Game 13: Brewers VS Hunters - casual game

Hello Guild Ballers,
Today (well yesterday, but who's keeping track of things like that anyway?) I got to play our local Pundit, Robin.  He plays Hunters so I was interested in seeing them for the first time!

For my line-up I went with my basic 6:
Tapper – Scum – Hooper – Spigot – Friday – Stave

Robins line-up:
Theron– Fahad – Zarola – Hearne – Egret - Jaecar

-By now you guys should be used to it, so: no notes-

Game summary: 

A murder fest for Brewers.  Hunters are indeed a hard team to master.   Seeing them in action still doesn't give me a clue on how to play them.

Turn 1:

Brewers kicked of with Stave kicking the ball close to sidelines (hoping for a barrel lob and easy VP).
* Theron went first and  came up to shoot an arrow in Stave's knee. After that he used Nature's Growth to block LOS towards the ball. (as I read it now it wasn't allowed there since it was within 3'' of fast terrain but hey it's a friendly match) with one influence left Robin says he should've used Sun strike on himself.  I said he can do it anyway and pretend he did it before the arrow to the knee on Stave but Robin declines.
* Spigot gives Tapper tooled up and sprints up towards the middle of the pitch but out of range from Jaecar.
* Zarola goes next and lets Hearne do a jog with Midnight Offering before snapping the ball to her.
* Stave sprints into the forest in front of him and lobs a barrel to Zarola hoping to push her off, 2D6 comes up 4 and 1.
* Hearne joins Stave in the forest and starts beating the fat guy.  Stave loses some, but not a lot of his health.
* Friday walks up to some cover.
* Egret comes up and throws poison through Venomous Strike with Flurry on Hooper, Tapper and Scum, then she dodges back in to the shadows after her Swift Strikes. Egret is in safety again.
* Hooper gives his Tough Skin to Tapper and goes in to help murder whoever bugs Stave next turn, provided they don't dodge away or jog with Zarola's play...
* Jaecar wants to get at somebody but isn't within range so decides to position himself for next turn somewhere in the middle placing a Pitt Fall to ensure his safety.
* Scum goes up field setting her up for Tapper who knows where he'll go unless Fahad is stupid enough to get within range.
* Fahad isn't stupid, and charges Stave outside the threatrange of Tapper, since Stave is snared he gets damage like what the playbook would suggest. (5 on a wrap with 7 net hits)
* Tapper decides to go where Scum has advice for him and hopes for the best.

Turn 2:

Having no momentum the turn goes to the Hunters. (Yes Stave did this, but a chance at 2VP and a ballscatter was well worth it)
My memory is a bit cloudy here as what happened next but it must've been something like this:
* Theron goes first and shoots Tapper in the knee (is that 5 inf on him telling you something?)  I believe a forest pops up somewhere but I can't remember where, I'm going to guess it was in front of Tapper to block his LOS to prevent charging towards Fahad and Hearne.
* Stave activates his  Ramming Speed and Jogs the full 2'' into base contact with Fahad and Hearne.  I did some measuring to get Zarola AND Hearne with one barrel lob to push them both of the pitch, but that wasn't possible.  I could hit them both, but they wouldn't get pushed off.  So I picked the poor Hearne as an only target just missing Zarola with the AOE. 2VP For the brewers!
* Jaecar jumps Stave (who is still snared) and does some more damage.  Retreating after that between Fahad and Zarola.
* Tapper can now sprint towards Fahad (no charge I think because of the forest) And gives the little dalmatian (Fahad is painted in a snow leopard.  All Robins hunters have a snow-theme) a beating taking the feline out.  4 VP for the brewers, Vengeance token for Tapper.  Thanks to old Jakes I have one influence left and throw marked target on Jaecar, bringing him within range of Hooper.
* Zarola comes into action and gets away from The action passing the ball to Egret after making Jaecar Jog further into safety and out of Hoopers reach (damned premeasuring).
*  Friday goes to the other side of the cover.
* Egret stays back feeling some defensive play is needed and passes to Theron (I think).
* Spigot goes towards the middle and within 4'' of Friday.
* Scum goes next since there are no more models to be activated on the Hunters side and goes towards Tapper for some more advice.

Turn 3:

We gain the initiative by rolling a 6 vs a 2.
* Tapper goes inbetween Jaecar and Theron, engages both without being engaged himself, you gotta love that 2'' melee.  A knockdown on the charge that doesn't wrap and the ball snaps to Tapper.  He decides to pass it to Spigot who dodges 4'' after receiving it.  Then Tapper puts up his aura and swings at Jaecar Knocking him down to.  Old Jakes for some damage on Theron in the next two swings but not enough to take him out, not even close...
* Egret goes next and tackles the ball away from Spigot then she dodges away. (To bad I didn't load up Friday and Spigot for a football play...)
* Hooper goes next and charges in on Theron, also engaging Zarola.  No take out, not even with true grit active.
* Hearne comes closer to the brawl that's going on but has no influence on him so doesn't do much else.
* Stave activates his battle ramming speed again and charges into Theron pushing hooper 2'' away.  Hooper now engages Zarola and Hearne.  Stave wraps for 5 dmg in total, Theron is still breathing.  Stave on only 1 HP uses a momentum to recover 4.
* Jaecar smells blood and jumps up, puts a Pit Trap to protect Egret up and walks up to Stave to kill him.  His tough hide saves his skin.
* Friday goes to a position to steal the ball from Egret next turn.
* Theron stands up and kills Stave. Throwing a forest between Jaecar and Spigot
* Scum comes into 4'' of Tapper.
* Spigot can't reach anybody with a charge so sprints to Jaecar and knocks him down.

Turn 4:

Stave comes back on using sideline repairs.
Robin wins initiative, contemplates on how to get Egret (and the ball) away from Friday (loaded up) Spigot (2) and not going into the threatrange of Tapper (5) This doesn't seem possible.
* Zarola goes first and hopes for the best making Egret jog towards her.
* Friday shadowlikes towards Egret and charges her.  Tackle! (no wrap) two influence left.  I do want to get out of engagement so go for a push (2 hits) but I fail all! (one armour takes the hit away)  We try the goalkick with two dice only and we get it! 8VP for the brewers.
With Theron low on health and Jaecar not far behind Robin doesn't see a way out.  Goalkicking the ball away puts Spigot into a very likely 2nd goal attempt.  Kicking it to one of his players who are all boxed in by other brewers only asks for a tackle or KD knocking the ball away again.
So Robin throws in the towel and we call it a game.


Where I improved my game:
First time I used the 'Stave closer to the sidelines kick'.  It was very usefull since the hunters were all drawn to that spot.

What I need to remember :
Be very carefull of playing Stave solo over the midfield.

Thoughts about my line-up:
I still like this line-up a lot.  I don't get why other players hate giving momentum away with Stave.  He lures their players in for Tapper beatdowns and has (well maybe not against masons) the body to withstand a couple of blows.
What I did miss was momentum at times.  I keep using it to clear conditions or putting up heroics

Overall idea of the game:
Big thumbs up to Robin I had a fun game even though it didn't go so well for the Hunters, the sportsmanship was key to the fun!


See you next time Guild Ballers, where I hope to meet Masons or Morticians!