SIDELINE REPORT: Ro-Tek Brutes vs Glambek Ghosts

We got together for a little Dreadball finally! It has been over a month since I got a team on the Pitch! I was happy to try out my take on the Mechanites too, while my opponent tried out the Ada-Lorana.

Ada-Lorana Guard, Ada-Lorana Jack, Ada-Lorana Striker, Celoxon A4 and A7 Mechanite Strikers, Offensive Multibot V.8 and V.9 Jacks, Defensive Multibot V.10 Jack, Fortetron Build 12 Guard

For the stats and builds of my Mechanite team, check out my earlier blog post about my design.

The initial setup did not seem to favor anyone from the onset. And as a matter of fact, both teams fumbled the ball in each team's first Rush!

But the highlight of the first Rush, and the possible MVP move of the game was the Ada-Lorana Guard destroying my Defensive Multibot V.10 before he got to take advantage of his Gotcha! ability. The Ada-Lorana Guard rolled 6 successes! I rolled one, and no armor saves... sad face. Wow. And since each of us only had 6 players on the Pitch, that single loss before I got to even move him really hurt.

The game went fairly average to good for my opponent. He missed some rolls, but he got the majority of his attempts at throwing, dashing, and scoring. The Ada-Lorana are great at getting done what they need to. With average stats, and their abilities, and dice, and cards, they are a team to be reckoned with.

The Mechanites, well, they could have been good, but my dice HATED me. I fell on Dash attempts, my Strikers failed to pick up balls, my Guard could not knock anyone out. IT was not a night for the Mechanites, maybe it is was my faulty programming.

The game was a lot of fun, but ended in a landslide victory for the Ghosts. Man, that team is strong.


What did we learn:

- When designing a Mechanite team, don't go for the Launcher (Long Arms), at least not on all your Strikers. Not being able to score in the 4 point hex hurt me some, but not being able ot score in the 2 point hex hurt a lot more. My opponent basically won from 2 point scores.

- Mechanite Running Interference is a great deterrent.

- The Ada-Lorana are still really good. Speed 3+, plus the Phaser ability and the card and dice... may be too much. We discussed that perhaps their hard counter is the Hobgoblins, but then again, aren't the Hobgoblins the hard counter to a lot of teams?

- 4+ is not as good as 3+ no matter how many dice you have! I know statistically this is not true, but dang it, it feels like a axiom when playing Dreadball!

Mechanites Assemble! ... um... assembled, that is.

I received some Zip Kicker in the mail the other day. I was pretty excited because I have decided that unless you were going to in the Mechanites (which I was not), Zip Kicker was an essential part of the assembly process.

I had planned out exactly what builds each of the Mechanites were going to be prior to assembly, of course. I posted blog entry on it a few days ago. So, here is how they turned out. They are not painted yet, but I did throw on a quick wash to differentiate them as to their coding.

Group shot of my Mechanites!

First, we have my pair of Strikers, Celoxon A4 and Celoxon A7. I went with a quick green wash on them. They are Speed and Skill 4+ with a Movement of 6. They have Duck & Weave and they have Launchers (Long Arms) for that extra distance.

Next, we have the Offensive Multibots V.8 and V.9 - Jacks. These guys are there to support and augment the scoring side of the team. They have a Glove, giving them A Safe Pair of Hands and they have the Tactics Upgrade, because Running Interference is just that awesome!

Up next is Defensive Multibot V.10 (another Jack). He is there to assist the more defensive side. He is equipped with Steady, Gotcha! and, of course, the Tactics Upgrade.

Finally, we come to Fortetron Build 12. He is a fantastic Guard, sporting a 3+ Strength, Steady and Can't Feel a Thing! And lots of style, look at the guy! 

I know six guys is tough, once I lose one or two I am really gonna feel it. But I only had one box of the Mechs and wanted to try them out. We will see how this team works out!

Finally decided that I need to make my Mechanite Team!

