Tournament report New Years Brawl Ball

Hello Guild Ballers!

I attended the 'The New Years Brawl Ball ' (15th of january 2017).  How I did there is the subject of everything below.  The matchreports will probably not be as detailed as my other reports since lack of notes (playing on a timer and all that).

But first things first.  The day prior to the tournament I put up my tournament 9  Want to read? click here!!  Today I'll bring the actual report, or what is left of it in my grey matter called 'brain'.  A small entry after that shall we?

Prelude to the tournament:

 06:00 in the morning.  My alarm goes off and I want to turn around to snooze.  I know I can't, so drag myself out of the comfort of the warm bed and into the shower where I wake up a little.  My bag is ready downstairs so making coffee is first on the to do list after putting on some clothes.  While the coffee machine is doing it's thing I go outside in the freezing cold (-2,5° C) to tend to my birds.  (For those of you interested, I have cockatiels, budgies and canaries that I breed with and some Zebra Finches for the happy chirping they do).
I read the newspaper (or what I hadn't read of it the day before) while working down some slices of bread.
Once outside I still have to defrost my car.  I'll be driving to the trainstation since the event is a + 2h drive from where I live and in these weather conditions I'd rather go by train.  I made arrangements to be picked up by a pundit here in Belgium [Dries Haemhouts (Hunters)] also attending the tournament, together with his minions, Pieter Rubbrecht (Butchers) and Lieven Francois (Masons).  I make it to the train and after 15' have to get off to hop on another one straight to Hasselt.  I take out the S3 player cards and start reading a bit... But I doze off and open my eyes when the train stops in Brussels.  I decide to put the cards away and make do with the knowledge I have.  My nerves are playing up again and in my case that translates into: "I need to make a poo".  So after that I sit back down (I did change seats) and enjoying the view I stare outside, dozing off now and again.  The closer we get to Hasselt the more snow I see outside.  I'm glad I didn't take my car.
Once I get out of the train and reach the front of the trainstation my phone rings.  It's Dries, they're 10 min away and I confirm that I'm on time and awaiting the pick-up.  The community here is great!

Arriving at the scene we shake hands with the TO (Joris Cleeren) and his little helper (who is bigger than me: Kim Pipers).  Also there are: Koen Vliegen the man to beat and some newer people I get introduced to.  Among them is the shopkeeper, who knows me by reputation and my spamming on FaceBook to get people to read my musings...  Most people get a coffee, I ordered my favourite poison "Duvel" I got a "Sorry, we don't serve that here" as response.  I downgraded to 'Carlsberg' which was on the menu, but they were out.  So a local pils was left; Jupiler.  Not a bad choice, but if I was to concentrate and get the same level of alcohol in as with Duvel, I was going to have to vit the little boysroom quite frequently...

Breakfast was served and already the mood was friendly and enjoyable.  As was my beer.

People started pooring in and a little while later the action began:

Game 46 - Against Union:

 My first opponent of the day was Jeroen Schoonbrood, a pundit from across the border in the Netherlands.  He's working on a website, that as far as I'm aware still needs to see the first daylight.  Jeroen fielded Union against me with Blackhaert at the helm:

Blackheart - Coin - Avarisse & Greede - Mist - Hemlocke - Rage

The team was primed black - no paint had touched them yet.  But hey we're all about the game right?

I fielded Stave (as I said I would) Tapper - Scum - Hooper - Spigot - Mash
I rolled a one for initiative and had to kick.  Mash did that job.  First turn I didn't get to do much. An early goal was scored for the Union in turn 2.  I came back taking out Greede as the first player, after the goal kick.  Mist tried to steal the ball from Mash, who defensive stanced and counterattacked for a howzat!?:


 Tapper got pushed by Avarisse towards Hemlocke, Rage and Blackheart and bit the bullet. I did kill Avarisse, but on a crucial moment I left him on 1 HP so needed to invest more than I wanted to get the kill.  I ended up playing the ball back to Scum who hid behind an obstruction.  I didn't measure things very well, since Mist came in to take away the ball for another goal.  Mist got taken out.  I needed to get to  Blackhaert and tried to go in with Spigot but failed to get the momentum I needed or the KD to slow him down.  So Blackheart managed to steal the ball of Scum again before I could do much about it.  He dodged around Mash and jogged into Stave to retrieve the ball and score the last goal.  6 VP to me for taking out 3 players, 2VP to him + 12 VP for 3 goals.

I lost 6 - 14


Game 47 - Against Brewers
My second opponent of the day was Guy Ernes, we played the same line-up appart from me fielding Stave and him fielding Mash.  We even had the same painting scheme.  The game started off with a dram of Talisker my opponent brought to the table!  We tapped our glasses and said "Slàinte".

