Battle Report #211: Caine2 vs Lylyth1

:: Prologue ::

For every game I play, for every list that's fielded, hours and hours of discussing, dojoing, playing around with War Room etc lie behind. I am almost never happy, always looking for points of improvement, getting that little edge and squeezing the last juice out of the remaining points usually going into solos.

Because of this, you can often break apart my reports into "sections". You can look down the list and tell that I am testing a specific pair for a tournament, for example Haley2/Stryker1 (last fall), Haley2/Caine2 (NM 2016), Haley2/Haley3 (Battle at Lund 2016), Haley2/Sloan (Mk. 3 start).

I feel I've gotten to a point now where I have a solid baseline. It's probably not perfect and it probably has weaknesses, but until the meta settles down I feel confident in the Haley2/Sloan pair I played last weekend. There is so much to explore in Mk. 3 and because I've found such a stable start, it's time to move on and experiment a little more. First out is Caine2, a caster I initially discarded but would love to make work.

:: Lists ::

Cygnar:

Caine2
- Stormwall
- Reinholdt
Junior
- Firefly
Arlan Strangeways
Lanyssa Ryssyl
Rhupert Carvolo
Rangers
Storm Lances (min)
Storm Lances (min)
Mechaniks (min)

Opponent:

(Lylyth 1) Lylyth, Herald of Everblight [+30]
 - Naga Nightlurker [8]
 - Nephilim Bolt Thrower [11]
 - Ravagore [19]
 - Seraph [14]
Blackfrost Shard [9]
Blighted Nyss Raptors (max) [18]
Strider Deathstalker [4]
Blighted Nyss Shepherd [1]
Blighted Nyss Shepherd [1]
Blighted Nyss Shepherd [1]
Swamp Gobbers Bellows Crew [2]
Wrong Eye [17]
 - Snapjaw

:: Pre-Battle Thoughts & Deployment ::

We were playing Extraction and Legion had the initiative. As you can probably tell this Caine2 list is inspired by my experiences with 2x min lances in the Sloan lists I've played. I reasoned that Rhupert will largely be spent giving Caine2 march or concealment and as such I'm not really losing out on a lot compared to having one max unit. The main issue is that this is a more expensive module and thus I have to leave Ragman at home. That pains me, I must admit, but for now I want to playtest to see if the flexibility outweighs these factors.

I deployed the Stormwall centrally but I broadcasted Caine2 going for the woods, which is unnecessary: As I'm not casting FFE here I'll Gatecrash anyway so I might as well at least pretend he's going for the linear obstacle. Oh well.

:: Game :: 

Legion runs up.

I figure I want to kill off the Deathstalker on my right flank to prevent it from getting to key support pieces. I run up a Lance and bounce a trick shot off of it. Problem solved but Lance somewhat exposed. I keep the rest behind, more on this matter later. The left Lances stay.

Legion launches a devastating run at the Stormwall, even committing Kiss (knowing full well that he'll likely lose the ability as a result) and Parasite of course following a Snipe shot from Lylyth. A little spike from the Ravagore ensures I lose a little over half boxes.

Part of the pain of playing vs Caine2 now in Mk. 3 is his ability to threaten squishy casters with bounces and trivially remove support models. Lylyth camped a single fury but I could charge/trample with the Stormwall and boost the pod, following up with Caine shooting the objective 9 times to trick shot Lylyth to death. I figured I might as well go for it because the position he got could not have been attained as easily if he respects this angle from Caine. I make a huge mistake with the Stormwall however as I kill the Seraph I charge and thus Lylyth gains a fury again. I should simply not have attacked it at all. Anyway I'm committed so Caine follows up and luckily for me, the 9 bounces is enough and Lylyth dies.

Victory to the Swans!

:: Evaluation ::

The Storm Lances on the left flank are powerless to even hold out vs Raptors. I can delay them a little bit but they have a lot better threat range and the way the obstacle is angled I can't get the help I need defensively either. The Lances on the right flank were a bit too cautious, because if my opponent spends effort killing these boys then he's not shooting the Stormwall. I'm not sure if he can afford not to: Both in terms of attrition and scenario the combination of Stormwall + Caine2 alone should probably whittle him down.

The alternative play here was to get Lanyssa onto the Shard boys. This would have enabled the Stormwall to charge and kill Snapjaw and my opponent would've lost kiss. The problem with this was the spikes my opponent had in his first turn so I would probably have lost the Stormwall to a Ravagore unless Caine could've crippled its Spirit, which is far from reliable.

All in all though again the situation is as it is because Lylyth is playing ballsy and Caine really can punish that, which he duly did.