Lord Arcanist Ossyan

Template:Retbox This model is playable only in an Unlimited format.

The fundamental laws of reality twist and shatter beneath the will of Ossyan, Lord Arcanist of House Vyre. Time bends with but a gesture from him, and he can alter his perception to see the convergence of fate. Armed with perfect foresight he is a deadly combatant and battlefield general. Ossyan’s myrmidons and soldiers move with the assurance of destiny as he unleashes House Vyre’s sophisticated armaments upon the enemies of the Retribution.

Basic Info

Warcaster abilities:

• Focus Manipulation

• Battlegroup Controller

• Power Field

• Spellcaster

• Independent Model

• Leader

Feat : Gravity Well

1. When an enemy model in Ossyan's Template:CTRL range makes a ranged attack damage roll, it rolls one fewer die.
2. When a friendly Faction model makes a ranged attack damage roll against an enemy model in Ossyan's Template:Control range, it gains an additional die on the roll.

Gravity Well lasts for one round.

Abilities

• Field Marshal [ [[:Category:{{{ability}}}|{{{ability}}}]] ]

[[Category:{{{ability}}}]]

• Template:Future Sight

Weapons

• Chronophage Cannon - 12" range, POW 13 ranged attack
  • Template:Magical Weapon
  • Template:Temporal Distortion
• Locus - 1" reach, P+S 11 melee attack
  • Template:Magical Weapon
  • Template:Dispel

Spells

{{Category: Template:AdmonitionTemplate:Arcantrik BoltTemplate:QuickenTemplate:Shatter Storm SpellTemplate:Fortune }}[[Category: Template:AdmonitionTemplate:Arcantrik BoltTemplate:QuickenTemplate:Shatter Storm SpellTemplate:Fortune ]]

Theme Forces

• Template:Defenders of Ios
• Template:Forges of War
• Template:Legions of Dawn
• Template:Shadows of the Retribution. He gains "optional" Take Down in this theme.

Thoughts on Lord Arcanist Ossyan

Lord Arcanist Ossyan in a nutshell

Range buffing combined with a slew of movement tricks. Being able to one round a Stormwall from range and spending less than its points cost to do so is not something that most armies can boast of.

Between Fortune and his feat Ossyan is the premier gunline caster in Retribution and shows that most problems can be solved by throwing more dice at them. Quicken helps to deliver models to the right locations or protects a melee screen on the way in, Fortune and his gun ensures that high defence can be mitigated, while the Feat means that all but the most extreme armour will crumble. Admonition keeps him or his battlegroup safe from retaliation, with Arcantrik Bolt and Shatter Storm being more situational but useful tools (extra control and remove from play respectively).

Feat thoughts

Remember, the friendly models don't need to be in Ossyan's CTRL area, but the enemy does.

Spell thoughts

• Arcantrik Bolt - You won't be casting this much given the other choices for spending focus (including his gun), but an extra way of taking out a pesky solo or messing round with a warjack is nice to have.
• Admonition - Most of the time this is going to be put onto one of your heavies so they can go shooting and stay safe, but against a list with significant melee threat it might be worth keeping it on Ossyan himself. Doesn't do you much good if your jacks are alive but your caster isn't. Always first turn cast.
• Fortune - The choice between sticking this on your defence debuffers or your anti infantry shooters will vary depending on who you run into, but you almost always want to put this on someone first turn.
• Shatter Storm - Getting people to clump up enough to make use of the AoEs is difficult (especially since it's only on direct hit), but it can be a nice boost to your infantry clear when it happens, and in some matchups (Cryx) the RFP is important. Either on a ranged unit with good accuracy (Strike Force, Invictors), or on a melee unit that can take the blast hit (heavy jacks, units buffed by the Artificer).
• Quicken is brilliant, versatile, and expensive. Extra threat ranges, super speedy jamming, protection against range, every unit benefits from it which makes placing it a tough choice. Usually you want it on your jammer unit first, then swap to either Ossyan, a solo you want to contest with or a melee jack after your feat has been used, but don't be afraid to swap it to Ossyan (or cast it on him turn one) if he looks too vulnerable.

