Get the Union! (Guild Ball)

I'm back from London and it's been a wild, wild ride!
Having taking a small hobby break in exchange for the theatre, I'm now back into the Big League for Guild Ball down at my FLGS (Phoenix Games, Stourbridge).

We have entered the third round of fixtures and I'm currently sitting on 1-0-0. I know, that's only one game going into the third week but I have had a bye...so techinically 2-0-0! It's all downhill from here!

This week I'm up against Jimmy (@jimmygstar) and his Union team.
He's currently the only other player to have a bye round at the beginning of the league but he did play his first game against the Pete's Hunters Guild in which he got a 12-8 victory with 2 goals and 2 take outs.

His team for that game was as follows:
*Blackheart [C]
*Coin [M]
*Gutter
*Decimate
*Rage
*Mist

The question is, where does this put me? Well, Jimmy is an incredibly talented player - sitting at the top of the Warmachine and Hordes circuit for many years. The style of the Union and the style of the game sits well with him.

Threats?
Well, there are many threats within the team but I'd be looking to nullify the goal threat - primarilry Mist. The way to do this? Silence's activation control, Obulus' puppet master and 2" melee threat.
The constant combination of Gutter pulling players by Chain Grab will be a worrying site - particularly if it's like last game when I offered up players to get even closer to iscolate (more on that later).
Now, some of you are reading this and thinking to yourself: "Yes, but there are 4 other models who are freakishly good at what they do!" and you would be right. It's quite important that I don't get pulled into this war of attrition . I did that last time against Si (@irons1de) and it nearly didn't end well for me!
This doesn't mean that Jimmy will be playing the same team again, however the core of that team will undoubtedly feature in our match up. Averisse and Greede could be a strong possibility to try and shut out turn activation/Obulus' abilities. 

Lessons Learnt / Things to avoid 
What did I learn from last time? Don't be shit! Seriously... don't be shit...
Joking aside, I need to remember a few things:
- Look to iscolate players using turn activation and puppet master techniques.
- Hunt in pairs/threes.
- Gain momentum as often as possible. This is the part that I will struggle with in this game as the Union players have cheap access to momentum.

Tactics 
I've been thinking about ways to nulify the threat of the Union team - at least for a little bit.
It's importantly to stop Blackheart getting up his Commanding Aura alongside Rage and Gutter. Having him activate last would be ideal or have him away from the rest of the team and make him spend influence to get to the correct place.
I will need to think carefully about providing a long range threat and 'shut off' areas of the pitch. Silence and Ghast are a must in this game and working in tandem they can close down areas of the pitch in order to channel play down one side.

Team Selection
Who to pick? Well...

*Obulus [C]
*Dirge [M]
*Ghast
*Silence
*Cosset
*Tater [Hired]

I've managed to get hold of Tater for this week (thank you Steamforged Games!) and with his 2" melee he can cause some serious damage.
Despite Cosset being a liablilty in the last game, she did save my ass at the end. Her ability to go crazy isn't something which should be used every turn but can be very helpful in stripping off those last wounds or getting that extra momentum in order to get the drop on the next turn or bonus time, etc.

 

Only time will tell what will happen - Thursday actually. It will be an incredibly hard game and one which I can most certainly take a lot of lessons from!

Templates 

Before I went to London, I order a few bits and bobs from Art of War and Steamforged and much to my surprise (partly due to the fact that I forgot I ordered them) they turned up on my doormat when I returned!

Well, that's all from me for now!

Thanks for reading.

I'll see you soon!

@geekphotoguy

Scalpel's Voodoo (Guild Ball) - Fan Fiction

Hey, hey, hey! I've tried something a little bit different today! I've gone to writing a bit of fan fiction. This is based around Scalpel's pre-match warm up for her game against Si (@irons1de1)'s Union at the start of the Big League!
Hope you enjoy!

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The familiar sound of brandished blades being sharpened shattered the silence of the confined dressing room. Chilling breath clung to the air like clouds hanging in a clear sky. Players shared glances between them knowing that one mistake could be costly – not just for their team but for their lives.

Transfixed on the uneven cobblestones, Scalpel furiously tapped her foot on the floor; reciting a verse on her lips with no words appearing to pierce the air. Looks of confusion swiftly swept across the faces of other players as the glances they shared with one another turned into stares. The noise subsided back into the unnerving silence from whence it came and the Morticians’ finest are finally ready to start their build up for the inaugural game. The Archangels are ready to take flight.

