Veer-Myn in the Azure Forest – A DreadBall Game Report

Recently I received my Azure Forest expansion for DreadBall. Now I had a chance to play a game with the new cards and my new Veer-Myn team, resulting in a great little match. Here’s a little write-up of the game: A DreadBall Azure Forest Game Report!

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#1 – Pre-Game

Before the game, I prepared the Dreadball card deck with the new Azure Forest cards (and taking out a few random old cards) as described in the Azure Forest expansion.

I also laid out the „Excited Fans“ starting event and rolled on the weather table: Scorcher!

Only one action token per player per Rush (instead of two). This was going to be interesting.

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#2 – A Game in the Azure Forest

I played my Veer-Myn team, facing off against a human Trontek team. Only the basic 100 MC starter teams.

I was the home team. Setting up first, I placed one Guard in my 3-pt. Strike Zone and the other in one of the 1-pt. Strike Zones. One Striker each in both 1-pt. Strike Zones and two Strikers on the center line.

My opponent went for a more back-wards deployment, protecting his Strike Zones and ceding the center-line to me.

The card I drew to start was one of the new Change Weather cards, giving me the option to (try to) change the weather.

Rush 1 & 2 – Scorcher

Only one token per player was to be an interesting challenge.

I started drawing a card (Any Player, Any Action) and running up a Striker and a Guard from my 1-pt. Strike Zone for an assisted slam of a Human Strikers (to no effect).

The first of my center-line Strikers runs into my opponent’s 3.-pt.-Strike Zone for a possible catch. My other Striker from the center-line picks up the ball with one success.

Without a „free action“, I drop my plans to throw the ball (Veer-Myn simple aren’t good at that) and use the my any action card to score 1 point.

My opponent ran up a Guard to slam the Guard I had placed in his half, but the Slamback knocked the Trontek Guard to the ground.

He likewise ran a Strikers down field, picked up the ball with another and scored 2 points.

Rush 3 & 4 – The Fans Vs. Veer-Myn

Again I draw a card (Striker/Jack, Run) and ineffectively clobbered some Humans (Veer-Myn Guards sure aren’t Orx).

I pick up the ball with the run-card, this time getting a free action, and run the striker closer to the Humans’ 3.-pt. Strike Zone. With the Strikers first (and only) action I close the distance and score 3.-pts. (leaving me with 2 Strikers in the far Strike Zone).

Despite the Excited Fans, I drew two event cards for the 3-Point-Strike, ending the excitement. Not even the Azure Forest likes Veer-Myns in the lead.

Still slowed by the Scorcher, my opponent’s Guards bully my Strikers without success. He then passes the Ball into my half to the Striker he placed in my 3.-pt. Strike Zone the turn before. Lucky for me, the Humans’ Strike-attempt goes wide.

Rush 5 & 6 – It’s Still A Scorcher!

Still leading, but with the ball deep in my half. I draw a card (Any Player, Stand Up), knock the almost-scoring Human Striker out for 2 turns, and pick up the ball for a long throw across the pitch: Picking up the ball works. Throwing the ball works. Catching it is stretching my Veer-Myns’ skill a bit too far.

In the scorching heat, the Humans have the same handicap moving the ball from their half of the pitch to mine. One of the Human Strikers is out, the others are in my half, so it falls to his Jacks to move the ball, and they promptly make a mess of it.

The Ref-check brings out a Change Weather card. Lo and behold! Another 1. The Scorcher stays!

Rush 7 & 8 – ’Roid Rage

Routinely, I draw a card (the new ’Roid Rage card). With each player limited to only one action, performing extra actions with a card feels even more powerful.

I want to try the ’Roid Rage card, so I corner of of the Human Strikers with one of mine, and pound him with a steroid-infused Rat Veer-Myn Guard – rolling 6 dice – killing him!

The fumbled ball is once again near my bench. I sneak an extra Striker on the pitch to pick up the ball and run towards the Human half. The foul is called and – with deadly precision – the same ball carrying extra-Striker I brought on is send off the pitch again, scattering the ball near the center-line.

