Battle at Lund: Invitationals #1 (#131): Haley2 vs Father Lucant

:: Prologue ::

Sunday was upon us. With 12 games in 3 days and many, many hours of sleep short I was facing yet another 4 game tournament, full of the best players at the convention. I had no idea how I would get through this. It didn't exactly start off easy either: My draw for game 1 was the Lucant army of doom I faced in the semi-finals on Friday, with Ben at the helm again.

:: Lists ::

Cygnar:

Major Victoria Haley - WJ: +5
- Squire
- Stormwall - PC: 19
- Lightning Pod
- Thorn - PC: 8
Journeyman Warcaster - PC: 3
Eiryss, Angel of Retribution - PC: 3
Gastone Crosse - PC: 3
Reinholdt, Gobber Speculator - PC: 1
Lady Aiyana & Master Holt - Lady Aiyana & Master Holt: 4
Black 13th Gun Mage Strike Team - Lynch, Ryan & Watts: 4
Arcane Tempest Gun Mage Pistoleers - Leader & 5 Grunts: 6
- Arcane Tempest Gun Mage Officer - Officer 2

Opponent:

Father Lucant, Divinity Architect - WJ: +5
- Corollary - PC: 3
- Prime Axiom - PC: 19
Transfinite Emergence Projector - PC: 9
Transfinite Emergence Projector - PC: 9
Attunement Servitors - PC: 2
Enigma Foundry - PC: 3
Optifex Directive - Leader & 2 Grunts: 2
Optifex Directive - Leader & 2 Grunts: 2
Reductors - Leader & 9 Grunts: 6

:: Pre-Battle Thoughts & Deployment ::

The mission was close quarters. This time I went first and at least I knew what I was up against. The idea was to either alpha his Axiom pre-feat or get a battle engine during his feat and counter-feat to tackle the Axiom later. This time I also made a mental note to let gun mages have los to shield guard servitors and keep Aiyana safe.

:: Game ::

I run stuff up. With Stormwall running 14" and battle engines threatening 15" I had no worries for T2.

Covnergence put up a semi-circle around their flag. Crucially, Axiom shoots the Stormwall. He is just outside of 13", meaning I can charge him back. While I could've used Spyglass to figure this out as well, I didn't remember it at the time so this was golden. Now all I had to do was load the Stormwall on 4 focus, Temporal it, Kiss the Prime Axiom following a TK from Haley and hopefully one-round it.

So I activate my master plan with the biggest fluke of the game: Haley deadeyes ATGM so I can remove as many infantry guys as possible. That leaves little focus for TK + Temporal, yes? Wow. Ok. I decide to go in anyway because I fear being absolutely devastated if I let him up the table. In going in he might have to sacrifice 2 CP to killbox which might give me an opening. I kill a lot of infantry but the Axiom naturally survives. I forget both e-leaps and pod. What can I say? I was exhausted and demoralized from forgetting kiss. I finished with desperately trying to run Eiryss up. She was too far away.

Stormwall dies -and- Lucant feats. Left engine kills Eiryss. Prime Axiom is healed back a ton seeing as I forgot e-leaps.

Well, fuck me. He did give me 2CP from Killbox, but what to do? So I hatch this master plan, right: I Time Bomb Axiom and TK Lucant so that he ends up in the killbox and can't move out with SPD6 while Axiom cannot throw him. Putting Haley on the flag as well surely leads to 5-0, no?

After debating the conondrum for a while, Ben simply asks: "I can just run, can't I?". I don't even know what I was thinking. Of course he can. He does get greedy though: Axiom kills Thorn but more crucially the servitors keep repairing it instead of jamming his flag. In fact, the only thing contesting the flag was 1 Battle Engine and the Enigma Foundry...

With 3-0, I had one last, desperate chance. Squire died so I was at 8 focus. 3 for Temporal Acceleration + 2 for TK on myself to reach the flag, 2 for TK on the Foundry (it was outside of 2" of the flag) and 1 to boost damage on the Temporal attack. The rest of the army would just have to do enough damage on the foundry so that Haley could finish it off. Now this was a bit of a crazy moment as on the table to my left, Fredrik was charging his Haley1 into Terminus to kill him in melee and on my right, Olov was getting Haley3 into the thick of it. Haley, erm, Cygnar representing!

Reinholdt moves to Haley to give her Lucky Charm. Holt brainfarts as he doesn't kill Servitors before shooting (he could've charged) and he thus gets a number of Shield Guards. B13th follow up. Junior spikes a hit on Arcane Bolt on a Servitor, taking out a Shield Guard and Gastone spikes damage. Haley activates and goes in and it turns out that PS13 with boost and lucky charm does a LOT of work! I kill the battle engine, barely make the TK roll on the Foundry and TK myself to the flag for 5-0!

Victory to the Swans!

:: Evaluation ::

Another mess of a game that boils down to a dicey situation which again tips in my favor. I feel sorry for Ben losing 2 games like this, but at least in this game he could've ran the repair boys in to contest instead of repairing the Axiom as I had literally nothing that could threaten it at this point in time. By simply jamming up the flag there is absolutely no way I can win because he can run up all his huge bases in his next turn to contest and I'm all done. 

Forgetting to TK Aiyana was obviously huge. With Kiss I might even have put up a couple of wounds through shooting as well but I just brainfarted. Furthermore my "brilliant" move to TK Lucant after the Stormwall died was a huge waste. With Thorn alive and kicking I might've dropped the Foundry and spray dudes whilst TK-ing him to keep him away from me and gone to 3-0 with a slight chance of holding him off. I don't know though, part of why I did manage to deal with a battle engine in the first place was because Lucant ran and thus couldn't cast Deceleration. 

If the Axiom goes down to the Stormwall while Haley feats on Lucant I believe the game is more or less over in my favor. I don't see him coming back from that: If he feats the Stormwall kills a battle engine with kiss and I keep Lucant away with Time Bomb. That leaves Lucant exposed and a single battle engine vs my entire army more or less. 

In the end I get a single opening and the dice gods want me to take it home. I got lucky, no way around that. It's kind of ironic that my long shot here was more of a long shot than in my game vs Ben on Friday considering I had a way better plan here, the execution was just poor.