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So a while back I quit Warmachine due to not having enough money to continue my Thunderhead addiction. However, I recently got back into it; I have a Rhulic army, but due to my two main opponents being Cryx and Orboros, scrapped that as Rhule doesn't really have much in the way of anti-stealth or Incorporeal-smashin'. So I switched over to using eCaine/pCaine, since all of my rhulic models work for Cygnar. Still gettin' my face beat in, though! So, here's the list I just tried yesterday and got rocked with.

pCaine
-Minuteman
Reinholdt
Squire

Arcane Tempest Gunmages
-Unit Attachment
-Hunter

Horgenhold Forge Guard Max Unit

Thor
-Avalancher

And here's the list I've been fighting and need help against. I apologize if I don't know the names of all the models.

Rather Stout Druid Man Who Doesn't Like Ranged Attacks And Hates me (Primal Rather Stout Druid Man, not Epic Rather Stout Druid Man). Builder or something?
-Smashy Rock Man With Giant Arms Who Pushes People Away Because He's Scared of a Relationship
-Skinny Rock Man Who Shoots Laser Beams And Almost One-Shots Caine
-Warp Wolf That Forgot to Bring any Weapons So Instead Slaps and Bites

Teleporting Stones of Annoyance
More Teleporting Stones of Annoyance
-One-Point Dwarf Smasher Attachment

Stick Mannequins Who Make Forests and Block LoS to the Entire Enemy Army

Fury Removal Device That I Don't Actually Know What it Does But It's Female

Lord of Dwarven Blood-Letting Who Also Eats Light Jacks For Breakfast And Teleports Around Because He Has A Bird


I kept telling myself while building this list that I'll need the heck outta those gunmages, but I found myself making them hang back to avoid getting murderized... but in return, they did nothing. However, I fight an Orboros player who will ALWAYS use The Lord of the Funny Horns and Bird Who's Name I Forget, and who always positions him behind or in forests at the start of the game. I know he's not technically that scary, but when he walks over and kills four dwarves and a Minuteman in one turn like he did yesterday, you get kinda paranoid about it. So any tips for dealing with that guy, shy of using the Badly Sculpted 13th?

Next, how do I beat Rather Stout Druid Man with a ranged Warcaster? He's got that annoying little thing where you just drop one dice for damage, period. And then after that he's like arm Higher-Than-My-Warjacks, and like... swats my bullets out of the air and eats them. My gunmages don't end up doing much against him either.

The one saving grace I found in my list is that the Avalancher ended up beatting the HECK out of Smashy Arm Rock Man. Somehow that shield ended up doing about 2/3 of the thing's health in one turn, and then the Forgeguard finished him off; however, that only happened because the Avalancher got charged by a Warp Wolf. I feel like if I had Ol' Rowdy and Strangewayes, things might've gone better. Then, those stupid mannequin things kept blocking LoS the whole game. Trees! TREES EVERYWHERE!

And last piece of "I lost because", my Minuteman fell flat on his face and got murdered by the Lord of the Jack-Nomming basically turn 1. It was probably my positioning, but the table we're playing on is only 40 inches or so because my friends and I are really cheap (Our terrain is paper with marker drawn on it!), and I had the Minuteman positioned just in front of my dorfs. And it ate them. Not all of them, just four of them; but it was enough.

So, does anyone have any advice? Things I should switch out? Slap in the face because my list should be winning? Facepalms because why would I take what I took against Orboros? I've always been a Warmachine player, so the Hordes aspect of the game has always confused me. And, I know that technically, Hordes are not OP; I know Warmachine is resource-management, and Hordes is Risk/Reward. But I can just never get that risk aspect to play out, ever. The other guy boosts everything and buys three or four attacks, and I see a whole bunch of fury sitting on each thing, but then he gets Fury from the Warp Wolf first and the Wolds just kinda chill. Meanwhile, if I don't keep a billion focus on Caine or Teleport away, Caine dies. Period.

So basically what I'm asking for here:

1. How can I improve my list?
2. How can I adapt to fighting Hordes, and how can a Cygnar/Rhulic Warmachine player take advantages of the disadvantages that Hordes players have? (AND WHAT ARE THE DISADVANTAGES BECAUSE DAMN)
3. Specifically, how can I be more prepared to fight against Orboros, who are either "lol I'm stealthed" or have Kreuger's "Lol it's not stealth, your RNG just sucks"? Is the best defense an astounding offense? How do I get my dwarves up the board in time to hit things? How can I murder Lord of the Face-Ripping? Should I quickshade Caine today, or should I procrastinate?

Sooo... uh, yeah. Thank you for anyone who took the time to read this, and here's hoping you guys can help me learn to cope in a world covered in forests and rock mans.