On Saturday I attended the HHWC Guild Ball tournament in nearby Hemel Hempstead.
Two other members of Welwyn Wargamers (check us out on Facebook and Twitter @welwynwargamers) were among the field of 30 hoping to score some goals and takeouts.
Since getting in to the game at the end of 2017, I have largely played Masons. I'd been building up to this event for a few months after season 4 came out and had set it as a goal to get to and then put the Masons on the shelf for a bit as I've played them exclusively.
This was to be a 5-round one-day event, which is pretty intense. That said, I like the fact Guild Ball has a lot of one-day tournaments, which are easier to swing with family/work time pressures.
Anyway, I had whittled my Masons down to the 12 players needed for a roster. They were:
Hammer, Honour, Marbles, Wrecker, Chisel, Vet Chisel, Vet Harmony, Mallet, Tower, Flint, Granite, Snakeskin
I was hoping to avoid butchers if I could, as their new captain Veteran Boar is hard to deal with. I was also a little nervous of the new Miners guild, which has created a buzz in the game chat. There were a few of both so that was going to be tricky!
Round 1 - vs Order
I drew the football maestros Order in round 1, and was playing Matthew Swann and his beautifully painted team.
A couple of weeks ago I got a few games against Order (thanks Ritch) so had an idea what I needed to do. You have to accept they are likely to score against you, probably after kicking, but you need to protect the ball and put that off for as long as you can whilst removing a few players.
Here's the line-ups:
MASONS: Honour, Marbles, Tower, Flint, Chisel, Mallet
ORDER: S Brisket, Pride, Vet Fangtooth, S Spigot, Mist, Grace
I lost the roll off and the Order kicked. This was a really close, fun game which saw Mist kick off and nip in and score first. Honour and Chisel then removed Mist and the Order captain, but in about turn 3 Spigot scored a second goal and it was 4-8 to the Order.
I removed S Brisket again, but lost Marbles and Tower shortly afterwards and was sitting at 6-11, although up on clock (you play Guild Ball on the clock at tournaments, it's great fun and really improves your play!).
However, I had Honour in a good place, Flint on the ball by the Order goal, and was confident I could get the remaining points needed. Honour killed the Order mascot, then captain for the third time and it was at this stage (9-11 down) that my opponent ran out of clock and I could hang on for a 12-11 win, with Flint holding the ball in front of the opponent's goal.
Phew!
Round 2 - vs Brewers
I was matched up against Mark Rickell, who is a GB pundit from down in Bristol. This was going to be a tough game!
Here's the line-ups:
MASONS: Hammer, Wrecker, Tower, Flint, Vet Harmony, Granite
BREWERS: Tapper, Quaff, Stave, Hooper, Friday, Spigot
Again I lost the roll off and the ball was kicked to me. My opponent dominated the early proceedings and I lost captain Hammer early on.
Flint did score a goal for me though and I was able to stymie the brewers for a while using Veteran Harmony's Team Player trait, but eventually the damage told and I lost Granite (twice), Tower and my mascot. This meant it was 4-9 and I needed to get my finger out.
By this stage Flint had got the ball again and was in a position to score, and Hooper was strung out having taken out Granite for the second time. I was fairly sure I could get myself to 10 reasonably quickly, but I'd need another takeout from somewhere.
A combination of Hammer and Tower killed off Hooper, although I lost Veteran Harmony in the process so I was 6-11 down but about to score. Having used two players to take out Hooper I had to spend the momentum to heal up a couple of players and Mark had moved Friday up which I felt gave me the final take out target.
Flint tapped in the goal, and it was a screamer giving me 2 momentum. We both had 3 momentum, but I had a 7 momentum game plan card so knew I would be going first in the deciding turn.
Here is where I made a mistake. I played that card, but it means the first person you activate is at -1 TAC (attack dice).
