TheBattlehammer

Good afternoon loyal Battlehamsters. Straight off the bat I have to thank Doc Bungle aka Bear on twitter for the inspiration to this article. I have been thinking of writing something for a while but wasn’t sure what subject to focus on. The Doc has written an ace article on word press that I suggest you read The wise words of the Doctor. The good doctor has written a piece on Veteran Spigot and whilst it is very good I hope he won’t mind me picking up on a few points he missed. I also want to do a brief overview of the Brewers in season 2, as I think they have come out on top with their new additions. This is obviously personal opinion but as I see it the season 2 tree looks like this

Tier 1

Brewers: all 4 of their additions are really solid and viable.

Fish: again all 4 additions are really solid. There captain offers a very different play style.

 

Tier 2

Masons: Awesome captain and veteran player, Chisel is good but has bad match ups. Season 1 mascot was awesome therefore a tough act to follow.

Butchers: Again same issues as Masons in my eyes. Although I really rate Tenderizer.

Alchemists: they just get into tier 2 but this is partly due to them getting effectively 5 additions. Smoke is ace as are Compound and Veteran Katalyst. I like Venin but he has some awkward character traits. Naja looks interesting but I am not mad keen on the fact to get the best out of it you need to take Venin (same issue with vileswarm).

Engineers: these guys are probably in here because they got Compound, Mother and Hoist. Veteran Velocity looks very interesting and I don’t really know owt about Pin Vice.

 

Tier 3

Morticians: This is sad for me to admit as I am currently playing Morticians however.. Scapal is amaxing and a big fan. I do like Bonesaw but he is hard to use and unfortunately is struggling to get into my team. Veteran Graves is an interesting addition to the line-up, but I was happy with season 1 Graves. Then there is Vileswarm, who is interesting. But has the same issue as Naja which is that he requires you to have Veteran Graves to get the most out of him. There will be more indepth coming on the Morticians soon.

The Union: these guys are unfortunately at the bottom for me. We all know the issues with Harry. Veteran Rage is really good and if I was to play Union he would be my captain, also his fluff is just so purple or grey maybe yellow (I wish they could agree in my head). However he doesn’t seem as competitive as Blackheart. Strongbox looks like he will fit a Veteran Rage team quite well (which is good for fluff reasons), but man is he slow as anything. Also they already had one of the best mascots in the game and so Strongbox has a tough challenge ahead.

 

So anyway this article is meant to be about how amazing Veteran Spigot looks to me. I don’t want to tread the ground that Bear has already walked so I will focus on the points I think he missed.

Stats

These are identical to his season 1 stats except kick which is now a straight 4/8” instead of 4/7”. This isn’t a significant change really, until you look at his character traits.

Playbook

 

Key changes here are that he has lost his damage output with 1 being the most he has access to. His knockdown has also moved to the end of his playbook, although it is still momentous. He still has a momentous tackle on 1 success and Balls gone on 2. He has gained a momentous option on every column, which I think is significant. One of the problems I did have with season 1 Spigot would be on the occasion he could only get low results and therefore no momentum return on his influence expenditure. Season 1 Spigot could on occasion struggle with momentum generation when going against an opponent who didn’t have possession of the ball, as you needed 3 success to get access to a momentous result. The knockdown moving to the fourth column is a bit sucky as you are only likely to get it on the charge now, so can’t rely on it for counter attacks. But on the flip side having a push on 2 could be handy for getting those who haven’t gone base to base off you. As mentioned he has Balls gone on the second column which can be very handy if you get tackled (although very unlikely, see below) as you can get the ball back and away to a friendly player within 4”, shame you can’t use it to kick into space ;-)! He has also gained a push dodge on 3 successes which along with Mash is the only in guild dodge we have access to which is a thing.

Balls gone

 

Although this is a character play I will mention it here as it is off the playbook and both Spigots have it. The key point on this play that people miss is that it bypasses Close control! How so? Well close control reads…

And therefore Balls gone is a character play not playbook result. Which is ace for getting the ball off the likes of Flint.

