Eiryss Mage Hunter of Ios

“That elf right there, she is truly a skilled wonder, she takes meagre pay and does one hell of a job, she has no problems killing but she seems to hunt mages in particular if I were one of those spell casters I’d duck the fight rather than risk her bolts finding me” –Cygnar captain speaking to a Long Gunner Sargent at a mission briefing with Eiryss nearby

Stats

Eiyrss is fast and I mean really fast. While this faction is known for speed she is faster than any of our infantry and all of our jacks. She has an okish mat and one hell of a RAT and this is what you will be taking her for. Her defense is borderline godlike. With her coming in at 16 normal infantry and even elite infantry will not hit her reliably and most jacks even character jacks are still struggling to hit her without boosts. Her armour is very low to the point where blast damage is quite a problem for her so anything that can manage to bypass her defense she needs to avoid.

Weapons

Eiryss carries 3 weapons on her person. Her primary weapon that we take her for is her crossbow with its different shots (will be expanded later). This is her primary weapon and if you are not using her crossbow then you are not getting the most out of her. She carries two melee weapons,. A bayonet and a sabre, but with her average MAT and low p+s on these weapons consider these to be used only as a last resort.

Skills & Abilities

These are what make Eiryss truly one of the most hated and used solos in the game. She comes equipped with advanced deploy so she can start out closer to her target(s), fearless so those guys who have terror and abomination have no effect on her. She also comes fully equipped with pathfinder so she can navigate most of the board with no issue and last but certainly not least she comes equipped with stealth. Stealth combined with her high defense keeps her safe from the vast bulk of attacks that your opponent(s) would attempt to use to get rid of her. She also has camouflage so her already amazing defense goes to pretty much unhittable when she is benefitting from concealment or cover (take that B-13, Gun Mages). She is a partisan for us which means she can benefit from in faction feats and spells (oh Ravyn did she really need your feat to hit things?). Her last ability means nothing to us which is her hatred of other factions warjacks and if she ends her movement near a non-myrmidon warjack her activation ends.

Now on to the real reason why you take Eiryss, she has multiple crossbow attack types. Her first shot is death bolt which deals an automatic 3 points of damage to the model she hits and if it is a warjack she can choose the column. This is great for not only clearing out single wound troopers but is great for weakening a solo or finishing one off as well as softening up a warjack or taking out that last box for a system or taking out those last couple of points on a warbeasts damage spiral. Did I forget to mention that if you fight Protectorate a lot this ability will bypass the Covenant’s “I only take one point rule” and deal the full 3 points? Her 2^nd shot can be just as good if not better than the first albeit a bit more situational. When she hits a model it is disrupted and loses all focus so she can keep that warjack from being allocated focus or she can keep that arc node from tagging your troops. More than that though if she can hit a warcaster it prevents them from replenishing focus the next turn so that means no more army support and it means they should be easy pickings for whatever you send their way. Her 3^rd and final shot is Phantom Seeker. Much like the MHSF this allows her to ignore practically all modifiers to someone’s defense and hit them regardless of where they are so long as they are in range, though this will be at her base pow of 10 which isn’t too great but can be useful for picking off that camouflaged solo or trooper that is causing you problems. Keep in mind though this shot DOES NOT ignore stealth.

Tactics & Synergies

Eiryss does a lot of things from solo hunting, to warcaster and warjack disrupting to being just a general PiTA to everyone. She requires little support from our warcasters which is good since they don’t offer too much support compared to what other factions could offer her. Her main strength is her Death Bolt so you will be auto pinging your opponent’s models for 3 points and Disruptor Bolt when you get that warjack in your way or you get that nice shot of opportunity on their warcaster (do keep in mind this has no effect on warlocks). While Phantom Seeker is nice I find it to be the most situational of her shots but it is not without its uses.

Rahn: He has a few things he can offer Eiryss. Polarity Shield denies your opponents a charge to her which can be important. Force field is a big one since it allows him to choose the direction of an aoe when it misses her so this can go a long way towards keeping her safe and thanks to his large control area it isn’t too hard to keep her in it but just be careful of your opponent rolling that 1 or 2 for distance. Telekinesis can be great for giving her a little bit of extra distance for not only the aiming bonus but if it is used on an enemy model it can be great for giving her the backstrike bonus. Force Hammer is another option which knocks down a target and which means aside from outright dice fail she will hit anything and if she manages to hit a warjack or warcaster while knocked down with her Disruptor Bolt, they cannot use focus to shake off which really limits their options for the next turn (assuming they live).

Vyros: He can offer Eiryss Inviolable Resolve which puts her armour up to the levels of some heavy infantry but it probably wouldn’t be the best use of that spell especially since Eiryss is already fearless and the 2ndary effect of IR gives fearless.

Kaelyssa: She has some interesting options on supporting Eiryss. Sinces he already has stealth, part of her feat won’t be so useful but the ability to prevent her from being charged offers a nice option of her getting close to shoot while preventing most non reach/slower units from being able to retaliate. She also can give her some protection from magic. Banishing ward can prevent her from being targeted outright or you can throw Arcane Reckoning on her and try to bait your opponent into using an AoE spell on her only for it to miss and be thrown right back at them.

Garryth: He can give her Mirage which gives her the extra 2” of place effect every turn. This is quite useful since it can change your facing and potentially give you a chance at backstrike or the place can be just enough to put you in aiming range so you can shoot at an effective Rat 11. Death Sentence offers her some solid utility because if she ever misses (while rare it does happen) she can reroll and more than likely she will hit. A canny player will use Eiryss to bait your opponent into dealing with her and exposing that critical piece or opening up their lines for you to get Garryth in there.

Ravyn: Of all our (current) warcasters I think she offers Eiryss the most. She can give her snipe which ups her range to 16 and gives her an effective threat range of 23” on her bow. You can drop Veil of Mists on top of her to keep her behind some infantry so she can shoot and still be screened by front line infantry or give her the option to move through them. Her feat can do a fair amount for her since she gains boosted ranged attack rolls. This mean she will be hitting even people like eMorghoul under his feat or Wind Rushed Sorcha on average or slightly less than average rolls. Use this to your advantage.

Lord Arcanist Ossyan: TBD (so far the only info we have is a little tidbit DC dropped in a podcast that said he did well with the upcoming HG rifle team so presumably the same spell/ability will assist her but consider this speculation until we have his rules.

She is another of our solos who excels versus Warmachine but suffers versus Hordes due to her Disruptor bolt being effective against only warjacks and warcasters. Phantom Seeker can do quite well for her since Hordes models tend to have higher defense but lower armour so this can allow her to tag those problem solos and ones that help with fury management. Death bolt stays useful against both systems and since Hordes models tend to be a bit more fragile than Warmachine models this can potentially be more useful. Also her pair her up with some Ghost Snipers and the forthcoming Rifle Team, and watch enemy heavies go down quickly and potentially put light jacks out in a round.