I forgot this, but went first with Hammer and walked up to Friday to attack. Hammer is TAC7, and we both had a crowd out. I should have been rolling 6 dice, but was rolling 7. Hammer spiked his first roll (needs 4s, Friday has 1 armour, and rolled 5 hits) and got a 2 damage KD. Then I rolled only momentous 1 damage, but I bonus timed each one after that.
Because I'd forgotten the -1 TAC I didn't bother pushing her away from Tapper so that I wouldn't be crowded out. As it was, I spiked once more to get I think 3 damage double push and then hit the momentous 2 damage I needed on the remaining rolls to take out Friday and win the game.
5 minutes later we both realised the error. I was annoyed at myself at forgetting it, although Mark pointed out he didn't realise either. Having run it through again, I think it's still more likely that Hammer gets the take out, as he gets a 1" push from every successful hit and would soon have been out of crowd out from Tapper an into two gang ups. I needed 3 hits each time and having got the KD early (it's on 2 hits anyway), I think Friday was dead either way.
Still, I'd rather have rolled the right dice to make sure. It finished a 12-11 win to the Masons.
Round 3: vs Order
Another Order game - although there were 5 in the field so it wasn't unlikely. This time I was playing Conor Rooney who I'm in a London GB chat with, although I hadn't played him before. He's a bit good too...
MASONS: Honour, Marbles, Tower, Flint, Chisel, Mallet
ORDER: S Brisket, Pride, S Spigot, V Fangtooth, Harry 'The Hat', Mist
So I took the same team this time and lost the roll off again. I was getting the ball for the third time!
I wanted to get the ball early to Mallet, as he has smashed shins as a character play which can really ruin a striker/goal scorer's day.
Turn 1 I played more or less spot on as Conor commented, not allowing him a realistic chance at the ball.
Conor did go in turn 2 after I'd been overly-aggressive with Chisel, and I hit the smashed shins on the counter attack. I had moved Mallet too far away from my goal so S Brisket was out of range. She had to attack twice needed 4 of 5 dice to hit (crowded out but bonus timed), and got them both. And scored. Ugh.
Having overextended myself, I got caught out and although S Spigot missed a goal to give me a chance, I didn't really take it and Mist did get a second, followed quickly by Vet Fangtooth killing Chisel.
I took revenge on Mist, but Spigot could kill off a knocked down Tower and that was that. A 4-12 loss.
This was a good game to learn from. Having played well in turn 1, I kind of handed it back to Conor in turn 3 after he had to go for the goal that was there with S Brisket. Never mind!
Round 4: vs Hunters
I haven't had a great deal of playing against Hunters as no one local to me uses them really, so I was looking forward to this one. My opponent was Paul Sutton.
MASONS: Hammer, Wrecker, Flint, Granite, Tower, Chisel
HUNTERS: Skatha, Snow, Ulfr, Vet Minx, Zarola, Egret
Initial thoughts was that I felt reasonably confident. I had expected Theron and Seenah the bear, and I felt I could deal with this lineup, albeit I'd be under goal pressure.
I won the roll and chose to receive the ball this time, thinking I could get Hammer stuck in to the Hunters early on.
Skatha had other ideas as she flew in and tackled the ball, dodged away and scored. I consoled myself with beating her up a bit and leaving her close to a takeout so I could remove her at the start of the next turn.
That's what I did and as Paul had overextended a little with Ulfr, Chisel took the opportunity to take him out before he could activate. 4-4 and not looking too bad.
I parked the ball on Hammer in the corner, but Skatha came in again and used her legendary this time to get all the dodges and score again. 4-8.
I wasn't too disheartened though as I could now really kill the ball in the opposite corner, knowing the Hunters would have to spend a couple of turns to get to it and were not in a position to get any takeouts.
Hammer beat up Skatha again leaving her on little health so she could die the next turn. Tower also stepped up and removed Vet Minx. I'd moved Wrecker back towards the ball because of his speed, and also because if any Hunters did get close he can push them off the pitch.
