This is going to be me giving as good a rundown as I can on our buddy Vyros. In these posts I'm going to discuss some general stuff about him most people already know (just in case some don't or a new guy is reading), then I'm going to delve into nitty gritty stuff I've gleaned from experience. Obviously, that means a lot of this is going to be my opinion, even if I'm not putting IMHO at the end of, like, everything. I think this is beneficial enough for the Retribution forum goers, as it's sometimes helpful to see how someone is doing it as opposed to cobbling it all together from the options you've been given. Heh, especially with Vyros.
If you're new to the faction, I first suggest you read the Vyros article written by thecsharion/hausdorff space. When I first set out to solve the mysteries of Vyros, it was that article that gave me the most guidance. I am pretty sure it's because the author did a good job of illustrating the point that Vyros has a good number of aspects, that some of them can seem to pull his wants/needs in opposite directions, and that deciding what you're comfortable with in making this balance is key to playing Vyros well. A lot of this is going to be the decisions I made based on that advice and the games I've played.
If, however, you've been there already, take a seat. Or roll up your sleeves. Either or. I'm not demanding. What? Don't look at me like that!
The quick and dirty
Vyros is a cool guy. He's a politician. A politician who murders dragons with giant white space robots. If you'll open your textbooks to page 64, you'll notice Vyros' stats. We'll be discussing those and other things shortly. If you'll look at page 65, you'll notice Vyros standing in front of a wall of fire, knights in tow, gritting his teeth and probably getting ready to murder the audacious bastard taking his picture. This is how Vyros rolls, and it's important to wrap your head around it. Vyros takes lives.
All that being said, Vyros is one of six in a stable of awesome Casters. Still, most of the hyperbole in this article is going to be aimed at making Vyros sound super awesome. I think that only makes sense, yeah?
Being a higher up in the knightly order of the Dawnguard, Vyros has stats you'd expect. He's a melee boss. Complimentary defenses adding up to 32, good MAT, and CMD as good as it gets. He's kinda slow and liable to shoot his own foot off when handling a gun, but when it's all said and done, he wins sword fights. And that's what you want out of him. Overall, his stats say "If you want me to lead men into suicide missions and beat people up, I will, because I'm really good at it."
His FOCUS stat is nothing special either way. He can pull off seven melee attacks due to his FOCUS. But Vyros still has some very special feelings about the use of focus, which will be covered later.
Vyros seems to personally dislike the use of guns, so he only keeps one weapon on him, his sword Justicar. I have no idea how to pronounce its name. There's precedent sort of with other words, I guess, so it's probably 'justice arr' ish.
Justicar is an average sword for someone of Vyros' station. POW 7, magic, and reach. No fancy tricks. Doesn't turn people into clouds of fire when you kill them, nor does it steal their souls or anything cool like that. Just POW 7, magic, and reach. Adding to his STR of 7, he comes out with a P+S of 14. Combine that with his MAT, and you get a nicely threatening Caster. With just these stats he's incapable of killing a great many (heavy) things, but he threatens light Jacks reasonably enough, and can stare your average Caster down with the threat of a game ending counter assault if they end close enough to him. That means he'll threaten pretty much all infantry and solos and the like while he's at it. Though, in an attempt not to mislead, I find Vyros rarely finds himself hunting any particular solo or trooper model. Targets of opportunity notwithstanding.
Vyros finds himself in his special rules here. The foundation for these so far is that he is a competent melee guy with solid defenses, which is a groovy place to be.
He's got two abilities, Birds Eye and Flank [Faction Warjack].
Vyros likes birds. He names his groups after bird parts and has his own personal bird, Jyren, join him in battle and... well pretty much screw the enemy over pretty hard. Since Jyren is flying all over the battlefield making squawky reports, Vyros and all his Myrmidons are allowed to ignore guys when declaring attack targets, along with forests and clouds. And they extend their front arcs to 360 because why not?
Since his battlegroup's LOS cannot be screened by troops, clouds or forests, Vyros and company threaten many more things than usual. Unit attachments, clutch solos, Casters, and other sensitive things have to double their efforts to stay safe from Vyros' deadly guns and spells.
With circular front arcs, you also get some wacky results. You lose some of your ability to threaten areas with free strikes as now everywhere within 2" of your phoenix is free game for the enemy, as long as they don't leave it. This will cause a bit more strain on you to keep track of, but generally the 360 front arc is a boon. People can never deny you a charge with Telekinesis. People can never gain backstrikes on you (eat it, Croe). You gain some charge flexibility as well. Sometimes after a charge, facing your target directly will put other ancillary attack targets in your back arc. Not with Jyren constantly reminding you in his birdy way that there are guys behind you.
His other ability is the Flank. This means if an enemy is within melee range of one of your jacks (no matter which way the jack is facing!), Vyros will gain increased attack bonuses vs that enemy. This builds upon his solid melee foundation to make him really damn scary. At POW 14, 3 dice, he hits harder than a Sentinel, about as hard as a hard hitting jack, and definitely hard enough to kill almost anything. His accuracy, which was already good, gets a boost too, making hitting Caine not so hard anymore. A flurry of attacks from Vyros, not boosted at all either way, is something your opponents will strive to avoid if they know what they're doing. So you'll need to learn how to chase the cowards down and how to get a Jack on top of them. Our speed 6 Jacks make that second part pretty easy at least.
The abilities basically say Vyros likes his battlegroup so much that he'll give them the equivalent of a 3 cost, non-upkeep spell for free each turn, even under Mage Blight, and that his true melee potential lies within the positioning of his Jacks. And it's devastating.