Battle Report #413: Haley2 vs Krueger2

:: Prologue ::

Finally back to Haley2. I don't even know when I last played her but it's been long enough, that's for sure. The feeling I had when I planned my first turn is accurately described in this tweet: https://twitter.com/courageofcaspia/status/828320795730518016

The amount of Nemo3 locally combined with the Storm Division Haley lists have seen some Circle players reach out to one of their less popular casters: Krueger2. Immunity to Electricity in CMD is a good start. However Lances are about more than shooting, right?

:: Lists ::

Cygnar:

(Haley 2) Major Victoria Haley [+25], Storm Division, Fuel Cache
 - Thorn [13]
 - Stormwall [39]
 - Squire [0]
Storm Lances (max) [20]
Storm Lances (min) [12]
Journeyman Warcaster [0]
 - Firefly [8]
Major Katherine Laddermore [8]

Opponent:

(Krueger 2) Krueger the Stormlord [+27]
 - Feral Warpwolf [18]
 - Pureblood Warpwolf [17]
 - Megalith [20]
Sentry Stone & Mannikins [5]
Sentry Stone & Mannikins [5]
Tharn Bloodtrackers (max) [16]
Una the Falconer [4]
 - Scarsfell Griffon [8]
 - Scarsfell Griffon [8]
Swamp Gobber Chef [1]

:: Pre-Battle Thoughts & Deployment ::

We are playing Extraction and Krueger's getting first turn. My plan is to stay cautious in the beginning, spread out to try and force him to give up some lightning immunity and pressure scenario from bottom of 2.

:: Game ::

Circle advances. Krueger puts up his -4 RNG spell and a LoS-denial section is put down.

Bloodtrackers at ARM11 are juicy targets for Time Bomb. No less than 3 of them are positioned close enough to a Mannikin for Haley to try her fun with this. Because of Una's Scarsfell ignoring the cloud from my Fuel Cache I have to get Thorn back to safety as well which involves a TK. Oh well, don't have anything better to spend my focus on so here we go. The 3 Bloodtrackers die. Lances spread out.

With the way I'm positioned the Sentry Stones have to commit to get any work done. They do push the LoS-denial further up on the left flank. Pretty much expected. Some boxes are dealt to my Firefly.

I kind of want to send a ton of my models up the field now and cover them with Temporal Shift. To do this the Feral ends up outside of 16" but within 18" so that he's in my feat but a simple TK will allow him to charge the Stormwall, for example. I'm fine with this really as there's no other pressure here and that could lead to a collapse of the center for Circle.

I TK the Griffon on the hill around. Doing this allows the Stormwall to go in, establishing itself in a dominating position and taking a point while killing the bird. Furthermore it's within range to pod behind Haley so that Krueger cannot feat her 3" back. Tricks! I also send the Firefly in to kill a Sentry Stone (awesome!) and the Lances get a couple of Mannikins.

Krueger counter-feats and withdraws. The last Griffon is put up to contest. 1-1.

I underestimate Megalith's durability. My plan is to charge him with Laddermore and a Lance following a TK around and then shoot him to death with the Stormwall. Odds Machine puts this at around 40% so it's a fairly dicey move, and uncalled for, but the dice are with me and he dies. I guess I'm just used to Circle heavies dying. Megalith's a different one though for sure.

A couple of Lances are killed with the Pureblood committing to the two on the left. This effectively puts the beast out of the game as it's too far away, so I'm ok with losing the Lances for this. Laddermore is dismounted in the middle.

I clean up the Feral and leave the Stormwall outside of the Pureblood's range. There are hardly any Circle models left so my opponent concedes.

Victory to the Swans!

:: Evaluation ::

It's good to be back! Going into the anti-Storm Division tech from Krueger2 wasn't the easiest start but a good test for sure. The lack of shooting and electro leaps doing, well, anything at all was definitely a big factor. We'll see how popular this build ends up being, I can see variants of it proving problematic. If you can get control of the heavies though I believe scenario openings should definitely exist.

In this game I got off to a good start, taking out infantry models whenever you can is important as Cygnar. The turn 1 Time Bomb made my life a lot easier. On my feat turn I had a couple of Lances a little too exposed and paid the price as they died. Oh well. Lastly, the Megalith situation could've been handled a lot better. Maybe the Stormwall could've charged him or something.

In any case it's great to be back to Haley2 and this list is really promising!