Battle Report #41: Caine2 vs Rahn

Another game against Rahn, this time played by Nico. I have played this matchup before against Nima, but Nico's list is less focused on assassination and more on attrition.

Captain Allister Caine (75 points)

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

Adeptis Rahn (75 points)

Adeptis Rahn
* 2x Chimera
* Hyperion
Elara
* Discordia
2x Arcanist Mechanik
Lanyssa Ryssyl
2x6 House Shyeel Battle Mages

Deployment

Rahn winds the die roll and skews to the left flank. I decide to skew right with the Lances to try to keep my flag clear, and use the Centurion to block off him scoring in the zone.

Turn 1

Rahn moves up and casts Polarity Shield on the Hyperion.

Caine2 gets Heightened Reflexes since anything else is insane against Master Knockdown and Pull Artist Rahn.

I move Caine2 up the centre and build a cloud wall. He stays 2" behind it so that it is impossible for Rahn to cast Telekinesis through a Chimera and get me into the clouds or into view of any of the Battle Mages, and so far behind that it seems impossible to run a Chimera behind Caine2 and Force Blast him forwards. Caine2 camps 3 so that I won't be killed by double Chain Blast.

Have I played against this shit before? You bet.

Caine2 has been placed with 12" of the right flank flag, so that I can Gate Crash there later.

The Hunter shoots the right Chimera and does 8 boxes, but does not take out anything important.

Turn 2

Rahn mostly shuffles around and decides not to feat. A Force Hammer knocks down the two leftmost Lances. The Chimera and Battle Mages try to knockdown and kill a Lance or two on the right, but they all live. Four Trenchers and two Rangers are killed my various shooting. All in all his dice are pretty poor and I make a lot of tough rolls.

I build a new cloud wall. Caine moves up and together with the Hunter he clears away the jamming Chimera. This frees up my Lances which then charge and murder 7 Battle Mages and Lanyssa. Perfect!

The Centurion toes into the zone but a much better play would have been to place him behind the clouds so he could not so easily be Telekinsis'ed out of the zone or into melee range

The Trenchers make a new cloud wall. Since I only have 2 Focus left I decide to not Gate Crash to the flag. I think I would have been assassinated if I did. Caine ends up camping 2, stays 2" behind the cloud wall and also get the Dirge of Mist. I don't trust that Rahn one bit!

Turn 3

Rahn goes for a scenario play, clearing the zone and killing my objective. He feats, but the Battle Mages do very little. Even boosted spells are weak against ARM 20 Lances.

For some reason he dropped Polarity Field to have more Focus available, I think that was a bad move since it makes killing Hyperion so easy.

0-2

That Hyperion is in a terrible position. My plan for this turn is to kill Hyperion and whatever else I can get my hands on, and then camp as much as I can out of melee range of Discordia. I therefore decide to activate Caine late and see whether the rest of the army can deliver the goods.

Ragman with Death Field, the Centurion, the Hunter, a fully charged Firefly and two Trrenchers together do a lot of damage. I activate Caine, feat, shoot away the Hyperion and the one Battle Mage jamming the Lances. Caine stops while camping 2 (it is so hard to not go all out on Overkill!)

The Lances go in and kill the other Chimera and few more Battle Mages.

Turn 4

I have lost nothing of importance and Rahn is almost out of models. He decides to go for a hail Mary play by moving up Rahn and casting two Chain Blasts at me, needing 11+ on 2D6 to hit. The first one misses, and that is that.

Post Mortem

I think that losing so many Battle Mages in turn 2, and then getting further down on attrition after the scenario play in turn 3, lost the game for Rahn. A stronger play might have been feating in turn 2, and just try to kill as much as possible and get up on attrition. There is not much in my list that can reliably kill an unchargeable Hyperion, and Telekinesis can keep the Centurion away forever.

I am happy with my careful play this game. My main goal each turn was to deal as much damage as I could and not lose Caine, and it worked out that way.

I am not quite sure who is up here. We both have a lot of options and strong assassinations. It's a hard matchup to play for both sides, since one small mistake and it's over.