Battle Report #539: Haley2 vs Vlad1

:: Prologue ::

Next up for me in the team gathering was a Khador player looking to practice Vlad1 vs Haley2. I was happy to get this matchup as I need to learn how TimeStorm plays here as well.

:: Lists ::

:: Cygnar ::

"TimeStorm"
Theme: Heavy Metal
4 / 4 Free Cards 75 / 75 Army
Major Victoria Haley - WJ: +25
- Squire - PC: 0
- Firefly - PC: 8
- Thorn - PC: 13
- Hurricane - PC: 39 (Battlegroup Points Used: 25)
Storm Strider - PC: 18
Journeyman Warcaster - PC: 0
- Firefly - PC: 8
Lieutenant Allison Jakes - PC: 0
- Reliant - PC: 14
Captain Arlan Strangewayes - PC: 0

:: Opponent ::

(Vlad1) Vladimir Tzepesci, The Dark Prince - WJ: +28
- Juggernaut - PC: 12 (Battlegroup Points Used: 12)
- Juggernaut - PC: 12 (Battlegroup Points Used: 12)
- Marauder - PC: 10 (Battlegroup Points Used: 4)
- Marauder - PC: 10
- Marauder - PC: 10
Kovnik Jozef Grigorovich - PC: 4
Battle Mechaniks - Leader & 3 Grunts: 3
Winter Guard Rifle Corps - Leader & 5 Grunts: 8
- Winter Guard Rocketeer - PC: 2
- Winter Guard Rocketeer - PC: 2
- Winter Guard Rocketeer - PC: 2
Winter Guard Rifle Corps - Leader & 5 Grunts: 8
- Winter Guard Rocketeer - PC: 2
- Winter Guard Rocketeer - PC: 2
- Winter Guard Rocketeer - PC: 2
Winter Guard Rifle Corps - Leader & 5 Grunts: 8
- Winter Guard Rocketeer - PC: 2
- Winter Guard Rocketeer - PC: 2
- Winter Guard Rocketeer - PC: 2
Winter Guard Mortar Crew - Gunner & Grunt: 0
Winter Guard Field Gun Crew - Gunner & 2 Grunts: 0
THEME: Winter Guard Kommand

:: Pre-Battle Thoughts & Deployment ::

The scenario was The Pit 2 and Khador went first. I skewed to the right flank and the intention was to have the Strider push up and win on that side, slowly wrapping around.

:: Game ::

My opponent skews opposite the Strider, respecting its 23" threat range.

I run stuff into position, taking care to not expose myself unnecessarily to S&P Rockets.

The lines are being formed.

I have an excellent feat position here which covers virtually the entire Khador army. I take out a heavy on the right flank and start pew pewing. Unfortunately I am very careless with the positioning of one of my Fireflies...

...so Vlad responds by killing it. This is a pretty big deal in this matchup as the necessary momentum you need to clear all the infantry dudes relies on every model staying alive.

Luckily for me there were still plays! Haley TKs just about every jack so that Vlad cannot feat and send stuff into the Hurricane. The one on the right is out of control as well and knocked down for good measure, allowing the Storm Strider to charge it and get a really dominant position!

My opponent positions himself for the next turn. Feat does come out, but it doesn't accomplish a lot.

I maange to basically break the game here with the arc node on the Hurricane allowing me to keep jacks away from vital threat ranges.

We try one more turn but although the Strider goes down it doesn't matter, the game is over.

Victory to the Swans!

:: Evaluation ::

A very classic game and I believe this can swing both ways! Vlad's biggest problem here was his inability to threaten the Hurricane on my feat turn I think. Finding out a pattern where a heavy or two can hang back (and thus be out of Haley's feat range yet still threaten the Hurricane) feels like it's crucial.

Losing a Firefly under my own feat was bad. This shouldn't happen. The Strider charging up on the right flank helped compensate for this, it got a really good position and could use its dual attack to fire deep into the Khador lines, clearing out rockets which really needed to die.

As always an interesting matchup. I was glad to see TimeStorm hold its own here!

