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Copied from my post on Warseer:

So for the past two days I've tried to register on the Privateer Press forum, but it always says registration has been disabled by an administrator. Why? I wanted to register to ask this question:

I've been looking at two armies (I haven't seriously looked at Hordes yet) that really interest me:

Protectorate of Menoth and the Retribution of Scryah.

I like PoM because their jacks look cool, I like the whole holy theme to them, and from the stats and the two games of played (even though both were with a friend's Cryx) I can kind of tell how things would go. Fire damage seems like it would be really good, plus many of the things buff my warjacks to crazy levels. On the downside, even though the jacks all look cool they all kind of look the same. Also, the fact that they are so slow also irks me abit, although I don't know how that applies to real games in the grand scheme of things.

RoS, on the other hand, satisfies my "fetish" for elves. I love elves. And anything Elfy. I like the whole glass cannon concept (which is opposite of menoth, lulz, but I still like them). The models look cool as well, but my concerns are; Will you die too quickly? Will they come out with more models? How does RoS perform against other armies? I realize that the synergy isn't anywhere near as strict as PoM, which can be good and bad. If a key unit in my theoretical PoM army (like the Choir) gets killed I'm a lot more prone to losing, where with RoS a model can die and I keep trudging along.

As I said above I'm honestly torn between these two armies. Both tickle my fancy very much and have elements that I like (Holy/Fire vs Elf/Speed). To me Hordes has a better system than Warmachine, but I'm not really attracted to their models. Anything to say to help a brother out?

Retribution will come out with models at the same rate as the other WM factions, but that means that there will always be a gap between model counts. In general the only area where it's painful is the casters. Casters dicatate how an army plays and can radically alter the performance of units or change what units work best, so a limited number of casters means a limited number of effective builds (Although like any game you could just throw a bunch of crap in a list resulting in a massive number of ineffective ones).

As a finer point, when most people say "synergy" what they really mean is "buffing". Synergy involves everything getting better as opposed to bringing models along or devoting resources to making something else better. The Choir gets nothing from buffing a jack except for the loss of their action for the turn.

I'd say in WM/H everything dies too quickly, especially when your opponent really wants it to die. Even then glass cannon doesn't really describe Retribution so much as Cryx. Retribution is more about mitigating the return fire rather than simply trying to hit and do as much damage as possible before being crushed. Take Ravyn for example, it's easy to have a Ravyn list where most or all of the units are firing at targets between 16-18" away, a great way to avoid return fire entirely as opposed to simply hoping its not that devastating. In general Retribution tends to be the most multi-role of the factions. You'll be suprised how many things in the army shoot and fight with at least respectable stats in both areas and all of their heavy jacks are packing ranged attacks in addition to melee. RoS' performance can be pretty variable, but they tend to do fine against WM. Against Hordes less so, since a number of models rely on Arcane Assassin which doesn't affect Animus and Fury, but they still don't do badly against Hordes, the matchups are just not as favorable. Well built Ravyn and Rahn lists can easily hold thier own in tournament settings and both casters are capable enough that even some of the best casters in the game have to respect them.

Menoth is a solid faction, but you need to get some pracice with the order of activations before going too heavy into it. The most common mistake of new menoth players is running a jack out of Choir/Vassal range or otherwise doing their turn sequence in an order that weakens their effectiveness. Menoth has a number of great casters and their playstyles can differ pretty dramatically, so its got a good bit of diversity over Ret simply by having higher model counts.

I'm not really into Cryx all that much because the whole undead/necrotic feel just isn't my thing. I also would like to field a mid to high amount of Warjacks because they are just so damn cool. It seems like both approaches, while completely different, suit my style. I might go with Menoth purely for the fact that they are more developed than Retribution and that they have a more unique model range. I'm not decided yet though, so any more (personal) feedback on these armies would be highly appreciated.

While I can't help with your army selections(I play Khador and Circle Orboros), I think the registration lock on the main PP forums is due to an overabundance of spambots there recently. The servers have been down several times for unscheduled maintenance, and I think the spambots are the reason.

I can't say much for RoS as I haven't played against them, but I've thrown down with some Menoth lists.

Holy crap does their stuff get out of hand if you don't check 'em early. Their 'jacks are decent, and for the most part their troops vary from scrub to average, but their support units... They make everything range from good to superb.

From the oppositions stand point I can honestly say that if I don't pop their support in the early game then I'm in for a rough session. On the flip side, if I can drop Choirs, Books, etc, their army goes from really good to really lackluster.

if you really like jacks the PoM are probably the better choiche. As far as I heard the retribution do not like armys of mostly jacks. PoM does. The reason for this is the choir and the reclaimer solo. Both of these make the jacks able to perform without castersupport a whole lot better. The caster support is what makes it fenominal.

The easiest list is this one:
Battlebox + addon
pKreoss
- repenter
- revenger
- crusader
choir
Palladin

This is mostly jacks and with the choir support plus this caster the possibilities really get great. Shooting is possible, combat is possible and noding is possible. the palladin is there to fill in 2 points.

A better option imho would be 2 vanquishers and a choir plus a vassal. this list has lots of support and 2 good jacks that can bring hurt to infantry with their cannons and to jacks with a hymn and some focus. The vassal makes 1 jack shoot twice, have an extra attack, or let the jack walk away after the first hit (very good ability)