016 - Makeda2 vs. Caine2 (Invasion 2016 Game 3)

... Cygnar with Caine2.

Third and final game of day three, and i had to face Cygnar. Cygnar is tricky to play against, no matter the caster, but Caine2 is the absolute worst. He completelly negates the Ferox, and the list he brought was just mean. Plenty of shooty solo's, a Stormwall. He paired this list with a fairly standard Haley3 list. I would be confident playing into Haley3, but Caine2 is a nightmare.

When i started to lock down a list pair a few months ago i didn't take Caine into consideration. Mostly because all Cygnar casters i knew were pretty focused on the Haleys and Sloans, and the occational Stryker. All of which Makeda can handle fairly well. That meant that my Xerxis list was built to handle ARM skews and other tricky match up's for Makeda, not Caine, and especially not this one. It's just too slow. And just to add insult to injury, the Scenario was Incursion, a Scenario that it's really hard to defend yourself against a superior foe.

Seeing as i felt i was pretty down into Caine no matter which of my lists i dropped, i went with Makeda, all the practice i have gotten with the list might give me the edge. I just hoped he didn't see how up Caine is into me, but unfortunatelly, he did, so Caine2 vs. Makeda2 was up!

My list:

Supreme Archdomina Makeda WB+24

 - Titan Gladiator - 14

 - Titan Sentry - 15

Tyrant Radheim - 9

Morthieurge Willbreaker - 4

Morthieurge Willbreaker - 4

Tyrant Commander and Standard - 6

min Paingiver Beasthandlers - 5

Max Praetorian Ferox - 21

Max Praetorian Ferox - 21

His list:
Captain Allister Caine WJ+27
 - Reinholdt, Gobber Speculator - 4
 - Stormwall - 39
  - Lightning pods - 0
Gun Mage Captain Adept - 5
Journeyman Warcaster - 4
 - Charger - 9
Captain Maxwell Finn - 6
Eiryss, Mage hunter of Ios - 7
Rhupert Carvolo, Piper of Ord - 4
Lanyssa Ryssyl, Nyss Sorceress - 3
Trencher Infantry max - 16
Lynus Wesselbaum & Edrea Lloryrr - 5

Pre Battle thoughts and Deployment:

So.. how to approach this. Going for Scenario is pretty much out of the Question here. All of his solos means that he can really spread out, while i have to stick relativelly close together to have any hope of surviving the shooting onslaught. And on this Scenario it's even worse, as it's really hard to cover everywhere at once. I have to play defensively, but not too much so. If i play too far forward Caine will shoot me to pieces (Or at least proc a Griecous or six, and then let the rest of his guys do the rest. Too far back and i can pretty much just say GG and let him win by default.
My plan then, was to get a foothold on one flank, and just hang back for a little while and try to find an Assasination angle. Either that, or an opportunity to cripple his army enough for me to make a real push.

Both of those options requires a mess up by my opponent, but i really don't know what else to do. First chance i get i'm going to try a few practice games with this match up to see what, if anything i can do here)

I got to go first again, and deployed as i usually do. Caine deploys pretty centrally as well, with trenchers spread out in front.

I run up, making sure to stay outside both Stormwall and Caine's threat. I'll allow trenchers to take a pot shot or two if they really want to.

Cygnar moves and shuffles over towards my left. He makes sure to threaten 4" around the central flag with Caine. Bullet Dodger on Caine, and the Trenchers cloud up the trench behind the hill in the middle.

I contemplate for a bit to really push now. Jam Ferox down his throat, remove Trenchers and as many solos as possibleand start scoring on the right flag (Unless he somehow manage to get someone over there). That might have been a better play than what i actually did (Just shuffled over to the right and kept outside of Caine's threat yet again. I place the Tyrant on the flag to start Scoring if he don't do anything about it.

I should have placed the Standard there instead, he focus all of his available shooting on the Tyrant, finally killing him after burning through all of my Fury. Now i have lost 2" of threat in a match where that can easily be the difference between Win and loss. He runs the Charger onto the Left flag, Finn onto the middle one. 0-2.

I make the push, Using Ferox to try and clear out all contestors from both the Central and Right Flags and Score, but one Trencher just refuse to die (He gets steady from Heightened Reflexes), and i can't score on the middle flag since one Ferox have to stand outside of 4" to contest the left one. I rile the Sentry for a Fury or two since i expect to take some hits next turn.

But he pretty much ignore my Ferox. The Stormwall places some covering fires and Caine kill a few, including the one contesting the left flag.

I was starting to get a little low on time, so i didn't take any more pictures of this game, but here's what happens:

I realize that there's pretty much no way for me to keep this going, but i still have my Feat, and i can get 4 Ferox onto Caine by using Dash, and he's only camping one. Even though he's DEF 19, he's still only ARM 13, so if i can land a few hits i could manage to get him down. I Puppetmaster both Ferox units (Radheim is too far away due to poor positioning on my part, i forgot that i lost 2" of threat after the TyCom died..)

Makeda Feats, Cast Storm rager on a Ferox, Dash, and moves as far towards Caine as Possible. The only survivor of the Left Ferox moves over to Caine and hits with it's first attack, he use his Focus and takes a few boxes. Next attacks miss, reroll, another miss, and he dodges away.. Damn i forgot about that! The two inches he dodge back not only means that one less Ferox will be able to reach him, but it also means that one of the guys that actually do will be ouside of Feat. I get two more Ferox in. Combine Mount/Spear and miss, Use reroll to hit and takes him down to two boxes!

I have one attack left. The lance of the Storm Ragered Ferox. I need an 11+ on 2d6 to hit him and win the game..

I roll Snake Eyes.

Makeda is on a hill, so he tries to shoot the Ferox still engaging Caine to allow him to move over to her and kill her. He miss the Shot and almost hits Caine! After that he just quickly end the game, not wanting to take any more unnessecary risks.

Victory to Cygnar!

Post Battle thoughts:

Maybe i should have gone for the T2 push. If nothing else, it would really put the pressure on him, and i could have ran the Beasts over to the left to Really threaten him if he decided to do what he did the next turn (Move to Score) It might have made things easier, or it might have just meant that i would lose pretty much all of my Ferox and still lose the game..

Caine2 is a real pain in the Ass! but i believe there might be some potential. We played with a fairly low amount of terrain in this Tournement, a bit more terrain to help me with surviving his shooting, and some better plays from me might make this match playable. I will test it in the near future. If it's still a no go i'll have to tool my second list a bit more towards dealing with this. Makeda covers such a wide field of casters and lists that making a successful pair that covers most things definatelly should be possible.

I was kinda bummed at getting a loss for the last game on Saturday, but i still felt good. My chances of winning the Tournement were gone, but i still eyed a Top3 spot.

Later that evening all the people from my gaming club gathered at a local restaurant to eat and talk about the next day. We had just recieved the next days pairing. I stared in disbelief at my next opponent..


Cygnar. Caine2/Haley2.