That said, let's go down the list of Cygnar's 21 casters, and look at where each of them sits. I'm not going to letter grade them, but I'll try to make the call about whether the caster ought to get some CID tweaking.
Constance Blaize - Okay, everyone knows that Connie B sucks, but in all honesty, if Cygnar ever got a Morrowan CID and a new unit or two of Morrowan models were released, she'd suddenly have a lot more going on, more models to flank with, and more availablity for souls. Imagine a Morrowan character weapon attachment for the stormblades. Imagine a 3-man unit of Morrowan sword knight weapon masters. How about Morrowan gun mages that worked like a unit of Harlan Versh? A Morrowan CID is all Connie needs to be viable.
Major Marcus Brisbane, and Colonel Marcus Brisbane - Both are just fine. They're taken nowadays more than nearly any other caster, and they work super-well with Cygnar's strongest theme, Gravediggers.
Lieutenant Alistair Caine - Although he's considered near the bottom of the barrel when it comes to Cygnar casters, Caine1 is one of my own favorites. He's got quite a lot of tools: magic weapons, infantry clearing, true sight in the shape of his character jack Ace, and when you take him with Sylys Wyshnalyr like I do, he has a ranged slam that threatens an incredible 22 inches, plus the d6 inches that the slammed model moves back. He may not be the best caster in Cygnar's stable, but I think he's got game. He has trouble cracking armor, and is too short on focus to run much of a battlegroup, but he's also got a decent assassination which threatens four boostable POW12 shots out to 19 inches, and one extra shot if you use the feat. I don't think this caster needs anything more.
Captain Alistair Caine - Another of my personal favorites. I terrorized my local mini-meta with Caine2 in early mk3. My toughest opponent, running an uncrackable Rhulic army, told me at one point that there was nothing he could do to Cap'n Caine. With bullet dodger, he couldn't hit him. When he'd bring his earthbreaker, Caine would put up Heightened Reflexes to get around the knockdown. And once Caine was within 19 inches, the assassination was a near sure thing. Shadow Fire from Ace and the GMCA only helped.
Then came themes. Caine could no longer take rangers, GMCAs, and storm lances like I'd always done.
Then came the rune shot nerf.
Caine has fallen pretty far from the beast he once was. But I really believe that he doesn't need much to be viable again.
His rune shot nerf pre-dates CID. That said, I have some suggestions to make Caine better without creating a completely broken caster. Either give him rune shots for free on his initial attacks, or if he's going to be paying for them, give him better rune shots. At least trade out Black Penny.
Lastly, make Caine an Arcane Tempest model. The only effect of that would be giving him gunfighter when you play him in Sons of the Tempest, but that means his Gatecrasher assassination becomes a viable option. Quite a risk, but the reward would be worth it.
Caine's Hellslingers - As a crazy battlegroup gunline caster, Caine3 is fine as-is.
Captain E Dominic Darius and the Halfjacks - Like so many other casters, fixing other models would fix Darius. Darius's focus on repair and his feat in particular demand colossals. And Cygnar has the most expensive colossals in the game (The Stormwall, Hurricane, and Galleon are the only 39-point warjacks remaining) and they have the lowest POW on their melee weapons. That probably explains why Cygnar colossals are so unpopular at the moment. My guess is that as soon as the Stormwall and Hurricane are tweaked - they don't need much - that Darius will see more table time.
Captain Victoria Haley - Haley1 is difficult for me. When the meta-breaking stormsmith grenadiers were released, her Temporal Barrier was nerfed. And that was really her main schtick. Nowadays, she's not really played at all. And so I do think she needs adjusting. But I'm at a bit of a loss to suggest anything. Changing Temporal Barrier to disallow charges seems too much. She's not hugely underpowered, and any tweak could easily be too much. Maybe just give her a few extra jack points?
Major Victoria Haley - Oh, how the mighty have fallen. It's true that Haley2 is no longer Cygnar's hands-down best caster. But she certainly isn't bad. She's an excellent control caster, and she definitely has a strong place in the faction with no further adjustments.
