Hello everyone!
As you know, WTC took place 2 months ago. Sadly, I didn’t have time to write battle reports, paint models and play as many games as I would want to. I focus on playing and painting and postponed the bat reps. That’s why I still have plenty of games to be described patiently waiting for their turn I’ll see how will it go, as there are still 34 pre-WTC games in the queue, and I don’t really see the point in describing all of them. I’d rather focus now on FitD, since it’s the hot topic right now and writing battle reports from those games might help me in finding the right solutions.
For now, I have some battles already described (or half-described) that I played on a WTC boot camp in Krakow. It’s 7 games played throughout the weekend and I believe all of them are interesting and influenced my list choice for WTC. So, without further ado, let’s get to the battle report!
The day of our WTC training weekend in Krakow has finally come. I was the only one who came from Warsaw, but I was more than eager to test new ideas. I have brought Haley2, Jeremiah Kraye, Stryker1, Haley3 and Siege1 to play with. To be honest, I already knew how Haley3 and Siege1 works and I didn’t really need to test them more at that moment. First of all, I wanted to try Haley2 as a counter pick against Grymkin. I was excited to test her, as I haven’t been playing Haley2 for at least a year and a half! She is still a great warcaster; she lost a lot, but nevertheless her spell list still might intimidate.
First, I scheduled two games with my friend I already played with several times – Tomek who is a Grymkin player. We decided to test both Old Witch3 and The Child.
First off, Old Witch3:
Grymkin
[Theme] Dark Menagerie
[Old Witch 3] Zevanna Agha, the Fate Keeper [+27]
– Cage Rager [14]
– Clockatrice [13]
– Clockatrice [13]
– Clockatrice [13]
– Crabbits (2) [0(7)]
– Crabbits (2) [0(7)]
– Frightmare [9]
– Gorehound [6]
– Rattler [8]
– Skin & Moans [15]
– Baron Tonguelick, Lord of Warts [4]
Gremlin Swarm [0(3)]
Gremlin Swarm [0(3)]
Gremlin Swarm [3]
Lady Karianna Rose [4]
Old Witch was proxied with Battle Engine, because Tomek forgot to take his warlock’s base ;d also, one Crabbit was proxied with a Commando Scatergunner.
My Haley2 list:
Cygnar
[Theme] Heavy Metal
[Haley 2] Major Victoria Haley [+25]
– Centurion [17]
– Centurion [17]
– Thorn [13]
– Squire [0(5)]
Captain Arlan Strangewayes [0(4)]
Journeyman Lieutenant Allister Caine [0(5)]
– Thunderhead [20]
Journeyman Warcaster [4]
– Firefly [8]
Field Mechaniks (min) [3]
Storm Strider [18]
I proxied Journeyman Warcaster with Alain Runewood, I forgot that I packed Jr to another box…
In both games we played Invasion.
Deployment
Tomek won the roll and decided to go first. I chose the side with a slightly more comfortable impassable terrain in the circular zone, so I could fit my BE there to contest. Tomek put Old Witch closer to the right side. Skin&Moans and Cage Rager were deployed centrally. Gorehound was placed on the far left. One Clockatrice was closer to the left, the other two closer to the right side.
I deployed Storm Strider on the right flank – due to that rough terrain and lack of pathfinder in the rest of my army and a linear obstacle on the right, I had to deploy it on that side. I deployed Thorn on the left flank, as I anticipadted problems with contesting Gorehound and Gremlin Swarms in the left circular zone. Haley2 was put in the middle, with Thead and one Centurion on the left, and the other Centurion on her right; all the rest somewhere in the middle.
Round 1 Turn 1
Everything ran forward, Old Witch cast Windstorm.
Round 1 Turn 2
In my turn I decided to use one of my list’s tricks. Thorn ran forward, I used TK and placed Clockatrice 2” forward and used his Reaction Drive to move 3 inches backward. Temporal Acceleration cast on Thead. Said jack moved forward and with his first two shots he crippled a whole aspect, so Clockactrice jumped 3” outside of my shooting range. Caine0 cast Spirit Door and I placed Thead far from danger. I had enough time to cast Fire for Effect in the next turn. Initial damage has been done, great!
