Battle Report #82: Haley3 vs Severius1

:: Prologue ::

Haley3 with a couple of minor changes since her first trial by fire, notably getting some Stormblades in to better deal with armor. Severius1 looks to be a horrible matchup on paper. How would it be in action? Read on!

:: Lists ::

Cygnar:

Major Prime Victoria Haley - WJ: +3
- Squire
- Lancer - PC: 6
Journeyman Warcaster - PC: 3
Haley Future - PC: 0
Haley Past - PC: 0
Rhupert Carvolo, Piper of Ord - PC: 2
Stormsmith Stormcaller - PC: 1
Eiryss, Angel of Retribution - PC: 3
Storm Lances - Leader & 4 Grunts: 11
Trencher Infantry - Leader & 5 Grunts: 6
Black 13th Gun Mage Strike Team - Lynch, Ryan & Watts: 4
Stormblade Infantry - Leader & 5 Grunts: 5
Tempest Blazers - Leader & 4 Grunts: 10

Opponent:

Grand Scrutator Severius - WJ: +6
- Hierophant
- Blessing of Vengeance - PC: 7
- Reckoner - PC: 8
Vassal of Menoth - PC: 2
Gorman di Wulfe, Rogue Alchemist - PC: 2
Eiryss, Angel of Retribution - PC: 3
Wrack - PC: 1
Exemplar Errant Seneschal - PC: 2
Exemplar Errants - Leader and 9 Grunts: 8
- Exemplar Errant Officer & Standard - Exemplar Errant Officer & Standard 2
Holy Zealots - Leader and 9 Grunts: 6
- Monolith Bearer - Monolith Bearer 2
Choir of Menoth - Leader & 3 Grunts: 2
Lady Aiyana & Master Holt - Lady Aiyana & Master Holt: 4
Knights Exemplar - Leader and 5 Grunts: 5

:: Pre-Battle Thoughts & Deployment ::

I was pretty sure this would be a game of attrition where I would need to be careful to avoid Severius feating to completely take me out of the game. With a control area of 16" it would be very hard to keep Haley away from him. An interesting dynamic in this game is that if Severius feats I can still upkeep Tactical Supremacy because of the Squire and thus it's possible that I can keep the game intact: If I can pressure Severius' flank long enough I can draw out the game as it's hard for him to score points, in which case I might survive the two turns without Past + Future Haley. We were playing the same scenario and terrain as last game with a minor difference in terrain. I got first turn.

I deployed Storm Lances on one flank and Tempest Blazers on the other. The rest went in the middle and Trenchers spent their AD to move centrally with Eiryss on the right flank.

:: Game ::

Stuff moved up. Between the two woods and the impassable I cloud-walled off absolutely everything apart from Storm Lances and Eiryss.

Zealots mini-feated, Eiryss backed up, Errants did what Errants do, Blessing moved within 8" of the Storm Lances and Eiryss died to Ashes-to-Ashes. While that spell is pretty much impossible to completely dodge throughout the game I should've been able to keep Eiryss safe through T1 at the very least.

I moved the cloudwall up, sent in 2 Storm Lances and moved the Stormblades closer to the action. I took out a few Errants but Defender's Ward is annoying. I also thought they were innately immune to spells and not that it was granted by their standard, otherwise I'd probably go for said standard followed up with Repudiate on them. They're a lot easier to deal with when they don't have their +2/+2. The Stormcaller was activated too late and didn't disrupt Blessing before it used Enliven to move away from the Storm Lances who did some minor damage on the right flank. Past walked up and cast Chain Blast on the solo near the zealots, hoping for a good scatter. Alas, it was not to be.

Towards the end of my turn I decided to try and jam the middle down with Tempest Blazers. I figured that with Dirge and Temporal Flux he'd have a hard time removing them.

Turns out all you need is enough attacks and those spikes will come. A total of 4 (!) Blazers die along with a couple of other models. Severius moves up but is just outside of feat range to reach Haley Prime. Despite using all his focus on offensive spells (including boosted Ashes to Ashes which failed its 7+ to hit) he held the feat. 14/14, no camp...

It's go time! B13th (minus Lynch, who died to Zealot aoes as I was stupid enough to put him base to base with the objective) cleared out the path for Future Haley. Haleys then activated, Prime cast Temporal Flux and they moved up. Feat went up, Past Force Hammered Gorman (<2" away from Severius) who was within 5" of Future (DEF12) and hit with a boosted roll, rolling a 5 for distance and thus knocking Severius. Future followed up with her boosted POW13s and that was game.

Victory to the Swans!

:: Evaluation ::

I struggle to use the Tempest Blazers well and I struggle to "organize" the elements behind my cloudwall properly. It gets super-crammed in there and I need to be better at thinking "lanes", i.e. letting 30mm and 40mm (Lancer) get through. Speaking of Lancer, I should probably stop casting Temporal T1 when I go first and run him up instead as I don't really need +2 DEF at such distances, behind a cloudwall. Lesson learned and noted. 

Storm Lances did their job well enough on the flank and it hit me at one point that if I had played Stormblades a little more offensively I would be in a decent position to go 3-0 in the last turn, where I opted for assassination instead. 

I think Severius is a hard matchup for Haley because his feat is just brutal, but at the same time Haley has tons of tech that destroys this kind of list. I still think it's uphill for her but it's probably not as unplayable as I first thought. It should also be noted that if Severius mis-judges and goes for gold by trapping Haley in his feat he is super-exposed for an attrition game (because part of why he keeps this in check is the threat he poses to Haley and thus keeps her, an by extention much of the support units, far away). 

A good game and this time around I managed to get the assassination off as well. Had Past missed the Hammer (6+ boosted can fail, trust me!) the idea was to revive 3 Tempets Blazers in a consecutive chain up towards his hill inside and aim to get Brutals, followed by CRA from Trenchers and whatever else might've been nearby. 

Looking forward to more games with this odd duo. Playing without Stormwalls, TAC and ATGM sure is a change of pace!