Internal Affairs Mk. IX Game 4 (#457): Haley2 vs Ragnor

:: Prologue ::

For the Semi-Finals I was facing Trollbloods who were list-locked into Ragnor with double Gargantuan. I don't think Stryker1 can come out ahead in a slugfest against Trolls so Electrobots: Get ready!

:: Lists ::

Cygnar:

"Electrobots"
Theme: Heavy Metal
4 / 4 Free Cards 75 / 75 Army
Major Victoria Haley - WJ: +25
- Squire - PC: 0
- Thorn - PC: 13 (Battlegroup Points Used: 13)
- Stormclad - PC: 18 (Battlegroup Points Used: 12)
- Stormclad - PC: 18
- Avenger - PC: 17
- Firefly - PC: 8
Captain Arlan Strangewayes - PC: 0
Journeyman Warcaster - PC: 0
- Firefly - PC: 8
Lieutenant Allison Jakes - PC: 0
- Stormclad - PC: 18

Opponent:

Theme: The Power of Dhunia
3 / 3 Free Cards 75 / 75 Army
Bunker - Steamroller Objective
Ragnor Skysplitter, the Runemaster - WB: +30
- Trollkin Runebearer - PC: 0
- Glacier King - PC: 35 (Battlegroup Points Used: 30)
- Mountain King - PC: 36
- Earthborn Dire Troll - PC: 15
- Troll Axer - PC: 10
Janissa Stonetide - PC: 0
Troll Whelps - 5 Whelps: 0
Krielstone Bearer & Stone Scribes - Leader & 3 Grunts: 6
- Stone Scribe Elder - PC: 3

:: Pre-Battle Thoughts & Deployment ::

I lose the roll-off. We are playing Outlast so this isn't all bad. It probably means I can set up for a bot of 2 feat and force Ragnor to feat first. However I would absolutely have loved to go first here and put those bots up the table. Oh well, it is what it is.

Ragnor deploys symmetrically with the Mountain King against the right zone and the Glacier King against the left zone. I figure that given the terrain it's better for me to overload the right zone so I deploy accordingly.

:: Game ::

Rush on both big boys, stuff advances. Pulverizer on Earthborn.

I Time Bomb the MK and put Thorn in safety. Jacks stay just outside of 10" of the MK. Junior's Firefly sets up to contest the left zone.

A solid barrage of shooting damn near kills the Avenger outright. Some pretty good rolls there. Luckily for me, the Avenger is the least crucial jack in this matchup (and hence his position where he was). For some reason the Earthborn moves into the zone behind the MK, despite the MK already contesting the zone. Ragnor feats.

I do the math and according to it the Earthborn is likely to die. All I have to do is apply bots.

I TK him out and feat on all important models. The bots kill Earthborn. I keep Avenger within 10" of the MK but outside of 12" of the GK. Arlan applies repair. The MK can go for it, but it's a play unlikely to succeed. I want him to stay still as the electrobots are perfectly positioned for it now.

Junior's Firefly on the left contests, however as the picture below shows the GK is within 7" of it...

...which my opponent uses to great effect, casting rush on it and pushing me out of the zone. That is pretty disastrous due to the nature of how scenario points typically evolve on Outlast (1-3-5 gg). Ragnor however wants to salvage the situation on the right flank and casts a KD spell on a Stormclad, knocking two of them down (Sidekick keeps the third up). The MK goes for the shot on Avenger and kills it dead. Such sadness.

Signs you are doing something wrong with Haley2 part 2: Lose a CP and a heavy on your own feat turn. Oh well. Hopefully there's still a game here. I kill the MK and Stones, but some technical errors on my part mean that Janissa survives. 1-1.

My opponent forgets that he dominates for two, so his plan for the entire turn is more than a bit faulty: Ragnor runs into the zone as the very last activation, but his positioning is poor, his jamming and protection is non-existant. Sure, he does camp 4, but with a TK...

...it just so happens that all of the Stormclads are within range. I check all ranges (Thorn, Firefly to apply Ionization etc) and go for it. He needs a solid string of tough checks to survive unless I roll absolutely horrible, something he does not.

Victory to the Swans!

:: Evaluation ::

Definitely an interesting game! Tons of angles here, mistakes on both sides and most importantly big, bad monsters being hacked apart by the electrobots.

The crucial point in this game as with my last Haley2 game was me forgetting one small thing on my feat. It shows how extremely unforgiving this caster is. I think that the correct play from my opponent given this mistake is to go for the left zone hard, immediately. Perhaps even see if there's a way to withdraw the MK and jam the bots so that I cannot get it the following turn. Then again, the Avenger does not die (nor should it though!) so I don't know.

After the MK goes down I feel as though Ragnor could -and should- have a made a strong scenario play. At this point he's pretty far down regardless. One of his main issues at this point in time is his lack of contesting models: Even if I cannot reliably jam the left zone down, I can go to 5 CP at the same time as him if I can remove what models he has left which can contest. Given the state of the table this certainly felt viable so I think the game is pretty much lost at this point in time regardless.

The Earthborn was given away cheap. Indeed it probably would have made it significantly harder for me if it had been active and alive post-feat. TK solves a lot of the issues it presents but with Pulverizer it can certainly mess things up.

A great game and the win saw me go to 4-0. Since we have 24x7 access to our club we are usually pretty relaxed about finals, often post-poning it after a long day of playing. Yesterday was such a day so I'm playing Skorne in the finals for this tournament in the very near future. I expect Makeda2 kitkats vs Electrobots. Stay tuned!