Picking my tournament 9 for New Years Brawl Ball

Hello Guild Ballers,

It's late at night here and I have to get up in about 8 hours.  Still I started writing up this report, might put it up, don't know yet. 

I'm attending a tournament, event page on facebook, called New Years Brawl Ball.  It's hosted by Hasselt's pundit Joris Cleeren who is obsessed with the game and (let's be honest about it) a little off his rocker.

Not sure if everybody is going to be true to the tiebreaker word but here's some stats :

 

For some reason the brewers seem to be popular... I'll have a mirror match I believe :-/

Well I'm not one for statistical choices but I wanted to leave you guys with an idea of what I might have used if I cared enough to pick my players.

As some of you might already know, and for those of you who don't I'll repeat it here:  I'm not much for competitive play.  On the steamforged forums I even said I was tempted to field Stave in every game of a tournament to evaluate afterwards if he cost me the game.  Well, that would imply that I play perfectly myself and as you can read in every game I put up here...  I am not mr. perfect (at least not in guild ball).  So there you have it:

Pick number one:

Stave.  He's on my tournament 9.  You could say: smart choice, a lot of brewers, they have low DEF, your barrel lob will help!  But I made this choice prior to knowing how many brewers would attend, and I don't think the other teams (14 in total) have low DEF that much...  I'm going to keep him back and out of dodge reach of my other players. (Or that is the idea)

Although I would not field Stave against every team in normal circumstances, this time I will.

Pick number two:

What Captain?  Or Both?  Let's start with one. One I started with and still love very much: Tapper, we'll see if we get to pick a second Captain later on.

Tapper has 2" melee, Tapper is a killing machine that has good kick stats.  Tapper has a surprise up his sleeve with Old Jake's.  Be it giving his brother Hooper 2 for killin' or Stave his INF for the lob, Friday for a pair of dirty knives, or Scum for a momentous 2 DMG wrap charge into the aura, Stoker needs to throw a Flame Jet and you didn't account for the influence? ...  Tapper is in!

Pick number three:

I have to take a mascot, so let's pick one.  Quaff, Scum or both?  The easy pick would be Scum, since she brings the tactical advice.  But Quaff can give extra TAC  with his bag and loved creature and has some mean pushes himself... What to do, what to do...  To be honest, I like Scum the best in a Tapper team, as do most brewer players.  I'll take her.

Pick number four:

Who can't I miss in my team? I have played a lot of line-ups and never thought : I can't play a game without him/her.  I always try to make it work so it's hard for me to say: he/she's a must!  Still, I didn't go for Esters so I believe I'll make good use of Spigot's heroic play and his football aura.  Original Spigot that is, my veteran is unpainted as of yet so...  Spigot!  Have a drink! You're in and no need to be back at your best at all!! Just give me your ball's gone!

Pick number five:

Bringing the cat and Spigot, and still short of a striker I might aswell bring her.  The lovely Friday.  She'll toss Tooled up Knives at leasure, hug Spigot for DEF buffs, call over the cat.  For synergy only.  She's in.

Pick number six:

Better bring him along since he's part of the original six, the Hooper himself.  2" melee, clears conditions (KD with brewers and all, there's a butcher or 2, alchemists, hunters,...) and gains TAC!  I'm going to have a hard time leaving any brewer home if I keep praising them like I do...

Pick number seven:

You guessed it!! You didn't?  Talking about conditions?  I have to bring Stoker to the game!!  Suppose he gets to meet Fillet, I think his flame is burning for her, he's alight!  Didn't you know you close a bleeding wound with a flame?  You say there's going to be alchemists?  But why?  They burn with all the dangerous potions they carry around... even Mercury does...

Pick number eight:

Only Mash left out of all the regular players, and let's be honest... 2" melee and UM can be very usefull...  But still, I prevent myself taking both mascots and both Captains if I do!  Harder now...  But he's fun to play, so why not.  We'll see if he sees the feet of a player whilst they fly out of their shoes going backwards head first after a Howzat!?

Pick number nine:

Do I fall for the love there is out there in Harry?  Do I bring Esters?  Esters who would bring more of a football game to the brewers with her songs?  Or even Mascot kills on turn one with tooled up and the fire condition (Naga,  Scum, Mainspring, Salt, Fahad, Dirge, Vileswarm) Do I field Avarisse and Greede to steal balls, drop off Greede to score or kill?  To be honest, I don't know...  And only 6h30' left before I have to get up and take the train. (I've been checking FB and readin cards, took a toilet break... only saying I'm not working on this 'non-stop')

Let's read the Union cards and ask after every one: why is Esters better?

A&G, whilst fun, they don't give me what I want other than FUN, and it is a tournament, so I should be looking for wins.

Fangtooth, since I bring Stave, is another 1 INF model, I think I can do without + if he gets into my scrum he can be a pain to myself...

Gutter, is not painted fully, so is not an option for that alone for me.  Not that I'm a good painter, but I would hate to field a model that would make my head go: "I could still do this with her, or that..."  I am curious to find out how that chan grab works (in S3) but she's a no go.

Harry 'The Hat', he does tickle my interest.  Goad, to lure somebody in the wrong direction, Molotov for Esters like AOE control (be it shorter and with fewer dice), a very similar playbook as her, but longer and with Crazy... for more Dice, not sure if that's a good thing.  But man, RISING ANGER! with brewers that like Heroic plays... Inspiring Hat, well, free snap shots, they'll need a set up, and that means planning things.  Although Hannibal in the A-team loves it when a plan comes together, you must admit he didn't really plan for it all to happen...  I'm a lot like that...  I go with the flow... Still, Harry is a possible pic here...

Hemlocke, I'd rather bring Esters into Alchemists or Fillet... so no.

Rage, like Fangtooth, only brings one INF, on the other hand, he rarely needs it, he can only tool up himself in this line-up and not benefit from plays. (I don't want to free him up for a charge with Stave's lob.  Even though that would amount to the same amount of influence spent for a charge on any other model, it could screw up with my positioning)  I'll play him again, just not in a tournament setting.

So that leaves me with Esters, or Harry...

A little voice in my head says: leave that union scum at home...  So, I will.  I'll walk away from the hat and start working on a Blackheart list for fun at the WEC.

Congratulations Esters, you're in.

The final 9 in a row:

Tapper - Esters - Scum - Stave - Stoker - Spigot (og) - Mash - Friday - Hooper

I'll let you know how I did afterwards shall I. - I'll put this up for anybody willing to scout what I'll bring.  If you're still up (or have a short drive there and are up early enough) to read this, you've earnt it...

 For all the other people out there...  Hope you've enjoyed it!  For me it was a pain ;-)

That's all folks.

Bob Out.