Battle Report #17: Haley2 vs Kreoss3

This is the first time I am facing Kreoss3, played by Erik. We discussed pairings and figured that I could drop either Caine2 or Haley2 against his list. It's likely I will drop Haley2 into pretty much any Protectorate list. So, we pick Haley.

Major Victoria Haley (75 pts)

I discussed this list in my previous post. Jarle also has a discussion of this list at his blog.

Major Victoria Haley (+25)
* Squire (5)
* Stormwall (39)
* Ironclad (12)
* Thorn (13)
Journeyman Warcaster (4)
* Firefly (8)
Ragman (4)
4 Field Mechanics (3)
3 Storm Lances (20)

Intercessor Kreoss (75 pts)

Lots of cavalry with lots of buffs. Haley2 prefers playing against melee lists, but this list packs a large punch.

Intercessor Kreoss (+28)

* Fire of Salvation (16)

* Guardian (15)

High Examplar Gravus (9)

Allegiant of the Order of the Fist (3)

Wrack (1)

The Convenant of Menoth (4)

4 Choir of Menoth (4)

5 Examplar Vengers (20)

5 Flame Bringers (17)

6 Knights Examplar (9)

* Officer (5)

Deployment

Erik wins the roll and decides to go first. I think this is always a good idea against Haley. I pick the side with the nice obstruction to park Haley behind, if it becomes necessary.

He spreads out with the heavy cav on the left, the light cav on the right, and the rest in the center.

Since his list is both resilient and punchy it is very possible that I will not be able to win on attrition here. My plan is to send the Stormwall up the middle to prevent him from capping the right zone for some time. Haley goes on the left to cap and feat. Storm Lances take the right flank, and Haley, Thorn and the Ironclad will het the job of clearing and keeping the left zone.

Turn 1

Erik moves up. Arcane Ward on the Flamer Bringers, I think it was Ignite on the Vengers.

Kreoss places two Vengers within 21" of the Stormwall, so I TA it and shoot them both. Those were the only models I could reach so I think it might have been a better move to either commit all the Vengers, or none of the Vengers. On the right hand side I try some electroleap shenanigans with the Firefly and Storm Lances. I did a mistake with assaulting my own model, so I should have run up the Firefly and shot it instead of what I did. Anyway it did not work well, and I damage two horses but they all survived. Probably I should have kept further back.

Turn 2

Since I have placed my Storm Lances so poorly Kreoss and the Flame Bringers kill them off. Pointless, I would only have lost 1 if I had placed them better. Now the right flank will collapse.

Vengers jam into the zone to try to keep from scoring and feating.

There's not enough stuff in the left zone to stop me from clearing it with Thorn and the Ironclad. The Stormwall gets temporal acceleration but rolls low on every damage roll on Fire of Salvation, leaving it at 1 box. This is a crazy law, average damage rolls if I hit with every attack on 4+ is 43 damage, and I manage to get only 31! I desperately try to pod him, needing 10. I roll a 9. So close!

Haley feats, and scores, catching everything but the Flame Bringers

1-0

Turn 3

Haley feat turn sucks. Kreoss chooses to not feat. His Flame Bringers kill some Mechanics and Fire of Salvation does a bunch of damage on Stormwall, even if almost everything is crippled.

I clear the left zone again. Storm wall moves up, kills the objective and clears the right zone.

4-0

Turn 4

Kreoss, the horses and the Guardian clear out the Stormwall and the Ironclad, but he is unable to put much in the right zone afterwards.

The right zone looks easiest to clear. I load up Thorn and zoom him across the table. He kills the defending Flame Bringer on the first swing, and I grab the last point.

5-0

Cygnar wins on Scenario!

Post Mortem

I think I executed this game pretty well, except for the bungling up of the right flank. The Storm Lances hit hard but are brittle, I have to be more careful.

Anyway, I went for a scenario game from the start and kept the focus on winning on scenario throughout. It worked great.

And that, boys and girls, is why everyone loves a Haley!

Update

Had a discussion with Jarle about the game and he identified that I made a mistake in my deployment. It would have been better to refuse the right flank and place my Storm Lances left, ensuring I could keep it. I can always pod his zone to slow down his scoring, so I am pretty much guaranteed to reach 5 points before he can.

We had a rematch a month later, where he brought a similar list against Caine2.