Continuing her inane ritual, Scalpel proceeded to turn her tap into a stamp. Throwing her jet black dreadlocks backward, she faced skyward. Rising like a zombie from an open grave; arms rising upwards, legs locked – she froze with an unsettling degree of suddenness. This time however, the chant became audible:

“Help ons groot Elegua. Help ons groot Azrail. Seën ons groot Nayanezgani. Dood aan ons vyande. Die dood aan ons vyand.Die dood aan die valse gode.”

(Help us great Elegua. Help us great Azrail. Bless us great Nayanezgani. Death to our enemies. Death to our foe. Death to the false gods.)

“Kyk na ons guns en welwillendheid. Gift ons met horings , moed en presisie.”

(Look upon us with favour and kindness. Gift us with swiftness, courage and precision.)

“Bring ons oorwinning vir die gode, ons familie en Figeon.”

(Bring us victory for the Gods, our family and Figeon.)

Stunned into silence, the players watched amazed as Scalpel’s body rose off the blood stained floor. Limbs turned limp and her head retracted even further than before. Voodoo was at work here.

Pulsating intensely, the chant was repeated over and over. The ground shook violently forcing those around to clutch on to whatever secure fixings were available. Dirge’s wings flapped furiously as he tried to maintain a suitable distance away from a seemingly dangerous sight.

“Look!” exclaimed Cosset, struggling to grasp the rusting hook impaled into the wall.

Turning slowly as not to lose their positions, each team member watched as a black mist engulfed Scalpel’s body, raising her higher towards the ceiling. Forming into recognisable shapes, the cloud transformed into heads of the deceased, the unborn and the familiar all twisting and turning in a huge vortex of bleakness.

“Vir die gode.” she bellowed. “Vir our family.”

The swirling mass expanded, this time filling the room. Heads of ancestors past charged towards the stunned players, crashing through them in a splash of black vapor. Taken a-back, each player in turn lost their grip and slumped helplessly to the floor – concious to the moment but devoid of all feeling. Laying helpless on the cold stone floor, spirits continued to move in their own unique way – jolting and jerking around, bouncing off walls and making their way through obsticales like they were not there.

Scalpel’s jaw displaced once more, screeching out : “Vir Figeon!”

Each of the spirits’ heads reared upward at the sound of the cry and shot towards the ceiling, disappearing through the thatching leaving whispy wafts of their entrails to disemminate back into the air. The engulfing cloud surrounding Scalpel subsided as rapidly as it began. Earth which was once on the brink of collapse below ground to a halt, giving those non-ritualistic players the chance to come back to their senses and slowly regain some feeling in their bodies. For Scalpel, she lie slumped in a heap on the floor – visibily devoid of life.

As the others tentatively steadied themselves and rose to their feet, Scalpel remained lifeless in the centre of the room. During the brief interchange of quisical glances and shrugged shoulders, Ghast knelt beside his lifeless captain. Extending his arm, he gently rolled her over.

Life returned.

With sharp inhalation, Scalpel’s chest rose above the floor. Her eyes shot open into a sharp stare and following the movement of her chest, the rest of her torso sat upright. Gasping for breath, she looked around the room.

With a rye smile, she stood. Removing her favourite blade from the scabbard, she examined the tip with the point of her index finger.

“We’re ready...” she muttered, much to the surprise of those around her.  “The moment is now.”

She clasped the door handle and turned it. Taking one final glance back into the room her smile returned.

“Anyone else coming?” she enquired as she stepped out the door running her knife along the brickwork as she went.

Everyone remained in the room in a stunned silence. Eventually, each member of the team turned and followed suit, trudging out of the door. Silence was last to leave. Before closing the door, he turned to examine the room.

“Next time I better bring my prayer beads!”

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Well, that's it from me for today!

Thanks for reading,

I'll see you soon!

@geekphotoguy 

Exodus of Orobos (WWX and Warmachine)

As well as playing a great game of Guild Ball against Si (@irons1de1), I also managed to get in a run through of Wild West Exodus and two games of Warmachine!

I've shown the WWX figures in a previous blog post but they are beautiful! It was great to get the models on the table, if nothing else - to see how the game plays.
I was up against Ryan and as we plunged into this together, it was best to see how the game played.
How did it play? Pretty well!


