Iron Moot: Masters #2 (#558): Haley2 vs Reznik2

:: Prologue ::

For my second game I drew another Protectorate player! This time I was facing a Severius2/Reznik pair. I was expecting Severius2 but received Reznik. I was dropping Haley2 regardless so no big deal!

:: Lists ::

:: Cygnar ::

TimeStorm v2
Theme: Heavy Metal
4 / 4 Free Cards 75 / 75 Army
Major Victoria Haley - WJ: +25
- Squire - PC: 0
- Firefly - PC: 8
- Thorn - PC: 13
- Stormwall - PC: 39 (Battlegroup Points Used: 25)
- Lightning Pod
Storm Strider - PC: 18
Journeyman Warcaster - PC: 0
- Charger - PC: 9
Lieutenant Allison Jakes - PC: 0
- Cyclone - PC: 13
Captain Arlan Strangewayes - PC: 0

:: Opponent ::

Reznik, Jack Spam Theme
- Scourge of Heresy
- 2x Redeemer
- 2x Reckoner
- Devout
Vessel of Judgement
Solos

:: Pre-Battle Thoughts & Deployment ::

The scenario was Spread The Net and Reznik seized the initiative. My plan here was to play for scenario since I don't for the life of me know how he's supposed to get far enough up the table to properly contest me. I also had to be careful with my huge bases to not have them be shot down. The idea was to flank with the Strider to make it very hard to properly focus on it and play from there.

:: Game ::

Reznik's forces run up.

I have an excellent position with the Strider out on the left flank, allowing it to get a very strong position and at the same time shoot the Vessel. It deals quite a bit of damage. I am very happy with the position I got here, the only regret I have is that Thorn was a little too passive: With Evasive Action from Arlan he could easily have been placed more offensively.

In a display of crazy dice my opponent is able to take out the Strider (!). I did not expect that at all, but dice happen you know. He sung Passage (probably expecting the Strider to survive).

By killing the Vessel and TK-ing 2 jacks out of the central zone I can score 4 CP this turn, contesting Reznik with a pod. I go for the play and leave Haley feating with 2 focus camped.

While Haley could and should not have been targetable by anything here (placing her B2B with the 'wall and blocking off LoS with the Firefly), Reznik did have an angle to kill me here. Flesh is Weak twice is a <1% assassination and after contemplating the situation for a couple of minutes my opponent realized it was his only play. He needed absolutely crazy dice, didn't get them, and that was all she wrote!

Victory to the Swans!

:: Evaluation ::

The inability to properly push against Cygnar and thus yield table space is the main problem many Protectorate lists have with Haley2. They might look strong on paper but the way they play leaves so many scenario openings. It's worth noting that my opponent played -very- aggressively with Reznik in this game: Instead of going for scenario I could've TK'd the Devout and then Reznik, following up with a charge from the Stormwall. Even then, his position wasn't far enough up the table to truly contest me. Shielding would've helped, however had the Strider survived (as it should!), my next turn would've been absolutely brutal attrition-wise as well.

Iron Moot: Masters #1 (#557): Haley2 vs Amon

:: Prologue ::

On the second day of Iron Moot the 64-player Masters event was the big thing. Last year this was an Iron Gauntlet Qualifier event (it still yields points for the Iron Gauntlet but is now a Masters event seeing as IGQ is not a format any longer), which I won in a thrilling finals vs Karchev's Mad Dogs (link). I know that it's very, very unlikely that I'll go to the US to play next year (simply too expensive in terms of both holidays and money to be worth it for me) so this event for me was more about meeting skilled players and having good games. Iron Moot this year was a real shark tank and given Friday's SR win I had confidence that I could put up a fight against the best out there. The Masters was an excellent event to prepare me for Sunday's Nordic Championship (which I decided Friday night would be my main goal for the weekend).

For my very first game I drew another clubmate from Oslo. Seems like if you to Sweden it's hard to play Swedes! Geir was fielding Protectorate, a caster pairing of Feora3 and Amon. I expected the latter, dropped Haley2 and got what I thought I would.


