Battle Report #281: Haley3 vs Wurmwood

:: Prologue ::

Ever since my good friend Olov won against Tom Guan's Wurmwood in the Iron Moot Invitationals I've been wanting to try this matchup out. The idea is that you can just cloudwall, cloudwall, cloudwall and force him to commit sooner or later. Let's see how this played out in practice!

:: Lists ::

Cygnar:

Major Prime Victoria Haley - WJ: +25
- Haley Past
- Haley Future
- Grenadier - PC: 9 (Battlegroup Points Used: 9)
- Grenadier - PC: 9 (Battlegroup Points Used: 9)
- Thorn - PC: 13 (Battlegroup Points Used: 7)
- Ironclad - PC: 12
Journeyman Warcaster - PC: 4
- Charger - PC: 9
Ragman - PC: 4
Rhupert Carvolo, Piper of Ord - PC: 4
Storm Lances - Leader & 4 Grunts: 20
Trencher Infantry - Leader & 9 Grunts: 16

Opponent:

Wurmwood, Tree of Fate & Cassius the Oathkeeper - WB: +27
-    Wurmwood, Tree of Fate & Cassius the Oathkeeper (Cont.)
-    Ghetorix - PC: 21 (Battlegroup Points Used: 21)
-    Megalith - PC: 20 (Battlegroup Points Used: 6)
-    Pureblood Warpwolf - PC: 17
Blackclad Wayfarer - PC: 4
Wrong Eye - Wrong Eye & Snapjaw: 17
-    Snapjaw
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
Wolves of Orboros - Leader & 5 Grunts: 7

:: Pre-Battle Thoughts & Deployment ::

We were playing Entrenched and I moved first. The idea was to spread out wide and put the pressure up.

:: Game ::

I run the Grenadiers up to the edge of Echo allocation range and Trenchers spread out. I dare Wurmwood to try and get work done bottom of 1 here which I am pretty sure he won't go for as he needs to set things up. Lances take the left flank to force the Sentry Stones to commit if they want to block off anything.

Wurmwood creates a forest wall by commiting the sentries on the left and his spell on the right. However on the right side there is a sliver of LoS so Megalith moves up to Stranglehold the Grenadier there. Wrongeye casts Starcrossed + Submerge and moves up with his little pet crocodile.

With both Sentries exposed I figure this is easily worth going for. The idea is to have the left Grenadier shoot them both and send in a lance or two to finish them off. The Grenadier takes down one and leaves the second on 4 boxes. I can't afford to have it survive so I commit 2 Lances to take it down. I move the rest towards my center though which is a mistake, unfortunately. The Cloudwall is put up and the Grenadier on the right shoots Megalith 3 times.

Wurmwood commits and feats. Snapjaw and Megalith both trample to get into range of the Grenadier but Distortion foils them as they don't deal significant damage to it. On the left flank Ghetorix goes to work.

I counter-feat, Future casts Ghost Walk on Charger and Trenchers, Prime casts Ghost Walk on Thorn who reaction drives towards Wrongeye and the rest of my focus is spent fuelling jacks + Distortion. I get Ragman up towards Megalith. Thorn kills Wrongeye but I fluff on Megalith and he survives on like a handful of boxes. On the left flank the Grenadier and Ironclad take out the Pureblood.

Megalith surviving is a big deal because Wurmwood can cast Undergrowth to effectively negate Distortion on the left flank. That really sucks because Ghetorix takes out the Ironclad with ease. To add insult to injury Megalith gets a ton of work done on the jacks as well. Wurmwood is now up 2 CP to my 0.

I figure I am up sufficiently enough on attrition so that it's about contesting scenario and keeping Prime alive. I kill Megalith and deal some damage to Ghetorix, unfortunately Ragman is still unable to get in there so he doesn't die. It's also worth noting that by moving the Lances center early on I can't pressure him beyond the forest. Big mistake. Anyway, I cloud up in front of Prime to keep her safe.

Ghetorix kills past and the Grenadier. 3-0 to Wurmwood.

The Stones keep being a pain but I have multiple elements that can't help out against Ghetorix anyway so I deal with them easily enough. Lances charge and kill the severely wounded wolf and I ensure to contest. I also re-summon Past and ensure that I am set up to contest him massively in the final turn.

Wurmwood clears out the zone yet again and move to 4 CP.

I kill Cassius and jam the zone as hard as I can.

Wurmwood fails to clear out the zone and thus the game is effectively over!

Victory to the Swans!

:: Evaluation ::

What a game! This was very interesting and intense from the onset and throughout. The action was on from turn 1 when Wurmwood decided to have his Mannikins try and spray Trenchers and Megalith wanted to Stranglehold the Grenadier.

There were a few technical mistakes from my side here and there but the biggest mistake was to give up the flanking with the Lances. This let Wurmwood get back in the game after a fantastic start from me as he could deny LoS and get a ton of work out of Ghetorix.

The clouds and Distortion were MVPs here. Past was in a very solid position throughout the game and Future anchored the right flank to provide excellent coverage. Ragman had to get into some clumsy places though because I feared Hellmouth. This prevented me from getting the most out of him, which might have led to an earlier death for Ghetorix for example.

In any case a great game and I learned tons!