Anybody here play Guild Ball?

>You can find it discounted from GameNerdz and the like.
Any other page? maybe one that can ship to this hellhole called Chili?

why I fool myself. I know that only by concept of shipping and other extra charges I'll be paying about twice the value of the box and not get me started with the horrible customs service.

I enjoy the few games I have played of it.

Got some local guys that are considering running 'seasons' with the first few weeks being an open play time where people just getting started can jump in and play just to get into the feel of the game and then everyone else who wants to play the tournament can jump into a double elimination tournament with random draws for opponents to set-up the bracket.

I don't like that everyone is a special charater so i can't make my own team and have a team that feels like it's mine.

What the fuck are you talking about?

I understand that they are all unique characters with special abilities and what not, but you find a team that has an overall tactic you enjoy, cobble it together from the people who you like the abilities of, and that is now YOUR team.

I think that he means that you can't make up a backstory for every single model as they are supposed to be specific individuals already. Hardly a complaint of course. The game is far less boring than Blood Bowl regardless of whether you can put your OC donut steel in it.

>
What are you talking about?

The wonderful narrative of giving a lineman block and then hopefully guard.

I was curious about guild ball, because I love the synergistic play style of warmachine. The fact that it's a SPORTSBALL game kind of ruins it for me though. I prefer to keep sportsball out of my tabletop games.

It's pretty neat. Going to a tournament this weekend in South England, reasonable communities over here.

It's basically to Blood Bowl, what Warmachine is to 40k. It's a much stricter, leaner ruleset with zero ambiguity and encourages you to combo yourself into winning points.
Character interaction is everything and you have to plan out exactly who is going to activate, when, what resources they need to do it and how that all combines into a win.
Alternate activation then takes a big shit all over that and forces you to react against your opponent.

You can score points by goals or by kills. Different guilds and lineups naturally gravitate towards one or the other, so you might have 2 games going on at the same time; trying to score goals while simultaneously avoiding the pain train.

Fairly simple rules with massive depth. The big wins are all dependent on stacking pushes, pulls, plays and Heroic actions to position yourself.

A cool point is the twin-resource system.
Your team generates Influence at the start of your turn. This is then allocated and spend for 'big' actions like making attacks, sprinting or using abilities.
As you go, certain actions generate a secondary resource called Momentum. This is used to influence rolls, remove conditions, heal or make Heroic Actions. It resets every turn and any excess is turned into a bonus for going first next turn.

All the teams are named after different Guilds and can play massively differently depending on your lineup.
For example, Butchers are all about the kill-game and use the ball almost solely for Momentum generation.
On the other hand, Engineers are all about ball positioning and wombo-combo activations that all work into a football game.

Also the models are gorgeous.
It's really fun.

Guild Ball is pretty much Blood Bowl under Warmachine/Hordes-style rules, down to the point of poaching members from WMH's team.

It's pretty casual; rules aren't that punishing, luck is less of a factor, and games generally flow out pretty quickly. They also let you print everything to test play it.

The bad part is that it's obviously trying to siphon players from a smaller game, and it is only a testbed for Steamforged; they have another miniatures IP in the pipe and this is essentially their kickstarted beta test.

The biggest problem is trying to find somewhere (or someone) to play with. My local stores do not have any night to play it anymore, and despite the game being a few years old, nobody stocks any of it on the shelves because nobody is buying or playing it.

A lot of people aren't fan of the "sports" game either. Blood Bowl thrived because it's the biggest miniatures IP making a spinoff. But games like GRIND (Privateer Press) don't do well because people don't care enough to want to play it.

>only a testbed for Steamforged
Interesting. Have they said what they are doing? The game designers clearly know their shit, but I am curious as to what they are planning. And I feel the same way. I would like to play the game more, but my local store doesn't have weekly nights anymore. Back to Malifaux for now I suppose.

It is sportsball in the same way Rocket League is a soccer game.

It's a sports game where goals don't matter except for one team. It's background is shitty. Bloodbowl and dreadball are better at the sports part, but guildball is new and pretty and is a minis game instead of a pretty game, so it's easier to get miniatures players into it.

Instead of a board game. I'm dumb

Aren't they on their third season of this game? Don't they routinely update roster cards and balance it out each season? Hasn't the two player intro game been selling out like fucking crazy?