:: Lists ::

:: Cygnar ::

TimeStorm v2
Theme: Heavy Metal
4 / 4 Free Cards 75 / 75 Army
Major Victoria Haley - WJ: +25
- Squire - PC: 0
- Firefly - PC: 8
- Thorn - PC: 13
- Stormwall - PC: 39 (Battlegroup Points Used: 25)
- Lightning Pod
Storm Strider - PC: 18
Journeyman Warcaster - PC: 0
- Charger - PC: 9
Lieutenant Allison Jakes - PC: 0
- Cyclone - PC: 13
Captain Arlan Strangewayes - PC: 0

:: Opponent ::

Amon, Warjack Spam Theme
- Dervishes (13?)
- Vigilant
2x Choir
Solos

:: Pre-Battle Thoughts & Deployment ::

The scenario was The Pit 2 and Amon seized the initiative. My plan here was to bide my time for as long as possible, set up favourable fights and ensure that Haley would be safe.

:: Game ::

Passage up. The Dervishes without rightly decide to hang back.

Thorn moves up, I TK a Dervish out and blast him to bits with the Stormwall. Strider moves within 10" of the objective. No jacks in charge range of Dervishes.

Amon pushes, but crucially decides to cast Shielding this time around...

...which lets my shooters wreak absolute havoc on the Dervishes: The Strider, Charger and Cyclone all light up the Protectorate jacks. Haley feats and it's now down to dice more or less: How much can I disable in time?

Geir gets next to no work done on my feat turn.

I pull back and kill a few more Dervishes. It's really close though and I'm by no means feeling confident here.

A key move I made was to disrupt Dervishes. I fluked on one with the 'wall in melee though and Geir had a disruption-remover so it's conceivable that he could've feated and gone all in for the 'wall here, which would've opened the game up wide. Instead however he played it more conservatively and that left the 'wall on plenty of boxes.

My next turn barely started before it was clear to the both of us that this was now a mop-up and we agreed to end the game.

Victory to the Swans!

:: Evaluation ::

Haley2 vs Amon has traditionally been a very good matchup for Haley2. However what I noticed this game was that the shift my lists have taken to better deal with e.g. Cryx leaves a hole against lists like this: Without a melee heavy on Jakes your ability to grind out Dervishes diminishes significantly.

I believe that had Geir sung Passage and went for the 'wall post-feat, this game could have gone either way. It certainly is the hardest game I've had against Amon with Haley2 for a long time. It's worth mentioning that I probably should have had Thorn closer to the middle, though I'm not sure how I should've dealt with contesting in that case.

A good game and a good start to the Masters for me!

Iron Moot: Steamroller ADR #4 (#555): Haley2 vs Vindictus

:: Prologue ::

Having finally played against everyone I drove down there was no option left for me but to play someone else. Finally a Swede! I was up against Protectorate and that meant yet another drop for Haley2. So much for bringing Stryker1 to handle "all the mirrors"... My opponent surprised me by dropping Vindictus in return.

:: Lists ::

:: Cygnar ::

TimeStorm v2
Theme: Heavy Metal
4 / 4 Free Cards 75 / 75 Army
Major Victoria Haley - WJ: +25
- Squire - PC: 0
- Firefly - PC: 8
- Thorn - PC: 13
- Stormwall - PC: 39 (Battlegroup Points Used: 25)
- Lightning Pod
Storm Strider - PC: 18
Journeyman Warcaster - PC: 0
- Charger - PC: 9
Lieutenant Allison Jakes - PC: 0
- Cyclone - PC: 13
Captain Arlan Strangewayes - PC: 0

:: Opponent ::

Vindictus, Exemplar Theme
- 2x Dervish
- Devout
- Crusader
Gravus
Errant Solo thingy
Max Errants
- UA
2x Knights Exemplar
- UA
Max Vengers

:: Pre-Battle Thoughts & Deployment ::

So right off the bat: Vindictus is probably one of the most straight-forward casters for Haley2 to dismantle in the game. He has next to 0 tricks which she cares about and he plays exactly the type of list she loves to meet. That being said I played the worst game I possibly have in months so this turned out to be really, really interesting... The plan was easy enough: Keep shooting, keep him out of scenario domination and sooner or later attrition is life!

