Guild Ball (#42): Corsair vs Grange - Demo Game

Stopped by my gaming buddy Leif for a little bit of Guild Ball action. He has just tried one demo game before. He took the Farmer's "The Honest Land" starter, and I took a Corsair list. Just for fun this one, learning some interactions and trying out models. :D

The pitch has been adorned with seasonal obstructions!

Windle dodges, dodges, dodges... and then suddenly gets pulled into the death pit and blinded. The Farmers do some clever ball kicking to get Grange forward, and Corsair also takes a few hits!

Jackstraw teleports straight down the center and scores! Grange with Constitution requires all the Fishermen activations to take out. Tough dude!

Our friendly little game ends at 4-4!

...and good night!

Guild Ball: Oslo November Cup - Results

The end! The results were:

#1: Andreas Fosheim Øwre (Hunters)
#2: Christian Tellefsen (Fishermen)
#3: Manuel Ramirez (Masons)

Full results on Longshanks.


Gaute got most sporting. I am unsure who got best painted, maybe Stig can fill me in. There were also some anvilballs given away at random.

We had a great time! Looking forward to the next tournament. Stig says there won't be one in December, but we don't believe him.

I am of course quite happy with taking second place! Now I need to play a lot of games with Corsair, so that I am ready for the next tournament.

Another thing I like about the Guild Ball tournaments I have been to is that most players play all the rounds. If there is one thing I *hate* about Warmachine tournaments, it is that so many players tend to drop after a loss or two and join small 8 tournaments instead. This prevents newer players from getting the more balanced matches in the later tournament rounds. Also, it stops you from seeing an improvement from being last, to below average, to beating the average, and so on. In Warmachine it seems that you are either 1st-3rd, or you leave.

Getting 16th place in a 128 man tournament, for example, is every bit as good a result as getting 1st in an 8 man tournament!

Guild Ball (#41): Oslo November Cup - Shark vs Veteran Rage (4/4)

After the narrow loss against the Hunters, I am happy to be facing our visiting player from Bergen! Kim brought his Veteran Rage (his only captain choice). Kim is the second highest rated player in Norway. Well, at least my Strength of Schedule will be high... :D

Fishermen

Shark (Captain)
Tentacles (Mascot)
Greyscales
Hag
Sakana
Siren

Union

Veteran Rage
Strongbox
Benediction
Decimate
Gutter
Snakeskin

This time, I get to kick off. I use Shark, since he is the most likely to peel the ball of the Union. I place him just outside the Union threat ranges.

Turn 1

Shark: 6, Tentacles: 1, Greyscales: 2, Hag: 0, Sakana: 1, Siren: 3

Union plays a really good game of preventing me from getting Shark into his face, hiding it with Gutter beghind his lines before passing it to Snakeskin who goes into cover and uses Clone. I am therefore unable to find a good vector, so I rather spend the last activation with Shark getting 5 momentum to set up the next turn.

Turn 2

Shark: 6, Tentacles: 1, Greyscales: 2, Hag: 0, Sakana: 1, Siren: 3

I expect to score with Shark, and Siren got 3 to maybe peel the ball of the Union again afterwards.

Shark scores, and then Decimate is pretty unlucky and fails to score at 3 dice. The ball goes far away to the right of the goalpost. 4-0 to the Fishermen!

Rage is blinded and he has to spend his activation building some momentum with Benediction.

Turn 3

Shark is in bit of a bind, crowded out by Snakeskin and Gutter.

Shark: 4, Tentacles: 1, Greyscales: 4, Hag: 0, Sakana: 2, Siren: 3

I fail to disentangle Shark. I just just have used a Tidal Surge and Dodge, but I decided to be cute and build momentum with dodges, A counterattack by Gutter pulled me in again, and then I could not get out. They still failed to kill Shark, leaving him at 3 hit points.

The rest of the turn was spend getting the ball and moving it up to Sakana.

I am quite happy with my position here, the Union players are spread all over the pitch, which removes a lot of their synergies. My Fishermen of course are not bothered much by being spread out.

Turn 4

Shark: 1, Tentacles: 1, Greyscales: 4, Hag: 1, Sakana: 4, Siren: 3 

Gutter seals the deal on Shark, and he is taken out. 8-2 to the Fishermen!

Rage has moved in to make it harder for Sakana score the goal, but Rage is unable to take him out. He is left at 6 hit points, and is able to disentangle himself and score.

