Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

So,

A good friend of mine is an incredible painter and Warmachine player, he has inspired me to get into the game. After a lot of insinuation, bait and cool minis of his I am finally convinced. I always liked the art anyway, but I am a 40k player first. I know none of the rules, I don't even own them yet. It is my intent to paint a whole army and surprise my friend with a cool Ta Da! Moment, keeping the production on the down low for a month or so, and then have him teach me the game.

What I want to avoid is making a complete fool of myself with buying/painting illegal or nonsensical stuff for my army.

Being a big anime fan, and World of Warcraft Elven fan, I have decided to play retribution of scryah as I like their designs the best.

My questions are:

What is a good order to collect and paint things in? Should I build mostly infantry, or mostly jacks, or a mix or what?

What makes a competent force? (Not looking for the 'the roxxor roflstomper' invincible gimmick combos here, but just something that is capable all round I guess)

What synergistic things are in the Retribution army?

Are there any pitfalls to avoid with army design or stinker units etc.?

Could someone give me a synopsis of their units, I have no idea what the difference is between any of the Warjacks. They sort of all look the same to me, except for the halbredier one, I like the Hydra and the Gryphon? I assume they are interchangeable (rules and points is roughly) from the way they look, is that a mistake?

I don't want anyone to post any rules or anything, not at all, but if someone would post an example army that works ok, I might use it is a production list as I build up my stuff.

On colors, I do like the pale pastel green white they are painted in but I thought I might go different and paint them like purple skinned night elves instead, with brilliant green gold and purple armor. WOuld that be frowned upon, should I just paint them like the box art, which I do like actually?

Give me some help and I will throw some images in this thread as I build and paint stuff, and tell the story of surprising my buddy with my new 'Ta Da' Retribution army!

Thanks Dakka!

http://battlecollege.wikispaces.com/ is your friend. Some really great information on each unit is posted, most of it based on practical application as well as some theory-hammer. As far as where to start, I would suggest building to a well rounded 15-point list, which usually includes a Warcaster, about 1-2 'Jacks, and a full unit or two non-full units. I've never played Retribution myself, but I do plan on building one up in not too long. The list I'm looking at is as follows.

Kaelyssa
Hydra

Arcanist
Eiryss, Mage Hunter of Ios
6x Houseguard Halberdiers
6x Houseguard Riflemen

I would go into the logic of the build, but it's still in its development stages, and being only slightly versed in the army to begin with, I would rather not try and attempt to give any kind of list building advice.

Good resource here on Dakka Dakka for Retribution of Scyrah. It will have most of what you're asking for...

http://www.dakkadakka.com/wiki/en/Category:Retribution_of_Scyrah_Model_Summaries

Scyrah doesn't have a starter battlebox, but it's been suggested by PP to use Kaelyssa, a Manticore heavy myrmidon, and a Chimera and Girffon light myrmidons. Build off of that battlegroup with a unit or two (probably Invictors or Sentinels) and a solo or two (Eiryss is cool because she's a Mercenary solo but can be used by RoS as a faction solo) that appeal to you.

OK thanks a lot, that's not to much stuff to get, one of the things I like about the game.

I did buy my first box set of Houseguard Riflemen, they seemed like a good line unit, in my totally uneducated evaluation based on looks.

Glad to hear that wasn't a complete mistake.

Anyone else?

I would actually consider Houseguard Riflemen as a secondary unit choice. Since you've already got the Riflemen, get a unit of Sentinels for some melee power.

Vladigar wrote:Good resource here on Dakka Dakka for Retribution of Scyrah. It will have most of what you're asking for...

Uh yes, wow, I didn't even know that was out there.

Cool, thanks very much!

As with any army, the caster will dictate what works well and what doesn't or more accurately, what is a better choice. There's very little in the Retribution that's truly bad or not worth the points, but finding models/units that are complimentary can take some trial and error. A heavy jack kit (magnetized if you feel so inclined) with a Chimera and a Griffon is the reccommended starter box and a decent starting point for the army (though I'm not a fan of Kaelyssa as a caster). You'll probably want to proxy your way through a few games before dumping alot in a list. Ret has some good units and decent jacks, but it's really easy to go overboard on the solos because the army has quite a few good ones all for fairly low points.

Houseguard Riflemen stack really well with Halberdiers. Having the Halberdiers shieldwall and eat the charge, and shooting through them with the rifleman works pretty well if you paid the points for the Rifleman officer. His ability to do Combined Ranged attacks into melees and add an extra die for attack rolls once per game combined with the Halberdiers not blocking LoS means you can have the cheap and better armored Halberdiers take the hits and still be able to shoot enemies who are engaged with them effectively. The Halberdier officer I could take or leave, he's got good abilities, but really isn't neccessary for the unit to shieldwall effectively.

OK thanks, I'll definitely get a Halberdier unit to pair up with them next.

I think I want to get a couple ghost snipers also. Probably a Hydra as well.

This is beginning to take shape.

Hey, welcome to WM! My Menoth can give you some practice games some time.

Unfortunately, I don't know too much about Retribution yet. I do know that Mage Hunter Assassins and Mage Hunter Strike Forces are both deadly and feared by many players, and can attest to such fear with my own armies.

tzeentchling wrote:...Mage Hunter Assassins and Mage Hunter Strike Forces are both deadly and feared by many players, and can attest to such fear with my own armies.

Awesome!

I have no idea what that means, but ok! I will get some of those!

In my area the MHSF are quite often called: "no-brainers". Now that should say something

They raped my deathjack. 3 squads of the f***ers! But DJ lived and I ended up smacking his caster with 5 Breaths of Corruption, with max scatter still hitting him. Sexy.

Mage Hunter Strike Force with attached Captain ignore LOS, have range 12 (or is it 16?) on their bows, their shots ignore spells and focus armor, and do double damage for every point over ARM. They're pretty nasty.

tzeentchling wrote:Mage Hunter Strike Force with attached Captain ignore LOS, have range 12 (or is it 16?) on their bows, their shots ignore spells and focus armor, and do double damage for every point over ARM. They're pretty nasty.

actually, it's the mage hunter assassin that doubles damage over ARM (called decapitate I think?), the MHSF has boosted damage against jacks.

It isn't boosted, it's an extra damage die against jacks, so it will stack with charging for 4D6. The unit natively has a 12" range, but Ravyn can Snipe them for 16".

Well that sounds cool, I'll do some of that for sure!

Mage Hunters, excellent.

The thing about the MHSF is that they look like a unit of Eiryss.
By which I mean they look cool, so you want to have them.
And their abilities are awesome. So you want to have them.

These two things guarantee that you will see them in all Ret forces.

And then someone drops a pie plate, and all the Mage Hunters cry

And/or then you pwn them with Bane Thralls/Knights...