Battle Report #219: Haley2 vs Kromac1

:: Prologue ::

With the emergence of casters like Baldur2 arm skew and Wurmwood, I imagine Haley2 might often have to play vs Circle. One of the more problematic casters for her to face I believe is Kromac1. I wasn't sure how bad this was so I was eager to try it out.

:: 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:

Kromac the Ravenous - WB: +26
-    Kromac the Ravenous (BEAST FORM)
-    Druid Wilder - PC: 4
-    Feral Warpwolf - PC: 0
-    Pureblood Warpwolf - PC: 9
-    Warpwolf Stalker - PC: 19
Swamp Gobber Chef - PC: 1
Reeves of Orboros - Leader & 9 Grunts: 16
Reeves of Orboros - Leader & 9 Grunts: 16
Sentry Stone & Mannikins - Leader & 3 Grunts: 5
Sentry Stone & Mannikins - Leader & 3 Grunts: 5

:: Pre-Battle Thoughts & Deployment ::

The scenario was Recon and Circle got first turn. They deploy symmetrically with the bg in the middle and the Reeves on one flank each. I weigh my lines a little to the right, intending to perhaps threaten a scenario angle, depending on what happens.

:: Game ::

Circle move up. The forest on the right side, the sentry stones and the fuel cache cloud blocks a huge part of his forces from my LoS.

The Feral was extremely eager to get up behind the house. It had warped speed so I had a feeling it might be within threat range of my Ironclad. If I could kill that thing right off the bat I'd be willing to feat. Indeed it was well within my maximum range so I started counting up the focus. Haley might end up having to camp 0 but I'll take it, considering Thorn is more or less a huge waste of points once Kromac comes further up the field.

The trick works well and Lanyssa lands the Mark so the Ironclad goes in on full focus + free charge + temporal acceleration. The Feral dies and I have a good start.

My opponent looks for assassination angles but since Haley2 got lucky on her TK roll on the Feral (no boost needed), I was camping 1 on top of being in the trench. He decided against going for this and instead set up for a longer game. The Reevers on the left got a little lucky with their columns and took out the Ironclad's Cortex. Kromac followed up with Rifting said Ironclad so I was pretty much stuck.

In his eagerness to buy himself some space and time, my opponent moved up the Pureblood within 12" of my Stormwall. A bit of a rusty mistake and I would gladly capitalize on this. I ensured that various mannikins were taken out so as to minimize their impact, the Lances moved up centrally and the Stormwall took out the Pureblood.

Circle could not find any openings barring a crazy assassination run (I had Deflection up and camped 2 focus). It failed and my opponent conceded the game.

Victory to the Swans!

:: Evaluation ::

A couple of rusty mistakes from my opponent allows me to move ahead in terms of attrition. Normally, I can't expect to get these angles.

As with Skorne's Rasheth I think this is a very hard matchup for Haley2 to play. The Sentry Stones and ranged presence from the Reeves make it even harder. Once Circle learns how to deal with Haley2 this might be heavily in Kromac's favour.

The Sentry Stones are really powerful and I find myself lacking a decent reply to them. For my next game vs Circle I have a couple of ideas.