Guildball Batrep - Blacksmiths vs. Farmers - 6 December 2017

   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.


  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. 

  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.

 JD's lineup plan - 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.

Adam's lineup plan - Playing Into the Farmers, I know I want to avoid trying to fight with them.

  Thresher is a monster and I don't want any part of fighting him while trying to figure out the
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.

   JD - 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.

  Adam - 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.

The Rolloff

  JD - 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.


The Draft


   JD - 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?

   Adam - 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.

  The Kick

   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.


  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

  Adam gives Ferrite three, Cinder two, Iron two, Alloy three, Hearth two and... Furnace just one. 


  JD - 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.

  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.

 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.



   JD - 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. 



 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"



  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.

  Cinder sprints up and shoots Thresher for 3 damage.



  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. 


  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.

  Furnace activates, picks up the ball and kicks it to Cinder who dodges into cover on the left. 


  Jackstraw moves to the right and puts Crop Dusting and 2 Harvest Markers near Tater and Thresher.



  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.

  I ignore Ferrite for a moment and jog Bushel around behind her.

  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. 

  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.



  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. 

  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. 

  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.

  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.

  Thoughts on the Game  JD - 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. 

  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. 

  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.

  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.

 Adam - 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.

    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.

   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.

  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.

  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.

  JD - 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.

   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!


























Statistical Analysis of Guildball: Season 3 updates - The Farmers

  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.


  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 Here, and I'll be referencing it throughout this article.


  I'll steal the quick blurb I wrote for each guild on the infographic and place it here:


  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.


  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.


  Let's talk about a few of those points.  Well, actually, here's the sheet: Farmer Metrics


  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. 

  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. 


  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.


  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. 


  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.


  INF stats are pretty rough, but since there's a Harvest Marker mechanic, that gets countered a lot.

  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.) 

  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. 

  Playbook Results.  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.

  Character Plays.  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.


  Many of them are defensive though, or defensive aspects, which is going to be typical of the Character Traits too.  Speaking of which.

  Character Traits.  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. 


  Playing the Farmers

  This is coming off of my Lineup article, The Concept behind a Guildball Lineup.  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. 


  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.


  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. 


  Captains

  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. 


  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.


  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.

  Because of that all-around ability, I would take Thresher over Grange.


  Mascots

  Buckwheat and Peck are the options.  I actually like both. I was playing straight Buckwheat, but I've come to like Peck too.


  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.


  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.


  Obvious models I'm taking

  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. 


  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.


  That's 3 models.  Let's look at some other ones I'm likely taking.


  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.


  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.


  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.


  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.
 
  Union Models

  Benediction and Grace.  For now.  Til they're gone, per UK Steamcon 2017 Keynote.

  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.


  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.


  Models I'm not taking.

  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. 


  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.


  The Lineup


Thresher, Peck, Buckwheat, Tater, Jackstraw, Millstone, Bushel, Benediction, I guess Grange, Fallow.


  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. 


  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.


  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".


  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!

The 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.


  Oh hey, the PR image with the professionally painted models.

  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.

See?  So neat and organized.  Health counters too!

  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. 


  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.


  Look, here's Tater.  The metal guy that came out like a year ago and made my Brewers temporarily playable.

  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.


  Then we open the box.

  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. 

  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. 

  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. 

  Nice little pegs to slot them into.  Whatever.  I glued Wendle back down.

  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.

 

  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.

  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?

  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.



  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.

  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?



  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?

  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.

  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.

  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.

  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. 

  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. 

  So lets try to paint them I guess.  I primed mine and then did a zenith highlight.

 

  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.

  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.

  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.  

  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.

  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.

  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.

  Anyways, check out my... chicken. My black chicken.

  

  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.

  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.  

  On the plus side, Harrow was more exciting to paint than the next guy.

    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.

  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.  

  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.

  



  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.  

  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.

  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.  

  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.

  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.

  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.

  Enjoy your weekend, and I'll see you on the fields.