Retaliator

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Retaliator Crucible Guard Light Warjack

A variant chassis of the esteemed Llaelese Vanguard built by the Order of the Golden Crucible, the Retaliator has been outfitted with an advanced alchemical weapon system. This enthalpic distillator can fire a spray of one of several compounds. The effects vary from a violent blast capable of knocking adversaries off their feet to an incendiary accelerant or a caustically corrosive agent.

Basic Info

Retaliator
Missing Info
	COST {{{cacost}}} UNIT SIZE {{{casize}}} FA {{{cafa}}} Warcaster 0 BASE Medium SPD 6 STR 9 MAT 6 RAT 6 M.A. N/A DEF 13 ARM 17 CMD N/A ESSENCE {{{essence}}} FOCUS N/A FURY N/A THRS N/A HP 26 F. Field N/A WJP {{{wjp}}} WBP {{{wbp}}} IHP {{{ihp}}} FA U UNIT SIZE N/A COST 7 N/A N/A N/A Warcaster 1 COST N/A N/A Understanding the Statblock

Warjack - All warjacks share the same set of special rules. Most notably being big and stompy. Click here for a newbie-friendly recap, or click here for the full rules.

Abilities

• Construct
• Alchemically Treated - When this model suffers a corrosion damage roll and/or fire damage roll, roll one less die. Additionally, this model never suffers the Corrosion continuous effect or the Fire continuous effect.

Weapons

• Enthalpic Distilator - 8" spray, POW 10 ranged weapon.
  • Attack Type - Each time this weapon is used to make an attack, choose one of the following special rules:
    • Aetheric Blast - On a critical hit, the model hit becomes knocked down. Cloud effects overlapping the spray template expire.
    • Black Humor - This weapon gains Continuous Effect: Corrosion and Grievous Wounds for this attack. (Grievous Wounds - A model hit by a weapon with Grievous Wounds loses Tough and cannot have damage removed from it for one round.)
    • Accelerant - A model hit by this weapon suffers Oil for one round. (Oil - When a model affected by Oil suffers a fire damage roll, the roll is automatically boosted.)

• Axe - 1" reach, P+S 13 melee weapon.

Theme Forces

• Crucible Guard
  • Magnum Opus
  • Prima Materia. This model gains Cutting Edge in this theme.

• Other Factions
  • Infernal players can use this model in the Hearts of Darkness theme, but only if Lukas is leading the army.

Recent Changes

2021.10 Mega Update

• -2 points cost
• -2 POW on the weapon
• Aetheric Blast no longer drops the POW of the weapon to 8
• Swapped Alchemical Accelerant (deals no damage, but applies oil) to Accelerant (deals damage and applies oil).

Thoughts on Retaliator

Retaliator in a nutshell

The Retaliator is a support light warjack based on the Vanguard chassis. It's also the cheapest warjack in faction.

It brings a support based spray weapon with diverse attack types that allows you to take care of various issues you may run into. Although its threat range is modest, the utility it can provide is remarkable, if situational. Playing into Tough heavy armies Black Humor will mess up your opponent's day. Aetheric Blast is mainly there to clear out cloud walls, as you can clear multiple cloud markers with a single spray. The critical knockdown are mere extras. Oil is your go-to against units with defensive minifeats or mid tier armour. But all 3 attacks do often require other models to finish up the job it is after all not that powerful versus armour and will need average dice consistently to mop up high def infantry.

If it comes to it the Retaliator can enter melee power 13 and Mat 6 isn't awful, but it's not where he wants to be.

Many factions have a spray-focused light Warjack or Warbeast and anything that can be said of the Defiler or Repenter can be said of the Retaliator. The key difference is the versatility and the above average defensive profile, versus a bit of raw power on the attack.

Combos & Synergies

• Prospero. What's not to love about Guided Fire for boosted attack rolls on ALL the bad guys hit by its spray (also brings Crit: KD to some usefulness) AND Veteran Leader to boot? It’s also the cheapest way to include Prospero in a list. Additionally, Prospero himself brings a fire ranged attack which will be boosted by Alchemical Accelerant.
• Captain Eira Mackay provides boosted Fire Damage rolls and gives it extra threat range.
• Marshal General Baldwin Gearhart & Mr. Clogg grants it Hot-Shot to melt multiwound units and hurt lights. Prey also amps its game up.
• Aurum Lucanum Athanor Locke loves the combination of Grievous Wounds spray and Field Marshal: Precision Strike.
• Crucible Guard Infantry oil makes them basically ranged Weaponmasters. Under Baldwin with Feat and Rust/Withering Humour one unit can make 22 shots RAT 9 POW 15 boosted.
• Similary, Thorn Gun Mages, if taken as your merc option, will benefit from Oil with their incendiary shots. If you want an attached Mosby to stay back (e.g. to heal Lukas) they can be a worthwhile inclusion.

Drawbacks & Downsides

• It is more situational than the Suppressor, as two out of his three attack types only tackle two issues that not every army actually has (cloud walls, Tough spam). For 6 points more you get a heavy warjack with double the sprays and Ice Cage which is a more generic ability. Of course 6 points more and 1 RAT less is a big difference.
• It hits like a wet noodle and only has 1" on its axe.
• It lacks the usual Vanguard-chassis Shield to augment its survivability.
• Both light warjack alternatives to the Retaliator sport a shield and 2" melee range for only 1 point more.
• The Retaliator's ranged game is arguably the weakest in the faction, applying buffs or debuffs but not able to benefit from them itself (compared to the Suppressor or Vulcan for example). Retaliator is a great support light 'jack but has abysmal personal output.

