tirsdag 20. mars 2018

Guild Ball (#56): KTC March Match 4: Corsair vs Tapper

The currently top ranked Guild Ball player in Norway, Fredrik, was my last opponent. I think I have lost the last 4 or so games against him. Maybe I can reverse the trend today? He had just picked up Brewers. I considered dropping Shark, who I think is stronger against teams that like to bunch up. But, I wanted to see whether Corsair could actually deal with the Brewer scrum without A&G.


Fishermen


I changed my lineup to see whether Jac's pushing abilities could mess sufficiently with Tapper, or not. Gutter went out.


Corsair (Captain)
Tentacles (Mascot)
Angel
Hag
Jac
Siren

Brewers


Tapper
Scum
Friday
Hooper
Pintpot
Spigot


Round 1





I kick off, and again it is pretty perfect.


Corsair: 6, Tentacles: 0, Angel: 1, Hag: 0, Jac: 3, Siren: 3




I do drag in Hooper, the other interesting models have been anchored so I cannot drag them in.

I place Angel too close to the fight and she is taken out by a tooled up Scum. Siren finishes off Hooper after the rest of the team has beaten on him.

Round 2





Tapper moves in on Jac and has the hottest dice, soloing him - in cover and on full health! He lands the KD, the Commanding Aura, and with his last 4 attacks he needs 27 out of 28 dice to hit on 2+. I computed it afterwards and the odds were about 2% for that result. This really gave me huge problems, losing all of Jac's attacks meant that I was now losing the scrum.





Losing a bit of track of the games notes here since I am getting a bit tired.

Friday scores, and Angel scores, and first Hag and then Siren gets beaten up. Brewers take it, 6-12!




Taking out Tough Hide models really sucks without any access to damage buffs. Next time, I will drop Shark!

The end result of the tournament was 3-1 to me and Fredrik- but I won on strength of schedule. My very first tournament win in Guild Ball! The prize: Limited Rage (yay!) - and a gift card from Outland that I convert into a Shadespire starter. :D

It was a fun event, well organized by Stig, as always!


Guild Ball (#55): KTC March Match 3: Corsair vs Honour

I get the exact same matchup again against Gaute. The only difference is that I get the original Harmony version this time.

Fishermen

Corsair (Captain)
Tentacles (Mascot)
Angel
Hag
Siren
Gutter (Union)

Masons


Honour
Marbles
Brick
Flint
Harmony
Mallet


I kick off and get a nice 1-1 deviation, landing the ball just over the half way line.

Round 1


Corsair: 6, Tentacles: 1, Angel: 1, Hag: 0, Siren: 3, Gutter: 2


Siren gets 3 influence so that I can threaten to take the ball off. Gaute only allocated 2 to Flint, making it hard for him to get completely into safety behind cover.




I punish that by dragging in Flint and punching him a lot.

Round 2


The round starts with Honour far back with the ball. Seize the Initiative is played to dodge Flint out immediate danger.


Corsair: 6, Tentacles: 1, Angel: 1, Hag: 0, Siren: 3, Gutter: 3





The ball gets passed to Harmony, who chain links. Unfortunately Tentacles gets a free strike, grabs the ball, and with Close Control Harmony is not able to get it off again.

Corsair then beats up Harmony, and Gutter takes out Flint. Brick takes out Hag. 4-2 to the Fishermen!


Round 3



Gutter is ready to score.


Corsair: 6, Tentacles: 1, Angel: 4, Hag: 0, Siren: 0, Gutter: 3





Another screamer for my Angel! 8-2 to the Fishermen.




Round 4


Lots of models have returned on the left flank.




There is a lot of combat - Angel ends up taking out Flint (!), Honor retaliates by taking out Gutter.




Round 5


Finally Corsair slides forward across the rough ground and punches up Mallet. 12-4 is the final score!




A very different game from the last one, quite grindy. Corsair and Gutter sure can deal out the damage!

Normally the tournament would have ended at this point, but we decided to extend it with a round since we had several out of town visitors.

Guild Ball (#54): KTC March Match 2: Corsair vs Honour

My second game was against was against Manuel. I think he usually plays Honour, so I expected that as a drop.

