Phoenix

House Shyeel has brought the power of its formidable myrmidons to the Retribution, fighting machines enhanced by sophisticated arcanika systems. The Phoenix enters battle in a blaze of blue-white flames as liquid fire ignites along its massive thermal blade.

Basic Info

Abilities

• Template:Construct
• Template:Arc Node
• Template:Force Fields
• Template:Field Dependent
• Template:Phoenix Field
• Template:Combustion

Weapons

Halo Cannon
File:Gun icon.jpg		RNG			ROF			AOE			POW
		10			1			3			14
Template:Critical Continuous Fire Template:Fire Damage Template:Magical Weapon
Thermal Blade
File:Sword icon.jpg		RNG				POW				P+S
		2				7				17
Template:Continuous Fire Template:Magical Weapon
Open Fist
File:Sword icon.jpg		RNG				POW				P+S
		1				3				13
Template:Open Fist

Theme Forces

• Template:Defenders of Ios
• Template:Forges of War. Phoenixs gains Shield Guard in this theme.
• Template:Legions of Dawn. (1) In this theme Phoenixs can ignore friendly Dawnguard models when determining LOS, and it can advance through friendly Dawnguard models if it has enough movement to move completely past them. (2) If someone 'Jack Marshals Phoenix in this theme, it gains Flank [Dawnguard].
• Template:Shadows of the Retribution

Thoughts on the Phoenix

Phoenix in a nutshell

The Phoenix is the epitome of generalist. It can do everything. It has tools for taking down heavy armor, high DEF, it can make Throw power attacks, it has an AOE ranged weapon, has melee and ranged magical attacks, can channel spells, and has very good survivability and speed. One is hard-pressed to find a more versatile tool in the game.

Combos & Synergies

• The Phoenix pairs well with Elara, Death's Shadow's Scything Touch. Due to its reach, likewise her feat is great on any Warjack.
• Helynna needs an arc node to cast Hand of Destruction safely. Likewise her feat works really well on Shyeel models.
• Together, a Phoenix and a Chimera make up Adeptis Rahn's jack points... and oh look, what does he like more than one arc node: two arc nodes! This is his ideal battlegroup, giving him a threat across swathes of the board.
• Goreshade4 - Likes himself an arc node or two, but he also loves jacks that do heavy lifting in his list. The Phoenix does both!
• Falcir - Similar to Shade4, she loves arcing Force Hammer and the Phoenix makes excellent use of her +2/+2 offensive buff
• Issyria - Arcing Blinding Light is great, as are Crusader's Call and Ancillary Attack. Given she has no damage buff, its natively high P+S is great for her, too.
• Garryth1 - Field Marshal [Repo 3"] means it can get actual use out of the Halo Cannon without exposing itself to getting charged and the threat of an arced Crippling Grast or Gallows should keep the opponent honest.

Drawbacks & Downsides

• As mentioned, the Phoenix is a solid channeller, sturdy melee brawler and gun platform. Unfortunately, with such flexibility comes a price, it's 17pt price tag makes it one of the more expensive heavies the Retribution can bring. For a melee jack it has good accuracy but only middling damage, for a gun platform it has low end RAT and range, and while as fast as most channellers do you really want to spend all those points just to run when a chimera can do that just as well? Getting it's points worth on every turn can be awkward, but you'll always have something to do with it.
• This flexibility draws a lot of attention, especially the ability to arc. Opposing players will treat it as a high threat target, often disproportionately so, if you bring it into offensive arcing range it will receive a response.
• Combustion would be awesome... if only the Phoenix could charge and do it. As it is, this ability is rarely used because of its severely limited range and because there isn't a single fire-immune model in Retribution.

Tricks & Tips

• Under Rahn, TK it backwards after channelling, or forwards if the Phoenix hasn't activated, allowing it to wade into combat when its turn comes around.
• Give it Admonition so you can be a bit more aggressive with it (Issyria, in the main so she can hurl out Blinding Light as much as possible).
• Look out for Grievous Wounds, or that Phoenix Field is going to be sad.

Other

Trivia

• Released in Forces of Warmachine: Retribution of Scyrah (Novermber 2009)
• While the name of 'Phoenix' is a reference to the jack's more fire based abilities and its wing like arc tails between its shoulders, the signature rebirth of a dying phoenix is taken by the character Phoenix Imperatus with his aptly named Phoenix Protocol. It would be a bit... just a bit(!) much if the non-character Phoenices/Phoenixes (pick your poison) had the Protocol too, however flavorful it may be!