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Time for a general purpose thread on one of the best up and coming games kicking around at the moment... Guild Ball! Be good to see some discussion on this game as it deserves a wider audience. I played in my first tournament recently and despite the fact that I lost every game, I was absorbed from start to finish.

Not (just) another fantasy sports game

I confess that I really wasn't interested in Guild Ball to begin with and totally missed the kickstarter. I didn't see what yet another fantasy sports game could bring to gaming that wasn't already covered by the established competition. Then an article on the game in TTG magazine sparked my interest and I sought out the (free) rulebook on their website. Having read through the rules a couple of times, I soon recognised that the developers had hit on a fairly unique game mechanic that made an otherwise simple game fairly complex to play...

The Playbooks

Yes, the unique selling point of Guild Ball are the Playbooks. Whenever you initiate a tussle with another player in Guild Ball, you roll a number of dice equal to your tactical ability (or TAC). You then take the number of hits and apply it to your player's Playbook (example below). For example, if you score 4 hits, you can choose from any of the results in the first 4 columns. The results can vary from doing damage, tackling the opposing player for the ball, dodging away from the opposing player, pushing them away from you, knocking them down or even activating a special play (which is where the real fun begins). This is an incredibly straightforward process, but means that each clash will have a completely different outcome depending on what you're trying to achieve in the game.



Exerting Influence

To carry out basic actions such as running, attacking or passing the ball, you need to spend Influence. Each player contributes a certain amount of influence to your main pool which is allocated to the players at the beginning of the turn. Players can also only be allocated a set level of influence so unlike Infinity, you can't allocate all the action to one miniature. As you might expect, Captains generate the most amount of influence, while rookie players contribute hardly any. You can never have enough of the stuff, so you have to spend it wisely.

Gaining Momentum

While Influence is the main currency of the game, to really get things moving for your team, you're going to need Momentum. This enables you to pull off a complex series of passes, heal your players and of course score a goal. You get momentum from successfully passing the ball, taking out opposing players, using a momentous result from your playbook (the coloured circles) or scoring a goal.

And that's basically all there is to it. I heartily recommend that you at least read the rules which are well written and easy to understand. Plus they can be downloaded as a PDF free of charge from the Guild Ball website - http://guildball.com/#downloads

The Guilds

Of course, no game would be complete without a series of factions with their own unique play style. Rather than use the traditional fantasy archetypes, the developers opted instead for different Guilds, with the guild background informing their style of play. All of the players are therefore (mostly) human. There are also no points costs and you choose from your roster of unique named characters. You have to take your Guild's Captain and Mascot but are then free to select any 4 eligible players to complete your team. Some players may well be better than others, but each brings something different to the game.

A summary of the Guilds is below...

The Butchers

In Guild Ball, you gain points from scoring goals or taking out opposing players. The Butchers' focus is almost entirely on the latter approach. They are utterly brutal and are all too capable of dispatching players in a single turn. The caveat to this is that they have a good ball player in Brisket, so they have an above average scoring threat too.



The Fishermen

The Fishes are basically the Elves of the game. They are all about scoring goals and don't do well in prolonged skirmishes. If they are receiving the ball, you can almost guarantee they will score in the first turn as they have the best ball kickers in the game. They also have some ability to disrupt the opposing team and pull them out of position.

The Brewers

And here we have Guild Ball's dwarfs - slow but tough, they even have access to (human) artillery. Brewers are all about keeping the opposing team on the ropes (their playbooks have a lot of easily accessible Knock Down results), slowly grinding them down until they no longer in a position to mount much of a defence. You are therefore playing the long game with the Brewers and need a huge amount of patience in the opening stages of the match.



The Masons

The all rounders and a very forgiving team to play. They can basically do everything pretty well and have some neat combinations between players. They are also the most heavily armoured team available (armour reduces the no. of successful scoring dice rolled after an attack).