It's on!

Fishermen


Corsair (Captain)
Tentacles (Mascot)
Angel
Hag
Siren
Gutter (Union)

Masons


Honour
Marbles
Brick
Flint
Veteran Harmony
Mallet


My guild plots were:


Back in the Game
Keep the Ball Moving
Kick'Em When They're Down
Lone Striker
Stick to the Plan

Round 1


Corsair: 6, Tentacles: 1, Angel: 3, Hag: 0, Siren: 1, Gutter: 2

With Hag and dodges, a centrally placed Angel is quite able to score a first turn goal, so that is what I am going for.




It works perfectly, Angel zooms up and kicks it into the goal. 4-0 to the Fishermen!




Veteran Harmony stands in a position to out her aura on all the team mates I can reach (except Brick, but I don't want that dude). So I risk a bonus timed Drag directly on her, and it lands. Harmony ends up knocked down and at 2 health, surrounded by Corsair's posse.

Flint gets a double activation, but his goal kick misses!




Round 2



I play Stick to the Plan against Seize the Initiative.




Gutter takes out Veteran Harmony. It's inconvenient for me to contest the ball right anyway, and I am happy to get a goal kick. Flint picks up the ball and taps it in. I then kick the ball up to Angel who casually strolls up and scores a screamer. 10-4 to the Fishermen!


No countercharges please


Veteran Harmony then goes into Angel, taking her out. 10-6, it's looking good.

Round 3


I can try to go for another goal, but I decide to just end it as soon as possible. I play Lone Striker. Corsair uses his six influence, trundles over to Flint, knocks him to the ground, and beats him up. 12-6 to the Fishermen!





Angel is just... wow. Getting a first turn goal with Corsair is awesome, and with her high defense she is hard to deal with. I am pretty sure she has a permanent slot in my Corsair lineup now.

Guild Ball (#53): KTC March Match 1: Corsair vs Ferrite

The first game was against Marius, who is visiting from Gjøvik. He is an experienced WM/H player, but new to Guild Ball. Not many other players in Gjøvik (yet), but hopefully that will change!


Fishermen



Corsair (Captain)
Tentacles (Mascot)
Angel
Hag
Siren
Gutter (Union)

Blacksmiths


Ferrite (Captain)
Alloy
Cinder
Furnace
Hearth
Iron

Round 1


Alloy kicks. Tentacles blinds Alloy, and Iron steals the ball. The ball is passed on to Hearth.




Round 2


Corsair: 6, Tentacles: 1, Angel: 4, Hag: 0, Siren: 0, Gutter: 2

Blacksmiths play Midfield General, and I - anticipating some goals - play Keep the Ball Moving and go first.





Angel puts up Nimble, walks up into cover, and tackles the ball off Hearth. It's a screamer! 4-0 to the Fishermen.




The ball is passed to Iron, who unfortunately has to get out of Corsair's melee to score. He is knocked down on the parting blow. Corsair grabs the ball, uses One Leg Stance, and Angel then does a 5 dice snap shot - another screamer! 8-0 to the Fishermen!




The ball is then passed down to Iron, and the round ends.




Round 3


Iron activates, builds momentum from Hag, and scores! Marius is thrilled to land a goal with Iron. :D






I just kick the ball as far as I can up midfield. Gutter is close enough to run over, grab it and tap it in. 12-4 to the Fishermen!





A lightning fast game, we both had at around 25 minutes left on the clock. Double goal with Angel in one turn, insane stuff!


mandag 19. mars 2018

Guild Ball: Kristiania Tiger Cup - March

We had yet another Guild Ball tournament today at Outland! Eight players showed up from nearby cities - two from Kongsberg and one from Gjøvik. Very nice to see more Guild Ball players popping up in Norway!

My plan this time was to try out Corsair as much as possible. Corsair got nerfed by losing access to Avarisse & Greede, which makes his list punch a lot less hard. I think this was a good change. I found the previous list overpowered and rather dull. I did have time for a couple of games with him earlier in the week (been too busy for match reports - sorry), and while the new list is probably a bit less powerful overall, Corsair is still very good, and it is certainly a hell of lot more fun to play.

