Game 37: Esters Take II

Game 37: Esters Take II

For my second game with Esters I'm playing into the Masons under Wouter Raes.  We fuel up with some Duvel and get cracking.

Wouter's line up:
Honour, Marbles, Harmony, Tower, Flint and Mallet.

I go with:
Esters, Scum, Hooper, Mash, Stave and Friday.

I have to kick and opt for Stave (could've been Esters, went back and forth on that Idea, but Stave was it.)
The ball ended up on the right side of the mid field against a little wall (obstruction).

First turn:
*Tower snaps the ball and kicks it towards Flint.
*Scum (0 INF) shows that cats can dance and with no influence does a mean impression of the lambada. (she shuffles in front of the goal)
* Flint activates and does nothing of importance that I remember, he does get the ball to honour.
* Hooper (also 0 INF) goes a bit closer to the middle of the field.
*The monkey walks up the field. Drops a brown cone to scoop up and fling it at somebody next turn.
*Stave looks funny at the positions of all players and decides his team might want to smash Tower around for a bit.  He barrel-Lobs the dude towards him after jogging for a bit, hits him for sports when he's at his feet and passes the turn.
* Honour passes to Mallet and moves closer to Tower.  Tower gets to Quick Time away from the brewers - no other shenanigans happen and I am pleased.
* Esters walks up, throws Blasted Earth in front of Flint and Fire Blast on Tower and Honour, missing Honour, but hitting Tower. She also sings a song for her husband making him swift and fast and... (well, you get the idea)
*Harmony stays back but moves to a center position to be of use next turn, maybe.. She removes the conditions from Tower.
*Friday wanted a push after charging Tower, but man, ARM 2 is a pain, so that's a no go and Mash gives her a funny look. (he needed her to push him so he could paddle the youngster as he quick timed out of Mash's reach)
*Mallet passes the ball back to Flint and sets himself up for next time.
*Mash goes up to where he just can't reach Tower.

Turn 2 (I lost initiative):
* Flint has a line in between Scum and Hooper, wide enough for the ball to go through unhindered and is looking for the momentum to score.  Honour will provide...  She walks into Friday who's loaded up with 4 INF hoping to steal the ball of Flint in her first activation to take the ball off him and score. - Friday dies. - on the bright side Honour had to use her legendary to get there. (Yippee what a bright side to things ay?) 2-0 to the Masons.
* Friday is dead.  I'm looking for another option to get to Flint, there isn't any. Troubled with what to do next (block the shot as good as I can - or something else ... start hitting on Honour?)
* Stave goes and barrels Honour and Tower.  Honour flies into the brewers KD'd. Tower is pushed away (more or less) since his base makes contact with that of one of my brewers.
* Flint moves up and scores his goal 6-0 to Masons, after removing KD from Honour. - The ball is shot to the right (goalkick towards to where Friday will come on next turn)
* Esters sings a song for herself (+1 dmg on playbook) and hits Honour again, First swing isn't all that great, but a minor push for another di(c)e, provided by Stave who can now reach her too, helps the second swing to KD Honour again.
* Tower is measuring to get to the ball but is just out of reach.  Tower clears his KD and jogs into Esters (after first declaring a charge into her where I pointed out that was awesome for Gluttenous) and lands some hits on her - not doing any damage put triggering GM. Next attacks KD Esters and starts the pushing with Knockback, following her.  Writing up this report I now believe I overlooked the second time 'comon mate' was used on Honour since she tands back up somehow... might have been legit, anyway, to late to close the barn door; The horse has bolted...
*Hooper walks into Honour staying outside her melee range, rolls a nice 2 total net hits and goes for the momentous push. KD's her again on the second swing with True Grit up for the dice,  swings again but this time goes for the monkey and stands Esters back up. * sigh, where is the damage output I envisioned...
*Harmony walks towards the middle, thinking about helping out her team a bit, but not sure how.
* Mash walks up the board and engages Honour. (he had no INF) But a next turn comes along and I really want her dead now.
* Marbles gives tooled up to Mallet.
* Mallet goes wild on Mash rolling sup par. (Mash is a monster near Esters, he tanks pretty well.)