Character plays

Character plays gained

Goad

Although Spigot is going to be predominantly scoring your goals I can see some ridiculously awesome uses of this ability. This is where Quaff gets his first mention and believe me he will be getting his own piece soon. I just want to mention that Quaff has me more excited than Parker when they call an open bar! He has one very significant ability that the more I think about the more I love the great big pooch! Which ability is it? Bag of quaffers?? Nope (although it is awesome).surely it must be Loved creature then!! NOPE (but again it is amazing). The ability I am really getting excited about is Second wind. Again this isn’t an article on Quaff but it gets a mention here for this reason. It synergises so damn well with Goad. Think of those players that you really don’t want in your lines Veteran Katalyst, Hammer, Boar, Rage or that ball player who is getting to close Flint, Vitriol etc. Spigot can go in and Goad them (ok it’s easier on the fighters) he can then Second wind the hell out of dodge. If he has the ball and Esters speed buff his Goad has an 18” threat range and then he can reposition 9” away from the goaded player which means they won’t be able to get to him. Watch Hammer cry!!

 

Character plays lost

Tooled up

This is a bummer unfortunately. It’s also probably the thing I will miss most when using Veteran Spigot. It means no more ranged sniping Dirge or low health models by Esters. It also reduces the damage output of are big hitters like Tapper and Hooper. However it did require setup and that was sometimes an issue. So it will be missed but you can’t have all the toys all the time!

Character traits

Character traits gained.

Match fit

This ability makes Spigot the fastest player in the game, not even Shark has a 10” sprint. Therefore Spig’s is fast, really really fast. Combine this with Esters speed buff and the guy is Sprinting 12”!!! That is just crazy.

Close control/Paint on your boots

These 2 abilities synergise so well together especially with the defence buff from his heroic. A player engages Spigot. They attack and get a tackle which is ignored by close control. You keep your powder dry and wait for them to attack again, then you use Poised to counter needing 1 success to get that ball back. This then requires a third point of influence to be spent to try tackle again. Alternatively you can use the free counter to try hit that second success column to get a push to move them out of melee, or if you roll well and get 3 success then the push dodge is all yours baby! Obviously this will all fall apart if you get engaged with a player with a knock down, but seeing as Spigot should be coming in from the wings most players with knockdowns are in the middle of the pitch.

 

Character traits lost

Football Legend

Although this was a great enabler for the rest of the team. Especially when kicking it around turn 1 to build up momentum. I found later in the game it had less use as Friday and Spigot where busy getting goals. Now with his kick of 4 standard we have access to 2 strikers who can be 5/8” and one who can be 5/10”! Take that Fish.

Floored

Personally I never really used Spigot to kick the crap out of people, although when it did happen it was fun! But the loss of this ability just reflects his change of role in the team in my eyes. He wants to be out in the wings threatening goal not in the scrum doing people in.

Heroics

Heroic play gained

This is an awesome Heroic play straight up. It makes Spigot harder to hit when he has the ball which is always good. Potentially you could combine it with Esters defence buff and Hooper’s Tough skin for a striker with def 5+ and armour 2! Yeah good luck getting through that. But the real benefit is that he can kick without spending influence. He can go in with 4 influence spend it all to generate momentum then activate his heroic and shoot without having to spend influence! That to me is huge due to the amount of times I have allocated influence and then fluffed a roll and come up short on dodges or momentum generation or something like that.

 

Heroic play lost

Times called did have its uses and was very effective at getting the team up the pitch. It was a heroic I liked to use to catch people off guard. Often opponents will work out threat ranges or distances to goal and that. Then Spig’s would pop his heroic and boom suddenly all that math was out of the window. But losing it also reflects the change in Spigots role in the team. He is no longer about making others arounf him good. Its about him being the superstar player he should be.

 

Conclusion

I think that there is definitely an argument for including both versions of Spigot in your line up. Season 1 Spigot will make the team around him better whereas Season 2 Spigot will be one of the best Strikers in the game. Think of it as season 1 Spigot being like Paul Scholes. Quietly going about his work making others around him better and occasionally pulling out a moment of magic. Whereas veteran Spigot is more like Christiano Ronalado or Gareth Bale! It is the rest of the team’s job to get the ball to them and watch the magic happen! We are lucky in the Brewers to not have access to 1 but 2 of the best strikers in the game now. With Mash sitting a bit deeper and getting the ball to them. I can really see a 3 striker team being a thing we see regularly (particularly if you play me). As I mentioned in the bit about Goad he also offers some very good control options. The damage output has gone but the goal threat has ramped up to 11! Although he is still a reasonably linear striker as he only has access to a push/dodge on 3 success as opposed to where’d they go. However if the planests all align he could potentially have a 16” sprint! (8 basic +2” for having the ball + 2” from Esters + 2” from loved creature  + 2” from fast ground!)

So yeah it is fair to say I am very very excited to get my grubby sticky hands on him.

 

Thanks for your time and thanks to the Doc for the inspiration 😉

 

Love and kisses