Game 26,5 - Stress, arm pit ponds and bad decisions

Game 26,5 - Stress, arm pit ponds and bad decisions

 

Tapper VS Ox

The setting:

As I was home alone on a sunday afternoon I put out word : 'I'm available for a game of guild ball between 1h30 and 4h in the afternoon.'  I couldn't stay longer since I had nightshifts and had to pick up a colleague on the way to work.  The reply came in and I had a date with a married woman (yes, to play guild ball).
After the first few activations I was struggling with myself.  I wanted to remain calm and pleasant, yet also wanted to finish the game.  And at the pace we were playing, no way we would get there...  Hence the stress, the pools of smelly sweat and my hasty brainfart(s).



My opponent was the same one I played in my 14th game, well that was more like a demo. (read up about it here ) So I didn't want to play super competitive yet.  Isa told me she wanted more game-experience to grow in the game.  And let's all be honest, you learn better while having fun.  So I didn't want to rush my opponent.  I did think about playing on the clock before-hand but neglected to suggest such a thing, so I brought it upon myself to become this miserable bucket of anxiety sweat.

The line-ups:

I fielded my models before knowing my opponents line-up.  Didn't know who to expect; Ox or Fillet.  This was my line-up:

Tapper (who else) - Scum - Hooper - Friday - Mash - Stave.

Isabelle fielded these:

Ox - Princess - Shank - Boar - Decimate - Gutter


I was a bit confused seeing them and didn't know what to expect, beat-down or football...



We smacked 5 pieces of terrain down, 2 barriers, 2 obstructions and a somewhat centered Forest.  And then it was...

Game on:

I had to kick the ball to Isabelle and stuck the ball on Stave for just that purpose.  She didn't take the bait though...

Turn one:

Turn one was all about not getting bunched up yet and.  Stave dropped the ball as bait for his barrel lob, but Decimate went for the ball and second winded herself out of harms way.  I shuffled some non important pieces out of the way like Mash and Hooper (who gave Tapper tough skin just in case) and I saw the same on the other side of the board.  Friday went in after Boar and Ox had come up and flung her knives at them, both got hit and took the poison.  Stave was to far out as the butchers, appart from the dog, were all to far away to get lobbed.  Nice positioning there from the butchers on the other side of the forest to where Stave was.  The dog did get some ale spilt over him though.  Gutter didn't chaingrab and Shank tried to give some love to Tapper.

Turn two: 

I won initiative I think, Tried to take out Shank but left him alive at 1 HP.  He activated next to run away like the little girl he is and healed himself up.  Instead of going in with Scum to take away some of that regained healt I activated Stave to barrel lob Ox and Boar, who both had a picknick on the dirt as a result.  Ox stood up popped his legendary and went for Hooper, afterwards healing himself gitting rid of the 3 DMG caused by dirty knives and Poison.  Hooper lived and KD'd Ox to charge into Boar.  Gutter and Mash had a meet in the forest and Decimate looked to get the ball on the sidelines towards my goal.  Princess just stood up and shook of the beer that had been spilt on her.

Turn three:

I win initiative again, and Mash goes into Decimate to get that ball loose. (picture) Decimate gets tackled and pushed back.  Isabelle forgot about unpredictable movement on Mash, I let her take back Decimate to let her do something else.  So Stave became a vending mashine.  Stave wanted revenge, but I had to do something else first, so I activated Tapper first who told Boar to visit the infirmary.  Ox went all out on Hooper again, who was in need of some healing.
- at this time I started looking at the clock frequently since it was already well past 3.  The pressure of my nightshift started weighing in on me and underneath the table my foot was kicking the air rapidly. -  I figured I would let Stave knock down Gutter to get Hooper in for some hurting.  Gutter stood up, healed herself and damaged Stave some, but not a lot.  Hooper went into Gutter and failed to kill her.  Scum went into Ox and Friday tied up Shank.

Turn four:

Initiative went to the butchers this time and Friday got taken out by Ox.  Tapper killed Ox in return, Shank killed the cat.  Mash had the ball and moved forward looking to score a goal next turn.  He got charged by Gutter, UM'ed closer to the goal, but lost the ball, counterattacked and got it back.  Decimate took it off him again and Princess came in to crowd out the brewers in the bushes.

Turn Five:

I see a way to score a goal now, but it can only happen next turn, so I set up for it.  The turn ends with MAsh with the ball blocking Ox'es LOS to Friday who Sprinted up to help out with footballing next turn.  Stave is there and Hooper too.  Decimate and Gutter get wild with their playbooks and cut the lot up.  Hooper had enough and needs stitches.  Tapper is outnumbered on his side by Shank and a princess that walked in on him, somehow decimate ended up there too.

At this point I'm too late to pick up my colleague, but I see a goal, and potentially a second one if the goal kick goes my way using Tapper or Friday to kick to Mash (who would score my initial goal) to snapshot for the win.
This is where I brainfarted though...

Turn Six:

Butchers go first, darnit! I needed that initiative for the goal!  Shank comes in base to base with Mash, I UM Closer to the goal to make up for not having initiative.  Get tackled and activate.  I hit Shank, opt to do the 2KD result and hope for a good  scatter.  I do some measuring and calculating but forget sprinting costs me 1 INF.  I cock up the game by not being able to get close enough to the goal since I can't put super shot up.  I kick myself in the teeth and dissapoint Lisa by announcing I (stress)quit the game, giving the victory to her at 6-4.
I pack up my shit ASAP (buy another guild ball bag, they are amazing!) and rush out of the  store  I jump into my carr and get my colleague on the phone looking at the GPS.  I hope there are no speedguns on my route and rush towards work having picked up my colleague a tad later than usual...

Overall idea of the game:

I had fun, but not too much since halfway through I started thinking about having to leave more than anything else.  Sorry about that Lisa.  I hope it didn't show or reflect in my interaction with you or the game...  I made some poor decisions, like not following up on attempted take outs, engaging butchers with only one model and probabbly more...

Where I improved my game:

Do you remember my last game I put up on here?  I said: "I actually need to think about positioning my models more."  I actually put Stave in my own way again once.  But also remembered to use my fat guys to protect the little ones :-)
I  also made the mistake of not minding where I was to avoid Scything Blows and Thousand Cuts, Decimate can really hurt the Brewers like that.
My mind was not there enough for me to remember if I learnt anything at all though...

Thoughts about my line-up:

It's a nice line-up to try and play football with Tapper, but I think Spigot would do better here.  Giving tooled up to [insert friendly here] and usign Floored for fights or using his other supportive plays to switch over to the footballing game.  I'd switch Hooper out for him.

Mash was a must in this line-up to keep the other 2" models in check.  But then again this will not be a butcher line-up you see a lot I recon.


 
That's it! End of my report!  A 6-4 to the Butchers, with me miscalculating the goal it would have probably gone to 12-6 or 12-8 for them anyway.  So well done Isabelle, and sorry again if I made this game 'not fun' in any way...


See you next time!
Bob Out