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Lost two games in two days versus Everblight's Rheas [sp?]. I can't believe her! Basically, if your caster is within charge range, you ARE dead. Ignores LOS for charge? Ignores models for charge? And if you surround your guy with models, using her feat she'll kill one, move next to it, kill another, move next to that, kill it if she's not at your caster yet, move AGAIN, and now she should be where she needs to be. And now she can finally start spending focus on her attacks, which will make very short work of your caster. Knocking her down as a defensive measure doesn't help much either, as she stands up for free! Can't shoot her either, because at the end of her activation she can just go invisible!

So is the general tactic versus this hellish monster just simply "never enter her charge range, or be near any three models within melee range of an infantry model that would be standing between them, lest she use her feat"?

Rhyas is the Sorscha of Hordes?

I've not played against her, but the trick seems to be to get her to use her feat on your terms. Rhyas' feat is best saved for killing your caster. You want her to use it early and defensively against harassing units. Any time she uses it and your caster is not involved is a win. She also has a very low fury (5 I think) and a mediocre CMD. I've been told this makes her less effective early in the game and then she dominates the end game. The trick seems to be to get to her early, make her drop her feat, and then kill her asap.

What are you playing against her army?

I have a pretty much all-melee knightly order Protectorate list. First game against her she had two seraphs, some sword-swingers, etc. Actually got close to winning that game just made a fatal mistake [see "revelations on the harbinger" thread below].

This latest time he had an Angelus, Seraph, and a HUGE unit of some archers, which by themselves took out half my army in one turn when they dropped some template and then all ALSO participated in combined fire against the models that survived. I actually thought I was doing fairly well when I managed to charge up a revenger, some knights exemplar, and vilmon into her melee range, used the Gaze of Menoth so she couldn't move further away, and due to dropping her two biggest warbeasts she was stuck with only 1 fury that turn. She cut herself for 2, moved away without taking any free strikes, he moved a bunch of light cav in the way so my models had to take care of them first or take some seriously nasty free strikes, then charged her next turn. I'd moved my caster behind my avatar, thinking while she moved through models, she'd still need LOS to charge, and I was mistaken.

I've theorized that sitting on a ton of focus with my caster will give them the armour they need to weather her assault, but she has that one damn spell that will shred anyone with focus remaining. I guess I'll need to use my devout purely for spell barrier and keep them with my caster, and/or keep my caster out of melee range completely.

Spellbound wrote:I have a pretty much all-melee knightly order Protectorate list. First game against her she had two seraphs, some sword-swingers, etc. Actually got close to winning that game just made a fatal mistake [see "revelations on the harbinger" thread below].

This latest time he had an Angelus, Seraph, and a HUGE unit of some archers, which by themselves took out half my army in one turn when they dropped some template and then all ALSO participated in combined fire against the models that survived. I actually thought I was doing fairly well when I managed to charge up a revenger, some knights exemplar, and vilmon into her melee range, used the Gaze of Menoth so she couldn't move further away, and due to dropping her two biggest warbeasts she was stuck with only 1 fury that turn. She cut herself for 2, moved away without taking any free strikes, he moved a bunch of light cav in the way so my models had to take care of them first or take some seriously nasty free strikes, then charged her next turn. I'd moved my caster behind my avatar, thinking while she moved through models, she'd still need LOS to charge, and I was mistaken.

I've theorized that sitting on a ton of focus with my caster will give them the armour they need to weather her assault, but she has that one damn spell that will shred anyone with focus remaining. I guess I'll need to use my devout purely for spell barrier and keep them with my caster, and/or keep my caster out of melee range completely.

A Knight Exemplar army seems a good match against Rhyas. You can layer your attack, with Zealots and/or Errants in the first wave supported by true Knights in reserve. Keep your Caster back until Rhyas uses her feat and then advance it with your second wave. If you don't already have it, get some Wracks for extra focus and to provide an intimidating protective barrier. Protectorates blowing their own Wrack can be lot of fun and stop an army trying to maneuver around that position.

All theory, but I think you have a good army to take her on.

She does not ignore difficult terrain, oddly enough.

She only goes invisible if she kills an enemy model and immediately ends her action.

She does not have reach, so if your models are 2" apart she will gain no chain-movement from the feat.

She, like all warlocks, relies on warbeasts to keep herself going.


So to easily deal with her, use terrain to block the charge lane. Don't feed her a model to destroy to go invisible near your caster. If she does extend too far to get that invisibility, slam/throw something into her to knock her down and then engage in melee. If you smell her feat coming, spread out. Her control range is a pathetic 10", so she's weak against harassment from two sides. Sit back nice and spread out while you pick away at her beasts, continually offer her a charge on a single throwaway model that taking will put her in a crappy position.

