str00dles1 wrote:
Few more questions.



Any firm date on release?

After seeing this, really want to get into it as its two full starters. Plus knowing the board is like a hardcardboard is huge plus.. As much as I like the paper mats, they never last.

Biggest barrier for me was the fact that starters are 3 models, and you need 6, so got to buy the mascot, and 2 more guys.

I see the hunters are a full 6 with mascot, is that the model they are moving to?

 Azreal13 wrote:
Farmers is confirmed. Rumours persist of another guild in the near future alongside them.

 Azreal13 wrote:
Farmers is confirmed. Rumours persist of another guild in the near future alongside them.

 Azreal13 wrote:
Farmers is confirmed. Rumours persist of another guild in the near future alongside them.

SnotlingPimpWagon wrote:
It is 50 pounds.
I doubt Blood Bowl will be more than 60, I'd guess 40 we'll see soon though!

SnotlingPimpWagon wrote:
It is 50 pounds.
I doubt Blood Bowl will be more than 60, I'd guess 40 we'll see soon though!
It has a very different rules set, but it is a fantasy game with a ball
I'm always up for a new good game, but I don't see much of payoff for me to invest anything into guildball so far. apart from time to watch battle reports once in a while.not to say it's a bad game, but no one in Moscow plays it.
Blood bowl we'll be on a shelf with a 20 per cent discount.
Guildball will be more money, delivery time and finding opponents time away.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not claiming one is better, than the other in terms of gameplay. +a 2 player starter set is a fantastic step for any game to take.
I guess, what I'm saying: that all looks great, wish someone would care to sell/play it close by. And I wouldl defiantly want to play at least a demo!

MaxT wrote:
The spelling in the thread title, fix please !

Going forward into Season 3, we wanted to highlight Tapper’s role as the Brewer’s team captain by zeroing in on his teamwork potential. Since teamwork is a bit more captainly than always getting the job done yourself. Much like Harmony, Tapper’s stat line remains very similar except for one very important change: pushing his INF attribute up to 4/5. Note, however, Tactical Advice (Scum) has had a tweak as well. It gives a [+0/+1] INF bonus instead of the [+1/+1] bonus it gave previously, making Tapper less reliant on the exact position his feline mascot. This is still an overall increase to the Influence coaches can allocate him during the Maintenance Phase. We know, it doesn’t seem like we’ve shifted this captain towards being a team player quite yet, but take a look at his Heroic Play, Old Jake’s.

Now the shift should come vividly into focus. Old Jake’s is now limited to other friendly Guild models, but its range has been increased to 6”. Tapper can still trade in [1] Momentum for his team to gain [2] Influence, but that Influence will now need to be shared among other Brewer players. We’ve also moved the Character Play result for Commanding Aura down by one hit, making it easier to trigger with an Attack rather than by spending [2] Influence. There’s a lot there to consider on Tapper. He’s given up the ability to target himself with Old Jake’s, but he now has better Influence generation without Scum around, higher max-Influence, and easier access to Commanding Aura.

These changes will require Brewer’s Guild coaches to rethink this fan favourite captain a bit, but we’re confident they will ultimately love the new Tapper and the opportunities he brings to the field.

The biggest difference for Harmony is her new, restructured playbook. While the core results remain the same (such as her momentous tackle, dodge, and damage results), a momentous Character Play result now appears earlier in her playbook along with more damage results for coaches who want to push for that key take out. This is more achievable than ever before with the addition of Weak Point, which replaces one of her previous characters plays: Scything Blow, giving Harmony a crucial support tool that can benefit the rest of her team and better align her with the Mason’s overall playstyle. With the addition of Back to the Shadows (a 4” dodge at the end of an activation in which she dealt damage), Harmony can now rush in, inflict Weak Point on an enemy model to reduce its armour, and inflict a bit more damage with additional attacks—all before dodging safely away!

Harmony has always had a flair for the spotlight, which was reflected in her difficult to pin down nature from her previous versions. She knew dancing around dangerous opponents was a sure-fire way to entertain the crowd. So if your rivals thought she was tough to pin down before, they’re going to have a much harder time now, thanks to the updates to Acrobatic. Instead of giving her extra defence against Parting Blow attacks, it now grants her an immediate 2” dodge! Not only is it still an extremely useful tool for avoiding Parting Blows but it also adds an amazing tool for coaches to extend her movement and threat range when needed. The final big change to Harmony was to adjust the bonus from the Family (Honour) rule. We’ve doubled the range of the effect to 8” to better pair with Harmony’s extra mobility. That’s right, greater threat range, added defensive abilities, and she can operate farther away from her captain!

All together, these changes make Harmony a great player for any team roster wanting a versatile toolbox on their team with an edge of danger about them!

GUILD BALL


Last week, we dove head first into Kick Off! and Season 3 by looking closely at the changes for Harmony and Tapper (which you can read about here if you missed it). We also talked about the changes to player’s HP tracks, Kick Off!'s health dials, and the Icy Sponge rule. This week, we’re focusing on Mascots since Season 3 has two big rules changes that will impact their role on your team.

We knew many teams relied heavily on their Mascots, thanks to the synergy they bring to the pitch. Because they were some of our most popular and most beloved models, we saw Season 3 as an opportunity to give coaches more ways to get their Mascots into the action, alongside their other teammates. During Seasons 1 and 2, Mascots had a high risk versus rewards playstyle, as they tended to offer great bonuses or augment their fellow teammates, but they were easy to take out. We knew we could adjust the risk versus rewards levels in order to make sure they had a greater impact on each team play. We wanted coaches to have a greater incentive to keep Mascots in the center of all the action.

After thorough playtesting, we felt we came up with a pretty simple solution: give the Mascot players an Icy Sponge icon on their damage circles. Doing so would allow them to come back onto the pitch after they’ve been taken out instead of being removed from the game, This changed Mascots from being a once a game "fire-and-forget" ability to a truly renewable resource for their coach. With the addition of the Icy Sponge icon to their damage tracker, they’ll also be at roughly half HP when they come back (much like the other players), not with just one HP as seen on the Animal Husbandry plot card! That’s right. This means coaches no longer need to agonize over how aggressive they should be with their Mascots. Consider Princess as a quick example. In Season 3, if she’s taken out after assisting Boiler, she can still return to the pitch to lend her assistance to Boiler in future turns!


We know what you're thinking. What about situations where coaches focus on taking Mascots out again and again, using them as VP generators? This brings us to our second rules change for Season 3: Mascots will only generate [1] Victory Point when they are taken out. We knew this change would better reflect their "fragility" and newfound ability to return to the pitch. It also allows Mascot take outs to contribute towards victory without becoming a particularly viable tactic. Yes, you will still be rewarded for taking out a Mascot, and now they will come back with reduced health, just like all players!

Between these two changes, we are certain Guild Ball's gameplay experience will be even more dynamic and exciting in Season 3 and Kick Off!. By augmenting the pitch presence of Mascots and creating a new game state where Mascots play a more active role during the game, we are sure to see an impact to the team building stage. And we cannot wait to see what our coaches come up with for their Season 3 rosters and what new tactics they'll develop over the coming months!

Check back Wednesday for previews of updated Mascot cards and some more examples of what these changes will bring to the pitch!

Monday’s article kicked off mascot fever, which ended up being quite contagious—coaches from all guilds hit the forums to speculate and share their excitement. Clearly the VP change to mascot players coupled with their ability to return to the pitch was a huge revelation for every guild. Well, good news! Wednesday is finally here, which means it’s time for us to double-down and deliver with a closer look at some Mascots cards. Today’s line-up will look at four mascots: Fahad, Salt, Flask, and Princess. but before we dig into each mascot’s unique grit, let's discuss some of the changes these models share.

When we approached Season 3, we looked at all the models in Guild Ball and carefully considered each player's purpose and role for their team. We wanted to make sure we weren’t giving our coaches change for change’s sake. With this goal in mind, it became clear that some of the models didn’t need substantial changes—they were players who already had a clear role and impact on their teams. So we largely left these models as-is with the exception of applying global changes, like the change to the Icy Sponge rule. Many mascots and other models—like Hooper, who was shown off last week—also fall into this category.

Another general global change more specific to Mascot players was predicted by coaches after Monday’s article. These coaches speculated mascots would become easier to take out in Season 3 via reduced Health circles or DEF attributes. And it turns out, these speculations were more than just fever hallucinations! While there are still mascots whose identities are tied to being tough critters, most mascots have indeed had a slight adjustment to reflect the intended difficulty of a 1-VP take out versus a 2-VP take out.

With these changes in mind, let’s dig into card previews, starting with the untamed and always dangerous Hunter’s Guild!

FAHAD—HUNTER'S GUILD

Although Fahad’s only changes in Season 3 are the global changes we just described, the “midnight devil” is one of the mascots most impacted by coming back to the pitch. The Furious and Isolated Target traits combine to make Fahad one of the most dangerous mascots in the game. In Season 3, opposing teams will feel less like players and more like prey, as Fahad goes from being a tactical missile to being a reliable damage-dealer. Altogether, this means Hunter coaches no longer need to look for that one perfect opportunity to launch Fahad at a foe but can instead look for multiple opportunities throughout the game to trade his 1VP for an opponent’s 2VP.

FLASK—ALCHEMIST'S GUILD

In one sense, Flask has had the exact same Season 3 changes as Fahad—the alchemist’s automaton gave up 2 damage circles in exchange for the upgrades to the mascot core rules. But in another sense, the two couldn’t be more different. Sure, Flask will have more opportunities to use an aggressive Intensify, possibly even garnering an occasional take out, but it mostly amplifies the support capabilities his Smoke Cloud Trait will provide. Now that coaches don't have to sweat about permanently losing Flask during a match, Smoke Cloud moves from providing a bit of back-field cover to providing tactical flexibility and support for Smoke, Vitriol, or Mist.