I had played around with some different list options, and ended up with this roster:

Fishermen



Corsair
Shark
Salt
Tentacles
Angel
Greyscales
Hag
Jac
Siren
Gutter (Union)

Shark


Shark - Salt/Tentacles - Angel - Greyscales - Hag - Siren

More or less the Shark list I have been playing, but trying out Angel instead of Sakana. Three strikers, Siren for ball grabbing, Hag for the extra threat, and Salt or Tentacles depending on the enemy team.

Corsair


Corsair - Tentacles - Angel - Hag - Siren - Jac/Gutter

My plan would be to put Angel, preferably in cover, within 8" of the enemy goal, get the ball off the opposing team with Angel and Corsair, and then use her to snap shot in the goals.


If the stars are right, you can get:

Angel (4/8")
Angel's Super Shot (+1/+2")
Corsair's One Leg Stance (+1/+2")
Keep The Ball Moving (+1/0)
Bonus Time

For a total of 8 dice, that is 96.5% chance to score snap shots at 12" range. :D

Of course that combo does not happen every game, but it does not require much setup (Activate Angel, use Super Shot + Nimble, snap shot with bonus time) to get to 6 dice and a pretty decent 89.1% chance to score. It's better odds than a 3 dice kick!

I would use Gutter if I played an opponent where getting several takeouts seemed fairly likely. and Jac against tankier lists where it is useful to control and break up the scrum by pushing away key opposing pieces.

Games


Game #1: Corsair vs Ferrite
Game #2: Corsair vs Honour
Game #3: Corsair vs Honour
Game #4: Corsair vs Tapper


torsdag 8. mars 2018

Guild Ball (#52): Corsair vs Thresher - Nerfball!

I had a couple of Thresher match reports ready to go, but they are not so interesting now since this week's nerfs. In case you have been living in a cave, Thresher, Millstone and Tater got significant nerfs, mostly related to influence and ranges to harvest markers. Fishermen lost Avarisse & Greede.

So, Alexander and I decided to try out a classic Thresher lineup vs a more football-oriented Corsair team. I wanted to give Jac a spin since I haven't played him for a long time, and Greyscales so that I can have someone jumping around near the enemy goal.

Fishermen


Corsair
Tentacles
Greyscales
Hag
Jac
Siren

Farmers


Thresher
Peck
Harrow
Jackstraw
Millstone
Tater


We decided to play with the new cards as well, which were released today! I ended up with

Go for the Knees
Hunker Down
Keep Your Chin Up
Lone Striker
Seize the Initiative

I decide to receive, and Thresher lands a beautiful kick far off to the side.

Round 1


Corsair: 6, Tentacles: 2, Greyscales: 2, Jac: 2, Hag: 0, Siren: 1
Thresher: 5, Peck: 1, Jackstraw: 2, Millstone: 2, Harrow: 1, Tater: 1






I pass the ball along from Jac, to Siren, to Tentacles, who dodges up so he gets in range to hit a bonus timed Blind on Thresher. Afterwards I try to drag Thresher away from his harvest-marker and into Corsair, so that he will suffer two crowdouts + Blind, but 5 dice on two Drags is not enough to hit. This allows Thresher to get his 3" melee and deal 8 damage to Corsair.

Round 2


Corsair: 3, Tentacles: 2, Greyscales: 3, Jac: 2, Hag: 0, Siren: 3. Seize the Initiative (+3/+1)
Thresher: 5, Peck: 1, Jackstraw: 2, Millstone: 2, Harrow: 2, Tater: 1. Won't Touch the Hair (+7/0)

I play Seize the Initiative to dodge Corsair backwards and make it harder for the Farmers to delete him in their first activation.






My plan here is to start by passing the ball from Tentacles to Greyscales, get a momentum, and bonus time a Blind on Thresher. The pass succeeds and it hits, so it's the second turn of -2 TAC for the old man. I seem to cheat on my next activation, and kick without having momentum. However, I suffer instant karma and roll 1-1-2 on the tap in.


