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.

Tournament Pair: Haley2 and Caine2 (update #2)

I have had some list discussions and have reworked my tournament pair.

Major Victoria Haley

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)

List Explanation

This is the same list as Jarle has been playing to good effect, but with Lanyssa swapped with Field Mechanics.

This list is about using the spells and pieces to control the game and trade aggressively if needed. It is also alright at attrition.

Squire gives extra feat range, extra focus, and rerolls. All very important in this list.

Thorn is an auto-include with Haley for landing offensive spells, disrupting jacks, and all the crazy movement shenanigans and angl es.

Ironclad is a good and cheap initializer and great for setting up good trades.

Stormwall is a great scenario piece hits and shoots hard with Acceleration.

Storm Lances, Ragman and Firefly together can do some serious armor cracking and electro leaps.

The list is jack heavy. It's often difficult to take out Stormwall or Thorn in one turn, and the Field Mechanics will keep them ticking. The main alternatives to Field Mechanics are Lanyssa or Tinker.

Testing Haley2

I especially want to test this list into Karchev, Rask, Wormwood and Rhulic.

I have now tested Haley2 vs Issyria and it seems solid.

Captain Allister Caine

Captain Allister Caine (+27)
* Reinholdt (4)
* Centurion (17)
* Hunter (11)
Journeyman Warcaster (4)
* Hunter (11)
Gun Mage Captain Adept (5)
Ragman (4)
6 Rangers (9)
5 Storm Lances (20)
6 Trencher Infantry + 1 Rifle Grenadier (12)
Lynus & Edrea (5)

List Explanation

Caine, Reinholdt, Rangers, and GMCA are the most important tools for Caine2 assassination, by increasing his damage, accuracy, and granting vision through models. Even though I intend the list to play mostly for attrition, I think it's important to play to Caine's strengths by having the package.

Centurion is a great scenario piece and anchor. Many armies have great trouble killing him.

Journeyman Warcaster's Arcane Shield makes the Centurion almost unkillable. My plan is to start with AS on the Storm Lances and transfer it to the Centurion or Caine as the battle progresses.

Double Hunters will hopefully be able to soften up enemy heavies.

Trenchers are there to allow me to play Caine2 further up the board than he usually can. Also they are really great with no knockdown.

Storm Lances are the best and most self sufficient Cygnar unit, and can deliver great damage with zero support.

Ragman is, well, Ragman, and quite simply too good to pass up in any Cygnar list that expects to get into melee.

Lynus and Edrea give me the opportunity to cripple jacks and beasts with Caine without having to use the feat to do so. Arcnodes, Cortex and Spirit are the primary targets. I am not quite sure about my choice, but they have done good work in other games, so we'll see. If they don't work out, we have plenty of other good solos to pick from.

The list is very experimental at this point, we'll see how it goes.

Testing Caine2

Jarle recommended trying out these matchups:

• Cryx (Coven,eneghra1)

• Legion (Vayl2, Lylyth3)

• Skorne (Makeda2, Rasheth),

• Minions (Rask, Arkadius, Carver)

• Retribution (Ossyan)

• Cygnar mirror

• Cephalyx

Battle Report #16: Haley2 vs Issyria (match 3)

The games went so quickly that we found out that we had time for a third game. The score is 1-1? Who will be the champion? Who will walk home, mind gone, spirit crushed, body mauled? Well, none of us, because we don't play HORDES. We, my friend, have cortexes.

Major Victoria Haley (75 pts)

I felt in both the matches that another Ironclad would have given me more punch, with the possibility of one-rounding a colossal. I modified the list back to be almost identical to Jarle's supertuned Stormwall list. I'm not such a big fan of Lanyssa in that list, since her threat is so close to my max threat. I don't have the Gobber Tinker, so I used a min bodgers instead, making this the Official Pjolterbeist's Thornwall Extra Gobber Repair Power List (tm).

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)

Issyra, Sybil of Dawn (75 pts)

Nico also swapped back to his original list. I think the only change was Wyshyshnanalyrrylyrr for Lanyssa.


Issyria, Sibyl of Dawn (+29)
* Hyperion (36)
* Phoenix (18)
Elara, Tyro of the Third Chamber (4)
* Discordia (18)
Lanyssa (3)
2x Arcanist Mechanik (4)
Dawnguard Invictors - Leader & 9 Grunts: (16)
* Dawnguard Invictor Officer & Standard - Officer & Standard: (4)

Deployment

For once Nico wins the roll, and this time he opts to go last, taking the hated trench. Evicted from my apartment, I take the other side.

