Battle Report #106: Haley3 vs Xerxis1

:: Prologue ::

After a long game 1 where I systematically tore apart Skorne infantry with shooting, it was time to try Haley3 into this list. Going into this game I had a feeling I would be up because I think the Cloudwall largely negates the Incindiarii, while the lack of RFP and Temporal Flux really messes with the melee-aspect of things. Would I be right? Read on!

:: Lists ::

Cygnar:

Major Prime Victoria Haley - WJ: +3
- Squire
- Charger - PC: 4
Journeyman Warcaster - PC: 3
Haley Future - PC: 0
Haley Past - PC: 0
Rhupert Carvolo, Piper of Ord - PC: 2
Captain Maxwell Finn - PC: 3
Ragman - PC: 2
Lanyssa Ryssyl, Nyss Sorceress - PC: 2
Alexia, Mistress of the Witchfire - PC: 4
Viktor Pendrake - PC: 2
Gorman di Wulfe, Rogue Alchemist - PC: 2
Storm Lances - Leader & 4 Grunts: 11
Trencher Infantry - Leader & 5 Grunts: 6
Horgenhold Forge Guard - Leader & 9 Grunts: 8
- Captain Jonas Murdoch - Murdoch 2

Opponent:

Tyrant Xerxis - WB: +5
- Archidon - PC: 7
Cataphract Arcuarii - Leader & 3 Grunts: 5
Cataphract Arcuarii - Leader & 3 Grunts: 5
Cataphract Arcuarii - Leader & 3 Grunts: 5
Cataphract Incindiarii - Leader & 3 Grunts: 5
Cataphract Incindiarii - Leader & 3 Grunts: 5
Cataphract Incindiarii - Leader & 3 Grunts: 5
Cataphract Incindiarii - Leader & 3 Grunts: 5
Cataphract Cetrati - Leader & 5 Grunts: 10
Tyrant Commander & Standard Bearer - Tyrant and Standard: 3
THEME: The Fist of Halaak - Tier 2

:: Pre-Battle Thoughts & Deployment ::

I went first again. I put down Alexia2 on one flank and Storm Lances on another. Seeing as I've decided to give up on Blazers because I think they're too situational I believe I'll often "replace" a flank with Alexia like this because she can be hard as nails to deal with. Forge Guard went central and the Trenchers were skewed slightly to the right to take advantage of the impassable terrain pieces. 

Cloudwall moves up. Lances receive March to cross the rough terrain. Alexia flanks on the opposite side. The middle is a little crowded but not as bad as my first H3 games. Getting better at this!

Fist move up. Ward on Cetratii.

2 Lances charge out because Revive is a thing. The other shuffle with the leader in a central position. Alexia moves up with Arcane Shield to get souls. She gets 3 with Past feeding the charger. The cloudwall moves up as well and covers my army nicely. Ragman is left behind as I forget him behind the rear impassable. I put Lanyssa in the opposite zone just in case he'll struggle to get in there (I saw an opening based on his units being far away).

The 2 Lances are dealt with easily enough and a third is killed by shooting. On the right flank Alexia tanks a lot of heat but it has no effect on her because ARM22 laughs at POW13.

So this is a pretty obvious feat turn. I don't remember the exact activation order here but I took a little too long to play this turn. It all started out with deciding how to split Prime's focus. I wanted Repudiate on Cetratii, Flux for obvious reasons and a Revive to get all Lances back up. Alexia, Junior and Charger messes up the right flank. Haley activates, moves up and takes off Ward. Past and Future spread out for Flux, Prime goes into the zone. I didn't upkeep Tac. Supremacy (see above) so this was the all-or-nothing turn, by and large. The Lances utterly destroyed the left flank, impact hits, shooting, electro leaps all did tons of damage. However the big surprise was how stupidly much damage the Forge Guard did to the Cetratii. I had my lanes set up pretty nicely from the turn before so they could all (bar 1) charge in. I think only a single model survived or so (to be fair Past helped out as well, Raw Talent helps her put the hurt on).

It was without a doubt one of the most destructive H3 feat turns I've ever had. Just look at the picture below and compare it to the previous one.

My opponent took about 3 minutes to contemplate the situation before he simply conceded. Although I think he might've had a shot at coming back (seeing as I can't feat anymore) by counter-feating, I was up 3-0 as well.

Victory to the Swans!

:: Evaluation ::

Wow. Just wow. Although I've found ways and builds with Haley2 to deal with Fist, this was a complete stomp. I cannot believe how hard I hurt him on the feat turn. Not having to care about Incindiarii early on and then subsequently basically wiping out Cetratii in Shield Wall just speaks volumes to Haley3's ability to strike hard and fast with her forces intact.

