House Shyeel Battle Mages are a unit for the Retribution of Scyrah faction in Warmachine MkII.

Background and Description

House Shyeel trains the most formidable of the battle mages who wield arkanika powered gauntlets and control kinetic forces both offensively and defensively.^[1]

Special Abilities and Weapons

• Force Barrier: Increased defense against ranged attacks and ignores blast damage.
• Magic Ability
  • Force Bolt: *Attack
  • Magical Attack
  • Push: Models hit can be pushed.
  • Critical: Critical hits both push and knockdown the target Knockdown
  • Power Gauntlets (Melee x2)
    • Magical Weapon
    • Beat Back: Models hit can be pushed and this model can advance up to the model pushed.

Attachments and Options

• Unit Size: 6
• Escort Weapon Attachment

Theme Armies

Adeptis Rahn, Charge of the Battle Mages Theme Force

• Tier 1: Unlimited FA
• Tier 2: Each Battle Mages Unit increases number of Magisters that can be fielded.
• Four or more units are required to achieve Tier 4.

Strengths

• Area Control: Battle Mages control an area by threatening to force bolt any heavy hitters that approach (particularly low DEF models such as Warjacks or heavily armored infantry).
• Ranged Denial: Force Barrier keeps enemies from picking off the lightly armored mages with shooting or area effect attacks.

Weaknesses

• Magic that Only Stops Bullets: Battle Mages strong defensive capabilities are limited to ranged attacks. Once they commit to using their powered gauntlets in melee it should be easy enough to kill them.
• Very Few Magic Enhancements: The flexibility of having magical attacks is limited by the small number of things that enhance or boost their attack and damage rolls.

Synergies

• Adeptis Rahn: 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
• Hydra: Present a ranged conundrum for your enemy. Shoot the low DEF Hydra and give it focus? Or try to eliminate the board controlling battle mages but try to hit DEF 15?
• Chimera: Beat Back can free a trapped Chimera for those times when Apparition movement isn't enough to get your arc node where you want it.
• Dawnguard Sentinels: More Ranged dilemmas. Shoot the mages that are hard to hit or shoot the Sentinels that are tough to kill?
• Houseguard Halberdiers: Protect the Mages with Ranked Attacks and allow them to cast spells over the Shield Wall safe from models seeking to engage the spellcasters.
• Houseguard Riflemen and Houseguard Rifleman Officer and Standard Unit Attachment: Though it might be obvious to use Ranked Attacks to allow the mages to cast spells over the Riflemen, you can use the Mages up front to charge and push heavy targets with their Powered Gauntlets. Then with War Tempered from the unit attachment, the Riflemen can combine fire into melee to finish off the target for good.
• Stormfall Archers: Look for opportunities for a Critical Knockdown and then drop a Brutal Shot on the head of the unfortunate target with the Archers.

Articles

Notes

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