søndag 7. mai 2017

Battle Report #513: Caine3 vs Thexus

:: Prologue ::

The last time I played Caine3 vs Thexus the game ended pre-maturely because I killed Thexus. While I imagine that will happen every now and then, it's not how most games go. I wanted to try it again and got the opportunity to do so today!

:: Lists ::

:: Cygnar ::
Cygnar - HurriCaine
Theme: Heavy Metal
3 / 3 Free Cards 75 / 75 Army
Caine's Hellslingers - WJ: +20
- Caine's Hellslingers (Cont.)
- Squire - PC: 0
- Ace - PC: 12
- Charger - PC: 9
- Charger - PC: 9
- Charger - PC: 9
- Hurricane - PC: 39 (Battlegroup Points Used: 20)
- Charger - PC: 9
Captain Arlan Strangewayes - PC: 0
Journeyman Warcaster - PC: 0
- Firefly - PC: 8
:: Opponent ::
Theme: Operating Theater
2 / 2 Free Cards 75 / 75 Army
Exulon Thexus - WJ: +29
- Wrecker - PC: 14 (Battlegroup Points Used: 14)
- Wrecker - PC: 14 (Battlegroup Points Used: 14)
Cephalyx Agitator - PC: 3
Cephalyx Agitator - PC: 3
Cephalyx Overlords - Leader & 2 Grunts: 0
Cephalyx Overlords - Leader & 2 Grunts: 0
Cephalyx Mind Slaver & Drudges - Slaver & 9 Drudge Grunts: 12
Cephalyx Mind Slaver & Drudges - Slaver & 9 Drudge Grunts: 12
Cephalyx Mind Slaver & Drudges - Slaver & 9 Drudge Grunts: 12
Cephalyx Mind Bender & Drudges - Mind Bender & 9 Drudge Grunts: 11
Cephalyx Mind Bender & Drudges - Mind Bender & 9 Drudge Grunts: 11
Cephalyx Mind Bender & Drudges - Mind Bender & 9 Drudge Grunts: 11

:: Pre-Battle Thoughts & Deployment ::

We were playing Standoff and I won the roll-off. Since I went second in my last game vs Thexus I wanted to try and start now.


:: Game ::

I run stuff up. I try to stay fairly packed together as I anticipate I'll have to do so, and not just because of ambushers but due to the nature of this matchup in general.


Thexus spreads out.


I can Flicker Caine to get vision past Ace. This lets me put Calamity on the central unit, which in turn lets Ace Trick Shot to kill one of the 3 Adrenal Flood guys on a 6+. Play works out! I kill as many Drudges as I can.


My opponent cannot find a place to feat from where he doesn't feel super-exposed. Besides, with one "flood-guy" down his options sure are limited. Ambushers arrive and my opponent is content to kill Ryan and do a number of boxes on the Firefly. Also, the right-most Charger nearly goes down.


I have made a very stupid and very, very annoying mistake. My opponent is up 2 on CP now and I have not placed Hurricane so that I can walk up and contest the right zone. Bleh.

It's feat turn, I have to get a ton of work done. On the left flank I am able to get another Adrenal Flood guy with max. Locomotion and Ace. Awesome! I clear as many Drudges as I can contest. I score my own zone so Thexus is 1 up.


Thexus feats for CP. Without Adrenal Flood on the left flank he can't do much offensively regardless. He pulls out Ace and sends a few grunts into him but it's just not enough. On the right flank Overlords spray my contesting Charger to death and Thexus scores his own rectangular. Ugh. Down 4.


I have to stop the scoring. The Hurricane's in a position to do so on the right flank, on the left however things are a little more dicey. In the end I get a pretty sweet play as I push out one heavy with Ace. I score my own zone again, so down by 3. 


Thexus sends in a heavy and contests my zone while scoring in the rectangular. Down by 4.


I figure I'll pummel the Wrecker near the Hurricane to death, work some more on Drudges and overlords and score my own zone. However, I forget that monstrosities have Hyper Aggressive so Ace's Thunderbolt is pretty ineffective. That was pretty sad because instead of beating the second Wrecker to death I could've used my Hurricane to KD him first.


So now Thexus is ahead by 4. He needs to score his zone again and kill my objective to win. Due to being very low on time my opponent doesn't see this. A spectator points it out. We don't bother rolling it out because it's trivial. Instead my opponent goes for the play he intended to: Try and win the scenario war. To do this he keeps hitting the Hurricane and sends in the second Wrecker vs my lights. This play doesn't work out though as I kill Thexus in my next turn.

Victory to the Swans!

:: Evaluation ::

This is a very grindy matchup! Towards the end the lack of time on both sides led to some pretty questionable plays.

I must admit that I don't particularly care for Caine3 in this matchup. He gets pushed so far back and really struggles with volume to get enough work done. Sooner or later you will whittle stuff down if you play carefully, but can that happen before Thexus goes +6 or has a CP lead bottom of 7? It feels playable but definitely worse than Haley2. I believe Caine3 is better into Ossrum than Haley2 is (although that certainly feels playable as well) so given a Haley2/Caine3 pair vs Ossrum/Thexus we have a bit of list chicken.

My Hurricane probably should have advanced, not backed off, during my second turn. Sure, Thexus can do a number on it but to do so he needs to commit a heavy to remove Arcane Shield. If he does that, chances are said heavy dies to my ensuing feat. This also commits the Cephalyx leaders, buys me space and slows down scoring.

Interesting game. This many dudes is crazy. Getting control of the Adrenal Flood leaders is essential. The one on the right flank I couldn't control got a ton of work done this game, sadly. I think it's hard for Caine3 to get all of them and that is one of the biggest problems with this matchup: If Thexus can find a solid place to feat from he will kill lights.

Ingen kommentarer:

Legg inn en kommentar