Battle Report #465 & #466: Haley2 vs Lylyth3

:: Prologue ::

Lylyth3 in Oracles is the new nightmare, at least from a Cygnar point of view. The threat of Angelii charging 16"... I really don't know what to do about it. I have this idea that I might have to play Haley2 here. With so many bonus points from theme I don't think Sloan has game, Stryker1 in Storm Division gets timewalked and anything outside of these 2 casters with a 'wall loses it to an alpha. Two Angelii will basically cripple a 'wall to the point where it's unlikely to be relevant any longer and it's close to impossible to prevent. Anyway! Let's get to the game!

:: Lists ::

Cygnar:

"Technical Death Metal"
[Theme] Heavy Metal
(Haley 2) Major Victoria Haley [+25]
 - Minuteman [9]
 - Hammersmith [12]
 - Stormwall [39]
 - Thorn [13]
 - Squire [0]
Captain Arlan Strangewayes [0]
Journeyman Warcaster [0]
 - Charger [9]
Lieutenant Allison Jakes [4]
 - Stormclad [18]

Opponent:

Theme: Oracles of Annihilation
*Lylyth, Reckoning of Everblight - WB: +29*
-    Succubus - PC: 0
-    Seraph - PC: 14 (Battlegroup Points Used: 14)
-    Nephilim Bolt Thrower - PC: 11 (Battlegroup Points Used: 11)
-    Naga Nightlurker - PC: 8 (Battlegroup Points Used: 4)
-    Carnivean - PC: 19
-    Angelius - PC: 17
-    Angelius - PC: 17
-    Angelius - PC: 17
The Forsaken - PC: 0
The Forsaken - PC: 0
Blighted Nyss Sorceress & Hellion - PC: 0
Blighted Nyss Shepherd - PC: 1

:: Pre-Battle Thoughts & Deployment ::

Since my last game with this Haley2 iteration I decided to try out a Minuteman. The idea is that it has a lot of shenanigans and can often get multiple turns of work with Haley2. We play Incursion and I move first.

:: Game ::

I run the Hammersmith up to the 'wall and put the Charger next to it. Arlan puts Evasive Action on the Hammersmith: If my opponent goes for the play to push the Hammersmith and kill Haley2 he has to either KD or push it 3". Odds Machine puts this at ~30%. I can live with that in this matchup. Thorn runs up to a fence on the right, Minuteman takes cover on the left and Jakes' clad goes behind the central wall.

My opponent goes for the Bolt Thrower play, gets the KD and kills Haley2. He didn't know I cast Evasive Action, nor what it did (I am so bad at remembering this!) so that kind of explains it I guess. In any case I lost the game and we re-racked. I didn't really learn anything new so I just went for the same play again, meaning that only he effectively re-racked.

This time he went for an attrition-feat play instead. He wanted to get Thorn but there wasn't enough firepower on that flank. The Minuteman however was left on 2 boxes.

I struggled for ages to look at how I could get the 2 Angelii on the left flank. Turns out there was no way I could without shooting. Thorn was simply too far away. Long story short I went for the greedy play where Jakes' clad would have to one-round one while I shot up the other. Both failed miserably and I now had a horrible situation on my hands.

The Angelius on the right flank was barely in my feat so Slipstream took it out. I lost the Stormclad, a ton of boxes on the Hammersmith and received an Angelius to the Stormwall. All this under Temporal Shift. Lol. Lylyth3 took care to stay outside of 14" of the Stormwall...

...however the beauty of this list as compared to the electrobots is that the ranged presence is significant. Sure, my Minuteman was out but I still had the Stormwall and a Charger plus Thorn and Haley. Lylyth camped a single fury. TK + Time Bomb + Temporal Acceleration is Haley's stack and Arlan providing a focus to boost for the 'wall was all I needed to go for this play. Thorn ran up, I TK'd Lylyth around and then Time Bombed her. No bonus ARM from Battle Host and DEF11 is pretty sad, the firepower from the 'wall alone killed her!

Victory to the Swans!

:: Evaluation ::

Hard matchup is hard! I think I approached this game too much like a traditional "control this melee list" matchup. What I need to do here is have Thorn centrally placed, protect Jakes and try and take a flank. Also, Haley definitely needs to be even safer. I can have the Stormclad B2B with the 'wall for example and have Haley behind it. No angles then.

This Lylyth list is very hard to play against. I'm not really sure what I can do list-wise. Perhaps it's a matter of practice. Feels hard but I respect that it goes both ways and that my feat is a tempo-changer here. Going away with 1-1 isn't a bad start and shows that Lylyth really has to be careful as well here.