WarCon 2016 Game 1 (#151): Haley2 vs Borka1

:: Prologue ::

This weekend I attended a tournament in Trondheim with a total of 14 participants. I had 4 interesting and close games against a variety of opponents. First up was Anders and his Trolls, an opponent I faced for my first game the last time I went to Trondheim as well. His pair was Borka1 meat mountain and Doomshaper3 heavy-spam. Since I have no experience with Haley3 against Trolls and I am comfortable with Haley2 I dropped her. Anders dropped Borka, the correct choice I think, and we were ready!

:: 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:

Borka Kegslayer - WB: +5
- Pyg Keg Carrier
- Slag Troll - PC: 6
- Pyre Troll - PC: 5
Stone Scribe Chronicler - PC: 2
Trollkin Champion Hero - PC: 3
Trollkin Champion Hero - PC: 3
Trollkin Champions - Leader & 2 Grunts: 5
Trollkin Champions - Leader & 2 Grunts: 5
Trollkin Champions - Leader & 4 Grunts: 9
- Skaldi Bonehammer - Skaldi 3
Greygore Boomhowler & Co. - Boomhowler and 9 Grunts: 9
Krielstone Bearer & Stone Scribes - Leader & 5 Grunts: 4
- Stone Scribe Elder - Elder 1
THEME: Family Reunion - Tier 4

:: Pre-Battle Thoughts & Deployment ::

The scenario was Incoming and I got to go first, luckily because of his Tier bonus. My idea was to gun down the Boomies as soon as possible, hold the feat as long as possible and eliminate whatever came closest. Scenario -could- be an issue for me though as the endless streams of Trolls with high ARM and multiple boxes have proved to be troublesome in the past so I would keep a keen eye on Borka's positioning.

:: Game ::

Stuff runs up.

Boomies jam, big Champions go left and he's very spread out. Due to an unfortunate deployment mistake Borka ended up being boxed in and as he wanted his Krielstones up (either they had to move first without Fury or Borka had to stay still) for the aura, the poor Warlock was left in the back.

No reason to feat now. The idea was to blast apart the Boomies with whatever I had on the right flank and kiss + double TK Champions on the left to shoot them up with kiss + Stormwall + B13th. This worked out wonderfully: While Boomies are often hard to deal with the sheer volume of my firepower was enough to deal with them. Haley aiming with Reload is a classic trick when you just need as much power as possible.

The Trolls advance but they are still too dispersed to pose a real threat. I feel comfortable with my position when his turn is over.

I'm not afraid to feat early and I believe that in this situation I can wipe out a lot of models if I do so, on top of that I can even take the lead in scenario. I TK 2 Champions out of B2B, one from the right unit and 1 from the left, and kill 4 with Stormwall. Shooting clears up stragglers here and there and I move to 1-0.

Trolls shift slightly left but crucially there is no-one who contests me and I score in his turn. True, he scores as well, but that is not worrying me at this point in time.

I realize that by pulling everything back and shooting up his objective I can move to 4-1 now. The central lake is really making it hard for him because he can't get pathfinder in any way. I cast Temporal on the Stormwall and it shoots up the objective. The rest of my shooting clears out the things that are best to contest me with. I go to 4-1.

Only a single Champion ends up contesting me...

Haley TKs him out and I move to 5 CP.

Victory to the Swans!

:: Evaluation ::

Trolls are hard and tough, but when they are dispersed and I can handle them piecemeal they are not impossible to deal with by ways of shooting. In this game the Borka deployment error obviously cost my opponent a great deal. I expected +3 DEF to be up on Boomies, hence I had Eiryss on that flank, but this mistake made sure even that wasn't the case. 

Mid-game the Trolls were too spread out and the lake in the center gave me a lot of predictability for his threat projection. The early feat from Haley pretty much locked down the game and from there on out I don't think the Trolls ever had much of an opening at all. 

A great start and I was ready to take on my next opponent. Little did I know I had no idea what I would be up against...