Turn 3:
First turn is mine!!
* (I know I played it wrong, it's my 2nd game with her ok... I will learn about GM) Esters gives up her GM for a parting blow from Tower to go hit Honour.  (In reality I should've taken the parting blow risking a KD.  Sorry about that Wouter, I'll drink a sprankling water instead of a Duvel next game...)
As Honour is KD'd she can't take a swing at my big Helga, who gently hums in herself as she lands her full weight on the slender captain.  Loving the dice I rolled (not) Honour survives yet again and I opt to pop my legendary giving Hooper a Strenght and Stave some agility.
* Tower, no longer being engaged, sprints towards the ball.
* Friday doesn't like that and steals the ball back. Running up field a tad to far (I wanted to get the cat over there... stopped just outside of 10")
* Flint doesn't like that and takes the ball away from Friday again.
* Hooper is waving at me asking if he can go kill Honour and I let him.  He also smacks the monkey around (and kills it - Harmony hasn't got influence and well oh ok, Mallet gets to love his creature for a bit). 4-6 to Masons
* Harmony (0 INF on her)  engages Esters. (Is Mallet going to kill her?)
* Stave walks up to Flint (might have been a charge, can't remember really) and knocks him down, the ball scatters onto a patch of rough ground.

A picture of the game at this point:

* I believe Mallet swings at Mash.  Singles him out, swings again, KD's him, walks away and swings at Hooper.
* Scum wants to play with the ball but isn't fast enough.

* Mash clears his KD and walks into snapshot distance.

Masons get the initiative and this is the field after influence:

* Honour comes back up, charges Friday and snaps the ball.  Swings on my girl but doesn't kill her.  Passes the ball to Tower who dodges 4 towards the goal.
* I'm looking to get the ball of Tower, shadowlike Friday off and charge him. I fail to land any hits.  Tower counterattacks and fails to hit Friday.  With only 4 Dice and 3 DEF 2 ARM on Tower I need at least 3 successes to tackle.  I have it in my head this is going to be hard.  So I chicken out and do something stupid instead.  I throw dirty knives on him... I should've tried to hit him, tackle him, and pass the ball to Esters...  I didn't.
* Tower scores a goal. 4-10 to Masons.
* The goal kick comes, Esters gets the ball. Pushes Harmony away, walks it up and passes to her hubby who snapshots it with bonustime not rolling the 2 needed TN's. (Dumb play.  I was better off killing the ball on Mash but hey.  Snapshot for one momentum ... how supercool is that am I?  )  The ball ends up behind the enemey goalpost.
* Harmony walks up to Friday.
* The Cat Goes in and weakens Honour (who healed up prior in her activation, did I mention that?)
* Mallet KD's Hooper and Sprints towards Friday. (I smell blood)
* Hooper stands up.
* Flint stands up and I think he gets some momentum of Stave.
*Stave KD's Flint again and walks into Honour where he kills her 6-10 to Masons.
* Mash jogs closer towards the ball.

Initiative is a bitch and Masons get it.  Look at how much love Friday gets before they betray her:

In short: Tower activates and Murders Friday for the win. 6-12 to Masons. Congratulations Wouter!

Thoughts about my line-up.

I want Spigot in here.  Another +2/+2 movement for his heroic. OR tooled up + empowered voice for +2 DMG on playbook results... This is the line-up I'm thinking about against Masons next time: Esters, Scum, Friday, Spigot, Hooper and Mash or Stave.  The last choice is the hard one I think against Brick it will be Stave, no Brick will bring Mash on the table

Overall thoughts about the game.

Mistakes were made, no bad intentions, but hey...  I still can't play football.  I have the Tapper game in my head and when I see a scrum I just tend to get sucked in.  I can't stand 2 ARM on Masons.  But as poor as I played; I had loads of fun and love playing against Wouter.  So thank you for the game, and I hope to face you again, and again, and again...

Bob Out!