Houseguard Halberdiers are a unit for the Retribution of Scyrah faction in Warmachine MkII.

Background and Description

Houseguard Halberdiers are formed from various Iosan houses and comprise of career soldiers trained in the effective use of the halberd and shield.^[1]

Special Abilities and Weapons

• Combined Melee Attack
• Ranked Attacks
• Shield Wall (Order)
• Weapons
  • Halberd
    • Reach
    • Brutal Charge
    • Set Defense

Attachments and Options

• Unit Size: 6-10
• Escort Weapon Attachment
• Officer and Standard

Theme Armies

Charge of the Battle Mages

Strengths

• Versatile Anvil Unit: Shield Wall and Set Defense make the Halberdiers difficult to clear while Combined Melee, Reach and Brutal Charge give them a solid offensive threat.
• Line of Sight Advantages: Ranked Attacks not only allows the unit to fight through each other, but gives ranged elements a solid screen from which to fire behind.

Weaknesses

• Modest Command: Enemies that are Abominations or who cause Terror will succeed in pushing these common soldiers off the table sooner or later.
• Orders Based Bonuses: In order to maintain a Shield Wall, Halberdiers need to be given an order. In order to benefit from a Brutal Charge, the Halberdiers need to be given an order. With only one order given a turn, Halberdiers can only commit to offense or defense completely each turn.

Synergies

• Adeptis Rahn: Cast Polarity Field on the Halberdiers so that enemies can't charge the Shield Walled unit. Or cast Polarity Field on another high ARM unit but put the Shield Walled Halberdiers up front to eat charges and prevent hits with Set Defense.
• Kaelyssa, Night's Whisper:Kaelyssa can safely shoot through them with Phantom Hunter cast on herself while receiving protection from the Halberdier's ARM 18 Shieldwall. With these defenses active, enemies will be hard pressed to generate enough high POW attacks to kill models while The Vanishing is up when Halberdiers simply cannot be charged.
• Ravyn, Eternal Light: With Reach and Brutal Charge, Halberdiers can deal Combined Melee Attacks at P+S 12 (+1 for each participant). In addition, models targeting into Ravyn's Vortex of Destruction gain an automatically boosted damage roll. Combining up to three or four of the Halberdiers pushes the P+S to 15-16 on the charge.
• Chimera Myrmidon:Use their Ranked Attacks to form a solid line of ARM 18 models that can have spells channeled over them.
• Dawnguard Invictors With their Shield Wall and Ranked Attacks, the Halberdier can make it even tougher to get at Invictors while still allowing them to use their ranged attacks.
• Dawnguard Sentinels: Sentinels can hide behind the Shield Wall and attack over them thanks to Ranked Attacks and Reach.
• Dawnguard Destors: Fire over the heads of the Halberdiers with their Lance Cannons and use their mobility to either Dual Shot from a pre-determined position on the battlefield (keeping the Halberdiers in the way) or set up for a clean charge on anything that might threaten the high ARM Shield Wall.
• House Shyeel Battle Mages: Cast spells through the Ranked Halberdiers or keep the mages on a flank ready to Beat Back any models coming to smash the Shield Wall.
• Houseguard Riflemen and Unit Attachment: Safely fire over the Halberdiers with Ranked ATtacks, and use the Unit attachment's Mini-Feat Whites of their Eyes for accurate close up fire and War-Tempered to allow them to combine fire at models engaged by the Halberdiers.
• Mage Hunter Strike Force: Allow the squishy unit to safely target enemies without the added benefit of using their Unit Attachment for the Phantom Hunter ability.
• Stormfall Archers: The archers are effectively screened by the ranked attacks and so can stand still and use Snipe for an aiming bonus or use Brutal Shot against highly armored targets moving in on the Halberdiers.
• Soulless Escorts: Attaching the Soulless gives it many opportunities to trigger its Flank Ability thanks to the Halberdiers' Reach.
• Dawnguard Destor Thane OR Dawnguard Scyir Solo: Increase the command of the Halberdiers to a hearty 10 with these solos.
• Mage Hunter Assassin: The Assassin can attack through two or three lines of Shield Walled Halberdiers with its 4" Chain Strike. Use one or two behind the Halberdiers to help break Shieldwall standoffs.
• Ghost Sniper: Cover the Halberdiers Shield Wall Advance with well chosen targets to hit with Deadly Shot. Using two in tandem can allow the Snipers to instantly cap most 5 wound solos and officers.
• Eiryss, Mage Hunter: Cover the Mage Hunter's advance with Ranked Attacks and allow her to use her Disruptor Bolt at enemy warjacks and warcasters.
• Fane Knight Skeryth Issyen: Shield Wall makes it difficult for the enemy to kill a Halberdier, but punish the enemy for killing any one of the models due to his Righteous Fury

Articles

Notes

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