Guild Ball is the game of medieval fantasy football from Steamforged Games. The Century War has wracked the land, and all that forges the fractious nations of the new Empire together is the blood-sport of Guild Ball, brought together by the scheming Guilds. Will you play the slippery Fishermen, the arcane Alchemists, or the suspicious Union? Read some articles, listen to some podcasts, watch some videos, and maybe you’ll find out which is best for you!
Toruk to Tyrant – Nearing the end of the Journey (Tournament Battle Reports)
I have been focusing on playing Skorne since December 2011. In one month I will finish out my year with Skorne . I will attend 1 to 2 more events (including Warmachine Weekend) this year. It has been an enjoyable year, and in my final update coming out sometime late November, I will recap the entire year and I will be able to compare it to the 2011 when I only played Cryx. Next year will be different. I will focus mostly on Cryx, but I also intend to bring out my skorne every so often. I have found after 1 full year of a faction, the last couple months involve a little burnout. (I don’t know how some people can only play 1 faction year after year) I also don’t feel as inspired at the moment to play anything different in skorne, as I know I’m about to switch factions. I do wish I had given more time to a couple other warlocks, but I felt in the character restricted format of SR2012 I wasn’t able to test out as many options as I wanted to. Over the next couple weeks I hope to put some fun and more random lists on the table and enjoy some of the models in the faction I have not played as much. It will be an interesting couple of weeks leading up to Warmachine Weekend. Tournament Recaps In the past month and half I have attended 3 different Tournaments. I played the same 2 warlocks for all 3 events. (Rasheth and Zaal) – My Rasheth list stayed the same in all events, and my Zaal list was modified only slightly. I-Con in Springfield IL 50pt Sr2012 in Chicago IL Mayhem Cup in Madison WI Lists Rasheth Basilisk Krea 2x bronzeback titan Tiberion Titan Gladiator Agonizer Feralgeist 6 paingiver Beast Handlers 10 Venator Slingers Zaal Basilisk Krea Cyclops brute Molik Karn Titan Gladiator Aptimus Marketh Agonizer Extoller Soulward Hakaar the Destoryer 10 nihilhators 4 paingiver Beast hanlders 10 venator Slingers (For I-con) I used my Hardcore zaal list (add in Bronzeback titan, min ninilhators, no extoller, or brute) I-Con Round 1 – Rasheth vs Moshar (Opponent was Alex from Springfield) Alex and I always have close fun brutal games. He was playing a very Beast Heavy list. I believe he had at least 4 heavies in his list. Like all of our games, the first couple turns was all about positioning our models waiting to see who would make the first big play. Alex made 1 early mistake and allowed me to trigger Counter Charge on a bronzeback at the end of turn of his turn. Due to this mistake, I was able to start killing his heavies before he made it to mine. Due to this fact I was getting ahead on models fast, it forced him into going for a risky low odds caster kill run. That failed and I was able to kill his caster. Round 2 (zaal vs Ossyan) (Opponent was the commissioner of Warmachine – Mattie K) Scenario – Bunkers I have not had the pleasure of playing against Mattie K before, but I’ve known him for a couple years. Sadly I was not able to give him much of a game. He could not have made a better Ossyan list to run over...
read moreMoM’s Podcast #24
MoM’s Podcast #24 Topics: Newbie Section: Generic attributes of Solos, Warnouns, and units. Muse on Mail — Lots of it We answer questions about cryx, cygnar and colossals. Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 2:06:55 — 58.1MB)Subscribe: iTunes | Android |...
