Wow over a year since the last update! Needless to say I haven't stopped gaming....let's get straight into it with......
I first heard of this at Smogcon in 2014. The guys had a KickStarter coming and some artwork there. I instantly went for the look of the Morticians and jump on the KickStarter. It ended just shy of £100k and almost 900 backers!
The were a little behing delivery estimation as I think there were some moulding and mini production issues but pledges started being received late March/April with retail being hit on the 27th. I upgraded to resin minis in the Pledge manager which meant didn't get mine until early May.
Guild Ball is in a medieval-ish time. It is a game of football with lots of violence and aggression for good measure - you score points with goals or taking out the opponents minis. It is an alternate activation game with nice simple action resolution but there are lots of choices which mean it has a great depth of gameplay.
There were reports of poor KickStarter pledge packing but when mine arrived it was nicely done and no damage anywhere.
The wait was worth it! The rule book is 128 pages of full color, landscape(!), loveliness! Of that about 35 pages are the rules and the rest is a mix of fluff and stat cards and entries for all the characters from the game.
I also ordered some templates which were nice acrylic and included a measuring block, scatter, influence and knocked down markers:
However they recently announced two token sets for retail - a Template set with scatter, kick scatter and movement - plus a plot card and token set which has nice cards for the game plots, influence and a few other stats. The retail tokens are a lot nicer looking and if I want to bling out my game I may upgrade at some point. There are also some nice Guild specific token sets. If you would like to see some pics go here:
http://www.firestormgames.co.uk/wargames-miniatures/guild-ball
It's worth noting as well that you can buy all your Guild Ball needs on their website, but you will pay less at a reseller like Element Games or Firestorm. I link Firestorm as they are my FLGS and provide great service!
Now the minis - I went with the Mortician team and have a their figures except Casket. Through a stretch goal I got Fangtooth from the Union guild as he can play for the Morticians too. I expect I will pick up the rest of the Union soon. I upgraded to Resin as I prefer Resin or plastic to metal. I don't know if they will produce resin in the future though (fingers crossed!).
When you field a team you use their captain and the team Mascot:
Obulus is the only guy I have painted so far! In game he can make people take an action and can steal influence. He can hit quite had too. The Kickstarter version pictured here differs slightly from retail in that in his left hand he holds a skull. He has the Morticians logo at the top of his two red tassels and I think the cane head is different. The team Mascot is Dirge. His job is to boost teammates stats, for example he can add 2 to a TAC roll. Also Cosset can get +1 damage if near him. Speaking of Cosset:
She gets free charges and an make enemies move towards her, but she doesn't hit too hard and is a bit squishy - she is the only model of my I had taken out for the first two games!
Graves is a great model with lots of detail. And a total bastard in the game. He causes bleed automatically, can give poison and has a great playbook. He's fast but again, not too many hit points.
Fangtooth is a big guy - I feel his model is a little smaller than it should be but a great piece. In game he has a huge number of hit points, great playbook and awesome traits - he makes a 3" area around him count as difficult terrain from his foul odor!
Lastly I want to talk goals. On the Guild Ball forums there was a competition that is ow over to design a goal, but everyone still makes one of their team. The only thing it needs is a 50mm base. Mine s a corpse cart, curtesy of Gok from Busido, which has been parked up and will have an arm protruding up holding a giant sharks jaw! I am waiting for the jaw to be 3d printed so there will be an article on that experience coming soon.
If you are in Bristol there is a league starting at Bristol BIG soon:
http://www.bristolindependentgaming.co.uk/forums/topic/wargaming-guild-ball-bristol/
A one day tournament is being set for September:
http://guildball.com/forums/index.php?/topic/767-clash-of-the-guilds-bristol-19th-september-2015-116-tickets-sold/
The rules and stats are all free online here:
http://guildball.com/#downloads
Each game I have played is fast paced and full of great moments. I highly recommend you try this out or at lest check out all the very nice models. A few more links for you:
http://www.guildballtonight.com/gbt/
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLWFbeAG_fgZMTCFPNHVgkoRh-KpbIb_Kj
I first heard of this at Smogcon in 2014. The guys had a KickStarter coming and some artwork there. I instantly went for the look of the Morticians and jump on the KickStarter. It ended just shy of £100k and almost 900 backers!