So, I've had my Mechanite team since my Rampage level pledge arrived from the Kickstarter. They are very cool, but they have just sat in a plastic bag since I opened them up to check for all the parts. I kept worrying that since I only have one pack of them, that I wouldn't have enough parts to make a decent team - I had thought that you needed at least two packages of Mechanites to make one good team.

But I realized that if I don't go ahead and put them together, they will probably sit in a plastic bag forever... I couldn't have that. Therefore I decided that I would make a team using the parts that came in the box.

Here is what I came up with (super special thanks to Geoff Burbidge for making such a fantastic Mechanite team creator):

Mechanites	Player 1	Player 2	Player 3
Designation	Celoxon A4	Offensive Multibot V.8	Offensive Multibot V.9
Coding	Striker	Jack	Jack
Locomotion	Bird Legs	Armoured Legs	Armoured Legs
Chasis	BODY C	BODY B	BODY B
Head	Quadeye	Slim	Slim
Arm 1	Launcher	Glove	Glove
Arm 2	Hand	Hand	Claw
Software 1		Tactics Upgrade	Tactics Upgrade
Software 2
Software 3
Software 4
MOVE	6	5	5
STRENGTH	5	5	5
SPEED	4	4	4
SKILL	4	4	4
ARMOR	5	4	4
Abilities	Duck & Weave, Long Arms	A Safe Pair Of Hands, Run Interference	A Safe Pair Of Hands, Run Interference
Cost (mc)	18	14	14

Mechanites	Player 4	Player 5	Player 6
Designation	Celoxon A7	Fortetron Build 12	Defensive Multibot V.10
Coding	Striker	Guard	Jack
Locomotion	Bird Legs	Quad Wheels	Quad Wheels
Chasis	BODY C	BODY D	BODY A
Head	Quadeye	Tank	Cranehead
Arm 1	Launcher	Wrecking Ball	Grab
Arm 2	Hand	Wrecking Ball	Hand
Software 1			Tactics Upgrade
Software 2
Software 3
Software 4
MOVE	6	5	5
STRENGTH	5	3	4
SPEED	4	5	5
SKILL	4	5	4
ARMOR	5	4	4
Abilities	Duck & Weave, Long Arms	Steady, Can't Feel A Thing	Steady, Gotcha!, Run Interference
Cost (mc)	18	19	17

This is a 100 point team with six players and a pretty good chance to be a great "all-comers" team.

Now, to build them.... :-)

INSIDE THE BOX: Mechanites

Much like for the Mutants, I wanted to catalog what I received for my Kickstarter Rampage pledge for the Mechanite team - mostly for my reference. This may, or may not, be the same as the retail, AND when I opened the bag, it exploded. So, though unlikely, I might be missing a piece or two.

This is a picture of everything that was in my Kickstarter bag of Machanites.

This is a picture of the arms that were included (except what was in the small plastic bag - see below). It is pretty much two of each of the arms on the arm chart on page 13 of the Season 5 book.

Here we have the final few arms: four hands and two claws. And there is a ball in the bag too.

Here we have the Body pieces. There are two each of the Body Types A, C and D. There are 4 of Body Type B.

Here we have the Guard should pads.

The heads included are three of each of the following: Crane, Quadeye, Radar, and Slim. Then two Tank heads. Also on this sprue is a metal plate (x3)

Legs, two of each set.

MANTIC UPDATE: Mantic Open Day Dreadball pics

Originally, I saw these posted on the Dreadball Fanatics page on Facebook, by one of the group members (I won't post his name here out of respect for it being a closed group--though a thousand thanks to him and everyone who is posting the pics). Here are some of the pics:

Really like the look of pretty much everything, but especially the Koris! Very excited to get the next wave of the Kickstarter! Hopefully it will be here by early next month.

Then there were a lot posted at: https://imgur.com/a/bkc40#66 . Here are the DB ones I saw:

Hopefully there will be more revealed soon!

TEAM: Ro-Tek Brutes (Mechanites team - beta)

http://quirkworthy.com/2015/04/18/another-dreadball-team/

Very cool, build-your-own robots!

That is all I know so far! :-)