I am pretty sure Guild Ball is steamforged's BIG game at this point. Hell, there 'new game' is nothing more than a strange as fuck drafting game for guild ball and for some reason they list Kick Off as a different game when it is literally a two player complete starter game for Guild Ball.

The only other game I am seeing them talk about is Dark Souls which isn't in competition with them at all.

Goals matter for every team except Butchers, and even then they need the ball for momentum, teamwork actions or simply preventing counter-goals. Maybe you're just playing against retards.

> 'Every game is 3-0' teams
Alchemists, Engineers, Fishermen

> 'Still need 1, ideally 2 goals' teams
Hunters, Masons, Morticians, Union

> '6 kill win' teams
Butchers, Brewers

>people complaining about fluff when it's a fucking game that you don't have to involve yourself in at all like a video game.

The background isn't fantastic, but it's workable.
One of the stories has a named, playable character being mauled to death, during a game, by a bear.
At least they aren't afraid to move the story forwards. Multiple characters have died since S1, some of them even Captains.
Plus they had the whole 'Butchers Civil War' thing where players could influence the story and the direction of the team.

>Goals don't matter except for one team

What the fuck are you on about?
Beating an opponent's figures down is indeed a good tactic, but more games are won from goals than anything else because of the points for goals being double what you get from knocking someone out (which takes some work and then they just come back at about half health next turn anyway. Now mascots aren't even worth those two points and are just worth 1 so picking on the weak creature is no longer an effective strategy).

Morticians - High influence and steal influence from other players

Brewers - Tanky bastards

Masons - Strong all around but don't really excel at anything

Engineers bots - Combo heavy long shot machines that can't fight for shit

Fishers - Running like the god damned flash, slippery like eels, can't take a lick for shit

The guilds are all different in theme and execution, but let's be clear, if you don't make shooting goals or keeping possession of the ball a priority you are going to lose 100% of the time.

They haven't announced their new IP yet. However, one of the more prominent Privateer Press creative guys is working for them now. I don't have the exact sources but the Nov2016 Who Cares Who Wins podcast mentioned the new product line, and SFG in the past has stated their new IP is "not sports related but was sci-fi in nature."

You don't hire a rival's Creative Director as your "Development Manager" for a 3 year old sportsball game.

>Making a sci-fin non-sports game

That's fine, but it is a far fucking cry different than a competition for Guild Ball in-house and hardly makes GB some kind of beta test for it.

...I know you don't have much insight into design with companies. :^)

But, let me spell this out for you.

>make a sportsball game that uses similar rules to WMH
>hire WMH's creative director for your new IP
>.... develop a full miniatures IP from scratch?

> Alchemists
Poison / Burn effects, terrain effects, hard to hit, superstar captains, excellent ball game, fragile

> Brewers
Tanky, pushes and knockdowns, long reach, high momentum, high damage, aura effects, slow

> Butchers
Brutal kill team, fast, stabby, bleed effects, poor ball game

> Engineers
Ball control, passes, unexpected goal angles, combo stacking, tough, ranged game, terrible damage output

> Fishermen
Best ball game, high speed, dodge spamming, long reach, awful damage output

> Hunters
Snares and debuffs, best ranged game, ignore terrain, deploy traps, dodges, limited roster

> Masons
Jack of all, Master of none, use abilities to play whichever game their opponent cannot, stacking auras and buffs

> Morticians
Denial, fucking around with enemy resources and activation order, pushes

> Union
Every character is so specialized that a general overview is not possible; extreme specialists that do their job exceptionally well

>They haven't announced their new IP yet. However, one of the more prominent Privateer Press creative guys is working for them now. I don't have the exact sources but the Nov2016 Who Cares Who Wins podcast mentioned the new product line, and SFG in the past has stated their new IP is "not sports related but was sci-fi in nature."
They actually did a soft announcement for the new game in their SteamCON Keynote speech. It's a fantasy skirmish wargame with a strong, built in focus on campaigns. Not sure where you're getting the sci-fi bit; they described the fluff in small detail in the speech and it sounds very very fantasy from here.

That said, I am not remotely convinced that it is designed to be a replacement for Guild Ball. Time will tell, sure, but I'm not so cynical as to think that a company which has gotten basically everything right so far is going to sell out just because they're making a new game and not sticking exclusively to their first.

