Game 25 - Tapper in a blood rain vs Fillet

Game 25 - Tapper in a blood rain vs Fillet

For my next game I'm challenged by the local pundit (Robin) who is determined to stab Tapper an extra bumhole with Fillet and his butchers.   Robin is part of the wonderful club Thunderbolts Gent aswell.  He has played different teams but loves his butchers and there is some morticians-love sprouting, you can see it in his eyes if he talks about Obulus.  I accepted the challenge, what was I to do?
The battle (or game if you will) took place at the lovely WEC venue. On the way there a song was playing on the radio by Kendrick Lamar, not that I'm a fan, but the lyrics were fitting to my thoughs : Click here for the song: Warning! Explicit language!

Once there I greeted Robin and orderd my nerve-settling-drug (a Duvel, yes).  I didn't feel I had to prove anything so my nerves were under control.  I was curious to see Fillet on the board.  Of course I planned on studying her card beforehand, but life got in the way so I had only a hint of an idea what she was about: Blood.  But then again, Tapper doesn't need the bleed condition himself to make some blood spatter stains.  And as it's the first time I'm having it on with Fillet (aka I'm a Fillet Virgin), some blood is to be expected.

Before I get to the game itself I want to touch on a rules topic.  In game Fillet activated the Blood Rain pulse. (Forgive me if this seems silly, but I AM a Fillet Virgin at this point)  I was confused as to where the pulse originated from.  Robin seemed confident it originated from the target hit.  This seemed the most plausible to me too so we went with that for the duration of the game (and will do so untill the rules change!)  Here's the actual wording in the rulebook on pulse that led to my confusion:

Pulse rules: 
A pulse is an effect that only affects models within its range at the point of activation. A pulse has no duration. A pulse extends from the edge of the model’s base up to the distance specified by the number listed. A model is affected by its own pulse unless otherwise stated.

Since it doesn't state the point of activation is either the model activating it or the target suffering the playbook result I had to ask.  If you are confused yourself now here is the ruling on the steamforged forums:
Text on forum: "The source of the pulse is the model hit by Blood Rain."
Link: Steamforged Forums - Ruling

Now this is out of the way we can get going with the game itself.

The line-ups:

Robin loves pure teams so I stuck with my original 6:
My line-up: Tapper - Scum - Friday - Hooper - Stave - Spigot.

His love for pure teams was showing in his line-up too:
His line-up: Fillet - Princess - Brisket - Boiler - Shank - Tenderiser


We rolled to see who'd go first and I won the toss.  I opted to receive the ball.

Game on:

The butchers deployed all to one side of the field appart from Tenderiser who was hugging the goal.  Boiler kicked towards the centre of the board (failing the kick, but it landed ok)

Turn one:

* Friday goes, as she's the only one with movement enough to get the ball and come back into the 'safe-zone'.  She passes it to Hooper and we're on one momentum point when we end the activation.
*The dog follows his master onto the pitch and lifts it's leg on a sweet spot of grass where quaff did his business only moments ago during warm-up.
 * Hooper jogs behind the lines, gives Stave some extra Armor and passes to the cat. Two momentum.
 * Tenderiser walks up a bit but makes sure he can trigger Rush Keeper.
 * The cat shadowlikes to within 4" of Spigot and passes the ball to Tapper who uses the momentum to do a team work play and dodges 4" forwards.
 * Some measuring is done but I'm still out of reach. Shank runs up and stops near an obstruction for the cover bonus.
* Spigot jogs up to Tapper and gives him 'tooled up'.
* Brisket comes up on the other side of the obstruction close to Princess and Boiler.
* I do some measuring but won't be able to charge into anybody because of the obstructions, well I can, when passing the ball and dodging another 4" with Tapper, but the butchers captain has this funny look on her face whilst glaring at Tapper.  So he passes the ball to Stave, who dodges 4" forwards.  Then Tapper jogs in close enough to try and put 'Marked Target' on Shank, but I fail the dice roll.
* A big Sigh on the other side of the board since Fillet still can't get to anybody.  Boilder moves and tries to go around my clump of Brewers.
*Stave passes the ball back to Scum and dodges 4" around Tapper, putting him within Barrel Range of Boiler and Princess.  I think if I can pull this off at least the dog, Boiler and Brisket will be pulled apart.  But I only get Boiler on his bum.
* I don't want to measure where I need to go to escape the ranged plays of Fillet with STave just in case I can't make it out of range...  And join the group of Brewers on what seems to me 'the safer side of things'  But then she activates:
*Fillet runs in puts Pain Circle over my Brewers. (God I wish I read the card before we started, little did I know it was an AOE)  Tapper escapes through bad dice-rolling (at this point Robin tells me he chucked 2 of his dice out already for failing him.  The venue is near a waterway and the fish can start playing dice-games now.  He did not however throw his dice away this time.)  Friday gets hit as does Stave.