Before looking at the last two mascots, it’s time to talk about another hot topic among coaches: Loved Creature. With the changes to Mascot players, a tweak to Loved Creature was nearly guaranteed. Many guessed that it would have the same effect as before but only occur once per game. After analysis, discussion, and playtesting, however, we’ve gone a different way. We’ve toned down the Loved Creature bonus, but it can now trigger every turn the Mascot takes even a single point of damage from an enemy model.

PRINCESS — BUTCHER'S GUILD

Ah, Princess. She's the best friend a meathead could ask for. Already a great support and damage model, Princess gains a lot of the same benefits as Fahad. By trading in just 2 damage circles to set aside her “missile” status, she has become a more permanent threat. As noted on Monday, she can also support Boiler’s Assist trait turn after turn, and the new Loved Creature fits very well with a mascot who doesn’t mind sinking her teeth into the opposition.

SALT—FISHERMAN'S GUILD

Salt turned in just 1 damage circle for the Season 3 mascot upgrades, and “the rascal” got a secondary benefit to boot! As veteran coaches will quickly notice, Salt has received a change to the attribute bar: [+1/+0”] KICK, as is fitting for the Fishers’ mascot. Before anyone tries to sell this change short, they should note (SPOILER!) Jac still has Get Over Here! [Salt]. This gives Salt a truly massive goal threat range of up to 24” in a team with Jac! Spend just one momentum on bonus time, and Salt has nearly 90% accuracy to boot!

We know these changes will have many of you coaches rethinking your team compositions and playstyles to make the most of these beloved rapscallions for Season 3. Ultimately, they bring a wonderful array of extra abilities and traits to the field for their teams—abilities that no longer leave the pitch permanently after a single take out! We’ve unleashed the tactical potential for these players like never before, so now the choice is yours. Tell us how you plan to make the most these mascots out on the pitch for Season 3!

We’ll be back Friday with a slight change to our schedule. We’ve got one more piece of news related to Mascots. Until then, let the fever consumer you! #MascotFever

OCTOBER 21, 2016
Season 3 Rules Update: Mascots Part 3

GUILD BALL

Earlier this week, we rocked your world with revelations about mascots and their changing role for future games of Guild Ball, covering topics like Icy Sponge, VPs, cranking up Salt’s KICK, and Loved Creature. So what could be left? (If you’re already lost, you need to catch up with Mascots Part 1 and Mascots Part 2.) There’s only one last mascot mystery left to solve, and it’s the Creation character trait, of course!

In Season 2, the Creation character trait allows players such as Ratchet, Silence, and Veteran Graves to return a taken-out mascot to the game during their activation. The rule for Creation in Season 2 reads as:

Creation [Mascot’s Name]: Once per turn this model may spend [2] MP during its activation to remove the taken-out condition from the friendly named model and place it in base contact with full HP. The named model is not allocated Influence this turn but may activate as normal. Models created by this ability do not generate VPs.

So, this nifty trait not only let you bring your handy lil’ buddy back into the game with full health points (which means it’s likely to be spared from immediate obliteration and humiliation) but it also shut down your opponent’s greedy attempt to rob you of an activation. Clearly scarred by the walloping it received, your mascot can’t handle any Influence during its return turn. But that trauma did have an upside. Returned mascots cease to generate VPs for your opponent, and that’s a solid incentive to spend that valuable momentum. For most coaches, this meant the returned mascots became a ‘fire and forget’ missile. And when we looked at the mascots who could be used with Creation—Mainspring, Dirge, and Vileswarm—we saw the ‘fire and forget’ approach was especially true. These mascots give the opposition a tough decision: Sure, taking them out would shut down the tactical advantage these mascots give their team—advantages like the character plays Singled Out or Rabid Animal or the Tackle results early in their playbook, advantages that are all very worth removing. But doing so would come at a cost for the opposition. Shutting down that advantage would mean suffering effects like the burning condition, damage, or losing MP.

With the updated Icy Sponge rules in Season 3, we faced a new challenge. How do you manage to give coaches an incentive to use Creation when every mascot can return to the field after being taken out? We knew we didn’t want to weaken or overpower players with Creation, and we wanted to bring out its strategic value. So we found a simple place to start: Reduce the cost of the trait. Bam! For Season 3, Creation is a Heroic Play, meaning its cost will be reduced to [1] MP.

Keeping the returned models at full HP would give them an advantage over the other mascots (who return at half HP), which is a great incentive. So we kept it. Activating later in the turn and starting in base-to-base contact with the model that uses Creation? That would let returned mascots return to the action straight away to apply crucial Crowding Out or Ganging Up bonuses. Yep, we kept that, too. That just left the VP generation… which we decided to tweak. For an extra dash of strategic depth, we decided to change this part of Creation. In Season 3, returned mascots will generate VPs for your opponents.

Now that you’ve got a general idea for what’s changed, let’s look at the example of Veteran Graves and Vileswarm to see exactly how this has mixed things up.



Other than Creation and the global Season 3 updates, these two Morticians didn't change. As we’ve discussed before, not all players needed adjustments. Veteran Graves and Vileswarm fell into the same category as models like Hooper; they had a defined team role they were fulfilling and they didn’t need it. But that’s not to say that changing Creation hasn’t spiced things up a bit for these two.

Now that Creation is a Heroic Play, Graves can trigger the ability after a single attack, allowing him to immediately gain a Ganging Up bonus from his second attack onwards. Whoa. That means he’s more self-sufficient and MP efficient, and his potential for damage has been ramped up! This gives coaches more incentive to use Vileswarm in tandem with Graves rather than solo as a missile. And it becomes even more interesting when you consider the returned Mascot will generate VP for their opponent. Paired together, the two offer their coaches a significant sink of potential damage for an opponent when combining Packmaster and Noxious Death alongside their native damage output. Of course, if Mortician coaches still want to use Vileswarm as a missile or to get some extra attacks out of the model, we’re sure you can find a way to allocate Vileswarm some extra Influence…



As you can see, carefully adjusting the Creation rule for Season 3 has introduced new tactical choices for coaches, which is precisely what we’ve been after. More strategic choices = more fun! Plus, Creation is now easier to use and still offers an advantage over the regular method of returning to the field. And even better, it adds in an element of risk!

That wraps up our week of mascot updates, but now it’s time to sit back and consider these changes mean to you! Has this gotten your gears turning? Are you considering new ways to use Creation? Does it alter your team composition and strategies? Be sure to let us know on our forums.

We’ll be back next week with more news on Season 3 and Kick Off! Don’t forget to play some Guild Ball this weekend and to snag your ticket to SteamCon!

Before we take a closer look at this week’s topic, we’d first like to apologise for this article’s delay. We ran into some unforeseen complications that resulted in Monday’s article going up a day late. We’ve taken steps to avoid this delay in the future, and to keep our Monday, Wednesday, Friday article cycle on track. Enough about that—let’s get into this week’s theme: Momentum.

One of the most important dynamic elements of Guild Ball is Momentum, and how it can be used to affect the game. Momentum can be used to remove conditions, heal models, help them move over rough-ground, to increase a model’s defence during a Charge, or even to provide that crucial Counter-Attack. It also contributes towards the initiative roll for the following turn, making it an important commodity that a coach doesn’t want to waste or use too much of. Spending Momentum is a gamble, which is what makes spending it such a difficult decision – do you go all out to have that perfect turn, or save it so that you’re more likely to win the initiative roll for the next one?

With Momentum and dynamic gameplay in mind as we started development for Season 3, we saw an opportunity for us to make every coach’s Guild Ball experience even better. This was by tweaking the impact of the initiative roll.


Something which we were keen to address was to underscore the importance of the decision to go first or second, after winning the initiative roll. Throughout Seasons 1 and 2, coaches more often than not would choose to go first. This made sense – it’s a big part of why coaches tried to generate the most Momentum after all. But going into Season 3, we wanted to make this more of a decision, and to give a little more parity to the start of the turn. After all, there’s nothing worse than always being on the back foot during gameplay, and feeling as though you can’t get back into the game. Whilst this doesn’t happen often in Guild Ball, we wanted to minimise the opportunities for it to arise during games.

In Season 3, after the initiative roll is made, the coach that wins the roll is presented with a difficult choice. They can still choose to have the first activation, BUT the coach that goes second starts with [1] point of Momentum. That might not sound like much but just think for a moment… that point of Momentum could be spent on that crucial Defensive Stance, a Counter-Attack to knock down or Push away the opposition, or even to remove the conditions on your model, and get them right back into the action. By choosing to go first, you open up a wealth of tactical opportunities to your opponent, so be sure to choose wisely.

Most coaches walk a fine line, and careful use of Momentum can be the difference between winning and losing a game - learning to use it well is often the first step a coach takes on the path to greatness. What we’ve achieved by making this change is to create a better gameplay experience for all coaches, and to make Guild Ball even more accessible to the newer members of our community.

Check back tomorrow, where we’ll continue our Momentum theme with a look at the ways in which models generate Momentum via their Playbook – including new card reveals for two models that have seen dynamic changes in the Season 3 update!

Yesterday, after learning about the changes to the initiative roll for Season 3, in our previous article we teased that today would look at model Playbooks. Let's start by considering what Playbooks do in Guild Ball. Overall, they give a coach the tools they need to bring strategies into action. For all Guild Ball models, their unique Playbook is tailored to their team role and playstyle by defining their strengths and weaknesses: Do they excel at making Tackles? Causing injuries? Dodging nimbly around the opposition? Or just shouldering opponents out of the way? Their Playbook will let you know. More than that, Playbooks are how coaches will generate most of their Momentum, which makes it a massive strategic element for each model.

