Guild Ball (#70): Battle at Lund - Friday Round 1

First game is against HP’s incredible looking Morticians, pictures can’t do it justice. Several of the models have build in green light diodes!


I want Corsair into all these squishy Morticians.

Fishermen

Corsair
Tentacles
Hag
Jac
Sakana
Gutter

Plots: Back in the Game, Stick to the Plan, Keep Your Chin Up, Kick'em When They are Down, Sell it to the Crowd.

Morticians

Obulus
Vileswarm
Brainpan & Memory
Ghast
Graves
Veteran Hemlocke


Obulus kicks off into a nice position for me.

Round 1

I screw up by forgetting Obulus’ Shadow Like dodge, so instead of forcing him to move into me to pull someone he gets to pull and then move. Great start!

Round 2

Corsair pulls in and takes out Graves and Obulus takes out Hag. I then promptly forget Vileswarm’s ability on takeout and pop him right inside my scrum, dealing 3 damage poison to pretty much everyone near the end of the turn. 23 damage on my team for taking out the mascot, this is really stellar play! 3-2 to me.

Round 3

Corsair just scrums better than Morticians. Ghast and Hemlocke go down, bringing the score to 7-2.

Round 4

Morticians take out Hag again. I score with Sakana and take out Vileswarm again, killing Tentacles, for a final result of 12-5.

Plenty of screws-up on my part, but good to get rid of the rust before tomorrow...

Guild Ball (#51): BonesCon 2018 Match 5: Shark vs Obulus

The last match of the tournament is against Eleonora, who is playing for the Swiss WTC team. I go for a pure scoring team with Shark. Salt is a pretty good ball carrier here, since his kick is a very short 4". It's hard for Obulus to get the ball of him reliably.

Fishermen

Shark
Salt
Greyscales
Hag
Sakana
Siren

Morticians

Really heavy takeout team, so I will just have to try to survive long enough to score my three goals.

Obulus
Dirge
Casket
Cosset
Graves
Brainpan & Memory

Round 1

Obulus kicks off.


Shark: 6, Salt: 1, Greyscales: 1Hag: 1, Sakana: 1, Siren: 3


Siren has 3 so that I have the possibility of getting the ball back if it gets stolen.

I get the ball over to Salt. Sakana gets pulled in by Obulus. Shark is able to get the first goal. 4-0 to the Fishermen!

Round 2

Shark: 6, Salt: 1, Greyscales: 4, Hag: 1, Sakana: 1, Siren: 1

There is a lot of ball killing and general milling about. No-one scores anything.

Round 3

Shark: 6, Salt: 1, Greyscales: 4, Hag: 0, Sakana: 0, Siren: 3

Greyscales gets the second goal. Both Sakana and Shark are taken out, those Morticians hit pretty hard! Memory scores. It's an even 8-8!

Round 4

Shark: 6, Salt: 1, Greyscales: 4, Hag: 0, Sakana: 0, Siren: 3

I get the ball off Brainpan, and kick it up the field. Greyscales grabs it and gets his second goal of the match!

The match ends 12-8 to the Fishermen, pretty close game! The tournament is over, I place 7th out of 25 players, which I am very happy with!

Guild Ball (#43): Corsair vs Obulus - 4+ is the new 5+

I have been having a bunch of friends over for my annual boardgaming birthday party. I managed to squeeze in a game of Guild Ball between the Dominion, Kingdomino, Splendor and X-Wing games. For this game, I play Corsair against Obulus.

Fishermen

Corsair
Tentacles
Hag
Sakana
Siren
Avarisse & Greede

Morticians

Obulus
Dirge
Brainpan & Memory
Ghast
Greaves
Silence


I get Field Dressing, Knee Slider and Who are Ya? Obulus kicks off.

Turn 1

Corsair: 6, Tentacles: 1, Hag: 1, Sakana: 1, Siren: 3, Avarisse: 0, Greede: 1
Obulus: 6, Dirge: 0, Brainpan: 2, Ghast: 1, Greaves: 1, Silence: 3,

Hag goes forward and kicks the ball to the squid. I dodge forward Avarisse, I think this was wrong, I should have extended Corsair's threat range instead. Also, I should have used Sakana. He can't do much useful stuff on turn one, better to move Hag later.


I pass the ball a little. Obulus pulls Avarisse forwards.

Both he and Brainpan overextend, but I miss a both a 3 dice Lure on Obulus *and* a 3 dice Drag on Brainpan. At least one of them landing on 4+ is a 98.5% chance. If I had pulled one in I could have build a ton of momentum with Corsair and taken the first takeout in Round 2.

What a terrible start to the game!

Silence hits with a nice AOE and sets Corsair, Hag, and A&G on fire.

