Battle Report #150: Haley2 vs Goreshade3

:: Prologue ::

2nd game of the night and Haley2 is up. I'm playing against Goreshade3 with which I have no prior experience. Interesting!

:: 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:

Goreshade, Lord of Ruin - WJ: +5
- Skarlock Thrall
- Kraken - PC: 19
Darragh Wrathe - PC: 4
Mechanithralls - Leader & 5 Grunts: 3
Mechanithralls - Leader & 5 Grunts: 3
Necrosurgeon & Stitch Thralls - Necrosurgeon & 3 Grunts: 2
Necrosurgeon & Stitch Thralls - Necrosurgeon & 3 Grunts: 2
Bane Riders - Leader & 4 Grunts: 11
Soulhunters - Leader & 4 Grunts: 9

:: Pre-Battle Thoughts & Deployment ::

So a fast list and a hard list with a strong late-game attrition play due to recursion. The idea was simple then: Shoot hard and fast and don't be afraid to feat early! We were playing Incursion and I was going first again.

:: Game ::

I send the Stormwall up, Thorn goes in a trench and the B13th spread out with Ryan in woods for Prowl. Can't remember the last time I effectively Prowled these guys. ATGM go wide in anticipation of Soulhunters and A+H and Gastone advance on either side of the Stormwall. 

Recursion-shenanigans start on the left flank as Goreshade + Necros basically summon 2 McThralls per 1 McThrall killed. Those units are growing! The cavalry all make a massive move down the tabletop though and when my opponent finishes his turn with the Kraken going up to well within Stormwall threat range, I'm 99% sure this will be a feat turn. Kraken fires its AoE towards Haley (Decel up), it scatters on Gastone (survives on 2 boxes, thank you Decel!) and Reinholdt. The poor gobber bit the dust. ARM9 is miserable.

I contemplate holding my feat for about 2 seconds before I realize how brutal it will likely be. So the idea is to feat, shoot out the cav and engage the Kraken on one side with the Stormwall and cripple said side to prevent retaliation. A+H activate, kiss on Riders, shoot Riders, put 4 boxes on two of them. B13th finish these 2 off before killing a third. Gastone kills the fourth after Junior misses his shot. Haley activates, puts up Temporal on the Stormwall and feats. I also cast Deadeye on ATGM. Thorn went up to try and kill 2 McThralls out of soul-range but fluffed both attacks. They try to make an impression on the Soulhunters but I can't roll crits for the really sweet damage and I "only" kill 2 of them. Stormwall goes in vs Kraken. I was sure that Darragh's Beyond Death also affected the Stormwall so I rolled all damage rolls as dice -1 instead of +1. Because of this he survived with a few more boxes left than I had hoped for. Anyway, a very good turn still.

The blue McThralls were out of feat so Goreshade counter-feated on Thorn to try and do some damage: And damage he did! Thorn died to 2 little buggers creeping into his back arc. The Kraken killed Holt and left Aiyana on 1 box. Soulhunters went in to jam.

Stormwall was in a bit of a shitty spot given that I needed to kill the Kraken: The McThralls nearby would be a huge threat. Luckily Ryan was still alive and she mage stormed in pretty much the perfect position to cover its flank. I then pounded the Kraken to death and killed a Necro with a boosted pod. Pew pew! I also made sure to clear out every enemy model within 4" of the flag to score with the Stormwall going B2B with it.

On the right flank I TK'd Haley out of the woods and she charged a Soulhunter, boosting the attack roll to kill it. This freed up 3 gun mages which she helped out with Deadeye and they went to town and killed the rest of the Soulhunters. Eiryss ran up to the right flag and I scored 2-0.

Cryx tried to find an opening on the Stormwall to have some chance at getting back in the game but it was not to be as the Mage Storm was just huge. With Goreshade standing on 0 focus in front of the Stormwall and said Stormwall having lost only 15-20 boxes or so my opponent conceded the game.

Victory to the Swans!

:: Evaluation ::

This was the first time my opponent played Goreshade3 and the hyper-aggressive cav move bottom of 1 with an opening to the Kraken as well is a combination of this and not knowing just how withering my list's firepower really is. That one turn pretty much shaped the entire game and although a greedy and stupid mistake cost me Thorn he wasn't really close to getting back in after that start. 

I think that Goreshade needs to utilize the insane McThrall threat range trick here to zone Cygnar out. If that can be done then it's a more interesting game, but it should be said that Cygnar has a lot of tools with which to scalpel out the Necros (boosted pods, Arcane Bolts, Time Bomb, e-leaps...). I also believe Occultation should be on Bane Riders. It makes them a -lot- harder for me to deal with and Goreshade himself can be protected by positioning, terrain and awesome base stats. 

All in all a good game and the last practice round went well. I'm savoring every last bit of the Haley lists before they will likely be nerfed away for a long time.