I was going first again at 6-8, and with time approaching and me up on clock was feeling in a good position. Wrecker surfed Egret to make it 8-8 and although Skatha had healed a bit, I knocked her down to 1 health again and would be going first to remove her at the start of the next turn with a team on virtually full health and with the ball. My opponent realised he would just lose on clock if I didn't kill another player, so called it there. 12-8 win.
Round 5: vs Butchers
The inevitable matchup with the Butchers! I was playing Jon Clemens, who is one of the local opponents from London I play relatively frequently and he's a lovely guy so this was a great way to end the event!
We were on table 3, both on 3-1 and in with a chance of the podium. GB events always have a final, so the winner is always undefeated, so we weren't taking the title but a top 3 finish would be great in this field!
MASONS: Hammer, Marbles, Tower, Flint, Chisel, Vet Harmony
BUTCHERS: Vet Boar, Princess, Boiler, Meathook, Shank, Cinnamon
I was up against it. Vet Boar is very strong, and Masons struggle to deal with Butchers at the best of times. I won the roll and chose to receive, Flint eyeing up a goal early on.
As it was, I think I saved my best performance until last.
I played very defensive turn 1, passing the ball around a bit but instead of running off with Flint I kept him back and was able to pass the ball back to Tower to move him out of Vet Boar's threat. Vet Boar didn't manage to do anything in turn 1, and I resigned myself to losing initiative and healed up any damage.
In went Vet Boar into Hammer, but I'd left Vet Harmony nearby and I managed to keep him alive just about. Vet Boar's legendary Chop Chop went up, but Hammer then deleted Shank before he could activate and I healed up the captain and Vet Harmony.
Flint wandered off with the ball and I backed off with others. I left Tower engaging Vet Boar so even though he went first again, Tower was not dead due to Vet Harmony's proximity and Boar not being able to charge. Vet Harmony then went into Cinnamon and used her Field Medic ability to stand up Tower, and heal them both.
At one stage I used Marbles to goad Boiler in such a way that he had to run into his own player and couldn't really use his influence.
In turn 3 Vet Boar killed off Chisel pretty quick, but allowed Hammer away to takeout Boiler before he could activate, and start on Meathook too. Flint scored as well, putting me up 8-2.
In the penultimate turn, Vet Boar whaled on Hammer a bit, but thanks to the irrepressible Vet Harmony he lived.
Jon knew he had to deal with Vet Harmony because she'd healed herself a bit again, and knocked down Hammer and moved around to finally finish her off. She'd done her job though! 8-4
Hammer gets up, knocks Boar away, walks into Meathook and tackles her and knocks her down. He whales on her for a bit as I pushed her towards Flint and the goal, where the striker was lurking...
Again Boar was going first, but Hammer was reasonably healthy still, and he couldn't do the damage with a bucket load of ones on some hits. The ball had gone loose from a knockdown though so my plan of surfing Meathook up the pitch and passing to Flint for the tap in winner wasn't on just yet.
Instead I realised Hammer could kill off Meathook, and then smash up Cinnamon getting enough momentum to probably go first and kill her in the next turn.
It had been a really cagey game for me, and at this stage dice down was called with me having about 6 minutes left on the clock and Jon about 3 or so. 8-4 victory, somehow!
So I finished off 4-1, which put me in 4th place in the final standings. I was delighted tbh, especially with the way I played in games 1, 2 and 5. Coming back from 11-4 down against the Brewers was probably the highlight, although forgetting the -TAC spoilt it for me a little.
Five games in a day is extremely tiring, and I was burnt out. That will probably be my last Guild Ball for a couple of weeks while I recharge my batteries.
Masons are going on the shelf, despite their new 'ace striker' captain Corbelli coming out in a week or so.
I'm moving on to Blacksmiths as my main focus, but I think I'll dabble in some Order and Fishermen now and again for a change of flavour.
Thanks for reading!
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