The only implication about the new IP replacing Guild Ball is that this new IP will be their flagship. And that Guild Ball was their testbed for getting a system and mechanics established. Mat Hart's stated directly that the games can "learn from each other". (He was also the one that mentioned sci-fi, so, maybe sci-fi fantasy?)

Right, because you're implying half dead characters don't just immediately die again. Oh, and not only did I get points for killing your dudes, but I crippled your team so you can't get goals anyway.

>Right, because you're implying half dead characters don't just immediately die again. Oh, and not only did I get points for killing your dudes, but I crippled your team so you can't get goals anyway.
I know Veeky Forums is bad at games but goddamn man this is sad.

The only team whose best gameplan to get to 12 points involves six takeouts and no goals are the Hunters. Every other team -- Butchers INCLUDED -- will be looking to score at least one goal. A beater team like the Butchers and Brewers will get four takeouts, gain a dominant center board position, and close the game out by scoring a tap-in goal with that dominant position. (The Hunters, incidentally, can't really do that because they have shit board presence and are only really capable of slowly grinding their opponents down through attrition.)

Similarly, the only team whose best gameplan to get to 12 points involves three goals and no takeouts is Shark led Fishermen. Every other team, including Corsair led Fisherman, are going to be looking for at least two takeouts.

It is very, very much a game of getting both goals and takeouts. Goals are enormously more efficient at scoring points both on per activation and a per influence measures. Takeouts have the additional benefit of improving your relative board position, but are more costly in terms of resources spent to points gained.

If you don't believe me, go watch the pro's play. The world championships were won with 2 goals and 2 takeouts in the final match.

Stop sending icy sponged characters right back at the thing that killed them. Ressurected characters should be used initially as a flanker or back line defense.

Additionally, if that's not enough, consider the following S3 changes:

1. Every player has more health on their 1st icy sponge token. Every single one, across the board. They all come back with more health.

2. Mascots only give 1 VP when you take them out now, so beater oriented teams have a harder time getting to 12. Additionally, they also have icy sponges and can come back on the board after dying, so no more permanent activation and influence advantage for killing your opponent's mascot.

3. When making a goal shot while within 4" of the goal, the target number is decreased from 4+ to 3+. Basically, they made the plot card Tap In a universal rule. Now even characters with 2 dice on their kick can reliably (~90% chance) score goals if they can get close enough to the goal.

4. The player going 2nd in the turn now gets a free momentum, which greatly benefits ball oriented playstyles by allowing that player to threaten a first activation score. And ball oriented playstyles do often find themselves going second because the ball doesn't offer as much momentum as beating on people does.

So yes. The game has become even more ball reliant in season 3.

I have to apologize. I forgot season 3 was out. Earlier version of the game chased me away. Those changes sound like maybe it's a ball game instead of a punching game now

Cheers man, I hope it works out better to your taste now. I've only managed to get in one game with the new S3 rules and I do have to say many of these changes were ones I never knew I needed. I thought the game was great beforehand, but it's definitely even better off now.

Another thing, just to jump back in sorry, could be that if you played early on in S1 then you probably experienced a very immature meta. It's pretty interesting to see how the meta played out -- for example, at the start of S1 Boar was considered possibly the most overpowered model in the game because he's so brutal and does so much damage, but by the end of S2 Boar was considered so underpowered that he received a sizable buff going into S3. The Butchers were thought unstoppable in S1, but then the Union eclipsed them, and in S2 so did the Fishermen, the Alchemists (thanks to Smoke) and of course the Morticians. And the Brewers, the other major beater oriented team, ended up solidly in the bottom half of the bunch with their most competitive builds being their ball oriented builds using Esters, Mash and Friday.

The game definitely started with a very beater-leaning meta, but it shifted solidly towards a mixed meta as time went on.

That's fair. Season one left me with a very bad taste in my mouth. I'll dip my toes in again, see if I like it better now

I generally like the differences between Guild Ball and Blood Bowl but the main thing that I dislike -- and it's a thing that's unfortunately become a trend in games in general -- is the lack of player creativity.

Blood Bowl is/was a game that encourages players to make shit up for their players and team. It's filled with narrative mechanics to help it a long. This is one of the primary appealing factors of Blood Bowl to me: Playing a league is almost like roleplaying the coach of the team rather than just playing as. Seeing Bumfuck McYordie growing to be this great players means so much more because he's mine and I have decide what he's like.