read moreIK IK IK What Have We Here? also US trip Summary
Terrible pun in title, check. OK, its been quite a while since I’ve done an article here. I can’t really say I’ve been too busy, but I have been having too much fun.A couple of months ago (man time flies) I went over to the USA to hang out with mates in Minnesota and Iowa, then crack on to Gencon. I really should have done a detailed report on it, but to be honest I can hardly remember a lot of it, my brain could not handle that much awesome. Instead I just have a pleasant tingling remaining in the cockles of my balls. Umm, heart, yes I meant heart. So before I go onto my main topic, here is my point form version of my America trip: Tower Games is quite possibly the best store ever to just hang out in and paint – very community based store. I spent way too much money there. C & G’s Barbecue in Minnesota won the Pulled Pork Sandwich competition hands down – I sampled every one I could within Minnesota, Iowa and Indiana while I was there. Conveniently they are within walking distance of Tower. Looking forard to SnoopDougeFreshPrinceof50cent being the dominant player in the Minnesota meta by the time I return! Much thanks to the whole crew in Minnesota for their hospitality – next time I need to bludge a room though – turns out cheap Hooker accomodation is bad for you – who knew? Phatasian is a madman, and will do things like drive 3.5 hours to come and pick you up from Minnesota if you ask nicely Phatasian also manages to be super easy to troll, yet untrollable, both at the same time – he also has an awesome famiry – huge thanks to Mandy, Christie, Tanner and Bman for allowing me into your home Keith is a hipster, even though he tries hard not to be. Iowa has attractive gamer girls – who knew Iowa has a kickarse gaming community in general – 20+ people boardgaming Tuesday, 20+ player Warmachine nights Wednesday and Thursday – anyone got a job for a Civil Engineer in Iowa? Preferably with the DOT in Ames. Thanks to all of those groups in Iowa for making me feel like part of the group One of my goals for Gencon was to not play too much Warmachine. Unfortunately, my plans were scuppered by unexpected success. Bitter and delicious, like a good beer. Thanks to Stubbs for Pressganging me into the Pressgang one morning, which resulted in me going to the PG party, which resulted in me getting a copy of IKRPG after unsuccessfully waiting in line Thursday. Ryan from Minnesota is a shiny golden god, a classy gent, and will one day cash in on his good karma My record of playing much better when ridiculously tired continues. I am now 7-1 at Gencon when tired enough to be biochemically drunk. I am now 7-6 when well rested. I am snoring dominant over wussy Minnesotans The booth babe at the Soda Pop Minis booth had boobs that were an achievement of structural engineering to rival the highest skyscraper in the world. Dustin from the Mutineer Chronicles is a really good GM Strawberry Lemonade is excellent Eric Dietsch is a...
read moreAnd Now For Something Completely Different: Spartacus Unboxing
Today I’ll be unboxing Spartacus: A Game of Blood and Treachery. This is Gale Force 9’s first foray into board gaming. If the art looks familiar it’s because the game licensed the Spartacus tv show from Starz. Let’s get started shall we? The game includes a board, 4 Gladiator figures, 4 house cards, 26 dice, 62 market cards, 80 intrigue cards, and 148 tokens.. That’s a lot of stuff. The houses are the ones you’d expect if you’ve watched any of the show A lot of those tokens are coins. But apart from that you have house tokens, favor tokens, injured tokens as well as a champion token and a host marker. The intrigue deck contains schemes, reactions and guards. Use these wisely to gain the favor of the gods and Rome. The market deck contains slaves (used to generate income), gladiators, and equipment. And here’s a close look at a gladiator. And of course you can’t have gladiatorial combat without an arena! Here’s a close up where you can see some of the betting options. The figures are softer plastic than most wargaming figures. This lead to some warping issues as you’ll see. This should be fixable. The game itself is a fairly simple set of rules. Try to gain enough influence and prevent your opponents from doing the same. One thing I really do like about the rules is a note on the second page about the spirit of the game. Since you’ll be stealing, bribing, lying, and betraying each other things can get intense, the rules clearly spell out “DONT BE AN ASS ABOUT IT.” There are four phases in the game: Upkeep, Intrigue, Market, and Arena. The upkeep phase starts flipping your exhausted cards. Then injured assets make a healing roll. Finally you balance your budget, slaves give you gold, healthy gladiators cost gold. The intrigue phase seems to be the most devious of the phases. It starts by drawing four cards. Starting with the character who hosted the last rounds game the players take turns playing schemes, cashing in cards, and using special abilities. When everyone is finished the market Phase begins. You draw as many cards from the market deck as there are players. These are then bidded on using a blind bid system. Players can also sell and trade their own assets at this time. When auctioning is done the player bid on the right to host the games. The host gains an influence to start the arena phase. The hose then invites players to participate. If you turn down the host you lose an influence. The more famous gladiators earn gold for their house just by participating. All betting is done just prior to the action fight. If the loser is alive at the end of the fight the host decides his fate with the classic thumbs up or down. Killing a famous gladiator causes the host to lose influence so beware! Winners become more famous. That’s the long and short of it. Gale Force 9 has put up a website for the game here. I’ve been enjoying the game so far. If there’s enough interest I’ll post a game report. Chris...
