Battle Report #12 - Haley2 vs Lylyth2 (50)

:: Prologue ::

With the first game vs Legion being over so early, we had time for an extra game. Since watching the WMW-finals I've really wanted to try Haley vs Lylyth2. I think the matchup might be more playable than people give it credit for. It does however hinge on a few, key moves and whether Cygnar can pull them off. Read on to see what happened when I tried out my theories in 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
Alexia2 - PC: 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
Tactical Arcanist Corp - Leader & 2 Grunts: 4

Opponent:

Lylyth, Shadow of Everblight - WB: +5
- Succubus
- Angelius - PC: 9
- Angelius - PC: 9
- Naga Nightlurker - PC: 5
- Ravagore - PC: 10
- Ravagore - PC: 10
Blighted Nyss Shepherd - PC: 1
Blighted Nyss Shepherd - PC: 1
Croak Raiders - Leader & 9 Grunts: 8

:: Pre-Battle Thoughts & Deployment ::

My opponent, as you can tell, is fond of double Angelius + double Ravagore. This combination really gives Legion flexibility and punch against hard targets, but they lack control elements and the ability to swarm the table, which is of course good for me as it lets me play to my strengths without having to counter those things as well (I "only" have to worry about their raw damage output). 

So: Onto my theories. I believe Haley has to manage a few key things here: The feat has to catch every single heavy beast. Preferably also Lylyth herself. The beasts also need to be locked down on feat turn. Angelii are a problem because they have reach, however the beauty of Ravagores without place-spells is that they can easily be locked down by my jacks without having the ability to attack at all in the ensuing turn. To accomplish this the idea was to find a protected spot early and use TAC (who are immune to most things that shoot in this Legion list) to physically block off Haley. When feat turn comes around, charge out and catch a ton of Legion stuff: Get the Stormwall into a favourable position and lock down/TK the rest. 

We were playing Recon and I won the roll-off, taking first turn. A big thing about getting T1 here is that Lylyth can't get up Shadow Pack, Pin Cushion etc. She is simply too stretched so I can afford to put my Stormwall "out there" for a turn, effectively taking control of the game. I deployed Haley on a flank with a piece of impassable terrain, intending to "wall" her off with TAC b2b with said terrain piece. Alexia and Thorn on the opposite flank with ATGM centrally placed. Legion responded as per usual with a symmetrical deployment. 

:: Game ::

T1 I made a couple of blunders. I'll touch on these later. Stormwall moved up big, Alexia and Thorn following closely behind. Haley threw up Deceleration and moved towards the house as planned. ATGM took the wall with Eiryss vs the Croaks (proxied by Legionaires). B13th ran wide. 

Legion had a bit of a conundrum already: Go for the Stormwall? If so, what does Lylyth cast? What risks does she take? My opponent decided against it and instead cast Shadow Pack. The beasts inflicted minimal damage, taking a box or two off the Stormwall while the Ravagores tried their scatter luck on ATGM (2 died). Lylyth put up Pursuit on the Stormwall.

This was a pretty big opening for me. I did however realize that Thorn might just be in a little bit of a weird spot: With him having to run around my objective and Pursuit being up on the Stormwall it would be iffy for me to get off everything I wanted to. For me it boiled down to having to cast Temporal on the Stormwall instead, which meant I'd have to be happy with 1 TK because I wanted 4 focus on the Stormwall. 

The problem was that my TAC weren't really positioned for this and their slow, poor asses wouldn't allow me to place them where I wanted them. This in turn made me doubt Haley's resulting position. I started executing but Haley's position ended up being really awkward and I didn't catch more than 2 beasts in my feat: The Ravagore even died to the Stormwall... The second one tanked a free strike to get away, out of my feat. ATGM cleared Croaks but Alexia ended up having to be a bit of an emergency bodyguard since Haley was in a poor spot. Instead she should've ran up and gotten souls with which to negate spells. 

The Stormwall going to town on a Ravagore nearly won me the game outright: Lylyth kept tanking electroleaps and indeed was lucky I rolled high for damage on the Ravagore so it went down before I could leap more to her. She had 8 boxes remaining and I had 1 focus left. That basically meant a 12+ on boosted lightning pod would kill her and win me the game. That's about 1 in 3 but as I didn't have anything better to pod I might as well try. I rolled 11, leaving her on a single box.

The Stormwall isn't wrecked, we just found it easier to leave the proxy base since its exact position was expected to be important.

All the beasts in the world assailed my poor Stormwall, aided by the cursed Naga's Wraithbane animus. My inability to catch the heavies in my feat cost the Stormwall his life. 1 Angelius was seriously hurt as was his remaining Ravagore but with feat intact and my Stormwall gone this wasn't largely in my favour at least.

Lylyth was exposed. She'd spent 1 fury to heal up but otherwise had dealt no serious damage to me, killing a single ATGM. Since I didn't like my attrition chances here and scenario was non-existant it was time to go to town again. 

