tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25923309865437800832024-03-14T05:37:26.363-07:00Dice of the First DegreeWhere we openly admit that our square dotted friends our premeditating our demise.JediAnakinSolohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05612104007435908015noreply@blogger.comBlogger141125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2592330986543780083.post-15256926363381719972018-02-01T19:20:00.001-08:002018-02-01T19:20:23.463-08:00Guildball Batrep #4 – Masons (Hammer) vs. Fishermen (Shark)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Batrep #4 is here. We're still staggering through the holidays a bit and surviving the weather but Adam and I got a game in today. <br />
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With a tournament coming up, we wanted to touch on a few matchups we don't see often in our meta. There are no fish players, though I think our PG and I both own them, but I'm the only guy that's put them on the table. That said, I've only put them on the table a handful of times. They're fun, but I like the ability to switch gears and fight and Shark can do that, but it's bad times if it's come to that.<br />
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With Adam having never seen Shark, just Corsair, we played this game off of the clock.<br />
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<strong>JD's Lineup</strong><br />
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<strong> </strong>He knows I'm taking Shark, because that's the Captain we'd discussed. My lineup has Corsair though as well, both mascots, Jac, Sakana, Siren1, Siren2, Greyscales and Hag. I don't care for Kracken too much and while I think Angel is better than many say (she's better than most of the strikers in the Guilds I play, for starters), I like 2'' melee. <br />
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<strong> Adam's Lineup: </strong><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">My lineup in this match, will be Honour, Hammer, Marbles, Mallet, Flint, Harmony, Lucky, Mist, Tower, and the reliable Brick. I figure, I want some two inch melee, and dodges, since I know people will want to play the ball here.</span></span><br />
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<strong> Rolloff and Plotcards</strong><br />
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<strong> JD: </strong>I win the rolloff, and my plotcards are Knee Slider, Good Marker and Brace for Impact, which I feel are all excellent cards in this matchup. My GIC is Groundwork. I thought about Pay to Win, but preferred Groundwork in this matchup.<br />
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<strong>Adam: </strong><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">My GIC in this one is, For the Greater Good, Which allows me to fix my mistakes, in a very mason like style by re allocating an influence to a friendly guild model once per turn. My plots are Who are Ya?, Wingback, and Field Dressing.</span> </span><br />
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<strong> The Draft</strong><br />
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<strong> </strong>We both drop our Captains and Mascots. I'm taking Shark and Tentacles, Adam is taking Hammer and Marbles. I draft Siren, Hag, Greyscales and Sakana. Adam drafts Mallet, Flint, Mist and Brick.<br />
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<strong>JD: </strong>I'm not a big Salt guy, I like Tentacles a lot. Close Control, 2'' melee and more importantly in this matchup, Blind. Hammer going to TAC5 is kind of rough, imo. I also like Greyscales in this matchup because 2'' UM is pretty tough to catch. The Hag, I have found is amazing for breaking scrums and moving models across the board. Siren1 is less good these days, but I still expect to be able to trigger her Seduce off of her playbook at some point. Sakana has Weakpoint and Anatomical Precision. I missed Jac, and would probably bring him on in the future instead of Sakana or Greyscales, but I'm not sure yet.<br />
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<strong>Adam: </strong><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;"> I choose Hammer here in this matchup, since I feel like I should reliably be able to wail on some models here, since a lot of them aren’t that tough, and no one really wants to fight me, Marbles I’ve come to use a lot because of Goad, I end up using this more and more now, and It’s a super handy weapon to control a model. The rest of my lineup centered around being able to play the ball, and trying to prevent people from coming into the goal area. Brick, and Marbles not only protect hammer, but they also help people from just running up to the goal and doing whatever they want. Flint and Mist are easily two, solid ball players, with abilities to get around UM, and Mist has 2” melee. Then Mallet can add extra tac to hammer and get around most models melee ranges on this team. Having quite a few model with extra reach, and being able to play the ball and still kill seemed like a solid choice going into this matchup.</span><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif;"> </span><br />
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<strong> </strong>Inf is allocated. Shark's loaded, Greyscales has 2, Tentacles 2, Hag 1, and Sakana 2. Hammer gets loaded, Mist has three, Brick 1, Marbles 1, Mallet 1 and Flint 2. Hammer jogs forward, kicks the ball into the cover on my side of the table. It's a ways out there.<br />
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<strong> </strong>Sakana sprints to it and kicks it back in the general direction of Shark, and it scatters back behind him. Brick jogs up and leaves the INF he didn't use to Mist, using the "Greater Good" GIC, but as I look at that card now, that's a Guild only ability, not friendly. It didn't matter here though.<br />
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With the ball safely in my court, I take my time. Tentacles sprints forward and successfully Blinds Hammer. Mallet moves forward, leaving an INF on him. Siren sprints up to put 2'' melee around Tentacles but I don't really push her far enough up there even though I had the room too, and Hammer is still able to get into Tentacles without being engaged by Siren too. At this point, I should have played my Plot Card "Brace for Impact", and this would have likely saved Tentacles but I forgot about it and Hammer gets a double push, plus beatback, and shoves him back three inches toward Mallet where he finishes off the Octopus. 0-1 Masons.</div>
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Hag activates. She dodges Shark up 2'' with her Fisher's reel, retrieves the ball and punts it successfully to Greyscales. Marbles shuffles over to within 4'' of Brick. Greyscales moves up, kicks to Shark and then uses "Where'd they Go" to dodge into melee with Hammer and not get charged by Brick. </div>
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Mist puts cover on Brick and runs up to cover on the right, just positioning and burning INF. Shark activates, and he charges Brick.. I push-dodge Brick out of cover, farm him for a minute and dodge into melee with Hammer. All in all, I put 5 momentum on the board, and stay out of range of Flint being able to charge me for momentum or tackle. At 7 momentum, I'm up on the roll and win it handily. I allocate 6 to Shark, 3 to Sakana, 2 to Greyscales, 2 to Siren and none to Hag. Tentacles comes back on by the goal. Hammer gets loaded, Mallet gets 2 I think, Mist 3, Flint 2, Marbles 1.</div>
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Shark activates, of course. He hits Hammer 5 times, an early one being for Stagger (-1 DEF) and the rest all dodges that move Shark up the board. Three of those dodges are momentous single dodges and the last is a non momentous double dodge to get me out of melee with Flint. He also legendaries, catching everyone but Mist. He walks up around Marbles and out of 6'' of Brick and kicks an easy goal, even getting a Screamer. 4-1 Fish.</div>
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The ball scatters back and hits cover near Mist. </div>
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Mist dodges to it, picks it up, sprints to goal and scores easily. 4-5 Masons.</div>
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I boot the ball back out to Sakana, who charges Brick. I get the non-momentous double push dodge and shove him back, dodge up and score again. I use kneeslider to simply move him within 4'' of the goal, keep momentum and be ready for snapshots. I still have Greyscales on the board and I expect him to retrieve the ball soon. 8-5 Fish.</div>
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Adam scatters the ball out to the right, away from Greyscales. He goes ahead and activates Hammer, who can't get to anyone but Siren. He can reach Greyscales, but with UM he can't catch him. So he goes into Siren, which doesn't worry me. He doesn't charge, so she counter attacks. He can only just barely reach her, and is engaged by Greyscales.</div>
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He gets damage and a push, and pushes her two inches away, and gets out of Greyscale's melee. I should have used UM when he engaged her and moved Greyscales back closer to him, but I didn't. She counter attacks, needing 3 hits on 2s to double dodge out of his melee. I bonus time the roll and get snakeyes, so only a single dodge. This is not enough to save her and Siren goes down, her 2 INF with her. I missed an 86% chance to double dodge out of melee, but if I had dodged Greyscales back, that would have gone up to 96%. 86% should have been plenty, but dice happen. Hammer also uses his legendary.</div>
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However, he did it at the right time. If he'd waited an activation, Hag would have moved up and legendaried, getting him way away from everyone. That's what she does now, moving Greyscales 4'' to the right, Hammer back and Flint back. </div>
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Flint has to go get the ball now, with Greyscales in range of is now. He pulls 2/2 MOV from Mallet I think and sprints, WTG to the ball. Greyscales dodges into Brick and hits him for Momentum, but that's it. </div>
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Hammer moves into Shark, KDs and Singles him out for Momentum. He stays out of his melee. Adam is up on Momentum considerably, so Tentacles heals 4, heals Hag and moves up in front of the goal.</div>
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Adam wins the rolloff, easily. He loads Hammer, gives 3 to Flint, 3 to Mallet, 2 to Mist. I've got 15 INF this turn, so I load Shark and Sakana both. Hag gets 1, Siren gets 1 and Greyscales gets 3. The score is 8-7 Fish, so Flint can't simply score to win. He needs a 6VP activation, so I feel like I have time, especially since Hammer is out of 6'' from everyone he can pull INF from, and Hag is the only model he can reach, and I don't think he can kill her because of Fear. However, in what was really a solid decision, Flint dodges down the field, sprints to within range of Hammer and passes successfully, despite being engaged by Hag. Hammer dodges forward 4". </div>
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Now we have a problem. I can't reach the ball with anybody, I don't think. Looking back, I maaaaaybe could have gotten there with Shark but it's really sketchy, and I don't know that I can get it to anyone that can hide it from Mallet. Probably Greyscales. Hammer needs 5VPs, and both Hag and Tentacles are within range. I decide to move Tentacles. I really don't think that Hammer can kill the Hag because of Fear, but I know he can kill Tentacles. So I move Tentacles back by Mist.</div>
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Hammer charges Hag. He gets the KD on her, and I use my GIC to protect her. He shoves her back a bit, pulls a 1/0 KICK buff from Flint and boots the ball to Mist, who dodges down the line. He buys 2 more attacks into Hag and does decent damage but only gets her to half, and pushes her towards Mallet. Crisis averted, but now I have to get the ball.</div>
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The Hag gets up, shadow likes out of melee. She dodges Greyscales back 2'', then walks around behind Hammer, outside of 1'' and away from Mallet. She hits him for 1 momentous dodge and dodges into him, still safe from Mallet.</div>
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Mist activates, throws cover on both of them and sprints down the field, hiding.</div>
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Siren sprints and engages Brick. </div>
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Mallet beats up on Shark a bit and walks down the field.</div>
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The game is getting long now. Sakana beats up on Mallet some, getting Weakpoint and some damage and I'm alternating between Momentum and damage because I'm planning on killing Mallet, trying to get up on points, but the more I look at the scene, but more I don't know where my last 2 VP are going to come from unless it's Flint who I can't button down for multiple activations. </div>
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Brick takes a damage from Siren and walks towards the scrum. Shark clears conditions, walks away from the monkey and into melee with Brick and Mallet, keeping Marbles in melee too. He hits Mallet once for a momentous single dodge and dodges out of Brick's melee, then buys damage into Mallet, still planning on killing him. I still really can't figure out how to close out the game though, and the more I look, the more I realize I can't, so I switch to momentum farming.</div>
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Marbles meanders up.</div>
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Greyscales WTG into Mallet, buys an attack that wraps for 2 dodges, hits Hammer for another single dodge and walks down the field. I'm up by 4 momentum, and win the rolloff.</div>
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I load up Shark, Greyscales and dole everything else out, giving 2 to Sakana, 1 to Hag and I think 1 to Tentacles. Hammer, of course, gets fully loaded, Flint gets 3, Mallet 4, Mist 1.</div>
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Greyscales walks into Mist and buys an attack, and Mist Counter Attacks. The first attack does really well, getting 3 hits on a 5/0, but I take the momentous dodge and shift over and within 1'' of Mist so the odds of him dodging away are slim. He only gets one hit after ARM, and does 1 damage. Greyscales bonus times an attack, tackles the ball and dodges away with "Where'd they Go". He kicks successfully and it scatters into the fast ground on the left.</div>
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Hammer goes, and somehow, by pulling 2/2 MOV from Flint, he walks up to Shark, around Sakana's melee range and engages him. He pulls 1 Damage from Mallet and proceeds to shove Shark all over the place until he engages both Marbles and Brick and kills Shark, taking the score to 9-8 Masons.</div>
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At this point, it is 5 o'clock in the afternoon and we started this game at 1:30. It's going to take Greyscales and Sakana another turn to get to the ball, and I have no way to generate momentum enough to go first, so Hammer is going to activate beginning of next turn and kill at least Hag, if not Hag and Sakana. I would need two activations next round and Hammer just isn't going to let it happen, and my shift at work starts in 2 hours. So I called it in Masons favor and determined to always play clock forever.</div>
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<strong>Thoughts on the Game:</strong></div>
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<strong> JD: </strong>I felt like I ran Shark ok. I missed Jac but I like Greyscales and Sakana both and I feel that Greyscales is nearly impossible for Hammer to catch. Most of my models have easy access to solid dodges against Hammer so I felt really great about my lineup overall.</div>
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I made a minor mistake with Siren. I should have moved her up a bit more to protect Tentacles. The major mistake was not using my plotcard. That would have made the difference in saving the Octopus I think, and Blind really didn't help me since Tentacles only has 8 boxes anyways. "Brace for Impact" would have saved him I think. It would have at least helped.</div>
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Shark's legendary turn went fantastic. I wish I could have caught Mist in the net, and I should have focused a bit more on that because it would have prevented the immediate counter score. The issue is that I didn't want to give Adam a chance to counterattack me, and I would have had to leave Hammer's victim stats to catch Mist. That was probably a mistake though, and I should have done it. Otherwise, catching everyone else really neutered the team, EXCEPT.</div>
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Siren. Siren should have been fine. Siren's the lynchpin that really pull the floor out from underneath. Hammer was still able to go, use his INF, score 2VP and secure a second turn which invalidated a lot of Shark's legendary turn. I should have dodge Greyscales up to further hurt Hammer's chances of killing Siren, and the extra dice should have been enough to guarantee that double dodge. I really didn't want him pushing into Greyscales though, but I should have tried to make a position that worked. Her double dodge, at 86%, should have gone off though. Against 2/1 with bonus time... That was frustrating. I lost her 2 INF, gave up 2 VP, and first activation next turn which would have prevented Flint from running away early on. After this activation, I did what I could, but I couldn't catch the ball.</div>
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There was a chance to save the game at the end, but I used the momentum to bonus time the tackle on Mist, which didn't leave me any momentum to counter attack Hammer with. If Shark could have counterattacked Hammer, or forced the KD, he likely would have survived. I honestly didn't think he was anywhere close to being able to walk into Shark though, and certainly not around Sakana. </div>
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<strong>Adam:</strong><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">First let me say Shark’s legendary is awful to be a victim of. It's so hard to do anything with any model for a turn that’s caught in that play, plus, you’ve wasted influence. I felt like this game was going super poorly for me whenever I got hit by that. Luckily Mist was far enough out of range that I was able to still have a model, to score with, and Hammer could Legendary and kinda mitigate that movement nerf. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;"><u></u><u><br /></u></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;"> As the game went on I started to understand more and more that there was no way I was going to win by trying to just score the ball, which for the most part, I knew coming into this matchup, but man do Fish score goals fast, and they’re so good at getting to the ball too. So by the time the second goal was on the table by them, I knew I had to try and hid the ball from them and utilize hammer to start beating people down. <u></u><u></u></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;"> Now Siren being the only person I could reach was a gamble on my part, but the only way I could reliably try and get momentum for the next turn, and I honestly forgot that I was a 2/1 due to stagger at the time, so I wasn’t thinking much of 3 dice against him. However, I did get lucky on the roll. Looking back the better thing for me to do would have been to position myself over to greyscales with Hammer, and use knockback on Siren’s first hit to dodge into him. This way I would have had a chance to farm off Greyscales too, because had that play not gone in my Favor this game changes a lot.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;"> I played much better towards the end of that game than I did in the first two turns, Utilizing mist and flint to keep the ball until I could get some take outs to score and put the game away, was the best thing I could do, Had I not done that the game would have been over much sooner. The last turn my decision to go into shark was based entirely on the knowledge that JD had no momentum for the counter attack, if he had the momentum I probably would have picked someone different, but the fact that shark had a lot of influence and already damaged a little bit, led me to try and kill him. I knew the ball would be much safer then, and I’d probably be able to position myself to go first, the following turn.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;"> All in all the Fish are really cool to play into, and seem like a fun guild to play, after playing them I spent time looking at them and Corsair definitely seems like a cool model to play with too. I definitely think he could be a could be a fun model against, The Almighty Reaper, Thresher, too.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Times;"> <strong>JD: </strong>Yeah, I definitely feel like the Corsair/Thresher matchup is probably in our future, and would be worth trying. He brings some solutions to the problem for sure. With a Thresher nerf probably incoming, who knows how key it is to develop that tech but who knows. It could go either way.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Times;"> Thanks for reading through, and hopefully you got a taste of Shark and idea of what's coming. Look forward to the next one and we'll see you around. Thanks for reading!</span></div>
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JediAnakinSolohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05612104007435908015noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2592330986543780083.post-22648726733564899012018-01-05T19:49:00.000-08:002018-01-05T19:49:41.204-08:00Guildball Batrep #3 – Butchers vs. Morticians<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Welcome back for another Batrep. I hope you enjoyed the holidays. We have, but we're excited to get back into the games. Adam's Butchers showed up, as did my Morticians. Between borrowing a friend's and getting my own, I'd snuck a handful of Mortician games in while this is Adam's first round with the Butchers. In light of that, we probably owe this matchup a second round as there's several things we could have done better.<br />
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<strong> JD's Lineup</strong><br />
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<strong> </strong>I have been looking at Morticians for awhile now, especially with the low-def Blacksmiths and Farmers on the rise and I really feel that Morticians are only a good buff or two away from being where they need to be. I don't think the end of Season 2 nerf to Obulus was uncalled for, but I think it showcased how the rest of the Guild really just supported Super Solo Obulus. They're not in a horrible spot in the meta currently, but they're not one of the top dogs anymore, and generally show up in the bottom area of a lot of tournaments currently. As tight as Guildball is though, I don't think they're unplayable by any stretch. They do need a player that knows the other team as well as his own though because, as with any control team (Hunters), you have to know what to control in order to know how to wreck it.<br />
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I also feel that Mist is a key member of the Morticians right now, as easily their best striker, and it's going to be difficult to fill his place when he's gone. Hemlock2 is hopefully good.<br />
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That said, Scalpel didn't interest me at all, so she's not in the lineup. I have since changed my mind because in those games I played, while Obulus was fine into the Butchers, against Engineers I felt like I struggled to kill Engineers faster than they scored. So I could see a Scalpel lineup being somewhat tempting. It's worth trying and I wish I had ordered her.<br />
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I have Obulus, Dirge, Silence, Ghast, Casket, Bonesaw, Cosset, Graves1 and Mist in my roster currently. My 10th option would be Brainpan and Memory but they're not here yet. When Mist leaves, I'll have Scalpel by then for my 10, but I don't know how I feel about it.<br />
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<strong> Adam's Lineup</strong><br />
<br /> So, I've really come to understand that as a Hammer player, I love punching things. It's very satisfying to make models disappear from the board for me so I ended up looking into the Butchers. Since JD got the Morticians, I ended up picking these guys up myself. I think they do pretty well against a blacksmiths guild, when they catch apprentices, and ignore armor. Models like Shank, and Meathook, seem to really hurt some of the low defense models. It seems to me that they're better at opportunistic scoring and I think both captains are pretty solid.<br /><br /> Brisket 2 is a model I really like in this guild, especially with her ability to give an extra 2 influence to the pool on a score, which makes the Butchers do more Butcher things. I also feel like I'd bring Rage as of right now, for Filet since he does the same basic thing Boar does, but can also apply bleed.<br /><br /> Picking my ten was kind of difficult, because I still don't know the Guild that well. I end up taking Filet, Ox, Princess, Boiler, Boar, Vet Brisket, Shank, Meathook, Vet Ox, and Tenderizer. I end up leaving Truffles and Brisket 1 off. However, I probably would change this going forward, since the Butchers really seem to lack knockdown. I like Truffles for this, and I definitely feel like Brisket 1 is a good model on a Kick off. <br />
<strong><br /></strong><strong> Rolloff and Plotcards.<strong><br /></strong></strong><br />
<strong> </strong>I lose the rolloff to Adam. I kept Wingback, Good Marker and Composure for plot cards. I didn't feel like I had great options, but Wingback is solid for returning strikers and Good Marker is actually great for Morticians.<br />
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<strong>Adam: </strong>I win my first roll off in what's been like 4 games, so I'm excited to have the chance to choose what I want to do here haha. My plot cards were, Heroic Landing, Knee Slider and Brace for Impact. <span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: black; display: inline !important; float: none; font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><br /></span><br />
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<strong>The Draft: </strong>Adam takes Fillet and Princess, and I take my only two options, Obulus and Dirge. His lineup, from left to right in the below picture, is Meathook, Brisket2, Princess, Fillet, Ox2 and Board. We'll have to get some paint on these guys next time since they're hard to distinguish in that flat black, but once the lines get drawn on the game, they really stay in the same spot so I think we're ok this game. <br />
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Left to right on the bottom is Dirge, Obulus, Bonesaw, Silence, Mist and Ghast.<br />
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<strong>JD: </strong>Against Butchers, I have to play ball and I feel really comfortable into it with Mist and Bonesaw both. I also feel like Butchers will really struggle to catch Obulus, and between him and Silence, I can dictate their flow a bit. I also picked Ghast because I felt like his Fear ability would be very good into Butchers. My GIC is Ghost Shot for this game as well, though I feel that overall the Morticians got gypped on the GIC thing.</div>
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<strong>Adam: </strong>Going into Obulus, I know this man will be hard to Catch, so I take Filet, and Princess as my mascot. I figure Filet should be able to track most morticians down better than Ox. However, I forgot that while she gives an extra 2 inches of movement, it's not actually a dodge, just a flat 2/2 MOV buff. I took Boar, and Vet Ox for the 2 inch melee, and Meathook to support with bleed conditions, and Brisket 2 since I'm going to be receiving the ball, to hopefully get a first turn goal. <br />
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<strong> JD: </strong>I line up somewhat left, shooting through the opening in terrain and give Mist the ball. Adam deploys across from me, but only leaves Brisket2 across from Mist to retrieve the ball. Mist jogs up to be near cover for the 2/2 MOV buff and kicks across the field into the enemy cover. The ball scatters six inches to the right, perfectly, and out of reach from Brisket2 unless Fillet can buff her MOV. Fillet is on the wrong side of the table, and Mist will get the ball before Brisket2 will be able to reach it. Mist will be out of range to kick it directly to one of my own players, but we'll get there. I also have no idea why that token is laying out there next to the ball.</div>
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INF is allocated. 3 to Brisket2, 2 to Meathook, 1 to Boar, 2 to Ox2 and the rest to Fillet. I give Mist 2, Obulus 5, Bonesaw 4 and Silence 2.</div>
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Adam immediately realizes he over allocated on Brisket2, knowing he couldn't reach the ball. She gets as close as she can but stays in cover. I originally had slotted Mist 4 INF as a first turn scorer, but there wasn't any way to make that happen, so with his 2 INF, he acrobats up 2'' staying in cover, and sprints to the ball and back two and a half inches.</div>
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Princess shuffles up the board.</div>
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Obulus move up to within 8'' of Mist. He puppet masters Mist or a kick which is successful, and Obulus punts it to Ghast, also successfully. So far so good.<br />
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Meathook runs up the board. Ghast drops the ball in front of Bonesaw and jogs forward. Boar sprints up, staying out of the rough ground.<br />
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Then I get excited and skip pictures because I'm a loser. It's pretty simple though. Dirge moves into cover, staying in range of Silence. Ox2 moves up, staying out of rough ground. Silence picks up the ball, sprints up and kicks to Bonesaw who dodges up 4''. Fillet sprints forward and puts down Pain Circle on Bonesaw and Silence. She misses Bonesaw but pegs Silence.<br />
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Bonesaw charges into Boar and Princess and lands the Unexpected Arrival. This shoves Boar back 4'' into Fillet and into the rough ground, but he leaves Princess where she's at. He's under an inch away from goal, so he swings at Princess, needing a single net hit (so two, after armor) to get the momentous dodge on one to move up and shoot but misses. With his last INF, and kissing goodbye to first turn goal and therefore extra INF turn two, he buys another attack into the dog and gets the momentous dodge then. The turn ends and I have 3 or 4 momentum, and win to go first next turn. <br />
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This is mildly disappointing since I expected to go first next turn anyways, but I would have had the chance to recover the ball on the first activation with Bonesaw or Mist, score again and still have a Striker and Obulus both to go for the third goal later. <br />
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I allocate 3 to Bonesaw, 4 to Mist, 5 to Obulus and 2 to Silence again. Brisket2 gets two, Meathook 3, Board 1, Fillet 5 or 6 I think and Ox2 gets 2. </div>
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Bonesaw open the ball with a swing on Princess, who counter attack. Bonesaw gets the momentous dodge and dodges back, wasting the Counter attack. He then moves around to the back of Princess, abusing his 50mm base to be in melee range of her and tap in range of the goal. He buys another attack into her for another momentum and fires into the goal, and I land a screamer for two momentum too. Bonesaw then dodges off to the right trying to stay away from the murderball on the left. Score is 4-0 Morticians.</div>
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The ball scatters and lands on Brisket2, where Adam is attempting to score with her. Meathook activates and charges Mist. Mist Defensive Stances and Meathook whiffs the dice, missing everything. With his last attack, he hits and does a little damage, applying bleed. She heroics, which gives a -4/4 MOV debuff to everything bleeding in 3'' of her. This was something I was not aware of, and I think an excellent play. It hamstrings me considerably for the rest of the game and I spend most of my time trying to avoid that nonsense.</div>
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I originally intended to activate Mist next and immediately score with him, but everything I need him to do is kind of chancy without some help. I have some momentum, but not enough, so Obulus activates. He moves up, stays in cover and beats up Meathook a bit. I don't do more than 4 or 6 damage, but I dodge two or three inches. Either way, I pick up a momentum for every single INF Obulus had, and I think I Legendary at this point too, to get two more. </div>
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Fillet charges Silence and does a number on him. I, again, Defensive Stance and that mitigates it considerably but she still kills him, removing his INF from the board as well. She dodges back to the safety of the wall. 4-2 Morticians.</div>
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Mist activates. He acrobats out of Meathook's range, and then hits Fillet. He gets the tackle on the first one, then cranks the dice on the next one for a double dodge. He hits her again for another momentum and bonus times a kick to Bonesaw. I spend the momentum to snapshot, and bonus time that as well. It works, and the score goes to 8-2, Morticians. </div>
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Adam puts the ball way out in left field, literally. He then activates Ox2. Between a cheaper charge from "Vindictive: Male" and his GIC, Ox2 charges Ghast for free and does whirling chains to suck him in. I counter attack and shove him back two inches but whirling chains caught me and Ox2 is able to buy another attack. However, while he ignored fear on the charge, he pays it for the second attack. He does only a few damage. I shoved Ox2 back in a way though that means Boar can't get into Ghast, which I think is neat. </div>
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Feel free to correct us internet if we did that wrong. We're ok with the outcome unless it means Ox2 could have gotten a charge and two more attacks instead of just one. That would be good to know.</div>
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Dirge activates, and I seriously consider using him to get the ball, but I feel like he auto dies to Boar, so I run him towards center. Princess moves into contact with Bonesaw. Ghast just hangs out really since I don't want him to give up center. This leaves Boar to charge Bonesaw. This is problematic, and I wish I had left the option of Ghast available because I would much rather him charge Ghast than Bonesaw. Bonesaw defensive stances but it still hurts. </div>
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Brisket2 then moves in and finishes him off pretty handily, taking the score to 8-4 Morticians still. Adam is way up on momentum, so he wins the initiative roll and goes first. Fillet gets fully loaded, Boar gets 1, Ox2 2, Brisket2 just one and I think Meathook gets setup ok.</div>
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I bring Bonesaw and Silence both back on the left side. Fillet is right there and can kill one of them at least, so I try to put Silence in the way but I really can't since Bonesaw is faster, and I need him as far up as I can get. I just have to hope for the best. I give him 4, Obulus 5, Mist just one or two, Ghast two, Dirge 1 and Silence 2. The 2 goal INF are really helping. I'm still only a goal away from the win and I feel like Adam has some serious catching up to do, but Mist is in a bad spot. Bonesaw and Silence are both half dead near Fillet and I really don't know if I can get the ball this round. If I can't, I'm pretty sure that's game because I wasted Obulus's Legendary early. It got me the second goal but I don't think I needed the measly 2 momentum I got for it.</div>
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Fillet immediately walks into Bonesaw, which I expected. I declare a counter attack. She easily cranks damage on the first hit, and Bonesaw dodges back and inch with the counter attack. However, being base to base on the initial attack, Fillet is still in melee with him and I really feel like this is it. She hits again and does Blood Rain. Then she misses. Then she does bad and only gets one damage. Then she misses again and Bonesaw is alive on one.</div>
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At this point, we are low on clock. I have about 10-15 minutes on Adam, and I'm feeling pretty good after that turn. Even if I can't retrieve the ball, he was in the tank long enough on the last four activations of his that if I just keep my time tight, I don't think he can beat me. We would probably still play the game out though since he's new to Butchers and clocking out on an early game kind of sucks. So I want to go strong here. </div>
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I need the ball though. Silence activates. Fillet never engaged him, so I'm planning to sprint to the ball and then here I go into the tank for a few minutes, immediately breaking my clock agreement to keep my time tight. I originally was going to retrieve the ball and kick to Bonesaw. Silence gets an extra dice because he's near the bird, but I need 5s to succeed on a kick to Bonesaw because Fillet is in the way. So rather than picking up the ball, Silence throws a Shut Out at Ox2 because Ox2 is the only player on that side of the table that can finish Bonesaw off. If he's shut out, I have time to build momentum and be able to heal Bonesaw before he makes the goal run. If Silence misses, he can snap the ball, and hopefully Obulus can puppet master it off of him later in the turn. None of these options are great though. Silence throws the shut out and gets it, locking Ox2 down. I put him near the ball and it goes to Adam.</div>
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Adam now is on a timer, both because of his clock, and because Bonesaw is just a matter of time. Boar charge Mist and struggles against the 5/0 but does decent damage. Dirge flies over Ox2 and hits him once for Singled Out. Fillet goes to town on Mist. He's already bleeding so she annihilates him and uses the dodge to get into Obulus without triggering Unpredictable Movement. This takes Adam to 8-6, still in favor of Morticians. Meathook uses her last INF to damage him and then heroics onto him again for that -4/4 MOV nonsense. </div>
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Ghast moves into cover and then hits Ox2 twice. He KDs him and then does some damage. I don't care what at this point, I just want Momentum. Hilariously, the damage from Ghast triggers "Lash Out" on Ox2, doing one damage to Ghast. This in turn triggers Rising Anger as best we can tell since it doesn't specify Attack, Character Play or anything like that, just enemy model. </div>
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Brisket2 sprints up near Obulus, but that's bout it. I have enough Momentum at this point to do what I want to do, so rather than activating Obulus to farm some more and let Adam run Princess up to block the goal from Bonesaw, I activate Bonesaw.</div>
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He spends one momentum to heal immediately. Then he swings at Fillet, who counter attacks. Bonesaw gets the 1'' dodge though and misses the counter attack. He sprints for the ball and picks it up. Then he bonus times a kick to Silence successfully. Silence bonus times the kick back. With 5 dice on the kick thanks to Dirge and bonus time, it's also successful and Bonesaw dodges up four more inches, putting him range of goal. He bonus times the shot and scores, taking me to 12-6, Morticians. </div>
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<strong>Thoughts on the Game</strong></div>
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<strong> JD: </strong>I think that game was much tighter than the score lets on. If Fillet's rolls had gone differently on Bonesaw, he'd of gone to 8-8 pretty easily, and then Silence is really struggling to get away without dieing and I don't know if Obulus can get the ball and score too. It's tight. With only 5 INF, probably not since he'd likely need to sprint to be in range. He'd be able to pick it up but that's it and I doubt I would go first.</div>
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I also might should have retrieved the ball with Dirge, but looking back, I'm still sure he would have died and the ball would still be up in the corner. The gamble with Bonesaw and Silence was still probably my best plan. I wish I had backed up a bit more though. If Fillet couldn't charge them, it's possible I could have still gotten the ball back to Bonesaw with Silence. I don't know. I knew I was going to have to survive Fillet regardless, and I think I planned for it poorly. At the very least, just bring Bonesaw and Silence in and let Obulus, Ghast and Dirge go for momentum all day and try to go first. I'm lucky Bonesaw survived that.</div>
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I also thing I benefitted from a really solid kick scatter at the beginning. Not allowing Adam to use the ball at all for movement or momentum was really the worst of both worlds when going first or second. I was still pretty sure I could recover with Mist and score first turn, and I'm a little miffed that Bonesaw didn't. Scoring first turn, then going first and scoring again could easily end the game by the middle of round 2 and against Butchers, I have to end it fast. Bleed and just the massive amount of damage combined with Mortician's crappy GIC heal rate means I just lose the attrition fight. </div>
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Adam also deployed horribly. Fillet, who has very strong threat range, was out of the fight for a good chunk of the early game. I'm pretty ok with Boar, and was happy to see him rather than Shank. Meathook was surprisingly annoying and that's one cat I'll have to watch out for in the future.</div>
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<strong>Adam: </strong><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;"></span><br /><br /> The Positioning in this game makes me cry. There were just a ton of little mistakes on my part that really could have changed the way this game goes. As I've learned with the Blacksmiths, and now here with the Butchers, the position of my players is always key. Going back I would have definitely deployed filet over to the side with mist and put meathook with her as well. Then I would have at least been able to get the ball, and Dodge Brisket 2 up to try and score. I would have also shuffled Ox and Boar around here.<br /><br /> Another big mistake I make at the end of this game is the Bonesaw situation. He should have died, I'm not sure why I used blood rain, thinking that making him bleed would outweigh two more attacks. If I had done that. It would have been a 8-8 game like JD said, and then Boar or Meathook would have ended Mist, putting this into a 10-8 game making this much closer. I had a lot of Filet's abilities mixed up in my head while playing and taking more time to read over them now, I may have even taken Boiler with me here, because of princess, and the bleed effect. I think that would have been better for Filet over all. Granted, Boar does some good damage here.<br /><br /> After turn one, even though I was down about 8 I really never felt too much pressure. It's interesting playing with the butchers just because of the fact that, catching up doesn't seem to be so bad. Granted, it's nice to not have to catch up but, I was kind of surprised how easily I could just drop models. I really got a lot out of Meathook as well, she did solid damage, and really debilitates a model. Being able to take defense down, give someone bleed, casually put on 6-9 damage on a player, and then make it to where there move is reduced by -4/-4 is really great to me.<br /><br /> My GIC, which was Take it to' em was also very helpful in this game, Brisket gets a free charge from the wing, Vet Ox can get a free charge on a Male, it was handy every single turn, and I always found a way to use it. However, due to the team only being able to heal three, I could see myself also taking blood thirst into a team that really wants to fight with me. This way I could get the Life Drinker ability, which allows me to heal 1 after every playbook damage result. </div>
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After it was all said and done, I really enjoyed the Butchers, I definitely see myself playing them more in the Future. I actually didn't find losing too frustrating with them, just because I would get excited every time something would just get eviscerated, when I was on the war path. </div>
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<strong>JD: </strong>We followed this up with another Butcher game, this time into me playing Blacksmiths and it was another tight game. Adam tightened up his positioning but a couple of turns in the tank put him over on the clock again. I've played against Butchers many times, and it continually surprises me how fast they kill. This Mortician vs. Butcher game was a lot of fun, and I enjoy Morticians, but I don't know that they're a playstyle I want to play every game, unlike Union or Farmers. Or even Blacksmiths. Great game though, and I'm looking forward to pushing new Guilds.</div>
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We have a tournament coming up at the end of this month, so the next few Batreps may have us on our home turf. Adam will probably swing back to his beloved Masons, which we haven't had on the batrep yet, and I'll go back to my Farmers. I may sneak a Union game in there but we'll see.</div>
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Enjoy the batrep, feel free to leave comments, critiques and rules corrections. Enjoy your weekend!</div>
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JediAnakinSolohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05612104007435908015noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2592330986543780083.post-61557811953420812052017-12-27T17:54:00.000-08:002017-12-27T17:54:27.499-08:00Guildball for the New Guys - Surviving your Opponent's Next Activation<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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In the last New Guys article, we covered surviving your own activation. Getting through a charge or an attack without getting sidelined and wasting an activation. Today, we get to deal with the repercussions of your opponent's next activation, and how you can be the one to sideline and waste their activation for a change.<br />
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We'll rehash a couple of things, like Counter Attacks and Defensive stance and we'll delve a bit more into when to use them, rather than planning against them. We'll also start working on the next layer of the game, where you're thinking an activation ahead hopefully. I'll break it into two categories. Reactive Measures and Preventative Measures.<br />
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I'm straight up making these terms up as I go, so bear with me. <br />
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I'm defining Reactive Measures as what you can do during your opponent's turn, and Preventative as things you do during your own activation. We'll deal with Reactive first because it's hard to do Preventative without understanding how to use your Reactive abilities, and therefore enhance their effectiveness.<br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"> </span><strong><span style="font-size: large;">Reactive (Counter)Measures.</span> </strong><br />
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<strong> </strong>For starters, most of this is dependent on you having Momentum. My first activation, I ideally want to either net 3 momentum or score a goal or both. Usually, netting 3 momentum is the best available option for a variety of reasons, most of them being I don't have the ball. However, I'm a big fan of fighting teams, and a lot of times I can generate that momentum by killing a model so now I'm 2 VP up, 1-6 momentum in the bag, and I have nearly guaranteed last activation for myself unless I in turn lose a model. <br />
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Scoring a goal usually is better, especially if you have the ball. Otherwise you're leaving yourself open to having it taken off of you and all sorts of things. I usually refrain from scoring only if I'm behind on points against a team that can immediately counterscore. Regardless, you need some momentum to score effectively and you're going to have to farm some anyways.<br />
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I say 3 momentum as a goal for a few reasons. Right off the bat, it lets me do everything I want in the next two activations. It lets me Defensive Stance and/or Counter Attack during my opponent's next activation, and lets me clear conditions on my next activation or use a heroic. 3 is a good goal. 2 is ok. 1 can hamstring you pretty badly, specifically in factions that are very Heroic dependent (Brewers) or against a condition team (Alchemists) where you can count on wanting to clear conditions at the start of an activation.<br />
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So if you're not scoring, you need to generate momentum with the first activation. This is easy in teams where there's momentous damage. You can kill a model and get momentum at the same time. Win/win. Masons struggle a bit more because their high damage is non-momentous, so they'll have to weigh momentum vs. killing a model. If you kill a model and only gain 1 momentum out of it, does it mean you just handed a model to the opponent? That's really the question you have to ask.<br />
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<strong>Defensive Stance</strong><br />
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<strong> </strong>Defensive Stance is +1 DEF against charge attacks, or, if you're already at DEF6, it's -1 TAC on the charge. I personally feel like the value of Defstance goes way down after DEF6, so if I'm low on momentum it's rare I'll use it. +1 DEF affects every single dice, while -1 dice just affects one. <br />
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What does it change? Let's pick an example. I like picking on Hammer, so we'll use him. Regardless of the model, you know there's +4 TAC extra because it has to be a charge in order for us to use Defensive Stance. So unless it's a mascot, you're looking at around a minimum of TAC8 on the charge. Hammer will be TAC11 on the charge. Since most of the time you charge, you're looking for high playbook results, so we're looking at 5 or 6 hits initially. On a DEF 4 model, there's a 50% chance of 6 hits at Hammer's TAC11, and 72.55% of 5 hits. If I defensive up to a 5, it drops to 12.20% for 6 hits, and 28.89% for 5 hits, and this is before ARM so you're talking a 76.58% chance for 2 net hits after ARM if you want somewhat reliable results. DEF4 and DEF5 are, I think, the winners for using DEF stance.<br />
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DEF3 has 96.13% chance of 5 hits before ARM and 87.79% of 6 its. DEF stance gets us to the numbers we saw a minute ago, 73.55% for 5 hits and 50% for 6. DEF2 just gets worse from there.<br />
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Given the effectiveness of it, or lack thereof on models like Stave at 2/0, We start having to do things like math and knowing our opponents cards. <br />
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<strong>Why Defensive Stance? </strong><br />
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<strong>1. Because you're going to counter attack</strong> is a great reason. The best, even. It's expensive at 2 momentum, but if this is a key model you need alive (Unactivated, has the ball, or is a really nice paintjob that looks bad on the sidelines) then the 2 momentum is worth it (1 for Defstance, 1 for Counter Attack). In order to counter attack though, you need to stay standing. Let's talk Hammer again. Hammer is a problem here at a KD on 2. Defensive stancing from a 3 to a 4 still has a 96.72% chance of getting the 2 net hits after ARM for the KD. In fact, you have to get all the way up to DEF6 with 1 ARM (Or cover) before the chances are in your favor. So against Hammer, it's not as good. <br />
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Ox, on the other hand, doesn't see his KD until column 4. Deffing up from 3 to 4 with 1 ARM gets you down from 88.67% to 72.55%. Not great, but if I have the momentum, I'll do it. From 4 to 5 though, he goes to a 28.89% to get the 5 hits he needs to hit his KD after removing a hit for ARM. Def up from 5 to 6 is just money in the bank. We're seeing real value of defensive stance against Ox rather than Hammer. <br />
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This goes for a Tackle too. Hammer has a Tackle on 2, but against Mist, going from a 5 to a 6 takes him to 56.93% for that Tackle. We're right at a coin flip here and asking our opponent some tough questions because as soon as this attack fails, we counter attack. Mist has a Push Dodge on 3 and a Dodge on 2. Against Hammer or Ox, if they're not base to base, Mist is probably gone. Against a model like Stoker... Hey, let's talk Stoker.<br />
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Stoker's a 3/2. We're kind of talking lousy def stats, but at 3/2, they need that extra hit. Ox's KD on 4 needs 6 hits against Stoker to work, and at DEF 4, that's exactly 50%. If Stoker doesn't go down, he counter attacks with a double push on 1 and Ox is out of the fight. Hammer probably still gets it with an 88.67% chance of getting the four hits he needs for that Column 2 KD, but this is why we learn our opponent's models. Ask for that card before you make a decision.<br />
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Speaking of Ox and knowing cards, I'm aware he has "They Ain't Tough" for -1 ARM that he can either apply in combat or from 6" away. This leads me to my next point.<br />
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<strong> 2. To waste resources.</strong> We'll cover this a bit more in the Counter Attack segment, but it's a valid point here too. I might not counter attack with a lot of models, but still Defensive Stance against a kill. If I can prevent a wrap or a high playbook result like a momentous 7 damage from Sledge, it's worth me defensive stancing if those odds put me into the "Likely to survive category". Now he's wasting resources on this kill. Same goes for a high Tackle. Spending more INF to kill me, or take the ball if he doesn't get the hit he needs on the charge can hurt the dice math a lot. Especially since the Charge is usually the most important attack. It's the most dice, the most resources. In many cases, it's the best chance they have of getting the high result they need (Tapper's column 4 Commanding Aura is a great example, as is Ox's KD on 4) to finish out that model this activation. If Tapper fails to get CA, his dice math go downhill. He really wants CA and a wrap to the KD but that doesn't happen often. If you have the Momentum, you can really ruin some otherwise good odds of killing your model.<br />
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The goal is to force them into a decision where is it better to walk in with lower TAC on lower DEF or charge in with higher TAC on higher DEF? Some models at TAC6 or 7 can do it on a walk but when you start looking at TAC5 and lower, it becomes a dilemma.<br />
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<strong> Why Counter Attack?</strong><br />
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<strong> </strong>This one is easier to answer. In fact, some of the discussion here is Why wouldn't you counter attack? We'll do the Why first.<br />
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<strong>1. To Neutralize the Threat </strong>is the obvious answer. We talked a lot about this in the previous article, but from the perspective of what to watch for when they counter attack. Many models in the game are designed as strong counter attackers. Stoker, as we mentioned before, is a great example at 3/2 and a double push on 1. You absolutely have to KD that guy if you don't have 2'' melee, or you're gone. <br />
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This also helps you position your models if you understand what makes a good counter attack. I can be fairly brave with Stoker and offer him up as the easiest model to get into (he's slow, so I often need that anyways) because I'm fairly confident he can weather the attack from a 1'' model. Stave is similar with 2'' melee and unpredictable movement. With a low push, he can dodge out from a model, counter attack and be out of the problem. <br />
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So what are we looking for? Unpredictable Movement is nice defensive tech, but it's not enough. Good counter attacks are going to be pushes, dodges, KDs, double pushes and double dodges and lastly, a few guildballs, within the first two columns. TAC6-7 can have good options up to column 3 but in most cases, you want no more than column 2. You're also wanting a combined DEF stat of 5. So 3/2, 4/1, 5/0. 2/3 is...ok but a charge is probably going to get what it wants regardless against a 3/3 under defensive stance. This is before defensive tech and positioning. So, combined DEF of 5 and good options no later than column 3, but really, column 2.<br />
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Single Push/Dodge on one or two is the beginning, but it doesn't make a good counter attack. If your opponent did not base to base you, great, awesome. If he did though, this is not going to disengage you. Use it to push them into melee with another model if possible. Single dodges are slightly more useful because you maybe can dodge into cover or out of a crowdout but these are still not amazing uses of a counter attack.<br />
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Knock Down. I use to think this was the peak of Counter Attacks and this is really not true at all. Knock Downs are cute, but all it does is force them to use a momentum to stand up, and they can quite likely get momentum on the charge. So they declare a charge, you declare a counter attack and instead of taking the non-momentous higher damage, they take a lower momentous option. A push maybe and push 0''. Then you KD them, and they spend that momentum to stand right back up. The upside to this is that you traded 1 momentum for their 2 INF. That is one nice thing about Brewers and their momentous KD. They can dodge the counter attack and get momentum for it anyways, but it's still hard on the math when they're trying to kill a model. The exception to this is if a model began it's turn with conditions and had to clear them before attacking. Now, KD is the best thing on the market. Keep that in mind when you're deciding your opponent's next move. It might be worth getting a random KD on his loaded basher so you can have a good Counter Attack later.<br />
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Double Push, Double Dodge, or Push Dodge. These are probably the best, most accessible Counter Attack results. It completely negates 1'' melee and requires a base to base 2'' melee model to deal with. This means you can position just outside of their base to base range and even though they can get to you, you can push them out if you have a reliable counter attack. Or dodge out. Or push dodge out. Whatever gets the 2'' distance you need. I find these to be the most consistently reliable options.<br />
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Lastly we have Guildball options. Specifically, the strong ones are Where'd they Go? (Flint, Greyscales, Ulfr, Shank, maybe some more), Ball's Gone (Spigots, Greyscales, Brisket2, Bushel off the top of my head), or really anything that has a strong push like The Unmasking on Ghast and Fangtooth. Those will disengage abruptly. Ferrite has a sneaky one now too called "Disarm" which is -2 TAC. That'll hurt your dice math pretty badly. <br />
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These options and the defensive stats we mentioned make a solid counter attack model. These are the guys you want to dare your opponent into because of their ability to neutralize the threat.<br />
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<strong> 2. To waste resources. </strong>We have covered this a little bit, but I'll counter attack to force the KD. I'm more than happy to make you KD me for little to no damage and dodge that column 6 high damage option on the charge. If you get the damage, I'm a few attacks from dead, but now I'm relatively safe in many cases. Less so against Captains but still. If you don't KD me, I escape. This is a useless dare if you don't have any good counter attack options. If I'm base to base and you're unlikely to get above Column 2's single push, meh. Do your best.<br />
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The pickle in all of this is tackles. You charge in for the ball and I declare a counter attack. You can't KD me though because the ball scatters. Sucks to be you, this is a lose lose decision unless you have close control on your charging model. Then you just hope I don't have an early KD or Ball's Gone.<br />
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<strong>3. For Setup on future activations. </strong>Now we're thinking ahead, but this is one of my favorite things to do. There's three things here.<br />
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<strong>A. Incidental damage. </strong>Maybe I can get a couple damage on a model early on so my next activation is more assured of killing that model. This is a rare occasion but it has happened. Usually it's someone that goes into my Captain knowing they can't kill them, but knowing I can't escape either. Either they waste INF on the KD, or I counter attack and apply some out of activation damage. <br />
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<strong>B. Playbook Guildball options. </strong>This is my favorite way to get Singled Out applied. If the model being attacked has a great debuff like Weak Point, or Thousand Cuts, or Dirty Knives, anything like that, it might be worth counter attacking because now, you've applied this debuff out of activation for one momentum. Clone is also a great option on Vitriol, Snakeskin and... that's it I think. Clone's actually really solid since they'll do the charge or whatever, you counter attack and then the next attack is just wasted, and you get a 2'' dodge away, and if they choose not to take another attack it's still good for the rest of the turn.<br />
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<strong>C. Sturdy/Gluttonous Mass/Close Control, go away. </strong>This is my best anti-Corsair tech. Pop that Sturdy or Close Control, whichever is more important. Get it gone now. Sure, he's going to beat you up and he knows you can't push him away or dodge out with Tapper, so he just does damage because he needs all the damage he can get to finish you. So you counter attack, get the KD and it does nothing. Now, however, next activation, any single Brewer can KD Corsair. He's pretty vulnerable now, or he has to spend an INF to gain sturdy again. This is great on models like Esters, Compound, Flint or really anyone with one of those three defensive techs. Get them gone while you can so the next activation doesn't have to deal with it. Efficient use of resources, right here.<br />
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<strong>NOTE: </strong>In case you didn't know, you can bonus time a Counter Attack. If you're rich on momentum or desperately need the Counter Attack to work, this is an option.<br />
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<strong>Why wouldn't I counter attack?</strong><br />
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Now the tricky part.<br />
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<strong> 1. Because there is no hope. </strong>Sure, Stave has a KD on 1 with TAC6. Seems ok except he's 2/0. He can Defstance up to 3/0 but we're still pissing in the wind. Even Harrow at a 3/0, Defstance up to 4/0. Hammer's KD on 2 is still going to get there. Let's not throw momentum away.<br />
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<strong>2. Because we need the Momentum. </strong>Counter attacks are great but sometimes you need that momentum really bad. I've made this mistake many times where I have a mediocre counter attack and one momentum. So I take the counter attack, down to 0 momentum and the counter attack doesn't do anything decent and now, my model is KD and I could have really used that momentum t stand up and do something. That's the normal scenario. Before you spend that 1 momentum you have on a Counter Attack that isn't a sure bet, make sure that it isn't more important to have it for a heroic or to clear conditions.<br />
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<strong>3. Because you have Close Control. </strong>Let them waste the tackle. Now they attack again. Counter attack now. They tackle the ball, you tackle it back. It takes 3 INF to finally keep the ball. <br />
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<strong>4. Because you might counter attack on the second attack. </strong>Their KD is on column 4 or 5, so they need the charge to get it done, but you don't declare a Counter Attack. So they do straight damage and then you declare a counter attack for the next swing. Surprise! This is also gambling and illegal in some states. On the plus side, it's kind of a win win. If they KD you on the charge just to be safe, you cost them 2 INF for free.<br />
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<strong>5. Because you don't want Knocked Down at all, actually. </strong>You're pretty sure you can survive the activation and you'd rather start it standing than knocked down. So weather the storm and don't give them any incentive to do otherwise. This does not work against factions that have KD in nearly every playbook and bonuses to KD models (Brewers, specifically, but Farmers have a lot of KD too)<br />
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<strong>6. It won't accomplish anything for the goals of the game. </strong>They're not going to kill you this activation. You can't escape them if you did counter attack and you don't have the momentum to just hand out freely. So buckle down and wait your turn. Don't throw away Momentum you don't need to.<br />
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<strong>When to Defstance and when to Counter because I've got all the momentum of an uphill-traveling slug.</strong><br />
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<strong> </strong>In a lot of cases, Defensive Stance is really only useful if you can immediately Counter Attack. Without that follow up, Defstance starts losing it's worth.<br />
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So when is it more valuable than a counter attack?<br />
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<strong>1. When the DEF is already high enough to really negate the charge results. </strong>Mist is a good example. At 5/0, he can go to 6 and +4 TAC on the charge is looking rough. The rest of the results are going to struggle to reach high enough into the playbook to do the job because you negated the best chance they had at doing work. In most cases, he's trying to hang onto the ball. Against Close Control, do Defstance. Against low DEF stats, do counter attack. One note is that on someone holding the ball, it's unlikely they'll KD you so you have good chance of getting a Counter Attack off.<br />
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<strong>2. When a counter attack is pointless. </strong>Using Mist as an example again. At TAC4, there's a lot of models he's pretty much useless counter attacking against UNLESS they take the ball and you can retrieve it. Then it's maybe ok. The other way it's pointless is if they have Close Control. Mist can't even get it back, and really, you're better off staying in melee so they have to risk a Tackle to leave or spend INF on a dodge of some sort (Where'd they Go, Acrobatics, Quicktime). <br />
