"Some men do not wear the uniform comfortable yet are such prodigious killers a nation must put them to use or risk them turned against it."

—Warmaster General Olson Turpin

Lieutenant Allister Caine is a Cygnar Warcaster in Warmachine Mk2.

Lieutenant Caine is the standard version of Captain Allister Caine. Both models cannot be used in the same army.

Background and Description

Lieutenant Allister Caine was a student of the Arcane Tempest who was known both for his skill and insubordination. When he was discovered controlling warjacks to perform his punishment duties for him, his status changed, though his behavior did not. As an officer he is just as reckless as he is skilled.^[1]

Special Abilities and Weapons

• Feat: Maelstrom
  • Caine makes a normal Spellstorm Pistol attack against every enemy model currently in his control area, ignoring intervening models. Caine cannot use Maelstrom while he is in melee. When resolving Maelstrom, Caine has no back arc and his from arc extends to 360°.
• Range Amplifier: When this model casts a spell and is the point of origin for the spell, the spell gains +5 RNG.
• Weapons
  • Spellstorm Pistol ×2 (Ranged)
    • Magical Weapon
  • Sword (Melee)
• Spells
  • Blur: Target friendly model/unit gains +3 DEF against ranged and magic attack rolls. Upkeep spell.
  • Deadeye: Target friendly model/unit gains an additional die on each model's first ranged attack roll this turn.
  • Snipe: Target friendly model's/unit's ranged weapons gain +4 RNG. Upkeep spell.
  • Teleport: Place this model anywhere completely within 8" of its current location, then its activation ends.
  • Thunder Strike: Instead of suffering a normal damage roll, a non-incorporeal model hit by Thunder Strike is slammed d6" directly away from the spell's point of origin regardless of its base size and suffers a POW 14 damage roll. Collateral damage from this slam is POW 14.

Strengths

• Catch Me If You Can: If moving in a straight line both forward and backward, Caine can advance, shoot at things and retreat to a point even further than he was before by casting Teleport. Depending on your focus allocation and casting that turn, Caine can have anywhere from 0–4 focus to save for boosting or buying extra Spellstorm Pistol attacks. His defense is also high, so he has a good chance of successfully disengaging from a freestrike.
• I Kill with My Heart: If the enemy gave Caine some space, but crammed everyone into his control area such that every inch was covered except his melee range, Caine could shoot at each one of them using Maelstrom. This can be used in conjunction with his assassination run to generate an extra shot against the warlock or warcaster, or it can simply be used to clear out the infantry in preparation for a follow up attack or simply to keep Caine's army safe.
• Check Your Arc Node at the Door: Unless you're planning shenanigans with placed Thunder Strikes or buffing distant units, there's no real need for Arc Nodes. Caine's Range Amplifiers allow him to Thunder Strike from 13" (19" collateral damage threat) away or buff friendly models from up to 11" away.
• Gun Mage Assassin: Caine's mobility gives him the ability to hunt down and kill annoying solos, officers, and attachments while still retreating to safety. Without Snipe, Caine has a 19" threat.

Weaknesses

• Tag, He's It. No wait, he's dead: If that freestrike you're eating in order to keep him safe deals 28 damage, he's dead. Anything P+S 18 is almost assuredly going to kill him (though those models tend to have lower MAT), while MAT 8 infantry tend to have, at most, P+S 13–15. The man is even afraid of blast damage due to his ARM 13.
• Thunder Strike! Now What?: Casting Thunder Strike uses up 5 focus if he boosts to hit, as he can't afford to miss. After that, what can he expect to do reliably?
• Nothing for Warjacks: You could cast Blur and Deadeye on a warjack, but there'd be very little reason to do so. Probably the best you could hope for is to use focus to power a ranged or melee warjacks attacks and then keep the focus on his own.
• Defensive Teleportation: Teleport can't be used to place you further up the field since casting it and placing Caine ends his activation.
• Focus Hog: To take advantage of his ranged combat abilities, you're going to be spending nearly all of Caine's focus or keeping him safe with Teleport. In order to shoot his entire ROF, you're spending two focus to buy the additional attacks. If you're just boosting the initial attacks, that's two focus for boosting. With RAT 8, you're probably not boosting attack rolls against anything other than a specialist unit (high DEF) or warcaster, and still you're paying lots of focus. If you decide to upkeep either Blur or Snipe or cast Deadeye, you'll realize that there's just not enough focus to go around.
• Not quite an Assassin: More of an assassin assist. However, he needs to have something to finish the job on the assassination as his POW 12 guns, even firing four shots (or five during Maelstrom) and boosting, isn't going to be enough to finish the job.
• Can't Bring a Gun to Knife Fight: Enemies who run to engage Caine can trap him, especially if they can block in his base. Casting Teleportat will end his activation and he can't use Maelstrom while engaged. If he can disengage, a MAT 6 enemy needs to roll 9 to hit him. If he suffers any damage roll of 28-35 points of damage (typically a warjack hit) then he's dead.

Synergies

• Ironclad: Focus efficient melee warjack allows Caine to focus on shooting things.
• Stormclad: Gain focus from Stormblade to run or charge it at the enemy.
• Ol' Rowdy: Running for free lets Ol' Rowdy keep up with the fast moving Caine without the expenditure of focus.
• Arcane Tempest Gun Mages: Buffing the unit's attack roll with Deadeye gives them an increased probability of Critical Brutal Damage or Thunderbolt's knockdown.
• Squire: If Caine casts Snipe on himself, he can extend the number of his targets for Maelstrom with his extended Control Area. Also allows him to reroll a Thunder Strike.
• Captain Arlan Strangewayes: Use Power Booster to enhance Caine's 'jacks, or give them Evasion to position them better.
• Precursor Knights and Officer: Take advantage of their Ranked Attack so Caine has some cover to fire from behind their Shield Wall.

Rules Errata

Articles

Notes

1. ¹ Warmachine: Prime Remix. 2006