Battle at Lund: Swedish Masters #3 (#123): Haley3 vs Lylyth2

:: Prologue ::

One of the obstacles Cygnar has to overcome is Legion. In these crazy ADR-season 3 times Lylyth2 is one of the biggest ones. True to form I had to run into her sooner or later. At list this game gave me a matchup to play Haley3 into before I would be list-locked (the Masters was the only tournament I participated in during Battle at Lund which had required both lists to be played).

Wielding the Legion forces was a man named Martin. We had a tight game and I hope we get to meet again!

:: Lists ::

Cygnar:

Major Prime Victoria Haley - WJ: +3
- Squire
- Charger - PC: 4
Journeyman Warcaster - PC: 3
Haley Future - PC: 0
Haley Past - PC: 0
Rhupert Carvolo, Piper of Ord - PC: 2
Captain Maxwell Finn - PC: 3
Ragman - PC: 2
Stormsmith Stormcaller - PC: 1
Alexia, Mistress of the Witchfire - PC: 4
Viktor Pendrake - PC: 2
Savio Montero Acosta - PC: 3
Storm Lances - Leader & 4 Grunts: 11
Trencher Infantry - Leader & 5 Grunts: 6
Horgenhold Forge Guard - Leader & 9 Grunts: 8
- Captain Jonas Murdoch - Murdoch 2

Opponent:

Lylyth, Shadow of Everblight - WB: +5
- Succubus
- Naga Nightlurker - PC: 5
- Shredder - PC: 2
- Nephilim Bolt Thrower - PC: 6
- Nephilim Bolt Thrower - PC: 6
- Ravagore - PC: 10
- Ravagore - PC: 10
Strider Deathstalker - PC: 2
Strider Deathstalker - PC: 2
The Forsaken - PC: 2
Blighted Nyss Shepherd - PC: 1
Blighted Nyss Shepherd - PC: 1
Totem Hunter - PC: 3
Maximus - PC: 2
Feralgeist - PC: 1

:: Pre-Battle Thoughts & Deployment ::

I have no experience with the Totem Hunter nor Maximus so I largely agreed with myself to ignore them because I need what brain power I have to focus on actually playing Cygnar into Lylyth2. Unfortunately I have no experience with Haley3 into her so this would be learning by doing: extreme edition.

We were playing Fire Support and I won the most important dice roll of the game: I got to go first! One side was massively better than the other so Martin took that side. At least I had a piece of cover I could keep Haley behind outside of the killbox. The idea was to play Lances and Forge Guard aggressively and basically sacrifice Alexia to buy time. Revives and pushing the table would be my primary means of putting pressure on Lylyth.

:: Game ::

I take care to move up in such a manner so that if Lylyth feats he basically gets Trenchers (dug in with flux) and Storm Lances far off, disregarding scatters. I put up Arcane Shield on Lances because I want him to really spend his fury if he wants to go for them. Having not played this matchup before I'm not sure if this is better than pushing ahead full speed. I put Tac Supremacy on Haley so I could spread out Flux better and get her into the position in cover I wanted.

Legion advances in return, holds the feat and accomplish just about nothing.

It's go time! He's hidden a deathstalker behind the central obstruction so I put up Ghost Walk from Future on the Lances to allow the one hiding behind my Effigy to charge him. Another lance jams down the Ravagore + Bolter on my left flank and the leader runs into the middle of it with 1 guy hanging behind as per usual. I should've switched over Tac. Supremacy to Forge Guard but realized this too late. I put up Flux. Alexia runs in to create havoc. If nothing else DEF15 ARM16 10 boxes requires attention.

My opponent is stressed by this sudden aggression and makes a few mistakes. He ends up feating but considering it's a Lylyth2 feat he doesn't accomplish a whole lot. 3 Lances die but the one far up in a Trench survives. Trenchers lose a few as do Forge Guard. Past bites the dust but Alexia miraculously survives.

With the Storm Lance in a trench and Future alive this is a golden opportunity. Did I mention Acosta was untouched and got Swift Vengeance? I summon Past, Feat and revive Lances. Alexia gets a couple of souls. Charger moves up so as to threaten him. Acosta and Lances make a -HUGE- mess of things as they rip up the Ravagores (both down to ~half boxes) a bolter and a half and the Naga. Forge guard realize they should probably have spread out rather than rely on defensive line.

As I end this fantastic turn however I make a huge mistake: Prime is B2B with Effigy instead of 0.75" away. I even had Tac Supremacy which I used to get Past into position...

So naturally my opponent goes for the opening with boosted blast damage from the Ravagores. The first one hits and puts me on fire but its boosted damage roll isn't disastrous. The second loses Spirit to the Lance's Free Strike and without being able to boost he doesn't do enough. Lylyth2 spends her fury on the Lances and when she comes to Acosta she has nothing left to boost damage. She fails the 6+ and he survives with Swift Vengeance.

Acosta uses Swift Vengeance to move over to Lylyth2 and strikes her. Fire continuous didn't kill Prime. Ragman moves up and uses Death Field. I kill my own objective so Prime can charge to get Past in melee range of Lylyth and still be in control (I could've run but needed Flux). Effigy goes down and Past charges in to take down Lylyth2!

Victory to the Swans!

:: Evaluation ::

The strategy worked well here, I managed to push hard and fast on the table and force him to commit to a decision. That decision was to feat in a position where he couldn't fully take advantage of dropping things into my softer back field because he was thoroughly jammed up. This tipped the scales and had it not been for my decision to put Prime B2B with the Effigy I think this grind would have been comfortably in my favor.

The questions I'm left with largely revolve around the strategic decisions on both sides: Should I have pushed further and taunted feat on T1? Should he have had a more compact formation? I know I should have had Tac Supremacy on Forge Guard after T1 to get them up the field (not to mention they should've been spread out) and Arcane Shield on Haley after the Lances lost 3 to the traffic jam, but there are lots of questions that I believe require more games to be answered. 

One piece I certainly missed in this game was the Lancer. There have been games recently where I've also wanted to arc repudiate so I'll probably move to him from the Charger again in the future. Given the matchups I play Haley3 into instead of Haley2 I think the Lancer is better. Both Retribution and Legion have troublesome upkeeps across multiple casters.