My strategy this time is similar - threaten to clear the left zone while grabbing a point or two with Haley2 on the right zone.

Counterdeployment

Turn 1

Lances taker the hill. Stormwall goes up and leaves a gap for Haley. The Ironclad gets a bit hemmed in, he should probably have taken the other way around the forest.

Turn 2

Issyria advances up.

I go up, and feat. The Stormwall shoots at Phoenix, hitting every shot, and rolls crazy damage. Phoenix is blasted off the table. A lucky hard 9 also takes out Lanyssa. Ironclad moves into position.I set up Lances to assault the objective next round.

I made a mistake in keeping the bodgers too far back, so no repair for me next turn.

Locked under the feat, Issyria tries to shoot away the Ironclad, but dice are low and he does not kill it completely, leaving it at 7 boxes and with the right arm intact. Nico cannot contest, I score in his turn.

1-0

Turn 3

I shoot the objective but fail to clear the last Invictor. Stormclad moves up to block off the colossal and I kill the Invictors which could have run up to contest the right zone.

3-0

Issyria punches back but cannot contest. I score another point in her turn.

4-0

Blocked out

Turn 4

I pass and score the last point.

5-0

Cygnar wins by scenario!

Post Mortem

Haley2 is so good on scenario. Granted, the dice were in my favor, but it is hard for Issyria to contest without feeding me too much of her army. My conclusion is that Haley2 has game against Issyria when the scenario is live.

I learnt a lot from the games, and it was great to have three games back to back in the same matchup. I definitely will try to practice like this in the future.

Battle Report #15: Haley2 vs Issyria (match 2)

After the previous game I was feeling good. Even if I lost, the matchup seems very playable.

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

We rolled again, and again Nico won. He positioned a heavy on both sides of Hyperion in order to be able to contest both zones better.

This time I was thinking harder about the objective. The Firefly and Storm Lances were positioned to capture the left zone. The game plan was to score the right zone, feat, clear the left zone and score again in both zones, hopefully going to 3-0 or 4-0 after feat turn.

Turn 1

Issyria plays the same as the previous game. She moves up and covers all heavies with her Arcane Vortex, staying out of my range.

I flank hard left with my Lances and trundle up the center with Stormwall. Haley2 and Firefly are within capping distance next turn.

Turn 2

Nico moves up to contest.

I move up and feat. Lances engage. Ragman, Accelerated Stormwall and Thorn together remove more than half of Hyperion's boxes and I disrupt Phoneix. I also put a some damage on Discordia and clear the left side Invictors. Haley camps 2 and casts Deflection. A good turn, lots of damage, no scoring, but Issyria had to pay by giving me the alpha.

Turn 3

Haley feat turn is always a problem. Nico decides to play for attrition. Hyperion takes out moree than half the Stormwall, and Discordia moves out of melee and blasts Ragman.

Phoenix gets turned around with Telekinesis so he cannot reach either Haley or the Stormwall. I punch Hyperion a lot, rolling poorly and leaving him at a couple of boxes. I should have used Acceleration and then he would have died for sure. It was actually Jarle's idea to not cast it, saying the kill was a sure thing, so I can only blame myself for listening to his n00bish advice. He should play some more games.

Issyria is unfortunately standing close to Hyperion and is exposed to electro leaps. After a bunch of leaps, she dies.

We actually did a misplay there and there was another model that should have been hit before Issyria, but it was impossible to backtrack completely at that point. Bit of a mess, but well well.

Cygnar wins by assassination!

Post Mortem

The game went a lot better when I paid attention to deployment and scenario ranges, and ensured that I had a shot at taking the zones. Even though I did not actually grab a single point, the pressure forced Issyria to fan out and contest, giving me better chances to kill stuff, and also forcing Issyria up where she was exposed.

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.

Tournament pair: Haley2 and Caine2

I have had a 20 or so Mk3 games now and feel that I am slowly starting to get back into the groove. It's time to start working on a tournament pair! I haven't done this in a long time, but my first proper tournament is coming up in December and it's time to focus. It is time to put my Haley2 / Jakes1 / Thunderhead fun list back into the drawer and build the best lists I can!

The casters I have picked are Haley2 and Caine2. Haley2 is considered the strongest Cygnar scenario caster overall, and her strong alpha and control can really put the hurt on high armor lists and melee focused lists. Caine2 is great for dealing with mass infantry, and should be better against all the cloud walls I expect to see in our Cygnar-filled meta.

