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I'm still torn up between using Ossyan or Rahn as my caster, and everyone says to use the phoenix jack, but I like the Hydra (I like shooting, but hate the look of cygnar stuff)

Rahn
2 x Aspis
2 x Hydra

6 Houseguard Halberdiers
6 Houseguard Riflemen
1 Heavy rifle team
2 Ghost snipers

I havn't bought any models yet so everything is still up in the air. I've always preferred shooty armies to melee ones in all the games I've played. And I really like the look of the houseguard units. Any feedback is appreciated guys.

liking the models ya like is a huge step to liking armies, but this list is pretty bad. you should have at least 1 unit of mitten mages in their, and a magister. barring that a single arc node would be great. shooting is super good as well, but i would drop the rifle team. RET is so mobile and yet that piece is static and will be taken down quickly. perhaps something like this:

Adeptis Rahn Shyeel
-Chimera
-Hydra
Sylys Wyshnalyrr, the Seeker
Dawnguard Invictors (Leader and 5 Grunts)
Dawnguard Invictor Officer & Standard
House Shyeel Battle Mages (Leader and 5 Grunts)
Houseguard Riflemen (Leader and 9 Grunts)
Arcanist1
House Shyeel Magister

a decent mix of guns and combat. flank for the invictors can really pump up the damage if you get a jack into combat late game. the invictors also have range 14 on that critical turn. rahn without an arc node makes me sad, since TK assassination is pretty basic with him. arcanist throws one on the chimera, chimera then moves into place. use rahn to feat and move the enemy caster into the open, turn him around then hit him with battle mages, invictors and riflemen.

So, warmachine is really about synergy, getting the army to work as a whole, not a bunch of peices.

A couple thoughts on your models
Hydras arent really that geat, not bad but others are better.
the heavy rifle team is pretty bad actually. Not being able to move and shoot combined with not having a monster range means or any real defense means it will usually get killed by the first ranged unit that walks in range.

aspis's, never tried em out. they look like they have potential.

Since you seem to like those models in particular I would suggest moving to vyross as your caster. he gives the hydras the ability to shoot anyone in range ignoring models and terrain in the way and he can hand them a couple more buffs along the way.
Rahn is great but he needs archnodes (read pheonixes) and a squad of battle mages with a magister or two. Without then you are really hampering yourself. Ossyan is also good but he cannot support multiple jacks that well and needs every model in his army to have a gun.

If you are stuck on those models try this army out
Vyross,
2x hydra
1x aspis

acrhanist
2x ghost snipers
10 halberds with unit attachment
6 riflemen
(I would suggest subbing out the riflemen and aspis for a minimum unit of mage hunter strike force with unit attachement and a mage hunter assassian.)

Its a tricky army but it could work if you use the halberds as a strong screen with vyross's armor buff.

A word to the wise.
Shooting in warmachine is simply a way to get in the first shot. Most units have a range around 10-12 inches and many units can charge someone 10 inches away. So your gonna get one turn of shooting before the first line gets piled on. If you start playing the steamroller missions that just furthers this as you have to take ground and cant keep running away.

Thanks a lot for the feedback guys. After a few days, the game seems a lot easier to make sense of.

I've ended up switching to cygnar as one of my friends just gave me a boatload of models for free. And they're not that bad when you see them in person lol.