Battle Report #112: Haley2 vs Asphyxious2

:: Prologue ::

Rematch! We started again with the same lists and setup to see how the game plays if it's a little less crazy!

:: 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
Reinholdt, Gobber Speculator - PC: 1
Lady Aiyana & Master Holt - Lady Aiyana & Master Holt: 4
Black 13th Gun Mage Strike Team - Lynch, Ryan & Watts: 4
Arcane Tempest Gun Mage Pistoleers - Leader & 5 Grunts: 6
- Arcane Tempest Gun Mage Officer - Officer 2

Opponent:

Lich Lord Asphyxious - WJ: +6
- Nightwretch - PC: 4
- Helldiver - PC: 3
Warwitch Siren - PC: 2
Saxon Orrik - PC: 2
Gorman di Wulfe, Rogue Alchemist - PC: 2
Master Gunner Dougal MacNaile - PC: 2
Bane Lord Tartarus - PC: 4
Orin Midwinter, Rogue Inquisitor - PC: 2
Satyxis Blood Witches - Leader & 5 Grunts: 4
- Satyxis Blood Hag - Satyxis Blood Hag 2
Bane Thralls - Leader & 5 Grunts: 5
- Bane Thrall Officer & Standard - Bane Thrall Officer & Standard 3
Bane Knights - Leader & 9 Grunts: 10
Bile Thralls - Leader & 5 Grunts: 5
- Skarlock Commander - PC: 1
Necrosurgeon & Stitch Thralls - Necrosurgeon & 3 Grunts: 2
Mechanithralls - Leader & 5 Grunts: 3

:: Pre-Battle Thoughts & Deployment ::

Recon is a scenario that's typically slow but it can suddenly accelerate. In this game I saw an opening for skewed vs skewed game and I had to take it. Can scenario be played vs Gaspy?

:: Game ::

Cryx move up. Same procedure as in our last game.

This game my ATGM are alone on the left flank and they spread out. Ryan Mage Storm scatters again and I put down covering fire around it.

Gaspy moves to the flag on the left flank and, together with Gorman, clouds up there.

This has essentially become a race against the clock: Can I out-scenario Gaspy in time? I can't touch him on the left flank when he's so far away. I have to kill Bane Knights if I want to score the right flag and, seeing as that'll take a lot of my firepower, I expect Haley to be somewhat exposed even if I feat if I don't clear up as much as possible there. The TL;DR of this is that I don't dare to go for the zone with the Stormwall (he had Armory so he could sacrifice his own models as well). Possibly not the right choice, I don't know. Anyway I clear out most of the Knights on the right and ATGM take a heavy toll on the left with Deadeye, one model even contests Gaspy.

One of my covering fires were a bit off and the remaining Knight could slip through and contest Haley. He would otherwise have had to sacrifice Tartarus or his Arc Node to do so. Anyways he jams me up but makes a mistake on the left flank as Gaspy doesn't excarnate the closest ATGM to allow him to remain on the flag. This nets him 0 points in this turn.

I am afraid to lose Stormwall to feat so I move it back up and put down covering fire. Ryan Mage Storms to complete the Haley-protective triangle. Thorn makes sure to keep in the zone to contest.

Gaspy makes his big move! Tartarus charges Ryan and puts Curse on Thorn. This allows the Gaspy-feat to hit Thorn on 7s instead of 9s. Obviously a big deal and I lose him, my objective and the rest of the models that were in the zone. Gaspy moves to 3 points. I have 2.

I can give Gaspy 1 more point but 2 will lose me the game. ATGM put 3 boxes on Saxon Orrik. I clear up the left flank, including Tartatus (how I hate him) but as this is basically no longer a scenario game for me, Haley backs off as much as she can.

Saxon tries to jam the Stormwall to prevent it from being in the zone (to contest) and within 4" of the left flag. I didn't see that coming and without Thorn it's kind of a problem to be honest.

What I could've done here was to clear the middle and go for a scenario win straight up with 5-4 by contesting his flag with a Pod. Instead I tried to take out Saxon with Watts, who succeeded with Black Penny as he walked around the Stormwall to be within 5". This allowed the Stormwall to contest both the zone and the flag. The rest of my guys cleared up his guys.

Seeing as Gaspy was unable to kill the Stormwall, the game was effectively over.

