BM 2017 (Jan 27 - 29) Game 2: Haley2 vs Ashlynn

Marvin brought Ashlynn and Magnus2,  I remember Magnus2 having field marshal Unyielding and a quite strong control feat, though it is limited by his 12” control area. As Haley2 can turn his jacks around and deny them unyielding, I picked Haley2 into him. 

On top of that, she has a control feat on her own and should be able to offer a good fight. As a bonus benefit, I would fulfil the divide and conquer requirement and could avoid being list locked later on and the scenario “the Pit” is one of the stronger ones for Haley2.

However he picked Ashlynn, another caster I never played against, but at least this time I knew what most of his models did:

Ashlynn
- Sylys Wyshnalyrr
- Gallant
- Mariner

Steelhead Halberdiers (Max)

Steelhead Halberdiers (Min)

Lady Ayana & Master Holt

Rhupert Carvolo

Gobber Tinker

Brun Cragback & Lug

Kayazy Eliminators

Orin Midwinter

Hutchuk

Major Harrison Gibbs

I lost the roll and could choose sides. I took the side where I could place Haley in some rubble touching my flag. Due to placement difficulties the flag and Haley did not fit very well into the rubble, we used a (rubble colored) proxy base to determine Haley’s exact position and checked at the beginning of the game that she is able to be in the rubble while touching my flag. 

On top of that perfect domination position, The central zone had a swamp slightly on his side of the table hindering his movements, especially for his jacks.

Deployment

He placed his max halberdiers, Ayana & Holt, Rhupert and gobber opposing my flag, Ashlynn, jacks and Brun & Lug went central with a course towards her flag and the min halberdiers and the Kayazi went on my right flank. Hutchuck ambushed and would come into the game later.

I had the big unit Lances central left, Haley went with the squire to my flag, Stormwall was deployed to find its way to Ashlynns flag/the zone through a forest and Thorn and the min Lances went on my right flank. Laddermore was centrally placed but had to go to the left for Hutchuk.

Mercenaries top of 1

The max Halberdiers got Quicken and pathfinder and ran far far up the table into the swamp, everything else just ran up out of threat of any charges.

Cygnar bottom of 1

The Halberdiers were a bit to far up so I could place a pod and leap 5 with my big Lances. My right side ran up and Haley positioned herself into the rubble (see the rubble colored proxy). My Stormwall got full focus, temporal acceleration, walked up and placed the pod and two covering fires. He also killed 2 Halberdiers, one from each unit with his boosted big guns. 

The arcane shielded max. Lances then leaped 4 more from the big unit to death and repositioned to offer only 2 Lances for charges.  

Laddermore got CatchMeIfIAmHutchuk duty and went to the left to position herself for his inevitable contesting entrance.

Mercenaries top of 2

Marvin surprised me and brought Hutchuk in already, he nearly dismounted Laddermore and it looked like this. 

Hutchuk surprise on the left

And a close up of the middle

Later on his turn the Halberdiers jammed me up not wanting to charge through the covering fire templates. One charged Laddermore but was out of command and could not attack. Ayana and Holt shot a Lance. Everything else positioned up and the eliminators tried to flank me on the right. 

Cygnar bottom of 2

Haley went to the flag, feated on everything besides the Kayazi eliminators and 2 min Halberdiers on the right. She temporal accelerated the Stormwall and fully loaded him up. Laddermore cleared Hutchuk and the Halberdier with a leap, the big Lances cleared the max. Halberdiers and repositioned up. 

The min Lances killed a min. Halberdier and leaped one Eliminator of themselves. 

As Gallant had admonition, it was clear that he will use it to engage the Stormwall so I had left arcane shield on the Lances and was expecting my Stormwall to survive. The Stormwall charged the Mariner and I make a huge mistake by placing him in 1” of Lug, this would bite me next turn. The Stormwall beat the Mariner down to one movement box and Gallant to half boxes and killed Sylss with the pod as well as nearly killed Orin. 

I scored 1:0

Mercenaries top of 3

Gallant and Lug killed the Stormwall under Haley feat …. Oooooooops. He did not manage to contest due to my feat and my max. Lances unit free striking the only model in range (Holt) to death. The remaining min. Halberdiers and the remaining Eliminator killed one of my min. Lances. 

I scored to 2:0 

Cygnar bottom of 3

I killed his support in the backline with Lances and they jammed Gallant. The remaining Halberdiers and Eliminator were killed with the min Lances and Ayana with Laddermore. Thorn disrupted Gallant and bashed Lug in contesting range of his flag. 

I scored to 3:0

Mercenaries top of 4

He could not contest and had only few remaining models to activate. Brun killed Thorn and Orin could not do anything as my army was lightning immune. 

I scored to 4:1

Cygnar bottom of 4

I have 5 minutes left and we agreed that I would have gotten the remaining models, and won by ending my turn.

I scored to 5:1

Final state of the game

Summary:

Marvin was a very enjoyable opponent as well and we agreed that he had probably taken the wrong list against me. 

Furthermore his Eliminators were on the wrong side of the table, as they would have been perfect contesting pieces to slow the game and together with Hutchuk it would have taken probably 3 additional rounds to push the scenario win. 
Also with handing him the Stormwall I made a huge mistake but due to his lack of contesting I could still push to a scenario victory. But I believe as long as I am not handing him the Stormwall as I did, I should actually be up in this matchup.