Game 3 - Brewers VS Butchers

Game 3

Brewers again, different opponent;  the butchres. A very close game indeed!

I used the same line-up as in my previous games against engineers:

Tapper – Scum – Hooper – Spigot – Mash – Stave

Wesley’s (the Butcher player, duh) line-up:

Ox – Princess – Brisket – Boiler – Boar - Meathook

– Again I failed to take notes.  

Kickoff:

 I made the Butchers kick.  Brisket got the ball and kicked it to the right.
Apart from Meathook, all butchers are to the left, so I mirror the lineup somewhat.

Turn 1

*Spigot sprints up to get the ball, and come back a little.  Then passes it to Tapper, who dodges 4 forwards.
*Ox comes forward next to Brisket.
*Mash Jogs up the field.
*Meathook comes to the right sideon the field all on her lonesome self.
*Hooper sprints forwards.
*Princess goes left a bit.
*Tapper Passes to Mash and uses the momentum to dodge up field and positions himself next to Hooper.

*Boar comes up, noticing he won't get a free charge and sets himself next to his captain.

*Scum sprints up towards tapper to get within 4'' for the +1/+1 INF next turn.

* Brisket puts herself in front of Ox and Boar.
*Stave sprints up behind Hooper and lobs a barrel between Brisket and Ox and Boar.  All three are hit.  Brisket skids to a halt against hooper's base.

* Boiler goes to the left and sits next to his dog.

Turn 2:

I win the initiative.
*Tapper is loaded up and charges Meathook who's all by herself.  Old Jake's kills her off.  2VP and a ton of MP for the Brewers. - Vengeance is played on Tapper
*Brisket Stands up and hits Hooper.
*Hooper hits Brisket back.
*Ox stands up using momentum and moves closer towards the fight.
*Spigot Charges in Since Brisket is KD and he just loves that.
*Boiler comes closer to the fight

* Mash has one swing one Brisket and moves to the side of the board.
*Princess follows Boiler.
*Scum finishes Brisket off. 4VP for the Brewers.

*Boar stands up and follows Ox.
*Stave was left without influence and moves himself a little towards Mash.

Turn 3

A Roll of one for initiative does not help my cause…
I have no idea how it happened but I end up with all my players on the left side of the field, Tapper included who's getting a lot of heat, as does Spigot.
I don't really know what stupid play I did, but I screwed up somewhere...

Turn 4

Again I can’t get the initiative. Brisket en Meathook are back on.
*Spigot gets almost killed, Hooper isn't looking to good.  Mash is cornered and Scum is moving in the way to help out Mash  A Barrel lob to help Mash further in his quest to move up field towards the goal fails.  Only Meathook gets smacked down...  Boiler and Princess are now getting help from Boar and Ox. Tapper dies but Ox took some hits aswell.

Turn 5

I put Tapper away for this turn to heal him up a bit more. Lack of influence is a problem ...  Spigot dies, Hooper dies. The cat lives! 6VP for the Butchers vs 4 VP for the brewers.

Turn 6

Sideline reparis birngs Tapper right into the fight again.  I damage Ox some more and hurt Princess
At the end of the turn I take her out 6 - 6

Turn 7

Butchers are regrouping and a huge fight occurs.  Brisket is taken out again in the process  But after that Ox and his mates take out Tapper and Stave!  Mash decides to get rid of the ball and hopes for a decent scatter.  The ball lands out of reach for the Butchers. 8 - 10  Spigot and hooper come back a bit healed up.  They run to get the ball and go to engage the goal from the other side of where the fighting is going on.

Turn 8

A miracle! I throw a 6 and win the initiative, enough to kill Ox! With one swing from Mash.  2 other Swings at Boar using non monentous push-dodges bring Mash into jogging distance of some cover and out of engagement. 10-10
Boiler tries to kill the cat who unpredictable movements herself out of the way.
Scum runs for it! Safety in distance!
Meathook sees the threat on goal and sprints to aid for next turn.
Hooper moves up, Tapper moves up, Spigot tries to charge Brisket, but as it seems she also has unpredictable movement and thus I brainfarted my play away...
Stave sprints up closer just in case he'll be able to lob a barrel next turn.

Turn 9

I fail to win initiative Spigot gets tackled.  I activate him next and instead of Tackling, knocking Brisket down and passing to Mash - who could have finished it next activation... I go for the Ball's gone - towards Hooper (since Mash wasn't near enough)  and it's only after I made my next attack I saw the play I should've done...  Anyhow, Spigot knocks Brisket down, and heals himself up a bit, and a good thing that was too... Meathook comes in hoping to finish off Spigot.  Allas she gets no help from Brisket who's eating dirt.  Hooper walks up to the downed Brisket and kicks her pretty face deeper in the mud once to generate extra momentum before passing within the aura of Spigot to Mash who dodges with that momentum within kicking distance of the goal!  Ox is unable to charge Spigot, who's to far of.  Ox is unable to charge Mash (unpredictable movement)  but sees no other options so does that anyway.  Mash scores after getting his super shot up ending the game in a (14) 12 - 10 game for the brewers!

Where I improved my game:

I found a no questions asked aproach with Tapper and it's simply to let him be greedy. 

What I need to remember :

Don't let the butchers get close!  Kill Ox asap, Kill Princess later in the turn if possible.

I didn't have many options where it came to helping other players out with 'tough skin' or 'tooled up' Maybe it's worth looking at my activation order again before allocating influence to get one or the other up?

Thoughts about my line-up:

Mash helped out against the butchers a lot with his 2'' melee range and his unpredictable movement.  But, I feel that if I had played with friday I might have scored sooner.  Not sure if I would've been able to save her afterwards though.  Or even score another kill myself.  All in all I'm happy with how this ended.

Man what in the name of St.-I-don't-really-care-who kind of vending machine is Stave... But then again he does bring Barrel Lob...

Overall idea of the game:

A really close and tense game, I enjoyed every bit of it and thought I lost after screwing up in turn 3.  I'm thinking back but really can't remember what happened or how to prevent it next time.  

Winning feels good, really good...

Thx Wesley for the game!  I had loads of fun!

That’s it for me!  See you next time!