Here are our line-ups:
Tapper - Scum - Hooper - Spigot - Friday - Stave for me / Mash for him.

I can't recall who kicked off, but I think he received.  Stave dropped the ball near the sidelines but Friday stayed away.  I put Friday rather close to the middle, and he took the bait. I did a barrel lob with Stave to bring his Tapper into charge range of mine and landed a decent amount of hits on him winning the first activation for next turn and killing his Tapper.  He scored a goal with Friday from the wing and Stave went to KD her and keep her busy as best he could.  A countergoal was made by Spigot and Friday went in there to pick up the ball if needed.  My own Tapper was in trouble now receiving a beatdown of his own and died.  Then the ugliness turned on my Hooper, but not after I took down his Spigot. Both on 8 points it wass all about who got the next goal in or next take-outs.  Guy had first activation but couldn't get the ball in his possession and in a safe place.  He didn't opt to retrieve it and kick it into space but tried to engage my Friday.  I held on to my momentum point, picked up the ball with Spigot and scored the final VP needed.

I won 12-8.
 
Game 48 - Against Brewers
Next up was Richard Speckens.
Richard fielded

Esters - Quaff - Avarisse & Greede - Hooper - Stoker - ?og Spigot?

I fielded the original 6 in Tapper - Scum - Stave - Spigot - Hooper - Friday.

He scored a goal, I scored a goal, he killed my goalscorer, I killed his. so it was 6-6
Both of us had a break (appart from eachother) during this game causing time to be called. (with only 6 seconds left on his clock, and about 8 minutes on mine)
I had a good set up, but he had the ball at the end of the time.  Esters was about to die with GM already triggered for 2VP (taking me to 8) and depending on whether Greede would make it to the goal (that was being measured out when time was called) Richard would've been on either 10 or 6 still with no players left near my Friday who (with old jake's INF) should have finished it in my favour.
In case Greede opted to not give away possesion of the ball I had Stave ready to lob a barrel into A&G, hopefully knocking the ball off.  If not my back-up play was going to be charging Friday into Greede to steal the ball off him and passing it to Hooper for a 2 dice shot on goal.  But we didn't get that far...  TO came, saw and said: draw it is.

Draw after time called: 6-6

Game 49 - Against Masons
I played a doctor!  Her name is Nathalie Odeur.  She fielded Masons:


Hammer - Marbles - Mallet - Flint - Brick - Decimate


I fielded Tapper - Scum - Stave - Spigot - Hooper - Friday

I received, passed to Spigot who put time's called up giving more speed to my guys.  On turn one Tapper charged into Decimate did some damage 3 and a KD on the wrap, then attacked again for a push blocking the charge lane from Hammer, who walked up a bit closer to make up for that 2nd turn.
Here's how turn 2 started with me going first after barrel lobbing Brick and Hammer.  Brick got pushed to the middle of the pitch, Hammer got pushed against cover.  Nathalie is deciding who to stand up, if anybody at all.


I think she stood up Brick hoping he would be able to counter charge.  I did not do Damage on Decimate but sprinted over to Hammer putting CA up and going for MAX DMG on Hammer.  He survived but only just.  Hooper had to try and finish him off, failed to do that leaving Hammer on 1 HP.  I forgot about tough hide on Hammer for a bit and activated Friday, but after Shadowliking I realised putting dirty knives on Hammer wouldn't do much.  I did it on Brick to soften him up and wasted one INF on her.  Spigot passed to Scum, walked up the field to finish up Hammer in her place.  Scum walked the ball forwards and was hoping to score next turn.  Flint was nice enough to come in and engage Scum, who counterattacked.  Flint didn't get to tackle though.  So next turn she created some momentum forfitting shadowlike but pushing Flint away, Sprinting up to the goal to Tap the ball in!  It worked, so she dodged back out giving away the momentum from the goal to engage Flint again.  I killed Decimate later that turn.  Went into Hammer to keep him busy with spigot Whilst Mallet tried to hit Friday and Hooper for a bit.  Here's how the last turn started with Nathalie on first activation, she picked up the ball with Marbles and lets me activate.


Friday Shadowliked to the side (right on the picture) to charge Marbles Base to base, within Bricks Engagement (so he couldn't charge her).  A tackle result was picked.  I used that momentum to put up I shoot better after a beer. I used the momentum I had at the start of this turn to kick it in the goal.  I had 2 dice since both Brick and Marlbes were engaging me and I made it!!

I won 12-0 to the brewers

I had a lot of fun and I hope so did my opponents.

Want to check out all standings from the tournament go check here!


That's all folks!

See you next time!

Bob Out!

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