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<strong>3. When they're not likely to stay there for more than one hit. </strong>A lot of times, I'll charge someone, bounce off with a Momentous Dodge or Double Dodge, or my favorite, a Tackle Dodge like what Brisket3 has. So I hit once, take the ball an I'm gone. This kind of slides into a Pointless Counter Attack like in option 2, but if it's not really the same. Especially if they already have the ball. Shark is a really good example here. Shark likes to charge into a model, get his double dodge and bounce into range of the goal with some momentum to spend on the kick. If you don't have 2'' melee, you can't even reach him, and what you need to try to do is negate that Momentum. Defstance is the answer.<br />
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So now, onto Part II.<br />
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<strong><span style="font-size: large;">Preventative Countermeasures</span></strong><br />
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We understand the Counter Attack and Defensive Stance Basics now. Let's back up an activation and see what we can do to further maximize their efficiency. <br />
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It's inevitable that your models are going to be attacked. That's the game. That's how it works. The idea is to force the opponent into scenarios they don't like. This isn't always possible but you would be amazed at how much more efficient your defensive gameplay becomes when this is in the back of your mind.<br />
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By maximizing our defensive efficiency, we're talking about several methods. There's defensive tech like Character Plays and Passive Abilities. There's terrain, and there's positioning.<br />
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Let's talk about the basics, the little things. When you pick a model up and you move it, you have to get away from the Point A to Point B mindset. If you have played another miniature game prior to this you've probably already got some idea of that but many, many people are new to this genre entirely so let's talk about it.<br />
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<strong>1. Terrain.</strong><br />
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Terrain is a big deal. There's less in Guildball than say Flames of War or for sure Infinity. Games like the Batman Miniature Game and Infinity are both more invested in the terrain than the minis themselves. Yay, I got Batman and 5 henchmen for 60$. Now I need 300$ in terrain. GB doesn't require that much investment in terrain, but if you're not playing with any, you need to start. Terrain benefits many models in the game like Mist, Sakana and many others with passive abilities. <br />
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It also blocks charge lanes and grants cover. When you look at an 11 dice charge into Stoker at 3/2, Defstanced up to 4/2 and standing in cover and needing 4 net hits (6 before ARM) to reach the KD in Ox's playbook, cover drops from 50% to 37.69%. Cover can be a big deal. I said before that minus one dice by Defstancing a 6/0 model is kind of a waste of resources, and I agree with that still, but doing it for free in cover is great. Cover is more efficient against the following normal attacks though too. TAC6 down to 7 against a 3/2? That sucks.<br />
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I mentioned charge lanes. This is some fine positioning, but make note of the models with INF allocated to them and what their jobs are. If Mist has 4 INF and is within a foot of you, moving to where there is terrain between you both negates it pretty considerably. An obstruction or a barrier stops the charge completely.<br />
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In the example below, Mist (technically Alloy in this particular game, but in this case it's the same effect) is stuck up behind cover. Hooper has the ball and is well within range of Alloy/Mist but he can't charge over terrain, which is an immediate 2'' drop in threat range. Technically he could dodge out around cover and then charge, but that's why Friday is right there, to block that. Friday's a 4/1, in cover, and to engage her he has to be engaged by Tapper too. So now we're talking being down 2 dice before swinging. And, if he breaks loose and gets into Hooper, Hooper is a 3/2 with Tough Skin and in cover, and will Defstance up to 4/2 and counter attack. It's a tough nut to crack.<br />
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Everybody ignore Cinder, since she solves this problem. I dislike her immensely.<br />
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However, this is some ok positioning on my part, taking advantage of the available terrain and my opponent's mistakes. <br />
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Forest and Barriers also block Line of Sight. No charge if you can't see the model. Forests force a model to glide as well, so they're sprinting through and attacking. You can't defensive stance that but you're definitely dodging a charge and you don't have to deal with +4 TAC. Rough ground is ok defensive terrain but once the momentum starts accumulating it's benefits go way down.<br />
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Here, I've got Stoker, with the ball. He's within kicking range of Friday, who could easily score at this point from where she's at on the pitch. The problem is Mist. Friday could take the 4'' dodge back but the large bubble is just Mist's movement + acrobatics. He has another 2'' melee after that. It's doubtful the dodge will get her out of range, and if Mist has access to momentum and he likely does, he'll glide. If Mist has no momentum, the pass to Friday is probably not a bad move. However, in the event that he does, Stoker's going to sprint away to the trees so that he still moves forward. It's not that he's out of range of Mist at this point, but Mist will have to acrobatics forward, sprint and buy an attack because currently, he has no line of sight to Stoker in the right picture. That's 3 INF, and Stoker will be at 3/2. It's doable, but not great. And then Mist is stuck out there with the ball and Friday can come get it. The important thing to note is that while it's tempting to get into cover with Stoker at the treeline and go to 3/2 w/ cover, if he does that, Mist gets line of sight and can charge. Right now though, tucked in like he is, Mist can't see him. The other option is for Stoker to back up to the box and give up ground. This is probably the safest play, but if it fails, Mist will be in range for a goal.<br />
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If you're hiding behind Fast Ground, I can't help you. Please make better life decisions.<br />
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<strong>2. Positioning around models</strong><br />
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While we're on the positioning soap box and have that first picture, you can hide behind your own models. Heck, you can even use his models to block charge lanes. Friday is extremely safe because Tapper is there to crowd out. That means nearly any of those models have to deal with negative 1 TAC for Tapper, and another negative 1 TAC for cover, plus the resulting Counter Attack from Friday will have +1 TAC for her. This is before we factor in Commanding Aura being up on Tapper. Recognize the opportunities. Friday's where she's at because of a conscious decision. She could have been over a bit more to have better accessibility to the board but she is far safer where she's at. Use your other melee ranges to cause problems for other models. Farmers are really solid at this with so much 2'' melee, as are the Fishermen. I like to leave a ball on Jackstraw at 5/0 and tuck him in around Harrow or Grange or Tater. Anyone with 2'' melee, if not two or three models. Come and get it. Negative dice for you, bonus dice for me.<br />
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Here, Mercury has the ball and Ballista wants it. Ballista can get to Mercury, but not without being engaged by Vitriol. This can be potentially solved by Ballista shooting Vitriol for the 2'' push and KD but now we're throwing 2 precious INF at a side target that's got 5 DEF. I haven't removed the possibility of him taking the all from Mercury, but I've certainly discouraged it by simply positioning near Vitriol.<br />
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A small thing to remember too. The best workaround to most counter attacks is to base to base a model so even if they push you out, you can probably still reach them. So when you're placing a model, consider leaving it in range so you're farther up the board, but positioned in a place where they can't base to base you. Either just back out of that range, or behind something slightly so that in order to charge in the required straight line, they have to leave a gap.<br />
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Here, Boar can reach Harry with that wonderful Furious charge, but he can't get base to base. Heck, he can't even get within an inch. Harry's a 3/1, then he'll Defstance up to 4/1 and have cover. This takes Boar's 3rd column KD down to a 62% chance of success, and he'll have to take it because if he doesn't, Harry will only need 1 success to push Boar 1'' away and waste his next 2 to 3 attacks. If Boar was closer, he could base to base and be pretty safe. Take the momentous damage, get pushed or get Knocked down and stand back up. He'd be within 2 either way and be fine for his next three attacks. Harry's positioning alone prevents that though.<br />
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These are the little things, where positioning in the inches matters immensely. <br />
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<strong>3. Defensive Character Plays </strong><br />
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Then we have Defensive Tech. I talked about Hooper's Tough Skin, getting him up to a 3/2 before Defensive Stance. I like Hooper to go early on the first turn to run up and Tough Skin whatever model is farthest up, plus it lets me burn activations while accomplishing something. Friday also gains +1 DEF if Spigot is around, so between those two, Friday is at 5/2. She may look enticing at the halfway point on the board, but with a combined Defensive Stat of 7, you should think twice about it. <br />
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I keep using Brewer examples, but there's so many. Mash gets +1 ARM near his wife, Esters, and she can also give him +1 DEF. Then Hooper gives him +1 ARM and he already has unpredictable movement. So he's a 4/3 with UM. Good luck. This is also a very resource intensive strategy but Mash is really good at Snap Shots so people like to sprint him way up the board. With stats like that, it's not an entirely terrible strategy.<br />
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There's a lot of defensive tech out there. Nimble for +1 DEF. An Engineer player tucked Velocity into my lines, daring me to kill her turn 1. It didn't happen. There's Clone, which we've talked about. There's Defend the Ground from Tower and Ploughman for the free Defensive Stance. There's a lot of character plays out there that can really buff the survivability of players. The issue is when to do it. <br />
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I only do it first activation if it can really discourage my opponent's plan. If I know my opponent's first activation is to kill Velocity, then activate and use Nimble for the +1 DEF. Now you've activated and haven't lost an activation if they kill that model, and they may not even kill that model.<br />
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I usually wait till second or third activation though. If the turn is building up for someone to go into a model towards the end and really go for the win on the momentum race, I can burn an activation getting some defensive tech onto that player.<br />
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Those are the simple things. Things like Defend the Ground, Tough Skin, things another model can put onto the model you're trying to protect. Other ones like Nimble, Clone and Decoy are little trickier because you feel like you're wasting INF when you want to do things but when it works, it works. These character plays are also normally players you want to hold a ball with too. Greyscales with Decoy and Unpredictable Movement can dodge out to max against a 2'' melee player, probably get the dodge on column 1 and he's gone. You only have to worry about 2'' melee models too since with Unpredictable movement, 1'' melee models have to catch him over multiple turns.<br />
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<strong>4. Offensive Character Plays.</strong><br />
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<strong> </strong>Now we look at things you put on the enemy, or at least throw out there. Things like Gut and String, or Disarm. Stuff that Hamstrings (Also an option) the model that your opponent wants to use. Blind is getting really popular with that -2 TAC. Get that on Thresher or Hammer and you've really cut them down. Mist coming for your ball? Blind him. He's pretty useless at TAC2, but that's if you can get a 2 dice character play onto a DEF 5 model. But look at your character play options and see what shuts down an opponent. Jaecar is really good at this with Gut and String and Back to the Shadows. Dude charges in, knocks your MOV for 4/4 and takes you to -1 DEF. His next attack damages you and after he's done he dodges away 4''.<br />
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Playbook Guildball results are great options sometimes too, especially if they're ranged. You can get something like "Skewered" (Hearne1/2) onto a model by hitting it on the playbook rather than casting it for 2 INF. Sometimes this is better if Hearne is going into a model that's already crowded out, set up for getting beat on but if it's pretty fresh model, you might be better off just going for the 2 dice roll.<br />
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There's also several AOEs out there. Poison and Bleed aren't really dangerous but Fire is. -2/2 MOV is hard on threat ranges. The trick isn't to hit the model with it and give them a chance to clear it, the trick is to place it front of them so they accrue it during the charge and can't clear it before failing the charge. Blast Earth can do the same thing and cause Rough Ground but then you can glide over it. However, it's pretty momentum intensive and if the other guy is low on momentum, you may be forcing him to choose between Glide or a Heroic. <br />
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Using the Harry and Boar example from earlier, Harry can prevent the charge entirely from Boar by dropping the Molotov AOE in the way. If Boar charges through it, he loses 2/2 MOV immediately, and he can't clear it. If I had hit Boar with it and lit him on fire, he could clear it at the start of his turn and his threat range is restored. There's no way for Board to get to Harry right now without a speed buff.<br />
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Lastly, lets touch on Character Plays one more time. Control. There's not many of these. There's Lure (Siren1 and Cosset off the top of my head), Tucked and Shut Out (Silence), Puppet Master (Obulus), Pinned (Theron) and Goad (Spigot2, Marbles, Harry the Hat, Jac. Maybe a few more). These are more than debuffs, they control directions you can move, activations and can take over your model for a moment. This is a great way to shut the enemy down.<br />
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The Morticians player, Silence, is king here. Shutout and Tucked are amazing if you know the other team. Shutout the striker so he goes last, giving you time to get the ball, or Tuck Rage2 before he can get the 2/2 MOV buff from Grace to get to you. If you do it wrong and tuck a model that was going next anyways, you've wasted it.<br />
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Puppet Master is weird. You can use it walk them away from you or attack. It's expensive but powerful. You can walk them into you as well but for defensive purposes that's not great. Lure and Goad are both like that. If Siren is sitting at 4/1 near Kracken for that ARM, in cover, and this is a guy she's targeting, she's 5/1 with Cover. Lure that guy over so he's either out of range of what he wants to attack or he's engaged with a model that he doesn't want to deal with.<br />
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Goad doesn't force a walk, but it limits where you can go. Because of it's range, that usually means they can get to you if you get the Goad, but if you can get it before you move (Good Marker is great for this) and then walk away, it's pretty solid. You can do it from behind cover too, or from deep in a crowdout situation. Harry is awesome here. I like to use Goad to protect Brisket3, I don't care if you go into Harry. He's got Rising Anger even. Free 2 Momentum for me.<br />
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The example here has Decimate, instead of Brisket3. Decimate's Knocked down and on 8 health. Boar will likely kill her within two attacks. However, Harry goads him at the start of his activation, then walks out of charge range and to cover. Boar is completely neutered here.<br />
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<strong>5. Take a Breather/Come on Mate</strong><br />
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<strong> </strong>Last, but certainly not least, don't forget that you can heal in this game. If you've already been beat up a little bit, consider bringing that health up by four again. The GIC is likely to this some, taking Engineers down to two in some cases or three and etc, but it's worth considering. On models with health in the low teens, 4 health back can really help. Jackstraw is a really great example. At 5/0 plus Reanimate, he's a pain to bring down even with only 10 boxes, which is why I love throwing him up there. All I want him to do is put down two harvest markers every turn anyways, which he can do from the edge of the pitch if necessary. So I toss him up there, leave him as 'easy' pickings except at 5/0, he doesn't go down easy and a momentum or two, or three if I can spare it is an efficient and effective use of my resources to negate theirs. I've seen Hammer go after him, five, six attacks in and that 5/0 is slowing him down. Can't quite get him but he's close. So he activates, pops out two harvest markers, teleports away and heals. Now he's out of the scrum Hammer built. He's away from the crowdouts and he's got 50-60% of his health again before reanimate. Is this 5/0 model really worth the three activations and 12 INF it takes to bring him down for 2VP? Probably not. But those are the situations you want to create for your opponent.<br />
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So remember to heal. I think it's less valuable the lower your DEF is since the investment required for the necessary damage is so much lower. Sure, you can heal Stave, but I'm wrapping every time I hit him so... good job on not changing anything.<br />
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Condition removal is here too. Against teams like the Brewers and Hunters that like to apply those conditions that give them bonuses, keep the conditions off. Smoke is another story, she applies everything all the time. You just have to tank it out. However, you leave a model knocked down in a game where Spigot1 has activated yet and you have made a horrible mistake. Are you knocked down and snared? Seenah's going to eat you alive. Get rid of those conditions if you want to make it. Trying to keep conditions off is always a good idea, but in particular situations it's pretty crucial.<br />
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<strong><span style="font-size: large;">Summary</span></strong><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;"> That's about it. We can cook up all kinds of examples all day long and run the dice math, but this is the gist of the options available to you. Keep an eye on your momentum, make sure you have some available. It's not all about going first next turn. There's not a lot they can do sometimes if you've staged correctly and you always have that one momentum at the beginning.</span><br />
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Hopefully this had made some sense and helped out. It's a bit more spread out than the previous article on getting through your own activation but that's pretty cut and dried. You made the decision to go in, you know what you're getting into and you make all the decisions about how you're going to do it. Here, you have to anticipate the threat. You have to take your best guess and cover your angles. It's a gamble a lot of times. The biggest thing is to focus on your positioning first. Use that cover. Deny the charge lanes. Hide near a 2'' melee model for those crowdouts. Little things that aren't important when you move the model, but could be very key here in an activation or two. It's a mindset that you have to pick up. It's also a really great thing to go back through a game you've won/lost, but usually lost and say "Yeah, if I'd gone back to cover" or "Yeah, rather than kneesliding as far away from the scrum as I could, I should have tucked into cover and my other model over there." <br />
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The hardest part is recognizing when it's a good time to quit while you're ahead. Do you spend the INF on that Clone? Or try and get it off the playbook while you still have the INF for it? Does Mist charge and hit this model three times while he has the ball and go for momentum to win first turn rolloff, maaaaaybe, or should he just sprint away and hide where it's difficult to get to him?<br />
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Esters is like that every turn. The +1 Damage or +2/2 MOV is really enticing, especially since it's free. But a lot of times, it's more efficient to put +1 DEF on someone. It's hard to recognize when, and it's no fun when you do, but it bears consideration. <br />
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That's about all I've got on this topic. This was a requested topic from some local players as a follow up to the last article and it was a great suggestion. Really appreciated it. The next one looks like it's going to cover various positions in Guildball. They're listed on the cards as Midfielders and Backs and nonsense like that, but we'll look at what makes a Striker a good Striker. What's a Kickoff Model? What makes a model good at exerting control pressure? We'll get into that next time.<br />
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Merry Christmas, and enjoy the holidays!<br />
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<br />JediAnakinSolohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05612104007435908015noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2592330986543780083.post-72119300838656164452017-12-17T14:02:00.000-08:002017-12-17T14:02:03.692-08:00Guildball Batrep #2 – Blacksmiths vs. Brewers<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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We got next to no feedback on the previous Battle Report, so clearly we're meant to do more. Or we enjoy it more than you do and your feedback is impervious to our pats on eachother's backs. Either way, we're back. Still Adam and still me, JD.<br />
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Today's matchup is Adam playing his Butchers if he can assemble them in time, or another crack at the Blacksmiths. I'm going to swing into the Brewers and try to bring something different today instead of my beloved Farmers or Union. There's been no great changes to the Brewers, but occasionally I have to pull them out again to remember that they make me mad enough to put them back. I don't feel like they're that far out of the game. Certainly not enough to create a meme page on facebook with triple digit contributing members just to bemoan their hilarious inequality to the rest of the game. We'll leave that kind of failure with <em>other</em> games.<br />
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<strong>Brewer rant, be forewarned</strong><br />
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The Brewers just don't seem to have it in this meta though. It feels like a gameplan issue. The players that are successful with Brewers have molded them into a playstyle identity they enjoy and have a consistent strategy with them. Pat, with the great, highly recommended podcast "<a href="http://strictlytheworst.libsyn.com/">Strictly the Worst"</a>, is a prime example of this. Most Guilds, you really already know what the strategy is. The Brewers have lost that identity since S2, specifically during the "All score, all the time" period. The Brewers are something of a bashy guild, but not as bashy as the Butchers and not as good at scoring as... even the Masons. Morticians, Hunters and Butchers are really the only teams worse at scoring.<br />
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Used to, the Brewers and Masons had this "Adaptability" identity. They both could bash and they both could score. The idea was to score better than bashers and bash better than scorers, with Brewers better at bashing, and the Masons better at scoring. The game hit bashing really hard though in season 2 and it became very difficult to do well consistently with a fighting team. It's only been very recently that fighting has kind of come back, and mostly due to the Shark/Siren/Midas/Vitriol nerf. Those two teams could win 3-0 very quickly, and the only way to keep up was generally scoring. Now that they've been set back a little bit by the errata, fighting has a shot. <br />
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The Brewers are still struggling though. They've been outpaced it seems. The recent two acquirements are PintPot and Lucky. Both are very good, but it still seems to struggle with not having a Captain that can really lead a team in. Tapper struggles to put a model down without his old heroic and Esters has an extremely poor INF > MOM conversion rate that really just leaves her as a support model while you hope Friday, Spigot1 and PintPot can carry the day. This also leaves them with almost no 2'' melee, so you almost have to bring Tapper to deal with many problems. Or Hooper, who is a set of his own problems. So lets talk about lineups. Enough ranting. <br />
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<strong>JD's lineup.</strong><br />
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<strong> </strong>First and foremost, I'm a Tapper guy. His non KS sculpt is the sculpt that got me into the game. He will most certainly be my main Captain. I will bring Esters because I think she does have game into a few lineups. Specifically Fillet, Smoke, Burnish probably, and other condition heavy games. But that's about it, and I don't like her. Against Butchers, I'd probably go for a scoring game, at which Esters is possibly better than Tapper. Against Blacksmiths though, I probably need to bash since I don't have any good ways to keep a ball against the likes of Cinder. <br />
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I'll also bring Scum. I think Pat has ruined Quaff for most people even though I used to play him exclusively. The cat missile has become a Brewer staple though, and is the best way to pick up momentum turn one. If you're not aware of what it is, hopefully I can demonstrate but the gist of it is that Friday, at some point while she's forward, calls the cat to her. The cat then hopefully makes use of "Sic' em" if you have it and charges some model within 11''. At TAC7 on the charge, the cat has a chance of wrapping once, maybe twice, and if you put influence on the cat, you can get a few more attacks in for momentum. It's not uncommon to see four momentum from Scum. This is before any buffs like Commanding Aura, Tooled Up, crowdouts, any such nonsense. If you're super lucky, the cat uses the momentous push on column 2 like four times to push a model within range of a basher and then the game is really on.<br />
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Required models are pretty straightforward. Spigot1 brings too much support to leave home without. I don't often get Tooled Up on Tapper because Tapper is a perfect first activation, but Tooled up is great on other models like PintPot or Stoker. Friday is my nearly only striker, and she is fantastic at it. She also enables the previously mentioned cat. <br />
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I think Hooper is required, unfortunately. I dislike him, but he has 2'' melee which is necessary for certain matchups. Unpredictable Movement, lots of 2'' melee (Fish, Farmers, etc) and he's ok into the condition game. In every way but Melee range/threat though, he's outclassed by Stoker who has a far better toolbox and doesn't require a heroic to get a useful TAC. The Brewer GIC helps with this but still. So Hooper and Stoker are coming.<br />
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PintPot is also coming. Between PintPot and Stoker, Hooper really struggles to see the table in my games. PintPot is also amazing for INF efficiency. Easily one of the best rulesets in the Brewers. In an Esters lineup, PintPot is doing the work. <br />
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Mash is coming. He's really not a striker, but more 2'' melee, and against some teams an ok ball holder. Against real scoring teams, they have the dodges to deal with him and he has no close control. Close control and we'd be talking, but no. He does bring 2 INF though.<br />
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That's 9 models. This leaves me with a fun model spot, which is Lucky, Spigot2 or Stave. I haven't played Lucky yet, but I'm kind of itching to put Spigot2 on the table too. However, I've played Spigot2 a bunch (believe it or not) and not my nearly painted Lucky yet, so Lucky it is.<br />
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Tapper, Esters, Scum, Pintpot, Stoker, Hooper, Mash, Friday, Spigot1 and Lucky.<br />
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<strong>Adam's Lineup -</strong><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"> So I've come to this conclusion that there is no way you wouldn't want Alloy and Hearth in a line up. No matter the guild I'm playing these two add so much to the blacksmiths kit. I can't wait until I have the second box so I'll actually be able to use the models. Going into the Brewers, and knowing they like to smack people, I have this plan in mind that I want to play ball. I haven't really decided how well the Blacksmiths can hang in a scrum with the Brewers at this point due to inexperience. I've said it in my last rep with these guys, and I'll say it again here, the pressure that Cinder, Hearth and Alloy put on a ball is insane. It's an incredible good set up to take the ball off someone on one success from 14" away. I'll always be taking Them with me, into every line up.<br /><br /> This also adds Furnace into the mix, who I think is a solid master as well. The brewers aren't the fastest moving team, and the ability to remove armor, and limit more movement speed with burning is great. My next choices are Ferrite and Iron. They play ball together really well, and who doesn't like a momentous 7 damage? Ferrite also has one of the best legendaries to me of this squad, especially for scoring goals. She's also great at just debilitating players. Which comes into play later on as well. My Final 4 picks are Anvil and Sledge, since they do allow you to shift to a more fighting team if you wish, and the potential with Hearth, and Anvil, to allow Sledge 5 net hits on his way to a momentous 7. And Lastly I end up with Farris and Cast. Cast has this great ability called Shield throw that allows me to knock the ball off someone without having to tackle at all. Farris has a huge amount of movement and seemed like a nice addition to a ball heavy team. I need to spent more time with some of these other models to really know which ones should make it into a ten man team. </span><br />
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<strong>JD - </strong>Against Blacksmiths, I feel like I can't outball them with Brewers. At all. So Tapper, and Scum are my Captain/Mascot pick. Adam picks Ferrite/Iron.<br />
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<strong>Adam -</strong><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"> I don't really want to fight the Brewers, so I pick Ferrite and Iron as my captain and apprentice. The flexibility of a captain pick is really nice here, especially when that model gets to have an extra two influence it can be allocated. As well as her legendary changing giving everyone hobble on top of a move buff. Any time you damage someone when you have hobble this gives -2/-2 movement to them. This with the Burning can really hurt the Brewers in my opinion. </span><span style="background-color: white; color: black; display: inline; float: none; font-family: "calibri" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"></span><br />
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<strong>The Rolloff - </strong>I roll a 2 to Adam's 4 and he elects to receive. I do swap board edges, as you'll notice in a few pics. The side I chose was more open, and I generally need that for slow Brewers and their desire to scrum.<br />
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<strong>The Draft.</strong><br />
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<strong> </strong>Adam leads off with Hearth (Granite). I take Friday, both of us leading the draft with obvious, non-telling decisions. He picks Alloy (Mist), I go Spigot1, he picks Furnace, I pick PintPot, he takes Cinder and I take Hooper. <br />
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<strong>JD - </strong>I hesitated a lot on Hooper, but I decided I needed his 2'' melee against Cinder's UM and the other three 2'' models in the list (Counting Alloy). Otherwise, I like my lineup. I debated hard between Hooper, Stoker or Lucky, and I think either one is better than Hooper except for the 2'' melee. Mash, even with his 2'' melee, was right out. I normally like him against semi-bashy teams to hoard the ball with his 2'' Unpredictable Movement, but Cinder's ability to just ignore that whole thing with Hot Shot means Mash has no place in a fighting list. <br />
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As far as Plot Cards, I have Good Marker (Fairly important for Brewers I think), Heroic Landing (Also important), and Match Fixing (Less important, but I fully expected a goal kick from Cinder so I felt like it was a decent card to have). There was no Knee Slider or Sic' Em in my hand, so I expect Adam got them but since he's playing Blacksmiths, Sic' Em goes to discard. What a waste. I expected Knee Slider though. <br />
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My GIC is Another Round, for the free heroic, the main thing I wanted to try in the Brewers this game.<br />
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<strong>Adam - </strong><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">My Line up is fairly linear. Like I said earlier, Hearth and Alloy go great, especially with Furnace and Cinder. They all lead into each other in my opinion. Hearth is my big support key here being able to hand out 2" melee to people and giving plus two net hits on playbook results is a huge deal for me. I was satisfied with who I took overall. I put a lot of thought into if I would take Cinder or not, I debated between her and Cast. Especially since Cast gets extra damage from burning and could be tooled up, so she could hit pretty hard. However it really came down to this idea, that I wanted to play the ball here more than fight.</span><br />
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My plot cards for this one were, Knee Slider, Wingback, and Brace for Impact! Knee slider being a really big deal to me here, because I don't know if you if you've seen Iron and his ridiculous movement capability, but a 10" slide back to safety is incredible. I had a feeling I was going to get the hurt laid on me at some point, and with the Apprentices being super squishy, Brace for impact seemed like a solid choice. Wingback seemed helpful in theory, but never really saw use.<br />
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<strong>JD</strong> - Holy cow, you had Wingback? Was neither Alloy nor Ferrite in range of Wingback all game? Or when you were considering a charge with Iron early on? I'm surprised I didn't see that one come through.<br />
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<strong> Adam -</strong> Yeah, I thought about using it for awhile but no one really needed to charge.<br />
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My GIC is Tough as Nails, which allows me 5 healing and +1 arm on a friendly guild model who is knocked down for the turn. Most of my models have 2 armor, or three if they are by a master, so immediately removing 3-4 dice from the equation was really nice <br />
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<strong>The Kick - </strong>Friday moves up, kicks. She walks the full 6'' and tries to put it way over and does ok. Enough to force Alloy to retrieve which is something. In the future, I may try to force Iron to receive to prevent him being the first turn goal scoring model, but either Iron does it, or Alloy does it. Both are very capable.<br />
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On that note, Iron gets 4, Ferrite 1, Furnace 1, Cinder 2, Hearth 1 and Alloy 3 I think.<br />
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Pintpot gets 1, Scum gets 0, Friday 4, Tapper 4, Spigot 2, Hooper 2. <br />
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<strong> </strong>Alloy acrobats up, sprints to the ball, back and kicks to Cinder.<br />
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Spigot uses the GIC for his heroic and gets Time's Called down, affecting Friday, Tapper and Scum. He tools up scum, the cat with no Influence. <br />
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Cinder moves up, passes to Ferrite and shoots Friday for 1 damage and Searing strike.<br />
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Hooper sprints up and into cover, trying not to block his charge lanes. I wanted to get Tough Skin onto Friday, but it was more important to be farther forward for better charge lanes on round 2 than it was for Friday to be 5/2 near Spigot.<br />
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Furnace tools up Iron, moves forward and drops his AOE on Cinder, very aware that Cinder is a prime target for Friday since Hot Shot is 6''. Even on fire, Friday can walk there.<br />
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PintPot sprints forward.<br />
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Hearth moves up, uses Instruction on Cinder. This was disappointing to me because it guaranteed Cinder a double dodge counterattack on Friday. However, both of us had forgotten at this point that Cinder has Unpredictable Movement and Cinder was safe from Friday anyways. Instruction on Cinder actually benefitted me since I changed gears and began looking at Hearth instead.<br />
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On that note, I've decided it's Friday's turn due to some order of activation issues. Iron is coming to town, and I kind of want Tapper to go into him after scoring. There's two problems with this. A) Tapper needs to go before the cat so I can Ol' Jakes 2 INF onto him, and I have no momentum for that heroic, and Tapper can't produce any in his position. B) I'm pretty sure Adam has Knee Slider, so even if Tapper goes last, I'm quite likely to have wasted a perfectly good pat cat activation on a gamble that Tapper will be in range of Iron. It's not worth the bet so I activate Friday.<br />
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Friday shadow likes forward, calls Scum up and charges Hearth. Adam camps the momentum, so no counter attack and Friday does a two non momentous damage and two momentous pushes over the course of the charge and two follow up attacks. <br />
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Ferrite moves forward, calls Iron up and successfully kicks to him. <br />
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The surprise in all of this is that Friday's two pushes are enough that Hearth is in range of Tapper, thanks to "Time's Called" on Spigot. This is unexpectedly fantastic news. Tapper heroics 2 INF onto Scum, and charges Hearth. He declines the KD because of Sturdy, and ends up just doing 3 momentous damage twice and a push. I pass on Commanding Aura since the only benefit would be on the cat and it's not really worth it. 3 momentous damage is as much or more than the cat would accomplish. Right?<br />
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Iron looks long and hard at trying to get a momentum off of PintPot or Spigot, but the counter attack potential is too great on both, so he wastes a few INF. He just uses Impetus, sprints an kicks for a goal, making it handily. <br />
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The ball bounces out and lands right on Tapper who declines to snap it. Iron uses Kneeslider and disappears off to my left.<br />
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Scum shadow likes forward and walks into Hearth. I'm a little worried about positioning and blocking up Tapper for what I have in mind, but I'm pretty sure Hearth will be out of the way quickly so I don't worry about it. Scum hits Hearth twice, wrapping both times. I opt for a Momentous 2 and non-momentous 1 both times, which with Tooled Up, takes it to a 2 and a 3 for a total of 10 damage. This easily puts me ahead on momentum, no competition, and I will go first. The score is 0-4 Blacksmiths.<br />
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Tapper gets fully loaded, so does Spigot. Hooper gets one, Friday two and Pintpot zero along with the cat. Originally, I had planned on snapping the ball to Tapper, but it occurred to me that my first activation would be Tapper into Hearth, and even if she couldn't survive, it was worth her counter attacking for control of the ball or KD, so Tapper left it off of himself. In four hits, Tapper kills Hearth and triggers Commanding Aura. I want the next attack on Cinder, but I need to sprint to get into goal range so I use the last two INF for that instead, finally snapping the ball, and score for a 6pt activation.</div>
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This is good news for me since I've now got Commanding Aura up on two apprentices and Instruction is off of the table. Of all the Masters to bring down, Hearth with 2'' melee on a stick, free 2'' melee for Alloy and 1 INF cost "Instruction", she's the one to bring down. Furnace is nice, Ferrite is great, but Hearth is really the Apprentice's Toolbox. </div>
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As expected though, the ball bounces out to Ferrite. I use my Match Fixing plot card to reroll the perfect scatter and Adam gets another perfect scatter. Both snap onto Ferrite. She immediately sprints and scores, taking the score to 8-6 Blacksmiths. She slides back to cover.</div>
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The Goal scatter poses a problem. I need to hide the ball here, but I can't go too far to the right and forward because Alloy can pretty easily move an score. I have him blocked in with Friday and cover but he can still move around quite a bit. Even worse is Cinder with a 14'' tackle against Brewer Defense. I try to put the goal kick to my right corner. Far enough forward it can't scatter behind my own line, and far enough to the right to put it out of reach for everyone. It scatters six inches to the one, right into the cover near Hooper. Right where either Cinder can pick it up.</div>
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If I leave the ball, Cinder picks it up, kicks to Ferrite and scores. I can't kill her because she's got Unpredictable Movement and Hooper only has 1 INF. Hooper ends up walking around the cover to pick up the ball and using Tough Skin on himself. I feel ok about this. Cinder is engaged by Tapper, and Hooper is a 3/2 now, plus cover. Cinder needs two successful hits for this to work. It has to be Cinder because Alloy is locked up.</div>
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Furnace moves up, puts 2 damage into Tapper, KDs him and puts the crowdout AOE on Cinder, but not himself since he wants to help Alloy kill Tapper. With Tough hide, it's pretty sketchy but still in the realm of possibility since he's a 2/0 now against Alloy. </div>
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Friday calls Scum to her to block Alloy's path and dodges into Cinder to ignore Unpredictable Movement. I need one more momentum to stand Tapper up, and Friday gets it with a nice push that tucks Cinder into the pocket with Tapper, Furnace and Friday. </div>
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Cinder counterattacks, dodges away. Friday stands up Tapper, hits Furnace for another momentum and walks into range with Cinder, causing her to unpredictable movement away. This is what I want though, so now Spigot or PintPot can kill her. </div>
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Cinder has other plans. She moves within 6 of Hooper, bonus times the shot up to TAC6, back down to TAC5 because of cover. She needs four out of five successes to tackle the ball and gets it. She also gets a successful kick to Iron who dodges back out of 8'' of PintPot.</div>
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Spigot activates. I can't get PintPot to Iron to disrupt him from a top of 3 score, but I might could use Spigot's heroic to boost him. However, I can't be within 4'' of Tapper for Commanding Aura on Cinder, and be with 4'' of PintPot for Time's Called. I decide to try to kill Cinder because I don't think I can get it done without Commanding Aura. So he moves into CA, kills Cinder in 3 hits (KD, wrap and wrap.) and wastes an INF. Score is 8-8.</div>
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Alloy moves through Scum's area, producing Unpredictable Movement there, hitting Friday for damage and Dirty Knives. He almost ends his activation but remembers back to the Shadows at the last second and does it, putting him out of PintPot's range. Which is good, because I think under CA, PintPot kills him. </div>
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Pintpot really needs to go into Iron though. If I could get there I could KD him, and the ball scatter would either come back to PintPot or better yet, go off the edge of the board and I win, but I can't get to him. So I go into Ferrite, KD her and do incidental damage because Adam remembers his GIC and gets a third ARM for the activation, taking her to a 2/3 against a TAC5 model. </div>
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Iron sprints into the corner, staging for Round 3 and my cat idles.</div>
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I win the rolloff pretty easily, ahead by 3 momentum. I decide to go second, forcing him to fight for momentum and give me a chance to damage a model or something. He activates Ferrite, standing her up, hitting Pintpot with a momentous Disarm, who Counter attacks and gets a push, barely at TAC4 now. Ferrite's stuck there, acrobats away but Adam clocks before he can call Iron up.</div>
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This is game. Tapper goes for the kill on Furnace, knocks him down but Adam does his GIC again and Tapper just can not get up his columns enough to get CA down until the fourth hit, at which point he hasn't done enough damage at all. Iron scores, taking the game to a 9-12 Blacksmith win.</div>
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<strong>Thoughts on the Game</strong></div>
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<strong> JD - </strong>I actually enjoyed getting my Brewers out again. These are some of my favorite models, I love their sculpts, I'm happy with how I painted them, and I enjoy the playstyle. I really did enjoy this game. I also have not changed my position on Brewers and the main reason they are out of the bag is for batrep variety, and so Adam can play Blacksmiths into a team that's not the Farmers, or the Union I've played religiously for a year. Despite the meta swinging back from the straight up ball game, I still don't feel that Brewers can kill faster than the other team can score. This is further excacerbated by the Blacksmiths where hiding the ball is almost impossible. That said, I made some errors here that cost me the game, while at the same time, it's evident that Adam is learning his Blacksmiths quickly. </div>
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Pros are that I got an ok cat attack off, never went second, killed Hearth and really felt like I was keeping up until the goal kick scattered into Hooper's turf. After that, there was very few ways to keep the ball away from Cinder and Alloy. I think Hooper was the best decision, but it didn't feel like a great one. I could have kicked it away with Hooper, but the odds of him failing the kick, and putting the ball closer to Alloy, or into the backfield were somewhat high and I couldn't risk it. At 3/2 in cover, I felt pretty safe, and even Adam was pretty concerned about that roll he needed for the tackle.</div>
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The Cons of my decisions come down to a couple. Tapper probably should have kicked that ball off into the backline rather than scoring. Let them spend a few activations trying to get it back into play, and waste Alloy's activation. Maybe. I don't feel like I played horribly there as I needed the Goal influence.</div>
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I still dislike Hooper. I didn't need the 2'' melee as much, or it wasn't relevant. Lucky or Stoker would have been a far, far better option.</div>
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The two big problems were the Spigot and PintPot activations. I got greedy, and wanted to use Commanding Aura against Cinder for the kill. That wasn't necessary, and in fact it was overkill. I should have stayed closer to PintPot for the heroic and put PintPot into Iron. That was the far better decision. </div>
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Secondly, I didn't realize PintPot actually has dodges. He's only one of two Brewers to have dodges (Spigot2 is the other). If I had known that, I would have charged Ferrite, dodged out and gone into Iron for the KD, or at least pushes. At least be engaged with him, but with 3 attacks it should be ok to get the KD. And with PintPot's heroic where he ignores the next attack, Iron can't do anything about it.</div>
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Lastly, I should have gone first on the last turn. I knew the game was over and was curious what Adam would do going first. I don't think it would have changed anything, but I should have gone first. </div>
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<strong> Adam - </strong><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">Going into this game I didn't feel like I was going to just end up kicking and scoring repeatedly. My thought process in my line up was just to play solid ball and be able to get a couple kills in between. The allure of a momentous 7 damage and a non momentous 5, really make me feel like I'm gonna do some fighting here. However, more often than not, I found that challenging these guys is a bad idea, and I really needed knockdowns instead of damage to ensure I wasn't put in the dirt. I don't thing that they're bad at fighting, but, I definitely feel like they smash ball teams, with how weak they are in the fighting game a lot. I think they have a real leg up on teams that play the ball personally. I have really enjoyed the Blacksmiths so far, and I've actually had a hard time with what models to bring, other than alloy and hearth anyways. I can't wait to paint up my my team, and get the next set of models so its completed. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"> Something I can't stress enough when playing this team, is deployment positioning. It's so important and something I talked about last rep Jd and I did. Changing the way I deployed, changed the whole game to me. Putting Alloy on the left wing, and Iron on the right wing, with Cinder in the middle, give me a ton of ball threat wherever this ball goes. Not to mention where the Masters deploy being equally important. Hearth being within 6" of alloy and cinder, allowed both of them to get the benefits I wanted. Furnace, still is able to be by Cinder, and Ferrite by Iron. Depending on your line up, dictates how you deploy and where these models go. Positioning is key with this guild, and I can't stress enough how important it is for the deployment of this team. They all feed off each other. I should have changed Iron and Ferrites placement. So I could have gotten two inch melee on Iron, and not wasted an influence<br /><br /> I left Hearth alone when the attack came and I really shouldn't have done that. I didn't expect that cat to hit like a truck, and he just evaporated my health. I was really confident in her large health and armor. Which comes back to hurt me in the second turn, especially since it took away instruction, and all of Alloys extra abilities. I felt really good about the second turn goal however. It went about as smoothly as it could. Match Fixings was terrible here though. I couldn't have had a more perfect roll, and I had to do it again. I also didn't expect to get the tackle off on Hooper with Cinder and put myself in position to score The roll was dicey, but I felt like I had to take the chance or else Cinder was going to get obliterated before she could take the ball. Which she does right after she finishes her pass. I also should have taken the full dodge after the pass to iron, to get him way out of Pintpots range. If he would have had the speed buff I would have been in a really rough spot.<br /><br /> By the time the third turn rolls around I just load up Ferrite and Iron and stop caring about anyone else, Ferrite gets easy momentum, but I miss the clock time and don't get far up enough to make sure I can get Try hard off, which would have given me a goal, on 2 or higher dice roll.<br /><br /> One of the things I was happiest about during this match was remembering a lot of my abilities I forgot about last time. Back to the shadows saved Alloy's life, and My Gic made a lot of my characters tough to kill for sure .<br /><br /> All in all I've come to really enjoy what I've played with the team so far, and I'm definitely enjoying them. Until I play Thresher again anyways, and he just turns me into his personal harvest. The Blacksmiths feel like Masons in a way, but they seem much more ball focused to me. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "times";"><strong>JD - </strong>Again, I really enjoyed this game. For all the issues I have with Brewers, this game was pretty close and could have gone either way at a few points. I do feel that as Adam gains experience at the Blacksmiths, I won't see opportunities to exploit his mistakes with them nearly as often. Things like Alloy being strung up behind cover, or over extending Hearth and allowing me to get both Tapper and Scum into her. Or leaving Iron within range of a buffed Pintpot and I just didn't take the opportunity. I don't see many great ways to hide the ball in Brewers though maybe just tucking it onto Scum and sending the cat into the far corner is an option. I don't know. Again, I don't think the Brewers hide the ball and kill players faster than any scoring team can score. This is still true against the Blacksmiths who possess the widest array of ball retrieving tech in the game. The Apprentices go down easier, but fast enough to stop them from scoring? It's sketchy. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "times";"> The next question is if it's a Blacksmith problem or a Brewer problem. I don't know that it's a Blacksmith problem. It's very good, but I need to see it against Union or Farmers some more before I have an opinion there. Brewers have always struggled to control the ball, and when Shark was running the roost was the period I put Brewers away because they just couldn't stop the scoring. So you have a very, very good team in the Blacksmiths going against a low tier team like the Brewers. There's no room for error.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "times";"> Adam's Butchers are in, and nearly assembled so I'll be surprised if I don't see them across the table next Batrep. I will likely hold off on my Union or Thresher Farmers for that game. After reading some of Vincent's ramblings, I might try a Smoke team for kicks and giggles, even though I detest Smoke's gameplay. With the recent OPD change, I'm going to play Grange more, and may be up for playing that into Butchers. Is there any matchup into Butchers that would interest you guys? Or any matchups in the future you'd like to see? Possibly not even Captain specific, but a certain player combo you would like to see into a matchup. Curious about a Hunter team into Blacksmiths? Obulus into Thresher? Throw your suggestions our way and if something piques our interest we may pick it up and give it a shot. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "times";"> Thanks for reading, and enjoy your week! Merry Christmas!</span><br />
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<br />JediAnakinSolohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05612104007435908015noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2592330986543780083.post-41063485686873917882017-12-13T09:52:00.000-08:002017-12-13T09:52:17.903-08:00Guildball for the New Guys - Knowing enough about the other team to get through an activation<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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There were a lot of rough moments for me in my early wargaming days, and still are some even now. I had another round of them when I started playing Guildball. It seemed like I had to take a "Gotcha" on the chin before I'd remember them. Things like charging into Obulus with literally anything other than Mallet and remembering he has Unpredictable Movement, but only remembering it after he was safely away from my fully loaded Captain.<br />
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I mentioned in a previous article (The Starting Lineup one, actually) that it's pretty useless to know your own models and what they're good at fighting when you don't know what they're fighting. Decimate has Anatomical Precision, which ignores 1 ARM, but if you don't know that Farmers have very little ARM, then you won't know that you could probably bring Minx instead. Or, in another example, Mash has Unpredictable Movement and 2'' melee. These would theoretically make him a really, really good place to hide the ball against kicking teams except that the Fishermen have both 2'' melee almost everywhere, two to three different dodges that ignore UM, and Siren, who can just straight up force him to kick the ball. I learned that one the hard way. <br />
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You have to know the other team before you start picking up the win ratio. There's a few levels of this, and we won't tackle all of them today. Based on my non-expert opinion, there's<br />
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<strong>1. Knowing enough for This activation</strong><br />
<strong> 2. Knowing enough for the Next activation</strong><br />
<strong> 3. Knowing enough to understand the goal the other team has as they pick their players from the roster</strong><br />
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<strong> </strong>Guildball is very focused on individual activations. This is a no-brainer with only 6 players on each team, but for many players, they're used to 6-10 different units of 3-10 models each. When 10 models make attacks, you have a lot of chances to accomplish things, and the odds somewhat even out. Rather than Honor missing that attack she had a 70% chance of hitting, it's more likely that 7 of your 10 models will do what you needed them to do. Individual hits and misses are less critical in games based on units. There's always some special individuals where it really counts but overall, it somewhat evens out, and you're able to focus fire and bring down the targets that really matter.<br />
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In Guildball, a lot hinges on every activation, so it's in your best interest to ensure that you get the most out of them. This is where point 1, <strong>Knowing enough for This activation, </strong>comes in. Many new players fail to get through one key activation and it kills the entire round. I watched in a tournament where a Butcher player sent their fully loaded Fillet into Shark. She hit once, didn't KD him, and he counterattacked, resulting in a predictable doubledodge and he was gone while she sat on 3-4 INF. That's a quarter of your team's total INF wasted. In this article, we're going to look at the basic things to assess when you activate a model, and specifically, attack.<br />
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Secondly, we have <strong>Knowing enough for the Next activation. </strong>If you've ever played Chess, they preach thinking ahead two or three or a dozen moves. If you move X, what happens and how will you respond? Chess is far more linear than Guildball so the comparison begins to fall apart after that, but you definitely need to begin looking at the bigger picture. The ball game is a great example. I will often let an enemy striker keep the ball when I'm up on points and I think that the opponent is going to try to score. I will position a striker where they can receive, immediately counter score and close the game. On the same token, I've been that other player where I'm behind on points, and that 4vp is really, really tempting but I know that as soon as I score, Flint will get the ball and counterscore. So rather than take the bait, I need to neutralize the striker before I do this thing. Now we're thinking a few activations ahead of the game.<br />
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Lastly, there's <strong>Knowing enough to understand the goal the other team has as they pick their players from the roster. </strong>We talked a lot about this in the lineup article previous to this, and building a list in response to what they're playing. I don't know that the topic really needs it's own article but maybe it does. We'll see. It really comes from experience and knowing their cards. You can usually break each team down into categories and split them out from there. Fishermen are a ball playing team. They have a lot of 2'' melee, dodges and ways to take the ball. So you can expect not to be losing players to take outs and you need a way to hide the ball. Etc. After that, as you learn the other players you can understand more individual gameplans and how models contribute to the game, but if you master the first 2 topics here, the 3rd topic will be pretty much covered. It's up to you to put it together.<br />
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So, <strong>#1. Knowing enough for This Activation</strong><br />
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<strong> </strong>By knowing enough, we're again referring to the enemy cards. Let's talk about what ruins our day, shall we? There's two categories; <strong>Passive</strong> and <strong>Momentum Based </strong>defensive tech that you need to be concerned about. What I want most from this article is for the reader to reduce the amount of times they leave a stack of INF on a model they moved into combat. This is absolutely backbreaking and where not knowing your opponent's cards hurts the most. Synergies between cards/players is one thing. You may read the card a dozen times and not catch a synergy. For example, you think your captain can survive Honor's activation, so you go ahead and load him up. She activates, he makes it through, but then lo and behold, she chain activates into Harmony and you didn't know that was a thing. And your Captain is now dead, him and his 6 INF. Don't worry about those, take one on the chin. You didn't know, and it sucks, and I've been there, and handled it both good and bad. It's the wasted INF on a model just standing three sheets to the wind that really hurts though. So let's look at this.<br />
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<strong>Part I. Passive Defensive Tech </strong>doesn't require anything from the player. They don't have to state anything ahead of time, use any character plays or make a choice. It's on the back of the card and it just happens if they remember it. The major ones are:<br />
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<strong> Unpredictable Movement</strong><br />
<strong> Gluttonous Mass</strong><br />
<strong> Sturdy</strong><br />
<strong> Close Control</strong><br />
<strong> Countercharge</strong><br />
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The little ones are things like "Stoic" where they ignore the first push, "Tough Hide" where they take one less damage and such like that. Those won't ruin your activations though. You may not kill that model completely but the dice could prevent that too. Stoic rarely bothers me. If it does, it's usually when that model charges my model and I try to push them away that it actually catches me unawares. Reanimate is frustrating, but it's the same thing mostly. You'll still get the momentum and do damage. You should be aware of it, but you're not going to be sitting there with a stack on INF you can't use.<br />
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<strong>READ THE CARDS. </strong>Even if you take notes, understand where these five specific traits are at. Ask at the beginning of the game "Who has this crap?" Note it down, remember. Whatever you have to do. Ask before you charge. But better yet, read the cards because if you ask "Hey, does Velocity have Unpredictable Movement?", you've given your opponent more time to consider what is about to happen. <br />
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A note towards Sportsmanship though. Don't read the cards right there and take 15 minutes every turn. If you're in the game, glance at their cards and ask more questions while you're playing. One of Guildball's shining positives is that it's a 12 model game and theoretically shorter than most tabletop games but the amount of information to be found on the card makes new player games extremely long. Even players that have played for awhile, but are facing a new player or faction can add a lot of time to the game. Just ask. "Defensive stats? Anything I should know about on the back?" And go. If nothing else, download their cards in Guildball Scrum and read them during their turn. I highly encourage players to run through a different faction every week at some point. Read the cards, make mental notes of the big 5 gotchas, get a feel for the stats. <br />
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Let's look at these five "Gotchas" closer though.<br />
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<strong>Unpredictable Movement. </strong><br />
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<strong> </strong>This one is a rough one at first for many players. Models that have this make a 2'' dodge when you enter their melee range. Most models that have this have 1'' melee, making 2'' melee basically cheating when you can stand outside of that zone and do what you want. 2'' melee ranges with Unpredictable Movement are a bit trickier. You're going to trigger it no matter what (Thresher, Mallet, and during her legendary, Hearth, are the only exceptions). This makes 2'' melee models pretty key with either version. With 1'' and UM, you simply stay outside of it. With 2'' and UM, you have to go base to base. Base to base is going to be important in a lot of activations, so get used to it. If they dodge out with Unpredictable Movement, they dodge 2'', which means they're still in your 2'' melee zone. They can run, but they can't hide. Mash from the Brewers, Greyscales from the Fishermen and Obulus from the Morticians are the two biggest offenders I can think of that have Unpredictable Movement and 2'' melee both. Lots of models have it and 1'' melee, but 2'' melee models negate it. So make a mental note of why 2'' melee models are important. You always need a few to deal with this particular tech. Also, be aware that this works while the model is KD.<br />
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The other nifty trick is that dodging into the melee range doesn't trigger it. So if you have a way to dodge into that zone, that's an option as well. Maybe bounce off of another player, or just pay the INF for a dodge if it's an option, like on Mist with Acrobatics.<br />
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The sad way to do it is to force him to use it earlier than your key activation. If Stoker's going to for the kill, someone threatening enough to force the model to take the dodge needs to get in there. Key thing to note is that unlike some of these other passive abilities, Unpredictable Movement is a choice. So they may choose to weather one storm and wait for the hurricane. You can use that to block escape routes but now we're trying to solve gunfights with knives.<br />
