131 Fiona1 FitD vs Haley1 SoT
22.10.2021
The big update just dropped and it is time for list testing bonanza! Fiona in Flames has had some buffs and some nerfs and I wanted to find out if the pluses equal out the minuses. My Cygnar opponent went straight for one of the big winners of the update, and a personal favourite of mine: Haley1 in Sons of Tempest!
| Mercenaries | |
| [Theme] Flame in the Darkness | |
| [Fiona 1] Fiona the Black [+27] | 27 |
| – Charger [9] | −9 |
| – Charger [9] | −9 |
| – Mangler | −14 |
| Alexia, Mistress of the Witchfire [7] | −6 |
| Glyn Cormier, Illuminated One [0(5)] | 0 |
| Hermit of Henge Hold [0(5)] | 0 |
| Morrowan Archon | −8 |
| Thamarite Advocate [3] | 0 |
| Thamarite Advocate [3] | 0 |
| Thamarite Advocate [3] | −3 |
| Ragman | −3 |
| Thamarite Archon [8] | −9 |
| Thamarite Archon [8] | −9 |
| Field Mechaniks (min) [3] | −2 |
| Precursor Knights (max) [14] | −14 |
| – Precursor Knight Officer & Standard [4] | −4 |
| – Battle priest | −2 |
| Vigilants | −10 |
vs
Cygnar, Sons of Tempest
Haley1
- Squire
- Charger
- Hunter
- Thorn
Caine0
- Ace
Bastian Falk
2x Arcane Tempest Rifleman
GMCA
Tempest Blazers
Gun mages + UA
Gun mages
Black 13th
3 x Field Mechanics
Deployment
Cygnar goes first. I choose the side with a helpful obstruction which I believe will help me to defend my home zone.
Turn 1A
Thorn and Ace take very aggressive positions far up field. The rest stays back outside of my shooting ranges.
Turn 1B
In good old Fiona tradition I decide to go for a fancy turn 1 play and run up Glyn to arc a Soulfire on Caine0 and a Befuddle on Thorn. I need a boosted 10 to one shot Caine, and in worst case I can follow up with another Soulfire due to the extra focus from the Thamarite Advocate. But I do get the kill on Caine and I also manage to Befuddle Thorn into range of the Chargers. As an added benefit Glyn even survives!
My problem is that I have put the Vigilants in front of the Chargers. I am of course very aware that Thorn has dodge and I am really nervous that one of the Vigilants will miss its 5+ to hit and Thorn will dodge away from Charger range. I therefore decide to kill one of the Vigilants so that the Charges can get up to shoot first. I do manage to hit all my attacks, but unfortunately the damage rolls aren’t quite enough to get the kill. I don’t think the extra Vigilant would have made up for the difference, but I should definitely have deployed the Thamarite Archons more centrally in order to contribute.
Turn 2A
Haley walks up behind the central forest and casts Temporal Barrier, catching most of my army. Shooting takes out the Morrowan archon and cripples an arm on one of the Chargers.
Thorn walks back into the trench and gets repaired for a lot. Very annoying!
Turn 2B
I throw out my upkeeps and decide that my feat isn’t really doing much in this machup so I might as well just burn it. I should probably have held on to the feat just in case the gun mages would come charging in at some point. I briefly consider to go for a befuddle play on the Hunger, but decide against it because it would pull me too far out of position. This is might as well because my opponent reminds that I am playing against Haley1 and she is standing next to the Hunter with one focus.
I send thee precursor knights to kill the goblin mechanic who is contesting my zone, but they all miss their 7+ to hit. This means that I need to waste an entire Thamarite archon activation to clear my zone. This is really bad for me because my opponent has bunched up his gun mages in a way that lets me clear out a lot with each shot. My thinking at the time is that I have a very weak scenario position and really need to score when I can. In hindsight I think it would have been better to just abandon the point and try to remove as much as possible of my opponent’s army before feat. It also turns out that Thorn is just outside of the opponent zone, so he will not be scoring on my turn.
Score 1-0
Turn 3A
There’s not so much to be said about this turn, really. Haley1 feats and completely annihilates my army. My feat has next to no impact, except some Tempest Blazers randomly making their way within 14” before taking their attacks.
Score 1-4
Turn 3B
I go for a silly assassination which has no hope of succeeding.
Sadly, a loss for the Mercenaries
:: Evaluation ::
Haley1 seems like a super strong caster now. I had actually considered burning my Temporal Barrier token back when I was playing her because it felt like a trap spell, but now when it is back to Control range it is much stronger. It didn’t feel quite as bad to play against as it did in Mk2 when you couldn’t charge, but the SPD reduction really sets your board position on the back foot when going second.
My Fiona list didn’t seem very good. The Thamarite Archons are obviously great and it is nice to be able to fuel the Chargers for free. But the whole melee package with PKs, Gallant and the Morrowan archon still just ends up sitting there getting shot to pieces, and with the lack of Battle priests I am even more vulnerable to shooting than I used to be. I have some ideas for list adjustments swapping the Morrowan Archon and Vigilants for Malvin&Mayhem.