3 focus on Thorn and 6 on Haley: The idea was to arcane bolt the croak raider blocking Thorn in, reaction drive up, TK Lylyth around and deadeye ATGM to blast her up. She had 2 fury with which to transfer damage and I needed to make her spend it. The Croak Raider died but the TK failed to hit despite the Squire re-roll. The ATGM moved up and shot her up, forcing her to spend both fury tokens. Thorn then inched over to stab her. I boosted the first attack to hit, which missed, needing a 9+. I bought a second and boosted again, this time making the roll. I managed the 3+ to kill her and with that, the game was over.

Victory to the Swans!

:: Evaluation ::

Well, I had a plan which I believe is sound. The execution was, quite frankly put, terrible. The Thorn mistake wasn't as bad as I first thought as I needed the Temporal Acceleration movement to lock down all the 3 heavies nearby. A question to keep in mind is whether the Stormwall can make do with only 2 focus here (which still equates to 5 attacks with the free charge from Fuel Cache + Temporal Acceleration), which allows me to cast TK twice. 

The really bad stuff was the TAC, however. I was blinded by my normal approach to Recon which is to establish control near a flag and then contest the middle with the Stormwall and pod the opposite flag to gain a lead. The TAC should've ran up dead ahead. With Haley following up 6" behind she is unreachable T1 barring scatters (31" - 6" move - 6" Ravagore move - 18" Ravagore range given feat leaves 1" still), and just as importantly the TAC is set up to run and provide a perfect screen for T2-feat, allowing her to charge something and stop in them. Something like this would've enabled me to catch his entire army, which basically equates to game over given the positions we had after my T2 was over. 

The plan was good. I'm not sure how easy it is to pull off if Legion knows it's coming. I also believe Legion getting T1 necessitates a different approach as the Stormwall can't get the same, dominating position with Lylyth already having Shadow Pack on upkeep since she moves first. I have a couple of thoughts on how this can be handled as well but have obviously yet to try it out in person. 

All in all I was happy with trying this out in action. I learned a lot, as did my Legion opponent. If he hadn't been greedy with Lylyth he likely would've won the game (my T3 would be spent trying to take down 3 heavies with... B13th, Haley and Thorn more or less). I don't much fancy my chances given the state of the board. 

This is definitely something that I need to play more. I'm slowly starting to think that Haley might have more game into this matchups than I originally thought. It's a unique way to approach the game for sure, but if it works it's golden. Her feat is really strong vs Legion, the problem is delivering it and surviving the potential counter-attacks. As Lylyth rarely plays with Seraphs (in my experience) I believe this can be an interesting matchup!

EDIT: It has been pointed out to me that we played the double-handed throw rules wrong. As the model stops when it contacts the target, not on top of it, what I did was basically the safest play (I believe I could not have thrown a pod next to Vayl to hit instead).

Battle Report #11 - Stryker1 vs Vayl2 (50)

:: Prologue ::

Second game of the night was against Legion. Legion is one of the factions I've played the most against (together with Retribution): They are one of the hardest matchups for Cygnar and as such I feel I need the training to know how best to play against them. Tonight saw a classic matchup which I consider to be in Legion's favour: Stryker1 vs Vayl2.

:: Lists ::

Cygnar:

Commander Coleman Stryker - WJ: +6
- Squire
- Stormwall - PC: 19
- Lightning Pod
- Stormwall - PC: 19
- Lightning Pod
Journeyman Warcaster - PC: 3
Stormsmith Stormcaller - PC: 1
Stormsmith Stormcaller - PC: 1
Storm Lances - Leader & 4 Grunts: 11

Opponent:

Vayl, Consul of Everblight - WB: +6
- Angelius - PC: 8
- Angelius - PC: 8
- Ravagore - PC: 9
- Ravagore - PC: 9
- Scythean - PC: 8
- Harrier - PC: 2
Blighted Nyss Shepherd - PC: 1
Blighted Nyss Shepherd - PC: 1
Spell Martyrs - PC: 1
Spell Martyrs - PC: 1
Spawning Vessel - Vessel & 4 Grunts: 2
Blighted Nyss Legionnaires - Leader & 9 Grunts: 6
THEME: Machinations of Shadow - Tier 4

:: Pre-Battle Thoughts & Deployment ::

We were playing Two Fronts and Legion won the roll-off. Due to a defensive trench in one of the zones she opted for side, forcing me into the open but also giving me T1. I took it and deployed Stormwalls centrally with Stryker, junior and squire in-between and Storm Lances poised to go offensively ahead. Legion replied with a fairly standard, compact deployment.

:: Game ::

T1 was sloppy from me. 31" apart. Ravagore moves 6" and shoots 14" so that's a 20" threat range. Anything above 11" is risky. Yet Storm Lances ran way beyond this, which was just silly. Arcane Shields went up on the Stormwalls and I cast blur on Stryker just because he wanted to spend his focus on something. 

