Battle Report #19: Caine2 vs Rahn

After the previous game, Nima threw Ossyan back on the shelf and picked up his current darling, Adeptis Rahn. He claims to have never lost with this list. Certainly that needs fixing.

Read the report from the other side of the table!
Nima has blogged about this match on his Retribution of Scyrah blog.

Captain Allister Caine (75 points)

Captain Allister Caine
* Reinholdt
* Centurion
* Hunter
Journeyman Warcaster
* Firefly
Gun Mage Captain Adept
Ragman
Rhupert
6 Rangers
5 Storm Lances
10 Trencher Infantry

Adeptis Rahn (75 points)

This seems to me like a pure assassination list. It has lot of tricks, and limited punch. As long as I can avoid getting assassinated I think I have the advantage.

Adeptis Rahn
* Sylys
* Helios
* 2 Sphinx
* 2 Chimera
2 Arcanist Mechanic
Magister
Lanyssa
6 Battle Mages

Deployment

Nima yet again wins the die roll and opts to go first.

I deploy my main force towards the middle zone, and put the Storm Lances on the flank.

Turn 1

Nima moves up. He forgets to check the Hunter's range.

I give a focus to the Hunter, and throw Heightened Reflexes on Caine and Fire For Effect on the Gun Mage Captain Adept. Hunter moves up and peeks around the objective cloud. Lanyssa gets a bullet in the head.

Lances get Arcane Shield, run up and get ready to engage.

My premeasuring was poor. I need to make sure the Centurion gets enough space. He really should have been 2" further up and in front of Caine.

Turn 2: Alternate Reality Version

I thought I had covered everything with the clouds being slightly over 14" away from the Chimera. but I did not see the combo of Telekinesis + Force Blast. Chimera runs up, Rahn uses Force Blast to push my infantry away, Telekinesis to get the Chimera in, then boost a Telekinesis to move Caine into the cloud. He feats. After this the Sphinx increases spell range and the battle mages start pulling me further out. Caine dies.

(Edit: I wrote 16" before).

Retribution wins by assassination!

Turn 2

We minifeat Caine back an inch so that he cannot be pulled into the clouds, and continue the game.

Rahn tries to grab the Hunter and kill it, but one of the Helios shots misses and the Hunter lives.

I move up Caine, and with the Hunter and some boosted shots and CRAs the left Chimera dies.

I play the Lances poorly here, trying for some leaps and stuff. I should rather have engaged the Chimera base to base and put them into position for a good charge on the next turn.

Again the Trenchers do a great job with putting up a cloud wall and protecting Caine from any retaliation.

Turn 3

Helios moves up and some Lances are killed by his jacks, leaving just one.

I do some math and to me it looks like if Ragman, a fully loaded Firefly, and Caine feat with 8 shots + some spot damage should be enough to kill off Helios. It is. The Trenchers then get freed up to assault and jam up both Sphinxes, also shooting some support along the way. This leaves them jacks with full systems, but only 7 and 9 boxes remaining.

Having totally lost the attrition war, there is only one play left for Rahn, It is janky assassination time! He lands some damage on Caine but has no follow up.

Turn 4

Caine drops everything and murders Rahn.

Post Mortem

I think it's good to experience the assassination, and then reset! You get two practice games for the price of one. Next time I will remember it's 18" away from Chimera, and not 16".

Fire For Effect on the GMCA was a waste here. RAT 10 aiming is plenty to land his shot on anything important here, I should have put Bullet Dodger on the Hunter instead. At DEF 18 in the forest and DEF 14 with his back turned against Helios, that play would have been near impossible.

I am very happy with the list. It has good punch and attritions well. As long as I can not die to assassination, I think I am up against this kind of assassination-focused list.