Keeping these points in mind, let’s take a look at two examples of models who have changed going into Season 3.

COSSET—MORTICIAN'S GUILD



Cosset is a blade aimed at the opposition’s throat—she's fast, lethal, and fragile. She's had several changes in Season 3, but one of the biggest came about when we took a new look at the Crazy Trait. Crazy is a fun and flavourful rule, but in the past, it was one of those rules that we knew didn’t feel like much of a choice. It almost felt like you had to trigger Crazy each turn to make the most out of models with the rule. Instead, we wanted this to be a key decision for the coach to make from turn to turn. Do you roll fewer dice on the Attack, or do you take the risk and damage Cosset to roll more dice? To implement this shift, we've shortened Cosset's Playbook dramatically. Even without Crazy, she can have a very effective Furious Charge, but when you want her to Attack repeatedly, Crazy is the way to go. As a side point, eagle-eyed coaches will have spotted that she has a higher than normal Recovery Level to take her use of Crazy into account. In addition, Cosset's Damage Support [Dirge] Trait has become Assist [Dirge], further emphasising a coach's choices. Getting Dirge into the action risks the Mascot suffering a take-out, but gives Cosset a decided advantage against an engaged enemy.

On the columns that remain, we've increased her potential damage and Momentum generation. With a whopping thirteen possible dice on a Charge against a model engaged by Dirge (4 TAC, 4 Charge, 3 Crazy, 1 Assist [Dirge], and 1 from Ganging Up), Cosset offers her coach plenty of possibilities when choosing Playbook results. Dishing out a bit of extra damage is the most obvious choice, but that's not the only possibility. The ability to wrap more easily means more Momentum and can even mean more dynamic movement. Against a low-DEF enemy model, the super-charged thirteen-die Charge can yield a pair of Momentous >< results, giving Cosset an impressive goal threat range and generating enough Momentum to Kick on goal with Bonus Time! for a nearly 90% accurate Shot.



MEATHOOK—BUTCHER'S


For Meathook, the focus of the Season 3 changes was to emphasise her unique fighting style. First, we added a new, powerful rule to her card—Hooked! Hooked adds a DEF debuff to each of her Playbook damage results, giving Meathook more flavour. Now, you can really imagine her digging those lethal barbs into her opponents to pin them down for her teammates! Coupled with Crucial Artery and Smell Blood, Meathook has quite a slaughterhouse feel to her, a terrifying proposition for any opponent. We also moved the Playbook trigger for Scything Blow down by one column to give Meathook easier access to the Character Play. (Note, however, that Scything Blow will not trigger Hooked since it is not a Playbook damage result.) Lastly, we added more Push results to her Playbook to represent the way she'll be dragging her opponents all over the Pitch with those grisly hooks.

Of course, this opens up a wealth of tactical options for coaches. They can choose to focus on inflicting maximum damage, disrupting enemy models by dragging them around the Pitch, inflicting the bleed condition, lowering opposing models' DEF with Hooked, or some combination of the above. A single model can never do it all, however, and she does need some help from her team. In Meathook's case, we've changed her INF to 2/3. She's still highly effective at enabling the team through Tooled Up and now Hooked, but you'll frequently want to rely on other members of the Butchers roster for the take-downs. Still, even with a maximum of 3 Influence, Meathook is a powerful offensive threat who opponents would be wise to remember due to the combination of Crucial Artery, Hooked, Smell Blood, and Scything Blow!

With Cosset and Meathook, you can get a better idea for how thematic changes can really make the game more fun, and throw in new strategies for Mortician and Butcher coaches alike. With the change to Season 3 fast approaching, let us know what changes you can't wait to see on our forums or social media! Check back Friday, where we'll take a look at one of the new formats for Organised Play.

BUTCHER'S GUILD - CIVIL WAR
The disappearance of Ox, and subsequent arrival of Fillet, have caused a rift in the Butcher's Guild. The team is torn down the middle, as players pledge allegiance to the new captain Fillet, or remain true to the Master Butcher's family and follow Brisket. The Butcher in-fighting is looked upon by hungry eyes as a way to gain favour and influence in the Empire of the Free States. Even players from other Guilds can see the opportunity for advancement.

For the first time ever you can influence the Story for Guild Ball!

We are running a community driven event where the result of your games directly influence the outcome of the Butcher Civil War. Simply pick a side either 'Team Fillet' or 'Team Brisket'. Any guild can participate, not just the Butcher's Guild!

Whenever you play a game of Guild Ball you are fighting to increase your chosen side's control of the Butcher's Guild. After your game, if you win, you need to submit your victory via the form below.

The Control of the Butcher's Guild info-graphic will be updated daily.

Submissions for the Civil War will end on Thursday 24th November 23:59GMT - the final reckoning and outcome of the event will be announced at SteamCon.

Azreal13 wrote:

http://steamforged.com/butcher-civil-war

Interestingly, if you watch the images scroll, there's a Fillet, Brisket and a third image of a male silhouette, I'm not sure if that's supposed to be Ox, or there's a clue there?

infinite_array wrote:
It seems like every change I see to the Masons gets me closer to selling the team. There's been a lot of nerfs, and it's not like they've been nuts on the power scale. And all of the so-called "improvements" are such mixed-bags, like Tower and Marbles. Ugh.

Obviously, Boar has had some changes going into Season 3; we’ll talk about his general survivability first. You’ll notice that, like many of you have asked for, he’s gone up to DEF [3+]. One of the problems Boar had in Season 2 was the issue of providing easy momentum for your opponent, and this change helps prevent that being as much of an issue.

This goes along with him trading Regenerate for Life Drinker. We just felt that this change not only lets him heal more, but it’s far more thematic for the Beast!

The final part of this change is that Boar has had his HP reduced by a couple of points. The point of these changes wasn’t necessarily to make him much harder to kill. He’s a Butcher, after all. The Butchers have always been the most overtly ‘killy’ of our teams, and their weakness has always been that they can’t take as much of a beating in return. We weren’t trying to make Boar more of a tank, since he’s not supposed to be one, BUT he did need to get that [+1] DEF to help him in the game. Reducing his HP by a couple of points was the way we felt we could bring all this together.

He has also lost Hamstring. This change ended up coming about because we wanted to make Concussion something Boar was likely to be able to use, so we moved the double GB symbol down his Playbook so he could trigger it more easily. However, at that point, Hamstring started feeling redundant. It was rare anyone ever triggered it, when KD is on the same column, and Concussion is one higher. In the end, he didn’t feel like he was gaining anything from having it, so we simply removed it.

The second really significant change to Boar is that his Playbook has been shortened by a column.

One thing which we didn’t fully realise in S1 when we were originally writing the game, was that TAC = Playbook length presented some problems. It meant models with low TAC values were very likely to wrap, if you could apply a Charge, or some other TAC bonuses. It also meant that some models (such as our lad Boar here) almost felt like they were being punished for having a high TAC, as they were much less likely to wrap.

With this in mind, we’ve had a look at every model’s Playbook, particularly those with high TAC, and adjusted them accordingly. Not all models with high TAC (including models with Crazy) have had a change to their Playbook, but many have. You’ll remember Cosset has a shorter Playbook now, just like Boar. This is one of those things that happens when you have such a deep, interactive game as Guild Ball; over time, you end with in some situations that the original designers couldn’t possibly have predicted. We can, however, adapt to these situations and make the game even better as a result!

So, there you have it! Boar, as brutal, bloody, and terrifying as ever! Will he help #TeamBrisket wrest control of the Butcher’s Guild away from #TeamFillet? Or will his particular brand of deranged savagery be cut off by the cold steel of the Flashing Blade?

 Azreal13 wrote:

infinite_array wrote:
It seems like every change I see to the Masons gets me closer to selling the team. There's been a lot of nerfs, and it's not like they've been nuts on the power scale. And all of the so-called "improvements" are such mixed-bags, like Tower and Marbles. Ugh.

All I'd say is, as with every other edition change in every other game, until we've got all the facts it is difficult to make calls out of context. Steam forged have been a steady hand on the tiller, by and large, so far, so don't get too despondent.

Welcome, traveller. You have wandered far, to cross into the great forests and tundra of the north. It’s good to see you, even cold and wet as you are now. Take off your coat, drop your weapons in the basket by the door. No, don’t worry, you won’t need them. You’re a guest here.

You’ve come for tidings of the Great Bear? The champion of the north? Well, he’s changed. He’s stronger now. Which is better for us, at least. Not so much for those puling maggots in the southlands, eh? All weak, pink, and soft, ha!? Ah, those southerners. All so interested in their little politics and their silly games, none of them with half an eye to spare for the things that matter; the growing trees, the sap in all living things, the first frost of winter.

Pah. Well, traveller, settle in, grab a drink, and let’s get to business…

When we first designed Seenah, we wanted him to be, well, a bear. A big beast of a bear, perfectly willing and able to rip his enemies limb from limb. Whilst we certainly achieved that, and plenty of players have since fallen to the Great Bear, in Season 3 we had the opportunity to further enhance his unique character, and make it even more fun to play him. We still wanted Seenah to be an absolute monster in terms of damage output (and keep his 21 boxes of Tough Hide!), but knew that we could push him into even more fearsome territory, just as a player like the Great Bear should be.

The first thing you’ll notice is that his Playbook has been shortened and changed. He’s now more likely to wrap, and he hits a momentous [2] DMG result on column 3 now, as opposed to having to wait until column 5 for higher than [1] momentous damage. That’s pretty scary, and definitely something which makes him instantly more appealing to Hunter coaches!