Major Prime Victoria Haley - As much as she's regarded as the best caster in the faction at the moment, people don't often stop to consider the skill floor on Haley3. Sure, she's really good, but if you don't have a massive amount of practice in repositioning your trenchers to get behind that smoke wall, you're going to time out on turn two. With the way I personally run on clock, I've never even considered playing Haley3. In any event, Haley3 is fine.
Captain Alison Jakes - Although she seems fun, I've never played Jakes2. Everything that I've heard says that she's a really fun caster to play, but not competitively viable. Maybe she's fine where she is. Maybe all she needs is that bonded character charger that I've been waiting for. A charger with an armor piercing axe, parry, and reposition 3 perhaps?
Captain Jerimiah Kraye - Since his ground-up rework, Kraye has seen the table more than he did throughout all of Mk2. His new kit makes him a great hit-and-run jack caster. No adjustment needed here.
Major Beth Maddox - As the battlebox caster, Maddox will always be taken during journeyman leagues and such. She's not a meta-bending caster, but she's not bad either. As such, I don't think she needs adjustment, although Brickhouse is probably the worst character jack in Cygnar.
Commander Adept Nemo - Nemo1 has long been my favorite warcaster in all of warmachine. He's extremely talented at being assassinated, but that makes him also an extra-good lesson in how to hide your caster. Remember, kids: camp, range, intervening models, and terrain.
Nemo1 has tons of awesome tools, not the least of which is allowing any of his jacks to threat an extra three inches with four focus. The squire turns his focus up to eleven, and when you run him you pretty much never need to worry about any jack ever being out of his control range. Nemo's hammersmith with four focus and lightning shroud can land seven POW19 attacks, which averages 49 damage on an ARM19 colossal. That's seven electroleaps as well. One of my favorite things to do is send that hammersmith downtown, beating back an enemy jack and throwing out e-leaps as it works its way across the table. I could go on, but if you're really interested, you should read my writeup on Nemo1 from last year.
General Adept Nemo - I'm not gonna lie. Nemo2 needs some serious work, moreso than probably any other Cygnar caster besides maybe Sturgis. He wants a huge battlegroup, but has trouble running all the jacks outside of his feat turn. If he had a chance to make a good spell assassination on his feat turn, he might be worth taking. All he needs is a decent attack spell, or else maybe the ability to exceed his FOCUS as a result of his feat so that he could really launch a ton of spell attacks.
Artificer General Nemo - Nemo 3, even after the big double-tap nerf, is still a pretty strong caster. He needs no change.
Captain Kara Sloan - Sloan is a kind of skew which doesn't appeal to me personally, but from everything I've been hearing, she's a caster that others fear. As such, she needs nothing.
Commander Coleman Stryker - Stryker1 is my first caster, but I didn't really come around to loving him until after I'd tried a bunch of others. My favorite list is a Stryker1 list. He's not meta-breaking, but he's good.
Lord Commander Coleman Stryker - One of the few casters in Cygnar considered competitive, Stryker2 needs nothing.
Lord General Coleman Stryker - I've never played Stryker3, although I'd like to. He's all about smashing face, using lances to impact through any existing screen and melting the opposing army on his feat turn. Stormlances with fury will auto-hit with boosted POW15 trample attacks, which should kill most heavy infantry, and continue the charge with an autohitting POW 19 weaponmaster charge that threats 13 inches. I know Stryker3 has flaws - he's not taken competitively. But he doesn't seem bad enough to need any major work.
Commander Dalin Sturgis - Sturgis, the longtime whipping-boy of the Cygnar army. He needs a total CID rework, similar to what Kraye got. For me, the goal would be not to make him an oft-taken tournament caster, but rather to up his power an usability to roughly the same level as Stryker1 or Nemo1. Usable, perhaps rarely seen at tournaments, but not total garbage.
And that's all the casters in Cygnar.
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