Here are my first two candidate lists:

Major Victoria Haley

Major Victoria Haley (+25)
* Squire (5)
* Thorn (13)
* Ironclad (12)
* Dynamo (18)
Journeyman Warcaster (4)
* Firefly (8)
Arlan Strangewayes (4)
Ragman (4)
5 Storm Lances
6 Trencher Infantry
* Trencher Infantry Rifle Grenadier

List Explanation

This list is all about punching first and hard and using Haley's control to do it twice. Squire and Thorn are auto-includes with Haley, Squire for the extra feat range, and Thorn for landing offensive spells, disrupting jacks, and all the crazy movement shenanigans and angles.

Ironclad is a good and cheap initializer.

Dynamo hits crazy hard with Acceleration, and  Storm Lances, Ragman and Firefly together can do some serious armor cracking and electro leaps.

The Trenchers are mainly for protecting Haley and allowing me to play her more aggressively on scenario, and also some light infantry removal.

The list is jack heavy, and Arlan is very handy for spot repairs, especially on that very fragile arcnode, but usually just handing out extra focus.

Captain Allister Caine

Captain Allister Caine (+27)
* Reinholdt
* Stormwall
Journeyman Warcaster
* Firefly
Gun Mage Captain Adept
Ragman
Rhupert Carvolo
6 Rangers
5 Storm Lances
Lynus Wesselbaum & Edrea Lloryrr

List Explanation

Caine, Reinholdt, Rangers, and GMCA are the most important tools for Caine2 assassination, by increasing his damage, accuracy, and granting vision through models. Even though I intend the list to play mostly for attrition, I think it's important to play to Caine's strengths by having the package.

Rhupert is mainly there to keep the Rangers alive and annoying. He can also help with getting Storm Lance DEF high, and getting Caine DEF insane.

Storm Lances are there for being the best and most self sufficient Cygnar unit.

Stormwall is a huge distraction and important scenario piece. Firefly is cheap and increases the electro leap punch from Stormwall and Lances.

Ragman is, well, Ragman, and quite simply too good to pass up in any Cygnar list that expects to get into melee.

Lynus and Edrea give me the opportunity to cripple jacks and beasts with Caine without having to use the feat to do so. Arcnodes, Cortex and Spirit are the primary targets. I am not quite sure about my choice, but they have done good work in other games, so we'll see. If they don't work out, we have plenty of other good solos to pick from.

Testing

Next step: Testing the lists to see if they have game against the strongest opponents. Jarle advised me to play against some of the usual bogeymen: Rask, Haley2 mirror, Haley3, Karchev, Issyria, Wurmwood and Rhulic.

Painting: Lynus and Edrea

Lynus and Edrea are painted!

Lynus had a broken sword grip, so I had to model a new one for him.

These sure are going to be handy with Caine2!

Lynus Wesselbaum and Edrea Lloryrr

Battle Report #13: Haley2 vs Caine2 (match 2)

We discussed our lists before the rematch. My all girl squad is pretty atypical, and I decided to go for a more vanilla Haley2 Thornwall list. We also did a couple of improvements to Lars' list.

Major Victoria Haley (75 points)

Yes, Jarle. Blazers and no Storm Lances. Go ahead, make fun of me, get it out of the way.


Major Victoria Haley (+25)
* Squire (5)
* Stormwall (39)
* Thorn (13)
* Ironclad (12)
Journeyman Warcaster (4)
* Firefly (8)
Arlan (4),
Ragman (4)
3 Tempest Blazers (10)

Captain Allister Caine (75 points)

There was one solo more, I think, but I cannot see from the pictures.


Captain Allister Caine (+27)
* Reinholdt (4)
* Stormwall (39)
Journeyman Warcaster (4)
* Firefly (8)
Rhupert (4)
2 Gun Mage Captain Adept (10)
6 Rangers (9)
5 Storm Lances (20)

Deployment

This time Lars chooses sides and takes that beautiful Trench, and I get that damn funnel.

Deployment

The Angles. The Angles.

Turn 1

I move up and the Blazers flank left to threaten his solos, staying slightly out of Caine's threat range.

Caine2 advances.

Turn 2

I cast Deflection and then Time Bomb on two Storm Lances, killing one, and also hit the enemy Stormwall. My Stormwall moves up and threatens the entire zone. I am trying to force Lars to give me the double alpha.

