Battle Report #319: Haley1 vs Iron Mother

:: Prologue ::

The second and last game of the day was against Convergence.

:: Lists ::

Cygnar:

(Haley 1) Captain Victoria Haley [+28]
 - Stormwall [39]
 - Squire [5]
Journeyman Warcaster [4]
 - Hunter [11]
 - Hunter [11]
Gun Mage Captain Adept [5]
Captain Arlan Strangewayes [4]
Storm Lances (max) [20]
Rhupert Carvolo, Piper of Ord [4]

Opponent:

(Directrix 1) Iron Mother Directrix [+27]
 - Exponent Servitors0]
 - Assimilator [16]
 - Assimilator [16]
 - Assimilator [16]
 - Prime Axiom [38]
 - Corollary [6]
Optifex Directive [4]
Algorithmic Dispersion Optifex [2]
Attunement Servitors [4]

:: Pre-Battle Thoughts & Deployment ::

Same map and scenario as last game and I went first. This time I had a pretty clear idea of what I wanted to do. I didn't both deploying symmetrically because I wanted my opponent to skew. In this matchup I think it's hard for Convergence to cover the width of the scenario so by forcing him to counter a skew of mine the opposite flank might open a scenario angle.

:: Game ::

I put up 3 lances behind the central wall and put Shield on them. Stormwall runs right and I set up solos for T3 scenario openings.

My opponent feats right off the bat to kill 2 Lances and leave the third behind the wall on 1 box.

3 Stormwall shots and 4 hunters shots all averaging 7-8 boxes should be around 55-60 boxes. I figure that with a Lance charging as well it should be possible to kill 2 Assimilators. I feat and go for it but sadly the dice don't come up in my favour and only a single Assimilator dies (I hardly even scratch the second).

The last Lances are cleared out but no other damage is inflicted.

The Lances being dead is a pain, but Convergence did pay for it in terms of positioning and I now have the opening on the right flank. Arlan isn't as far up as I'd have hoped he would be at this point in time but the GMCA is kind of without a job now so he runs to the flag. Haley puts up Barrier and I try to kill an Assimilator with my shooting but it survives on 2 boxes.

I forget that Barrier is -2 SPD when the Assimilators are planning their moves and thus they charge one Hunter each. The left Hunter is down to 4 boxes or so (right arm + cortex) but the left is missed by both attacks since they have -2 to attack rolls from the fence. The Prime Axiom moves up 3" and spawns a bomb bot to try and kill the GMCA. He fails and I move to 2-0.

I can easily dodge the Prime Axiom with my Stormwall and kill the right Assimilator + disrupt the left. I have a very solid scenario angle as well so my opponent concedes the game. It's getting late and we want to go home, besides it really does look poor for Convergence given the current state of the game. I'll move to 3-0 this turn and he can't keep contesting the right flank without committing the Prime Axiom, which opens up the left flag.

Victory to the Swans!

:: Evaluation ::

This feels like an interesting matchup. The shooting and the nature of the various threat ranges here makes it hard for anyone to really establish control I think. Cygnar likely gets the alpha but Convergence can possibly soak up a lot of it and still hit back really hard.

The Lances moving up aggressively T1 made my opponent feat. I'm not sure that's the thing you want to do here because you aren't using that amazing +3 to hit any of the Hunters, which I believe will be problematic in the long run. Without boosts to ARM those 2 Hunters will keep chipping away at the Convergence jacks all game and with Temporal Barrier the Axiom can forget about doing a lot of useful stuff in melee.

Line Breaker is often a scenario which is dead because you have to cross so much space to get to the flags. A shooty list vs shooty list matchup makes it even more dead and in this game I think I would've won on attrition anyway. I must say though that I've won on Line Breaker many times with Haley2 and Caine2 so I don't think it's as bad as people make it out to be. The games today however show how dead it can be, but at the end of the day I'm not sure it's that much worse than e.g. Take and Hold.