Player roles in Guild Ball (by Maurice)

Hey there, sports fans.

I hope you’re excited for a little digression on player roles in Guild Ball (from Steamforged Games).

Team selection is a critical part of Guild Ball. Each team has a selection of players from their guild to accompany their Captain and Mascot, as well as a handful of options to hire out from the Union. Although each player has a suggested position on their card roughly in line with traditional soccer positions (striker, winger, midfielder, back, etc.), these classifications only go so far once the game starts and the ball, knives and blood start flying about. In order to help assess and respond to a rapidly changing game in the middle of play, I feel it can help to remember a little bit more detail about how each player’s actual skillset can help you follow your path to victory (be it 3 goals, 6 take-outs, or somewhere in between).

What follows is a list of notional categories that you might consider when thinking about a players. Using maybe 2-3 categories to describe each option you have at hand, alongside other data, can help you create a more balanced or focused squad. Let’s take a look:

• Scorer - this player excels at putting the ball on goal; this doesn’t always mean a high kick statistic and range, but it usually does. Movement traits like Shadow-Like help as well.
• Ball Retrieval/Control - this player has the tools to go retrieve and/or hold the ball, whether it’s a fast speed, low-playbook tackle, close control, or a high defense.
• Momentum Generation - This player probably has a decent TAC and a reliable/desirable momentum-generating result on the first column of their playbook. They will give you a good return on your influence investment in the form of valuable momentum.
• Damage - This player has good damage values and a high TAC, or a play like Scything Blow. Certain players may do extra damage against characters that are knocked down or suffering conditions.
• Area Denial/Control - These types try to influence where the opponents want to go on the pitch. All players exert some amount of area control, but these players in particular have access to AOE abilities or push/pull plays.
• Momentum Denial - Another aspect of a high defense and certain character plays is that of momentum denial. Reducing the opponent’s access to momentum can make your damage stick and reduce their ability to score and move.
• Heal/Cleanse - These players keep your other players on the board, either by healing them or removing their conditions easily.
• Buff - These players hand out beneficial boosts to your team, whether it be additional TAC and damage, influence or move.
• Debuff - Conversely, some players are great at reducing the enemy’s capabilities to move, shoot or harm you.
• Influence - This player has a very good influence generation/demand ratio, or has other abilities to make efficient use of influence, freeing it up for use by other players.
• Activation Control - One of this player’s best abilities is to control the activation order of the opponent or increase your number of activations.

I’m sure there are more roles you can come up with that I’ve missed. One that comes to mind is that of the Tank: a player able to soak up large amounts of attacks/damage and occupy the opponent. This role has a weird place in Guild Ball, as many of the ‘heavies,’ with their massive health bars, can actually be very vulnerable due to their low defense.

There are many, many, many synergies between players that will drastically alter a player’s role from that when they’re alone. This is also just a theoretical framework to help you frame how you want to use your team at the start of the match and as play develops; any number of other factors can influence how a player should be used at a given moment, and each player could likely be described by five or more of these roles. Each player likely has 1 or 2 primary roles that they perform best in a vacuum, however.

Here’s an example of how I might describe a lineup you could see:

Fishermen

• Shark - Shark fills Scoring and Momentum Generation roles for this team, in addition to his other benefits.
• Salt - Ball Controller with his high defense and “Where’d they go” and can buff certain teammates.
• Angel - She’s going to be Scoring and Retrieving the Ball from opposing players.
• Jac - His pushes make him a great Area Control player, and he’s also pretty Influence efficient on many turns.
• Siren - She provides further Area Control with Lure and Seduced, while being one of the better Ball Retrievers in the game.
• Fangtooth - In this lineup, the big guy is here to further the emphasis on Area Control via Unmasking and Foul Odor, while his easy access to Knockdown makes him important for Debuffing (neutralizing) key opponents.

This lineup is obviously missing a ton of damage, like most Fishermen teams, but has a lot of ways to get the opponent to where it wants them to be, while retaining a good amount of scoring.

Anyways, I hope you’ve enjoyed this article and will take a crack at thinking about your teams in this manner. I’d really appreciate any thoughts, comments and criticisms below.

Stay salty,

Maurice

Dark Age tourney report (by Maurice)

On the 28th, our friend Aaron ran a Dark Age tournament at Games and Stuff in Glen Burnie. I'll talk a bit about the game,  my force and the actual games at the tournament below.

DARK AGE

Dark Age is a brutal skirmish game from CMON set on a planet abandoned by a collapsing interstellar human civilization,  leaving their descendants to deal with aliens, robots,  cannibals,  monsters and all sorts of other man-made and natural horrors. It's a fun place!

The game has been around for quite some time, and now has a huge range of available troops and forces.  There are a ton of viable strategies and it's extremely quick and deadly.

THE EVENT

We used small forces for this event and had 9 players (+ the TO punching bag force) show up.