Victory to the Swans!

:: Evaluation ::

This was an intense game which pretty much shows how dangerous Gaspy is when he puts enough distance between himself and the cygnar army. The feat is an ever-present long-ranged threat and behind clouds I basically cannot touch him. As such, going opposite him is probably a better idea, for Haley2 at least. Caine might get away with a skewed approach, I'm not sure. 

With this many models and the McThrall recursion it's really hard to chew through enough of the Cryx army fast enough. Again, the Stormwall is quite ineffective as well. I think the key to using him better in this kind of matchup is perhaps to rely less on covering fire and instead actually just shut stuff more, and/or act as an anchor to threaten Gaspy. 

ATGM work well here and I think they're the right choice. Without TAC scenario plays are more risky but I think the attrition game is better. 

Lastly I should note that had Cryx gotten a point a little earlier I'd have to approach this quite differently with the Stormwall in the zone instead of backing off. I'm not sure how this would've played out, perhaps it would in fact have been even better for me. Regardless I think a skewed scenario push like this is very risky in a scenario that can spike as quickly as Recon. Use with caution!

Battle Report #111: Haley2 vs Asphyxious2

:: Prologue ::

Long time, no Cryx. With Cryx being so common, it's a pity I don't get to play against them more than I do. Today I finally had a crack at it again at least! 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
Reinholdt, Gobber Speculator - PC: 1
Lady Aiyana & Master Holt - Lady Aiyana & Master Holt: 4
Black 13th Gun Mage Strike Team - Lynch, Ryan & Watts: 4
Arcane Tempest Gun Mage Pistoleers - Leader & 5 Grunts: 6
- Arcane Tempest Gun Mage Officer - Officer 2

Opponent:

Lich Lord Asphyxious - WJ: +6
- Nightwretch - PC: 4
- Helldiver - PC: 3
Warwitch Siren - PC: 2
Saxon Orrik - PC: 2
Gorman di Wulfe, Rogue Alchemist - PC: 2
Master Gunner Dougal MacNaile - PC: 2
Bane Lord Tartarus - PC: 4
Orin Midwinter, Rogue Inquisitor - PC: 2
Satyxis Blood Witches - Leader & 5 Grunts: 4
- Satyxis Blood Hag - Satyxis Blood Hag 2
Bane Thralls - Leader & 5 Grunts: 5
- Bane Thrall Officer & Standard - Bane Thrall Officer & Standard 3
Bane Knights - Leader & 9 Grunts: 10
Bile Thralls - Leader & 5 Grunts: 5
- Skarlock Commander - PC: 1
Necrosurgeon & Stitch Thralls - Necrosurgeon & 3 Grunts: 2
Mechanithralls - Leader & 5 Grunts: 3

:: Pre-Battle Thoughts & Deployment ::

My Haley2 list begs the question: How much shooting can you take before you start missing other elements? The idea going into this game was to put this to the test and upon seeing the big spam across the table I was sure this would be interesting. Compared to what I've taken this far, I'm basically trading Lynus & Edrea, TAC and Dougal for ATGM and Reinholdt. 

We were playing Recon and I went second. I pre-deployed a little to the right, anticipating Gaspy to skew left. He didn't though and we largely ended up opposite each other.

:: Game ::

Cryx run.

I send my army forwards. ATGM spread out far and wide. On the opposite side Ryan shoots off a mage storm and I put up covering fire to force Banes to take the long way if they want a piece of the action. Thorn is there as well as Gastone, the rest are on my right flank. Haley stays far back.

My opponent goes for an interesting approach: He kills off 10 of his own models to feat them back and get them into the Stormwall. It survives on a single box (!), its Cortex.

With Gaspy's feat out the Knights are dead and the Stormwall will be dead next turn. I decide to make the best of it and use the Stormwall in a forward position so as to create space. I keep Haley back and hold my feat, assigning 4 focus to the 'wall. ATGM receive Deadeye and blast apart on the right flank. B13th + Gastone clear the middle and Stormwall wraps it up, taking out the objective for a 2-0 lead.

Without Gaspy feat, down 0-2 and Haley's feat still being up, on top of an inability to threaten anything (his arc node even died from having been in a position to Parasite the Stormwall), my opponent didn't see much of a way out. He played out his turn to see if he could get anything useful done. When he could not he conceded and we started again instead.

