Battle Report #295: Haley2 vs Issyria

:: Prologue ::

I played two games yesterday with Haley2 vs Issyria. This report details the first one.

:: Lists ::

Cygnar:

Major Victoria Haley - WJ: +25
- Squire - PC: 5
- Stormwall - PC: 39 (Battlegroup Points Used: 25)
- Lightning Pod
- Thorn - PC: 13
- Ironclad - PC: 12
Journeyman Warcaster - PC: 4
- Firefly - PC: 8
Lanyssa Ryssyl, Nyss Sorceress - PC: 3
Ragman - PC: 4Storm Lances - Leader & 2 Grunts: 12

Opponent:

Issyria, Sibyl of Dawn - WJ: +29
- Sylys Wyshnalyrr, The Seeker - PC: 4
- Hyperion - PC: 36 (Battlegroup Points Used: 29)
- Chimera - PC: 8
Arcanist Mechanik - PC: 2
Arcanist Mechanik - PC: 2
Fane Knight Skeryth Issyen - PC: 8
Elara, Tyro of the Third Chamber - PC: 4
- Discordia - PC: 18
Eiryss, Angel of Retribution - PC: 6
Heavy Rifle Team - Leader & Grunt: 4
Heavy Rifle Team - Leader & Grunt: 4
House Vyre Electromancers - Leader & 2 Grunts: 8

:: Pre-Battle Thoughts & Deployment ::

I want to stress test this matchup so we play a very dead scenario - Take and Hold - and Issyria gets first turn. My idea here is to try and find an angle which allows me to close in with him before the shooting does too much.

:: Game ::

One HRT advances on each flank. Electrobros chill and Discordia + Hyperion move up centrally.

I figure that I may as well take the shots on Disco so I pump the big guns into him. Nothing major done but it's a start. The Lances flank left and the Firefly flanks right. Thorn and Ironclad take up the trench.

We discuss Issyria's options here and end up deciding she should probably go for an alpha with feat. Thorn cannot dodge backwards because the Ironclad blocks him from doing so and with a little luck he may just go down. because of this Retribution decide to try and take him down. Despite Deflection being up the shooting manages to land a couple of really big hits and Thorn is left on but a single box. Issyria also cast Crusader's Call to allow Skeryth to charge a Lance. Disco sprays him in the back and kills another lance.

This is a bit of a shitty spot to be in. The Arcanists are positioned very far back so I can't kill them. However I also can't allow them to repair Hyperion. The solution then is to send Haley far up, yolo-style. I TK her and charge the Chimera, putting up Temporal Acceleration on the Stormwall so I just have to hope her defense in cover will be enough. The Stormwall charges Hyperion and with help from Ragman I cripple the right weapon system which is so crucial to deny him retaliation. A pod takes out the left HRT.

My opponent considers assassination but there is almost no shooting in range apart from the Hyperion. I see now as I'm typing this report up that a viable play here might be to throw the Chimera on the Ironclad but I'm not sure on the distances etc. In any case my opponent goes for the Ironclad instead. With Blinding Light from Issyria he manages to land a lot of hits on it, so many in fact that he goes down. It's very poor placement on my part and losing him like that was unnecessary. Eiryss escapes the Firefly's free strike. Skeryth kills the last Lance and Ragman.

Haley casts TA on the Stormwall, TK on herself and charges Skeryth. She dismounts him. The Stormwall then pummels Hyperion to death and boosts a pod to kill Skeryth. The Firefly takes out the HRT on the right.

Discordia, chimera and electrobros try and get work done on the Stormwall but it simply hasn't taken enough damage and they don't have enough power to take him down. 

I Dominate Discordia, move her over to hit the Chimera and load up the Stormwall on focus. He proceeds to kill them both and my opponent concedes the game.

Victory to the Swans!

:: Evaluation ::

What's interesting about this Issyria list is that it feels like it has enough shooting to warrant feating for an alpha like my opponent did here. In this particular matchup I really think Issyria would be better off with more shooting and leaving like electrobros and chimera at home. Eiryss2 wasn't that big of a deal here, sure she disrupted the Ironclad at one point in time but he didn't have that much to do anyway.

I made a number of mistakes but still came out on top. My feat turn was risky but honestly taking down Thorn when he sat on DEF19 felt lucky. True, he could've cast Blinding Light on him but opted for Crusader's Call to get Skeryth in instead. In any case, this is pretty much what I consider worst case for Cygnar, a completely dead scenario and going last is about as bad is it gets. Still there are attrition plays favouring me I think.