amornar
Baby's First Wargame
Posts: 8 
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Post by amornar on Mar 21, 2017 13:50:24 GMT
Greetings all,
I am a fairly new player, joined at the tail of mk2. I am now getting into the realm of having multiple warcasters and multiple armies and working more with developing good pairings and I thought it would be beneficial if we as a community pooled together a list of caster pairings we are finding work well and why.
So anyone with good experience with a caster pairing and why these two casters compliment each other please post below. Something about your standard meta you see would also be really helpful to include.
Hopefully this is will help not just me but many other players as well! Thanks all!
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Post by milehightroll on Mar 21, 2017 21:10:53 GMT
In my meta, it seems like needing a list to handle high ARM and one to counter stealth/high DEF is needed. In that vein, I've been using Issyria paired with either Elara or Vyros1.
Issyria
- Banshee
- Hypnos
- Sylys
Full Halbs w/ UA and Soulless
Stormfall Archers
Electromancers
2x Ghost Snipers
HRT
Thane
Healer
2x MHA
2x Arcanist
The idea here is to be a jack of all trades kind of list that can play into most lists that don't involve a wall of high ARM.
Elara plays with 3 hard hitting jacks (usually Imperatus, 2x Sphinx) with Sents and Halbs. Vyros1 uses Infiltrators to proc the feat, and multiple heavies to clear what threatens me most and go up on attrition. Elara and Vyros excel at getting the alpha strike, so that helps too. Both can clear high ARM without too many issues.
Cheers!
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amornar
Baby's First Wargame
Posts: 8
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Post by amornar on Mar 22, 2017 23:37:15 GMT
Thanks for the reply milehightroll, I think Issyria pairs really well with a lot of casters and I see her with a lot of pairings as well as Kae.
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Post by celeb on Mar 23, 2017 7:36:53 GMT
In my opinion, Issyria is one of the safest picks to start a pairing with. She can handle a lot of matchups and pairs well with a lot of casters. Kaelyssa is also very good, but gives you a little less freedom in your pairing, as does Helynna.
My Issyria list at the moment consists of:
System: Warmachine
Faction: The Retribution of Scyrah
Caster: 1 / 1
Points: 75 / 75
Issyria1 (Issyria Sibyl of Dawn) -29
- Chimera 8
- Hyperion 36
- Banshee 18
Arcantric Force Generator 16
Dawnguard Sentinels (Leader and 9) 18
- Dawnguard Sentinel Officer & Standard 4
Arcanist 2
Arcanist 2
this list can handle a lot. Ususally, I feat for the alphastrike with the shots from my warjacks and the AFG. After that, the gameplan is to remove everything that kills Hyperion and bully the table with him. Due to the ability to put out 4 AOEs a turn (2 AFG and 2 from Hyperion), it clears infantry very well, but the high POW on the weapon can also just shoot down a heavy under feat. So that covers a lot and you can go with almost anyone to pair it with.
Recently, the NL Masters were won by Retribution, bringing Rahn and an Vyros2 Theme so that can work, too.
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Tucker
Junior Strategist
Posts: 103
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Post by Tucker on Mar 23, 2017 22:18:57 GMT
I've had good success with the following army pair. I tweak stuff a little bit but the armies remain essentially the same.
Kaelyssa
-Banshee
-Moros
-Hydra
Elara1
-Discordia
Arcanist x 2
Strike Force + CA x 2 (one at 6 and one at 10)
Elara2
-Chimera
-Griffon x 2
-Manticore x 2
Arcanist x 2
Assassin x 2
Infiltrators (10) + Eiryss3
Strike Force (10) + CA
My primary reason for building this army pair is that I really like Mage Hunters and I really like to play Kaelyssa and Elara. But the two warcasters compliment each other well, as Kaelyssa usually wins by assassination and attrition while Elara wins by scenario. Elara can also bust the really high ARM that Kaelyssa can struggle with, especially if assassination doesn't look likely.
Both armies are well-rounded and can play into most anything, which is an advantage since you don't telegraph your army selection to your opponent. Despite being very similar in composition the two armies fight in very different manners, as Kaelyssa plays and hit and run game while Elara looks to jam and attack aggressively, and it's nice to have those options available.
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Post by milehightroll on Mar 24, 2017 21:11:26 GMT
celeb - I really like your Issyria list. I have had a chance to throw down the Issy list I posted earlier and while it worked, it was almost too many moving parts and felt inefficient. If you had to sub out the AFG (don't own it yet) what would you suggest adding? Tucker - Care to give a faction breakdown of what you drop each list into? I tooled my Elara list to combat the wave of Khador and Skorne in my meta, meaning the inclusion of Sents and Halbs made better sense for me.