Victory to the Swans!

:: Evaluation ::

The game was cut off shortly after we started because of the feat-take-out-stormwall-move. I doubt this is worth it because on top of killing his own models (saving me from doing so), his other models actually doing the killing waste their opportunity to go ahead as well (most committed suicide by walking into Mage Storm though). It is a trick to keep in mind, but most of the time I think there are better options. 

While Covering Fire is great vs Cryx, the Stormwall struggles to justify its 19-point investment without any big targets on the table. Typically Cryx bring some things that are heavy, be it cavalry, the Deathjack or whatever. When they don't, I suspect Cygnar is far from the only faction investing ineffectively in big guns (no pun intended). 

Games Tomorrow & List Musings

Tomorrow I'll get to play Cryx again (and hopefully another interesting matchup or two). According to the tags from my BRs, I lack practice vs Cryx, Khador and Trollbloods (as well as mercs, minions and convergence, but those 3 are less popular). My Haley lists have gotten quite a few games now and I'm tweaking both lists a little. Haley2 will make an interesting trade to get back ATGM whereas Haley3 will ditch Lanyssa and Gorman in favor of Acosta. I'll get up the specific lists tomorrow.

I've been thinking long and hard about Haley2. Part of what I set out to do was to find out if it's possible to just squeeze in as much shooting as possible, after taking Thornwall in the battlegroup. The results thus far have been very promising, to the point where I view many, many matchups as very favourable. This also shows in my reports: Haley2 gets a lot more games. Haley3 is nice for sure, and some of her matchups are absolutely devastating. Her main problem is that she runs into more list chicken scenarios and her weak matchups are often horrible (one of the best examples is Severius1 I believe). For this reason alone I'm not the biggest fan but I have too little time to change my pairings for the next tournament as it is now.

As per usual though I have started looking further ahead. Given that the Haley2 shooting-list-from-hell takes care of most things (i.e. everything from Cryx, Khador, Protectorate, Cygnar, Mercs, Minions, Convergence, Trollbloods and Skorne), which I literally believe she does, I'm left with the common issues to fill: Legion and Retribution (and possibly Bradigus). Part of the problem with the Haley2 list is that, as I noticed prior to NM, she takes up so many vital solos that creating a strong, secondary list becomes really hard. Doubly so if you want said list to deal with factions that we typically struggle with. That said, we have certain casters who excel at these things. Stryker1 was my former go-to guy but experience has shown that once skilled Retribution and Legion players learn how he works, he gets taken apart. The lack of speed and "tricks" are his main drawbacks.

I've looked at Siege and Stryker3. A few interesting variants in there. Perhaps Kraye should be considered again as well? Neither Retribution nor Legion require the "extra punch" I felt he lacked in my previous playtesting rounds and I believe they can quickly find themselves struggling with the speed of his jacks. On the other hand he is focus deprived most of the time and both factions are rather good at handling upkeeps, which he kind of relies on.

I'll get back to specific lists sometime later. For now I have to focus on Haley2 and Haley3 ;)

Battle Report #110: Haley2 vs Issyria

:: Prologue ::

Game 2 against Retribution and I was facing Issyria. I wanted to see how Haley2 plays into a typical Issyria list (I'm confident Haley3 can do it, but it's not overly in my favour if it's more than a game at all) without ATGM.

:: 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:

Issyria, Sibyl of Dawn - WJ: +6
- Hyperion - PC: 18
- Aspis - PC: 4
- Discordia - PC: 10
Arcanist - PC: 1
Houseguard Thane - PC: 2
Soulless Voidtracer - PC: 1
Soulless Voidtracer - PC: 1
Mage Hunter Strike Force - Leader & 9 Grunts: 8
- Strike Force Commander - Commander 2
Houseguard Halberdiers - Leader & 9 Grunts: 7
- Halberdier Officer & Standard - PC: 2

:: Pre-Battle Thoughts & Deployment ::

An interesting anti-shooting setup like this forces me to play a different game from what I prefer. What I basically want to accomplish against something like this is to force my Stormwall down one flank on Hyperion under Temporal Shift, crippling said side so he won't get to do serious damage in return. My shooting will thus focus on Halberdiers and I will actively look for openings to neutralize MHSF, which can be a problem without ATGM.