The were a little behing delivery estimation as I think there were some moulding and mini production issues but pledges started being received late March/April with retail being hit on the 27th. I upgraded to resin minis in the Pledge manager which meant didn't get mine until early May.
Guild Ball is in a medieval-ish time. It is a game of football with lots of violence and aggression for good measure - you score points with goals or taking out the opponents minis. It is an alternate activation game with nice simple action resolution but there are lots of choices which mean it has a great depth of gameplay.
There were reports of poor KickStarter pledge packing but when mine arrived it was nicely done and no damage anywhere.
The wait was worth it! The rule book is 128 pages of full color, landscape(!), loveliness! Of that about 35 pages are the rules and the rest is a mix of fluff and stat cards and entries for all the characters from the game.
I also ordered some templates which were nice acrylic and included a measuring block, scatter, influence and knocked down markers:
However they recently announced two token sets for retail - a Template set with scatter, kick scatter and movement - plus a plot card and token set which has nice cards for the game plots, influence and a few other stats. The retail tokens are a lot nicer looking and if I want to bling out my game I may upgrade at some point. There are also some nice Guild specific token sets. If you would like to see some pics go here:
http://www.firestormgames.co.uk/wargames-miniatures/guild-ball
It's worth noting as well that you can buy all your Guild Ball needs on their website, but you will pay less at a reseller like Element Games or Firestorm. I link Firestorm as they are my FLGS and provide great service!
Now the minis - I went with the Mortician team and have a their figures except Casket. Through a stretch goal I got Fangtooth from the Union guild as he can play for the Morticians too. I expect I will pick up the rest of the Union soon. I upgraded to Resin as I prefer Resin or plastic to metal. I don't know if they will produce resin in the future though (fingers crossed!).
When you field a team you use their captain and the team Mascot:
She gets free charges and an make enemies move towards her, but she doesn't hit too hard and is a bit squishy - she is the only model of my I had taken out for the first two games!
Silence can really mess with the opponents by forcing mode activation or delaying it plus he can bring Dirge back to life. His defense is good, which helps as he only gets three more wounds than Cosset.
Ghast is a big mini and looks awesome. He's next on the painting table! Lots of health, lots of punch and he can take his mask off causing pushes and damage!
Fangtooth is a big guy - I feel his model is a little smaller than it should be but a great piece. In game he has a huge number of hit points, great playbook and awesome traits - he makes a 3" area around him count as difficult terrain from his foul odor!
Lastly I want to talk goals. On the Guild Ball forums there was a competition that is ow over to design a goal, but everyone still makes one of their team. The only thing it needs is a 50mm base. Mine s a corpse cart, curtesy of Gok from Busido, which has been parked up and will have an arm protruding up holding a giant sharks jaw! I am waiting for the jaw to be 3d printed so there will be an article on that experience coming soon.
If you are in Bristol there is a league starting at Bristol BIG soon:
http://www.bristolindependentgaming.co.uk/forums/topic/wargaming-guild-ball-bristol/
A one day tournament is being set for September:
http://guildball.com/forums/index.php?/topic/767-clash-of-the-guilds-bristol-19th-september-2015-116-tickets-sold/
The rules and stats are all free online here:
http://guildball.com/#downloads
Each game I have played is fast paced and full of great moments. I highly recommend you try this out or at lest check out all the very nice models. A few more links for you:
http://www.guildballtonight.com/gbt/
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLWFbeAG_fgZMTCFPNHVgkoRh-KpbIb_Kj
Nice work on Obulus, he looks great. But his coat in particular stands out.
ReplyDeleteGlad you got back to posting on your blog.
Cheers! My plans to carry the black - red - orange - yellow thing through the team clothing (Cossets dress for example) to tie the team together. The Guild Ball team are also selling resin at Games Expo this weekend! Casket and the Union will be mine!!
ReplyDeleteJust saw their update on the KS page as well.
DeleteLooks like the resin casts will make it to the general market after all.