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Post by retributionbob on Mar 25, 2017 0:52:27 GMT
My plan is to pair my Kaelyssa list with a Vyros one list supplemented with an Issyria list for three list formats.
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Tucker
Junior Strategist
Posts: 103
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Post by Tucker on Mar 25, 2017 3:57:50 GMT
My armies don't have set factions that they go into, but there are some general trends. Kaelyssa gets most Warmachine opponents and she usually gets Circle, too, as she gives Wurmwood fits. Elara2 gets most Hordes opponents, including Circle if I think I'm going to see Wolds.
Elara2 is generally my anti-ARM warcaster, but Kaelyssa can beat Warmachine ARM skew easily at it almost always depends on spells and warjacks which she cuts right through. Kaelyssa can also beat bricks that rely on the warcaster playing forward, like you usually see with Irusk and Xerxis, as she can gun them down or seriously screw with their game plan with Discordia.
It's not that Elara2 punches through ARM, it's that she can encircle the enemy army and hit it hard enough, and from strange angles, that she can keep the enemy off balance and win on scenario. Although Manticores are good at bursting through extreme ARM skew like Ragnor's feat, which is a nice feature.
So it's more that I play Elara2 when I think my best chance is to play for scenario, and I play Kaelyssa when I think my best chance is to win on assassination. It's a complex equation involving the scenario, the terrain, and my opponent's psychology. Both of my armies are extremely reactive in nature, so it's more about what I think my opponent is going to do and countering that, and less about imposing an aggressive battle plan on him.
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Post by celeb on Mar 27, 2017 5:14:42 GMT
celeb - I really like your Issyria list. I have had a chance to throw down the Issy list I posted earlier and while it worked, it was almost too many moving parts and felt inefficient. If you had to sub out the AFG (don't own it yet) what would you suggest adding? Thanks  . I find it hard to Sub out the AFG, since he brings a lot of tools and ices them with the +2 RNG. RNG 12 Starburst is just great, especially for the Ancillary Attack. You could do with Hydra + Soulless Escort on the sentinels, or you put in Infiltrators as a cheap screening/jamming unit and add a Lys healer. I think with the low model count this list has, the infiltrators seem like a good alternative. |
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Post by ElaraIsBae on Mar 27, 2017 13:22:32 GMT
Played the following this weekend at the Seattle open.
List 1:
Objective - Bunker
Kaelyssa - 29 WJ
-Sylys Wyshnalyrr, The Seeker
-Banshee
-Banshee
-Discordia
Arcanist Mechanik
Arcanist Mechanik
Arcanist Mechanik
Lys Healer
Ghost Sniper
Ghost Sniper
Mage Hunter Strike Force
-Eiryss, Mage Hunter commander
-Soulless Escourt
House Vyre Electromancers
List 2:
Objective Stockpile
Vyros, Incissar of the Dawnguard
-Syls Wyshnalyrr, The Seeker
-Imperatus
-Griffon x8
Arcanist Mechanik
Arcanist Mechanik
Arcanist Mechanik
House Shyeel Magister
House Shyeel Magister
House Shyeel Battle Mages
I ended up not liking the electromancers in Kaelyssa because Cygnar players are running storm division + something else. Due to electric immunity I could have 8 useless points in the list. That said despite the immunity they can still energy leak and slap things. Contemplating dropping electromancers + soulless for SFA. I might try and make it down to the Oregon tournament in April. I ended 2-2 in Seattle, my final game was Kaelyssa into Sloan and I got diced into oblivion.
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Post by milehightroll on Mar 28, 2017 19:51:27 GMT
celeb - I really like your Issyria list. I have had a chance to throw down the Issy list I posted earlier and while it worked, it was almost too many moving parts and felt inefficient. If you had to sub out the AFG (don't own it yet) what would you suggest adding? Thanks . I find it hard to Sub out the AFG, since he brings a lot of tools and ices them with the +2 RNG. RNG 12 Starburst is just great, especially for the Ancillary Attack. You could do with Hydra + Soulless Escort on the sentinels, or you put in Infiltrators as a cheap screening/jamming unit and add a Lys healer. I think with the low model count this list has, the infiltrators seem like a good alternative. Thanks! The idea of using another shooting piece is good, as is having a Infiltrators. I'll have to try both out and see what I think. With the recent news about revamping battle engines, I just broke down and got one though Hard to see it getting objectively worse, and it's one of the better BE right now. |
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. I find it hard to Sub out the AFG, since he brings a lot of tools and ices them with the +2 RNG. RNG 12 Starburst is just great, especially for the Ancillary Attack. You could do with Hydra + Soulless Escort on the sentinels, or you put in Infiltrators as a cheap screening/jamming unit and add a Lys healer. I think with the low model count this list has, the infiltrators seem like a good alternative.