Post by doopsie on Mar 15, 2017 5:04:07 GMT
So bear with me here, first ever tactica. Any comments, concerns, etc please let me know.
Edit: Added comments/suggestions by Hashmal, as they are really good, and address things I missed/haven't experimented with yet.
That being said...
Sovereign Tristan Durant (Durant2 in the Cannon of True Law, Tristan2 in my heart)
Overview
Tristan is a very no frills, attrition-focused jack caster. His spell list revolves around having his army get punched in the face, then stand up and punch back much, much harder. He is quite good into gun lines, especially low POW gun lines, and needs to watch out for more mobile jack lists, or the ever present threat of assassination. Tristan2 often gets compared to Amon, as they are both heavy jack casters focused on the offense of our jacks, rather than defense (which would be Durst). The difference is Amon tends to like his lights, though this is changing, and utilizes Mobility to get the alpha, while Tristan2 loves heavies, and utilizes is healing spell and far-superior feat to counter-punch after receiving the alpha.
Stats, Abilities, Spells & Feat
Stats
Tristan's stats are overall nothing exciting. At SPD5, he can keep up with a most of the faction, though units like Vengers will quickly leave him in the dust. STR & MAT 6 means charging with Tristan2 is a desperation move. RAT4 is laughable, but irrelevant without a gun. DEF14, ARM16, and 15 boxes are bad. Flee from combat, or get squished bad. A RNG2, P+S 12 magical weapon should also discourage sending Tristan2 into combat. Fortunately, Tristan2 has a FOCUS of 7, though that can be burned through really quickly given his spell list. Finally, he has +28 WJ points, which is relatively average.
Abilities
True Sight - he ignores clouds and stealth! Awesome, but I have literally never used this ability.
Field Marshal [True Sight] - even better, all his jacks ignore clouds and stealth! More on this when talking about lists/models to take with him.
Crit Dispel on his weapon - if you are relying on this to save you, something has gone horribly wrong.
Now to the good stuff!
Spells
Chasten - Cheap pow 12 shot that knocks off upkeeps/animi, but low RNG keeps this from being used to knock off buffs, and the requirement to damage means it's hard to knock off debuffs.
Cleansing Fire - It's the standard nuke. AOE3, RNG8, POW14. Less of a desperation move than swinging with his spear, but still not ideal.
Hand of the Creator - HAPPY TIMES! Costs 3, remove d3 damage points from each and every Friendly Faction model in control range. This spell is one of Tristan2's best, as it makes it much, much harder for gun lines to grind down your army.
Inviolable Resolve - Tristan2's only upkeep, target Friendly Faction model/unit gains +2 ARM, cannot be moved by push or slam. Very nice.
Manifest Destiny - HAPPY TIMES x2!!! Costs 3, for one turn, while in control range, models in the battle group gain an additional die on melee attack/damage rolls, and drop the lowest.
Feat
Prayers of War: (wording on this is odd) - each warjack in the battle group in control range immediately gains one focus, then Tristan2 gains 1 focus for each warjack in his battlegroup in his control range, and cannot have more than 7 focus on him.
So this feat is very much one that can either boom or bust, depending up list composition and when it is used.
At worst (all jacks are killed), it does literally nothing.
At best, you start with each jack having 1 Focus from Power Up. Tristan upkeeps Inviolable Resolve, allocates 4 focus. Vassals give a focus to the remaining jacks, and a Sanctifier uses a soul (from bopping a Choir member earlier), so all jacks have 2 focus. Hierophant makes the next spell cheaper and/or Tristan activates, pulls a focus from a wrack, and now uses his 2-to-3 focus to cast Manifest Destiny(assuming all systems are still up), then pop feat. You now have 7 jacks with full focus, and Tristan is sitting on 7 focus to either chuck out some nukes or use Hand of the Creator to remove damage, or camp a bunch, or all three!
Thoughts
Tristan2 is a caster sending out some mixed signals as to what he wants. Manifest Destiny says he wants melee jacks. Field Marshal [True Sight] says he wants ranged jacks. Hand of the Creator says he wants both jacks and multiwound models. His feat says he wants 7+ jacks. The only really clear signal we get from a first glance is that Tristan2 is good with jacks.
Well, we also get the signal to keep him far away from the action. The only spell he has to protect himself is Inviolable Resolve, which is better used on a front-line model, and otherwise Tristan2 is squishy. So protect him at all costs!
Finally, as he tends to want a ton of jacks, Tristan2 is not a low-points game caster. I have only ever used him at 75 pts, and would seriously struggle to make a list for him any lower.