The ball is kicked up to Gutter, and Greyscales moves up to try to get it. He gets the ball but is unable to score. Snakeskin and Gutter go base to base to try to lock him down.

Turn 5

I have half a minute left on the clock!

I activate Greyscales, who dodges out, hits Gutter for momentum, dodges again and scores! 12-2 to the Fishermen!

Post Mortem

The score does not at all show how hard fought the match was. Kim was great at positioning and making things difficult for me, causing me to waste a lot of time on the clock. He was quite unlucky with the Decimate goal failing, if he had had it he could have tried to get another takeout, hide the ball, and end the match with a goal.

I need more experience with the Fishermen to be able to calculate the threats and goal runs faster! I seem to spend maybe 15 minutes on the first rounds if there is a goal threat, and I really should be able to do it in 5, and avoid the time pressure at the end.

A very fun game! On to the prizes and final standings!

Guild Ball (#40): Oslo November Cup - Shark vs Theron (3/4)

The next game is versus Pundit Andreas, who is bringing Theron and the bear. Andreas is currently the top ranked Guild Ball player in Norway, so this is sure going to be hard. Turns out Andreas has actually never played against the Fishermen!

Fishermen

Shark (Captain)
Tentacles (Mascot)
Greyscales
Hag
Sakana
Siren

Hunters

Theron (Captain)
Fahad (Mascot)
Chaska
Jaecar
Minx
Seenah

Sorry about the lack of pictures. The game got quite tense and I really had to focus!

Turn 1

The bear kicks off.

Seenah did not know about unpredictable, I let him get a take back and go base to base. Greyscales is eaten up by a hungry bear.

Shark scores with the final activation. 4-2 to the Fishermen!

Turn 2

Tentacles and Siren are gobbled up, one of them with a Bear Hug. 6-4 to the Hunters! Shark is able to retrieve the ball and score again. 8-6 to the Fishermen!

Turn 3

I had forgotten about the Boom Box ability. Shark is pushed off the pitch! Sakana is bear food. 10-8 o the Hunters!

I am unable to score another goal before Greyscales is taken out again The Hunters ended up with 6 takeouts! This is the first time my Shark team has been totally gutted and stringed. 

Post Mortem

This is one matchup where I think it might have been a good idea to draft Veteran Siren instead of Siren. Having a very hard to kill player to block off Seenah could make things a lot worse for the Hunters here.

Playing new teams and models always gets a bit random. I learned how dangerous Seenah is, and I think that in this matchup a very important part is to delay him killing me so that I get time to score my three goals. Better knowledge of threat ranges is key, and deliberately placing models so that Seenah has to waste a turn running back after a kill might be a viable strategy.

My biggest single mistake this game was probably giving a critical takeback at the very beginning of the game, setting off a steamroll of Seenah eating my models. I probably should have said no! It's always a bit hard to know when to allow it, and when to not. Generally I think games are more interesting when there are fewer mistakes and gotcha moments, though... anyway it was my decision alone, and I did what I did.

I also need to play a bit faster! I was down a lot on the clock as well.
For the last match, I meet The Union!

Guild Ball (#39): Oslo November Cup - Shark vs Skatha (2/4)

My first every game against the Hunters. I have been reading the cards, but it is not easy to figure out how they play without seeing them in action, so I don't really know what to expect! Gaspard is piloting the Hunters.

Fishermen

Andreas had grabbed the mascot spot prize, so Tentacles is swapped in.


Shark (Captain)
Tentacles (Mascot)
Greyscales
Hag
Sakana
Siren

Hunters

Skatha
Fahad
Egret
Veteran Hearne
Jaecar
Seenah


I get Field Dressing, Who are Ya? and Wingback. Seems like a pretty nice set with Shark!

I win the roll, and Jaecar kicks off.

Round 1

Shark: 6, Tentacles: 1, Greyscales: 2, Hag: 0, Sakana: 1, Siren: 3

I forgot to take some pictures, but basically Shark does what he should do, and scores the goal.

Turn 2

There is some fighting back and forth, no-one scores and there are no takeouts. Shark builds a ton of momentum with his activation. I grab the ball and it ends up with Greyscales. I win the initiative.

Turn 3

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

Greyscales is in a great position here. He activates first, bounces off Jaecar and lands the goal.

The ball is kicked up to Egret, who scores for the Hunters!

My goal kick then goes up to Shark, who charges up, bounces off Veteran Hearne, and lands the final goal. 12-4 to the Fishermen!