Serves you right, cheater.
Harrow then grabs the ball and kicks it to Jackstraw. Sexy Siren seduces the scarecrow and the ball gets passed to Tentacles. I start hitting on Millstone, leaving her at 11 health. I then pull in Thresher so he ends up at only 3 TAC with the crowd outs, which is sad. He does a some damage, still, and Corsair ends up at 8 health.

It's still 0-0 after round 2!

Round 3


Corsair: 3, Tentacles: 2, Greyscales: 4, Jac: 4, Hag: 0, Siren: 0. Go for the Knees (+5/0)
Thresher: 5, Peck: 1, Jackstraw: 3, Millstone: 1, Harrow: 2, Tater: 4. The Offside Trap (+1/+1)

I plan to take out Millstone in the first activation with Jac, so I use Go for the Knees to give him an extra TAC. Thresher decides to make my goal scoring harder with The Offside Trap.





Jac activates first and takes out Millstone on the third blow. Thresher goes next, uses his Legendary, and the pirate falls. Tentacles skirts around Jackstraw and fails a 1 die pass to Greyscales, but no problem. After I build some momentum, Greyscales pays 2 momentum (because of The Offside Trap). This time the tap in succeeds, which is only fair since I paid this time. 6-2 to the Fishermen!




The ball is kicked out to Jackstraw, who gets in position for next turn.

Round 4


I forgot to note down the influence. I played Hunker Down and Thresher plays Get Back something something or other to speed up Millstone's return. We're a bit unsure if the movement bonus is for the entire turn, but we played it like that.





Since I have engaged Jackstraw with Siren in base to base last turn, and it's actually not that easy for him to get out of there and score. So he does a teleport chain and the ball is then passed to Thresher. Siren seduces Thresher, gets the ball, dodges away, and drops it as far away as she can.

Tater is still able to reach it by sprinting, he grabs the ball and passes it to Thresher, who scores. It's 6-6, but I will get the ball now so it's looking good. The ball gets passed to Corsair who kicks it up near Greyscales, He runs back, grabs the ball, and Millstone can't really touch him.




Round 5


Corsair: 6, Tentacles: 1, Greyscales: 4, Jac: 2, Hag: 0, Siren: 0. Lone Striker (+7/-1)
Did not note Farmers influence, they play Back in the Game (+4/0)





Tater is too close to Corsair now. I drag him to get the gang up from Siren, so I am still at 6 TAC. He is at 7 health right now, so Corsair takes him out easily. 8-6! Then Greyscales taps it in again. Fishermen win 12-6!



Post Mortem


Well, that was interesting! I am not sure if just playing football with Corsair is the best, or if I maybe should grab Gutter instead of Jac. Jac hits pretty hard, but getting no momentum on damage does not feel so great. Corsair + Gutter should be able to reliably take out one enemy player together, at least. The double takeouts with A&G are a thing of the past, I think.

The Farmers still seem pretty good, and they still do what they did, but the reduced harvest-marker ranges gives much more counterplay. Also, not having them at a permanent 15ish influence the entire game helps quite a lot. I think that nerf is maybe the strongest, dropping Millstone from 3 to 2 influence.

My initial impression is that they are balanced now. Certainly Thresher, Millstone and Tater are still plenty strong - they did not really lose any of their tools, but it is much harder to set it all up now.

The new Gameplans are fantastic fun. Very cool minigame, and mechanically it works a hell of a lot better than the always forgotten Plot cards. So, well done Steamforged! You have some ace designers.


mandag 5. mars 2018

Guild Ball: Nerfs!



The three best Farmer models have been getting extensive nerfs, and Corsair has lost access to Avarisse & Greede.

Errata blog post at Steamforged.

So, I guess I will have to do some thinking and testing, since these were the lists I have currently been playing! The nerf to Farmers is pretty significant. Having to eat the harvest markers for several of the abilities, plus shorter ranges to the markers to trigger them, is going to make them a bit trickier to play. They will probably be playing with around around 2 less effective influence now. They did not really lose much of their excellent defensive tech, though.

Corsair losing access to A&G means that Corsair probably has to play a more football-oriented game. I'll probably be looking at either keeping it beaty with Gutter, or making a more pure footballing list.