This will be a small, local Steamroller tournament, and I'm expecting maybe a dozen people. When I considered which two lists to bring, I had two main considerations. Firstly, not clocking out. I'm a slow player. Secondly, which lists I'm most familiar with. I own Nemo3, Siege1, and Maddox, but haven't ever played those casters, so they're out. The casters I'm most familiar with are the first two Strykers, the first two Caines, and Nemo1. Mostly Nemo1.
Right off, I decided that Nemo1 would be my main list. He's the caster I'm most familiar with, and I tend to bring tons of heavies when I play him - the lower model could should help with deathclock. Plus, Nemo's my favorite.
But who to pair with Nemo? I immediately ruled out Stryker2, because his feat takes forever. At least for me. I've taken feat turns with him that last nearly an hour. This left Caine1, Caine2, and Stryker1. In the end, I decided that the quickest games would come from an assassination caster, which meant Caine2, despite the fact that the caster is generally out of favor with the global meta at the moment.
The first twist was the Heavy Metal nerf, which forced me to rejigger my Nemo list. The second twist was this game, which taught me that death clock was even more brutal than I'd feared, and that I could not bring an attrition caster to a deathclock game. So Nemo1 was out. Instead, I wanted to design the simplest list I could, without any range-dependent buffs (firefly ionization, ragman, the stormblades' storm rod) and without tons of lightning generator that would take extra time. I settled on Stryker1. If I could have taken two colossals, I would have. But I don't own any colossals. So it was double centurion. They'd be my front line. What else? Well, my primary plan is to run up a lancer, arc an earthquake to knock down the caster and any intervening models, and then shoot 'em up. So I need lots of shooty models. I'll bring my new storm strider, because despite the clock disadvantage of two lightning generator shots, two boostable POW15s is pretty good. Then I'll bring two chargers, because I own only two. One will go on a journeyman, whom I'll need to get a second arcane shield onto the second centurion.
What else? Stryker1 is often strapped for focus, so I'll being a squire and Arlan, both of whom will be free because heavy metal. 25 points left to go. How about a cyclone? That's a lot of range 12 pow 12 shots, and it often won't care much about extra focus. Plus, I've become very fond of the covering fire, and Stryker can snipe it to get the covering fire 21" (12 + 4 + 5" walk) out if need be. Know what? If I marshal the cyclone, I can often turn those POW 12s into POW 14s with Take Aim!, which is especially good when your jack doesn't care about focus. I'll put the cyclone on Runewood, because reposition 5 on a heavy is just great. That just means I've got to get my Runewood painted before then. Yikes.
Eight points left, and I very nearly added a sentinel. But in the end, thinking of my centurion as my front line made me realize that the front line was too slow. So I added a min unit of sword knights. I don't expect them to ever attack. The plan is for the sword knights to get blur and run to jam. They'll be DEF 16 against shooting and DEF 15 against melee. On my turn one, they'll move up 12 inches, and on my turn two they'll run to jam, or else charge in the unlikely event that they're within 9.5" of a target. The goal with them is to keep the enemy back. And if my centurions can charge up behind the following turn and a sword knight or two is actually still alive, then yay flank! Meanwhile, I'll be looking for that assassination opportunity every turn, since I know that by the end of turn three, I'm in danger of clocking out.
Stryker1
Squire
Lancer
Centurian
Centurian
Charger
Storm Strider
Journeyman
Charger
Arlan
Runewood
*Cyclone
Sword Knights (min)
My other list is less of an armor brick and heavier on assassination. Good ole Caine2. I toyed with the idea of taking him in Storm Division, because a bullet dodger'd free Savio Acosta sounded amazing. Run him 14" into the middle of enemy infantry and there's just about nothing they can do. But in the end, he wants Reinholdt, Rangers, and the GMCA too badly. I removed Rorsch & Brine after my encounter with the clock because I want simple, and later removed Eiryss1 when I realized that I'd rather have a journeyman and Anastasia.
Caine2
Reinholdt
Defender
Ace
Jakes
Avenger
Gun Mage Captain Adept
Rangers
Journeyman
Sentinel
Anastasia Di Brae
Stormlances (max)
I'll review my thoughts on those models one by one. Reinholdt is a must-have with Caine because the extra shot helps immensely with Caine's assassination, and isn't too shabby for giving Caine an extra POW12 each turn either. I had always used hunters are there to deal with heavy armor, but four days before the tournament, I dropped the two I had here and replaced with a defender to get an extra four points. It'll have to do.
Ace is great with Caine. He's got the range 14 magic gun, the turn of stealth, and true sight. As if that wasn't enough, he has trick shots, a thunderbolt shot, or the all-important shadow fire which can let Caine assassinate a caster straight through a huge base.
The avenger is just short of a Centurion on the toughness scale, and it can threaten a knockdown shot from quite a ways off, which like everything else in this list, can help with Caine's assassination.
The extra four points I got from switching my hunters to a defender were used to get Jakes, whom I've got running the avenger. Why? Because I can use energizer to disengage the avenger, who can likely tank a free strike, walk, and then get that sweet knockdown shot to aid Caine's assassination. Plus, if I give Jakes bullet dodger, she's DEF 19 with sidekick.
The gun mage captain adept is there as my Fire For Effect target, because while a POW10 isn't much of anything, a boosted RAT8 range 14 POW10 with four dice is pretty nice. When it's assassination time, a flare shot on the enemy caster means he's 2 points easier to hit. Also, an extra shadow fire shot if it's needed.
The rangers are also there to aid Caine's assassination. Each can run 14 inches, threatening a total of 19 with their range finder ability. That can negate a hill or help to negate a wall or trench.
Then the stormlances. They're there because I wanted some more fast models to push the line of engagement. It might not be terrible to have them run straight into the enemy and sacrifice themselves just to hold the lines back for a turn and give Caine's army the chance to move up and threaten an assassination.
I added in the journeyman very late, and removed Eiryss1 to do it. Why? I thought the stormlances kind of needed arcane shield to stay alive a bit longer. Later on, if need be, I can move arcane shield to the avenger. Then, the journeyman needed a jack. I couldn't move any off of Caine without wasting his jack points, so I went with the cheapest jack I could find: a sentinel. It's ARM18, so can run up in front to block or jam if I don't need a shield guard. Until then, the shield guard might be great on the GMCA or another high DEF squishy model. I also really wanted Rhupert to conceal the lances up to DEF 15 early on, and give the rangers stealth later, but I couldn't fit another 4 points.
Anastasia was also a last-minute add. When I asked myself what the key thing would be that would stop Caine's assassination, the thing that came to mind was an obstacle or forest blocking line of sight. If I win the roll and see that kind of table, I can go second and make sure the opponent's caster has no good hiding place.
Is it the best list? No. Have I so much as tested it? Kind of. Not this exact list - the one I played a bunch last year had Rorsch & Brine, a charger instead of the sentinel, and no avenger or anastasia. And I haven't played Caine since 2016. Wish me luck.
