Guild Ball (#49): BonesCon 2018 Match 3: Shark vs Midas

For the next match I get a visiting Swedish player living in Switzerland, Hendrik. He takes Midas, and I take Shark, so this will for sure be a game with a lot of football!

His Longshanks info was chock full of typos and incorrect information, so let him now forever be known as Hemrik the Brit.

Fishermen

I switch out Tentacles for Salt, since I suspect this game will be all about the scoring. Salt is a great ball carrier!

Shark
Salt
Greyscales
Hag
Sakana
Siren

Alchemists

Midas
Naja
Compound
Hemlocke (my own Hemlocke model, actually!)
Mercury
Virtial

Round 1

Midas kicks off.

Shark: 6, Salt: 2, Greyscales: 1, Hag: 1, Siren: 1, Sakana: 2

Compound makes a good job blocking me off, and the balls is also stolen off me by Midas and passed up to Vitriol, so I am unable to make my first turn goal. I rather build some momentum and get Shark into position.

Round 2


Shark: 6, Salt: 2, Greyscales: 2, Hag: 0, Siren: 3, Sakana: 2

The plan is to start with Shark, and then use Siren to try to retrieve the ball again later in the turn.

Shark scores. I then have a pretty funny play with Hag, using her legendary to trap Midas in between the shed, Hag and Sakana.

Siren grabs the ball with her wily charms, and gets into a good position for the next turn.

Round 3

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

Siren moves up and scores, 8-0 to the Fishermen!


My Hag play from last turn actually worked. Hemdrik the Brit has some poor dice rolls and is unable to get Midas out to retrieve the ball and score.

Greyscales is then able to retrieve the ball and gets it up to Shark, who taps it in. A perfect 12-0!

Hemrik the Brit had some terrible dice rolls in there. I, however, am quite happy with how the match went. 2-1 in the tournament so far! Next match it's the Corsair mirror, hope it won't be a drag (ahem).

Guild Ball (#30): ClogCon 2017 Match 2: Brewers vs Alchemists

For the next match I get Martin, a very friendly guy who is also the tournament organizer. I had played a game against him yesterday, so I knew this was going to be rough - he was obviously a lot more experienced than me. Fortunately I had a couple of practice game against Smoke, so at least I had some idea about what Smoke can do.

The draft gave a fairly different list, though, clearly more punchy than Stig's standoff tech.

Brewers

Tapper (Captain)
Scum (Mascot)
Mash
Spigot
Stoker
Hemlocke (Union)

Alchemists

Smoke (Captain)
Flask (Mascot)
Calculus
Katalyst
Mercury
Decimate (Union)

Round 1

Tapper: 2, Scum: 1, Mash: 2, Spigot: 2, Stoker: 4, Hemlocke: 2

I screwed up terribly by moving Tapper in early on a charge. I had figured out that the key here is to get Tapper in a position so he threatens at least two players on the next turn, without over-extending. I forget that you can ignore rough ground by paying 1 momentum, this allows Decimate to reach me, building a lot of momentum and bringing Tapper down to 9 health.

Mist moves last, so that she can copy and move templates without me being able to react.

Round 2


Alchemists win the initiative. Tapper is obviously dead so I allocate nothing to him.


Tapper: 0, Scum: 3, Mash: 0, Spigot: 3, Stoker: 4, Hemlocke: 3

Tapper gets taken out in the first activation. I have probably lost, but it's not over until it is over, maybe there is a way to salvage the situation.

Round 3

There isn't, at least I cannot find it. Scum, Stoker and Hemlocke all go down. 7-0 to the Alchemists.

Round 4

I take out Mercury and Smoke, going to 7-3.

Round 5

Scum, Spigot and Tapper are taken out. 12-3 to the Alchemists!

Post Mortem

Losing Tapper like that was just stupid. Lesson: Don't do stupid things again and again. Also, remember to heal my models, I had little chance of winning initiative so I should have spent it all on healing.

Guild Ball (#24): Tapper vs Smoke

After losing to a pretty annoying Smoke list a few days ago, I asked Stig for a rematch.

Too much fumes? Too much fumes.

