My first tournament: Take a Breather Lad – 24/04/2016

Intro:

All of my preparation can be read on this blog on previous match reports. Poorly brought, lacking notes as a main reason, but hopefully yet somewhat entertaining. As this was a tournament there wasn’t any time to interrupt my thought-process with taking notes either so, expect more of the same.

The road there:

The event was scheduled to start at 11:00am. In the centre of Antwerpen (Antwerp) City in Belgium. Not a place known for its parking lots, matter of fact, inhabitants of the Antwerp city and surrounding area see their city as the only one in Belgium and consider all the rest of Belgium as a parking lot. So why take the car there if you can’t park it properly… I considered the motorbike, but the weather wasn’t promising and I didn’t want to start a tournament soaking wet. The train was the only option left. Knowing how punctual the Belgian railroad works I decided to take the train early at 08:06 towards Antwerp, scheduled to arrive there at 09:23. A 20 minute walk would then take me to the event way to early, but better than way to late. As if a miracle was set to happen that day there were no delays, my train arrived at my home town and left at the proper time. I had planned to read up on some Malifaux, getting into the game, but I dozed off instead. At every stop the train carriage had the courtesy to shake me a little, enough to wake me up, allowing me to check whether we had arrived at my destination yet. And closing in on the miracle, at exactly 09:23 I received my last wake-up nudge. Stepping out of the cart and leaving the station a hailstorm greeted me. Well, it wasn’t exactly a storm, more like a gentle pouring of ice-scrapings offering you to hold out your glass if you so wished to fill your drink with the cooling elements of nature. Alas I was not having a relaxing drink, there was nothing relaxed in my body, nerves started working. I felt some bowel movement despite having had a good shit before leaving for the train station. The work of puckering in my subconsciousness, worrying thoughts like ‘are the people there going to be fun to play against?’ , ‘am I going to be fun to play against for them?’ or even ‘is the place going to be filled with total dicks and is this trip going to show me I should’ve stayed home with the wife, taking the youngest to his football tournament’ … Spiraling downwards into the depths of my soul the questions went, sowing doubt and despair. The walk to the event did nothing to set my mind at ease. But I am a bearded man, so I sunk my teeth into the one thing that would keep me going: ‘I have made a decision and I’m going to stick to it.’

The arrival:

At 09:47 I found the front doors of the outpost in Antwerp. Didn’t get lost once, something to be proud of at least, if all else would come to fail that day. The hail was unable to grasp me, I was kept safe by overhanging buildings supported by beams that formed a corridor… The first sign maybe that the masons would do well… If you want to see for yourself; here are the final standings; Link to tiebreak results of the event! But I’m giving away stuff that is luring you away from my story… So just ignore that link till you reach the end!

I found a metal rolling shutter barring the way inside. Opening hours were put up next to it letting me know I had to wait till 10:00 before entrance would be allowed. I started looking at the games for sale in the window to pass the time. And pass it did. A woman showed up who seemed to be the store keeper for that day. She opened up the shutters but closed them off after entering to prepare the shop to open in a few more minutes. During that periode the guild ball players from the Limburg region arrived. (Forgive me but I only remember 2 of them by name now… don’t recall who the third was.) Joris introduced himself as Pundit and I shook hands with the other 2, Kim and *Bleep*. (I’m thinking he had no facial hair, or not enough for me to remember who he was now. But I do apologize, it’s my mind that’s not working properly)

We entered the venue and I ordered a coffee to wake me up from the trainride. Soon thereafter Dries the TO arrived and we lend him a hand to put the cellar in order that would be used to hold the tournament in.

All other players arrived, including my teammate Wesley (who I played against to prepare myself once) who had brought his butchers. They all exchanged names with me and each-other but as I can’t remember the name of 1 out of three don’t expect me to improve here…

Some last announcements were made (including the dropout of some no-shows, and it shames me to admit 3 of them (although with good reason for some) came from my club) and then: All was set and we were ready to go…

I can say I always fielded the same 6 players – Tapper, Scum, Hooper, Spigot, Friday and Stave.

Round ONE: (my 8th game ever)

I'm introduced to Karel Ter Linden. A guy that looks like they dragged him of a jazz-concert podium where he was giving the best mouth organ performance ever. We do some small talking and I let him know this is (not counting 2 demo's) my eight game of guild ball ever and my first time meeting the morticians. I must admit I was surprised to learn a few tricks which I have avoided by sheer luck.

We rolled and I made him kick the ball to me.

I believe his line-up was this: Obulus, Dirge, Cosset, Ghast, Graves, Silence

After some positioning on both parts and putting up an AOE on three of my players the real interesting stuff started to happen (read, I had no clue morticians could do this)

First he tried to puppet master Friday into walking into an AOE Silence put up, hoping to give her a condition. I chose to do a parting blow with tapper and went for the KD Result preventing that, well, yes she was knocked down, but rather that than taking damage right?