:: Game :: 

Stuff runs up, Errants receive Defender's Ward.

I pew pew Errants but dice don't agree so a lot more survive than I would have liked to. Strider shoots a Venger.

Vindictus pushes and feats.

I figure that the Crusader is positioned amazingly well for the 'wall to get into the thick of things, establishing itself in the middle to pod the left zone and have fun. My opponent crucially didn't sing Shielding so I could Dominate it out. Somewhere along the way I lost my train of thought, got greedy and went for TK instead. This meant the 'wall wasn't in range to pod the left zone. Adding insult to injury I had no plan to clear my own zone so I ended up feating with Haley2 and giving away a CP.

Exemplars come closer.

Having learned very little from last turn I yet against fail to contest the left zone. Attrition is going well but honestly that's pretty much a given considering these two lists.

While scenario was becoming a big, big issue for me here (I also managed to -not- have my Stormwall in the central zone), I'm not sure if my opponent doesn't see his opening or simply doesn't have the means to kill my objective: He can score 3 this turn possibly. In any case the objective isn't targeted and he forgets to contest my zone.

I believe I'm out of the woods now and start scoring while contesting properly.

One last attempt at retaliation fails to impress me and from here on out it's luckily just a mop-up.

Victory to the Swans!

:: Evaluation ::

I know that WarRoomPL recorded this game so it should be up on their YouTube channel soon enough. When it is, I'll post the link here for those interested.

Unfortunately there isn't a lot to take away from this game. The matchup naturally boils down to nothing but target priorities for Cygnar, except when you mess up horribly like I did here. SR2017 is way faster than one might think, delta 5 can happen quickly and with the elements spread out you can find yourself strategically unable to do much about an opponent moving ahead. 

Battle Report #520: Haley2 vs Severius1

:: Prologue ::

For our second game of the night we tried out the rumoured Protectorate Exemplar theme against TimeStorm. My opponent and I dojo'd this list the day in advance and we were both really excited to see it in action. I truly believe Protectorate is a little behind now and I hope that the Exemplar theme will help against some of their harder matchups, which Haley2 is definitely a part of.

:: 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 ::

Grand Scrutator Severius - WJ: +28
-    Blessing of Vengeance - PC: 13 (Battlegroup Points Used: 13)
-    Reckoner - PC: 16 (Battlegroup Points Used: 15)
-    Reckoner - PC: 16
-    Redeemer - PC: 11
-    Redeemer - PC: 11
Vassal of Menoth - PC: 3
Choir of Menoth - Leader & 3 Grunts: 4
Exemplar Vengers - PC: 20
Knights Exemplar - Leader & 5 Grunts: 9
-    Knights Exemplar Officer - PC: 5

:: Pre-Battle Thoughts & Deployment ::

The theme will be official very soon I believe, but TL;DR it gives him a few bonuses and his warjacks all gained Blessed on their weapons. Severius won the roll-off for this game. I was wondering how I could advance without simply being shot to death...

:: Game :: 

Severius' force runs up. Vengers receive Defender's Ward and line up on the right, LoS-blocking everything just about. The shooty jacks receive Passage and are kind of hard for me to engage.

In return I decide to feat-charge. This means that even if Severius gets me in range of his feat I will catch his entire army. This dynamic is very hard for Haley in this matchup because she's so exposed.

We look at some situations and run some numbers in odds machine. It turns out that my play is too risky: Haley is too likely to just die here. Instead of contemplating how I could've made a better fort we decide to play it out on attrition to better understand how this matchup is. Severius counter-feats and his forces block up. One Reckoner is sacrificed to tie up my left flank.