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Sidenote. A lot of Token sets, and specifically the Steamforged Season 3 sets have "Dodge Used" tokens to indicate a model has already used Unpredictable Movement. There's nothing wrong with asking your opponent to mark it, or you marking it yourself with your own token.<br />
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Another sidenote. A good friend of mine played Brewers too and showed me a sweet trick with Friday. He'd run Friday and 1INF, maaaaybe 2 into a model with UM and see if they went ahead and dodged. A lot of times, they wouldn't because what's a Friday with only a few INF and no buffs going to do? So they'd hang out. Then she'd call Scum over and Scum would dodge in and pin the model in. Next activation, here comes whoever you want. Stoker, Spigot, anyone because now the UM model is pinned in with Friday and Scum. So, no UM and +2 TAC. Obulus is gonna die. "Get Over Here X" is on Friday/Scum, Ferrite/Iron, Jac/Salt... and I think that's it... Just a neat trick. It's a mean one too. Lose/lose if it's set up correctly.<br />
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<strong>Gluttonous Mass</strong><br />
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This was impressive when people first saw it. Models ignore the first attack or character play. The all encompassing absorption solution. Charges, expensive character plays, all kinds of things. Guaranteed Counter attack because nothing you did was going to affect them, even wraps. There's just one problem. Anything can trigger it and it's not a choice. Throw 1 INF character plays at these models. Specifically, it's Esters from the Brewers, Compound from Alchemists/Engineers and Fangtooth from the Union. Esters and Fangtooth have 1'' melee, so just hitting them twice from 2'' is a decent option but it still doesn't feel good inside. 1 INF character plays are the way to do it. If you have to do it in a prior activation, that's the best way, but even if you're playing someone like Tapper and you just throw a Marked Target at her for no effect, it's better than charging for 2 INF and 10 dice and whiffing it all because you forgot about Gluttonous Mass. That's the worst case scenario. And if you're in their melee like you would be with Compound, they counter attack and you can say goodbye to the 3-4 INF you have left.<br />
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<strong>Sturdy</strong><br />
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<strong> </strong>Sturdy is better than Gluttonous Mass, IMO. It can't be popped by cheap character plays or even other attacks. You have to actually waste a KD hit to trigger it, which sucks. It means that you're wasting an INF, and if you're in melee range, I definitely get a counter attack, and that's where things go south. Several models have Sturdy, and a few models have the ability to hand it out. Corsair from the Fishermen and Benediction from the Union can both hand it out, and Corsair starts with it. Grange from the Farmers has it for a legendary and can also hand it out. All three of those models have 2'' melee. I think there's a few more out there, but it's those three that really hamper your day with it. Watch when you go into them, and pay attention to who it's on. Tokens are important here again. There's a few ways to handle it. Lower DEF models, you can get the wrap on them with a charge (Brewers excel here) and hit KD twice to get it. Models from Season 2 onwards sometimes have playbook results with KD and damage, so you can get the momentum even though the KD was wasted. The biggest thing to look at is what we'll focus on here in a minute, the Counter attack. Sturdy means the Counter attack is coming. Unless you can get there when they don't have momentum, or you're going to dodge/push away, you need to expect a counter attack and have a plan for it.<br />
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The other option is to pop KD with another model. There's only a few ranged KDs out there, so you'll probably have to do it in melee which means committing another model. Again, we'll expound more in the next segment, Counterattacking, but in many cases, I'll counterattack on a model I plan to charge later and I'll pop that Sturdy then so it's ready when I actually need to bring him down. <br />
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<strong>Close Control</strong><br />
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<strong> </strong>I think Close Control is also better than Gluttonous Mass. See, GM is cute, but easily popped. For models with specific goals in life and things they want to do, function specific passive tech like this is far more ideal. Sturdy lets fighters stay standing and push back, maybe escape the attack. Close Control lets models meant to use the ball or hide it do either one. Flint can come in for the attack, tackle the ball momentously on column 1 and then weather the counter attack where you take it back. Even if you get the Tackle, he ignores it. Then he can push dodge out and be on his merry way. <br />
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Close Control usually means you just need to hit them twice. Most models with Close Control are 1'' melee, and are relying on higher DEF or dodges to get out of a scrape. I think Corsair in the Fishermen is the only 2'' melee model with Close Control so I could be wrong. 2'' melee models are winners here in most cases.<br />
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There is a character play running around a lot now called "Ball's Gone". Spigot1 and 2 from the Farmers has it, and so does Brisket2 (Butchers), Bushel (Farmers), Greyscales (Fishermen) and maaaaybe one or two others. The character play, if successful, allows you to take the ball and either keep it, or kick it immediately to another player (Not on goal). This is not a Tackle, and therefore does not get stopped by Close Control. It's for this reason I drop Bushel into any Masons team with Flint, and really any team with 1'' Strikers. In the case of Flint, she ignores the "Charmed (Male)" trait, and has Ball's Gone. So she's hitting 3/1 at TAC4 (TAC8 on the charge, which is probably required) and kicking the ball out. Even if Flint counterattacks, the ball is already out of there and there's nothing he can do to get it back.<br />
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Whatever you do, if you need the ball and you forget it's a Close Control model you're going into, you're likely to allocate the wrong amount of Influence and be completely flustered when they ignore your first attack or force you to do a different option. Be aware of it.<br />
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<strong>Countercharge</strong><br />
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<strong> </strong>Where the other four options have been located on the target model, Countercharge sidelines you completely. It's a very powerful ability that allows a model to charge an enemy model that has ended their advance within 6'', plus all normal qualifications of a charge (Line of site, not engaged, etc). It sucks because you've gone through the check list, and we're sending Bushel into Flint and everything is going to work except we forgot about Brick who Countercharges into her and knocks her flying. The other difference with countercharge is that because it's an activation, they'll get Momentum for the attack unlike a counterattack. If you're trying to starve an opponent of Momentum, this is something to keep in mind. <br />
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There's five models with countercharge in the game, and four of them are conditional. Brick, from the Masons, is the only dude to just have it, at all times. Marbles, also from the Masons, recently attained it in the errata but only has it while within 4'' of Brick. He's also the only model with Countercharge but not 2'' melee. Tenderizer (Butchers) and Compound (Alchemist/Engineers) both have it but only while within 4'' of the goal. Lastly, Tater (Farmers) has it, but only while within 6'' of a Harvest Marker. <br />
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The easiest way to handle Countercharge is to not go within 6''. This is rarely an option though. Because it only triggers on an advance (charges count), you can dodge into this aura safely. If a model is Knocked down or Engaged (not Engaging. Can still charge if engaging a model, but not if they themselves are engaged), they cannot charge. However, every above model except Marbles has 2'' melee so if you engage them, you'll probably also be engaged by them and crowded out somewhat. On a bad day, you'll want to charge a model, but Brick is around so you charge Brick instead and Marbles charges you, shoving you out of melee with Brick and now nothing you wanted to do can happen. Hilariously enough, because Marbles has to be within 4'', I often charge in with a 2'' melee model and engage both of them to KD Brick. And KDing Brick is usually pretty easy. Whatever hits you need, you'll get them against a 2/2 model with the charge pretty generally.<br />
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Tenderizer and Compound both lose it once they move up the board, so it's only on goal kicks you have to worry about them. However, there's a lot of area they can't cover so it's often you can sneak in from one side or the other. Striker Models with "Where'd they Go", so Flint (Masons), Ulfr (Hunters), and Greyscales (Fishermen) can dodge in pretty easy and score, ignoring it. Usually what happens though is that you just charge the goalkeeper himself, bounce out with your newfound momentum and score. Compound also has Gluttonous Mass though too, so watch out for that double whammy as he's about the only legitimate goalie in the game.<br />
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Tater's the difficult one since he's got ok DEF, and it's rare you can get rid of the Harvest Marker hid behind him. His KD is really solid too, but if he wants to do damage, he can't do the KD. Unless he wraps. The other hilarious thing is that his KD isn't true KD, but an aura of his melee range. If you force him to charge into a group of his own buddies he can't really take the KD option without bringing down his own players. You're probably looking at a push or damage. <br />
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Your best bet is engaging him since knocking him down isn't really an option since the Farmers usually have Millhouse around him somewhere to take the KD instead of him. If you can hit him with a Goad or some sort of control character play, that helps a lot.<br />
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The overall things that handle Countercharging is Knockdowns, engaging, and positioning. Let's talk Positioning for a second. Marbles really falls out here because he doesn't have 2'' melee. This often means that he can't reach you if you think about positioning at all. <br />
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Sure, Tater would like to engage both Tower and Brick, and maybe if he'd had range, engage Marble too and get the Mow Down on all 3, but he doesn't have the range, and this position here leaves him wide open to a countercharge from Marbles who will deliver a momentous single push, at least.</div>
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With this positioning, Tater doesn't get engagement on Tower, but he definitely gets to Brick and there's nothing Marbles can do about it.<br />
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Players that play Countercharging models are posing a question to you. Every turn, they're building a puzzle that their team requires to stay safe. Farmers are the ultimate example of this. Thresher is a very aggressive, fast, dangerous Captain that likes to stay up front. He's got victim stats at 4/0 and a free counterattack but it's not very good. Normally he'd go down every turn except Tater stands nearby ready to Countercharge. You'd think you could knock either one down except Millhouse is 6'' away and she'll take the KD instead. Every turn, this puzzle has to be solved and not only am I burning your clock while you figure this out (assuming you didn't fall for the trap), I'm getting more time to plan, and I'm frustrating you. Brick and Marbles play something of the same game but not as well.<br />
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Bear with me, there's a lot of things going on here, but this is typical Farmer formation right here. Thresher is sitting pretty here, a little over two inches past the midline. Should be easy prey for most teams but he's not. We see that Millstone is within 6'' of both Tater and Thresher. Tater's within 6'' of the Harvest Marker, and his 6'' countercharge aura is 2'' past Thresher. You could KD Tater at range with something maybe, but no can do because Millstone is there. In order to engage Thresher with any 2'' melee whatsoever, Tater can countercharge either direction with room for error and get there. He's even capable of going further so as not to catch Thresher in his Mow Down aura. He gets the KD, or a double push. If he does a KD, your model stands up, hits Thresher and Thresher gets a free Counter Attack because he's within 4'' of the Harvest Marker, and your model is KD again. There's no coming back from that. Then Thresher or Tater, or heck, even Millstone activates and murders your model with +2 TAC. This is what makes Thresher good. <br />
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The weakpoint is positioning a model with countercharge in a way they can actually protect things and not be exploited. It has to be very clean, open and well thought out. Cover and other terrain that block Tater's charge lanes open up a hole in the wall here. If I have models in the way, you can hide behind my own models when you attack and Tater can't get to you. A player that plays or see countercharging models often should pick up a laser from Army Painter. It drops a nice straight line on the table. I often use this line to see what a charge lane looks like, and place a 2'' melee marker from it to where my charge would end to see if a countercharging model can get to me.<br />
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How do you deal with this? For starters, it's rarely as clean a setup as this. Other models are in the game, going and moving. I'm pretty sure I could engage both Tater and Thresher with a 2'' model. If Tater and Thresher have both activated, you might get away with this. A Goad is another option. If Harry moves up to Goad Tater, he might get countercharged but now you've forced his hand. Sure, he hits Harry really hard and now no Goad has happened, but that's the countercharge for the turn. So he waits, he doesn't countercharge Harry. Harry bonus times the goad and hits it and now Tater can't charge any direction but directly at Harry, and he wasted the opportunity to Countercharge too. It's a lose-lose for the Farmer. I might kill Harry later, maybe, but I can't save Thresher right now.<br />
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The other option is to just straight up engage Tater with a sacrificial lamb. Preferably one that has Loved Creature, Rising Anger or Reanimate. Something meant to punish me for killing you. Next activation I can clear Tater off, but now we're clogging the field and the charge lanes are much worse. There's not many single activation solutions to this Farmer Defense triangle, but if you pay attention, there's opportunities later on for sure. Forcing Tater to charge over his own Harvest Marker. Attacking Thresher with a model that has Unpredictable Movement (Really only an Obulus thing there). Clogging the field with other models. Using the Countercharge to lure Tater out because he dies to a stiff breeze. I think that's really the key. Don't kill Thresher, kill Tater. With Tater out of the picture, Thresher goes down much easier the next turn.<br />
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Countercharge in general though, it's about positioning. Use other models to block chargelanes, or engage the countercharge models themselves. Also, surprise, you can DEF stance or Counterattack against countercharge. <br />
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<strong>Part II. Momenum Based Defensive Tech</strong><br />
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<strong> </strong>Momentum Based defensive tech is stuff that a player can choose to do in response to an attack and use Momentum to pay for it. Specifically, we're talking about Counterattacks and Defensive Stance.<br />
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<strong>Defensive Stance</strong><br />
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This is the easy one to talk about. For one momentum you can up your DEF by one against a charge. This applies to being knocked down as well. If you're already at DEF 6, then it drops the opponent's dice pool by one.<br />
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If the opponent has momentum, this is something to expect. It's possible to do both Defensive Stance and a Counter Attack as well. So if you're coming into my Mist model it is entirely possible that I will Defensive Stance, Counter Attack and Bonus Time the Counter Attack. I'll hopefully survive the charge at DEF6 and reply with a TAC5 instead of TAC4 counter attack which may get a push dodge or double dodge that I need to get out of the situation. When you're going into a critical attack (E.G., they have good counter attacks that let them get out of engagement, or you only have enough INF for so many attacks and you need to trigger a middle to high playbook result) you need to be aware that they will probably Defensive stance. If my model is holding the ball, or can push/dodge you away easily, or I just want to reduce the number of hits you're going to get with the charge, I'll defensive stance. If I don't have enough momentum to do both, you're forcing me to choose and I can't tell you which way I will go. It depends on the location of the ball marker, my defensive stats and counter attack capabilities. <br />
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The workarounds are to either simply be prepared for it and take it into account when you're doing your dice math, or to walk into combat. Some models can walk into combat and get the hit you need, like a KD on column 1 or 2, or maybe 3. The reason to charge is if you're too far away and need the distance, or the playbook result you need is high enough that you can really only get it on the charge. Ooor, you want the wrap. Mist really likes to wrap. He likes to get the Tackle on 1 and the Dodge or Push Dodge on 3 or 4, which needs 5 hits out of 8 on a charge.</div>
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<strong> Counter Attacks</strong><br />
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<strong> </strong>This is the meat of defensive tech. Almost all of the above is setup for a successful counter attack. Sturdy, Gluttonous Mass, Close Control, Defensive Stance, everything gives you a better chance at actually getting a quality counter attack. The easy solution to avoiding a Counter Attack is to KD the model you charge. This is always preferable and it's what makes KD + Damage playbook results so nice since you get the best of both worlds by stopping a counterattack, and contributing to the death spiral. However, we're going to continue this article like you probably can't get the KD, or you at least to have an idea of what to do if you don't get it. Not everyone is the Brewers with 100% Momentous KDs on columns 1-3. This is actually a problem for like, the Butchers. Ox1 doesn't have a KD till column 4. A good Defensive Stance and a Counter attack, or just bad dice and a counter attack and Ox just wasted 5 INF.</div>
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After you have looked through the cards and read the backs of them, go through and look at the playbooks. Look at them before you charge in or attack. You're looking for double pushes, double dodges or KD on columns 1 and 2 in most cases, and up to column 3 and 4 when a model has TAC6 or higher. Esters, for example, has Gluttonous Mass so she ignores the first attack, but if we look at her playbook: <br />
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There's not actually much she can do at TAC5. Her best hope is a KD on 3 but probably you're going to see a Push. This is easily dealt with by any melee range by simply basing the model. Against counter attacks, this is very key. 1'' Melee models should almost ALWAYS base a model during an attack so that they can't be pushed away far enough to disengage. Esters will absorb the first attack and punch back but what's she really going to do? Nothing. If you have 2'' melee, she can't even punch back. Worst case scenario is 3 damage and a Double Push, against any ARM whatsoever, she needs all 5 dice to hit.<br />
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Tapper on the other hand has <br />
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There's a KD on 2 and a single Push on 3. He's TAC 6 so the single push on 3 is more likely, but at TAC6 and Commanding Aura, he miiiggght could get the Double Push on a good day. Probably not though. More than likely, you're going to see a KD. This, again, is easily avoidable if you A) Started the turn standing and B) Have a momentum to stand back up. When charging in on 0 momentum, it's sometimes better to take a lesser result so that you can acquire the momentum needed to stand back up after a counter attack like this since Tapper is almost guaranteed that KD. If you started the activation knocked down, you need to KD Tapper himself to prevent the counter attack.<br />
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Then we have Stoker, who's got this amazing Counter Attack. TAC5 needing the first result.</div>
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He's DEF3, ARM2, and a Double Push on 1. He's almost impervious to 1'' melee models. Any cover, defensive stance, anything and he's pretty difficult to prevent getting his Counter Attack off against 1'' melee models that don't have decent access to KD. Stoker is a beast unless you dedicate a 2'' melee model. Then we have the master Counter Attack, Mash.<br />
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Mash has sub par defensive stats on the front, but near Esters, he's ARM2. None of that matters though because he has Unpredictable Movement and 2'' melee, plus the Double Push on column 2. If he can stay standing, he's going to escape what ever you brought to bear since he'll UM to max melee, take the hit, hit back and push you out another 2''. This is originally why I brought him against any kicking team whatsoever to hang onto the ball while I killed models. The issue is that my opponent who was playing Fish always brought Greyscales who used Where'd the Go to retrieve the ball and not trigger Unpredictable Movement. <br />
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Let's look at some others. Shark's a real beast because at DEF4 ARM1, he's going to Defensive Stance up to a 5/1 and Counter attack with a single dodge on 1 or more likely, the double dodge on 2 which at TAC6, he'll probably get. If you're not a 2'' model, you can't catch him. A 2'' model can try but if you don't Base to Base him, he'll still get away.<br />
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Fish in general are tough to get the ball away from too because they almost always have low Tackle results so you usually have to hit them twice to actually retrieve the ball. Be aware of this. <br />
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Honor is another good example.</div>
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TAC6, double dodge on 2 if not the tackle on 1 or the push dodge on 3. If you are 1'' melee model, good luck buttoning her down, and a 3/2 before defensive stance or legendary, she can be hard to get results against. Plus, she has Poised so she gets a free counter attack. Poised is one to watch out for in this regard if you've checked your opponent's Momentum and he's(or she's) dry, but Honor hits you anyways. Honor, Thresher (Farmers and if 4'' from Harvest Marker), Sakana (Fishermen), Spigot2 (Brewers and within 8'' of the edge of the pitch) and a few other models all have Poised. <br />
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Just a few more. Flint is another good one if you don't have 2'' melee. He has Close Control and the Tackle on 1. You can't KD him because you want the ball, but he doesn't declare a Counter Attack on the first attack. So you hit him and trigger Close Control, declare another attack and then he counters. So you tackle the ball, he tackles it back and now you have to hit this jerk a third time to get the ball. This is assuming he doesn't just go for the push dodge on the first attack and run away, or hits the Guildball for "Where'd they Go" and is off and away 4''.</div>
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Lastly, this one surprised me. On the topic of triggering a Guildball on a counterattack (My favorite way to get Singled Out down, btw), Ferrite has a sneaky one. </div>
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So you get there, get the attack off, her KD is on column four but you're more worried about the doubledodge on two, so you've got her up against cover or another model so she can't dodge away far enough. Except she doesn't, she hits the Guildball on one and Disarms you.</div>
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And now your Captain with 4 INF on him is -2 TAC. Congrats. Hammer doesn't care, he can still do the work he needs to do on the low end of the playbook but the rest of us are a little frustrated, especially since she's ARM 2. So, moving into the summary.</div>
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<b>The Counter Attack Summary.</b><br />
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<b> 1. LOOK. </b>Unless you know the Guild by heart, look at the card before you go if at all possible. Look if they A) Have Momentum and can they DEF/Counterattack or both?, B) If I Have Momentum, C) What is my plan if they do Counterattack? Position, have momentum to stand up, or take the loss. Don't get there and find out that Iron has a double Push on one, Close Control and you're attacking with Flint, so you get the tackle on the charge, but he has close control and keeps it, then double pushes you off and you're stuck.<br />
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<b> 2. The Momentum Gambit. </b>This used to be a major issue for first turn activations since only recently did teams that lost initiative get a Momentum for it. It's still an issue for teams that lose first turn roll off and kick since they still don't get a momentum for it, and most teams struggle to build any on that first turn without the ball. When you are Charging or Attacking another model, <b>Check their momentum. </b>Are they going to Defensive Stance? Counter Attack? Both? If they have momentum for it, they probably will do one of them and you should guess at which. Can this work in your favor? Sure. If you both are relatively low on momentum towards the end of the turn, you can try to get them to spend some of it on important counters like trying to retain a ball, or keep a key player alive. Look at their Momentum before you go because the best way to avoid a Counter Attack is to attack when they can't do one. <br />
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<b>3. Your momentum gambit. </b>If they do have Momentum, and you expect a counter attack, is it a KD that looks likely? Then have momentum, and stand back up unless you've already done it this activation. If you had to stand your model up to charge another model likely to KD you, then maybe you should use a different model. If you don't have Momentum, and you attack, you will know by the time you finish rolling dice whether or not they're counter attacking. If they take the counter attack, either KD them so you don't have to deal with it, or take an option with Momentum so you can stand back up. You want momentum anyways, but Masons are a great example of wasting a charge for a lesser option. Hammer might get enough for a five damage charge, but he needs to take a momentous option or a KD to avoid the counter attack knockdown, or to stand back up from it.<br />
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<b>4. Spacing. </b>I've seen it a hundred times, and done it that many times myself. A 1'' model charges in, gets counterattacked and gets pushed out 1''. They had the range to get there all the way, but they just didn't think about it. If you have 1'' melee and they have the ability to counter attack, go base to base if at all possible. If you have 2'' melee and they only have 1'', pffft, stay outside of 1''. Against melee ranges on models you expect counter attacks from, either get up close and personal, or stay out of the bubble entirely. The in-between will get you hurt.<br />
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<b>But wait, there's more.</b><br />
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<strong> </strong>There's a lot of things to do in an activation and you only have INF for so much. We're not going to talk about the bajillion different options out there. The focus of this article is a series of melee attacks because that's where things go wrong. I do want to mention some things though, because while you're planning your activation, your opponent is planning on how to stop you. I just want you to get through the next activation, but the overall game flow needs to earn it's place in the back of your head. These are a few thoughts to tide you over to the next "For the New Guys" article.<br />
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<strong> A. Momentum Conversion</strong><br />
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<strong> </strong>Everyone's favorite resource. The ideal scenario is where you generate 1 momentum per INF and then some. This doesn't happen a lot and especially in teams that aren't the Brewers or Farmers who have playbooks shorter than their TAC. However, you do need Momentum, and it should be a consideration every activation. Yes, Stave's Lob Barrel is super awesome, but it nets you exactly 0 momentum for those two INF. An expenditure of INF needs to be key to a strategy if it's not netting you straight Momentum. Calculus, for example, can cast both "Noxious Blast" and "Blind". Neither gains momentum in most scenarios. However, Noxious Blast can set up conditions for VetKat or Smoke and result in a lot of damage, and Blind can prevent the opponent from netting that same needed Momentum. Make sure your INF is contributing to the Momentum race, either for you or against them. Honor's "Superior Strategy" is very strong, but after the first turn when the lines are engaged, it's hard to justify that 4 INF expenditure on a model when it may not result in the same or even close to the same amount of Momentum. Letting your opponent go first every round because you're using cool character plays is a painful way to lose consistently. Momentum isn't the name of the game, but it's a major factor. Make sure your activations count towards it.</div>
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One more note. An early activation needs to gain Momentum for your defensive options like Counter Attacks and Defensive Stances, or even clearing conditions. I try to avoid my first activation being something that won't create momentum. <br />
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<strong>B. Support roles</strong></div>
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Support roles are important, but they also telegraph. Not much can stop you from tooling up a model, but your opponent now knows what model you're attacking with. A lot of times, they already know this, but it's something to keep in mind. Other things you need to do with support roles are your passive support pieces. Many models have auras that are very important. Key activations involve simply moving them to where they need to be. These are great activations to stall with while you're waiting for other pieces to get into place. Millstone in Farmers is a really great example with her ability to take conditions. I rarely give her INF. She just walks to where she needs to be and hangs out. This can do a lot to deter attacks on my stuff. Sometimes it's just walking over to be near a weak model so that you crowd out whatever attacks. Those are also quality activations. </div>
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<strong>C. <strong>Number of Activations</strong></strong><br />
You need to prevent back to back activations if at all possible. In Seasons 1 and 2, Avarisse and Greede used to have individual activations and everyone took them because having 7 activations to your 6 meant they always went last even if they went first, giving them a better chance of having back to back activations. If they lost initiative and went second, then they definitely had back to back activations. The worst thing about most buffs in Guildball is that the enemy has a chance to respond to the move you just telegraphed. If I'm giving a 2/2 MOV buff to my striker, I doubt you need 3 guesses to figure out what's next. A back to back activation means there's nothing you can do to stop me. Avarisse and Greede got nerfed for this. It's one of the things that makes Honor so great with her "Superior Strategy" and it's also why it's so expensive.<br />
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With that said, if you have a player that's facing a Take Out, you need to consider activating them, even if there is very little to do. If activating them now so you get six activations this round will prevent them from getting a back to back activation where they put 6-8 pts together in the last two activations, you need to do it. That's thinking a little farther ahead, but consider it for a moment at least.<br />
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<b>The parting word.</b><br />
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This has been something of a long article, but I hope it gives you a lot of food for thought. I have been frustrated many times playing a game for reasons like I've listed above, and I know others have as well. This is not to say that it isn't part of the game, it very, very much is. Guildball has a give and go flow and you'll find that what we're talking about in this article isn't so much a negative play experience, but the fantastic depth of strategy available to a game with twelve models on the board. You'll find that as much as it sucks to waste a model's stack of INF because you got counterattacked hard, it's very rewarding to be able to return the favor. It's part of the give and take and gambling against the numbers that is Guildball. <br />
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The problem that exists is in that great depth of strategy, it's very difficult for a new player to grasp those intricacies early on and not just get stomped on every activation. This is hard on a new player that's used to activating models and playing them until they're out of resources. My goal here is to give you a window into what all is happening during that activation and the kind of things you should run through your head before you charge that model your opponent so oddly left out there all alone.<br />
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Guildball, for all of it's flaws, is the best (imo) ruleset on the market today and I hope that newer players are able to see that early on, but it's a bit difficult when Brick just countercharged and ruined your day. Hopefully this has helped steer you through that, and perhaps we'll see a few more of these New Guy articles.<br />
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Thanks for reading, hope it helps!<br />
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JediAnakinSolohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05612104007435908015noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2592330986543780083.post-72567707387222434012017-12-08T00:16:00.002-08:002017-12-08T00:31:37.119-08:00Guildball Batrep - Blacksmiths vs. Farmers - 6 December 2017<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjf4KPyOpdqI56qee0k2uxxVEbya4ROEw-q8PWMbPNf9d1ZqT0wuFk-e7YbKQI_iJok6aPT1kJim08gvm8y_1oGNSvfdtZtPxkyep_vKNiUKI_ZbgtNjrH7U_sXUXME-cJnXaUJlZhoFbM/s1600/DotFDbatreps.jpg"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjf4KPyOpdqI56qee0k2uxxVEbya4ROEw-q8PWMbPNf9d1ZqT0wuFk-e7YbKQI_iJok6aPT1kJim08gvm8y_1oGNSvfdtZtPxkyep_vKNiUKI_ZbgtNjrH7U_sXUXME-cJnXaUJlZhoFbM/s640/DotFDbatreps.jpg" /></a><br /><br /> Hey folks, this will be the first of a new series of articles from Diceotfirstdegree and published on MidwestWargaming. If you've been following DotFD since the Warmachine days, you've already seen a lot of my batreps since that was most of my content. Guildball takes a bit more to write up though, and a lot more pictures, so I've really avoided doing them since I just really hadn't had the time. Things have settled out now though and I've missed the batreps. I find they're a great way to explore the game for myself, and for others too. Warmachine was ripe with batreps, but Guildball really seems to be pretty devoid of them. If anything they're streamed more than written and that's a great format, but I miss the written ones. So let's start those back up again.<br />
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Instead of just any opponent I can find though, I'm introducing Adam, or Zarodis on the forums. This is Adam's first miniatures game, but he's picked it up in leaps and bounds and has been dominating the local scene for most of the time he's been playing. He's primarily a Mason player, and even more specifically a fan of Hammer. However, he owns Alchemists and Blacksmiths as well and it's undecided yet if we'll see him transition to Blacksmiths completely or not. <br /><br /> If you don't know me, I'm JD Haigler, or Jedianakinsolo on the forums, originally from Omaha and having just recently moved towards the Southern Missouri/Northern Arkansas area. This is not my first miniature game, and I've owned armies in 40k, 30k, several in Warmachine and I dabbled in Xwing for a bit. Guildball's my only one right now though (Until my Shadespire gets here). I started in Brewers, have been playing Union most of a year, and then transitioned to Farmers when the first box released. I've spent most of my life in the plains of Kansas and Nebraska, so I have a hard time not relating really well with the Farmers and it helps a lot that they're a blast to play. I do own every Guild but the Butchers and Engineers, so between Adam and I, we should have pretty solid variety. If we have to import a friend to play Engineers or Butchers, we may do that. I've been eyeing Butchers for a bit, but I don't know that either of us wants Engineers. We'll see.<br /><br /><strong> JD's lineup plan -</strong> Today's matchup is my Farmers into Adam's Blacksmiths. I've got Grange, Thresher (Tapper), Peck, Buckwheat (Quaff), Tater, Millstone (Friday), Fallow (Hag), Harrow, Bushel and of course, Jackstraw. I'm tempted to trade out one of these characters for Grace or Benediction but with the Union drop announcement, I've been hesitant to add them. That said, the Farmers aren't potentially getting their minor guild for a few years so who knows. Into Blacksmiths, my drop will most certainly be Thresher. He can kill any apprentice in a single turn nearly, especially with a Tooled Up from Harrow. Tater can follow up and do nearly the same thing. My Thresher team is almost always Thresher, Peck (Buckwheat is too INF hungry in a Thresher team), Tater and Jackstraw (Two Harvest Markers are desperately needed in a Thresher team). Millstone is pretty common, but I've held back on her against some teams with next to no KD (like Butchers). Against Blacksmiths, I'll probably bring her. The last spot is Harrow or Bushel. Because Iron, the close control double push ball holding nightmare is probably coming, I'm likely picking Bushel for Ball's Gone. Otherwise, it's probably Harrow. Harrow isn't my favorite choice because it's not often he's close enough to Thresher for me to get his free Harvest Marker. On top of that, Thresher likes to go first so it's rare I get Tooled Up onto him. Bushel, I actually like because of I'm open, but I really don't expect to play much ball against Blacksmiths.<br /><br /><strong>Adam's lineup plan -</strong> Playing Into the Farmers, I know I want to avoid trying to fight with them.<br /><br /> Thresher is a monster and I don't want any part of fighting him while trying to figure out the<br />Blacksmiths. So my Line up is built around trying to play more around playing the ball. I end up taking Ferrite, Iron, Furnace, Cinder, Anvil, Sledge, Hearth (Granite), and Alloy (Hammer). I should have included Burnish and Cast here, just to round out the ten. Blacksmiths are very unique in the fact that they have a Master and Apprentice Mechanic. Each pair are made to work together, with one master setting up an apprentice. I don't have a mascot, and if I pick one Master, you'll probably be able to guess my next pick. Playing into the Farmers I definitely want Hearth and Alloy. The main reason I take the two here, is because of Thresher and millstone. If I want to fight his captain, Hearth can hang in a fight with him, avoid a knockdown with Sturdy, and put him into the dirt with a solid KD on one. Hearth also can set up any other player, by allowing them to immediately get two results on their playbook. This leads to Furnace and Cinder being a powerful combo as well. Cinder can kill free balls, and tackled from 6 inches away. If you're set up with Hearth, she only needs one success to get the ball. To me these 4 are auto included, it's to solid of a combo to pass up. The other unique characteristic to this guild, is that any master can be your captain. This allows you to build different teams in different scenarios. I personally don’t thing the Blacksmiths really have a bad model, all models seem viable to me in various situations, and compliment others well, so the last 6 spots are very interchangeable, depending on how you want to play the game.<br />
<br /><strong> JD -</strong> Standing by my Thresher decision, I took him and Peck since I appreciate Peck's ability to donate an INF to the cause and provide some more anti KD. He picked Ferrite as a Captain, which I expected. I'm also taking the GIC that grants me two Harvest Markers at the beginning.<br /><br /><strong> Adam -</strong> At this point my choice becomes Ferrite for my captain, and Iron as her apprentice. With her legendary play Tong in Cheek, giving all friendly guild models +2/+2 mov, and Hobble (which slows down enemies by -2/-2 mov if damaged), this is great for my ball playing team. Iron is an auto include here since he is her apprentice. I choose the GIC Tough as Nails, which allows me 5 healing, and extra armor if a model is knocked down for this activation. I also forget about this all game, so yeah, great job me.<br /><br /><strong>The Rolloff</strong><br /><br /><strong> JD -</strong> I won it with a 3 to his 2. I debated kicking off since I really think Thresher is one of the best kick off models in the game, and I also am concerned about my ability to hold the ball against the Blacksmiths. I ended up choosing to Receive though.<br />
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<strong>The Draft</strong> <br /><br /><br /><strong> JD -</strong> I ended up drafting my standard Tater, Millstone and Jackstraw. The flex at the end was either Bushel or Harrow and I chose Bushel since he was bringing Iron. I also didn't get amazing plot cards. I got Composure, Good Marker and Who Are Ya?<br /><br /><strong> Adam -</strong> I end up drafting Heart, and Alloy, because of Thresher. My final two here becomes, Furnace and Cinder just so I have a lot of ball pressure. My plot cards were Knee Slider, Wingback, and Match Fixings. <br /><br /><strong> The Kick</strong><br />
<strong></strong><br /> Adam chooses to kick with Ferrite. She moves towards the center and tries to punt the ball into the edge but even with a successful kick, can't get the deviation she wants. The ball ends up four inches from Jackstraw.<br />
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I allocate max of five to Thresher, three to Jackstraw, two to Bushel, just one to Tater, and I think one or two to Millstone<br /><br /> Adam gives Ferrite three, Cinder two, Iron two, Alloy three, Hearth two and... Furnace just one. <br />
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<strong> JD -</strong> I do the math and the only way to retrieve I can see is either Cinder somehow gets within 14'' with a sprint and her "Kill the Ball" ability, but either Iron has to push her or Ferrite has to legendary. The other option is for Ferrite to move forward, call Iron to her and activate him to go get it. Either option will require a turn of setup though, at which point Jackstraw will simply retrieve the ball. So I'm not worried there.<br /><br /> Because Ferrite kicked the ball, I'm pretty comfortable hanging onto it. She's somewhat INF intensive or has to use her legendary, or both, to really get within range of a character that would have it, so I'm able to plan around it. If Alloy or Cinder had kicked, it would be a different story and I'd be considerably more concerned. Hearth is in the list, and can hand out "Instruction" or 2 net hits on the next attack. So if Cinder or Alloy were closer, both, with instruction, could be really threatening. Cinder just needs one success to tackle at range if she's got Instruction. Alloy can pick up 2'' melee for free, Instruction gives him an auto Tackle, and 3 hits would get him the tackle double dodge. He also threatens 13'' if he uses acrobatics. Quite a danger zone if he or Cinder had kicked.<br /><br /> But because Ferrite kicked, I'm not super worried. So I don't retrieve the ball. I sprint Tater up to one of the GIC Harvest Markers and set up counter charges with my first activation.<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNCPDA7amQ8jlv8V7aZ7KeVS4N_8QPLEUzf7nHAMHDUkGdHIMGcyf9SM-UFE0ToyslrAmMZoL6UBNMHhAbEt3bLnO7uBt47G1FbRKSffHxzauVBSjg5Nmh4ZKCO1b5L5kk08fsIfO0OYA/s1600/20171206_131549.jpg"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNCPDA7amQ8jlv8V7aZ7KeVS4N_8QPLEUzf7nHAMHDUkGdHIMGcyf9SM-UFE0ToyslrAmMZoL6UBNMHhAbEt3bLnO7uBt47G1FbRKSffHxzauVBSjg5Nmh4ZKCO1b5L5kk08fsIfO0OYA/s640/20171206_131549.jpg" /></a><br /><br /> <strong> JD -</strong> I'm not used to taking pictures every activation yet, so there's a gap here. Hearth (Granite) scooted way to the left to get Instruction on Cinder. My chicken moved up. Furnace tooled up Cinder and moved forward, dropping his AOE for free. Jackstraw Crop Dusts the woods, moves up to the ball and kicks it to Millstone and misses. The ball scatters and Bushel is able to snap it. Ferrite flees to the right, staying out of Counter Charge range. Millstone (Friday) uses "Get Out!" to push Thresher (Tapper) 2'' and then moves to within 4'' of Tater, dropping a Harvest Marker down by Bushel. Iron does the same shenanigans and pushes Alloy (Hammer) up a little. Bushel pulls the Harvest Marker Millstone put down, picks up the ball, punts it to Thresher successfully and then sprints up near Peck. Thresher uses the momentum to Dodge forward. He's now 6'' up, and positioned behind the woods so that even though he's within easy tackle range of Cinder, she can't see him to pull it off. <br /><br /> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbVV9PN-7Ku-6QrrrQigT-Whtid4HPXHeoL3IeNGYCLn5LL24CPxaxajnPP2m86ZS_spWS5Y9xXhw7q9InicVRMumE2EL4Knj_nzk1W9t7N8bO9vw-12aNm48zLIujlLwXpaJdM1pNfHI/s1600/20171206_133620.jpg"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbVV9PN-7Ku-6QrrrQigT-Whtid4HPXHeoL3IeNGYCLn5LL24CPxaxajnPP2m86ZS_spWS5Y9xXhw7q9InicVRMumE2EL4Knj_nzk1W9t7N8bO9vw-12aNm48zLIujlLwXpaJdM1pNfHI/s640/20171206_133620.jpg" /></a><br /><br /> Alloy acrobatics, sprints over (Sledge was a proxy) to within 6'' of Hearth and Dirty Knives Thresher successfully. However, he forgets to dodge with "Back to the Shadows"<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEigXiIVA7jIt9e6ic8l4Df5qjbIZ3Bm70urPDxU7hhz2R2u9zwfuXE4qtf391MYrNNQhYACC_9a6d2ku92rzfSSpV2BoB1WZbJaUQgc0nn9x0iEmONOC9Vc2BnMDuXutUIp87zstDPdCuY/s1600/20171206_133925.jpg"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEigXiIVA7jIt9e6ic8l4Df5qjbIZ3Bm70urPDxU7hhz2R2u9zwfuXE4qtf391MYrNNQhYACC_9a6d2ku92rzfSSpV2BoB1WZbJaUQgc0nn9x0iEmONOC9Vc2BnMDuXutUIp87zstDPdCuY/s640/20171206_133925.jpg" /></a><br /><br /> Thresher does Thresher things. He charges into Alloy, to his left and within 4'' of the Harvest Marker at the far end of the woods. Thresher whiffs the charge horribly, only gets a Momentous 2 damage. Next, he does "Don't fear the reaper", pulling the Harvest Marker and dealing 3 damage to Alloy. Next hit is a KD and he dodges into range of goal. Then a momentous 3, a shot at goal with a bonus time and gets it. He takes the momentum and dodges back to the other side of Alloy. The goal kick puts the ball over by Cinder, who leaves it. Score is 4-0.<br /><br /> Cinder sprints up and shoots Thresher for 3 damage.<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgeVvbYyc8qYuailybpzk2uZO8BIwtY71SaQ28cjd1gMxrLVA_hazphckW6soAWMIUH_cTsM2LifRhicJ6_Rwrzs8jC-53xRUjhvM-z2D9bmZGS79Kt2HEmpa4eUWKNArhf-so0DIrGyDM/s1600/20171206_134629.jpg"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgeVvbYyc8qYuailybpzk2uZO8BIwtY71SaQ28cjd1gMxrLVA_hazphckW6soAWMIUH_cTsM2LifRhicJ6_Rwrzs8jC-53xRUjhvM-z2D9bmZGS79Kt2HEmpa4eUWKNArhf-so0DIrGyDM/s640/20171206_134629.jpg" /></a><br /><br /> And then I don't take pictures. I fail to win initiative, and Iron goes first. He charges Thresher and contacts him at 90 degrees, pushing him back out of Millstone's aura, and away from the Harvest Marker, while simultaneously engaging Tater. He beats on Thresher a bit, and between Dirty Knives from Alloy and the poison, he takes Thresher down to 7 health. <br />
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Thresher activates. He heals 4 with the one momentum I still have, legendaries for the +2 TAC and life drinker. He hits Iron with a wrap, momentous 4 and momentous 2. He hits him again and takes the non momentous 3 and a KD, then dodges back into melee with Alloy, and within 4'' of the Harvest Marker between Tater and Millstone. He pulls "Don't fear the Reaper", leaving Alloy on 4 health whom he then hits and kills. With the last two INF, he wraps again on Iron, and boosts the last one for another wrap, killing Iron as well. With the wraps and Life Drinker, Thresher is back to 18-19 boxes of health. He jogs 5'' over to cover. Score is 8-0.<br /><br /> Furnace activates, picks up the ball and kicks it to Cinder who dodges into cover on the left. <br />
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Jackstraw moves to the right and puts Crop Dusting and 2 Harvest Markers near Tater and Thresher.<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZzaXmdemRioYgVE83x28EXgdnIX6HpBDvM-VIeATEUy8BCbz91kCXA1Xza9_eYYzTiIM_im6cFBkjQclML4C_2xpZmLwZdO1BcHf4hx22ioAkT4IpJdPpfwhkF4vhzJvczwnv5EZylrc/s1600/20171206_143245.jpg"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZzaXmdemRioYgVE83x28EXgdnIX6HpBDvM-VIeATEUy8BCbz91kCXA1Xza9_eYYzTiIM_im6cFBkjQclML4C_2xpZmLwZdO1BcHf4hx22ioAkT4IpJdPpfwhkF4vhzJvczwnv5EZylrc/s640/20171206_143245.jpg" /></a><br /><br /> Ferrite charges into Tater, disarms him. His counter attack shoves her back, and she acrobats in and gets another couple points of damage on him. At this point, Adam clocks out, but we keep playing. It's only his second game with the Blacksmiths, and he's going into the tank every activation.<br /><br /> I ignore Ferrite for a moment and jog Bushel around behind her.<br /><br /> Cinder sprints up, shoots Tater I think for a double dodge out of the woods and boosts a shot on goal which whiffs, sucking the life out of Adam. The ball scatters behind goal and to the left a little. Neither of us have a way to retrieve it currently. <br /><br /> Peck blocks Ferrite in. Hearth meanders to the left aimlessly. Millstone walks into Ferrite and takes 10-12 health out of her. Tater activates, hits her once and leaves her on one health. He walks away into Cinder and leaves her on 8. I have all the momentum in the world, so I go first into the next turn.<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjVVjmWUHJXxDf4Hkfx6WQgP-emHsHvKyaa-12x-q6HwLFhVmmJjDX6BfbQDOHr4BK1bLPKWq9tQGav-46jZO1FHxTGERS34aIpZOikoY68xOnjr9yxugnnAAyzisHI-S0vGU37Iko-cNA/s1600/20171206_145644.jpg"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjVVjmWUHJXxDf4Hkfx6WQgP-emHsHvKyaa-12x-q6HwLFhVmmJjDX6BfbQDOHr4BK1bLPKWq9tQGav-46jZO1FHxTGERS34aIpZOikoY68xOnjr9yxugnnAAyzisHI-S0vGU37Iko-cNA/s640/20171206_145644.jpg" /></a><br /><br /> I've pretty much blocked Thresher in, which will hurt. I want Tater to finish Cinder, but he's at TAC4 with her in cover, and can't get it done. He gets her pushed out and into Jackstraw's melee and leaves her on 5 health. She hits him and tries to dodge out to run and get the ball, but crowded out and swinging at DEF4, she doesn't get the double dodge until her 3rd INF and she has to walk away and try to stay alive. <br /><br /> Millstone kills Ferrite, putting me at 10-0, walks back and drops a Harvest Marker near Tater. The rest of his team meanders forward, staying out of Thresher's range who is pretty much useless at this point. He'll sprint forward towards the end, and Jackstraw lands "Crop Dusting" on Cinder for another 2 damage. Nobody has retrieved the ball though. Adam spends 2 momentum to heal Cinder, and I win initiative. <br /><br /> Thresher walks into Cinder's melee. She unpredictable movements out, but it's not far enough. He pulls a Harvest Marker for 3 damage, and hits her to finish her. That's game at 12-0.<br /><br /> There was some confusion at the end because he declared a counter attack on Cinder, and then she unpredictable movemented away, and we wondered if she could use her ranged attack for the counter which would be really cool. It doesn't work that way as the rules forum has shown and so we played it out correctly.<br /><br /> <strong> Thoughts on the Game</strong> <strong> JD -</strong> Adam has faced my Thresher team... twice or three times. I've played him several times, including Blacksmiths twice. I feel like this game was lost more on Adam's unfamiliarity with his newest Guild, compared to my relative comfort of playing Farmers, which are really just better Brewers whom I have played for over a year now. <br /><br /> That said, the game should have been 12-4 at least, possibly 12-6 if he could have closed the gap on Thresher. Cinder blew the kick, so I really feel like there should have been at least 4 for the Blacksmiths but that would have resulted in an immediate Bushel Counterscore who was waiting for it with 2 INF. <br /><br /> Thresher could have gone down I think if there'd been any time for setup. "Instruction" from Hearth concerns me quite a bit, and it makes the apprentices very dangerous IMO. However, I feel like any chance of catching me went away when he gave me both Alloy and Iron to kill and in an ok crowdout situation on legendary turn no less. It sucks, but I probably would have gone for a Master activation first to get some setup and help on Iron or maybe an early activation with Alloy and get him out of there with Acrobatics. Instead, he put Iron in there to get him out of Millstone's aura, engaged Tater, and then Thresher killed them both, and healed up doing it too.<br /><br /> The other thing was the Kick Off strategy. It concerns me a lot more if Alloy or Cinder kick off. That may or may not be correct, but I feel like Cinder, with Instruction from Hearth, recovers the ball easier than almost any other model in the game. Actually, I think she does do it the easiest. Even Corsair needs a success on 3 dice and Cinder only needs 1 success on 5 dice if she has Instruction. Barring her, Alloy is nearly Mist or Vitriol like if he activates near Hearth. He's guaranteed that Tackle with Instruction, and a few hits gets him the double dodge. Either of those models makes it very difficult for me to retain the ball. On the other hand, I'll probably kill whichever one gets close. I think that's a tradeoff of 2VP instead of 4-6VP though. The advantage of an Alloy recovery is that he's capable of scoring after he gets that tackle too so there's also that. I have to play a lot more cagey into that I think.<br /><br /> <strong>Adam -</strong> So this game was riddled with stupid mistakes from me. I have quite a few mistakes that put me in just stupid situations, starting with deployment. When I started this game, Cinder should have been closer to Hearth for instruction. Because I didn't put her in the right spot, it keeps Alloy from getting his bonus, because cinder needs instruction. If I positioned right, I would had more flexibility, and two models that could have threatened the ball, changing up the flow of activations. The Kickoff was another thing, I'm not sure why I thought Ferrite was my best option here. Cinder can yank a ball of someone from 14" away, and Alloy can run all over the place as well. Cinder would almost certainly kick off next time. These easily mess with my Turn one activations. Another big mistake was my dirty knives hit on Thresher, I fail to take my free 4 inch dodge, which just leaves Alloy as the next Thresher harvest. I want to get Thresher away from his support bubble, and saying, please kill Alloy and position yourself advantageously is not how you do that. I also forget to give myself the extra armor on all of the beatdowns I receive, which is really important, considering it negates an entire result. These little mistakes dictate a lot of things as the game continues. I use Iron to try and save Alloy and fail, which could have been entirely avoided. I should have run out with the ball and tried to force a fight more on my terms, with some actual set up.<br /><br /> The soul crushing failed goal was another big issue for me as well. Having Knee slider here was supposed to be my get out of jail free card. I should have kicked a goal, and slid back to safety and never given up Cinder but, alas, I'm heading to jail, and not passing Go, as Tater comes in to ruin my day.<br /><br /> Looking back at my line up, I think I may have also gone with Burnish, and Cast instead of Ferrite and Iron. They would be able to slow down Threshers advance some, with flame belch, and can ignore Threshers Character play if I have MP. Cast here gets extra damage on burning enemies, and Cinder applies burning from 6 inches away easily. If I tooled up Cast, and set Thresher on fire, I have a solid chance of getting 8-12 damage off on a charge, and then hitting for 4-6 more damage on two more attacks. The other big utility here is shield throw, which allows me make an enemy lose possession of the ball marker and cause it to scatter. Since Cinder can kill a ball from 14 inches and Alloy can move 11 inches, I have a lot of options to play the ball game here.<br /><br /> Thresher is a model I have been really challenged by. I've never struggled against a model quite like this one. I've been working on figuring him out for a while now, and will continue to do so. I haven't really reached a point yet to where I feel like he's just too good. I would say he's quite strong, but I plan to figure some more stuff out with my new guild, and try some new stuff with the Masons before I make my final judgement call on it. I do expect to see him getting changed a little bit after his exceptional performance at nationals though.<br /><br /> The Blacksmiths are a really cool guild to me as a Mason player however, and I'm really looking forward to playing more with them, they've got a lot of awesome mechanics, and I don’t think they have a bad model. So I really can't wait to invest more time into them.<br /><br /><strong> JD -</strong> I think we might switch it up next time. I don't know. Let Adam have a chance to pilot the Farmers and I might run my new Morticians, or try my hand with Union into them. I've only had one chance to put Union into them and I did really well, but it was another really new player and I was able to get away with some Brisket3 shenanigans I don't think Adam would let me get away with.<br /><br /> That's a wrap folks. This might be the first of many, or it will be the only one ever. Nobody knows. Hopefully there was something to be learned in there and some ideas. Even better, Adam and I are both happy to be on the learning end, and if you have any suggestions, questions, ideas or angry rants, feel encouraged to comment. Enjoy your week!<br /> <br /><br /> <br /><br /><br /><br /> <br /><br /> <br /><br /> <br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /> <br /><br /><br /><br /> <br /><br /> <br /><br />JediAnakinSolohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05612104007435908015noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2592330986543780083.post-15634252431486417772017-12-03T07:27:00.000-08:002017-12-03T07:27:04.612-08:00Statistical Analysis of Guildball: Season 3 updates - All Guilds Overview<div style="border-image: none;">
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I'm really spamming this formula, aren't I? There's one more too, the Hunters. That's only 4 new players and they don't change the statlines that much, although their playbooks contain more momentous options. Nobody cares about those guys though.</div>
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The Blacksmiths and Farmers are upon us. While most of the Farmers were in the book, the Blacksmiths were something of a surprise and have been unleashed pretty dramatically. We've gotten a decent in-depth view of both Guilds, but lets see how they stack up against the others. For reference;</div>
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<a href="http://diceotfirstdegree.blogspot.com/2017/11/statistical-analysis-of-guildball.html" target="_blank">Statistical Analysis - The Farmers</a><br />
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<a href="http://diceotfirstdegree.blogspot.com/2017/11/statistical-analysis-of-guildball_26.html">Statistical Analysis - The Blacksmiths</a></div>
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There's also the old Season 2 guild sheet that this will override, but on that article are the individual Guilds if you're interested in further analysis on your particular team. That's here <a href="http://diceotfirstdegree.blogspot.com/2016/09/guildball-at-glance-statistical.html">Guildball at a Glance</a><br />
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Then we have the real sheet, what we're talking about today.<br />
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<a href="https://imgur.com/IzHplDm">Statistical Analysis - The Guilds</a></div>
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For a further breakdown and some notes, lets take a closer look at these statlines. Before we continue, I should point out that mascots are left out of the statlines because of how far outside of the average they are, and how little their statlines really matter. Playbooks, Character plays, I'll include them, but for actual statline averages they remain excluded like I did last year. So, let's open the ball with MOV1/MOV2 or, Jog and Sprint speeds respectively.<br />
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Not many surprises here. Brewers, Blacksmiths are slow. Alchemists, Fish, Engineers and Butchers are faster. The stats show the Farmers having the lowest jog speed, but that's largely because Windle sucks the life out of both MOV averages. They are still not the fastest Guild, but the ones that you see the most of are pretty quick (Tater, Thresher, now Fallow). That said, it's somewhat interesting to throw the same statistic in with melee range. This was an idea from my Pundit, so kudos to that guy.<br />
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With high speed and a high melee average (spoilers), Fish obviously dominate the scale while Brewers with their low speed and only a few in-house 2'' melee models are at the bottom. Farmers, technically slower than the Brewers, come in at 5th because of melee while Engineers who were tied for second with Butchers and Fish are back to 4th. 1st and 2nd swapped too, Alchemists dropping behind the Fish significantly. </div>
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Now TAC.</div>
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Butchers clearly dominate this, but there's a catch. This is the one stat that I think it completely pointless without further information. We can agree Blacksmiths are slow and Fish are fast but a high TAC indicates that they're good at using their playbook and this is not the case. This is because of Playbook length.</div>
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This chart's bottom is 4, mind you, so it's not like Brewers average playbook length is 2. You can obviously see though that while the Brewers don't have the highest TAC, they've by far got the highest chance to wrap. This is compared to the Butchers who, yes, have high TAC, but their playbook is exactly the same length. Farmers have some of the same benefits as the Brewers do. In fact, they're very similar and the only reason it's not more drastic is because of Windle and Fallow who have low TAC and normal playbooks, but you're expected to get them their extra TAC. <br />
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Kicking, KICK1 being Dice, KICK2 is distance.<br />
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Engineers dominate the kick accuracy department. Everyone else just kind of wallows in 2-3 range, fish coming in at second with most of their kickers having 3. Distance is a bit tighter, and Engineers actually lose to the Fish Butchers and Farmers here. The losers are the Hunters. With not great MOV stats and some of the worst KICK stats, Hunters are the ones that struggle for goal range. Keep in mind, there's 3 different kicking auras out there that singlehandedly change the stat. Spigot1 and Mallet both have "Football Legend" for a 1/1 bonus and Grange has a 1/2 bonus for passing only. Corsair has a 1/2 legendary, but that's just one turn. Mallet and Spigot both are staples for their respective teams, so while it looks right at average or slightly below now, they can jump up a few notches pretty easy. This is before any heroics or character plays like Friday has.<br />
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Defensive stats are up next.<br />
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The DEF kinda hangs together with a few outliers like the Masons, Brewers and Blacksmiths. ARM is way out of skew though. That one gets kind of wild with a few that really spike and some that have none at all. Most guilds have fairly balanced ARM vs. DEF. If one is high, the other is low, while medium in one is pretty nearly a medium in the other. Fish sitting at 5th for DEF, but 10th for ARM seems a bit weak but they really want to play a kicking game. This is also before their counterattacks where they dodge away, but for the most part, they go down easy. Butchers are very similarly placed, but rather than kicking, they're killing. Glass cannon mentality.<br />
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There's a few where you can see an obvious schtick, like Masons and Blacksmiths both having very high ARM. Morts and Union have higher DEF than I expected, but nearly everyone in Union is a DEF 4 so I guess I shouldn't be surprised. Alchs winning the DEF game isn't any surprise. Farmers are, again, a little deceptive here. They're tied for 7th in DEF, and lose the ARM race like a quarter mile sprint where Honor represents them. However, this does not take into account their health boxes, of which there are many, nor their other defensive tech like strong anti-conditions. The individual sheets break this down a bit more and show you the traits available to buff these areas. That said, you're pretty much guaranteed to hit the dice numbers you want on Farmers, Blacksmiths and Masons. The kicker on the Blacksmiths specifically, and sometimes the Masons, is that you have to begin factoring in whether or not you have enough dice to get past the arm. The Blacksmiths, for example, have Iron. At DEF2, Flint can get the ball from him pretty easy, except for three things. First, we haven't mentioned ARM. It's base 2, so poor TAC4 Flint already needs 75% hits to get the Momentous Tackle he has on 1. Second, Iron has Close Control, so Flint is going to need to hit him twice at 75% success to get what he needs. Third, Iron has a double push on Column one. At TAC6, it's rare he won't get it. This is before a possible fourth problem, where Iron is within Sentinel range of Anvil or Furnace and has an extra ARM, taking him to 2/3. Now Flint needs 100% hits twice in a row to get a ball off of a model he can only attack when the opponent doesn't have momentum because the counterattack is brutally successful. Flint could WTG in, sure, but we're 3 INF into this problem now. I'm glad my Farmers have a bunch of 2'' melee, or my good ol' striker Mist, until Hearth gives Iron 2'' melee too. <br />
