Vengeance: The Aftermath Day 1

The dust has settled on another fantastic Vengeance event. Before I start, I want to say a massive thank you to Jay and his team for putting on a truly outstanding event. If you haven't read my first Vengeance article, I recommend checking it out here.

Day 1:

Game 1 V Pete O Sullivan - Hunters (Skatha, Fahad, Seenah, Jaecar, Ulfr, V Hearne)
Pete went with a mixed team but ultimately was orientated towards the football game. This was good for me as I love to play Football. Pete hadn't played much against Queen Brisket so was unaware of her shenanigans and made a mistake in leaving the ball unsnapped after Mist scored. This meant Brisket was able to use her Legendary to snap the ball with Mist, use I'm open to receive the ball and then score again. Mist was taken out by either Seenah or Jaecar (can't remember which) and he had also scored with Ulfr. Another Union player was also out for the count but I cannot remember who.
Start of turn 2 Avarrise & Greede pick up the ball and attempt to score but pick the worst target possible (Vet Hearne) who knocks Greede over scattering the ball just out of reach. Greede got up and used Where'd they Go to retrieve the ball but was out of inf to pass to Brisket. Vet Hearne then fluffed his dice trying to knock Greede down again but had also engaged Brisket. In Brisket's activation, she first tried to hit Hearne to dodge away but failed so was left with no option but to use I'm Open on Greede and hope for a successfull pass by an engaged model to an engaged model. The pass failed but the scatter was kind and Brisket intercepted it. However, this left her out of momentum so could not take the shot on goal. I had two choices:
Kick the ball into open space where only Mist could retrieve
OR
Kick to Grace who was in the centre of the pitch.

Oh hindsight, you cruel mistress. To Pete's amusement, I elected to kick the ball to Grace, forgetting how potent (and fast) Skatha is. That single decision cost me the game as in the proceeding activation, Skatha ran up to Grace, tackled the ball then bounced around my team till she got within goal range. Bang goal Game over! It was frustrating to lose as I made a stupid mistake but hey, that is the pres-sures of  a tournament.
LOSS: 8-12

Game 2: Mat Hart - Engineers (Pin Vice, Mother, Hoist, Velocity, Ratchet, ???)
Mat Hart, Creative Director of Steamforged, Indirect Boss. This would be a fun game. Engineers have always been my weakness (curse you John Parish) so I was not looking forward to this match up. When Pin Vice wants to, she can easily outscore Brisket and out kill her as a Plan B. Mat's dice were cold. Like super cold, no matter how many dice he rolled, he would only get 1 net hit on his target. While this was good at the start, I knew at some point they would either become red hot, or mine would follow suit. I remember both teams scoring a goal early before Mat realised that I was more suited to the Ping-Pong goal game. Pin Vice decided to hold the ball close to her own goal behind the protection of Compound and Vet Velocity. This would be a slog. Especially as the With Aplomb to take it to 8-9 but Hoist then grabbed the ball and scored for the win. A super close game where I could have/ should have taken the win but Lady Luck abandoned me at the crucial moment.
Engineers were able to dish out enough damage to hurt my players whereas (bar Harry) I could do none. At the end of turn 2, it was 6 (or maybe 8)-4 to Mat but Snakeskin had acquired the ball and was sitting out of Compound range, ready to score me a goal, which would then allow Brisket to score the winner from the resulting goal kick. Snakeskin missed...a tap in...on 3 dice. My turn to have cold dice. Devastated. In a football orientated team, I can't afford to miss goals. In the following activations, Brisket scored
LOSS: 9-12

Game 3: Snowy - Morticians (Obulus, Dirge, Ghast, Bonesaw, Graves, Cosset)
I had never played (or met) Snowy before but both him and his mate who was watching were both super friendly. His team was not haha. Obulus, destroyer of dreams. Another tough match up for my girl Brisket. However, with Bonesaw in his team I knew there would probably be goals, I just had to be patient. As with my previous games, getting the 2 goals proved to be relatively easy. Mist and Brisket were both able to score in the early turns (as well as Bonesaw scoring and Ghast taking someone out) before Obulus came to the show and hit a 6 point activation to win the game. I don't feel I did anything particularly wrong in this game, was just outplayed and out scored by a better player.
LOSS: 8-12

At this point, I was sitting second from bottom 115th out of 116 players. Only the infamous Straw (of the Battlehammer) was below me so I knew I would be facing him next. I was also 0/3 for the Tournament which caused great amusement amongst the Steamforged contingent who were playing. Lose this game, and the wooden spoon would look likely.

Game 4: Straw - Brewers (Esters, Quaff, Spigot, Hooper, Friday, Pintpot)
I was glad to see Brewers on Straw's tray. It would make for a slightly more relaxed game. I also chose an experimental line up for this game (as the preferred options clearly hadn't been working). I went with Benediction, Harry, Decimate and Minx. I would have a brawl with these Brewers if that's what they wanted. Plus Benediction's ability to hand out Sturdy would come in handy. It was a fantastic game, both players not really caring what happened as we were bottom but it made for so much fun. Turns out you get all the results you want when you hit Brewers. I also managed to get the infamous Avarisse and Greede first turn goal which caused Straw to exclaim he hated Avarisse and Greede. In return, Esters body slammed into Greede and took him out in two swings.

Cartoon impression of Greede's demise.

It wasn't all in vain though as Brisket/ Mist was able to retrieve the ball to score again to make it 8-2 at the end of turn 2. The ball was passed out to Stoker who just made a beeline for the Union goal and promptly made it 8-6. From the goal kick, one of the union team grabbed it and scored to make it 12-6 and finally end this barren run of form. I can't stress enough how much fun it was to play the Battlehammer and would love to get some rematches in the future.

WIN: 12-6

So at the end of Day 1 I was sitting pretty low down on 1/3 but I had that win and if I could win all my matches on Day 2, I would go positive which was my aim before the event. 

We then had the Q&A from the SFG team which revealed the Blacksmith's guild, and a few other stories which I cannot utter on a family friendly blog. I also got chance to sit down with the #TeamNottsOP gang and play a few rounds of Shadow Games. Turns out while they may be good at SBG, they suck at bluffing. All in all a great day 1. 

If you wish to watch the Q&A, check out the video about from Mini-Modelog (warning, may be some strong language). 

Bring on Day 2! 

Stay tuned for the second instalment of Vengeance: The Aftermath later this week.