For the third round of the Invitationals I was paired against Johan and his Khador again. This tournament, as opposed to the two others I had played this weekend, had a requirement to play both lists at least once. However I was in no mood to try out Caine2 against the Mad Dogs of War and despite Johan list-locking himself in an eventual finals by dropping said Mad Dogs, I fully expected him to do so. Besides, I wanted a rematch to show him that Haley2 can handle his list without being tooled. Game on!
This game was streamed live with two commentators. I recommend you watch the video as well as read this report. The YouTube link is here.
:: Lists ::
Cygnar:
(Haley 2) Major Victoria Haley [+25]Opponent:
- Thorn [13]
- Stormwall [39]
- Squire [5]
- Ironclad [12]
Journeyman Warcaster [4]
- Minuteman [9]
Captain Arlan Strangewayes [4]
Gobber Tinker [2]
Storm Lances (min) [12]
Karchev the Terrible - WJ: +30
- Mad Dog - PC: 7 (Battlegroup Points Used: 7)
- Mad Dog - PC: 7 (Battlegroup Points Used: 7)
- Mad Dog - PC: 7 (Battlegroup Points Used: 7)
- Mad Dog - PC: 7 (Battlegroup Points Used: 7)
- Mad Dog - PC: 7 (Battlegroup Points Used: 2)
- Mad Dog - PC: 7
- Mad Dog - PC: 7
- Mad Dog - PC: 7
- Mad Dog - PC: 7
- Mad Dog - PC: 7
- Mad Dog - PC: 7
- Mad Dog - PC: 7
- Mad Dog - PC: 7
- Mad Dog - PC: 7
Gobber Tinker - PC: 2
Gobber Tinker - PC: 2
Battle Mechaniks - Leader & 3 Grunts: 3
:: Pre-Battle Thoughts & Deployment ::
The scenario was Take and Hold. However this time around the Sunday Syndrome was on me and I forgot every single lesson I learned in the game the day before and made mistakes from deployment and throughout the game. I need to pressure him on scenario here because given the terrain and the side Johan chose, I could've positioned the Stormwall between the obstruction and the forest in front of my flag and physically prevent him from basically ever contesting me. I learned in the IG finals that I need the Ironclad on the other flank of the Stormwall where it's safe, can keep clearing wounded jacks, threaten tremor to include the 'wall's damage output and be in a position to punish Karchev for going for the colossal.
So I deployed every single model in the wrong place except for the Storm Lances.
:: Game ::
Stuff runs. Haley charges but I'm careless and she's not just outside of 6" of my flag, she's outside of 8".
Mad dogs run. None run further than 8" though.
I decide to go for the feat + alpha and try to force him to commit unfavourably somehow. I kill a couple or so I think.
The Mad Dogs simply advance up under Shift. No damage is dealt I think but it's kind of irrelevant.
It is at this point I realize how fucked I am. I try and go for a move which involves Time Bombing the Mad Dogs in front of Karchev and the idea is to create a traffic jam which prevents him from setting up properly. I then back the Stormwall out a bit but the counter-charges negates the entire play basically.
Karchev feats, charges the Stormwall, kills it, the Ironclad goes down and Thorn is down to the M system.
It's down to a batshit crazy assassination run. I do have a couple of models available but I have so many boxes I need to damage to make this work. The idea is to have the tinker (!) aim and shoot its pistol, minuteman jump and shoot, Junior boost + boost, Haley TK herself, charge, TK Karchev to deny unyielding, buy + boost etc and finish off with the Lance assaulting.
On average this is 11 boxes from the minuteman, 3.5 boxes from junior, 14.5 boxes from Haley and 8.5 boxes from the Storm Lance. Karchev camps 1 and the math above asssumes that all attacks hit. It is not that unlikely, I have definitely made more crazy runs, but you know shit has hit the fan when you're banking on Tinker to participate with damage against an ARM19 target!
Unfortunately for me the dice are not in my favour this time and Karchev walks away with the victory. At the end of the day I was exhausted and delivered a shit game whereas Johan did what he was supposed to do. He definitely deserved this win. Rest assured though, next time I will be prepared and ready to bring my very best game.
Sadly, a loss to the Swans.
The commentators were pretty far off in their live matchup analysis from Saturday's games (but they still provide amazing production value to the videos! After all, I can't blame them as they don't play neither Cygnar, Minions or Khador), but their analysis of this match is 100% spot on. I should've deployed the Stormwall on the right flank with the Ironclad flanking it. Thorn + MM centrally and Lances to jam him shut on the left flank. What little I take away from this game is that it is worth noting that I think the list has game into this insane spam even without tweaking. Probably uphill, but not an autoloss in my opinion.
Unfortunately there's not a whole lot more to say about this game. I am just too tired to think straight, I've had a headache since I woke up and I just want to go home and sleep. I forfeit my last game (where I would've met Khador again with Caine2, albeit not an arm-skew variant like this one) so that I can get home a few hours earlier and thus end up in 5th place. However, my forcing out Karchev here locks Johan to Vlad1 in the finals, where he meets none other than fellow Swan Olov Winroth! Olov had Haley3 available and taught Johan a lesson. As of the time of this writing I have yet to see the Invitationals Finals myself (been busy with these reports!) but I hear the Sunday Syndrome is present there as well. Regardless I recommend you all check it out here.
14 games, 12 wins and 2 losses (3 if you count the game I forfeited). I had an absolutely amazing time and was very happy with what I accomplished. The field was incredibly hard and I had a number of super tough matchups. Take a look for example at the last 6 games I had: Wurmwood, Rask, Karchev, Rask, Wurmwood, Karchev. Playing Haley2 is no joke, it is a taxing experience in every single game. There is little room for mistakes and this last game shows how extremely easily she gets steamrolled if you don't have a rock solid plan which you manage to execute perfectly.
A very strong showing by the Swans on Iron Moot! A big congratulations to Olov for taking home the Invitationals in this field, no easy feat (no pun intended) for sure. When I've gathered my thoughts a little there will be a post-tournament analysis coming up.
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