Round 2 Turn 1
Tomek played his turn really cautiously, Gorehound ran far to the left to contest the zone. Two Gremlin Swarms were sitting behind the building ready to jump in. All the beasts stayed behind the cloud in the middle, what with Clockatrices having Eyeless sight created a dangerous situation. On the far right, another Clockatrice hid behind the building, ready to go in.
Round 2 Turn 2
After initial intimidation, I knew that was going to be my feat turn. I wanted to deal maximum damage while putting my models to least risk possible. I decided to go for Clockatrices in the middle. Haley feated, getting all the beasts and Old Witch, and cast Temporal Acceleration on Centurion. I also TK’ed Gorehound away from the zone, so I could score a point there. Centurion managed to deal significant amount of damage to one of the Clockatrices before it jumped away, and continued hitting the other. Thunderhead together with Storm Strider killed the Crabbit and finished the Clockatrice. The other Centurion ran forward. Mechanics ran into the zone, I scored 1 point, 1:0.
Round 3 Turn 1
Haley’s feat stopped the opposite army from being able to deal any substantial damage. Clockatrice in the middle threw Centurion against Thunderhead knocking them both down and used the animus. The other Clockatrice repositioned to get a better charge lane next round. A Gremlin Swarm on the right moved to be B2B with my battle engine. The other two swarms ran to contest the left circular zone. Gorehound moved into the forest to contest the zone there, still 1:0.
Round 3 Turn 2
I decided to focus on S&M first of all, since he cannot jump away. Thorn moved in and killed Gorehound. Caine using his trick shots managed to kill one of the Gremlin Swarms. Haley cast TA and TK on the jacks and killed the other Gremlin Swarm with Arcane Bolt. Centurion slammed the Clockatrice against S&M and killed the objective. Firefly ran to give +2 POW bonus. Thunderhead (now activating outside of Clockatrice’s aura) and Strider managed to finish both S&M and said Clockatrice. I scored 2 more points, 3:0.
Round 4 Turn 1
Tomek had to score some points if he wanted to keep up. The only zone to score was the right circular zone. Cage Rager was more than enough to dispose of my battle engine. The last Clockatrice charged my objective but left it on 2hp. Rattler charged Centurion, but he couldn’t do much. Baron Tonguelick contested the left zone, Tomek scored one point. 3:1.
Round 4 Turn 2
I decided to go for the scenario win. Arlan gave magical attacks to Thunderhead. Thead moves in and with his pulse killed a Crabbit, a Gremlin Swarm, Kariana, Frightmare and Rattler. Centurion with Temporal Acceleration killed Cage Rager. Thorn killed Baron in my circular zone. The other Centurion slammed Clockatrice away and I scored 2 points, 5:1. We decided that since this was a practice game, we should end this one, grab sth to eat and play another one. There was no way Tomek could come back at that point.
Afterthoughts
That was my first game, where I felt that playing Cygnar I had the advantage over Grymkin. Haley’s feat stops the enemy army for one round (especially those armies with low body count) what gives me time to take care of heavy hitters.
Arc node, Trick shots and magical pulses (thanks to Arlan) allow me to get rid of Gremlin Swarms easily. TK gives a possibility to teleport a jack or a battle engine 2” away from those nasty models before activating them.
I can TK a model out of Shield Guarding range. Haley can afford casting TK twice, in case Cage Rager is somewhere nearby. I believe killing S&M early, before it gets fed with corpses and Cage Rager (because of its animus) is quite important.
What concerns me is lack of ways of dealing with stealth (apart from an objective) and difficulties in contesting wide scenarios.
All in all, I’m pretty sure that Haley2 can play into any Grymkin army. To be sure, I need to test it more, especially against The Child, but from what I already observed, there is a hope, that finally I will be able to have a game into Grymkin!
I like how Tomek prepared for continuous contesting of the left zone. Fortunately, I managed to clear the left zone twice. It put a lot of pressure on Grymkin army. Also, my alpha strike combined with Haley’s feat essentially saved me from a counterattack. The point was to get the job done in the turn preceding my feat and to kill as many beasts as possible on the feat turn. If that wouldn’t be the case I would lose the attrition game for sure.
All in all, the game was great and I was going to get more games with Haley2 for sure!
Cheers,
Piotr