To this end I put down Stormwall centrally, Haley + TAC + B13th on one flank and Thorn, A+H and Gastone on the other. Predictably, Retribution countered with Halberdiers opposite Haley's flank, away from A+H and Gastone. MHSF took the opposite flank.

:: Game ::

First things first: Get my lines in order. A+H and Gastone have no business opposite the jacks and MHSF. I shuffled all my infantry right, save for Dougal which went left with Thorn (on a hill for elevation vs MHSF) and Eiryss2 (who intended to wrap around and be troublesome).

Halbs go in Shield Wall. MHSF take pot-shots at Stormwall, a few boxes are taken off. Hyperion moves up though and gives me a side arc as I'd hoped. Game on!

So this setup is pretty much perfect: I get to concentrate my shooting on the Halbs with Kiss and everything and the Stormwall gets to go in on Hyperion and take out a side. I make a huge mistake with Haley's position as I completely forget about her defensive capabilities (or lack thereof): She is actually more than a bit exposed to a direct Hyperion assassination. The right play would be to keep behind the wall I think as the feat still reaches just about his entire army.

My opponent didn't capitalize on this however and instead tried to keep playing attrition: MHSF all shot the Stormwall (those that could, anyway) under Issyria's feat and Hyperion moved around to get Power Booster from the Arcanist and then hit the Stormwall with Ancillary Attack. I lose ~35 boxes. Halberdiers move a bit up.

I make a few mistakes but I'm fairly far ahead regardless so it doesn't matter. The Retribution forces are reduces to insignificant numbers.

Issyria & Co try one last turn but don't even take out the Stormwall. At this point my opponent concedes the game.

Victory to the Swans!

:: Evaluation ::

My strategy in this game worked out excellently. The execution was terrible however. I forgot about dominating away a shield guard to get off Inviolable Resolve, actually activating Haley first to get up Temporal Acceleration etc. I guess I was just tired. 

What I was happy to see though is that Haley can definitely handle this list. It'll be worse for her if the shooting increases significantly because the Stormwall really took a pounding while it was "covered" under temporal shift. I think Hyperion could've done some decent damage to it by simply having 3 focus, power booster and Issyria's feat on the crippled system. 

If Issyria takes significantly more shooting though she likely won't have Discordia, who is a game-changer from a premise point of view (the +2 ARM makes it impossible for me to try and chip away at a distance). I would have to try that as well to get an understanding of how it affects the matchup. 

Battle Report #109: Haley2 vs Vyros2

:: Prologue ::

Vyros2 with his Griffon spam is a much feared list that I've never played until today. I requested this matchup largely because I wanted to see how Haley2 could cope with such an amount of arm-skew. Although I haven't played him previously I had a couple of thoughts of how to handle him. 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: 

Opponent:

Vyros, Incissar of the Dawnguard - WJ: +5
- Aspis - PC: 4
- Griffon - PC: 4
- Griffon - PC: 4
- Griffon - PC: 4
- Griffon - PC: 4
- Griffon - PC: 4
- Griffon - PC: 4
- Imperatus - PC: 12
- Moros - PC: 6
Arcanist - PC: 1
Arcanist - PC: 1
Soulless Voidtracer - PC: 1
Soulless Voidtracer - PC: 1
House Shyeel Battle Mages - Leader & 5 Grunts: 5

:: Pre-Battle Thoughts & Deployment ::

The scenario was Destruction and I went first. My idea going into this game was to stay spread out so as to divide my damage across the table. This is a counter-intuitive approach but with Vyros' feat I think it's the right thing to do. If he feats early I can't allow him to start sending things up, however if I play my cards correctly I should be able to land a devastating blow in the turn 1 round later (i.e. he feats -> I feat -> he moves -> I go in for the killing blow). With that in mind I had B13th + TAC on one flank and A+H and Gastone on the other.

:: Game ::

I run up. Haley is placed aggressively to give me options if he does something crazy.

So he spreads the Griffons into 2x 3, one on each flank. In the middle he places Vyros towards one flank and Imperatus towards the other.