Here is my force:

Key Moments
- After set up but close combat Indians run together into the centre of the board by the barrells - obviously for cover!

 - Jesse James steps out from behind a building (hiding like a girl) and shoots the Inidians behind the barrells...with Thermite Rounds... which blast... hard... Some Indians got taken off...

- Sitting Bull goes full steam ahead and tries to get into Jesse James. He makes it but doesn't have the attacks to smash face! However, Jesse James can shoot in combat and he can shoot hard! Jesse takes Sitting Bull down to 3 wounds (in combination with 2 other characters).

- Poor Sitting Bull is now Chief Sitting Duck and Ryan runs one of his hired hands behind Sitting Bull and... shoots him in the back!

- Walks Looking (Sidekick) goes into 3 posse members and kills thems all... dead... completely dead...
- Walks Looking wasn't looking and caught a bullet right between the eyes... 4 times...
- The Outlaws mop up the remaining 3 Indians by savagely shooting them all!

All in all, an excellent game with some amazing synergies and cool tricks. I love the fact you can activate up to three models at a time. The D10 system is brilliant, it offers so much more opportunity than the d6 system.
Overall, a really good game with some very synergistic play. I can't wait to play again!

Now, with some time to spare both Ryan and I went on to playing a bit of WarmaHordes. Instead of rolling out the Trolls, I decided to put out Circle! We are only playing Battle Box sets in preparation for the Journeyman League.

 Ryan was playing Khador led by Sorcha

After playing two games, Circle are a constant threat - more so than the Trolls. I like the Circle box a lot. I think using a heavy warbeast as opposed to three light warbeasts helped. It will be a tough choice when it comes to the Journeyman.
I've managed to find a fair bit of Circle stuff and I'm still waiting on a little bit more to come in at my FLGS!

Well, it was from this on to Guild Ball! A real full day of gaming!

Thanks for reading.
I'll see you soon!

 @geekphotoguy

The Big League's Big Kick Off! (Guild Ball)

So it's time. The moment we have all been waiting for. Pre-season is over and all the results that have gone before don't matter. The fans wait with heightened anticipation, anxious for the inaugural season of Phoenix Games' Guild Ball Big League to get underway!

Before I start talking about my game, here are two of the teams competing in the league:
Firstly, we have Russ' Butchers (missing Fillet - who was, at the time, being glued together!)

 And here we have Pete's Hunters painted by Phoenix's very own Steve (@furryjamhats)

The Game
Now the pre-match build up is over, let's get on to the teams -

Morticians: The Archangels
Those of you who have read my previous posts will know I was in a bit of a dilemma about who to take in order to get the best out of the game. Essentially, it didn't really matter as long as I get to push models around, roll dice and pull off the occasional bit of bullshit.
Eventually I settled on Scalpel as my captain. So, let's have a look at who else I've got:

 Oh, by the way - I've added to my goal! I've added to actual spooks! I'm really, really pleased with it and it looks great on the tabletop (only ruined by my painting)!
Just a little look at the goal if you haven't seen it:

 
Here we go then:
23: Scalpel [C]
12: Dirge [M]
4: Silence
5: Casket
6: Ghast
7: Cosset

I decided on Scalpel for a few reasons:
1. I wanted to give her another run out against an opponent who is around the same standard as I am.
2. I wanted to try the combination of Scalpel, Cosset and Casket.
3. I needed speed in my team after taking Casket and Ghast and she is a legit goal-threat. No, really!

No Graves, someone who I was really toying with but I figured that putting Casket in because of his 3" Aura which can potentially stop large plays taking place and stop players carrying the ball through the centre.

I was playing against Si (@irons1de1) who had picked up a Union team. Here's what he had:

As predicted, Blackheart, Rage, Decimate, Mist, Gutter and Coin with a nice looking goal too!
I will briefly mention that a few players had made their own goals (I'll bring you pictures of them soon) and they look awesome!

Plot Cards
At the beginning of the league, we picked 12 plot cards. At the beginning of the game, we both drew 7 and picked 5. I ended up with...

Being taken out is somewhat of a certainty so using Paying Respects and Sideline Repairs is a given!
During my 'pre-season', I haven't scored many goals... sorry, I haven't scored any goals so it is a fair assumption that I will be conceeding the 1st goal. Having both Casket and Scalpel it is a certainty that at some point my Legendary play will be used, so that was a no brainer and finally Damage Sponge is useful just to buff a player with the ball in order to perhaps avoid that tackle result!