Guild Ball really doesn't seem to scratch that itch with all the named characters. Am I wrong about Guild Ball? Could anybody with some experience confirm or deny if it's like this in practice? Does anybody have the same feeling about how games are designed in general lately?

Play for the game. I never understood this obsession of fluff with games.

besides, BB players are expendable as fuck.

I'm not so sure I agree. I mean most of the creativity in blood bowl is 'put block on man, then either dodge or guard depending on their agi'

Could use some help. So a couple of my friend and I got into GB and play Hunters (me), Fishermen, Morts respectively. At first, I was pretty dominant playing into both of them, but as we got better and utilized momentum plays more, I felt like I was getting left behind. The lack of 2" reach and KD is feels very limiting against Fishermen, who will either dodge out after I hit them. When playing into Morts, I feel like I can only remove so many models before getting overwhelmed. Killing Cosset is easy, but Casket/Ghast muck things up in my killing game. I'm pretty good at using snares and character plays, but fuck do Hunters suck as scoring (new Hearne is pretty exciting right now). I know that Hunters are not on the top of the power curve, but any good Hunter players willing to give some tactics to get over this slump I am in?

Eight out of the nine guilds in Guild Ball are thoroughly, eminently balanced. A player could pick any one of those eight and get a very well balanced guild even on a competitive level.

You... you chose the ninth. And I'm sorry. Hunters are... I could give you the euphemisms, I could say they're "hard to learn", I could say that they're very rigid in their game plan, and these are all true statements, but let's face it they suck. They really do.

They're not unplayable, it is not the end of the world, they just don't have a functional identity and have approximately two viable builds in season three both of which involve ignoring what most people think is the crux of the guild, but at least it does somewhat work if crudely.

So, here's my tips, from one disgruntled Hunter player to another:

1. Stop using character plays. They're bad. They really are. Theron's, in particular, are really atrocious, because you need to plan to make them work but then there's that ~10% chance for them to miss and now you've spent a huge amount of resources to do nothing. Boom Box is the only character play I use any more, and then only sparingly. Similarly, stop focusing on Blessing of the Sun Father because it's rarely worth the effort. If it fits in your plan already then go for it, but don't alter your plan to make it work.

2. Stop using Zarola, Egret, and Hearne. They just are not very good. Zarola can't do anything meaningful outside of Midnight Offering, Egret is just flat out bad, and Hearne is schizophrenic with his design just being all over the place and not being able to accomplish anything with his activations. I'd feel so much better about Hearne if he were 1/4 Inf, but oh well he is still 1/3.

3. Focus on melee. Theron is actually very, very good in a scrum. Jaecar is the same monster he has always been. Fahad can charge without fear thanks to the mascot changes. The new Seenah is very viable. The new Minx is arguably one of the best characters in the game right now. And Chaska is not bad on a charge either. The Hunters are not a toe-to-toe standup fight kind of guild, their entire model range is squishy as hell, but you want to do hit and run fadeaway tactics on any exposed or isolated enemy while spreading snare everywhere and using pushes to keep enemies isolated and keep your models safe.

4. Keep an eye out for a game winning score. You can't really plan or expect to be able to do this, unlike other beater teams, because your hit and run tactics involve ceding control of the center of the board, but you do have a lot of highly mobile characters which can conceivably carry the ball into tap in range and win you the game. Jaecar and Minx are perfect for this, what with their momentous dodges and 9" sprints, and Avarisse & Greede are also tailor made for a game ending dunk if you bring them over Minx, and sometimes even Theron or Chaska find themselves pushed up enough to be able to do it too. Don't expect it, don't kill yourself forcing it, but if you see the opportunity then go for it.

I really like the following lineup, and you should give it a shot:
Theron, Fahad, Jaecar, Chaska, Seenah, Minx

It's very, very brutal and a lot of fun. I still wouldn't take them to a tournament, but at least it holds its own in casual games.

>That goal

Thanks.

I've more or less figured as much for Zarola and Egret. My biggest issue with the Hunters is how much they want to fuck you over with order of activation if you want to use their abilities. Blessing of the Sun Father and Midnight Offering mess up your game plan so much, that the negatives outweigh the advantages. Why they did not give Theron a Legendary play is way beyond me. Absolutely no reason for him not to have one, when every other captain has one.