He has also gained a new Character Trait, called Intimidating Roar. This means that if the enemy team try to engage Seenah, he can Push a model away at the start of his activation. This ability makes him much more likely to be able to make use of Furious, allowing him to Charge for free - not only is Seenah’s damage output now higher, but he’s much harder for an opponent to control, making him much more of a terrifying enemy on the pitch!

The final change is that Mob Favourite has become part of Bear Hug. We really wanted to simulate a sense of a grand finishing move, Seenah crushing his bloody opponents whilst the crowds roar their approval from the stands. The answer was to fold these two rules together, to create a brutal finale to the Great Bear’s attacks.

So, you can see the ways in which we’ve pushed Seenah’s damage output up and helped him disengage himself, deliberately strengthening his strong points whilst still preserving the flavour of the model. An easy thing to do would be to simply have given him [+1/+0] INF – but that change would have done little to preserve the uniqueness of the player. Sometimes when we design a model, it does need to be DEF [4+] ARM [1], or [2/4] INF, because those are reliable values we’ve used a lot and know work. Sometimes, however, we can make attribute values that are much more characterful and interesting for those key players that are a little bit different to the rest – and Seenah is a great example of that.

But that’s something you’ll see more of next year.

Let us know what you think of these changes right here or on our social media!

As ever, I’ll be around in this thread for a while to answer any questions you might have. Please don’t forget Steamcon tickets are only on sale until this Sunday (13th November) so if you’re still on the fence, don’t miss the chance to get down and play the very first games with your brand new Season 3 cards! Tickets are available here: http://steamforged.com/steamcon-tickets/

Cheerio all, happy hunting!

 infinite_array wrote:

 Azreal13 wrote:

infinite_array wrote:
It seems like every change I see to the Masons gets me closer to selling the team. There's been a lot of nerfs, and it's not like they've been nuts on the power scale. And all of the so-called "improvements" are such mixed-bags, like Tower and Marbles. Ugh.

All I'd say is, as with every other edition change in every other game, until we've got all the facts it is difficult to make calls out of context. Steam forged have been a steady hand on the tiller, by and large, so far, so don't get too despondent.

Well, the back of Marble's cards also got leaked:

Spoiler:

So the mascot loses Tooled up, which was okay when we though he was getting Counter Charge like Brick, which would have made getting Marbles into position with Honour a little easier. Now it turns out that, for some reason, he needs to be within 4" of Brick to get this. So now if you take any one of Honour, Marbles, Brick or S3 Harmony, you might as well take the rest to get the most out of the team. And they need to stay 4-6" inches of each other to get all these benefits.

Season 3: Fillet and Minx

Conditions are an important part of Guild Ball. They can have a massive impact on the game, and more than that, they’re part of our integral core design for several of our Guilds. The Butchers will bleed you, the Hunters want to snare you in their dangerous traps, and the Alchemists… oh boy, the Alchemists. They’ll poison your poor players, set them alight and burn them, and even bleed you if you’re not careful. These are just some of the obvious examples, but just about every single Guild has methods of inflicting one or more of Guild Ball’s condition effects upon their opponents, and then capitalising on it. As a coach, learning to deal out conditions and how to remove them from your own players is one of the first things you’ll learn once you pick up the basics!

Of course, certain models interact more than others with conditions, whether by placing them on enemy models, or gaining benefits from interacting with enemy models who are suffering certain conditions. For this week’s Wednesday reveal, we’re going to focus on two models that have interactions with specific conditions. The first of these is a model we’ve heard a lot about recently, since she’s currently involved in the Civil War for control of the Butcher’s Guild - it’s the Flashing Blade herself, Fillet!


Fillet is a model we’ve had interesting feedback on since she was released. The queen of the bleed condition is a powerhouse of a player, able to score goals as well as murder the enemy team. With coaches throughout the Empire of the Free Cities all watching carefully, we knew that we’d need to be very careful when we approached making any changes going forward into Season 3, as she existed in an extremely delicate state of balance.

Here’s the great news for those of you on #teamfillet - the front of her card is essentially unchanged. She’s still fast, still agile, and still has her base DEF of [5+]. We didn’t feel that any of those core values needed to change and were very accurate in representing the dangerous woman making her play for the Master Butcher’s throne. For the #teambrisket coaches, we’re sure that you’ll have noticed that Fillet lost a couple of points of HP, though, so she’s a little easier to take out at the end of her murder spree. Fillet coaches will need to weigh the risks of sending her off alone, shifting gears to work more closely with the rest of her team.

Moving over to the back of Fillet’s card is where things start really changing. One subtle change is that Blood Dance has been amended to only trigger on Playbook damage results. Although the rule was functioning as we intended previously, we felt that her ability to get around Character Traits such as Unpredictable Movement via Pain Circle was a little too strong. Depending on other models’ positions, Fillet can still get to evasive players but Butcher coaches will have to think a little more carefully on how to do so.

The next change is to Haemophilia, which now heals Fillet whenever an enemy model suffers the bleed condition within the aura. This actually pairs very nicely with Fillet’s reduced HP to give her a passive healing mechanic which can be triggered by other players – especially easy with Meathook or Boiler on the team. With Fillet’s natural DEF [5+], and access to Character plays such as Swift Stance to increase it further, the Flashing Blade remains a real headache for any opponent to take out.

Whilst Fillet has seen some changes which will no doubt have coaches from all of the Guilds talking, we’re happy that going into Season 3 we’ve kept everything that makes her actually feel like a solid, fun character. We didn’t want to mess with the core design of the model, but we needed to very carefully look at what made the model strong, and the effect the model was having on the game at large. Small changes can be very effective, and a series of small changes can combine to have a big effect.

By making the revisions we’ve seen here, we’ve kept Fillet as an extremely potent murder machine, capable of ruining her opponent’s day with absolute ease - #teamfillet for the Master Butcher’s throne!

The next model we have to show you all today has changed much more dramatically than Fillet has. This is a model we’re particularly excited about, and we hope you all are too. We know Union Players haven’t been getting much love in terms of spoilers up until now, but that’s about to change!

Enter the Feral Hunter, Minx!




Minx is one of the players in Season 3 which has seen the most changes, with an amended Playbook, revised Character Traits, and Character Plays. Although her role out on the field remains as it was previously, she’s really come into her own in Season 3, and we’ve been able to draw out more of her character. Minx clearly has ties to the Hunter’s Guild, even if she’s not a full member - and now that she’s been freed (spoilers! Read the S2 background ), she’s perfectly poised to embrace that side of herself.

This can be seen almost immediately by two of her new Character Traits, Back to the Shadows and Hunter’s Prey, both previously unique to the Hunter’s Guild. With Back to the Shadows, Minx has the ability, like Jaecar and Egret, to retreat away and make a [4”] Dodge at the end of her activation, provided she has damaged an enemy model. Not only does this fit in with her character, a dangerous huntress striking from out of nowhere before retreating to safety, but this grants her a huge amount of mobility, adding to her survivability by helping her get out of enemy threat ranges.

But even more importantly, now, for the first time, several other Guilds have access to the snared condition! Hunter’s Prey gives Minx something important we wanted her to have, which is a utility outside of simply damaging enemy models. While inflicting damage on the enemy team is great, we wanted to give Minx some extra versatility that adds to her flavour as a huntress. Now, by applying snared, Minx helps to support her team, as well as making her better at hunting down the enemy herself!

And if we look at the global change to Screeching Banshee, the bonuses from the snared condition quickly start to look even more deadly! [-1] DEF and [2] DMG, when combined with the extra [-1] DEF from snared is absolutely brutal!

This leads us nicely to Minx’s Playbook, which includes numerous adjustments. The most important change is the dramatically increased amount of Dodge results, all easily accessible throughout the Playbook, and coupled with not only damage but also momentum generation – meaning that unless you specifically wanted that all-important tackle or Screeching Banshee result, then Minx will be dodging about the Pitch with virtually every attack she makes.

Although Minx is now a damage dealer to be feared, with the capability of retreating back to safety after the damage is done, she does still only have 12 HP, making her an easier take-down for your opponent should they get to grips with her, so keep her safe on the flanks or in the shadows! She rewards the kind of Player with the patience and skill to wait for the right moment before pulling the trigger.

A hunter, as it were.

We’ve always tried to stamp the background of Guild Ball into model designs, and Minx is a perfect example of this design principle. Minx was freed by the Hunters in the Season 2 background, reducing her service to the Union, and enabling her to get more in touch with her roots.

Finally, the last thing which we’re sure all you eagle eyed readers out there have noticed is the lack of the Selective rule… Don’t worry, that’s not a typo.

Till next time, let us know what you think of the changes to Fillet and Minx on our Facebook, Twitter, and our forums at Steamforged.com! We’ll see you back here on Friday to discuss Organised Play and the changes to Union models. And if you missed it, join in the conversation about Seenah now.

This is your last week to pick up tickets for Steamcon, so go to steamforged.com/steamcon now and pick up your tickets before it’s too late!

Happy Guild Balling!

Psst. Alchemists. Wanna get some really hot spoilers? Some fresh off the production line, top quality stuff? This is the hottest spoiler we have. It’s literally on fire.

It’s…it’s Mercury. If you hadn’t figured that out by now, then, well, Solthecius love you.