The Alchemists

Sigh! Immensely annoying to play against as you can't go near them without being poisoned or being set on fire. The Alchemists seek to disrupt the opposing team while they implement their own (pretty effective) scoring game.



The Engineers

Average armour, fairly fast and access to a wide selection of ranged attacks, the Engineers don't have to get stuck in to cause damage and can move the ball around readily enough. Scoring won't be as easy as it is for the Fishermen, but they can afford to sit back while they engineer (ho ho) an opening.

The Morticians

The focus of this morbid group of individuals is on manipulation and disruption, while they have access to Butchers level of brutality if they need it (and can permanently remove an opposing player from the game). What they can't do very well is pass the ball, so need to use their skills to create open goal situations.



The Union

As you can appreciate, all of the Guilds have weaknesses in their line up and you can use players from Union to plug the gaps in your defence. Each Union player (aside from the Captain and Mascot) can be selected by up to four Guilds (e.g. Rage is available to Brewers, Butchers, Engineers and Morticians). You will of course have to drop one of the Guild's official players which can disrupt your play style, so you have to weigh up the advantages of bringing in a Union player. The Union can also be played as a team, but although their players are all individually outstanding at something, they lack the symmetries and combinations available to the proper Guilds.

Yes! Thanks for this

Really enjoyed the demo games I've gotten and the local group is so into this game it's insane. Can't wait to get my models back and play it a bit more!

Are there any places where one might see the miniatures in all their glory? On their official site all I'm seeing are digital renders and concept art that in some cases comes nowhere close to the render shown.

You should probably put pics of all the teams in the OP to make people interested! They have great minis,

Yes, that's one thing they need to work on is presentation of finished minis. I guess people like to see what they can end up like. They did some commission painting but for some reason, the finished results haven't been posted on their site.

I will add to the OP later...

Here's what I could find in the meantime.

Brewers...



Fishermen



Morticians



Butchers

No need to spoiler tag those beauties! It is really helpful to see pics of the minis, I don't know why they make it so hard to find them - for the Butchers, for instance, the third model from the left is the limited edition captain - seeing this helped me realize I actually prefer the standard edition captain and so just got that and didn't try to hunt up one of the limited (I think Kickstarter exclusive) ones.

Some new season 2 info.

Guilball wrote:Season 2 is nearly upon us...

This Friday (4/9/15) at 12:00BST the first of the brand new Season 2 Characters go up for Pre-Order via http://store.guildball.com or your LGS. The first release window will be an additional player for each current Guild (with an additional Dual Guild Alchemist/Engineer player in Compound). Our plan is to release a new Season 2 model every two weeks - starting with:

Sakana - Fisherman's Guild - Release Date 25th September


Tenderiser - Butcher's Guild - Release Date 9th October



More will be revealed as time goes on and our release schedule should take us all the way through 2016. To give you a brief overview of some of what's in store for Season 2:
•40 Season 2 Models - 8 New Captains, 8 New Mascots, 9 Additional Players, 7 Veteran Players and the Hunters Guild (8 Players).
•Season 2 Token Sets - Expansion token sets that will add onto your existing Season 1 Token Sets.
•Campaign Packs - Brand new packs that will support the Campaign System and continue to provide fresh content
•Season 2 Rulebook - No new core rules, but continues the Guild Ball story and introduces our brand new Campaign Rules and Campaign Packs.

Remember - Season 2 of Guild Ball will NOT go through Kickstarter. We want to continue to build our retail presence and have people playing this game in their LGS. In addition, ALL of Season 1 Guild Ball is FULLY compatible with Season 2 - no need to put any models on the shelf!

So guys, check back this Friday and put in your Pre-Orders. We expect the demand on these new models to be extremely high and to help ensure you get the releases on day 1 we suggest Pre-Ordering via our webstore direct or your LGS.

Exciting times ahead...see ya on the fields of glory, Mat & Rich.

