Garryth and the Assassins Six

Hello everyone, glad to be contributing to rescuing of Scyrah from the vile magics of the humans. But seriously glad to be helping out you guys as much as possible. Today I'll be going over a Tier 4 Garryth army that includes six Mage Hunter Assassins, that's right six of those nasty solos. First, for those of you who don't know in MK II warcasters will have themed armies that are organized into four tiers, by meeting the requirements within each tier you get a bonus. Here is Garryth's tiers so you have a better understanding of the basis of this army:

Tier 1
Requirements: Have only Garryth, non-character Jacks, Mage Hunter Strike Forces and UAs, Mage Hunter Assassins, Nayl and Souless Escorts.
Benefit: Mage Hunter Strike Forces FA now becomes FA: U, Mage Hunter Assassin FA increases by 1 for each Mage Hunter Strike Force included.

Tier 2
Requirements: In addition to Tier 1 include 3 or more Mage Hunter Assassins
Benefit: +1 to Starting Roll.

Tier 3
Requirements: In addition to Tier 1 and 2 include 3 or more Mage Hunter Strike Forces each with a Soulless Escort attachment.
Benefit: Add Nayl for FREE

Tier 4
Requirements: In addition to Tier 1, 2, and 3 include only Light Wrajacks
Benefit: Battlegroup gain AD.

As you can see it is a really solid and interesting theme that allows for a lot of Mage Hunters of all varieties, but another thing you will notice is that Narn and Eiryss aren't allowed, disappointing: yes but nothing to lose sleep over. But without further wait the list itself:

Garryth
-Gorgon (5 Warjack Points from Garryth)
Mage Hunter Strike Force (minimum) [5 pts.]
-Souless Escort [1 pt.]
Mage Hunter Strike Force (minimum) [5 pts.]
-Souless Escort [1 pt.]
Mage Hunter Strike Force (minimum) [5 pts.]
-Souless Escort [1 pt.]
Mage Hunter Strike Force (minimum) [5 pts.]
Mage Hunter Assassin [2 pts.]
Mage Hunter Assassin [2 pts.]
Mage Hunter Assassin [2 pts.]
Mage Hunter Assassin [2 pts.]
Mage Hunter Assassin [2 pts.]
Mage Hunter Assassin [2 pts.]
Nayl [FREE]
Total Points: 35

Now you may say "Assassins are only FA: 2" I would reply simply that in Tier 1 the FA increases by one for each Mage Hunter Unit and since there are four Mage Hunter units that FA goes up to six. Now that being said lets move along to tactics.

The main tactic associated with this army is that of Threat Saturation which is covered pretty well in the link to the Privateer Press forums, the Retribution Community over there is a great place for additional information. Not to say I wont cover Threat Saturation, I will, just at a later time. Away from that tangent, this army's strength lays in its in its ability to strike quickly and take down the enemy Warcaster. Each model basically has a role to fill within the army, the Assassins are to take down high wound models and if there is an opening the enemy Warcaster, Mage Hunters are to take down jacks and enemy infantry, because 24 RAT 6 shots is nothing to ignore. Nayl is there to disrupt the enemy caster, the Gorgon to hold down high threat models, and Garryth, well Garryth is there to do what he does best, killing Warcasters. (He is also there to support his army with things like Death Sentence and Mirage.) Now these are simplified usages of these models because they have quite a few diferent ones such as using Assassins as bait to pull out pieces of the enemy army so you can strike at other. This should work because if you spread out your solos it forces your opponent to try to deal with each as threat otherwise one will run up the side of their army and just make a mess of things. But again you can't account for an opponent's decision making but using logic I would do all I can to take out those Assassins before they got too close, which would hopefully open up holes in the defense of their Warcaster. But remember none of these are fool-proof tactics, they are more suggestions to what I believe is optimal use. Back on subject, the secondary strength of this army is its ability to put a wrench into the Warcaster's plan with Nayl, Garryth's Feat, and 75% of the units containing a Soulless Escort, spellcasting should take a pretty big hit. Which leaves your opponent in another vulnerable position especially when faced with such adept killers.

This army has very distinct and obvious strengths but also has very obvious weakness, the obvious weakness is AOEs. Unfortunately AOEs will absolutely decimate much of this army due to their low ARM on the majority of the models. In this casse you have to play fast and hard putting your opponent on their heals as you push to their lines before too much of your army is destroyed. Another weakness is armies that ignore stealth which should be dealt with in a similar way you deal with an AOE army close the gap between you and them to prevent excessive casualties.

This is a fairly simple introduction into Garryth's Assassin Spam, but should help you start thinking of even better ways to use it or modify it. So go out there and kill some Warcasters.

-MRHM



(It should be noted that there is an alternate version of this army that drops one Assassin and one unit of Mage Hunters and trades the Gorgon for a Chimera and increase two of the Mage Hunter Units to their maximum size, but Garryth and the Assassin Five didn't sound as catchy even though it is probably a better list since the arc node makes Garryth far more dangerous. But the six Assassins just seem more fun.)