Tempest Blazers Thoughts?

Is it safe to assume that he is a fan of the Caines? If that is the case he is likely to get good mileage out of the Blazers by running them with Caine1, as being able to slap either Blur or Snipe on them really allows them to shine.

If you don't expect him to attend tournaments any time soon, what does he normally play against (faction wise)? Blazers are good against infantry, ok against medium armor stuff (lights, mostly) and not good against heavy warjacks/warbeasts. If his main opponents are something like Karchev and a bunch of heavies, and that cryx list that gives Carapace to all their heavies, Blazers are not a good choice.

I would say get them though, if you see a good deal and he likes Gun Mages. In all but the most skewed lists, there are going to be some targets for them (mechaniks, arcanists, squires, that kind of stuff) and it won't be a crippling disadvantage to field them. They might not be the best choice all the time, but he can figure that out as he plays them.

Tempest Blazers are dead simple as far as cavalry go. All you need to understand is gunfighter, they don't bother with most of the cavalry stuff because they just shoot guys. You almost never want to get into melee range with them if you can help it.

Against Retribution, I think Blazers are almost always a fine choice if not better. You're always going to have arcanists or something lightly armored to shoot, and even if you go all warjacks the Blazers can still put a couple points of damage in (Ret not being super high armor in my experience).