Battle Report#30: Caine2 vs Zaadesh2

Today I played against Hans, who wanted to try out his new Skorne list. This list is his planned Cygnar drop, with some good anti-shooting tech.

Hans also has a blog!

Captain Allister Caine (75 points)

Still on the same list.

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

Lord Tyrant Zaadesh (75 points)

Zaadesh is Skorne's control caster. With Countercharge, Defensive Strike, and a virtually unkillable caster, it has a lot of denial.

Lord Tyrant Zaadesh
* Aradus Sentinel
* Scarab Pack
* Tiberion
* Titan Gladiator
* Titan Sentry
2x Extoller Soulward
6 Paingiver Beasthandlers
10 Praetorian Karax
2 Swamp Gobber Bellows Crew

Deployment

I win the die roll and elect to claim the board.

Sac Pawn to the Sentinel makes Zaadesh practically immune to shooting, so Caine assassinations are off the table. I decide to deploy to try to deny the right zone with the Centurion, while putting Caine2 and all my punch in the left zone. From other games I have learnt that keeping Caine fairly central is a good idea. I am not confident I can get a scenario win anyway, so my main plan will be to try to attrition him to death.

Turn 1

Trenchers get Heightened Reflexes, Caine takes Bullet Dodger, and Rangers get Stealth. Lances get Arcane Shield. Caine charges forward and everything else runs up.

Zaadesh moves up and clouds. The Aradus Sentinel shoots at the Lances and kills one.

Turn 2

The cloud wall prevents me from charging, but since I vastly out-threat his heavies and he moved rather passively, I decide to just wait with my left flank Lances.

The Soulwards are dangerous and I want them gone. Between a Hunter shot and some Trick Shots they both die, together with the Gobbers and a Beast Handler. Since he has almost no shooting now it seems sensible to use the Trenchers to jam. I do some charges and assault shots and kill a couple of Karax.

Clearing the Trenchers is annoying. Zaadesh kills a few of them, unjams the heavies,  and toes a heavy into each zone. Zaadesh feats.

Turn 3

Lances get Tough. Ragman moves up, Caine2 feats. Tiberion smacks the Firefly and does a lot of damage, but no systems crippled. I remove Tiberion, take half the boxes from the Sentry, and Caine trick shots away all the remaining Beast Handlers. Caine is camping zero, which is too aggressive. I should have 1 to avoid getting single shotted by the Sentinel.

I made another mistake here. Junior is too far away to apply Arcane Shield on the Centurion, which I should have transferred this turn.

The sentinel misses. He needed an 11+ on 3D6 and then 15+ on 4D6, which is a 20% chance to kill me. Camping one focus would bring the chance down to a more acceptable 3%.

The Sentry kills a Lance, and the Gladiator rolls low and scratches the paint on the Centurion. This is looking good!

Turn 4

Time to force the issue. I clear the left zone and camp 1. Rhupert uses Mist on Caine to get his DEF up to 19.

2-0

Hans' Scarabs frenzy this turn. Hans realizes he cannot contest the left zone which will give me an automatic win. His only chance is to kill Caine now. Zaadesh clears a spot for the Sentinel, but the free strike hits hard and the Sentinel loses its Mind.

Unable to boost, he cannot kill me no matter what, and I must get 4 more points.

Cygnar wins on scenario!

Post Mortem

We talked over the battle and agreed that Hans was playing too passive. If he had pushed up further, I would not have gotten such good pressure. Also Zaadesh is unkillable at range. Usually it makes sense for most casters to stay 19" away from Caine, but Zaadesh is one of the casters that can just go straight in Caine's face.

Also, Skorne needs a buff badly. His models seem way overcosted. Tibbers at 22 points? He is not much stronger than my Centurion which costs 17. 14 points for pillow-fisted melee heavies? Mine hit harder for 12.

Crossing my fingers that PP fixes Skorne in January!