Steamrollin': Lord Arcanist Ossyan

Hi all, Maxtermynd here again to talk about the caster that I'm trying to practice at the moment, Lord Arcanist Ossyan, and how he fits into my Steamroller plans. I brought him to this year's Adepticon and Ossyan has been my favorite caster ever since. He has the tools to deal with any situation, as he can personally buff speed, defense, damage output, resistance to ranged attacks and accuracy, and from there his force can be tailored to quash anything that he's missing.

The Elf, The Myth, The Legend

Without further ado, here's...

The List:

Lord Arcanist Ossyan, First of His Name, of House Vyre

-Banshee

Arcantrik Force Generator

Eiryss, Angel of Retribution

Houseguard Thane

Max Houseguard Halberdiers with UA

Max Dawnguard Invictors with UA

Stormfall Archers

Stormfall Archers

The Reasons:

Ossyan is normally designed to be the armor cracking list in any Retribution pairing that he's included in, and this one is no exception. His feat (+1 die on ranged attack damage rolls against enemies in his control range and -1 die on enemy ranged attack damage rolls from enemies in his control range) just swings too easily in that direction to throw away completely. Stormfalls firing Brutal shots under feat will do 26 damage on average a piece to targets of your choosing, and all eight blazing away will reduce any target to rubble.

You got your knockdown on my Brutal shot target!

That being said, I wanted to make sure that I wasn't banking too hard on it. Historically one of Ossyan's problems has been his lack of accuracy. The Banshee and AFG's Momentum cannon shots can certainly alleviate this to a degree (and are certainly the reason that they are in the list), but high defense infantry and Angellii laugh at knockdown guns.

To counter this I've included Invictors instead of the more commonly used Mage Hunter Strike Force. The MHSF is good, but rerollable RAT 8 shots at POW 14 are very nice against the Circle and Legion heavies I was originally teching this list for and (especially when Shatter Storm has been cast on them) can also be used to clear infantry either at range or in melee. The Stormfalls and AFG can also throw out a bevy of AOE templates to drift onto high def infantry and hopefully kill a couple.

It also helps that I have an unreasonable love of the Dawnguard 'Vics and their sword guns. BFFs 4eva yo.

They slice, they dice, they fire Combined Arms CRAs at fries!

Something not to be forgotten is Ossyan's gun. At POW 13 it hits like a truck, and targeting a tough target with it will leave behind a 4" AOE that grants -2 DEF to anything inside. This can make Stormfalls much more accurate and also help start an assassination chain in a pinch.

Halberds are the new black

The Halberdiers also help plug the accuracy hole… but really, I find it very difficult to not bring Halbs + UA + Thane in every list I play nowadays. They do particularly good work in an Ossyan list as Quicken makes them ludicrously fast and hard to kill at range. Advancing 13" in Shield Wall makes them 15/18, and they have the option to threaten 15" on the charge before reforming into the enemy.

And Eiryss, of course, is in the list to snipe off any Arcane Shielding/Defenders Warding we might run into and just be a pain in general.

The plan:

General game plan is to run or Shield Wall Quickened halberdiers as appropriate to jam or set up a charge while the rest of the army runs into position. The Banshee and AFG will take up positions on opposite ends of the field looking for juicy slam targets to set up profitable SFA shots. Stormfalls and Invictors take pot shots until Ossyan gets in position to use his feat to kill one or two big targets while we play to not lose scenario.

Eventually an assassination vector will present itself, starting with either the Banshee or the AFG using their momentum cannon to knock the caster or their screen down. If both miss, aren't available or there are no good slam targets Ossyan can use his gun to start the chain in a pinch, giving the caster -2 defense and a boosted POW 13 to boot. From there it's just a matter of an overwhelming application of firepower until the game goes away.

The key thing about the feat is not to get greedy. While it's certainly possible to remove 3-4 heavies with it, you can often get enough work out of it by removing a single troublesome target (Hi Behemoth/Avatar/Tiberion/etc.!) at range before it proves to be too much of a problem. It's also always an option to feat defensively if there aren't any particularly hard targets to feat away, though in my meta this isn't much of an issue. But, like, if there's a Colossal... you should probably take that one out. Just sayin'.

The problem:

While aiming to be fairly well balanced, this list still has the until recently omnipresent Retribution problem of dealing with Stealth. Shadow pack casters can't be targeted by the lists' many guns and AOEs only help so much against waves of Stealth infantry. Because of this any list that you pair this with needs to be able to handle those threats, which is why in Steamroller play I'm leaning towards taking Issyria (the feat grants True Sight) or Ravyn (as dem Banez tend to die to Sniped Feated Houseguard Riflemen).

The bigger problem? I really want to use eVyros as my second list, as a) Murder of Griffons could be a rock band name, b) his list deals with Circle and Legion like nobody's business and c) I came to this game to play with robots, steam powered or otherwise, and having 7-8 of them on the field sounds like just what the doctor ordered.

I See You...

If I do pair with eVyros I'd probably swap out the Invictors for a unit of Houseguard Riflemen with the UA. They'll give Ossyan some additional anti-infantry thanks to 14" range guns and can remove stealth infantry (or heavies under feat) with relative ease, especially if they can get into mini feat range for the boosted attack die. This is especially relevant as eVyros does not like the Cryx match up... stupid Banez.

I might also leave eEiryss for the eVyros list and instead take Aiyanna and Holt + an Arcanist to help keep up my damage output on non-feat turn, as well as let Ossyan handle the Menoth matchup. It's also a mite fluffier for Ossyan to be leading Houseguard than Dawnguard, which pulls at my narrative heart strings.

The conclusion:

I'll test out using the Riflemen in place of my beloved 'Vics and let you all know how it's going. I think it will be worth it, and it helps me from banking all-in on the feat, which I like.

Until next time, shank a round ear for me!