Brewers

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

Alchemists

Smoke (Captain)
Flask (Mascot)
Calculus
Veteran Katalyst
Mercury
Harry "The Hat" (Union)

Some useless pieces of paper

Mercury kicks off, and it's on!

Turn 1

Tapper: 2, Scum: 1, Friday: 1, Spigot: 2, Stoker: 4, Hemlocke: 3

I lost the previous match to being too passive. This game I decided to just go in as hard as I could, and see what happens.

I use Teamplay to get Tapper forward, but don't check Harry's threat ranges. So Harry pulls me in, and Tapper goes down to 7 health. I think going in hard is good, but this was overdoing it a little.

I did not do the pass sequence correctly with the Brewers. I think Scum and Friday should start, and then get Spigot into position so he can use his Time's Called and make everyone else move further up as well. I probably want Tapper to go late, so that he can get far forward with little risk of being poisoned, lit on fire, and beat within an inch of his life.

Goodness gracious great balls of poison! And fire. 

Turn 2

Tapper: 5, Scum: 0, Friday: 0, Spigot: 4, Stoker: 2, Hemlocke: 2

Terrible mistake to put 0 on Scum when he had the ball.

I thought Tapper could survive two hits from Veteran Katalyst, but he couldn't, so giving him 5 influence was a bad move. 0-2 to the Alchemists.

Turn 3

Forgot to take the allocation picture here.

I manage to get Friday through, and she scores. Stoker dies to poison, Scum dies to fire, and Spigot is beaten up. I take out Veteran Katalyst. 7-6 to the Alchemists.

Turn 4

Smoke scores and it is now 11-6 to the Alchemists! The Brewers beat up Smoke and it is 11-8. The ball gets passed up the field, landing a little behind Friday.

Mercury tries to take Friday out but misses his Flame Jet. Friday hits Mercury for momentum, pushes him out, Bonus Times and scores! 12-11 to the Brewers!

Post Mortem

First, I still forget to use my Plot cards.

Second, it's important to check the threat ranges so that Tapper does not get pulled completely out of position.

Never thought I should win this, after such a terrible start! It probably was a strategic mistake by the Alchemists to switch to brawling, even after taking out Tapper. If he had backed off and just kept on hitting me with ranged attacks, I don't think there would have been anything I could do. Quite impressed by how much damage they can put out, when they out their mind to it.

I should probably take care to have all my models 3" away from each other so that I cannot get hit by so many AOE attacks. It will interfere with Hemlocke's healing, but it is probably better than keeping them bunched up and multiple models taking 2-3 damage from the AOE themselves.

Possibly I should switch Friday for Hooper. He takes less damage from Character Plays, and can remove conditions easily too. Since the Alchemist game plan is to kill the ball, having just Spigot to score might be enough.

Guild Ball (#20): Tapper vs Smoke - Hey, Come Back Here!

I am preparing for ClogCon and Stig decided to help me by bringing a pretty nasty list, quite different from anything I had faced so far! This game we are playing on 45 minute clock, with plots and draft.

Plots

I choose Good Marker, Knee Slider and Sick'Em, since they seem like I could get some use out of them, discarding Composure and Man Marking.

Draft

My roster was Tapper, Esters, Scum, Friday, Hooper, PintPot, Spigot, Stave, Stoker, Hemlocke

I wanted to try out Tapper vs Alchemists. I drafted Tapper and Scum while Stig picked Smoke and Flask. I had planned to use Friday and Spigot pretty much no matter what, since I am pretty comfortable with them and wanted the speed buff against those slippery Alchemists, so I drafted them first. Then I took PintPot, simply to try him out for the first time, and Hemlocke to counter all the conditions that were sure to come my way.

Stig, plotting my downfall

Brewers

Tapper (Captain)
Scum (Mascot)
Friday
PintPot
Spigot
Hemlocke

Alchemists (Union)

Smoke (Captain)
Flask (Mascot)
Calculus
Katalyst (Veteran)
Mercury
Harry "The Hat" (Union)


Mercury kicks, and off we go.

Turn 1

Tapper - 2, Scum - 1, Friday - 4, PintPot - 1, Spigot - 1, Hemlocke - 4
Smoke - 4, Flask - 0, Calculus - 2, Katalyst V - 2, Mercury - 3, Harry - 2

In hindsight, I should have given everyone 2 influence, and Hemlocke 3, just so everyone could run and pass, and Hemlocke could clear conditions. Also, I should have pushed up as far as I could.