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When these stats spike one way or the other, look at the reason why and what the trap or the buff is to correct it. With the exception of the Hunters, it isn't because they just straight up suck at the game, there's some gameplan options to be had.<br />
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Alright, enough rambling. INF stats.<br />
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No surprise, Blacksmiths are in the gutter with this stat. This is including a +2 inf on one master since one of them will always be Captain. As far as generation goes, Engineers and Alchemists are the winners. Actual allocation matters somewhat less since it's worthless if you don't generate any. Obviously though, Obulus with a crazy 7 that he can take is carrying them pretty far on that end. <br />
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Farmers are second from last in both cases, but we all know that, again, the Farmer stats are lying since Harvest Markers are a thing. You can add 1-2 INF to nearly every turn for them. What is interesting to me is that the teams with highest INF generation are also the most likely to score as well. This is kind of a win more situation but it's interesting. <br />
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One more for statline. Melee ranges.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJR3dRcxmstvOLSL2NhX-rgn-u5Z7LlqLN5Xt1TmM4yXwyQbj17vnoN9rUa_zQWpWfKaUah5vhNOpmVa7w3PUUZ-Ifye3Gg-O0v05ZUhpgFPAUR7Akyw69twBi3zd4cg_NmICL3mHenF0/s1600/Melee.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="500" data-original-width="1151" height="278" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJR3dRcxmstvOLSL2NhX-rgn-u5Z7LlqLN5Xt1TmM4yXwyQbj17vnoN9rUa_zQWpWfKaUah5vhNOpmVa7w3PUUZ-Ifye3Gg-O0v05ZUhpgFPAUR7Akyw69twBi3zd4cg_NmICL3mHenF0/s640/Melee.JPG" width="640" /></a></div>
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Again, this is not covering mascots. In most cases, they'd drop the stat. The exceptions are Naja in the Alchemists, and Tentacles in the Fishermen. I think all the rest are 1''. Fishermen and Farmers are way out ahead at 1.80. Third place isn't even close, but surprisingly it's the Butchers. The Butchers have long been lamented as not having great access to 2'' melee but statistically this is untrue. The problem is that their 2'' melee is Boar, Tenderizer, Shank and recently, Ox2. Shank was the only player to consistently make lineups, and many times people used Union players to shore up the 2'' deficit. <br />
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Alchemists are still in the middle of the pack, even with their S3 model having 2'' melee (Vet Katalyst). Union is low, but they have such a deep pool of players that building a 6 man list with ample 2'' melee isn't a problem. They have 5 2'' melee models, which is 2 less than the Farmers at 1.80, but they also have 16 non-mascot models to choose from as well.<br />
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Incidentally, these numbers also reflect Mallet and Thresher's 3'' melee, but not the legendary that Hearth has since it's a one time deal. Mallet and Threshers are only during their activation, I know, but that's when you're going to use it.<br />
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<strong>Playbook results</strong><br />
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<strong> </strong>Now we're bringing the Mascots into the game. While their TAC isn't really fair to include with the rest of the team, they do have some abilities that mean their playbook does get used occasionally. Dirge's Singled Out, for example, is pretty key in enabling the Morticians to kill sometimes. They also do have KDs, Tackles, and Pushes that are worth considering. Hilariously, some of the best damage dealers out there, thanks to the "Sic'em" card, are the mascots. Scum (Brewers), Strongbox (Union) and even Peck (Farmers) can do surprising amounts of momentous damage. That chicken will mess you up.<br />
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Let's look at these. Pushes are first. Unlike some of the other options later, pushes are not evenly distributed. Pushes, at a basic level, are the beginning of Control in Guildball. Some teams are considered Control teams like the Morticians and the Hunters, but a few other teams have some minor abilities when it comes to positioning models around the board. At 21 pushes on the Brewers, it's no surprise they love a good scrum. Oddly enough though, 1st place is taken by the Engineers. It's important to note here that a single "Push Dodge" result will show up on both the Push charts, and the Dodge charts, and Push Dodge is something Engineers do have. </div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEihPk0jAv4nKh_mPmWiePh4Irqn1srWcENbT7n7hIJut-dDj3zjbXb2hHFqltn4PoKvN4sGSVMSYOcO3JReU2nq3M0pu0rPme2x3qWN1pV8eQox084fi_1F5rQNkFiUfvF5JSvuj03OYgI/s1600/Push.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="534" data-original-width="865" height="394" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEihPk0jAv4nKh_mPmWiePh4Irqn1srWcENbT7n7hIJut-dDj3zjbXb2hHFqltn4PoKvN4sGSVMSYOcO3JReU2nq3M0pu0rPme2x3qWN1pV8eQox084fi_1F5rQNkFiUfvF5JSvuj03OYgI/s640/Push.JPG" width="640" /></a></div>
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Momentous Pushes is even better. It's an easy way to score Momentum on models you don't necessarily want to hurt, or can hurt. Models with Rising Anger, or other detriments are good examples. More often though, it's a way to generate momentum without committing to the kill. The Brewers can push a player all over the map reliably and generate momentum while setting up a good scrum, whereas other teams really need to position models well as they move in to get the crowd outs they need. Perfect contrast here is, again, the Brewers, the pushing positioning masters, and the Farmers who have only 2 momentous pushes in the game. Both feel like they play something of a similar combined arms scrumming game, but Brewers have the pushes to set it up while the Farmers have to position themselves. </div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEizqA4pdDa4E8e9lpL9rKlLl9PYypqwL4IBy1KAg53WdIpSoI_VTpDNx6y-bSr8cDLozZ1l0qkY4_s5lvfYHrh6go1OpoA5wU7fmZF3EajCGFOFnlU-PORPNXyji7uv73lBeT05ipAwoPI/s1600/PushM.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="562" data-original-width="913" height="392" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEizqA4pdDa4E8e9lpL9rKlLl9PYypqwL4IBy1KAg53WdIpSoI_VTpDNx6y-bSr8cDLozZ1l0qkY4_s5lvfYHrh6go1OpoA5wU7fmZF3EajCGFOFnlU-PORPNXyji7uv73lBeT05ipAwoPI/s640/PushM.JPG" width="640" /></a></div>
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Dodges, on the other hand, are the bread and butter of strikers. What's a striker without a dodge to get the ball and bail? Brewers have very few, same as the Farmers. Butchers and Blacksmiths aren't much for evasion either, and oddly enough, neither are the Alchemists. Alchemists and Fishermen often seem to sit at the same table, but we're seeing a strong difference in their playbooks. </div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhA0K6qiTN_2MDLcuTRPcsbHHEj98WJwI2SA9K2VP5moCzQoCG2pm_E4N11BQodX0kcNInb4QS8TVw-XvXCIfMdbxX33AdWF_yc3efmgXNYtH4yAIb1E8uJZ-PYuxYbmQS-cMagh3y78C4/s1600/Dodge.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="577" data-original-width="939" height="392" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhA0K6qiTN_2MDLcuTRPcsbHHEj98WJwI2SA9K2VP5moCzQoCG2pm_E4N11BQodX0kcNInb4QS8TVw-XvXCIfMdbxX33AdWF_yc3efmgXNYtH4yAIb1E8uJZ-PYuxYbmQS-cMagh3y78C4/s640/Dodge.JPG" width="640" /></a></div>
Brewers aren't even on the momentous dodge chart and Farmers barely register. Engineers keep most of theirs though, as do the Alchemists. Where the Fishermen have far more dodges, the Alchemist's are almost universally momentous. Morticians are up in that group too, keeping up with a control and evade style of game. <br />
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Tackles. This one isn't super surprising since nearly every model in the game has a Tackle somewhere. Engineers and Blacksmiths have a pretty high amount though, indicating multiple tackles in playbooks.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEixLbrMGr8goDSBVvhfj7brt2yVB2QEE6K45n-0j11YLMl8OpIvHp7jKBih6VI6cdaXgNRFjZP3b5Zutr712Bl-V1_KxTQddc7Ibmfl6unT4owuQ4x8_4DbfiISRNOsL6g1DluOOpJKkCQ/s1600/Tackle.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="565" data-original-width="920" height="393" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEixLbrMGr8goDSBVvhfj7brt2yVB2QEE6K45n-0j11YLMl8OpIvHp7jKBih6VI6cdaXgNRFjZP3b5Zutr712Bl-V1_KxTQddc7Ibmfl6unT4owuQ4x8_4DbfiISRNOsL6g1DluOOpJKkCQ/s640/Tackle.JPG" width="640" /></a></div>
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Momentous tackles, on the other hand, is a whole different story. Morticians and Farmers have next to none while Masons and Engineers dominate the stat with a surprise 3rd place Butchers. <br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjRQzYBRVyryvTZ0wJFpQJ-9m17c_VSdlT349PurJMzGnINFjSCjrsHAc8s0a9WdL5VKgm-gWjLXe53943_tVdJscrzzjsKTTeoFVi6XNbt8H2MAYT6J3UegZMtdgZyEmvtYfRJ3E1UuP4/s1600/TackleM.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="587" data-original-width="951" height="394" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjRQzYBRVyryvTZ0wJFpQJ-9m17c_VSdlT349PurJMzGnINFjSCjrsHAc8s0a9WdL5VKgm-gWjLXe53943_tVdJscrzzjsKTTeoFVi6XNbt8H2MAYT6J3UegZMtdgZyEmvtYfRJ3E1UuP4/s640/TackleM.JPG" width="640" /></a></div>
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Damage is next. Not quite as evenly distributed as Tackle was, but copious amounts everywhere except in the Fisherman's Guild. Brewers also seem kind of low, but that's a reference to their low playbooks rather than the percentage of damage in them. That particular stat is located on their sheet.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhgwEjc8ujpSi1UiMdMXx5rZocoWsTRRrD2ysGdKKL6G4H6pWbGY1FqhSGqSO0XBe2bJ6kVnN6cHRY4zycjch0HdC2AwAZptHsKOKaPQOkLFa3CzPqjTp4S5msJwLz-3B1XUOVIwxw5ZZA/s1600/Damage.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="550" data-original-width="895" height="392" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhgwEjc8ujpSi1UiMdMXx5rZocoWsTRRrD2ysGdKKL6G4H6pWbGY1FqhSGqSO0XBe2bJ6kVnN6cHRY4zycjch0HdC2AwAZptHsKOKaPQOkLFa3CzPqjTp4S5msJwLz-3B1XUOVIwxw5ZZA/s640/Damage.JPG" width="640" /></a></div>
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Momentous Damage tells some more stories. Almost none for the Engineers and Fish. Alchemists have a moderate amount, giving them something of a mixed playstyle similar to the Masons who are strong in both Momentous tackles and Damage. Unsurprisingly dominating this particular piechart is the Butchers with 36 momentous damage results. </div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiS4SPEgf96aoIArgfP5DTnoniNdplz5dm0-mlMtuw4_epiUpfoppUkKuWRpfUJR4pzC0EQgtAgSkdE_OeWIdzf67UqpXcaE5ktMMERuUTSREuDLq8PWkskghgP0YyR_icbYpx9z3SqYGs/s1600/DamageM.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="563" data-original-width="915" height="392" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiS4SPEgf96aoIArgfP5DTnoniNdplz5dm0-mlMtuw4_epiUpfoppUkKuWRpfUJR4pzC0EQgtAgSkdE_OeWIdzf67UqpXcaE5ktMMERuUTSREuDLq8PWkskghgP0YyR_icbYpx9z3SqYGs/s640/DamageM.JPG" width="640" /></a></div>
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Knockdowns. Another form of control, with a condition option too. Brewers, Union and Masons have plenty, but it's Farmers that really carry it. Fish and Alchemists have only a few, and the Butchers aren't much better, adding to their issues in getting through counterattacks.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgr4CxhwaxJdyXYCW12jNk8Jk-0qg7pUY-1LueIbsk3TLo7z0oB9FFW3nnaf0cBCRx2H-r83I9YgCs9khiMvoBj1Er3NaHSeXvDevBHEctKuiStKhdmFVKzGnOeoVfADb6XZO8CkPuZkV0/s1600/Knockdown.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="580" data-original-width="943" height="392" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgr4CxhwaxJdyXYCW12jNk8Jk-0qg7pUY-1LueIbsk3TLo7z0oB9FFW3nnaf0cBCRx2H-r83I9YgCs9khiMvoBj1Er3NaHSeXvDevBHEctKuiStKhdmFVKzGnOeoVfADb6XZO8CkPuZkV0/s640/Knockdown.JPG" width="640" /></a></div>
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Everyone act surprised that Brewers have 100% momentous KD. Farmers aren't far behind, and then it's kind of scattered after that. It's interesting to note that the Blacksmiths only have 10 KD options, and 7 of them are momentous. If you look those up, you'll notice that every momentous one is on a master, and there's only a couple of KDs on the apprentices. Momentous KDs are the cherry on top for a charge. You need the debuff and to prevent a counter attack, but it sucks not to get that momentum for it, which is a problem that we can see the Alchemists, Morticians and Fish all have. <br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj2GIw81QqBEXa0V9bmm5fWhjj8CIc9CHX6WfzbYNj9ESHrK83IM83uJlzxSZOCx3jZfIAbZQcisQX7hkmZF0W2CHRRxQg6h7XBCPrH47kr4W3hs5NJ0R4moKXceNmDL-EvAxhiaUlB6Qk/s1600/KnockdownM.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="552" data-original-width="896" height="394" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj2GIw81QqBEXa0V9bmm5fWhjj8CIc9CHX6WfzbYNj9ESHrK83IM83uJlzxSZOCx3jZfIAbZQcisQX7hkmZF0W2CHRRxQg6h7XBCPrH47kr4W3hs5NJ0R4moKXceNmDL-EvAxhiaUlB6Qk/s640/KnockdownM.JPG" width="640" /></a></div>
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Last, maybe least, we have Guildballs. These are the character plays. Butchers and Fish lead the way, followed by Morticians. Engineers and Blacksmiths anchor the chart while the Brewers are just glad it isn't them.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgqD-qgzS_h3X92HvhJQQ8pB-0yvLlWsV3wQVZG7NwPkEt5nNppRzLOmTVCkB8Nsv4AKsJavdKazLX1SMm-E5EwXUSOf7VMeO_ElLgp9tKPLwLmHRA6K5pLhCa5S5uWdjfScJm3EuWvqEY/s1600/Guildball.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="626" data-original-width="1017" height="392" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgqD-qgzS_h3X92HvhJQQ8pB-0yvLlWsV3wQVZG7NwPkEt5nNppRzLOmTVCkB8Nsv4AKsJavdKazLX1SMm-E5EwXUSOf7VMeO_ElLgp9tKPLwLmHRA6K5pLhCa5S5uWdjfScJm3EuWvqEY/s640/Guildball.JPG" width="640" /></a></div>
Momentously, the Fish and Alchemists dominate the scene. This is where a lot of the dodges and defensive play they have resides, not in their pushes and dodges. This is where gut and string used to be.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhM60FaWOh1ZbQpj5bvgHdBkuBewhnuEfb6CnxO0L-y5R_Zx33IciiCiu4nnrCs3KCjbp7zfxQVeprBxi48iBhYYWRPlh5p0YFsLypeq8TxsuL_WqBKYHedaCdTDDabZ69mVwWfNK6Vqhc/s1600/GuildballM.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="629" data-original-width="1019" height="394" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhM60FaWOh1ZbQpj5bvgHdBkuBewhnuEfb6CnxO0L-y5R_Zx33IciiCiu4nnrCs3KCjbp7zfxQVeprBxi48iBhYYWRPlh5p0YFsLypeq8TxsuL_WqBKYHedaCdTDDabZ69mVwWfNK6Vqhc/s640/GuildballM.JPG" width="640" /></a></div>
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<strong> Character Plays</strong><br />
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<strong> </strong> Just a few more charts. Character plays are offensive if they cause damage or debuffs, and generally you need to roll to hit. Defensive plays are generally buffs. It's not that they make the team more defensive perse, they're just not offensive. The offensive stuff is things like Dirty Knives, or Blast Earth.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh3XZ3KfJ52Riw3YfkJAJJ8qKMAjidNc_7dCL0oyxaj5QYlsDSJzfM9yEh-LJCF_8PzZdXrkOvgrvUFfZ1PPKM-f21s2VXT6vMptGFFvKzkK7UvkCEIiA2UoS5Y61buu0aHg37_ZKaGyRw/s1600/CPO.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="586" data-original-width="948" height="394" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh3XZ3KfJ52Riw3YfkJAJJ8qKMAjidNc_7dCL0oyxaj5QYlsDSJzfM9yEh-LJCF_8PzZdXrkOvgrvUFfZ1PPKM-f21s2VXT6vMptGFFvKzkK7UvkCEIiA2UoS5Y61buu0aHg37_ZKaGyRw/s640/CPO.JPG" width="640" /></a> Then we have buffs and such. Union has a very high amount, but a lot of that is just the model count too. Otherwise, you see teams like the Engineers, Masons and Blacksmiths carrying the weight of buffs located in their character plays.</div>
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Then for the guys trying to play a gunline in Guildball, we have the ranged offensive character plays. Alchemists, we expected. Brewers are a little bit of a surprise, but Esters and Stoker both have 2 ranged plays each, you just don't see them super often. I've also included things like Goad and Lure in the ranged section as well.</div>
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<strong> </strong>That's kind of the party folks. I don't think there's any major upsets, just more or less seeing how the new teams slot into the party. There's some stark contrasts and certainly their own playstyle is evident as Steamforged tries to find gaps in the playstyles to slot new guilds. I'll be curious to see what the new Minor Guilds bring to the table and what I'm going to do for colors when that happens. <br />
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I hope this has been an informative article. It's not going to change any great strategies, introduce new tactics or break the code on a certain Guild. It's interesting to see the inherent strengths and weaknesses in the numbers though, and what each Guild excels at somewhat. JediAnakinSolohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05612104007435908015noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2592330986543780083.post-65237478551156920082017-11-26T12:54:00.005-08:002017-11-27T20:41:20.729-08:00Statistical Analysis of Guildball: Season 3 updates – The Blacksmiths<div class="separator" style="text-align: center;">
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For a holiday week, this is a ton of articles, but once I've got momentum I can't quit or none of it will ever be completed. Plus, the Blacksmiths are up and going and this is stuff I'm curious about too. A lot of people have said that Steamforged is on other side of the seesaw this go around. The Hunters flopped on release and failed to sell (Surprise Mystery Box!), whereas the last two releases are going strong and are very well received. I love my Farmers, and I think I'd be ok with playing Blacksmiths too. The argument though is that they went too far on the seesaw and we have two top tier Guilds now that are dominating the tournament scene.</div>
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This may be true. They just hit the scene in literally the last few weeks (Blacksmiths specifically), and the Farmers are only just now getting into the tournament scene with bits and pieces of the second box where the real offender supposedly is. Speaking of the Farmers, here's their article on this same subject, right here at <a href="http://midwestwargaming.com/statistical-analysis-guildball-season-3-updates-farmers/">Statistical Analysis of Guildball: Season 3 updates - The Farmers.</a> Comparatively, the Season 2 charts of the other guilds is here at <a href="http://diceotfirstdegree.blogspot.com/2016/09/guildball-at-glance-statistical.html">Guildball at a Glance: A Statistical Analysis</a>.</div>
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So in these two articles (Farmers and Blacksmiths), I want to see the numbers and where these guys shine and where they don't. This is a direct result of watching Moneyball (The Baseball movie with Brad Pitt, Jonah Hill and a surprise Chris Pratt). Not even going to lie. I love Baseball, and Baseball loves numbers. They don't tell the whole story though and the Farmers are the worst offenders with Character Plays and Traits that just sideline you out of nowhere. Blacksmiths, on the other hand, kinda play by the numbers rules a bit more, but only if you break Guild in half and look at them in two groups of players as they're intended to be played. The Masters and the Apprentices.</div>
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Sidenote: I can't offer you the same tactical advice as another Midwest Wargaming Blog contributor who's got some actual experience to bring to the table. All I can really give you is the numbers and what I see from them. As far as numbers go, this sheet is going to be unique because of the way Blacksmiths are constructed. There are more statistics for starters, because I feel the story isn't told by a simple Guild Wide analysis. I haven't left that out, mind you, but I've also added the same charts for both Masters, and Apprentices because while there's 10 KDs in the playbooks, 7 of them are on the Masters. There is 36 Damage options in the Guild playbooks, but only one master has any Momentous damage, and the Apprentices have 11. Also, all guilds have 12-14 players, but two of them are mascots so don't factor into the intial Statline averages because they're universally outliers. The Blacksmiths do not have this problem. So let's look.</div>
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The full sheet without all my rambling, is right here: <a href="https://imgur.com/n0bagDR">Blacksmith Metrics</a></div>
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For my caffeine fueled late night ranting, continue scrolling.</div>
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Right off the bat, the averages look really good for a supposedly slower team. MOV2 is higher than average, so is TAC, KICK, and KICK2. KICK2 is actually best in game. DEF, and INF are all low. KICK, ARM and MELEE are higher, and ARM is the best stat in the game, go figure. However, you break them into individual groups and we start seeing differences.</div>
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Masters are considerably slower than Apprentices. They just barely come in above the Brewers on SPD. Their TAC is also average, actually slightly below. DEF is low, Lowest In Game actually by a full half point. ARM, on the other hand, is Highest In Game by a full 1.11, with Masons in second at 1.22 compared to 2.33. INF1 is very high, but INF2 sucks. I even put one Master at 5 INF max instead of 3 since one Master will always have that stat. So it's clear, the Masters are Slow, Defensive contributors to the game.</div>
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Apprentices bring up the MOV a bit, with an ok, but still lower Jog speed. Overall, this team is slow. They jog faster than the Brewers only marginally, but the Brewers outsprint them. TAC is still low. KICK1 and 2 are comparable and DEF spikes noticeably, almost a full point. The seesaw effect is completed by a full 1.26 drop in ARM average from the Masters. However, at 1.17 ARM, they are still only .05 below the Masons. If we were to separate the Apprentices and Masters into a full sorting sheet, the Blacksmiths would take 1st and 3rd, bracketing the Masons at 2nd. INF is miserable, Lowest In Game, on the low end, and only bottom 3 on the high end. Melee perfectly average at 1.33.</div>
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So we've got some pretty solid blockhouse players. You're always down a few dice on the attack against them, but it's obvious that the Apprentices really are the weak ones The Masters are slower, harder to kill, and donate the INF but it's the Apprentices who have to deliver the product, making them the obvious weak link. It's like bringing six bags of nails, but no hammer (Or Sledge) to drive them home.</div>
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Now we look at Playbook results.</div>
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This doesn't seem to out of the ordinary. High Momentous GB results but they only have 6. Dodges and Pushes have some momentum, and a combined 30 options for them puts them far ahead of the Farmers as far as positioning by Attack. Damage is low momentum, while KDs are high but neither of these tell the whole story. Lets look at the two groups specifically.</div>
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Here, we see that every GB is momentous, and that like, 85% of KD is momentous. In fact, on the pie chart, you see that there are 7 KD compared to the 10 available to the whole Guild. This leaves the Apprentices with only 3 KD options, and they are high on the playbook. The next one is Damage with a paltry 1 momentous Damage (Momentous 1 on Furnace). They also top out at 3 damage before Tooled Up (Also from Furnace). These guys are not your killers. Momentous Tackles are prevalent at least. There's only 2 dodges in the Masters, so don't let that 50% momentous stat fool you. There's exactly one momentous dodge in the Masters, and both dodges are on Ferrite, the momentous one being a Push Dodge. Pushes, on the other hand, are everywhere. Everybody thinks they're Harry the Hat with momentous single and double pushes. Almost every master has a momentous Single and Double Push. Between the Momentous GB, KD, Tackles and Pushes, these are your setup guys. You're encouraged to run them that way with their stats, their playbook, their character plays. If you look at the Master Character plays, you start seeing Singled Out, Tooled Up, Weak Point. Things to set up other models for the Apprentice to end them easily. The only Master who doesn't know his role is Flamethrower Chaska, Burnish. That guy's confused.</div>
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Last, but not least, the Apprentices. Some non-momentous pushes, a lot more dodges, here and there on tackles. At 21 Damage opportunities though, 11 of them are Momentous. These are the murderers right here. There's only 3 KD options, 1 on Iron and 2 on Sledge. Sledge's are on columns 4 and 6, and at TAC5, he needs the charge or some setup to get there. It's the Damage these guys are wanting to do. A couple of them think they're strikers, and have some momentous dodges to support, but all of them have relatively high momentous damage that other guilds top out at. Spigot in Brewers kind of runs similar to an Apprentice in my opinion. He's a bit of a glass cannon, but he's got Momentous 3 on Column 4, and it's not uncommon for him to be at +2 or +3 damage, and TAC10 by the time he's set up with Commanding Aura, Dirty Knives, and going in on a KD model (So Floored for +2 TAC now too) with two or three Crowdouts. Spigot1 just starts murdering things and will one-round serious models like Brick. I feel like the Blacksmiths come to the party with 6 Spigot1s, but they're even moreso glass cannons. Low health and out front.</div>
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Character Plays are the next one. We're back to viewing the Guild as a whole again.</div>
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There's only a handful of character plays. 8 of them can be applied by Guildball, 4 of them by range. Some of those plays are both, so it's not like there's 12 plays. There might be like, 9 and around half have both options. Shield Throw and Dirty Knives are good examples. However, it's not about the quantity of players with access to ranged plays if you're curious bout the viability of a Gunline. It's about how many times they can do this. Dirty Knives and Flame Belch are not once per turn while Shield Throw is. Dirty Knives and Flame Belch could be done together for a total of 6 times, or 7 if Alloy triggers Dirty Knives by Guildball. That's 2-4 times from Alloy and 3 times from Burnish if he's a Captain. Predictable, but an option. Watch out for the GIC card that lets Blacksmiths swap Captains for a turn. On the plus side, nothing in Blacksmiths give the ability to accrue Momentum through ranged Character plays so while it's dangerous, it INF/MOM inefficient if that's important to you or your opponent.</div>
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Actual buff plays though, they've got a good number of them. 18 different Character Play buffs from 12 players is very, very good. Comparatively, the Brewers were known as the buffing team, and they had 15 over their S1 and S2 players, and most of them were Defensive buffs. Only a handful of Attack or Speed buffs. And almost no debuffs. Blacksmiths have it all. The Character Plays and access to Momentous Guildballs is a solid thing to be aware of or keep in mind.</div>
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Character Traits! The stuff on the back of the card.</div>
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No random damage from Heroics or Legendaries, and surprisingly few Debuffs. I think Hobble from Ferrite is the only one. Next to no conditions. Mostly Speed, Attack and Defensive buffs. Also not a lot of Influence buffs, which in contrast, the Farmers had the second most of.</div>
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A high number of Heroic/Legendaries comparatively, but you're talking about the Masters who each have one, and then Iron has a Heroic.</div>
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Character Traits are rarely Offensive but there are a few. Again, this is Hobble from Ferrite I believe. Offensive vs. Defensive is kind of an odd metric in character traits, but there are a few out there like Katalyst and Mercury causing fire. Not really so much here though.</div>
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So where does this leave us?</div>
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Well, I don't know. I've got a few games in against them but they're really only just now hitting the scene. In fact, I really can't tell you how to play them. I'm not even sure what the gameplan is. Many Guilds are obviously Kickers, Fighters or Control. There's bits of overlap, but always a core. A couple can kick better than fighters, and fight better than kickers and it's in that adaptability they find their strength (Brewers and Masons). Blacksmiths... seem more fighters but there's some strong strikers in there. The guy in a suit of armor will surprise you. But more or less, they're going to fall back on fighting when the chips are down. With playbooks holding Momentous 6 and 7s, they've got to. Their high damage average is 4.17, but that's over the whole guild. The Apprentices have 5.33 for an average, which is insane. Their playbooks are long though, averaging 6.00 compared to the Masters at 4.67. This is further reduced by an average TAC of 5.17.</div>
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The Apprentices are the lynchpin. The weakpoint. Their overall health is low and their DEF is no higher than 4, with an average of 3.33. They do have ARM, and they'll likely have ARM 2 near the Masters (Any Master with Sentinel, which is either Anvil or Furnace). Your hits are still more likely though, unlike a 5/0 or 6/0 with defensive stance, and once you start getting KDs and debuffs involved (And not many), the Apprentices go down quickly. Anatomical Precision is worth it's weight in gold here, and any control elements. The trick is identifying the Apprentice that's coming, or even easier, identify the target. If you can prevent them from getting there by either goading them somewhere else, debuffing their MOV stats or just luring them off to other sides of the field, you really neuter the power of the Blacksmiths. This is further compounded by the fact that they really want the Masters to go first, to get the Singled Out, or the Weak Point, or the KD or push positioning. This gives you an activation to pull that guy out, or clear him off, or worst case scenario, stand him up. Again, only 2 apprentices had KD, and they're not low in the playbook.</div>
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My first game into Blacksmiths was in a tournament where it surprised me they were there. On the plus side, the player that had them was new to them as well. I was playing Brisket3, and I dropped Gutter and Decimate both into them. This allowed me to ignore some ARM and handle the game a bit, but what really killed them was Brisket3 is nearly impossible to button down, and what's worse is that when you get a model really singled out and isolated, Brisket3 uses her legendary to dodge that player out of there while she dances around and runs away. Rage is still probably a better choice because of his ability to remove 1-2 Apprentices every turn, but my point stands. Deter the obvious plans, and be ready to do so after they've activated the Master and before they've activated the Apprentice, and you can wreck their plans.</div>
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I can't tell you how to play the Blacksmiths though. No idea. I need to get some tabletime in with them and they look fun. I hope this article helps you though, hope it gives you an idea of what's going on, both for you playing them, and you playing against them.</div>
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Enjoy the holidays folks!</div>
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JediAnakinSolohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05612104007435908015noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2592330986543780083.post-292615735507558082017-11-20T13:48:00.001-08:002017-11-20T13:48:57.504-08:00Statistical Analysis of Guildball: Season 3 updates - The Farmers<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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I'd say the update is somewhat overdue, except that we only just got the final Farmer card spoiled this last weekend. As quickly as Steamforged modifies the game, or rather, as sporadic as the updates are, a true figure analysis is going to always be behind. In fact, in compiling the Farmers and Blacksmiths (Coming soon), I didn't even bother to factor in Union stats since A) Blacksmiths won't even use them, B) Farmers only got 2 and C) everyone's losing their Union soon anyways.<br />
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If you don't remember the original article, I've done a lengthy infographic on every Guild, plus an overall one (That's about to be updated to include Farmers, Blacksmiths and the Winter's Moon Hunters). That article is located <a href="http://diceotfirstdegree.blogspot.com/2016/09/guildball-at-glance-statistical.html" target="_blank">Here,</a> and I'll be referencing it throughout this article.<br />
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I'll steal the quick blurb I wrote for each guild on the infographic and place it here:<br />
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The Farmers, though a newer team, are a welcome addition to the Guild lineup. They're more of a bashing guild, and while their TAC isn't extremely high, their playbook lengths and ability to crowd out make up for it. They also are one of the more synergy-reliant guilds in the game through the unique use of their Harvest Markers. While their INF stat is very low, they make up for it with key positioning and retrieval of Harvest Markers. This also requires a fine balance in the team building process because a team of all Reapers will struggle to fight or play the ball with no resources while the Planters will struggle because they lack the abilities. A good melding of the two creates a fantastic team with great, support pieces and a few key models that reap the benefits of the plan you have built over the turn.<br />
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They are also a very defensive team. Attacking a Farmer team means nearly no ARM to speak of, and not great DEF either. However, expect to find Countercharge, Poised, crowd outs and lots of condition prevention as you try to take them down. A good player will keep his Farmers very well positioned and attempt to build a puzzle for you to unlock every turn in order to take out a single player. A great guild with a high skill cap, the Farmers are a well-designed team and looking good on the fields already.<br />
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Let's talk about a few of those points. Well, actually, here's the sheet: <a href="https://imgur.com/a/9Goan" target="_blank">Farmer Metrics</a><br />
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Now lets look at some points. For starters, the stat averages are not good with the exception of their Kick (Amount of dice used, not Kick distance) and their DEF is above average. Everything else, even their sprint distance, is below average. The only Guild slower than them is the Brewers, which surprised me. <br />
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On the plus side, the key players you want to move quickly do move very quickly. Tater, Bushel and Thresher are all sprint 8. The statistic is highly impacted by characters like Windle and Jackstraw though. Bring Windle and Jackstraw up to average and the team jumps to a 7.58 instead of 7.17. This puts them closer to the faster Guilds, but they're still short of the fastest 5. This is compounded by the fact that there's only 6 dodges in 12 playbooks, and 2 players have four of them (Jackstraw and Bushel). Thresher and Peck both have a single dodge. <br />
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Their TAC is lower than their playbook too, believe it or not. 4.42 to 4.50, but that's largely Fallow and Windle's fault, again. Most of the playbooks are one shorter than the TAC, giving them good ability to wrap, similar to the Brewers. Many buffs include a TAC increase as well, such as Honest Labor and Thresher's Legendary.<br />
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Kick stat is good. Only a couple of long range kicks, but a lot of 3 dice kicks makes a team of reliable passers at least. This is really good for Bushel's "I'm Open" character play. I'm a Brisket3 fan, and Bushel having it too really makes me like her. <br />
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DEF is higher than average but Millstone's literally the only one with ARM, so if you can hit, you don't lose any dice for it.<br />
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INF stats are pretty rough, but since there's a Harvest Marker mechanic, that gets countered a lot.<br />
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Melee Range is crazy good, unsurprsingly. What did surprise me is that it clocks in at 1.80, which takes the 1st place spot from the Fishermen. Since we're not counting mascots, this means only 3 models don't have 2'' melee in the Guild (Fallow, Bushel and Millstone. Which are all women... All the women... actually... All the guys have long tools, I guess.) <br />
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Melee range is actually right in line with everyone else, which surprised me. I felt like there was a lot of 2'' melee in the team, and 3'' melee even on Thresher. The difference is probably that most of the 2'' melee models are pretty playable, so it feels like you have more of it on a team. Butchers have the same Melee range stat, but you're looking at Boar and Tenderizer who don't make the team often. Farmers don't have a 1'' melee Captain, you're never leaving home without Tater. Jackstraw and Harrow are both great choices and lesser choices like Windle and Ploughman have it too. <br />
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<strong>Playbook Results</strong>. There's no super surprising thing here. Only 6 dodges in the Guild, but we knew that. Momentously, it's KDs and Damage where you can expect to find it. There's very few pushes, fewer dodges and only a couple of Guildballs. I think the only 2 Momentous Tackles are Jackstraw and Harrow (Harrow?). Damage is largely Momentous, so this means whether or not the team wants to kick the ball, they'll need to be doing some fighting to stay ahead in the Momentum game. They certainly can't run about and farm it from pushes and dodges like the Fishermen can.<br />
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<strong>Character Plays</strong>. This is where Farmers start showing up. It's balanced pretty well between Offensive and Defensive, and only one of them is a Ranged Damaging attack (Jackstraw's Cropdusting) so no gunline game from the Farmers. Most of it is debuffs, though a couple are damage, Tooled up and Don't Fear the.... being the prime examples.<br />
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Many of them are defensive though, or defensive aspects, which is going to be typical of the Character Traits too. Speaking of which.<br />
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<strong>Character Traits</strong>. It feels like the back of every Farmer's card is loaded, which is true, but not much truer than any other guild. It's just better quality stuff. This is where the abilities like Plantin and Reaping are, and really, what makes this Guild click. Farmers can't be played against by what's on the front, it's the back that makes them murderers. TAC3 Fallow is a great example. That model is amazing, and very little of it is on the front. <br />
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<strong> Playing the Farmers</strong><br />
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<strong> </strong>This is coming off of my Lineup article, <a href="http://diceotfirstdegree.blogspot.com/2017/11/the-concept-behind-guildball-lineup.html" target="_blank">The Concept behind a Guildball Lineup</a>. Here, I talk about building a list for a tournament and the questions you'll want to ask. It's not an expert level article, it's more for the newer player who's expanding from a 6 man team and wants to play more. <br />
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For Guilds previous to the Farmers, this was an important question financially since you had to buy each extra player individually. When I began playing Union, I didn't buy Harry the Hat for a long time (His S1 rules and even early S2 were not good). Now with 6 man boxes being the deal for Farmers and Blacksmiths, it's not a question of who to buy. If you buy both boxes, you have them all.<br />
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But who to take to the tournament? As I stated in the Lineup article, personal preference has it's place. Again, I enjoy Brisket3 but she's not considered particularly competitive compared to Blackheart or Rage2. So don't take what I say here and melt your model down. <br />
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<strong>Captains</strong><br />
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<strong> </strong>Thresher and Grange are it right now. Captain number 3 will be Honor2, a year from now and not in a wheelchair as I had hoped. Right now it's these two. <br />
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Grange is a kicking team support Captain. He's not a super solo, and he struggles to kill even medium tough models. His Honest Labor play is his most dangerous gimmick in the Take Out territory, but I feel that it's a trap. There are those that disagree. However, coming from Tapper who has Commanding Aura that is far better, I've still seen models escape in between activations. That's a 4'' aura. Grange's is 2'', and it doesn't even work on him. So while I do use it some, I don't build a list around it and it's really only if I feel like I can get Tater there that I use it. I feel that Grange wants a kicking team, and he wants models moderately near him for his "For the Family" aura so he can buff their passing stats. This is what makes Bushel's "I'm Open" really good. Jackstraw's a 3/10, and Tater's a 4/8'' then, but only the first number matters for "I'm Open" which is range 6 (Or 8'' with the correct plotcard. Keep that in mind). Grange wants to receive a ball, pass it around effectively and score with Bushel bottom of 2 maybe. He doesn't want to kick off very much, and if he does, he'll probably use Tater for it. On the Planter note, Grange provides an INF heavy team and lets the Reapers really do what they want, so Fallow, Tater and Bushel all like him. Technically, so does Windle, but we'll talk about that. Speaking of Windle, that was my main problem with Grange when he came out but LE Tater helped with that some. Still, Grange really felt like he wanted Windle to do the heavy lifting but Windle sucks. Fallow fills that role, and fills it really well. I think Fallow brings a Grange list up fairly decent.<br />
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Thresher, on the other hand, doesn't care. Kickoff, Receive, doesn't matter, he'll do both himself. The man's a super solo Hammer with less INF and 3'' melee. Thresher is currently the better choice IMO because he can do both though Grange receives better. Thresher can receive and first turn score with only a little setup. He can also kick off and retrieve pretty easily. If they hide the ball, he starts murdering people. He runs a lower INF team, so he needs strong planters like Jackstraw. He also really likes ignoring conditions like KD so Millstone is really good too. Thresher is going for a 2 score, 2 take out game at the most, but probably 1-4 instead. Him and Tater are going to tag team all game and lean on the planters for support. Most of the turn will be decided by the glass cannon that is Thresher. He plays kind of like a murdering Shark.<br />
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Because of that all-around ability, I would take Thresher over Grange.<br />
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<strong> Mascots</strong><br />
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<strong> </strong>Buckwheat and Peck are the options. I actually like both. I was playing straight Buckwheat, but I've come to like Peck too.<br />
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Buckwheat's a murderer with an easy 4'' push. He's got good damage too. I was playing him exclusively, but in all of my Thresher games, I've not had the INF to fuel him, or really the Harvest Markers either so he really does very little all game. In a Grange list though, he's probably a really good option.<br />
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Peck brings an INF and hides a ball halfway decent. It's the INF I need in a Thresher team though. So I'll bring Peck, but I'm probably bringing Buckwheat too. If it comes down to needing a Union model, I'll drop Buckwheat but since Union models are going away I'm likely bringing both.<br />
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<strong>Obvious models I'm taking</strong><br />
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<strong> </strong>Tater. Counter Charge is amazing. It's a problem I've had to solve every game against Masons and it's really nice to have on my side for a change. Tater makes going into Thresher very difficult, and lets Thresher play very aggressive because of it. Tater's also a heck of a damage dealer himself and can either finish what Thresher started or vice-versa. <br />
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Jackstraw. Thresher and Tater need Harvest Markers really bad, and Jackstraw brings 2. If nothing else, Thresher needs that. There's no other model the brings more than one Harvest marker, so Jackstraw is required for a Thresher team. He's a good passer in a Grange team if he's close, but he's super required for Thresher. Plus, 3/3 INF is pretty key.<br />
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That's 3 models. Let's look at some other ones I'm likely taking.<br />
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Millstone. She almost makes the Required models slot, but not quite. I didn't take her into a few teams that lacked conditions, or Knockdowns. Without the KDs to shut Tater and Thresher down, I've left her out and brought Harrow instead. In most cases though, she's a must have. The death triangle that is her, Tater and Thresher is a hard puzzle to solve. You can't KD Tater to prevent the countercharge because Millstone will take it. She's also got her 2'' push and a Harvest Marker, plus the 3/3 INF Thresher wants. So she's in most lists, and will always be in my 10.<br />
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Bushel. She's not a favorite, and doesn't make every list, but if I'm going to strike, I like her. She's also really good into teams with strikers that have Close Control because "Ball's Gone" ignores it. I also like "I'm Open" a lot (Have I said that yet?) and will play her as a winger until she needs the ball from someone, at which point she sprints in, "I'm Open", dodges and kicks. She's also one of the few models with dodges in the playbook and what's more is that they're momentous. I think she's required in a Grange team, but optional in a Thresher. Again though, against Close Control models, she's really solid.<br />
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Now we're starting to see some variety. Harrow is next, and he's ok. I like Tooled Up as much as the next guy, but Harrow doesn't do much else. He's got a situational Harvest Marker drop compared to Millstone's free one, and that's about it. I like his 2'' melee, but I'm only going to bring him when I really need the damage. I think he makes my 10, but my 6 only when I reaaaally need Tooled Up.<br />
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Fallow. This model is amazing, and I think pretty much kills Windle's chances of making the list ever. I like the idea of her in a Thresher list except that I already struggle to fuel 2-3 Reapers, and I don't think I can afford another one or replacing one of the others. Maybe if both Bushel and Buckwheat are gone, I can get away with it, but only just. However, she's really solid in a Grange list too. She's got great defensive tech (second only to countercharge) with her ability to walk into the fight like Granite does but better. She's a murdering machine and while the dream is to have her go last, she can go third or fourth and still do really good work. I think a Grange team is her real home though. He's got the Harvest Markers to fuel her, her kick stat works well in his team, and she brings the damage that he needed from Windle, without bringing Windle. She's a really, really solid model.<br />
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<strong>Union Models</strong><br />
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<strong> </strong>Benediction and Grace. For now. Til they're gone, per UK Steamcon 2017 Keynote.<br />
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Benediction is a tank and a ball holder. He hangs out really well with 2'' melee in a Farmers team and brings some ARM to a fight where there is none. I like to sit him in the middle of the group on high ARM with the ball and dare someone to come into he forest of 2'' melee and get it. I really like him, but as the rest of the Farmer models come out, I'm playing him less. I have taken him instead of Grange before but Fallow probably changes that for me. The real reason I bring Benediction though, is for "I'm Open". Getting "Impart Wisdome" and having a 12'' range on "I'm Open" makes Bushel able to play pretty far from the pack and still get the ball. No one has a 12'' kick range, but Grange and Jackstraw both have 4/8 under Grange's aura. That's hella better than 6''. Benediction also brings some pushes (momentous at that) that Farmers don't have without Ploughman.<br />
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Grace is the other option and she's ok. It's the Quick Foot you bring her for but I'm not playing Windle so I don't reaaaallly need it. Healing light is neat, but the Farmers are the last guild that needs healing. So Benediction probably wins this fight.<br />
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<strong>Models I'm not taking.</strong><br />
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Windle. 2/0 sucks. I hate it. He's also a complicated monster to run and yeah, if he works, he gets like 2 takeouts every activation. It's nice. If it works. However, he's extremely easy to control. Goad wrecks him and so does any other ranged control play whatsoever. Grange removes conditions pretty well and gets him sturdy, (which I've been begging for on Stave for a long time) but he still doesn't bring enough to justify 2/0, in my opinion. Especially since Fallow is here now. Every time I play against Windle, I bounce off of him for whatever I actually want. <br />
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Ploughman. He's cute but either he's overkill or not enough. Under Grange, it's too many harvest markers and under Thresher it's not enough since it's only one extra marker, not just double. His rough ground stuff is neat but Farmers don't really struggle for momentum so it's not often I can't afford to glide. The main things I would bring Ploughman for would be his pushes. They're the most pushes the Farmers have access too and they're momentous as well. It's a playbook like Harry or Benediction, but that's really all I'd bring him for. Once we lose Union, I might consider it but I doubt he'll make it.<br />
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<strong>The Lineup</strong><br />
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Thresher, Peck, Buckwheat, Tater, Jackstraw, Millstone, Bushel, Benediction, I guess Grange, Fallow.<br />
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I'll go ahead an let Grange come, otherwise I just have wasted slots in my 10. I don't know what I'd take him into. Butchers maybe. <br />
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Thresher's team is Peck, Tater, Jackstraw for sure. Probably Bushel for ball retrieval early on and then just winging from there on out. Millstone in most cases unless they have almost no easy access KD. I didn't take her into Morticians. If I don't need Bushel, I might take Fallow and try it but it's a lot of Reapers. However, I was playing Buckwheat and not Peck, so that's one more INF than what I had.<br />
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Grange would be Buckwheat, Tater, Jackstraw, Bushel and Fallow or Benediction. Jackstraw is the most efficient Harvest Marker guy, and Grange can support while Bushel scores goals and Fallow and Tater murder things. Benediction is there for Bushel's "I'm Open".<br />
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That's my off-the hip analysis of the Farmers, plus the Statistical comparison of their stats and plays compared to other guilds. I hope this information has been of some use to you. The Blacksmiths are on their way, but Midwest Wargaming has another guy doing a better overview of the Blacksmiths than I could do, so I'll skip the lineup talk with them and focus mainly on the Statistical analysis. Enjoy the holidays folks!<br />
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<br />JediAnakinSolohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05612104007435908015noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2592330986543780083.post-22808205215701718092017-11-06T07:25:00.000-08:002017-11-06T07:25:08.294-08:00The Concept Behind a Guildball Lineup<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEig6GoPgxR5LcUYq0m0Y3AyEyjvFdFlSMvrd5maJkBLafPTxMGmNJMWivFVnrz9CkC3geHQ51G05yds60Ap8WaObCMnFFH-Jae50pEqDNLVx0jptmMYkhNQQMG6eLxcO7CzoN12irqm7HI/s1600/Article+Header.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="1600" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEig6GoPgxR5LcUYq0m0Y3AyEyjvFdFlSMvrd5maJkBLafPTxMGmNJMWivFVnrz9CkC3geHQ51G05yds60Ap8WaObCMnFFH-Jae50pEqDNLVx0jptmMYkhNQQMG6eLxcO7CzoN12irqm7HI/s640/Article+Header.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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Guildball's a weird game when it comes to the genre it fits in. Technically, it's a tabletop miniatures game. Most of the players (as of right now, but the demographic is changing) come from a tabletop wargaming background like Warmachine or 40k so it kind of fits into that category at the moment. It's certainly the experience that the high-level players are coming from in most cases. For example, Jordan Nach, a Guildball Podcaster for awhile, was a very skilled Warmachine player before Guildball. They show up to Guildball with a decent concept of listbuilding and understanding the meta, be it the local meta or the game meta, so these concepts aren't new to them. For newer players though, this is kind of a big step. People seem to think it's like Chess. You show up with what amounts to equally good players and may the best man win. That's really not the case. You might show up with the standard 20 Chess pieces, but I'm showing up with 12 pieces. King, 3 queens, 4 rooks and 4 knights. Good luck. That's a drastic example, but that's also why Chess isn't played that way. So lets look at how Guildball is played in a tournament setting.<br />
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Before you waste too much time on this article, if you've been to a few tournaments before, this article is information you probably already know. I don't have any deep insight into why you bring only Fillet and not Ox and what models to take with her. This is geared towards the new players who have the first six, and they A) don't know why you would need more than that and B) don't know the questions to ask when they decide to begin bringing more than six. I'm in a relatively new meta (Though I come from a far more experienced meta), and many players at the last tournament brought their starting 6. That didn't mean I won the game right off the bat, but it felt like playing Rock, Paper, Scissors and I know all they had was Scissors.<br />
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So when people talk about building a list, or a lineup, they're used to building armies. Guildball is unique in that there is no point value, just a number of players. It's a little overwhelming at first to look at the Organized Play document (OP from hereon out) and try to select 10 models to take into the vast variety of Guilds that is steadily growing for you to play against. In 40k, you took one army. Either you played a balanced list that could handle everything, or you played a hard skew that was extremely good at one thing. This boiled down to either answering the question your opponent brought, or asking the question. E.G., can your gunline handle a billion Tyranids? Or are you the guy that brought the Tyranids?<br />
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Warmachine attempted to answer this in it's effort to be the US Wargaming Tournament game of choice, which in many ways it was for a long time. Warmachine let you build two lists, and at each game you would look at your opponent's list and choose who you wanted to take. This allowed you to tech armies into specific problems a little more. Army A was good into gunlines, while Army B was good into melee. Or maybe Army A wasn't amazing into anything, but it was extremely difficult to kill while Army B was good into everything that could kill A. Warmachine's tournament list building was half the battle and a lot of that game was won long before the models ever hit the table.<br />
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Enter Guildball. Guildball doesn't bring the two list format technically. Instead, you build the list at the table, but the choices made in the ten you bring limit you enough that you need to know your playstyle before you get there, and what your team needs to win.<br />
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So we need to talk about the OP document, since the OP document is what dictates what we can and can't take, and what happens to set that up. This document is available right <a href="http://steamforged.com/organised-play/" target="_blank">Here</a>. The "Regional Cup" document is the one you want. Beginning on Page 4, where it talks about the "Pre-Season Friendly". This is most tournaments you'll attend.<br />
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On page 5, it talks about creating a roster. Currently, the standard list is 10 models. This can be 2 Captains, 2 mascots, 6 players. It can be 1 Captain, 1 Mascot and 8 Players. It can really be any variety. There's only one guild that has more than 2 Captains, so no, Union players, you can't take all 3. For non-union players, you can only take one Union guy per roster. You'll pick your ten, take them to the tournament.<br />
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Once you get there, you'll line up against your opponent, and you'll get his sheet. You'll see what Guild he's playing and what 6-10 models he brought. Then the game begins to get set up. Look at the OP document, and you'll go to page 8 for the exact process. The important steps are C, where Guild Plots happen, then D, where you select Captains and Mascots simultaneously, followed by E where the initiative roll happens. This is a change from earlier seasons where you knew who went first before you picked Captains, and it affects good lineups. Farmers, for example, really like Grange for kicking teams, but if you don't know if you're getting the ball or not, Thresher is typically a better all rounder. Once we know who's going first and second, we draft players one at a time taking turns and the game begins.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">All these great models, and you can only take 10 of them.</td></tr>
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<br /> When you build a 10 man team for a tournament, keep this draft in mind. There's a lot of questions to ask yourself, and let's roll through some of these. The goal here is to understand our gameplan, our flex pieces, and what conditions change what. It's important to note that your ability to read your own list and knowing it well enough to modify it correctly into an opponent's list is pretty much useless if you don't know what their models do. And please, do not wait until the game starts to start reading about the Alchemists. If that's the first time you've browsed through their cards, you've probably already lost. You don't need to memorize them, and you're still going to get caught by a few things but it's definitely in your favor to read through all the cards periodically and try to understand the Guilds out there. Real familiarization won't happen till someone in your meta is playing them regularly, but at least a passing understanding of the gotchas in the Guild are worth knowing. There's a great series on Youtube called "Guild Ball Gotchas" by a great guy named Vince. He goes through these and tries to give you the heads up on them. So, read the other cards before the tournament. Preferably before you do this article, but maybe do this, then go read the cards. Either way, read the cards. So, on to your own list.<br />
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<strong>1. The Captain(S) and their pets </strong>How many Captains/Mascots are you bringing? There are certainly weaker captains in Guildball that don't even make the 10. Pre-errata Hammer is a good example, and Scalpel also struggles to ever be a better option than Obulus in the Morticians. Then you have Guilds like the Alchemists where both Captains are movement oriented kicking geniuses, it's just a matter of what playstyle you want to play. What are you comfortable with? Then there's a few like the Fish who's captains do very different things and answer a lot of questions. Brewers can kind of do the same thing, Tapper supports a fighting team and Esters is better in a kicking team. Also, many Mascots are designed for a specific Captain, like Marbles and Honor. If you're bringing two captains, you may be bringing two mascots as well. So:<br />
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<strong> A. What playstyle and Captain are you more comfortable with and confident are you that they can be enough in any situation?</strong><br />
<strong><br /></strong>
<strong> B. Do both Mascots offer enough to be taken, or is one a good enough all-rounder for both Captains, or just any situation in general?</strong><br />
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So lets build a lineup. I'll use a recent example of mine (not necessarily a great example but I liked it). I took a Union team to a tournament recently and had a lot of fun with them.<br />
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<strong> In answer to A</strong>, I will take two Captains. I'll take Brisket3 and Rage2. Blackheart is considered a better captain than Brisket3, but her playstyle fits me and I enjoy playing her, so I'm more comfortable and confident in playing her. As far as any situation though, I think there's some teams she'd really struggle into and that's why I brought Rage2, another playstyle I enjoy. I prefer Captains with a strong playstyle and the various tools to make that playstyle work, over a jack-of-all trades like Blackheart who has a strong toolbox, but isn't simply amazing at one thing.<br />
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My plan with these Captains is to put Brisket3 into fighting teams, specifically teams with lots of 1'' melee that can't button her down. So, Butchers for sure, I'd play her into Brewers too, maybe Masons (Definitely Hammer Masons), Hunters and probably Blacksmiths a little. Hunters, she's uniquely good at because of toolbox of dodges. Her legendary straight up ignores Pinned from Theron, and even into Skatha I think Brisket3 simply outkicks her.<br />
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Rage goes into the kicking teams, so Alchemists, Fishermen, Honor Masons, etc. I think the two Captains cover a wide enough variety of options to give me a fighting chance in any game.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The ends of my list's spectrum.</td></tr>
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<strong>In answer to B, </strong>I only took Strongbox. I really like Coin with Brisket3, but I needed another slot for players and Strongbox is more important to Rage2 than Coin is to Brisket3, plus he brings Confidence and an extra TAC to the Brisket3 game. He's a little slow, and I really miss the extra inf from Coin, but confidence is pretty decent, and it's actually very solid for helping a couple of players buff their kicking stats enough to be reliable for Brisket3.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">It was at this moment, writing this article, that I remembered I still haven't finished painting Strongbox.</td></tr>
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<b> 2. Are we asking a question, or answering a question?</b><br />
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<b> </b>We talked about this briefly earlier, about Warmachine lists that posed very difficult questions rather than being able to answer them. Guildball has less of these, but a few. The quick examples are things like a tanky Corsair list, where he brings Kracken, Jac, Sakana, and Tentacles, and then whatever else you feel like you want. This presents a very survivable list that can still control and score the ball very well. You have be careful when fighting it because A) You will struggle to kill any one model before they suck you in and kill you instead, B) If you try not to engage, either Kracken or Corsair will drag you in, and C) It's a somewhat simple list to run compared to the puzzle you have to unlock when answering it, causing you to clock out.<br />
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Another example is Corsair's brother Captain, Shark. Shark and Siren can take the ball from nearly anyone, anywhere and score it. They can't fight, they can't tank, but can you stop them from scoring? They do one thing really, really well and can you stop it?<br />
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Rage2, Hammer and Ox1 are the same way, on the other side of the coin. They kill all day and that's all they want. Can you control them enough to not lose players faster than you can score?<br />
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So are you playing to answer problems, or be the problems? The Guild you are playing will partly answer this for you. Engineers, for example, don't answer a lot of problems, they live to score and that's all they really want to do. Ballista will attempt to control the board a little while they score, but that's about it. Guilds like the Farmers or Brewers, however, don't have very strict gameplans. They can play the ball or fight, but they need to be able to adapt into it and answer the question. If they're going into Shark, they need to hide the ball and fight his team. If they're going into Ox1, they need to control Ox1 and play the ball. So what Guild are you playing, and how are you playing them?<br />
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<b>My Answer: </b>I'm playing Union, the jack of all trades. I can answer questions pretty well, and pose them too if I'd like. I'm playing to somewhat answer questions, but I want to answer them with questions of my own. Into killing teams, I'm going to play the ball, and I'll use Brisket3 to do it. Brisket3 has many abilities to recover the ball, control it and score it. My question is can you button her down? Players with 1'' melee really, really struggle to catch her and when you finally do, I use her legendary to pull her out and the chase is on again.<br />
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Rage2, on the other hand, is an unstoppable melee monster, and he has the tools to prevent him from being buttoned down as well. Can you stop that? If you're playing the ball, I'll bring Rage2 and attempt to kill everything. I feel like between my two contrasting Captains, I can answer most questions, and do it well enough to cause problems.<br />
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<b> 3. With that question answered, we can break it down into further problems and begin assigning players to our roster. </b><br />
<b><br /></b>
<b> Who are the immediate choices?</b><br />
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Now we start looking at the gameplan. We have a mascot(s) and Captain(s) picked, and we're left with our player slots, including one Union. In my case, I have 2 Captains and 1 Mascot and I'm all Union so I don't care about that last bit.<br />
