Paint 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.

  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.  

  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.

  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.

  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?

  I'm out.

  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.

  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).

  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.

Games Workshop, or Citadel

  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".  

  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.  

  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.

  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.

  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.

  Army Painter

  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.  

  Vallejo

  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.

  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.  

  There is also the Airbrush line I mentioned earlier, but I'm going to cover that separately.

  P3 (Privateer Press's paints)

  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.

  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.

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.  

Skill Progression

  I have one more paint to discuss, but I want to hit this real quick before we go there.  

  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:

  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. 

  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.

  This brings me to my final paint, 

  Vallejo Air

  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.  

  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.  

  There's also the straight up cheating aspect of the Airbrush in the first place.  I shaded Ahriman in a few minutes.

  But now, back to Skill Progression.

  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.

  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.

  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.  

  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.

  Incoming Projects

  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.

  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.

  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.

  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!

Step 3 into Guildball: Choosing your first Guild

This is Part 3, indicating there's a Part 2 and Part 1.  If you missed them,

Part 1: Guildball Intro

Part 2: What do I need to play?

  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,

Guildball at a Glace: A Statistical Analysis of the Game

  So, the meat of the subject.  Choosing your First Guild.

  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.

  A) This will probably not be your only Guild.  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.

  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.

  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.

  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.

  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.

  B) Don't be afraid to proxy, either with the paper models or on Vassal.  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.

  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 here,

  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.

 What do you like to do vs. what looks the coolest?

  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.

  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.

  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.

  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.

  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.

  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.

Guild Comparison

  So.  Alchemists.  Alphabetical.

  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.

  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.  

  Nah, Vitriol.  I want to play it for Vitriol.  Even though I despise her ballerina sculpt.

  Full infograph on them is here: Alchemists Infograph

  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.

  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.  

  They're also a fairly tanky team with plenty of defensive buffs.  It's not often they get one-rounded.  

  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.  

  Full Infograph here: Brewers Infograph

  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.

  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.

  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.  

  Full Infograph here: Butchers Infograph

  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.

  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.  

  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.

  Full Infograph here: Engineers Infograph

  

  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.  

  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.  

  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.

  Fishermen's Infograph: Fishermen Infograph

  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.

  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.

 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?

Full infograph here: Hunters Infograph

  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.

  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.

  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.

  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.

Full Infograph here: Masons Infograph

  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.  

  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.  

  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.

  Full Infograph here: Morticians Infograph

  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.

  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.

  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.

Full Infograph: Union Infograph


  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.

  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.

  Enjoy the last of some of this great weather and I'll see you guys around!

Guildball at a Glance: A Statistical Analysis of the Guilds of the Game

  Everything in this article is for a wifi connection, heads up.

  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.  

  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.

  Guilds at a Glance

And then the specific Guilds.

Alchemists

Brewers

Butchers

Engineers

Fishermen

Hunters

Masons

Morticians

Union

  The full Imgur album is Here

  If you'd just like to download the full album, it's Here

  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.  

  Enjoy your Labor day weekend and I'll see you guys around!

Step 2 into Guildball: What do I need to play the game?

  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.

  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.

  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.

  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.

  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.

  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.

1. Measuring tape

  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.

2. Measuring widget(s)

  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.

  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.

  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.

3. Tokens

  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.

  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.

  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.

  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.

  Lastly, status tokens.  Steamforged has this little bundle.

  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.

  

  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.

4. Dice

  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.

  It's also worth considering having some D10s or D20s to keep score and momentum.

5. Card Sleeves and a marker

  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.

  THE OTHER OPTION

  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.

  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.

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.

Extras

  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.

1. Measuring Widget(s) and tokens

  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.

  This link here takes you to a collected Guildball Resources thread on the forums.  The top section includes various companies that sell tokens designed for Guildball.

  My second favorite is the Art of War studio.

  https://art-of-war-studios-ltd.myshopify.com/collections/guildballcompatible

  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.

  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.

  http://museonstore.com/

  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.

  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.

  http://www.counterattackbases.co.uk/mob-ball


2. Season plots

  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.

  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$.

3. Goal/Momentum counter

  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.

  My overall goal is to build/paint a pretty Brewer goal with a momentum counter built in but that's still in conceptual phase.

4. Laser

  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.

  http://museonstore.com/collections/frontpage/products/army-painter-target-lock-laser

  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.

5. Pitch Mat

  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.

  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.

  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.

  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.

  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.

6. Terrain

  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.

  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.

  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.

  http://www.brokenegggames.com/enhancements/guild-ball/guild-ball-2d-terrain-set.html

  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.

EDIT 7. Carrying Tray

  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.

  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.

 In Closing 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.

  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!

Guildball Intro, in case you've missed it somehow.

Think Rugby, but in a Gladiator stadium. A Captain, four players and a mascot. Your team, your fight.

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.

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.



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.



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.

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.

A few of the Butchers. They're out for blood.

My particular favorite, the Brewers, or the drunks. They can brawl and ball both, but they'd prefer to brawl.

The Morticians. They're dicks. All control, denial, and taking things from you.



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. 

Let’s look at a card real quick.

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. 

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.

  MOV 4/6. He can walk 4’’ for free, sprint 6. Sprinting costs an influence, one of those resources we talked about.

  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. 

 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.

  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. 

 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. 

 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.

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.

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.

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!

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?


For all of the rules and paper proxies, check out:
http://steamforged.com/resources/

For trying out vassal, try:
http://diceotfirstdegree.blogspot.com/2016/07/vassal-for-guildball-getting-started.html


For regular support and online community, go to:

http://forums.steamforged.com/


Want a professional introduction to playing the game? Steamforged has one, at:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SyoajPumow0


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.

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!