Very tempting to get Tenderizer now! But then I'd have to pay individual shipping from the UK for each Butchers model as they release... hmmm.

Still, very cool, they're definitely going with the Privateer Press model of putting out regular releases. So far, I am very impressed with this company!

Podcast heavily focused on Season 2...

https://flockandawepodcast.wordpress.com/2015/09/08/guild-ball-season-2/

Hey all. I've been a Warmachine player for the last two years and I'm just now getting into Guild Ball. I picked up all the Masons models available at the moment and I got my first game in with them this week. (Last three games played with paper dolls.)
I don't know if its true what they say about painted models playing better then unpainted, but I'm pretty sure real models play better then paper cause I got my first win! This game seems really fun and I'm planning to try and get more at my LGS to pick it up.

FlyingCheetah wrote:
Hey all. I've been a Warmachine player for the last two years and I'm just now getting into Guild Ball. I picked up all the Masons models available at the moment and I got my first game in with them this week. (Last three games played with paper dolls.)
I don't know if its true what they say about painted models playing better then unpainted, but I'm pretty sure real models play better then paper cause I got my first win! This game seems really fun and I'm planning to try and get more at my LGS to pick it up.

Super fun game system, right?

Doesn't hurt that the models are aces.

It really is a great system. I'm am pumped to get started painting the models, which is nice cause I haven't wanted to paint in months. Something about knowing that if I get 6 models painted I can field a fully painted list really gets me motivated! Not to mention I feel these models are equal too or better in quality then warmahordes. (Not including warjacks/beasts though, they're still f--ing awesome.)

Mash (for the Brewers) - This is the first Season 2 player I'll be picking up

How are people getting on with finding people to play against?

I love the game, but only have one regular player in my group, and a few at the LGS.

And does anyone know when the rules for Mash are being released, given that Sakana is already being used?

jk

I empathise - only a couple of players at our club and they only have starter teams thus far. The game is still growing, but there are a few strong GB communities dotted about the place. Where are you based?

New players are being released every two weeks now. Tenderiser was yesterday and saw the advent of the new goal keeper traits (+1 to the roll needed to score if player is within 4" of the goal token). I believe Mash will have something similar.

Im Based in Sheffield, UK,

In fairness there is a decent community based out of the outpost in town centre, but its finding time to go down to a store and play. I did manage to enter their recent tournanment and had my eyes opened by some good players.

My group is still into 40k, but i have washed my hands of it as the game is so bent its untrue.

Im trying hard to get people to switch, but despite the constant arguments and rubbish rules etc, i cant get them all to commit to getting a team.

Mesdames et Messieurs , je présente .... Bonesaw.

Very interested in Bonesaw - got all the Mortician resins now and looking to do them as a special project over Christmas.

Bonesaw is supposedly a striker but seeing as kicking is the Morticians obvious weakness, would it make them too good if they have someone who can actually score?

One striker won't push them over the edge, butchers have a decent striker and a couple of solid kickers and it doesn't do it for them

Thought I'd stick a blog AAR in here, maybe get it moving again:

"As I mentioned a few weeks ago, one of the games that several people are trying to push for in the local scene is Guild Ball. It certainly looks interesting - designed by high-level Warmachine players, and straddling the line between sports game and skirmish game.

Last night, Sean (one of the players in the ill-fated Blood Bowl league I tried running) and I were given a demo by Tom and Keyvn, two of the major backers for the game in the area.

Since this was a demo game with cut down rules, Sean and I only had three players each



Kevyn brought an absolutely stunning play mat, and was also showing off his resin Alchemist team.



Since this was a demo game with cut down rules, Sean and I only had three players each with cards that weren't as detailed as the standard versions. I chose the Butchers Guild (with Brisket, Ox, and Boiler), and Sean had the Fishermen Guild (with Siren, Angel, and Shark).

I tried taking pictures after every turn, but with Sean and I focused on learning the game, and with Tom and Kevyn answering all of our questions and giving advice, the results are a little sparse.



