Heavy Rifle Team

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Heavy Rifle Team Retribution Houseguard Weapon Crew Unit

The cannons used by the heavy rifle teams of the houseguard are deadly effective pieces of Iosan ordnance. The heavy rifle crews are adept at picking apart enemies from well across the battlefield, and the heavy bolts fired by their cannons can penetrate thick armor with appalling ease.

Basic Info

Heavy Rifle Team
Missing Info
	COST {{{cacost}}} UNIT SIZE {{{casize}}} FA {{{cafa}}} Gunner / Grunt BASE Large / Small SPD 3 / 4 STR 4 MAT 5 RAT 5 M.A. N/A DEF 13 ARM 13 CMD 6 ESSENCE {{{essence}}} FOCUS N/A FURY N/A THRS N/A HP 1 F. Field N/A WJP {{{wjp}}} WBP {{{wbp}}} IHP {{{ihp}}} FA 2 UNIT SIZE 1 Gunner 1 Grunt COST 3 N/A N/A N/A Warcaster 1 COST N/A N/A Understanding the Statblock

Abilities

• Gunner only
  • Man-Sized - This model is treated as a small-based model and occupies the space from the bottom of its base to a height of 1.75".
  • Mobile Artillery - When this model advances as part of its Normal Movement, it gains +1" movement for each Grunt in this unit within 2" of it at the start of its advance.
  • Take Up - If this model is destroyed, you can choose a Grunt in this unit within 1" of it to be destroyed instead. Effects on this model expire, and it gains the effects on the chosen Grunt. Remove the Grunt from the table instead of this model. This model has the same number of unmarked damage boxes as the chosen Grunt.

• Grunt only
  • The Grunt has +1 SPD than the Gunner, but otherwise is completely uninteresting.

Weapons

• Gunner
  • Heavy Rifle - 14" range, POW 8 gun
    • Armor-Piercing - When calculating damage from this weapon, halve the base ARM stat of models hit.
    • Range Finder - While within 1" of the Grunt in this unit, this model gains boosted attack rolls with this weapon.
  • Sword - 0.5" reach, P+S 7 melee weapon. Pray to Lacyr; this unit's in trouble.
• Grunt
  • Sword - As above

Weapon Attachment

The Rifle Team may have a Soulless Escort added to them. His info has been omitted from this article for brevity.

Theme Forces

• Defenders of Ios

Recent Changes

2021.10 Mega Update

• -1 points cost
• Range Finder becomes 1" (instead of B2B)

Thoughts on Heavy Rifle Team

Heavy Rifle Team in a nutshell

As awesome as it is with hitting and AP damage, in a nutshell this is a support model. Why? It's because it can only shoot one thing a turn, and against heavies it's going to take a few tries to take one out. But here is the good news: it's great for taking out key targets, like solos and UAs as long as it has line of sight. With the changes they have made from MK 2-3 it only improved, removing every reason not to take them. It's one of the most accurate long range guns in the game. Also don't underestimate its armor cracking ability. All jacks and beasts alike should fear losing an arm, or a leg, or the spirit to keep fighting.

Combos & Synergies

• Thyron has Spellpiercer, making it so they ignore ARM buffs on top of their Armour Piercing.
• Aspis is good if you want to keep your crew alive against range attacks, but sadly inaccurate/high explosive blasts will still get you.
• Snipe on the Rifle Team is scary funny with one of the longest ranges you can get, zapping just about anything from the safety of your table edge. Ravyn provides this.
• Houseguard Thane is a wonderful partner. The Heavy Rifle Team is a Houseguard unit, so he can give them the ability to ignore stealth and fix their speed problem.
• Not a synergy per se, but a pair of Heavy Rifle Teams and a pair of Ghost Snipers can form a strong fire support base with reliable hits (boosted RAT 5 and RAT 7 or better if aiming) and damage output (POW 8 AP vs auto 3 damage) that together, will make a lot of beasts or jacks more than a little worried about the lead they might end up eating. Hit them with the HRTs first, then target the damaged columns/spirals with the Ghost Snipers' shots. Against ARM 19/20 (unbuffed), an average of sixteen damage from RNG 14" can reliably take out an aspect or vital system.

Drawbacks and Downsides

• It's slow.
• It's fragile and doesn't have stealth so be aware of fast solos or other long range weaponry that can take it out.
• As with all the Armour Piercing shots, additional ARM buffs make the damage output plummeting, since the halving of base ARM (rounding up) happens before you add ARM from spells or effects.
  • Against base ARM 18 you roll damage at dice-1. Against ARM 14 Shield Wall'd infantry you roll damage at dice-3.