I also struggle to see what Skorne could've done differently. If he doesn't give me an opening, my shooting hurts him way more than his does me. Also, Alexia2 is impossible for him to deal with effectively and if I co-ordinate her with my shooting I'll get souls (and thus Thralls) as well. By skewing or staying more defensively, I can send in 2 Lances per turn and just revive while the Cloudwall keeps me safe.

Gorman and Pendrake didn't do a whole lot this game. I'm not sure they are the best way to spend 4 points. I must admit a second Charger is tempting but I know it's likely just good on paper: While one of the Haley's often has focus to spare, there's almost never a situation where 2 of them can feed it max. A+H or B13th would be great candidates but they're obviously both taken. Alexia2 though is solid.

I wonder how this list plays into Retribution. I'll be looking to try it out as soon as I can. I believe Haley struggles with more than one of their casters. A big problem with Haley3 though is that Vyros2 completely negates one of her greatest effects: An entire battlegroup with Synergy ignoring clouds is bad news. 

Battle Report #105: Haley2 vs Xerxis1

:: Prologue ::

Haley2 into Fist of Halaak has often felt hard because of Incindiarii and their sometimes game-breaking scatters. However I believe that part of my problem with this matchup is that I've often approached it from a scenario point of view, which inherently means that I have to get close to him and stay rather tight together. By taking out ATGM and grabbing elements like Aiyana and Gastone I should be able to spread out, keep my distance and play for attrition. How will this affect the matchup? Read on!

:: Lists ::

Cygnar:

Major Victoria Haley - WJ: +5
- Squire
- Stormwall - PC: 19
- Lightning Pod
- Thorn - PC: 8
Journeyman Warcaster - PC: 3
Eiryss, Angel of Retribution - PC: 3
Gastone Crosse - PC: 3
Master Gunner Dougal MacNaile - PC: 2
Lynus Wesselbaum & Edrea Lloryrr - Lynus & Edrea: 3
Lady Aiyana & Master Holt - Lady Aiyana & Master Holt: 4
Tactical Arcanist Corps - Leader & 2 Grunts: 4
Black 13th Gun Mage Strike Team - Lynch, Ryan & Watts: 4

Opponent:

Tyrant Xerxis - WB: +5
- Archidon - PC: 7
Cataphract Arcuarii - Leader & 3 Grunts: 5
Cataphract Arcuarii - Leader & 3 Grunts: 5
Cataphract Arcuarii - Leader & 3 Grunts: 5
Cataphract Incindiarii - Leader & 3 Grunts: 5
Cataphract Incindiarii - Leader & 3 Grunts: 5
Cataphract Incindiarii - Leader & 3 Grunts: 5
Cataphract Incindiarii - Leader & 3 Grunts: 5
Cataphract Cetrati - Leader & 5 Grunts: 10
Tyrant Commander & Standard Bearer - Tyrant and Standard: 3
THEME: The Fist of Halaak - Tier 2

:: Pre-Battle Thoughts & Deployment ::

I went first, We played Incoming and I deployed so as to skew a little to the right flank in case I'd need to get in the zone and put pressure from a scenario point of view.

:: Game ::

Stormwall and Thorn run up far. I spread out my shooting.

An Incindiarii scatter sets Haley herself on fire. Kind of unnecessary for me to charge her up the field, old habit from scenario gaming. Thorn is also set on fire. No other damage done.

I keep my left flank back because there are no elements on the left flank that worry me and I don't want to lose my shooters. I make a mistake as Eiryss advances on the right flank - she is incredibly valuable vs Cetratii with Defender's Ward so I should've kept her back. Regardless, the center and right flank are shot up hard with Tempporal Acceleration, Double Powder Rations and boosted/brutal shots.

With my strategically defensive position Skorne had to push. Haley got Arcane Shield and went in cover after Fire Continuous only did 1 box to her. As such the threat wasn't real just yet. The left flank was still too slow and no significant threats were there. On the right flank I lost Lynch but luckily not Eiryss.

The Cetratii had formed an offensivee line right outside my zone but they were so tight I saw no reason to engage with feat, yet. Instead I took the turn to clean up the right flank and soften up the middle with a Time Bomb on a lightning pod slowing down 3 Cetratii. The remainder would be unlikely to deal significant damage to the Stormwall. I made a mistake with TAC here as I moved them up when they didn't really have any good targets, effectively wasting them.

