Game one was my prime Caine tier/theme list (Gun mage fever!) against an epic Caine list that looked remarkably similar. My opponent was a newer player who still had a trick up his sleeve.
We played a 33 point game (that's all my opponent could muster). My list was:
pCaine
Defender
Arcane Tempest Gun Mages + Officer
Hunter marshaled to Officer
ATGM unit 2 (tier requirement) + free Officer (tier bonus)
Hunter marshaled to Officer
Black 13th Gun Mage Strike Team
Gun Mage captain Adept
I didn't really have a lot of choices, aside from 'jacks, as the theme/tier list requirements are for all those gun mages. It's a thing I'm trying out.
My opponent, not playing a tier list, played:
Epic Caine
Squire
Lancer
Arcane Tempest Gun Mages + Officer
Ironclad marshaled to Officer
Arcane Tempest Gun Mages
Black 13th Gun Mage Strike Team
Reinholdt, Gobber Speculator
Now that I'm typing his list out, I realize that he didn't discount himself epic Caine's 5 warjack points, so he's actually only at 29. I got a free officer and GMCA out of the deal. Ah well.
Epic Caine is one of the most feared assassins in the game. His feat is called Overkill, and when he pops it, he does an additional damage with each successive gun shot he makes that hits. So he's all about getting more shots. Reinholdt can give a warcaster a reload for an additional pistol shot, and eCaine has one with each pistol to start. He can then buy 6 more with his focus, or 7 with the extra focus from a Squire. So his power-12 shots can be doing power 22 by the end of his run, if he hits with all of them. That's insane. And since it's ranged he can do it from 19 inches away, with his seven-inch move. His ranged attack rating of 9 seals the deal as an incredibly accurate assassination 'caster.
I knew this going in, and I planned accordingly. I used my gun mages to screen my advance and took some potshots at eCaine's forces. I was rolling very poorly, and I missed many of my approach shots. Eventually, I decided that hiding my pCaine was a waste of time. I put Blur on him to jack his defense against ranged and magical attacks to 20, daring my opponent to try his assassination run.
He took the bait and moved up eCaine after getting a focus from the Squire and a reload from Reinholdt. Now, he needed 11s to hit, so he boosted his initial attacks with focus to try and make one connect. The Caines have a low armor rating, so if he could land a couple shots he could have won the game. But alas, his three boosted initial attacks missed, and then he spent all his focus shooting but _not_ boosting. Then he ended his turn without activating any of his other troops, and conceded the game.
It was a most unsatisfying victory.
I managed to find another opponent and decided to try out the new Cygnar warcaster, Constance Blaize. She's a cool customer with a religious theme, and in the couple games I've played with her lend themselves to assassination-style play. She likes to finish games herself with her Sun Spear. Her feat and theme lend themselves to a melee-centric army, but I find that I really want a ranged element in all the games I play, so I've been adding in some ranged toys to help cover her advance.
Constance Blaize, knight of the Prophet
Gallant
Cyclone
Precursor Knights (full) with UA
Stormblades
Black 13th
Rupert Carvolo
Arlan Strangewayes
My opponent played the Iron Wolf, Harkevitch.
Harkevitch
Black Ivan
Destroyer
War Dog
Full winterguard with grenadier and UA
Widowmaker snipers
Widowmaker marksman
Kovnik Joe
Prime Eiryss, Mage Hunter
Harkevitch's list has tons of ranged attacks, and I wasn't sure how to approach it. It's entirely possible I should have popped feat and bum's rushed it first turn, as it went first and got decent board position. As it was, the warjacks dropped huge area-of effect bombards on my guys and killed a number of them early. The most effective thing in his list by far was the widowmaker snipers. They killed 3 of my Precursors on the top of turn two, and then shot several Precursors or Stormblades every turn. I simply didn't have an answer to 5 snipers in the woods (well, I did, but my Cyclone whiffed on his attack rolls, needing 6s on two dice he missed 4 times out of 6). That probably cost me the game, but I did have a chance.
He had moved Harkevitch up after feating, and I could have gotten Constance next to him, but I didn't realize that the war dog would not be able to countercharge (I knew it could do it, but I simply played sloppy and poorly) if I ran my last precursor next to it. If I had done so, I could have put Constance with 6 focus next to Harkevitch (or at least close enough to stab), and since she ignores upkeeps she didn't care about Escort. With flank she would have been MAT 9 rolling an average of 23 damage against Harkevitch's 19 armor with feat. SIX times. Chances are I would have ended the game then; if she hits four of those six times for average damage she wins the game.
But alas I did not do that, and then the wardog killed my precursor/flanker. The option was lost, and instead Constance was caught by pEiryss flat footed and without her shield guard Gallant. It took Harkevitch's jacks two turns to kill Constance, and it was sad that they were having such trouble.
Good game, and good loss for learning experience.
-Merlin out
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