Mercury was an interesting model for us when it came to Season 3. He’s a model who is invaluable in some teams, especially with Smoke, but sometimes gets edged out for other players like Calculus and Venin, due to his low INF of [1/4]. In terms of his abilities, we felt that they all were very much in keeping with his character, the pyromaniac who punishes his opponents with fiery blasts and jets of flame – just that perhaps he needed to be more able to use them out on the pitch. He was at 95% of where we wanted him to be, but he just needed that extra little bump in order to make him perfect. As a result, we’re going to talk about him today in contrast to Seenah, the other model we’ve spoiled on the forums this week.

With Seenah, we wanted to push the boundaries of his deliberate strengths and weaknesses, whilst preserving the model’s flavour and abilities. The changes to the Great Bear were made with careful consideration that he represents an extremely unique character on the pitch. Mercury didn’t need that at all. He didn’t need to have his boundaries pushed; much the opposite, in fact. He’s a perfect example of a player that just needed a few small tweaks, in order to fulfil his role all the better and to remain a strong option for Alchemist coaches.

With that in mind, the changes which we made to Mercury were actually very simple. We reduced Flame Jet to COST [2], and we upped his INF by [1] to [2/4], so that he contributes more towards the rest of the team. He also still has Tactical Advice [Flask], but it’s now changed globally to simply provide [+0/+1].

These changes are all we needed to do to make Mercury exactly where we wanted him to be! As we’ve said before, not every change in S3 is big, sometimes they’re small, common-sense changes which just bring a model up or down a touch to be where we want them to be.

For us, the little tweaks are just as important as the big changes. More important, in some ways, because in some cases they’re harder to get right. It’s very easy to make one small tweak, then another, then another, and before long you’re trying to figure out if it’s possible to put rules for small, remote controlled robots into the game!

We’re very happy with Mercury, but let us know what you think! As ever, I’ll be around in the thread for a while to answer any questions.

Please remember this is your LAST week to buy Steamcon tickets, so don’t miss out! If you fancy coming to the biggest and best weekend about all things Steamforged, go to http://steamforged.com/steamcon and pick up a ticket.

 AduroT wrote:
Though in the article it says Minx can benefit Several teams, not all of them. They might have just left Selective off to not spoil the other new Guild coming.

Yep, its Monday… but today, instead of new rules discussion, we’re back with another Season 3 character reveal! This time, we’re going to take a special look at what is probably the model which has changed the most from Season 2, into Season 3. Any guesses who that might be?

Yep, you guessed it (we probably should have put the cards further down the page and not mentioned it in the title…). It’s the ever-popular captain of the Alchemist’s Guild, Midas.



Midas has always been one of the trickiest models for a coach to deal with on the pitch, as befits his larger than life personality, and adaptable playstyle. In Seasons 1 and 2, we represented this with the True Replication Character Play, a powerful ability that allowed Midas to copy any non-Captain Character Play in the game for his own, and use it for the rest of the game. Whilst this was a fantastic and fluffy rule, and gave Midas immense versatility. One thing that became obvious to us over time, however, was that True Replication was also hamstringing future development of the rest of the game. Going forward into Seasons 3 and beyond, what we really wanted to do was to realign the ability to allow us a little more creative space when designing future Character Plays, and not have to continue with such a careful balancing act against Midas. After early development and testing, it became apparent that our first ideas on this weren’t quite meshing with the character. We felt that whilst the changes which we made were good, we were taking out a lot of the fun of playing Midas, as well as finding ourselves getting further away from his character.

It was time for a new direction.

In Season 3 onwards, we’ve looked at focusing Midas even more on his character and personality, without relying so much upon a key Character Play to define him. Midas is now exactly who you’d expect him to be – a superstar striker, flamboyant and dynamic, always dangerous to your opponent, wherever he is on the pitch. Whilst he kept two of his Character Traits, Light Footed, and Unpredictable Movement, as they were still in keeping with his new role, and most of his profile stats remain the same, the real difference is how we amended the rest of his Traits, and Character Plays (as well as an updated Playbook!). An obvious one to include with Midas’ new role was Super Shot, a classic play that can be found on many of our strikers, but we also added a new trait named Showboating, which allows Midas to be extremely dangerous and efficient. Not having to spend the MP cost for the Pass ‘n Move, and Give ‘n Go Teamwork actions means that Midas is deceptively mobile on the pitch, especially when considering his new Heroic Play, Promise of Fortune. This allows the Alchemist coach to spend the MP they just saved in granting even more movement, and a bump in ARM to make Midas more survivable. Also noteworthy is that this also allows Midas to make Snap Shot! actions for 1 MP! Couple that with Midas’ newfound Dodging abilities (just take a look at that juicy momentous 2” Dodge, 2” Push result after five hits… isn’t that tempting?), and he’s extremely difficult to pin down or predict.

But Midas also can offer his teammates something, even when he doesn’t have the ball, and his other two Character Plays are designed with this in mind. The first is Midas Touch, the replacement for Heavy Burden. Midas Touch is incredibly useful – allowing for either Midas or a teammate to gain extra hits against the opposition models, just when you need them for that vital Take-Out or Character Play. The second is Lure of Gold, a fantastic play for letting you move your other models around the pitch outside of their normal activations, keeping in theme. Both of these are incredibly potent when you consider Midas’ new Legendary Play, Magnum Opus, and how the snared condition will affect the opposition; with the opposition giving up DEF and extra hits, or friendly models moving at greater speed whilst their opponents are made to be slower, the Alchemist’ Guild under Midas are extremely capable, and a very difficult proposition for any opponent.

We’re very happy with the new Midas, having reached a design for the model which we think retains the same sense of character and importance for Alchemist’s Guild coaches, and that also is a very difficult model to deal with on the pitch for opponents. We can’t wait to see how you’re all going to adapt your teams to suit his new playstyle – on both sides of the pitch!

So, DEF [3+].

We debated this change for a while, since we never want to make changes without a good reason. In the end, we decided that Kraken was in a similar position to Boar throughout Season 2. We knew he was a strong choice, one popular with a lot of Fishermen Players, but perhaps just a little too easy for your opponent to get momentum from.

Thus, upping his DEF (and removing his ARM, he’s not supposed to be a tank!), felt like a fair way of making him fit his intended role better. This change also fits his aesthetic a lot more, since he’s not actually wearing any armour!

We feel like this is super useful change, which helps bump him up a little and make him much more of a valid choice for all Fishermen Players.

Kraken’s second change is the addition of a pair of double Push results, non-momentous on column 2, momentous on column 4. Having taken a good look at Kraken over the last six months, the lack of any Pushes on his Playbook felt…weird. Here’s a model with two Character Plays which are all about Pushing enemy models around, and yet he literally had none on his Playbook?

How odd, we cried, how out of place! Thus, we added these Push results to give him more utility and options.

He can now get stuck in to his heart’s content, knocking enemy models down and Pushing them all over the Pitch! Much like when we spoiled Mercury last week, not every change has to be big; many smaller changes are just as valid. We’ve given Kraken a boatload (BOOM! BOOM!) more options, and made a tweak to make him more survivable.

While these changes aren’t necessarily big, they are exciting. Kraken was a valuable model in Season 2, and now he’s even more viable, creating even more headaches for Fishermen Players in list construction.

Hope you’ve enjoyed this glimpse into the future’s murky waters, we’ll see you all soon!

Much like Midas, when we approached Blackheart, and considered how that we might change him going forward into Season 3, the biggest challenge was striking the right balance with Blackheart against other players in the Guild (or Union, in this case!). In Seasons 1 and 2, Blackheart was a powerful piece that could really turn up the damage for other Union models, thanks to his Commanding Aura ability, especially when coupled with bonuses from abilities such as Tooled Up, Bag of Coffers, or Anatomical Precision. Whilst that play style was certainly one we didn’t want to take away from Union players, it was something which felt better suited to Veteran Rage, given his bloody rise up through the ranks. Rather than having two players that were very similar then, we decided that in Season 3, we could look at a slight retooling for Blackheart, to allow him to lead with more versatility.



The most obvious changes to Blackheart, and as we discussed above, are his updated Character Plays. Firstly, we’re sure that you’ve noticed that he kept Misdirection – although, as a Character Play, there are some differences! To begin with, Misdirection now only costs 2 Influence to use rather than the 4 previously, making it a lot less prohibitive to use, and much better at allowing Union coaches to distribute Influence to players on the fly, as the turn continues on – more about that in a moment! The other change to this ability, is that it is now in the new OPT column, meaning that it can only be used Once Per Turn. We wanted Misdirection to be a more accessible, fun, and powerful tool for the player, by reducing the cost - but not an overpowering change, as it could have become if it was allowed multiple times per turn at 2 Influence! Next up is Blackheart’s new signature Character Play, On My Mark, which allows for a model within 6” to immediately make a Pass without spending Influence. Perfect for when a model unexpectedly has the ball snap to them, or gains possession after a successful Tackle but doesn’t quite have the Influence left to Pass the ball on, On My Mark is designed as a great accompaniment to Blackheart’s other abilities. Coupled with Misdirection, Blackheart can Pass the ball to a model that was out of position at the start of the turn and hasn’t been marked, and allocate them Influence to allow them to either Pass the ball on themselves, or even take that all-important Shot. Consider that, plus the extra 2” Dodge from Strike from the Shadows, and now you’re really talking! Also note that On My Mark isn’t a once per turn play, so if you wanted, you can really move the ball around the pitch, inside of one activation…



Finally, although we wanted to tone down Blackheart’s ability to increase his own, and his teammates fighting prowess, we didn’t want to remove it completely. Blackheart has now gained Butchery, which allows him to acutely focus that damage buff onto one model specifically, directing his teammates to eliminate the most important threat, or simply increase his own damage output. Looking his Playbook, you’ll no doubt notice that while his non-momentous 2 DMG result has moved up one hit, he has also gained a momentous 1 DMG and 2” Dodge result on two hits. This should make it much easier for you to generate momentum and damage at the same time, as well as triggering what we really feel is the focus of this character – unorthodox and unpredictable movement, and the ability to extend that to the other models in his team. What makes Blackheart difficult to face is that he can easily make models on his team that were not relevant at the start of the turn into dangerous lynchpins for Passing, give them an unexpected Dodge away from the opposition, or give them a crucial Attack; as well as being extremely mobile himself. Despite a slight MOV reduction, in addition to his momentous 1” Dodge on one hit, and momentous 2” Dodge on two hits, and a 2” Dodge from his Legendary Play, Blackheart also retains Shadow Like, meaning that he has another 2”Dodge up his sleeve!



