Battle Report #484: Sloan vs Haley2

:: Prologue ::

I played a few games yesterday! First up was an interesting mirror: Sloan vs Haley2!

:: Lists ::

Cygnar:

Cygnar - Firing Solution v4
Theme: Heavy Metal
4 / 4 Free Cards 75 / 75 Army
Armory - Steamroller Objective
Captain Kara Sloan - WJ: +28
- Squire - PC: 0
- Hunter - PC: 11
- Hunter - PC: 11
- Hunter - PC: 11
- Stormwall - PC: 39 (Battlegroup Points Used: 28)
- Lightning Pod
- Firefly - PC: 8
Captain Arlan Strangewayes - PC: 0
Journeyman Warcaster - PC: 0
- Hunter - PC: 11
Lieutenant Allison Jakes - PC: 0
- Hammersmith - PC: 12

Opponent:

"Technical Death Metal"
[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]

:: Pre-Battle Thoughts & Deployment ::


We were playing Outlast and Haley chose to go last, taking the table edge with a central piece of cover to hopefully set up a staging area for a scenario play. I set up to use Jakes and her Hammersmith as a scenario tool behind a forest on the right flank and left the rest fairly centralized. 

:: Game ::

I move my things into position and cast Refuge on Sloan.

As predicted Haley goes for the central rock. The Hammersmith gets the job of being a "road block". Taking it down in cover is too much commitment for me.

If Haley wants to stay behind the rock and wait the game out I think it's ok for me. I can simply be patient as well and play conservatively. In this particular situation for example I can take pot shots on the 'wall with lots of models without really risking a whole lot. Quick math shows me it should be around 20 boxes. I figure this is a decent and virtually risk-free play. The Firefly needs to be sacrificed but it's not like it's getting a whole lot done anyway and forcing Haley to commit a substantial amount of focus and effort isn't bad.

Unfortunately dice don't cooperate and I hardly scratch the 'wall.

Haley sends in the Hammersmith with Temporal Acceleration under feat and has her 'wall shoot mine. She was fishing for the left side and she wasn't far off from getting it. Stormclad kills the Firefly.

After I took the picture above my opponent finished his turn by running Haley's Charger (the red one) into the zone, behind the fence on the left side. This was crucial for the game as I suddenly had a reason to feat. Not optimal, but I figured this feat would make it hard for Haley: Harm the 'wall, kill the Charger and Hammersmith.

Dice are ok this time around and I move to 1-0.

Haley's Stormwall moves into melee with mine. Despite the initial damage from the Hammersmith it's just not enough. Haley also TKs Jakes' Hammersmith and the Stormclad charges it. The thing about PS19 on a heavy spending focus to charge though is that it's actually quite likely to whiff, which it does here and my Hammersmith lives.

I clean up pretty well but make a stupid mistake towards the end of my turn as I get greedy and put Sloan in the zone, despite the fact that I should've considered that I likely won't kill the contesting Charger.

Haley goes for a crazy assassination play on Sloan. I gave her an angle and indeed it comes very close to working out as initial dice rolls are all solid. Junior is the one to try and finish it off but finally the dice fail my opponent and Sloan lives on a couple of boxes. 

Victory to the Swans!

:: Evaluation ::

Interesting matchup! As anticipated Haley has a decent-ish game into Sloan if she can get some help from terrain. I think in this particular game, Haley's inability to create scenario pressure coupled with the lack of places she could safely stand meant that the game simply dragged out, with Sloan's superior firepower eventually securing the attrition lead. 

From Sloan's perspective those Cygnar heavies in cover are a pain to try and go for. On paper they are easy to kill, but in practice there are simply too many threats here. The Chargers for example are lethal vs Hunters. It's not that crazy for a Charger with TA to effectively take out a Hunter or perhaps flat out kill it. I think that if Haley can somehow force Sloan to deal with the heavies early on she can get the space she needs to apply her infamous scenario pressure.