List Building
So rather than go straight into models, there are only a few major builds I've seen either used, or discussed. So I'm going to start with those, and the pros and cons of each.
1) Heavy Melee Jack - this list comprises of 6+ heavy jacks, all melee (Crusaders, Templars, Indictors, and such), with jack support.
Pros - maximizes the usefulness of Manifest Destiny, feat, and Hand of the Creator (as heavy jacks are difficult to quickly shoot down). Amazingly hard skew, that often takes another hard-skew to beat. This is my personal favorite.
Cons - SLOW. With threat ranges topping out at about 10" (Sanctifier, and awful choice in a list with few infantry), this list will be shot up on the way in, and likely will be receiving the alpha-charge, rather than giving it. Due to the low number of attacks, it is vulnerable to dude-spam. You are also completely wasting the True Sight field marshal.
2) Heavy Ranged Jack - this lists comprises of about 4 heavy ranged jacks (Reckoner/Vanquisher), 1-2 light jacks (Devout/Repenter/Redeemer), and jack support.
Pros - Can fire back, softening up the opponent's forces. Less vulnerable to dude-spam, thanks to the AOEs from Vanquishers/Redeemers, or the Repenter's sprays. Uses all aspects of Tristan's jack support spell-list.
Cons - The high cost of ranged heavy jacks means fewer jacks overall can be taken, weakening the feat. Likewise does not take full advantage of Manifest Destiny.
3) Multiwounds Units - 3-4 jacks, and unit(s) of either Bastions, Cinerators, or Vengers.
Pros - Most flexible of the three, and with Vengers actually has some speed. Provides a variety of models to combat, making it less vulnerable to anti-jack lists.
Cons - Is not taking full advantage of feat or Manifest Destiny. Most multiwound units in Menoth, even with Inviolable Resolve, struggle to survive dedicated attacks, resulting in them being unable to benefit from Hand of the Creator.
4) Light Jack Spam - Take an Amon list. Use Tristan2 instead. Basically take a ton of Dervishes, Purifiers, and/or Devouts.
Pros - Tristan2 can provide a TON of focus to this list on feat turn, and substantially increase their offensive output with Manifest Destiny.
Cons - Tristan2 will struggle to keep up, and does little to protect the jacks. The health pool of light jacks is small enough that they will be unlikely to benefit from Hand of the Creator.
(Credit: Hashmal)
Melee Vs. Gunline
This is definitely contentious, but I'm more convinced that a very viable way to play Tristan2 is with a gunline list, capitalizing on True Sight. Tristan2 is really the ultimate gunline 'caster. He provides durability through Hand of the Creator. When the lines close and heavies start whooping up on your shooting pieces, Manifest Destiny allows you to hit back as hard as a normal Protectorate heavy. That is so big, because you can reduce hard targets at range and when they close. No, he doesn't bring an accuracy or damage buff, but he provides gunlines the longevity they need to really force engagement. Cygnar hates getting out-shot, let me tell you, and they fear Manifest Destiny. Legion too. I used to pull this trick with Feora2, Passaging up and using Mechaniks to repair damage that snuck through, then using Ignite to turn heavies into murder machines (or make my Redeemer hit as hard as a heavy).
So, having said that, onto specific models:
Jacks
Devout - Absolutely. Provides a lot of protection for Tristan2 to stop assassinations, and likes to hang back, ensuring at least SOME benefit from the feat if you popped it too late and have lost most of your jacks. But mostly for the protection thing.
Vigilant - As with the Devout, yes. I personally only take one, and rely on distance otherwise. Which one you take is up to personal preference, they both serve admirably.
Castigator - ah, the red-headed step-child. I actually really like the Castigator in a Heavy Melee Jack list, as it's cheap, and provides a way to get rid of jamming units and prevent being swarmed by dude-spam.
Eye of Truth - Super-expensive for a caster that values quantity over quality when looking at jacks, but should not be ignored. With his shield, ashen veil, and oracular vision, he is more than tanky enough to get good use from Hand of the Creator, and Holy Light will help a jack-heavy list get around buffs. Well worth consideration.
Hand of Judgement - Useful in a Ranged Heavy list. Only 2 pts more than a Reckoner, or 1 more than a Vanquisher, but with a fantastic spray, and both Blazing Wrath and Fuel for the Flames work fantastic with the Vanquisher's continuous fire AOE.