Severius isn't nearly well enough protected here. It's interesting how much the "build a fort" issue goes both ways here. We mini-feat models around to provide a fort which is strong enough to make assassination highly unlikely and play attrition from there. I wipe out most of the Knights.

There are 2 KE left: Officer and a grunt. One charges the Firefly and half kills it, the other Thorn and half kills him. The healthy Reckoner charges the Hurricane and receives support from the Redeemers. It comes pretty close to killing it off, which says a lot about the potential power in this list: Look at how much I've already killed!

Seeing as the Stormwall survives, we call the game. I'll take it from here quite comfortably.

Victory to the Swans!

:: Evaluation ::

Wow, very interesting game! I must say that post-HR feat nerf this is the hardest match I've had against Protectorate for sure. I have a lot of faith in this new theme force of theirs and Severius1 is a very natural counter to Haley2. Suffice is to say that this is an experience-intensive matchup and I already look forward to learning it in detail!

I think this matchup largely boils down to feats. Not the feats themselves, but what they deny, and how the casters can be safe while feating. Learning to build Fort Haley is always interesting. Sometimes you mess it up and die. Sometimes you get it right and break the game. The same feels like it might hold true for Severius1 here. Both lists are incredibly destructive and any mistake might just open an angle which turns the game around.

Battle Report #519: Haley2 vs High Reclaimer

:: Prologue ::

As part of our WTC preparations we play team games. We mimic the WTC process with lists, pairing etc. For this round I was paired against Protectorate and received High Reclaimer into my Haley2 list.

:: 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 ::

High Reclaimer
- Eye of Truth
- Scourge of Heresy
Anastasia
Flame Bringers
Aiyana & Holt
- Priest
Max Idrians
- UA
Max Idrians
- UA

:: Pre-Battle Thoughts & Deployment ::

We are playing Breakdown and I get to go last. I'd prefer going first, but it should be fine anyway. Plan: Create a tight center, lash out where I need to with shooting, don't feat and commit unless I can get a decisive attrition play. Leave jacks alone if possible, if all units die I basically win almost no matter what.

:: Game ::

Idrians spread out and mini-feat. The right-most unit receives Hand of Fate.

Keep everything far back, TA on Firefly, pod to spark off of. Cyclone and Charger somewhat offensively placed but quite a few Idrians die so it shouldn't be a problem.

Idrians take pot shots at my two shooters but no significant damage is done.

I check that the Stormwall can kill Aiyana -and- Holt with a pod if I charge in with Temporal Acceleration. I go for it and get the both of them plus a few Idrians. The shooty jacks all clear tons of Idrians and I feat.

So... With the Attendant Priest my opponent can just feat Aiyana back up. Ouch. That was not a part of my calculation. Prey, Kiss, blessed, Hand of Fate... TL;DR my opponent goes for the 'wall. The rolls are terrible though and it survives on 2 boxes.

I contemplate two courses of actio nfor the 'wall here: Commit Thorn (and it) to kill Eye and just leave it, or back off, keep shooting and force Protectorate to advance. I decide on the latter, it just feels like the safer play (in many ways because I keep Thorn, he is such an MVP in this matchup). The Stormwall doesn't get a lot out of its shooting but it forces my opponent to commit if he wants to avoid having Arlan simply repair it turn after turn.

The remaining forces commit and kill the 'wall, just barely with a huge damage roll from Eye. Scourge camps 3.

Scourge on 3 = 3 denied TKs. Well, I have 4. The 4th turns Eye around and I kill him with Thorn and the Stormclad. I start scoring now as well.

We would rather play a second game and get home before it gets too late so my opponent concedes, understandably. With both Thorn and the Stormclad outside of Scourge's threat range the game is essentially over anyway.

Victory to the Swans!

:: Evaluation ::

Protectorate struggles against Cygnar, no doubt. I believe the Exemplar theme will help that (more on that in just a few minutes!), but right now it's just too hard for them to face Haley2. I made a big, big mistake here by committing because I forgot Aiyana could be feated back up. Even then I think I'm favoured to win even if the 'wall had gone down. That says a thing or two about just how hard this matchup is for HR.