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So now, let's identify our staples. The basics of who we want. The guy we never leave home without. Alchemists usually talk about Vitriol here. Brewers won't show up without Spigot1 and Friday. These are the easy options. You can break it down on what slots they fill, and you should so you know what you have left. There's a few categories.<br />
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<b>A) Ball players </b><br />
<b>B) Brawlers</b><br />
<b>C) Support</b><br />
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Some of this overlaps but that's the gist of it. Spigot1, for example, is a staple in the Brewers because he does all 3. He has Tooled Up and Football Legend, he's a hell of a fighter with Floored, and he's a decent kicker with Ball's Gone and Football Legend again. With moderate scores in all three categories, we can't leave home without him. He answers a lot of questions.<br />
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<b>My Answer: </b>Each Captain in Union has a few players they absolutely need. Players that both Captains need are the obvious choice. Mist and Harry make most of my lists. Mist is an amazing standalone striker with 2'' melee. Mist and Brisket3 for sure go hand in hand because she triggers his 2'' dodge, and he's a really good "I'm Open" target for her. She won't leave without him. Harry is a toolbox that brings some control to the game, and 2'' melee as well. Furthermore, Rage2 likes him for his pushes that Rage2 can use through "Red Fury" and this can free up Rage2 or set him up. Also, Harry and Brisket3 get along great because of his aura that allows players to dodge for free, which Brisket3 and Mist both particularly enjoy. I generally find that I don't do a lot with Harry in the game, he doesn't kill, he doesn't win games, but he's an important piece that does a few key things. This last Errata to Harry really put him in a nicely balanced place I think to where he doesn't quite make every list (Benediction, we'll talk about him in a minute) but he's in the 10 for sure.<br />
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There's the basic 2 for both Captains. I'm at 5 on my roster now. Now lets pick for individual Captains.<br />
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Gutter is a Rage2 requirement, in my opinion. She's not great on her own these days (which is fine, she's nicely balanced compared to Season 1 and 2) but "Red Fury" makes her very solid. She's an ok striker if I need her to be but she's a bit slow for it. However, the 2'' melee gives her some reach, and she's very much a damage dealer if I can line her up with Rage2. He really needs her to finish players off.<br />
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Benediction is also a requirement these days for me I think. Benediction kind of pushes Harry out of the way a bit because he brings the same pushes that Harry has, and are why I brought him in a Rage2 list. Benediction can't deal much damage, but every fighting list needs a way to hide the ball. This is a specific role that Benediction fills very well while also being able to push models around for Rage2. He gives me that time I need to kill models without getting behind in score. Also, his ability to extend character plays gives Rage2 a lot more freedom with "Red Fury". A lot more.<br />
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On Brisket3, I already mentioned Harry and Mist. Those are the requirements for her. I've played her with Benediction but he's a bit of a waste with Harry. So now I'm at 4 required players, and my 2 Captains, 1 mascot. I have 7 out of 10 slots filled.<br />
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This maths out to 2 Brawlers (Rage2 and Gutter), Ball players (Mist and Brisket3) and 3 Support (Harry, Benny and Strongbox). Again, there's some overlap (Gutter can kick, Harry and Benny can brawl a little if the situation is right)<br />
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So 3 slots left.<br />
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<b>4. What questions are left unanswered?</b><br />
<b><br /></b>
<b> </b>If you've gotten through this far, you should have 2-4 slots left. This is where you shore up your weaknesses in the gameplan. Look at what lists you expect to drop and what they need. You have your ball players and your brawlers, but do you want more of the same, or options? Can your ball playing list survive into a brawler and can your brawler kill faster than a ball kicking list?<br />
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There's specific roles to look at too. You probably already have them answered, but lets recap.<br />
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<b>Who is kicking off in your lists? Your Captain, to get them up the board, or another player that can capitalize on it? </b>Vitriol and Friday both come to mind as viable kickers that can put pressure on the ball since both can recover it and score. <b>My answer: </b>I have Mist, who can do it in both lists. Rage2 and Brisket3 both are good at it, but Mist is much faster, and I find that Rage2 is still slow enough that even kicking off may not get him up far enough to get him into the enemy.<br />
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<b>Who will recover the ball? </b>Again, Mist. Maybe Brisket3. And by recover, knockdown isn't a bad option all the time either. Vitriol comes to mind again. Siren is a classic option.<br />
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<b>Who will hold the ball? </b>I have Benediction, as I mentioned. For you, this can be a high-def model, a fast model, or a model with good defensive tech like Unpredictable Movement. Brewers, for example, can try to hide the ball on Mash who has 2'' melee and UM, or the cat, who is just stupid fast. I used to bring Mash specifically for this purpose.<br />
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<b>Who will fight if I need them to? </b>In my Rage2 list, it's Rage2 and Gutter. In my Brisket3 list... do I want a fighter? If I feel like there's a soft target (Flint hates Brisket3), I may bring Rage1 with Tooled Up to help out Brisket's Momentous 2 on Column 3. Harry also can brawl a little but eh.<br />
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<b>Who is my support, and do they do what I need them to? </b>What do you need? Healing? Speed? Rage2 is slow, so speed is good. Brisket3 has "I'm Open" so she likes good kick stats, and Harry's Aura is very key for her. Are you Brewers? Do you need Spigot1's Tooled Up? (Yes, yes you do.). Are you Farmers and do you have condition removal? Will you need it? Both Masons and Farmers have models with Counter Charge, and KD sucks. If you have a way to clear it, that may be key. It's a question of how bad your day gets if X tool in your list can't work. That's the matrix to justify your support.<br />
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<b>Where is your momentum coming from? </b>Some teams don't have to ask this question. Masons and Brewers both farm momentum on the low end of the playbook like it's growing on trees. Other players need to think about it. Hunters, for example, can collect it at range but it's only pennies on the dollar. I think Jaecar, for many reasons but this one specifically, is absolutely required in the 10 man roster, if not a 6 man list too. Even if he doesn't kill a model, he's good for 4-5 momentum every turn that he's fully loaded. You may not go first, but you absolutely need that Momentum. Decitmate is a popular option in the teams that can take her for the same reason. She's basically guaranteed 1 Momentum per INF that you put on her.<br />
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Actually, I mentioned Masons a little as not worrying about it, but it's actually an issue if they want to kill in a team. An Honor team doesn't mind so much but a Hammer team will be starved on Momentum because if his team is killing models, they're on the high end of their playbook and not getting momentum. I know a lot of players used to bring Decimate to keep the momentum game up. Now that they're down to one Union option, Mist kind of takes over but it depends.<br />
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<b>Last, but not least, do you have enough INF? </b>This one is usually what I didn't think about until I have an 11 INF list and 5 models that want 4-6 each (Hello, Hunters). A 6 man list full of very, very capable models is worse than a 6 man list with 3-4 very, very capable models, and 2-3 models that don't actually want INF that much. The Farmers would love nothing more than to bring 6 Reapers, but they get maybe 8 INF out of it. You have to bring Planters. Millstone is happy with just 1 or 2 a turn, but she contributes 3. Coin is a great mascot because he doesn't want any, and can give out 2. Another great thing about Benediction is that he gives 2, and maybe only wants 1 if that. Think about your gameplan again, and what's your allocation going to look like? It's worth having a model or two that can do a good thing for the team for free. Minx in the Union is a great example. She donates 2 INF every turn, but can charge for free. She's not an amazing player, she doesn't win games, but those 2 INF help everyone else do what needs to be done and she can still get you a little momentum.<br />
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This is also the biggest argument in favor of Spigot2. Spigot2 can score from a mile away on 1 INF. If he's not in range, but has the ball, he can still hide it pretty well as fast as he is, and he's donating 2INF to the INF starved Brewers every turn. Think about your gameplan and where the INF is going every turn and where it's coming from.<br />
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<b>My final 3 picks</b><br />
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<b> </b>Rage2 has Strongbox, Benediction and Gutter. Mist is already in my roster, and I like to bring him sometimes for some additional ball pressure. Another option is Decimate. She can deal a lot of damage in a Rage2 list and is guaranteed Momentum. Plus, Thousand Cuts is always good and so is Second Wind to get Rage2 up a little further. Decimate is in my Roster.<br />
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I mentioned Minx earlier. Minx has actually made my Rage2 list more often because she donates 2 INF and doesn't need anything to do work. If all she does is charge in and snare something momentously, I'm ahead. Rage2 loves the free 2 INF. Minx is also in my roster.<br />
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The last one is tough. Hemlock is a little bit of a consideration because of Blind and her condition removal. If you find that your Brisket3 list is getting wrecked by melee lists, think about Hemlock for Blind. However, I went with Rage1 for Tooled up and his Furious charge. Generally, I find that good players tie him up, but this works in my favor since they're busy tieing him up and not Brisket3 or Mist. And if he is tied up, he tools up Brisket and she kills someone.<br />
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<b>5. The Lineup</b><br />
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<b> </b>You've got the sheet now. Your tournament tray is on the table. Your opponent shakes your hand, introduces himself. He puts his guild down, hands you his sheet and looks at yours. This is where the game begins to get played. You've built your list, now you need to read his and understand it.<br />
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At a base level, I have two lists.<br />
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Rage2, Strongbox, Gutter, Benediction, Minx and Mist. I'll sub Mist for Decimate if I feel like I really just want to hide the ball and not score at all. I'll keep Mist if I need something to engage countercharge or furious models (Brick or Seenah). Rage2 will go into ball teams, or team that I can outfight. Fish, Engineers, Farmers (maybe), and I haven't decided on Blacksmiths. I'm pretty comfortable with him into Masons and Brewers as well. He wrecks Hunters too but Pinned is a bit more difficult work with so I'll probably do Brisket3.<br />
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Brisket3, Strongbox, Mist, Harry, Decimate and Rage. Decimate subs with Gutter if I feel that the 2'' melee will be important (Obulus Morticians, Farmers, Seenah or Brick, etc). Rage can sub out if I want both Decimate and Gutter for kicking all day. I may do this into Hammer and Butchers, where I really don't want to fight at all. Brisket3 goes into the definitely fighting team. Butchers, maybe Blackmiths, and I feel ok into Corsair fish with her but not amazing. I also really like her into Hunters since her dodges negate Theron's Pinned and she can outkick him all day long. Even if Skatha comes into the game, Brisket3 is better and Skatha will struggle to keep the ball.<br />
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If you look at the individuals in the list, they answer smaller problems.<br />
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Rage2 kills better than most things. He can dodge himself or others into and out of situations, and he has "Red Fury" that can enable other players to trigger out of activation character plays and pushes. Benediction being crowded out? Red Fury, attack, push that model away. All kinds of stuff.<br />
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Brisket3 brings dodges and unpredictable movement. She's very hard to pin down for 1'' melee models, and her legendary makes it difficult to finish her or Mist since usually I'm saving him. She also has "I'm Open" which means the ball is never dead on a player.<br />
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Strongbox is good with Sic 'em, has Confidence, and can do a good thing for the team for free.<br />
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Mist kicks, retrieves, has 2'' melee and is wicked fast.<br />
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Harry has pushes, enables ball dodges and brings both Goad and Molotov for easy board control and neutering major threats.<br />
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Gutter and Decimate both farm Momentum like crazy, can ignore armor, damage players and kick the ball. They both also answer an armor problem with Anatomical Precision.<br />
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Minx donates INF and can do her job without any in return.<br />
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Benediction kills the ball, brings those all important pushes, and enables "Red Fury" or "I'm Open" that much more.<br />
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Rage1 brings some more kill to the team, a damage buff, and presents a problem the other team has to deal with. He's a distraction that doesn't take away from the INF pool.<br />
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My opponent is playing say... Brewers. I know Brewers. He's got Esters and Tapper. Tapper is more likely because he's got 2'' melee into both of my Captains. His team can kick some but it's probably better at fighting. Or he may take Esters and try to take Rage2's charge on the chin with gluttonous mass. Let's say he's new at the game and take Esters and the cat. I picked Rage2 and Strongbox because I was more concerned with Tapper since he can definitely kill Brisket3. I think he's building an all around team, and probably more of a kicking one since Esters doesn't brawl quite as much. As he picks players, I'll analyze and answer. Most of the time, I'll build the list I was planning on but I can account for a few surprises.<br />
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He wins the rolloff, so he'll pick first. He has the cat, so you can expect Friday to be one of the players. He picks Spigot1 for starters. Spigot1 is in every list, so this tells me nothing. Supports the kicking theory, but also he fights. So yeah. In other news, Hemlock's ability to stand people up hurts Spigot's Floored ability, so she'd be a consideration if I'd brought her.<br />
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I didn't, so I'm going to pick Benediction. Let him know he made a mistake because good luck getting the ball off of that guy. Spigot1 can maybe. Maybe. It's more important to get "Braced" up though against Spigot1.<br />
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He picks Stave. This is a horrible decision because Stave sucks, but the barrel will be good into a lot of things on my list.<br />
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I take Mist. Stave basically guarantees a goal since Mist will bounce off of him like a trampoline, get 2 momentum on the charge and score.<br />
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He picks Hooper. A standard, brawly pick. Someone's gotta do some fighting.<br />
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I'll take Gutter. I was going to anyways, but 2'' melee since Hooper is coming is required.<br />
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He takes Friday. Surprise. Going for a few goals it looks like. Probably a 2-2 game, including a goal on the first turn. Let Esters take Rage2 on with Gluttonous Mass, and Hooper to support her. Spigot1 will get a take out or two if things go well. Friday will focus on scoring.<br />
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I'm actually going to take Harry. Harry and Benediction together is kind of weird, it's a lot of pushes which doesn't actually kill anything, but I really, really need low cost ranged plays that I can pop Ester's gluttonous mass with before Rage2 kills her. I also don't mind that many pushes because I can break up his scrum a bit. As far as the ball goes, Benediction can hang onto it halfway decent and when he's not, Mist will score with it. I'm up for a 1-4 or 2-2 game. Mist will kickoff, possibly recover because I have Benediction in there for that 2'' dodge, and Rage2 can dodge him as well. If he recovers, I can score (Thanks Stave). Killing Friday will be a goal since that'll hurt the goal threat, and killing Esters removes the support quite a bit and she takes a bit to get back on the board. That's the gameplan and I have answers for the issues this list brings. I will probably have to take a barrel lob on the chin but I have enough options that I don't think that will bother me.<br />
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That's my Union lineup. If I was personally playing, say... Hunters, I'd take:<br />
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Theron, Skatha, Fahad, Seenah, Jaecar, Hearne, Zarola, Ulfr, Chaska, Minx.<br />
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Theron brings control, and can fight a bit. He's going for mostly takeouts and maybe one goal. Pin targets, control the board and snare things for Fahad and Seenah.<br />
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Skatha can play ball into the fighting teams. She'll be absolutely destroyed by any teams that can play the ball at all, but into Butchers or even Brewers, she's possibly better.<br />
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Fahad because he donates badly needed INF, and does things for free. He also hides a ball pretty well at DEF5 plus Nimble.<br />
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Seenah's a beast. He annihilates players. I'll drop him into ball teams other than Fish who will bounce off of him. He's a threat they have to be concerned about but you have to know how to play him.<br />
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Jaecar builds badly needed Momentum, and can murder people. He's hard to button down and his trap is some nice control. He'd be in both lists for me.<br />
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Hearne1 has come a long ways. He's got good tools including singled out, and also brings some momentum and 2'' melee. He's a decent striker as well and has decent movement shenanigans. His kicker is his heroic that also helps with the INF game, which he needs to since he only brings 1 INF to the party. I'll bring him to help spread out that Blessing of the Sun Father, which is key if I want to play Chaska. I'll bring Hearne1 with probably both, but Skatha for sure.<br />
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Zarola is specifically anti Obulus or Siren tech. You displace my player, I fix the problem.<br />
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Ulfr is the designated Striker. He's cute, not bad, but only decent on Skatha.<br />
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Chaska is control. If they're going to spread out Chaska goes to the edges and shoots them off the board. If they're trying to scrum, Chaska forces them back. Hopefully he does it for free with Blessing of the Sun Father, but at most, I'll give him 2 INF maybe.<br />
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Minx is my 2 INF model. She does some work for free and provides INF and Snared to the party. Any Hunter list I build can have 3 models that charge for free. That's fun.<br />
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My Theron list would be Theron, Fahad, Jaecar, Seenah or Hearne1, Minx or Hearne1 and probably Chaska or Zarola. Hide the ball on Fahad, kill and control models until I feel like Hearne1 or Jaecar can score. Seenah comes out if they have enough models with 2'' melee to stop Furious on him (Farmers. No Seenah for Farmers ever).<br />
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Skatha would take Fahad, Jaecar, Ulfr, Hearne1, and then flex. Minx maybe. Ulfr, Skatha and Hearne1 focus on scoring. Jaecar can kill some stuff maybe, Minx can help. Chaska's an option too with his decent kick stat but you won't have enough INF to do much with him.<br />
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I'm not an amazing Hunters player, many aren't. But that's my off the top of my head considerations for a 10 man lineup on them.<br />
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The thing is, put some thought into it before you go. It's ok to play what you want to play, but if you're going to play the 6 man starting Ox team, I'm going to wreck you with a list that has all the answers to your problems and lots of problems you have no answers for. Maybe I won't wreck you, maybe you're really good. It's an uphill climb though. You're talking the basic 6 that everyone knows, and no options. If it was those basic 6 into another basic 6, that's one thing. Basic 6 into my 14 options before Union, and then 10 man roster I can choose from, that's a lot of ways to shut you down.<br />
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But I also understand not knowing where to go from there, especially if you're pretty comfortable with those 6. There's a few exceptions. The Brewers really struggle to not take most of the first box. Tapper, Scum, Friday and Spigot are pretty much in every Brewers list, and Hooper was for a long time. Really, he still is, just not in my lists. The last spot is Stave's, but he's really the only player that's been largely sidelined from the original 6. The Masons are pretty comfortable with their first 6 too. Harmony gets pushed out for Tower, but Honor, Marbles, Brick, Flint and Mallet are still very common. Then you have Guilds like the Butchers, where you rarely see Ox1 or Boar. Or the Fish which actually use most of their models somewhere.<br />
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Before a tournament though, roll through these questions. Have an idea of what your list does. It's one thing to pick a guild you enjoy, and then hope your skill at the game carries you the rest of the way. There's a lot of forethought to be put into it, and understanding your list, and the options you'll utilize in what ways will win you many of your matches before they even get to the table. I'm not a high level player, and my name probably isn't even on the ranking system, so don't take my lineup as the gospel truth, best list ever, or that every consideration or conclusion I've made is the best one. I'm saying look at your models and try to understand the puzzles you'll need to unlock out there.<br />
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I hope this article is of a little use to you as you branch out from the starting 6. Thanks for reading and good luck!<br />
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<br />JediAnakinSolohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05612104007435908015noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2592330986543780083.post-53991883566291130592017-10-22T14:03:00.001-07:002017-10-22T14:03:31.534-07:00The Honest review of the Honest Land Farmers I broke down and bought them. I fell for the pricepoint trap that Steamforged set and I picked them up. Besides, I already had Tater. Excuses. Let's look at these guys.<br />
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Oh hey, the PR image with the professionally painted models.<br />
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So pretty, right? Look, the contents of the box are fantastic. I can't spin this any other way. The box comes with the six models, a cute ball, a goal and a thematic piece of terrain. Then it's got all the cards, and all the tokens you need. The tokens are punched cardboard but that's fine. I'm still going to buy the Muse tokens because I like the quality, and Muse isn't charging nearly enough for those fine tokens. But for a new player, getting into the game or even an existing player coming in, everything you need is right there to dump on the table and go. You don't even need a marker for the cards because there's health dials.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">See? So neat and organized. Health counters too!</td></tr>
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That's kind of the theme to this box. Dump on the table and go. The "The Kick Off" box (next time, lets not add "The" to titles) was very much the same way, with albeit lousier miniatures. I own that box too. My 1 year old plays with Brick and pretends he's playing Dad's game while Dad actually gets to play the game. It's perfect for that, and letting new players try the game out before buying actual, real, miniatures. <br />
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The Honest Land continues that trend with somewhat better miniatures. It's along the same Pre-assembled PVC lines though, and that shows. For starters, the pose and dynamics of the models has taken a drastic dive. No more Minx sprinting through the woods, or Ghast whirling chains about his head. The Farmers are very stoic, very much just standing there. The most exciting it gets is the bear hug pose from Windle. One would think that maybe this is just the requested aesthetic in the memo the sculptor gets with the concept art, except that the Blacksmiths are the same way with the exception of Anvil and now the new apprentice Alloy. This would lead me to believe that this aesthetic is on the memo, but all the way back to the concept artists because, hey, China can't cast the complicated stuff in this cheap material we're switching to.<br />
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Look, here's Tater. The metal guy that came out like a year ago and made my Brewers temporarily playable.<br />
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Not bad. Decent quality, still pretty stoic. He's got weird cheekbones but otherwise I don't mind this sculpt except how dynamic it isn't.<br />
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Then we open the box.<br />
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I can already tell you that they were warped coming out of the box, just sitting in the summer heat during shipping. Hot water already got applied to Harrow's forks and Bushel's hook. That's to be expected but I'd hate to leave these guys in the car for an afternoon at my new home in Northern Arkansas on a wonderful July 100+ degree day. It wouldn't be good. <br />
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These are fine. Cool quality for terrain. I could see packs of terrain doing well. In most cases it's better than the 2D stuff for people that prefer the aesthetic and it's better than a lot of homeade 3d stuff. I'm fine with the terrain and the ball and it's cool. The goal is interesting in the fact that it can be painted up pretty well, and this throws the "Best Goal" category at tournaments into a weird loop. Do you vote for the best goal someone made or the best goal someone painted? The guy who wins the best goal because he painted it the best is also likely to win best painted too. It'll come down to the TO which is fine because that's what TOs are for. </div>
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It's interesting to note the quality on that goal too. Look at the seed bag in the front and the texture on it. That's pretty solid. But then compare to the ground it's on and eh, the detail in the ground is somewhat soft. I'm going to leave my Farmers on their bases because I plan on using a lot of grass anyways so it's not a big deal to me, but if you want to take them off, they pry off ok. </div>
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Nice little pegs to slot them into. Whatever. I glued Wendle back down.</div>
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Alright, so lets get into the models here. I've got Tater and Harrow right here, looking like brothers and learning their stances from dad.</div>
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Look at Harrow's face and hair. That's going to be consistently worse than any standard metal model. The stitches are all over exaggerated, the detail on the feet is super soft and the seam line that runs around the collar of the model will mess with you trying to define what's the shirt and what's the work apron. Overall, the model isn't bad, but the face detail and specifically the hair is rough.</div>
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It feels like there's more detail in the back on this one. The vegetables and all that nonsense. Detail back here is actually improved I think. The bag is probably a separately cast piece they glued on, which begs the question, if they're gluing pieces on anyways, why aren't these models just a little more dynamic?</div>
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Jackstraw is the main culprit in the detail department. This is a model I really want in metal or resin and will pay the money for it. This is a beautiful model, Steamforged. I love the character in this guy, and I'm from Kansas so this dude is right up my alley. Let's be fair, the Farmers in general are probably what I relate to the most, coming from the breadbasket of the USA. I love this model, but it's probably the worst in quality because of the fine detail that's simply soft and missing. Sure, you can paint it in, but that's why we buy miniatures, right? The arms have rough seams which can be fixed, but then you don't know if there's straps on them, or cloth, or if the cloth is part of the headpiece or separate. The back doesn't have straps on it like the front, it looks like the rib cage so where do the straps go? Nobody knows, it just kind of fades away. I love this model, it's easily my favorite in the whole Farmer range, but I really wish I could get it in a different material.</div>
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Now we get to Grange. You'll notice that his fingers are there in the crease of his arm but you have to find them or they just turn into wrinkles in his shirt. His hair is softly detailed like Harrow's, but it's not supposed to be as unkempt so it won't translate as badly as Harrow's does. The cloth wrinkles are soft, all the way across the board with Farmers. You'll have to make sure your paint contrast is higher than normal and your highlights are crisp to really show any detail on these. This isn't Grange's worst problem though. Grange almost definitely is one piece.</div>
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Grange has these saws strapped to his back. Nevermind the fact that nobody can imagine fighting with saws. Look at that flat plastic there though, between the blade and his back. What are you supposed to do with that? A metal model, you'd paint there and glue the saws on. Not here. You're just stuck with that. Good thing it's under the shoulder and kind of hidden, right?</div>
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Ha, no.... Because they did it between the blades too. What is that? Nothing. It's cheap casting is what it is. The detail in the pants, shoulder, straps, all that's not bad and workable. This flat spot right here? What's that supposed to be?</div>
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Here's Bushel. People are cutting off that hook and glueing it back by her hand because it's bending super easy in any heat or pressure. She doesn't have 2'' melee anyways, so it's not a bad idea. The detail here is, again, soft, and you'll paint most of any detail into her hair since there's next to no edges to highlight or work with. Her face is pretty rough too, and good luck with the eyeballs that are actually just depressed sockets. Trying to define her shirt from her overalls is also fun. Blacklining is pretty much required with these models.</div>
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Let's compare, shall we? The dude in grey on the right is from the "Banner Saga" board game based on the PC/phone game of the same name. He's a boardgame miniature, with a thick sword, soft detail in the clothes and everything else. Very much a boardgaming miniature. Jackstraw is better than this guy, which is good. I wouldn't consider the dude on the right paintable.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEghBtcBMAx9XauNClgGDOXYAaXxpCgGyikKzLvOydKZFTGFSFzsDAqVGwIV9ZktrWJjFYsJPUUwsyxBl6YlHwEvs83ngs7oh4w0ly93QCyq6P4JkTbdBppe6KSWxCvr4cDw7vCHkFZuiqs/s1600/20170917_185723.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEghBtcBMAx9XauNClgGDOXYAaXxpCgGyikKzLvOydKZFTGFSFzsDAqVGwIV9ZktrWJjFYsJPUUwsyxBl6YlHwEvs83ngs7oh4w0ly93QCyq6P4JkTbdBppe6KSWxCvr4cDw7vCHkFZuiqs/s640/20170917_185723.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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Wendle, and another Banner Saga miniature. The detail on the grey dude is exremely soft, even moreso than the previous Banner Saga miniature. That's fine, that's to be expected. Wendle has him beat.</div>
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And now we're into Zombiecide: Black Plague. This is one of Cool Mini or Not's leading game series and I love their sculpts. I have not painted them though because of their detail quality, and how easily that plastic bends. Every time we drove to Arkansas with this game, you'd shake the Zombies out and they'd be warped like crazy, which is fine. See, Zombiecide is a boardgame. However, Guild Ball is not. I'm hardpressed to say that the quality here is better than Zombiecide though. The faces are better with the middle guy, the detail is soft and on par with the Farmers, but the sculpt is super dynamic. There's a lot going on. The clothing wrinkles are even more detailed in some places than they are with either Guildball model. </div>
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This largely disappoints me. This is where the divide is for miniature gaming. I feel like SFG got on the "Tabletop Wargaming" boat, and they picked up the fragments of many Warmachine communities, but now they want off this boat and on the Board game one. I understand the appeal, and I can't say that the price point is extremely appealing. As far as players it's bringing into the game, I think it is bringing new players for sure, but not ones from the Miniature gaming side. Traditional wargamers aren't enjoying the new sculpts or their quality. Whether they will move on or not, I don't know yet, and if they do, will the new blood being attracted in be enough to offset it? I don't know. </div>
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So lets try to paint them I guess. I primed mine and then did a zenith highlight.</div>
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I painted the ball real quick, and did faces. Jackstraw, again, I love this sculpt. With both him and the pumpkin for the ball and terrain, you have to add detail because it's not on the miniature. I went a bit brighter with my highlights and dragged lines down the side to add more contrast without getting ridiculous.</div>
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I didn't talk about Peck hardly at all. Also extremely soft details and a resin miniature would have done him well. Quaff, for example, had a lot of detail in his fur and so did Snow. Peck, on the other hand, if you want him to turn out you'll have to paint most edges yourself to get anything from him. Here, I've done all the shirts, and kind of like the pumpkin, really tried to add contrast to the wrinkles.</div>
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Slowly making progress. Added some stripes to the shirts because what kind of Farmer doesn't wear some sort of plaid. You'll also notice I started doing jeans on some of the players, and on Wendle specifically you can see the texure I added on the thigh. Those white lines like the jeans are worn and faded are painted in with a very quick, light sketching movement using airbrush paint. </div>
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Alright. They sat on my desk at this point for a few weeks, and I finally made progress on them, but not in an area where pictures were any good, so we're skipping past the super tedious small things like all the various vegetables. The same things apply that I've been doing. Everything needs blacklined if possible. You'll spend time trying to define things, and you can't use washes because the detail is so soft that it doesn't pick it up very well. Here's the crew, pre terrain.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbvZoXNduYh4pUM7uhImcePRvF12ZXZE00NDEKX0XbEW9iW1ObtSkJS3rUD8HDG08cLHsejzU_UKB0GtqcdYTAyVHkTG8QQeD3cjjjmd7QhZXZttxkSMWfnmloUiLHTeYCfBko8psS1HQ/s1600/20171022_143229.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="1600" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbvZoXNduYh4pUM7uhImcePRvF12ZXZE00NDEKX0XbEW9iW1ObtSkJS3rUD8HDG08cLHsejzU_UKB0GtqcdYTAyVHkTG8QQeD3cjjjmd7QhZXZttxkSMWfnmloUiLHTeYCfBko8psS1HQ/s640/20171022_143229.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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I'm reasonably happy with them given the quality of the models. However, if SFG is going to continue down this road, and may quit painting the models. They're going to have to get better or give us a resin option.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiNNJ_PoGktmdc_ui7KcxqcUN0s3OScWrDfRx1iGKIivUrw0rwwpOahCijrH9ZT8Gi0-aTkPXyZnehpBGCrMdwuop0j0C21Sz9OEuxG-Jj_WILfaqmhmbp7HX8f-1YTEBZYHr7sbSWmgqc/s1600/20171022_151136.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="1600" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiNNJ_PoGktmdc_ui7KcxqcUN0s3OScWrDfRx1iGKIivUrw0rwwpOahCijrH9ZT8Gi0-aTkPXyZnehpBGCrMdwuop0j0C21Sz9OEuxG-Jj_WILfaqmhmbp7HX8f-1YTEBZYHr7sbSWmgqc/s640/20171022_151136.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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For terrain, I use my favorite Army Painter tufts (the only thing I buy from Army Painter, honestly. I'm on the verge of building my own grass tuft machine though.) The tall wheat looking strands are cheap cheap large brushes from Walmart. I cut the ends off and hotglued them in. It looks alright, gives it the full farmer feel. I've got 3 harvest makers made up of just those grass tufts in a previous article. The pumpkin is the ball, but I may trade around and get another pumpkin from someone and use them as the last two harvest markers I need. I don't like the idea of kicking a pumpkin around. Anyone that's ever lived through a halloween knows how well that'd work.</div>
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Anyways, check out my... chicken. My black chicken.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiiPfGCyU427Q1pyQT0mHwx2HAg_NWkDGwxNod-0wWD-uPh9XDQPD7nWsyIVq7eFqkb27meX0d6mIwUdjF_4ed_c4N66YYg1VTWwEQpCVEBp9-Z76McQ4Si6j0IfzJiu607Ng8D0g6yk-Q/s1600/20171022_151156.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="1600" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiiPfGCyU427Q1pyQT0mHwx2HAg_NWkDGwxNod-0wWD-uPh9XDQPD7nWsyIVq7eFqkb27meX0d6mIwUdjF_4ed_c4N66YYg1VTWwEQpCVEBp9-Z76McQ4Si6j0IfzJiu607Ng8D0g6yk-Q/s640/20171022_151156.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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He turned out ok, but again, there's not enough detail to actually paint the detail. You're on your own painting details in. Good luck on the beak. Is it flash? Is there on purpose? No one knows.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhcMqijZ7T51jk_3FpuJ_3D7m1XaPNpr5HBUEI22KAoqnawbTtyKDjTODcZ_PqU6dZdriyQdBIaWAXrGUMHlmNclLlH5d4mmsMzxMYmrE3WwaQUfB0N11urGpc0JAf-6aCODI5syrvH8_o/s1600/20171022_151222.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="1600" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhcMqijZ7T51jk_3FpuJ_3D7m1XaPNpr5HBUEI22KAoqnawbTtyKDjTODcZ_PqU6dZdriyQdBIaWAXrGUMHlmNclLlH5d4mmsMzxMYmrE3WwaQUfB0N11urGpc0JAf-6aCODI5syrvH8_o/s640/20171022_151222.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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Harrow. Kind of a boring model. The best part was the basket in the back and all the cool colors I get to play with back there. I don't even own purple, and I only own green because I did commission for a Cryx player back in the day. </div>
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On the plus side, Harrow was more exciting to paint than the next guy.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhuDTk7fVtmbPeVP5sBrEKAZ0ZxPeFPxj4ITTxQgZxDldEmKz6QoEZly2Ip8nmG9qjZNrGbOOR7DcOyvdMqMiB-lEE1Zh7PwrRh-Aj8isSaTz8xiBXgHPYuQBi_CYkM3QvfM-6lojxp14M/s1600/20171022_151240.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="1600" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhuDTk7fVtmbPeVP5sBrEKAZ0ZxPeFPxj4ITTxQgZxDldEmKz6QoEZly2Ip8nmG9qjZNrGbOOR7DcOyvdMqMiB-lEE1Zh7PwrRh-Aj8isSaTz8xiBXgHPYuQBi_CYkM3QvfM-6lojxp14M/s640/20171022_151240.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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The tools on that apron were horrible to paint. No hard edges. You're just fumbling in there with a brush and hoping for the best. As far as that blocked in mold disaster back there around the blades, I just faded it in brown. Idk what else to do with it.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj32Ww7uzstMVTY0YCWV-siUgH06dvFp49ONz2N9_46kxSrSP8VEvUn7ymFX8DEvFA59stf79BFYPHpOxLSiKNTHxoaxXTHWc8kpcREcmqAnGZyaM0Ge4MlNGwkRiRZio-WiRxbSdzP08k/s1600/20171022_151302.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="1600" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj32Ww7uzstMVTY0YCWV-siUgH06dvFp49ONz2N9_46kxSrSP8VEvUn7ymFX8DEvFA59stf79BFYPHpOxLSiKNTHxoaxXTHWc8kpcREcmqAnGZyaM0Ge4MlNGwkRiRZio-WiRxbSdzP08k/s640/20171022_151302.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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And my favorite guy. Still want this guy in resin. I really don't know what his arms are, or where the straps and cloth covering them begin and end. Feel free to make it up. Heck, quickshade the whole thing. Oh, hey, that won't work. </div>
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Ironically, I used Wendle (Windle, I don't know. Who's naming these kids?!) as my test model on everything because he's never going to see the field seriously. Unfortunately, he turned out very well imo and I'm going to have to play him just because I like the paintjob. Granted, I felt the same way about Stave for about two games so we'll see. Anyways, the detail on Windle is better because he's bigger. His pose is dumb, but otherwise, he's fine. Also, the sculptor will cry on the inside if you paint the thing on his forks as anything but a carrot. Do with that information what you will. I like the sculptor, so I painted a carrot.</div>
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I did not follow the studio's idea of what Bushel is wearing. She's got jeans and stuff in the studio version, but none of that made sense to me so I did the coverall route instead. I mean, what kind of striker wears two to three layers of pants? Not a good one. And definitely not any girls. I mean, we're lucky she's not in daisy dukes. </div>
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Look, a ball. Hooray. Again, there's not enough detail for you to just paint the raised edges like a normal quality model. It's up to you.</div>
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The goal and the terrain. Kinda neat stuff, but not anything I worried about too much. I actually am not a fan of physical goals. They slide on the mat too easy and I bump them a lot. But they look cool. I may use this as terrain rather than a goal. </div>
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So these guys are done. I'm happy with the results, I love the rules, but I have to say that the future of SFG's models doesn't look great.</div>
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I understand SFG's reasoning, I really do, and if that's the reasoning they stick with, I hope it pans out for them. I hope they pick up more new players than they lose from guys that actually want tabletop miniatures and not Cool Mini or Not wannabes. Maybe they can step up the quality using PVC, maybe they'll allow direct order resin versions. I don't think I'll buy Blacksmiths unless I get them for a steal. In fact, my next purchase is likely to be Shadespire. A nice, compact low model count game, but with faaaaar better model quality. We'll see.</div>
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Look, the pricepoint is good. If you don't care about painting, these models are perfect for you and there's no reason not to pick them up. I'm more than happy to point new players to these and the two player box set. By all means, get in the game, and that seems to be SFG's direction. I really like SFG's rule making ability and the game's balance and direction overall. I have high hopes for the future of Guildball, just not the models.</div>
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Enjoy your weekend, and I'll see you on the fields.</div>
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JediAnakinSolohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05612104007435908015noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2592330986543780083.post-59400170323170524392017-04-26T04:48:00.000-07:002017-04-26T04:48:07.379-07:00Guildball Season 3's new guys The new book is out and with it came only a few surprises at this point. The Farmers, and the new Union pair. For the most part, the other releases have been out, and tested, and opinions are already out there. I'm a long ways from being qualified to tell you how good they are, and aren't. I can give you some impressions if you haven't seen them, but consider this more of a news outlet than the actual no-kidding way to play the game. There's some great podcasts out there for that. Strictly the Worst is helmed by two highly competitive players and Pat, who's there for the human connection. Singled Out and Double Dodged are both Australians with good, confusing hearts and are halfway decent at the game, but both really just play second and third fiddle to Trent Denison, the real skill on the continent. Those are the guys you want to tell you how to play the game.<br />
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There's two things I'm not going to cover here. A) The new Farmers. Those guys need an article of their own. B) The new Hunters. Also need an article of their own, but it won't be as exciting as any other article ever.<br /><br /> So, Alchemists. Alchemists got Crucible.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiIgYPJ99BMj7js_v8d2xDHzXWfjtebch2nvj_me8QJOL19YGc-4bdLQccafdyabFKwv-GrcO78avBjB4Xd1AcRh23rpHFvyBmlaWqz09Ct9Bb_t8dlQ_sDgp01mVs_dxYa9f3g1wL5gQQ/s1600/Crucible1.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiIgYPJ99BMj7js_v8d2xDHzXWfjtebch2nvj_me8QJOL19YGc-4bdLQccafdyabFKwv-GrcO78avBjB4Xd1AcRh23rpHFvyBmlaWqz09Ct9Bb_t8dlQ_sDgp01mVs_dxYa9f3g1wL5gQQ/s320/Crucible1.JPG" width="230" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJfiYuFfTfwIr3vEqrJk-LrN4JClLnn431mhxgpqCN5C9yRStWNRyVjAMcBHQFlDo6Q6rN6N7wP7n0M7smy2CxEVDw27GO3bv_1fVhwZ6999Og9G4NVlCy1o78bgWCq5_NttyOVNqntsc/s1600/Crucible2.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJfiYuFfTfwIr3vEqrJk-LrN4JClLnn431mhxgpqCN5C9yRStWNRyVjAMcBHQFlDo6Q6rN6N7wP7n0M7smy2CxEVDw27GO3bv_1fVhwZ6999Og9G4NVlCy1o78bgWCq5_NttyOVNqntsc/s320/Crucible2.JPG" width="230" /></a></div>
She's got all the same condition damage we're used to seeing with the Alchemists, except she can do both burning and poison. The difference is that she wants to do it in melee, and not at range, and she doesn't put down AOEs like Calculus and Mercury want to. That makes her a questionable choice for Smoke, but the real kicker is just figuring out how to play her in melee. <br />
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Brewers got Pintpot.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjFXxKD0GJayK9Y7mbLLncYoUdpTsrLisqdyqXVRmC4T4ARpGK6QGE5HhjA0_gbHCbLBF1rNKFPhdfZLhyolgUFlSxlvxOFEh7SYnGH2dpA6MtMLnlN_P4fmXKS_gLM0GnVHOzqULuBF0Y/s1600/Pintpot1.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjFXxKD0GJayK9Y7mbLLncYoUdpTsrLisqdyqXVRmC4T4ARpGK6QGE5HhjA0_gbHCbLBF1rNKFPhdfZLhyolgUFlSxlvxOFEh7SYnGH2dpA6MtMLnlN_P4fmXKS_gLM0GnVHOzqULuBF0Y/s320/Pintpot1.JPG" width="231" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhoMRYcMUJoS2a2ICuq20FjVB50h9AJXwzOqrMKlFZTahEMcL-X4Xe2ncXAABd1R5hXlRzvt59TGFAGm2vIjFkQKyrH1m8RQEquV9-0VYXeQQUmn_ghy-nnynHLyoqhSn2-BoHJwc8kmnw/s1600/Pintpot2.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhoMRYcMUJoS2a2ICuq20FjVB50h9AJXwzOqrMKlFZTahEMcL-X4Xe2ncXAABd1R5hXlRzvt59TGFAGm2vIjFkQKyrH1m8RQEquV9-0VYXeQQUmn_ghy-nnynHLyoqhSn2-BoHJwc8kmnw/s320/Pintpot2.JPG" width="228" /></a></div>
I've gotten to play Pintpot, and he's fantastic. He fires away into any group he wants to, and he acts like has 5 INF to do it. He likes Tooled Up, he likes Commanding Aura, he likes all those things and he excels with them. Pintpot isn't afraid of a scrum, at all, and is nice to kind of have around to fire into the enemy's group of dudes while the rest of your Brewers try to build their own proper scrum. Pintpot's just a heat seeking missile out there somewhere. It's great if he can get Commanding Aura, or maybe an extra TAC from Quaff. He's good with, without it. 2'' melee on him would be broken, but it's the only thing missing.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh91_2rwt_8OUIgC6YxreiZN-GrkSOMGHvoc8QZduLYxdmBphAKlM6MphrQkAVpEBKfbqFTYMqFRzJfl0NZ-pfJpfUZEX9mXfqMsxa3sko5-xCTiHmXiho2ED8KmJ_76K5UUH02PagdZzI/s1600/Ox1.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh91_2rwt_8OUIgC6YxreiZN-GrkSOMGHvoc8QZduLYxdmBphAKlM6MphrQkAVpEBKfbqFTYMqFRzJfl0NZ-pfJpfUZEX9mXfqMsxa3sko5-xCTiHmXiho2ED8KmJ_76K5UUH02PagdZzI/s320/Ox1.JPG" width="229" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEilUI8P_lOyDf2RlQfNiAh1-Z_Hc33-VvgxBSaUyrfq116Q2uUfNJoL1UVZgacNL2k1fH7MvklEm6FrXdWpegXmSk6b2sX1waVcTORSZBRPWSh8uM8aMx8Sj60Zuq4JJbZEAJgN82kfwmk/s1600/Ox2.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEilUI8P_lOyDf2RlQfNiAh1-Z_Hc33-VvgxBSaUyrfq116Q2uUfNJoL1UVZgacNL2k1fH7MvklEm6FrXdWpegXmSk6b2sX1waVcTORSZBRPWSh8uM8aMx8Sj60Zuq4JJbZEAJgN82kfwmk/s320/Ox2.JPG" width="228" /></a></div>
In comparison, we have Veteran Ox, or Ox2. Ox2 wants to be like Pintpot, he wants to do the same things, but with the 2'' melee we all crave. The problem is that he doesn't have a psuedo 5INF pool like Pintpot can, and in fact, he caps at 3. This is supposed to be covered by the cheaper charge, but if he's already stuck in, it's not a lot of consolation. He also thinks that he can fight the world simultaneously like Pintpot can, but he has to "Get Stuck In" to do it, which probably wastes one of his three precious INF to do, and if he's in the scrum he wants to be in, he's crowded out so it's a good thing "Get Stuck In" is on column 1. He has good damage, good momentum, and great DEF for a 2'' melee guy on a 40mm base, but it's almost like the "Get Stuck In" aspect should be ignored. Just let him kill things normally. I have played against him, but not played him personally, and between playing against him, and the reviews I'm getting from the players that have him, they'd rather have Pintpot. Every time.<br />
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Locus is one of those players that's going to get played no matter what, simply because his sculpt is amazing. Play wise, I haven't seen him yet, or played him. DEF3/2 w/ reanimate and stoic is great, and a 4/6'' kick is always fantastic. His playbook is solid as momentum and pushing goes, but he isn't killing anyone. He has some interesting character plays, but overall seems like a tank that can kick a ball. He's a tougher statline than Colossus but Colossus has more boxes. Overall though, I'd personally rather see this guy than Hoist, but that's about all I have to say about him.<br />
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The Hag, I have seen. She became an auto include in several lists. She's a 2INF farm that can change the state of the game with no INF investment whatsoever. She usually does little more than dodge models around the board, but 2'' extra on already fast Fishermen is nuts. She's got 2'' Melee and fear, so she takes commitment to kill, but once engaged and going, she goes down pretty easy. However, the legendary and the talisman mean that whoever you fear the most is going places, or dodging out of melee with you. She's hell on Brewers when she can casually Legendary and shove them all apart. Very much a player to free up the board for her team, but a stiff wind will take her down. A nice note, Red Fury on Rage2 ignores Fear since the enemy model isn't spending an influence to attack, but rather Rage is. Use Red Fury to pop Fear on her and Ghast and then go to town.<br />
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Granite is another one I haven't seen yet. Our Mason players kind of dropped off into Season 2 when Hammer wasn't everything he was cracked up to be. Granite reinvents them a little bit, carrying the Brick playstyle a little bit further. Brick already gave them this ability to dare you to attack them and pay the consequences with his 2'' melee counter charge, and Granite is no different. She's slower than most mascots but her "Between a Rock..." ability is dangerous and really makes you think twice about going in on a model. On the same token, you can use it to lure her in, but at DEF2/2, is that what you really want? Especially if she's got Tar Pit up. She interesting, but that's about all I have on her since I haven't faced her yet. She's popular with Masons.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgEUAWlfOULge1z-li6z6F_e3q7gyVmLesJw6jdYqUgl1hJ0BQICMCYsxij_M7mN1QyOnHSvu1FBgSK3ChFOLSeS1NwUl08AaAAARI9uQqrz4E_96shKgbK_ml_6D58rJQGDniwuKuwMaA/s1600/Brainpan1.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgEUAWlfOULge1z-li6z6F_e3q7gyVmLesJw6jdYqUgl1hJ0BQICMCYsxij_M7mN1QyOnHSvu1FBgSK3ChFOLSeS1NwUl08AaAAARI9uQqrz4E_96shKgbK_ml_6D58rJQGDniwuKuwMaA/s320/Brainpan1.JPG" width="231" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhkNKam4Paikh98Q5jF3wBYzR7lBMdjhAyX4LAdS3I8PpmyA_MRW1rpJxyg2joWbA4Z9ZZ2KcRKHjrAZTxyC2-q9SM471qkIsqK76OwA8iMhykiIy_CUT8AAQPoz6fm6f7F51yllWdwJYA/s1600/Brainpan2.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhkNKam4Paikh98Q5jF3wBYzR7lBMdjhAyX4LAdS3I8PpmyA_MRW1rpJxyg2joWbA4Z9ZZ2KcRKHjrAZTxyC2-q9SM471qkIsqK76OwA8iMhykiIy_CUT8AAQPoz6fm6f7F51yllWdwJYA/s320/Brainpan2.JPG" width="234" /></a></div>
Brainpan and Memory, the really weird guys here. I've played against these guys exactly once. The hordes of Mortician players evaporated in the wake of the Obulus nerf but they're still out there. Memory is odd in that Memory does not actually do anything. No MOV, no ARM, no INF, and it doesn't generate VP when it dies. It dies to a fart, but that accomplishes<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-3IXOD0KGOxewSiTdCmUhxjcBG2Htcp3_4FSfqekp9RqqTlkKygzrnlPQkxbXalIb7oi6H5dyhX9hajagMZeLODJc8jheI89dPzTTTeA6cpP46e2kVF3RxgJuPNY-B6p3r_UrFCnzLRM/s1600/Brainpan3.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-3IXOD0KGOxewSiTdCmUhxjcBG2Htcp3_4FSfqekp9RqqTlkKygzrnlPQkxbXalIb7oi6H5dyhX9hajagMZeLODJc8jheI89dPzTTTeA6cpP46e2kVF3RxgJuPNY-B6p3r_UrFCnzLRM/s320/Brainpan3.JPG" width="231" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhP-Fq5MH_nIlajYEn4AoVtEvAdlWMFjNIwfA-w17UYJwnoGTX3kL8bccLwTtQrgVOuXPvqYKmwnUVStMA2ejvvtxAF-_lhhA-j87voa9FjohFWG8259OmJmbMh-1M2VpetHtAAzaOz0k4/s1600/Brainpan4.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhP-Fq5MH_nIlajYEn4AoVtEvAdlWMFjNIwfA-w17UYJwnoGTX3kL8bccLwTtQrgVOuXPvqYKmwnUVStMA2ejvvtxAF-_lhhA-j87voa9FjohFWG8259OmJmbMh-1M2VpetHtAAzaOz0k4/s320/Brainpan4.JPG" width="231" /></a></div>
almost nothing for you. He's got a 2'' dodge at the beginning and that's about it. However, he's TAC5 on a 4 long column that tops out at 4 damage and has a 3//4'' kick. So Brainpan runs the Puppet Show (which may also bypass Fear, now that I think about it), which allows Memory to dodge around or Attack, and "Pulling the Strings" lets him kick. This means you can't button Memory down. He'll dodge out consistently, no problem, it's just a matter of how much trouble you can make it be. They're an interesting pair, and it'll be INF intensive to get Memory up the field unless you just 4'' dodge him momentously the whole way. He's a hell of a damage dealer though. Very strange models and I'm not sure what to think of them yet.<br />
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Then there's my new favorite Captain, Brisket3.<br />
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Brisket3, hot on the heels of the Fillet vs. Brisket vote where the Butchers fought hard to show their love for Brisket, who promptly left them for another team. Brisket is an interesting striker, and I've played her several times now. Making me still not an expert. But, she's fun. The weird thing is how much interaction she has with her team. For starters, she's Solthecian, so she gives Mist a free 2'' Shadowlike dodge, which is stupid. If he's in cover like he should be, between that and the dodge, that's a free 4'' move that largely disengages him, and allows him to threaten 14''. Before any boosts like Quicktime from anyone in the Union. Brisket also likes to be near Harry so she can dodge about for free after receiving passes from any of her 3/6'' ot 3/8'' kickers using "I'm Open". I haven't even used Route One yet. So far, my opponents have kept the ball farther than 6'' away. I haven't used Aplomb yet either. I want to, but it just hasn't come up. It's been "I'm Open" and her text on the back of the card. Her Legendary is good for an easy turn one score, or turn two, or to disengage a dieing model or whatever you need. It's a great tool to be abused. She scores reliably, can easily get screamers, and is just great. She struggles to retrieve a really bunkered ball, but as great as she turns Mist on, he can retrieve the ball a lot easier than she can, and kick it to her as well with "I'm Open". She's also got Momentous 2 damage on Column 3 which is at least useable with access to Tooled Up, Shelling Out, Singled Out, etc. There's plenty of things she access to in Union that can maker her do some work. Her inherent strength isn't necessarily herself though, as much as it is that Blackheart or VetRage exist. Brisket3 probably can't carry a team on her own as the only Captain in a 9 man lineup, but when coupled with Rage, she can play ball into killers, and Rage and kill ballers. They cover eachothers weaknesses fairly well.<br />
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The last two players to be mentioned here are Benediction and Grace. These two are extremely new, only coming out with the Book spoilers. There's no models in stores yet, but we've got the rules to at least start proxying.<br />
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Benediction is a tank. He's DEF3 ARM2, so he's going to get hit, but the 2 ARM help. However, his two character plays give him Sturdy to ignore the first KD, and the other gives him another 2 ARM against the next attack. This means that against most models, they're not going to get much more than a column or two against him in an attack, even on the charge, and because he's not KD, and has 2'' melee, he can counter attack back (for free once, with poised) and get a 1'' push minimum, maybe 2'' push. I wish the KD was a little lower, but oh well. Where I think this guy excels is hanging on to a ball. In almost all other regards, Harry the Hat is better. Harry has better TAC, better plays for control (Molotov and Goad), he has better access to pushes and damage, he does more for the team with his hat aura, and he has 2'' melee as well. Where I want to consider Benediction is just to hang onto the ball, little more. 2INF a turn maybe for his two plays, and he hangs out. I hope he works for the Brewers. He'll be a good option for Rage2 I think since Rage wants to kill the ball, and then kill people. With this guy, that gets easier. In most cases though, Harry covers more bases and is the better player.</div>
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Then we have Grace. I'm not sure what to do with her. Healing Light is immediately useful since as of Season 3, 90% of healing abilities went out the door, which is why Hemlock became a bookend, and why Esters lost of a lot of her appeal. Quickfoot is the immediate benefit, and with 2 free INF every turn while still contributing one to the pool, that's probably her best thing. She feels like a striker, but with a 2/8'' KICK, she's just going to break your heart unless you can get within 4'' of the post and spend the extra momentum for the bonus time. The back of her card is largely useless and cute. It's nice that her quickfoot range is essentially 10'' because of Impart Faith, and Purity will see some use but none of it is particularly game changing. A free Quickfoot every turn is the deal here. Give her 2INF and she can throw it out there twice. It's also been mentioned that she just gains INF at the beginning of her turn, so if you give her 3, she comes out with 5 INF. 5 INF would be a lot nicer if her playbook was anything but tackles and dodges and non-momentous damage. Under the right condition, she'll kill people, but that's 5 INF you're converting into just one momentum. Of all the characters allowed to have 5 INF, Grace is not who I would have voted for.<br /><br /> So where does she fit in? I don't know. The thing about both of these players is that they're both Solthecians, so they'll give Mist a 2'' shadowlike dodge. That's worth something at least. Grace gives Mist 4'' extra movement, plus his 2'' extra from being in cover, which he should almost always be. Now Mist, who threats 10'' base (8'' sprint, 2'' melee) goes two 12'' with his cover bonus, and 16'' with quickfoot and shadowlike, both from Grace. In a Brisket3 list where Mist is the primary ball recovery guy, 16'' before dodges is nuts. However, that's really all Grace does, plus her healing which is nice, but everyone's been dealing without it for awhile. It's useful, but in a game with such high opportunity cost, it's expensive. Who do you take out? Gutter? Decimate? Not Mist, not Harry. Probably not Avarisse and Greede. So Gutter or Decimate, but Grace can't really kill people. She can, but it's pretty inefficiently. Grace only makes sense in pure striker games where she makes Mist absolutely ridiculous, or games where it's imperative that whoever is going gets there. Is your meta killing Rage2 and controlling him with AOEs and staying out of his threat range? Grace helps with that. She gives respectable threat to any beater in the Union, and she does it for basically the 1 INF she isn't donating into the pool like your other character would be. But then, that's all she does. She doesn't fight, and she doesn't strike, which in a Brisket3 list who at least wants 3/6'' for "I'm Open", it's something of an issue. She's better than Hemlock, but Hemlock doesn't play, so I don't know what that's worth. I'll buy her eventually, but I'm not going to stand in line for it. It's going to be one of those "I played at the game store, so I should support it with a 10$ purchase of some sort" things. That's why I have Crucible, Venin and Spigot2.<br />
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That's the overview. I'm not a tournament winning player, I just like to talk a lot. Strictly the Worst and Double Dodge both cover them if you want some tried and true experience talking. I think everything here is playable, and I'll probably play some Benediction IF he works for the Brewers since the Fish are raking them over the coals right now. We'll see.<br />
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Feel free to destroy my opinions with rational thought and logic. Hopefully it's an ok, all in one place overview. I may look at the Farmers, probably the Hunters as well (I own Hunters, maybe will own Farmers) and if I'm not absolutely destroyed for this article, I might let my ego type up a few more.JediAnakinSolohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05612104007435908015noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2592330986543780083.post-73430396365437999662017-03-12T14:15:00.001-07:002017-03-12T14:57:20.106-07:00Airbrush basics and how to get going with one<b>News:</b> Before we get started, a quick announcement. I've recently become a contributing blogger at www.midwestwargaming.com, a group based in Iowa City. For an international community, that's pretty local for me, being in Omaha, and I'm happy to join these guys.<br />
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Almost all of my articles will be featured there, and in all honesty, it's quite possible that the redundancy will mean that this particular site no longer gets maintained. I don't know, haven't decided yet. My personal hobby stuff won't go to MWWG, but idk that my personal hobby stuff will warrant a blog of their own. So we'll see.<br />
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For you MWWG followers that are seeing me here for the first time, a little bit about me. I've been wargaming for nine years, and my articles focus on hobby and painting. Batreps are a possibility, but since I'm no longer playing Warmachine, and Guildball doesn't batrep very well, I doubt I'll do many of them. My local Horus Heresy Meta is spinning out of control though, with a well planned Isstvan event in our future, so that will probably be an article of it's own. We'll see.<br />
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As I said before, I'm currently living near Omaha. I've been married to my lovely wife for almost four years, and we introduced our first child, a son, into our home last September. I play Guildball for my competitive game, and 30k Horus Heresy for fun. You may see me at a couple of cons in the area (Tricon in Sioux City or Musecon in Des Moines, or the Bugeater in Omaha), but that's about it. So, on to the article.<br />
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<b>Airbrush basics and how to get going with one</b><br />
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Eventually, someone will tell you that you need one, or they have one, or whatever. Eventually, it will come up, and it's going to click that those models you've seen painted with these beautiful smooth blends aren't done by hand. Usually. They're done with an airbrush. Jolly Roger Studios is a great example of what can be done with an airbrush. <br />
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Then you look at getting one. Just a quick Amazon search, maybe a google article like this one and the guy lists an easy 300$ worth of supplies. Minimum. That's before you buy any air paints, or cleaner, or brush holders or anything. That's a brush, an air supply, maybe a hose and a regulator. At this point, you shelve this idea until either A) You rob a bank successfully or B) You start a new army/game and your wrist literally cramps at the thought of hand painting them all. The Carpal Tunnel seeps into your forearms and begs you to consider an airbrush.<br />
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So we're googling articles again. Let's cover the basics.<br />
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I. Why do I need an airbrush? What can I do with it? This is important because despite seeing what your favorite Golden Demon winner can do with an airbrush, you can't. Not for a long time. So realistically, what is it going to accomplish?<br />
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II. What do I need to start? Basics. The stuff I can convince my wife on.<br />
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III. What do I want after that? The stuff that I can pick up for 5-15$ at a time over the course of when that situation arises.<br />
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IV. Basic troubleshooting because heck yes, we bought an airbrush and I can't believe I wasted my money on this heap of trash. Day 1-4 was really bad for me.<br />