My worry with playing punching Hunters is 1" reach, average speed, and lack of KD. Pinned is a good ability, but then they nerfed Theron's forest, cause fuck him apparently. I am actually trying Hearne out a little more, because the slight buff of 6" kick is one that makes him a possible scoring threat. I need to pick up Minx, but she was on my list to pick up.

Hopefully the new models for Hunters answers a lot of their short comings.

No problem. Hearne is... he's a mystery, isn't he? My main issue with him is that I just don't know how he should be used. He's got a momentous 2 on 2, and a momentous 3 on 4 so he should be a damage dealer... but he can only hold 3 influence, so three attacks at max. He only has a Tac of 5, so he's not getting that high up his playbook either, not without support. He can play support with that KD on 3, that Singled Out on 1, and even access to snare through Skewer, but none of this is going to generate momentum. He should be mobile and flexible thanks to forest jump, but in practice he gets telegraphed hard when you try to use that. And then he's got Blessing of the Sun Father, but that's go its own can of worms.

I just... I never feel like he earns his keep. His design is just all over the place. If he were 1/4 I'd be much keener on using him because then he realistically could single his target out and then hit the top end of his playbook for high damage, but as it is unless someone else has supported him then his damage isn't that great and having him doing the support is inefficient compared to Avarisse due to the lack of momentum.

Great model, though. Was a joy painting him.

So when you do score with your Hunters, how does it usually pan out, and who do you score with? A majority of my goals have come from Jaecar, which pisses me off because I would rather be punching models with him. Not loading him with 4 influence to dodge around and shoot.

I hear you on Hearne. I want to like him so much, but TAC 5 influence 1/3 is a kick to the nuts. I love his model, which makes it all the worse.

It's usually Jaecar that I score with, yeah. Late game Jaecar starts ranging far and wide, and once I've got 4 takeouts he will scoop up the ball and hoof it to the goal. I never trade him, mind you -- if Jaecar gets TO'd you're in a very bad spot because the threat of getting Jaecar'd is just about the only thing that keeps most opponents in check. If Jaecar goes for a goal drive, it's for the points that win me the game.

That said, I have had Chaska and Theron both accomplish the same thing if it's late game and they happen to be in the right position. They aren't nearly as mobile, so it's harder, but possible. And Minx looks like she'll be every bit as good at it as Jaecar is, too, thanks to her fucking absurd charge range against wounded models. But in general, it's the same thing Butchers do with Shank -- an opportunistic long range goal to bring you from 8 points to 12.

No, what you do is make something to take a bite out of Warmahordes which is a different gaming model.

There is no mystery here. Both are established and it will expand upon WMH's mechanics more than it will expand on the mechanics of Guild Ball.

You are showing you don't understand the concept of what a beta test is.

Using a similar design for a different game is the typical stance for such games, but implying one game is a beta test for another is hinting at the new game replacing the old and since they will be serving two totally different game types that isn't the case at all.

that goal is fucking legit. I planned on making some custom themed goals myself. Don't know if I've got the skill to pull something like that off

I choose to actively ignore the lore beyond the most basic premise behind the game. I started trying to follow along with the plot and it's a damn fustercluck. I know the game is inherently violent, but I think it's kinda of dumb to kill off your characters left and right when you barely have any to work with

A while ago someone posted a fantastic guide on how to play the Fisher's guild, but I didn't save it and can't remember it. There was some model or two that would form a crux of models and I wanted to pick him up, anyone keep that?

I would also be curious about this. The only team I have right now is the Brewer's Guild and I was looking at picking up Fisherman's and Engineer's next

Looking at the differences between the seasons and season three does seem to have the best ruleset with a focus on goals being pretty damn necessary.

The mascots getting an icy sponge value as opposed to just being removed from the game before and not coming back allows you to use their effects better and only being worth 1 VP if taken out means it isn't too painful to lose them (especially with some that explode or cause boosts when taken out).

What team has the best mascot?

You can get an existing goal marker and buy the cow as part of the Warhammer Giant kit or seperately

I... What? I know this is bait but jeeze that's pretty strong.

>PVC doesn't cut the mustard from a modeling standpoint

The shafted weapons are pretty damn bendy on the plastic models in the Kick Off game box, but the model detail is pretty much identical and the flash is there but barely.

So, quality plastic minis can be done in regards to detail, if that is what you are worried about.

