TheBattlehammer

So my opponent for round 1 of the big league is Lee (@NationOfLee) and Shark fishermen. Now I have played Lee once before at the last tournament at Athena games Norwich. It was a particularly enjoyable game as I find tends to happen with anyone from the 2d6 crew. The 2 things I learnt and must remember is that if Siren kicks off and gets 4 influence, you better believe she will try to seduce whoever has the ball. Which will be mighty difficult with my awesome average defence of 3+! Also note to self Angel can and will score from anywhere. At the moment I am unaware of what Lee’s 8 models for the league are (except Shark obviously) but I am guessing he will go hard on the football. Therefore when selecting my plot cards I need to think what my strategy will be. The temptation is to go for 6 take outs and therefore build cards around this. However I don’t think I can really hold onto the ball and prevent Lee from getting the goals to win. With Shark and I suspect Siren in the team he will pretty much always be able to get the ball back eventually. So I think I will need to either get 2 goals 2 take outs or 1 goal 4 take outs. To reflect this my line up will be…

Tapper

Scum

Hooper (remember the previous article)

Gutter

Friday

Spigot

This gives me a good mix of 2” melee (which you should probably realise by now I love), hitting power to put them on their ass when I catch the buggers, goal threat and a couple of girls so if Siren is present I can get round “Charmed male”. Right onto the plot cards and my thinking behind them…

1. Down and Out: This is my Brewers guild plot card which we have to choose before the start of the league. The requirements of this card is to take out a KD opponent and the reward is 10 CP (campaign points). To be honest this just feels like money in the bank really and pretty much a no brainer as a starting point in the league. If I get dealt it in my 7 it will definitely make the 5.
2. Its unbelievable Geoff: let me preface this with.. Gods love you Kammy!! A mascot has to get a takeout or score a goal the reward is 10cp. With Scum in the team and facing off against Fish I think getting a takeout could be fairly achievable for everyone’s least favourite cat. It also ties in with later selections “Steam roller” and “Who are ya”. If the situation arises and I can get a charge with the cat on an opponent within Tapper’s “Commanding aura” the little bastard should be able to finish off anyone low on health
3. Double Down: Inflict the taken out condition twice on the same player for 10cp. This may be difficult to achieve as the fish are so fast. So once one of them is taken out I may struggle to get hold of them again. But hay ho I am using Brewers so once I do get hold of them I should be able to take them out again. Friday and Gutter both have the speed and the tools to go hunting.
4. One with the Left, One with the right: The same player scores 2 goals for 10cp. To be fair I totally expect Lee to have this in his deck as I imagine he will be looking for a 3 goal strategy (Shocker). As I metinoed earlier I feel that fish have 2 many tools to prevent me from keeping hold of the ball so I will need to get a couple of goals myself. I have Friday in my team she is almost as good as Angel (almost) so she will hopefully get me the goals I need.
5. Statement of intent: A friendly model uses a Heroic or Legendary play for a return of 5cp. I am using Brewers.. Nuff said! Shame I can’t take multiples.
6. Two Footed Tackle: Take out 2 models for 5cp. Another low CP return. But also should be as good as money in the bank really for Brewers. There isn’t a lot more to add to this really other than I hope to get at least 3 or of the above cards in my hand so I can try get at least 20cp to unlock an additional guild plot card.
7. Steam roller: This is in as it is probably my 3^rd favourite season 2 plot card. It should also hopefully allow me to achieve “It’s Unbelievable Geoff”. Personally I always take the +2 damage over Anatomical precision as I feel that the benefit of the damage far outweigh an extra net hit. Also if I use it on Scum the little shit can do some obscene damage on the charge.
8. Home crowd: Easily my favourite season 2 card and the one I always assume that if I haven’t got it, then my opponent has. Starting a turn with a point of momentum really is so important. It allows you to counter a fully loaded beatstick to give you a chance. Alternatively if your team has carried over or gets landed with a load of conditions (particularly snare or burning) it gives you a chance to clear them and then get moving again. Also you can take a shot without having to engage anyone which is equally mint. I honestly could keep going on about this card… Just take it.
9. Immediate response: again similar to Home crowd this card gives you a chance to get back into the fight quickly. If your opponent has scored early in the turn you can get a counter goal straight off the bat, although probably not a great idea against Shark fish as they will probably just score in return. It also has use late in the turn. I often find that by the time I take a shot I have spent a fair bit of momentum and obviously this applies to my opponent. Therefore they score you drop this on them and then you maybe ahead for the next turn dice off!
10. Who are ya?: you read the bit where I told you I was playing against Fish right? They are going to score and if they don’t I will of won the game anyway and this card was not rewuired. Getting 4 net hits on an attack against the scorer is awesome. I guess if this combined with Steamroller and Commanding Aura, Scum is guaranteed to do 7 damage on the charge without rolling a single dice. So with 1 success on 9-10 dice he will be doing 8 damage.

Protect your balls: This is on the maybe list. Being able to make a counter when you get tackled is pretty solid. Particularly with the abundance of 2” melee in my team. The fish will certainly be coming after the ball, just need to decide if there is another I would rather have.

One touch football: again another maybe at the minute. Brewers actually have pretty reasonable kick stats so it should be possible to take advantage of this card, especially with Spigot around. I can’t remember the exact sequence in the Big league. But if you roll for kick receive and then choose plot cards that could really effect if this one is in. if I receive it would be in for sure as it Would allow me to launch the Tapper bomb right into Lee turn 1!

Too Flash: The reward is good being able to charge the enemy model for free (as Fear won’t be on the table). But I am not too keen on cards that are in a niche like this one. I guess against Shark there is a much higher chance that they will be using Teamwork abilities so it may see some use.

Make a game of it: Conceding the first goal against Shark shouldn’t be to hard to achieve and getting an extra 2 influence for a turn is awesome. I just wonder if this is overkill when you consider there is a favour you can take that achieves the same thing. Which nicely brings me onto…

 

Favours

This is something unique to the Big league in that you can buy buffs for your team using favours. Each team starts with 15 favours and can use these to loan players or to buy Sponsorships. These sponsorships are declared before the game so your opponent knows what you have and then in any maintenance phase you can use 1 or more of them. The chosen player gains the benefits for the remainder of the turn. The ones that initially jump out at me are:

+4” Dodge when Give ’n’ Go or Pass ‘n’ move: The first thing that pops into my head is to combine this with One touch football to get a 16” dodge up the pitch. Which is frankly just bonkers! The possibilities this unlocks for movement shenanigans is just obscene!

+2/0 Influence: More influence is simply gold. Especially in turn 2 when things are really starting to get going. Once the scrum has formed and the fists start swinging this will make its money back. Again being able to allocate Scum 2, Tapper 5, Hooper 3 and Gutter 4 will make a bloody mess of things with a spare point for either Spigot or Friday.

+2/+2 move: Again anything that speeds up Brewers is gold for me. If I don’t get to receive the kick off this could be a good option for Tapper to use turn 1. He could kick off for 4” of movement then have a 9” charge with a 2” melee allowing him to get someone 15” up the board.

 

So I am going to end this one here as I want to keep it reasonably short by my standards. I will report in with my thoughts and that after tomorrow night’s game. I am curious to see how all of these variables work out in game. Some of the things available in the big league (like favours) seem to be quite powerful and therefore I am not sure how they will skew the balance of the game. But I guess the main point is that as long as it’s fun then that’s the main thing.

 

Love and kisses

Totes