read moreAnd Now For Something Completely Different: Help me make my IKRPG Character
The Blue Baron here today to ask for you help making my IKRPG Character! I’ve found myself paralyzed by all the options and have been spinning in circles since the book has been released. Won’t you please help a poor soul with crippling Ohh Shiny syndrome? Some details to get us started. I asked what the direction of the campaign would be. My DM shrugged and said it is a sandbox but that we start out as mercs employed by Cygnar. Also another gamer put together a Fell-Caller so that’s out. So they way it goes in my head I’ve been able to rule out some specific classes. First out is the Iron Fang, since its Khadoran in origin and I’d have a hard time being employed by the Crown. The DM also has concerns about Warcasters so I’m cutting that out of the choices just to be safe.Same thing with warjacks at this point so the Mechanic is out. Also since we’re mercs, I can’t see the Stormblade class being all that viable. Enough of what we can’t do and on to what we can! Races: I’m open to basically anything that isn’t a filthy Khadoran. Archtype will be kinda dependent on my career and race so I can’t really pick this out until later on. Classes: I’ll list them up with some thoughts about what I’ve thought about them. oh, and they’ll be in alphabetical order, because I’m basically flipping through the book. Alchemist: An Iconic IK character type. I have fun ideas of running an alchemist cutthroat. He drops smoke bombs for cover as he comes in and knifes the enemy. This seems like a good sort of support type class to help with healing so I think this might be needed by one of us. Arcane Mechanik: Another fun class that can help support everybody’s need for cool stuff. The issue here is that they do a lot for warjacks with spells and since we won’t have on for a while I worry that I’ll have a lot unused. Arcanist: Can’t go wrong with magic. I could see having fun with that. Aristocrat: I have a hard time imagining him fitting in mercs and the like but if Ragman can do it, it’s a viable option. Bounty Hunter: I’ve spent a lot of time looking at this class, but my main worry is how useful the specialization will be in non-lethality will be since I know one of the guys what a Khornite in another life. Cutthroat: Another one I’ve spent some time looking at. Sneaky stabby sounds fun but if i don’t want 2 handed fighting some of his skills go bye bye. Duelist: Looks cool but I’ll admit I haven’t read too much on it. Explorer: I like the breadth of the explorer but i don’t know if I’d be doing too much “exploring” as our job will be going places and doing things people already have been. Gun mage: Heck yeah, the only issue with this is the GM really want to run one and I don’t want to ruin his fun by making one. Highwayman: I like the look of this class and it feels very merc-y but I worry about the horse and mounted skills since I’ll be the only...
read moreMoM’s Podcast #23
MoM’s Podcast #23 Topics: News and Announcements Newbie: Piece Trading Mayhem cup Recap Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 2:38:54 — 72.7MB)Subscribe: iTunes | Android |...
read moreSecrets of the True Law – Assembling the Protectorate Gunline
Much ado has been made lately about the “Protectorate Gun Line.” According to the internet, Protectorate players are gravitating away from old standbys like the Avatar of Menoth and using models with guns! What makes those guns so special that they’re worth giving up 11 points of ARM21, spell-immune, self-powered, flame-bursting armor-cracking awesomeness? Well as it turns out, the Protectorate decided that you shouldn’t have to sacrifice melee power for ranged power – at least as long as you’re willing to bring along a couple of dudes with robes and oversized scrolls. Getting shot at by giant flame cannons sucks – it sucks even worse when you can’t shoot back, and it’s irritating when those “ranged” warjacks swing their melee weapons harder and more accurately than your “melee” warjacks. Dedicating tons of time and resources to preventing the enemy army from shooting your own to bits only to have them beat your arse in melee is infuriating to play against – and anytime you can describe a playstyle as “infuriating,” you know it must be good. So how might one go about assembling such an omnipotent, versatile, and “infuriating” army? Well, in the Protectorate, the key is Warjacks and their support. Sure, there’s plenty of infantry with ranged attacks in the faction, but the ones with the truly good ranged attacks are pretty pathetic in melee, and none of them are potentially MAT8, RAT7, immune to spells, immune to non-magical ranged attacks, capable of making out-of-activation attacks or movement, boostable, auto-fire, and… you get the picture. The best part about this is that the battlegroup is actually fairly independent of the Warcaster. Obviously there’s a focus investment required to make this work, but the Warjacks + support will happily do their thing without having to worry about their Warcaster enabling them. Plus, in all honesty, a huge majority of Protectorate warcasters are far better off dumping their focus into warjacks than hoarding it or casting spells. Immolation and Cleansing Fire are cute, but Reckoner and Redeemer guns just get far more done. Here’s the models you should be looking at if you too want to be the envy of every Cygnar battlegroup in the Iron Kingdoms. Reckoners Well. What can’t be said about the Reckoner? People will tell you it’s the best 8 points you can spend on a Warjack, and there’s no reason to disagree. It feels like the Reckoner beat up the other Protectorate warjacks and stole all their special rules, because it’s got about four times as many as the rest of them. Let’s start with just the basic chassis – it’s SPD5, MAT6, RAT5, and carries a P+S17 Consecrator with Reach, as well as a RNG12, POW 13 gun with Critical Fire. Adding a Choir’s Battle hymn bumps that up to MAT8, RAT7, and P+S19/POW 15. This chassis has the best melee threat range (10”) available to a Protectorate warjack, the second-best shooting threat range (17”), and still packs the same punch as “dedicated” melee options like the Templar while being faster than nearly all of them. It’s already looking like a great value for 8 points. But wait, there’s more! If you order now, we’ll include the very special rule Assault, which bumps the shooting threat range of this model...