Drawbacks & Downsides

Ossyan has a habit of getting himself killed on feat turn. The feat requires the enemy models to be within 14" of him, so anything you don't kill will probably look to retaliate against him. Admonition can keep you safe from melee, while the feat itself blunts ranged retaliation (be aware of snipe letting guns stay outside his control range), but he is rather vulnerable to magic based attacks. It is perfectly possible for a couple of boosted nukes to kill him if he drains himself of focus, so ration your focus usage on feat turn as much as possible and don't extend any further then you need to. Have a back up plan to keep enemy models pinned if the dice go south and you end up with a heavy or colossal alive after significant shooting.

Ossyan has no way of innately mitigating stealth. Boosted blast damage provides one way out, as is the Houseguard Thane, but you probably don't want to play him into a caster with Occultation. On a similar note, anyone capable of spamming clouds or forests can be trouble due to blocking sight lanes.

As with all forces that look to take a high volume of guns pay attention to high speed troops on the other side of the table. Running units into melee is an effective tactic at neutralising gunlines with inadequate screening or clearing potential.

Tricks & Tips

• Because of Ossyan's natural squishiness, when it comes round to feating, identify at the very start of the game what you definitely need removed, and do not lose focus in getting it removed when applying feat. The key is not to bite off more than you chew. If you can't clear his CTRL of hard targets that can offer a strong retaliation against him, y'done messed up and he's too far forward. Be aware of just how many dice you can throw with your army and the maths of his feat vs ARM and you won't go much wrong.
• For a caster with four upkeeps, it's actually rather rare for him to do much by way of hotswapping and if he does, it'll be Admonition to himself from an arc node or Fortune to another unit, so it may be worth bringing a Fane Knight Guardian instead of Sylys Wyshnalyrr, but your mileage may vary.
• You see an enemy with mass upkeep removal/Purification, think very hard before dropping Ossyan...!

List Building Advice

Strategy

His main method of winning is an attritional swing via his feat. His spells do everything they can to make sure his army can get to the fight safely, hit better or deal more incidental damage. And when feat comes along, he smashes his opponents army to pieces.

Depending on his list, he should effectively cripple the enemy list, and in some circumstances, he must. Luckily, ranged retaliation is usually weakened by the second half of his feat, allowing him to reposition his army for exploiting the advantage feat (should have) provided.

Ossyan can make just about range-based model/unit work effectively with his suite of buffs. While some of the ranged units can act as a frontline if required, such as the Mage Hunter Strike Force and Nyss Hunters, you generally want to keep them shooting so a screening unit can be helpful. You can't fit everything in, so plan your matchups carefully.

Theme thoughts

The default and most flexible theme, you can bring units that handle any situation, though not necessarily all in the same list. The theme granting reform to some common ranged units and solos improves their survivability significantly.

• Arcantrik Force Generator - The cricket is a toolbox of useful guns. Massive range, massive damage, knockdowns, AoEs and terrain creation, does a little bit of buffing for friendly jacks as well. It's also a rather massive model, both in size and shear difficulty to get off the board given it's high armour against ranged damage and inability to be charged, both armies have to play around it.
• Stormfall Archers - Best ranged armour breaking unit in the game, especially on a per points basis, with their only weakness being low natural accuracy. Since Ossyan lists tend to be full of defence debuffs you can generally mitigate this. When there are no hard targets available blasts can get some work done. Super fragile, keep them well away from enemy guns and use the theme granted reform to it's fullest.
• Electromancers - High efficiency infantry clearing with lightning, and pulsefire can put some hurt on multi box models. Also super fragile. Medals are given to people who use their sticks to take out cortexs.
• Houseguard Halberdiers - Decent survivability coupled with decent offence at a decent price. The CA and Thane does make them a little pricey, but they they start rocketing around the board and have a potent alpha.
• Houseguard Riflemen - The theme's stealth solution when coupled with the Thane. Not bad guns either for infantry clearing or going for a large CRA on a priority target.
• Heavy Rifle Team - Cheap problem solver. Decent accuracy and damage at a low price, handles stealthed solos when paired with the Thane. Theme can pick them up for free potentially.
• Houseguard Thane - Noticed a theme with the other Houseguard entries? The thane just makes everything better, faster movement or stealth mitigation, and as the game goes longer he is decent enough with his sword and pistol.
• House Ellyowur Swordsmen - Compared to the Halberdiers, Halberdiers are the offensive strikers that reach out and touch something while Swordsmen are more defensive juggernauts. They utterly mulch infantry, shrug off guns and are highly resistant to being being jammed themselves, but don't handle armour quite as well and are more expensive.
• Nyss Hunters - Ignoring cover and concealment is very helpful when it comes up. Pretty good in melee as well when required, just watch out for blast damage.
  • As Partisans, Nyss can also go in the other themes (but use your "Up to one Mercenary" slot).
• Dawnguard Trident- It has a high volume of gunfire and at SPD 6 it's also relatively fast, meaning it can mke use of his feat and every single one of his upkeeps depending on the situation. Shatter Storm lets is mulch infantry, Fortune gives it a better chance at hitting high DEF models and Quicken helps it get into Shooting Gallery range.