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<b>I. Why do I need an Airbrush?<br /><br /> </b>We can presume that because you're here, you've already largely decided what good it would do you, but lets set forth some realistic expectations. The Airbrush is not the end all, be all of painting. In fact, some armies aren't going to hardly let you break it out at all.<br />
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Airbrushing does a few things extremely well. At this stage, primarily, it's going to basecoat and shade large portions very quickly. On a good day, where the temperature is right and my paints are in good shape, I can knock out 30+ models basecoated in under an hour. Easy. Infantry. Tanks, you're still looking at 5-6 minutes apiece to basecoat and shade.. <br />
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It also does Object Source Lighting very well since it simulates the light with the spray of the brush. It does OSL extremely naturally. All those sweet searchlights on those space marine tanks? Probably an air brush.<br />
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Where you're going to have problems are armies/models with lots of different colors. For example, I airbrushed my Fennblades from the Trollblood faction in Warmachine. They're shirtless, so the torso, arms and some of the legs are all the same color. That's 60, 70% of the model. Airbrush the skin tones. Do an overspray and it's shaded. Done. <br />
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On the same token, the Highwaymen from the same faction, I did not airbrush. I did multiple colors, nobody had the same clothes pattern or anything. Was completely pointless to airbrush it IMO because there was no color that was greater than 10% of the range. <br />
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Warhammer Space Marine armies love airbrushes. I wouldn't do another space marine army without one. They're 90% the same color with few exceptions. Airbrush a space marine and all you've got are some metals, eyes, some edging and the gun. A few minor details and the dude is done. <br />
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In comparison, a Cryx army from Warmachine has blacks, greens and metals. A lot. Pretty evenly distributed. You might pick one and airbrush it but it's not going to be worth the time savings like a Space Marine army would be, or Khador where literally everything is red. This all varies obviously with your color scheme, but if you're looking at doing some fancy schemes that are going to have three and four main colors, the Airbrush isn't going to save you a lot of time.<br />
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It's also not going to do much more than the basecoating. It's good for the OSL later, but that's one of the few details you can do with a brush. After the basecoat, your airbrush probably won't be out much longer. And if you're not going to shade your army, you might as well use the GW rattlecans.<br />
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So, don't expect to never pick up a brush again. You'll do a lot of traditional brush work yet. The Airbrush just sets the base layer and does most of the blending work for you. Large, single/dual color armies are where it wants to be.<br />
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<b>II. What do I need to start?</b><br />
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There's some varied responses on this one. Even after you've come to terms with the up front cost of the brush itself, the real pill to get down is the compressor, which is almost always more than the brush. Let's break this up. We'll talk brush first, then the equipment to run it.<br />
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<b>A. The Brush</b> Your first brush is a tough one. You get what you pay for, but I also feel like you're only saving maybe 30$ if you skimp out on a solid mid-high range brush. My first one was a Neo Iwata. My wife bought it for me on a 40% off coupon and it worked ok for awhile. It was really bad about clogging though, and did not clean well, whatsoever. I got to where I didn't want to pull it out except for the largest jobs that pretty much required it. The jobs like Warmachine Colossals that even if the brush causes problems, the time saved is still a large amount. <br />
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Since the two brushes I've owned and used extensively cover both ends of the spectrum pretty well (without getting into the obvious failures like non-dual action, or some of the aerosol wannabes from companies like Testors that should know better), I'm going to talk about them. <br />
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My wife bought me a Neo for my birthday, first year of marriage. We'd looked around a little bit and we bought the Iwata because it was cheap. That's basically it. Dual action, gravity fed, airbrush. Hobby Lobby had a 40% off daily coupon that knocked it down to extremely affordable so she got me one and it almost ruined airbrushing for me. At first, I was pretty sure it was just me, but as time went on it became clearer that a lot of it was the brush too. On sunny, perfect days with perfect airbrush paint, it would work for awhile. But eventually, the nozzle would clog. The passage behind the threads would build up. Paint would work back up through the brush. Etc. On it's best day, I still disassembled it to clean it, front to back, every ten minutes.<br />
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At some point, since I live in Nebraska, it was clear I needed something a little less finicky. So I got the Badger Xtreme off of Amazon for like 80$ or 90$ bucks, only 20-30$ more than the Iwata is retail, before the 40% coupon. <br />
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The Badger not only does all the basic things the Iwata did, but better. Like someone actually put thought into it. The cap on the end doesn't need to come off to remove the brush, the nut is visible to remove the also visible brush. There is no nosecone to collect paint and build up. There's a nice little last-minute air regulator on the chin of the brush. The trigger sits up higher for more control. And someone actually cleaned a brush and built this brush to be cleaned as well. In the image below, I try to explain more.<br />
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Do you have to buy the Xtreme? Or the newest Paasche? Not at all, but if you're able to look at a brush before you buy it, or a similar model, do so. Find some online reviews where they take it apart. As a new airbrusher, you're going to have to clean your brush often, no matter what. The Iwata cannot be cleaned effectively and every three or four sessions, the brush needs a come-to-jesus conversation where you're bending wire and breaking qtips trying to clean out the brush. The badger A) doesn't need cleaned that often and B) skips the first 3 or 4 steps with a much simpler, easier access design.<br />
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<b>B. The Other Stuff. </b>Bare basics of running the brush is a hose, regulator, tank. You should also consider a cartridge mask, and an airbrush booth because acrylic is toxic for you, the family and the dog. Don't do this in the living room on commercials.<br />
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The hose is 10$. Done. Make sure it's the right brand, but my badger came with an adapter for the Neo hose, so that's cool.<br />
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A regulator can be a normal air regulator from your hardware store. 15$ probably. Get one with a gauge. You should be able to lay eyes on the pressure going through your brush. Depending on where you live (high moisture), you'll want a moisture trap too.<br />
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I really do recommend the cartridge mask and use mine every time. They're about 30$ by the time you buy filters. A dust mask is not the same.<br />
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An airbrush booth is also nice. They can be anywhere from 40-100$. I built mine for like, 12$. I took a 2x3 box, cut out the bottom and set it on edge. I put a furnace filter in the back and a 10$ walmart boxfan behind it. Boom. Works great, but I still use my mask. This just keeps the acrylic localized.<br />
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Now the hard part. The tank. Or compressor. Or both. Right off the bat, do you already have a compressor that you would use for pneumatic guns or anything, or ready access to one? Get 30-40$ air tank from Harbor freight and call it good. <br />
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If you don't already have a compressor, but you can think of many situations that it would be nice to have one, then don't budget for the airbrush compressor, get the real deal. A portable compressor is anywhere from 140-200$. It'll run air tools (ratchets, drills, nail guns), fill tires, just be an all around useful thing to have. Even if it's not something you would have thought of getting seriously before, by the time you look at the price of an airbrush compressor that's made specifically for little brushes, you might as well consider the real deal. Mine's a pancake compressor we bought to run a roofing gun back when Dad was a rental property owner. So let me just plant that bug in your ear. Consider the real deal. <br />
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The cheap way to all of this though is with an airtank. Get that 30-40$ one from Harbor Freight or whatever cheap hardware store you have locally. They're rated for about 110psi. I airbrushed 3 tanks, two walkers and four units, all with about 4 colors each, and it dropped to around half. That's more than enough for most airbrush sessions. Easily. The nice thing about most air tanks is that they have a fill port that's just like your tire's fill port, allowing you to fill the thing at a gas station. For free, in most cases. Before I bought my air compressor, I filled my tank at work or at the gas station. It was the cost of the tank, a regulator and a hose. And on mine, I installed quick-disconnect air fittings at the tank so I could disconnect it from the airbrush assembly and connect it to any air hose if I wanted to fill it that way. My regulator and the airbrush hose are all one piece and can be removed from the air tank at any point, plugged directly onto a compressor, whatever. Even with my own compressor, I still have this air tank because the compressor is loud, and I actually don't want it run whenever it wants.<br />
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So for around 65$ (regulator, hose, tank), you can be good to go. Spend an extra buck on teflon tape to seal the threads and you're golden.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhwmUQmJggC6XQt__zZAuY9rGobnutG-XdhTfVzzJkSWWzGfULW0Pvy70WeGRIe19uQs5hPUDm9D1eQ7NfUIBetGKCVv5mbAkiuR3VSfQdBMgsNzww0mqUbyojQTAte__aJN_1GVKDnyi4/s1600/pACE3-18841905enh-z7.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhwmUQmJggC6XQt__zZAuY9rGobnutG-XdhTfVzzJkSWWzGfULW0Pvy70WeGRIe19uQs5hPUDm9D1eQ7NfUIBetGKCVv5mbAkiuR3VSfQdBMgsNzww0mqUbyojQTAte__aJN_1GVKDnyi4/s400/pACE3-18841905enh-z7.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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This one here is a perfect example. Unscrew the regular airhose with a crimped tire fitting from the valve and replace with a regulator. If you've never hooked anything up like this before, carry the whole assembly into your hardware store and they'll tell you connections you need to hook up your regulator. In most cases, it's 1/4 connections.</div>
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I really, and honestly, dislike airbrush specific compressors. They only benefit is that they're tiny. But they still make noise, still need regulated, and by the time you've spent money on them, you should have just spent the extra money on something you can use on so many other things. Seriously, when your buddy roofs a house, and you go rent a belt-fed nail gun and show up with your compressor, he'll love you.</div>
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<b>III. What do I want after that?</b></div>
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If you haven't already gotten the mask/airbooth, that should be the first thing.<br />
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Next is one of those nice airbrush buckets for cleaning. It's less about having a "cleaner" and more about having someplace that you can set an airbrush for a second without spilling your paint because it turns out, those kinds of places don't exist naturally.</div>
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Airbrush cleaner is also nice but I tend to use water more often than not because if all I'm doing is a color change, I don't want to mix Airbrush cleaner into my paint and then spray it on a model. Airbrush cleaner is good for the last clean at the end of the day.<br />
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Qtips, wire cleaners. Etc. Depends on the brush you need. I have a bunch of cleaning supplies I'll never use because my Badger isn't a poorly designed piece of bantha fodder.<br />
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If you haven't invested in Airbrush Paints yet (The Vallejo line is really good), you should try it. I tried to just water down my paints for a long time and that was one reason I didn't know that a lot of it was my brush and not me, because I really couldn't get the consistency right. Now that I've had some experience, I'd probably be ok, but buying airbrush paint is so much easier.<br />
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<b>IV. Basic Troubleshooting</b><br />
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The brush is going to hurt your feelings at some point. The Xtreme has only bugged me once, but it wasn't a problem with the brush, but rather the paint. The simple operating procedure is to pour your paint in the pot, then pull the trigger back to control your air and push it down to control how much paint you feed. The air passing siphons the paint through the tip and into the airstream (you're not actually blowing the paint, but sucking it). Should be pretty simple. Spend some time playing with the brush, closer and farther to figure out your ideal working distance, and controlling the trigger to manipulate it to what you need. Eventually though, it'll hurt your feelings and you have to fix it.<br />
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So let's look.<br />
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Lots of spatter. Small spatter. Your airbrush pressure is too high and is feeling dragging the paint out with it. Take it down a notch. Lower pressure is generally better. 23-26 psi.<br />
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Lots of spatter. Large spatter. Larger drops than you would think possible. Somewhere, paint is collecting on the outside of your brush. If you scroll back up to that picture, you can see on the left side that the Badger does not have a nose cone while the Iwata does. My Badger doesn't really do this, but the Iwata will build up paint on the inside of that cone and then start blowing the drops off, creating a large spatter. This buildup is caused by your paint being too wet. Also, that nose cone is pretty useless. It's not there to direct your paint, so take it off. The paint being too wet is a problem, so fix that, but that nose cone has zero forgiveness whatsoever.<br />
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Brush is spitting. Or doing nothing. Ram the trigger all the way to the back repeatedly. See if you can get any sudden bursts. Sometimes, you can force through whatever the problem is and continue airbrushing (definitely worth trying if your pot is loaded, otherwise you're wasting that paint to clean the brush). If you can get sudden spurts, keep trying. Look at the end of the chassis, and pull the trigger back to pull the brush out. Clean off that exit where the brush and paint come out. Sometimes paint dries on that exit port, but make sure your brush is pulled back or you'll bend the tip. The Iwata was really bad about this too.<br />
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If you can't get the brush to work it through, dump your paint, clean it out and try again. If you get into the nozzle and find a lot of dried paint up in there, either you let it sit and dry, or it's probably too cold for the brush. Trying to run an airbrush in an area that's less than 50-55F is pretty hopeless. Not only is the metal brush cold to the touch, but that much air flowing past it turns it into a heatsink that cools and dries paint extremely quick. There's a margin of error that can be accounted for if you can keep your paints warm. I surrounded a coffee mug (with coffee in it, obviously) with paints, nestled up against the exterior and that worked ok. You can also thin them above normal and that will help, but usually, you'll still dump pots and clean several times and it's just not worth doing. If you're going to try it, pour small amounts so the loss is minimal when you clean, thin your paints, and keep them warm.<br />
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If it's just spitting and the temperature is fine, then your paint is probably at fault. Either it's too thick (even the airbrush paints need help sometimes), or it's actually got stuff in it. One of my greys got a bunch of dried pigment in it so it had these chunks of paint that constantly got wedged in the brush. It was fine for brush painting with, but for airbrushing, it was really ruining the process. If your paint is good to go, then really look at how clean that brush actually is. Try and see every surface. This is where the Iwata really frustrated me because that area I marked in red would build up, and at this point, it would start clogging my brush. I spent an hour picking at that chunk, trying to get it out. Literally no angle for it. That was my last day using that brush. The nozzle/tip, the threaded or pressed piece that is the final stage for the brush, it likes to get dried paint and sometimes it sneaks past you. I have found the the brush itself is the best at cleaning this thing. Circular and stabbing motions, pushing dried paint out the exit.<br />
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Last but not least, check your tank. You might be empty.<br />
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Airbrushing is a massive timesaver, most of the time. The upfront cost is the biggest downside, and if your army can't make the most of it, then don't worry about it. But those armies that occupy one or two large colors, the airbrush really makes it work. I wouldn't do another 40k, 30k or Warmachine army without one.<br />
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Hopefully this helps with some initial ideas airbrushing and the cost involved. Any questions or comments are appreciated and I'm more than happy to help with advising setups and parts. I just recently helped a good friend of mine build his, and he churned out some pink horrors on his first solo run.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjmrM-qKIeENXnI5E661to3z7EX-xQN_ar0Y7jxHaYwfeeqMkuNK0a8f31KCyrGXy6k2wamLowtkEQjgJK-gTc6QDMpyUT-nXL57ObxuxHbIadHIb-ALcAYpKg9iij1oJzp9gZWKn3FQg4/s1600/Resized952017031195135232.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjmrM-qKIeENXnI5E661to3z7EX-xQN_ar0Y7jxHaYwfeeqMkuNK0a8f31KCyrGXy6k2wamLowtkEQjgJK-gTc6QDMpyUT-nXL57ObxuxHbIadHIb-ALcAYpKg9iij1oJzp9gZWKn3FQg4/s640/Resized952017031195135232.jpg" width="360" /></a></div>
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Took him just a few minutes. The airbrush is awesome for this kind of thing. Again, hope this article helps somewhat, and feel free to throw things in my general direction.</div>
<br />JediAnakinSolohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05612104007435908015noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2592330986543780083.post-31984416633793005402017-03-02T12:21:00.000-08:002017-03-02T12:21:06.447-08:00Painting fine raised details and edges without drybrushing This is a by request tutorial from members of my own meta and in response to me running my mouth online and saying something about it's as easy as brush angle and the amount of paint on the brush. <br />
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Painting raised filigree is a daunting task in many cases. It happens as a last step on a mostly painted model and has every potential of ruining your paintjob. It's very fine detail and unless you know what you're doing, it can make or break the model. Hvarl's red axe was nervewracking for me to put the final white touches on the cracks, but it made that blade.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiLoKR-Hs_KmE2oGc1z9yGuE_pmbOE38IMmgOttoqcrf7Latf9u1SosgpL5S_-0oNv75RxzyNqCMbQUPfhg9J7YOaZc3GR_SW_cX4SQW7P3Y1QpgqeOV-Ob2O6pmpSWbKhczSD8edoa6nY/s1600/Hvarl2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiLoKR-Hs_KmE2oGc1z9yGuE_pmbOE38IMmgOttoqcrf7Latf9u1SosgpL5S_-0oNv75RxzyNqCMbQUPfhg9J7YOaZc3GR_SW_cX4SQW7P3Y1QpgqeOV-Ob2O6pmpSWbKhczSD8edoa6nY/s640/Hvarl2.jpg" width="480" /></a></div>
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So lets begin. I have a mostly painted Custodes dude from the Burning of Prospero box that has lots of really pretty raised filigree that I'm going to tackle for this walkthrough.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhMJ3chCuYMSKyN8hbrWh-G6nfDDxKKRqPjwYfnosbYwnkVTojDzDa4Fl7JHjlO7W9MSZ-dBUpwgIunVEPa8rinNbux0yxLRLjUCqXk9QRjvrsmmUOsZimbtjW97sVKaxAnDZ2oyXC0EqY/s1600/20170301_171014.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhMJ3chCuYMSKyN8hbrWh-G6nfDDxKKRqPjwYfnosbYwnkVTojDzDa4Fl7JHjlO7W9MSZ-dBUpwgIunVEPa8rinNbux0yxLRLjUCqXk9QRjvrsmmUOsZimbtjW97sVKaxAnDZ2oyXC0EqY/s640/20170301_171014.jpg" width="480" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgL817YhVeNISSHZbAkzGf8Z1OmLrRPPcWpjC4za0o2NaFPqNoMoDvlYNuLw4HNE-C2TkeU8YuUgcjrS91G5lsU2WsZDv6QDmQPPFOKMqGuo2UrAyesBEj0Wz67Ir0La9UjaKgJxWqr9-0/s1600/20170301_171022.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgL817YhVeNISSHZbAkzGf8Z1OmLrRPPcWpjC4za0o2NaFPqNoMoDvlYNuLw4HNE-C2TkeU8YuUgcjrS91G5lsU2WsZDv6QDmQPPFOKMqGuo2UrAyesBEj0Wz67Ir0La9UjaKgJxWqr9-0/s640/20170301_171022.jpg" width="480" /></a></div>
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I'm using a medium sized brush. Less than a #2, but larger than the tiny detail brush from GW. I can paint this with a #2 though because this technique is <span style="color: red;">Not about fine control with the tip</span>. This technique focuses on the belly of the brush, the area between the tip and the base. This particular brand, Master's Touch from Hobby Lobby, like the curl within a few paintjobs, and have a slight curl at the tip. That actually works better for me in this case because it keeps the ends of the bristles up out of the rest of my model while I paint these raised edges, but it's not required. </div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjg3ldcEsuEPBMuPGOdW-jO9ZaoMsjbg_jzdUabV2b9aGBHr41BOnEuNgiUHYOAHXUgbpPTrelHec3EmXmpRFDlpZp0mj6MHb_qVc7j3R4Xz_KQ2maW0PEkO0rPZPP4gZkmeAQr0OUf4f4/s1600/20170301_171100.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjg3ldcEsuEPBMuPGOdW-jO9ZaoMsjbg_jzdUabV2b9aGBHr41BOnEuNgiUHYOAHXUgbpPTrelHec3EmXmpRFDlpZp0mj6MHb_qVc7j3R4Xz_KQ2maW0PEkO0rPZPP4gZkmeAQr0OUf4f4/s640/20170301_171100.jpg" width="480" /></a></div>
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Here's the paints I'm using. I actually won't end up painting with the P3. The thing about your paint consistency is A) How much is on the brush and B) How dry it is. Regular model color isn't bad. P3 is a little too wet for this detail work in my opinion, and the Game Air is here for really bad examples.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjR9Bb66Ad_pWXo5xEk8gXQerOmZpxbJ3t0cD3zg75BQl2ViZZTwxSi5JpclGjWfCjRwtvW_xY3KsWZzisj7wQHD2F4LNoklj80k_R_dZR1AUgGQ779xn9ApA5wOAcVUQtDt0OO8r85Jqg/s1600/20170301_171147.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjR9Bb66Ad_pWXo5xEk8gXQerOmZpxbJ3t0cD3zg75BQl2ViZZTwxSi5JpclGjWfCjRwtvW_xY3KsWZzisj7wQHD2F4LNoklj80k_R_dZR1AUgGQ779xn9ApA5wOAcVUQtDt0OO8r85Jqg/s640/20170301_171147.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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This is way too much paint. The motion used to do the painting is to lightly drag the belly of the brush across the model at a very shallow angle that keeps the tip up off the model. If the brush is overloaded in paint, it will slough off too much and pool and build up badly. Wipe some of this off on a paper towel. Not drybrush levels, but just to get the large glob off.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSEeJykcQn_mn9bl1qQDe7a3tiG-GZiVBcqPVbOIQSAZXbhto-sWZPNnOatgmnX2tPVDwLqgLgsbDyswZZXhPdTwvb5SGtsmu3OsG2owr6yy3fSu8d_vwXk0YEb-LyFcp2DH88AlZeri8/s1600/20170301_171235.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSEeJykcQn_mn9bl1qQDe7a3tiG-GZiVBcqPVbOIQSAZXbhto-sWZPNnOatgmnX2tPVDwLqgLgsbDyswZZXhPdTwvb5SGtsmu3OsG2owr6yy3fSu8d_vwXk0YEb-LyFcp2DH88AlZeri8/s640/20170301_171235.jpg" width="480" /></a></div>
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My bristles split on me in this picture. I had to wet it down and reshape the brush, but that's the amount of paint that should be on the brush for this. Note, that if you have to wet your brush to clean it, dry it thoroughly, or the water added to the paint will lower the surface tension of the paint and allow it to run down the edge of the filigree easy, causing problems I will demonstrate here shortly.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEghk_oPxLJiNdzQ8oNHW8T6q1qjhe8uzMty-1ffkAH8LzhG6kMc9PkiuVDtVBnoekYEPZGft4nbPixo5-jKcKNY9fELe85w6m79z9-JigBtQLHOetRZAkDiCYbUpFuKBBN07vd5IFRplAM/s1600/20170301_171312.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEghk_oPxLJiNdzQ8oNHW8T6q1qjhe8uzMty-1ffkAH8LzhG6kMc9PkiuVDtVBnoekYEPZGft4nbPixo5-jKcKNY9fELe85w6m79z9-JigBtQLHOetRZAkDiCYbUpFuKBBN07vd5IFRplAM/s640/20170301_171312.jpg" width="480" /></a></div>
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Alright, so look at this picture. Nevermind the white mark on the left of the pad lol. When doing this filigree, these raised edges, you're using the brush exactly like this. A very very shallow angle in relation to the model that keeps the tip up off the rest of the model. The direction of motion is extremely important as well. If, in this picture below, I move the brush up and down on the filigree, perpendicular to it's edges, I will scrape paint off the brush and build up paint on the filigree, losing the detail. What I want to do is move the brush along the filigree, with my tip at and angle that can't reach the model. If the paint is too dry, it isn't going to come off of the brush. If it's too wet, it'll puddle. If there's too much paint, it will glob onto the model, and if there's too little, it won't do anything at all.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhAVybXAGQx2ILk8qCBmmGgPgXvYu5y347VYMPHj9CuztPkeyzHC8RYATcjNYZC3wD-ooKTlpkuGMhy4r6fJ1FMExsO6S2xN-gsVE6WYKOi7tp8wCKfWZN0nomoPmC7_TQl_7PAjkQDHtA/s1600/20170301_171400.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhAVybXAGQx2ILk8qCBmmGgPgXvYu5y347VYMPHj9CuztPkeyzHC8RYATcjNYZC3wD-ooKTlpkuGMhy4r6fJ1FMExsO6S2xN-gsVE6WYKOi7tp8wCKfWZN0nomoPmC7_TQl_7PAjkQDHtA/s640/20170301_171400.jpg" width="480" /></a></div>
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So pretty.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHTzD3MRF2UuHwp7_KF1tMMMdMbz6xMRRlcdDf1bIwM8POqAq-6brhBWomZI3utTAWqhhjerBq-8MUXVQQULbMnmbp0oIOAwKCGUNRxu6LABEjWA-aptqMFOELzdELgVL0yB228xm3gHU/s1600/20170301_171440.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHTzD3MRF2UuHwp7_KF1tMMMdMbz6xMRRlcdDf1bIwM8POqAq-6brhBWomZI3utTAWqhhjerBq-8MUXVQQULbMnmbp0oIOAwKCGUNRxu6LABEjWA-aptqMFOELzdELgVL0yB228xm3gHU/s640/20170301_171440.jpg" width="480" /></a></div>
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Same technique, on an even smaller scale, hitting these little claw feet on the top. Keep the angle of the brush so that it does not encounter what ever is behind your detail. Why are we using the belly of the brush, you say? Because 99% of us do not have the fine control over the brush to use the tip. On top of that, as you work, the bristles can split or paint levels change and now you're all over the place. This is the safest, most efficient way to do this.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjWv6zOzDeX6ryGLPWE6TikkvxtBhMYHvy3tlweWI12wPCQ-q1WobtLAtQS4DPiXB3UdsL9mXjELuzjd6ayaqxFOtSrTNAC3lySKMqsOCSwRbxbIW_ODDca_4XNN_GvIGZhh8-GQei8BgA/s1600/20170301_171526.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjWv6zOzDeX6ryGLPWE6TikkvxtBhMYHvy3tlweWI12wPCQ-q1WobtLAtQS4DPiXB3UdsL9mXjELuzjd6ayaqxFOtSrTNAC3lySKMqsOCSwRbxbIW_ODDca_4XNN_GvIGZhh8-GQei8BgA/s640/20170301_171526.jpg" width="480" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEif-YhOl7EdOPxM3i1vVI7MemaCqvvSEKNgcgluzxjxMod2uGW4NQ2f2yQaP3BulGthaH57CP00tHujiceF0hNtDOIBGa0Mfts3T53fWYyoa1ON3wN3xMLlkfuHH1ZoPO7lel7HaOpyv3w/s1600/20170301_171552.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEif-YhOl7EdOPxM3i1vVI7MemaCqvvSEKNgcgluzxjxMod2uGW4NQ2f2yQaP3BulGthaH57CP00tHujiceF0hNtDOIBGa0Mfts3T53fWYyoa1ON3wN3xMLlkfuHH1ZoPO7lel7HaOpyv3w/s640/20170301_171552.jpg" width="480" /></a></div>
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Here is where I put too much paint on my brush and tried to run it against the filigree on the bottom of the pad, under the bird. You can see where it filled in that area in the middle because I had too much paint and it scraped off, filling that area. Too much paint.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgFpSMRuwqfh0AHRTiYpx-1GnEzMucHt4jeS3Jy0U94fpX2tFreLqUN_m6iIBzqBVPYd-M15DZeoXFKqszSyk-uPsRIsiUWb-nf0JvSzoAnlwZLRmxwYsM89143reL6QWhaYM_1dfGdp98/s1600/20170301_171638.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgFpSMRuwqfh0AHRTiYpx-1GnEzMucHt4jeS3Jy0U94fpX2tFreLqUN_m6iIBzqBVPYd-M15DZeoXFKqszSyk-uPsRIsiUWb-nf0JvSzoAnlwZLRmxwYsM89143reL6QWhaYM_1dfGdp98/s640/20170301_171638.jpg" width="480" /></a></div>
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This is too wet of paint. I switched to the Game Air for this demonstration, and you can see that it just began running off the filigree and all over the upper edge of the shoulder pad. The surface tension became too low with the moisture and just ran off.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_1_v8rgS6BioqD0ML4kuV4WRxdAMj7n2YEj9LwKT_6vGO8HOSlHkpHpQVZw9IQ1P3nrIGRnK8RbD55RIRRcZSO_uNVsm-48mSJnsKXdqxvabsyEwOJAkQd7kfxxer3k3Nacccj7EzP98/s1600/20170301_171818.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_1_v8rgS6BioqD0ML4kuV4WRxdAMj7n2YEj9LwKT_6vGO8HOSlHkpHpQVZw9IQ1P3nrIGRnK8RbD55RIRRcZSO_uNVsm-48mSJnsKXdqxvabsyEwOJAkQd7kfxxer3k3Nacccj7EzP98/s640/20170301_171818.jpg" width="480" /></a></div>
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Here, I'm doing a large flat raised area, not just a fine filigree line. This is where brush direction has has to be very careful because you can slough off the edges and fill them with paint. Take this in layers. There's more area, so you don't need as much paint. Hit it a couple of times to build it up. Use the belly of the brush and try to run with the edges as much as possible, exactly the opposite of drybrushing.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiLgKyRc67nM0TBOL7StTMWoYBS90QLE8G49KaaVPZfasWFfqU8gwYGBK_J7OV9WNn4_Qrc5-Hh4R6el3B68ClNBGhYbhiXlTez_mYjkxeYQivPJbZBuJtvbO7385n6nGfE4f3EE3ELs3E/s1600/20170301_171938.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiLgKyRc67nM0TBOL7StTMWoYBS90QLE8G49KaaVPZfasWFfqU8gwYGBK_J7OV9WNn4_Qrc5-Hh4R6el3B68ClNBGhYbhiXlTez_mYjkxeYQivPJbZBuJtvbO7385n6nGfE4f3EE3ELs3E/s640/20170301_171938.jpg" width="480" /></a></div>
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Because this is what Drybrushing looks like on the right knee here. Inconsistent, just scratches, and there's paint in the recesses in the middle that got scraped off too. You can't see it as well but there's paint around the logo that the drybrush left as well. For new painters, dry brushing probably works ok, but if you want a cleanly finished looking model, drybrushing largely goes away.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgNWEhFnznFqdjiTNnzR4QCZPwZbxmMkUVZB4FWcRbUAFJdvMqHD8trUne_xAHCOqywI0mEUyM0_4Szj-yg9yFpIW04vTaul7-sIPdr6kKvq9rCOlrEny2Bc6X7wfBFsiJPjCJvxe13EAs/s1600/20170301_172322.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgNWEhFnznFqdjiTNnzR4QCZPwZbxmMkUVZB4FWcRbUAFJdvMqHD8trUne_xAHCOqywI0mEUyM0_4Szj-yg9yFpIW04vTaul7-sIPdr6kKvq9rCOlrEny2Bc6X7wfBFsiJPjCJvxe13EAs/s640/20170301_172322.jpg" width="480" /></a></div>
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Just painting more detail here.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhfhRN2sz3e0JO9tzedtw5-yuoKs_B0-QMlQsKa3TC0WZ3bjGU8BPy9Bz1guOwJcvP1H4WOfYlKaNqcKKtV1xs-chTqHx5FI5lH_xU5SFJ3ocht9oQ1iQNcYQlMgBOuADsJh2ffcTYjhAE/s1600/20170301_172025.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhfhRN2sz3e0JO9tzedtw5-yuoKs_B0-QMlQsKa3TC0WZ3bjGU8BPy9Bz1guOwJcvP1H4WOfYlKaNqcKKtV1xs-chTqHx5FI5lH_xU5SFJ3ocht9oQ1iQNcYQlMgBOuADsJh2ffcTYjhAE/s640/20170301_172025.jpg" width="480" /></a></div>
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Here, my paint is a little too wet. Not bad, but it's not covering super well so I let it dry and hit it with another layer. You can see though, that about the middle in that detail, some of the detail is lost because I let the paint get too wet and it basically became a wash and filled in some of those gaps in the wings logo.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-ub1FqEUjYqRfGvILdq6vEhwi4mFlzfp2kqbDdjFXuFVRDlUB2KNMPYjIbCRy5sgFE714lDnjAOXzwFl5bRYvwgb_a1e7_ATGgFi0rK-lNH3IlNT9ePzAz4HAHH2VwvIe7w62qPKVujU/s1600/20170301_172159.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-ub1FqEUjYqRfGvILdq6vEhwi4mFlzfp2kqbDdjFXuFVRDlUB2KNMPYjIbCRy5sgFE714lDnjAOXzwFl5bRYvwgb_a1e7_ATGgFi0rK-lNH3IlNT9ePzAz4HAHH2VwvIe7w62qPKVujU/s640/20170301_172159.jpg" width="480" /></a></div>
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This technique works excellent for edging, as well. </div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh76Q3zBuIhqnA6tmzBNq0DSN9j0OXSycr0pxAb_LKu_rEsBVRpv5LYp3naNVSYgZdJ0INV6IyeQ0pztD9HSQs1Do5nAkT9W8lLl0NiKN2xGTdv5TJ5CNEDdlcFOg31g2p644ehxHv8a34/s1600/20170301_172423.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh76Q3zBuIhqnA6tmzBNq0DSN9j0OXSycr0pxAb_LKu_rEsBVRpv5LYp3naNVSYgZdJ0INV6IyeQ0pztD9HSQs1Do5nAkT9W8lLl0NiKN2xGTdv5TJ5CNEDdlcFOg31g2p644ehxHv8a34/s640/20170301_172423.jpg" width="480" /></a></div>
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Tada. One great looking set of filigree and edges, done. This is not actually how I'm going to paint this model, I'll use silver, but for this tutorial, I wanted something that would stand out a bit more. That's really cleaned up those edges, popped everything, and was not drybrushed. So none of the scraping patterns across the side anything. All clean egdes and filigree. You can use this same technique to highlight these areas, and/or shade them. </div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhnXawK-3AlDduz1LtOqAUod_FTDxLD2PSOsoyV7XK2v8FIcy2bmuq6ThOZgnO2e01YaEgg-85RsivQB1MsfzEKrIRQXVhLc3lyd5spKuCWb8BoPME4iPYt6Be6WtwHqrMDkyiyE1DppFc/s1600/20170301_172725.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhnXawK-3AlDduz1LtOqAUod_FTDxLD2PSOsoyV7XK2v8FIcy2bmuq6ThOZgnO2e01YaEgg-85RsivQB1MsfzEKrIRQXVhLc3lyd5spKuCWb8BoPME4iPYt6Be6WtwHqrMDkyiyE1DppFc/s640/20170301_172725.jpg" width="480" /></a></div>
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So, in Summary:</div>
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1. Brush size matters less than you think. Small brush does not equal better control.</div>
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2. Do not use the tip. The control is much less out there and every vibration in your hand is felt there. Use the belly of the brush, where a tip error won't ruin everything around it.</div>
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3. Pay attention to the motion direction of the brush. Do the opposite direction you would of Drybrushing. Drybrushing WANTS to scrape paint off of the brush, this technique does not. Move with the edges, not against them.</div>
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4. Paint consistency. Thicker paint drybrushes well, but may need slightly watered down here. Be careful with that though because again, if your surface tension gets too low the paint will spill around like a wash. </div>
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5. Paint amount. Dip lightly, rub the large globs off on a paper towel. The paint you're using will come from inside the brush. </div>
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6. Pay attention to your paint consistency throughout the session. This varies for every brand, paint age, and paint color. White gets very dry quicker, and chalkier than some of the darker pigments. If it's in a pot, this is less of a concern, but pay attention. Sometimes, I want it dryer, so I'll let it set for a few minutes before painting.</div>
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Hopefully this has helped and pointed you in the right direction. Feel free to leave any comments or questions or insults.</div>
JediAnakinSolohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05612104007435908015noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2592330986543780083.post-47866468657572095312017-02-24T20:15:00.000-08:002017-02-24T20:16:03.235-08:00Hvarl Red-Blade, the Space Wolf HQ without a model. Let's lead off with at least one image of the final product.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQ3dDf1JKhpbil21ugwiKP3XmjJUjUz_cohyphenhyphentxx_CVPaV6v8MMfeyWF5lhQbj3-yCOL0gseCb7TdgLo5DsBCfAL7QFlRYiKfxB6iCXiZa1Y69BikSSq2S2wwQ18rp8kmzA9TPeAX-4skw/s1600/Hvarl2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQ3dDf1JKhpbil21ugwiKP3XmjJUjUz_cohyphenhyphentxx_CVPaV6v8MMfeyWF5lhQbj3-yCOL0gseCb7TdgLo5DsBCfAL7QFlRYiKfxB6iCXiZa1Y69BikSSq2S2wwQ18rp8kmzA9TPeAX-4skw/s640/Hvarl2.jpg" width="480" /></a></div>
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So, in the new Inferno book, under the Space Wolves character HQ, there's the Fell Hand, Red Blade and Russ, and two of the three have models. Russ, who can't be taken below 2.5k points and Geigor, who comes in the Prospero Box.<br />
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Of the three, Hvarl is by far the most desirable due to accessibility (<2,5k pt games) and the abilities he brings to the table for his army over Geigor's just really decent melee prowess. So of course, Hvarl doesn't have a model.<br />
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To further complicate things, Hvarl is slated to wear Tartaros armor which is a relatively new sculpt in the Horus Heresy line, most Tartaros armor suits coming from the Prospero box. The only really cool Tartaros sculpt out there is the exlusive HQ dude that's holding a two handed spear thing. Really pretty model, and probably what I would have chosen if I had ready access to it, which I did not. So I began browsing models looking for options.<br />
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I decided that most Indomitus pattern Terminator suits would actually convert into Tartaros pretty decently. The chest just needs an edge sculpted onto the front, and the legs need their recesses filled in and the round kneepad needs sharpened into a point. All of this can be done with the addition of greenstuff, rather than the removal of material. Pack some Tartaros shoulderpads on and we're basically there. Hide the problems under the fur and we're golden. The arms didn't bother me too much since there's a lot more freedom given to HQ models, and a lot of it was going to be largely unseen anyways. I also decided not to cut off the heraldry on the legs since I liked what it added, and could simple add a greenstuff edge to the knee. So, let's begin.<br />
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Logan Grimnar's Stormrider kit.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjc_JzKsA1j0WOERMMlBl0Ag183GfG0XjGm8u6SVd9mYxqVCUh0aG_XCDvCTBdbj4OvrtNapTa-7GgvOJZqO7S7tmVtTiv4mD3Mu9LjHrM5ThKO-Sn4zVTjL0w28Mv7qTwVFU1pKB92LVk/s1600/99120101115_LoganGrimnarOnStormrider360.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjc_JzKsA1j0WOERMMlBl0Ag183GfG0XjGm8u6SVd9mYxqVCUh0aG_XCDvCTBdbj4OvrtNapTa-7GgvOJZqO7S7tmVtTiv4mD3Mu9LjHrM5ThKO-Sn4zVTjL0w28Mv7qTwVFU1pKB92LVk/s640/99120101115_LoganGrimnarOnStormrider360.jpg" width="618" /></a></div>
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Grimnar has all the fur cape that is awesome, has an axe already, and a lot of detail that doesn't interfere with a Tartaros conversion. The only thing he really needs is a Heavy Bolter, and not the wrist mounted Storm Bolter which made me a little sad but ok. I don't know what I'll do with the Stormrider. Probably make terrain out it. Really the only part of the model I won't use for awhile. The wolves, however, I really like, and in the previous article, sculpted fur onto them to create Leman Russ's personal entourage instead of using the two roided-out rats that Forge World has instead.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhk5gVzexZC76lC-0cm6h12YRZNEV3_aVn9i83KgtwOGt79sXS9tAkDq2ScXAhC5_Zb5IeDLn7F4D-aagO1kgP-azWiK461EBI992Lh-bg1KvSBxT3rvSq04LLe7B4V_Ynig93D8YJWqu8/s1600/20170220_020635.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhk5gVzexZC76lC-0cm6h12YRZNEV3_aVn9i83KgtwOGt79sXS9tAkDq2ScXAhC5_Zb5IeDLn7F4D-aagO1kgP-azWiK461EBI992Lh-bg1KvSBxT3rvSq04LLe7B4V_Ynig93D8YJWqu8/s640/20170220_020635.jpg" width="480" /></a></div>
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Most of the leg work was filling in the leg recesses. I left the joint material. I didn't add the hip plates because he comes with some already that are more decorative and again, indicative of an HQ.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiwC_LZbMdxqWOnxR4IfQJuboAExs5pghb6HNUdQM7dS1mjvl9WUr3SeIQhjnc6Oce8R-KCzHbPo6x8S5NQ_b2bZl77LiG2OfeKJnBOIlWJBFCfy-DXuCUwtckFNvGhKOYRvEzQyLx_osE/s1600/20170222_050037.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiwC_LZbMdxqWOnxR4IfQJuboAExs5pghb6HNUdQM7dS1mjvl9WUr3SeIQhjnc6Oce8R-KCzHbPo6x8S5NQ_b2bZl77LiG2OfeKJnBOIlWJBFCfy-DXuCUwtckFNvGhKOYRvEzQyLx_osE/s640/20170222_050037.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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Here you can see I added the ridges specific to the Tartaros lines. I also cast a Tartaros pad and Geigor's shoulder pad together to create these shoulder pads. My other Tartaros termies are wearing the same thing, though lower quality.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhRksiWVn6iThbXLHl1kfDaXqLIrbQnBakxvG-8Z04gg1kMCZjh5XveSNJHki4hUZlFLDQW2bP-reYUe6NHlukpm8AOz2WcRbjTiQLnW1KGOr_2InrECbOWYkAsqj0zJ4NPGkqDJClUXCY/s1600/20170222_045954.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhRksiWVn6iThbXLHl1kfDaXqLIrbQnBakxvG-8Z04gg1kMCZjh5XveSNJHki4hUZlFLDQW2bP-reYUe6NHlukpm8AOz2WcRbjTiQLnW1KGOr_2InrECbOWYkAsqj0zJ4NPGkqDJClUXCY/s640/20170222_045954.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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The leg on the left is more easily seen here and you can see the kneecap angle I added. I also bulked out the chest and brought it to a fine point/line across the torso just like the Tartaros. I added some decor to it but you can't tell at all under all the stuff Logan has going on. Some easy fur sculpting to cover gaps and make everything meet. The cape has one shoulder pad sculpted in that I had to cut out, thus some more fur liberally sculpted in. </div>
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So, here, my newness to the game shows through because I thought the wrist mounted gun was a heavy Bolter and was luckily corrected before I basecoated the model. So I took an MK3 heavy bolter (I think) and shaved down the hand embedded in the sculpt and glued it right into the spot left by the storm bolter. It actually works pretty well.</div>
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The base is sculpted out of Super Sculptey III and baked. It keeps with the same Prospero theme I've been using in my bases.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhVSidsacKQrldNb05DKP3IFxfonqKAQ6EZ3ROunvppy3XzD4KpiHQeWfGQ1T_B3HQNteA8h0x05tc0IXfpffHTAQqQy9-kZwO8iFLECduSsEO0oUHWr1w-67AFan5UB_cOF4NvIjGa4RY/s1600/20170223_050413.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhVSidsacKQrldNb05DKP3IFxfonqKAQ6EZ3ROunvppy3XzD4KpiHQeWfGQ1T_B3HQNteA8h0x05tc0IXfpffHTAQqQy9-kZwO8iFLECduSsEO0oUHWr1w-67AFan5UB_cOF4NvIjGa4RY/s640/20170223_050413.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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Here, I've got the base painted, him mounted and basecoated.</div>
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And final pictures.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQ3dDf1JKhpbil21ugwiKP3XmjJUjUz_cohyphenhyphentxx_CVPaV6v8MMfeyWF5lhQbj3-yCOL0gseCb7TdgLo5DsBCfAL7QFlRYiKfxB6iCXiZa1Y69BikSSq2S2wwQ18rp8kmzA9TPeAX-4skw/s1600/Hvarl2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQ3dDf1JKhpbil21ugwiKP3XmjJUjUz_cohyphenhyphentxx_CVPaV6v8MMfeyWF5lhQbj3-yCOL0gseCb7TdgLo5DsBCfAL7QFlRYiKfxB6iCXiZa1Y69BikSSq2S2wwQ18rp8kmzA9TPeAX-4skw/s640/Hvarl2.jpg" width="480" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgV9rYOjadjTOs5Spyk_4Gl4dALFsflGDt0Jgp0EqOwm__HaaePOzlmbRiRSaU5h-h1fc9MNHH9CdMIUNhmZBuJrPbckN3Q2FabSsEvGI9oZxWBnXNP5EZEehL_ncfkaHnZkM0ZittPBKo/s1600/Hvarl4.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgV9rYOjadjTOs5Spyk_4Gl4dALFsflGDt0Jgp0EqOwm__HaaePOzlmbRiRSaU5h-h1fc9MNHH9CdMIUNhmZBuJrPbckN3Q2FabSsEvGI9oZxWBnXNP5EZEehL_ncfkaHnZkM0ZittPBKo/s640/Hvarl4.jpg" width="480" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiNZLeGuObYd2eRK6HDHoe8C3aZdzz6RWXgcp5SG84mcuIVU5iITjU64wYr3klheMjo6PxGL_ipfgHIwTAXJ9NipzaJGY56zP10VlsK2_QP7GktiGYPlbcZoQtrkcVS3gg9XkmntUmlQLg/s1600/Hvarl1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiNZLeGuObYd2eRK6HDHoe8C3aZdzz6RWXgcp5SG84mcuIVU5iITjU64wYr3klheMjo6PxGL_ipfgHIwTAXJ9NipzaJGY56zP10VlsK2_QP7GktiGYPlbcZoQtrkcVS3gg9XkmntUmlQLg/s640/Hvarl1.jpg" width="480" /></a></div>
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I'm extremely happy with how the axe turned out, and I think it holds his name very well. I didn't plan on painting this model until March, but I just couldn't hold out that long and so I broke down and started playing with the axe and when I was done, the model was finished. 6 hours of painting. Really enjoyed this model and holy cow have I missed this kind of modding and hobbying.</div>
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Hope you can learn a few things here, or perhaps steal the idea for your own Hvarl since it's likely going to be awhile before FW releases one, if ever. Any comments or questions, feel free to leave. Enjoy your weekend!<br />
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JediAnakinSolohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05612104007435908015noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2592330986543780083.post-6924525250751718472017-02-20T02:04:00.000-08:002017-02-20T03:38:24.875-08:00Quick How-to on Fur Sculpting With the recent pickup of the Space Wolves for 30k, I've been doing a lot of Fur Sculpting. Forgeworld is rumored to produce models specific to the Space Wolf Horus Heresy line, but I'm not that patient, or completely convinced that I'll prefer them (or their cost) to what I can do with what I already have done. At request from the Space Wolves 30k page, I put together a quick basic how-to on fur sculpting.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-6nmign3Jj3t_PP1NHvfgzhR7OuvfUjX0hYoAn-zANqV9n0YwhqxfTGp7A81U5OzOQtKRju3az2lTOxBV268SxTLq7ohWznmED6rHKVm1GIU2J46BBSbSecGFm4gYOeLKz5fJLaR75Ko/s1600/20161117_201108.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-6nmign3Jj3t_PP1NHvfgzhR7OuvfUjX0hYoAn-zANqV9n0YwhqxfTGp7A81U5OzOQtKRju3az2lTOxBV268SxTLq7ohWznmED6rHKVm1GIU2J46BBSbSecGFm4gYOeLKz5fJLaR75Ko/s400/20161117_201108.jpg" width="300" /></a></div>
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgcslOR9A1AAVuFMXWr7e4DpzTEHWxNClKA5jpAEc6UUxSAMldpcJv-wRNQz6kPPJFzbil95Ur3EZGqdQ-FMMwxshpBhmILd2UQmQh00IvBfkfDRZE9EvbtukoN0t5QjxuzQ133orHxQU8/s1600/20161117_201102.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgcslOR9A1AAVuFMXWr7e4DpzTEHWxNClKA5jpAEc6UUxSAMldpcJv-wRNQz6kPPJFzbil95Ur3EZGqdQ-FMMwxshpBhmILd2UQmQh00IvBfkfDRZE9EvbtukoN0t5QjxuzQ133orHxQU8/s400/20161117_201102.jpg" width="300" /></a><br />
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I'm not a fan of the recently released wolves for Leman Russ, so in this tutorial, I'm converting the ones from the Logan Grimnar Wolf Rider kit. They've got some spots on the shoulders where the harness glues in, and there's a belt around the abdomen. There's also some fur detail missing on the hind quarters that they expect to cover with the harness that I need to fill in. <br />
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What you'll need is green stuff, moisture source and a tool or two. <br />
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I've got a little tin with water in it. Some guys keep some moisturizer or something on a thumb nail and apply it to their fingertips or tools when needed. The biggest problem is catching your tool or fingers before they've dried enough to start dragging your material around and misshaping it, undoing work you've been doing. If it sticks at all while working it, you're too dry. The trick is to catch it before you hit that point, but without over applying it and getting your green stuff too soft.<br />
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I've got three or four different shapers, but my favorite tool for fur is the standard GW shaping tool. It's got a pointed blade on one end, and a flat round on the other. The round is good for smoothing stuff out, the point it good for the edges and fur.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhca8F3M43Vc6eqW_tFIUWzj_NYZkqL-YSpNX6trvcggkQveD_uSJsMYiRZNWhhGxBShwDF4TQv7i3Y160N8W9qqsi9FvxQ9Y3lDhwxSzFu6ejdh3Io-GvrjwiBi5CnrzKHnuU_PQVM9Ic/s1600/20170220_033822.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhca8F3M43Vc6eqW_tFIUWzj_NYZkqL-YSpNX6trvcggkQveD_uSJsMYiRZNWhhGxBShwDF4TQv7i3Y160N8W9qqsi9FvxQ9Y3lDhwxSzFu6ejdh3Io-GvrjwiBi5CnrzKHnuU_PQVM9Ic/s640/20170220_033822.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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So, here's the gaps on the shoulders and the belt. I cut off the peg on the top and I'll do a belt on most of waist and on the hindquarters where there's a lot of fur missing from the molding process. The harness would normally cover it but since we're not using it, I've got to sculpt it.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhnboYURKOLb34HFV2THcqxeR2Iw9baIP6bprGzRiCqSci1x1XnkOljVwqFOhA9bmSDX7eBkkdgAAXkGdw7YMtP3uShAbsYbsmM10nn_4X5rRJ8d6_HvGqEoxwompoyH3PZ3tTF35xD6sg/s1600/20170220_001744.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhnboYURKOLb34HFV2THcqxeR2Iw9baIP6bprGzRiCqSci1x1XnkOljVwqFOhA9bmSDX7eBkkdgAAXkGdw7YMtP3uShAbsYbsmM10nn_4X5rRJ8d6_HvGqEoxwompoyH3PZ3tTF35xD6sg/s640/20170220_001744.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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I'll start with what every sculptor starts with, some globs of green stuff. If you're doing a shoulderpad or patch of fur on the torso or whatever, a glob is generally what I do. If I'm doing a cloak that's going to flow a little independently from the model, I'll usually sculpt it out on a flat surface and let it dry for 45 minutes to an hour depending on how much moisture I had to apply during the sculpting process. Then I'll peel it up and apply it to the model and shape it while it's mostly dry so it stays in place for the most part.<br />
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For what I'm doing here, we won't need anything that complicated. I'll start with a glob on each gap in the shoulder blades here.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjm-RajSKgpAAZlW9YGycl6srokKEM92Y9wcatK81n1A7U85z5XlAaEC2lL8uzwiKpBjt9JuQJxjCgCanBfYqbtFPXFTUdAFZ8TtgHGcROCIy9q1CfDCY5t7CD-4ne9hby1kcmTAARlHvI/s1600/20170220_001847.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjm-RajSKgpAAZlW9YGycl6srokKEM92Y9wcatK81n1A7U85z5XlAaEC2lL8uzwiKpBjt9JuQJxjCgCanBfYqbtFPXFTUdAFZ8TtgHGcROCIy9q1CfDCY5t7CD-4ne9hby1kcmTAARlHvI/s640/20170220_001847.jpg" width="480" /></a></div>
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Here's my tin and my green stuff I'm pulling from. </div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGhU98GLp9OXLXj9cONlp0vs1yvWqlDoSR1Xr4L8tjKvmfVu53xtQx0LuBoJg6R5A2d0EFaKqmkl06CQoS40aeYEC7Ui-Q_9W-DPPwsGjmucJ4TTolOuuL_IE6wOiEstIHacIpCPP77E4/s1600/20170220_001906.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGhU98GLp9OXLXj9cONlp0vs1yvWqlDoSR1Xr4L8tjKvmfVu53xtQx0LuBoJg6R5A2d0EFaKqmkl06CQoS40aeYEC7Ui-Q_9W-DPPwsGjmucJ4TTolOuuL_IE6wOiEstIHacIpCPP77E4/s640/20170220_001906.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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I smoothed out the spot a little and now I'm using that blade to work this fur into the plastic fur. On a flat surface like armor, just drag it out like strands of fur. Here, I'm dragging them into the fur and trying to reduce the edges.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjEfNYTHbkZnxtxMls6yCQwDQQPQg8UVZ2U3ISvAV9pbxB8_8N0_M9SSUXVNAYCiHFItn_2KFvj-oliMzLOwfXCA8P9Enrt8UCKuiDoEovB6BJ_s2D_iL4SWPpOc0yAY8PwMILydne2WkI/s1600/20170220_001938.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjEfNYTHbkZnxtxMls6yCQwDQQPQg8UVZ2U3ISvAV9pbxB8_8N0_M9SSUXVNAYCiHFItn_2KFvj-oliMzLOwfXCA8P9Enrt8UCKuiDoEovB6BJ_s2D_iL4SWPpOc0yAY8PwMILydne2WkI/s640/20170220_001938.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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In the case of a patch of fur on armor, your texture can be whatever you want, but in this case, I'm attempting to match the fur to the area around it. Your texture can be fine or as rough as you want, and here on this shoulder, it's pretty coarse. Try and match it.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgR7LqA-lypvh_AdZbWs8qBWaDFtCET7sp2GyksW4xTVtmlyU_4AXh_0VYAxixK5vQ3hmH9FlfQOrnPf0mmf3CHWnksKaun1uaxXIImxd1UF0zzj6GgSaNzPqDtr-K9-o4Ehg_5kUE08yc/s1600/20170220_002206.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgR7LqA-lypvh_AdZbWs8qBWaDFtCET7sp2GyksW4xTVtmlyU_4AXh_0VYAxixK5vQ3hmH9FlfQOrnPf0mmf3CHWnksKaun1uaxXIImxd1UF0zzj6GgSaNzPqDtr-K9-o4Ehg_5kUE08yc/s640/20170220_002206.jpg" width="480" /></a></div>
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Now I'm adding this band around the middle to hide the belt.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhBw1qyuOvLIkOv7IYkXF7tOE2ZnG7MYEIe5tHp0rxNMexsbUrRPljGQX8kQEGfR7Sbw27AmUPA15HCjVE69edbazKd9Wi4gPmlB1X7XQPCWKT2swMHVGIsZ4M2imBDbHybZjoCbVrtRc8/s1600/20170220_002759.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhBw1qyuOvLIkOv7IYkXF7tOE2ZnG7MYEIe5tHp0rxNMexsbUrRPljGQX8kQEGfR7Sbw27AmUPA15HCjVE69edbazKd9Wi4gPmlB1X7XQPCWKT2swMHVGIsZ4M2imBDbHybZjoCbVrtRc8/s640/20170220_002759.jpg" width="480" /></a></div>
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Again, trying to match the texture here. It's a bit finer at the abdomen than it was on the shoulder.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgo38tqYIY6x8BjP3NRfQtzUPar4GbrQzmGzn6JIwOXdRfa1v2XKLrcKhQxazl00XXIQ4-XlGvjqPkm89vdaMQT8903pSQMEHIP4IUz1_2YNcN5sJdX6IgHFki-rzS3JxzwAnqv01PHzr4/s1600/20170220_002829.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgo38tqYIY6x8BjP3NRfQtzUPar4GbrQzmGzn6JIwOXdRfa1v2XKLrcKhQxazl00XXIQ4-XlGvjqPkm89vdaMQT8903pSQMEHIP4IUz1_2YNcN5sJdX6IgHFki-rzS3JxzwAnqv01PHzr4/s640/20170220_002829.jpg" width="480" /></a></div>
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I'm going to repeat the process on the hind quarters, and again on the other wolf. </div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgtQ3UsiGqYUmTLWrWn_OV0FMy6MHsWAkL2Wsql3j7Uj78P3RJsVi0Nwm2uo-YggNVWWw1m_4i7XjNvlWF-xY-aks8Aba8MC7Gpw1-x8uc7QmB4idpjD0bjg8LTyTlEffmCe0TT9WhmyXY/s1600/20170220_035020.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgtQ3UsiGqYUmTLWrWn_OV0FMy6MHsWAkL2Wsql3j7Uj78P3RJsVi0Nwm2uo-YggNVWWw1m_4i7XjNvlWF-xY-aks8Aba8MC7Gpw1-x8uc7QmB4idpjD0bjg8LTyTlEffmCe0TT9WhmyXY/s640/20170220_035020.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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I'll get these guys primed up, basecoated, based and painted and they'll be running around with Russ in no time.</div>
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Here's a couple of vets I've done. I did this kind of work on every Marine in my units, trying to keep the cohesive Space Wolf feel.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8-T_kIHeptm_xKi34c2QKSpVQhiTD2LP2zyozBZf1K28RSC8AjrKtWUQhFPGAB_EKE0QE1QEz4jWo5JT85SEW55Y_QOB9kt9Wjd95toXOrIpgSILO0u45M4nkhuoJe61nTKyHQdaxpeE/s1600/20170220_035432.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8-T_kIHeptm_xKi34c2QKSpVQhiTD2LP2zyozBZf1K28RSC8AjrKtWUQhFPGAB_EKE0QE1QEz4jWo5JT85SEW55Y_QOB9kt9Wjd95toXOrIpgSILO0u45M4nkhuoJe61nTKyHQdaxpeE/s640/20170220_035432.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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The fur isn't painted yet in this case. The below pictures are my completed models to date. A Contemptor, 3 praetor/HQs and a unit of Tacs. I've got four or five units that are assembled, fur sculpted on, based and basecoated, but they're in line to be painted. Just in a playable state right now.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2JduRGzUlSAHs-TrhSgMyxspZWN_DwrZQUh7P7DQqZqXQgIkasXS49nALg8AqEzoF-iek52f18LH26RxqFyTs1zIDAMXZWnggSWxv7mXeF-bOJy3OV0qcN1np3GqKenXOGxRuOX80VVk/s1600/20170216_074048.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2JduRGzUlSAHs-TrhSgMyxspZWN_DwrZQUh7P7DQqZqXQgIkasXS49nALg8AqEzoF-iek52f18LH26RxqFyTs1zIDAMXZWnggSWxv7mXeF-bOJy3OV0qcN1np3GqKenXOGxRuOX80VVk/s640/20170216_074048.jpg" width="480" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjnpz-_Z_sm865t-8socGMzuQaJNZlEof0_Og6AtNdrqQhtCqOhRVn9TcEizffSXSGOlSOQ_WaJGx96rrdHIhYBdi9im87Nbor7j1krHRM-pA0zg6Y2CkjOuro53fnv8PP29uP5umKoRw8/s1600/20170216_073737.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjnpz-_Z_sm865t-8socGMzuQaJNZlEof0_Og6AtNdrqQhtCqOhRVn9TcEizffSXSGOlSOQ_WaJGx96rrdHIhYBdi9im87Nbor7j1krHRM-pA0zg6Y2CkjOuro53fnv8PP29uP5umKoRw8/s640/20170216_073737.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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That's it for now. Hopefully this short walkthrough can get you started with wolf pelts for your own wolves. Feel free to comment with critiques, questions and comments.<br />
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<br />JediAnakinSolohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05612104007435908015noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2592330986543780083.post-91977790521848161622017-02-14T08:29:00.002-08:002017-02-14T08:29:54.458-08:00Paint Brands and where they fit with you as a painter. I can count on one hand the games I've gotten in any miniature game whatsoever in the last three months. Here's why.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2l-hMamRqQJvOVKdS3lELDcjsqp2DgQ3s0kTIclSUba-odMvxVul-LlS6BOzkerXadMPSDiVPo9Ox9splrqDS6XG-HhBasT2NTVTsXToM4NfLTGjNfPGLksZ0O121PaEg-ilFCHy3w3o/s1600/20161125_113750.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2l-hMamRqQJvOVKdS3lELDcjsqp2DgQ3s0kTIclSUba-odMvxVul-LlS6BOzkerXadMPSDiVPo9Ox9splrqDS6XG-HhBasT2NTVTsXToM4NfLTGjNfPGLksZ0O121PaEg-ilFCHy3w3o/s640/20161125_113750.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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He's 5 months old, loves bright colors, being up high, and possibly penguins. They are the most successful at sidelining his attention so far. </div>
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He, on the other hand, is easily the most successful at sidelining my attention, and thus my gaming has really dived. Given my time at home though, I've gotten a ton of hobby time which is great as I descend in Horus Heresy 30k and return to the world of GW. It pains me a little bit, but while I've spent the last month assembling, painting and forging new skills, I have yet to play a single game of it. I'm definitely loving the hobby aspect though. I have desperately missed this quality of models. NOTE: This draft was originally written in January, and I have since gotten in... 3 games.</div>
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Anyways, as I'm painting through my stuff it occurs to me the vast array of paints I have accumulated, used, discarded, disdained, praised and spilled everywhere. I can most certainly recount the many opinions I've had of what my favorite brand is, and the more I look at it, the more I think it absolutely had everything to do with my skill level.</div>
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The caveat to that is that I don't actually think that paint brands are intrinsically linked to your skill level. There's a measure of that, I'm sure, since nobody that wants really nice models ever uses Walmart acrylics, but there are excellent painters that use each brand. I generally feel sorry for the 'Eavy Metal guys who are forced to use GW paints for all of their models. I'm sure there's some workarounds for that, but thousands of space marines painted that way?</div>
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I'm out.</div>
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So, let's talk paints. This is meant to be a fairly quick article, a reminder that I'm still alive, and a nice preview of the plethora of stuff I have in the pipeline. But that's towards the end. Paints.</div>
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There's a few brands I won't say much about, like Reaper or Scale75 since I haven't gotten the chance to reaaaaally delve into those lines. Scale75 is one I'm itching to try out though. At the beginning though, I was living in a dormitory in Keesler AFB on the gulf in Mississippi, and the gaming store catering to the strictly nerd training Air Force Base had all GW paints, and Reaper. (Not kidding about nerds. We were all Radio, Radar, or some form of data networking. Nerds. All of us. Except the specop guys carrying rocks on their shoulders for Para Rescue. We didn't run into those guys at the comic book store).</div>
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So I have owned Reaper, and painted them, and what I remember was really liking them. However, I had next to 0 idea how to paint that point, so I can't tell you if my fond memories of them are worth anything. I do know that they loved to clog in the tip though.</div>
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<b>Games Workshop, or Citadel</b></div>
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GW (Games Workshop, or Citadel) was the other thing, and what most painters have started with, or tried at some point along the way. The advantages of it at that time was that it was thick, and covered very well, and worked very well with the GW wash. GW paints can be applied pretty quickly, less that perfectly, dumped in a wash and come out with decent looking tabletop quality. Drybrush and go. As thick as the paint is, everything will have consistent color, everything will be covered, everything will be popped well by the wash, and it's good to go. It's also a huge range of colors, and available in every store that has miniatures. On top of that, every single painting tutorial ever produced by White Dwarf or Warhammer TV uses the Citadel colors. They also have several different styles of paints, including "basing", "layers", "drybrush" and "washes". </div>
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The downsides are pretty quick to show their face though. The paint is super thick, which is why it covers well, but it dries with a thick, textured surface. In the videos on Warhammer TV, they show the guy watering down the paint, but when you're new, you really don't have a clue what consistency you're looking for.. It doesn't blend well into the other paint on the model without lots, and lots of watering down. There are now "layer" paints by GW, but they're still pretty thick. By far, thicker than most other paints on the market. </div>
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Then there's the pots. You can't pour from them, you can't mix the paints very well. There are accomplished artists that get deeply offended when you count pots as a con since the paint should be the only thing that matters, but this is my article, not theirs. And I don't like those artists anyways.</div>
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The specialty paints... specifically the drybrush stuff, I hate. Just use regular paint. Their washes, however, are pretty legendary, and most painters still have a bottle of it somewhere and use it. I have mixed my own washes, but since I use washes for only very specific applications anymore, even that has gone down. In fact, now that my LGS carries the Vallejo Game Ink (similar to a wash, but has it's roots in the panel liners from the WWII/Model Color series produced by Vallejo), I probably won't use washes but rarely.</div>
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I quit using GW paints when I quit buying GW products, right at the beginning of 2013 when GW was really being a douche in the legal department. That has since backed off, but I still won't use the paints because when I moved from GW, I went looking for Reaper. Reaper doesn't actually exist in Omaha, so I moved into Vallejo. Next on the list, though, is Army Painter.</div>
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<b>Army Painter</b></div>
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<b> </b>Is also everywhere. Follows Flames of War around like a little brother Mom won't let you leave behind at home. They've got the spray cans too, which is a nice touch, however expensive. I only recently bought Army Painter, and only because the new LGS that opened up, that's what they had. So I tried it. IMO, it's GW in a bottle. So, now you can mix it easier, which is nice, but it's still thick stuff. If I'm doing a basecoat by brush, I might use it, but when I run out, I won't buy anymore since my LGS got into Vallejo. I've also found that it separates really bad over any period of time. Worse than Vallejo or GW. </div>
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<b>Vallejo</b></div>
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<b> </b>Vallejo is 90% of my paint library. I'm a dropper bottle fanatic, I love the assortment of colors, I like that they have thinners, glosses and all sorts of additive products designed specifically for their paints. There's two (three, if you count the Airbrush line) lines of Vallejo, the Game Color and Model Color. Game Color is your fantasy stuff. Bright colors, more shades of it, wider selection of a larger spectrum. Model Color is at Hobby Lobby more often than not these days, and focuses specifically on military and environment colors. A billion shades of drab green, brown, grey, etc. One or two of the other shades. Might only be a dark purple and a light purple, etc. Which is fine. If you have Model Color in your area, you're fine.</div>
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Vallejo has a good consistency out of the bottle that usually covers in one coat, but likes to have two depending on how you primed. If you have a good solid primer that's in the vicinity of your shade, you're golden. If you're trying to put yellow down on white and don't want a yellowish white, but actually a strong yellow, it's going to take a few coats. I've also noticed that the paints are a little inconsistent in their thickness, and it's either travel/storage dependant, or shade dependant. The white always gets a little chalky, while the dark greys always seem more watery. It's weird. It's all smoother than GW though so I'm fine. And there's a thinner to fine tune it, or water works just fine too. </div>
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There is also the Airbrush line I mentioned earlier, but I'm going to cover that separately.</div>
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<b>P3 (Privateer Press's paints)</b></div>
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<b> </b>This particular paint is pretty different from everything else. It's got a different acrylic and is a completely different formulation of paint than most other brands. When I was a PG, I finally broke down and started buying P3 because I felt like I should understand a paint that I was promoting. I don't own very many of the colors, just a few of the primaries, and I actually use them quite a bit. It's possible I'll replace them when I'm out of them even, but I'll still keep those colors in Vallejo as well.</div>
