Lieutenant Allister Caine

Template:Cygbox This model is playable only in an Unlimited format.

For any who have seen the determination in Lieutenant Caine's eyes when he is outnumbered by an enemy, there is no question why he leads men in war. While he may be arrogant and cocky, he single-handedly pioneered gunplay into an art of war. Slinging twin Spellstorm magelock pistols, Caine brings forth a hail of lead upon each and every foe of Cygnar.

Basic Info

Warcaster abilities:

• Focus Manipulation

• Battlegroup Controller

• Power Field

• Spellcaster

• Independent Model

• Leader

Feat : Maelstrom

Caine can make a basic Spellstorm Pistol attack against every enemy model currently in his Template:CTRL range, ignoring intervening models. When resolving Maelstrom, Caine can target models in his back arc. Caine cannot use Maelstrom while he is in melee. Maelstrom attacks are simultaneous. Template:Tipbox

Abilities

• Template:Gunfighter
• Template:Range Amplifier
• Field Marshal [ [[:Category:{{{ability}}}|{{{ability}}}]] ]

[[Category:{{{ability}}}]]

Weapons

Spellstorm Pistol (x2)
File:Gun icon.jpg		RNG			ROF			AOE			POW
		12			1			Template:-			12
Template:Magical Weapon Template:Reload 1
Sword
File:Sword icon.jpg		RNG				POW				P+S
		0.5				3				8
Purely ceremonial on a gunfighter of Caine's caliber, I'm certain.

Spells

{{Category: Template:BlurTemplate:DeadeyeTemplate:SnipeTemplate:TeleportTemplate:Thunder Strike }}[[Category: Template:BlurTemplate:DeadeyeTemplate:SnipeTemplate:TeleportTemplate:Thunder Strike ]]

Theme Forces

• Template:Si
• Template:Gravediggers
• Template:Heavy Metal
• Template:Sons of the Tempest. In this theme this model gains Pistoleer. Also he can upkeep spells for free on Gun Mage models (including himself).
• Template:Storm Division. In this theme this model gains Immunity: Electricity.

Thoughts on Caine1

File:Caine1 classic.jpg

Classic sculpt

Caine1 in a Nutshell

Caine is one of Cygnar's three specialist shooty warcasters. If you want battlegroup shooting take Captain Kara Sloan, while if you want the warcaster himself to try and shoot the enemy off the board, the epic incarnation Captain Allister Caine is your guy. Caine asks whoever is running him a difficult question. How much work can you get out of him? Caine can deal immense damage to his enemy. His guns are extremely accurate and relatively powerful. His feat can wipe out an entire infantry based army on his own. Against heavier targets his Thunderstrike can setup an important target for a kill. However, bringing Caine into range is a dangerous prospect because it doesn't take much to kill him and a competent opponents who sees you bring him close is going to exploit that. Keeping Caine alive means a few things. His own abnormally high defense goes a long way, but it won't be enough. Distance is probably the best thing to keep Caine alive. Snipe and Teleport allow you to operate a very safe distance, but make sure not to kill yourself in a Killbox scenario. If you cannot approach safely, Caine can still support his army with Snipe, Deadeye, and Blur. But despite his ability to support his allies, you will be wasting some of your best guns if you don't so gets some units to protect your caster. Get shield guards and heavier units to persuade potential assassins to stay away from Caine.

Feat thoughts

His seemingly simple feat interacts with a few rules that are worth a recap for beginners.

• His feat requires that you meet all the requirements of a shooting attack as well as have the model in his control range. The repercussions are two-fold:
  1. Stealth, concealment, cover, elevation, LOS-blocking terrain, and the shooting-into-melee-penalty all affect his shots as per normal.
  2. If you buff either his RNG or his CTRL, it doesn't help his feat. You need to buff both.
     • If you use a Squire to increase his CTRL range he will be able to target more models with his feat attacks, but he will auto-miss those models because they're out of the gun's range.
       These auto-misses might trigger enemy abilities, such as Poltergeist, or Dodge.
     • If you use Snipe to increase his range, you don't get to target any extra models - the feat is still limited to his CTRL range.
     • If you use a Squire and Snipe, you can shoot everything within 14" under the feat.

• Feat attacks are simultaneous. If you want to boost on a certain model, you must state it before working out any of the attacks. Thanks to that, effects like Dodge, Poltergeist or Battle Driven are only triggered, once you finished working out all of your attacks.
• You can forfeit your action and still deliver the feat attacks.
• On the same note, if you are to claim the aiming bonus for your feat, you cannot move thereafter (but can still cast Teleport).

Spell thoughts

• Blur - Stacks nicely with naturally high DEF (dug-in Trenchers, or Gun Mages), and cover or concealment. It puts up the DEF of a light warjack or your cavalry to obnoxious levels.
• Deadeye - Perfect for crit fishing with your Gun Mages, or for your Long Gunners if you need to move, but still hit the target (plus stacks nicely with Trained Fire). Not that good if you want to stand still as only their first attack will get the bonus die.
• Snipe - Another range boost, often hot-swapped between your most dangerous shooters (and sometimes on Caine himself).
• Teleport - Use Teleport to get out of danger after Caine has blazed away with his four shots. Watch out as it ends your activation.
• Thunder Strike - The starting point for your assassination runs because you will slam with the same power of a Warden. Due to your average FOCUS pool (even with the presence of a Squire) it is often hard to hit elusive targets. It gets problematic even against a DEF14 model out in the open. In such cases don't shy away from slamming one of your clumsier models into a key target.