Blackheart has come into his own in Season 3, and become a model with a lot more versatility when compared to his previous incarnation. Rather than marching into the middle of the pitch to give out his Commanding Aura buff, now, Blackheart can still give out extra damage, but also act as more of a leader for the rest of his team, and direct a greater extent of the action. Of course, he’s just as survivable as ever at ARM 2, meaning you won’t have to worry about him being taken out first.



How will the changes to Midas and Blackheart affect how you play your teams? Let us know by heading over to our forums at Steamforged.com, where you can discuss them with your fellow coaches! We’ll be back on Friday, with more SteamCon news!

Harry’s had a lot of changes going into Season 3, so bear with us while we talk through them all.

First off, he’s an absolute beast now. Look at him. He’s one of our coolest models, but his rules didn’t QUITE live up to how awesome his model is. Well no more! Look at him. Look at that Playbook, it’s a thing of righteous beauty. In combination with his new 2” melee range, he can now really Push enemy models around and knock them down, and generate momentum for doing so! He can even stick damage on the enemy once they’re knocked down and he can start hitting that momentous 2 DMG and double Push on the fourth column.

You’ll notice that, in addition to being drastically improved, it’s also been shortened, in accordance with our general look at models with longer Playbooks.

He has also gained an additional point of INF, taking him to [2/4], meaning he gets to contribute to the game more, even when he himself can’t get to swinging his wrench in melee or set the enemy on fire. Speaking of, eagle eyed readers will already know this from Stoker, but Molotov is now an ongoing-effect AOE, making it easier to spread fire across the Pitch. Burn, baby burn!

The back of his card has seen fewer changes than the front, Rising Anger and Crazy are still there, but we wanted to represent his extremely cunning hat a little better.

Previously, having to spend [1] MP to gain a small TAC buff for friendly models near to Harry was good, but situational. A small aura, coupled with the fact that he had to trigger it, meant it just wasn’t as cool or as useful as it could have been. In addition, when we were looking at Union options going into Season 3, we knew they skewed quite heavily towards damage over actually playing the beautiful game.

While that’s not a problem, we definitely knew we wanted to improve the Union’s footballing capability. As you saw with Blackheart yesterday (and if you didn’t, you should!) pushing more options for Union Players outside of the classic ‘smash face’ plan was a big goal for us going into Season 3. Harry’s new Inspiring Hat is a perfect example of this, passively allowing other friendly models within the aura to make cheaper Teamwork actions.

This lets the Union generate momentum from successful Passes, bank that momentum, AND use Teamwork actions to move all over the Pitch, making them both more mobile and more momentum efficient.

Now obviously, this only works when models are within a small area close to Harry, AND he himself can’t make cheaper actions, so careful positioning will be required to get the most out of this ability.

Of course, it’s not just the Union that can make use of Harry, the Alchemists, Brewers, Butchers, and Engineers can too…

And there’s still no Selective trait on his card. So how, we hear you cry, eyes raised to the heavens, do we know which Guilds can use which Union models? Well, I’ll tell you for how:

These Guild Reference Cards are a new addition for Season 3, and currently they list, very simply, what models will work for each Guild. The seed (ha!) of these cards was planted when we started designing the Farmers. As many of you will have seen from Tater’s rules, the harvest-marker mechanic isn’t something we could put on an individual model’s card, it needed to be a Guild wide special rule. As a result, we decided the Farmers Starter Set would come with a reference card with the rules for harvest-markers on it. This means that, just like every other rule in Guild Ball barring the Core Rules, you can have the card sitting next to the table, and refer to it mid game.

Moving forward, we realised that as future Union models, and Guilds are released, we would need to be constantly reprinting and errata’ing cards to fix the Selective rule. Which seems like, frankly, both a lot of work of us, AND a bit of a pain for you guys to keep track of.

So we combined the two ideas into these Guild Reference Cards. These cards will come in the brand new Season 3 card packs, one for each Guild (except the Union, obv!), and each will list which Union models will play for that Guild this season. This provides a handy one stop reference, removing the need to constantly go back and check each individual Union model card to check if they’ll play for your Guild, now you just need to check a single card.

These cards will also cover, like with the Farmer’s, any Guild specific rules going forward, which provides ease of reference and time saving for you guys!

The cards will also, of course, like all Guild Ball rules, be freely available online with each Guild’s card download.

Let us know what you think of Harry, and the Guild Reference cards on our social media, or, of course, right here! TheLieutenant will be floating around the comments to answer any questions you may have for the next hour or so.

‘til next time, may your coffers be full, and your machinations many and varied! Happy Unioning!

Apologies if this forum post is a bit of an unexpected arrival, but we wanted to spoil everyone’s favourite slightly-too-obsessed-with-death former priest, Bonesaw!


So, you’ll see the man himself has changed slightly since his initial outing in Season 2. What we found with Bonesaw in S2 was that we hit the ‘weird, funky, Mortician’ vibe bang on the head, which was fantastic. However, he was a character that took quite a lot of work to get the most out of, particularly in his chosen profession of being a striker. So going into the S3 playtest, Bonesaw was a model we really wanted to take a look at; to both maintain his cool funky Mortician nature, and to really bring out his strikerness (not a word, but we’ve typed it now).

So, looking at the front of his card, his attributes are unchanged. His Playbook, however, has had several tweaks to make it better, upping his high end momentous damage and adding more dodges to it, bringing his innate dodginess (also not a word) out and helping him manoeuver around the Pitch.

The second part of upping his mobility, always important for a striker, is the new version of Football Dervish. While the original Football Dervish was a cool ability, it was a static ability. As we’ve shown with Blackheart and Midas already, we’ve really tried to push harder in Season 3 to make Guild Ball more about mobility and action. Of course, the game’s always been very action driven, but we wanted it to be MORE about action and movement. So the new version of Football Dervish provides this, allowing Bonesaw to ‘bounce’ the ball off a friendly model, using them like a wall at football practice, and letting him run to space to receive the return pass.

The new version of Football Dervish is so, so cool, and it really lets Bonesaw get around the pitch, upping his manoeuvrability to silly levels!

Offensive Defense has also seen a change, now it adds [+1] DEF permanently to Bonesaw after he scores a goal. This is just simpler than the previous version, and incentivises scoring goals with him. So not only is he better at scoring goals, but he gets bonuses for doing so! The final part of the package in making him a top class goal scorer is Slippery, which lets him make better use of Swift Wind.

One thing Bonesaw has lost is Reanimate. After the rewrites above, we realised that this rule just didn't fit with the vision for the model in Season 3. Bonesaw hits the spot perfectly of being a funky, weird, Mortician style striker – and we think he's pretty damn cool!

As always, remember to let us know what you think on our social media, and right here! And of course, tune back into the forums on Thursday for one last spoiler before STEAMCON!

That’s all folks!

 OrlandotheTechnicoloured wrote:
lots of this in the MM black Friday sale

http://www.miniaturemarket.com/searchresults?q=thanksgiving+sale&utm_source=Miniature+Market+-+Full+List&utm_campaign=0df9b34f27-Thanksgiving_Week_Sale_2016_11_18&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_be5b9f7f95-0df9b34f27-25015257&mc_cid=0df9b34f27&mc_eid=331f217f20#/?_=1&filter.category_hierarchy=Table%20Top%20Miniatures%2FGuild%20Ball&page=1

 kilcin wrote:
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but I'm not keen on the idea of all the starters going to "high quality PVC"..

 Vertrucio wrote:
I think it's safe to assume they'll continue offering resin versions of miniatures on their site.

Steamforged Games wrote:Now, we know many hobbyists and coaches have been big fans of our Resin Model Line or have already invested in the Guild Token Sets and will be sad to see them go. Retiring a product isn’t something we take lightly. Based on several factors, such as community feedback, upcoming releases, and the overall direction of the Guild Ball experience, we felt now was the best time to retire these products.

 Vertrucio wrote:
I think it's safe to assume they'll continue offering resin versions of miniatures on their site.

Curious as to this new game. However, I'm not sure about the miniatures and design overall. Guild Ball is a good game, but the art for it isn't all that striking my itself.

One of the things that drives any new fantasy game, especially skirmish is art and miniatures that competes with the best around.

Light on their feet and menacing as the cold, this pack of hunters brings the sharp sting of winter to the sport. Their fearsome captain, Skatha, commands the pitch with slick footwork and a passing game as unrelenting as winter's howling winds. Opponents had best be wary with the ball against her pack. One misstep and their watchful protector Snow will fetch the ball and pass it to their feral striker, Ulfr. This lone huntsman lives for the rush of an ambush, targeting prey who stand between him and the goal post. To ensure their striker makes the shot, Veteran Hearne lies in wait, ready to ensnare his prey and show them the cruelty of winter. His furs now matted with frost, Hearne proves even the most ardent supporters of the Sun Father can be swayed by the Winter Queen.
The Heralds of the Winter's Moon Expansion includes one metal model (assembly required) and stat card for each of the following:
Skatha — Captain (30mm)
Snow — Mascot (30mm)
Ulfr — Player (30 or 40mm) - conflicting info
Veteran Hearne — Player (40mm)

 AduroT wrote:
I don't like the coach's hair at that angle. It looks too big/Solid of a mass to bunch up in front of her like that.

