Battle Report #436: Haley2 vs Harkevich

:: Prologue ::

Following my adventures against Amon previously I pretty much concluded that I don't believe Stryker has game into Harkevich, not in heavy metal anyway. That makes it very hard to justify ditching Haley2 from the pair. It does pain me because I love Nemo3, but I can't afford to struggle with both Protectorate -and- Khador when I have a really strong answer to the both of them. As such it was time to practice Haley2 into Harkevich again!

:: Lists ::

Cygnar:

Vanilla Haley2 Storm Division

Opponent:

Harkevich
- 4x Kodiak
- 2x Destroyer
- Juggernaut
- Marauder

:: Pre-Battle Thoughts & Deployment ::

Extraction with Khador going first. I set up to crush one flank, hold the other and anticipate a grind for position.

:: Game ::

Much to my surprise, Harkevich abandons all safety, runs all his jacks up without a single cloud and it's me. I contemplate trying to drag a jack out with Domination or something but figure it's better to bide my time, spread out and shoot with TA instead. I target the Marauder and my dice are hot - it's down to single-digit boxes!

Continuing his all-out aggression, my opponent commits 4 jacks to jam me with the other 4 in reserve. On my left flank there are 2 Kodiaks, on my right there is a Marauder and a Kodiak.

By TK-ing the Kodiaks furthest away from Harkevich they move outside of his feat range. I figure this sounds like a good start so I go for it. The Firefly body-blocks the remaining Kodiak from reaching Haley with its steam on the left and with its full focus + Lances with Laddermore + Ionization bonus the other Kodiak there goes down! The Stormwall kills the wounded Marauder and the big Lances + Laddermore finish off the Kodiak on the right flank. Thorn runs to engage both Destroyers, don't want these guys targeting the objective and boosting Blast on Haley. Big mistake of me to ditch Force Field here, which I originally cast T1.

Khador cannot do a whole lot. The Kodiak on my left throws a Firefly on Haley and that's about it.

Thorn knocks out the left Marauder's Cortex and disrupts the right one. Lances, Stormwall and Laddermore engage. Haley backs off to relative safety.

The Juggernaut tries to hurt the Stormwall. The damage simply isn't there. From here on out it's a mop-up.

Victory to the Swans!

:: Evaluation ::

Cygnar is comparatively pillow-fisted in melee. What enables us to grind so well is our ability to force the grind to take place over multiple turns. Haley2 does this very well. I think that this game more than anything shows how incredibly hard it is to try and bumrush her. If you know how to play her you'll untie the knot trivially and deal a game-breaking blow in return.

Harkevich has the cloud tools to try and force a favourable position. I think that's the way this game needs to be approached. His greatest strength is forming an impenetrable cluster of jacks. True, this is also a weakness in split scenarios, but his skill-set pretty much dictates this approach. Bumrushing might work in other situations but not against Haley2.