2015: not a bang, but a whimper?

Starting an Otherworld warband. I've had these Reaper Lizardman partially painted for like ten years.

Yeah, this. I have started and discarded many posts in the past few months, even before Zomtober. I've played Guild Ball a handful of times (and even fully painted my team) and played in a day-long tourney for it to boot. That's... been about all the minis gaming I have done recently. (Started playing Pandemic Legacy with the family as well, on the board gaming side.) (And of course Team Fortress 2, my long-term video game vice.)

So I have about no excuse as to why I couldn't get posts back to the regular here. For a while I told myself that I was sick of putting up pics of my half-painted figs, figuring it wasn't interesting to anyone else either. And the holiday season is always busy, so gaming always suffers this time of year, naturally. But honestly, I have just been feeling uninspired. Haven't picked up a paint brush since I finished the Guild Ball team about a month back.

I'm still reading gaming blogs and Facebook groups? And perusing various rulebooks on the daily commute (Otherworld, Frostgrave, etc.) So I am still emotionally invested. And enjoy it! Just haven't had the drive to get anything finished up to post here to my liking. (Insert 'performance anxiety' joke here.)

Frostgrave Sandtomb!

No, this isn't a walking-away letter. I am looking forward to having the energy to get back into gaming projects, and yes, spamming it all up here. I'm working on getting everything together to give Otherworld a real try; I think it could be a good substitute for a regular D&D evening. Maurice and I did a run-through of Frostgrave not too long ago, and I think we're going to give it another as well. (It's really caught on online.) And finally, finally, giving the Batman game a go.

But the topic has been on my mind these days. I am old, well, I feel old. And I have been gaming for a couple decades now. The past few years, I have been more attracted to broader rulesets that could play multiple genres/settings, or something close to that. Rather than more focused games that will go out of style in a year or less. Because I have a library full of those rules, and an army or two I bought for each. I never catch up with really learning the rules of the season, never really master the latest ruleset, and never get things fully painted. So my alternative is figuring out a ruleset or three I can really work with, use various figures for, and most importantly, get the locals to enjoy enough to play it with me on the regular. That's my working treatise going into 2016. And a happy new year to all of you out there in gaming-land.

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

Guild Ball - First Thoughts (by Maurice)

So, when I've found time between work, family and other stuff for gaming, I've been slowly sneaking into Guild Ball, from Steamforged Games. Guild Ball is a Medieval Football skirmish game, in which teams of players representing various mercantile guilds battle it out on the pitch to settle differences between their employers and generally keep the different city-states from going to war with one another. 

I really enjoyed Blood Bowl earlier in my gaming career, and have always been on the lookout for new sports games. I skipped the original Guild Ball kickstarter, as although I loved the art, I wasn't huge on the idea of having weapons in my sports game as a normal thing (in addition to a shortage of $$ at the time.) Well, I finally read the rules and realized my mistake. One quick group order later, and I had my much adored Fishermen on bases and ready to stab some punks with spearguns...and also score goals... mostly score goals.

I've gotten a bit of game action in with them now, and the game is excellent. It offers a lot of dynamism and action, with a good dose of problem solving.

Almost every activation can feel like one of those set-piece puzzles from a No Quarter or old White Dwarf where you try to gin up the best solution to a situation. It does this without generating analysis paralysis or slowing the game down as well, which is really clever.

Basically, each turn you and your opponent alternate activating your players until they've all gone once. Players are assigned influence (action points) to start the turn, which they spend to attack, sprint, pass, etc. 

As you do things, you'll generate momentum points, which you need to do things like trigger heroic plays, exercise effective teamwork, heal mid-turn, and most importantly: shoot the ball at the goal.

Each player has a set of plays that they can carry out, as well as a little damage chart that they use when attacking. You roll a pool of dice for every action and try to score a number of successes. The damage chart for attacks lets you know whether you can hurt or knock down your target, dodge or push them, or trigger a character play, depending on how successful your attack was.

Games are played to some combination of goals (4 points) and KOs (2 points) equaling 12 points. This allows the game to have a reasonable length while not favoring scoring teams over killing teams, or vice versa.

If you want to learn more about the game, I recommend Guild Ball Tonight, an excellent podcast focused just on this game.

Anyways, we're looking forward to getting more games in. Hopefully Scorpio will have some thoughts soon after his Union get in a game or two. 

Here are some photos of my completed Jac and in-progress Kraken and Greyscales.