Battle Report #215: Haley2 vs Vayl2

:: Prologue ::

I don't see myself dropping Haley2 into Legion a whole lot. Certain skews might force me to. Regardless this was a matchup we had agreed to play and I'm always happy to try out new challenges.

:: Lists ::

Cygnar:

(Haley 2) Major Victoria Haley [+25] (Fuel Cache)
- Thorn [13]
- Stormwall [39]
- Squire [5]
- Ironclad [12]
Journeyman Warcaster [4]
- Firefly [8]
Captain Arlan Strangewayes [4]
Lanyssa Ryssyl, Nyss Sorceress [3]
Storm Lances (min) [12]

Opponent:

Vayl2
- Archangel
- Angelius
- Angelius
- Seraph
- Succubus
Shepherd
Shepherd
Forsaken
Strider Deathstalker
Strider Deathstalker

:: Pre-Battle Thoughts & Deployment ::

Legion is moving first and this is so big in this matchup. Whoever moves first buys so much table space. Regardless it is what it is and at least this allows me to set up for a scenario play. In Mk. 2 Time Bomb was the big enabler for Haley2 vs Vayl2. Without speed debuffs stopping charges -and- Vayl2 receiving Boundess Charge I was expecting this to be a completely different beast. Legion skewed slightly left and I put the Stormwall hard right so that I would be able to move it up in my first turn without receiving 3 angry birds in my face. The rest deployed centrally with the Firefly on my left, intending to contest T2.

:: Game ::

Legion runs up and moves slightly diagonally so as to get closer to me. Occultation goes up on the right Angelius and Admonition on the left.

Not much to do here but find my positions. I take care to keep Junior and Squire outside of his max shooting range and most other models ensure that they're outside of "dangerous" threat ranges. I allow him an Angelius into the Stormwall because this allows me to cripple at least a part of his power while I move ahead on scenario.

In the picture above I've basically lost the game 90% of the time if Legion plays optimally. Do you see the angle? I did this intentionally to see if my opponent would find it. I am camping 5 focus and Deflection so it's a little tricky to see perhaps. Anyways the angle is to throw the Seraph on Haley, using premeasuring to find the distance needed and then follow up with feat + max. spells and the Angelii shooting. Anyway he didn't see it and instead set up for the inevitable feat: One Angelius behind the linear obstruction on the right so as to be able to charge my Stormwall despite Haley feating, the other on the left flag and the Archangel on the central flag.

The idea now is to move Haley up and feat with cover from the obstruction, shoot the Archangel with the Stormwall while it takes the right flag and charge the Archangel with an Ironclad and a Lance (if needed) to hopefully move to 2-0 under Shift. The Firefly contests the left flank and the plan works perfectly. Haley camps a single focus.

Vayl is barely within feat range so if she's slipstreamed out she can possibly find a good opening. My opponent's problem is that he has nothing that can kill the Lance blocking LoS to Haley so his only assassination run has to hit Haley in cover (DEF20, 12s to hit). With me being ahead 2-0 on control points he doesn't have a whole lot of options so he goes for it. Icy Grip hits, which reduces me to DEF18. The first nuke hits but my opponent rolls poorly and the focus negates all the damage. He needs to hit two more but he's running out of fury and the damage probably won't be there. He even misses the first nuke and with that, the game is over.

Victory to the Swans!

:: Evaluation ::

Vayl2 in Mk. 2 was hard. Vayl2 in Mk. 3 seems even harder. While Obliteration is no longer available I think the cheaper nukes are even better vs Haley2 to be honest. Boundless charge ensures that he always has the threat range advantage, Occultation and Admonition are both extremely powerful abilities which I can't effectively deal with and with Time Bomb not stopping charges I can't shoot anything with the Stormwall without being in charge range in return (the only exception is if I Time Bomb -and- TK an Angelius). I think this matchup is in Vayl's favour because of this and that it is as such largely a matter of learning the matchup from Legion's point of view.

All that said and done, Haley2 still has Temporal Shift. The Stormwall is still incredibly hard and powerful, future sight really shining vs DEF14 stuff. The added power from the Ironclad also provides Haley with flexibility so there are angles here and it's not an autolose. While I did set up Haley2 for a "sure death" here that could easily have been avoided and I think my plan was solid. My opponent would've needed to do something differently in deployment or his second turn I think to drastically change the course of this game. When I could take out the Archangel -and- move to 2-0 it was just too much. His deployment was a little too skewed I believe because he failed to pressure the Stormwall on my first turn. Given the way his deployment and T1 played out he could've sent an Angelius into the Stormwall T2 with Chasten taking away Arcane Shield first. With the Archangel sitting 4" behind the flag instead of getting greedy (there was no way I would not feat and at least contest so he'll never get that point) I think Legion has a fairly decent position.

It is important to remember that I'll likely not drop Haley2 into Legion. I value getting to know the nature of the matchup for sure, but at the end of the day this is a faction that will receive a lot of Sloan drops, unless they bring some strong anti-tech.