Second week has happened. I’ve not yet received all data, but this is what I’ve got for round two:
- TAKE-OUT LEADERBOARD
- Francois Langton, Henry Kay, Krzysztof Bialek
- Brewers, Ratcatchers, Morticians
- 12 take-outs
- GOAL LEADERBOARD
- Pawel Korpal
- Navigators
- 6 goals
- RINGOUT LEADERBOARD
- Henry Kay
- Ratcatcher
- 4 ring-outs
- MASCOT KILL LEADERBOARD
- Spencer Watts, Martin Zanela, Terry Mott
- Masons (Marbles), Hunters (Fahad), Brewers (Quaff)
- 1 take-out
- MASCOT GOAL LEADERBOARD
- Dave Sawyer
- Farmers (Buckwheat)
- 2 goals
Besides my own game, I have also received battle reports from two other tables, and I’ve recorded the Table 1 game.
Table 1 – Henry Kay (Ratcatchers) versus Peter Keil (Blacksmiths)
Still working on getting that editing software working. I might need some help from experienced people. (Owen, Jon, Zachary?)
Table 14 – Dominic Westerland (Farmers) versus David Cameron (Engineers)
- Farmers win the roll off and decide to kick
- Farmers line-up
- Festival
- Peck
- Windle
- Shearer
- Amber
- Ploughman
- Engineers line-up
- Rivet
- Mainspring
- Spade
- Fuse
- Colossus
- Veteran Velocity
Written by Dominic Westerland.
So, my cards weren’t great.
I chose Festival over Thresher on the kick in order to present several threats to the Cogs, over the single threat given by Thresher. Also, me and Dave play enough in tournaments that he has faced my Thresher a number of times, so I was curious how Festival would do into his main team. He has played against my Festival once before, but with Navigators. Also, this would be my second Festival game with Shearer which I was eager to try out.
Hold onto your seats, Guild Ball fans, as this is going to be a quick game – it lasted until the third activation of turn two!
Immediately, there were issues with my deployment. After the turn one, first activation Line Dancing from Festival, Shearer was too far out to the side to be affected by Hare in the Field, meaning I was unable to leverage all three of my Reapers effectively onto the Cogs.
Fuse peeled in quick for a goal, with the scatter going out far to my left side. (4-0)
Shearer was able to get near it, but was just short of getting it into the goal. Velocity then dragged Amber towards the rest of the Cogs, prompting Windle to go in and trigger Reanimate on Velocity.
Spade locked down a second goal in turn one, with Amber killing Velocity and retreating away from an approaching Colossus. (8-2)
The end of turn one looked like this:
Rivet farmed Windle for momentum, passed the ball to Fuse. Festival managed to knock Fuse over, but Spade was able to collect the ball and score the final goal to win. (12-2)
Editor’s Note: It seems that Dom had some problems protecting the ball after turn one, but that’s one of the major problems of an early Festival assault, I think. There’s nowhere to really hide the ball if you’re choosing to throw your entire team at them. I feel that it might’ve been a better idea to kick the ball towards a flank, and make the Engineers go through your lines, although Spade and Fuse can basically jump over them. Maybe get Peck to kill the ball in a corner, just over 2″ away from the edge of the pitch? I also think Thresher is still the way to go here, as you can build that cage of models to protect the ball.
Table 16 – Niels Hermkens (Engineers) versus Martin Edwards (Fishermen)
- Fishermen win the roll off and decide to receive
- Engineers line-up
- Rivet
- Mainspring
- Veteran Velocity
- Colossus
- Spade
- Fuse
- Fishermen line-up
- Corsair
- Tentacles
- Knuckles
- Kraken
- Horizon
- Veteran Siren
I choose to kick with Fuse, setting up Tow onto the rest of my team with Rivet. Scared of the Corsair drags, I set up in such a way that Mainspring and Colossus can bodyblock for Rivet, Velocity and Spade. Fuse’s Sapper’s Instincts should protect him from any early aggression. I kick the ball towards the right of the pitch, landing it behind a forest, near Horizon.
When Horizon retrieves the ball, Martin misplays and uses the dodge early, meaning he can’t get in passing range due to the mobility decrease from the Forest. He kicks the ball towards his team, and it ends up just behind Kraken. I immediately make use of this situation to run up Fuse, use Clear! to get rid of Kraken and Corsair, who were blocking my vision towards the goal, and then shoot on goal with Remote Detonation. The first activation goal is a fact, while Fuse dodges into safety of the forest. (4-0)
Martin kicks the ball out and retrieves it with Veteran Siren. While he starts punching up Fuse with his big beaters, I sneakily get in position to threaten the ball with Colossus and Spade for turn two, and place Veteran Velocity to the right flank to threaten Horizon. The Fishermen win momentum.
