Battle Report #526: Haley2 vs Iron Mother

:: Prologue ::

With the inclusion of the Storm Strider I believe Haley2 might yet again be an interesting drop against Iron Mother. My regular Convergence opponent had a couple of builds he wanted to try out as well. This

:: Lists ::

:: Cygnar ::

"TimeStorm"
Theme: Heavy Metal
4 / 4 Free Cards 75 / 75 Army
Major Victoria Haley - WJ: +25
- Squire - PC: 0
- Firefly - PC: 8
- Thorn - PC: 13
- Hurricane - PC: 39 (Battlegroup Points Used: 25)
Storm Strider - PC: 18
Journeyman Warcaster - PC: 0
- Firefly - PC: 8
Lieutenant Allison Jakes - PC: 0
- Reliant - PC: 14
Captain Arlan Strangewayes - PC: 0

:: Opponent ::

Iron Mother
- Prime Axiom
- Diffuser
- Corollary
Meks
2x TEP
Free bots

:: Pre-Battle Thoughts & Deployment ::

I take first turn. My idea is to try and clear out bots and then start working on Prime with shooting, possibly a TEP if the chance presents itself. The right colossal proxies as a Storm Strider.

:: Game ::

Stuff runs. I take care to be out of Pull and Domination ranges.

CoC advance, mostly on the right flank. The left TEP receives tactical supremacy and repositions forward.

With the repos move I figure I can pull it down and possibly shoot it to death. My plan this turn is to TK the TEP closer, TK the Diffuser out of cover and blast them both to kingdom come. Junior's Firefly clears remaining Shield Guards for the TEP and the Hurricane blasts it apart. The Storm Strider finishes the Diffuser. Good position for me!

Mother gets very little work done. Prime moves up to tempt me...

...but I have played against Mother before and know that only backlash death awaits me if I engage. I cannot one-round Prime anyway, if I could it might be different. Anyway, I back off and blast Prime with everything I've got. This clears out a ton of bots and even puts some damage on it. On the left flank I have Fireflies lined up to score and threaten Ionization plays. I leave the Reliant on the right flank contesting and within melee range. I figure my opponent will have a couple of headaches to deal with: If he doesn't commit he risks actually being shot to death. I can also stall the game, keep scoring the left zone and win at the end of 7th: Prime is blocked in by the central impassable so realistically won't get anywhere anytime soon. Interesting position!

Mother does Mother things: Domination + Backlash on Haley's Firefly. I take ~7 damage I believe through Feedback.

Objective and focus heals me back up fully. With Prime electing to stay so close to me I can send in both the Reliant and the Hurricane. Since it took a few boxes last turn this should be well within one-rounding range (I later did the math in Odds Machine: 99%). However dice don't cooperate and it survives on 2 boxes.

Prime surviving is a disaster and Mother casts Backlash on Hurricane. With plenty of spikebots around Haley dies.

Sadly, a Loss for the Swans. 

:: Evaluation ::

Very interesting game! The Storm Strider was a welcome addition here. Between its guns and the Hurricane's firepower it's hard for Mother to keep a ton of bots alive. My opponent did manage to do so in this game and that was why I eventually lost. He did just barely kill Haley, had he had 1 less spike bot I would've survived.

The odds for one-rounding Prime were overwhelming. Had they not been I wonder if perhaps a wiser move would've been to keep drawing this game out: With the state of the table scoring was happening so easily for me whereas my opponent really strugged. I think I might've been able to simply go to the end of 7th by keeping the Mexican Standoff. Plays like this are still very new to me and I feel like mastering them will be key in SR2017.

Double TEP seems too much for Mother. I had a hunch prior to this game that it would be and this pretty much confirms it for me. I like one, I think, but 2 leaves her with too little flexibility.