The battle begins with a map with a fair share of terrain. This battle highlights the importance of Haley's spells in combination with her Feat. When used correctly, her feat can utterly cripple the opposing army and essentially give Haley's army another turn. Her two win conditions in this list is the Defender and the Stormclad so both must be protected to make the win happen.
My list looks like this:
Points: 35
Major Victoria Haley (*5pts)
* Thorn (8pts)
* Defender (9pts)
* Stormclad (10pts)
* Squire (2pts)
Black 13th Gun Mage Strike Team (4pts)
Stormblade Infantry (Leader and 5 Grunts) (5pts)
Captain Arlan Strangewayes (2pts)
His list looked like this:
Points: 35
Goreshade the Bastard (*6pts)
* Cankerworm (5pts)
* Deathjack (12pts)
Bane Thralls (Leader and 9 Grunts) (8pts)
* Bane Thrall Officer & Standard (3pts)
The Withershadow Combine (5pts)
Bane Lord Tartarus (4pts)
Machine Wraith (1pts)
Pistol Wraith (3pts)
Cygnar Turn #1
I deploy the Defender behind a wrecked house so he has a nice position to shoot up some 'jacks if the situation arises. The Stormblades runs next to the Defender as protection and the Stormclad comes up towards its flank. My B13 babysits my right flank with Thorn and Arlan and the Squire sits comfortably next to eHaley behind the rest of the frontline.
Cryx Turn #1
His deployment didn't have Cankerworm or the Deathjack advance deploy, so I thought that was really odd. What makes it more odd was that he didn't cast Shadowmancer on his first turn but instead camps focus after running with his entire army. The Thralls are on my right side directly facing my B13 and the Deathjack, his Cankerworm (behind the DJ) and the Withershadow are on the left. The Machine Wraith is also on my left flank.
Cygnar Turn #2
Haley Temporal Accelerates the Defender after allocating 2 focus to it. She also puts one of Thorn and sits comfortably after casting TA on the Defender. I don't want to be hasty and run my army up further than I should.. and I definitely don't want to carelessly lose my only arc node. My B13 Fire Beacons the Thralls on the right side, Watts misses his shot and Ryan hits 3 Bane Thralls with her Mage Storm. I roll to kill all 3 but he makes all 3 Tough rolls. The Defender moves up a little bit after seeing Haley's control area and takes 2 shots at the Deathjack. The first shot misses and the second shot does abysmal damage after boosting so nothing really happens. That's fine, we'll pretend the DJ had Shadowmancer on. I kindly remind my opponent and he facepalms in disbelief. The Stormblades advance cautiously, judging my distance very carefully.
Cryx Turn #2
The DJ moves up some more and is on my doorstep - definitely within charging range of almost everything important next turn. The Cankerworm sits behind him; waiting for the right opportunity to strike. The WSC is still floating around behind the Canker and the Machine Wraith moves pretty close to the DJ. The Bane Thralls run up again and this time, they're literally face to face with most of my B13 and Thorn. Goreshade moves up as well and casts Mage Blight but Haley's out of range to be effected. Tartarsauce is also waiting to pounce on some units should they dig through the wall of Tough Bane Thralls.
Cygnar Turn #3
This is a big turn for me. The Stormclad receives 3 focus from Haley after she eats the Squire and the Defender gets allocated 2. Arlan moves up and PB's Thorn as he charges into a Bane Thrall and it sits there after making a Tough roll. It doesn't matter because his true intention was to be revealed shortly. Haley moves around with her 18" of control range thanks to the Squire and pops her Feat. The entire Cryx army is now in effect of Temporal Shift. Her next move is to cast TK through Thorn on the DJ which makes him turn around and block the Cankerworm. Thorn's Affinity with Haley allows him to Arc Node as if not in combat and his Reaction Drive moved him around slightly to the right of the Bane Thrall. The B13 moves up and Watts headshots Thorn's Bane Thrall with Black Penny and Ryan Mage Storms again, tagging 4 of the Thralls. They make 3 Tough rolls. I rage for a good 5 minutes. After Lynch shoots another one dead, my Stormblades charged to rest of the Thralls and put a good amount of them down. Out of the 6 that got charged, only 2 made their Tough rolls. The Defender charges in at the Deathjack that had his back turned and put serious damage on his cortex and movement. My Stormclad activates with full focus and charges 5+2 bonded+3+Reach and runs his Generator Blade through the DJ's spine. I roll pretty high and he dies in one hit. The lightning arc does nothing.
Cryx Turn #3
Cryx has a sad. His entire army is slowed by Haley's Feat and they can't really do much to retaliate. I choose the Pistol Wraith to go first since the map was cluttered with units in combat or out of range so it didn't get to kill that much. The Bane Thralls went next and they chopped down some SBs but then just sat there. Tartar was out of range to do anything so he just moved. The Cankerworm was out of melee range so he just ran away. Goreshade went next and moved slightly away from the Stormclad and cast Mage Blight again. The focus he put on his Cankerworm was for nothing. Everything else felt like time stood still.. which is the beauty of eHaley's feat.
Cygnar Turn #4
I put 4 focus on the Stormclad (since he's bonded) and kept 5 for myself. The B13 shot down a good amount of Bane Thralls and the Stormblades did their job as well. An opening lane was made for the Stormclad to Goreshade except for a lone Bane Thrall. Arlan gives Thorn another Focus and Thorn charges into the Thrall, felling him instantly. He then Reaction Drives back out of the charge lane after arcing Haley's TK and TA onto the Stormclad. The Stormclad activates next and charges through rough terrain for 2+3+7+3+Reach into Goreshades face and boosts to hit. He hits, puts serious damage on the Goreshade and arcs lightning into his undead lover, killing her instantly. The Stormclad moves so fast with Temporal Acceleration that another hit comes right after the first, boosts for both and Goreshade flops over.
Cygnar Wins!
2 comments:
You seem to have a steady winning streak going on. How did you find Thorn worked versus a standard Lancer?
I really like Thorn. His ability to arc spells when in combat is just amazing. That and the fact that he can Reaction Drive to safety or to another point of opportunity makes him superior to a normal Lancer I think. That, and Disengage and can take him out of any unfavorable combat at will. He's ridiculously slippery, and as Haley's only arc node, I think that's invaluable.
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