Indictor - The big draws here are the shield, sacred ward, and magical weapons. ARM21 is great, especially if you take a lot and can easily fix it with Hand of the Creator. Spell Ward is handy, as it stops the common tactic of debuffing high armor until it's easily broken. And the magical weapon actually gives a jack-heavy list an answer to incorporeal models other than Tristan2, who (as stated) wants to stay waaaaay in the back.
Reckoner - With Flare on the gun, probably makes the best use of the True Sight Field Marshal. Manifest Destiny also helps make up for only having one melee weapon.
Templar - ARM21 is wonderful, and Shield Guard helps keep either Tristan2 or the support models alive. Can also seriously throw ranged lists off, especially if they rely on dragging models in, such as with the Galleon or Prime Axiom.
Vanquisher - Expensive, but that AOE4 continuous fire shot cannot be ignored. Manifest Destiny on a thresher attack is also hilarious.
Dishonorable Mention - Avatar of Menoth - As he cannot be part of the battlegroup, Tristan2 does absolutely nothing for him. Skip him.
(Credit: Hashmal)
Redeemer: Even though he's Inaccurate, the Redeemer still gains a ton from True Sight. Tristan2 becomes a solid Circle drop when using the Redeemer, as eliminating Sentry Stones and Gallows Groves becomes trivial. Also, stealthed Warpwolves must fear you, and rightly so. The Redeemer is also powerful against a Haley3 smoke line, because the Trenchers who dropped smoke bombs and repositioned are not dug in and are very vulnerable to POW 8 blasts. I wouldn't take them in a vacuum though and feel like Reckoners are auto-takes with Redeemers. This allows the little bugger to get work done against a variety of targets, from Warpwolves through Colossals.
Judicator: For much the same reason as the Redeemer, except she hits a ton harder. She's expensive, but can really do a lot with the kit Tristan2 provides.
Crusader: I'm actually surprised you didn't mention the Crusader. They're slow, for sure, but the enemy will not one round all of our Crusaders before we get to hit. Further, the Crusader isn't especially easy to one-round with just one melee heavy and will usually require two. Crusaders allow us to trade especially well. What's killing a Crusader that also costs 10 points? With Passage, Mechaniks, and Hand of the Creator, our 'jacks might hit the front lines unscathed.
Solos
Allegiant of the Order of the Fist - these nimble guys are fast, and a complete pain to kill. Taken with a jack-heavy list, they allow an otherwise slow list to quickly grab/contest scenario elements.
Vassal Mechanik - the only thing better then healing d3 damage off every jack every turn, is using mechaniks to heal an additional d3+1. These little guys make sure that a Templar left on 3 boxes can still be a big threat.
Vassal of Menoth - outside of feat turn, Tristan struggles with Focus. He cannot sufficiently fuel 7 jacks, cast Manifest Destiny, AND cast Hand of the Creator. These guys help ease that burden some.
Wracks - Same as Vassals. Anything that gives Tristan more focus is good.
Heirophant - same as Vasssals/Wracks.
Units
Choir - YES! If taking more than 4 jacks, take 2 min units. It allows the jacks to spread out more, and provides greater flexibility.
Daughters - Sure? They provide a relatively quick, cheap front line to hopefully engage your opponent's gunline before your jacks get shot too much. Sadly, Tristan2 does not help them in any way, so you would just be taking them for their own, innate abilities rather than any synergy.
Bastions/Cinerators - IMO, these guys are a trap. They are no faster than heavy jacks, don't hit any harder, and even with Inviolable Resolve cannot survive long enough to benefit from Hand of the Creator, which is the only big draw Tristan2 has for them. This is also why the Bastion Seneschal is not recommended.
Vengers - Possibly. They are hard enough, with enough DEF and SPD, to avoid the Bastion trap and actually be useful. They certainly take Inviolable Resolve well, and Battle Driven pairs well with Hand of the Creator. The major issue is that, for them to benefit from Hand of the Creator, Tristan2 will have to be uncomfortably far forward to keep up with the Vengers.
(credit: Hashmal)
Errants: The black sheep of Mk. III has a good place with Tristan2. Inviolable Resolve helps them hold the front line and all but ignore Blast damage. Self-Sacrifice is still a damn useful ability. And situational immunity to spells can be useful, depending on the matchup. I'm not taking them for their offensive power here: I'm taking them for their ability to generate attacks and keep his 'jacks free and clear to do what they want to do.
