TheBattlehammer

Ok so this is a short piece that I just wanted to drop on here as I have been so busy lately with work that I haven’t had time for a brainfart! As I said in my last post after the Wyldstorm games tournament it is time for a change. The Brewers are taking a rest for a bit, certainly until Quaff and Veteran Spigot come out! My Guildball collection currently includes: all the Hunters (un-painted), all the Mason’s (un-built) and half the starter set for the Alchemists (painted), All the current Brewers excluding the Union options and finally the Morticians with all the available options except Rage + A&G (although they will be joining the ranks soon). So with this in mind and as you have probably guessed from the title I am going with the Morticians.

To get the hang of them I will be sticking with a core group so I can learn their strengths, weaknesses and synergise within the team. This core will be…

I know the general consensus is that she isn’t as strong as Dr Obnoxious, but then in all honestly who is! But I really like her so that’s good enough for me. Yes I have read all the theory and comparisons between there threat ranges and ability to control the opposition. At the end of the day though she appeals to me and in the couple of games I have played so far she has got work done for me. I really like that she can nip in finish off a weakened opponent or mascot and then bounce of somewhere else. As at the time of writing this I still haven’t used her legendary as I keep forgetting it. Hopefully after a few more games I can write a bit more on my experiences with her and my thoughts on what she offers.

Dirge: ok at the minute there is no alternative as the official model for Vermintide isn’t out. A lot of people seem quite negative about the bird as it isn’t considered a particularly strong mascot. However I think it is far from a bad choice, initially it seems like an awesome ball retriever with a very good move stat that isn’t effected by terrain or other models. Its playbook is a bit pants and to be fair rather seems like a wasted point of influence in general. But hay momentous singled out on 1 success could come in handy in certain circumstances.

Silence: this guy seems pretty integral to most Morticians teams whether your aiming to play football or fighty. His ability to mess with your opponent’s activation sequence is just nuts. Embalming fluid is a pretty handy tool on turn 1. But as Steve Newton pointed out on a recent Singled out podcast, it appears that after that influence can be better placed elsewhere. The fact that it doesn’t restrict movement lanes as it only hands out poison is a bit poop. But hey we can’t have all the tricks.

Ghast: for me this was the hook to that pulled me into Morticians along with Scapal. I love the model, the fluff and his rules. He is right up there for me in the list of players I hate to face, sitting right next to Shank in the competition for who is (not has) the biggest dick. Whenever I have faced him (and when I have used him) Ghast sits there just being an absolute pain in the ass. If you don’t take him out in one turn you are giving your opponent (in this case me J) 4mp which is ridonkulous!! Also you have to invest extra influence just to start getting work done on him. One trick I have found particularly frustrating for your opponent is to use him to block charge lanes. If you can see a potential charge being set up and they only have two influence to do it… Boom stick Ghast in the way and they can’t do it. He is in my opinion also pretty handy at stopping strikers. A lot of people in this position have low tac and require the charge to generate momentum to bounce off your player and then score a goal. Against Ghast they have to use 3/4 of their momentum to get the charge off, which if they fluff can leave them in a situation they don’t want to be in. Also he has that momentous knockdown on 2 success which coming from playing Brewers is my bread and butter. Along with 21hp and 2” reach Ghast Is in my book just awesome!

So these are going to be pretty much the fulcrum of my team. There will be times when I drop Ghast and go all out Fishbones and maybe the odd occasion that I drop Silence. Although I really don’t see that happening to often. If for no other reason than he brings 3 influence. Which in itself goes a long way to offsetting the abundance of players we have that only bring 1 influence to the table. I haven’t crunched the numbers myself but I doubt there is another team that has so many 1 influence players available for selection: Ghast, Casket, Graves and Fangtooth. You can kind of include Rage + A&G in this list as well, although they are a slight exception in the way they work. With this in mind I think that in most games I will be picking from…

Fangtooth: what else can be said about this guy?! He is horrid and beautiful at the same time. We all know what he can do and with Ghast in the middle of the pitch these guys can hold down the best of them! Horrific Odour, Gluttonous mass & a momentous Knockdown on 1 success with a tac of 6 means that anyone who gets near this guy are going to have a very hard time getting away. That being said in general I want to play quite a fast paced Morticians team so he will probably not make the cut as often as he doesn’t. Which is a shame as the guy is just awesome. I have had enough of grindball though with my Brewers, which again is a playstyle thing. But that’s how I played them so I apologise Fangers but you suffer because of them.

Bonesaw: I can’t remember who it was on one of the forums who was writing about Bonesaw (possibly Jaime P), but they made a great point that a lot of people who are down on Bonesaw have their views because they state he is not “Mist”, but if you try to play him like Mist he won’t work. Therefore I want to figure him out and get him to work, there look like there could be some nice tricks to play with him and “Football Dervish”. I’m not suggesting that I will come up with some amazing way of making him work, quite possibly I won’t! But I am up for giving it a try. Also he ticks the box of having an awesome model.

Mist: it may seem a little hypercritical to list Mist having just said that I want to use Bonesaw and in general 2 strikers can be a bit much. But I like the speed that this will bring along with Scapal. Also there is no getting away from the fact that Mist is an awesome player. Definitely in the top 3 strikers in the game. Also I have never used him so I want to give him a go.

And finally….

Graves: is there a player in the game that divides opinion and creates such polar opinions as Graves? There are those that don’t like the guy and have their reasons which I can understand. Then there are those that really rate him. I was intending to write more than I have time for now on Graves so I will wrap it up with this. The main complaint I read on the forums is that his biggest weakness is that he only brings 1 influence. Yet the Morticians are a team that can carry 1 influence players better than anyone else. We have 2 players who between them bring 8 influence! That’s 2/3 of what most other teams bring combined. So with that in mind I am signing up to the #playgraves2016 campaign. There is a great write up on the steamforge forum under Morticians by Cacklad (Click here) all about his experience at Vengeance and using Graves. Seriously go check it out! I have put it out on twitter #playgraves2016 get on it and retweet it. Let’s see how many spooks we can get to pledge into using Graves this year. It doesn’t have to be every game just occasionally. Then send pictures to me on twitter of Graves on the table. I want to see this guy in action. There will be another brain fart soon solely on Graves so get your comments and photos to me so I can include them.

Apologies for wrapping this up quickly but family stuff is calling.

Hugs and Kisses xxx

Totes