Battle at Lund: Team Tournament #2 (#496): Haley2 vs Deneghra1

:: Prologue ::

Our second game saw us face "Team Gingers" and again, our Circle player was destined to lose. This meant I had the hard job of taking on Ghost Fleet yet again. Facing me was Magnus whom I played in the SM Finals the day before and we had identical lists.

:: Lists ::

Cygnar:

Cygnar - Technical Death Metal v4
[Theme] Heavy Metal
(Haley 2) Major Victoria Haley [+25]
- Charger [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: The Ghost Fleet
3 / 3 Free Cards 75 / 75 Army
Warwitch Deneghra - WJ: +28
- Stalker - PC: 8 (Battlegroup Points Used: 8)
- Stalker - PC: 8 (Battlegroup Points Used: 8)
- Deathripper - PC: 6 (Battlegroup Points Used: 6)
- Deathripper - PC: 6 (Battlegroup Points Used: 6)
Wraith Engine - PC: 15
Captain Rengrave - PC: 0
Pistol Wraith - PC: 0
Pistol Wraith - PC: 0
Blackbane's Ghost Raiders - Blackbane & 9 Grunts: 17
Revenant Crew of the Atramentous - Leader & 5 Grunts: 9
- Revenant Crew Rifleman - PC: 2
- Revenant Crew Rifleman - PC: 2
- Revenant Crew Rifleman - PC: 2
Revenant Crew of the Atramentous - Leader & 5 Grunts: 9
- Revenant Crew Rifleman - PC: 2
- Revenant Crew Rifleman - PC: 2
Revenant Crew of the Atramentous - Leader & 5 Grunts: 9
- Revenant Crew Rifleman - PC: 2
- Revenant Crew Rifleman - PC: 2
- Revenant Crew Rifleman - PC: 2

:: Pre-Battle Thoughts & Deployment ::

Scenario was Take and Hold and this time around Magnus won the dice-off, electing to go first. I deployed virtually identical to our game from the night before and I was hoping to replicate that game more or less: Slowly whittle him down and then sweep a flank.

:: Game ::

Cryx run their stuff up. Stalkers behind a forest right in front of my flag. The terrain on this table is pretty terrible for me, so many pieces for Cryx to hide behind everywhere. Ugh.

I consider running up Thorn and dominating out a Stalker to get the Stormwall up the field and establish myself on the right flank. I decide against it because there are too many things I cannot catch and I think I need to get more work done on the ghosts before I go for such a play. Instead I make a play where I try and whittle down the ghosts in the middle with a couple of Arcane Bolts and shots from the 'wall. It turns out Haley spent all of her powers yesterday as I miss (!) one of the bolts despite boosting and re-rolling.

An arc node gives up its life to put Parasite on the 'wall and Crippling Grasp on Thorn.

Sigh. I look for angles but I cannot find anyone. I end up doing a little bit of a couple of very different plays which turns out to be terrible: I send in the Stormwall which kills the Wraith Engine but then my feat doesn't cover the Revenants on the left flank.

In return Magnus sends in everything he has on the Stormwall. On average he should do around 80 boxes I think it was. With Deneghra's feat I go to ARM17 which is next level sadness. In any case the undead roll terribly and I survive on ~10 boxes. In my next turn there are virtually no plays at all except to try and kill Deneghra. With a crippled arm that leaves the Stormwall on 2 boosted PS18 attacks. I need at least one boosted damage roll and a boosted pod to realistically kill her, but at 12+ to hit that's asking a lot. Never fear though, when I play like shit the dice come in and save me: Hero Stormwall hits both attacks and boosts damage on one to kill Deneghra.

Victory to the Swans!

:: Evaluation ::

Luck beats skill, no doubt. I diced Magnus here and there's just no way he deserved it. He took it very well though I must say, especially considering that our team won 2-1 and thus this game was important (our Circle player did his job and lost this time around!). I put it up in Odds Machine and my run was around 18% to succeed, however the Stormwall never should have been alive in the first place so this is an excellent example of dice being dice.

Ghost Fleet is a very unique list to play against and you have to find certain openings to handle it. In this game I was simply unable to do so. I need more time to sit down in a quiet and relaxed setting and go through my games systematically to figure out what the key tricks are to beating this list. I'm glad to see Cryx back in the game and this theme is a very challenging and rewarding element to play against.