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.