Iron Moot: Nordic Championship #2 (#562): Haley2 vs Coven

:: Prologue ::

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

For the second game I drew Magnus and his Cryx. I first played against Magnus in the finals for this year's Swedish Masters (link), where I beat his Deneghra1 Ghost Fleet with my Haley2 Technical Death Metal list. How times have changed in the months since, this time Magnus dropped his Coven bane theme list and I had the TimeStorm configuration.

:: 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 ::

Coven, Bane Theme
- 2x Flying, finisher-birds
- 2x Arc Node
Wraith Engine
Tartarus
Machine Wraith
Min Riders
Max Riders
Min Warriors + UA
Max Warriors + UA

:: Pre-Battle Thoughts & Deployment ::

The scenario was Standoff and Magnus got first turn. My plan here was to overwhelm a flank, hopefully start scoring and deal with the Banes piecemeal.

:: Game ::

Stuff runs up, Riders on the left receive Occultation.

I go for a cheeky play: Pod in the center allows leaps via objective to Banes. Crap dice result in only a single Warrior dropping. Worth a shot since I had nothing to do save for setting up.

The Riders on the left consolidate and fan out. Smart. Riders on the right send one charging into the Strider while the rest form up with Warriors. Magnus intended to feat this turn but forgot to do so...

...which allows a decisive move for me! The idea is to charge ahead with the Strider into Warriors and Stormwall into Wraith Engine. Despite all of this presence dice don't cooperate with me at all and I cannot kill off the Bane Warriors UA on the left. I lose my train of thought for a moment and send Thorn to contest. Very, very dumb move. The Warrior UA toughing the Stormwall's pod made me lose my focus for a bit...

...which meant Magnus was able to put a ton of pressure on Thorn and the Strider, killing the former and leaving the latter on a single box.

I realized I had forgotten to move the Squire when I wanted to pull a focus now. I apologized to Magnus as this was an honest mistake. I believe the only piece which mattered was the Arc Node, we agreed to play on.

I had spent a ton of time up until now and thus pictures were not my top priority for the rest of the game. What happened next was a series of sad dice rolls on my part: I could not for the life of me get rid of the Riders on the left flank, despite committing all of my forces there to it. The Strider charged the Riders on my right flank and sent some bolts into Banes but Magnus had some amazing tough rolls which, with rise, essentially leaves the effort void.

Little did I know that tides were about to change! Magnus charges in with a number of Banes and Tartarus on my Stormwall and they all fluff! I survive on a ton of boxes, which I have no business doing. The Riders there try and mess with my backline but they aren't doing a whole lot of work either, luckily.

I clear up the stuff in the left zone, run the Squire to contest the rectangle and consolidate my position. Unfortunately I forget to activate the Firefly, which could well have been a big deal here.

Banes rush ahead yet again.

My shooting's really lacklustre and this leaves a ton of Banes alive in the bottom part of the table...

...however, yet again Magnus fluffs utterly and the Stormwall survives! From here on out I'm able to clear it up and win on CP bottom of 7!

Victory to the Swans!

:: Evaluation ::

What a batshit crazy game! I don't know where to start. This matchup is super hard and I was lucky I found an opening. I blew that my mis-positioning the Strider and giving away Thorn though, on top of a couple of turns of shit dice. Then things started turning around and Magnus had his share of shit dice (to say the least!), making the game weave back and forth multiple times.

The mistakes in this game are amateur level mistakes: Forgetting to feat, move Squire, activate Firefly, we both had our issues. More than anything I believe this is fatigue setting in, it's a tense game in a very hard matchup on day number 3 in the most important tournament of the event. When you look at it in hindsight it looks silly but in every single event I've been to, day number 3 sees considerably worse plays than days 1 and 2. It's just the way things are. With more practice games behind me this summer I believe I would have made less of these mistakes. Volume matters, you gotta make this game a habit.

I was very happy by how I managed to come back in this game. At one point I very, very nearly conceded so I could go home early (we had a 3-hour drive ahead of us) but then I thought "what the heck, it's the Nordic Championship after all and dice can happen". Dice indeed did happen and this certainly helped me.

I strongly suggest you guys check out the recorded video of this match. A lot of the finer points are missing in this report because I didn't take enough pictures. It was a super tense and enjoyable game!