Tricks and Tips

• It's man-sized so it can hide behind anyone.
• You'd rather be aiming than moving, and you're slow. So figure out where you want to set up shop for the game (preferably somewhere you can run to on turn 1), then deploy near that.
• Never leave the Grunt further than 1" away from the Gunner, so that you can always use Take Up should the Gunner bite the dust. Also, as with every unit with the Take Up rule, watch out for RFP attacks, which counter Take Up altogether.

Other

Trivia

Released in the Warmachine: Wrath expansion (2011)

Other Retribution models

Retribution Index       (Edit)
Battlegroup & Similar
Warcasters	Elara2 - Falcir1 - Garryth1 - Garryth2 - Goreshade4 - Helynna1 - Issyria1 - Kaelyssa1 - Ossyan1 - Rahn1 - Ravyn1 - Thyron1 - Vyros1 - Vyros2
Warcaster attachments	Fane Knight Guardian (Retribution) - Sylys Wyshnalyrr (Retribution) - Madelyn Corbeau (Mercenary)
Other Warjack Controllers	Elara1 (BGC) - Sentinel Scyir ('Jack Marshal) - Artificer ('Jack Marshal)
Light Warjacks	Aspis - Chimera - Gorgon - Griffon - Harpy - Siren Moros
Heavy Warjacks	Aeternae - Banshee - Daemon - Discordia - Hemera - Hydra - Hypnos - Imperatus - Manticore - Phoenix - Sphinx
Colossal	Hyperion - Helios
Units, Solos, & Battle Engines
Units	Cyelna & Nyss Hunters - D Destors - D Invictors - D Sentinels - Heavy Rifle Team - H Halberdiers - H Riflemen - HE Swordsmen - HE Wardens - HS Arcanists - HS Battle Mages - HV Electromancers - MH Infiltrators - MH Strike Force - Ryssovass Defenders - Spears of Scyrah - Stormfall Archers Special: Eiryss3 (CA) - Soulless Escort (WA)
Solos	Aelyth Vyr - Arcanist Mechanik - D Destor Thane - D Sentinel Scyir - Eiryss, Mage Hunter of Ios (1) - Eiryss, Angel of Retribution (2) - Eiryss, Fortune Hunter of Ios (4) - Elara, Tyro of the Third Chamber (1) - Fane Knight Guardian - Fane Knight Skeryth Issyen - Ghost Sniper - Hermit of Henge Hold - HE Warden Executioner - HS Artificer - HS Magister - Houseguard Thane - Lanyssa Ryssyl, Nyss Sorceress Lys Healer - MH Assassin - Narn, Mage Hunter of Ios - Nayl - Priest of Nyssor - Scythe - Soulless Voidtracer
Battle Engines	Arcantrik Force Generator - Dawnguard Trident
Theme Forces
Defenders of Ios - Forges of War - Legions of Dawn - Shadows of the Retribution
Mercenaries
Refer to Category: Retribution of Scyrah Mercenary
This index was last updated: 2021.04

Rules Clarifications

Rules Clarification : Armor-Piercing and/or Case Cracker     (Edit) The correct maths is (Infernal Ruling): First halve the target's base ARM (what's printed on their card). Then round up. Then apply any +/- ARM modifiers (Shield, Spiny Growth, Dark Shroud, etc). There are examples of how to do maths on the Armor Piercing page.

Rules Clarification : Range Finder - None yet. (Edit)

Rules Clarification : Man-Sized      (Edit) Despite being mounted on a large base, the model counts as a small-base for any and every rule. (Infernal Ruling) This includes Ranking Officers being able to join them. (Infernal Ruling) This includes being able to take them as a Requistion Option (if you have a Man-Sized solo in a theme that allows free solos). (Locked Thread) This includes abilities that only work vs small-based models (such as Consume, Trampling over them, etc). Those work just fine vs Man-Sized models. When drawing LOS it blocks LOS across the full width of its base (some players think you should swap it for a small proxy base when trying to draw LOS past the edge of its base ... don't do that). Since it only counts as a small-based model, it only blocks LOS to other small-based models. You can see medium and larger bases through it just fine.

Rules Clarification : Mobile Artillery - None yet. (Edit)

Rules Clarification : Take Up      (Edit) If you use Take Up the attacking model cannot trigger anything that needs the attacker to "Destroy" a model (such as Alpha Hunter, Killing Spree, Berserk, etc). Although the model that was attacked reached the Destroyed step of the timing sequence, Take Up negates that entirely. (Infernal Ruling)