Battle Report #516: Haley2 vs Karchev

:: Prologue ::

I wanted to try out the Storm Strider. I dojo'd it a bit with Haley2. The idea was to find a compromise where I could maintain the majority of my anti-armour capabilities while increasing the list's ability to deal with infantry lists, e.g. Ghost Fleet and Operating Theatre variants. At first I couldn't find anything I liked but then I started looking outside of the box... The inclusion of a Reliant made me more than a little skeptical, but I figured it would be worth at least trying out.

What better to try it against than Karchev? If the list can handle this much ARM it should have enough melee punch for virtually any thinkable matchup.

:: Lists ::

:: Cygnar ::

"TimeStorm"
Theme: Heavy Metal
4 / 4 Free Cards     75 / 75 Army
Major Victoria Haley - WJ: +25
-    Squire - PC: 0
-    Firefly - PC: 8
-    Thorn - PC: 13
-    Hurricane - PC: 39 (Battlegroup Points Used: 25)
Storm Strider - PC: 18
Journeyman Warcaster - PC: 0
-    Firefly - PC: 8
Lieutenant Allison Jakes - PC: 0
-    Reliant - PC: 14
Captain Arlan Strangewayes - PC: 0

:: Opponent ::

Karchev, Jaws Theme
- 2x Juggernaut
- 2x Devastator
- 5x Marauder
2x Forge Seer
2x Marksman

:: Pre-Battle Thoughts & Deployment ::

This report will be fairly short. We played Spread the Net and the idea was to see if Karchev's (proxied) force could overwhelm me.

:: Game ::

Khador start, battle-charged, run.

TK + TA on Storm Strider, some pretty good shots into a Jugger on the right flank.

Khador runs again. I forget to take a picture at the end of Khador's turn. I took out a Juggernaut with ranged attacks on the right flank and TK'd + Dominated out a Devastator in the center. 2 heavies down, no reason to feat. Junior's Firefly jams a Marksman on the left flank.

Karchev runs his jacks up further.

Feat turn! I let stuff hit jacks in melee as much as possible. Domination ensures second Devastator goes down.

Sadly for Khador, not much to do under my feat. Shuffle.

I clear out the right flank, the remaining jack there is basically dead. Thorn disrupts the remaining heavies in the middle, both of which have taken damage as well.

We discuss the situation for a bit. Even if Karchev kills the 'wall there's no way he'll win the game. He cannot hurt anything else in my list barring insane dice and even then I'm up on scenario and can probably just kill him (I think attrition from here is fine even). My opponent concedes.

Victory to the Swans!

:: Evaluation ::

I must say I was positively surprised by what this list was capable of. I had some hot dice initially but they started failing me later on (the Hurricane missing like crazy in melee for example, hardly ever taking out a Khador heavy without help). Overall I would say that the nature of this matchup is in Haley's favour still. The Reliant's melee output was an important factor here. It's not that PS17 is that hot, but it's the list's ability to constantly produce attacks which hurt. Obviously this isn't the prime targets for the Reliant, but it was still an important piece.

The Storm Strider was MVP. Did tons of damage and was a big safety net out on the flank. If I had somehow gotten in trouble previously it would've been easy to sacrifice it to buy Haley time and space to get away.

List overall performed better than I had hoped for. A very, very interesting variant!

Battle Report #506: Haley2 vs Vlad1

:: Prologue ::

With Karchev proving to be a bad choice vs Haley2 the question is: What does Khador do vs Cygnar? Our next matchup saw us default to Vlad1.

:: Lists ::

Cygnar:

Cygnar - Technical Death Metal v6
[Theme] Heavy Metal
(Haley 2) Major Victoria Haley [+25]
- Cyclone [13]
- Stormwall [39]
- Thorn [13]
- Firefly [8]
- Squire [0]
Captain Arlan Strangewayes [0]
Journeyman Warcaster [0]
- Charger [9]
Lieutenant Allison Jakes [4]
- Stormclad [18]

Opponent:

(Vlad1) Vladimir Tzepesci, The Dark Prince - WJ: +28, Winterguard Kommand
- Juggernaut - PC: 12 (Battlegroup Points Used: 12)
- Juggernaut - PC: 12 (Battlegroup Points Used: 12)
- Marauder - PC: 10 (Battlegroup Points Used: 4)
- Marauder - PC: 10
- Marauder - PC: 10
Kovnik Jozef Grigorovich - PC: 4
Winter Guard Rifle Corps - Leader & 5 Grunts: 8
- Winter Guard Rocketeer - PC: 2
- Winter Guard Rocketeer - PC: 2
- Winter Guard Rocketeer - PC: 2
Winter Guard Rifle Corps - Leader & 5 Grunts: 8
- Winter Guard Rocketeer - PC: 2
- Winter Guard Rocketeer - PC: 2
- Winter Guard Rocketeer - PC: 2
Winter Guard Rifle Corps - Leader & 5 Grunts: 8
- Winter Guard Rocketeer - PC: 2
- Winter Guard Rocketeer - PC: 2
- Winter Guard Rocketeer - PC: 2
Winter Guard Field Gun Crew - Gunner & 2 Grunts: 0
Winter Guard Mortar Crew - Gunner & Grunt: 0
Battle Mechaniks - Leader & 3 Grunts: 3

:: Pre-Battle Thoughts & Deployment ::

Same scenario as I had vs Karchev. This time I get to go first. my plan is to have a lot of shooting on one flank and try and establish a "base" there with the Cyclone being left to itself on the off flank. Probably feat top of 2 if Vlad plays aggressively or hold for a turn if he wants to drag the game out. The key is whittling down heavies before the 'wall goes down. If that can be done I think I'm good. 

:: Game ::

I run stuff up, taking care not to put anything in Rockets' range. Force Field on Haley.

Khador indeed goes all aggro on me.

I feat and kill a heavy. Nearly kill a second. Shooters do work, taking out multiple rockets and some rifles.

My opponent elects to tank double free strikes with the seriously damaged heavy to disengage Thorn. This allows him to shoot it with the Field Gun. A hit ensures KD. He gets it and the various shooty pieces kill Thorn dead. This is not that big of a disaster really because Thorn's primary usefulness in this matchup is ensuring that I have a solid setup for attritioning down the heavies, which I do now. Losing him hurts, but that shooting would've hurt something important regardless. May as well be Thorn, really. The cyclone and Firefly both take some beating as well.

Haley dominates a jack out of Vlad's control, hitting another jack while doing so. Some abysmal rolls from the Stormwall ensures he doesn't even kill a single heavy despite having Temporal Acceleration. The Stormclad doesn't kill one either. Shooters keep clearing Rockets and a couple of rifles.

The remaining heavies try their best to kill the Stormwall. I was unable to kill the nearby mechaniks so they have their systems intact. They do a ton of damage and the remaining shooting tries to finish the job. Luckily for me the Stormwall ends up surviving on a handful of boxes.

The remaining heavies are taken out with ease and with that, my opponent concedes the game.

Victory to the Swans!

:: Evaluation ::

Vlad1 certainly feels like a better drop here than Karchev. It's very close whether his shooting does enough or not. If he spikes a little and kills a few of my own shooty jacks early on or the Stormwall goes down I believe it's game over. This matchup feels like it can swing both ways. A true fight of attrition. 

I think it's a mistake sending the Cyclone on the off-flank here. I think it's better to try and overload one flank entirely. More games needed!

Battle Report #505: Haley2 vs Karchev

:: Prologue ::

Since Battle at Lund I haven't played as much as I did before Easter. That is intentional. For me this game sometimes becomes an all-consuming hobby. I mean that in a good way, I thoroughly enjoy the around-the-clock discussions, analysis, thoughts, preparations and games. It's also extremely rewarding when it pays off. Inevitably, diving this deep into the game means I neglect other things to an extent. It feels natural to slow down afterwards, take it a little slower and just chill. There certainly are more tournaments to prepare for, more options to explore and more awesome games to play. Don't worry, I'm not leaving anytime soon.