I am hoping they make the minis drastically cheaper or slap together complete teams when they transition, personally. For example make the minis $2 a pop or charge $30 for a team with a captain, a mascot, and four members and break that into two different sets so you can get a whole team for $60 right off the rip.

GW players, man. They are fucking morons in regards to everything else minis related for the most part.

They are also drastically different games and based on two totally different sports, however, on a fundamental level one is a game that is excessively dependent on on luck (BB) and the other is not as tethered to luck anywhere near as bad (GB).

A lot of people compare guild ball to blood bowl. Which to me doesn't make much sense since the only thing they share in common is that it's a miniature game about a sport. It's not even the same sport. Beyond that the two really don't have anything in common. The dice are different, the amount of them are different, how players activate, how they move and make attacks, how you win, the number of rounds, the number of models on a team, takeouts etc.

A lot of people also make analogies between warmachine and 40k. Which is fine but again I don't think those two are the best examples. I think the best way of thinking of it is that it's a mix of warmachine and malifaux.

It has the solid rule systems of warmachine which lends itself well to tournament play. As well as the a lot of the fun a flavor of malifaux while also incorporating it's i-go-you-go style of activations. This gives it a better level of engagement, for me at least, then warmachine. Beyond that guild ball has a number of unique mechanics to it that are quite fun and give it a lot of strategic depth. For example the way playbooks work. When you roll an attack the more dice you have the better but it's not just about winning through wieght of dice. You don't kill someone because you got enough success. Every success you get just adds more options for what you can do. Sometimes the result you need might be towards the beginning of the play book instead of towards the end, or you really want that high damage hit but it's not momentus so you choose less damage to get that MP. The fact that it adds a level of decision making to the game makes the game more fun and interesting.

And it's not just the playbook. It's things like when to save mp vs holding it for initative. Where to spend mp. Choosing who's activating next. Deciding how to allocate influence at the start of the turn. Balancing the setup of buffs while trying to get your plan off with your opponent trying to disrupt your plans.

It's not like they outbid Pp and stole him away, he had already left PP and was self employed. It's more like it was an opportunity grab, they had the money and he had a need.

I would normally be against PVC, but as you pointed out things are getting much cheaper. Kick Off legitimately did pass on the discounts to us, and if things stay cheap then I won't have any problems with it.

I would probably but brewers in the 1 goal area. They have some pretty good strikers with Friday and spigot. Also the only team that really wants to go 3-0 is shark led fish. Even with midas I usually go 2-2 (or 2-1 with vKata), and engis can actually put out a decent amount of hurt. Although that tends to be pin vice more than ballista.

Drinks Like A Fish:
Esters, Quaff, Mash, Friday, V. Spigot, Harry the Hat

I cannot wait to play this team.

I kind of want to try this... I'm wondering what Pintpot will bring to the table. Just preordered him last night. Thinking of picking up Granite for the fuck of it too. May as well start picking up some Masons

...

> Scum
Stupidly mobile, tandems with your striker to make a genuine goal threat.

> Coin
Bag of Coffers is so absurd that it would make a good Heroic play without a second thought. RIP snek :'(

> Mainspring
Bullshit combo generator. Gets a free 8" pass for zero resources, then explodes and is reforged further upfield for a second activation. Extra hilarity with Pinvice for the pinball approach.

> Mainspring's Playbook is 2 long
> tfw Mainspring gets Overclocked, Tooled Up and Deletion
> Gets 4 wraps on his free charge for 12 damage
> Makes another 3 attacks for 9 damage
> Explodes for 3 damage
> Ratchet just makes a new one next turn anyway

Based roachbot.

>What team has the best mascot?
SALT
The new Salt is so disgusting. This fucking Otter is a better striker than most teams even get in their regular roster. I can't even begin to understand what they were thinking. He's slippery. He's fast. He can very realistically fire off his momentous Where'd They Go? on a charge, with the Tap In buff he's got 90% accuracy on his goal shots even without bonus time, Jac can make him *even more mobile*, and not only do you not care if he gets taken out thanks to the mascot changes but it's actually a beneficial thing for him to be attacked because of the Loved Creature buff.

Salt can score a turn 1 goal. SALT CAN SCORE A TURN 1 GOAL. How many other mascots can claim that? None, that's how many. And not only can he score a turn 1 goal, but it's actually a good idea to, because turn 1 goals are traditionally piece trades, sacrificing the scoring model to the opponent in exchange for the goal, but you don't give a shit if you sacrifice Salt.

