Game 27: If there's Smoke, there's fire!

Game 27: If there's Smoke, there's fire!

Hello Guild ballers!

This time I'll talk about another game against our local pundit 

Robin.  Today he fields the alchemists for the first time lead by 

Smoke.

He didn't want to field Vitriol, as he dislikes the model and 

thinks it's a bit OP.

Line-Up:

Instead this is what he brought to the field:

Smoke - Flask - Calculus - Mercury - Vennin - Katalyst.

I never played with Stoker before, and since he's got magical brew 

I went with him.  I also planned on fielding Esters for the first 

time, but as it turns out, I forgot to bring her card...  So I went 

with Tapper again.

My list:

Tapper - Scum - Stave - Stoker - Hooper -  Friday

Turn one:

As always with the Brewers I was of with a slow start.  I didn't want to put Friday at risk and played it my way: keep the ball away and let them come close to hit them hard when they do.

Stoker went for the ball in the middle.  Passed the ball to the back and flung some burning on the kicker (Calculus?)  Standing in the middle at the end of his activation he was taking some heat to start off with.  Stave and Hooper stayed a little behind him and as it goes with Smoke as captain for the alchemists, by the end of turn 1 almost all my models (including Hooper and Stoker due to 

activating early) had conditions on them.  Vennin however tried to 

beat Stoker, and as it turns out, he didn't like the 3[DEF] - 2 

[ARM].

Turn two:

As a result of Vennin's Charge I made an effort to kill him using Stoker and Hooper (again with early activations).  Stoker had influence left to throw a Molotov on Smoke before ending his activation.  Stoker and Hooper got hit by AOE's again and Smoke's Legendary came into play softening up Friday who was hit.  After that Smoke backed off into a corner.  Instead of clearing conditions I used what momentum I had to heal Stoker up who did take some 

damage.  Stave came into play and hit Calculus with a barrel lob, who was still burning from turn 1.  Thus far I managed to keep Scum in the back and clear of conditions, but I brought her up field a little to the right to see if I could sneak behind the forest to score.  Friday died due to Katalyst hitting the intensify button...
I will be bringing Friday back on the next turn on the same side as Scum to help look for that goal.

Turn Three: 

 

Turn three starts with a beat-down on Katalyst who intensified Friday to death previous turn. The beatdown comes from Tapper (and possibly somebody else, can't really recall.  Then Stave lobs a barrel on Smoke, But I mispositioned, throwing her backwards instead of forwards into Tapper-Range.  (I measured intending to lob the barrel on the center of Smoke, but only moved to get the range at the front of her base... brainfart.)
Meanwhile I had put off activating Stoker hoping to pass him the ball later on so he could go and score a goal in his activation.  Allas, Smoke didn't activate till lats in her team.   The Alchemist model was the only model with an activation left that could get to Stoker and I didn't want him to have the ball when she did.  So he didn't get the ball but did charge into Mercury, leaving the ball on Friday (who got a pass from Scum).
After the Smoke activation, Friday goes and tries to pass to Stoker so he can attempt a snapshot on 2 dice...  Needles to say this is a risky play and thus it failed, on the pass towards him in fact.

Turn 4: 

The alchemists now have got their evil eye on Friday again (who is back to 2 HP due to poisoning).  She's such a fragile girl...  I put Tapper in range of Smoke and Venin, so he can take revenge if she dies.  We discuss options for a bit and Robin goes for a delayed kill on Friday.  He uses Mercury to prevent Friday from shadowliking away from melee and throws an AOE of fire in front of  Tapper blocking all Chargelanes (into Smoke, into Venin and into himself)  So Hooper activates after that, killing Calculus and jogs into melee with one of the models surounding Friday, I believe it was Mercury, who got hit giving me momentum enough to heal up Friday and leaving him flat on his bottom.
Katalyst comes in from the bottom of the field, low on health, and tries to finish Friday off.  He fails to do so.  Friday received one influence, so she activates and hits once for a momentus push, moving Mercury into Tapper Range.  I think Venin comes up from the side to heal Mercury.  But Tapper, tries to have a go anyway.  Some badd rolls are made and Mercury lives. 

 

Smoke steals the ball and shoots off to the side of the board where her icy sponge team is coming back on.  Scum gets a message from the devil and turns 'evil mode' on killing Mercury.  

Instead of a good 6-6 this game just turned against the alchemists and the turn ends on 8-4 to the brewers.  Sure they have the ball, but I'm one goal away from winning (and Stoker is ready to receive the ball and pass it to the brewers up front on the goal) or 2 take-outs away from winning and my heavy hitters have their eyes on Katalyst and Flask again.

Turn 5:

 

Flask and katalyst get 2 INF a piece.  I feel some 

Intensifying coming.  And as if that isn't bad enough I fail to get the initiative.  

Katalyst kicks off and hits Hooper.  Who doesn't have conditions on him, but Friday does...  Katalyst ends his turn running away after killing Friday.  Then Robin sees it.  He should have moved into the group of Hooper Friday and Scum (Tapper was a bit too far out to hit staying in melee with Hooper to avoid a parting blow).  That might have put the score up to 8-8 and not 8-6, and then, Smoke having the ball Brewers might have had a bitter pill to swallow.

It pains me to see Robin killing himself in frustration as Tapper activates, kills 

Flask, sprints up to where Katalyst tried to hide and takes another swing.  Hooper is within Range to finish it off...  But Venin rushes up and is just within range to heal Katalyst up.  Hooper goes in anyway.  Katalyst survives.  A lot of measuring goes on but with only one influence on the each individual alchemist, there's not enough range to get within the needed distance to do ought about it. (aka Kill the cat)  The cat shadowlikes, jogs around the barrier and finds the big fella.  2 INF on the cat, but one swing is enough under Tappers Aura and the assists.  The game ends with a dirty Cat killing the pre-mutated Katalyst.

This game started at about 2h30 and we only finished it at 7!  I'm exhausted and in need of something to eat! 

Overall thoughts of the game:

Mistakes were made on both sides, especcially towards the end of the game.  I believe Robin had better chances of winning after I barrel lobbed Smoke away from Tapper, but fortune smiled my way today and Robin also made mistakes, tipping the scales back into my favour.  All in all Robin did play the alchemists very well for a first time, I fear facing them again...  (oh I need not, he sold them off already)

Thoughts about my line-up:

I liked Stoker, but I disliked he was in a Tapper team.  I feel he's very INF Hungry.  He's good buddies with Stave and I can see him work very well with Esters controlling the middle.  That leaves 2 other pieces in an Esters line up to go more towards footballing or hard-hitting.  I did adjust my game, giving Tapper as little as one INF in some turns!  When I did, I missed the commanding Aura, or when he had a little more, I missed the take-out he does in one turn.

Playing this particular game I feel more and more open to playing another team / captain in the future.  But I will always love my brewers.

That's it!

See you next time.

Bob Out.