Battle Report #55: Haley2 vs Ossrum

I face my old nemesis Kuba again. He killed me plenty in Mk2, and now he is back killing me in Mk3! He is playing Ossrum, and I want a practice game with my new Haley2 Storm Division list before the Internal Affairs VII tournament tomorrow.

I am pretty sure I am dead before we even start, but hey! Practice is good. Let's see what the list can do.

Major Victoria Haley (75 points)

Losing Ragman sucks, but 6 more cavalry models does not suck.

Major Victoria Haley - Storm Division (Haley2)
* Squire
* Stormwall
* Thorn
Journeyman Warcaster
* Firefly
Major Katherine Laddermore
5+3 Storm Lances

General Ossrum (75 points)

How this list escaped the nerfbat I don't know, but it did, and here we are. 9x 6 points ARM 18 jacks that don't need any focus at all. Ossrum has an amazing feat (+3 ARM, +3 movement, pathfinder) and this list has perfect synergy with him and his spell list.


General Ossrum (Ossrum1)
- Reinholdt
- Ghordson Basher
- 2x Grundback Blaster
- 7x Grundback Gunner
Horgenhold Forge Guard
2x Horgenhold Artillery Corps
Lady Aiyana & Master Holt

Deployment

Ossrum goes first and I take the good side where the cavalry can maneuver. I have no Pathfinder so I let the Storm Lances take the right flank while the Stormclad shores up the left near the rough terrain.

Kuba is yet again plotting my doom.

Turn 1

Ossrum moves up.

One gunbunny is within 21" of the Stormwall so I Temporal Accelerate it and shoot it to bits. I know he will tear apart my army next turn with the gunbunnies so I feat and lock everything into place. Storm Lances place just outside 14", except one which I decided to throw away for nothing.

I misplace Junior so no focus for my Firefly next turn, which is really bad. POW 12 electroleaps can do real damage to gunbunnies, whereas POW 10 electroleaps can't.

Turn 2

Ossrum shuffles a bit, shooting that one Storm Lance, and dealing 17 damage to the Firefly with 1 single Fire For Effect shot from the artillery. That thing is insane.

I move up Thorn and arc Telekinesis on a Gunner and the Basher, so that they are within range of a TA Stormwall and a lot of Lances. I kill a Blaster, a Gunner and a Basher. I might look as if I am doing OK, but really I am not.

Turn 3

Ossrum feats. Since he has Tactician [Rhulic] he can clear stuff with his Forge Guard first, free up the gunbunnies, and go to town. The counterpunch takes out Junior, half the Stormwall, all except 1 Storm Lance, and the Firefly.

I know I will lose the Stormwall next turn, so I try for an extremely long shot assassination. Thorn runs up, Haley TKs Ossrum, and I shoot him twice with the Stormwall. It is, of course, not nearly enough. We shake hands!

Assassination: Failed.

Mercenaries win by attrition!

Post Mortem

Haley2 does not like strong gunlines and this one is just insanely strong. I would have dropped Nemo3 into this, since his ARM 19/20 cavalry is far harder to kill. Anyway, I really needed a practice game with the new list.

First impression is that this Haley2 list looks far superior to the non theme version. Maybe a bit worse against high ARM box spam, but with Karchev gone we might see less of that.