Battle Report #58 - Caine2 vs Jarl (50)

:: Prologue ::

I was seeking out an opportunity for Caine2 to get some more games in before Norwegian Masters this coming weekend. I have a couple of games lined up for Haley2 on Thursday and I'm busy tomorrow. Tonight however I got to face Jarl with his Trolls and Issyria with her Elves. First up was Jarl!

:: Lists ::

Cygnar:

Captain Allister Caine - WJ: +5 (Effigy of Valor)
- Squire
- Ace - PC: 7 (bonded)
Journeyman Warcaster - PC: 3
Alexia, Mistress of the Witchfire - PC: 4
Eiryss, Angel of Retribution - PC: 3
Reinholdt, Gobber Speculator - PC: 1
Stormsmith Stormcaller - PC: 1
Lady Aiyana & Master Holt - Lady Aiyanna & Master Holt: 4
Tactical Arcanist Corps - Leader & 2 Grunts: 4
Greygore Boomhowler & Co. - Boomhowler and 9 Grunts: 9
Rangers - Leader & 5 Grunts: 5
Black 13th Gun Mage Strike Team - Lynch, Ryan & Watts: 4
Arcane Tempest Gun Mage Pistoleers - Leader & 5 Grunts: 6
- Arcane Tempest Gun Mage Officer - Officer 2

Opponent:

Jarl Skuld, Devil of the Thornwood - WB: +6
- Trollkin Runebearer
- Troll Impaler - PC: 5
- Pyre Troll - PC: 5
Fell Caller Hero - PC: 3
Stone Scribe Chronicler - PC: 2
Croak Raiders - Leader & 9 Grunts: 8
Trollkin Warders - Leader & 4 Grunts: 8
Trollkin Warders - Leader & 4 Grunts: 8
Trollkin Fennblades - Leader & 9 grunts: 8
- Fennblade Officer and Drummer - Officer & Drummer 2
Krielstone Bearer & Stone Scribes - Leader & 5 Grunts: 4
- Stone Scribe Elder - Elder 1

:: Pre-Battle Thoughts & Deployment ::

We were playing Incoming and I was the second player. I set up Caine centrally so I could choose whether to go for cover or charge up on a hill for elevation. Or something else you know, depending on the situation. Because of Magic Bullet I put TAC on the opposite flank to help them hold it down. Likewise Watts' granted prowl would be useless in clouds. E2 had to be careful, her job was to shoot off quicken and lastly Ace would probably have to Infiltrate quickly. ATGM went slightly right with B13th far right and Boomies mid-ish. Alexia & A+H centrally with Caine.

:: Game ::

Trolls advance and quicken goes up on Fennblades.

I knew Caine was unlikely to be the right choice into this matchup but I needed to play him for practice reasons. It was becoming apparant however that given the speed of the Fennblades I would have to react quickly and I was kind of deprived the space I would've wanted. I decided to go for the Croaks, put up Arcane Shield on Alexia and ran her up for souls. ATGM spread out, Caine cleared out some Croaks and Boomies ran into the zone. Ace infiltrated to give Caine a safe haven and a threatening assassination-position. A+H nearby, stealthed.

The Fennblades did their thing, running ahead with charges on what they could reach (no pun intended) and jamming me up hard. Jarl went on the hill behind a screen of Warders. He was left on 1 fury.

Now, Jarl's problem here was that the Warders were beyond 1" behind him. I realize as I'm reading the rules closer now that I might have mixed up how elevation LoS works - I thought it was the same if you looked at something uphill as if you were looking at something downhill. So anyway the alternative is to try and clear the zones and go for attrition. A problem though is that I forgot Effigy so my ATGM failed their command check. Without them I feared I couldn't reliably set this up, which is a bit of a miss to put it mildly. 

Assassination run was thus the name of the game, doubly so because I wanted to have time to play for another. If I go for attrition here it could quickly mean scenario as my list is not equipped to deal with the sheer amount of durability the Warders bring. The idea was to shadow fire a warder to get LoS with a Ranger. I had positioned them too defensively so it would require a bit of luck to be within range at all, but I figured I'd better go for it. Ace missed though so Caine had to do it all on his own. B13th + support cleared out Fennblades and I saved Alexia for one final Hellfire if need be. Caine however hit his 5 boosted shots and Jarl went down. 

Victory to the Swans!

:: Evaluation ::

I knew this was likely a bad matchup for Caine and I was right: There's too much armour that comes pushing in and he can't handle it all alone. Taking down even a single Warder requires multiple focus and even then the rest get tougher. This Trollbloods list isn't particularly skewed but it's just too many boxes on too high armour, Haley-food. 

With that said I believe I could've set up better, spread out for example Boomies more and gotten Rangers more in the center. With them in a better position, Ace could've shadow-fired to give Caine LoS for example. Speaking of LoS, despite our mis-interpretation this game there were multiple ways to set up had I known about this. Alexia with Thralls is perhaps the most obvious solution as all the Fennblades around here were either killed or knocked down. 

Lastly Caine in an aggressive position almost always has an out in pushing for assassination and that is definitely worth remembering!