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P3 is still in a pot, so no mixing without getting it everywhere. Major downside at first, but we'll get there. The acrylic, on the plus side, is non-toxic unlike most other acrylics like Vallejo, so that's a plus. P3 is generally very thin, probably the thinnest I own. Good luck getting the wrong bright color down on the wrong primer. However, if your primer is right, it's a smooth paint, layers very well and blends extremely well. The reds and blues below were painted and blended straight from the pot, and did really well.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEidnYK6qV8Ak3ztoIYyNXG_HjS7QBWC_8dqhdfnVKmq2wcGyFVpbDb6NKSBa7DHreoiz06-QagYj7zccVv3etnntpkF9hXplAxr4IpS7mrNm8Oh1sHc7_afgLatKSBSI1lMUYUJ79eDtmY/s1600/20170121_232305.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEidnYK6qV8Ak3ztoIYyNXG_HjS7QBWC_8dqhdfnVKmq2wcGyFVpbDb6NKSBa7DHreoiz06-QagYj7zccVv3etnntpkF9hXplAxr4IpS7mrNm8Oh1sHc7_afgLatKSBSI1lMUYUJ79eDtmY/s640/20170121_232305.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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The only complaint I have about P3, outside of the pots, is that you will struggle to drybrush with it because it is so watery. If you are an avid drybrusher with a P3 arsenal, I would consider getting a second white, or whatever you're drybrushing, in a different brand. Vallejo or GW white is fine, and if the white is specifically for Drybrushing, the GW is probably better just because it's thicker. </div>
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<b>Skill Progression</b></div>
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<b> </b>I have one more paint to discuss, but I want to hit this real quick before we go there. </div>
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GW is an ok starter. It covers thick, washes well. It's forgiving, easy to work with and has a huge arsenal. If you're just starting, you go with this and it's not too bad, you feel pretty good about your work until you realize that A) it's nearly impossible to layer or blend easily and B) you're literally feeding your brushes to the blood god and you can't keep brushes alive for longer than like, a month of painting. So then you move into:</div>
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Army Painter or Vallejo. Army Painter if it's around, Vallejo if you have the choice. Or Reaper. Now you can mix paints. Now you can thin your stuff out without using a wet palette. You put drops in a tray, mix it together and get exactly the shade you want. This is how I operated for a long time, and still do most times. I'll start with straight, unmixed, undiluted dark color to basecoat, then add thinners, lighter paints, and use a couple of different spots in the tray as I work my way up the spectrum to my highlight. I even have a retarder to keep the basecoat and following layers wet so I can go back to them if needed, to fix errors or 2 brush blend. The lighter I get, and the closer to the highlight I get, the more I water it down to blend and layer. I despised anything in pots because it's such a disaster in mixing. The only downside to this is the wasted paint you inevitably leave in the tray, but it's largely unnoticed. I feel like I get my money's worth out of the bottle in most cases. </div>
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Then I got some P3. Suddenly, even with less color selection, I can layer quite easily because of how watery the paint is. I can dab my brush in the pot, once on the towel and go to the model where it stays wet enough to blend around and work into the layer below it. Now, mixing is less important. It's quite convenient. If the direction I want to take a color is the same as one of my P3s, I'll probably use the P3 for some of it. Reds and Blues especially, I've been using the P3s a lot, though I'll do my final highlights in Vallejo for specific control. At this point, I'm able to actually work in layers, do 2 brush blending. I can mix washes, but it's rare that I use them anymore. The paint preference changes with the skill level and style.</div>
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This brings me to my final paint, </div>
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<b>Vallejo Air</b></div>
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<b> </b>Vallejo Air is the exact same colors as Vallejo Game color, but pre-thinned for the airbrush. I finally broke down recently and gave up trying to mix airbrush paints by hand, and just bought the stupid paints. Then I started using them by brush. It's straight up the best of both worlds. It's watered down like P3, but has all the shades and mixing ease of normal Vallejo. </div>
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Lately, my workflow has been to start with a Vallejo color and use it for the basecoat, then mix in the Vallejo airs to simultaneously thin and change the color of the paint. It's fantastic. </div>
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There's also the straight up cheating aspect of the Airbrush in the first place. I shaded Ahriman in a few minutes.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgdVhgdHSUTBZEHZm4MY3HPcK1pF_pmjH3w3K6f33eKuA0qrRCEicWe2j8G2eBVR-p2sx2ZLG2qaQgaVK61wLA_jpGpTfWpcmIDO9hBeBYSIjLDJH9mMar69XbsQZe-cS0vxQVPzuQM9t0/s1600/20170127_002826.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgdVhgdHSUTBZEHZm4MY3HPcK1pF_pmjH3w3K6f33eKuA0qrRCEicWe2j8G2eBVR-p2sx2ZLG2qaQgaVK61wLA_jpGpTfWpcmIDO9hBeBYSIjLDJH9mMar69XbsQZe-cS0vxQVPzuQM9t0/s640/20170127_002826.jpg" width="480" /></a></div>
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But now, back to Skill Progression.</div>
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Look at the paints you're using now and consider if it's A) the paints you've always used, or B), you have tried the rest of the market and you definitely like these. If it's B, that's great, even if it's GW! You're comfortable with your paints, you're churning out good quality, and that's awesome. You've unlocked what works for you.</div>
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For me, my style is still developing I feel. I know the looks I like, but sometimes when I'm shooting for those (Jolly Roger Studios is a favorite of mine), I end up doing something slightly different, and actually like it maybe more. I love the contrast of JRS work, but I'm finding some of my stuff turning out looking somewhat like I used a sketching technique like what Matt DiPetrio has been teaching for awhile. Idk if it'll stick.</div>
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Like I said, I haven't played more than two or three games in the last three months, but I've done so much hobby work that I've really gotten to enjoy learning my brush and pushing my envelope. I still like my Vallejos. Scale 75 is next on the list, but now that I've got Vallejo Air, the game is on. It's amazing what all I can do now with a watered down paint in the hue of my choosing. P3 only has so many colors, and you kind of get shoehorned into one specific shade track without lots of extra work like glazes and mixing out of pots, whereas Vallejo has it all. </div>
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So, look at your paints, and think about trying some other ones. Secondly, look at your skills, and if you feel like you've hit a wall, and there hasn't been much improvement, try a new paint. Thin a paint down and play with it. See what you can do. I'm having a blast.</div>
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<b>Incoming Projects</b></div>
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<b> </b>For starters, I'm neck deep in Horus Heresy, for kicks and giggles. So expect some of that. I have some of the Prospero models coming in, some of the Calth models, whatever. All in on Space Wolves since I wished I'd played them back in 40k. Won't make that mistake again, so here I are. I also have an assembled, magnetized Leman Russ primarch model on my WIP table. Priorities atm are playable models, but I doubt I can hold off on painting Russ much longer. He's playable currently, but I only have two or three praetors, a chaplain (or rune priest. Nobody knows yet EDIT: Rune Priests/Priests of Fenris. We know now.), a contemptor and one unit of marines actually assembled. I have a ton more at home to be built or in the mail, including a Leviathan Dread and a Sicarius, but those are in due time. The big 30k tournament in Omaha is in June I believe, so that's my deadline.</div>
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With that mess, I also chose to develop some new skills, specifically, resin casting. There were a couple of custom sculpts I did on shoulder pads and such for the terminator variants that instead of doing a set for every single termy, I just cast them in a silicone mold so I can reproduce them for all of my terminators, of which I intend there to be many of. I love the looks of the Cataphractii, and the Tartaros is growing on me.</div>
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The offshoot of the resin project is the basing project. I didn't base my 40k marines at all hardly, but I will be this time. Instead of individually basing every single one of them though like I have with all of my Warmachine stuff, I just sculpted bases out of FIMO and Sculpey, and cast them in Resin. Expect that article here in the next few weeks because I'm really excited about it.</div>
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So that's it for now. Bunch of great stuff in the pipeline, including a detailed version of what you see above. I'm still alive, just super busy with life. Have an enjoyable Valentines day!</div>
<br />JediAnakinSolohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05612104007435908015noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2592330986543780083.post-21066709845587022592016-09-06T03:48:00.000-07:002016-09-06T03:48:13.148-07:00Step 3 into Guildball: Choosing your first GuildThis is Part 3, indicating there's a Part 2 and Part 1. If you missed them,<br />
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<a href="http://diceotfirstdegree.blogspot.com/2016/08/guildball-intro-in-case-youve-missed-it.html" target="_blank">Part 1: Guildball Intro</a><br />
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<a href="http://diceotfirstdegree.blogspot.com/2016/08/step-2-into-guildball-what-do-i-need-to.html" target="_blank">Part 2: What do I need to play?</a><br />
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Secondly, this article is piggybacked off of the statistical analysis I did last week. It covers all the Guilds with a fairly comprehensive infograph that hopefully hits all the main points of a Guild for you. If you're new to the game, a lot of the numbers don't matter to you, so I'm just going to summarize the basic playstyle and aesthetics to each one, and link you to the full thing if it interests you. I want to hit some points about actually choosing a guild for the game here, whereas in "Guildball at a Glance", I just wanted to get the info out there after I'd worked on it for two weeks and it was a lot of info, for new people and veterans alike. For the full article and all links, it's,<br />
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<a href="http://diceotfirstdegree.blogspot.com/2016/09/guildball-at-glance-statistical.html" target="_blank">Guildball at a Glace: A Statistical Analysis of the Game</a><br />
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So, the meat of the subject. Choosing your First Guild.<br />
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By first, I mean that you're addicted now. You've passed that threshold. But now you're going to pick a team, a Guild, and you don't have any clue where to start. Or maybe you've got one, but you've got to pick between two or three of them. Let's cover a couple of basics.<br />
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<b>A) This will probably not be your only Guild. </b> This isn't a pledge of allegiance or a huge financial commitment. When I came to Guildball, I looked long and hard at playstyles and guilds and playtested a few times before I bought in. Coming from Warmachine and Warhammer before that, buying into a faction can become a 1000$ investment in a year. Even if you don't like the faction, by the time you've built enough of it up to find out, you're already stuck. You can sell it off, sure, but used rates are 40-50% of MSRP or what you could have paid for it. On top of it, charging extra for a decently painted army just ensures that it won't sell since most people would prefer to paint it themselves, or to play it bare metal instead of paying extra for any painting at all.<br />
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This particular problem doesn't really carry over to Guildball. A full fledged 75pt list in Warmachine is easily 400-500$ and you need two lists for a tournament. Guildball wants 8 models for a tournament. 6 to play, 2 subs to put in to switch it up. My first tournament was Esters, Scum, Hooper, Spigot, Friday, Mash, Stoker and Gutter. That meant I had bought the Brewers starter set at 32$, and then Esters for 20$, Mash for another 20$ and the rest for roughly 10-15$ apiece. Mostly about 10. So 120$ for a tournament list, and a model to spare since I wasn't playing Tapper from the starter kit.<br />
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If you want to just play a six man list, you're looking at 32$ for the starter and 30-40$ more for a mascot and 2 more players. In the Brewers, the only 20$ models are Esters, Mash and Stave, and it's mostly according to base size and the accompanying pewter.<br />
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I now own all available Brewers. If I wanted to sell them off, I'd probably get 100$ for it. Maybe a hair less. Even if I got 80$ for them, that's most of another Guild. The Brewers only have 9 released models right now, 10 including Quaff by the time this article is released probably. 80$ picks up most of another Guild easily, and 10$ purchases here and there afterwards are nothing compared to needing another 75$ trollblood unit for Warmachine. <br />
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The TL;DR, don't overthink the commitment. It's easy to come back from finding out you don't like a Guild's playstyle. Half of the time, someone came to the same realization with the guild you want and will trade.<br />
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<b>B) Don't be afraid to proxy, either with the paper models or on Vassal. </b>Steamforged wants players and so does your local community. Nobody is going to mind if you bring the paper models. My local store has a box of them so you can try it out even. People want you to play, and they'll accommodate that.<br />
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Online also has an option called Vassal and the module is built by Steamforged. Hop onto the Vassal Ball facebook group and request a game and someone will run through the ropes with you. Play some games. It's all free, and in some cases, easier than playing Guildball on the table. If you'd like to try vassal, check out this article on this blog <a href="http://diceotfirstdegree.blogspot.com/2016/07/vassal-for-guildball-getting-started.html" target="_blank">here</a>,<br />
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I'm also prone to proxying models, even if I don't have a paper representation. The Season 2 Brewer's Mascot, Quaff, has been a zombiecide dog mounted on a base for a long time, and Vet Spigot has been played by regular Spigot for awhile too. I think my first time playing Esters, I used Calandra, a Trollblood caster. Generally nobody minds, as long as you don't take it to a tournament.<br />
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<b>What do you like to do vs. what looks the coolest?</b><br />
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<b> </b>There's two main things I look at with people getting into a game. If they've never played a miniature game before, I encourage them to go with their gut and pick the coolest looking models to them. They can ask a lot of questions about playstyle and etc, but it's really hard to actually know what you enjoy doing if you haven't ever played anything similar before. So pick the neatest looking models. What makes you really want to put that model on the board and charge into the other team? What captures your imagination the most and puts you on the pitch? That model for me is Tapper, and similarly Hooper and Stave. That full out sprint from two models with their sticks out swinging, kilts billowing in the wind behind them and Stave moving up the center lobbing bombs to cover them? I love it. The Brewer's playstyle is also very similar to the Trollbloods I came from, so that translated well, but really, it was the aesthetic that did me in.<br />
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What do you like do? If you're playing a 6 man team on a ball field, do you want to play ball? Then, off the top of my head, you're looking at Fishermen, Alchemists and Engineers. Do you want to fight? Get in and mix it up in melee? Brewers, Masons, Butchers and most Union builds (though they have a strong ball kicking element as well). Or are you a dick that hates people deep down and wishes they would all die? Then Morticians are you what you want, and if you don't like easy buttons, there's the Hunters. Both are control Guilds, but Hunters do it with a very tightly developed team hit and run strategy, while Morticians are basically standing around while Obulus takes all their influence and does it all by himself. Super solo with 5 other models out there with him.<br />
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Then there's individual differences. A few player changes and the new Captains and everything is different. Tapper with the Brewers is a very bashy player. Esters, however, buffs her team to do nearly anything, including strong bashing, but she brings a great control element game with her ranged plays.<br />
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The Fishermen are probably the best example. Shark doesn't want to fight. He wants nothing more to run circles around you and score the ball three times. Corsair is the opposite. He's all Brawler with a higher than average kick. A few player changes, couple of Union models and the Fishermen suddenly have one of the tankiest teams in the game.<br />
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All of the Guilds have their own niche. Both Brewers and Butchers want to bash, but Butchers are little squishier, yet hit a little harder. Brewers can tank decently on their own, but are little slower to the field . They also have a ranged element between Esters and Stave that the Butchers don't have at all. The playstyles are all very distinct. Some similarities do exist, but the tools are all different, and instead of becoming more similar, so far, Steamforged has done nothing but show that they can become more specific and diversified. <br />
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Before we get started, probably the most useful infograph to you is the basic Guild Comparison chart. It'll give you a lot information about the Guilds, but if you haven't played a lot yet, the difference between Offensive Character Plays and Defensive ones and whether they're ranged or Guildball probably don't matter to you a whole lot. However, the whole thing can be seen here.<br />
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<a href="http://guild%20comparison/" target="_blank">Guild Comparison</a><br />
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So. Alchemists. Alphabetical.<br />
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Alchemists are all in on ball kicking with some ranged condition attacks. They have two extremely adaptive super solo Captains, one heavy guy that's yet to be released that's worth taking and Vitriol, one of the models in the game. So good nobody knows if she's supposed to strike or fight. If you want ball kicking team with a captain and at least one or two models that can really put the hurt down (Midas, Vitriol, either Katalyst), get the Alchemists. Midas is really what it comes down to. Smoke, the Season 2 Captain, is very much a ball kicker and condition damage dealer. Midas actually dictates what the opponent brings since he has the ability to steal a character play. You opponent builds a list around having something like "The Unmasking", Midas can take it. He and Vitriol are also exceptionally difficult to kill, and especially him. Really feel like you get models killed easily, well, most of the team won't help you out but Midas is pretty forgiving in that regard. DEF 5 base, Unpredictable Movement standard, can give himself both Clone and +1 ARM as well. If you don't like Midas, don't buy Alchemists.</div>
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Aesthetically, they're kind of a Victorian era steampunk looking group. Obviously the overall theme of the game is moderately Steampunk, but that idea is really carried by the Alchemists and Engineers. The Midas sculpt is a great rendition of the typical Ironman landing, and he's such a dynamic model in the field that part of me wants to play the Alchemists just for him. </div>
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Nah, Vitriol. I want to play it for Vitriol. Even though I despise her ballerina sculpt.</div>
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Full infograph on them is here: <a href="http://imgur.com/mRfCw1z" target="_blank">Alchemists Infograph</a></div>
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These are my guys. I own four Guilds and I keep coming back to Brewers. Their playstyle is very natural to me and I enjoy it a lot. They're a very bashy team, and that's what they want to play, but they can switch gears very quickly. Friday, both Spigots and Season 2 Mash can all strike very well, and Friday and regular Spigot both can fight pretty decently too. If you're looking for a team that can play several playstyles easily, Brewers are one of the options.</div>
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Right now the craze is all Esters. Tapper, who I originally played Brewers for, is very straightforward, and easily predictable or controlled. That can be played around, but I find Esters is far more forgiving in that regard. She patches a lot of holes in the Brewers with her buffs and just really supports the team. She also is one of the best ranged models in the game, and a Tooled Up Esters removes mascots and Greede from the game on a regular basis, Turn 1. </div>
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They're also a fairly tanky team with plenty of defensive buffs. It's not often they get one-rounded. </div>
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Aesthetically, they're Scotsmen. I keep saying aesthetically, as if you can't see the picture above I posted, but the Sculpts are what drew me in, not the concept art. Everyone in the Guild except Esters and Friday are sprinting or hauling up the field all out fighting. I love it. Very dynamic sculpts, and I'm a sucker for kilts. </div>
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Full Infograph here: <a href="http://imgur.com/dC7c04Y" target="_blank">Brewers Infograph</a></div>
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The Butchers have a lot of things in common with Brewers. Very melee oriented, brings conditions to the table quite a bit. What they don't have in common is they're far faster than Brewers and will easily get into the fight turn one. They also die way faster than Brewers do and are basically glass cannons. Their 2'' melee models in the game are not particularly popular right now, so they struggle with a lot of things that 2'' melee makes simpler, like Unpredictable Movement and Clone.</div>
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They do kill though. Not so much because of their high TAC value, because their playbooks are just as long, but because of their damage buffs. Ox alone has 3 ways to get +1 damage on a model, and can do all 3 in one turn. They're supported by a couple of decent strikers like the Briskets, but overall, the team wants 4-6 takeouts a game. You want to fight, brawl and be dirty about it, Butchers are your people.</div>
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Aesthetically, they're all in aprons. They're actually more dynamic in most regards than the Brewers are. Boar, Boiler and Shank are all beautiful models. Shank's chains spiraling around him is one of my favorites. </div>
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Full Infograph here: <a href="http://imgur.com/wiEf5Ng" target="_blank">Butchers Infograph</a></div>
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Engineers want to kick the ball. They've got consistently strong strikers across the board, and their mechanica models are extremely difficult to remove. They also have some ok ranged elements from their Season 1 Captain, Ballista, and they have the ability to gain momentum at range with him as well.</div>
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As far as ball teams go, they probably have the toughest learning curve, but it pays off when you get it figured out. They don't really want to fight much, though probably more than a Shark Fisherman team. They do have access to Rage right now, the Union slaughterhouse, so that helps them quite a bit but for the most part, they want to push you around from range, run their mascot into you and blow him up, and score goals. </div>
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Aesthetically, they look like a bunch of welders with some puppets that play the game too. Imagine a whole guild run by a bunch of Geppettos. Pinocchios a real team. The only dynamic models in the range are the strikers which are notoriously difficult to put together. The Season 2 Captain isn't bad either, but most of the models in the range are pretty stoic. They just stand there and look at you. Even the giant spider dude from Toy Story without the doll head. He's stoic until he charges 12'' at you under Pinvise.</div>
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Full Infograph here: <a href="http://imgur.com/EKkSHDd" target="_blank">Engineers Infograph</a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiTpTDpkWmalwbNZ1oCqwZsYIbRI_-pg9oOhJFxVjOp4KW1g1T8s0b0BNv-WgxAGqGw4RaWfbFN87fNUnXlxAyMZytNPk0phGHsA7mU9LOlE4aibBHzFWDyvRiQljlMsYC_1NFEnuheuBE/s1600/GB-Teams-Fishermen.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiTpTDpkWmalwbNZ1oCqwZsYIbRI_-pg9oOhJFxVjOp4KW1g1T8s0b0BNv-WgxAGqGw4RaWfbFN87fNUnXlxAyMZytNPk0phGHsA7mU9LOlE4aibBHzFWDyvRiQljlMsYC_1NFEnuheuBE/s640/GB-Teams-Fishermen.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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The Fishermen are probably the easiest Ball playing faction to step into. Specifically a Shark led team, the Season 1 Captain. At decent TAC, they build momentum fairly easily, and with 2'' melee across the guild and high DEF, they can do it pretty safely. If they get caught, they die, but they're tough to button down. </div>
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The other side of the coin is Season 2 brings Corsair and Sakana, both of whom can fight a bit, and with Jac and Kraken, the beefier guys from Season 1, they become a bit more of a seafaring Brewers team that tanks moderately well. Not as well as Masons or Brewers, but pretty well, and still amazing a kicking the ball. If you want to hop right in and start scoring, the Fish are for you. </div>
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Aesthetically, their sculpts are great. Kind of a waterworld feel to them (old Kevin Costner movie that wants to be a Mad Max in the Sea kind of story), lots of whispy movement to their poses. Shark's model alone is one I need to own, and if I own his, I might as well own the rest.</div>
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Fishermen's Infograph: <a href="http://imgur.com/0ix40Su" target="_blank">Fishermen Infograph</a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEigt2bXCWzHAvSXRl5_-8iJojKj9r-6Ggl1bbO0xR6SmUae8jJ9SVTJoKGzvJEBwq-VNT_lDJoIxYJHlihJtYrAncMOQ1EIDbLgiiYQ_IxVdUbFGjrdPqUwuF183ytJ4_TzgkCk8HPx_t8/s1600/stfbhun02001.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEigt2bXCWzHAvSXRl5_-8iJojKj9r-6Ggl1bbO0xR6SmUae8jJ9SVTJoKGzvJEBwq-VNT_lDJoIxYJHlihJtYrAncMOQ1EIDbLgiiYQ_IxVdUbFGjrdPqUwuF183ytJ4_TzgkCk8HPx_t8/s640/stfbhun02001.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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I can't find any concept art outside of the box, so here's the Hunters. They play almost entirely a ranged game except for that one dude Jaecar and then the Bear. Both come charging in, wreck your day, kill everything you love, and then one of them runs away and hides and it's not the giant bear. No, that guy stays and hangs out in your face and counterattacks you at TAC7 with a push on Column 1 or a KD on Column 2. <br />
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The rest of the Guild is not that straightforward. The rest of them want to shoot, and stay back. The Captain starts wanting to fight in melee towards the end of the game but for the most part they stay and try to control the flow of the game. Very steep learning curve and some very good players in the game have yet to figure out how to play these guys. A couple have demonstrated that it can be done, but by and large they struggle in the meta. I own this guild, and they're fun, but I can not make them work for me. However, since they've only got six players right now, one captain and one mascot, they're pretty limited in what they can do. Their day is coming. Want to get in on the ground floor of a Guild, these are the guys.<br />
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Aesthetically, they're Robin Hood with a little bit of Tolkien. Theron looks like what one of the Hobbits from the last trilogy would have looked like if he was 6ft. All beautiful sculpts. The only boring one is Chaska, who just stands there. With his shotgun. Yeah. He brings a shotgun to a soccer game. How's that?<br />
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Full infograph here: <a href="http://imgur.com/HAQyEWm" target="_blank">Hunters Infograph</a><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg60fQQPITRunINhlG_2Je_3DfDUHAFiaH1YK_AaDlwqw6hYCOAoFlcwK42QgRWlQSkx127fjm_3kL7A6yJal1Y1V905hNzygmqwB05JusSaCsX0FBhiGANKc6Miv3RvagIhyRkMcMmgRQ/s1600/GB-Teams-Masons.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg60fQQPITRunINhlG_2Je_3DfDUHAFiaH1YK_AaDlwqw6hYCOAoFlcwK42QgRWlQSkx127fjm_3kL7A6yJal1Y1V905hNzygmqwB05JusSaCsX0FBhiGANKc6Miv3RvagIhyRkMcMmgRQ/s640/GB-Teams-Masons.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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Masons. Another adaptable Guild, but they've got a far better ball kicking capability than some of the other beefier, tankier teams, yet they tank the best as well. They're not quite the fighters that Butchers or Brewers are but they've got the tools to get it done. <br />
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Season 1 Captain, Honor, can put models to ARM 3 relatively easy. She's also got great Guild support built in with some solid character plays and she's got some solid bashing stats herself. Season 2 Captain is Hammer, and he's all in on the fighting. He can score just fine, but he really enjoys just smashing other models.<br />
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Anchoring the team when they can't get the TOs enough is Flint, the supposedly best striker in the game, and then Mist from the Union, whom they have access to. The two of them run the ball extremely well and can make the game a 2TO - 2 Goal game very quickly. Another Guild that my wife and I own. They're a lot fun, easy to pick up and play and answer a lot of questions. Pose a lot of questions too.<br />
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Aesthetically, they're kind of the knights of the game. Lots of pretty colors, pretty armor. Very aesthetically pleasing. Most of their sculpts are the early ones, so very small compared to some of the newer stuff but that's being fixed slowly but surely. They're probably some of the more boring sculpts right now though. They're ok, but they don't really inspire me. I like my Brewers.<br />
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Full Infograph here: <a href="http://imgur.com/25mNySj" target="_blank">Masons Infograph</a><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTK5VfdW8KBy7eSqpTI9Qv3zYV30Q8HA78ByqxXEvD_1ofsA57o4tQIGHnmbZdA4cGX0tvxnvsvu4rlsADyFwTZG_ix21bMKVOKhZkA9oQIf_mtWuIHsqSOu8Q_0QNIwSMxGfLjCBYhOE/s1600/GB-Teams-Morticians.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTK5VfdW8KBy7eSqpTI9Qv3zYV30Q8HA78ByqxXEvD_1ofsA57o4tQIGHnmbZdA4cGX0tvxnvsvu4rlsADyFwTZG_ix21bMKVOKhZkA9oQIf_mtWuIHsqSOu8Q_0QNIwSMxGfLjCBYhOE/s640/GB-Teams-Morticians.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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It's like the Adam's Family had a Guildball team. These guys are all in on control. Not much for kicking the ball, they like to hide it against scoring teams, or keep it on Obulus who is very, very difficult to button down. Relying on some Union choices to do their own scoring (Mist), and their killing as well (Rage), they spend most of the game choosing your order of activations. They focus on disrupting plans and order on the other side, tearing it apart piece by piece and wrecking the isolated models. Obulus and Ghast, both with 2'' melee, generally anchor the team for damage, tanking and momentum generation. Rage, Fangtooth, Mist, Avarisse and Greede are all common choices to be in a Morts list. Honestly, a Morticians list is Obulus (rarely the Season 2 Captain, Scalpel), Ghast, Silence and Dirge. The last two are Union. </div>
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Season 2 Captain isn't bad. She does lots of great things, but she doesn't just straight up answer and ask questions all day to every guild like Obulus does. Knowing the opponent's team is just as important as knowing your own when playing the Morts, so players getting into this Guild want an approximate knowledge of the game. They don't play like any other guild, but are also very strong. </div>
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Aesthetically, they're the undead. Again, very Adam's Family looking. Dark, brooding, long robes. Not quite the same undead look from other miniatures games, with skulls and ghouls everywhere, mind you. Just rough looking pale guys carrying burial and post-mortem equipment. Some beautiful sculpts though like Ghast, Casket, Obulus. Ghast is another one of my favorites. Very dynamic, full of motion. Take a look when you get a chance.</div>
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Full Infograph here: <a href="http://imgur.com/oIiF6c4" target="_blank">Morticians Infograph</a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdxbrekGy5MMRMaEQ5gVnN3Ul8aRhMrnEmFPtWvHlMJtpomU6_vD6NhYKyQuMD5Y_pTr72buAaScjJJ1JLpQYkXH-UrFrt2cwYkBJyEHoNYBy2D7wjX52qsvJ_NSfP8DqYblYERYq7b7M/s1600/GB-Teams-Union.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdxbrekGy5MMRMaEQ5gVnN3Ul8aRhMrnEmFPtWvHlMJtpomU6_vD6NhYKyQuMD5Y_pTr72buAaScjJJ1JLpQYkXH-UrFrt2cwYkBJyEHoNYBy2D7wjX52qsvJ_NSfP8DqYblYERYq7b7M/s640/GB-Teams-Union.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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Last, but not least (That was the Hunters), we have the Union. Union's got the largest playbook, so the most variety as well. Their captains are pretty straightforward. Mostly bashy, but some support. Blackheart, from Season 1, probably has the most support. Great Legendary, 2'' melee and just some great all around things he can do. Vet Rage, from Season 2, is all bashy. He can buff speed for one guy, but mostly he just wants to kill and helps others kill.<br />
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However you want to play the game though, the Union has it. Not as much control as some other guilds, but a little bit. You want to play bashy though? They've got it, all day long. Kick the ball? Got it, all day long. There's a little bit of everything in here. If you don't know what playstyle is for you, kinda want to try it all, Union's a great place, and the nice thing is that any guild you buy in the future will use some of the Union models you already have now.<br />
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Aesthetically they think they're either classy English gents in top hats, or ninjas swathed in stealthy robes. Then you've got like, Fangtooth and Minx who nobody knows what happened there. I don't like some of the Union models, and the standard Minx model is one of my least favorites. However, both Rages are straight up copies of Daniel Day Lewis's character from Gangs of New York, which is pretty cool, and Avarisse & Greede are great sculpts too. Again, English gents with Tophats. I like that aesthetic. The rest of it, meh. <br />
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Full Infograph: <a href="http://imgur.com/UIELDIb" target="_blank">Union Infograph</a><br />
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So, maybe you got a glimpse here in the last three (four) articles of something you liked about the game and maybe even a Guild to get started with. Worst case scenario, show up to your FLGS (Friendly Local Gaming Store) and get a demo in with someone. Try some different guilds, play the game, etc. I've tried to build a decent platform here to view the game from, but I definitely encourage you to roll some dice out there and see what you think. It's a great game, in a great place right now. <br />
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If you've got any questions, email me here, comment or catch me on twitter, @diceotfirstdegree. I'm Jedianakinsolo on most of the forums, and I can't give you any high tactical advice, or which is more broken, Fillet or Obulus (Though I have an opinion) but I can definitely show you how to assemble and paint your first models, walk you through the rules of the game and get you going. I'm all in for that.<br />
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Enjoy the last of some of this great weather and I'll see you guys around!</div>
JediAnakinSolohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05612104007435908015noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2592330986543780083.post-75421768319532408222016-09-02T19:19:00.001-07:002016-09-03T09:04:26.240-07:00Guildball at a Glance: A Statistical Analysis of the Guilds of the Game<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhA94YTtM0gbZKNagC9KBKiAgNf_yKV8-S6eNxHB8eBsHKa-Iz2LolKfFkCY6szSuzRm89dng-B8VwDG3xCZNjaYCqhEwufNhJKosZ3H6SAepNR5LNTC-k8XxRRK2E8I0QW4dvyrM8aew4/s1600/Guildball+AveragesTitle.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="330" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhA94YTtM0gbZKNagC9KBKiAgNf_yKV8-S6eNxHB8eBsHKa-Iz2LolKfFkCY6szSuzRm89dng-B8VwDG3xCZNjaYCqhEwufNhJKosZ3H6SAepNR5LNTC-k8XxRRK2E8I0QW4dvyrM8aew4/s640/Guildball+AveragesTitle.png" width="640" /></a></div>
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Everything in this article is for a wifi connection, heads up.</div>
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This is technically part III of getting into the game but it became a lot more than that. Everything it pretty well explained in the images themselves, so I won't go into great detail. If you're getting into the game, start with the first image, the largest, the Guilds at a Glance where every Guild's basic stats are compared across the board with the game average tossed in. </div>
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Beyond that is an infographic for every Guild. If you're looking at getting into the game and trying to figure out what playstyle interests you, hopefully some of this stuff can be a decent glimpse for you into the kind of game you want to play. I'd love to put all the images up here but Blogspot's format is not happy with the size of the graphics, so I'm linking you straight to Imgur.</div>
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<a href="http://imgur.com/1GaOsAP" target="_blank">Guilds at a Glance</a></div>
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And then the specific Guilds.</div>
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<a href="http://imgur.com/mRfCw1z" target="_blank">Alchemists</a></div>
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<a href="http://imgur.com/dC7c04Y" target="_blank">Brewers</a></div>
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<a href="http://imgur.com/wiEf5Ng" target="_blank">Butchers</a></div>
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<a href="http://imgur.com/EKkSHDd" target="_blank">Engineers</a></div>
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<a href="http://imgur.com/0ix40Su" target="_blank">Fishermen</a></div>
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<a href="http://imgur.com/HAQyEWm" target="_blank">Hunters</a></div>
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<a href="http://imgur.com/25mNySj" target="_blank">Masons</a></div>
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<a href="http://imgur.com/oIiF6c4" target="_blank">Morticians</a></div>
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<a href="http://imgur.com/UIELDIb" target="_blank">Union</a></div>
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The full Imgur album is <a href="http://imgur.com/a/9Goan" target="_blank">Here</a></div>
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If you'd just like to download the full album, it's <a href="https://drive.google.com/open?id=0Bz-bspR46u6iUEpfbHpJRTlWT0E" target="_blank">Here</a></div>
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Hopefully this was worth the wait. I hope you guys enjoy the information here. Feel free to leave comments, critiques and corrections or email them to me directly, or catch me on twitter, @diceotfirstdegree. </div>
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Enjoy your Labor day weekend and I'll see you guys around!</div>
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<br />JediAnakinSolohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05612104007435908015noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2592330986543780083.post-68494589828583800912016-08-17T04:16:00.003-07:002016-08-18T04:37:48.266-07:00Step 2 into Guildball: What do I need to play the game?<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEghkVtg4XXvSFsSPiviQYGo6HfYgYWFdVqMGiI4lMOVi9UZkKxtc3Gw9xyb9UiF9KT0j71DcXW4bwYLcxdn_mtAaVucfxTrkjdcNjSgbdVGlNpSPUbpbmhMkMxvx4NenDTFqj7e4YySNUo/s1600/20160627_171917.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEghkVtg4XXvSFsSPiviQYGo6HfYgYWFdVqMGiI4lMOVi9UZkKxtc3Gw9xyb9UiF9KT0j71DcXW4bwYLcxdn_mtAaVucfxTrkjdcNjSgbdVGlNpSPUbpbmhMkMxvx4NenDTFqj7e4YySNUo/s640/20160627_171917.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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This originally started out as "Choosing your First Guild" but I got into what you needed to play the game first, and after a million pages, decided to break them up. So, let's look at a lot of text that talks about all the money you're going to spend on things that aren't models just to play this game.<br />
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That's kind of a rough impression, but the basics for this game is measuring tape and a handful of dice. Anyone you're playing with will probably help with the rest. The ideal starting kit is a 5$ measuring tape, a 7$ box of dice (you want at least a dozen die), the 14$ widget kit for Guildball with the Kick scatter, and something to mark character plays with. The best recommendation I have is a Privateer Press token kit for your favorite color (base on faction. Cygnar has blue, Khador red, etc). That's another 12$. Chances are, someone you're playing has spares, so don't worry about it too much, but pretty soon, you'll want your own things. The list I just gave you is 38$, give or take a few bucks. After your first couple of games, they're things that you'll want to accumulate, and in many cases, already have around the house. If you've played Warmachine already, you have tokens, dice, and measuring tape. You just need the Kick Scatter. This is the TL:DR part. Get into the meat of the article and I have things like pictures to cheer you up.<br />
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So. A lot of people grab the models, show up to the game store and get a bit daunted when your ten year tabletop wargaming veteran dumps out a bag full of tokens, rings, measuring widgets, coins, marbles and anything else you can imagine cut into shapes made of quarter inch acrylic plexiglass. My favorite is the Mark I metal Centurion model that thumps onto the table but you don't know what it is because it's in the toe-end of a knee sock. No worries. You won't even know what hits you.<br />
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The Token/Widget collecting has gotten even more prevalent in the last couple of years as measuring widgets have picked up popularity. For the longest time, 40k was the king of the board, and any question was answered with a cursory check on a measuring tape. Melee was determined by being base to base and that's really all there was to it. <br />
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Then a couple of games introduced melee ranges, and in my case specifically, Warmachine. Warmachine brought in a lot of half inch melee, 2'' melee, 3'' movements after an activation, and all sorts of other in-game effects that involved half inch, 1'', 2'', 3'', 4'' and 5'' measurements on a regular basis. It became very clear very quickly that glancing over the top of a model while holding a tape four inches off the table was not very accurate and players were more competitive than the devices used to measure things. So widgets picked up. Warmachine had a little half inch one with a 2'' side. Then several other companies got into it and based on player feedback, began building ones with 5'' sides, 3'' sides, 2'', 4'', you name it. Now there's a dozen companies that do nothing but widgets. And if you're a podcast with more than a name and less than an episode, you have your own brand of widgets.<br />
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Similarly, Warmachine had a lot of in-game effects and statuses that needed to be marked, and introduced token kits for them. Other games have this too, like Infinity, and now Guildball. So when you see this veteran player dump his kit, know that he's accumulated this assortment over several years, and that most of it is stuff you don't need right this second. Let's talk about the stuff that is necessary, and then we can talk about some of the extras.<br />
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<b>1. Measuring tape</b><br />
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<b> </b>At this point it's moderately archaic but still needed. It's still the best way to measure out 17'' and etc and nobody minds too much if all you're doing is sprinting and seeing if you can kick a goal next turn. Get a cheap 5$ one from walmart or whatever. It's not the sort of thing I would get at a game store since it'll have some miniature company's name on it and they'll want quadruple the price. Get the cheapo and buy another Guildball mini with the rest. Quick tip: Anything that says "Games Workshop" on the side costs triple what it's worth and takes a little piece of your soul that you'll never get back.<br />
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<b>2. Measuring widget(s)</b><br />
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<b> </b>Maybe you come from warmachine already. If you do, your regular stuff is probably fine. Until MK3, Privateer Press didn't produce really good 1'' widgets except for the little key one for a long time. The new MK3 kits do really well though if you have one. I actually probably prefer it to the standard Guildball set, but there's pros and cons. The AOE template is pretty useless in Guildball, and the Spray Template is nothing more than a 10'' straight edge. However, the widget on the upper right has a half inch, 2'', 1'' and 5''. The only thing it doesn't have that you'll want often is a 3'', and sometimes a 4'', but mostly 3''. I do really like this one though because at 5'' long, it's easy to use the 1'' end for melee measurements without getting too much in the way of other models. However, 2/3rds of this kit is largely useless so I would wait til one comes up used, or your money is burning a hole in your pocket. Get the following Steamforged one instead.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfiXWdFCWKygayLxAFnI0i43HYH5HDoVYxF1a_Zl8PQjsUYbwRWCO1flbIIHrUfXlroool_4vv3aQ_YQaABs1DnHUUfRK5VLn4A09r_0kI2ylfoSYPiimrh43xRwDTAupORzcg7EYbXDM/s1600/Templates_Warmachine_Cygnar.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="326" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfiXWdFCWKygayLxAFnI0i43HYH5HDoVYxF1a_Zl8PQjsUYbwRWCO1flbIIHrUfXlroool_4vv3aQ_YQaABs1DnHUUfRK5VLn4A09r_0kI2ylfoSYPiimrh43xRwDTAupORzcg7EYbXDM/s640/Templates_Warmachine_Cygnar.png" width="640" /></a></div>
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So, the Steamforged set is probably the best one to get simply because you'll need the Kick Scatter token. It's the only widget like it in the industry and very basic to the game. It simply points what direction the ball goes after a kick, and it's never straight on. <br />
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The little widget in the bottom has a 2'' side, a 3'' side and two 1'' sides. That's enough for many situations and is most melee ranges in the game, and most movements. It's not a bad one. The only dumb token in the entire set is the drop scatter token. It has the same problem as a measuring tape and requires you to hold it over the top of the ball and look down. It's probably fine, and once you roll the direction, you measure the distance off the ball, so the drop scatter widget at best is a rough estimate. Really though, want you want is the Kick scatter. If someone has an extra, buy it from them. Otherwise, old Warmachine ones are great for everything except that Kick Scatter.</div>
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<b>3. Tokens</b><br />
<b><br /></b>
<b> </b>This is one of the few areas I think Steamforged dropped the ball on. A token kit is anywhere from 26$ to 32$. I can get a starter kit for the cost of a token kit that's already outdated since they're from Season 1 and we have models from Season 2 that are already in tournaments. None of the new captains have tokens in the Season 1 kits, so for teams like Brewers and the Butchers where the Season 2 captains are wildly popular, the Token kit is a waste. I'm actually going to direct you to Privateer Press's kits.<br />
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You can easily write the statuses and character plays down on the blank sets, and since there's a dozen factions in Warmachine, you even have a selection of colors to choose from. Instead of 30$, you're looking at 10-15$ for a far more adaptable kit. And the focus tokens are made to stack, and there's 20 of them. I highly prefer them to influence tokens and even after I buy the new Muse on Minis token sets in the next month, I'll possibly continue to use focus tokens from Warmachine.</div>
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On top of that, many Guilds have AOE character plays, and only a couple of AOEs to go with them. The Engineers are a perfect example, easily placing two AOEs a turn and their kit only comes with one. Grab some of these.</div>
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A pack comes with 5 and they've got a spot to write on. On top of that, they work great for a drop scatter token since you can actually place this one around the ball. These are 7$ to 10$ for 5 rings, depending on the local markdown. Your local hobby or leather store will have simple 3'', 4'' and 5'' metal rings that work too, but they don't have the arrows on them for ball scatter. For AOEs though, they're great.</div>
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Lastly, status tokens. Steamforged has this little bundle.</div>
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However, as of Season 2, there's a new condition called "Snared", which is not a token in this kit. It's, again, already outdated. So again, I use my old PrivateerPress ones that used to come with individual faction token kits. Now, however, PP wised up (in one, single area) and created universal packs. There's two. Effects and statuses. The Effects come with Fire, Corrosion (poison) and Disruption (whatever you want). The other one comes with Knockdown, Shadowbind, Stationary, and Blind. Stationary could double as Icy Sponge tokens, but you'd be the only player in the world to ever actually use Icy Sponge tokens. Bleed is really the only one that doesn't translate directly since Shadowbind works for snared just fine, but between Blind, Stationary or Disrupted, take your pick. Or, wait for Muse on Minis to release theirs. However, so far, this list has had things you can pick up semi-locally. In the next section, we'll talk about some of the products out there you can order.</div>
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The caveat to all of this is that I've seen anything from marbles, to the little glass aquarium things, to colored balls of fluff used for statuses. I like to have a bit more visual than that for both me and my opponent, but as long as it's clear on the table, that's what matters.</div>
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<b>4. Dice</b><br />
<b><br /></b>
<b> </b>Get what you want. They have Guild dice with the logo on them, but often you'll find you don't have enough. That's not really their fault, there's only 10 dice and it's not often that you need more than that though it happens probably at least once a game. I wish the kit had 12, but at 10, it's usually adequate. I would definitely have another set handy though.<br />
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It's also worth considering having some D10s or D20s to keep score and momentum. <br />
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<b>5. Card Sleeves and a marker</b><br />
<b><br /></b>
Couple of bucks. Get some cheap sleeves and a small dry-erase marker so you can mark health on your guys. I've gotten all fancy and laminated mine, but that's because I have easy access to one. Otherwise cardsleeves are perfect. But you'll need some.<br />
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<b>THE OTHER OPTION</b><br />
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<b> </b>Instead of Cards, get an app. If you've got a smart phone, there's no reason for you not to have a Guildball one anyways since it's great toilet reading. There's two options. Tooled Up is one. It's free. You download the app, download the card pack and it's ready to go. You can build lists, play games, record damage, have a timer, everything. Get it.<br />
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The other app is Guild Ball manager. Both of these apps are in the Google Play store. Idk about Apple users. No one likes those guys anyways. Buy sleeves, you hipsters. But for all the smart guys on Android, there's all kinds of options. Guild Ball Manager downloads and is ready to go. It's an easy to use app, also has a damage tracker, list builder, all that great stuff. The only issues I've seen is that it doesn't just straight up use the Guildball resources PDF cards, and sometimes the app is wrong, whereas I've never had an issue with Tooled Up.<br />
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<b>EDIT: The other side has spoken and there's an app for IOS called GBKeeper. I'm told it's pretty decent, but that's straight from the mouths of Apple users so who knows if that's the truth or not.</b><br />
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<b>Extras</b><br />
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<b> </b>None of the below is required, and honestly, it'll be a few weeks before you can appreciate the handiness of most of it. The above should have you set up for your first game without needing a whole lot, but the below is what you're going to see that everyone else has and once you know what you need, you'll see that it's a lot handier.<br />
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<b>1. Measuring Widget(s) and tokens</b><br />
<b><br /></b>
<b> </b>The movement from measuring tapes is more involved than just 5'' and less measurements. As tabletop wargaming establishes that it can be a competitively tight game, the small things that can be wrong easily are slowly taken out of the equation. Within a year, I think it'll be rare that you see a measuring tape used regularly at any Guildball table, and the same goes for Warmachine. There's already assortments of 1/4'' plexiglass acrylic measuring sticks, anywhere from 4'' to 10'' long that can be stowed in a bag and combined for any length of measurement. The most useable ones will be the ones at 5'' and below, but even for 9'' sprints, you'll see a four and a five used together more often on the competitive scene as time goes one. Especially if it's for anything like a kick or a charge that really matters and it's possible that they may be out.<br />
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This link <a href="http://forums.steamforged.com/index.php?/topic/15119-collected-guild-ball-resources/" target="_blank">here</a> takes you to a collected Guildball Resources thread on the forums. The top section includes various companies that sell tokens designed for Guildball.<br />
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My second favorite is the Art of War studio.<br />
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https://art-of-war-studios-ltd.myshopify.com/collections/guildballcompatible<br />
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They have the new measuring sticks, Guild specific, all of the status tokens you could want and updated core sets to cover all of the new spells. Most companies have the same thing, but I like AoW's quality quite a bit and I like their designs. If it wasn't for the next company, and that AoW is in the UK, I'd already have a set from AoW. If you're in Europe, I'd pick these guys.<br />
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Muse on Minis is my favorite, but they have yet to release the full Guildball line. The Muse guys live an hour and a half from me, I've been to their convention, and met and talked to most of of them. They're great guys, and we've had good times in Omaha and Des Moines both, so it's personal preference when I try to throw money in their general direction, and try and support a semi-local company. John DeMaris runs the Muse Token line, and is extremely easy to work with on custom orders and I have nothing bad to say about him. I've never seen a guy take so many pirate jokes without breaking into tears. If you're in the states, these guys are my recommendation.<br />
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http://museonstore.com/<br />
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I'd also like to point out that in their last podcast, they announced that the GB tokens would be releasing within the month. I'll be purchasing those immediately Currently, I use their multiwound magnetic trackers for my Momentum counter, and that's been pretty decent. The best one is the objective health counter. It's large base sized, and has up to 18 pts, so it's perfect for tracking momentum, and acting as a goal.<br />
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Counter Attack is another that I have seen used personally. The best is their goal sized token that has multiple layers and can track both momentum and score.<br />
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http://www.counterattackbases.co.uk/mob-ball<br />
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<b>2. Season plots</b><br />
<b><br /></b>
<b> </b>Similar in concept to scenarios for Warmachine, Guildball uses Season specific plot cards. There are twelve of them. You deal out 2 piles of five, select three, discard two. They have things like +1 DEF against the next attack, or +2 TAC during a counter attack, things like that. Not particularly game-changing, but slightly different and adds some flavor and mild unpredictability. Season 1 had one called "Don't touch the hair" which was basically Unpredictable Movement, but after the first attack. It created a pretty negative play experience though and as such, none of Season 2's are quite as drastic. There are a few tokens that are needed, but they come with the deck. The plots are not required to play, but any player past the basics will probably be playing them.<br />
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They are also available for free online as well in the Guild Ball resources section, so you're also welcome to print them off and sleeve them. Saves you 11$.<br />
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<b>3. Goal/Momentum counter</b><br />
<b><br /></b>
<b> </b>I touched on this in section 1, but I want to hit it again. You can use dice for this, or an actual purpose built token. I encourage it. It's important to both you and your opponent in this open information game to know what eachother's momentum total is currently at. Any die greater than D6 is probably fine, but there's some nicer setups out there.<br />
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My overall goal is to build/paint a pretty Brewer goal with a momentum counter built in but that's still in conceptual phase.<br />
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<b>4. Laser</b><br />
<b><br /></b>
<b> </b>Not a first purchase, certainly, but definitely one that is the best tool for specific situations. There are several variants, but my favorite is the Army Painter one. <br />
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http://museonstore.com/collections/frontpage/products/army-painter-target-lock-laser<br />
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It's a small pen laser that lays down a long straight line when held directly overhead. It's best use is for charge lanes or ball paths. Some of the measuring sticks will work for this as well, but when looking at LOS issues and etc, the laser is one of the best 10$ purchases you'll ever make.<br />
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<b>5. Pitch Mat</b><br />
<b><br /></b>
<b> </b>I used to really not care for mats. It was in warmachine, and a 4x4 mat was expensive, and didn't bring enough flavor to the board to interest me. Since Warmachine always used scenarios, I had to set up and measure things out regardless, before even placing terrain. Prior to MK3, a mat that had all the markings for scenarios and deployment lines was a lot of open information in a game that didn't allow premeasuring. Now, even in MK3, it's still a cluttered mess to have a mat that has all that information, and what's worse, Steamroller scenarios change from year to year.<br />
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Guildball doesn't have any of those problems. There is no proper scenario. Premeasuring exists. There's no reason not to have a mat that lets you convert any 3x3 surface into a playing field just like that. I'll talk about terrain in a moment, but for the most part, a pitch mat has all you need. For 57$ you have a ready made setup. To many people, that's not worth it, but I play enough that it's extremely nice to have and makes for a very pleasant looking game. <br />
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Steamforged has produced 2 specific mats. There are probably others out there, and I think there are people photoshopping their own designs and having them printed out, but I'm just focusing on the official ones. There's the Classic Pitch, and the Proving Grounds.<br />
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The proving grounds, to me, have a lot more character. But more importantly, it has two uses. The Demo format for a 3v3 game of Guildball uses the smaller, green board in the middle, and uses the goal spots that are six inches further in from the normal spots. As a prior PG from Warmachine, I'm fairly used to introducing other players to any game I'm playing, so the Proving Grounds immediately stood out to me as the preferred option.<br />
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Again, these mats are not required, you can easily make the needed measurements. I do prefer just rolling the mat out though, and I enjoy the asthetic quite a bit. When my fully painted army is on the move through fully painted terrain on a full color print mat, it's a beautiful site.<br />
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<b>6. Terrain</b><br />
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<b> </b>There's two main options. Ideally, your local game store will already have terrain, but Guildball tournament grade has specific measurements. Obstacles need to be within 2x2, Barriers need to be within 3x3, and forests, rough ground and fast ground all need to be within 6x4. Many of the standard terrain sets from Warmachine don't really meet these needs, so there's a few other options. <br />
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One of them is to build your own. I have another article here, building your own terrain using Hirst Arts, and at some point in the future, I'll do one about not cheating and casting your terrain, and making it out of stuff around the house. For now, the best suggestion I have is normal sticks, branches, basing material. Mine looks like this.<br />
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The second option is buying some. If you're going to buy some, the only really Guildball Specific terrain is the beautiful 2D stuff from Broken Egg Games.<br />
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http://www.brokenegggames.com/enhancements/guild-ball/guild-ball-2d-terrain-set.html<br />
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My problem with Broken Egg Games is their pricepoint sucks. They're super proud of their stuff. They've got good quality stuff, but they charge you pretty heavily for it. Art of War and Muse on Minis both have considerably more reasonable prices.<br />
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<b>EDIT 7. Carrying Tray</b><br />
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<b> </b>I happened to do some horse swapping and landed this super sweet carrying tray for Guildball from Tectonic Crafts. For Warmachine, where you could have thirty to sixty models, carrying trays are pretty mandatory. Instead of unpacking your army bag for every single table switch in every round of a tournament, you just loaded everything you wanted in the tray and left your bag somewhere safe.<br />
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Guildball isn't quite as bad. It's 8 models and a pocket of tokens. It really doesn't take too much to carry it around, but after a bit, a tray is pretty nice. I was planning on building one eventually, but now I've got a pretty sweet little one. They're worth looking at.<br />
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<b>In Closing </b>this became a fairly long article, but I hope it's given you an idea of what you need going in, and what's out there for options. Don't feel pressured to have all of this immediately. Most people out there want you to play the game and get involved and have more than enough for you both to use. Get out there, play. This is just a resource for you to know what you'll need at some point and what else exists. This is aimed at players new to tabletop wargaming, and Guildball, unlike any other, seems like it has the highest percentage of players new to the genre. Warmachine had a lot of ex 40k, Fantasy and stuff, but Guildball seems like it's half tabletop noobs completely. It's cool to see.<br />
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Anyways, hopefully this has been some help to you. Part 3 will be the basics of choosing a guild with some hard numbers and averages in the differences. Thanks again!<br />
<b><br /></b>JediAnakinSolohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05612104007435908015noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2592330986543780083.post-18849515594498349032016-08-14T23:46:00.001-07:002016-08-14T23:46:37.406-07:00Guildball Intro, in case you've missed it somehow.<br />Think Rugby, but in a Gladiator stadium. A Captain, four players and a mascot. Your team, your fight.<br /><br />You know Dark Souls? Did you know it has a board game? You may have heard of Steamforged. They recently held a wildly successful kickstarter for the Dark Souls boardgame. However, the boardgame is neither their first game, nor their first miniatures game. It started a few years ago with Guildball. Some of you may have heard of “Warhammer” or it’s American competitor, “Warmachine/Hordes”. Both fall under the tabletop wargaming umbrella, along with many other miniatures games. The newest contender to this genre is Steamforge’s “Guildball”. Guildball is a ballgame set in a fictional world full of crime, poverty and heinous organizations full of greed and intrigue. It’s almost a steampunk Victorian setting for the most part. Many guilds have become increasingly powerful in the wake of the Century Wars, and instead of settling their disputes through politics or money, they settle it on the field with their team. Thus: Guildball.<div>