I also had a "what if?" in the back of my mind. Yeah, TimeStorm would probably wreck this HR variant even harder.

Battle Report #472: Haley2 vs High Reclaimer

:: Prologue ::

For our second and last game of the Protectorate dojo this time around, I brought out the good ol' vanilla division because it's such a common build to face. Also, while electro leaps are problematic for HR, Idrians murder Lances no end. We were both interested to see how this would play out.

:: Lists ::

Cygnar:

(Haley 2) Major Victoria Haley [+25], Storm Division, Fuel Cache
- Thorn [13]
- Stormwall [39]
- Squire [0]
Storm Lances (max) [20]
Storm Lances (min) [12]
Journeyman Warcaster [0]
- Firefly [8]
Major Katherine Laddermore [8]

Opponent:

The High Reclaimer - WJ: +32
-    Eye of Truth - PC: 20 (Battlegroup Points Used: 20)
-    Castigator - PC: 12 (Battlegroup Points Used: 12)
Allegiant of the Order of the Fist - PC: 3
Choir - PC: 4
Idrian Skirmishers - Leader & 9 Grunts: 15
-    Idrian Skirmisher Chieftain & Guide - Chieftain & Guide: 5
Idrian Skirmishers - Leader & 9 Grunts: 15
-    Idrian Skirmisher Chieftain & Guide - Chieftain & Guide: 5
Knights Exemplar - Leader & 5 Grunts: 9
-    Knights Exemplar Officer - PC: 5
Knights Exemplar - Leader & 5 Grunts: 9
-    Knights Exemplar Officer - PC: 5

:: Pre-Battle Thoughts & Deployment ::

This game we played Take and Hold. Again, I went first. The Idrians on my right preyed the Lances and the other ones preyed the Stormwall.

:: Game ::

I want to make this a slow game, which is usually fine on Take and Hold, and make long-ranged spells and leaps force HR to commit before I do. I take care to stay outside of Idrians' threat range, lessons learned!

HR shifts his forces left.

Laddermore takes a shot at the Monk. Taking him out opens the flank completely for me. I get some work done on the left with long-ranged shots, pod, leaps and spells. I stay defensively, hoping to make HR commit, somehow.

My opponent spots a cheesy play: I have accidentally left 0 models contesting my own flag so he can run the Castigator there, swarm the table and take his own flag with a running HR for a 2-0 start. Legit? We discuss the opening. I don't believe he can get to 5 before it's game over because I have my feat intact, the left flank is weak (from a PoM point of view) and there are too many electro leaps set up in too strong positions. Anyway we decide to play it out because it's crazy to try and out-scenario Haley2 on Take and Hold!

This turn plays itself basically. Engage, feat, kill stuff.

HR counter-feats Idrians but dice are poor and Haley's feat is Haley's feat. 0-3.

I get another turn of carnage and it's looking really bad for HR. The Stormwall has suffered 0 boxes.

My opponent tries to get some kind of work done, unfortunately it's not happening. He gets his 4th point...

...but he never gets the 5th.

Victory to the Swans!

:: Evaluation ::

The game took a very weird turn bottom of 2 because of me not even remotely thinking about a scenario angle. I very much doubt HR could have set up much better for scenario so my conclusion is that the opening was not worth going for. I couldn't have said it was a trap because I was completely oblivious to the fact that it was even an angle so there's that.

Given the turn this game took I'm not sure whose favour it's in. Leaps feel better overall but the Idrians never got to put pressure on the Lances here. They need more time to set it up, specifically because the Knights and Jacks need to buy them space.

A very different game though and it was interesting to see whether the Lances could get enough work done before HR could get his 5th point. Luckily for me, they could!

