Warcaster Assasination MKII

[Epy00n]

So i've been flirting with MKII for a while, playing games online with vassal and IRL ~20 ish games (mostly E&pcaine, E&p stryker, E&p haley). IMO, cygnar lost alot of its hard hitting models/abilities. I feel like in MKI I relied heavily on additional die effects (aiyana, bokur, detonator) to put down high armor targets, like casters camping. But with MK II I'm having a hard time with just +2's. Now, seeing as it's unlikely that my opponents going to let me waltz eyriss up and pop their caster, how do you guys pull off caster kills?

[Techcasualty]

Well here is my caine strategy. It usually works. Brown is caine, blue is your army, black is the enemies army, red is the enemy warcaster, pink is a nice bunny

http://img138.imageshack.us/img138/9809/cainestrategy.jpg

edit:
P.S.
Do not kill the bunnies
http://yfrog.com/3ucainestrategyj

[Dino-Czar]

My eStryker strategy is pretty much the same thing!

Weird how genius works.

Seriously though, I haven't been having that much trouble killing casters in MK II. I've always been of the opinion that if you can get a Heavy Jack on target you can end the game and it only gets more true.

[Broken_shards]

ive been having some luck with E stryker , pop his overboost on 2d6 positive charge on a friendly jack in range of target wander in appply quicksilver to face, mat 9 you hit most things pow 24 +3d6 if boost or charge dents most things (average roll of 7 on 2d6 plus 2 for positive charge bonus) there arent many caster hard targets that have armour that high, but if they do yuo can always risk the 3d6 boost or go for multiple attacks, plus iron clads / rowdy and stormclads will hit the enemy at pow 20/21 with positive charge on them so thats most targets rendered brown bread

[Dino-Czar]

If you are going with an Iron Clad or Rowdy you might want to just allocate a focus to your 'jack and boost a tremor roll. You don't get the +2 damage of positive charge, but you do get auto hitting attacks and 1 more focus to buy extras.

[mrhuettel]

hehe... simple but true!

it's almost as simple with estryker - overload, velocity for 3 foc (=6 inch), charge enemy warcaster with a total of 11" charge, hit once, twice at a maximum - dead.

two weeks ago, i had the opportunity to give my sniped defender a clear shot at irusk - two focus on the defender, boost to hit, boost damage - dead (irusk had taken a small hit one turn earlier, but still...).

hammersmiths charge opponent jack walls, smite one jack into the opponent caster, "least disturbance" puts the caster in front of the slammed jack, hammersmith follow-up with three focus - caster - dead or severely hurt.

siege drops opponent jacks / shield wall unit / meatshield into a foxhole on his feat turn - LOS to opponent caster with halved armour on the first attack - subsequent attacks kill the caster.

oh, and - my favourite: khador's old witch keeps on one flank of her army, not aware that my rangers are closing in - six shots on the old woman and assassination with our green-coated prowlers.

imho, cygnar is one of the best assassination armies due to our vast amount of versatility. most casters have at least one way to run the assassination. it's easy with either caine and estryker and little more difficult with darius, but what our casters cannot do, our units can - atgm+ua, b13, storm lances are great assassination tools. if our units fail, let the jacks do it - the thead is great! speed it up (locomotion, temporal acceleration, full tilt,...), get los within 6" of the caster and send two additional pow 14 - the caster is history!

additionally - in my experience, most players prefer protecting their caster with troops, jacks and spells instead of camping focus. if that is different in your meta - indeed: take eiryss, keep her alive until the final blow!

[Weaselcreature]

Well here is my caine strategy. It usually works. Brown is caine, blue is your army, black is the enemies army, red is the enemy warcaster, pink is a nice bunny

http://img138.imageshack.us/img138/9809/cainestrategy.jpg

edit:
P.S.
Do not kill the bunnies
http://yfrog.com/3ucainestrategyj
teeheehee!

I love all the perfect geometrical shapes, with your hand-drawn, grade-schoolesque dashed line and 'X'! Thanks for the morning chortle!

[Epy00n]

My eStryker strategy is pretty much the same thing!
Seriously though, I haven't been having that much trouble killing casters in MK II. I've always been of the opinion that if you can get a Heavy Jack on target you can end the game and it only gets more true.
How about range wise? I tend to be a ranged man myself :P


teeheehee!

I love all the perfect geometrical shapes, with your hand-drawn, grade-schoolesque dashed line and 'X'! Thanks for the morning chortle!

seconded!
and yeah, caines my go to caster, but its not lining up the shot thats difficult, so much as breaching the arm. caine's average boosted shot is only 23, which is maybe 1-2 pts on campers.