Deployment
Si won the roll off and elected to kick.Great! This will be ideal for me as I've got a team which has elements of quickness in it - Scalpel, Cosset, Dirge. So playing the ball and getting the ball will play into my hands... hopefully!

Here are the set ups:

The Game

Again, I won't bore you with the blow by blows but here are the highlights:
- Cosset retrieves the ball and passes it off to Scalpel.
- Scalpel offloads the ball to Dirge.

- Blackheart, Rage, Gutter all get stuck in to Cosset - 0-2!
- I use my Plot Cards to bring Cosset back on the sideline near Silence and Dirge (in order to smash face later!) and gain 2 MP.

- Blackheart, Rage and Decimate start to target Ghast - 0-4!
- Dirge runs up the wing with Silence only to be blocked off by Mist and Coin.
- Scalpel charges Gutter and slingshots out the other side, recieving the ball off Dirge.
- Casket is chased down by Rage and Gutter but they become bored and eventually wander off to projects new!

Highlights...Continued!
- Coin tackles Scalpel! Yes... yes!
- Casket slowly lumbers across to Mist, hits him... HARD and puts him in the casket! 4-4!

- Scalpel uses her legendary play, draws Coin into her, tackles him, achieves momentus dodges and walks away (without being tackled by a stupid snake).

- Scalpel walks up the goal... she can't miss.. can she?! ...

 OF COURSE SHE DOESN'T! 8-4! Let's go Angels!

- The ball is instantly hoofed downfield to Decimate who picks it up and passes it off to Rage.

- Rage manouvers himself in order to gain a clear shooting opportunity, getting out of the way of Ghast (who had just come back on)
- Rage shoots... RAGE SCORES!!! 8-8!

- Cosset punches Coin very hard in his cougher and takes him out of the game. 10-8!

Now... for the crux moment of the game... The ball has been bounced back out and the only option for me is to sling it on a 30 degree angle to the right hand side of the pitch because of Rage and Blackheart crowding the left and centre of the board.

I've still got one activation left, so Ghast uses his influence to run and pick up the ball (as seen above).
Now we go to the top of turn 4 - yes, four turns! This game has been INSANE! (It did need caps locks, believe me, it was that good).
Due to Mist being 'Casketed' he can come back on. Si chooses to bring him back on his left hand side of the board (my right) in order to block off Ghast and any potential scoring opportunities. What he forgot though is that Cosset has a 9" charge... for free...
It was vital that I won the initaitve for this turn. Being on 6 unused momentumn vs. Si's 4 momentum it would be tough - until I rolled a 6. This game suddenly turned in my favour.
Cosset was well within charge range of Mist on 1 icy sponge damage set.

Cosset takes the 3 damage - taking her to two wounds (she has been healed twice due to spending momentum incase you're wondering and took additional damage) - in order for her to go f***ing mental and it was enough. The grey lady smashed through Mist securing the 2 additional VPs in order to secure a 12-8 victory!

 This was by no means an easy ride and I've learnt a lot about my team. My main learning points:
1. Cosset and Scalpel cannot hold their own without additional support from a 'harder hitting' model - someone like Ghast just to provide those KDs or at least the threat of it.
2. I overcommitted players upfront - 4 players in fact (all 30mm base models) which gave me no chance of recovering when Decimate got the ball and enabled Rage to score!
3. Casket isn't as bad as I thought. He was good at mopping up wounds (particuarly on Mist). I did underestimate his 3" Aura though and that took a bit of getting used to, especially with my players!

I really enjoyed this game. It was a game of plenty of action, drama and great tactical moments.
With a bye week next round I can look forward at scouting out the other teams and see what they're taking. It would be good to watch other games and look at playstyles. I know each faction has a 'stereotyped playstyle' but that's really not the case. Although somewhat true, living up to a stereotype doesn't always produce the expected outcomes.

Well, that's all from me for now. An amazing game of Guild Ball and lots to look forward to going into the next game in a few weeks time! I will pop out a HUGE shout to our pundit Rob (@derby_malal) who has done a fantastic job getting so many players into the league and up enjoying the game so much. We had 14 players tonight sitting down and playing the round.

 So, 12-8 win, 2 VPs and 1 Favour... it can only go downhill from here!

Thanks for reading,
I'll see you soon!

@geekphotoguy