Today I had my first "standard" 75-point games since Lund. I was playing against Khador. The first game was a matchup I had requested: Haley2 vs Karchev. With the recent changes I've deliberated for Haley2 I wanted to see if she could still control ARM-skew lists sufficiently. Initially I wanted to try Haley2 with all-out shooting but I quickly realized that keeping the Stormclad on Jakes was the right choice.

:: Lists ::

Cygnar:

Cygnar - Technical Death Metal v6
[Theme] Heavy Metal
(Haley 2) Major Victoria Haley [+25]
- Cyclone [13]
- Stormwall [39]
- Thorn [13]
- Firefly [8]
- Squire [0]
Captain Arlan Strangewayes [0]
Journeyman Warcaster [0]
- Charger [9]
Lieutenant Allison Jakes [4]
- Stormclad [18]

Opponent:

Karchev
- 2x Devastators
- 2x Juggernauts
- 5x Marauders
2x Greylord Forge Seers
Manhunter
Marksman

:: Pre-Battle Thoughts & Deployment ::

We are playing Breakdown from SR2017 CID and Karchev wins, electing to go first. My plan here is to keep applying ranged firepower, take out Devastators and slowly win on attrition.

:: Game ::

Stuff runs. Karchev casts battle-charged.

I move up. A Charger and the Stormwall shoot. Pew pew!

Karchev pushes with Devastators in front.

The scenario is slow enough for me to give up some points early on. I decide to withdraw, keep shooting, pull out a Devastator with Domination + TK and hold my feat. I use Domination to punch my own Stormwall. It takes a couple of boxes so Hero Arlan is there to patch him right back up.

Another push. Khador moves to 2-0.

Time to feat! I dominate the Devastator to allow the Stormwall to remove it. It's kind of annoying having to spend time killing them when they are the least killy, but if they get into my backline they are so troublesome. The stormclad kills another heavy and my shooting does some work as well.

Karchev sets up, putting himself up close to really force the issue.

I back off again, leave the middle uncontested and score with Junior in the left zone. Khador still ahead by 2.

Karchev goes in and kills the Stormwall with the help of a nearby Marauder. This empties his focus stack though...

...and the firepower alone takes him down before my heavy hitters can even activate!

Victory to the Swans!

:: Evaluation ::

Haley's control elements coupled with the slower scenarios in SR2017 combine to let her handle matchups like this I feel, despite not having the extra melee heavy I've played with thus far. The Cyclone didn't really shine here, obviously, but the added firepower actually did get some work done.

I don't think there's a whole lot else to say about this game. I've got a lot of experience against builds like this and I feel the game largely plays itself. There are tons of things to watch out for, but barring that it's a matter of the whether the nature of the matchup favours Haley2 or Karchev. This felt like it was in my favour, quite clearly. 

Battle at Lund: Warm Up #1 (#487): Haley2 vs Vlad1

:: Prologue ::

Battle at Lund is a 3-day convention in Sweden which includes the Swedish Masters tournament. Last year we were 3 Norwegians who took the 7-hour drive down there to participate. We had an absolute blast and I managed to win both the Swedish Masters and the Lund Invitationals. For me that was the first major win I had in Warmachine. This year we were quite a few more Norwegians making the trip, 11 in total, and I was really looking forward to this event.

Together with 3 other players who drove the same car down, I went to the local club for one last chance practice game before we hit the road. My good friend Leif was kind enough to bring is Khador and field Vlad1 against me early in the morning, despite not going to Lund. I had decided to bring almost my entire collection of Cygnar with me, but had to settle on an initial pair for the event and went with Sloan and Haley2. While I've played Sloan extensively recently, Haley2 is a different story. As such, getting a final game in with Haley2 was just what I needed.