Legion responded by saying thanks and wiping out 3 Storm Lances. 

Well, bad start. I realized at this point in time that the Storm Lances had no business even going offensively. I learned in an earlier game that Storm Lances should deploy centrally around the Stormwalls vs Lylyth when I get T1. Apparantly the same applies vs Vayl. I will remember that and I'll also remember that they are primarily a unit to help me keep "my" zone. 

Anyway, when in doubt: Push. I was so close to being able to engage the closest Angelius with my left Stormwall but it was just outside of 10". Instead I locked it down by running up and I spent my feat. At least I have 2 colossals on full health sitting in the middle of the table. Your move, Legion!

The reply was a counter-feat and massive damage on the Colossals: The Scythean even committed. I think they took something like 30-40 boxes comined, many thanks due to Vayl's purification. She ended up casting Admonition on the Scythean and Refuge on the Angelius which I engaged, which simply used it to dodge away and hide behind the obstacle. I also lost another Storm Lance. 

Well, the thing is that Vayl2 was sitting on the hill with Occultation on herself. The way this game was shaping up I was in no way to win on either assassination or attrition. However going for gold was definitely an option here, I just had to find an angle.

After my last game, I spent a lot of time looking at a specific assassination vector involving a power attack. I've rarely, if ever, used a colossal power attack to game-winning effect (apart from Trample) but this was a good situation. There were 2 Legionaires blocking my left Stormwall from charging Vayl2 in addition to the Scythean which had Admonition. However the Scythean had ensured it could target both Colossals. Bad move. I put 3 focus on both Stormwalls. The right one activated, did a double-handed throw, boosted to hit and then boosted to hit Vayl. I managed both rolls. As I've never done two-handed throws before we had to look up how least disturbance actually works. It turns out that this was a bit of a risky proposition for me and I should most definitely have targeted the Shepherd in front instead (not to mention the lower DEF this has!). Anyways Vayl wasn't randomized out of range. The collateral saw her lose a few boxes. I then podded to clear one of the 2 remaining models. A Stormcaller cleared the last one and my remaining Stormwall went in with 5 auto-hitting attacks (free charge from Fuel Cache) and Vayl having less than 10 boxes and only 2 fury remaining...

Victory to the Swans!

:: Evaluation ::

As with playing against Haley, playing this matchup requires remembering lessons learned. Moving up too aggressively with the cavalry nets me nothing in this matchup. Furthermore I must focus on my own zone to give me some flexibility. With the possibility of establishing a fire base and scoring scenario points I can do things besides going all-in for Vayl, something that is often countered. 

All in all a quick and messy game. I'm just happy I got to use a power attack to find a game-winning angle. I also learned that throwing large-based models can be done with a few tricks, such as podding next to the target for example to avoid having to hit DEF16 etc when the pod is but DEF5. 

Battle Report #10 - Haley2 vs High Reclaimer (50)

:: Prologue ::

3 games tonight! I really like getting in more than a single game when I go down to the club. First up was against Protectorate of Menoth. I have mainly played against Harbinger from this faction and she's gotten the upper hand several times. I fondly remember one of the first games I had against her when I thought my DEF20 Haley was safe... For this game, my opponent wanted to play High Reclaimer. I have no experience with him but judging from his abilities he looked like a poor caster to face Haley with. I offered my opponent to play something else but he wanted to learn how to play High Reclaimer and I can respect that. Onto 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
Alexia2 - PC: 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
Tactical Arcanist Corp - Leader & 2 Grunts: 4

Opponent:

The High Reclaimer - WJ: +6
- Hierophant
- Reckoner - PC: 8
The Covenant of Menoth - PC: 2
Vassal of Menoth - PC: 2
Initiate Tristan Durant - PC: 3
- Redeemer - PC: 6
Rhupert Carvolo, Piper of Ord - PC: 2
Choir of Menoth - Leader & 3 Grunts: 2
Holy Zealots - Leader and 9 Grunts: 6
- Monolith Bearer - Monolith Bearer 2
Exemplar Bastions - Leader and 4 Grunts: 8
Idrian Skirmishers - Leader and 9 Grunts: 10
- Idrian Skirmisher Chieftain & Guide - Idrian Skirmisher Chieftain & Guide 3

:: Pre-Battle Thoughts & Deployment ::

We were playing Incoming and I grabbed the initiative. I put the Stormwall center, Alexia + B13th on my left flank, ATGM swarming the colossal and the rest on the right flank, behind my own zone. The idea was to contest his zone and go for scenario. The response was jacks + caster behind own zone, Bastions centrally and Zealots towards my zone. Idrians took the hill (proxied by Errants for the time being). 

The 2D piece of terrain in my zone is a trench

:: Game ::

I sent everything up T1 with Arcane on Thorn and Deceleration going up. 