I took a small team affiliated with St. Luke. The main human culture on the planet follows a group of Saints who represent the people's interests in a tense standoff with the ruling Prevailer Council thugs. Luke's forces tend to be well equipped (shotguns and smoke grenades!) and armored, but very expensive and fragile if the dice turn on them.

I had Zuriel, Luke's armorer, and hybrid medic & shot gun-toting bad ass; an Arsenal with a shotgun and grenade launcher; a Stinger with a spear; two militia members ; and two members of the Flock. The battle plan was to use the last four to screen the first three and let them use their template weapons and powerful spear attacks to clean up the stuff the grunts were engaging.

THE GAMES

Round one I faced off against some Brood, hideous mutants that regenerate, even when set on fire. The first scenario was just scored on kill points, so I was glad my opponent had invested a lot in speed over power (1 gazelle,  2 lashers and 2 broodhounds). After a couple rounds of cautious positioning, a broodhound charged in and started the melee. I was able to take out both hounds and the gazelle at the cost of my militia and flock, but the stinger eventually fell as well. The critical moment came when the Arsenal lined  up a lasher and his gun malfunctioned, leaving him dying on the ground. However, I was able to get Zuriel to him in time to resuscitate him and the two of them combined to take out the lashers in a very close affair.

In round two, I was paired against our local Dark Age guru Marc and his Skarrd horde of 2 - hit point maniacs (think Firefly reavers). We had to control a series of points across the board. I lost this during deployment as I sent two of my grunts off to tie down a couple of his figs across the board,  leaving my pricey damage dealers under supported against his main force. A couple of unlucky armor rolls later and I was left with nothing on the table. Moral of the story:  don't split the party or the cannibals will eat you.

For game three, I was up against Brood again,  but this time a more power focused force (Murtros, 2 ratchets, broodhound, spray guy). We had to control the center of the board, so this would be a brawl in which positioning was even more important.  We both raced for the center, as his picketing hound was quickly put down by the vaulting Stinger. However, the pup slowed me down just enough to enable the rest of the Brood to make it to the middle first. This left me in a tough spot, needing to get models into the objective zone, bit at the cost of support from my other figures. A well-placed acid burst further reduced my numbers.  My necessarily piecemeal attack left me unable to put down the regenerating brood,  resulting in defeat.

Last up I had to face some Dragyri, the honor - bound original inhabitants of the planet. The enemies were 3 towering Death's Devices and 5 slave caste. In this scenario,  a large explosive device sat in the middle of the field, and we needed to push it closer to the opponent's side of the board. Of course, there was a good chance when pushing it that the bomb would blow up in your face. We rapidly advanced, with his slaves moving to tie me up. An early push from a Death's Device put me behind the 8 ball on points, so I had to move quickly to recover. I was able to kill all but the last device, and move the bomb back to the opponent's side and force a draw.

THE AFTERMATH

At the end of the day, it was a very fun event.  We had a great diversity in forces and a lot of of good players. I felt felt my force was fun, but needed more concentration of squad linkable figures to enable a more effective 'alpha strike,' so to speak. my round two opponent went undefeated on the day and took the event.

Thanks Games and Stuff for hosting!

Silvermoon challenged (by Maurice)

Happy new year. If you'll recall, I was hoping to get 50 rice done by the start of 2015 for Bushido. Let's see how I did!

As it turns out, I only made it half way. I finished Fitiauma (9 rice), Sukuratchi (5 rice), a Kyoaku-Han Crossbowman (5 Rice), and Nomi & Sukoshi Kani (3 rice a piece), giving me 25 total.   I'm pretty pleased with how they turned out. I've still got a few minor finishing touches to add, but these are playable for the time being. I definitely want to add some tattoos, but we'll get there. I'm excited to get the rest of the batch done early this year and get some more games in. Happy gaming in 2015!

Here are some individual shots: 

Han Crossbow/Wasupu

Sukuratchi

Sukoshi Kani

Nomi

Fitauma

If I find the courage, I may try to do some tattoos on Fitiauma like these:

From the Big Hero 6 concept art.

Silvermoon challenge (by Maurice)

Hello everyone,

Maurice, here. As part of Scorpio's group, I'm also looking to get 50 Rice painted by the time the ball drops on 2014. I'm running the Silvermoon Syndicate, as nothing's more fun than a bunch of kung-fu Yakusa gangsters. The collection you see below is:

(y)Oda (5 Rice)
Manu (9 Rice)
Fitiauma (9 Rice)
Sukuratchi (6 Rice)
Okkete-San (2 Rice)
Wakasu Akuma (1 Rice)
Nomi (4 Rice)
Kyoaku-Han Crossbow (5 Rice)
Kyoaku-Han x2 (8 Rice)
This + a 1 Rice card gets me to a 50 Rice list. 

Just so that I actually get 50 Rice of figures painted without cards (certain funny people in the group are insisting...), I will add:
Saki (7 Rice)


10 figs at just over 50 rice gives me flexibility in list building and a nice range of figure styles to paint. I've already started on Sukuratchi and Okkete-San, as you can tell. I'll do my best to check in with some progress reports!