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As the subject, I'm looking at the warcasters and trying to see which one's are decent and which not so much. Is there a place I can get a quick run-down of the different warcasters to see strengths and weaknesses, or can someone give me quick pointers?

Slaan wrote:As the subject, I'm looking at the warcasters and trying to see which one's are decent and which not so much. Is there a place I can get a quick run-down of the different warcasters to see strengths and weaknesses, or can someone give me quick pointers?

http://www.dakkadakka.com/wiki/en/Retribution_of_Scyrah

12thRonin wrote:

Slaan wrote:As the subject, I'm looking at the warcasters and trying to see which one's are decent and which not so much. Is there a place I can get a quick run-down of the different warcasters to see strengths and weaknesses, or can someone give me quick pointers?

http://www.dakkadakka.com/wiki/en/Retribution_of_Scyrah

I second this.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Though I will note that the article is missing Lord Ossyan.

I suggest checking out BattleCollege for a rough overview on him.

I've been reading through the stuff you guys mentioned and, although I'm sure it's useful, to the layman it's mostly greek.

Here's what I mean:

I was looking at Rahn as a warcaster, but his feat only effects battle mages and magisters. However, people here say don't take more then 1 battle mage and I've seen no support for magisters. People also say Rahn's tier thingy sucks, so I'll leave that for now.

However, people also say Rahn's spells are good for board control. However, if you can't use his tier's and feat, is he worth using?

This is what I mean when I ask for help with warcasters. I have never played the game as I know nobody in my city that plays it, so I have no idea what to look for. I'm not going out to buy all the models today or anything, but at the same time I'm not sure what to look for in feats, spells, skills, synergy, etc.

His feat will work on his spells as well...he is just a limited warcaster is all.
Kaelyssa allows you to snipe a caster/lock through anything.
Garryth stops locks from transferring damage, and also on his feat stops you from casting spells or spending focus.
Ossyan just destroys if you load up shooty units

google battle college - that is the best resource for finding info on units/casters/jacks etc.

I was in that same boat, I looked at Rahn and thought this is the coolest model this army has, it comes down to playing around...in my opinion battle mages are useless...Dawnguard are the space marines of Ret...hit hard, die quick.
The good thing about kaelyssa is her feat makes everything in your control area stealth and cannot be charged, so you can set up your dawnguard to not be charged and then hopefully get the charging bonus next turn to bring the hurt. I used 3 Sentinels and took out a merc heavy jack...they're solid.

I just had a look through those links and you are right, they aren't written for the very new player. So lets see if this helps. (disclaimer, I don't play ret but I chat with my gaming buddy a lot about them)

Retribution is the faction of Elves. So those stereotypical traits of elves are there, they are easy to damage but hard to hit. They have many special qualities that will annoy your enemy. Now I'm generalising here and I hope that you understand this but most of the warcasters will not be able to take a hit.

So the warcasters:

Garryth, Blade of Retribution

This guy is one of the best assassination casters in the game. All because if he gets into combat with the enemy caster they are highly likely to die. Or he can try to support his army by getting them to move faster and hit easier.

His greatest defensive ability is stealth so be wary of legion/cygnar as a load of their stuff can ignore that.

Kaelyssa, Night's Whisper

The recommended starting warcaster and I can understand that. She has a few tricks against all army types and can generally help out in some way. She can get you the alpha-strike by feating in the right turn and stopping those charges/ranged shots. Spells are a dangerous thing to cast at her and her battlegroup as then things can get into better positions. Lots of things can shoot with retribution and thus gain benefits from phantom hunter. You can also play around with focus and fury on the enemy with her gun.

Lord Arcanist Ossyan

Ok, first things first. Yes, you do want things that shoot in his army. You'll also want things that can hit in melee as well. His feat means that those heavily armoured targets are likely to be hurt if not destroyed. Where he fails is that he can't debuff the defence of the enemy except by shooting his guy. Great for the assassination run but not against an army of hard to hit models. Quicken is a great spell to either get your melee troops up the table faster or protect your high defence troops.

Adeptis Rahn

Or that guy who loves to cast spells. That's his main thing and he's damn good at it. Boosting attack and damage rolls on all spells is great in most situations. Where this feat fails is against the very high armour (20+) or stealth, but that's a main weakness of Retribution so ain't much to do there. Play for the spell assassination or the scenario win. Both are equally valid and can be made easier by the feat.

Ravyn, Eternal Light

Where Ossyan improves the damage capabilities of the army Ravyn boosts the ability to hit those targets. She has been simplified to "snipe, feat, go" and does work very well under those conditions. Watch out for those stealth models again as she can't ignore that.

Dawnlord Vyros

The one caster who can take punishment. His spells and feat might lead you to the idea that you should take a load of jacks with him. Don't. Only on the feat turn can he hope to power all of them to full efficiency. Take the heavies that can shoot but also remember to bring along those units that are self-sufficient.

Keen...although I still have to play a few games to get the idea of what you're saying, this makes some sense. One thing I'm getting from Ret is they have fast, delicate units and slower, hardier units, so there is some flexibility. I also see what you mean with the lack of a good hitter. I'm trying to think of ways to deal with the Khador jacks, as from what I see Ret is better for taking out slightly lighter things.

Thanks for the reply.

Dawnguard will be your trick to that, or Manticores - give them atleast 2 focus, one to power up (+3 strength) and then to charge. Then also use an arcanist to give it +2 to damage rolls....you have 2 hit minimum that are POW 20...
Storm Falls are good against heavy things. Hydra fully loaded as well...especially on Ossyan's Feat, or use Kaelyssa and you can just ignore the jacks and target the caster hiding behind the jacks.

Really simply.

Garryth kills when he into melee range or makes his army slightly faster and hitting easier.

Kaelyssa is flexible and always has something she can do.

Ossyan will get his army to kill stuff with shooting but only if they can hit them first.

Rahn flexible spell caster.

Ravyn opposite of Ossyan, gets her army to hit at ranged combat but can't improve the damage

Vyros more survivable than the others.

http://battlecollege.wikispaces.com/mkiiRetribution

Honestly, warcasters are cheap (usually *looks at everblight*) If you're unsure you can just buy a couple you're interested in and do some 15 point games to test them out.

That is one thing I like abut this game is that the models are much cheaper in comparison to 40k, so experimentation is encouraged...

Also, worst comes to worst... I imagine it would not be that hard to convert Garryth into a Mage Hunter Assassin, Vyros into a DawnGuard Officer, and Either of the ladies into another Solo...

buy the faction book and download vassal. That will let you test out what models you like, and help you develop strategies before actually playing at your FLGS. I always set up a vassal game with armies before playing them, just to see how they look.