With the Battle Mages exposed my plan is quite simple: Focus as much on them as possible so he can't force hard decisions on me with feating in his following turn while I start pounding his Griffons (going after Imperatus with shooting is madness). I Time Bomb Imperatus to ensure that, at most, 2 Griffons or so can reach the Stormwall. I can live with that. Given that I wanted Time Bomb I didn't cast Temporal but the Stormwall still did some decent damage.

Retribution forces swarm the field and Vyros feats. He tries to charge the Stormwall with 1 Griffon but falls short because of the Fuel Cache forcing an unfavourable angle.

With his feat out, it's time to counter-play: I want to keep my distance so he can't lock me down by engaging the +2" on his Griffons and simply advancing up. I also want to spread my damage and counter-feat to contain him. No need for Time Bomb now. I put 4 focus on the Stormwall and don't pull from the Squire. This proves to be a huge mistake as I move Haley the full 6" behind a wall, only to discover I'm completely within 14" of the table edge. A stupid mistake as there's no need to even be behind a wall on feat turn especially (and by pulling from the Squire I could've TK-d myself). Anyways the game suddenly got lots more interesting: 0-3. Stormwall, B13th, TAC, A+H, Dougal, Lynus + Edrea and Junior follow up with damage spread across the board. I do kill one Griffon which is outside of Vyros' control area. It dawned on me as I clocked over to my opponent that I could've gotten another by TK-ing Vyros further behind. I'm not sure it's a better play but it's a play I should've seen at the very least.

My opponent is smart enough to know that he probably won't do much under Haley's feat so he simply sets up.

Here is the biggest mistake I make in this game: I plan my turn around TK-ing Imperatus away. 360 degree front arc means that's about as useless as, well, anything. I should've Time Bombed him instead. Regardless the Stormwall goes in and kills lots of Griffons (think it was 3 or something). I try to boost a pod on Imperatus to Disrupt, but I fail to get the 9+ needed. The rest of my army tries to kill what jacks are left and I'm rather unlucky as one jack has 1 box left. I charge with Dougal but can't roll the 8+ to take it out.

Vyros & Co start building synergy on the Stormwall and when the 3-focus Imperatus goes in, it's sitting on P+S 23 because of Power Booster. That hurts, for real. Stormwall ends up having ~16 boxes left.

At this point in time I realize that all the cover markers are -really- hurting me. There's cover + melee DEF bonus everywhere. While I can often count on hitting reasonably well, +8 is just crazy. I start to struggle with setting things up so instead I opt to run a few models like Eiryss2 this turn on the left flank to try and wrap around. I know the Stormwall's going down regardless, but I want to see how much damage it can do first. Thorn moves up within 2" of Imperatus. Haley channels Time Bomb through him so Stormwall hits on 5s instead of 7s. Said Stormwall brings Imperatus down to ~5 boxes or so, Phoenix Protocol gone.

Imperatus kills Stormwall but doesn't want to lose its remaining cortex box to Thorn, which is kind of a mistake in my opinion as it has next to no boxes left regardless.

I am getting the upper hand in attrition because he has almost nothing left, but the HUGE amounts of cover is really messing with my ability to actually put that to good use. Furthermore I have to beware scenario -and- I am massively down on the clock: 5 minutes to his 27. I keep moving stuff up but I don't accomplish a whole lot this turn, apart from some damage on Moros.

At this point I don't have time to take more pictures. Thorn is killed and in my ensuing turn I am so low on time that I have to go for assassination. It's a crazy run involving Eiryss2 having to hit Vyros in melee because I forget to Dominate the Shield Guard away, with an ensuing attack from Lynch missing Vyros -and- hitting Eiryss to remove Vyros' melee bonus (I know, totally fucked up) before Gastone moves up and blasts Vyros apart because he's the go-to guy. I have 57 seconds left but hey, that's enough.

Victory to the Swans!

:: Evaluation ::

What a game. I used to think Vyros would be boring to play, but he actually looks really interesting and it's a real challenge to face him. There are tons of angles and approaches to beware. I did get a couple of things right, but my main mistake occured in my post-feat turn. I should have ensured that Imperatus could not have gotten into the Stormwall. If need be, Thorn can disrupt him at least. Forgetting Bird's Eye was disastrous. By Time Bombing I couldn't have moved Stormwall up as aggressively (unless I had TK'd Imperatus as well as Time Bombed) but I reckon I'd still be fine. Stormwall had lost no boxes and a couple of Griffons don't do too much damage even with synergy.