The response was a hyper-aggressive Zealot move, aided by their mini-feat. His Skirmishers tried to hurt Thorn but didn't get more than a couple of boxes. They went to ground. Clouds went up from mr. Reclaimer. 

The problem with playing against Haley is that you have to contest the table. Given the situation, this did not look like something the Protectorate forces could adequately do here. Thus, when I moved up and used my feat now he was more or less dead in the water and I had pretty good board control. I killed lots of Skirmishers with a lightning pod + full-focused Thorn, granting Alexia 3 souls. ATGM went up and claimed his zone with Eiryss disrupting the Reckoner. Covering Fire + Mage Storm created some good no-go zones and I shot off 15 wounds or so off of Bastions with Temporal on the Stormwall. 

Struggling to deal with my feat the Protectorate forces were left to throw away the Zealots to prevent me from getting a head start. The left zone was also hard for him to get control over. The Reckoner got lucky and killed Eiryss despite not having any focus so that was a start, but from my point of view things were still looking rather good. 

Number 1 priority was to wipe out Zealots. I opened with a Time Bomb on their UA which in the process also hit 2 Bastions to ensure they stayed where I could control them. ATGM pushed out the Reckoner with Thunderbolt and with Thorn the Skirmishers in the zone were all cleared out. The Stormwall put covering fires on either flank to make it exceptionally hard for my opponent to enter my zone and the TAC clouded Haley. Alexia went up aggressively and summoned Thralls to occupy his left flank, killing off 2 from the choir and having them fail their CMD check from terror to boot. B13th + Haley finished off the Zealots with aid from Junior. Stormwall took off 9 boxes or so from the objective. 

Protectorate was struggling to contest the left zone, let alone the right one. Powerless to slow down my scenario count, I went to 3-0 and with his objective so low and even the left zone likely to go down, he conceded the game. 

Victory to the Swans!

:: Evaluation ::

This was my opponent's first game vs Haley. Playing vs Haley is a bit of a unique thing to do and something that requires previous experience. The other times we've played have been at 35 where I've fielded Caine2 and Siege and those games are, needless to say, completely different. 

This game was reminiscent of a game I had against Circle a few weeks back. My opponent then did not have previous experience with Haley either. The problem is that you need to set up your army prior to her feat going off. If you don't, it'll completely stop you dead in your tracks. In this game, I felt like the Skirmishers and the left flank were needed way higher up the board to contest Haley's strong scenario position. The Zealots were very aggressive T1 and the only reason they could do this was because they spent their mini-feat. If not they'd be completely shredded to bits. 

I don't think High Reclaimer is a good pairing into Cygnar. This might sound a bit bombastic based off of one game, but in him I see no abilities or spells that I fear, not even his feat! I think he struggles to contest her control-based game and I don't even think clouds + feat stop me from winning an attrition game. I could be wrong! A start, regardless of caster, is to try and fight Haley's board control which is in my opinion where she often wins her games. With a hesitant opposing force, her feat is completely devastating. In this way I feel Haley embodies what Warmachine is about: When in doubt, go aggressive!

Menoth & Legion Tomorrow: Pre-Game Musings

I've managed to squeeze in a couple of games tomorrow, facing Menoth and Legion. I haven't played vs Menoth much at 50 points but I have quite a bit of experience against them on 35 points. I'm excited to see what tricks they can pull and how the matchup is with more tools on the table.

As for Legion, I've played Legion a lot and almost exclusively at 50 points. Mostly Lylyth2/Vayl2 and tomorrow is no different. While I'd like to try out Haley2 vs Lylyth2 tomorrow to see if a couple of things I've learned from watching the WMW finals can be reproduced, I really need to practice Stryker1 who hasn't received any love in a while, unfortunately.

Playing Stryker1 with double Stormwall is harder than you might think. Managing such a huge footprint with low SPD can be a nightmare depending on how tight you need to keep your formations.

While I don't know list specifics I'm excited to play both Menoth and Legion again. Lately it's been a lot of Circle and a fair bit of Cryx. I thoroughly enjoy playing both those matchups but it's time for some variation and facing these old, familiar adversaries will be a welcome change of pace.

Turn 4 vs Circle Revisited

As I've said before, I'm not a fan of assassination runs. There's nothing wrong with them per se, they're just so inherently dicey. That said, of course I'd go for runs that are virtually guaranteed to succeed. A thing I've tried to do recently is to actively look for openings where power attacks can create new angles and opportunities. Thinking about today's game, I couldn't help but feel that there was an opening, somewhere, somehow, that I missed. Hitting Krueger on 3 boosted 9s is way too risky (the alternative is gambling that you'll spike, still too dicey for me) given the state of the game, but there's an option that I missed which presented itself to me. Take a look at the following picture:

Ok, so the idea is to get a Thrall B2B with Krueger and power strike said Thrall. The order goes as follows:

1. 3 focus on Stormwall, 1 on Thorn, 5 on Haley.
2. Haley activates, moves towards the stone engaged to Stormwall. Makes sure to be outside of 14" of Krueger and within 12" of stone. Shoots stone. Cast TK on Thorn, reaction drive. That gives it 5" towards the stone. Cast Temporal on Stormwall. 
3. With my own zone now cleared out, TAC activate. They move up and fire bomb the stone. 
4. (Red line) Assuming stone survives, Thorn moves up and stabs it, using his 1 focus to boost damage. If the Stone is not dead at this point, Alexia needs to step up and use a Thrall to kill it off later. There's also Eiryss which can draw a bead to the stone. If it only has 1 box left she is a good candidate. If a Thrall has to finish off the stone then Eiryss needs to spend her activation killing the Thrall (unless Junior can reach it). 
5. (Blue circle) ATGM and B13th try and provide Alexia with more souls by killing Druids. 
6. (Green line) Alexia moves towards Krueger. Assuming I kill 2 Druids, I'm at 3 souls, thus ARM19. If Una uses Watcher to send a beast into her, said beast is at dice -8 for damage and I have 8 boxes left. Assuming I have 2 souls he still needs to roll a 15+ to kill me on 3d6. Now at this point in time, if the stone still isn't dead and I don't have 3 souls and Una hasn't used watcher, I have a problem: If I send one Thrall towards the stone then Una can use watcher to kill the Thrall going into Krueger and thus there won't be no power strike madness. 
7. Summon Thralls. Charge Krueger with said Thralls. If Una didn't use watcher before, she will now. Hence the need for multiple souls so I can get that Thrall B2B. 
8. (Black line) with all the setup done, Stormwall can waltz in and pretty reliably send Krueger (who was only camping 1 fury) off (the slam collateral at dice +2, attacks at dice +5). 

Now we can speculate whether this is a safer approach than what I ended up doing and whether this long chain of ifs and then-whats is indeed safer than just going straight at Krueger with 3 boosted attacks, but the point is to spot the opening and consider it. 

It's a little hard to gauge the distance based on the picture alone but something to watch out for here is whether the Rotterhorn can move to a position where it blocks off Krueger from the Stormwall with watcher. I doubt it's possible and ingame this can be calculated with Haley's control area I believe. 

Battle Report #9 - Haley2 vs Krueger2 (50)

:: Prologue ::

Circle is one of the factions in the game that I find most challenging and rewarding to play against. Tons of tricks on both sides ensures that you get a tight game with lots of openings and frequent mistakes.

What I've learned from playing Circle is that most of the time it boils down to Cygnar playing for scenario. To do this effectively you have to control the pace of the game, which in turn means securing board control. My aim for this game was to do exactly that: Slow down Circle by establishing flank control and slowly chip away at his army from the sides while I end up ahead on scenario.

:: 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
Alexia2 - PC: 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
Tactical Arcanist Corp - Leader & 2 Grunts: 4

Opponent:

Krueger the Stormlord - WB: +5
- Druid Wilder
- Ghetorix - PC: 11
- Gorax - PC: 4
- Warpwolf Stalker - PC: 10
Una the Falconer - PC: 3
- Rotterhorn Griffon - PC: 3
- Rotterhorn Griffon - PC: 3
Blackclad Wayfarer - PC: 2
Blackclad Wayfarer - PC: 2
Gallows Grove - PC: 1
Druids of Orboros - Leader & 5 Grunts: 7
Shifting Stones - Leader & 2 Grunts: 2
Tharn Bloodweavers - Leader & 5 Grunts: 5

:: Pre-Battle Thoughts & Deployment ::

We were playing Two Fronts and we both had Fuel Cache. An interesting setup since it allows the heavy hitters on both sides to really punch home hard. Anyway, I won the roll-off for T1 and deployed sort of similar to what I did vs Cryx in my last game: ATGM swarming around the Stormwall dead center, Thorn + Alexia on my "weak" flank and TAC + B13th next to Haley on my strong flank. All in all my deployment was tight. Circle responded by a similarly tight deployment. The lack of UA on the Druids meant they had to take up space in the normal zone and they got a dead center location, very tightly packed together.

:: Game ::

T1: I am 31" away from his deployment zone. His heavy hitters charge 11" with Hunter's Mark, have reach and Telekinesis basically available. That's a threat range of 15". With the Stormwall being able to run 14", I'm still safe. Stormwall runs up, Thorn runs up, Alexia run up and they all benefit from elevation. ATGM spread out heavily, Haley moves up behind her objective and casts Deceleration. Perhaps a bit over-cautious, TK-ing to get another 2" would probably have been better. B13th run wide and TAC... Well, I don't know if 8" can be called running but they do their best. Poor dwarfs.

Circle shifts a bit towards the right side of the map and keep most things on the hill. Krueger is very close to the Druids so that Storm Wall is hard for me to judge precisely (i.e. getting ATGM within range of Druids and outside of Krueger's control area). Overall though it's a defensive T1 from Circle.