Flame Bringers: You wouldn't think it, but the girls love Inviolable Resolve. With their ARM at 17, they are incredibly hard to remove via boostable blasts and mandate heavy firepower to remove - firepower that is not being directed at your 'jacks. Flame Bringers also bring a mobile scenario element that can be tough to respond to given other elements present in Tristan's list. Moreover, Flame Bringers don't have to charge away willy nilly. Should your opponent present with jamming elements, they can hang back, waiting for the inevitable jam, then easily move forward and clear it out before Repositioning 5" out of the way of your charging heavies. Flame Bringers played conservatively add a lot to cover Tristan2's weaknesses and also can benefit from Hand.
Mercs
No. Tristan2 wants Friendly Faction models, and struggles enough to find a place for the units in Menoth.
Theme Lists
Guardians of the Temple - Tristan2 can do this theme list, but gains fairly little out of it. Girded on his jacks is cute, and ambushing Daughters is nice. The rest of Falmeguard simply doesn't benefit much from Tristan2. However, he also doesn't lose much.
The Creator's Might - YES! This theme list costs Tristan2 NOTHING that he would want (other than some character jacks), and gives free solos/wracks and gives all solos/choir reposition 3". The only thing that doesn't really matter is the free upkeep, as he only has a single one to cast.
General Strategy
Tristan2's general strategy is amazingly basic. His list is looking to get charged, and should be designed to survive that charge as well as possible. This needs to be accepted when playing Tristan2, as he cannot speed up his jacks, so pretty much EVERYTHING out-threats him. This is why I find the Heavy Melee Jack list to be the most successful, as it can easily flood the board with ARM21 jacks (Templars, Indictors, Eye of Truth, or any jack with Inviolable Resolve), meaning you should only lose, at most, 1-2 jacks to the alpha. So the first couple turns revolve around getting as far up the field as fast as possible, and minimizing loses (judicious use of shield guard jacks helps a lot).
Once the alpha hits, Tristan2 hits back. Fully loaded and (hopefully) operational jacks with Manifest Destiny hit HARD, and plenty of targets should be in easy range. The idea is to have the counter-strike be devastating enough to drive you way up on attrition, and then leverage Manifest Destiny and/or Hand of the Creator to keep up on attrition and slowly grind down your opponent's list.
The downside of this strategy is that it is highly vulnerable to scenario play. Any scenario that forces your jacks to spread out too far is difficult, as is facing an opponent that can jam you before you get into the scenario zones. To counter this, I tend to build my list as two independent groups of jacks (Indictor, Templar, Castigator) that should be able to force their way into the zones.
(Credit: Hashmal)
Assassination
Tristan2 has an okay assassination game, better than most other Protectorate 'casters. It plays like Gaspy1: blow your focus load down with 2-Cost spells, then Feat to get it all back. With the right support, Tristan can pump out four fully boosted offensive spells on Feat turn. That can kill 'casters. Because of that, I like the Revenger and Blessing of Vengeance with him. I'd take the Revenger if you're not taking a Devout and Blessing if you are, replacing the Devout instead. Blessing is really expensive, but it's the only way to get that Shield Guard with an Arc Node. This will give Tristan2 another vector through which he can win games and can provide some pinch hitting melee power if needed.
Matchups/Pairings
Good Against...
gun lines and jack spam. Even though the list is slow, allowing for multiple turns of shooting, gun lines heavily struggle vs 4-5 ARM21 jacks, and what damage gets through can be easily healed by Hand of the Creator. As for jack spam, this is a little iffier, but in general Tristan2 has shown he can leverage Manifest Destiny to to eventually triumphing over MOST jack lists (Amon is the exception, as Field Marshal [Parry] means his Dervishes aren't trapped in combat if they fail to kill Tristan2's jacks).
Bad Against...
control lists. His jacks are already slow, and only get so many attacks a turn. Anything that makes them perform worse (disruption, knockdown, stationary, etc) is awful. Examples would be Haley2, Kaelyssa, and Wurmwood
weapon master spam. Normal infantry aren't a problem, as they will struggle to crack the ARM, but weapon-masters won't have that issue, and the low number of attacks put out by the jacks means they cannot effectively deal with a large number of attacking models. Satyxis Raiders are Tristan2's worst nightmare, as while they won't kill the jacks, they will knock them down and the feedback damage will quickly kill Tristan.
Pairings
As with most casters, pairs well with lists that cover his weaknesses, and vice versa. My personal favorites are:
Thyra - Super fast, with lots of low-POW attacks (Daughters). Plays well into Scenario, and cackles with glee when facing a weapon-master spam list. Struggles with warjack spam, where Tristan excels.
Sevvy2 - Dude wrecks infantry spam, and struggles with warjack spam.