:: Lists ::

Cygnar:

"Technical Death Metal"
[Theme] Heavy Metal
(Haley 2) Major Victoria Haley [+25]
- Charger [9]
- Hammersmith [12]
- Stormwall [39]
- Thorn [13]
- Squire [0]
Captain Arlan Strangewayes [0]
Journeyman Warcaster [0]
- Charger [9]
Lieutenant Allison Jakes [4]
- Stormclad [18]

Opponent:

(Vlad1) Vladimir Tzepesci, The Dark Prince - WJ: +28, Winterguard Kommand
- Juggernaut - PC: 12 (Battlegroup Points Used: 12)
- Juggernaut - PC: 12 (Battlegroup Points Used: 12)
- Marauder - PC: 10 (Battlegroup Points Used: 4)
- Marauder - PC: 10
- Marauder - PC: 10
Kovnik Jozef Grigorovich - PC: 4
Winter Guard Rifle Corps - Leader & 5 Grunts: 8
- Winter Guard Rocketeer - PC: 2
- Winter Guard Rocketeer - PC: 2
- Winter Guard Rocketeer - PC: 2
Winter Guard Rifle Corps - Leader & 5 Grunts: 8
- Winter Guard Rocketeer - PC: 2
- Winter Guard Rocketeer - PC: 2
- Winter Guard Rocketeer - PC: 2
Winter Guard Rifle Corps - Leader & 5 Grunts: 8
- Winter Guard Rocketeer - PC: 2
- Winter Guard Rocketeer - PC: 2
- Winter Guard Rocketeer - PC: 2
Winter Guard Field Gun Crew - Gunner & 2 Grunts: 0
Winter Guard Mortar Crew - Gunner & Grunt: 0
Battle Mechaniks - Leader & 3 Grunts: 3

:: Pre-Battle Thoughts & Deployment ::

We were playing Take and Hold. I won the roll-off and figured this game would probably be harder if Vlad went first, so I let my opponent start. I picked the side with some decent cover pieces and played Haley behind my flag with Jakes flanking on the left.

:: Game ::

Watchmachine online!

Khador runs up and Rifles go B2B with each-other to deny LoS to rockets. Thorn running up to let Haley arcane bolt down rockets is a thing and my opponent knew it.

In my eagerness to start getting work done I decided to go for a play where I would Time Bomb the rifles in tight formation on the left flank. I figured that with Thorn and Jakes here life would be a lot easier without all the shooting to worry about. My opponent toughed with 4 out of the 5 I hit though and I decided to follow up with arcane bolts to kill them rather than cast Force Field.

Leif decides to feat and jam me in return. I haven't placed anything in threat range of his jacks, apart from a single jugger which can charge the 'wall, so it's not a spectacular feat. It does buy him a ton of space so that he can move onto the flag, puts the pressure on me and doesn't let me neither get up the table with an alpha nor go for the shooting with my focus (because Haley has to spend her efforts dealing with the wall of ARM20 in her face).

I start dealing with what's in front of me while the Chargers and Junior slowly start clearing stuff on the right flank. Jakes is in a terrible spot I realize but that's due to deployment and there's not much I can do now: Her 'clad needs to get work done. Haley feats and catches a lot and the Hammersmith and 'wall start working on the central jacks.

Due to feating aggressively and jamming, Vlad gets a very good shooting turn against the 'wall this turn. He threatens to take it out next turn if I'm not careful though. It turns out I haven't actually contested my own flag due to being pushed so aggressively by his feat (I could of course have done it but simply failed to realize it) so Vlad moves to 2-0.

I clear up the stuff near my jacks and repair the 'wall. I just hope it'll survive the remaining heavy and shooting. Chargers are starting to thin out the shooters. Junior has to run away to stay alive. I decide to put Jakes in cover but since I elected not to upkeep Sidekick I don't get to go all the way to DEF21.

The Rifles finally get a shot at Jakes with S&P and CRAs and she goes down. I should probably not have gone for it. The remaining Jugger and rockets go for the 'wall, but much to my relief it survives. Vlad goes to 3CP.

I clear out the Juggernaut easily enough and wipe out various shooters. Vlad's really thinning out now and although he can go to 4 CP, he can never get to 5. We call the game here:

Victory to the Swans!

:: Evaluation ::

This Vlad list is dangerous, fast and has tons of hitting power. The combination of S&P and shooting does a ton of hurt and as Cygnar you have to be really careful to not just lose all of your important pieces. In this game I committed Jakes and Thorn too much on the left flank and that cost me both in terms of flexibility (I couldn't bring Haley's power to bear on the right flank bot of 1) and in terms of Jakes' longevity. I've learned that with Sloan Jakes typically goes on my strong flank. This is certainly a principle which seems to hold true for Haley as well, at least given strong shooting opponents (Haley can usually keep her safe from melee threats).

