Battle Report #13 - Kraye vs Thyra (50)

:: Prologue ::

I got a quick game today against a starting Menoth player. He was fielding a caster I've never faced before, Thyra, and I took the opportunity to try a build I've long been wanting to play: Kraye double Stormwall!

:: Lists ::

Cygnar:

Captain Jeremiah Kraye - WJ: +6
- Squire
- Stormwall - PC: 19
- Lightning Pod
- Stormwall - PC: 19
- Lightning Pod
Journeyman Warcaster - PC: 3
Stormsmith Stormcaller - PC: 1
Stormsmith Stormcaller - PC: 1
Storm Lances - Leader & 4 Grunts: 11

Opponent:

Thyra, Flame of Sorrow - WJ: +6
- Reckoner - PC: 8
- Reckoner - PC: 8
- Blood of Martyrs - PC: 9
Nicia, Tear of Vengeance - PC: 3
Choir of Menoth - Leader & 5 Grunts: 3
Daughters of the Flame - Leader & 5 Grunts: 5
Daughters of the Flame - Leader & 5 Grunts: 5
Daughters of the Flame - Leader & 5 Grunts: 5
Flame Bringers - Leader & 4 Grunts: 10
THEME: Black Widows - Tier 4

:: Pre-Battle Thoughts & Deployment ::

The game was outflank and I deployed so that my cavalry would be near the zone with no terrain in my way. Stormwalls central with Kraye (proxied by Alexia2), junior and squire. Stormsmiths went on either flank. I had won the roll-off and decided to go first. Menoth replied with Flame bringers opposite my cav, Warjacks behind the other circle and the Daughters spread out. 

:: Game ::

I wasted no time: Left Stormwall received Full Tilt and ran into the middle of the left circle. The right Stormwall took a central position and the Storm Lances filled up the space in-between.

Menoth replied with sending the cavalry and left Daughters up to jam me, but the right flank was indecisive and thus I thought it'd be unable to take advantage of the space (expensively) bought by the left flank units.

Turns out I was right: I cleared the left easily enough with the Stormlances + left Stormwall while the right Stormwall started working on the central Daughters. 

With nothing left on the left flank Menoth had to forfeit the zone to me, which is never a good idea. Furthermore the advance was still a little slow with the jacks not yet pressuring my colossals. 

I cleared up the Blood of Martyrs and utterly jammed the Protectorate forces out, killing off most of the remaining Daughters in the process. At this point, I was 4-0.

With Menoth being unable to contest the left zone I dominated it yet again:

Victory to the Swans!

:: Evaluation ::

I enjoy playing new stuff on both sides of the table (i.e. both fielding and facing things I haven't played before). The Blood of Martyrs and Thyra were both models I haven't seen before and I've never played Kraye. Unfortunately my opponent's inexperience put him on the back foot early as my points racked up too quickly for him to keep up. Furthermore with the demise of the left flank followed by the Blood of Martyrs, we were left with basically 2 Colossals + support vs 2 jacks and little support. 

I'd like to talk about Kraye a little bit. First of all this list is identical to the one I played into Vayl2 yesterday, barring the caster. While Stryker is kind of an "old reliable" type of caster, Kraye emphasizes speed, flexibility and hitting power. The latter appeals to me more so than the former. It's not a given that this Kraye list is ideal for what I'm looking for, nor that it's better than the Stryker list I played yesterday, but it's an interesting variation of the double Stormwall approach. 

In this game the only synergy-based spell I got to take advantage of was Full Tilt. I believe this list can play quite flexibly, switching up between Mage Sight/Guided Fire to devastate opponents at a distance to Full Tilt + feat + various power attack tricks to open some incredible angles. I'm already seeing loads of opportunities that I think are very hard to defend against. On a "squire-turn" I can get 4 POW15 shots which are both boosted attack and damage roll wise. 

I'm not sold on the rest of the army configuration, yet. Easy Rider really helps the Storm Lances and I've sorely missed it with Stryker, but the rest of Kraye's spell list does nothing for them. It's early days yet and one of the matchups I'm hoping this list can drop into is Retribution. In my experience, Storm Lances are hard for Retribution to deal with effectively. I look forward to experimenting more with this list and due to my new-found revelation that Haley possibly (probably??) has game into Legion (including Lylyth2) this could very well replace Stryker1 for Norwegian Masters.