I get shot at and take some damage.

Turn 2

Tapper - 5, Scum - 0, Friday - 2, PintPot - 1, Spigot - 2, Hemlocke - 3
Smoke - 4, Flask - 0, Calculus - 3, Katalyst V - 2, Mercury - 3, Harry - 1

Tapper does a bit of damage to Harry, who pushes Tapper into the rough ground. Tapper is now horribly out of position. Friday scores an easy goal. Little do I know that Smoke just intends to keep on the ball for the rest of the game... Not much damage is dealt. 4-0 to the Brewers

Turn 3

Tapper - 3, Scum - 0, Friday - 4, PintPot - 2, Spigot - 2, Hemlocke - 2
Smoke - 4, Flask - 0, Calculus - 2, Katalyst V - 2, Mercury - 3, Harry - 3

Harry starts by running away to deny me attacking him with Tapper. Trying to make something happen, Friday charges Mercury but does fairly little damage.

PintPot takes out Flask, and Katalyst takes out PintPot. 5-2 to the Brewers.

Turn 4

Forgot to note the influence here.

I am starting to get low on the clock. Katalyst takes out Friday and uses Witness me. 7-6 to the Brewers.

Turn 5

My clock runs out. I take out Calculus, the Alchemists take out Spigot, after 3 activations I lose. 9-12 to the Alchemists!

Yay! Yay! We ran away all game. Here we are, bravely hiding behind the goalpost.

Post Mortem

Well played by Stig here!

I had no idea that his game plan was basically to stall and run me down on the clock, maybe end it with a goal. Knowing this, it is clear I needed different models. Stig advised me that picking Esters is probably a bad response, since if he picks Midas he will run in circles around me.

First, the draft. I liked Spigot for the speed buff, but Friday is not so useful when he just tries to keep the ball away from me. PintPot is bad against fast teams that do not need to bunch up. Stoker self-removes conditions, which is good. Smoke can use her Legendary to auto-kill Scum. Quaff would make it easier to close, so this is maybe one matchup where Quaff could be used. Hooper's double Tough Hide and condition removal also sounds good against this.

I think that if I run into this again, I will choose the following models:

Tapper, Scum, Hooper, Spigot, Stoker, Hemlocke.

I would have had to play this far more aggressively. I need to use all my movement and close in as fast as possible, even if it means to take some more damage on the way, and eat a Katalyst charge. Some possible moves would be to move Tapper late if he cannot engage - hopefully so he can threaten more than one model on the next turn. If I receive, as I did, I should maybe keep the ball for a couple of turns to generate momentum, and take extra dodges to increase threat ranges.

I should also have been much more careful with my placement. I need to keep the Brewers together, so that the Alchemists cannot take out on Brewer and making it hard for me to retaliate. Getting Tapper into the rough and on the wrong side was bad play.

Playing fairly quickly during the first few turns, where not much is really happening, would help a lot. I spent a lot of time trying to think out how to get him engaged - when obviously I can just pass the ball back and forth and do teamwork Dodge, use Spigot's aura, and run at him.

I forgot to take the Goal Momentum, not that it would have mattered much!

We think we played one rule wrong. I think that when Smoke was behind the goal line with the ball, that he cannot generate any momentum for any reason. I think he took momentum for takeouts and using Character Plays.

Guild Ball (#12): Tapper vs Midas

I face Stig's Alchemists again, but this time with a fairly different team composition.

I have brought Hemlocke as my new secret tech. With her AOE condition removal, she is the Union player I have been looking at for the Alchemist matchups. I wanted to take her for a spin and see whether she delivers. Also she gives me an extra influence compared to Stave!

Hemlocke

Brewers

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

Alchemists

Midas (Captain)
Naja (Mascot)
Crucible
Katalyst
Mercury
Vitriol

Round 1

The cards I get are +2 influence for a captain takeout, something that helps protect against a charge, and one more, I forget which, it seemed hard to pull off. :D

I get to kick. The alchemist team is pretty fast, and there is not much blocking terrain to kick a ball behind, so I decide to simply move Tapper up towards the middle and try to give him a central position.