Tentacles is able to Blind Colossus, and then moves backwards to engage Fuse. I now háve to go with Spade, as otherwise the ball will be gone from her range. She’s able to tackle the ball from Siren and scores my second goal. (8-0)
The ball goes back onto Siren, who runs it along the flank. Rivet buffs up Veteran Velocity and moves behind Colossus, protected from any Drags. With Colossus being Blinded, Martin then also moves Knuckles backwards, who pushes Fuse from the pitch. (8-2) Now there’s no one for Colossus to threaten, so that’s most likely three influence gone. I put Mainspring forward to block any attempt from Kraken or Corsair to start beating onto the big guy by Drag‘ing him in.
Corsair then goes into Spade, pulling her (and Mainspring) in with his Legendary and pushing her towards the edge of the pitch. Tentacles has tagged along with his captain. Both are standing near their own goal post. Velocity then goes into Horizon to get some momentum and takes him out. (9-2)
Strangely, Martin decides to not simply engage anyone and start beating them up, but moves backwards and tries to Drag Veteran Velocity towards him. He Bonus Time!‘s, but misses. Because Mainspring has been pulled away, Colossus can now run in and put the squid on its ass. I win momentum for the third turn.
I try to get the ball off of Siren with Fuse, but things go horribly wrong and Siren ends up with the ball out of my melee zone. Knuckles then decides to move behind his goal and push Spade out of the pitch as well. (9-4)
But now here comes Colossus’ hero moment! He gets Singled Out from the knocked down Tentacles, gets the Unexpected Arrival to push it (and Corsair) backwards, and then moves into Tentacles, with a Bonus Time! to hit another Unexpected Arrival to push both Knuckles and Tentacles from the pitch for the win. (12-4)
Editor’s Note: This match made it clear that Martin is still perfecting how to navigate his Fishermen, but mostly forgot what my models could do. The Horizon activation in turn one could’ve prevented my goal; Veteran Siren not keeping hold of the ball, but leaving it on 1″ beside her would’ve made Colossus and Spade’s lives much harder in getting that second goal; Velocity being able to one-round Horizon undid his activation advantage in turn two; and lastly, pulling away Mainspring to let Colossus come into his ranks, and then putting Knuckles in Unexpected Arrival ring-out range, was just underestimating what Colossus can do. His Fishermen play is very decent indeed, and he had some interesting thoughts on how to play the match-up, but he forgot all the pushing and pulling that the Engineers can do to stop him.
Table 26 – Brian Andersen (Farmers) versus Stephen Mariahazy (Hunters)
- Hunters win the roll off and decide to receive
- Farmers line-up
- Thresher
- Peck
- Tater
- Millstone
- Jackstraw
- Ploughman
- Hunters line-up
- Steeljaw
- Fahad
- Hearne
- Chaska
- Egret
- Seenah
Written by Brian Andersen.
I line up left of my goal with Tater kicking. He spreads out with Chaska and Hearne lines up for a leftwards kick, so I move up to the hay bales with Tater and kick to my right somewhat – towards Egret – but trying to angle for Steeljaw. I successfully kick and the first scatter follows the line to the right.
Egret grabs the ball and hits a Flurry and a Snap Fire on Tater, and then dodges 6″, just outside of Thresher’s 11″ threat, but he doesn’t account for Millstone’s Battering Ram.
Millstone activates and sets up a second activation from Thresher to lock up Egret. A few other things go down with damage going on Tater, and Fahad charging towards Tater, but not getting into engagement. This encourages me to take the Counter Charge, which hits 4 results, but Tater also hits two snares. Tater finishes Fahad off and then heals, moving right with the rest of the team. The cock does cock things and clears all conditions. I win momentum. (1-0)
Turn two, Thresher kills Egret and hurts Steeljaw with a charge, a few swings and a Don’t Fear The…. (3-0) Tater takes down Steeljaw. (5-0)
The bear then beats into Tater, leaving him at 2. Jackstraw throws a Crop Dusting to kill Tater and does an incidental damage to Seenah. (5-2) I lose momentum this turn, but have set up a cage on Thresher to protect him from a Seenah engagement.
Turn three, the cage is forced open, but Thresher can then take out Chaska and a just returning Fahad. (8-2) Jackstraw runs and jumps to the goal for the final shot. (12-2)
Editor’s Note: It seems that Stephen didn’t respect the distance that Thresher can go, and overextending Fahad into Tater’s Fork Off! just seems like a darn shame. I would’ve played more cagey, bringing Veteran Minx over Hearne, as Hearne’s victim stats are way too much of a liability against Thresher. Steeljaw wants the opponent to come to her, so she can make use of their overextension. A bit more patience, and you’ll get there, Stephen!
Conclusion
Next week, I’ll be getting battle reports for the following matches:
- Table 1 – Krzysztof Bialek’s Morticians versus Kim René Sjursaether’s Hunters
- Table 4 – Niels Hermkens’ Engineers versus Sam Lillie’s Hunters
- Table 14 – Iain Torrance’s Miners versus Koen Vliegen’s Union
- Table 24 – Drew Bixler’s Butchers versus Michael Klein’s Engineers
See you then!