Battle Report #176: Haley2 vs Helynna

:: Prologue ::

With 2 games vs the Protectorate it was time to face off against Retribution. My opponent was fielding their new caster: Helynna. I was eager to get to grips with her infantry-arm-skew-variant.

:: Lists ::

Cygnar:

Haley2
- Squire
- Stormwall
- Thorn
Junior
- Charger
Ragman
Gobber Tinker
Arlan Strangeways
Storm Lances (max)

Opponent:

Magister Helynna - WJ: +30
- Chimera - PC: 0
- Discordia - PC: 0
- Phoenix - PC: 14
Arcanist Mechanik - PC: 2
Arcanist Mechanik - PC: 2 D
awnguard Sentinel Scyir - PC: 4
Soulless Voidtracer - PC: 2
Soulless Voidtracer - PC: 2
Lys Healer - PC: 3
Dawnguard Sentinels - Leader & 9 Grunts: 18
- Dawnguard Sentinel Officer & Standard - Officer & Standard: 4
- Soulless Escort - PC: 1
Dawnguard Sentinels - Leader & 9 Grunts: 18
- Dawnguard Sentinel Officer & Standard - Officer & Standard: 4
- Soulless Escort - PC: 1

:: Pre-Battle Thoughts & Deployment ::

The scenario was Recon and I went first. With as many infantry models on the table as this I was anticipating a fight where I would have to carefully pick my targets and leave the rest be. The idea was to send up the Stormwall on one side and the Storm Lances on the other as far as possible to put pressure on the table.

:: Game ::

We are playing with the new Objectives and my cloud-spawning Fuel Cache is just amazing. I run Thorn into it under Deflection while Stormwall runs with Temporal Acceleration. Lances fan out fairly close on the left flank.

Unsure of how to handle my big threat ranges the Retribution forces reply with respecting the Storm Lances' charge threat range, which I think is a decent move. If he moves forwards I can TK as many models as I need and deal massive damage, repositioning back and using covering fire and/or shift to stay stafe. Anyway, Retribution played a very conservative game.

Since I went first there were no points to score here just yet, however I had no intention of doing so either. What I wanted to do was take his Phoenix out which was totally doable with Domination + TK without risking Stormwall to Sentinels. The Storm Lances fanned out on the right flank to threaten points in his turn if he didn't run something up to contest. Haley was able to advance because of the Fuel Cache cloud. I love this objective! I decided not to shoot with Charger as I didn't want to proc vengeance.

Retribution has to make a move. Chimera is the sac pawn for contesting the left flag, feat goes up from Helynna and minifeats for both Sentinels. Thorn is pushed in from Helynna (didn't know she could do that!), Sentinels try and charge but Dodge brings him to safety.

It's go time! The idea is to shift, take points on the left flank and use Stormwall to buy space + time on the right flank. I take care to keep Haley out of Discordia's spray range. Thorn disrupts her just for good measure and the TK'd Chimera dies to shooting + lances. Stormwall kill a handful of Sentinels and pods an Arcanist.

The Vengeance on the right flank ensures some damage on the Stormwall despite Shift. However at dice -10 it takes a lot and despite 7 or so models getting to strike they don't inflict meaningful damage. On the left the Sentinels are unable to contest my flag and I move to 2-0.

I clear out the zone, kill the objective and dominate so as to move to 5 CP.

Victory to the Swans!

:: Evaluation ::

A fairly straight-forward matchup. The Sentinels exist in a catch22 situation here: They don't want to advance too far because I can launch a devastating alpha but they need to buy space and time. Spreading them out more might have been a "best of both worlds" scenario but they need their numbers to actually be a threat as well. 

Without any ranged threats and with the cloud from Fuel Cache Haley can get up a lot further on the table than in my previous games with her. This allowed her to feat on the entire Retribution army. It is good to see that her ability to systematically dismantle infantry based lists is still (seemingly) alive. These lists might be problematic for other casters/lists but having at least one answer in the pairing is a good start.