I don't know, I could go on. But Rhyas is considered to be the weakest caster Legion has to offer. She's all finesse and completely crumbles if the opponent is prepared to handle her tricks. Worry about Vayl or Saeryn if you must complain about Legion.

I had my butt handed to me in a tournament twice this last weekend by that warlock. Of course, I'd never heard of her, never played against her, etc, etc. So there's been some discussion about how to handle her since. The Ashlyn player seemed to think his caster could hand the ninja her butt pretty easily.
I know it can be done, I'm just still pondering the possibilities for trollblood to take her down.

Moz wrote: But Rhyas is considered to be the weakest caster Legion has to offer. She's all finesse and completely crumbles if the opponent is prepared to handle her tricks. Worry about Vayl or Saeryn if you must complain about Legion.

This is the honest truth. Saeryn and Vayl are so much nastier. Saeryn's blight-bringer is an auto-hitting 5" AOE that does boostable power 12s to every model in it. That would make your exemplars very unhappy, especially as it's simulataneous and hence mostly circumvents bond of brotherhood.

Against Rhyas, you have the right approach with your suggestion of not going inside her charge range.

Or keep some rough terrain between you and her (not forgetting that she could be slip-streamed 2" to possibly get a charge angle).

Zealots are very good against legion with their fragile troops that while hard to hit are vulnerable to power 9 splash dmg. The invulnerability for a turn is very handy too.

Do you have Rupert? I'm guessing you do, but if you don't then the extra 2" charge range for your knights is crucial. Also the ability to give them path-finding is great, as all the legion beasts are path-finders.

The loss you describe where you engaged Rhyas but she used dash to walk away ignoring free-strikes was just down to a lack of knowledge of her abilities. You won't make the same mistake again. Rhyas hates fire by the way, hates AOEs (she's very fragile), and HATES being knocked down while not invisible.

You to an extent choose if she can go invisible. IIRC she has to kill an enemy (not just a friendly) model to activate it, so don't let her charge one, or make sure she can only charge spots she really doesn't want to go. If she's invisible then you can try and run a low def jack near her, then slam it from behind with another or a senschal. If she's on the ground then you won't need charges to kill her. TFG have a 6+2+2 = 10" threat range under the piper's march, and each hit will hurt, and she'll even be on fire with the UA. So even if you can't charge her, make sure she can't charge anything that won't leave her exposed. KE have a much less impressive 7.5" walking threat range with the piper, but they would really hurt her - generally a lot of more moderate attacks is better than a few big ones to kill warlocks though, as they can transfer a few big hits but not a lot of medium ones.

If she's invisible and you knocked her down and you have a reach jack like a devout or revenger, don't forget you can run something nearby, charge that to get the extra movement and then hit her twice more with p+s15 infused and once with the shield. She won't like that either. Invisible isn't the be-all or end-all, though it is very useful.

I've found her the easiest of all the Legion casters with both my Circle and Menoth, but, I don't run exemplar heavy lists.

what caster are you using? Kreoss would be fluffy for exemplars and would be such an easy solution to her with a redeemer and some Idrians. Or if she's on her back then even errants can shoot her to death, and they're exemplars.

What's the sound of someone losing at warmachine?



"I didn't even know you could DO that!

Yup. I'm always learning some new neat trick some model or unit has, and somehow amidst all this onrushing information I still have to remember to allocate focus to my jacks at the start of the turn!

The standard way to get rid of her is knock her down. The reasons you can't just kill her are:

Outrageous DEF

Sometimes is Invisible & has even more DEF/ can't be targeted (depending on type of attack you use on her)

If you swing in melee & don't kill her, she massacres you in return.

However if she is knocked down, none of this helps her. Her DEF becomes 5 (and she is auto-hit in melee). She doesn't get to retaliate when you attack her in melee cause she's stationary & not engaging.

SO what does this mean? SLAMS & THROWS baby. You maybe be able to target her with them...but don't bother. All you have to do is two-handed throw a big model at the lower-DEF model near her so it clips her too. I like to run a Mechanithrall, say, up near her, then throw something big into my own thrall's back arc & hit Rhyas as well.

Or slam that thrall into her with your own bonejack. The best part is, even a weakling collateral damage roll can hurt her badly.

And once she is knocked down, she is DOGMEAT. Yeah she can stand up for free, so what. She has to be =alive= to stand up -that's in the FAQ I think Never did a warlock so scary, die to such weak enemies so often.

LIke the man above me said, things like Fire work well too. Feora(s) feat(s). Bile Thralls still autohit her. I am not sure what kind of army you use...let us know your usual stuff & I can give you specifics on what to do.

Denegra just owns her with the arcs and scourge. Get a Grasp on her and it's all over.

Unlikey because she can kill on McThrall & become immune to your spells.