Captain Victoria Haley, the boogeyman of the Cryx boogeyman in mark 2. My teammate for the upcoming i5 event is rocking a Sloan/Haley 1 pairing and he wanted some practice into Circle.
We are never going to drop him into a pairing that includes Wurmwood, since both of his lists have a very hard time with his LOS denial, and we went through the motions of how Sloan would do into Tanith (surprise, she slaughters a stealth-based army), and ultimately decided that it would be a more interesting and productive game if he played his Haley 1 list and I played my Tanith list.
Tanith
-Stalker
-Pureblood
-Gorax
-Scarsfell
Una
-Scarsfell
-Scarsfell
Wrong Eye
-Snapjaw
Lanyssa
Sentry Stone x2
Shifting Stones
Swamp Gobber Bellows Crew
Fuel Cache
And his list was something like:
Haley 1
-Squire
-Stormwall
Journeyman
-Hunter
Strangeways
Maxwell Finn
Trencher Commandos
-Scattergunners x3
Tempest Blazers
Fuel Cache
Unbeknownst to us, our friend who was setting up Scenario and Terrain for us has been reading my article on terrain and deployment and decided to give us something of a doozy...(For those curious, you can find that article here)
Yup, that's a house in the middle of the table. In hindsight, that wall was slightly illegal, whoops.
My opponent won the roll and opted to go first, and I decided that I wanted the trench. I deployed a Sentry Stone on each side of the house, planning on really gumming up the things he could get at easily.
Pre-Game Thoughts:
The Sentry Stones plus the terrain is going to give me a huge advantage this game. I'm going to get to largely ignore his Trenchers, focus on killing his Blazers, and blunt the impact his Stormwall will have until it's too late. I can probably take over whichever side of the table the Stormwall and Haley aren't on and start pressuring Scenario pretty quickly.
Cygnar turn 1:
Stuff ran. Arcane Shield went on both Haley and the Stormwall. Cygnar turn 1s are so exciting.
Circle turn 1:
I seriously have to respect the Blazers in this matchup. If I let them, they will murder my entire list, and that just won't do.
With this in mind, I put one Griffon on the hill within the 14" they can shoot him at, and the other just moves up and puts up Dodge after killing a painted Mannikin. Una drops 3 fury and RUNS, keeping the yellow griffon just in control.
The painted Sentry unit activates, rolls 3 for fury, and murders a blazer before putting up a forest.
The left unit kills...a trencher? Nope, misses trenchers, and puts up a forest.
Tanith puts Scything Touch on the Stalker and Admonition on the Pureblood.
The wolves warp prowl or spell ward and runs. Wrong Eye and Snapjaw both cast Submerge. Tanith's Griffon cheekily sits right behind the house.
 |
| With the flat house.... |
 |
| With a real house! |
Cygnar turn 2:
My opponent looks at the table and can already see the writing on the wall. Barring some insane dice on his end and some really bad placement on mine, this game is going to swing my way pretty quickly.
Both Arcane Shield's are upkept and the Hunter and Stormwall each get a focus.
Haley casts Temporal Barrier and moves up to the hill. The Trenchers activate and spray down/shoot down Mannikins.
The Blazers move over and try for unboosted 10s on the Scarsfell, missing all three shots, and repositioning. The Stormwall draws LOS to the Pureblood and puts some significant damage into it with a boosted big gun, and then puts down Covering Fire.
Circle turn 2:
I upkeep both Scything Touch and Admonition. I nearly forget Temporal Barrier gives -2 speed, but then I do remember, so I try to cast Hunters Mark on the Stormwall. Haley negates it with her focus.
I put Snapjaw in harms way to bait out the colossal, eating a Trencher with him and riling for a bunch after casting Submerge. Wrong Eye casts Star Crossed and Submerge. The griffon behind the building walks over it and kills a Trencher, then puts up Dodge.
Una runs back to the right and the hill, and the Yellow Scarsfell charges and kills a Blazer before casting Dodge.
The left unit of Sentry Stone makes a Mannikin. The Mannikin aims, boosts, and kills the Squire, and the Stone ports up and makes a forest.
The Pureblood warps Spell Ward again and sprays down a Blazer. The right Sentry Unit caps the flag for me. The Blue Griffon runs.
I score 1 point.
Score 1-0
Advantage Circle
Cygnar turn 3:
My opponent doesn't like it, but he's going to be feating this turn. Arcane Shield's are upkept everywhere, and a focus is given to each jack.
Strangeways gives the Stormwall another focus. Haley pops feat and Temporal, before blasting the grey Griffon for a few damage, and then misses her second shot into him so he dodges away.
Stormwall murders Snapjaw and gets Wrong Eye down to 2 boxes with e-leaps and a boosted pod.
The Trenchers charge the Grey Griffon, but they have to position in such a way that if they miss their first attack he can dance away from them. 1 ends up connecting, but doesn't finish him off.
His Blazers shoot my Griffon's, connecting once and doing decent damage. They Reposition to contest the flag. The Hunter murders the Sentry Stone.
Score 1-0
Advantage Circle
Circle turn 4:
I think I can kill his Colossal here, clear the flag, and keep Tannith safe.
She goes first, after upkeeping both spells again, and pops feat, sticking Wraithbane on the Stalker and healing the Griffon for a couple.
Lanyssa gets the Hunters Mark off, and the Stalker goes in, doing about 3/4 of the Stormwall's health.
Wrong Eye also charges, contributing a few more damage.
Una's Griffons murder the Murder Ponies, and Una runs to the flag.
Victory for the Druids!
Post Game Thoughts:
The terrain decided this game. If my opponent hadn't had to deal with that house in the middle of the table, I would have had to play Tanith far more defensively, and I wouldn't have been able to just ignore his Stormwall until I could kill it. That being said, this much stealth for a non-Sloan gunline is a big deal, and the high DEF of the Warpwolves and Griffons combined with Star Crossed is an infuriating combination to play against, although this is somewhat deadened by Temporal Barrier, which is still a fantastic spell.
Awesome report as per usual. I play a similar list to this one. I've only played the game a few months. I have to thank you for the reports, they are very informative.
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