Having last game's poor T2 overall planning and pre-mature feat fresh in mind, I quickly realize that there's no need for me to feat here. What I need to do is to establish the control I was talking about in the prologue to get a scenario lead. I can't put pressure on him at this point in time because it doesn't serve my overall goal of going for the scenario. Simply put, it's too risky.

What I do instead then is to Deadye the ATGM, put up Deceleration again and try and chip away Druids. I have 3 in range but with their elevation I need 9s to hit and only 1 druid goes down. Ryan Mage Storms just because clouds are always good to have and I put down some covering fire just to give Circle something to think about (I doubt they'll matter much). Notice how I pull my Stormwall back just to make it impossible for Circle to reach him and thus keep his power until I need it.

Circle reponds by clearing out the right zone. The ATGM there were a little tight so Acceleration-charging the pod allowed the TK'd Rotterhorn to kill off 2 gun mages (last dude was lucky to survive). I had dealt a lot of damage to it in the last turn so it was a fair trade but the lesson to be learned is that said Rotterhorn has a pretty big threat range and it doesn't need to be forced to take advantage of Acceleration.

Now this on the other hand is a good opportunity to feat. I can catch his entire army and the Stormwall can go in, take out the objective + Rotterhorn and threaten both Krueger and the beatsticks in my next turn. This puts me at 2-1 with a solid grip on the scenario-game and I'm not even sure Circle has anything that can contest. Alexia runs up to get some souls but I forget to Deadeye ATGM so they miss out and she only grabs 1 from the poor guy contesting my zone. I camp 3 focus with Haley which is a complete waste: I should either have deadeyed or cast deceleration. Furthermore I make a mistake by not putting Alexia behind the fence. Anyway, the rest goes well and I'm at 2-1 with Circle having quite a few issues to figure out.

Notice Eiryss in the lower-right corner. She camped those woods the entire game and her shots count!

Stones activated and lo and behold: They were just in range to be able to contest. It was literally down to millimetres. Ok, that's a bummer for me but not impossible to handle. One stone also blocked the Stormwall. Krueger feated but he got greedy and started shooting Alexia. With somewhat poor dice, he couldn't kill her -and- he was left with too little fury to both TK away from the Stormwall and cast Storm Wall. He decided to cast Storm Wall, camping only a single Fury...

Ok, so this is a pretty good spot for Assassination: Put 4 focus on the Stormwall, Temporal Acceleration, hit Krueger with 3 boosted to hit rolls and boost damage for one of them. Dice +5 should be plenty. The problem is that I'm hitting on 9s. Having all 3 attacks hit then is actually unlikely. With only 2 attacks hitting, he can transfer damage from one of them and the other is unlikely to kill him outright. Basically, it's just too dicey and with the Stone blocking me from getting 3 points in his turn, I think it's game over for me if Krueger survives because in return he'll kill the Stormwall easily and I won't get to 5 points.

What I do instead is to slow the game down again. Establish control, back off, keep a tight position and let the scenario points do their job. I ran basically everything backwards on the flanks and kept my center defensive.

Alexia was placed next to Thorn to prevent Force Bolts from taking him away. Guess what I forgot? Negating force bolts on Thorn. The Druids pulled him out significantly which allowed the Warpwolf to kill him off. The right zone was cleared out and it was thus 3-2.

I didn't want to commit the Stormwall yet unless I had to because it would be too exposed and I still had 2 points to grab. I reckoned I had enough ranged firepower to deal with the Stalker without charging in. I put 2 focus on the Stormwall to shoot it if needed and started with ATGM who blast down some Druids. One died to the Free Strike of the Stalker but this meant it was no longer engaged. Haley Time Bombed it and rolled a lot of damage. Dwarfs followed with a fire bomb and Junior put a boosted round in it. B13th finished the job with Brutals which left the Stormwall to deal with stones. The Blackclad was also taken out by ATGM (I had Eiryss ready to shoot him as well, she killed another guy instead).

4-2.

Circle has to jam my zone heavily. With Thorn gone I am lacking a lot of flexibility but then again: Last turn I had to spend my magic on taking out the Stalker which was in range anyway and this time around he had to move so close so that Haley could target him anyway. As such, the loss was less significant than I'd feared.

So Circle jams up the zone by running in with a couple of beasts and the tree.

Haley puts 4 focus on the Stormwall. I TK Ghetorix with his back towards my Stormwall, shoot the grove to death. The remaining ATGM Thunderbolts out Gorax and my opponent concedes with B13th, Junior, Alexia and TAC remaining to kill Ghetorix in addition to the Stormwall which is sitting on full focus.

Victory to the Swans!

