Game 44 - Brewers (Esters) vs Masons (Honour)

Hello Guild Ballers!

As foretold in a previous blog-post; Here it is the game to see if I'm in or out of the finals of our little big league...

I've been having nightmares prior to this game where Hammer takes down Tapper and Esters alike. Where honour bounces around both laughing out loud pointing and pricking her knife in open spots while Flint was running up and down the field with the ball scoring goals. My wife had to comfort me for days in a row while I woke, bathing in sweat, murmering to myself...
Well, not really but how's that for creating drama, eh?

I talked to Wouter Raes prior to my game against Fabian about how I thought I'd handle Hammer.  But when the game finally arrived Fabian fielded Honour...

Here is what I fielded:

Esters - Quaff - Stave - Stoker - Spigot - (S)Mash 

The brewers faced these masons: 

Honour - Dung flinging monkey (Marbles) - Harmony - Brick - Chisel - Tower

This is the first time I'm facing Fabian and his Masons. And I was 100% sure I'd be facing Hammer.
All I heard about Fabians play style was: Watch the edges, you don't want to be 8" near the board-edge. So I was prepared for that and somewhat flabberghasted when he fielded Honour.

All this aside, without further ado here's my game: 

 The Game: 

 We roll dice to see who's got the initiative. I go with a 5 he gets a 4

I choose to receive and he kicks with Harmony. The ball ends up snapping to Quaff.

 Turn 1: 

*Spigot (1 INF) activates, puts himself in front of Stave to prevent early MP farming and tools up Esters. - Fabian goes: "You're making it hard on yourself blocking Stave! He won't be able to barrel lob that well now!" Then he smiles at me - 

* Marbles (1) goes and sprints up the field

* Quaff (3) goes next as I take Fabians bait (He wasn't actually trying to bait me, I think...) and pass the ball to Stave who dodges forward next to Spigot with the ball on him. I don't unsnap to let it snap to Esters (I should've done that if I wanted Stave up field) Quaff also 2nd winds Stave and jogs forward after Bag of Quaffering Esters. 

* Honour (5) goes next, Sprints forwards and superior Strategy is used on Harmony. - Linked is activated. 

* Harmony (2 + 1SS) goes next and flies up the board to Stave's throat. 8 hits land and the gentle giant who normally likes the girls is baffled as she steals the ball dodges away and shoots at goal. 0-4 for the Masons (I did not see that coming due to Harmony being to far out to Jog into Stave - thus lacking INF to steal AND shoot - guess you learn the tricks when you're caught off guard. So there I was with my D in the wind. - After the goal she uses the Knee Slider to get out of dodge and still has an activation! 

Goalkick towards Mash (it snaps) 

* Stoker (2) goes next sprints up the field and tries to put a Molotov on Honour. He misses, and not by a hair, must've been the hangover... 

* Tower (2) sprints up and puts up his defend the ground. 

* Stave is up next (3) He barrel lobs Harmony who's KD'd and the 1 extra influence is unspent due to me not positioning him forward enough. He 2nd winds back into safety. 

* Harmony (0 left) goes again to stand herself back up and walks away. 

* Esters (2) goes next and puts the hurt in Harmony does some pushes and 3 DMG in total. 

* Brick (1) sprints up the field (close to Marbles, hello S3 rules I know about the countercharge!)

* Mash (1) decides not to go forwards by himself.  He goes behind Esters into relative Safety. 

* Chisel (1) goes up field and puts Crazy on herself. 

I'm on +3 MP - Fabion has 0 so I opt to go first after a roll of 4 against 6 (phew) 

Turn 2: 

* Esters (5) gives herself a strenght boost and goes all out on Harmony 2-4 to Masons. She did pop her legendary giving herself AG + ST and AG to Stave (if I remember correctly) 

* Honour goes next (2) she pops her legendary giving herself and her team more INF but does nothing more of interest 

* Stave goes up (2) Barrel lobs Both Chisel AND Honour - Woot both are coverd in beer!! Wet T-shirt contest anybody?

* Tower comes up (3 + 1) Charges Esters, pushes her some after GM is triggerd.

* Quaff (0) Bags Spigot and engages Honour hoping Spigot will go wild with the KD'd target. 