Tricks & Tips

• Angled sprays are always good.
• You have two very good attack types. One for dealing with infantry and one damage buff against heavies.
• Your third attack type is just a counter - but cloud walls can be really really annoying. So it's nice to have.
• Don't get it confused with any Protectorate warjacks beginning with the letter R (Revenger, Repenter, Redeemer).

Other

Trivia

Released with the Faction release (2018.06)

Other Crucible Guard models

Crucible Guard Index       (Edit)
Battlegroup & Similar
Warcasters	Benett - Gearhart - Locke - Lukas - Mackay - Syvestro
Warcaster attachments	Aurum Legate Alyce Marc (Crucible) - Sylys Wyshnalyrr (Mercenary) - Madelyn Corbeau (Mercenary)
Other Warjack Controllers	Prospero (BGC)
Light	Liberator - Retaliator - Vanguard
Heavy	Suppresor - Toro - Vindicator
Colossal	Vulcan
Units, Solos, Battle Engines, & Structures
Units	Combat Alchemists - CG Assault Troopers - CG Infantry - CG Rocketmen - CG Storm Troopers - Dragon's Breath Rocket - Failed Experiments Ranking Officer : Doctor Alejandro Mosby
Solos	Ascendant Mentalist - CG Mechanik - Gorman1 - Gorman2 - Hutchuk, Ogrun Bounty Hunter - Prospero - Rocketman Ace - Trancer
Battle Engines	Railless Interceptor
Theme Forces
Magnum Opus - Prima Materia
Mercenaries
Refer to Who Works for Whom and/or Category: Crucible Guard Mercenary
This index was last updated: 2021.05

Rules Clarifications

Rules Clarification : Attack Type and/or Arcane Savant     (Edit) If you forget to declare your Attack Type before rolling the attack, and you and your opponent can't agree on a fair fix, then the Judge's Policy is that the first listed Attack Type is the one that will be used. If your target can only be targeted by certain kinds of attack (ie a Menoth warjack with Passage), you can first choose the correct Attack Type (ie Magical Damage vs Passage) and then that allows you to target it. The Attack Type selection and target declaration both occur at Step 1 (Refer Appendix A). (Infernal Ruling)

Rules Clarification : Aetheric Blast      (Edit) Knockdown (Edit) - Remember, knockdown only prevents what it says it does. Refer to the Knockdown page for a recap of what a model can/can't do. Anti-Cloud abilities vs Burning Earth (Edit) If you make a piece of terrain "Burning Earth" it counts as a cloud effect in addition to it's original type. This has 2 odd rulings: If any part of the terrain piece is "hit" by an ability that makes clouds expire (such as Gale Winds) then the entire terrain piece is taken off the table. (Infernal Ruling) If a model can ignore clouds but not the original terrain type, they don't ignore the terrain. For instance if you have a burning forest, then Eyeless Sight can't see through the forest. (Infernal Ruling)

Rules Clarification : Black Humor      (Edit) Rules Clarification : Corrosion      (Edit) If you deploy in corrosion hazard terrain (Acid Pool), then you get corroded before the game starts. Deploying a model in a hazard counts as being "put into play" in the hazard. Being put into play counts as "entering". When you enter a hazard, you trigger the hazard. A weapon can inflict continuous corrosion without itself being a corrosion damage weapon (for example, the Acidic Touch animus). In this case, the attack can hurt models with Immunity: Corrosion it just won't apply the continuous effect. Rules Clarification : Grievous Wounds      (Edit) GW prevents "repairs" as well as "heals". It does not stop a warlock transferring damage, or stop the wounded model from being able to 'heal' someone else. Does not affect models with the Massive rule.

Rules Clarification : Accelerant      (Edit) Rules Clarification : Oil      (Edit) If a fire damage roll says it cannot be boosted (such as Eruption of Ash) then Oil doesn't work on it. "The roll cannot be boosted" trumps "the roll is automatically boosted".

Rules Clarification : Warjack      (Edit) The Cortex/Induction core rule means a warjack cannot have more than 3 focus at any time (maybe 4 if they're really special). Many abilities give out focus and don't state an upper limit (such as Convection and Empower). Despite not stating an upper limit, they are always "hard-limited" by the core rule. A warjack can have more than 3 focus during a turn, though. For instance, a knocked down warjack can Power Up and be Allocated 2 focus, then spend 1 to shake knockdown, then another model could Empower it back up to 3. Warjacks cannot spend focus outside of their activation. For instance, they can't boost free strikes or trigger Powerful Attack on Broadsides. (Infernal Ruling) Inert warjacks Abilities that say they cannot be used if the model is stationary (such as Shield Guard) cannot be used while a warjack is inert, either. Refer "Warcaster Destruction", page 59 of the core rulebook.

Rules Clarification : Construct - None yet. (Edit)
Rules Clarification : Alchemically Treated - None yet. (Edit)