Second, after I had passed the ball to Scum, I was lucky the cat was further away from my goalpost than her Kick-Stats! The bloody feline would've scored against me!

For the rest of the game I can say that Tapper did his thing. After being forced to pay 1 Influence more I charged Ghast and pummelled him into the ground, finishing him off with a follow up attack from other brewers later that turn. In the Second turn Tapper went for Cosset. This is the same turn where Obulus was close enough to puppet master Scum, but after pre-measuring found out that wasn't the best option and did something else, leaving obulus open for yet another Tapper beatdown. I was at that moment looking for another take-out (Dirge) to win the game, but Dirge activated and landed itself in a safe position. So Scum played the ball to Friday who went in to score a goal! 10 – 0 to the Brewers!

I really enjoyed playing Karel and I hope he had fun playing my brewers despite the score. He said he was a bit confused after losing Ghast so fast and never got back into the game after that.

In any case, as a brewers player I had to celebrate with a local Belgian Brew and ordered my first Duvel.

Round 2: (my 9th game ever)

I shake hands with the local Jens Sysmans. A youngster (well he sure did look like 10 years younger than me, I don't really know his age) that talkes faster than my brain could keep up. I had to ask him to repeat himself several times, I do appologize for that! Jens confided in me he didn't own any Guild Ball models himself. He's playing with models from the TO (Dries Haemhouts) they form the Engineers Guild.

Here is his line-up: Ballista, mainspring, Ratchet, Salvo, Velocity, Compound.

I must admit, even though I won this game, it was the most intense of the entire day. I really thought I would lose this one. First two turns I didn't do squat, mainly because I was unable to. Every move I made was answered by a shot at the model pushing it back. And my playstyle didn't help since I tend to lure the opposing team towards the middle before moving up. I was afraid that in turn 3 the engineers team would shoot my guys towards the back lines of the pitch and shoot some off in turn 4. I had no momentum to use what so ever to get rid of all the KD the engineers put out. My own fault I thought, for not playing the way I should. (like putting my models 3'' away from each other so no pulses would have any effect) My fear did not turn into reality thanks to a mistake Jens made. His way of speech is reflected in his way of playing; Fast, extremely fast. He ended an activation giving me the turn, and right after giving me my turn he realised his mistake. He forgot to put up the Ballista minefield and I could get Tapper there after lobbing a Barrel behind Ballista with STave. I activated Ramming speed, pushing my models away and moved up 4'' to get Ballista. It was a hit, Ballista was KD'd and in base contact with Stave. I passed the turn. Trying to save Ballista he used a momentum to stand him up and shot Tapper away putting rough ground between Ballista and Tapper. I passed the ball to Tapper giving him the dodge afterwards to cross the rough ground. No other engineer was close enough to Tapper to avoid the assassination. Velocity came up hoping to steal the ball of Tapper should he stay where he was, but he had no intention of doing that, passed the ball to Friday, failed to do that leaving the ball behind and charged. And thus the tables turned. Ballista died. The engineers were out of steam, unable to generate momentum. I had the initative so Tapper decided to go for Velocity next after picking up the ball and passing it again. Old Jake's did the trick and put Velocity into bits waiting for icy spunge tokens. Scum moved up the pitch with the ball on the right hand wing. Spigot moved up with Friday to give one of them a shot on goal. Next turn Ballista came back on. Tapper moved up to help kill whoever dared touch his players. Spigot tried to lure Comound into charging him, but that didn't happen. Friday did get charged, She got healed every activation after that, appart from the activation with scum, who passed her the ball while she was engaged by compound, in the aura of Spigot and tired a bonustimed snapshot on goal draining me of all momentum I had. 4 dice for two successes... I crossed my fingers and let the dice roll. A screamer!! Victory to the brewers! 8-0!! I was glad it was over! We needed to recover so hurried over to the bar and ordered our 2nd Duvel. What a refreshing feeling, like angels peeing down my throat!

Jens got his hand shaken twice by me. I was so glad I won! I could see the disappointment in his eyes. He knew victory was within his grasp and not entirely unfair thought I snatched it from him. Little did he knew I was a sturdy as I am heavy. Most players, so he said, tend to get slighly confused by his fast paced game. I am however immune to being rushed. My wife has had many frustrations over this fact and wished many times before she could put some form of fire under my arse only to inflame some form of –apparently non-existent- enthusiasm inside me.

AFter a short break, allowing me to finish my Duvel before the start of next game we moved on with the tournament.

Round 3: (my 10th game ever)

Koen Vliegen was my next opponent. He was happy enough to show me his entire roster and player cards. But as I was sure I wouldn't get a grasp on how the masons played just by looking at the cards other than what I heard previously (they can play football and give a beating) I only glanced at the Hammer card, since that was the only guy I hadn't seen the card of before. I greeted Koen with a propper belch and sat down to start the game.