Turn two:

*The turn where you expect to get the full benefit of 5 INF on Tapper to take out a model after winning initiative.  To be honest Turn two is a total let down for me.  I know I charged in after putting up commanding aura, but I can't remember if I went for Brisket or Shank.  Either way I only got a knockdown, missed my second attack with the last influence, used Old Jakes on myself and took two more bad swings - I went for momentum to get rid of the bleeding leaving me without I think...
*Fillet sees the meat on Stave and decides to carve him up a little.  First she triggers Blood Rain and then she dodges around him hitting him through the Tough Hide that slows her output down a bit.  But as soon as she can hit Friday the shit hits the fan.  Friday gets taken out.
*Stave activates and Knocks Fillet down, then double pushes her to the middle of the brewer team.
*Boiler comes in for more hurt on Stave, but he's still OK.
*The cat walks with the ball into melee with Fillet for assisting Hooper later.
* The dog comes closer to assist Boiler next turn (is my guess) but stays out of melee.
* Spigot tools up Hooper and walks into melee with Fillet.
* Brisket Hits somebody and dodges back out I think, not sure...
* Seeing Boiler and Princess, not being able to barrel them away, I decide to go for Boiler with Hooper.  Hoping for the Best if I lose the initiative for next turn when Fillet will do something awefull I'm sure.  Boiler gets knocked down.
* Tenderiser does the jig and remains where he's standing.
* Robin is dissapointed in Shank not doing enough damage as a butcher. After 'Where'd they Go?-ing' him into the brewer line and hitting... erm... Can't remember, I survived :-p
Side note- No momentum on my part since nobody is bleeding anymore (I am within 6 of the blasted captain with the 6” Aura of Haemophilia...

Turn three:

Butchers get to go first.
*Fillet thanks me for putting the cat next to her.  Steals the ball from it, dodges away and scores a goal.  There they go 6 VP for the butchers already...  Fillet knows her luck is about to run out so she gets out of the way towards some cover.
* I kick the ball out to the side of the board where I plan to bring Friday back in next turn (I did not bring her on...) Tapper sees his target but decides to go for Boiler first.  Boiler dies with my first three swings after putting commanding aura up and generating a momentum pool.  Old Jake's gets the charge in towards Fillet.  But she isn't dead yet since she heals herself constantly.  Well at least she's KD'd.
* Shank activates and blocks the LOS for Hooper preventing him to charge into Fillet.
* Stave goes, activates Ramming Speed and walks up to Shank pushing him 2" following him and KD's the butcher.
* Brisket goes and blocks LOS for Hooper again
* Spigot Goes and gives Tooled up to Scum (who has three influence).  Robin is like : 'What's your cat going to do?' I show him the playbook and you can see his adam's apple going up and down.
* Tenderiser comes closer, getting bored of dancing and doing nothing for his team.
* Scum dodges the shadowlike to get LOS with Fillet and charges in. For an epic dice fail. The second attack only gets one hit in too.  Fillet survives.
* Princess has no influence so activates and does nothing note worthy, appart from healing his Captain.
* Hooper can't charge but can walk up to a spot where Fillet can be hit.  First we push Tenderiser away a bit, then we swing at Fillet with no hits, and another swing for only 1 hit.  I can't help but sigh, go for the momentum to get rid of some more bleed elsewhere.

Turn four:

Boiler comes back on, as does Friday, who goes to recover the ball.
*I measure some distances but can't score a goal with Friday, she's to far out, even with the fast ground in range.  So Tapper gets to go first.  Commanding aura goes up and we swing at Fillet, we only go for the knock down on attack one healing himself with the momentum, then only get one net hit in for swing 2 and 3 for 2 DMG each not generating any momentum at all so no old jakes this turn.  I pull out my hairs and eat my beard.
* Tenderiser goes next and softens up Stave some more.  He's tempted to activate ground pound but thinks that's suicide in the long run so does something else.  Tenderiser won't be hero of the day.
* Spigot tools up Hooper.
* Brisket loaded up with 4 skins the cat. 8VP for the butchers. And Fillet is healed up again.
* Hooper decides to let go of the tunnel vision play in my head (Fillet must die) and goes for the dog instead but fails to do so.
* Shank looks at the fat guy who's almost dead and takes him out. 10 VP for the Butchers.
* Friday walks a bit closer to get within scoring range in the off chance I win initiative.
* Fillet hits Tapper once and dodges out of range from the other brewers.
* Boiler activates to come closer.
Did I forget anyone?

Turn Five:

I do not win initiative.
* Fillet activates and kills Tapper.

The End.

Overall idea of the game:

I loved this game.  The outcome could have been different if I played more spread out.  It could have even been better for me if I didn't have any bad dice rolls.  But then again, it's a game and shit happens.  Robin smiled as he said that I seemed to have trouble taking out Fillet.  He's used to losing her early game when going against heavy damage output teams.  Wish I took a picture of that smirk now, would've suited this blog well.  But my phone was near dead so I didn't take any pictures at all.
Robin did a hell of a job keeping my charge lines to Fillet closed with his models and that was a bit of a pain since I was on the single minded path of beating her down.  I hope to play Fillet again some day to see if I can adjust my game plans.

Where I improved my game:

I didn't improve my game so much as learnt to shrug off the effects of plays not going the way you had invisioned them.  And my beard tastes awesome, that's something I learnt :-)

Thoughts about my line-up:

What can I say.  It's the brewer line-up I go with when I don't know what else to take.  I'm not sure I want to take Spigot against butchers again.  He didn't die this game but didn't stay close enough to Friday to get the +1 DEF going.  My fault entirely.   I don't know who to bring in against this team and I've been going over that question for more than a couple of minutes after the game ended.  What to do differently next time?  Who to bring?  I have no clue as of yet.  Rage? A&G? Hemlocke?


As a final word I would like to say this to the readers: Tapper will get his vengeance! With the Famous Last words: I'll get you next time Even if it takes months to get it done!  I talked a bit with Robin about recording some games with my brewers on camera to get them uploaded to youtube and he's game.  Not sure when and where we'll get to do that, but let's hope you see Fillet eat mud in that one!
 
That's it! End of my report!  A Whopping 12-2 for the Butchers.


See you next time!
Bob Out