The Humans pick the ball up, without having Jacks handling it. The one-action-token limit thus stops the Human to go for a high-value Strike, but they do score a point.

Rush 9 & 10 – Wet Rats

As usual, I draw a card (Striker/Jack, Throw). One of my Strikers picks up the ball and gains a free action, dashing for the Human 3. –pts.-Strike Zone, not quite making the entire distance.

I play the Change Weather card I held from the start to – hopefully – allow the ball-carrying Striker a second action, and the weather finally changes: the Scorcher turns into a Deluge, soaking pitch, Humans and Rats in torrent of rain (reducing the distance balls can be thrown).

The problem, a Jack/Guard (I don’t quite remember) stands on the hex just before the Strike-hex. Two hexes way from the strike-hex, I am in his threat-zone. Three hexes away is now a medium-range throw in the rain: My chances of scoring are slim.

I use a second action-token on the Striker (yeah!) to run him into the Strike Zone, followed by the throw-card to attempt a Strike without having moved.

It’s a good plan, foiled by typical Veer-Myn precision. The ball goes wide.

With the ball again deep in the Human half, my opponent brings back the once-injured Striker, who picks up the ball and runs up midfield. A pass down-field (rain or no rain), a catch … but no Strike. At this point, the Veer-Myn started to feel more sure-handed than the Humans.

The non-Scorcher mobility of the players on the pitch is freighting after playing 9 rushes with players moving practically in slow-motion.

Rush 11 & 12 – Finally some points!

My Strikers pick up the ball and head for my opponents strike zone, I picked up a useless card and my Guards throw ineffective punches. Veer-Myn Guards need steroids!

Still, with two actions per player, it is much easier to move the ball around the pitch and I get a Striker into the 3-point-strike-zone without much trouble.

Though I have no useful card, and one less die for throwing the ball (for having moved), my Striker manages to score this time around, giving the Veer-Myn a solid 4 points lead.

However, the Trontek team is equally energized after the debilitating Scorcher has passed. With a text-book play, they knock one of my Striker to the injury bin and score 3 pts. to return the board to the original score.

Rush 13 & 14 – A Hex Short

My final rush and the game is on a razor’s edge. It would be the prefect time for 5+-Skill Veer-Myn to send things south with a fumble. I am sweating with every roll of the dice.

Somehow, miraculously, my rats hang on to it, picking up the ball, running to the 3 pts. Strike zone and scoring another 3 points: two rushes in a row! It’s not the most likely thing you see a Veer-Myn-team doing, but it did happen!

My opponent now needs 4 pts. to force the game into overtime. However, even the attempt was foiled by the downpour. With his 2 remaining Strikers clustered up with one of my Guards in my strike zone, and needing a actions to move said Guard for a potential 4 pointer, he’s forced to once again pick up the ball with a Jack.

He succeeds, by a hair’s breath, but without generating a free action!

The Jacks’ second action would be the throw the ball to waiting Striker. We count the hexes, and even with the 1-hex move a throwing Jack is entitled to, the closest Striker is 7 hexes away, meaning it was (we think) out of range in the ongoing deluge.

And so the game ends with a Veer-Myn victory!

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#3 – Thoughts

When I first had a look through the cards of the Azure Forest expansion, I wondered how much the new cards and rules would change the game.

Having played a game with the new cards (but not any of the Azure Forest league rules), I found the change to be quite significant. The weather-effects aren’t “small” things, but potentially change the game in major ways, over and above others event in play.

Playing over half of the game with a limit of one action token per player, rather than two, almost made it a whole different game.

Likewise, the new special cards are nothing to be trifled with. That ‘Roid Rage produced an immediate kill (admittedly, setting it up for maximum effect). In an even more bashy team like Marauders, it will seriously wreck someones day.

Very impressed with that Azure Forest expansion so far. A great way to mix up DreadBall. I hope Mantic will release other variant/added card-sets for DreadBall at some point.

Z.