The Blazers pick off Rhupert

Lancers engage and put a lot of damage on Thorn, taking out his Arc Node and he also gets Grievous Wounds from Caine. Ragman gets Trick Shotted away.

Turn 3

Caine2 is standing right next to the Stormwall. I run the Firefly within 5" of Caine, throw Temporal Acceleration on the Stormwall, and walk in and start hitting. When the second to last punch lands, Caine is completely electrocuted by all the POW 12 electroleaps.

Cygnar wins by assassination!

Post Mortem

A misplacement by Caine there, standing right next to the Stormwall and with no other leap targets around.

3-0 today, that felt nice after the thrashings I have been receiving lately. Caine2 vs Haley2 is difficult for both sides. I am almost certain to run into these matchups in future tournaments here in Oslo, where there is a Swan at every corner!

Thanks for my opponents for some fun games!

Beermachine!

We had a fun doubles tournament at the club!

I played Caine2, and Alex played Vayl2, 2x 50 points. I could not go to the first game so I registered a stand in - but a spot opened so Alex and I were there for games 2 and 3.

Game 2 was against Jarle and Christian. These guys are really good and had brought good lists, so we knew this would be uphill. I will let Jarle tell the full tale on his excellent Courage of Caspia blog.

Getting ready for game

Game 2

The masters at work.

Game 2 under way!

Ready for WAR!

Game 3

Game 3 was against Wormwood and Vlad1. Unfortunately our opponents were not aware of how Caine2 worked. There was open LOS to Wormwood, so we debuffed him with the Shard and then Head Lumberjack Caine walked up and feated. The tree was immediately felled. A bit sad since this could have turned into a great game, but friendly tournaments are also tournaments.

Now firing at POW20. How I miss Ayana & Holt in my Caine2 list.

Measure Twice, Assassinate Once.

My Lucky Charm, painted by my son 3 years ago!

Last two games in progress

Due to our high SoS after meeting Jarle and Christian (the winners) we actually placed 2nd!

Full tournament results are at Tiebreak.

Battle Report #12: Haley2 vs Caine2 (match 1)

Blue on blue, part deux. This time I play Haley2, and my new opponent, Lars, takes Caine2.

Major Victoria Haley (75 points)

I'm playing the same all-girl Warcaster squad as I played previously. Can Caine2 handle all these deadly women?

Major Victoria Haley (+25)
* Squire (5)
* Defender (16)
* Ironclad (12)
* Thorn (13)
Journeyman Warcaster (4)
* Firefly (8)
Jakes1
* Thunderhead
Arlan (4)
Ragman (4)
6 Trenchers (10)

Captain Allister Caine (75 points)

I have my doubts about this list. I think Laddermore might be unneccesary here, with all the accuracy that the Rangers provide. Also, Rags is missing.

Captain Allister Caine (+27)
* Reinholdt (4)
* Stormwall (39)
Journeyman Warcaster (4)
* Firefly (8)
Laddermore (8)
6 Rangers (9)
5 Storm Lances (20)
6 Trencher Infantry (10)

Deployment

I win the roll. I want that sweet trench for the girls to camp in. Lars goes first.

It seems hard to score on this scenario since none of our casters want to be anywhere near the flags, and that huge zone is easy to contest. I just deploy to have a long line behind the smoke wall and prepare to slug it out.

My opponent places Trenchers in the Rough, forgetting that they do not have Pathfinder. Better to put them on either side.

Turn 1

We both move up. I forget to move Thorn, silly me. I sometimes forget I can move him again after the first 5" TA + Reaction Drive.

Turn 2

The shooting starts. Caine and all his infantry kills every single Trencher. A bit sad to not have one or two alive for another round of cloud cover, but they did prevent him from killing anything else. Also, Caine2 is now in the middle of rubble, and his threat is now down to around 15", which is very bad.

I scalpel out a Trencher to make a hole for Thunderhead. I cast Deflection and accelerate the Ironclad, camping 2, and feat, not catching Caine but almost all the rest of his force. Thunderhead Pulses and barbecues everything but 1 Ranger and 2 Trenchers. The Ironclad murders two Lances.

This is the position I want - a Thunderhead that cannot realistically be killed standing within 17" of the enemy caster.

Turn 3

Caine feats and does not back off. He fires on the Ironclad but breaks off  to camp 2 focus, leaving it alive.

Assassinations don't get much more certain than this. I run up the Firefly, Energize + Accelerate Thunderhead, and after a POW 14 Pulse and two more POW 16 autohits shots Caine is dead. I had one more boosted autohit left to go. Average dice damage on this is something like 41 boxes.


