Battle at Lund: Invitationals Finals (#134): Haley2 vs Haley1

:: Prologue ::

After game 3 against Skarre1 I was completely exhausted. I couldn't bear the thought of another grind fest. I asked my opponent if we could roll a D6 to determine the winner. He was equally exhausted and agreed, but the head organizer wanted us to play because he was filming it and wanted to promote the convention with the Invitational Finals. That's perfectly fair of course and thus we decided to play. I lost the dice-off (we had to roll just to see, "what if" you know) so I had nothing to lose! Across the table from me was Fredrik with his Haley1/Haley3 pairing. As if this situation wasn't similar enough to the finals from Saturday, he dropped Haley1 into my Haley3 and got first turn. On Destruction.

:: 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:

Captain Victoria Haley - WJ: +5
- Squire
- Sentinel - PC: 4
- Stormwall - PC: 19
- Lightning Pod
Journeyman Warcaster - PC: 3
Eiryss, Angel of Retribution - PC: 3
Gorman di Wulfe - PC: 2
Arcane Tempest Gun Mage Pistoleers - Leader & 5 Grunts: 6
- Arcane Tempest Gun Mage Officer - Officer 2
Black 13th Gun Mage Strike Team - Lynch, Ryan & Watts: 4
Tempest Blazers - Leader & 4 Grunts: 10

:: Pre-Battle Thoughts & Deployment ::

Luckily I had this matchup fresh in mind and I knew what I wanted to do: Ensure solid targets would be next to e-leaps, keep things out of range and spread out so as to enable precision counter-strikes.

:: Game ::

Fredrik sends up Blazers on the right flank and ATGM on the left, towards mine.

I shoot his Stormwall with mine and boost damage. Haley camps a couple, puts up Deceleration and goes on a hill. She is nearly b2b with the Stormwall but Thorn is closer. I also ensure ATGM are not closest to Eiryss for e-leap shenanigans. Covering Fires are put down and Gastone takes up an offensive position with focus. A+H Stealth up.

His ATGM take out 3 of mine or so. Blazers manage nothing I believe but lose 1 when he tries to light cav between covering fire + objective. Sentinel is interestingly enough not B2B with Stormwall and by my estimation probably not in Vortex range either.

The plan is simple enough: Engage the Stormwall on one flank, kill or cripple it, take out Gorman with pod. Kiss on Stormwall is not stopped (Haley camped 2), nor does he try to stop TK on the Sentinel. Fine by me, Eiryss moves up and shoots off Arcane Shield so my Stormwall is now dice +3 for his. Haley2 Feats and receives Arcane from Junior. My Stormwall kills his, but I have to spend focus buying the last attack and the pod on Gorman is thus not boosted and thus deals no damage. Gastone take out a Tempest Blazer and Ryan takes another with Mage Storm. My ATGM do nothing but I'm massively up by now.

Fredrik has a couple of options: Blind + Eiryss the Stormwall. That one goes out the window when he forgets Shift and moves Gorman, thus not getting the oil. Eiryss runs up regardless. Haley1 tries a Chain Lightning Assassination following ATGM taking out Eiryss2. It has to roll 4+ to even leap to Haley2 and none of her 2 attempts even get that far (from where he'd be dice -7). 

Although Haley1 is at 0 focus I can't allocate to my Stormwall because of Eiryss so I see no reason to play it risky. I instead kill the objective, Eiryss2 and jam Thorn down his throat as well. Haley2 camps 4 + Arcane for ARM21. Gastone and B13th move up to put even more pressure on him. Gorman dies to pod. 

He tries a desperate assassination run on Haley2 with Feat. He needs box cars for a single wound and he gets none.

The game goes on for a couple of turns with me basically just clearing him out slowly but surely while Haley camps a ton. Eventually he concedes but it was pointless taking pictures meanwhile because the game was all but over following his failed assassination run.

Tournament Victory to the Swans!

:: Evaluation ::

I'm glad we didn't roll, after all! I think our exhaustion was very clear in this game but it affected Fredrik more so than me. Also the experience from my finals on Saturday vs Olov helped me approach this matchup better than I would've otherwise. It's very different having experience doing something and facing something. E-leaps and Deadeye are nightmares for Cygnar but this game I kept his things at bay. 

The matchup I feel is inherently in Haley2's favor because the Stormwall will eventually kill Haley1's Stormwall. It's just a matter of time with a superior feat in terms of colossal battles and 4" greater threat range. The shooting power is slightly in Haley1's favor because of Blitz combined with e-leaps from Blazers but this is far outweighed by Shift and the Stormwall dynamic. 

Overall I had an amazing run this weekend with 2 wins and 1 runner-up. Cygnar also completely dominated the convention with 3 first place finishes and 2 runner-ups. I could not be happier about my own performance but Olov and Fredrik doing so well in addition was just the icing on the cake. Until Legion players figure out that Vayl2 is the shit and Retribution players start picking up Ravyn again I believe we'll enjoy the meta a lot.