In MKI my "go-to" list was the PGMTL (if you know what that is, your awsome) which was basically caine, aiyana holt, B13 and gunmages w/UA marshalling a sent.
http://old.privateerpressforums.com/index.php?showtopic=169135&hl=PGMTL+gun+mage

End game scenario was shooting at a harmed, Thunderstriked (KD) caster with detonators/brutal shot/w/e

i suppose i'm looking for that same tool box in MKII, something versatile, but definately pointed twoards killing casters.

in anycase, i probly need to try out siege, he sounds like the best option, but keep the ideas coming :D.

for theory machining, assume a def 15, arm 22 (16arm+6 foc)caster, 15 hp. How do you kill it at range?

[Dyoria]

Top 3 Cygnar Assassination Casters

1) Siege
2) eCaine
3) eStryker

Siege is the best, bar none, because he can pull off an assassination in very different ways without putting himself into harms way.
i. Enemy WC is within 14", feat then double boosted ground pound, POW 12+3d6 vs armor 7/8? This can end the game.
ii: Fox hole whatever is blocking LOS to the caster + introducing ranged violence to the enemy warcaster's skull
iii: Multiple rockets to the face

eCaine is very hard to stop on an assassination run. He can pull it off one of two ways:
i: Within 19" and a sliver of LOW to enemy warcaster's base? Feat + 6 focus on extra shots. Hitting at POW 19 by the end if they all hit, and they should, since you brought the rangers along.
ii: Enemy wc is within 18.5" and no LOS, eCaine charges something, gatecrashes, feats and pops the remaining 3/4 (squire) focus into extra attacks.

eStryker really has 1 way of killing you dead:
i: Velocity upto 6" to obtain LOS to enemy WC, charge 9+2 for reach, overload suit 3d6 if 14 < health < 17, 5<health<11 and 1d6 if health >3. Proceed to smack opponent. If opponent somehow survived, use feat to obtain 1 more attack to finish him off.

[Negative9]

eHaley + Defender / ThunderHead

Tk screen, Temporal Acceleration, Tk Warjack and 2 focus for kicks

[Brettman008]

[QUOTE=Epy00n;91703for theory machining, assume a def 15, arm 22 (16arm+6 foc)caster, 15 hp. How do you kill it at range?[/QUOTE]

I assume you're talking about pCaine. I'd say the easiest solution is have Eiryss drop their focus, Rangers get LOS so Caine is effective RAT 10, Reinholdt gives him an extra shot. Now with 6 focus you have 3 fully boosted POW 12 shots. Assuming all three hit (5+ on 3D6 is a pretty safe bet) at dice -4 is 18-20 damage on average dice.

Moral of the story, protect your elf until it is time to go in for the kill.

[Dino-Czar]

At RAT 10 I wouldn't boost to hit, instead buying 2 more attacks with one extra damage die (squire gets you another). And don't be afraid to feat for that extra pow 12 either.

[Brettman008]

I'm pretty new to the faction. Are his pistols ROF 2 each? If so then yeah that's the way to play it.

[Mutton]

eCaine is ROF Infinity; he maxes out at 10 shots right now though due to focus constraints. In addition, his threat is two feet if you're using Ryssl (and why wouldn't you?!).

pCaine is not an assassin; he can do the job against soft targets, but he'll often flub it.

[Dino-Czar]

I'm pretty new to the faction. Are his pistols ROF 2 each? If so then yeah that's the way to play it.

pCaine is RoF 2 on each gun.

[sniggles]

mutton's got the right idea, pcaine doesnt really pack enough punch to take a caster out buy himself, but he's really good a putting the finishing touches on an already hurt WC, maybe shoot em up w/ defender, or charger the turn b4 (although, putting some hurt on the enemy WC will telegraph what you're trying to do, but come on, if i see an incarnation of caine across the table from me, i can safely bet s/he's going for the assas. run). caine has also got enough rat to chance shooting into melee, mind you i wouldn't suggest it but, then again dont the casters w/ high arm usually have low def.....

about the campers though, the elf probobly is the only thing that'll help you

[Shinobiwolf1980]

Although I have assassinated with pCaine on a number of occassions, it is true that he lacks that punch. He does provide good support to his army and allows it to get the job done well though.

My elf is on order....as is my gobber... yay....

[Griffin839]

someone mentioned least disturbance with the hammersmith? whats least disturbance? ive never heard of it before.

[admanb]

someone mentioned least disturbance with the hammersmith? whats least disturbance? ive never heard of it before.

When a model is slammed or thrown and its base will land on the bases of other models, the "rule of least disturbance" determines who is moved and where.