An alternative play would have been to hit the Colossal with everything, but I could not get Ragman in range, and then with no buffs ARM22 could be too much.

The Funderhead!

Post Mortem

I explained the Thunderhead trick before we started, but just as with Caine2's assassination, it's a bit hard to see it coming anyway unless you have been at the receiving end once before.

This Haley2 list is pretty well tailored to kill infantry swarms + average armor, so I was probably at an advantage from the beginning. This game went fast, so we decided to gave another go!

Battle Report #11: Caine2 vs Haley2

This evening will be all blue on blue (or, in our case, purple on copper). We both have the same pairing and my opponent, Morten, wants to play Haley2. Mirrors are boring as hell, so I pick Caine2. 

I have modified my list every so slightly, again.

Captain Allister Caine (75 points)

Captain Allister Caine (+27)

* Reinholdt (4)

* Stormwall (39)

Journeyman Warcaster (4)

* Firefly (8)

Captain Arlan Strangewayes (4)

Gun Mage Captain Adept (5)

Lanyssa (3)

Ragman (4)

6 Rangers (9)

6 Trencher Infantry (10)

* 3 Trencher Infantry Rifle Grenadier (6)

Lynus Wesselbaum and Edrea Lloryrr (5)

Haley2 (75 points)

Haley2 (+25)

* Squire (5)

* Centurion (17)

* Ironclad (12)

* Thorn (13)

Captain Arlan Strangewayes (4)

Journeyman Warcaster (4)

* Hunter (11)

2 Arcane Tempest Riflemen (8)

Gun Mage Capain Adept (5)

Lanyssa (3)

3 Storm Lances (12)

Deployment

Interesting matchup, both casters have so many shenanigans! My Rangers take the forest and his Hunter takes the trench.

Turn 1

I move up the tunnel in the middle.

Morten goes in to contest the zone with the Centurion.

Turn 2

Caine2 goes to work. I deem Thorn to be the biggest threat here, so I go up, and using Applied Knowledge from Lynus and two boosted shots + boosted damage rolls he scalpels out Thorn's Arc Node and applies Grievous Wounds so he cannot repair it back. I also trick shot Lanyssa away. Caine camps nothing but with Thorn gone, I don't think there is much risk him dying. It will surely require a hell of a lot of 12's from his Riflemen to do anything.

The GMCA and Stormwall kill a Storm Lance.

I'm very happy about my position, lots of damage and he cannot hit me hard on his coming feat turn.

The Ironclad goes in and kills some Trenchers and several of my Rangers get shot. Haley2 feats, but Caine being so far up makes Morten play very carefully and a lot of my force, including Caine2 and Ragman, are not caught. The Centurion goes in and also kills a Trencher.

Turn 3

The Ironclad is very close to Caine and has to die. I feat and with Rags and the Firefly I kill it. I am way up and he has done almost no damage to my force.

Caine2 is within threat of the Hunter, so Morten wisely decides to go for an assassination. Poor placement on my part I think, slightly different placement I could have made the attempt way harder by forcing the Hunter to move before shooting, or getting concealment.

I guessed his chance was about 40% to land this one.

He tries to time bomb the Trencher next to Caine but cannot boost. It misses twice on a 7 with the Quire reroll, pretty unfortunate. After that the Hunter shoots two accelerated shots at Caine needing 10's to hit, but only 1 connects and it does not do enough damage.

I almost threw away the game there, but the dice were in my favor today!

Cygnar wins!

Assassination Calculation

Missing the time bomb: Less than 17%, probably only scatter 1 direction works, so about 14% (hard to calculate the exact chance of the scatter hitting).
Hitting both Hunter shots if Time Bomb misses: 39%
Hitting both Hunter shots if Time Bomb hits: 69%
Dealing at least 15 damage to Caine with 2 Hunter shots, one boosted damage: 60%

Hitting both Hunter shots: 63%
Total chance of assassination: 38%

My 40% estimate seems spot on. :D

The chance would have been only 20% if I had moved Caine behind the cloud, and half that if I had also put him inside the forest. Careless placement kills casters!

Post Mortem

Fun game. I got an advantage quickly with Lynus help. With Thorn's 19" run + TK + Reaction Drive move he has no reason to be within range of Caine.

Caine2 is squishy and it does not take much to kill him. I need to work on better placement to deny easy assassinations.