Turn 2

Corsair: 6, Tentacles: 1, Hag: 0, Sakana: 1, Siren: 0, Avarisse: 3, Greede: 2
Obulus: 5, Dirge: 0, Brainpan: 4, Ghast: 2, Greaves: 1, Silence: 1

My super bad luck in the last turn allowed Memory to get the first takeout on Siren. The ball scatters and Barinpan picks it up and kicks, misses, and it scatters to Ghast.

In my first activation I do land a 2 dice blind on a 5 influence Obulus, though, which feels pretty good!

Corsair should on average one-round Brainpan (2 hits for Knockdown, 3 hits for 2 Damage Push into range of Hag and Avarisse, and then 4 8 dice attacks on 3+ with 1 armor should do the last 12). I whiff the first two and just do 1 damage on each. He ends up at 1 single hit point.

Siren uses her Legendary to pull in Obulus. He has no problem disentangling himself afterwards, so that was pretty pointless, actually. I think I must either hit Obulus after he is done for the turn, or just go for someone else.

Brainpan is taken out by A&G. The score is 2-2.

Turn 3

Obulus gets a nice goal. Greaves is pulled in and killed by Corsair and A&G. Hag is taken out by Ghast. 8-4 to the Morticians!

I kick the ball out to Tentacles, but it is no help.

Turn 4

Obulus steals my momentum, and next turn he makes Tentacles pass to him, and he scores again. 12-4 to the Morticians!

Post Mortem

I did some misplays the first turn, but missing everything was just sad. On the other hand, I think that if the Morticians had positioned better, I might not really have had many first turn opportunities.

I think that Shark would be a better pick. All my Close Control is useless against Obulus, and having two throw-away defense 5 models to block with makes it difficult for me to pull someone in in the first turn. Obulus is also very hard to pin down.

Putting the ball on Siren would be better here. At 5 defense it is at least a little bit risky for Obulus to try to mind control her. An alternative would be to play Salt instead of Tentacles, the low kick range and 5 defense makes him an excellent ball carrier.

Even with such a bad start it is pretty clear that I am outfighting him. Some possible replacements might be A&G -> Kraken for less damage but more Drag opportunities, and Tentacles -> Salt for better ball killing. But I suspect that Shark might just out-football the Morticians, I have to try it out now!

Well played game by my opponent!

Guild Ball (#19): Esters vs Obulus - 4 Dice and Miss

I requested a match against Morticians, since I have only one game so far, and they seems pretty tricksy!

I decide to try out some of my new Brewers, and see how a 100% shooty list works. I take Esters, Spigot for Tooled Up, all the shooty models (Friday, Hemlocke and Stoker), and Scum.

Brewers

Esters
Scum
Friday
Spigot
Stoker

Hemlocke (Union)

Morticians

Obulus
Dirge

Cosset
Ghast
Graves
Mist (Union)

I move Spigot up, do a greedy kick, and it fails. The ball is given to Graves.

Round 1

Esters: 5, Friday:2, Spigot: 1, Stoker: 3, Hemlocke: 2

Obulus: 4, Ghast: 1, Graves: 2, Cosset: 2, Mist: 4

Obulus Mind Controls Spigot and makes him run forward. He activates and runs back. Cosset moves up and Lures him forward again, setting him up for Mist. The ball is kicked over to Mist.

I set Obulus on fire and poison him, leaving him at only 6 health. Cosset is set on fire and ends up at 7 health. My team sure shoots pretty hard...

Round 2

Esters: 2, Friday:4, Spigot: 4, Stoker: 2, Hemlocke: 1

Obulus: 4, Ghast: 3, Cosset: 2, Mist: 4

Cosset moves up to Spigot, and with the help of Dirge, takes him from full to nothing in a single activation. Mist does a run on the goal that should by all rights have worked. 4 misses...

Ester damage buffs herselfs. I then take out Dirge with Esters (having zero momentum at that point). The score ends up 3-2, which is just dumb luck.

Round 3

Esters: 5, Friday:2, Spigot: 3, Stoker: 1, Hemlocke: 1

Obulus: 4, Ghast: 3, Cosset: 2, Mist: 4

Spigot grabs the ball. Mist goes forward and takes the ball of Spigot, and taps it in.

Esters uses her Legendary to give herself and Stoker more damage, and +1 defense to Friday. I suspect that Friday might be all alone later in the turn, after Mist scores...

The goal kick then goes out near Friday, who is able to just run, pick it up, and punt it into the goal.

I also take out Cosset in retaliation. The score is now 9-6.

Morticians make a very short punt out from the goal, leaving it well withing Friday's goal threat range.

