Time to meet the dreaded tree yet again. This is definitely one of the top dogs now and I fully expect knowing what to do against him to be of paramount importance. Good practice!
:: Lists ::
Cygnar:
(Haley 2) Major Victoria Haley [+25] (Fuel Cache)Opponent:
- 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]
Wurmwood, Tree of Fate & Cassius the Oathkeeper - WB: +27
- Wurmwood, Tree of Fate & Cassius the Oathkeeper (Cont.)
- Feral Warpwolf - PC: 18 (Battlegroup Points Used: 18)
- Pureblood Warpwolf - PC: 17 (Battlegroup Points Used: 9)
- Warpwolf Stalker - PC: 19
Hutchuk, Ogrun Bounty Hunter - PC: 6
Lanyssa Ryssyl, Nyss Sorceress - PC: 3
Gallows Grove - PC: 2
Sentry Stone & Mannikins - Leader & 3 Grunts: 5
Sentry Stone & Mannikins - Leader & 3 Grunts: 5
Shifting Stones - Leader & 2 Grunts: 3
Shifting Stones - Leader & 2 Grunts: 3
Reeves of Orboros - Leader & 9 Grunts: 16
Farrow Bone Grinders - Leader & 3 Grunts: 5
:: Pre-Battle Thoughts & Deployment ::
Yet again I move as the second player. On the bright side this is what I believe is the hardest vs Wurmwood. On the other side however I would love to see how Haley going first affects the matchup. Anyway: The scenario was Entrenched and as I had no intention to push for scenario here I simply opted for the deployment which gave Haley2 the best position: An obstruction on the right side. I put the Stormwall a little to the right of the center and had the jacks in-between.
:: Game ::
Circle runs up and a wall of trees is put up near his objective. Reeves move to the right and the Wolves spread out a bit. Traffic jam issues present themselves in the center.
I respond by putting Thorn on the left flank in cover, Ironclad behind the central obstruction with him being TK-able to the left for open paths and the Stormwall chills out. Now, Circle didn't feed any corpses to Wurmwood so I should probably have been more aggressive with the Stormwall here. I really like the rest of the positioning though, except for Lanyssa who was a little too defensive.
Wurmwood predictably tries to slow the game down by not feating and "dancing around" instead. He moves a little away from Haley, putting most of his elements in central positions. However the Stalker on the left warps Prowl and goes for the woods there.
Now, given Wurmwood's position I had a couple of interesting options. The Stalker could easily be killed: TK it out, TK the Ironclad, charge, kill. However I saw a more juicy angle: If I can TK Wurmwood out, I can charge him with the Ironclad and use Tremor to KD Cassius. By knocking him and catching him in feat I also ensure that he basically can't move at all outside of Wurmwood's spell. Wurmwood sits on 3 souls and 3 fury so killing him outright will be hard but I can't immediately see how he'll get himself out of this pickle. At best, I reason, he gets to save himself via feat without getting control of the Stormwall or even casting Curse of Shadows on it. The net result is tons of damage transferred and ~10 boxes or so remaining.
Circle finds a decent opening: By placing the Shifting Stone on the right of the Ironclad a little further down and casting Hellmouth on it, the Ironclad is drawn into the Pureblood's melee range along with 3 Storm Lances sent to jam. Ok, probably a mistake to move the Lances like that. This gets the Ironclad killed, however Wurmwood doesn't get any further and he feats. The Stormwall is unhurt.
Wurmwood spent all his fury getting work done. He did cast Curse of Shadows on the Storm Lances which was definitely a bad decision. Because of this I could load Thorn up on focus, spell him to the max and simply move up and kill Wurmwood.
Victory to the Swans!
:: Evaluation ::
This was a strange game. I did a lot of things correct in deployment and my first turn. However the opening, which I initially thought was great, is actually way worse than I planned for. The Hellmouth pulling the Ironclad out makes it super dodgy. Furthermore I also think Wurmwood could've had the Stones port him away if he had seen it (port Wurmwood first, then follow up with Stones). At that point I've spent my feat getting no scenario presence and no heavies whereas I've lost the Ironclad in return. I might've gotten Cassius but it's still a bad trade I think.
The better play is probably to take the Stalker and perhaps look for a 2-0 lead without spending Shift (or just use Shift to secure my position, not sure what is better).
My take away is that Haley's greater threat ranges and angles will sooner or later open the game up. If you can bide your time early and just respect's Wurmwood's "shut-down range" there will be an opportunity to grab. It's a very hard dynamic to master, a ton of positioning which needs to be precise and so many threats to keep in mind. Having all this under control though I think Haley2 definitely has game here.
Did the Tree player forget what a forestwall looks like?
SvarSlettIf you are referring to the assassination he did have woods up from sentries. The TK brought him into said woods though, creating los for the Ironclad.
SlettIn all fairness the main problem here was that he could have gotten away safely with the stones (after porting himself to Cassius), or simply camped. As such the assassination run was a mistake to begin with because he had too many souls and transfers.
It was also pointed out to me that Cassius is steady...