Game 43 - Season 3 Engineers putting arrows in my brewers.

Hello Guild Ballers! 

 It's Bob here and I'm back with another Guild Ball Game!

Today I'll be covering my game against Tom Lacore who piloted his Engineers against me using S3-rules for the first time.

I had some adjustments made to my way of thinking before heading over to the venue in the form of 4 brews of my favourite golden liquor. (Duvel) So some memories are blanked out and had to be filled in with possible truths. I am in no way trying to mislead you guys by making stuff up on purpose, but as I had the memory of a goldfish that night I can't promise my recital will be 100% acurate. (Is it ever though)

I tell myself you all come here for the entertaintment first anyway so here goes: 

The Line-up:

As per usual I fielded a brewers team and this is my line up: 

Esters - Quaff - Mash - Spigot - Stoker - Friday = a 13 INF team.

My general Idea was to put Mash up in front (as a first goal threat and snap shot machine) protected by Esters and boosted by Spigot who'd drift in and out with is football legend.  Friday would creep up one side of the board, with Spigot ready to go in and help her if needed and Stoker would make sure the other flank was clear of enemy strikers.  Quaff would lurk behind his mum to do her bidding and help out where she told him to as she sooths him with sweet talk like 'Good dog'.

Tom fielded his team like this:

Balista - Mainspring - Ratchet - Collosus - Hoist - Velocity

Having no idea what the changes were to the Engineers team I took a brief glance at the cards and was surpirsed to see Collosus with long legs and a surprise arrival.   I was in heaven to read what happened to true replication and feared this game was not going to be what I'm used to see facing engineers after glansing at a footballing mascot...

The Game:

I kicked off with Mash and we took it from there:

 First turn: 

* As first Activation I believe Hoist went to pick up the ball and passed it to Ballista.

* I activated Spigot, tooled up Esters and moved him forward ever so slightly.

* Velocity went to the other side of the field, she may have done some acrobatic moves whilst moving... 

* Quaff gave Second wind to Mash and lingered behind him somewhat.

* Collosus (who had no influence) moved forward an inch

* Esters moved up and put blast earth on Ballista, gave Mash +2MOV and I'm not sure who or where I threw the 2nd blast on (I believe it was Hoist, but I missed)

* Ballista came forward and shot Mash in the head. He got KD'd and took it like a man. I think the ball went back to Hoist. And Spigot greeted a deadbolt full on in the chest.

* Friday shadowliked forward and sprinted up field to close in on Hoist. As I recall, she couldn't reach him so one influence was lost.

* Ratchet came in and ... euh ... well, my goldfish memory doesn't know...

* Stoker came in and tried to hit Ballista with a flame Jet. But hey, my dice don't love me any more for getting drunk without them... and I missed.

* Mainspring didn't move much and Tom passed the turn.

* As Mash had second wind I stood him up and wasted his influence on him twiddling his thumbs to Jog him forwards with the 2nd wind stopping him dead in his tracks hitting the patch of rough ground.

2nd Turn: 

Initiative went to the Engineers if I remember correctly.

* Velocity moved forward preparing herself to score a goal I presume. She also put nimble up to make sure I wouldn't get rid of her...

* Friday was loaded up with 4 inf, charged into Hoist, fell short to do a double Tackle so attacked again, tackled the ball, then bonustimed a shot on goal for the 4-0 to the brewers. I then spent that one momentum to dodge Friday back in front of Hoist, thus limiting his options to move directly forwards. 

* I believe Ratchet picked up the ball after the goal kick and passed it. I can't say where, but my guess it was on collosus towards the back.

* I didn't like the way Velocity was near my goal so I moved Quaff to engage her. Giving Tom something to deal with.

* The order in which all the next things happened I can't recall exactly but Esters and Ballista got into a fight over a goal he scored (was it Ballista?) and the attack he did towards her dog. Stoker went to interrupt Ratchet moving towards him but far from engaging him. Collosus came in to support his captain but got KD'd (by Mash I think who then moved out of the fight towards Hoist) Spigot moved in on the fight to help out his captain. Mainspring and Hoist stayed somewhat stationary.

The turn ended 4-4 - don't drink and play afterwards if you want to write about it is my advice...