Shadows of Retribution is your only way of getting access to the Mage Hunter Strike Force, but they're a really good unit with Ossyan. You do have to make some fairly extreme trade offs to get them however.

• Mage Hunter Strike Force - The unit that lets you one round Stormwalls. Acceptable accuracy combined with Jack Hunter results in warjacks evaporating under feat, and they act as good infantry killers on other turns. Expensive though, especially since they almost always want a CA, so keep in mind how fragile they are.
• Mage Hunter Infiltrators - Self sufficient and reasonably cheap, ambush or reform is just icing on the cake. Gang and Combo Strike give them enough punch to take on all infantry, though higher armour multi box models will stop them short, and only 0.5" range can present target access problems.

He is capable of getting serious work out of the Dawnguard theme, feat helping out the Dawnguard Invictors and Quicken turning Dawnguard Sentinels into serious threats every turn. Typically more of a combined arms list.

• Imperatus - A less frequent selection, but it is possible to make a list that instead of relying on the feat for battlegroup destruction instead uses melee jacks, with Quicken to deliver them, Admonition to keep them safe afterwards, and the Field Marshal to ensure they get full effect of their focus load. Imperatus is the exemplar of this approach, with a massive threat range and the damage to back it up, as well as significant survivability.
• Dawnguard Sentinels - Who doesn't like weapon masters, give them a speed boost and watch them go to town. Access to them is probably why you went for this theme in the first place.
• Dawnguard Invictors - High accuracy guns with good power, start CRAing and they will grind their way through anything without dedicated anti ranged tools. Deceptively squishy though, their stat line sits in the awkward spot where standard anti infantry shots are rather effective.
• Dawnguard Destors - Their POW 14 Lance Cannon auto-hits if their hit their charge attack, so they can make exellent use of the feat. They are also prime recipients for Quicken.
• Dawnguard Trident - Naturally, it is available here, too.

Battlegroup

File:Retribution Hypnos.jpg

Hypnos is his pet warjack that he can take in any theme.

• Hypnos is his pet warjack that he can take in any theme. His main selling point is the Ghost Shot Shadow Bind gun and some decent hitting power on the fists.
• Aeternae - Excellent ranged and melee hitting power! And in Defenders of Ios is collects focus from House Ellowuyr models.
• Harpy - Good gun with control potential. Don't rely on it for knockdowns, take a proper defense debuffer for that. Likes being fed extra focus to get more shots and boost the power.
• Gorgon - Boosted damage sprays. Couple with some denial tools and you have an interesting, if niche jack, if Ossyan could be taken in Forges then this would be a more common pickup.
• Hyperion - Speed boosted colossi are always a good laugh and Ossyan runs a Hyperion fairly well. Quicken ups it's threat range, Fortune makes the Starcannon and thresher guns more likely to land, Shatter Storm makes it un-tarpittable.

Other

Trivia

Released in the Warmachine: Wrath expansion (2011)

Video Battle Reports

• 2019.11 Arcane Assist, vs Syvestro1
• 2018.09 Deathclock Dave, vs Morvahna2
• Template:VBR