<br /><a href="http://i.imgur.com/rRKKkkX.jpg"><img height="360" src="http://i.imgur.com/rRKKkkXg.jpg" width="640" /></a><br /><br /><br />At the beginning of each round, players allocate “influence” to each character depending on what your plan is that turn, and each character is able to do an action per influence or use it towards “character plays.” There’s a second resource in the game, called momentum. Momentum is created by the players based on successful attacks, passes and scores, and can be spent to heal or perform extraordinary acts, or “heroic plays”. Some teams are better than others at building momentum, others at using it, and others still at taking it from you.<br /><a href="http://i.imgur.com/zlUCDNM.jpg"><img height="480" src="http://i.imgur.com/zlUCDNMg.jpg" width="640" /></a><br /><br /><br />Playstyles are extremely varied. The Fishermen Guild and the Alchemist Guild both want to play ball, and bring the best “Strikers” to the game for that purpose. The Brewers’s Guild and Butcher’s Guild, on the other hand, would rather take out your players, and maybe score at the end when your team is down and broken, laying on the field in pieces. Then there’s Guilds like the Hunters and Morticians who don’t particularly excel at either, but are dominant at controling, and limiting. There’s currently nine Guilds, and almost any playstyle can be found among them. If you want to hit hard and survive, but maybe score a goal too, there’s Masons. If you want to hit from range and focus on scoring with the ball, there’s Engineers. If you want to be good at any and all of it and have the widest selection of players, there’s the Union. Any and every option is available and more on the way with each season.<br /><a href="http://i.imgur.com/tfsZiiw.jpg"><img height="480" src="http://i.imgur.com/tfsZiiwg.jpg" width="640" /></a><br /><br /><br />Unlike Warmachine or Warhammer, a list is not built up of points spent on models. A tournament list is 8 models including a mascot and a captain, and two of them sit on the sidelines to be subbed out between games. Because a tournament list is just 8 models, most guilds only have 10-12 players available currently, though this number will go up slightly as the game ages. Compared to Warhammer or Warmachine where a tournament requires two lists, each one being anywhere from 20 to 50 models, and a pricepoint of 400-1000$ per list, Guildball hands you a starter kit for 32$, and individual models sell for 10-20$ per model depending on the size of the model. I own three complete Guilds currently, and most of another, and all of that for less than one Warmachine list, and waaaaaaay less than one Warhammer list.</div>
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Here's a few models. This is a Fisherman team. All about kicking the ball, pushing models around and being hard to get ahold of.</div>
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<br /><a href="http://i.imgur.com/k3mWe6Z.jpg"><img height="451" src="http://i.imgur.com/k3mWe6Zg.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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A few of the Butchers. They're out for blood.</div>
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My particular favorite, the Brewers, or the drunks. They can brawl and ball both, but they'd prefer to brawl.</div>
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<br /><a href="http://i.imgur.com/sLMgaMk.jpg"><img height="337" src="http://i.imgur.com/sLMgaMkg.jpg" width="640" /></a><br /><br />The Morticians. They're dicks. All control, denial, and taking things from you.<br /><br /><a href="http://i.imgur.com/eZnGXDR.jpg"><img height="313" src="http://i.imgur.com/eZnGXDRg.jpg" width="640" /></a><br /><br />A little bit of everything. There's some union, some morticians. It's all painted beautifully. Well, it looks confusing. Sure it does. I thought that too, and I’ve played seven years of tabletop games. It took five minutes to figure this out. </div>
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<br /><a href="http://i.imgur.com/V5LXZg2.jpg"><img height="269" src="http://i.imgur.com/V5LXZg2g.jpg" width="640" /></a><br /><br /><br />Let’s look at a card real quick.</div>
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<br /><a href="http://i.imgur.com/aWqlVDR.png"><img height="410" src="http://i.imgur.com/aWqlVDRg.png" width="640" /></a><br /><br /><br />This is Corsair. He’s a badass from Season 2 for the Fishermen’s Guild. In Season 1, the Butcher Captain chopped his damn leg off in the storyline, and now he’s back. Unlike the Season 1 Fisherman Captain who plays ball all day long and exceptionally so, Corsair brings the fight back into the game. What’s the difference between Season 1 and 2, you ask? Is the Season 1 guy gone? Nope. You can play them both. Seasons just introduce new players and rules modifications to the game, much like large patches to any online game. </div>
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This card is still confusing though, I digress. Let’s look. He’s got a name. Corsair. There’s a base size on the upper right. We don’t care because he comes with a base. Under that though it says his Melee zone is 2’’. That means he can hit people from 2’’ away which is great, and probably the best character rule in the game. Most Fisherman Players have it. They’re annoying like that. Now all the numbers. From left to right, let’s talk about this.</div>
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MOV 4/6. He can walk 4’’ for free, sprint 6. Sprinting costs an influence, one of those resources we talked about.</div>
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TAC 6: He rolls 6 six when he attacks things in melee. This is pretty high, and only a handful of models have higher. TAC 6 and 2’’ melee means this guy is a boss in a fight. Most captains can handle themselves, but this guy is in the top half for sure. </div>
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KICK 3/6: Believe it or not, this is what the game is supposedly about. The 6’’ is how far he kicks, and the first number, 3, is how many dice he rolls to do it. 3/6’’ is pretty decent, a little above average. Most players in the Fish have at minimum that, and usually more. There’s ways to modify it but 3/6’’ is a great place to start.</div>
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DEF 3: So, let’s say Corsair attacks another player’s Corsair. TAC 6, we talked about that, right? So he rolls six dice. On a three or higher, it counts as a hit. 3+ is pretty average for a big guy like this. Not amazing, but with 2’’ melee, he has other options. Also, the back of his card says that he doesn’t give a shit about some things. We’ll get there. </div>
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ARM 1: So, everything on a 3 or higher hit, right? Well, take one away for his ARM stat. If four dice hit (average), then take one away, now he only has 3 hits. File this number away for a minute. </div>
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INF 4/6: The main resource here. 4 is how much he generates, 6 is how much he can be allocated. At the beginning of the turn, all of your dudes put their influence in a pool. Corsair contributes 4. Then you allocate it to people you want to do work. If Corsair’s in a good spot to kill a guy, then give him six. Someone going to take a ball and kick it? Great, give him some. Etc. It’s a resource.</div>
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<img src="http://i.imgur.com/qL9h17b.jpg" /><div>
<br />At the bottom, we’ve got his health. This guy’s a pretty difficult guy to one or even two round in some cases. Pretty decent for a captain. See the numbers in squares? Those are what he can come back into the game with after being taken out, depending on the number of “Icy Sponge” tokens you spend on him. Most of the time, you spend just the one he gets, and he’ll come back in with 6 boxes and you can heal up from there.</div>
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<br /><img src="http://i.imgur.com/lR7EQtD.jpg" /></div>
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<br />The back of the card is similarly cluttered with abilities. Cosair’s got a lot of good ones, including Sturdy so he ignores the first Knock Down. A great ability. He also has a “Legendary Play” which he can do for free once per game. Most captains have something like that. Those are the basics of a card, which comes with the model. Getting into the game is easy. There are 3 man starter kits.<br /><br /><img height="525" src="http://i.imgur.com/JrY7gA9.jpg" width="640" /><div>
<br />Then after that you buy individual models. You’re 3 away from being able to play a full game, 5 away from a full tournament list. The Guildball buy-in cost is very low for a miniatures game. Even better, it can be free. Steamforged has posted their entire ruleset, including the model’s cards and the complete rulebooks with tokens and scale sized printouts of the players themselves, all on line. You can literally print everything you would need except the dice and maybe a tape measure, for free, cut it out and play it. Even better, there’s an online option, ALSO FREE, called Vassal. Vassal is free to download, and Steamforged has developed an also free module for it allowing you to play the game online with friends, people from other countries, states, or just online because it’s easier than putting pants on. The game is widely accessible at 0 cost if you want it to be. You wouldn’t download a car, but you can download Guildball. It’s encouraged!</div>
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<br /><br /> Try a game! Print it out, give it a shot. The rules are all there, youtube is full of videos, there’s a complete set of forums for assistance, news and strategy. Try the game! Want to get started?<br /><br /><br />For all of the rules and paper proxies, check out:<br /><a href="http://steamforged.com/resources/" target="_blank"> http://steamforged.com/resources/</a><br /><br />For trying out vassal, try:<br /><a href="http://diceotfirstdegree.blogspot.com/2016/07/vassal-for-guildball-getting-started.html" target="_blank">http://diceotfirstdegree.blogspot.com/2016/07/vassal-for-guildball-getting-started.html</a><br /><br /><br />For regular support and online community, go to:<br /><br /><a href="http://forums.steamforged.com/">http://forums.steamforged.com/</a><br /><br /><br />Want a professional introduction to playing the game? Steamforged has one, at:<br /><br /><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SyoajPumow0">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SyoajPumow0</a><br /><br /><br /> Hopefully this has piqued your interest enough to take a look, maybe even give it a shot. If you have a local game store, contact them and see if they have anyone there willing to do a demo. You can even use the Pundit locator on the steamforged website to locate a nearby rep to demo for you. <div>
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<br />TL:DR A small miniature game that's fantastically addicting and either free or cheap to get into. If you have any questions, feel free to contact me through here on imgur, or email me at diceotfirstdegree@gmail.com. I’m a long time miniature wargamer and have two years of hobby support on my blog so hopefully I can answer a lot of your questions. Thanks for reading!</div>
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JediAnakinSolohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05612104007435908015noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2592330986543780083.post-23464695714841289112016-07-31T22:09:00.001-07:002016-07-31T22:09:25.956-07:00Esters, Rage, vRage and Gutter finished, plus running a Low-Inf Brewers team with Rage<br />
Let's lead off with the pictures of decent looking models. I like to start my articles with stuff that I know more things about, and then it devolves into random nonsense based on 0 experience from there. <br />
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Any less experience, and I could playtest for PrivateerPress.<br />
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Anyways. The Season 2 Brewers Captain, Esters. I was slow in picking her up. I spent a lot of time trying to play the Dark Horse on Tapper and even into the Hunters I was doing ok. However, he really does very little for the team, and after a particularly brutal matchup where he was easily tied down and the team just died without him, I went to Esters. Esters can literally support the team with 0 influence. She's a dangerous lady with 4 influence, but once the scrum is engaged in the middle, she mostly sings. Occasionally knocks down. She likes to be the first one into Corsair who can be difficult to get momentum off early, but with momentous 2 damage and KD, she can get past both his tough hide and initial KD, and then her second hit puts him on the ground. I'm enjoying her playstyle, but her model is definitely far from my favorite in the lineup.<br />
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Gutter is my control piece at the moment, though I'm warming up to Stave. Gutter goes into Tapper lists, being far better at threat extension than Tapper's Marked Target play. I'm playing her less currently, but again, I've gotten better at keeping Stave alive. However, Brewers love that scrum in the middle, and Gutter slots into that kind of thing perfectly.<br />
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Rage is my surprise favorite. I really loved both Rage sculpts, and ended up getting them both and painting simultaneously because of it, even though I haven't played vRage yet, or even Union, and it's not really that high on my list. However, the list I want to talk about a little has Rage in it, so he's painted up and rolling. We're in the middle of a Big League, so I haven't been able to field him as much as I would like to, but when he gets on the table, he's hella fun.<br />
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vRage is straight up because I like his sculpt, and one of these days, I'm going to play him just to abuse Red Fury. May not be the best reason, but I love that character play. It ignores so many things. He can cast it on himself even. It's hilarious.<br />
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The whole party of painted models. Not everything I own, just the painted stuff.</div>
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About that list. I have no idea what I'm doing.<br />
<br />
However, this idea started with someone pointing out that Rage cannot be affected by friendly character plays. So I began wondering if I dumped most of my ball players, leaving one or two that don't need a lot of support, and everything else was bashers, how well I could do. The biggest thing to try was Rage, and his number one problem is getting tied up by engaging models. Guess who loves blowing away engaging models?<br />
<br />
Stave. Stave can toss that bomb in there and blow off the entire crowd, leaving Rage alone in the middle, free to charge whoever. This is especially fantastic if it's early enough in the turn that the opponent doesn't have the momentum to stand a model up and charge. <br />
<br />
Who else? Hooper brings 2'' melee, which is extremely important in many matchups. For awhile, I really bounced back and forth between Hooper's 3 inf max and Stoker's 4, or 5 if Stave is around, but Hooper just hops up to TAC7 so easy and requires less setup for more damage. Stoker wants things on fire, he wants stuff unable to escape his 1'' melee. Hooper doesn't care. So Hooper comes along in most matches.<br />
<br />
Before we go on, let's talk Captains. Esters is obviously the best choice. She's capable of giving away all of her influence and still contributing, but she's also just better against so many more matchups. The 2/2 movement has been the biggest thing though. Being able to just toss that out there so easy has been make or break. So that ups Stave's sprint, Hooper's charge, all sorts of things. The only issue is that it doesn't affect Rage in this lineup.<br />
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Mascot. Scum doesn't bringing anything to table for a bashy list, I don't feel. Quaff is obviously better at that with Bag of Quaffers. More importantly, with Second Wind, he does a lot to remove Stave's ability to farm momentum for the other team. That, by far, is my biggest complaint with the big 2/0 defense guy, and Quaff protects him for the most part. <br />
<br />
Rage, again, was the big model I wanted to play. This team so far has 3 1inf models between Rage, Stave and Quaff, but Rage can't even have more than one so it works out. He goes and wrecks models, and between him and Hooper, causes a ton of damage. People like to engage him too, knowing that's what shuts him down, and Stave loves it when you walk into his range, letting him throw and then walk away. Also, Rage has Tooled Up. But so does Spigot, so why bring Rage? Well, don't bring Spigot.<br />
<br />
Bring Vet Spigot. I hated this guy's card when I first looked at him, but the more I thought about this low influence team, and the desire to have just one kicker on the board, vSpigot fit the ticket. He doesn't need influence to score, he just wants momentum. He has close control, sits on the edge of the board, counter attacks for free, and scores from 18'' away for FREE if he starts with the ball. That's ridiculous. So, he contributes 2 inf, and doesn't actually want any of it after the first turn. He can use it, but doesn't need it. He even has Goad if you need it for some reason. It's like Pinned, except a third of your team's influence doesn't go down the drain when you miss.<br />
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That's 6. That's the list. It brings 11 influence. Esters wants 4 at the beginning, maybe second turn. Stave wants 2. Rage gets 1. Hooper gets 3. Throw 1 at Spigot so he can run if you want, or Esters if you want her to sprint. Or Stave for the sprint. Hopefully Stave can blow somebody towards your lines. Esters can go early and buff whomever for whatever, maybe Hooper for Speed or Damage, and then she throws AOEs in the way of the scariest models, slowing them down. Stave blows in the nearest guy and Hooper builds momentum off of them for next turn. At that point, he could be +3 Damage with KD from Stave, Tooled Up from Rage and +1 damage from Esters. That's a Momentous 6 Damage at the end of the playbook. Once Rage gets involved, it gets pretty ballistic.<br />
<br />
The two I have on sideboard have varied a bit. One is almost always Mash. If I really feel like I'm going to lose the melee fight (Butchers) or if I'm bringing more than enough melee and need to protect the ball more (Shark Fishermen), then I bring Mash for 2'' unpredictable movement. Between Him and 2'' UM, Spigot with CC and Poised on the edge of the map and Esters with Gluttonous Mass, the ball can be extremely difficult to get away from the team. Hooper and Stave still smash face and even Esters can get involved.<br />
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The other one on the Sideboard... I had Stoker for a bit, but I always preferred Hooper. Avarisse and Greed are an option instead of Rage, and it's possible, but I haven't decided the matchups I would sub them in for. The biggest reason I would keep Stoker is to sub in for Rage if I'd rather have Guild, and 12 influence. Again, I haven't decided why I should do that, but it's an option. Gutter is another possibility, to replace Stave if I feel like I can't protect him. The list is going to take some figuring out, and more playtesting before I decide it's trash. <br />
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The game I got in with it was against Corsair Fishermen, and I trashed that list without using any of my sideboard. Corsair brought Kracken, Jac, Avarisse and Greed, Sakana, and Salt (for now). My opponent tried to play a bashy game, but Esters easily controlled Corsair, Kracken and Avarisse all game long with AOEs and conditions and they only ever got involved when Stave brought them. Every turn, Hooper was +2 or +3 damage. Corsair went after Spigot early turn 1 and got him, but had to come up the board quite a ways to make it, after which Stave blew him in close. Hooper took him down to one or two points, and then with the momentum, won the next turn and Esters killed him I think. Next was Kracken, pulled in by Stave. Hooper and Rage killed him too with room to spare. It took until round 3 for him to finally score and kill Vet Spigot simply because Stave was blowing models away and Corsair simply couldn't get enough momentum to stand up and do things. Spigot came back on in the back of the pitch and picked up the goal kick then mosied around. Hooper and Rage killed Salt and Jac in round 4, Rage being cleared off by Stave, and Spigot meandered up the board with an influence to sprint and scored the goal, no sweat.<br />
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I think if my opponent had played a considerably more scoring team (subbed out Avarisse for one of the strikers, maybe Kracken too), I would have had to focus considerably more on protecting the ball or losing against goals. As it was, I was happy to trade Spigot for Corsair, and then farm enough momentum off of Corsair and Kracken to heal Spigot and stand him up throughout the game until he finally died. And when he finally died, it was fine because Icy Sponge was faster at getting him back to pick up the ball than him trying to run back there was. <br />
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Overall, Rage and Hooper converted their combined 4 influence into 12-14 Momentum every turn. Rage was getting 2 per attack, and so was Hooper. My opponent really struggled to get into the fight at a pace faster than I was allowing, but with everything MOV 4/6", Esters was easily reducing the scary guys to 2/0". Even with their harpoons, I just had to stay outside of 8'', and even Stave can do that.<br />
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So yeah, I'm excited to play some more Rage, and I'm excited to do it with a completely painted team, with the exception of Quaff. But Gencon is next week and Quaff should be on shelves shortly after that. I'm excited. <br />
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Hopefully you enjoyed seeing some more painted Brewer's models, and don't think I'm completely crazy for trying Rage. We'll see you around. JediAnakinSolohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05612104007435908015noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2592330986543780083.post-87981507475350649562016-07-24T18:50:00.001-07:002016-07-24T18:50:32.759-07:00First Guildball Tournament and rude awakenings I have no idea what I'm talking about. We can lead off with that.<br />
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We had 12 signed up for a tournament, with four or five people coming on top of that who didn't have their names in the hat. Unfortunately at the last day, we lost most of those due to a number of reasons. We ended up with only 7, but one dropped to keep the numbers even. He came back in on round 3 to cover the bye, but that's about it. <br />
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I took an Esters team with Scum, since I didn't have any choice on the mascot. I really like Tapper, but he really struggles against any control it seems like, and if I'm not able to gain any momentum, it's hard for Spigot to use his Heroic to get some speed into the team. I've found I have a lot better grasp of the game when Esters is able to affect the team from turn 1.<br />
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For the full lineup, I took:<br />
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-Esters<br />
-Scum<br />
-Spigot<br />
-Friday<br />
-Mash<br />
-Hooper<br />
-Stoker<br />
-Gutter<br />
<br />
Spigot is always good with tooled up and football legend.<br />
<br />
Friday is there if I really want to play the ball. If I go into a strong beating team, then I'll just go all in on footballers.<br />
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Mash, I actually like to put in my teams when I'm up against scoring teams. He retains the ball very well with the dodge against everyone but the kickers with 2'' melee. Even them, he's 3/1, but can become 4/3 extremely easy. Between him and Esters with Gluttonous Mass, I can usually retain the ball pretty well. On top of that, once they start getting me surrounded, Mash just Long Bombs the ball into the backfield. <br />
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Hooper is Hooper. In this particular lineup, I didn't know if I prefered him over Stoker since Stoker has the extra influence, and with Stave (who wasn't in this line up), can go to 5 influence. However, I'm finding that for 2 reasons, Hooper is more reliable. 2'' Melee, for starters, lets me dodge of a lot of problems and solve many others. Secondly, his Heroic nearly counters Stoker's influence. At TAC5, Stoker really wants some crowdouts so he can wrap, even at 4 or 5 influence. He also wants things on fire to do damage. Hooper just wants them knocked down. Stoker, with 1'' melee, struggles into packed centers where he can be crowded out easily. Hooper just stands outside of the circle and plays whack a mole, and if you've got any momentum at all, he does it at TAC7. Any crowdouts or help at all and he's wrapping pretty easily. I can consistently get 6 momentum a turn off of Hooper where Stoker, even with a shorter playbook, needs more setup for that. I don't think Stoker is as bad as people give him credit for, but when Hooper can bump up to TAC7 and gain his +1 Damage without getting into b2b contact with the opposing model and do it all from 2'' away, it's hard to let him go.<br />
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Gutter lets me play the game at my pace. Instead of having to go to enemy and scrum, I can easily sit back, let Esters slow down the pieces I don't want to deal with, and have Gutter pull in a specific target for Hooper/Stoker to beat down. If it comes to a scrum in the middle, Gutter is a solid choice for putting all that damage out there on multiple models. The other option is Stave, but Gutter is able to survive considerably easier at DEF4 ARM1 instead of Stave's DEF2 ARM0. I really want to play Stave, but I don't think he's an option until I'm able to take Quaff and pull Stave back with Second wind.<br /><br /><b>GAME ONE: Brewers vs. Masons</b><br />
<b><br /></b>
<b> </b>My wife plays a lot of Masons, but never Hammer, and she hasn't figured out Brick yet. So while I felt comfortable into the Masons, I was wary of Brick and Hammer both. Hammer, I know what he does. Brick, I hadn't seen played effectively before.<br />
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Spoilers: He got played effectively.<br />
<br />
I left Hooper and Friday out. He took Hammer, Mallet, Tower, Brick, Flint and Marbles. I won the rolloff, Brick kicked, and I bounced the ball around a bit, trying to stall Gutter and Stoker's activations till someone came close enough. Esters activated early, moved up and targeted Brick with Fire and Rough Ground both, hitting him both times and lighting both Brick and I believe Mallet as well, on fire. This, as long as my opponent couldn't gain momentum, would prevent a mostly loaded Hammer from getting to me on turn one, allowing me to win the momentum war on turn one at least.<br /><br /> I ended up pulling Mallet in I think. Brick sprinted up his 2'' while on fire and in rough terrain, and when Stoker went in on Mallet, Brick countercharged. This didn't bother me too much since I didn't expect him to do much of anything and I didn't think you could generate momentum on out-of-activation attacks like Counterattacks.<br />
<br />
That's not correct.<br />
<br />
Brick didn't do anything to stop Stoker from doing much, but gained one momentum. This allowed Hammer to come flying in next activation and easily win the momentum war.<br />
<br />
So now on my back foot after a noob mistake, I tried to regain momentum and slowly pushed stuff around, did minor damage and kept the ball on Mash and away from Flint. Esters did a legendary and gave Stoker another damage, and he got tooled up as well and had a max of 4 influence on him. At this point, Hammer was knocked down and a little hurt but not bad. Stoker moved into Hammer, staying out of the scrum in the middle, and Brick countercharged from behind other models. I didn't think he'd have reach, but he did, and it was tight, but he got a momentous push and pushed my fully loaded Stoker out of melee with Hammer, and coincidentally, everyone else.<br />
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The game continued, but I certainly did not play it much after that. Models moved, but I was done. We played it out for the sake of playing but I was pretty pissed at myself for screwing it up on turn 1 with giving my opponent momentum to glide Hammer, and then not premeasuring Brick's countercharge on turn two. I wasted 4 inf and a legendary on that, and I was done. I lost 12-0. My opponent played it very well with Brick, and I should have known better by then. It was an easy mistake I could have rectified if I had checked Brick's range first, but because he was behind other models, I didn't expect him to be able to get there with the melee, but he did.<br />
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<b>GAME TWO: Brewers vs. Fishermen</b><br />
<b><br /></b>
<b> </b>I took the same list into my Round 2 opponent who was playing a Corsair Fisherman list. He had Jac, Sakana, Kraken, Avarisse and Greede, and Salt, all under Corsair. <br />
<br />
I again won the rolloff, and Corsair moved up to kick it. There was rough terrain in the middle, and he kicked it to my left where only Scum could really reach it. Scum went out and grabbed it and made a lucky kick back to Spigot.<br />
<br />
Esters really dominated this matchup. Again, I wanted to save Stoker and Gutter for the last activations and pull in either Kraken or Corsair himself but my opponent wouldn't particularly cooperate, especially since he was trying to do the exact same thing with Corsair. However, as soon as the cat was done and his next activation was over, Esters moved up and landed both a rough terrain and fire AOE on Corsair, removing 4/4 movement from him and severely hampering his threat range. The rest of the turn was my stuff staying out of Corsair's drag range. Gutter moved up and pulled Kraken in at the end for some extra momentum, and Sakana ran in to try and crowd her out. I won the next turn rolloff.<br />
<br />
Similar things happened. Esters hammered Corsair with AOEs again and then Legendaried Stoker for damage, maybe movement, and I think DEF on herself. Corsair did have range on Gutter though, and drug her in. He failed to do much damage, or build significant Momentum. Spigot tooled up Stoker and went in on Kraken for a little bit of damage. The rest of the Fishermen were out of range for much so they just shifted around and Avarisse tried to run to my side of the board to be relevant. Gutter activated and did damage to Corsair, Sakana and Kraken, but not a great, great deal. Got me plenty of momentum though, swinging onto a KD Kraken with Spigot engaging. Stoker was the last activation and I think he killed either Corsair or Kraken. This gave me enough momentum to win the next round where a fully loaded Gutter killed whoever I didn't kill the turn before, and Sakana died shortly thereafter as well.<br />
<br />
Midway through the third round, a mostly ignored Mash walked up and scored for kicks and giggles. However, I timed out, and things got very tight. I won the game 12-2 when a fully loaded Stoker finished a knocked down, crowded out Jac. The 2 points my opponent scored were because I had timed out.<br />
<br />
This game, I felt like I paid better attention to the gotchas in my opponent's list, and with pretty stoic threat ranges, I was able to really neuter the other team by simply lighting their hard hitters on fire and in rough terrain, and denying momentum. It was a best case scenario for my list, and Gutter being able to pull out the one I wanted to kill every turn just made it even better. It was a pretty rough game for my opponent, probably every bit as rough as mine had been in the last round. The only thing I really botched was the clock. <br />
<br />
Stoker was pretty hilarious in this game. He easily did the most killing, but in the last round, my opponent kept trying to take him down and keep him out of 1'' of his models so he couldn't just stand up and walk around. However, Esters stood him up with her heroic once, Gutter got him 2 momentum to stand him up once, and then on his turn, he just stood up with Magical Brew. It was pretty funny how often he went down, and how often he simply stood back up again.<br />
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<b>GAME THREE: Brewers vs. Brewers</b><br />
<b><br /></b>
There were only so many players left, and my fight was actually for third or second at this point. My opponent from round one was absolutely thrashed by a Obulus list in the second round that managed to get up to 23 momentum in one turn without using the legendary. He told me later he was in pretty much the same boat I had been. Just pushing models around with no hope and wanting the game to be over. So that left me and another guy pushing for second or third given the turnout we'd had. We stayed on the table I had just played on so the rough terrain in the middle was still a factor.<br />
<br />
The remaining opponent was another Brewers player. He was also playing Esters. His full list was her, Scum (for now), Stave, Stoker, Friday, Spigot. I took Mash out of mine and put in Hooper, leaving me with him, Esters, Scum, Stoker, Spigot and Gutter. The running joke was that since the main difference was Stave, I was definitely loosing this game since Stave would control my list so easily.<br />
<br />
I again won the rolloff and received the ball. Gutter was the best to retrieve it, so I settled for not pulling anyone in this turn and kicked it to Spigot. Esters moved up and bombed his Esters and Stave both, but stayed out of range of Stave being able to push her in. Hooper moved up and repositioned, Stoker wandered around kicking the ball. I won the rolloff just barely and Gutter pulled in Stave and began cutting him up for momentum.<br />
<br />
Stave, engaged, was unable to do anything, so Esters moved in and knocked Gutter down to free him up. My Esters moved in, stood everyone up and Knocked down Stave, then legendaried herself for a defense, Hooper for damage and maybe Stoker for damage too. Settling for not getting a Barrel off, Stave swung at Esters and she counterattacked, knocking him down. This was basically how most of my game went. I was always ahead in momentum, by several, and could easily defensive stance and counterattack to KD unless they were able to knock me down. With Esters at DEF4, and Gutter standing up, it didn't happen much. <br />
<br />
His Spigot and Friday slowly began hunting my Spigot, trying to get the ball from him. I wasn't too worried about it, and simply kept tooling up Hooper. My cat wandered aimlessly. His Stoker took three rounds to get into the fight simply because he was on the wrong side of the central rough terrain. However, he was loaded up constantly, and ended up just burning my Scum to death over two turns.<br />
<br />
At the end of Round 2, Hooper was at +3 damage and went in on Stave, killing him handily and generating 6 momentum.<br />
<br />
Round 3 led off with a fully loaded Gutter moving up, dragging Stave in and getting him pretty low. Stoker finished him in the next activation. That left Esters and another fully loaded Hooper counterattacking into Esters and putting her in a bad spot as well. Spigot got a "Ball's Gone!" off on my Spigot and gave it to Friday, whom I continued to ignore. That round ended, again, with a fully loaded Hooper beating the living daylights out of Esters for VP 5 and 6. Friday went and scored, getting my opponent to 6 as well. Esters would get the ball on the goal kick.<br />
<br />
My opponent won the rolloff, but even though the score was tied, the end was in sight. His spigot was tied up pretty well by Hooper, and Esters ended up walking up, throwing the ball to Spigot and putting some hurt in bad Spigot. Bad Stoker tried to hurt Gutter, but did very little. My Spigot walked up and scored with no issues, and a fully loaded, tooled up Hooper killed bad Spigot for the win.<br />
<br />
In conclusion, I missed 2nd place by 2 score difference, and/or a ball score. However, after being absolutely trashed by the Masons, I was ok with it.<br />
<br />
I really think the Masons game was the lynchpin, obviously. There's two easy mistakes I can look at and know that's where the problem was. I expected to have a difficult time into that opponent, and was prepared for a grindy game, but not knowing that momentum can be scored on the countercharge really hurt, and then having Stoker pushed out when fully loaded with the end of it for me. There wasn't much I could do to score after that anyways, and it wasn't of much concern to me. However, Mash had the ball most of the game, and if I had been inclined, could have probably scored it if I wanted to, and that's what cost me 2nd place. <br />
<br />
I need to premeasure. If it's a possibility, premeasure it. Check it. Find out. I can in this game and I don't every time, and it costs me. <br />
<br />
My future line-up is pretty exciting. I will probably not play Scum for a long time, especially with a Gencon release of Quaff and no tournaments before then. There's a couple of lists I want to play with a try, and hopefully batrep properly but we'll see. I also have Hunters that I'll switch to playing some more here in the future.<br />
<br />
So, for my first n00b tournament, I'm ok with it. Hopefully there's some basic mistakes in here that you can read and say "Oh yeah, don't be stupid like that guy."JediAnakinSolohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05612104007435908015noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2592330986543780083.post-54499576831205990572016-07-09T20:06:00.004-07:002016-07-09T20:13:19.013-07:00Vassal for Guildball - Getting Started<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Vassal comes up a lot when people talk about a Tabletop simulator, which boils down to what Vassal is essentially; A tabletop simulator with an internet connection. Modules exist for Vassal for most games, and if you've played any of the other games, you understand the frustration that comes with trying to navigate Vassal. But you really want to get that game in without driving an hour, or buying a plane ticket to the UK to play that one guy.<br />
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So you're googling Vassal for Guildball.</div>
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Here's the really nice thing though. The Guildball Vassal module is produced by Steamforged and updated/maintained by them and they even have a place for it in their forums. This is very different than any Vassal module you've seen before, and if you come from Warmachine specifically, Vassal is a hodgepodge rumination updated by a rotating group of people that do it as long as they can with out being so frustrated with it that they drop it entirely. That's gone with the Guildball Module.</div>
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The GBVM (Guildball Vassal Module; I'm tired of typing it out) is a streamlined program with all the shortcuts, widgets, art, plot cards, tokens and terrain created already by Steamforged. It's amazing. It takes a minute to get into, but not anything like the learning curve that the Warmachine module takes.</div>
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My major complaint about the WMH Vassal module was how swingy the dice were, and that may or may not be true with GBVM too. I haven't decided yet. My first game definitely had me miss a 5D6 Supershot pass from Mash to Hemlock, but then when we rolled out the theoretical un-bonus timed snapshot kick through an intervening model, she got a 5,6,6 screamer. So the computer generated dice are still interesting, at best. On the plus side, he never ever hit Slippery DEF6 Hemlock, even at TAC11. <br />
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Anyways, I can't preach how great this program is enough. I hope that if nothing else, you'll give it a shot. The Guildball community is taking off like nuts, but most of the warmachine players coming off the presses will not have great memories of the WMH Vassal module. I'm here to change that and tell you it's not the same. Right now, we might see two or three guys on vassal a night. It'd be nice to really raise that number up.</div>
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So, let's look at it. What are the major things that you need, or should have?</div>
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Before we look at the actual Vassal program, the things you should consider having are:</div>
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1. Skype/Mic. Trying to communicate with the other player about what you're doing without using Skype is very much hamstringing yourself and doubling the time involved in the game. If you're going to play Vassal, get Skype, get a Mic. It's pretty imperative with Guildball. You could get away with it a little bit in Warmachine because of simpler activations, but in Guildball, you absolutely need it. </div>
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2. Your cards, obviously, but the best thing I think is the App, Guildball Manager. It's a free app with all of the guilds, their cards, a fight feature, you name it. It's everything War Room 1 should have been with none of the downsides. Get it. It's free. There's no downsides to this program. Even if you have your cards sitting in front of you for playing Vassal, the app is great for checking your opponent's cards, and etc. Even better, it doesn't require you to have your cards with you wherever you have your laptop. Work trip? Good to go. Downtime on vacation somewhere? Good to go.</div>
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3. Time. A vassal game is still longer than a tabletop game, simply because you can't pick up a model and set it down. It's a bit more finite in Vassal than that. Everything else I think is actually streamlined and possibly faster, but physically moving models saves sooo much time. Don't go into a Vassal game with an hour of free time.</div>
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4. Vassal Ball Facebook group. Want to coordinate with some people for a game? Join the Facebook group. The forum's a good place too but the Vassal Ball FB group provides some instant updates on people's availability.</div>
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<b>Actual Vassal links needed:</b></div>
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1. The Vassal program. The base program is at the root of all of this, and you'll need it. It's at: <a href="http://www.vassalengine.org/">http://www.vassalengine.org/</a> and is currently version 3.2.16. Download it. Install it.<br />
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2. The Guildball module, located in the resources section of the website. <a href="http://guildball.com/#downloads">http://guildball.com/#downloads</a></div>
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Install the program, then the module. Start it up and double click the Guild Ball module. This will take a minute to start up, so when you start browsing the forums, or this great blog, keep in mind that the wizard pops up on the desktop, and you can't see it, and it doesn't create selectable on the windows bar. You'll have to minimize your window periodically (not show desktop) to check if the wizard is up. <br />
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Once it's up, if you just want to play around, or for some reason your opponent is sitting next to you, do offline game. Otherwise, look online. This is what it will look like.<br />
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The main window is the chat screen. The middle right window is the rooms in existence (Main, Scrub vs. Byron, and the one I created for this, Test). The far right is the players in the room. If you right click a room it gives you the option to join it, or if it's your own room, you can lock it because you hate people and socialization but you play a social game. If you right click a player, you can PM them. Above those two right windows are a series of statuses to indicate what you're doing. The X is afk, the exclamation point means you're looking for a game.</div>
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In order to create a room, in the middle window where it says "New Game", just type a name and hit enter and it will generate the room. Your other player will join, whatever. Someone creates the game. Ideally, get someone else to do it for the first time, but since this is a walkthrough, we're going to do it. Go to File, and hit "New game". It will ask you if you want to be a visitor, or home team, or visiting team. Generally the host picks home team, but either way, make you both know who is who. This will generate a normal green pitch, but if you hit the "Maps" button in the upper left, you can change your pitch.</div>
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If you click Roster, up left next to Maps, it'll pull up a few more windows.</div>
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There's several tabs that we'll talk about in a moment, but the Terrain one is the important one here. In the dropdown menu, there's your types of terrain, and then the selection menu to the right has the different sprites available. Drag them onto the pitch in a legal way.<br />
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Start over. This is the simplest way. If you've followed my instructions to this point, go to File, and close game. Now hit file, and choose one of the setups available. This will ask you all of the same questions, but will generate a pitch with terrain already placed. If you're just getting going in Vassal and Guildball, this is the way to do it.<br />
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The other player, when he joins the room, will select Visiting, probably, (whatever option is left). Then you guys can drag your stuff out. So, back to our Rosters button.<br />
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There's a lot of options here. All of which, you click and drag to the pitch. From top left to right:<br />
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<b>Templates: </b>Your AOEs are here. They're all 3'' AOEs, but with various art for various spells. It should be noted that the AOEs are selectable at their centerpoint, not the whole circle. This reduces some mouse confusion on the pitch.<br />
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<b>New Ball: </b>There's a ball in the center of the pitch by default, but if you delete it by accident, or it goes buggy (which happens), there's a new one here you can drag out.<br />
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<b>Tokens: </b>These are just little colored indicators for things if they aren't built into the engine. Haven't needed them yet, but like, when Tater comes out, you might use them since he may not be in the system yet.<br />
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<b>Token Sets: </b>These are faction specific. Select it, select your faction from the dropdown box and drag what you want out. Some of them will be missing, like Tapper's Commanding Aura, but that's because the aura effects are selectable options on the model itself. It's pretty sweet. These are indicators for spells and such, so Tooled up, Dirty Knives, etc. Football Legend, Commanding Aura, all that will be attached to the model.<br />
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<b>Individual Dice: </b>Haven't used them yet. Let me know if you do.<br />
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<b>Plots: </b>This is the wrong way to select plots for the game, but we'll talk about that shortly. These are specifically for league play since they have every faction, season one, season two and the campaign plots. How cool is it for a company to build their leagues into the module for you?<br />
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<b>Home/Visiting Team: </b>These tabs are identical except that the base colors are different so that all the various Avarisse and Greedes are identifiable from eachother. Same thing as the plots. Dropdown box select your team, drag them to the pitch.<br />
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<b>Terrain: </b>We talked about this already.<br />
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So, now that your stuff is on the pitch, let's talk about the right side of the board. <br />
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This is a great feature guys, I can't praise these dudes enough. This is the scoreboard and what amounts to your trays. The pretty artwork sections are where you can sit your tokens, templates, plot cards and dead players and keep the pitch clean. <br />
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Then there's the Scoreboard. If you look at the top and bottom of the board, it says "VP". Right click this to select if you got a TO, scored a goal, extra point, or if you need to reset them all. The three little divots to the right are for goals specifically. Selecting "Goal Scored" from the menu will automatically fill in one of those, and serves as a reminder for your extra influence. <br />
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Then there's your MP with the arrows on either side. Self explanatory for the most part. Click left or right to adjust MP. Keep it up to date because when you both are done, you'll hit "New Turn" and the game will factor in your MP for who wins initiative.</div>
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Then there's the dice. That long column from 1-22 is your dice. After you've added up your dice pool number, select the box next to that number and it will roll that many dice. </div>
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Now, instead of browsing those dice and trying to figure out how many times you hit that sweet 5+, instead of counting them out, that colored chart in the middle summarizes it all up for you. You got 5 hits at 5+ not counting any armor. If you're whacking on Stave, you did considerably, and unsurprisingly, better, at 12 hits needing 2+. Very intuitive, very simple. I really like it.</div>
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Brief note. Do you remember the tape measures from WMH vassal? Well, they're still here, in the upper right corner. And they still suck. They can be accomplished by many other things but if for some reason you need one, they're here.</div>
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One more thing before we play ball. The Plot Cards. Select "Plots" from the bar at the top. Not home plots or visitor plots. That's where you drag your league cards from your roster. Just select Plots, which is a deck you and your opponent will both use. Drag 5 cards from the deck to the table, select which ones you want, right click "Claim", where they turn blue, and then return the other two to the deck. The cards remain hidden from your opponent until you right click "Flip" to play them.</div>
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Now we're going to drag a player onto the pitch.</div>
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On top of the player, you see his name, Tapper.</div>
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Below that is his Health. Health is adjusted by Ctrl - or +, depending on how his day is going.</div>
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The arrow means I have him selected and if I hit the arrow keys, which direction he will move. I rarely use the arrow keys in this game though. </div>
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The little yellow dots on the bottom left is his current allocated influence. These are adjusted with the - and + keys as well, but without the Ctrl. </div>
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Then there's statuses. </div>
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From left to right, there's Poison (Ctrl P), Burning (Ctrl B), Lacerate or Bleed (Ctrl L), Snared (Ctrl S), Knocked Down (Ctrl K) and then Taken Out, which would remove all statuses and give you a skull but most of us just drag the player off the pitch.</div>
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Most of what you're going to do is holding down that Ctrl key. Ctrl X deletes the model, for example, while Ctrl C clones it (important here in a minute). It also creates our auras, the easiest part of playing this game. Ctrl 1 - 0 are auras from 1'' to 10''. Ctrl + Alt gives us the next ten inches, 11 - 20 by using Ctrl Alt 1 - 0. You can have as many auras as you want out there, and they can all be cleared with Ctrl period (.). </div>
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So, let's say that Tapper is sprinting to the ball, then over to the forest to engage Avarisse, but I want cover too, and I want to stay out of Avarisse's melee. I also want to be in Spigot's Football Aura so when I kick the ball at some point in Tapper's activation, I have 1/1 kick bonus.</div>
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I'll start by selecting the ball and pressing Ctrl 1. All of this can be done with the right click menu, but the keyboard is far easier. </div>
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So now, Tapper can move an inch, snap the ball, and use the remaining movement to get to the woods. I'm going to create a 1'' aura on Tapper, and Ctrl C to clone him. I'll drag the clone to where I want him to be in that Aura for that 1'' move, and then use Ctrl 6 to show how much movement he has left. I'll use the original sprite now, clear his auras with Ctrl . and then turn on the 2'' aura with Ctrl 2 for my melee range. I'm also going to turn on Spigot's Aura, which I can do with a Ctrl 4 since that's the range of it, or I can right click, scroll to "Special Auras" and select "Football Legend".</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjzGn79Tzb5rBfoP6zBpofZY5UqI4MEzIEvzI1cVdWDgS634MCsyrLblS0tf6XTNFiumulaSNfvtVad0TX4VOZVivLeGGDoHIWCk-_M-KEaMI_loGpbX5n-OxV34e0iLSVRzugYU3qFqvU/s1600/Cap10.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="262" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjzGn79Tzb5rBfoP6zBpofZY5UqI4MEzIEvzI1cVdWDgS634MCsyrLblS0tf6XTNFiumulaSNfvtVad0TX4VOZVivLeGGDoHIWCk-_M-KEaMI_loGpbX5n-OxV34e0iLSVRzugYU3qFqvU/s640/Cap10.JPG" width="640" /></a></div>
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This picture looks pretty complicated, but the TL:DR is Tapper moved south an inch, snapped the ball, sprinted with most of his remaining movement to engage Avarisse without being engaged by him, while toeing into the forest, and is still within 4'' of Spigot for his Football Legend.</div>
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This took maybe 5 seconds to do. It's very intuitive very quickly. I'm going to drag an invisible box over the whole group, hit Ctrl . and clear the auras and Ctrl X to delete the clones I don't need. This is way better than using the arrow keys to nudge players around and back and turn and etc. This is almost faster than a regular game of Guildball.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg1Gl28hrZ2MoPDFflYqDl7hf1WBQ1EJzmau4VfQaU5BpbQF8rjaL5c28XA1DBFD8vxh6bdEwfnkmFAFg7fDPs6rsYOQPgOz3JaQ0v70A6CzR_yP1JgQu_TxNAbkHBzz3VJwWWZVmmtL6w/s1600/Cap11.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="262" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg1Gl28hrZ2MoPDFflYqDl7hf1WBQ1EJzmau4VfQaU5BpbQF8rjaL5c28XA1DBFD8vxh6bdEwfnkmFAFg7fDPs6rsYOQPgOz3JaQ0v70A6CzR_yP1JgQu_TxNAbkHBzz3VJwWWZVmmtL6w/s640/Cap11.JPG" width="640" /></a></div>
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Fantastic. let's look at Kicking. Tapper makes this kick to Spigot, and even at 4d6 kick, I miss. If you select Spigot, hit Ctrl A to generate the Kick Scatter. Or again, the right click menu. If you ever have any doubts on the shortcut, use the Right Click menu.</div>
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Now, with the Kick Scatter created, and the ball selected (it snapped to spigot when you created the Kick Scatter), tap End on your keyboard and grab the half circle piece (not the path) and drag it to align your kick. Now hit Ctrl S for Single Scatter, or right click menu. If this is scatter kick you hit with and you can reroll direction, use the undo button in the upper left corner to step back and single scatter again.</div>
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Now resolve the scatter. It didn't go far enough to run into cover. I may have passed Spigot's path though, allowing him to snap the ball. Press End again and align the path. </div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhU48bpVeRBv5MDv7T6jtoKJCOeiuDGyLAvliceehHijQEvYFv4nzI6tqAb7UZw5rr_ZlVcM0B9s1f8odHVkEEfXrZ1Sg0UHEjIjz3uOCnvDlH-uXoRutaYqn-L_VGejfraAqBXn13jgyQ/s1600/Cap13.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="262" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhU48bpVeRBv5MDv7T6jtoKJCOeiuDGyLAvliceehHijQEvYFv4nzI6tqAb7UZw5rr_ZlVcM0B9s1f8odHVkEEfXrZ1Sg0UHEjIjz3uOCnvDlH-uXoRutaYqn-L_VGejfraAqBXn13jgyQ/s640/Cap13.JPG" width="640" /></a></div>
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It just caught him, so I will snap the ball to him. The path can be removed or created with Ctrl E, which is travel paths in general. Use Ctrl E for charge lanes and kick lanes, etc. Great tool. Again, if you're having issues rotating the path with End, make sure what is traveling is selected, in this case, the ball.</div>
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At the end of the turn, select "New Turn" at the top where your MP and your opponent's MP is calculated, rolled against and reset. It will tell you in the chat bar whether Home or Visiting won initiative and you'll go from there.</div>
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That's pretty much it. There's really not a lot more to show with it outside of you getting in there and trying it. Steamforged has a complete list of Keyboard Shortcuts available, but the ones you're going to use the most are the ones I've mentioned above, and summarized below. Everything that can be turn on can be turned off with the same set of hotkeys.</div>
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<b>Health: Ctrl - / +</b></div>
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<b>Influence : - / +</b></div>
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<b>Poison : Ctrl P</b></div>
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<b>Burning : Ctrl B</b></div>
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<b>Bleed : Ctrl L</b></div>
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<b>Snared : Ctrl S</b></div>
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<b>Knocked Down : Ctrl K</b></div>
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<b>Auras 1'' - 10'' : Ctrl 1 - 0</b></div>
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<b>Auras 11'' - 20'' : Ctrl 11 - 20</b></div>
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<b>Clear Auras : Ctrl .</b></div>
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<b>Travel Path : Ctrl E</b></div>
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<b>Kick Scatter : Ctrl A</b></div>
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<b>Standard Scatter : Ctrl B</b></div>
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<b>Path/Scatter Rotate : End</b></div>
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<b>Single Scatter : Ctrl S</b></div>
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<b>Delete model : Ctrl X</b></div>
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And that's pretty much it. Hopefully this has given you a decent insight to playing Guildball on Vassal. The Steamforged Forum for it specifically is located here: </div>
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http://forums.steamforged.com/index.php?/forum/23-vassal-module/</div>
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And the Vassal Guildball group is here:</div>
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https://www.facebook.com/groups/901202099948458/</div>
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If you have any corrections, suggestions, ideas for further improving this guide, shoot me a message on twitter @diceotfirstdegree or comment here. Thanks for checking this out and I hope to see you on the pitch.</div>
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JediAnakinSolohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05612104007435908015noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2592330986543780083.post-67409422375607229332016-06-30T06:48:00.001-07:002016-06-30T06:48:08.880-07:00Guildball Terrain -or- A Hirst Arts Commercial Guildball terrain, when I have painting articles to finish, is probably multiple counts of treason. However, there's tournaments coming up for Guildball that I want to play in. The nice thing about guildball terrain is that you need a lot less than you need for Warmachine, and it's considerably smaller pieces. <br />
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And it's not stupid crap like acidic clouds or burning forests. I'm not even going to create terrain like that because it'll never make competitive play. It's going to occupy a special niche in the trashcan next to MK2 deep water.<br />
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Anyways. Guildball. My wife and I have been playing a lot of it. In my last picture, I had Mash, Stoker and Hemlock unpainted. That's since been rectified and their pictures will be at the end of this article. I've also added Gutter to my log.<br />
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My wife picked up Decimate, and subsequently we grabbed Blackheart too since it didn't make sense to grab Decimate and Gutter separately for 24$ when we could grab the 32$ starter box and get another ball and a Captain. So we're a Mascot and a player away from a 6 man union team now too. This game is growing on us pretty fast it seems. <br />
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The other thing I grabbed was a playmat, and then realized that the nice 2d terrain I have for Warmachine isn't really the right stuff for Guildball. A couple of the templates work. Forests, rough terrain and the walls are all functional, but Guildball has obstructions and such that can block los or be stood on. So I started building some in my copious amounts of spare time.<br />
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It's going to seem like cheating. There's a lot of ways to build terrain. What it boils down to is a backer to put it on, and the actual terrain.<br />
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The backer was actually the hard part to figure out. I originally thought that MDF would be fine, but it's really too thick and does not like to get wet. At all. So I was thinking hard about some different plastics but it dawned on me that I have all kinds of spare kydex scraps laying around as leftovers from other hobbies. <br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjKSS_Z17fz-MZLN8mOK1wRdRrKpslZV1xnjqb-UGhLYEqFhn3RHn3l6tKlpvUmCzXPuL4CfoVALwuUrSxTCk3H7ukTVMl_AcNrmBwIPJz1kmQrMtCW8TKesN8JzFgDZSUESEDP3ZDovMM/s1600/20160629_140352.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjKSS_Z17fz-MZLN8mOK1wRdRrKpslZV1xnjqb-UGhLYEqFhn3RHn3l6tKlpvUmCzXPuL4CfoVALwuUrSxTCk3H7ukTVMl_AcNrmBwIPJz1kmQrMtCW8TKesN8JzFgDZSUESEDP3ZDovMM/s640/20160629_140352.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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Kydex doesn't show up very often in the wargaming world. It's a PVC thermoplastic that's often heated up and formed over different things as a mold. It gets to cosplay a little bit because it's very easy to work with. Where you'll find it the most though, is holsters. I generally get mine for a couple of bucks per sq foot at Knifekits.com, but some local craft stores may carry it too. You can get it in varying thicknesses. Mine is all either .06" or .08" thick. It's cuttable, sandable, formable, you name it.<br />
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I simply cut mine with a bandsaw to some manageable sizes. My rough terrain patches are about 4'' long, 2.5 to 3'' wide. My obstructions are about 2.5 x 2.5", and my linear or, other obstructions, are 1.5 x 2.5'' or so. Very loose measurements, but just an idea. I then dremeled the edges to get a light bevel and take out any harsh edges. <br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgP0qjBiHaTPb63mlJwcSKwSUqHpUvBYZyJj_TFA86JUVfahKsWVuwJEKOgpDip8WWiYsidKaviqIU1kBkn8FWvP07pJP8w_bvFVnlWPl7rm4pg3103vALbTSG8qHt1mlONQ1Ew-_Is_Js/s1600/20160629_141920.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgP0qjBiHaTPb63mlJwcSKwSUqHpUvBYZyJj_TFA86JUVfahKsWVuwJEKOgpDip8WWiYsidKaviqIU1kBkn8FWvP07pJP8w_bvFVnlWPl7rm4pg3103vALbTSG8qHt1mlONQ1Ew-_Is_Js/s640/20160629_141920.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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Then I glued a plethora of Hirst Arts to the Kydex. Really simple. Drained most of the Hirst Arts blocks I had left. I need to order some more plaster. However, you can use regular rocks, or sticks, or tree bark or craft sticks, whatever, to form whatever your scenery is. The difference in Guildball is that if there's room to put a model on it, you can. If this is a goal of yours, then you should allow for a model to stand on it. If the guy is worried about his miniature falling off and chipping, he's not going to use the terrain correctly, or the terrain just won't ever make the table. So keep those things in mind. In my terrain, the pieces that you can stand on are obvious, while so are the others that you're not supposed to stand on. I just did 2x Rough terrain, 2x linear/LOS blocking obstruction and 2x regular obstruction. I'll probably keep my WMH forest templates, and I have some regular walls from WMH that are perfect, and also made of Hirst Arts. They'll slot right in.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi5OFgRfaJ5L0pjAtc7BFfbyuGi_Zw-ACR0PfCILIXWhzHUxE9ZLgyP4xOUQ6H11B1zgi-MkXkzot8e2LaxrcwfiT7YcGPg1Ib4_Tq8CFi0sHO5rFoL5ZOabArrSSzA7oByLF20Y6PubDo/s1600/20160629_144653.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi5OFgRfaJ5L0pjAtc7BFfbyuGi_Zw-ACR0PfCILIXWhzHUxE9ZLgyP4xOUQ6H11B1zgi-MkXkzot8e2LaxrcwfiT7YcGPg1Ib4_Tq8CFi0sHO5rFoL5ZOabArrSSzA7oByLF20Y6PubDo/s640/20160629_144653.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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I then spread out elmers glue and dipped them in various mixed ballast to get the rocks. Painted the base brown, washed it with a very dark brown, drybrushed a light brown on dirt, painted dark grey and drybrushed to white. Very simple. Add some grass tufts and we're talking.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgYx7mdOCmRC0urxzGDjtu4s1rW_eW_A2iN4kgc9OWV2QVpjHCwEHIpRzPdxf-Jt8EinzKh_mkzKSa8t9ccLGCwNZQx48HVsmLFR0Yev6Q-h1KYhVHfqyMtBfxIZyuIukeAuC5ASZi-5fo/s1600/20160629_150107.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgYx7mdOCmRC0urxzGDjtu4s1rW_eW_A2iN4kgc9OWV2QVpjHCwEHIpRzPdxf-Jt8EinzKh_mkzKSa8t9ccLGCwNZQx48HVsmLFR0Yev6Q-h1KYhVHfqyMtBfxIZyuIukeAuC5ASZi-5fo/s640/20160629_150107.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjlea2DSufFDcYoUbqXmfcRdnwCQ4IDw40ZyfVQgQTPDFOVRPvUvO_IYQfQU3EucHf7nLliVjghg12tNzJ-Duuxrz5pooAKyM5-ScYWgaphM7eYy5ss8T3EUlDC2594wXiiCbkG4oIx2TM/s1600/20160629_232621.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjlea2DSufFDcYoUbqXmfcRdnwCQ4IDw40ZyfVQgQTPDFOVRPvUvO_IYQfQU3EucHf7nLliVjghg12tNzJ-Duuxrz5pooAKyM5-ScYWgaphM7eYy5ss8T3EUlDC2594wXiiCbkG4oIx2TM/s640/20160629_232621.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-ZmDhNl2q1YO5Oyj-RTk-dTIQUeEYkHhHNfgQQve5JvGaloPmzfFtQGRh6UQDuqxgt6bDZ55Kq5hyphenhyphenPP7g72dSq_QjfN6VNkG73G68Sf8lgPmFjfhTxLKHP6XAUEGYBgB1M6S8WCTqss0/s1600/20160630_022814.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-ZmDhNl2q1YO5Oyj-RTk-dTIQUeEYkHhHNfgQQve5JvGaloPmzfFtQGRh6UQDuqxgt6bDZ55Kq5hyphenhyphenPP7g72dSq_QjfN6VNkG73G68Sf8lgPmFjfhTxLKHP6XAUEGYBgB1M6S8WCTqss0/s640/20160630_022814.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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Boom. Guildball terrain.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9Mjv0XUcR-xBvbn5qfk2jRCXvA8zdjB4wQvIUVrHHAIvSZWKnnqIiq6osW5IaVCLrU38ZnbSWqob7XNJbjJ_CEeKTF5i1aNThp4T-b6zZaCK8Yh2VPPF2lcun245DE17IzW3_XWPQ4fI/s1600/20160630_083329.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9Mjv0XUcR-xBvbn5qfk2jRCXvA8zdjB4wQvIUVrHHAIvSZWKnnqIiq6osW5IaVCLrU38ZnbSWqob7XNJbjJ_CEeKTF5i1aNThp4T-b6zZaCK8Yh2VPPF2lcun245DE17IzW3_XWPQ4fI/s640/20160630_083329.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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So that's that. Simple stuff. But I really like using the Kydex. That's probably going to stay.<br />
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As far as my new Brewers, here's Mash, Stoker and Hemlock.<br />
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That's all I've got today. Probably won't see anything from me til after the 4th. Enjoy your holiday!<br />
JediAnakinSolohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05612104007435908015noreply@blogger.com0