Yesterday was my second ever Guild Ball Tournament that I have attended and Pundit Eric M was running the "Holiday Guild Ball" at
The Gaming Warehouse up in Grand Rapids, MI.
Leading up to the event it had looked like it may be a small turn out with only 6 players preregistering, but we had 4 more players show up for a total of 10.
I am no Guild Ball expert, sure I like to win, but at a tournament I have no high expectations and was expecting to take home the "Wooden Spoon" award.
I wont be going into full details of each game (where I probably do not remember them all, but just some brief moments).
Round 1: Butcher's vs Engineer's (Adam G)
Ox vs Ballista
This game was like a chess match for the first 30 minutes of each of our clocks. The Engineer's were trying to bait me in but I was standing my ground. Finally the Engineer's scored a Goal and I rebounding with double Take Outs (4-4). The Engineer's then picked up the space and managed to get in back to back Goals for a 12-4 win.
Round 2: Butcher's vs Alchemist's (Ty V)
Fillet vs Smoke
For this game 'Fillet' was making her tournament debut for me, I had read an article when she can still be pretty good vs scoring teams. This game did not go over to well for me as the Alchemist's were just piling on all the conditions on my players. I did manage to get 3 Take Outs, but the Alchemist's won 12-6.
Round 3: Butcher's vs Fisherman (Josh)
Fillet vs Corsair
I had really thought that this game was going to be a rematch of a friendly game I played with Josh last weekend, but Josh threw me a curve ball and placed down 'Corsair', he was not able with 'Shark' for his first 2 games. Really close in the beginning with the score being 8-7 Fisherman, but then 'Corsair' manged to score another goal while being engaged and with an intervening model for a 12-7 win.
At this point I was 0-3 for the day and had a shot for the "Wooden Spoon".
Round 4: Butcher's vs Blacksmith's (Lenore)
Ox vs Anvil
Lenore is still pretty new to the game of Guild Ball, and I had some experience running my Butcher's against the Blacksmith's when my son was trying them out, so I had a feeling that i would not be bringing home the "Wooden Spoon".
I did not rush my Turn 1 and run all my player's into her, I started to set things up for Turn 2. I concentrated most of damage on 'Hearth' jailing her with 1 HP left after the Bleed condition and doing some damage on 'Alloy' 'Princess' then tied up 'Veteran Cinder' so 'Boiler' can come on it next turn.
Turn 2 'Boiler' and 'Princess' easily took care of 'Veteran Cinder', 'Shank' finished off 'Alloy' and Tackled the ball and started a Jog towards the Goal, and 'Boar' finished off 'Hearth' and added some damage to 'Sledge' before 'Sledge' retaliated and Taken Out 'Boar'. At the end of Turn 2 I was up 6-2.
I won initiative for Turn 3 and saw that I had a Goal run with 'Shank' and decided to go for it. My Game Plan card gave 'Shank' a 2" Dodge when he activated and I was able to disengage 'Alloy' who just returned onto the Pitch, I then paid for a 4" Dodge and stayed just outside of 1" from 'Hearth' and proceeded with an attack to gain some Momentum, 2 damage and a Dodge was good enough to disengage 'Hearth'. A Sprint toward the Goal leaving within Tap-In range (needing 3's) and 'Shank' barely scored with a roll of a 1,3 but it was good enough for the Goal. My Butcher's were now up 10-2 and I had two possibilities for another Take Out. I had 'Boar' who was within Charge range of 'Alloy' and 'Boiler/Ox' were engaged with 'Sledge'. 'Sledge' only had 8 HP left and with Ox's
The Owner, I thought 'Boiler' had a better chance or the win, sure enough, it took 3 attacks but 'Boiler' got the job done and Butcher's win 12-2.
I ended up finishing 1-3 for the day, and Lenore took the "Wooden Spoon" from me.
Earlier in the week I was working on some award certificates for an event we are planning on for February an I had asked Eric if he wanted me to make some for this event, so we had award certificates for 1st, 2nd, 3rd and the Wooden Spoon.
