Battle Report #462: Caine2 vs Makeda2

:: Prologue ::

As I recently posted about on the Cygnar forums, I think Caine2 might be a caster to keep an eye on. To make a long story short I think the personal presence he brings is very valuable. The question is what context he can thrive in. I think it's about creating enough shooting to leverage his innate playstyle while having enough punch so you cannot get swarmed. Easier said than done for sure! To give the list a try I went up against the same Makeda2 list I played in the last game. The thing of it is that this might look good for Caine2 on paper because og Grievous Wounds, but in practice it's a ton of DEF and ARM on high SPD looking to jam you down. Nevertheless I was just looking to give the list a spin.

:: Lists ::

Cygnar:

[Theme] Heavy Metal
(Caine 2) Captain Allister Caine [+27]
 - Ace [12]
 - Hunter [11]
 - Hunter [11]
 - Stormwall [39]
 - Squire [0]
Captain Arlan Strangewayes [0]
Journeyman Warcaster [0]
 - Hunter [11]
Lieutenant Allison Jakes [0]
 - Stormclad [18]

Opponent:

(Makeda 2) Supreme Archdomina Makeda [+27]
 - Despoiler [19]
 - Molik Karn [19]
Mortitheurge Willbreaker [4]
Mortitheurge Willbreaker [4]
Tyrant Rhadeim [9]
Paingiver Beast Handlers (min) [5]
Praetorian Ferox (max) [20]
Praetorian Ferox (max) [20]
Swamp Gobbers Bellows Crew [2]

:: Pre-Battle Thoughts & Deployment ::

Skorne wins the roll-off. My idea here is to hopefully slow the game down. No idea how though.

:: Game ::

Cautious advance.

A poor Dodge move by a cat on the right flank allows me to actually take it out (!). Sometimes it's easy to get eager. Every kill counts!

Deciding not to wait any longer than necessary my opponent starts jamming stuff up the field. Ugh.

I do my best to clear stuff out. Grievous helps a bit but I have to Gatecrash Caine away so his focus stack gets eaten quickly. If Skorne get Molik + Despoiler into the 'wall it dies so I have to abandon the zone and hope I can stop Makeda from getting to 5. This feels really bad.

My opponent keeps jamming up but crucially he forgets to jump with a cat to block out the 'wall...

Molik was on 4 Fury because he tried to kill the Sidekick'd Stormclad. It just so happened my 'wall could walk up, kill the Despoiler and thus open up a path to Makeda -and- get rid of all of her transfer targets. Hunters help out first and the 'wall kills the big, bad beast. Caine steps it up and puts a flurry of bullets into Makeda, taking the game down!

Victory to the Swans!

:: Evaluation ::

Interesting list! It's a bad setup for Caine, very hard for him to prove his worth here. However I liked the setup. The Jakes + Stormclad module is very powerful in general. Working together with the Stormwall defensively it creates a lot of coverage and electro leaps.

This matchup was obviously bad. Grievous doesn't take out enough cats per turn so I think in most cases Cygnar is likely to get blocked out of scenario. It's worth noting that without Molik Karn I wouldn't have to ditch the zone that early.