Adeptis Rahn is a Warcaster for the Retribution of Scyrah faction in Warmachine MkII.

Background and Description

Adeptis Rahn commands the Battle Mages of House Shyeel and uses their power and his house's influence in Myrmidon allocation to leverage further power for his house. In battle, he uses his control over force manipulation to protect himself from projectiles and forcefully move enemies into peril.^[1]

Special Abilities and Weapons

• Feat: Arcane Alignment
  • Friendly faction models in his control area gain increased RNG to non-channeled spells and boosted magic attack and magic damage rolls.
• Force Barrier: Gains defense against ranged attack rolls and ignores blast damage.
• Balance
  • Reach
  • Magical Weapon
  • Beat Back: Attacks can push a model and Adeptis Rahn can advance up to the model pushed.
  • Critical Smite: A critical hit can slam the target in place of rolling normal damage.
• Spells
  • Chain Blast
    • Offensive Spell
    • AOE effect
    • Geneerates an additional AOE deviating from that point.
  • Force Blast
    • Targets Friendly Battlegroup Model in his control area.
    • Nearby enemy models are pushed away from the target.
  • Force Field
    • Targets Self
    • Upkeep Spell
    • Target gains immunity to blast/collateral damage and prevents knockdown.
    • When enemy ranged attack AOEs roll deviation, Rahn chooses the direction.
  • Force Hammer
    • Offensive Spell
    • Targets Model
    • Slams target, regardless of base size.
  • Polarity Shield
    • Upkeep Spell
    • Targets friendly model/unit
    • Prevents charges against the target from their front arc.
  • Telekinesis
    • Friendly or Offensive spell
    • Places target model.
    • Enemy models require an attack roll.
    • Models only affected once per turn.

Theme Army

• Adeptis Rahn, Charge of the Battle Mages Theme Force

Strengths

• Move Crap Around: If Rahn is not using his abilities to protect key models and create opportunities through weird movement effects, then he's doing something wrong. His Force Field gives him control over enemy deviation rolls, Force Blast allows him to free up Warjacks tied down by enemy models with pushes, Polarity Shield constrains enemy movement towards his models by preventing charges, and Telekinesis allows him to place models in advantageous ways or move key enemy models into or out of potential attack lanes.
• Support Caster: Rahn's spell list allows him to protect squishy troops from potentially devastating area attacks and his high focus stat gives him the largest control area of any Retribution warcaster. Not only does he control the direction of enemy deviations in his control area, but he can range his warjacks out and cast Force Blast from a great distance, or use their Arc Nodes to target ever distant models.
• Magical Support: In Rahn's case, we're not just talking about buffs or enhancements. We're talking about support for magical spellcasters, including himself, by way of his Arcane Alignment Feat. Models under this effect (including himself) will suddenly find it easier to reach, hit, and damage enemy models with magical spells.

Weaknesses

• High Focus Stat, Expensive Spells: Like some other high Focus warcasters, Adeptis Rahn has a set of important abilities that may leave him without very much focus to assign to his warjacks. By upkeeping two spells and casting one offensive spell, Rahn will have two or three focus left to allocate or use for boosts or a key Telekinesis placement. Even on his Feat Turn it's doubtful he will achieve an assassination through direct spell casting.
• Support Warcaster: Adeptis Rahn will probably be activating before your key damaging models as his abilities will determine how much your army can achieve. He will probably push, slam and place, but very little killing will actually occur. Other models in the army will have to finish the job, or else Adeptis Rahn will fail.

Synergies

• Griffons: A fully loaded Griffon that is supported with a Force Blast to clear engaging models and placed via Telekinesis can create good charge opportunities for a model with Reach
• Chimeras: Chimeras can run on the flanks to support Rahn's army with a fast moving arc node that can be placed in the Control Phase due to Apparition. Once freed, the model can be activated to move to another position for a well placed Force Blast or Force Hammer.
• Hydras: Load it up early on with focus for its Focus Battery to use it as a high ARM gun platform. Polarity Field will force the enemy to advance into it rather than charge it with high POW weaponry.
• Phoenix Myrmidon: Polarity Field will help keep the warjack up and functional, while its arc node will force the enemy to deal with it as a threat lest Adeptis Rahn arc a Force Hammer into the enemy's backfield.
• Sentinels, Invictors,Destors, Halberdiers: Polarity Field on any one of these units will give the opponent difficulty with dealing with the high ARM models that are in Shield Wall or Defensive Line or just naturally high ARM like the Destors.
• Sentinels, Invictors: Jack Marshals can add offensive punch to an Adeptis Rahn force without requiring him to devote focus to a heavy warjack. However, he will be missing the use of Force Blasts.
• Stormfall Archers: Force Hammer an important target to knock it down. Stormfall Archers will easily hit the target with their Brutal Shot, causing no less than an average roll of P+S 22 each.
• House Shyeel Battle Mages: Give Adeptis Rahn more push effects in his army with their Force Bolts. When he uses his Feat, the boosted magic attack rolls have a greater chance to critically hit the target and knock it down
• Mage Hunter Strike Force:Rahn's upkeep spell Force Field protects a large area and will easily keep the Mage hunters safe from deviating area attacks.
• Arcanist: Keep those important arc nodes alive with the Repair Ability.
• Destor Thane: Increase the Thane's multi-fire threat out to 20" with Telekinesis, and use Force Hammer to either clear LOS or to Knockdown the target to make it easier to generate all four attacks.
• Scyir: After the Scyir charges a target, use Telekinesis to place him back in base with a myrmidon in order to benefit from Iron Sentinel
• Magister: When Arcane Alignment is up, Whip Snap becomes a RNG 8 magic attack, allowing the Magister to stay slightly further back in an Adeptis Rahn army. The boosted magical attack rolls on the feat turn help the Solo with critical hits on a Force Bolt, or a successful Whip Snap.
• Eiryss: Disengage Eiryss from melee combat so that she can shoot a Disruptor bolt. If possible, create a situation where movement will not be needed to give her the aiming bonus so that she can roll to hit at an effective RAT 11.

Rules Errata

Articles

Notes

1. ¹ Forces of Warmachine: Retribution of Scyrah. 2009