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Garryth
2 Gorgons
10 Mage Hunter Strike Force w/ Soulless Escort
10 Mage Hunter Strike Force w/ Soulless Escort
6 Mage Hunter Strike Force w/ Soulless Escort
3 Mage Hunter Assassins
Nayl (for free)

This should give me Tier 4 for Garryth's Theme, Nayl for free. Main strategy is to use Gorgons to hang up the bigs, whittle away at enemy lightjacks with the strike forces, and run Nayl and Garryth at the enemy caster. What do you think?

BTW I'm brand new to Warmachine.

Be very careful with your placement of Nayl. If your opponent can kill him near your caster you'll be SoL.

Brand new, eh? In that case, you should play your first few games at like 15-20 points instead of jumping in with a tiered list.

If I saw that across the board, I'm keeping my caster on my back wall

I have a pretty similar list that I've yet to be able to try out, but they have some good suggestions. You need to be really careful, b/c that list is a straight assassination list (which is really what Garreth is for.) And remember the MHAs as well, they are mean. I would suggest starting out at the 15-20 pt level for a few games though, just to get used to some of the differences....

My friends and I decided yesterday that 15 points is a good way to start out, getting a lot of quick games in, learn the rules, see what works and what doesn't with someone's playstyle.

My 15 point list is as follows:

Garryth, Blade of Retribution (*5pts)
* Gorgon (5pts)
Mage Hunter Strikeforce (Leader and 9 Grunts) (8pts)
* Mage Hunter Commander (2pts)
* Soulless Escort (1pts)
Mage Hunter Assassin (2pts)
Mage Hunter Assassin (2pts)

Honestly, Your list is 100% based on assassination with 0 other win conditions

A heavy arms list or attrition list would bully you off any objective or simply kill you off it, since none of your guys have any survivability

Yes, you will catch a newer player a couple of times with your "Surprise I can shoot thru walls" shtick, but any veteran who sees that list is going to keep his caster a little further back with full focus/fury and let his army easily plow thru your lines

It is a straight up assassination list, but that is kind of the point....

One thing I would suggest is to get Narn and replace one of the mage hunter assassins with him, b/c Narn can run right through enemy "blockers" for those who hide in corners behind guys....

And those straight assassin lists, while they are hit or miss and arent' great at objectives, are a lot of fun to play...

Kind of like skaven in WHFB

I honestly don't know any strategies with Gareth beside what I read on Battle College and here. I consider myself sound with general warfare tactics, and my playstyle is move fast to set up charges, then combo charge the gak out of something. Hit 'em fast, hit 'em hard. I play high elves in Warhammer Fantasy, so I'm all about using expendable units to lure and misdirect the enemy to open up flanks and rears while the rest of my army maneuvers, then I attack from every side with combo charges, to make sure they're dead within one round of combat, so I don't take that many losses from a prolonged engagement.

I like Garryth because he plays like high elves. Moderate to low armor, but fast and high attack power. I have the general tactics down. I just need the strategy. The general feeling I have with him is to use MHSF because they are solid units, alond with a UA, and an assassin or two. I like the Gorgons because they can help me control the battlefield and create openings for Garryth and my assassins to run through to get at the enemy caster. Plus they are light jacks which help with Garryth's Tiering, although admittedly, the tier system seems mostly inconsequential. And again, this strategy is just on paper. I have no experience playing to back up the strategy. Any advice would be appreciated.

The only thing you need to really watch out for is high defense infantry (ie. Arcane Tempest Gun Mages, Daughters of the Flame etc.) At RAT 6 they aren't going to reliably hit DEF 15 which can pose a problem to them.

Also anything with stealth ruins their day. My favorite combination to counter the MHSF was the B13th with Gorman dropping smoke to give them stealth. By the time they were able to hit the B13 it was too late and they were getting Mage Stormed in the face.

The MHSF are definitely a good unit but don't come to rely on them to do everything but they are simply to squishy to be expected to be around the entire game. In my experience playing against them anyways.

Oh and I do not play Retribution I have just had a ton of success beating them.

TheMostWize wrote:
Oh and I do not play Retribution I have just had a ton of success beating them.

Seems like the consensus that I've been reading lately I wonder if I backed the wrong side...

And keep in mind Retribution does not have disposable units. They're intended as something of the Space Marines of Warmachine, being the elites that are usually out numbered.

Also, you might want to steer away from Gorgons. That Force Lock isn't quite as good as you think it is. You'd probably be better off with Griffons as they're super solid and quite cheap.

For quick and maneuverable check out the Mage Hunter Infiltrators. They'd be sickeningly fast with Quicken.