A couple of things that might be noteworthy

a) With the sentinels, their Defensive line can often be a “trap”. By this I mean, that you typically don’t want your Sentinels base to base. There are alot of attacks out there, that ignore armour, at which point you’ve helped the guy you’re fighting. Generally, spreading out as much as possible, helps combat aoe / spray damage, because less people fit under the aoe in the first place. By spreading out, you also make better use of reach, because you increase the area you cover.

b) With regards to the Battle Mages, while it is true that you ignore AoE damage, you don’t ignore AoE effects. So if an AoE damage caused people caught in the blast to go on fire, the battle mages would still catch on fire

c) The Manticore seems a bit overwhelming with regards to all the general rules it has, but the general rule is that you want to buy as many attacks as possible, and nearly all the time, combo strike is something you shouldn’t both with

Also, as a tip to new players, the wording of Covering Fire should be looked at. I.e. any model that begins or ends it activation in the aoe, takes 12 damage. So what that means, is that if you put down covering fire on a model you have already activated, then covering will act as a sort of bodyguard.

Eg; if you charge your Mage Hunter Assassin right up to (i.e. the 0.5 melee range) a battlecaster, do some damage but don’t kill it, then you can put down covering fire on the MHA. The MHA won’t take any damage, and what your opponent then has to figure out, is either risk running away from the MGA and risk a free strike, or they stay in combat with the MHA to try kill her, and take a power 12 hit;

Want another example? You can put it on your warcaster after he has activated. Then if anyone charges him next turn, they will have to take a 12 power hit.

Hopefully that gives some ideas

d) The Pheonix and it’s arc node ability. You can’t channel through an arc node engaged by the enemy. However, if your Pheonix is fighting models more than 2 inches away, due to it having reach, and the models it is fighting don’t have reach, you can still cast through the arc node.