I love how Salt went from being the second worst mascot in the game in S1/2, to being arguably the best mascot in S3, with only one non-universal change on its card.

Not to dispute Salt's loving, but Mother can also pull off a T1 goal for Engineers.

Pin Vice uses Alternator. Someone passes to Mother who makes a Teamwork 4" Dodge.
9" sprint, 4" web placement, 1.2" base width, another 1.5" from her own base, and then a 4" Kick.
Healthy 23.7" threat range for her.

Also, anyone with a decent Dodge in their playbook can make scary threat ranged. I learned that the hard way with too many games against fucking Midas.

Where the fuck do you find out what the background story is? All I can find is that there was some kind of civil war with the Butcher's Guild and now Brisket quit the guild after kicking the shit out of Fillet. Apparently a bunch of characters are straight up dead but I can't find a damn thing about it.

Mostly I'm just curious about why Compound is allowed to work for two different guilds other than having chemical powered robot arms or whatever

,>make a fantasy sport game
>the sport theme doesn't show up at all on the miniatures, it's just more generic vanilla fantasy sculpts

How do you even fuck up like that? Was the models designed for something else first, and the ball sport thing was just an afterthought? Or are the developers simply morons?

Mostly, the rulebooks. They have both overarching plots and individual character summaries.

On the website, they split the fluff off of the rulebooks and into 'Background' pdfs. You'll find the Compound fluff there.

The fuck are you even screeching about? The fact that there isn't a ball on every single figure like in Bloodbowl, making your team look fucking retarded when you put them all together because there's a dozen balls everywhere?

They wear rough uniforms. They're all in dynamic poses. You line them up, they look like a sports team. If you can't see that then I'm sorry, you're retarded.

>sport theme doesn't show up on the miniatures

They almost all are wearing similar clothes across their Guild (plate armor for Masons, tartan for Brewers, aprons for Alchemists, etc) and if you aren't retarded you will be painting them their team color or at least all the same color.

that's one thing I hate about Bloodbowl is that half the minis are carrying balls and your whole field looks retarded. I like how Guild Ball has the ball as it's own entity. I think the only model that has a ball actually be part of it is Mainspring and he's basically a mobile ball catapult so it's whatever

>I think the only model that has a ball actually be part of it is Mainspring and he's basically a mobile ball catapult so it's whatever
Limited Edition Flint does too, and honestly it looks really dumb. Flint spends a lot of time with the ball on him, at least compared to other models, and it looks awfully dumb when there's two of them on the floor right next to each other.

But yes, in general it's a very positive thing how the ball is a mini with its own identity, precisely so you don't end up with that Blood Bowl issue.

i never even heard of guild ball before but upon googling the teams theres no way youd know they were meant for some sort of sports game i if you looked at them. so from an impartial observer just scrolling through, youre retarded and the other guy is correct.

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youre going to tell me with a straight face that the guy you are criticizing isnt correctÉ youre objectively wrong, these guys lok like they are straight out of a malifaux game, not models for a sports game.

>youre going to tell me with a straight face that the guy you are criticizing isnt correct
Yes, I am. I am saying exactly that. I am saying, with a straight face, that you and he are retarded.

Seriously, what the hell do you expect here, WoW shoulderpads and anachronistic jerseys on everyone and balls everywhere?

It's a medieval setting. They're wearing uniforms that would make sense in that setting. Exactly what do you want? You're asking for something impossible, ridiculous, and stupid.

being butthurt is no excuse for samefagging

Finally getting around to assembling my Black Friday order -- man that Avarisse & Greede sculpt is incredible. Will post pics once they're done.

What all did people manage to snag in that sale?

Yeah, the High Command games he designed was DOA and he likely took it in the shorts on those for the resource expenditure. Had potential but wasn't satisfying at all.

I missed out on it. Didn't start playing until about a month ago. Did manage to grab almost all the Brewer's Guild and Harry "the Hat" for under $100 at my local game store when they were doing a Christmas thing.

Trying to decide between Butchers, Morticians and Alchemists to start with is hard.

The rules for this seem pretty cool. But man, the art direction does absolutely nothing for me.

