Iron Moot: Nordic Championship #1 (#561): Haley2 vs Haley2

:: Prologue ::

This game was recorded by WarRoomPL, check out the video here: link

Iron Moot this year was a shark tank. That is a big reason for why I love this event, it brings together a large amount of very strong players. It makes for excellent games and hard challenges, the stuff I've come to love about Warmachine & Hordes in a nutshell. The Nordic Championship spots reflected this accordingly, take a look at the list below:

Last year I lost to Johan Dyrlind's Karchev in the semi-finals of the Nordic Championship (link), this year I was hoping to go all the way. As always though I do my best to keep 100% focus on the game at hand and not drift away in dreams of glory or what not. It's always about your one next game.

My first draw was a fellow Cygnar player, Daniel with a Haley2/Haley3 pairing. His Haley2 list was very similar to the one I took to Battle at Lund in April, meaning more melee power and less shooting presence, while his Haley3 list was the good old vanilla list from last year. I'm not comfortable with Stryker1 into Haley3 due to a lack of practice but I figured Haley2 with shooting is better than Haley2 with melee, and my Haley2 list has plenty of lightning generators to dismantle Haley3. Thus I dropped Haley2. Daniel paired his Haley2 in return and off we went!

:: 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 ::

Haley2, HM
- Stormwall
- Thorn
- Ironclad
- Squire
- Charger
Junior
- Charger
Jakes
- Stormclad

:: Pre-Battle Thoughts & Deployment ::

The scenario was The Pit 2 and I got first turn. This is big in this matchup as pushing your colossal far up the table provides so many angles and presents the opposing Haley2 with a ton of problems. The idea was to bully him out of the center, capitalize on this and ensure that my superior shooting would make its presence felt.

:: Game ::

Stuff runs and I abuse the house to shield my things from a batshit Thorn going out on a mission.

Daniel's Junior allocates a focus to his Charger and it looks like Daniel's considering trying to start a shooting war on my Stormwall. Somewhere along the way this plan changed and said Charger ended up running. With Junior putting up Arcane Shield on the Stormwall this left him on 0 camp...

...which is too good of an opportunity to pass up. By running Thorn and casting TK on him I would be in range of Daniel's Junior with an Arcane Bolt. I based my turn around this play, intending to tear his Stormwall a new one following the demise of Arcane Shield. This all worked out tremendously with my Charger and Cyclone putting boosted pow12s to great effect into the enemy 'wall. My Stormwall then finished him off with Temporal Acceleration. I feated in case the enemy 'wall would survive, which it did not (keep in mind that Haley activated before I had shot anything so I didn't know if I could kill it off or not). The Strider casually followed up with taking out Daniel's Thorn's Arc Node.

Daniel tried to get some sort of comeback but after a fruitless turn he conceded the game, understandably.

Victory to the Swans!

:: Evaluation ::

Haley2 mirrors are crazy because of the angles and threat ranges involved. I know this from past experience and was constantly looking to both prevent angles for my opponent and take advantage of those I could find. Thorn's reach is incredible if you are willing to TK him and protecting the weaker backline elements is essential.

I'm not sure how Daniel could've approached this game differently. Had his Junior been safe I would still have taken out Thorn and possibly a Charger. At that point I'm so far ahead because suddenly my backline elements are a lot safer. Again, my shooting also a lot stronger so he has to push into me. Pushing melee pieces into Haley2 is rarely a good idea.

A great start to the Championship!

Iron Moot: Masters #4 (#560): Stryker1 vs Stryker1

:: Prologue ::

For the 4th game I finally drew a Cygnar opponent! Julien had a Haley2/Stryker1 pairing so I was getting ready for a slug-fest. Indeed I dropped and received Stryker1 so it was Jaeger time!

:: Lists ::

:: Cygnar ::

"Jaeger Team"
Theme: Heavy Metal
4 / 4 Free Cards 75 / 75 Army
Commander Coleman Stryker - WJ: +30
- Squire - PC: 0
- Hurricane - PC: 39 (Battlegroup Points Used: 30)
- Stormwall - PC: 39
- Lightning Pod
- Charger - PC: 9
Captain Arlan Strangewayes - PC: 0
Journeyman Warcaster - PC: 0
- Charger - PC: 9
Lieutenant Allison Jakes - PC: 0
- Charger - PC: 9

:: Opponent ::

Stryker1
- Hurricane
- Stormwall
- Squire
Junior
- Sentinel
Arlan
Jakes
- Defender
Min Meks

:: Pre-Battle Thoughts & Deployment ::

The thing about two Cygnar colossals fighting two Cygnar colossals is that it's all about isolation. If you can isolate one colossal with both of yours you're likely to win the grind. As such I deployed slightly skewed upon seeing Julien's start (he went first).