After a dice off, I had won initiative (and would continue to do so for the rest of the game) and elected to receive the ball. I then apparently channeled some kind of inner connection with the Butchers, as I then proceeded to ignore the ball and focus on hitting the Fishermen.

Sean's team proved to be as slippery and quick as advertised, and I was forced to give Broiler the ball, instead of Brisket (who is the Butchers' best ball-handler).



Brisket was engaged by Siren, and Ox charged into Shark, and Broiler was left alone for the moment as Angel had been forced to retreat after taking a severe beating.

This gave Broiler the chance to pass to Brisket. Shark, however, dodged away from Ox (who ran after him, but ended up just out of reach) and engaged Brisket as well, tackling her and taking the ball away.

Brisket responded by tackling Shark during her activation, getting the ball back.



During the next turn, I loaded Brisket up with Influence (the resource that models in Guild Ball both generate and use to make actions). She dodged around Shark, activated her Super Shot ability, and scored, earning me 4 Victory Points.

I then learned how insane the Fisherman's passing game can be. Once a team scores, the ball is thrown up to 10" back into the field from the goal zone in a direction of the goal-owning player's choice. Sean had set up his team so that Siren received the ball, passed it to Angel, who then shot and scored a goal! In just a couple activations, it was a tied game.



In doing so, however, Sean had left Shark in the middle of a Butcher scrum, and the Fishermen Captain was quickly knocked out. That earned me another two Victory Points for a total of six - enough to end the demo game.

If I'm honest, I was pretty much hooked about a third of the way through the demo. The game is fairly complex, but no more so than what I remember having to deal with when I played the first version of Malifaux years ago. My Influence management was poor until the very end, but it was a learning game, and I did start to get the hang of it.

Tom gave me some paper cut-outs for the Masons (apparently a very balanced team), and I want to try the full version of the Butchers as well before deciding to put down money for these (relatively expensive) miniatures."

Man, that mat is awesome! But I don't understand why they had you using paper stand-ins when there are assembled models on the sideline?

All these Season 2 player renders are awesome looking . I received Tenderiser and the cast looks good, too!

 RiTides wrote:
Man, that mat is awesome! But I don't understand why they had you using paper stand-ins when there are assembled models on the sideline?

Because the demo rules are only for the Fishermen and Butchers, and the two guys who demoed the game play Alchemists, Morticians and Union.

Really is a fantastic game. If you're not playing. You should.

Well I took the plunge this weekend. Went to a local store where Guild Ball is pretty popular and picked up the Mason starter which I won a short game with, beating the Brewer starter 8-4. It got pretty close, and it basically came down to initiative. Honor/Harmony did their duel activation and scored the second goal. If I hadn't gone first, Mallet would have been knocked out by Hooper and Tapper.

I also picked up Brick, Marbles and the token set. The store should have another restock coming this week, and they'll set aside Flint, Tower and Chisel for me. I'll also get the template set, the condition tokens, and probably a field as well.

Masons are a great "team" as there are lots of symmetries between the players. Getting Honour and Harmony to function well together is the key. Chisel is awesome in a glass hammer kind of way. I have the miniature, but yet to see her in action.

Great to see more players diving in. I'm playing quite a bit now as there's a good sized group of local players. 32 player tournaments are selling out in a matter of hours in the UK too.

Enjoyed reading the report of your intro game. I think anyone who gives it a shot ends up being hooked and it's fantastic that you don't have to spend a penny/cent to try the game.

Well, I guess I'll just stick my next match report in here?

"Last week I managed to play another game of Guild Ball with Kevyn at Stomping Grounds.



I played my Masons in a 5-on-5 game against Kevin's Morticians. Our teams were:

Masons
Honor
Marbles
Harmony
Mallet
Brick

Morticians
Obulus
Dirge
Cosset
Silence
Ghast

I ended up winning the first dice-off, but decided to kick instead of receive. I wanted to see what it was like starting without the ball. So I gave Mallet the ball, and he sent it flying to the other side of the pitch.



