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So I'm still a newbie, but....

I'm having problems using Kaelyssa. When I play I find her to be more a liability than an asset beyond doling out focus to 'jacks. Often she's pretty easy for key models in opponent's army to hit and her relatively low HP and ARM means I've so far been very near losing to assassination or actually losing to it in almost every game. I also find that I don't particularly have a good way of spending focus with her in a meaningful way unless I'm playing against Cryx. Question is, how can I best take advantage of Kae? Is there something I'm missing when it comes to spending Focus beyond chucking out extra and boosted shots with her gun? Is there a key unit or key model I'm missing in my armoury when it comes to Kae? Is Issyria maybe a better choice if I want to feel my caster to have impact on the game?

The opponents I'm playing is limited to Mercs/Cygnar, Khador/Cyriss, Cryx and Circle. We've been unsuccessful luring the Blood Angels player so far and the Chaos player(s) doesn't like WMH aesthetics :(. I don't want to overspend like I've done on Eldar, but I've got Starter box, Phoenix, Halbs, Rifles (RAT 5!?), HG Thane, MHSF, MHSF UA, Stormfalls, Arcanis and Issyria. As for playstyle, I have a fondness for attrition or assassination and have a tendency to forget about objectives in all games I play.



Also, I just realised that the Phoenix is an arc node and that I really didn't have to place Kaelyssa so aggressively in my last game against Khador so those 12+2 HP she lost to him and the threat from the Winterguard's Spray she took was completely unnecessary.

http://battlecollege.wikispaces.com/Kaelyssa

The tactics section should give you a bit of an idea.

If you're getting assassinated, you should look into your positioning. That tends to be an issue. She is not a powerhouse by any means, but her gun can get 3 fully boosted shots if your opponent has 1 focus while stripping all the remaining focus, which is something. She is primarily a support caster which means she's not going to excel at dealing damage or taking damage. Her super stealth feat should be helping you a lot in playing aggressively and combined with her upkeeps, gives her a strong defense. You should be mounting a strong offense and minimizing the reprisal. It seems your biggest problem right now, is being new to the game. Sit down with the rulebook and pour over it, it never hurts to double check rules you think you know. Other than that, examine what you could have done better or what screwed the pooch for you in each match. In WMH, about 99% of the time, it comes down to the player either not knowing the rules well enough or making a mistake.

Well, what I feel with Kae (so far) is that she's not got any decent support to give short of her feat (which honestly is amazing). The game against Vlad really came down to essentially being told after letting go of Kae that Vlad could get a 19" threat range and Pathfinder with Blood of Kings and charge. I get the feeling that my problem with how I perceive Kae's abilities might stem from that my opponents have so far played support characters and have (entirely by accident I'm sure) avoided camping focus. And yes, I've read Battle Collage's page on her, which is why my first models were MHSF and Phoenix, but I have a problem matching other people's perception of her with my own. Hmm...

Maybe I just need to remember the damned Arc Node.

 Mahtamori wrote:
Well, what I feel with Kae (so far) is that she's not got any decent support to give short of her feat (which honestly is amazing). The game against Vlad really came down to essentially being told after letting go of Kae that Vlad could get a 19" threat range and Pathfinder with Blood of Kings and charge. I get the feeling that my problem with how I perceive Kae's abilities might stem from that my opponents have so far played support characters and have (entirely by accident I'm sure) avoided camping focus. And yes, I've read Battle Collage's page on her, which is why my first models were MHSF and Phoenix, but I have a problem matching other people's perception of her with my own. Hmm...

Maybe I just need to remember the damned Arc Node.

Vlad1? He's got a max charge range of 14.5". 6" + 2" + 3" + 3" +.5" reach = 14.5". It's still pretty damn long, but it leaves him with 1 focus and certainly isn't 19".

Dont forget his feat that doubles his base speed of 6.

cp66701 wrote:
Dont forget his feat that doubles his base speed of 6.

Nope. Warjacks only.

 Laughing Man wrote:

 Mahtamori wrote:
Well, what I feel with Kae (so far) is that she's not got any decent support to give short of her feat (which honestly is amazing). The game against Vlad really came down to essentially being told after letting go of Kae that Vlad could get a 19" threat range and Pathfinder with Blood of Kings and charge. I get the feeling that my problem with how I perceive Kae's abilities might stem from that my opponents have so far played support characters and have (entirely by accident I'm sure) avoided camping focus. And yes, I've read Battle Collage's page on her, which is why my first models were MHSF and Phoenix, but I have a problem matching other people's perception of her with my own. Hmm...

Maybe I just need to remember the damned Arc Node.

Vlad1? He's got a max charge range of 14.5". 6" + 2" + 3" + 3" +.5" reach = 14.5". It's still pretty damn long, but it leaves him with 1 focus and certainly isn't 19".

I'm certain my friend, who is equally new to Warmachine as I am, said 19 or 17 inches. We'll simply have to watch out for that one in the future, so thank you for that one. He didn't pop feat, though, since he knew it only worked on Warjacks.

I must say the most difficult thing so far is to remember to shoot before activating the next unit. Warhammer turn order be damned!

 Mahtamori wrote:
So I'm still a newbie, but....

I'm having problems using Kaelyssa. When I play I find her to be more a liability than an asset beyond doling out focus to 'jacks. Often she's pretty easy for key models in opponent's army to hit and her relatively low HP and ARM means I've so far been very near losing to assassination or actually losing to it in almost every game. I also find that I don't particularly have a good way of spending focus with her in a meaningful way unless I'm playing against Cryx. Question is, how can I best take advantage of Kae? Is there something I'm missing when it comes to spending Focus beyond chucking out extra and boosted shots with her gun? Is there a key unit or key model I'm missing in my armoury when it comes to Kae? Is Issyria maybe a better choice if I want to feel my caster to have impact on the game?

The opponents I'm playing is limited to Mercs/Cygnar, Khador/Cyriss, Cryx and Circle. We've been unsuccessful luring the Blood Angels player so far and the Chaos player(s) doesn't like WMH aesthetics :(. I don't want to overspend like I've done on Eldar, but I've got Starter box, Phoenix, Halbs, Rifles (RAT 5!?), HG Thane, MHSF, MHSF UA, Stormfalls, Arcanis and Issyria. As for playstyle, I have a fondness for attrition or assassination and have a tendency to forget about objectives in all games I play.



Also, I just realised that the Phoenix is an arc node and that I really didn't have to place Kaelyssa so aggressively in my last game against Khador so those 12+2 HP she lost to him and the threat from the Winterguard's Spray she took was completely unnecessary.

My friend uses her a lot. Keep her in the back, use your arcnode and buffs. Use her feat defensively to position yourself for a big offensive turn.

My friend likes to put phantom hunter on a jack with a nice gun to target anything. Another fun thing to do is backlash a jack then shoot it with magehunters (arcantrik bolt helps here, too). Use her truesight and gun to pick off those pesky solos who always try to cause problems.

Check out battlecollege and the PP Ret forums, too.
http://battlecollege.wikispaces.com/Kaelyssa

You should always have a medium or large based model screening your caster. The Aspis looks good for this bodyguard role (at least to me). I play every caster like they're as squishy as Kaelyssa (even when I played pVlad) because I find that my opponent will mess up trying to go for the assassination or alpha strike and then he's on my turf.