Battle Report #225: Haley2 vs Severius2

:: Prologue ::

With the "let's try things out" matchup out of the way, it was time to bring out the big guns. Haley2 vs Severius2. Fight!

:: 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:

Hierarch Severius - WJ: +26
-    Blessing of Vengeance - PC: 0
-    Reckoner - PC: 3
-    Reckoner - PC: 16
-    Hand of Judgment - PC: 18
Allegiant of the Order of the Fist - PC: 3
Vassal Mechanik - PC: 1
Wrack - PC: 1
Idrian Skirmishers - Leader & 9 Grunts: 15
-    Idrian Skirmisher Chieftain & Guide - Chieftain & Guide: 5
Choir of Menoth - Leader & 3 Grunts: 4
Visgoth Juviah Rhoven & Honor Guard - Rhoven, Gius & Cassian: 9

:: Pre-Battle Thoughts & Deployment ::

Trying out the Sloanwall was fun, but in reality I don't see the Protectorate dropping Reznik2 into Cygnar. I do however see them dropping Severius2 into Cygnar and I made multiple mental notes throughout last game of how much worse that would've been for me. Now however we were down to what I believe can quickly turn into a classic matchup: Haley2 vs Severius2. Same map and scenario and again, I went first. This time around I had the opposite side. The idea was horrible and I realized before my opponent was done deploying that I had placed Haley on the wrong flank. I want her behind the house as I can't possibly go for my own zone here as the matchup is too explosive for that to reliably bring me home 5 CP. Furthermore a feat from behind the house is way better than from my zone. Aaaanyway. Let's get to the game!

:: Game ::

So I have this idea that my Lances will move after the jacks. I mess up the placements a little bit as I don't realize how important they can be in zoning out the Idrians. Apart from this, and Haley being on the wrong flank obviously, it's fine.

Idrians move up with *!"# magic immunity +2 DEF spell and use mini-feat. DEF19. Well ok. Jacks are tight behind.

With the Protectorate jacks all being far up (Shielding is up) I want to see if I can kill Blessing. The problem is killing the Idrian in front. I activate the Storm Lances first and run them past the Idrians so that they lose dig in. Firefly misses his shot, junior hits his and it's shield guarded, Haley has to go to work and aim to hit hers. Close call but it worked. I throw Temporal on the Stormwall, TK on the Ironclad and myself (to get in range of the left-most Reckoner) and feat. I run Ironclad and Thorn up on the hill to be in positions for shenanigans post-feat. The Stormwall flukes massively, but a part of it is because I don't pod (on disruption you lose all focus and that prevents Oracular Vision). Anyway between full focus, Temporal, Future Sight I do... 5 boxes.

Haley is outside of 4" from both the objective and Lanyssa so there's no use in looking for assassination angles. Instead Severius wants to kill the Lances with feat and remove Shield from the Stormwall. The feat rolls are mediocre and the shooters have to help out to clear out Lances. He does move to 1CP though.

With Severius just behind the cloud and no magic immunity, I can TK him into the cloud, TK + TA the clad and simply walk up and hit him. To do this the Idrians have to die. The Firefly makes up for his terrible miss in the first game by taking out all 3 of them now and Thorn + Ironclad are free to go. I TK Severius out and kill him with lots of powerful hammer attacks.

Victory to the Swans!

:: Evaluation ::

A very interesting matchup where I learned tons. I think podding a jack to remove Oracular is crucial to the Stormwall's output here. Granted I rolled rather poorly anyway but that -certainly- helps. I've done something similar with Thorn in the past, but the pod works just the same.

Deploying Haley on the right flank was terrible and cost me dearly when I had to TK myself to get a decent feat. She would've thrived a lot better on the left flank for sure. While we are talking about early game mistakes I should also have left the Lances with clear lanes to charge out before any other activations to help out vs Idrians.

When Protectorate moves up so aggressively I think it's the right thing to jam everything ahead and feat. Had he kept outside of my charge range with Blessing I could've considered other options but I -have- to capitalize on that opening. If I can kill his arc node under Shift I think the game is more or less over.

What won me the game was a fairly typical Haley2 angle and in my opinion this highlights how strong the Ironclad can be in this game. It should be noted that in my last turn prior to the assassination I should probably have put Thorn outside of Hand's spray range. A little risky to let him shoot Thorn twice I think. Not entirely sure as the feat rolls can certainly fluke (and in that case he needs help), but risk losing Thorn's arc node is questionable.

A good game and I look forward to more. I feel this matchup will likely be close, intense and interesting more times than not. Those are the perfect games!