I believe this is the line-up that hammered me down: Hammer, Marbles, Mallet, Decimate, Mist, Flint

I lost the roll and had to kick. I picked Stave and kept him for a later activation. The union players came up, each on one side. I shuffled some players up and wasted most of my influence doing nothing in turn one. Turn one ended with the amazing Flint coming up for a goal with the last activation 4-0 to the masons, and Tapper greeting the fella with a beat-down. 4-2. 'Now' I thought, 'let the games begin. I have the ball you dirty devil, come at me!' And he did just that. Hammer stole some influence from surrounding players to move up to Stave with a +1 on dmg from his own play and a +1 from tooled up. He showed the fat guy why his name is hammer and took him down in one activation. 6-2 I figured, with Hammer out of activation, I need to bring him closer to tapper for turn three. Spigot went at him and KD'd him, pushed him momentous towards Tapper. I didn't measure it but to me it looked like Hammer was away from his other friends enough to no longer have the aura around him. I'm not sure what Koen did next, but Scum went to put her nails into Hammer, I picked the dmg result rather than another push towards tapper. But had better chosen the push. As measurement showed Mallet was within 8'' of Hammer allowing him to get an influence off Marbles tooling him up for +1 dmg. After that Spigot looked like a juicy target. Charging with his 3'' melee, he hammered Spigot down through a defensive stance and took him out. 8-2 for the masons. I was flabbergasted; What just happened? I got out-footballed and out-bashed! Time to drink some soda!

Koen felt like I did last two games, a bit sorry for the opponent who just sat there and watched it happen. But sattisfied with the victory non the less...

Round 4: (my 11th game ever)

Pieter Rubberecht is my next opponent. A local who has steered his butchers to meet my brewers. his if of a mind that a piece of meat with some ale should go down rather tastefully and so we get it on in a friendly mood.

I have to kick the ball to the butchers and Stave does so reluctantly. I am not looking forward to steal the ball away from those nasty knife-wielding-lunatics out for brewer blood. They would all too easily turn my players into black pudding and pretend all is well and peaceful in the world of the butcher guild.

Here is his line-up: Ox, Princes, Boiler, Boar, Tenderiser, Shank.

I stick to my game-plan and hold back, right up until Boar comes closer, to close! A mistake dearly payed for with a take-out of boar. 0-2 for brewers. Tenderiser comes up to seek revenge on Stave who finished him off after Friday softened him up. A counter attack forces him to go for a KD rather than some damage output and Stave survives. Tapper rushes in next turn to show Tenderiser what a beatdown is 0-4. Stave lobs a barrel making Ox lose possession of the ball. Friday pics up the ball and scores the winning goal. 0-8. This game was over in a heartbeat after Boar got taken out. I'm guessing Pieter didn't see the brewers before today, and if he did, not in the way I play them at least.

Short report for the last round, but a victory for me and thus another Duvel was on it's way to my lips!

Dries informed me I was possibly playing for 2nd place depending on the outcome, so I was eager to inform if the 0-8 victory for me would do the trick. It did! I came in 2nd!

A wonderful feeling I must say. I did not expect to do so well. I did not expect not to see any fish against me. I got to take home a cup and the hunters player, the bear! Seenah is mine for free (well ignoring the travel costs and the ticket, some duvels a coffe, a sprankling water and a beer I bought for Wesley, still a good deal!)

The end of it:

This is it, I have nothing more to say other than a word of thanks.

First of all I want to thank all players attending this event! I am pleased to see that pleasure goes before the hard competitive attitude that tournament players have in other games – or so I heard. This community is one I would like to keep as is.

I would like to thank my fellow teammembers of the Thunderbolts Gent that helped me prepare by taking me on as opponent, no matter how few games we had, they helped!

I would like to thank the tournament organiser Dries Haemhouts especially. Not only for organising the first event of guild ball in Belgium, not only for doing a great job at it but also for coming over to my house and introduce me into playing on the clock.

Thanks to the World's end Comics store, for allowing me to drop Seenah from my order list and congratulating me on my 2nd place. For providing a free place to play our games at and for supporting the group of Thunderbolts Gent, many of which I now call my friends.

And a last word of thanks should go to my family. The chances are slim they make it to the end of this report, since Dutch is my language and theirs, not English, since they couldn't care less about guild ball, since I even doubt they will follow the breadcrumbs of links that lead to this blog even if they stumbled upon it. But ignoring all that, the world deserves to know they put up with me. Thx to my wife for loving me and allowing me the freedom to play 'silly' games and 'wasting' our money on them. Thx to my dad, who picked up my son from his football game, while I was away playing some 'stupid' game nobody cares about. Thx to my kids for being proud of me upon my arrival and seeing me as a hero who has –ignoring the one hammer hit- conquered the world of Guild Ball in Antwerp.

That's it. Bob's all out of words. See you on the pitch some day!

Post publication changes...
26-04-2016: Mr Bleep Turns out to be non other than Koen Vliegen, my Nemesis himself.

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