The first turn ended with Mallet attacking Obulus with his huge 3" attack range. Silence ran the ball up the side of the pitch with Dirge.



Honor and Harmony ganged up on Ghast, while Cosset charged Mallet and Silence charged Marbles after being goaded.



The game then saw a big swing towards the Morticians. While Ghast was taken out by the two sisters (netting 2 VP for the Masons), Mallet was knocked out by Cosset, and Silence scored a goal, quickly making it a 6-2 game. I did use a couple Plot Cards to gain extra Influence and put a Vengeance Token on Silence however.

The ball was thrown back in, and Harmony managed to snap up the ball as Honor went after Obulus. Despite needing a single 4+ on four dice, I failed to roll a single success, and so the ball went shooting past the Mortician's goal. Then Harmony was taken out by Obulus, ending the turn with a score of 8-2 in the Mortician's favor.



Hoping to capitalize on Silence's Vengeance Token, I had brought Mallet back in only after a single turn. I quickly realized that this had been a terrible idea, as Silence put the old mason back down into the dirt again, scoring two more VP.

Finally, after surviving an onslaught from Honor, Obulus chased after Marbles (already weakened by an earlier charge from Silence) and put the Mascot down, gaining two more VP and ending the game 12-2.

Ouch - not a great start for the Masons. Although Harmony's terrible kick didn't exactly help, as it sent the ball to the very edge of the pitch, out of easy reach. And I definitely haven't figured out any kind of strategy of kicking the ball instead of receiving it! I think I tried too hard in the bashing side of the game, especially wasting a bunch of Influence and time having Honor and Harmony beat down Ghast. And the benefits from the Guild Plot cards certainly didn't outweigh the loss of giving the Mortician's the first goal.

Well, I've got Flint and Tower arriving soon, and Chisel following shortly afterward. So I'll be able to play full games, and will even have options to switch players in and out.

Update: I wanted to add a little more to this post. This past weekend, I played another 5v5 game against the Brewers, and ended up winning 12-0. I got the chance to see exactly how the Masons work, with player synergies helping each other. Honor and Harmony were the MVPs, with Harmony scoring two goals (even though she missed another), and Honor knocking out the Brewer's captain. Even Brick got his moment in the spotlight, when he stopped Stave (the Brewer's big guy) from getting off his knock-down AoE by attacking with his counter-charge ability. So, when the Masons work, they really work!"

A couple of us are hoping to grab some stuff on Sunday.
Engineers for me, and Fishermen for another, to start.

How many games should we play on the 2x2 pitch before adding to the starters?

Well, we go a pair of teams (apart from the big Engineers player), the pitch and tokens.
We'll give it a go soon.

 Skinnereal wrote:
A couple of us are hoping to grab some stuff on Sunday.
Engineers for me, and Fishermen for another, to start.

How many games should we play on the 2x2 pitch before adding to the starters?

One or two, really.

I only played the demo game once, and then jumped into 5v5 games right after that, and only because I had to wait to get the other Mason player I needed to reach the full six. Now I've got all eight of the current Masons team.

Funny enough, we had the owner of the major Guild Ball store put an announcement on the store's Facebook page asking people to stop buying teams if they already have four or more, as they were stopping new players from getting into the game. Some of the guys in local community have gone kind of nuts, buying models left and right.

I'm holding off on starting a new team (which will probably be Union) until after I take part in at least two tournaments.

Right, so I'm thinking New Year = New Game.

There's a few candidates and GB is one, but I've a few questions.

1) There's nobody playing locally, so I'll need everything to demo the game and get people hooked. What do I need, and what are the nice to haves?

2) The mat is sold out everywhere, so what are people using to play on?

3) Are there any common issues with starting, or is it just figures, dice, rules, go?