And not a complaint, but the new striker definitely looks like an Orc.

Guild Ball is a game about meaningful choices. That means your path to victory should have many tough decisions, and the same goes for each of the goals and take-downs you score along the way. So whenever we get the chance to tinker with rules or roll out new characters, this focus on meaningful player decisions is always at the core of our ideas. In fact, it was the driving force behind the Hunter’s expansion, The Heralds of the Winter’s Moon. We saw these four new characters as our chance to add more layers of tactical choices for Hunter coaches to chew on.

If you’re familiar with the Hunter’s Guild, then you know their strength was controlling enemy players in Season 2. Specifically, by herding opponents directly into danger using Traps and powerful Character Plays, such as Pinned and Boombox. They also had several stealthy ways to create additional movement. And thanks to Character Traits like Back to the Shadows and Nature’s Blessing, evading and sneaking up on aggressive enemies came naturally to this feral crew. Put it together, and you have the Hunter’s signature playstyle: stalking your prey while calculating when to strike vulnerable opposition.

Theron, the first Captain of the Hunters Guild, best symbolizes that playstyle. Not a blunt instrument like the primitive Captains of the Butcher’s Guild, Theron is at home in the center of the Pitch. He controls the whole game through the loose of a single arrow. Under his watch, a charging enemy can run head-first into a spontaneous eruption of forest. A striker with hopes of getting a clean shot on goal can have them dashed by a deft Arrow to the Knee. He snares his enemies with a single stroke of his blade, leaving them vulnerable to the raw might of the Great Bear or the Midnight Devil. As a Captain devoted to getting the most out of his whole team, Theron has it all.

The Hunter’s Guild clearly needed a Captain who goes for the throat with cold-hearted precision. A Captain who takes goal scoring into her own hands. A Captain who, rather than preventing enemies from controlling the game, empowers her fellow Hunters to outmaneuver enemies on their own! A Captain who… likes to throw snowballs!

Skatha, Champion of the Moon Goddess
Because Theron excels at brutal take-outs, we knew quite early on that we wanted Skatha to be more of a skilled goal scorer. Being a Hunter, we wanted Skatha to be elusive with plenty of options for escaping a melee. Oh, and a capacity to turn on some real speed! As developers, we have several tools at our disposal to start laying down the basics, such as a model’s Attributes, or stat line. Until now, Hunters have only ever had a kicking skill of [3] or less. To stand out and really show how clever Skatha is with the ball, we gave her a [4/6”] KICK stat, which means she’ll normally be rolling at least 4 dice when making a kick! There wasn’t really a need to give Skatha an enormous kicking range because we decided that she was going to be hypermobile instead. You don’t need to blast a shot in from range when you can just tap it in from point blank! We know what you’re thinking. Hypermobile and great KICK stats? How does this make Skatha a Hunter rather than a Fisherman? Just take a closer look and all will be revealed!

On the surface, it’s not immediately obvious where her blistering pace comes from. Her MOV stat is [5”/7”]. Well, when you add in Nature’s Chill things start to get interesting. This Character Trait lets Skatha freeze the pitch, creating a [3”] area of effect (AOE) of fast-ground. And when any model moves over fast-ground during an Advance, it gains [+2”/+2”] MOV for the remainder of that Advance. This means that even though Skatha only has a [5”/7”] MOV stat, she can bump this up to [7”/9”] MOV every turn of a game. And it gets better. Any other model can use the fast-ground to speed up too! Comparing this to Theron’s forest AOE (which slows down the enemy and blocks their path), Skatha is clearly the polar opposite (pun intended).

This new Captain also gave us the opportunity to do something truly unique: give a captain a way to use their ball skills without always having the ball. Why? Well, when we design a Guild Ball player to be a beast with a ball, we inevitably face the question of “what about when they don’t have the ball?” Having the ball and successfully doing stuff with it (like passing) lets you do more awesome stuff. Not having the ball means none of that. So what if a baller could always ball? What if a player could access momentous teamwork actions like Give’N’Go AT WILL? That would mean she could always have the potential to shift herself or friendly models using Dodge movements!

Hello, Snowball! This new Character Play gives Skatha a literal snow ball (were snowballs ever figurative?) she can use to pass, generate Momentum (MP), and make those all-important Momentous Teamwork actions. Before you all lose your minds, No, Skatha cannot score a goal with Snowball—that would be too crazy! (We hope this leaves you up all night on the brink of an existential crisis asking yourself when a ball is truly a ball. If it can be passed but cannot be scored, can it truly be a ball?)

Now it was just time to give the Hunters a well-deserved Legendary Play. We toyed around with several different ideas for Skatha, including a few that were snowman related. In the end, we knew that we wanted this Legendary Play to push the boundaries of maneuverability, specifically the capacity to enter and exit enemy melee zones without having to worry about Parting Blows from enemy players. We eventually settled on Winters Night.

Winters Night places a Frost Token on each enemy model within [6”] of Skatha. When Attacking an enemy model with a Frost Token on it, any friendly model can remove the Frost Token to add a Push-Dodge Playbook result in addition to any other Playbook results generated by the Attack. Frost Tokens have a variety of uses. A player can Tackle the ball and ensure they’re out of range of a Counter Attack, move enemy players out of the way for a friendly player about to take a shot, or just gain extra Dodge movement to guarantee a friendly player ends up in range to shoot for a goal.

Put it all together and you have a Captain who not only excels at generating extra movement for herself but also her entire team. To make it even better, most of this extra movement is Dodge movement, one of the most treasured movements of them all! Why? It’s super useful when moving in and out of enemy melee zones (#Can’tTouchThis), making a Skatha-led team good at retrieving the ball and scoring goals.

Snow, Spirit Hound
Snow is the yin to Fahad’s yang. As the first Mascot for the Hunters, Fahad was designed to deal damage. To give Hunter coaches more versatility, we knew this new Mascot had to focus on team support, which we doled out in spades. Not only can this wild wolf pup increase melee effectiveness and boost player survivability but he can even fetch the ball!

We wanted to boost the Hunter’s melee effectiveness in a way that embodied their playstyle and theme. Instead of giving them a raw damage bump, we introduced a brand-new Character Play: Feral Instincts. It grants a friendly model, or Snow himself, Anatomical Precision. This allows the affected model to ignore [1] point of enemy armor (ARM) each time they make a melee Attack. Feral Instincts is a great tool for unlocking Playbook results, making it advantageous for almost any Hunter’s Guild model.

Player survivability with the Hunters is different than most Guilds. Particularly those that tend to rely on high ARM stats or more conventional Character Traits like Tough Hide. Survivability in the Hunter’s Guild is often linked to maneuverability. Because Hunters use Counter-attacks and additional movements to avoid enemy melee zones, we gave Snow the Pack Mentality Character Trait. While within the Pack Mentality [4”] aura, friendly models can make a [1”] Dodge toward Snow every time they suffer damage from an enemy model if they aren’t knocked-down. Combine Pack Mentality with a well-timed Counter-attack into a Push or Dodge Playbook result and BAM! You have Hunter players escaping enemy melee zones all over the place! The enemy won’t be able to engage your players long enough to take them down.

Ulfr, Blessed of the Hunt
Ulfr was designed to be a pure-bred striker with one thing in mind: scoring goals like an absolute wild man. He’s the guy who’s maybe spent a bit too long secluded in wild, and now he’s talking to the trees and screaming while he slathers his face in blood. A terrifying opponent, he specializes in working alone to track and corner his prey. Unlike most strikers, he has access to a Momentous [2] or even [3] damage Playbook result, which means he isn’t content to just steal the ball and dance away. Ulfr is out for blood.

To capture Ulfr’s bloodlust, we came up with the Character Trait Blood Scent. What does it do? Well, after he damages an enemy model (and gets a taste of that tangy crimson goodness) the thrill of the hunt pushes him to supernatural levels of prowess. His KICK stat jumps up to [4/8”]—higher than your average Hunter player.

After giving Ulfr Blood Scent, we looked toward helping him trigger it. The Lone Hunter Character Trait grants him an extra [+2] TAC as long as he is more than [4”] away from any friendly players. This boosts his TAC up to [6] with a Playbook that’s only five columns long. This gives the wildman a better chance of wrapping his Playbook for multiple results and a much-improved chance of unlocking the exact Playbook result he needs.

We also wanted enemy models to be a little fearful and cautious around this forest nut, so we decided to make it cost a little extra to use Defensive stance. Thanks to Ambush, Ulfr gets the drop on his opponents, forcing enemy players to spend an extra MP to use Defensive stance. Unsuspecting enemies had best watch their backs… Ulfr’s gunning for them.

Finally, we wanted to make him FAST, even for a Hunter. Ulfr has the Where’d They Go? Character Play, which lets him escape enemy melee zones without a Parting Blow (behold the power of the [4”] Dodge!). This play can also be used to extend Ulfr’s goal scoring range by dodging him [4”] closer to that goal. Now, let’s crunch those numbers. After a [7”] Sprint, a [4”] Where’d They Go? movement into triggeringBlood Scent for a boosted [4/8”] KICK… Ulfr can be in scoring range from a [19”] distance to the enemy goal! *Whistle noise* That’s one speedy little mountain mongrel.

