Battle Report #87: Haley3 vs Ravyn

:: Prologue ::

With some Stryker2 games recently it was time to pull out Haley2 today. Luckily I was facing Retribution which is a matchup Haley3 is supposed to go into. When I got the dreaded Ravyn I was excited because she is really strong against Cygnar, but at least it wasn't her theme force madness. Regardless, a single unit of MHSF with Snipe + Feat can take out Haley3 easily enough if I'm not careful. To the game!

:: 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
Ragman - PC: 2
Stormsmith Stormcaller - PC: 1
Savio Montero Acosta - 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
Arcane Tempest Gun Mage Pistoleers - Leader & 5 Grunts: 6
- Arcane Tempest Gun Mage Officer - Officer 2

Opponent:

Ravyn, The Eternal Light - WJ: +6
- Sylys Wyshnalyrr, The Seeker
- Sphinx - PC: 7
Arcanist - PC: 1
Elara, Tyro of the Third Chamber - PC: 3
- Hyperion - PC: 18
Houseguard Thane - PC: 2
Mage Hunter Infiltrators - Leader & 5 Grunts: 5
- Eiryss, Mage Hunter Commander - PC: 3
Mage Hunter Strike Force - Leader & 9 Grunts: 8
- Strike Force Commander - Commander 2
Houseguard Riflemen - Leader & 5 Grunts: 5

:: Pre-Battle Thoughts & Deployment ::

We were playing Incursion and I won the roll-off and opted to go first. In my experience, initiative is almost always worth it against Retribution. There are tons of assassination angles for both sides so regardless of what your list is supposed to do it tends to end up as a game of attrition or "flank-chicken", in both cases board control is essential. 

I deployed Lances on the anticipated weak flank. A bit of a change, I know, but I wanted them to contest a flag and besides the Hyperion was pre-deployed in such a manner that I knew I could threaten him from that side as well. Stormblades went centrally, opposite said Hyperion, and the rest took the right flank.

:: Game ::

Wary of Snipe + Feat + Go end of game bottom of T1 I decided to not go full speed with Haley. I did put up the cloudwall with TAC supremacy and hid everything behind, save for the Lances which went for an aggressive move to own the table.

 ¨
Eiryss3 shoots off Arcane Shield but fails to kill a Lance. MHSF ping off a couple of models here and there, nothing major. ¨

The aggressive nature of the MHSF has to be punished. Acosta goes in because of Swift Vengeance and kills 2. Storm Lances go in as well and kill a few. ATGM take a couple of more and I believe even Lynch gets one. I push the cloudwall and I'm confident he won't be in a strong, scoring position.

The retaliation focuses on the Storm Lances, killing most of them. Acosta also takes a nose dive to the grave. Not surprising, given his position.

Feat turn! Stormblades are in a good spot and they've lost a couple as well. What ensues then is Ragman moving up to lower the ARM on Hyperion. I feat and revive 4 models and kill said Hyperion, scoring 2 points in the process, contesting the left flag and completely obliterating any significant Retribution presence on the left flank.

The devastating feat turn left Retribution essentially out-attritioned. We played out 2 scenarios: 1 in which Ravyn went for a crazy assassination run on Haley (with swift hunter etc she can get pretty far). She ended up in her melee range after we modified some rolls earlier on but with only 1 focus left there was no way for her to compete with a DEF17 ARM17 15-box caster. The secondary scenario we played out was a desperate couple of contests and an attempt to score on the left side. It didn't work out either because there were too many Cygnarans left on the table, frankly.

Victory to the Swans!

:: Evaluation ::

It is my experience that Retribution struggles if it cannot understand the pace of the game when they face Cygnar. Likewise Cygnar instantly loses if they fail to assess how the Retribution forces project momentum and strength. In this game, I believe the MHSF grossly over-estimated their defensive capabilities T1. Their aggressive move was not warranted without feat-backup because they didn't take out anything essential. In return, I was able to kill off almost all of them without having to care about anything else. Sure I lost Lances but Lances are only around in the first place to be revived, right? When he has to use Hyperion to remove the Storm Lances within range of Ragman, Storm Lances and Stormblades it's a pretty terrible trade for him considering I have Feat intact. 

What I feared here was that he'd bide his time as he was going second and go for a 2-0 lead where I would be forced to face Hyperion and MHSF at the same time. The way I see it there are 2 ways MHSF can go about this game, strategically: Move up T1/T2 with feat to take stuff out or stay deep, simply not shooting at all perhaps save for a couple of longshots, and just wait for a decisive moment to strike where I'm forced to deal with multiple adversaries at once. As it were I was able to take on one element at a time which quickly left the important pieces in tatters.