2d6 Crusade Game 4 (#140): Haley3 vs Asphyxious3

:: Prologue ::

For my last game of the tournament I was up against a list-locked Cryx opponent who had to field Gaspy3. I've never faced him before but a quick look at his list and spells + feat told me this was a Haley2 matchup. Keeping in with wanting to put Haley3 to the test however I dropped her.

:: 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
Captain Maxwell Finn - PC: 3
Ragman - PC: 2
Alexia1 & The Risen - PC: 5
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:

Asphyxious the Hellbringer - WJ: +4
- Vociferon
- Deathjack - PC: 12
Satyxis Raider Captain - PC: 2
Gorman di Wulfe, Rogue Alchemist - PC: 2
Bane Knights - Leader & 9 Grunts: 10
Satyxis Blood Witches - Leader & 9 Grunts: 6
- Satyxis Blood Hag - Satyxis Blood Hag 2
Satyxis Raiders - Leader & 9 Grunts: 8
- Satyxis Raider Sea Witch - Satyxis Raider Sea Witch 2
Mechanithralls - Leader & 5 Grunts: 3
Necrosurgeon & Stitch Thralls - Necrosurgeon & 3 Grunts: 2
The Withershadow Combine - Malevolus, Admonia, & Tremulus: 5

:: Pre-Battle Thoughts & Deployment ::

The scenario was Two Fronts and I went first. Storm Lances went down opposite his zone, the rest went behind my own. The idea was to establish a spearhead throughout the end of my own zone and start pressuring him from multiple angles. The main point here was to remain patient and keep making favorable piece trades.

:: Game :: 

Stuff runs up.

Raiders spread out, Knights move up to threaten, Witches stay a little behind centrally. Gaspy moves behind the wall.

I keep my cool with Lances as I don't want to start losing models to RFP just yet. I figure he might as well start scoring without killing any models. I start working on Knights on my left instead with Alexia1, Haley Past + Future + Prime all chipping in. Cloudwall gets pushed up and I consolidate Forge Guard behind it.

2 Knights move into my objective as they don't want to give Acosta Swift Vengeance. Raiders keep their cool, apart from 1 who jams me. DJ runs off-flank, -very- far away. Curious what his plan is but at the time he's too far away and I don't care. Gaspy runs to score. 1-0.

I have to force him forward now and keep capitalizing on the spearhead I've built up in my own zone. I clear out more Knights and the Lances make a ride-by attack. I end up a little clumsily tucked together but at least I'm a fair distance away. Cloudwall gets pushed again and Forge Guard reposition to threaten the center. 1-1.

Satyxis commit! I lose a Lance to RFP but that could not be helped. DJ moves behind the house. Knights move to contest. Some Satyxis jam me but crucially the UA + another with CMA make the required 10+ to hit Past and she dies (I used her to clear jams in the previous turn). 1-2.

I'm not short on time just yet: There are just about 0 threats remaining on the left flank so I can take one more turn to get stuff in place. Regardless I have to start working on Satyxis. I figure I can't feat now because neither Future nor Past (who can't even activate) will get much work done. That prevents me from getting away Ashen Veil from Raiders reliably. This prevents some Storm Lance damage. Cloudwall goes up again and the clear shift to the center marks my victory on the left flank. Alexia reposition to the right as well, as does Acosta but due to traffic jam issues he had to take a shitty road to get there (read: He went in a wide circle around lots of stuff and lost a lot of distance). 2-2.

Gaspy moves in and feats. Gorman clouds him up. Lances are jammed.

Ok, so now I have to do a lot of work. I don't want to feed Gaspy souls so my idea is to double chain blast and then charge in with lots of revived Forge Guard and Lances. However time is an issue (for the both of us) and in the heat of the moment I forget to Launch Past's chain blast under my feat. Regardless the revives do glorious amounts of work and I thoroughly jam his zone. Acosta lands behind Storm Lances for Swift Vengeance purposes as well and Alexia1 runs into his zone. I pull the cloudwall tighter around Haley3. 3-3.

Deathjack is horribly out of position and unable to do anything useful. Gaspy tries to clear his zone and although Gorman lands a pretty sweet Acid bomb, there's just not enough models left to do the job. A Satyxis even died as she missed Acosta and he slew her in return with Dodge + Riposte.

With the game still on 3-3 since I contested his zone, all I had to do was clear the objective in his zone along a McThrall in mind. With all the models I had available (and 5 souls on Alexia), this was not a problem and I won the game 5-3. On the table next to us the third guy who was 3-0 in the field lost his game to the Khador player I faced in game 3, which meant...

Tournament Victory to the Swans!

:: Evaluation ::

This game was a lot tighter than I expect Haley2's to have been. Gaspy3 is a useless caster into Cygnar I believe, he does way too little compared to his former incarnation for example. It feels like playing against someone with a handicap. I made a few technical mistakes in this game, largely related to traffic jam issues, but apart from that I felt it was pretty smooth sailing. 

One thing that could've made this a lot harder though would be a more active Deathjack. I'm not sure how or when, but having that expensive character jack just run back and forth like he did is very inefficient. Gaspy does have a couple of spells which really helps mr DJ overcome some of the cloudwall-temporal-flux issues. I don't know. Forge Guard were always ready ^^. 

I can tell that I still need to practice my Haley3 game, but it's getting better and forcing myself to play her into what I consider to be "Haley2's matchups" I simply get more training with her. As long as I focus the list selection choices on the matchups I need her to deal with I think it's fine. 

Another tournament win and another string of games that went my way! Game 3 vs Khador was really tough and could easily have gone both ways. The dice gods still favor me, apparently, and I'm not complaining.