:: Game ::

Julien runs, I skew further to isolate as planned. Do note that my Hurricane here (the left colossal) is within charge range of his Stormwall. I don't mind this at all as one going in on one lets my isolate his and feat last (or outright kill it if he miraculously doesn't feat).

Julien shifts left. Defender and Hurricane land a hit on Jakes' Charger, DEF19 isn't enough.

To further isolate Julien's flanked colossal I now take the opportunity to run with the Hurricane in front of the Stormwall. I'm now very comfortable with my position and I really don't know what he'll do from here.

Stormwall goes in, kills Squire with a pod and starts beating my Hurricane. Dice aren't exactly stellar for Julien so the damage is negligible. Hurricane and Defender roll some crazy dice though and kill the Charger outright. He feats.

I make a very bad play here: I'm so happy my isolation play worked that I completely forget that it isn't necessarily permanent...

...so although I have 2 colossals on his one and feated last, Julien finds an amazing play: By tanking a free strike he can reverse the isolation, with the rock in my zone I am unable to get both of my colossals against his flanked one. Brilliant. Meks also run up, however...

...Julien forgets elector leaps and doesn't have the Sentinel closer to the Hurricane. This lets my Stormwall wipe out all meks. Coupled with my scoring more hits and rolling better damage, the attrition play is basically won here.

Towards the end the scenario is iffy but I keep my cool and count it out: I'm good to go.

In the end I win on 1 CP more I think it was, bottom of 7.

Victory to the Swans!

:: Evaluation ::

Stryker1 vs Stryker1 isn't the most exciting of games. That being said, it's a lot about knowing what to do and how to do it. After an amazing setup I nearly ruined this for myself by not completing the isolation (I should have charged the Stormwall to deny him being able to escape my double-trouble setup). Dice were certainly in my favour which helped out in the end in a very close game.

The Jakes module on the left flanked disappeared all too quickly. I was hoping to get more value out of it. I could have been more careful I guess, an aiming Defender is a pain.

Julien didn't contest the central zone top of 2, which was a major mistake as he could've done so easily without fear of any counter-plays from me. This CP pushed me to 2-0 and helped me find the plays I needed without compromising my scenario game throughout.

After this game I drew Cryx for the Semi-finals. I decided to forfeit that game. There are a lot of reasons why I decided to do that. I will not disclose all of those reasons here. What I will say however is that fatigue is a thing, and my opponent had the Bane theme list. My main goal for the weekend was the Sunday event (and the Nordic Champion title) and given my performances on Friday and Saturday thus far I reckoned that was within reach, something I had doubted before I went to Iron Moot. A 5th game on Saturday, possibly followed by finals, would severely drain me. Furthermore I think a lot of my strength in this game comes from being able to accurately analyze what I need to do in a given matchup. Following my recent games vs Coven and some spectated ones I didn't want my Cryx opponent(s) to find out what I had learned. As such I went 4-0 in the Masters, forfeited my 5th game and ended up in 3rd place. I went to bed early and was as ready as I could be for Sunday's Nordic Championship!

Iron Moot: Masters #3 (#559): Haley2 vs Ossrum

:: Prologue ::

For my third game the field was beginning to tighten and I drew Oskar, whom I first faced at Norwegian Masters in the finals (link). Oskar is a very strong Mercenaries player and indeed his Ossrum list looked like it was made to give Haley2 a bad day. I couldn't drop Stryker1 though seeing as he had Thexus in his pairing, and besides I've become pretty comfortable against Ossrum with Haley2. Indeed he dropped Ossrum and I was preparing myself for a tough fight!

:: 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 ::

Ossrum, Dwarf Theme
- 4x Gunners
- 1x Spraybunny
- 3x Drillers
Crit Stagger Battle Engine
2x Artillery
2x Min Forge Guard
Herne & Jonne

:: Pre-Battle Thoughts & Deployment ::

The scenario was Outlast and I finally got to start a game. The idea was to push the 'wall hard, force him far back and then deal with the threats as they appeared.

:: Game ::

Stuff runs and as you can tell I'm no fan of his artillery.

Crit stagger attempt is made on the 'wall to no avail.

His artillery pieces are very exposed, by TK-ing the siege engine around I can have leaps run to them. The Strider receives TA to wipe out one piece while the 'wall charges in to pod the other. Sadly for me the dice are crappy beyond belief as the Strider's 3 (!) shots with leaps fail to wipe out ARM15 boys and one artillery piece survives. I feat.

Oskar repositions his forces. I made a mistake forgetting to reaction drive Thorn behind cover so he takes a bit of very unnecessary damage from Bunnies. Ossrum feats.

The plan is simple enough: Deal with things which the 'wall is afraid of. This means Dwarfs and heavies primarily. Thorn disrupts two heavies, I finally wipe out the artillery and a single heavy is all that's left to really threaten me.