Vlad's play for scenario is the correct one I believe. His feat lets him start working on the 'wall, but more importantly it forces my hand on my own feat turn. If you can anticipate how Haley has to play her feat turn you have a big advantage and indeed the firepower my 'wall had to tank on my own feat turn nearly broke the game.

All in all this feels like an even-ish matchup which can swing both ways. Very interesting and a very good last practice game to get in before we left for Lund! 

Battle Report #447: Haley2 vs Harkevich

:: Prologue ::

After the game against Fyanna I had a match scheduled against Harkevich with a proxy-madness Khador army. Long story short one of my reasons for trying out the Electrobots is that I believe it's stronger against most multiple heavies lists. Harkevich is an excellent starting point for testing out this hypothesis.

:: Lists ::

Cygnar:

"Electrobots"
Theme: Heavy Metal
4 / 4 Free Cards 75 / 75 Army
Major Victoria Haley - WJ: +25
- Squire - PC: 0
- Thorn - PC: 13 (Battlegroup Points Used: 13)
- Stormclad - PC: 18 (Battlegroup Points Used: 12)
- Stormclad - PC: 18
- Avenger - PC: 17
- Firefly - PC: 8
Captain Arlan Strangewayes - PC: 0
Journeyman Warcaster - PC: 0
- Firefly - PC: 8
Lieutenant Allison Jakes - PC: 0
- Stormclad - PC: 18

Opponent:

Winter Guard Kommand
Harkevich
- 3x Marauder
- 2x Kodiak
- 2x Juggernaut
Jozef
Mortar
Winter Guard Infantry
- 3x Rockets

:: Pre-Battle Thoughts & Deployment ::

Same map and scenario, this time I go first. Very basic idea here: Kill stuffs!

:: Game ::

TK, TK! TK, TK! Electrobots hurry across the table. I leave 3 jacks within rocket range: A firefly and the 'clads with defensive upkeeps. Arlan's in repair range of the clads. Basically if my opponent takes the shot on either warjack here he'll struggle so hard against a top of 2 feat.

He goes for the Firefly and dice don't agree with him. In the center the clouds are placed so that I cannot TK and walk my jacks in to engage his.

I am so excited I forget to take a picture. My idea now is to TK two heavies into the clouds and let the electrobots go to town. This works out very well and I kill a Kodiak and a Marauder. Unfortunately I forget to block off a heavy's path to the right side of my Sidekick Stormclad so my opponent can move to contest. I should note I guess that Harkevich "died" here as well. Jakes' clad reaches insanely far and the Avenger's KD shot makes it terrifying so we had to "minifeat" Harkevich further back. Anyway, 2 dead heavies!

A Kodiak moves to contest. Harkevich counter-feats.

My initial idea here is to disengage all. However I figure I wanna test the list as per usual and decide to sacrifice Thorn instead. I Dominate the Kodiak in my zone outside of Harkevich's feat. It's subsequently killed by my backline elements and the Avenger. In the center 2 'clads swing their swords on a marauder. Thorn disrupts a Jugger and a Kodiak.

My opponent tries to get work done but the net result of his entire turn is 1 dead Stormclad. Thorn too strong.

We don't bother playing this game out because it's all over now. I have 3 heavies and Thorn intact. Long story short he'll lose 2 or 3 heavies and whatever's left will be disrupted. Most likely the remaining infantry more or less die as well.

Victory to the Swans!

:: Evaluation ::

Boom! This matchup felt about as good as I hoped it would. I need to play the Electrobots into other Khador casters. Stuff like Vlad1 and Butcher1 should definitely be considered next.

I don't know if there's a lot to say about this game. A big mistake to not physically block off my opponent from contesting me bot of 2. Possibly a mistake to commit on his feat as opposed to sacrificing 1 jack and getting out of there.

A very good start for the Electrobots today. I'll keep looking for matchups that should be interesting. I love how many ways you can build and pair Cygnar these days.