The attrition game is heavily in my favour and Xerxis has been in a central position throughout the game to allow the move-through shenanigans. This means he hasn't scored yet and thus I haven't been pressured to either. Now he kind of had to start making a move so he feated defensively and tried to block me off with Cetratii on one flank and shooters on the other.

The time was perfect to strike back. Eiryss shot off Defender's Ward on Cetratii, Stormwall got 4 focus and Haley had 4. 2 Cetratii are TK-d out of Shield Wall and subsequently shot to death with Kiss from Aiyana. The Stormwall moves in for the kill and mop up a few more models. I feated to reduce his ability to hit me back because he'd be hard pressed to contest and continue presenting the Stormwall with threats. I pod his zone to contest.

He manages to clear the zone and contest mine. The lack of models left that are capable of hurting the Stormwall is very clear to me though.

I target Arcuarii systematically across the board, almost wiping them out to a man, and put Haley in a safe place.

One last effort for scenario from Xerxis.

Thorn moves to contest and I move to 3 points.

Thorn is slammed by Xerxis and the Archidon charges the Stormwall. The damage is insignificant.

Stormwall gets 4 focus and move sover to kill the objective. Thorn moves back in and with that, the game is over.

Victory to the Swans!

:: Evaluation ::

Well, that went better than expected! I did make a couple of strategical mistakes in the sense that Gastone was unnecessarily exposed T2 (note to self: -ALWAYS- ensure moving shadows takes effect to get him to safety) and my TAC were in the wrong place. TAC feels like a weird choice but they offer a lot of damage output for their 4 points. I just need to learn how to deploy and move them according to an attrition game instead of a scenario game. Frequently I think they can flank in an attrition game and I can use Haley to TK them up if I get T1. Temporal on the Stormwall isn't essential as I'll hardly ever move it over 7" T2 regardless, furthermore I typically cast Temporal on it T2 as well because of the extra shot. 

Random scatters can be a pain but I found in this game that spreading out heavily offset a lot of what I've been struggling with earlier. Xerxis glaringly obvious lack of speed boosts for his army was something I managed to exploit to the fullest here. The Stormwall stood in a commanding position and kept shooting with all of its guns turn after turn. I even got the aiming (!) bonus with it at one point. Overall this felt like a safer and better approach to this matchup than scenario-Haley2 has in the past. 

As some of you may have noticed while reading this report, this game went on for a lot of turns. Despite this I was in good shape with regards to time, relatively speaking, and my opponent was actually coming close to clocking out. Speeding up my game is essential if I want to play attrition and this game shows I'm learning how this H2 list moves and plays. 

Lastly I'd like to note that Xerxis could possibly have pushed harder for scenario earlier on, but that creates issues on the right flank and allows me to play Haley more aggressively, possibly with feat and scenario points earlier as well. It's possibly a better option as this game clearly shows how badly Fist struggles to close in and actually threaten me in attrition (and I hardly even used Time Bomb!). Regardless I feel confident in this list's ability to handle Fist, which is a big relief to me. 

 

Battle Report #104: Haley2 vs Makeda2

:: Prologue ::

Following a systematic destruction in game 1, my opponent wanted to try a more freight-train inspired approach with 4 heavies, including Molik Karn. I was eager for a different challenge where Makeda2 was at the helm, the abilities she brings to help her beasts move quicker can potentially be a problem. Let's get to it!

:: Lists ::

Cygnar:

Major Victoria Haley - WJ: +5
- Squire
- Stormwall - PC: 19
- Lightning Pod
- Thorn - PC: 8
Journeyman Warcaster - PC: 3
Eiryss, Angel of Retribution - PC: 3
Gastone Crosse - PC: 3
Master Gunner Dougal MacNaile - PC: 2
Lynus Wesselbaum & Edrea Lloryrr - Lynus & Edrea: 3
Lady Aiyana & Master Holt - Lady Aiyana & Master Holt: 4
Tactical Arcanist Corps - Leader & 2 Grunts: 4
Black 13th Gun Mage Strike Team - Lynch, Ryan & Watts: 4

Opponent:

Supreme Archdomina Makeda - WB: +5
- Molik Karn - PC: 11
- Bronzeback Titan - PC: 10
- Titan Gladiator - PC: 8
- Titan Sentry - PC: 9
Praetorian Karax - Leader & 9 Grunts: 6
Nihilators - Leader & 9 Grunts: 8
Paingiver Beast Handlers - Leader & 5 Grunts: 3

:: Pre-Battle Thoughts & Deployment ::

Same scenario and I lose roll-off again. Skorne moves first. I pre-deploy Stormwall in the center but with the hitters going on my left I put Haley on my right. This forces him to commit the infantry early, if not he'll risk 0-3 under Shift bottom of 2.