:: Evaluation ::

Game plan was executed well. A few mistakes here and there but overall I'm happy with how I played. I managed to control both flanks and continuously chip away at the Circle forces. I got off to a slow start with regards to the Druids, which was largely because I packed my models too tight behind my objective. Getting Haley, TAC and ATGM all in optimal positions was something I didn't spend enough time to think about and they ended up jamming eachother up a bit. Add to that a couple of 9+ rolls that easily could've hit instead of missed and the start would've been better. Anyway, the lesson to remember from this is that Haley's immediate vicinity can often be jammed up and I have to think a turn ahead to properly set up lanes etc. 

I wonder how getting the first turn affects this matchup. I was able to push up heavily and take control of large parts of the table but I was also unable to score points after my 2nd turn (had to wait until my third). I have found a deployment pattern I think works really well when I go first, now I need to work on the deployment + early game when I go last. 

Haley2 vs Krueger2 is a matchup I'm fairly comfortable with now. I believe Haley in general holds a slight edge because her feat + Stormwall combined are more flexible than Krueger's feat + beatsticks combined. Furthermore I often experience winning the flanks, which allows me to set up a crescent shaped battle line. This is vital for multiple reasons: Krueger typically is at the center and with my models threatening him from so many angles (in this game B13th on one extreme flank and Eiryss on the other) it's nearly impossible for Storm Wall to provide full effect. Furthermore if he wants to push out and take control of one of these areas he has to commit a significant amount of forces to do so and in addition to that he'll frequently experience those elements being isolated and in turn taken out. The Warpwolf and Druids taking out Thorn is a fairly good example. Lastly the crescent shape allows me to contest easily and cheaply. 

One thing I managed this game was to keep Junior in some really sweet positions: I shot with his hand cannon 3 or 4 times I believe, which is almost unheard of for him. All of these positions were safe so I didn't risk anything by doing so, but an extra POW12 boosted is of course important. 

Lastly, I must remember Arcane Vortex. His Druids would've felt pretty stupid by moving up and accomplishing nothing.

EDIT: See this link for an indepth evaluation of a possible assassination angle T4. 

Battle Report #8 - Haley2 vs Morvahna2 (50)

:: Prologue ::

While I'm eagerly awaiting the next encounter with Circle (see this link for more info) I thought I'd put up a game I played a couple of weeks ago. This was my first encounter with Morvahna2 and prior to the game we had taken exchanged lists so I could read through what she does etc. It immediately struck me as paramount to get a scenario lead if possible because I think she has a better attrition game so I have to pressure Circle into engaging on my terms.

:: 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
Alexia2 - PC: 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
Tactical Arcanist Corp - Leader & 2 Grunts: 4

Opponent:

Morvahna the Dawnshadow - WB: +5
- Gorax - PC: 4
- Warpwolf Stalker - PC: 10
Blackclad Wayfarer - PC: 2
Reeve Hunter - PC: 2
War Wolf - PC: 1
War Wolf - PC: 1
War Wolf - PC: 1
Gallows Grove - PC: 1
Reeves of Orboros - Leader & 9 Grunts: 10
Tharn Bloodtrackers - Leader & 9 Grunts: 8
- Nuala the Huntress - Nuala 2
Warpborn Skinwalkers - Leader & 4 Grunts: 8
- Warpborn Alpha - PC: 3
Shifting Stones - Leader & 2 Grunts: 2

:: Pre-Battle Thoughts & Deployment ::

We were playing Incursion and Circle grabbed the initiative. I pre-deployed the Stormwall centrally, intending to use it to contest the middle flag and pod whatever strong flank Circle had. Circle committed in a fairly symmetrical manner with a bit of open space on the right. I sent ATGM to the left + TAC + Haley: The terrain here favoured me and I gathered I could go for the left and maybe the central flag. Alexia + Thorn went on the other flank with B13th nearby. Bloodtrackers went on the right with AD and I sent Eiryss on the left to help bolster my strong flank (and keep away from the jacks!).

:: Game ::

Circle moved up T1 and put up their concealment thingy. The Skinwalkers gained a buff as well.

I decided I wanted to force the Bloodtrackers into some action. Gaining souls on Alexia early here could be crucial to getting points on the right flank. I cast Arcane Shield on him and moved up, putting covering fire in front of him. Alexia went behind the building for cover and the B13th waited nearby. On the left I had a bit of a cautious advance, screening Haley with TAC. Deceleration went up.

Thorn was preyed. This was something I kept in mind, but with Arcane Shield + Deceleration I was sitting on DEF15, ARM23. On average I think the Bloodtrackers shooting was supposed to deal around ~6 boxes of damage or so. Lo and behold some utterly crazy dice: Thorn was actually destroyed. Wow. That is a bad start to say the least. The rest of the Circle lines advanced.

The good news was that I had a really good spot for feating and Alexia could gain souls before activating. However I made a grave error with regards to scenario: I forgot that you can't dominate the flags for 2 points in Incursion. As such I spent 5 focus on Temporal Acceleration + Telekinesis on Haley to get her to the left flag, which Eiryss for example could've taken easily.

