Iron Moot: Masters #3 (#559): Haley2 vs Ossrum

:: Prologue ::

For my third game the field was beginning to tighten and I drew Oskar, whom I first faced at Norwegian Masters in the finals (link). Oskar is a very strong Mercenaries player and indeed his Ossrum list looked like it was made to give Haley2 a bad day. I couldn't drop Stryker1 though seeing as he had Thexus in his pairing, and besides I've become pretty comfortable against Ossrum with Haley2. Indeed he dropped Ossrum and I was preparing myself for a tough fight!

:: Lists ::

:: Cygnar ::

TimeStorm v2
Theme: Heavy Metal
4 / 4 Free Cards 75 / 75 Army
Major Victoria Haley - WJ: +25
- Squire - PC: 0
- Firefly - PC: 8
- Thorn - PC: 13
- Stormwall - PC: 39 (Battlegroup Points Used: 25)
- Lightning Pod
Storm Strider - PC: 18
Journeyman Warcaster - PC: 0
- Charger - PC: 9
Lieutenant Allison Jakes - PC: 0
- Cyclone - PC: 13
Captain Arlan Strangewayes - PC: 0

:: Opponent ::

Ossrum, Dwarf Theme
- 4x Gunners
- 1x Spraybunny
- 3x Drillers
Crit Stagger Battle Engine
2x Artillery
2x Min Forge Guard
Herne & Jonne

:: Pre-Battle Thoughts & Deployment ::

The scenario was Outlast and I finally got to start a game. The idea was to push the 'wall hard, force him far back and then deal with the threats as they appeared.

:: Game ::

Stuff runs and as you can tell I'm no fan of his artillery.

Crit stagger attempt is made on the 'wall to no avail.

His artillery pieces are very exposed, by TK-ing the siege engine around I can have leaps run to them. The Strider receives TA to wipe out one piece while the 'wall charges in to pod the other. Sadly for me the dice are crappy beyond belief as the Strider's 3 (!) shots with leaps fail to wipe out ARM15 boys and one artillery piece survives. I feat.

Oskar repositions his forces. I made a mistake forgetting to reaction drive Thorn behind cover so he takes a bit of very unnecessary damage from Bunnies. Ossrum feats.

The plan is simple enough: Deal with things which the 'wall is afraid of. This means Dwarfs and heavies primarily. Thorn disrupts two heavies, I finally wipe out the artillery and a single heavy is all that's left to really threaten me.

The Crit finally lands on the 'wall but it's too little too late it feels like: The Dwarfs are mostly wiped out and the heavies are fairly trivial to control now.

As I have no initials I just buy attacks but it's easily enough. The situation is becoming desperate for Ossrum.

He tries to strike back but it's essentially a mop-up here.

Victory to the Swans!

:: Evaluation ::

This game felt pretty representative for what happens in this matchup: Cygnar pushes, Ossrum tries to shoot, Haley feats, Ossrum feats, Haley controls too many elements, Ossrum loses on attrition. I'm not sure what Mercs can really do here, perhaps there's a way for them to push while conserving heavies (read: Not let Haley control their melee elements). This makes it hard for the colossal to go in. Might be a thing.

The way this game played out I believe Oskar was down to dice. He needed some crazy rolls which he didn't get and that was that.