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Okay, so I'm interested in Warmahordes, but not many of the factions appeal to me. I'm just not a huge fan of the fluff of most of the armies. Some of them have a redeeming factor, but even then I don't like the super bulky and edgy models. On the other end of the spectrum, Retribution is just to my liking with sleek organic curves and a vengeful, secretive elven populace bent on killing off other magic users. So if I'm going to get into this hobby (instead of just playing 40k all the time) I'm going to pick up the Ret of Scyrah battlebox and just have at it. I know it's not the best plan and I will lose a lot, but it's probably the only way I'll stay interested, so here's a thread dedicated to me expanding on what I get in the box and making a fun army to play that can hold it's own on the tabletop and looks nice doing it.

The box comes with kits for
Kaelyssa, Night's Whisper
a Griffon
a Chimera
and a Manticore

So you tell me dakka, where do I go from here?

If you are fine with using magnets I would suggest doing that with the manticore and purchasing another heavy jack kit giving you plenty of options of the battlefield. If you don't want to magnitise then have a look at the following jacks:

Pheonix - For it's arc node, for it's regenerating shield, for it's heavy killing sword, for it's infantry clearing combustion this is a great jack.

Banshee - Really annoying jack to the enemy as their unit's stop charging/running or can't cast spells. Large amount of threat to enemy heavies as well.

Daemon - It's gun is very useful to move and knockdown the enemy. great to get the killing blow from something else in there.

For extra troops I would suggest picking one of the following units and getting their UA as well:

Mage Hunter Strike Force - Infantry killing, jack damaging and a large threat to the enemy warcaster. They have been a main part of retribution lists from the start.

Dawnguard Sentinals - These guys can kill or put a large amount of damage on most things you'll see on the board. Protect the officer and see where vengeance and weapon masters can take you. Melee only but a solid unit.

Houseguard Halberdiers - Built to hold an area on the board and give your strike force more time to kill what they need to. Can kill a fair amount of infantry as well to clear the board if needed.

Then you can add solos to taste:

Mage Hunter Assassins - The cruise missiles of the warmachine would. Sometimes they can miss and do nothing but when they work they can put the fear into your opponent.

Narn - Flank and he'll kill most infantry models in his way and to the enemy warcaster. I would use him as a solo killing to get into the back lines of your enemy.

Either of the House Shyeel solos - (or both). some (magical) ranged solos are a great way to remove models from your path and both of these models have some hidden extras. Like stopping your strike force from dying to blast damage or moving that one model into charge range.

Arcanist - To start with have one of these then get a second one later on. saves your warcaster's focus at the beginning of the game and give your warjacks extra hitting power in melee. And after all that they can repair the battle damage to keep them in the fight.

That should get you started. Have fun

So I've been doing a lot of reading, and a little bit of list building on ForwardKommander

I could do
Kaelyssa
Manticore
Phoenix
Dawn guard Sentinels w/ UA and Banner bearer
Griffon marshaled to Sentinels
Arcanist

25pts

Since you mentioned cruise missiles, one of the strategies suggested on the wiki was to allocate a focus from the arcanist for the griffon to use fleet, then Pronto: Drive him for a free advance, and then advance again for a 19" inch threat range with rerolling to hit on the charge

I love the Phoenix and the Manticore, I just can't decide what to do with my Chimera...