I also had openings on Vyros a couple of times with Collaboration on Eiryss and stuff. The problem is that 15/18 base is just crazy! With such stats I kind of want Collaboration on both Eiryss and Aiyana, alternatively dead-eye on Eiryss (though this'll typically mess with my activation order). In short I think I did the right thing in not engaging him.

Killboxing myself while feating was really bad. It didn't end up having much of an affect on the table but the ensuing planning drained my time, which really hurt me towards the end. We played for many turns and I had way more precise plays I had to get right than he did.Overall though my conclusion based on this game is that this is definitely playable. It boils down to Imperatus being the only -real- threat unless he can load up on lots of Griffons at once, which is basically impossible against Haley2. 

Battle Report #108: Haley2 vs The Harbinger of Menoth

:: Prologue ::

Second and last game of yesterday night and a classic match was at my hand: Haley2 vs Harby. I've played this quite a bit and I'm positive it's almost always in Haley's favor. The thing is that the combination of covering fire, mage storm, time bomb and telekinesis buys me so much time while the feat typically stops the entire Protectorate army from doing anything for a turn. Onto the game, then!

:: 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:

The Harbinger of Menoth - WJ: +5
- Devout - PC: 5
Kell Bailoch - PC: 2
High Paladin Dartan Vilmon - PC: 3
Nicia, Tear of Vengeance - PC: 3
The Covenant of Menoth - PC: 2
Knights Exemplar Seneschal - PC: 3
High Exemplar Gravus - PC: 5
Saxon Orrik - PC: 2
Daughters of the Flame - Leader & 5 Grunts: 5
Exemplar Vengers - Leader & 4 Grunts: 11
Knights Exemplar - Leader and 5 Grunts: 5
Visgoth Juviah Rhoven & Honor Guard - Rhoven, Gius, and Cassian: 4
Knights Exemplar - Leader and 5 Grunts: 5

:: Pre-Battle Thoughts & Deployment ::

Same map & scenario, opposite sides. I was still first, though. This time I put more shooters on my left flank and didn't bother as much with the right. A big piece of rough and lack of cover meant I wasn't expecting him to put much pressure there. If he did, I had Thorn and B13th. My guesstimate proved to be true though and I was happy with the position of my shooters.

:: Game ::

I send stuff up. I'm cautious on the left in case he wants to use Nicia to jam or something. I put Arcane on Haley because I truly expect him to feat T2. I can cycle it to the Stormwall and have both move without taking significant damage. B13th go wide on the right flank.

Menoth run up and Harby, as predicted, feats. Vengers are somewhat cautious whereas Daughters go mental.

I guesstimate what's not in Harbinger's command and focus on taking those things out. Gastone gets a Venger on the left flank before moving back from Gun & Run. Haley moves to the center, taking care to not give away points due to killbox, and I Time Bomb Gravus. I clear 2 Daughters with support elements on the right flank of the Stormwall. I make a mistake with it though as I put down Covering Fires aggressively, I didn't consider how many models could reach me with Crusader's Call (I should've backed up more and put the covering fire templates right in front of me). I kill 2 more Daughters with a pod, leaving just 2 alive. Big Guns take out Gravus' Horse and force Harby to Martyr to keep him alive.

The Protectorate pushes up. Stormwall loses half its boxes (!) to 6 models or so. Weapon Masters + Purification is bad news and my covering fire mistake costs me. Losing an entire side this early is a little too much.

So this is definitely a feat turn. The idea is to wipe out the right flank and make a feigned move on scenario. I don't intend to win on scenario save for through attrition but it'll force the Protectorate to respond. The problem however is that with Exemplars having lost a few they're up to ARM19 and my TAC can't for the life of me roll 7+, nor can my B13th Brutals roll 10+. It takes a tremendous amount of work to kill them off and I don't take out as many as I'd hoped. Thorn helps me clear up around the Stormwall at least so he won't get pot-shots on him during my feat turn. On the left flank my shooters put a ton of damage on the Vengers.

Not much point in trying to get work done on my feat turn. He pushes up and jams me on the right, sets up for the Stormwall in the middle and contests.