Sevvy1 - Plays really well into infantry spam, and has a glorious ranged game.
Edit: Added comments/suggestions by Hashmal, as they are really good, and address things I missed/haven't experimented with yet.
That being said...
Sovereign Tristan Durant (Durant2 in the Cannon of True Law, Tristan2 in my heart)
Overview
Tristan is a very no frills, attrition-focused jack caster. His spell list revolves around having his army get punched in the face, then stand up and punch back much, much harder. He is quite good into gun lines, especially low POW gun lines, and needs to watch out for more mobile jack lists, or the ever present threat of assassination. Tristan2 often gets compared to Amon, as they are both heavy jack casters focused on the offense of our jacks, rather than defense (which would be Durst). The difference is Amon tends to like his lights, though this is changing, and utilizes Mobility to get the alpha, while Tristan2 loves heavies, and utilizes is healing spell and far-superior feat to counter-punch after receiving the alpha.
Stats, Abilities, Spells & Feat
Stats
Tristan's stats are overall nothing exciting. At SPD5, he can keep up with a most of the faction, though units like Vengers will quickly leave him in the dust. STR & MAT 6 means charging with Tristan2 is a desperation move. RAT4 is laughable, but irrelevant without a gun. DEF14, ARM16, and 15 boxes are bad. Flee from combat, or get squished bad. A RNG2, P+S 12 magical weapon should also discourage sending Tristan2 into combat. Fortunately, Tristan2 has a FOCUS of 7, though that can be burned through really quickly given his spell list. Finally, he has +28 WJ points, which is relatively average.
Abilities
True Sight - he ignores clouds and stealth! Awesome, but I have literally never used this ability.
Field Marshal [True Sight] - even better, all his jacks ignore clouds and stealth! More on this when talking about lists/models to take with him.
Crit Dispel on his weapon - if you are relying on this to save you, something has gone horribly wrong.
Now to the good stuff!
Spells
Chasten - Cheap pow 12 shot that knocks off upkeeps/animi, but low RNG keeps this from being used to knock off buffs, and the requirement to damage means it's hard to knock off debuffs.
Cleansing Fire - It's the standard nuke. AOE3, RNG8, POW14. Less of a desperation move than swinging with his spear, but still not ideal.
Hand of the Creator - HAPPY TIMES! Costs 3, remove d3 damage points from each and every Friendly Faction model in control range. This spell is one of Tristan2's best, as it makes it much, much harder for gun lines to grind down your army.
Inviolable Resolve - Tristan2's only upkeep, target Friendly Faction model/unit gains +2 ARM, cannot be moved by push or slam. Very nice.
Manifest Destiny - HAPPY TIMES x2!!! Costs 3, for one turn, while in control range, models in the battle group gain an additional die on melee attack/damage rolls, and drop the lowest.
Feat
Prayers of War: (wording on this is odd) - each warjack in the battle group in control range immediately gains one focus, then Tristan2 gains 1 focus for each warjack in his battlegroup in his control range, and cannot have more than 7 focus on him.
So this feat is very much one that can either boom or bust, depending up list composition and when it is used.
At worst (all jacks are killed), it does literally nothing.
At best, you start with each jack having 1 Focus from Power Up. Tristan upkeeps Inviolable Resolve, allocates 4 focus. Vassals give a focus to the remaining jacks, and a Sanctifier uses a soul (from bopping a Choir member earlier), so all jacks have 2 focus. Hierophant makes the next spell cheaper and/or Tristan activates, pulls a focus from a wrack, and now uses his 2-to-3 focus to cast Manifest Destiny(assuming all systems are still up), then pop feat. You now have 7 jacks with full focus, and Tristan is sitting on 7 focus to either chuck out some nukes or use Hand of the Creator to remove damage, or camp a bunch, or all three!
Thoughts
Tristan2 is a caster sending out some mixed signals as to what he wants. Manifest Destiny says he wants melee jacks. Field Marshal [True Sight] says he wants ranged jacks. Hand of the Creator says he wants both jacks and multiwound models. His feat says he wants 7+ jacks. The only really clear signal we get from a first glance is that Tristan2 is good with jacks.
Well, we also get the signal to keep him far away from the action. The only spell he has to protect himself is Inviolable Resolve, which is better used on a front-line model, and otherwise Tristan2 is squishy. So protect him at all costs!
Finally, as he tends to want a ton of jacks, Tristan2 is not a low-points game caster. I have only ever used him at 75 pts, and would seriously struggle to make a list for him any lower.