read moreAfter Dark Episode 5
AFTER DARK Episode 5 is now available. Find it here. Hey Muse fans. Most of you probably know already that we are doing an explicit podcast that is not WM/Hordes related. Episode 5 has more Dewey of course. We talk about some books, LOTR the LCG, and share lots of us being drunk stories. Not for the faint of heart ! WARNING: The content for After Dark is...
read moreMayhem Cup 7 Pictures and Results (Sept 21st-22nd)
On Sept 21st and 22nd the 7th Mayhem Cup was held at Misty Mountain Games in Madison WI. 43 players from 5 states were competing for the trophy. In the end Iowa and Springfield IL team tied for most team points. Iowa pulled it ahead in tiebreakers (points in the 50pt event) How Scoring worked Scoring: 50 Point SR2012 1st place 10 points 2nd Place 8 Points 3rd Place 6 Points 4th Place 5 points 5th Place 4 points 6th Place 3 points 7th Place 2 points 8th Place 1 point 35 point SR2012 1st Place 5 points 2nd Place 3 points 3rd Place 2 point 4th Place 1 point Painting Competition Best Warcaster/Warlock 1 point Best Battle Engine 1 point Best Warjack/Warbeat 1 point (excluded Colossals) Best Solo 1 point Best Unit 1 point Top spots for 50 Event Name Faction Score (SoS)(CP)(PC Destroyed) Cool Kurt (M – IL) Khador 5 (16.0)(4)(231) Chad (M – IA) Cryx 4 (16.0)(5)(212) Charles Foster III (M – IL) Protectorate of Menoth 4 (15.0)(8)(168) Keif C (M – IA) Protectorate of Menoth 4 (13.0)(10)(220) Marshall W (M – IA) Legion of Everblight 4 (13.0)(2)(168) Aduro (M – IA) Cryx 4 (11.0)(4)(166) Lucas W (NGIT – IL) Trollbloods 4 (11.0)(4)(156) Josh Holt (M – IA) Retribution of Scyrah 4 (11.0)(4)(145) Brian G (MM – WI) Skorne 3 (15.0)(1)(133) Nathan (MM – WI) Mercenaries 3 (13.0)(5)(154) Tom Laughlin (NGIT – IL) Cryx 3 (12.0)(7)(179) Dewey (M – IA) Protectorate of Menoth 3 (12.0)(1)(152) Moe (MM – WI) Skorne 3 (11.0)(6)(157) Ben Lang (NGIT – IL) Skorne 2 (13.0)(6)(158) Jon (MM – WI) Circle Orboros 2 (13.0)(6)(145) Menoth John (NGIT – IL) Cygnar 2 (11.0)(2)(104) Top spots for 35pt event Name Faction Score (SoS)(CP)(PC Destroyed) Jason (NGIT – IL) Cryx 4 (9.0)(0)(145) JR Oldridge (M – IL) Cryx 3 (11.0)(4)(108) Jeff S (MM – WI) Circle Orboros 3 (11.0)(1)(68) Sean (TG – MN) Khador 3 (9.0)(5)(108) Mattie K (M – IL) Retribution of Scyrah 3 (8.0)(5)(99) Dave Messer (MM – WI) Cygnar 3 (8.0)(4)(120) Ryan M (TG – MN) Khador 3 (8.0)(1)(90) Wes (TG – MN) Protectorate of Menoth 2 (11.0)(3)(39) Painted prizes Battle Engine: 1) [1] Menoth – 39 Charles Foster 3rd (IL – M) 2) Cygnar – 7 Davis Jacks 1) [1] Raek – 39 Charles Foster 3rd (IL – M) 2) Deathjack -31 Tom McLaughlin Unit: 1) [1] Battle Mage – 24 Josh Holt (IA – M) 2) Gatorman Posse – 11 Mike Drown Solo: 1) [1] Mechanic – 34 Nigel (MN – T) 2) Mac Dougal – 39 Charles Foster 3rd Caster: 1) [1] Bart – 39 Charles Foster 3rd (IL – M) 2) Butcher – 34 Nigel Pictures of Winning Team & Pictures of Top Painted Models 1st place warbeast/warjack 2nd place warbeast/warjack 1st place Solo 2nd place solo 1st place Warcaster/warlock 2nd place Warcaster/Warlock 1st place Unit 2nd place Unit Pictures from the Event ...
read moreRoad to War Episode 14
Road to War This week we talk about Ret and take some questions! Send us an e-mail at aroadtowar@gmail.com with any questions! Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:39:21 — 45.5MB)Subscribe: iTunes | Android |...
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