahn only has 2 upkeeps, but being able to have one of them for free is very useful so that he can spend more of his focus casting spells. Additionally, with Rahn's feat, he can cast increase his non-channeled spell range by a whopping 4", meaning that if he loses that Phoenix, he can still reach out at the enemy caster. Lastly, Sylys gives Rahn an extra die on his spell attack and damage rolls, and Rahn drops the lowest. This is
huge on his feat turn, as it means that an already accurate Rahn becomes quite silly and can feasibly assassinate a target with magic.
Next we'll notice that I added some Souless Escorts to our Battle Mages to do two things: provide some melee punch in a pinch and protect them from enemy spells. While Battle Mages get +2 DEF against ranged attacks, they're still vulnerable to spells like Hellmouth and magical debuffs. Having a souless escort prevents those things, and since Rahn's only model/unit upkeep is
Polarity Shield, they're not missing out on too much (anything that can reach them will likely not need boosted damage to kill them anyway). The souless escort will give you some ability to clear out an annoying model, or if they charge, that escort can suddenly threaten some key models in your opponent's force.
Lastly you'll notice that we added an Artificer instead of that third Magister, who will also make great use of Rahn's feat. I'm actually surprised that he can't already fit into Rahn's theme force, and if he could, I would take the theme force almost every time. The Artificer is a tough nut to crack, with 8 damage boxes, some actual melee potential, and both an awesome offensive spell in
Magno Blast (which also gives more board control) or he can be more defensive and use
Polarity Field on himself. While he's not terribly exciting, he does add some diversity to the list.
So in short, our first list gives us greater warjack potential and more board control over more models, while our second list allows Rahn greater damage output and more effectiveness from the models that exist. I think it's a tough decision which to take, actually, and that's why I decided to share both options with you all.