Add in Playbook Dodge results or one of Skatha’s movement enhancers, and Ulfr climbs into insane goal-scoring distances. Top it off with the Hunter’s classic Character Trait—Light Footed—and it’s almost like nothing can slow this wild man down!

Veteran Hearne, Oracle of the Moon Goddess
Veteran Hearne is a no longer the scion of the Sun Father. Gone is the man who could teleport to anywhere the Sun Father’s light touched. What remains is but a shadow. Like the fading light, it darts around the Pitch, propelling itself off obstacles, head-first into the thickest melee.

For all our Veteran and Seasoned players, our goal is to show how these characters evolve and change during their Guild Ball careers. The gruesome murders and almost-murders and back door scheming does take a toll and change a person. For the design team, that means altering their traits and skills to reflect how they’ve changed without obliterating all traces of who they were. For Veteran Hearne, we wanted to stay true to skill as a Hunter but also capture his transition from Sun to Moon.

Veteran Hearne still favors long-handled and throwing weapons—he is a Hunter after all. So, he kept the [2”] melee zone and continues to hurl his weapons at wary opponents. Thrown weapons can create vulnerabilities to Attack with his Skewered Character Play, which causes [3] damage and inflicts the snared condition. With Hearne’s brute force and deadly aim, we figured the sheer force of being impaled by one of his ranged attacks would probably rattle your head and stop you in your tracks.

Despite his newfound faith in the Moon Goddess, a dying flame of the Sun Father sill flickers within Veteran Hearne. To capture this fading flame, we introduced the Last Light Character Play. Without costing influence, it lets a friendly model spend Momentum (MP) instead of Influence to pay the COST of a Character Play. That includes himself! So he can even use Last Light to sneak in Skewered, paying MP instead of Influence! That can let coaches load up Veteran Hearne for some real savage brutality.

Veteran Hearne has Light Footed because he can always spot the swiftest path through a patch of rough-ground. But that got us thinking. Why not take something that’s typically a nuisance *cough* rough-ground *cough*, and turn it into a blessing? Well, would you look at that. Turns out we gave Veteran Hearne a Character Trait called Winter’s Blessing, which just so happens to let the rugged rapscallion treat rough-ground as fast-ground. This turns him into a versatile tool for his entire guild since he’ll benefit equally from either Hunter Captain: both Skatha’s slick ice (Nature’s Chill) and Theron’s thick forests (Nature’s Growth) will speed him up!

Old Hearne’s capacity to teleport and take enemies by surprise was another ability we wanted to revisit. With the Lunar Eclipse Character Trait, Veteran Hearne can teleport to anywhere within [1”] of any model that he damages with a melee Attack, as long as they are suffering the snared condition. Veteran Hearne can engage a snared enemy with his [2”] melee zone, damage them to trigger Lunar Eclipse, and then disappear from the table only to reappear on the other side of the enemy before they even know what’s happening! If Veteran Hearne is in possession of the ball, this is a very stealthy way to open goal scoring opportunities that wouldn’t otherwise exist! Very few players have such sneaky teleporting chops…

This concludes our introduction to the Heralds of the Winter’s Moon. Make sure to check back in a few days to catch part two of our Hunter’s Guild article series, Tactics of the Moon Goddess. We’ll reveal full stat cards for the Heralds of the Winter’s Moon and discuss in-game tips & tricks for the new Hunter’s playstyle! Let us know what you think over on our Forums, Facebook and Twitter!

Today is one of those rare, amazing days in Guild Ball. Today, we get to talk to you about a brand-new Guild entering the fray. Today we can show you the Blacksmiths Guild. This article will give you an introduction to the some of the core concepts that shaped the Blacksmiths Guild during development, and how we chose to represent those concepts on the Pitch.

Always Two There Are...
The Masters of the Blacksmiths Guild are experts at turning raw potential into fearsome destruction. Apprentice Blacksmiths are capable of incredible feats of skill and carnage, but they can only realise their potential under the direction of a Master Blacksmith. To this end, Blacksmith players always work in pairs, a Master and an Apprentice. The Masters are stalwart and aloof, preferring to use their knowledge and experience to disrupt and weaken their opponents so the Apprentices can take advantage.

The first concept that we knew we wanted to include in the Blacksmiths Guild was this idea of the Master and the Apprentice Blacksmith. The working relationship between these two is a core foundation that we built the entire Guild upon, so we wanted to make sure the concept was well represented on the Pitch. All the players in the Blacksmiths Guild are one of two new model types, a [Master] or an [Apprentice].

Another early concept that we developed to demonstrate on the Pitch was the idea that the Blacksmiths Guild are not quite as unified in structure as our more traditional Guilds. In the Empire of the Free Cities Blacksmithing styles, skills, and etiquette differ enormously from city to city. The Masters of the Blacksmith Guild are incredibly proud of the traditions that have been passed down to them through the generations, each of them believing beyond a shadow of a doubt that they are the very best at their craft. As a result, Master and Apprentice Blacksmith pairs can vary quite dramatically from one to the next in how they appear and how they play.

...A Master, and an Apprentice
Let’s take a closer look at what the relationship between a Master and an Apprentice means on the Pitch. During the Steamforged Games Ltd Q&A session held at Vengeance 2017, co-founders Mat Hart & Richard Loxam unveiled the first two Blacksmith players, the Master Blacksmith Anvil and his Apprentice Sledge. Those cards can be found here (click to enlarge).



There is SO much to talk about even on just these two cards, so let’s start with the basics. The core concept for Anvil & Sledge comes from one of the oldest methods of Blacksmithing, that of the ‘Blacksmith striker’. This method is employed where a piece of metal needs particularly heavy blows in order to shape it properly. A ‘striker’, in Blacksmithing terms, is an Apprentice with a large hammer that takes an enormous amount of focus and energy to wield. So much focus that if a Master were to wield the hammer, the Master may lose track of where they need to ‘strike’ the metal. Having an Apprentice perform this task means that the Master can concentrate on deciding precisely where and how hard the metal needs to be struck. To this end, Sledge is armed with an enormous two-handed hammer, that he can use to smash opponents into paste, and Anvil is armed with a smaller hammer that he can use to ‘mark’ a particularly tough opponent in the exact spot that he wants Sledge to ‘strike’. But how does this translate onto the Pitch?

One of the prominent features of these Blacksmith cards, when compared to each other, is that Anvil and Sledge have VERY different momentous results. Anvil has momentous knock-down, Play Icon, and Push results, whereas Sledge has entirely momentous damage results instead. This is to re-enforce the role that each model type plays on the Pitch. Master Blacksmiths tend to be distant, seeing themselves ‘above’ doing the dirty work a lot of the time. Instead, Master Blacksmiths prefer to use their skills and experience to disrupt and debilitate opponents in preparation for the Apprentices to annihilate in one fell swoop. As a general rule, Master Blacksmiths have a number of ways to increase the capabilities of the Apprentices, whether this is through increasing their TAC, damage, or movement speed. Alternatively, some Master Blacksmiths have several ways to make enemy players vulnerable to attack, such as easy access to knock-down Playbook results, or abilities that lower enemy movement speed, DEF, or ARM.

Perhaps the most prominent aspect of Sledge is his Playbook, and that incredible momentous [7] damage result that it contains. With it, Sledge is clearly capable of singular acts of destruction, but, with a Playbook that is seven columns long Sledge will require the assistance of Anvil to reach it consistently. There are several ways that Anvil can do this. Veterans of Guild Ball will be no stranger to the Singled Out Character Play, which increases the TAC of any player attacking an affected enemy by [+2]. When we create new Guild Ball players we re-use existing abilities where they fit the desired theme. In this way, Singled Out is the perfect example of an existing ability that we used here to show Anvil ‘marking’ an enemy player for Sledge to ‘strike’ with his hammer. In addition to Singled Out, Anvil has incredibly easy access to a momentous knock-down Playbook result, it’s on his first column! A super useful Playbook result for laying a potential target flat out on the Pitch ready for Sledge to flatten further. Lastly, there’s the Tutelage Character Trait on Sledge’s card which allows him to use a Character Play without spending Influence, but only if he activates close to Anvil. That Character Trait is probably very useful with Sledge’s second Character Play… I wonder what it could be…

Where Sledge has the highest Playbook damage result written to date, Anvil is different type of extreme altogether. At [19] HP, with an unprecedented [3] ARM, and the Tough Hide Character Trait. Anvil is certainly up there with the most resilient players in Guild Ball. Just looking at him with his enormous tower shield, attacking Anvil certainly looks like a daunting task. Indeed, in development we made the decision that we wanted the Master Blacksmiths to be more resilient than the average player. To this end, each of the Master Blacksmiths has a particularly defensive speciality. In the case of Anvil, he is designed to be able to take the full force of a charging enemy player and, in most cases, still be on the Pitch once the dust has settled.

A Master Blacksmith’s shield is more than just another piece of armour. A Master Blacksmith’s shield is his or her badge of office, whether it takes the form of a huge tower shield or a forearm mounted buckler. A Master’s shield demonstrates to all who see it their incredible skill in creating near-indestructible defensive equipment. On the Pitch, Master Blacksmiths use their shields to become living defensive positions that the Apprentices can take shelter behind. In the case of Anvil this is represented on the Pitch by the Sentinel Character Trait which increases the ARM of any nearby Apprentices by [1]. A much-needed ARM bonus since the Apprentice Blacksmiths have been designed to be slightly less resilient than the average player. Indeed, Sledge has only [12] HP which is on the low end for a DEF [4+] and ARM [1] player. Blacksmith coaches need to be careful to not get their Apprentices taken-out when trying to get the most out of their supreme offensive potential.

 ImAGeek wrote:
Are the Farmers out yet?