Battle Report #14: Haley2 vs Issyria (match 1)

Tournament practice begins in earnest. After some discussions I decided to change the Haley2 list to include the Stormwall, and figure out something else for Caine2.

Today I face Issyria from the Retribution of Scyrah - not once, not twice, but three times in a row! All times played by Nico. I am sure that if I meet Issyria I have to drop Haley2, since I think Caine2 is almost an autoloss against all the anti-shooting.

Major Victoria Haley (75 pts)

Trying out my Storm Lances for the first time, so I modified Jarle's Thornwall list to include a full unit.

Major Victoria Haley (+25)
* Squire (5)
* Stormwall (39)
* Thorn (13)
Journeyman Warcaster (4)
* Firefly (8)
Arlan (4),
Ragman (4)
Lanyssa (3)
5 Storm Lances (20)

Issyra, Sybil of Dawn (75 pts)

Issyria, Sibyl of Dawn (+29)
* Sylys Wyshnalyrr, The Seeker (4)
* Hyperion (36)
* Phoenix (18)
Elara, Tyro of the Third Chamber (4)
* Discordia (18)
2x Arcanist Mechanik (4)
Dawnguard Invictors - Leader & 9 Grunts: (16)
* Dawnguard Invictor Officer & Standard - Officer & Standard: (4)

Deployment

Nico wins the dice roll, as he does every game this evening. He wants to go first, which I think is a good call against Haley2's control. I see a trench on one side and annoying blocking terrain on the other. I take the trench, which I from now on will call "Haley2's front line apartment".

Honestly, I am not thinking so hard here, I want to see what the lists can do. Nico skews right. I place Stormwall centrally in front of the rubble since I have no other pathfinder, and from there he can contest both ways.

Turn 1

Issyria moves up just outside my threat ranges. Hyperion gets +2 ARM, Phoenix gets Admonition, Issyria places so that I cannot really cast at the jacks. Discordia bubbles all the jacks.

Stormwall gets Arcane Shield and I cast Deflection and Temporal on Stormwall. I walk up and drop covering fire, to stop him from assaulting me with the Invictors. Not sure if there was much point to that though. Maybe I should have run instead and taken some more space. I place one Lance so that if he has to use the Invictor Snipe minifeat if he wants to kill it with them. Everything keeps back a bit to punish Issyria if she goes for the right zone.

I should have thought more about scenario. The Firefly cannot run to the left zone from here, which means I cannot grab it without a Telekinesis. Bad placement.

Turn 2

Issyria's jacks shuffle a bit. The forward Lance gets killed.

I decide to start scoring. Firefly runs and gets a TK to capture the uncontested left zone. Haley also casts Deflection and Temporal Acceleration and allocates one focus to the Stormwall, leaving her at zero. If I had played the Firefly better then I could have camped 2. Haley2 feats. Stormwall blows away the objective. The Lances try to block vision but I forget about admonition. Phoenix moves into range of the Lances.

3-0

Turn 3

The Lances are cleared easily. Issyria feats and sticks Blinding Light on Haley. Between the Invictors and jacks I get shot way too much. Haley dies.

Cygnar loses by assassination!

Post Mortem

I played several things badly and deserved the loss. First, I did not think about how I would take the scenario. This forced me to make a risky play that I could have avoided. Also, I forgot about admonition. And, I forgot to drop smoke from the objective.

Issyria has lots of direct counters to my army, The Invictors are great for killing my cavalry. Issyria prevents me from doing much offensive spellcasting as long as she is bricked up, The heavy shooting is dangerous to my caster. Even so, I felt pretty good after the first game. Haley clearly has game into this, and the mistakes I made can be avoided.