No point in going for scenario any longer and he's in a perfect spot for me to contain and continue attritioning. I pull Haley back and use Thorn with Covering Fire in front of her to zone the Protectorate forces out. Stormwall backs and I Time Bomb the middle of his juicy solos to prevent them from reaching me. On the left I lay down withering fire once again and a single Venger is left alive on 1 box.

The last Venger tries for Thorn but fails. Nicia and Kell take out a lot of my TAC + B13th. Gravus kills A+H.

Despite the damage done to me I'm confident I'm ahead on attrition. I'm also way ahead on the clock, something like 15 minutes to his 3 or so. As such I pretty much consider this game over: Nicia is outside of 8" of Harbinger meaning I can TK her out and kill her. The Venger dies to Junior and I can Time Bomb/Stormwall the rest. I decide to practice my assassination skills instead: Junior kills Venger, Thorn runs up, Haley Dominates away the Shield Guard and then TKs Harbinger closer to me. Lynus puts Collaboration on Eiryss who moves up and shoots off Harbinger's focus. Gastone follows up but misses one of its shots. The Stormwall moves up and misses all his shots as well, luckily I am close enough to be able to pod her. The pod takes her out and the close call reminds me very well why assassination is something you should rarely go for when ahead.

Victory to the Swans!

:: Evaluation ::

A classic matchup and a classic game. I didn't make any blunders as big as in the last game and I felt I had control throughout. Having the Stormwall lose nearly 30 boxes T2 is bad, though. With better play I can keep playing it offensively and perhaps even hold my feat for yet another turn. 

On the right flank the ARM19 Knights proved to be a huge pain. I hate rolling 7+. I've had games vs Cryx where my ATGM can't for the life of them kill a single Bane Knight. Same thing. Rolls in this game that are close-ish to 50-50 are so unreliable and I always try and avoid them being an integral part of my plan. This goes to show why. With better control on the right flank I get an even better position post-feat. 

Speaking of the right flank: My play here post-feat was too aggressive. No reason to push neither TAC nor B13th far up like that. They won't put pressure on Harbinger regardless and they threaten a lot from further back as well. Losing them just like that towards the end -could- have been an issue. I often push B13th especially too hard when I'm ahead and that's a bad habit. 

Overall I'm happy with the game. Gastone and A+H is an amazing combination. They put out so much hurt it's ridiculous. Do note though that often it's the list's ability to project serious firepower on all parts of the table simultaneously that gives me the attrition advantage. For this game it was B13th + TAC on one flank, Stormwall centrally and the rest on the right flank. 

Battle Report #107: Haley2 vs Kreoss3

:: Prologue ::

Sometimes I get a ton of games in without facing a specific faction. Until yesterday, I hadn't faced the Protectorate for a long time. When I play Haley2 Thornwall I'm confident facing just about any Menoth list that exists. As this report will show though, they have some tricks that can totally turn a game around if you don't remember them. Let's get to the action!

:: 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:

Intercessor Kreoss - WJ: +5
- Hierophant
- Fire of Salvation - PC: 9
- Hand of Judgment - PC: 10
Wrack - PC: 1
Vassal of Menoth - PC: 2
Initiate Tristan Durant - PC: 3
- Redeemer - PC: 6
Vassal Mechanik - PC: 1
Choir of Menoth - Leader & 3 Grunts: 2
Exemplar Vengers - Leader & 4 Grunts: 11
Temple Flameguard - Leader and 9 Grunts: 6
- Temple Flameguard Officer & Standard - Temple Flameguard Officer & Standard 2

:: Pre-Battle Thoughts & Deployment ::

We were playing close quarters and I went first. I deployed Stormwall centrally with a weak left flank, intending to simply camp around my own flank and slowly sweep the outer flank around. My opponent put his heavy jacks slightly to the left with the Vengers far out on the right flank. Interesting!

:: Game ::

I send stuff up. Because I'm wary of the Redeemer landing scatters on me I spread out a lot.

The Protectorate advances in return, offensively in the middle and defensively on the right flank, save for a sole Venger who wanted to lock down Eiryss (he didn't have enough movement to do so). Holy Ward went up on TFG.

So my idea here was to kill a couple of Vengers and Time Bomb the TFG between the heavy jacks so I could save my feat. All went well until Haley activated. It appears that Holy Ward stops spells. Wow. Ok, so if I don't stop those jacks he'll get both into the Stormwall quite likely, which is disastrous as it's game over. I have to hit the panic button and feat instead. This is not how you want to use Haley's feat, especially not when she's one of the last pieces to activate.