List Building
So rather than go straight into models, there are only a few major builds I've seen either used, or discussed. So I'm going to start with those, and the pros and cons of each.
1) Heavy Melee Jack - this list comprises of 6+ heavy jacks, all melee (Crusaders, Templars, Indictors, and such), with jack support.
Pros - maximizes the usefulness of Manifest Destiny, feat, and Hand of the Creator (as heavy jacks are difficult to quickly shoot down). Amazingly hard skew, that often takes another hard-skew to beat. This is my personal favorite.
Cons - SLOW. With threat ranges topping out at about 10" (Sanctifier, and awful choice in a list with few infantry), this list will be shot up on the way in, and likely will be receiving the alpha-charge, rather than giving it. Due to the low number of attacks, it is vulnerable to dude-spam. You are also completely wasting the True Sight field marshal.
2) Heavy Ranged Jack - this lists comprises of about 4 heavy ranged jacks (Reckoner/Vanquisher), 1-2 light jacks (Devout/Repenter/Redeemer), and jack support.
Pros - Can fire back, softening up the opponent's forces. Less vulnerable to dude-spam, thanks to the AOEs from Vanquishers/Redeemers, or the Repenter's sprays. Uses all aspects of Tristan's jack support spell-list.
Cons - The high cost of ranged heavy jacks means fewer jacks overall can be taken, weakening the feat. Likewise does not take full advantage of Manifest Destiny.
3) Multiwounds Units - 3-4 jacks, and unit(s) of either Bastions, Cinerators, or Vengers.
Pros - Most flexible of the three, and with Vengers actually has some speed. Provides a variety of models to combat, making it less vulnerable to anti-jack lists.
Cons - Is not taking full advantage of feat or Manifest Destiny. Most multiwound units in Menoth, even with Inviolable Resolve, struggle to survive dedicated attacks, resulting in them being unable to benefit from Hand of the Creator.
4) Light Jack Spam - Take an Amon list. Use Tristan2 instead. Basically take a ton of Dervishes, Purifiers, and/or Devouts.
Pros - Tristan2 can provide a TON of focus to this list on feat turn, and substantially increase their offensive output with Manifest Destiny.
Cons - Tristan2 will struggle to keep up, and does little to protect the jacks. The health pool of light jacks is small enough that they will be unlikely to benefit from Hand of the Creator.
(Credit: Hashmal)
Melee Vs. Gunline
This is definitely contentious, but I'm more convinced that a very viable way to play Tristan2 is with a gunline list, capitalizing on True Sight. Tristan2 is really the ultimate gunline 'caster. He provides durability through Hand of the Creator. When the lines close and heavies start whooping up on your shooting pieces, Manifest Destiny allows you to hit back as hard as a normal Protectorate heavy. That is so big, because you can reduce hard targets at range and when they close. No, he doesn't bring an accuracy or damage buff, but he provides gunlines the longevity they need to really force engagement. Cygnar hates getting out-shot, let me tell you, and they fear Manifest Destiny. Legion too. I used to pull this trick with Feora2, Passaging up and using Mechaniks to repair damage that snuck through, then using Ignite to turn heavies into murder machines (or make my Redeemer hit as hard as a heavy).
So, having said that, onto specific models:
Jacks
Devout - Absolutely. Provides a lot of protection for Tristan2 to stop assassinations, and likes to hang back, ensuring at least SOME benefit from the feat if you popped it too late and have lost most of your jacks. But mostly for the protection thing.
Vigilant - As with the Devout, yes. I personally only take one, and rely on distance otherwise. Which one you take is up to personal preference, they both serve admirably.
Castigator - ah, the red-headed step-child. I actually really like the Castigator in a Heavy Melee Jack list, as it's cheap, and provides a way to get rid of jamming units and prevent being swarmed by dude-spam.
Eye of Truth - Super-expensive for a caster that values quantity over quality when looking at jacks, but should not be ignored. With his shield, ashen veil, and oracular vision, he is more than tanky enough to get good use from Hand of the Creator, and Holy Light will help a jack-heavy list get around buffs. Well worth consideration.
Hand of Judgement - Useful in a Ranged Heavy list. Only 2 pts more than a Reckoner, or 1 more than a Vanquisher, but with a fantastic spray, and both Blazing Wrath and Fuel for the Flames work fantastic with the Vanquisher's continuous fire AOE.
