Battle Report #4: Haley2 vs Magnus2

This was a rematch, after playing half a game with Amund a few days ago. I had to leave early the previous time to have dinner with my mom. The Swans are always nice and polite to their mother, you know.

Haley2 Rookie Squad (75 points)

List is unchanged from the previous game.

Haley2 (+25)
- Squire (5)
- Defender (16)
- Ironclad (12)
- Thorn (13)
Journeyman Warcaster (4)
- Firefly (8)
Jakes1 (4)
- Thunderhead (20)
Arlan (4)
Ragman (4)
6 Trenchers (10)

Magnus the Warlord (75 points)

Lots of armor, and very hard to kill Trenchers.

Magnus the Warlord (+28) "The Kingmaker's Army"
- Renegade (10)
- Vanguard (11)
- 3 Nomad (33)
- Talon (7)
- Mangler (15)
Kell Bailoch (5)
Orin Midwinter (0)
10 Trencher Infantry (16)
- Trencher Infantry Officer & Sniper (5)

I knew from the previous game that he had a grindy list with 6 jacks and feign death Trenchers. and Magnus2 has a very good feat, though not as good as Haley2! I have slightly better threat ranges, so my plan is to get Haley2 on the flag and start scoring, while taking the alpha, feating, and then win the game on attrition.

Deployment

I put Haley2 near my flag and sent my army up against the center zone.


Being wary of my Thunderhead, Magnus deploys his Trenchers on the other flank and has a row of jacks in the center. Magnus2 is ready to capture his flag,

Deployment done

Turn 1

I win the roll and elect to go first. I cast Deflection, and cast Telekinesis on the Ironclad and Thunderhead and run up. Trenchers choose to dig in, since he cannot really threaten my solos his first turn.

Haley2 zooms up the field

Magnus moves up and clouds.

Wall of Smoke deployed

Turn 2(a) - Alternate Reality Version

Magnus has moved slightly out of Escort range and is a sitting duck at ARM 16 and 2 focus. We use proxy bases and do the Defender + Firefly + Temporal Acceleration Thunderhead assassination run. It's solid, Magnus dies. We revert the moves, place Magnus closer to his jacks, and continue the game.

Turn 2(b) - What Actually Happened

I engage. I feat and start casting Telekinesis to move his jacks into the clouds so I can get to them. He cancels 2 of these casts with Orin Midwinter. I cast Telekinesis on the Vanguard and kill it. Thunderhead and the other jacks kill most of the Trencher frontline. 2 Trenchers feign death.

Half of Magnus' Traitor Trenchers die

Less than I wanted, but still OK. At least I am quickly running Orin out of Vortexes.

Magnus counterfeats, catching a few of my models, and moves his jacks to be outside 4" of my jacks.

Kell snipes away the arcnode on Thorn, trying to prevent me from casting Telekinesis on his jacks without exposing Haley.

We both score on the flag.

Score: 1-1

Turn 3

I move Thorn back, moving Arlan who is outside the feat up, repairing, and then Arcing Telekinesis on the jacks. Thorn moves away so Kell cannot hit him twice. Thunderhead and the Ironclad kills one and a half heavies. I am well up on attrition.

2 Jacks down, 5 to go.

We both score on the flag again

Score: 2-2

My Ironclad gets killed in retaliation by the Mangler and a Vanguard, and a damn Trencher stops me from scoring on the flag,

Hey, who cast Blur. Someone is cheating for sure.

Score: 2-3

Turn 4

I have to be careful now, to make sure he cannot score two more points. If I do not contest I lose.

The Firefly and Defender murders the second Nomad and the Mangler. Thorn disrupts all remaining jacks except the far away Renegade, preventing any real retaliation.

Junior takes one for the team

I have to sacrifice Junior to stop him from getting to 4 points. This time I remember to move Jakes away behind the clouds, since he cannot safely end up within 8" of Thunderhead.

Junior gets murdered by the Talon and the Firefly goes inert.

Stuff runs into the zone to contest, but it cannot be enough to hold it.

Orin's time to play the hero

Turn 5

I clear the zone with a Thunderhead Pulse and a Telekinesis.

I then get both the Firefly and Defender in range to contest his flag. He does not have an assassination in Haley, and not nearly enough models to score again. There is no way for him to stop me from scoring and winning.

Magnus' army is gone and he won't be able score again

Score: 4-3
Amund resigns - Cygnar wins!

Post game thoughts

I was happy with how I played this game, no major mistakes, even if I still play much too slowly. I think the matchup is in my favor.

I still need to work on Trencher positioning, so that I can move all my jacks around but still keep clouds up for all my frail warcasters.

I need to keep an eye out for that Kell, if Thorn is within 14" of him he gets almost certain arc node removal.

Amund was very unsure about how he could get a win here. He cannot catch my army without putting Magnus2 far up, but then he cannot score on scenario for two turns, which would be  lethal.