:: Game ::

With a little +2" move abilities thrown around he advances up quite a lot. Infantry go up in the middle and on the right flank.

I Time Bomb the one in front, hitting Molik Karn and an infantry model as well. I boost damage on the hyper aggressive titan and shoot it up with what's in range. It has 9 boxes left. I mage storm + covering fire block again.

The damaged Titan moves back and the sentry moves up. Molik Karn stays in a position where he's hard to reach with Thorn but can potentially get into the Stormwall. Not to worry, he has to roll ridiculously high to do significant damage.

So I focus on the Sentry with TK + Time Bomb and shoot it up so that one as well is down to ~10 boxes. Only Molik can get into either Thorn or the Stormwall. I reckon Makeda is too far away for Molik to be able to launch an assassination run into Haley. Maybe a mistake because of her massive SPD boosts and indeed Haley could very well have been 2" or so further behind.

Regardless, Molik goes for Stormwall. He does about 30 boxes or so. I'm fine with that. Makeda feats.

I put 4 focus on Stormwall. Thorn moves into Molik. Haley TKs him out. My army kills him with shooting. Temporaled Stormwall charges the Gladiator and kills both heavies + a few support models with pod + eleaps. Haley feats.

The last heavy charges in and kills the Stormwall. Makeda backs off.

I kill the last Warbeast and cloud Haley in, putting Dougal on the edge to ensure Makeda can't get vision to her easily.

With only Makeda and a single Beast Handler left, my opponent concedes.

:: Evaluation :: 

This time the timing was a lot better than in game 1 but there's still a big gap that has to be crossed where he has to stagger his beasts to avoid them getting Time Bombed. This creates strategical depth which Molik can benefit from but it's just no-where near enough. At least not the way this played out. It's possible there are other angles of attack for him to consider, I don't know. The issue is the continuous Time Bomb + focus fire on whatever's closest, before I suddenly mop up 3 Skorne heavies (!) in a single turn. Shift is also an amazing ability here which basically lets me play however I want to. Skorne also has to respect this.

The one mistake I made that could've cost me the game was not having Haley further behind. A Molik assassination run wasn't necessarily impossible because of Engine of Destuction + Road to War, which would've brought Makeda far up the table. I didn't realize until after Haley had activated that Molik would have tons of targets for Side Step. That ability is amazing for setting up domino assassination runs and I need to beware of it.

Battle Report #103: Haley2 vs Makeda1

:: Prologue ::

Today it was time to test out my ability to play Haley2 into Skorne again. The only Skorne-list I've ever had issues with when playing H2 is Fist. Anything else is almost trivial to handle. They simply lack control and ranged threats so the games almost always boil down to Cygnar taking apart the key pieces systematically at a distance while the Stormwall sooner or later brings home the win (in the meantime, Time Bomb, Telekinesis and Temporal Shift buys me time). Let's see if this still holds true!

:: Lists ::

Cygnar:

Major Victoria Haley - WJ: +5
- Squire
- Stormwall - PC: 19
- Lightning Pod
- Thorn - PC: 8
Journeyman Warcaster - PC: 3
Eiryss, Angel of Retribution - PC: 3
Gastone Crosse - PC: 3
Master Gunner Dougal MacNaile - PC: 2
Lynus Wesselbaum & Edrea Lloryrr - Lynus & Edrea: 3
Lady Aiyana & Master Holt - Lady Aiyana & Master Holt: 4
Tactical Arcanist Corps - Leader & 2 Grunts: 4
Black 13th Gun Mage Strike Team - Lynch, Ryan & Watts: 4

Opponent:

Archdomina Makeda - WB: +5
- Aptimus Marketh
- Titan Gladiator - PC: 8
- Tiberion - PC: 11
Paingiver Beast Handlers - Leader & 3 Grunts: 2
Nihilators - Leader & 9 Grunts: 8
Praetorian Karax - Leader & 9 Grunts: 6
Cataphract Cetrati - Leader & 5 Grunts: 11
Tyrant Commander & Standard Bearer - Tyrant and Standard: 3
Paingiver Beast Handlers - Leader & 5 Grunts: 3

:: Pre-Battle Thoughts & Deployment ::

We were playing Two Fronts and Skorne took first turn. I pre-deployed the Stormwall centrally and followed up with Haley behind my zone alongside TAC with most of the shooters going on the opposite flank.