Indictor - The big draws here are the shield, sacred ward, and magical weapons. ARM21 is great, especially if you take a lot and can easily fix it with Hand of the Creator. Spell Ward is handy, as it stops the common tactic of debuffing high armor until it's easily broken. And the magical weapon actually gives a jack-heavy list an answer to incorporeal models other than Tristan2, who (as stated) wants to stay waaaaay in the back.
Reckoner - With Flare on the gun, probably makes the best use of the True Sight Field Marshal. Manifest Destiny also helps make up for only having one melee weapon.
Templar - ARM21 is wonderful, and Shield Guard helps keep either Tristan2 or the support models alive. Can also seriously throw ranged lists off, especially if they rely on dragging models in, such as with the Galleon or Prime Axiom.
Vanquisher - Expensive, but that AOE4 continuous fire shot cannot be ignored. Manifest Destiny on a thresher attack is also hilarious.
Dishonorable Mention - Avatar of Menoth - As he cannot be part of the battlegroup, Tristan2 does absolutely nothing for him. Skip him.
(Credit: Hashmal)
Redeemer: Even though he's Inaccurate, the Redeemer still gains a ton from True Sight. Tristan2 becomes a solid Circle drop when using the Redeemer, as eliminating Sentry Stones and Gallows Groves becomes trivial. Also, stealthed Warpwolves must fear you, and rightly so. The Redeemer is also powerful against a Haley3 smoke line, because the Trenchers who dropped smoke bombs and repositioned are not dug in and are very vulnerable to POW 8 blasts. I wouldn't take them in a vacuum though and feel like Reckoners are auto-takes with Redeemers. This allows the little bugger to get work done against a variety of targets, from Warpwolves through Colossals.
Judicator: For much the same reason as the Redeemer, except she hits a ton harder. She's expensive, but can really do a lot with the kit Tristan2 provides.
Crusader: I'm actually surprised you didn't mention the Crusader. They're slow, for sure, but the enemy will not one round all of our Crusaders before we get to hit. Further, the Crusader isn't especially easy to one-round with just one melee heavy and will usually require two. Crusaders allow us to trade especially well. What's killing a Crusader that also costs 10 points? With Passage, Mechaniks, and Hand of the Creator, our 'jacks might hit the front lines unscathed.
Solos
Allegiant of the Order of the Fist - these nimble guys are fast, and a complete pain to kill. Taken with a jack-heavy list, they allow an otherwise slow list to quickly grab/contest scenario elements.
Vassal Mechanik - the only thing better then healing d3 damage off every jack every turn, is using mechaniks to heal an additional d3+1. These little guys make sure that a Templar left on 3 boxes can still be a big threat.
Vassal of Menoth - outside of feat turn, Tristan struggles with Focus. He cannot sufficiently fuel 7 jacks, cast Manifest Destiny, AND cast Hand of the Creator. These guys help ease that burden some.
Wracks - Same as Vassals. Anything that gives Tristan more focus is good.
Heirophant - same as Vasssals/Wracks.
Units
Choir - YES! If taking more than 4 jacks, take 2 min units. It allows the jacks to spread out more, and provides greater flexibility.
Daughters - Sure? They provide a relatively quick, cheap front line to hopefully engage your opponent's gunline before your jacks get shot too much. Sadly, Tristan2 does not help them in any way, so you would just be taking them for their own, innate abilities rather than any synergy.
Bastions/Cinerators - IMO, these guys are a trap. They are no faster than heavy jacks, don't hit any harder, and even with Inviolable Resolve cannot survive long enough to benefit from Hand of the Creator, which is the only big draw Tristan2 has for them. This is also why the Bastion Seneschal is not recommended.
Vengers - Possibly. They are hard enough, with enough DEF and SPD, to avoid the Bastion trap and actually be useful. They certainly take Inviolable Resolve well, and Battle Driven pairs well with Hand of the Creator. The major issue is that, for them to benefit from Hand of the Creator, Tristan2 will have to be uncomfortably far forward to keep up with the Vengers.
(credit: Hashmal)
Errants: The black sheep of Mk. III has a good place with Tristan2. Inviolable Resolve helps them hold the front line and all but ignore Blast damage. Self-Sacrifice is still a damn useful ability. And situational immunity to spells can be useful, depending on the matchup. I'm not taking them for their offensive power here: I'm taking them for their ability to generate attacks and keep his 'jacks free and clear to do what they want to do.