Finally got these done. Was interesting working with both their newest sculpts and also their oldest sculpts. They really have improved enormously -- I probably spent more time on each of the three resin KS captains than on all three (four) of the metal figures combined. Tapper, in particular, has this fucking awful cape bit on his back that is just terrible.

I do love that A&G sculpt though. Bombs ahoy, little man.

That sounds like a great deal, depending on how many you're missing. Brewers are all kinds of fun, I enjoy playing them.

All three are great choices. What attracts you to those teams? What are you hoping to get out of your team?

Alchemists and Morts are mostly for the aesthetic, and I like the idea of condition/control play, but I'm not sure I'm a good enough tactician to pull them off. I'm fairly new to miniatures games.

Butchers are more because they seem pretty straightforward, brutality is always a fun fallback

So the metal figures are an improvement? That is nice to hear. I will probably see if there is a scene and try playing fishers.

I would say that the Alchemists, in general, are definitely a bit easier to play than Morticians are. It definitely depends on the build -- they've got a lot of variety, and the new season 3 Midas is just terrifying.

Morticians, especially if you're playing on a clock in a tournament setting, are rough yeah. Obulus's activation in particular could do so many different things.

The Butchers actually get pretty interesting once you're past the pubstomp phase. The Butchers put a ton of strain on your opponent to conform or get crushed, so new players do struggle with them, but once you face an opponent who is wise to their jig it gets to be like fencing. I wouldn't consider them to be straightforward -- hell, at a tournament level of play Ox builds in particular are up there with Obulus led Morticians in terms of difficulty of optimal play.

It's not so much that the metal figures are better as it is that the newer ones are. Most of the Guild Ball range is metal, including all of their new stuff, it just happens that the older models I put together there were three resin limited edition alternate sculpt captains. They're great sculpts, just a pain in the ass to assemble with vents on all the wrong parts of the models.

>so new players do struggle with them
Bleh, rather, new players struggle when playing against them.

Seems like Butchers would be fun all the way through, then. I'm leaning towards trying Fillet, budget allowing. Gonna try and get some vassal games in to try 'em out first though.

The sort of "gain tons of momentum by doing damage, then use it to heal/cure/whatever" playstyle that it seems like they have from reading reminds me of Bloodborne a bit

How do you guys feel about the switch from metal to plastic? I love the metal miniatures. Makes them feel more solid when you're playing with them and to me it gives them character. I'm really concerned because I was super excited for the Farmer's Guild up until I heard they were switching to plastic and it's rumored to be basically the same quality of the Kick-Off box set plastic figures by which I mean not great

Not entirely happy for the same reasons that you have mentioned. If they are cheap then I can deal with it though.

I'd agree with that. I wouldn't pay more than $25-30 bucks for the Farmer's box set with plastic models, and I'll probably wait awhile on pick it up anyway. That said I would have happily shelled out $80 like I did day one for the Hunter's box set if they did it in metal, so hopefully the pay cut on the product will be worth it for Steamforged

I would definitely recommend getting both captains no matter what team you buy -- even if you only have 4 regular players and 1 mascot, just switching captains *drastically* changes your play experience. It's still the Butchers, but now it's a totally different take on them.

Also, make sure to get Minx. She's a Union player who plays for the Butchers, and my god she is so good.

So, Steamforged did say in their SteamCON keynote speech that the Farmers Guild PVC figures will be improved even compared to the Kick-Off figures. Notably, they will have a harder formulation of PVC, with better designed molds. Kick-Off was their first attempt at making hobby quality PVC miniatures and they are continuing to learn and improve their manufacturing process.

My biggest concern, however, is how static the sculpts are getting. Season 1 sculpts, despite often being a PITA to assemble and not always to a proper scale with each other, are often in very excellent dynamic poses. Season 2 saw the release a lot more 'standing still in a pose' miniatures. There were still some damn good and dynamic season 2 minis, mind you, but for every Tenderiser there's a Sakana. And now that they're moving to single piece PVC minis, and you look at that first splash of Farmers from the keynote and... yeah, that's six figures in static poses alright.

I hope it turns out well. I know I won't be preordering anything that is in plastic. I'm willing to give it a shot, but they'll have to prove to me that they can do it right first.

Yeah, I'd ideally grab the starter, fillet, meathook, princess and minx, I think. Am I right in thinking that Butchers probably get the most momentum to play with?