The Crit finally lands on the 'wall but it's too little too late it feels like: The Dwarfs are mostly wiped out and the heavies are fairly trivial to control now.

As I have no initials I just buy attacks but it's easily enough. The situation is becoming desperate for Ossrum.

He tries to strike back but it's essentially a mop-up here.

Victory to the Swans!

:: Evaluation ::

This game felt pretty representative for what happens in this matchup: Cygnar pushes, Ossrum tries to shoot, Haley feats, Ossrum feats, Haley controls too many elements, Ossrum loses on attrition. I'm not sure what Mercs can really do here, perhaps there's a way for them to push while conserving heavies (read: Not let Haley control their melee elements). This makes it hard for the colossal to go in. Might be a thing.

The way this game played out I believe Oskar was down to dice. He needed some crazy rolls which he didn't get and that was that.

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 Finals (#556): Stryker1 vs Twins

:: Prologue ::

Poor Gustav. 

It turns out that the tournament I was in had D&C 1, meaning both lists had to be played. Guess what? I didn't know that. Having gone 4-0 and finding myself in the finals I was list-locked to Stryker1. That's.... Hardly ideal, to say the least. Ironically enough, my friend Gustav playing Legion was up against me. I've met Gustav multiple times before in Swedish tournaments. He's always struggling to find Cygnar counters and I've shown him #justHaley2Things many times before. This time he was prepared, with a list designed to deal with just that: Haley2. The irony was that he had no lists meant to take on Stryker1 and I couldn't even drop Haley2 (something I would've), so we ended up playing Stryker1 vs Twins!

:: Lists ::

:: Cygnar ::

"Jaeger Team"
Theme: Heavy Metal
4 / 4 Free Cards 75 / 75 Army
Commander Coleman Stryker - WJ: +30
- Squire - PC: 0
- Hurricane - PC: 39 (Battlegroup Points Used: 30)
- Stormwall - PC: 39
- Lightning Pod
- Charger - PC: 9
Captain Arlan Strangewayes - PC: 0
Journeyman Warcaster - PC: 0
- Charger - PC: 9
Lieutenant Allison Jakes - PC: 0
- Charger - PC: 9

:: Opponent ::

Twins, Oracles
- Zuriel
- Scythean
- Naga
- Seraph
2x Throne
Blackfrost Shard
Solos

:: Pre-Battle Thoughts & Deployment ::

The scenario was Spread the Net and I went first. The idea was to bully up the middle with the big boys and play from there. I knew I had superior shooting and this list possesses some crazy angles. It was all about not exposing myself too badly, kiss and wraithbane make those Jaegers go down before you can say "arcane shield".

:: Game :: 

I spread the chargers out wide. Blur on Stryker, Snipe on Hurricane.

Gustav pushes to the max, Occultation on Twins.

I back off, consolidate my position and start shooting up the central Throne. I pod my flag because Gustav cannot kill it with anything without committing a vital piece.

Hellion moves in to contest my zone with her no-shooting thingy up. Rhyas in the middle means he scores. Hellion on the left runs to contest the pod. I lol a bit.

Charger on the right kills Hellion. I finish off the Throne with the Hurricane and continue on the Scythean. It nearly dies. Stryker feats and I take 2 points, meaning I'm up 1.

Gustav backs off, but Zuriel and Rhyas try to kill the Charger on the left. They fail. Remaining Throne contests the right zone, Scythean contests the middle. Nothing contests my flag so I'm up by 2.

If I can kill Rhyas and Zuriel I score in the left zone and there's nothing to threaten Stryker. If I kill the Throne as well I win outright. I go for the play (by Earthquaking to kd Zuriel + Rhyas, Stormwall clears up) and it works out, meaning I win by delta 5 CP. In hindsight it's possibly a sub-optimal play because it's so incredibly hard for my opponent to contest my flag here. A safer play is to kill the Scythean and leave the Throne on the right flank because this way fluffing dice won't matter much. In any case...

Tournament Victory to the Swans!

:: Evaluation ::

An interesting game for sure! I love the tech's Gustav come up with, a pity he didn't get to play it vs Haley2. The Thrones are really tanky and hard to deal with. I was surprised by his decision to keep pushing despite one Throne being very low on HP. That being said I'm not sure holding it back would accomplish much. Putting Occultation on it means Rhyas and Saeryn can't play anywhere close to as aggressive as they did.

The left zone was won rather easily by me and this was a problem because not only did I score there, but I completely zoned Gustav from contesting my flag. That was a huge problem for him as the CP just kept running and running. A more balanced approached (i.e. shifting further left) probably would've delayed the game.

Another win for the Swans, this time with Stryker1 jumping in when he had to and carrying the day against the dragonspawn of Everblight.

Poor Gustav.