Flame Bringers: You wouldn't think it, but the girls love Inviolable Resolve. With their ARM at 17, they are incredibly hard to remove via boostable blasts and mandate heavy firepower to remove - firepower that is not being directed at your 'jacks. Flame Bringers also bring a mobile scenario element that can be tough to respond to given other elements present in Tristan's list. Moreover, Flame Bringers don't have to charge away willy nilly. Should your opponent present with jamming elements, they can hang back, waiting for the inevitable jam, then easily move forward and clear it out before Repositioning 5" out of the way of your charging heavies. Flame Bringers played conservatively add a lot to cover Tristan2's weaknesses and also can benefit from Hand.
Mercs
No. Tristan2 wants Friendly Faction models, and struggles enough to find a place for the units in Menoth.
Theme Lists
Guardians of the Temple - Tristan2 can do this theme list, but gains fairly little out of it. Girded on his jacks is cute, and ambushing Daughters is nice. The rest of Falmeguard simply doesn't benefit much from Tristan2. However, he also doesn't lose much.
The Creator's Might - YES! This theme list costs Tristan2 NOTHING that he would want (other than some character jacks), and gives free solos/wracks and gives all solos/choir reposition 3". The only thing that doesn't really matter is the free upkeep, as he only has a single one to cast.
General Strategy
Tristan2's general strategy is amazingly basic. His list is looking to get charged, and should be designed to survive that charge as well as possible. This needs to be accepted when playing Tristan2, as he cannot speed up his jacks, so pretty much EVERYTHING out-threats him. This is why I find the Heavy Melee Jack list to be the most successful, as it can easily flood the board with ARM21 jacks (Templars, Indictors, Eye of Truth, or any jack with Inviolable Resolve), meaning you should only lose, at most, 1-2 jacks to the alpha. So the first couple turns revolve around getting as far up the field as fast as possible, and minimizing loses (judicious use of shield guard jacks helps a lot).
Once the alpha hits, Tristan2 hits back. Fully loaded and (hopefully) operational jacks with Manifest Destiny hit HARD, and plenty of targets should be in easy range. The idea is to have the counter-strike be devastating enough to drive you way up on attrition, and then leverage Manifest Destiny and/or Hand of the Creator to keep up on attrition and slowly grind down your opponent's list.
The downside of this strategy is that it is highly vulnerable to scenario play. Any scenario that forces your jacks to spread out too far is difficult, as is facing an opponent that can jam you before you get into the scenario zones. To counter this, I tend to build my list as two independent groups of jacks (Indictor, Templar, Castigator) that should be able to force their way into the zones.
(Credit: Hashmal)
Assassination
Tristan2 has an okay assassination game, better than most other Protectorate 'casters. It plays like Gaspy1: blow your focus load down with 2-Cost spells, then Feat to get it all back. With the right support, Tristan can pump out four fully boosted offensive spells on Feat turn. That can kill 'casters. Because of that, I like the Revenger and Blessing of Vengeance with him. I'd take the Revenger if you're not taking a Devout and Blessing if you are, replacing the Devout instead. Blessing is really expensive, but it's the only way to get that Shield Guard with an Arc Node. This will give Tristan2 another vector through which he can win games and can provide some pinch hitting melee power if needed.
Matchups/Pairings
Good Against...
gun lines and jack spam. Even though the list is slow, allowing for multiple turns of shooting, gun lines heavily struggle vs 4-5 ARM21 jacks, and what damage gets through can be easily healed by Hand of the Creator. As for jack spam, this is a little iffier, but in general Tristan2 has shown he can leverage Manifest Destiny to to eventually triumphing over MOST jack lists (Amon is the exception, as Field Marshal [Parry] means his Dervishes aren't trapped in combat if they fail to kill Tristan2's jacks).
Bad Against...
control lists. His jacks are already slow, and only get so many attacks a turn. Anything that makes them perform worse (disruption, knockdown, stationary, etc) is awful. Examples would be Haley2, Kaelyssa, and Wurmwood
weapon master spam. Normal infantry aren't a problem, as they will struggle to crack the ARM, but weapon-masters won't have that issue, and the low number of attacks put out by the jacks means they cannot effectively deal with a large number of attacking models. Satyxis Raiders are Tristan2's worst nightmare, as while they won't kill the jacks, they will knock them down and the feedback damage will quickly kill Tristan.
Pairings
As with most casters, pairs well with lists that cover his weaknesses, and vice versa. My personal favorites are:
Thyra - Super fast, with lots of low-POW attacks (Daughters). Plays well into Scenario, and cackles with glee when facing a weapon-master spam list. Struggles with warjack spam, where Tristan excels.
Sevvy2 - Dude wrecks infantry spam, and struggles with warjack spam.
Sevvy1 - Plays really well into infantry spam, and has a glorious ranged game.