Turn Three:

I got the initiative, after influence allocation the pitch looks like this:

* I had the card one touch football, so I figured I'd pass to Friday with Mash, dodge him up, receive the pass back and then go in for the 2nd goal for the brewers. So I roll the dice, fail the pass. The scatter makes it so that Mash can't retrieve the ball, so I don't even get to reveal the one touch football card and I am (being drunk) a hair away from tableflipping because I failed that roll (being inside Spigot's aura and all). So instead I charge into Hoist and pass the turn.

* Hoist picks up the ball anyways and keeps it on him. 

* I'm in no haste to try and steal it of Hoist now he has the ball and already activated so I decide to go with Friday later in the turn.
I activate Spigot who tools up himself and swings on an already KD'd Collosus to do a good amount of damage.

* Colossus stands up to recover from the KD, I think he heals up aswell.

* Esters doesn't like that and goes into Collossus, KD'ing him again and finishing him off. With an influence to spare used to KD Ballista.

* Ballista gets back up and triggers GM to continue the fight with Esters.

* Stoker comes in and KD's Ballista again.

* Ratchet activates, I think he tooled himself up and puts blast earth on Esters

* Friday hits Hoist in an attempt to steal the ball, again my dice fail me. - At this point I get offered another Duvel.  (The barkeep poured it in the wrong glass for another customer... it was on the house)  I gladly accepted, hoping my dice will aprove of the gesture.

* Velocity runs away from the dog.  Showing Hoist where he's going to have to punt the ball next turn

* The dog follows Velocity to engage the puppet once more.  Dogs and their bones eh?

* Mainspring is still covering the goal. - I might, again, have screwed up the order things happened in cause somewhere in the back of my mind I remember Esters activating after she was in Ratchet's Blast Earth... Well I hope you'll forgive me...

The turn ends 6-4 to me.  Yay Brewers!

Turn Four: 

Initiative is a thing now, I'm up one MP, Tom has 2. I roll a 6 and he doesn't get the 5 he needed. Collosus is back on the field. 

* I could try (again) to steal the ball from Hoist, but I've seen the influence on Ballista and don't want him to activate. But another goal is so tempting. I actually roll a die (uneven for the goal - even for the kill) and come up with a 2 as a result.

Spigot is loaded up to his teeth and goes in on ballista who is still KD'd. I take him out putting the score to 8-4 in my favour.

At this point Tom tells me he would've used Ballista's legendary to score a goal and has to rethink his game plan now. Spigot ends his move engaging Velocity.

* Hoist sprints up the field with the ball and evens the score 8-8 after push-dodging around with Friday

* The goal kick is resolved and the ball snaps to Mash. Who activates his super shot for an extra die; He can't move away to score without Mainspring and Collosus being in the way of his goalkick so shoots from there with a bonus time die. Mash ends the game in favour of the Brewers 12-8

Overall thoughts of the game:

I had fun right up untill the place where I was looking for a goal with One touch football card and failed the pass. I was distracted from my anger by another Duvel and my goldfish memory at work made me forget my anger as I drowned whatever was left with the golden brew. Pure luck made me take-out Ballista rather than try a clumsy attempt on goal, and thus frustrating my opponent who promptly named me his arch nemesis from that point on.

At one point in the game I had a big frown on my face trying to work a way around that 1 MP Tom got from me going first. Season 3 really changed up the game play... It is a huge difference and I must say I like it!

Thoughts about my line-up:

I played stoker to see how he felt in S3 since he's the one that got changed the most. But I feel I didn't get to see him in action very much. Board position made me give him sub-par influence for him to shine, but scoring VP's will always be first on my mind when doing so. 

Spigot got to do his murderous thing on KD'd models and Esters did a good job keeping the Engineers in check.

I like this line-up a lot, but to be honest I'm curious to find out how Tapper works with the new rules.   My fingers are itching to put the cat under the CA and let her make up for the momentous 2 DMG that Friday lost.

But this is a line-up I will be fielding again! 

That's it for today. 

 I can add that I'm thinking about taking notes to make sure - even under the influence of alcohol - I have a nice kept record of what actually happened. No more pounding my brain to remember it all and filling in the blanks with likelyhoods and probable guesses. 

See you next time!

Bob Out! 

Oh, and I might add for you guys this was actually game 42, and the game put up as 42 is actually 43...  But you don't care when I played?  Right?