* Marbles (1+1) goes next, spotting what's happening and Goads Spigot after sprinting up to be in reach 

* Stoker (0) goes next and jogs up to Marbles and inbetween Brick and Spigot to prevent a countercharge towards Spigot when he comes into Marbles. I forget to engage both at the end of my advance, so Stoker gets charged by the monkey.

* Brick (1 + 1) goes next also coming full on into Stoker pushing him in front of Spigot annoyingly blocking the charge lane (Goad and the directly towards... GRRRRR) Stoker also takes 3 DMG 

* Mash (1) goes and gives the ball to Spigot, who dodges 4" to be able to reach the Monkey. 

* Chisel goes next (4 + 1) and charges into Esters leaving her on 6HP end of activation. 

* Spigot (4) goes next, passes to Mash and dodges into Marbles, tools himself up and KD's Marbles - The roll to damage the monkey has an epic fail with 0 hits. You gotta hate playing Brewers after a guild party.  Maybe it was the monkey smell that upset Spigots stomach again as he retched all over the place. 

I'm on +3 MP, Fabian is on +5. He rolls a 5 so I don't even bother to drop my die on the table. He wants first activation and gets it... 

Turn 3:

 

* Honour (5). For some reason Esters doesn't get the attention yet. Honour Hits Stave to dodge into Mash (who's holding the ball - Man I need to learn how to position so this shit doesn't happen to me all the time) I declare a counter attack, so Fabian opts not to tackle (does 1 DMG and double dodge) and it's back to hitting Stave. 

* Stoker (4) activates Jogs over to Brick, brings him to 16 HP and KD's him. 

* Brick (2) goes next - again no love for Esters - he KD's Spigot and pushes him away and Pushes Stoker off him. 

* Esters (1) stands herself up. KD's Chisel, Heals stoker and uses the card to also heal herself up back to 10 and puts AG on her for +1 DEF. 

* Marbles (1) thinks Spigot is up to no good with all that influence again (and right he was). So Goads him again with a bonus time die on top. (It hits...) 

* Quaff activates (1) Walks up to Honour and pushes her into Stave and Mash. Honour does the free counter attack but lands no hits (was she at the brewer party? Or is the alcohol in their breaths affecting her?) 

* Harmony (who came back up with 2 INF on her) flies through the forest towards Esters and triggers the GM on her. I did go for a CA to push her out of Engagement, the less dice our dear Chisel gets the better right? But I did forget all about the party my team seemed to have attended... Thus the counter attack fails.

* Mash (2) swings his bat in Honours direction, she tries to avoid the blow but loses her balance, trips over her own feet and rolls about 4" away. (I howzatt'ed her). Then he walks away from the scary looking masons on that side and passes the ball to Spigot (who couldn't reach anybody with goad on him from where he was). Spigot receives and dodges so he can walk directly towards the monkey into Brick later on in the turn.

* Chisel goes (1) but Esters survives. 

* Stave (0) goes and jogs into Brick for some help with the beatdown I have in mind. 

* Tower (2) goes and KD's Esters to avoid the announced counter attack. She takes 2 more DMG but is still alive. 

* Spigot goes, jogs up into Brick does some damage leaving Brick on 11 HP and opts to give the ball back to Mash trusting in his UM. 

I'm on +4 MP, Fabian is on +1. I roll a 2 where he gets a 4. Close call, but I get my first activation next turn. 

Turn 4: 

* Esters (1) goes first and hates that she's within melee of 3 masons. She hits Harmony, picks a momentous result and heals herself, and puts up agility.

* Honour (5) is up, flies into Stave, dodges into Mash (I'll never learn, I swear) Tackles the ball and wraps for 1 DMG and a double dodge. Dodges out of engagement and scores the second Masons goal bringing up the score 2-8 for Masons. The ball goes towards Spigot. 

* Stave Barrel Lobs Harmony and Tower who are looking funny at Esters now. Harmony dodges the explosive brew but Tower didn't see it coming and gets it full on in the face. 

* Tower (3) stands up, looks at where the barrel came from, see's Brick in trouble and yells: 'Come on mate!!' Then jogs back into his own playground with Esters and puts the DMG in and pushes her around. (She's alive still!!)