Hemlock is attacked by Ghast and pushed forward. I declare a counter-attack, which is silly, since she has too short melee rage. She does a clutch Blind on Graves and rolls a 6. This makes it harder for him to take out Friday. Graves attacks Friday, but Stig forgets that he has Bleed and +1 damage from Tooled Up. We find this out later in the turn. I offer to remove Friday, but Stig refuses. She stays on the board.

Round 4

Esters: 5, Friday:4, Spigot: 4, Hemlocke: 1

I can either go for Friday kicking the ball in, or kill Dirge and then pile up on Ghast.

Friday dodges, circles around Graves, tackles Cosset, gives Cosset a momentous push, Cosset attacks back, dodges out of Friday's melee range. Friday Bonus Times and taps the ball in. 12-6 to the Brewers!

Post Mortem

Against the Morticians I think it makes sense to kick with my highest defense model, to make it harder to pull off stuff like pulling in Spigot and bouncing off him. It would also be good to be able to keep the kicker within reach of someone with an easy knockdown. I should probably try to avoid having one player far forward, it makes it easier for the Morticians drag that player in without over-extending.

Hemlocke seems like a bad pick with Esters. I have too little influence to power everything. All the shooting is Esters 4, Friday 4, Stoker 3, Hemlocke 2 (and +1 for Blind) and Spigot 1. This is already at least 1 more than the 13 I have - and it's also quite possible someone needs to run as well!

Both Esters and Hemlocke have AOE condition removal, and duplicate toolbox abilities is often wasted. Next time I will probably take Hooper or PintPot for more melee damage and momentum potential.

Overall, I think Hemlocke makes more sense with Tapper. It's quite possible I'll keep her in the roster.

I really missed Tapper. It was a lot harder to build momentum with this list. I get a better first turn, but it seemed like all the other turns were worse.

Guild Ball (#15): Tapper vs Obulus

This was going to be interesting. I haven't played against the Morticians, Jonas hasn't played with the Morticians. I knew they all had walls of texts, tons of abilities, and so on, none of them good for me. I think that when playing a new army in any game, it's best to just dive in see what happens, so we did.

I was forgetful with taking photos this game, so I don't have nearly enough. Sorry! I guess I was too caught up in all the possible shenanigans.

Dr. Evil here loves Cryx and Morticians.
Just look at that smile! 

Brewers

Tapper (Captain)
Scum (Mascot)
Friday
Hemlocke (Union)
Hooper
Spigot

Morticians

Seems like a team setup with a ton of control, some good football, but low damage. There is some stacking available with Singled Out and Tooled Up, but but Ghast and Graves have very long playbooks.

Obulus
Dirge
Bonesaw
Ghast
Graves
Silence

Round 1

Hemlock saves my ass with her Smelling Salts after Silence sets fire to half my models.

Obulus does his Jedi mind trick and makes me pass the ball to him.

Round 2

Silence starts and manages to force my 6 Influence Tapper to go last, and Hooper to go first. Unbelievably annoying! I still get to use him to deal quite a lot of damage to Ghast, but Ghast survives, and of course I lose the Character Play that hands out 2 extra influence.

Hemlock lands a beautiful poison AOE that hits 3 Mortician players.

Both the pets die, and Morticians score a goal with Bonesaw, who then goes up to 5 DEF for the rest of the game. 5-1 to the Morticians!

Round 3

This time I win initiative and Tapper takes a full stack of 5. He murders Ghast, then proceeds to start hitting god damn Silence. The rest of the Brewers then take out Silence, so at least I don't have to worry about my activation order.

Ghast uses The Unmasking to throw everyone away (including a bunch of Mortician models). I then proceed to start beating up models. Ghast goes down

Obolus steals all my momentum, so that Morticians have 2 and I have 0. Just to rub it in he puts MY influence tokens on his side! Shameful, dirty Morticians! Obulus dodges away, dodges again by hitting Tapper, steals the ball from Hooper with his mind tricks, and scores! It is now 9-5 to the Morticians.

Round 4

Poor Graves is surrounded by Brewers and goes down, and I also take out Dirge again. This leaves me at 8-9. The Morticians do not have much on the right side of the field, allowing Spigot to run up uncontested, and score! 12-9 to the Brewers.

Post Mortem

Morticians seems like a fun team to play! They have an amazing variety of tricks, and the game was totally different from any of my other games. The setup seems a bit weak on damage. It seems pretty hard to take out two Brewers, and scoring thrice is not easy.

I did a really poor play by picking up the ball within reach of Obulus. I should just have let it lie on the ground until I had a clear scoring opportunity, and forced him to have to run into my scrappy Brewers.

Hemlock did a great job here! Now that she has proven herself against both Morticians and Alchemists, I feel pretty confident that she will be part of my 10 man tournament roster.