:: Game ::

Skorne runs ahead and feats T1. A bit of a defensive move but the problem is that if he wants to run max he risks losing so much from Double Powder Rations, Temporal Acceleration etc that I can annihiliate his units to deny him his feat T2. An alternative is of course to not run max. Anyways, feat went up.

I take care not to kill stuff: I put Temporal on the Stormwall and load it with focus. It shoots the Cetratii and boosts damage while I spread it out so that nobody dies but 2 models lost a lot of boxes. I also mage storm early on and use covering fire to create a no-go zone around it.

Skorne is reluctant to push up. A bit of a catch22: He's too far away to hurt me and a significant push lets me shoot too hard. I think this turn shows that he should've ran 2-3" less in T1 and feated now.

I consolidate my position instead of going for gold here: By backing up a bit and holding my feat I can take out significant portions of his army with little-to-no risk. Stormwall shoots down 2 Cetratii.

Skorne commits the Cetratii but the beasts are too far away.

So the idea is to clear out my zone, feat and establish control. I TK out one of the Cetratii (so 2 models lose Shield Wall), Kiss them and shoot 2 to their deaths. Temporaled Stormwall takes care of the other 2 and kills a couple of infantry with boosted pod as well. TAC + Thorn + shooters kill the rest.

Skorne attempts to put one beast on either side of the Stormwall to create a trap as a last effort.

I'm up on scenario, attrition and time is irrelevant so I simply TK the beast around and shoot it to death following Kiss while the Stormwall backs off.

With basically nothing really left on the table my opponent forfeits the game.

:: Evaluation ::

The pre-mature feat hurt Makeda a lot. That said, she's basically encountering the same problem I've described with Stryker2: The closing distance is too much and when push comes to shove you can't get enough damage across the table in time. Couple that with covering fire + mage storm, temporal shift, time bomb and telekinesis and I believe this is one of Haley's better matchups.

As to the game itself: The increased quality in shooting by taking away ATGM and putting in models like Gastone and Aiyana really shows off here. Killing a heavy can often be done with minimal help from Stormwall, freeing it up to do other stuff. I'm also finding way more options to keep it safe while still getting massively ahead on attrition, see my army-wide defensive movements in T2 and T4 for example.

Battle Report #102: Haley2 vs Vayl2

:: Prologue ::

With the second game being over so quickly, we went for another and swapped the position of the trench with the forest. This time I wanted a different kind of game where I would try to play Haley more conservatively. Let's see how that went!

:: Lists ::

Cygnar:

Major Victoria Haley - WJ: +5
- Squire
- Stormwall - PC: 19
- Lightning Pod
- Thorn - PC: 8
Journeyman Warcaster - PC: 3
Eiryss, Angel of Retribution - PC: 3
Gastone Crosse - PC: 3
Master Gunner Dougal MacNaile - PC: 2
Lynus Wesselbaum & Edrea Lloryrr - Lynus & Edrea: 3
Lady Aiyana & Master Holt - Lady Aiyana & Master Holt: 4
Tactical Arcanist Corps - Leader & 2 Grunts: 4
Black 13th Gun Mage Strike Team - Lynch, Ryan & Watts: 4

Opponent:

Vayl, Consul of Everblight - WB: +6
- Angelius - PC: 8
- Angelius - PC: 8
- Ravagore - PC: 9
- Ravagore - PC: 9
- Scythean - PC: 8
- Seraph - PC: 7
- Shredder - PC: 2
Blighted Nyss Shepherd - PC: 1
Blighted Nyss Shepherd - PC: 1
Spawning Vessel - Vessel & 6 Grunts: 3
THEME: Machinations of Shadow - Tier 4

:: Pre-Battle Thoughts & Deployment ::

The main mistake last game was clogging up so many resources between my objective and the impassable. This time I swapped B13th over to the left flank as they can effectively threaten small things there, and I put A+H and Thorn on the other flank. Due to Thorn being further right Eiryss needed to go further right as well. Gastone kept next to the Stormwall because the Scythean + Ravagore were there.

:: Game ::

Legion spreads out a little differently since there's no forest in the middle to abuse.

I TK the angelius out of the trench and put up Deceleration. The rest of the army kills it. I set up Eiryss and Aiyana in a tempting spot for the Angelius but I don't think he can charge Eiryss with Overtake distance to Aiyana without having to strike me over the wall. TAC and Dougal (having mini-feated to ensure Gastone could shoot the Angelius) block LoS to Haley together with Thorn. A bit risky not to use Edrea + Lynus here as well because of the Angelius Animus possibly pushing Thorn away but without having moved Haley up I believe it was too far for him.

