Iron Moot: Nordic Championship #1 (#561): Haley2 vs Haley2

:: Prologue ::

This game was recorded by WarRoomPL, check out the video here: link

Iron Moot this year was a shark tank. That is a big reason for why I love this event, it brings together a large amount of very strong players. It makes for excellent games and hard challenges, the stuff I've come to love about Warmachine & Hordes in a nutshell. The Nordic Championship spots reflected this accordingly, take a look at the list below:

Last year I lost to Johan Dyrlind's Karchev in the semi-finals of the Nordic Championship (link), this year I was hoping to go all the way. As always though I do my best to keep 100% focus on the game at hand and not drift away in dreams of glory or what not. It's always about your one next game.

My first draw was a fellow Cygnar player, Daniel with a Haley2/Haley3 pairing. His Haley2 list was very similar to the one I took to Battle at Lund in April, meaning more melee power and less shooting presence, while his Haley3 list was the good old vanilla list from last year. I'm not comfortable with Stryker1 into Haley3 due to a lack of practice but I figured Haley2 with shooting is better than Haley2 with melee, and my Haley2 list has plenty of lightning generators to dismantle Haley3. Thus I dropped Haley2. Daniel paired his Haley2 in return and off we went!

:: 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 ::

Haley2, HM
- Stormwall
- Thorn
- Ironclad
- Squire
- Charger
Junior
- Charger
Jakes
- Stormclad

:: Pre-Battle Thoughts & Deployment ::

The scenario was The Pit 2 and I got first turn. This is big in this matchup as pushing your colossal far up the table provides so many angles and presents the opposing Haley2 with a ton of problems. The idea was to bully him out of the center, capitalize on this and ensure that my superior shooting would make its presence felt.

:: Game ::

Stuff runs and I abuse the house to shield my things from a batshit Thorn going out on a mission.

Daniel's Junior allocates a focus to his Charger and it looks like Daniel's considering trying to start a shooting war on my Stormwall. Somewhere along the way this plan changed and said Charger ended up running. With Junior putting up Arcane Shield on the Stormwall this left him on 0 camp...

...which is too good of an opportunity to pass up. By running Thorn and casting TK on him I would be in range of Daniel's Junior with an Arcane Bolt. I based my turn around this play, intending to tear his Stormwall a new one following the demise of Arcane Shield. This all worked out tremendously with my Charger and Cyclone putting boosted pow12s to great effect into the enemy 'wall. My Stormwall then finished him off with Temporal Acceleration. I feated in case the enemy 'wall would survive, which it did not (keep in mind that Haley activated before I had shot anything so I didn't know if I could kill it off or not). The Strider casually followed up with taking out Daniel's Thorn's Arc Node.

Daniel tried to get some sort of comeback but after a fruitless turn he conceded the game, understandably.

Victory to the Swans!

:: Evaluation ::

Haley2 mirrors are crazy because of the angles and threat ranges involved. I know this from past experience and was constantly looking to both prevent angles for my opponent and take advantage of those I could find. Thorn's reach is incredible if you are willing to TK him and protecting the weaker backline elements is essential.

I'm not sure how Daniel could've approached this game differently. Had his Junior been safe I would still have taken out Thorn and possibly a Charger. At that point I'm so far ahead because suddenly my backline elements are a lot safer. Again, my shooting also a lot stronger so he has to push into me. Pushing melee pieces into Haley2 is rarely a good idea.

A great start to the Championship!