* Spigot (3) goes, leaves the ball where it is for a bit in favour of a swing at Bricks face with the broken bottle, then gets the ball and scores 6-8.

The ball is now kicked towards Harmony. 

* Chisel (3) activates and takes out Esters. 6-10 to Masons. 

* Stoker (2) hits the panic button pushes the monkey away from him and flies towards Harmony holding the ball. He Knocks her down and the ball is loose. (Wow what dicerolls can do when they work) 

* Brick (0) stands up and dusts off some damage. 

* Mash tries to hit Brick some more but fails and pushes him around in stead. 

* Marbles (1) walks back up over the wall and hits Stave. 

* Quaff (0) walks over to engage Chisel. 

* Harmony (1) gets up and retrieves the ball. 

I'm on +6 MP and Fabian has got +4. I roll a 3, he rolls a 5 - we reroll. I get a 3, he gets a 4. I take first turn. Esters comes back on. 

 

Turn 5:

* Stoker (4) goes first. Charges Harmony, tackles the ball even after she Defensive Stances herself, pushes her away next hit, and then kicks the ball way over to the Masons side of the board leaving it up for grabs.  (Well, all the Masons are up on my side of the board...

* Brick (3) goes: hits Stave for DMG, pushes and KD's him. 

* Stave (3) barrel lobs Tower and Chisel (both hit) then walks towards Chisel forgetting that Marbles is within Bricks range and triggering a countercharge on him. 

* Marbles (1) sees that Spigot can score, and tries to Goad him but fails this time. * I figure scoring puts me to 10-10 but doesn't win me the game so decide to wait with Spigots goal untill I can get something else killed for the win. Esters goes (2 INF) Heals herself up and puts fireblast on Harmony, who just might want to get closer to the ball.  Hot girls don't run that fast...  must be the heels?

* Tower goes next (2) he pushes stoker away and tools up Chisel. Something bad is about to happen!

* Quaff (0) gets a free charge through my plot card and goes into Marbles for a double push. 

* Honour Quicktimes herself, sprints towards Esters to engage her. (real bad shit is going to happen!) 

* (Linked) Harmony goes next triggers GM, does weak point and 2 DMG on Esters. 

* Mash goes, I want to kill that monkey but opt not to damage it for loved creature, hoping that Esters will survive and I can kill it next turn even though that wouldn't win me the game even if Spigot scores... I push the monkey for some MP but am to far away to heal up Esters.

* Chisel clears conditions, jumps on her feet and sprints to Esters going Crazy and all... Esters has no time to blink, she takes several blows and drops to the floor. 6-12 to Masons. 

Fabian takes away the game and goes to the finals for a Masons mirror match with Wouter Raes (who later that night faced Hunters in a mindblowing game with only take-outs!) 

Fabian and Wouter already made a gentlemens agreement. - They're going to take turns fielding models and if one is picked, it can't play for the other team. Thus they will field 2 different masons teams. I can't wait to witness that game! -  I took the idea of fielding 2 complete different teams with the same guild to face eachother and turned it into a post on my blog (already up below)

Thoughts about the game in general:

1. After making stupid mistakes like putting the ball where Masons could get it (through bad positioning of Stave) I still feel I put up a good enough of a fight.
2. I forgot to heal up Esters more with other players, but don't know if that would've helped me at the cost of 1st activations.
3. Goad killed my plans twice up to the point where I changed tactics and took subpar options.
4. Next time I need to reming myself more that Chisel is a hammer, but a glass one that needs to be shattered... 

Thoughts about my line-up: 

The line-up did it's job really well, considering I had to shift my game plan and work around problems. Still I feel against this team I would've prefered Tapper with the pain train. I still need to figure out how to play Esters really well and I fear I'm not going to get there if I keep making the same mistakes over and over again (positioning positioning positioning).
I feel like writing: "I must not forget that dodges get the other players into UM!!" a thousand times on a blackboard Bart Simpson style.
And I might want to add to that : "Don't put the ball in front of the goal when receiving, especially on a player that doesn't have good DEF, GM and/or UM!!"  Engineers did it to me, now Masons, what's next?  Smelly Fish?

Oh well... That's all folks!

Thanks for waiting around for this one!

See you next time!

Bob Out!