Regardless it was a good turn: Alexia + B13th got a lot of work done on the right flank. B13th were prayed but at this point in time they were largely there to feed Alexia souls and I didn't think the Bloodtrackers could kill them all off before this was achieved.

Circle replies with a jamming move. Not much to do here really given the distance to the Haley-flag.

However, in jamming up the B13th my opponent has made a grave mistake: Not only can Ryan shoot Mage Storm in melee, she is immune to its damage as well! Furthermore this gives her Stealth in the ensuing round -and- grants Alexia souls. My, my: Great opportunity. I manage to clear off most Circle units on the right flank this way and score a point for the flag there as well.

On the left flank I move up aggressively: Stormwall takes out a few Skinwalkers and ATGM blast things away, scoring me a point for that flag as well while Haley moves back to safety. 3-0.

Morvahna feats! Lots of Skinwalkers and a few Bloodtrackers are added to the Circle forces. I am now utterly jammed up on both flanks and the Stormwall goes down to a massive attack. It's still 3-0 but there are so many things preventing me from getting my last 2 points:

Basically I can't take another turn of attrition/jam. This has to happen now. I've lost too much firepower and Haley is sort of exposed. I did consider leaving the left flag and simply running Haley the full 12" behind the stormwall wreck (though way closer to my back field) and hope Alexia could score double. It's not impossible with the amount of Thralls. The problem is that I think he can get too many things to jam up and if I do that I have no more shots.

Instead I opt for the instant win: Some of the jamming Skinwalkers on my left have few boxes left. There are "only" 4 Bloodtrackers keeping the right flag jammed and I have tons of Thralls, Alexia + aiming Ryan to clear with. I reckon that with casting Telekinesis thrice and Thunderbolting I should have a chance.

I start on the right side with Alexia + Ryan. I don't remember why but I moved Ryan instead of aiming with her. Anyway I manage to kill off all the contesting models and move B2B with the flag. 4-0.

It's down to Haley and the shooters on the left. I hit on all 3 TKs and shoot a skinwalker to death. Eiryss kills another. So far, so good. It all boils down to 4 ATGM having to push out 3 Skinwalkers. I need to avoid 1" pushes which I do and I win by scenario!

Victory to the Swans!

:: Evaluation ::

I enjoy playing tricks vs tricks and Circle in general and Morvahna2 in particular definitely belong in this category. It's demanding but rewarding! Very few lists apart from some MMM-variants are able to go toe-to-toe with Haley in the game of attrition but this one certainly has the upper hand. This forces me to play the scenario hard and early but it worked out (barely).

Thorn going down T2 was a calculated risk. In hindsight what I should've done was to pod and Mage Storm said pod for an additional +2 DEF. At that point I think it's madness for the Bloodtrackers to go at me. Indeed they were lucky to kill him: A few were in range of Morvahna's re-roll and one of them got a 6, 6, 5 for damage, taking out the Shield system as one of the first shots. However, given said re-roll it's not that unlikely for him to lose his arc node, at which point a lot of his utility drops. Hence the need for Mage Storm to give him concealment which I didn't consider at the time. Sometimes calculated risks backfire though and it's a part of the game.

The Stalker having a huge charge threat range also kept my Stormwall in check. It can deal enough damage to effectively render the Stormwall inefficient or even destroyed with a few spikes. Losing Thorn made this part even harder: Usually I can Time Bomb to completely kill off this angle but there's no way Haley can get that close (trust me, I looked for angles).

Speaking of Haley. The T2 move was disastrous. 5 focus is a huge waste on achieving something I don't even need! Furthermore, because I sent her all the way over to the flag I didn't catch as many thing as I'd hoped for with her feat. This is obviously a mistake but it's good I made it in a friendly because I sure will remember you can't dominate for 2 points in Incursion!

In my T3 I'm temporarily blinded by the tasty, tasty targets in front of the Stormwall and I forget my primary objective here: By putting lots of focus on the big boy and slaughtering Skinwalkers I'm not really helping my overall game plan much: I could've podded close to the Stalker here and Time Bombed with Haley before my move. If the Stormwall had shot the Stones instead then the Skinwalkers would not have had enough power to bring him down. Essentially I made a move that is more favourable for attrition when I was clearly playing scenario. With Morvahna's feat killing off 3-4 models doesn't really matter that much anyway. I need to remember what my goal is and play accordingly.

Throughout the game Alexia was a complete disaster for my opponent. Getting souls on her before activating 3 turns in a row was just massive and when I could summon Thralls in the back arcs of the Bloodtrackers to hit them on 6s instead of 8s they just suffered massively. Giving up Thorn was an unnecessarily steep price for winning the flank but all in all the right flank worked out well for me.

Lastly I will note that I chose the wrong side. A central hill is worth a lot for my list but I chose the side I did because I thought I'd be able to dominate the left flank during feat turn and then have the elevation in support.

It was a great game and I really enjoyed it. Looking forward to playing vs Morvahna2 again in the future!