I allocate mainly to Friday and Hemlocke since they have the turn 1 ranged attacks. Hemlock manages to blind Vitriol on a lucky 5+. According to Stig that actually stops her from possibly scoring.

Midas grabs the ball an it is passed around a bit. He ends up in a pretty dangerous position at the halfway line.

Round 2

Alchemists win the roll and of course Midas gets a full stack. Tapper is sure to reach something, so I allocate 6. I spread the rest around a bit.

Unfortunately, Midas has some bad rolls. He whiffs one attack on Friday, and ends up not being able to boost the final kick roll at the goal. He does not get a single 4+, so not only does he fail to score, but he is now stuck within range of Tapper. Pretty unlucky! This is going to make it very hard for Alchemists to win at all.

I decide to just let the ball be this turn, and go for maximum carnage. Tapper uses his Commanding Aura and charges in, knocking down Midas on the charge, and hits him a few times. Spigot then gets a sip of whiskey and goes up to 4 influence. Katalyst is able to stand up Midas. I now have a small issue in that if I move in Spigot, he can dodge away. So I use Friday first to push him into Spigot's melee range, and then Spigot first beats him up, and then uses the last two attacks to start hitting Katalyst. 2-0 to the Brewers!

Commanding Aura is ballers.

I was expecting to be set on fire a lot this turn, so Hemlocke moves sideways. I did not think about her pretty short 4" range, so she was not able to cure everyone - but she removed the fire from Tapper and Hooper, at least.

Round 3

I pretty sure I can manage to get Friday to pick up the ball, pass it to Spigot, and then score. I have learnt that those moves are usually best done late in the round, to avoid giving extra goal chances and counterplay.

I win initiative, and give Tapper a full stack again. Friday gets 1 for a kick, and Spigot a full stack so that he can push and run and kick and whatever.

Tapper goes to town and takes out both Katalyst and the little worm. Then us my other models to block as much as I can, building momentum.

I save Friday and Spigot for the last two activations. It goes super smooth. Goal, and 9-0 to the Brewers!

Round 4

Alchemists are so far behind that they cannot possibly win. I still have about 5 minutes on the lock. The only thing left is cleaning up. I take whichever players I can lay my brewing implements on. Katalyst goes down again, as well as Mercury. Brewers win, 12-0!

I had a super lucky break at the start, both with Midas flubbing the kick and me hitting the critical blind. Things would surely have gone very differently if that had not happened.

I feel that I am starting to get better at this. This is maybe the first game that I felt that players were where they were supposed to be, within the ranges and auras that they wanted, with a sensible amount of influence. I am also happy that I am getting better at no having my Brewers spread out, which I lost on a lot during the previous tournament. It's probably better to be down a goal, than to lose all the synergies.

I forgot about the cards a lot. I even had a Captain takedown and did not play the 2 influence card. I need to play with cards every time from now on! It would be so sad to forget in a tournament...

Hemlocke was good in this matchup, as expected. Blind is dodgy against so many DEF 5 models, but still it can really hurt if it hits. AOE condition removal saves a lot of momentum. It's probably going to be hard to pick between her and the inspiring hat!

Guild Ball October Cup (#4): Brewers vs Alchemists (2/4)

The next game was against the Alchemists, who I have never played before. Lots of AOEs, poison, fire, and shenanigans.

Brewers

Tapper (Captain)
Scum (Mascot)
Friday
Hooper
Spigot
Stave

Alchemists

Smoke
Flask
Katalyst (V)
Mercury
Vitriol
Calculus

Round 1

I kick the ball out with Spigot.

Smoke picks up the ball and does a lot of teleporting shenanigans, and scores. I manage to knock her down. Spigot and Hooper gets set on fire.

Round 2

Katalyst take out Spigot. Man, he punches hard!

I manage to get the ball up to Scum, who dodges 4", then 2", then jogs up to the goal. One single die, but it's a 5! Scum is the first mascot to score, and wins the special prize!

Katalyst takes out Friday, using Witness Me! for another 2 points. I take out Calculus. Vitriol gets the ball and zooms straight across the field, scoring another goal.

The final score is 12-10. The alchemists had control, but still close, so I am happy!

Next game: Brewers vs Brewers