So the Angelius is happy with Eiryss and Refuges away. Scythean is Slipstreamed and charges Ryan who dies. The Ravagore on the right flank shoots Thorn and deals 5 boxes to him or so, setting him on fire.

The initial plan here is to Time Bomb the Angelius and kill the Scythean -without- feating. My problem with this is that behind the Effigy the Scythean is a real pain to get to: If I move the Stormwall over there his charge lanes will be severely impeded in my next turn. I should not have cared about this I think as getting the Scythean + Angelius out of the action with the feat intact basically ensures a pretty good starting point for attrition -and- a scenario opening.

Instead I changed my mind when I realized how clusterfucked the middle would be. With the focus allocation accordingly this was a huge mess. I move Thorn to the left and TK the Scythean out after which the Stormwall kills it. Haley feats.

So I feared that Vayl wasn't in range of my feat. I never did measure. However I podded and used Squire to block off Haley's LoS on my left flank. The idea was that if Vayl is not within range of my feat, then hopefully the Ravagores are out of range on the pod so that Vayl cannot get LoS to Haley. It turns out 1 Ravagore was in range of the pod so the assassination run begins with the Seraph moving up. However Vayl is -just- in range of Haley's feat so she has to change plans as well. She feats regardless, pounds Stormwall with double boosted Obliteration following Purification, after which the remaining blocks it and the Angelius shoots it.

Finally some options! Thorn moves up and I cast Time Bomb on the rear Ravagore. Reaction Drive back (see the proxy base) to block off LoS ahead. Gastone and B13th start working on the Seraph. Stormwall kills the other Ravagore. It's looking bright, but the Stormwall is significantly damaged and I had no focus for Deceleration.

Seraph hits Stormwall following Purification, Vayl Obliterates it and the Ravagore shoots it. I am now down to 10 boxes on the Colossal.

I am really short on time which is a bigger problem than attrition at this point in time so I decide to go for Vayl. B13th cripple Seraph's Body. Junior puts Arcane on Stormwall. Thorn moves up. Gastone + TAC takes out the severely damage Ravagore. Haley TKs Vayl. Edrea casts Arcane Bolt on Vayl, who has 2 fury. Stormwall moves up, tanking the free strike from the Seraph but having one weapon system, cortex and movement intact, and hits Vayl with enough attacks to kill her (4 focus vs ~8 boxes and 2 transfers).

Victory to the Swans!

:: Evaluation ::

Quite a few quirks, my Legion game is rusty. Fire Support does me no favours, it is a terrible scenario for a Colossal on the defensive. Regardless, I pulled off largely what I wanted to do and learned a few lessions along the ride as well. First of all I should note that Lynus + Edrea have an amazing ability that I completely forgot about how well could protect Haley: While I used Wind Barrier for their own defense it is an absolutely brilliant way to shield off Haley together with TAC. Had I remembered this I believe my position would have been significantly stronger during turns 1 - 3. 

If you look at the big picture in this game, I managed to bring down one beast at a time while avoiding the rest retaliating on the Stormwall. I believe Vayl plays too much of an opportunist's game here: If she instead casts Purification and Obliteration every turn I think the Stormwall quickly finds itself in trouble from the sustained barrage, forcing Haley to play a different game. Bear in mind how much damage she did in 2 simple turns here. By continuously letting me have Arcane Shield up and focusing on Admonition, Refuge and Occultation, Vayl is largely letting me play my game. Occultation on herself can be upkept along with Refuge on a key piece and she will still have fury left to do Purification + boosted Obliteration every turn. She doesn't need to camp in this game with Occultation up. 

I think a better move for me here is to deploy to threaten scenario. Unlike H3 in the first game of the day, H2 can deploy centrally without abandoning her own flank. Furthermore, getting her behind the wall T1 puts her in a really dangerous spot T2. Now, Haley3 couldn't cope with Vayl's T3-move for scenario, but H2 can save Shift and/or pod to contest and/or get the Stormwall into the action and/or place Thorn so as to threaten the caster should he want to go for such a solution.

Haley2 vs Vayl2 is a classic matchup for me. I have played it tons. It is really hard and demanding, but rewarding when you pull it off. It embodies everything I love about Warmahordes: Tons of angles, openings, decisions, time pressure, assassination runs, scenario plays, attrition wars, close calls and much, much more. It is so unique however that it needs to be played often and frequently from Haley's perspective, otherwise you forget what's important in terms of positions, priorities and tactics. 

