Battle Report #514 & #515: Caine3 vs Krueger2

:: Prologue ::

After my game vs Thexus I got in two games against Krueger2! I was wondering how Caine would do in this matchup: -5 RNG is bad news, but can Krueger realistically apply it without just dying?

:: 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 ::

Krueger the Stormlord - WB: +27
- Pureblood Warpwolf - PC: 17 (Battlegroup Points Used: 17)
- Feral Warpwolf - PC: 18 (Battlegroup Points Used: 10)
- Woldwyrd - PC: 9
- Woldwyrd - PC: 9
Gallows Grove - PC: 0
War Wolf - PC: 2
War Wolf - PC: 2
War Wolf - PC: 2Wolves of Orboros - Leader & 9 Grunts: 11
- Wolves of Orboros Chieftain & Standard - Chieftain & Standard Bearer: 0
Reeves of Orboros - Leader & 9 Grunts: 16
Reeves of Orboros - Leader & 9 Grunts: 16
THEME: The Wild Hunt

:: Pre-Battle Thoughts & Deployment ::

We are playing The Pit 2 and for the first game I go first. The idea is to claim a ton of table space.

:: Game 1 :: 

Ace runs up and mini-feats. Caine goes b2b. I place him so that if Krueger feats he'll push Caine out of threat ranges. I respect the 18" threat range on the Reeves on both flanks.

Krueger TKs a Reeve and casts Wind Storm. The Reeve hits the Hurricane and Wolves charge. Due to this bonus move they get to charge Ace. He takes some damage but nothing critical.

Krueger however has exposed himself. I can walk up, mage sight and shoot him with caine and a couple of chargers by casting Locomotion twice. Camping 2, he dies. We reset and this time Krueger starts to see how that affects the matchup.

:: Game 2 ::

This time Krueger's the one getting table space.

By locomoting a Charger on my right flank I can start working on the Reeves there. I let Ace kill Gallows Grove and trick shot a reeve on the right. Hero Charger fails me though, he kills 0 (!) Reeves! I take care to stay out of hard alpha ranges with crucial models.

Krueger wants to overload me. He kills the fail-Charger with some good rolls. This does expose a shrimp though as well as a ton of Reeves! Ambushing Wolves of Orboros enter the table to swarm me.

It's feat time! Hurricane's Cannons go to pretty stronk blast damage with +3 from feat and I kill a ton of Reeves and nearly all Wolves, as well as the shrimp.

It looks about over. Krueger has no scenario angle, no assassination angle and can't threaten my important pieces. He tries for an attrition play: Shoot the Charger on the right, send in the Feral against the one on the left.

I cast Calamity on the Feral then kill it. I start shooting the Pureblood as well but he lives on a handful of boxes.

Fort Caine is a little clumsily made so my opponent actually gets off a couple of shots on him by killing Arlan. DEF17 proves enough though and my opponent concedes.

Victory to the Swans!

:: Evaluation ::

Ok so the base threat range of Chargers with -5 RNG is 13". Caine threats 14" base. Between Flicker and Locomotion as well as Hurricane targeting nearby models and boosting blast damage on Krueger, it's incredibly hard to properly leverage Wind Storm. Krueger quite simply has to stay back and anyone wishing to be protected by Wind Storm has to do so too. I knew this in theory but in practice it's just the same: There's just no way he can properly push Caine3 and meanwhile he's losing models on the flank and I slowly converge on his castle.

I think it's hard to find Krueger builds which are better than this. The infantry models take a lot of time to clear and the Reeves in combination with shrimps ensure that he can dish out a significant amount of shooting. Even this isn't enough, there are too many lights with too many boxes. I doubt a more heavy-oriented build out of theme would help a lot more.

Overall Caine3 feels very solid into Circle.