TheBattlehammer

A beginner’s guide to brewers!!

Ok, so I have decided that it is time I wrote a series of pieces that are a beginner’s guide to the brewers. Now I am fully aware that the internet is already awash with; do this, do that guides for the various different guilds. You have no doubt already read several beginners guides as it stands. But this one is a little different… how so you cry? What great pearls of wisdom can you offer o great Totes McAwesome! What well of tactical genius have you drunk from! The simple answer to this is…

None whatsoever… As I said at the start of this piece… This is a beginner’s guide to the Brewers! Quite simply I am an absolute beginner with them (well almost). As it stands I have a fairly terrible record at tournaments (won 1 match lost 3) and a fairly average record in friendly games (probably 50/50). But I do have some thoughts on the various players available and maybe even a few nuggets of tactical advice (very small nuggets). Therefore this series of articles will mostly just be my experiences of using the Brewers and how I find playing against the other teams. I probably will do a short piece on each of the players as I get used to them and play more games.

So to begin with let me just say I really enjoy using the Brewers. I like there fluff, the models are pretty awesome and there playstyle is pretty sweet. I do think more than enough has already been written about their momentous knockdowns, so I won’t go in depth on this. But I will just add to this by saying that it wasn’t until I played with some of the other guilds, that I realised just how useful it is having such easy access to knockdowns. It is a rare day that at least 4 of the 6 players on the pitch don’t have knockdowns early in the playbook. Where as many of the other teams have a very limited access to this. It is just awesome for when the centre of the pitch starts getting crowded. Putting your opponent on their ass and denying them ganging up/crowding out bonuses is just amazing. When you consider how the Brewers love to fight dirty and kick you when you are down, it really suits there character as drunken brawlers. Now I will be the first to admit that they probably don’t have the most diverse playstyle when compared to some teams, but these guys can certainly play a bit of ball. Friday is just totes awesome up front or when she is dealing damage, Hooper is in every team I play and Spigot can be great for getting the ball and recycling it. But the main focus for this first article is the one player I consider to be a missing brewer. Now this isn’t based on their fluff at all and to be honest it is much more to do with their stats and playbook. But for me in a tournament 8 there is always a place for….

Avarisse

Now I will preface this next brain fart by telling you I have no idea what to do with Greed! For me at the minute he just hides and gives his influence to Avarisse. I know all the chat about extra activations and that. But he is simply too fragile for me to be bold with him. If it was near the end of the game and there was a near dead opponent nearby, maybe I would give him some influence, but this hasn’t happened yet. I am not saying he is bad. Just simply that for me he is an easy 2vp.  So back to the man in question Mr A. Lets start at the top, his stats..

His move is totally in line with the rest of the Brewers, a very respectable TAC and the standard Brewers 3+def (ok he lacks the 1 point of armour). Then we look at one of his character traits…

For me, tough hide has to be quite simply one of the best passive abilities in the game. With the Brewers it is absolutely possible to have 4 players on the pitch with it (Tapper, Hooper, Stave and Avarisse)!! Reducing the amount of damage coming your way from playbook results is just awesome sauce. I played a game the other night where my opponent was using Cosset and charging, going crazy, getting wraps and all the other trimmings. Each attack she was doing 3 momentous and 1 non-momentous point of damage to Tapper. But each time these 4 points of damage where being reduced to 2! You don’t need to be a maths genius to work out that this then means Tapper effectively had 36 health points to wade through! Obviously this is situational and won’t always work out that way. But it does mean that to really beat someone’s face in you need to do a lot of work (I will go into more detail on tough hide another time). Therefore I am already pretty sweet on Mr Avarisse, but the part where for me where he really shines is his playbook…

First up is the fact he is TAC 6 with 5 columns on his playbook, which brings him bang into line with all the current short playbooks in the Brewers (except Hooper). But let’s look at it a little closer. First up my favourite part of this playbook is in column 1!

In a team that likes to gang up on someone and beat the snot out of them until they are no longer moving and crying for their mum, a momentous singled out in column 1 is just plain amazing. He has 6 dice to throw at each attack so barring some extreme circumstances; Avarisse is always guaranteed 1 success (unless you have really pissed off the dice gods). This means that if he activates early (either first or second ideally) when it comes to Tapper time, the captain can already be at +4 tac before he starts swinging (+2 singled out, +1 ganging up, +1 commanding aura). If they are knocked down and Spigot goes in it can start to get really silly! Follow this up with a knockdown on 2 hits (ok, non-momentous) and he is already fitting into the Brewer mould. Then we look at his other columns and see all his pushes are momentous, again fitting in with other Brewers. But also that they are double pushes and he has 3 of them is just sweet. He is great at repositioning the opponent right where you want them, so you can jump on their head!

So to conclude on this I will just close by saying that for me Avarisse is Totes! He really helps my team to control the centre of the pitch. Each turn I identify who needs to be removed and send the big man in to get the fists flailing. Having 3 players in the centre of the pitch with tough hide just requires so much work to remove. Which in turn I find frees up Friday and Spigot to work on that goal I always try to get. I hope you have found this interesting and as always please leave comments and criticism (good and bad). I am always looking for people’s opinions…

Love and kisses xxx Totes out