So I sold my old Retribution army several months ago, bounced around in several factions.. Then came to appreciate what the Ret had to offer after messing around with others.
I had a huge troll army that I sold recently.. While I really enjoyed the models and painting the trolls, they just weren't my style. I kept finding in tournaments I'd say to myself "Man if I had a mage hunter unit here..." or "What I'd give for Rahn and friends right now".
The choice was obvious. I needed to go back to the faction that drew me back into Warmachine in the first place. It doesn't hurt that there are almost no Ret players locally. What few people do have the faction, its a second or third army. So it would be nice to be a "wild card" in tournaments.
I've sold the trolls, ordered a ton of elves. Some would say I shouldn't have sold them in the first place, and I'm not normally so wishy washy, but it did help me appreciate the faction quite a bit more than I did originally.
Planned lists for upcoming 35pt tournament:
Rahn +6
Chimera 6
Phoenix 10
Max Sentinels with UA 11
Battle mages 5
Battle mages 5
Assassin 2
Assassin 2
I could swap the phoenix for discordia for the obvious synergy with the sentinels. I do like combustion quite a bit, and have 2 arc nodes with Rahn makes it almost too easy to have at least one of them where you want it. I reckon with all the knockdown available the assassins become a very real threat rather than just a percieved one. I found before my assassins didn't do a whole lot other than scare the crap out of people, the goal now is to jam them down somethings throat. Sentinels are nice with Rahn thanks to polarity shield, its pretty hard to not get the first charge with them. While I enjoy the halberdiers as well, I could never decide if I liked polarity shield or set defense better. When I would cast polarity shield, people would often just walk into combat which would then make set defense pretty much useless. The battle mages are an obvious pick, the reason for their inclusion shouldn't require much explanation.
Second list:
Ravyn +6
Manticore 8
Full MHSF with ua 10
Full MHSF with ua 10
Stormfall archers 5
Stormfall archers 5
Epic Eiryess 3
The idea here is the quick and easy caster kill if they aren't stealthed or high armor. The stormfall barrage will keep light troops or heavy jacks/beasts honest while the MHSF try to move in for the tried and true snipe+feat. Eiryess is there because why not? Another option would be to drop Eiryess for a arcanist and upgrade the manticore to discordia. At that point I think the list would give stealth heavy armies a good scare. I'm not usually very aggressive with Ravyn unless I have to be.. So ideally, the infantry will do the work and she will just shift snipe around and feat. If she has to get stuck in, I have a feeling the MHSF and stormfall barrage failed me.
