Journeyman Lieutenant Allister Caine
Template:Cygbox This model is playable only in an Unlimited format.
Allister Caine was never an ordinary journeyman, for he had already earned both infamy and fame as a gunmage. As deadly with his pistols as he was stubborn and difficult to train, young Allister Caine chafed under instruction both as a youthful prodigy of the Arcane Tempest and while learning what was required of a Cygnaran warcaster at the Strategic Academy. He was never respectful to the warcasters he was assigned to follow, prone to sneaking off to follow his own instincts. Yet when battle began, he quickly proved his worth, wielding a magelock in each hand.
Basic Info
Abilities
Weapons
- Magelock Pistol (x2) - 10" range, POW 10 guns
Spells
{{Category: Template:Fire for EffectTemplate:Spirit Door }}[[Category: Template:Fire for EffectTemplate:Spirit Door ]]
Theme Forces
- Cygnar
- Template:Heavy Metal. He gains Reposition [3] in this theme.
- Template:Sons of the Tempest. In this theme, upkeeps can be upkept for free on this model and he gains Pistoleer.
- Other Factions
- Infernal players can use this unit in the Template:Hearts of Darkness theme, but only if Sloan is leading the army.
Thoughts on Journeyman Lieutenant Allister Caine
Caine0 in a Nutshell
Journeyman Lieutenant Allister Caine is a combat solo with huge personal contribution to any fight. He removes any important solos your opponent does not want to lose with surgical precision thanks to Trick Shot or Snipe and then goes back to hiding thanks to Spirit Door. He also runs a jack for you (which might even be Ace!) and can hand out Fire For Effect to make shooting devastating.
He is an especially worthwhile addition to any Heavy Metal list, even if you didn't bring and particularly great targets for FFE, becasue he has a large scenario footprint.
But you shouldn't discount him from Sons of the Tempest, free upkeeps and gaining pistoleer really opens up ways for him to play offensively and defensively.
Warjacks and Caine0
- Ace can be taken by him and this fact is just another reason why you should include him into your list. Ace is an excellent jack for solo hunting and infantry clearing and is very cheap to boot.
- A Hunter can sit back safely and still shoot with impunity to make sure Caine can Spirit Door out of trouble
- The Charger is the easiest to fuel ranged jack you can give a warcaster. Which is good since Caine will probably want to shoot a lot.
- A Minuteman is very thankful for spirit door, allowing it to survive after delivering its 4" range payload and/or using Flak field in the middle of an enemy formation.
- A Firefly often needs to play forward to stack its damage buff pulling it back to safety with spirit door helps keep it safe.
- Want to go all in? Thunderhead has an incredibly short range and a very high cost. To keep it in the game to pulse a second time, this is an ideal jack to work with Spirit Door.
Combos & Synergies
- Siege1 has a great gun in his Rocket Cannon and has a great special attack in Ground Pounder. He can run Sons of The Tempest better than most casters, but also appreciates Charger and Minutemen spam in Heavy Metal, which Caine0 facilitates.
- Fire for Effect boosts all of the attack and damage rolls of Ground Pounder. That's going to be nasty.
- Bastian Falk - A fully boosted spray is a very dangerous thing, so Falk is our best target for FFE if Siege is not your caster. The spray also acts as a damage buff for Caine's own guns.
- The Gun Mage Captain Adept makes him more accurate.
- Thunderhead - FFE does indeed work on Energy Pulse, so Thunderhead will be able to utterly evaporate Infantry with Caine's help. If you add in Nemo3's feat, the pulse attack will roll 4 dice on damage rolls, making it utterly devastating.
- The Avenger marshalled by an Arcane Tempest Gun Mage Officer can be a deadly piece. The Snipe attack type for extra range, combined with the Take Aim! order and FFE will make the gun range 14", RAT 7, POW 16, fully boosted.
- Hermit - If you can get him within 4" to your intended target, and have at least 2 HPs on him, you can easily get 2 Tricks Shots even into the most elusive target, using the Hermit as a starting point for those shots.
- Pistoleer is a pretty sweet benefit in Sons of the Tempest, but it can be a trap. Caine is pretty easy to kill, so only consider sending him into melee if his 'jack is gone and you can swing the game in your favour.
Drawbacks & Downsides
- He's one of the faction's best solos. He has a huge bullseye on him.
- He's hard to hit with high DEF, but that doesn't help against auto-hits. Being weakly armoured doesn't help against that either.
- You obviously can't bring him with other Caine incarnations.
- Pistoleer is great on a model with two ranged attacks. But you only want to employ this at a point when his battlegroup is gone and you don't need Fire for Effect - Caine isn't likely to live long if he has to commit in melee.
Tricks & Tips
- The "Bounce-off" - if you can't see a certain squishy support model, aim at something you can see and then Trick Shot into your real target.
- This is especially useful when up against something that can't be hit directly by ranged attacks, such as a Wrack.
- Trick-shot is great against lynchpin models with Sacrificial Pawn or Sucker! (like Kovnik Joe, or Madelyn). Because even if the initial shot has been re-assigned, the bouncing POW10 hit will get them. And the 4" radius of the Trick Shot surpasses the range limits of both abilities.
- Thunderbolt is a great way to keep tough but slow enemies (like Khador heavies) from doing anything useful. Keep knocking them back and backing up yourself, while boosting the attack and hoping for a Critical Knockdown effect. You'll tie up a lot of their points with a few of yours.
Other
Trivia
- Released at Lock and Load 2018.06
- Released to celebrate the 15th anniversary of Warmachine, alongside Deneghra0, Severius0, and Sorscha0.
Other Cygnar models
Rules Clarifications
Template:RC Magical Weapon Template:RC Attack Type Template:RC Snipe Template:RC Thunderbolt Template:RC Trick Shot