Battle Report #101: Haley2 vs Vayl2

:: Prologue ::

Having tried Haley3 it was time for Haley2, which is my preferred Legion drop. Haley2 vs Vayl2 is interesting. I believe Haley2 requires a lot more precise play. She is vulnerable and there are so many mistakes you can make with her army. However, I also believe that if both players bring a "perfect game", Haley2 is slightly up. Why? Because a combination of Time Bomb, Telekinesis and Feat provides Cygnar with enough control to take out the beasts one at a time, all the while the Stormwall is kept safe. At least that is what I believe. An interesting change since the last iteration I ran of Haley2 Thornwall is that I now have significantly more powerful shooting and no useless Alexia2 running around. Let's get to the game!

:: Lists ::

Cygnar:

Major Victoria Haley - WJ: +5
- Squire
- Stormwall - PC: 19
- Lightning Pod
- Thorn - PC: 8
Journeyman Warcaster - PC: 3
Eiryss, Angel of Retribution - PC: 3
Gastone Crosse - PC: 3
Master Gunner Dougal MacNaile - PC: 2
Lynus Wesselbaum & Edrea Lloryrr - Lynus & Edrea: 3
Lady Aiyana & Master Holt - Lady Aiyana & Master Holt: 4
Tactical Arcanist Corps - Leader & 2 Grunts: 4
Black 13th Gun Mage Strike Team - Lynch, Ryan & Watts: 4

Opponent:

Vayl, Consul of Everblight - WB: +6
- Angelius - PC: 8
- Angelius - PC: 8
- Ravagore - PC: 9
- Ravagore - PC: 9
- Scythean - PC: 8
- Seraph - PC: 7
- Shredder - PC: 2
Blighted Nyss Shepherd - PC: 1
Blighted Nyss Shepherd - PC: 1
Spawning Vessel - Vessel & 6 Grunts: 3
THEME: Machinations of Shadow - Tier 4

:: Pre-Battle Thoughts & Deployment ::

Again, we were playing Fire Support and again Legion went first. I pre-deployed the Stormwall defensively, intending to block off the section between the impassable and the flag with him, keeping Haley behind for safety. Legion skews towards my flag again. With ATGM, aka my old list, I believe I -can- counter-skew and go for scenario here because of the plethora of control elements. Without however it's too risky so I deploy opposite.

:: Game :: 

Legion runs up.

I consider a plethora of options. My initial thought is to Time Bomb a pod between the central Angelii to buy space, running B13th up on the right flank and casting Deceleration. The problem is the Scythean on the left, it has a long threat range and I can't afford to have it crash into the Stormwall next turn. It also puts Thorn in a dangerous spot because there's so little space between the rock and the objective. Instead I decide to go for the right-most Angelius and expose the Stormwall to the second Angelius, retaliation be damned.

So I move Thorn up, Time Bomb the Angelius, Eiryss follows up, B13th follow up and the bird has ~8-10 boxes left or so before the Stormwall moves up. Disaster strikes however as its 7" isn't enough to close off the gap between its base and the impassable. The Angelius dies but I have a feeling it doesn't matter.

The Angelius charges a TAC (which it sees beyond the impassable), kills it and uses overtake to get into melee range of Haley. Poor TAC positioning from me but I don't think it mattered that much anyway. Haley loses ~10 boxes or so and when Ravagores start hitting Thorn (Slipstream allows the left one to aim) with boosted blast on Haley the game is over as my caster dies.

:: Evaluation ::

Fire Support is typically a tricky mission to play Thornwall in when you're on the defensive because the space is so crammed and it's really hard to get all the angles you want/need. In this game I should've realized the inherent problems of having Thorn + Stormwall on the same flank: If I need to contain the middle I either have to feat or send one of them into harm's way, otherwise they could easily jam my entire middle up. Even if I had blocked off the middle here, I would be so boxed in it wouldn't even be funny.

This game also highlights the tons of angles Haley has to beware. It also shows why a forest in the middle is a bad idea (I've tried this many times on different scenarios, it simply skews the game too much in many matchups. This includes Haley3's cloudwall against lots of lists), but that part didn't really become relevant in this game.

Battle Report #100: Haley3 vs Vayl2

:: Prologue ::

Truth be told I'm skeptical about running Haley3 into Legion. Legion's primary strength, in my experience, is to take apart stuff at a distance and then pull back, often giving them 2-3 turns of softening things up before you get to strike back. While Cryx can overcome this by sheer numbers, Vayl2, Vayl1 and Lylyth2 all have feats that allow Legion to play a superior cat-and-mouse game (no pun intended), unless you somehow break the pattern. Having never actually played Haley3 into Legion though this is all theorycrafting at this point in time. Let's get down to business with a Haley3 vs Vayl2 Tier 4 game!