One heavy jack goes into Thorn, the other chills. Not much else happens as the Redeemer is unable to land the necessary scatters for Warpath and thus some action on Thorn.

I put 3 focus on Thorn, 2 on the Stormwall and 4 on Haley. I shoot up Vengers and Stormwall charges in to finish them off. I Time Bomb Hand of Judgement only to discover its Enliven which sends it 3" towards the Stormwall. Ok, not good. Thorn bashes Fire of Salvation with his Shield so it loses its Cortex.

Kreoss3 feats. Battle goes up on Hand of Judgement as well as Ignite. That gives it dice + 3 vs Stormwall, whose Arcane Shield disappeared to the feat. After all is said and done it has 16 boxes left. Thorn loses his arc node. This is quickly turning into a bit of a disaster.

Keep calm and assess the situation: Hand of Judgement got Enliven again so I have to headbutt it. I can probably bring it down with shooting, which leaves Fire of Salvation as the biggest problem. I reckon that with Collaboration on Aiyana and Holt + Gastone throwing in it should go down. I put 4 focus on Stormwall, 3 on Thorn, 2 on Haley. Stormwall headbutts and pummels Hand of Judgement. I follow up with shooting it with TAC and B13th and it dies. Haley TKs Holt away from TFG melee range and Lynus gives Collaboration to Aiyana. I kiss Fire of Salvation and Holt shoots it for some boxes. Gastone tanks a free strike, with the -2 from the obstruction the TFG misses and I kill Fire of Salvation with boosted POW12s. Dougal helps clear up some TFG and only the standard is alive.

Kreoss goes into the Stormwall and kills it. Not much else noteworthy happens.

I Kiss the Redeemer and charge it with TAC who deal massive damage. Thorn + Gastone clear up the left flank and Thorn takes the flag, TK + reaction drive taking him far up the field.

Kreoss starts throwing his weight around but crucially he doesn't have Holy Ward up. Eiryss died to a Redeemer shot earlier on (note to self: She is much more useful as a mid-late-game piece in this matchup) so that would've been a bit of an issue for me. Anyway I suppose he was afraid of camping too little as getting Thorn in might've been a possibility.

I Time Bomb Kreoss and TK him into the water before I shoot him up what I can. He loses ~8-10 boxes or so.

With the game having gone on for so many turns we're both really low on time. Kreoss moves toward Haley but 7 focus is insufficient to pull off a reliable assassination. He instead camps and clocks over to me. Since I'm ahead on scenario I simply allocate 3 to Thorn so he can kill off Durant who's chosen to contest and run Haley behind the wall on my right flank. I thus move to 3-0 and my remaining models all box Kreoss in, meaning he can't even reach Haley (who's DEF20 ARM19). As I'll move to 5-0 regardless of what he does he concedes the game.

Victory to the Swans!

:: Evaluation ::

What a disastrous chain of events. Failing to pod between the heavies for Time Bomb since Holy Ward was on TFG, Time Bombing a jack with Enliven and then having the Stormwall charge in... Let's just say I could've played this one better. 

What I did get right at least was the overall strategy. Thorn, Gastone and A+H completely shut down the middle while I controlled the right flank well. I think this game goes a long way to show how much a Haley2 Thornwall list controls the Protectorate. Even having a fighting chance after such a bad feat says more about the matchup than anything else I believe. 

A thing to note: The Stormwall charging in was ill-advised irregardless of the Enliven move. Warpath essentially gives him the same 3" out of activation move and with the Redeemer that can always happen (i.e. I can't ensure it won't). I could have handled a Venger or two surviving and ensuring the Stormwall could not have been engaged would be a significantly better play. The right flank would eventually have been won anyway. 

Lastly I'd like to point out how much pain this list throws around despite the Stormwall going down. I'm slowly learning when and how sacrificing the Stormwall can ensure me a win because taking it out will cost my opponent too much. I'm not saying this game was a good example because it wasn't, but it's an important play to keep in mind. Think of it as a game of chess where you sacrifice your queen for a rook in order to get a pawn across the board and be up a queen. Isolated it looks like a bad trade but it can definitely be the best play.