Battle Report #471: Haley2 vs High Reclaimer

:: Prologue ::

I dojo. A lot. With most of my opponents I discuss lists every now and then. I ask them to put up stuff for me to test my lists into and I'll happily return the favour. Lately the Protectorate as a faction has struggled to find a good pair for Amon. I've been dojoing a troop spam build for HR with one of my regular opponents. This week we got to try it out, and I must say we had two very interesting games!

:: 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:

The High Reclaimer - WJ: +32
-    Eye of Truth - PC: 20 (Battlegroup Points Used: 20)
-    Castigator - PC: 12 (Battlegroup Points Used: 12)
Allegiant of the Order of the Fist - PC: 3
Choir - PC: 4
Idrian Skirmishers - Leader & 9 Grunts: 15
-    Idrian Skirmisher Chieftain & Guide - Chieftain & Guide: 5
Idrian Skirmishers - Leader & 9 Grunts: 15
-    Idrian Skirmisher Chieftain & Guide - Chieftain & Guide: 5
Knights Exemplar - Leader & 5 Grunts: 9
-    Knights Exemplar Officer - PC: 5
Knights Exemplar - Leader & 5 Grunts: 9
-    Knights Exemplar Officer - PC: 5

:: Pre-Battle Thoughts & Deployment ::

We are playing Recon and I get first turn. The Idrians both AD centrally and prey the Stormwall. I run some numbers in my head and realize they are dangerous. I also figure I have to deal with them ASAP.

:: Game ::

I run stuff up. I contemplate having the 'wall outside of the Idrians' threat range but figure if they commit I might get an early feat to catch tons and then maybe pressure scenario.

The Idrians indeed go for the play. I had forgotten about Reposition which makes them a lot harder to deal with than I had thought. The rest of the Protectorate forces advance and I've lost half the 'wall in terms of boxes.

Bad start, lesson learned: Don't do that again. My opponent hasn't placed one Idrian very far back so an aggressive feat and careful target selection can wipe out the entire unit. I manage to do this and have Thorn + Hammersmith in decent positions. 

My opponent goes for the kill on the Stormwall. He comes very close but I survive on a little more than a handful of boxes. 

Arlan's within 7" so if Haley TKs him I can repair the 'wall to get all important systems working again. This enables me to probably take out Eye and maybe get some collateral damage. It will basically cost me my entire stack though so my other jacks won't be doing much lifting.

Reality check. Wall is going down. HR will probably hold his feat. I need to keep stuff intact to play the long game here. I withdraw the other jacks as best as I can and the 'wall kills Eye. I should also note that I managed to wipe out a unit of Exemplars this turn as well. A Charger angle my opponent didn't see combined with a pod took out the last ones hiding in the back.

Wall goes down, but not much else is in threat. Idrians shift Prey to Hammersmith and do a number on him.

2 positional mistakes here: Junior cannot apply Arcane where I want him to and Haley is 8.5" away from the flag. Ugh. Nevertheless I've gotta start putting some scenario pressure on my opponent so Haley casts TK + TA on herself, moves to the flag and puts out a couple of shots. With HR's feat intact I need to protect her so I get a wall of 'jacks up while the Hammersmith tries to contest, assuming it survives (Arlan healed it).

HR is within 5" of the zone but not the flag. I figure my opponent either has to run (and thus not feat) or slow the game down, or expose himself in the zone. He chooses the latter. As expected, HR's really, really exposed...

...this is Haley2 after all and a couple of TKs and a TA later we have an exposed HR and a fully-fueled Stormclad in his back.

Victory to the Swans!

:: Evaluation ::

Wow, is HR back? This game was really close and tense. In hindsight my T1 move with the 'wall was over-confident, but then again I wiped out 2 units in 2 turns and thus largely ignored HR's feat potential until it was too late for him to make an impact.

Obviously the lack of electro leaps and volume of attacks make it tricky to play against this many dudes, many of which can get back. Eye of Truth is also positively crazy against Cygnar so lots of issues here.

If this turns out to be a viable build for Protectorate then I foresee a lot of interesting games for us in the future! The list my opponent brought in this game feels legit into a lot of Cygnar armies.