:: Lists ::

Cygnar:

Major Prime Victoria Haley - WJ: +3
- Squire
- Charger - PC: 4
Journeyman Warcaster - PC: 3
Haley Future - PC: 0
Haley Past - PC: 0
Rhupert Carvolo, Piper of Ord - PC: 2
Captain Maxwell Finn - PC: 3
Ragman - PC: 2
Storm Lances - Leader & 4 Grunts: 11
Trencher Infantry - Leader & 5 Grunts: 6
Horgenhold Forge Guard - Leader & 9 Grunts: 8
- Captain Jonas Murdoch - Murdoch 2
Tempest Blazers - Leader & 4 Grunts: 10

Opponent:

Vayl, Consul of Everblight - WB: +6
- Angelius - PC: 8
- Angelius - PC: 8
- Ravagore - PC: 9
- Ravagore - PC: 9
- Scythean - PC: 8
- Seraph - PC: 7
- Shredder - PC: 2
Blighted Nyss Shepherd - PC: 1
Blighted Nyss Shepherd - PC: 1
Spawning Vessel - Vessel & 6 Grunts: 3
THEME: Machinations of Shadow - Tier 4

:: Pre-Battle Thoughts & Deployment ::

We were playing Fire Support and Legion went first. Legion skewed heavily opposite my flag so I responded in kind opposite his flag. My goal was attrition so this was kind of uncalled for, but I wanted to wrap around the middle quickly and trap him so to speak.

:: Game ::

Legion move up. Christ, those Angelii are fast with the tier bonus.

Trenchers move up and dig in. Lances flank right, Forge Guard center. Blazers hold back.

Scythean takes out a Blazer. pot-spawned Harrier takes out another. The center is devastated by fire. It is probably better to have Forge Guard spread out because Vayl can take off Shield anyways, at which point continuous fire is a pain. The right-most Angelii messes up as it charges outside of an area where it can be forced as it tries to deal with the Lances.

I'm hoping I can control the game by taking down the Angelii. I'll have to worry about scenario later. I feat, Lances take out the right-most and move further towards the center with Tactical Supremacy. I revive Forge Guard to charge the other Angelius. Unfortunately Tenacity is a pain as I miss 2 attacks despite Temporal Flux and it lives on a few boxes.

Vayl gets greedy as she tries to take out Future with Obliteration x2 (she feated). My opponent does move to 3 points by taking out the objective and having Vayl on the flag, but with all those spells thrown out she's kind of low on fury.

I don't upkeep Past. Prime puts 3 on Charger. It's all or nothing. Junior Shield Charger who is about to tank a free strike. Haley moves up, Temporal Flux. Prime misses Vayl with boosted hand cannon despite Future being with 5" for Flux. Future hits with her shots and vayl's getting low on boxes. Finn moves up and hits her a time or two as well, so transfers start happening. A Trencher gets in range and removes the last transfer. The unengaged Tempest Blazer finishes her off with a Brutal Shot so the Charger doesn't even have to fear his weapon system being crippled by a free strike.

Victory to the Swans!

:: Evaluation ::

It was a strategical mistake to counter-skew against Vayl. Despite moving second I can't reliably advance far enough to get the flag T2. He has too much presence there. Instead I should've deployed opposite him and gone for a "longer" game.

I still struggle to see how this matchup is in H3's favour. Granted the Blazers are kind of useless here so army composition naturally matters a lot, but the main problem is that Legion can spot-remove key models quite easily. It'll have to be played some more to assess properly but with both Trenchers and Blazers being ineffective points here I believe Haley2 is simply a better drop.

I failed to bring the Storm Lances to bear properly. They were too far away to make the impact I needed them to. This is largely because the scenario aspect was rushed though, as the game was evolving now I believe I could possibly have controlled it into attrition by taking out a Ravagore and the last Angelius. That said my opponent would of course have played it all differently had he not gone for the scenario win, so it's all up in the air.

Interesting game regardless and Haley3 has plenty of tricks when the situation becomes desperate. Had Vayl simply opted to camp all 8 fury points (no joke) and ran her beasts over to my flag, she would've won almost regardless. The lesson to be learned: Don't lose sight on your best winning condition and do whatever it takes to maximise -that- angle.