A Clamor of Harpies

I wanted to do a series of short posts on some specific units/models in the faction to see how, when, and why other players were using them.  I thought I would start with a unit I want to love but never really manage to get on the table: House Shyeel Arcanists. Quick Breakdown spd 6 str 6 Mat 5 Rat 5 Def 13 Arm 12 Cmd 6 - 7 points for 3 models MA 5 - Empower, Force Strike (rng 8 pow 12 crit: Knock Down) Force Barrier Repair (d3+1) With that out of the way one of the biggest problems I have with them is they just aren't available.  Only being available in Forges really cuts into their play as does the cost of additional support.  They don't really replace the arcanist solo as they lack concentrated power so you are immediately looking at 9-11 points minimum on support pieces if you include them. The other issue I have with them is the low quality of their attack.  Rng 8 pow 12 attacks on a support unit are decent enough but MA 5 makes it pretty iffy to ever actually use. 

Destors are a big enough block of rules to deserve a more detailed look.  As a unit they are probably too obtuse and rules dense but once played the interactions aren't actually that complicated. Lets start by just going through the models base stats.  Destors actually have a very solid basic stat line.  Most of their stats fall along the middle line of cavalry models with good speed, defense, armor, decent numbers in both attack stats, and 5 boxes.  Being cavalry they also benefit from having the option of making impact attacks and getting boosted charge attack rolls. Impact attacks are going to lead us directly into our first rules interaction.  Destors have quick work allowing them to make a basic ranged attack when they destroy an enemy model during their combat action.   The underlined part is important as impact attacks do not occur during their combat action and thus do not  trigger quick work. That leaves us two options for actually trigger  quick work.   We

Some quick background - I ended up getting challenged to single list Ravyn at a local SR.  We do usually allow ADR so I agreed if I could use specialists since she is on the ADR roster.  We had a pretty solid turnout with 15 players.  The event went 4 rounds. My Ravyn list Retribution Army - 75 / 75 points [Theme] Defenders of Ios (Ravyn 1) Ravyn, The Eternal Light [+30]  - Helios [34] Arcanist Mechanik [2] Eiryss, Mage Hunter of Ios [0(7)] Fane Knight Skeryth Issyen [0(8)] Houseguard Thane [0(4)] House Vyre Electromancers [8] Houseguard Halberdiers (min) [8]  - Houseguard Halberdier Officer & Standard [4] Houseguard Riflemen (max) [15] Arcantrik Force Generator [17] Arcantrik Force Generator [17] Retribution Army - 39 / 75 points Heavy Rifle Team [4] Heavy Rifle Team [4] House Vyre Electromancers [8] Lynus Wesselbaum & Edrea Lloryrr [5] Stormfall Archers [9] Stormfall Archers [9] The bottom 39 points are my specialists.  I wanted to be able to swap

I modified the Ravyn list a little since last time.  Here is the new test list: Retribution Army - 75 / 75 points [Theme] Defenders of Ios (Ravyn 1) Ravyn, The Eternal Light [+30]  - Helios [34] Arcanist Mechanik [2] Eiryss, Mage Hunter of Ios [0(7)] Fane Knight Skeryth Issyen [0(8)] Houseguard Thane [0(4)] House Vyre Electromancers [8] Houseguard Halberdiers (min) [8]  - Houseguard Halberdier Officer & Standard [4] Houseguard Riflemen (max) [15] Arcantrik Force Generator [17] Arcantrik Force Generator [17] Honestly I was kind of excited to put Riflemen on the table again.  I don't think I have used them since Ossyan lost deadeye. My 2 games were against Rasheth in Winds of Death with double turtles and Makeda1 Masters of war.  The lists are to the best of my memory.  Both games were played using the Standoff scenario.  This is my second least favorite scenario ahead of only Spread the Net.  Neither is particularly great for my bombardment style.  Game 1

So I feel like right now defenders is so much better than all of our other themes that basically every caster in the faction can just play in defenders.  With that thought I decided to sit down and make a defenders list I like for each caster.  My theory is basically that 1-2 AFGs + 1-2 Halbs = best generic list in ret so each list will also include at least one afg and one unit of halbs. Rahn Retribution Army - 75 / 75 points [Theme] Defenders of Ios (Rahn 1) Adeptis Rahn [+26]  - Chimera [8]  - Chimera [8]  - Discordia [18]  - Sylys Wyshnalyrr, The Seeker [0(4)] Arcanist Mechanik [2] Eiryss, Mage Hunter of Ios [0(7)] Fane Knight Skeryth Issyen [0(8)] Houseguard Halberdiers (max) [13]  - Houseguard Halberdier Officer & Standard [4] Lynus Wesselbaum & Edrea Lloryrr [5] Stormfall Archers [9] Arcantrik Force Generator [17] Arcantrik Force Generator [17] Vyros 1 Retribution Army - 75 / 75 points [Theme] Defenders of Ios (Vyros 1) Dawnlord Vyro

I've started to add a list section to the blog.  It is sorted by caster as they appear in war room in the drop down menu on the right.  I'm hoping to be able to aggregate interesting lists in one place that is a little bit easier to find.  My goal is to put some brief thoughts about the caster and then add lists.  For lists that I've hijacked from elsewhere I'll do my best to credit where I saw them.  For lists that I've been working on I'll try to add some brief thoughts. Currently Rahn is the only one that is formatted how I think I want this set up.  If anyone has recommendations for formatting please let me know