Post Mortem

The Hunters have lots of tricks, but they were unable to stop me from getting the ball. Quite interesting and unusual guild, for sure!

I forgot to use my Plot Cards. They are so hard to remember...

2-0 now in the tournament. For the next match I will fetch top ranked Norwegian player Andreas, also playing Hunters!

Guild Ball (#38): Oslo November Cup - Shark vs Honour (1/4)

In the first round I meet Manuel, who gave me a good fight in the same matchup a few days ago.

Fishermen

Shark (Captain)
Salt (Mascot)
Greyscales
Hag
Sakana
Siren

Masons

Honour
Marbles
Brick
Chisel
Flint
Mallet


I felt fairly confident going in, I have all the tools to get the ball off the Masons, and they will have a hard time making many takeouts with this list against me. However, Manuel is a strong player, he positions well, so if I make any mistakes he will certainly punish me for it.


I am lucky - Mallet does an agressive kick that fails. The ball is placed on Salt.

Turn 1

Shark: 6, Salt: 1, Greyscales: 2, Hag: 1, Sakana: 1, Siren: 3

Honour: 6, Marbles: 0, Brick: 1, Chisel: 1, Flint: 1, Mallet: 3, 

The plan here is to pass the ball, let it end up with Shark, and use the Hag and Shark's threat to score a first turn goal.

It works like a charm. Shark runs around Chisel and engages Marbles. The Masons had misplaced slightly, so Brick could not counter charge between Marbles and Flint. Then I built momentum and scored, ending with a Knee Slider out.

The Masons were on the ball, though (heh)... Honour kicked the ball to Mallet and gave him a double activation. He also scored. 4-4!

I kicked the ball to the left so that Sakana could grab it. The plan is to pass it up to Greyscales and score.

Turn 2

Shark: 4, Salt: 1, Greyscales: 4, Hag: 0, Sakana: 2, Siren: 3

Honour: 6, Marbles: 1, Brick: 1, Chisel: 1, Flint: 0, Mallet: 3

Siren is taken out. The Masons are kind enough to try to place Brick in the way of Greyscales, giving me a prefect target to dodge off on my goal run. Score! 8-6 to the Fishermen.

The ball is passed up to Harmony. Shark builds momentum and dodges towards the center of the pitch. I win the initiative, giving me good chances...

Turn 3

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

Honour: 6, Marbles: 1, Brick: 1, Chisel: 1, Flint: 0, Mallet: 3

Sakana runs around the building and grabs the ball off Harmony, kicking it into space near Greyscales. No-one can stop Greyscales from getting the ball and tapping it in.

12-6 to the Fishermen!

Post Mortem

Things went pretty much as planned during this game. It really is quite hard for the Masons to keep the ball here! The counter-attack bubbles are pretty annoying, but of course the Fishermen are fast enough that they can often often dodge or run into melee, and then dodge or run out again.


Next round is against the Hunters!

Guild Ball: November Cup

Tournament time! I have switched from Brewers to Fish. I brought both Shark and Corsair, but all my practice with Corsair is one single demo game for a friend. That game showed me that the Corsair list is not easy to play, so I was fairly sure that I would only play Shark, who I at least a handful of games with.

Roster

Corsair (Captain)
Shark (Captain)

Salt (Mascot)
Tentacles (Mascot)

Greyscales
Hag
Sakana
Siren
Veteran Siren

Avarisse & Greede (Union)


The Corsair list is Corsair, Tentacles, Hag, Sakana, Avarisse & Greede, with Siren as the primary flex slot.

The Shark list is Shark, Tentacles, Greyscales, Hag, Sakana and Siren. Siren is near the goal to threaten anyone that comes near with the ball. Greyscales, Shark and Sakana run the flanks and try to cover as great an area as possible. Hag is there mainly for the 1st turn goal threat, and also to unentangle my models later. Tentacles screws with the activation order for the opponent, since Blind can really neuter models.

Salt was in there because there was a spot prize for the first player to do a goal or takeout with a mascot, and Salt is a pretty decent striker. I was planning to play him for the first game, and then Tentacles after that.

Veteran Siren was an option for the Corsair list to defend against lists that could out-fight Corsair, while Siren was there for grabbing the ball of more football focused lists.

Games

#1: Shark vs Honour
#2: Shark vs Skatha
#3: Shark vs Theron
#4: Shark vs Veteran Rage