Drawbacks & Downsides

• Once he's hit, he's down. Anything that can get around his absurdly high DEF is going to give him a bad day -- especially stuff that causes stationary or auto-knockdown such as Earthquake or Scourge.
• He doesn't help his army handle heavy armour and offers no damage buffs either.
• His personal shooting is near useless against infantry protected by stealth or cover.
• He is focus strapped. While a Thunderstrike assassination from 20" will catch many offguard, this trick can also lead to a very dead Caine if you fail to assassinate.
• He is vulnerable to upkeep hate and anti-shooting techs in general.
• If you disregard the support spells Caine1 has, Caine2 can also turn into a monster infantry killer. However, he can do it every turn if he wants to.

Tricks & Tips

• Because he doesn't have dual attack, Caine can't shoot his pistols and swing his sword in melee in the same activation. The only reason to use the sword is when the target immune to ranged attacks.
• Keep his Field Marshal ability in mind against anti-shooting techs, like Wind Wall, or the Choir's Hymn of Passage.
• Free upkeeps on himself in Sons of the Tempest really helps him out - Whether it's Blur or Snipe, he can still mix things up and either choose to boost some damage rolls or teleport to safely and maybe retain some focus points while he's at it.

List Building Advice

File:Ace WEB.jpg

Ace is Caine's pet warjack that he can take in any theme.

Strategy

Caine shoots the enemy until they stop moving, but specialises in shooting infantry. His favourite way of winning is waiting until the enemy warcaster exposes themself, then shooting them dead. Most casters will die if Caine goes all-in trying to shoot them. While his spell list suggests that he favours a shooty ranged army, his main weakness is against heavy armour. This is why he favours units with assault; i.e. units that can both shoot well and melee well.

Theme thoughts

Sons of the Tempest

• Bastian Falk acts as your resident damage buff. Thanks to Caine's field marshal, his jacks are affected by it, too.
• Tempest Blazers are amazing with Snipe, able to fry support solos hiding behind infantry with e-leaps.
• Arcane Tempest Gun Mages - Deadeye can be used to let them crit fish for Brutal Damage shots and Blur keeps them save from shooting.
• Gains Veteran Leader from the Gun Mage Captain Adept. Now his feat can be that much more brutal.
• Since he is a Gun Mage now, he acquires Pistoleer - This can ease the focus burden on taking out higher ARM models and even any mid-high ARM models that try to stop him feating by engaging him in melee.

Gravediggers
Trencher units are strong for a number of reasons. First off, they are pretty good at shooting and have strong anti-shooting defenses like Dig-In coupled with above average defense. Blur on Trencher Infantry or Trencher Long Gunners using Go To Ground have their defense go up hilariously high. Snipe and Deadeye give you the offensive strength to out shoot just about anyone.

Storm Division
Stormblades and Storm Lances have assault making them his go-to answer for anti-ARM. Both units will appreciate blur. With those two units it is almost mandatory to bring Rhupert Carvolo, Piper of Ord and the Journeyman Warcaster for Arcane Shield. Units are also superior to jacks because deadeye and snipe are more efficient on them. A Firefly will also easily add to the output of these two units. Silver Line Stormguard are obnoxious with Blur + Dirge of Mists with Rhupert. DEF 17 against guns and magic and can't be charged while base to base. They are a good screen for your sniped Stormblades or Caine himself to shoot through when you bring a Stormblade Captain for his tactician ability.

• Squire or Sylys Wyshnalyrr, The Seeker - Either one of them may be an auto-include if you want to exploit Thunderstrike. The combination of Arcane Secrets and Spiritual Conduit of Sylys lets Caine pull of a 15 inch static threat with Thunderstrike, rolling 3d6 (discarding lowest) to hit and damage. Also, he lets Caine upkeep 1 spell for free, which is functionally identical to the free focus from the Squire. However, the actual +1 FOCUS from the Squire is better if you go on an all-out assassination run (Thunderstrike + teleport = 7 focus, assuming you are boosting to hit and bringing the Squire). On the same note, Reinholdt is a questionable choice for Caine1. Using Reload is essentially getting an extra focus, Sylys and a Squire provide that and then some. Lucky Charm allows for a reroll of attack or damage, which is cool, but Sylys and the Squire give similar bonuses. Reinholdt can remove stealth, which admittedly is pretty great and Sylys and the Squire do NOT provide this, but there are other methods of getting around stealth that should be considered first.

• Captain Sam MacHorne & the Devil Dogs - When commanded by Captain Jonas Murdoch these guys work surprisingly well. The Slug Guns really appreciate the combination of Snipe, Dead Eye, and Assault to allow this unit of infantry to really tear into enemy warjacks (as well as a Freebooter to finish the job).

• Aiyana + Holt - Costs quite a few points as you have to bring Murdoch along. Still, they are a more reliable heavy ranged unit when taken with Ragman and Gorman,

Battlegroup

• Ace is Caine's pet warjack that he can take in any theme.
• Hunter - Quasi self supporting jacks, as they can operate reliably on just the power up focus.
• Sentinel or Trench Buster - Caine makes efficient use of shield guards. He has abnormally high defense so anything that manages the considerable feat of actually hitting him can be pawned off onto these models.

Other

Trivia

• Caine was one of the first three Cygnar warcasters, released way back in Mk1 Warmachine: Prime (2003)

Video Battle Reports

• 2019.06 Feat Fetish, vs The Twins
• Template:VBR