Iron Moot: Steamroller ADR #2 (#553): Haley2 vs Rasheth

:: Prologue ::

For my second game I drew another (!) player whom I had traveled with: Hans and his Skorne. Hans plays Makeda2/Rasheth and we've practiced both matchups extensively. Dropping Haley2 here was a no-brainer and I received Rasheth in return, which was not surprising.

:: 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 ::

Rasheth, Winds of Death
- 2x Shamans
- Raider
- Krea
2x Soulward
2x Dakar
2x Max Reivers +UA
Siege Animantarax
Min Slingers

:: Pre-Battle Thoughts & Deployment ::

Standoff is the scenario and Skorne moves first. Having learned from previous games I do not commit the Strider to an extreme flank but rather keep it more centrally to make it harder for the Reivers to completely dodge it. Haley goes on the right as there's a sexy-looking trench there and I doubt he can bully me out from the zone.

:: Game ::

My opponent makes a very solid advance on the left flank, with one exception: The derp turtle does not have Krea's animus.

This is a big deal because in keeping said derp turtle heavily wounded my opponent needs to be super careful about committing it. It's the most important piece to help Rasheth push up and gain table space. However without it being able to do so he has to yield space to me. So in a nutshell I make a somewhat unconventional bot of 1 play in this matchup: I unleash hell on the Animantarax: Jakes' Cyclone and the Stormwall both light it up as best as they can and it loses a ton of boxes. The Stormwall obviously receives Shield to do this and takes care to stay out of feat range. Haley shifts right with the Firefly and Strider. Thorn and Charger stay centrally.

The derp turtle has to back off and receive heals. This essentially leads to Skorne having to consolidate instead of pushing further...

...which is exactly what I'm looking for as it opens up the game tremendously for me: Jakes' Cyclone runs around the obstruction on the left flank to become a super-annoying contest piece, the Stormwall chills out where it cannot easily be singled out and starts shooting up the objective, a pod and leaps ensure that central Slingers are killed while a TA'd Firefly suicide-jumps in to kill a number of Reivers. Due to Haley's position being skewed I can afford to -not- feat this turn, blocking LoS to her with Thorn and the Charger.

With my CP lead Hans has got to do something but the ranges in play are so extreme that it's hard for him to really do a whole lot. The Cyclone isn't killed and my opponent only scores 1 CP.

This allows me to clear stuff out, kill his objective and win the game on scenario.

Victory to the Swans!

:: Evaluation ::

This game shows that Hans and I have played this matchup before and both learned a number of lessons. The inherent problem for Skorne is being able to push the table without being obliterated. It feels like this was the closest game we've had and that a slight adjustment on positioning top of 1 would've allowed Hans to continue gaining table space safely, thus forcing me into a tougher spot. The way the game evolved though I got too much space which transitioned to a CP lead that broke the match.