Solid foundation
Another tournament blog this time, from a 12-man event held at the Wargamers Den in Gillingham, Kent, last weekend.
I dithered about whether to take Masons or Farmers for weeks - they are my only fully (well, nearly) painted teams - but opted for my Masons again purely because I have more games with them and did get a few practice matches in during the weeks before the event.
I travelled with three other London GB players this time, and all in there were 5 from our meta in the field. Could have made for an awkward car journey home!
My Masons 12 were: Hammer, Honour, Marbles, Brick, Chisel, Vet Chisel, Flint, Granite, Harmony, Vet Harmony, Mallet, Tower
I had wanted to field the new rookie Champ, but she wasn't painted in time so wasn't an option. This time Brick and Harmony made their way back into the 12, with mascot Wrecker and the no-longer allowed Union option of Snakeskin making way for them.
The field was very alchemist heavy - three teams - which is a bad matchup for Masons so I felt Mallet could play a role there with his smashed shins character play perhaps helping to protect against goals.
Round 1: vs Miners
I got the toughest of draws for round one, against multiple tournament winner Michael Coomber. Miners were very strong when they came out, got toned down a bit, but are very much making a resurgence at the moment. I got one practice game into them the week before, but felt this would be a very tough game.
Masons: Hammer, Marbles, Brick, Vet Chisel, Flint, Tower
Miners: Shaft, Digger, Fissure, Mule, Salvo, Spade
I lost the roll and had to kick off, using Flint to boot it. Michael was very smooth with his influence and placement going past in the blink of an eye and had passed the ball along the line before scoring with Spade to go up 4-0.
After kicking out I parked the ball on Flint and beat up Spade a little to set her up for the takeout at the top of turn 2. Going first, I played conservatively (so I thought) and went with Flint first to hit the knocked down Spade a bit and try and keep the Miners away from the ball.
Hammer did take out Spade, but Shaft's legendary allowed him to still get to Flint and score the second goal so the Miners were up 8-2.
This time the kick out scattered badly and went behind my deployment line, meaning I couldn't generate momentum. Tower could move towards it but not recover it, and a returning Spade in turn 3 might be able to score a third goal.
Mule was being a real pain here, knocking over Marbles and preventing his counter charge and generally being very difficult to deal with.
In turn 3 it emerged that Spade was just out of range of trying for the goal, but could recover the ball and kick it back into space hoping for Salvo to pick up. Tower intervened and booted it back towards the Miner lines, but it was still in reach of Salvo, and although I'd knocked down and damaged Shaft by my goal Mule could again knock down Marbles to prevent his counter charge and Salvo could score the third goal.
Final result: 2-12
Post-game thoughts: Bad scatter aside, I was scratching my head at what I could do to stop the Miners. As usual though, after the event I realised when I recovered the ball with Flint and hit the knocked down Spade I should have unsnapped the ball as Shaft could not then reach it. Things to ponder for future games!
Round 2: vs Blacksmiths
This time I was drawn against Ricardo Pequeno, who was one of the London boys in my car down! He had hoped to play Morticians, but forgot half his team and so rolled a dice and it came up Blacksmiths.
The smiths are my second most played team in season 4, so I was fairly comfortable with them and although I lost the roll off Ricky chose to kick so I had the ball at least.
Masons: Hammer, Marbles, Brick, Flint, Granite, Tower
Blacksmiths: Anvil, Sledge, Farris, Iron, Furnace, V Cinder
Furnace and Vet Cinder could be a problem with the searing strike character trait, and Sledge is still a beater extraordinaire despite losing his 2" melee. But with the ball, Hammer is a proper threat so I felt I could get stuck in to the Smiths.
Farris kicked off and I recovered the ball and passed it to Hammer. Eventually Farris was a little over-extended and Hammer passed the ball to Flint, and managed to take her out for 2-0 to the Masons. That gave me the momentum to go first in turn 2 and Hammer then took out Vet Cinder before she could activate for 4-0. Brick was causing a nuisance of himself by knocking down other Blacksmiths and using concussion to remove influence, while Flint hung about with the ball at the back.
In turn 3 Vet Cinder came back on and was promptly surfed by Hammer again for 6-0, and although Marbles was taken out by Sledge, Hammer took out Vet Cinder for a third time in turn 3 and Flint scored a goal to hand the win to the Masons.
Final result: 12-1
Post-game thoughts: Farris was just overextended and isolated in turn 1 which got me a takeout and the momentum and it really just snowballed from there. Granite was really good here as Ricky's apprentices were often TAC3 when attacking and just couldn't do the damage needed to give him momentum and easy takeouts.
Round 3: vs Ratcatchers
Jason Inglin and his Ratcatchers awaited me in the pair down game in round 3. This time I could use my favourite captain Honour, and again I was getting the ball as opponent chose to kick.
Masons: Honour, Marbles, Brick, Chisel, Flint, Granite
Ratcatchers: Piper, Squeak, Bonesaw, Vet Graves, Miasma, Scourge
My opponent kicked off with Piper and he was clearly hoping to nip in, steal the ball and score early. Flint recovered the ball for me and kicked it back to Marbles. I set up the counter charge threat and had the ball on Granite when Piper made his move attacking the monkey first and pushing him away.
I felt there would be an opportunity for Marbles in this game, and it came then as Jason declared Piper's Haunting Melody play (opponent chooses whether Piper makes a jog towards someone, or the other way around) and I chose the Ratcatchers captain to make the jog, which triggered Marbles' counter charge.
Jason wisely defensive stanced his captain, but I could still push him out of range of Granite and this left Piper stranded in front of my team. Honour had earlier given herself superior strategy and used her remaining influence to dodge Marbles back in to Piper and start the damage train.
The remaining ratcatcher team had moved up together, so at the start of turn 2 Honour took out Piper for 2-0 and Chisel was able to take out a fully-stacked Bonesaw before he could activate for 4-0.
It got worse for the ratcatchers as Brick got stuck in to Scourge and removed some of his influence. By turn 3 Piper came back on and was promptly taken out again by Chisel for 6-0, followed shortly after by Vet Graves being removed with full influence by Honour for 8-0.
Brick was taken out by Scourge in reply, but I was able to move Flint up with the ball in range of the goal and go first in turn 4 to secure the win.
Final result: 12-2
Post-game thoughts: A brutal game for the Ratcatchers in the end, I think I removed players with 10 influence on them and they were always on the back foot. Honour is boss, simples!
As it turned out it was only a three round event, due to the third player who was on 2-0 losing in round 3.
I finished in 5th place (I think) and was awarded best painted, but returned the prize as I didn't paint my Masons - apart from their goal token. A fun event, nice to get some tournament games in! Masons will be parked again, going to stick to Farmers and Navigators for a bit to learn them properly.
Thanks for reading.
