What’s rolling Guild Ballers. Welcome to my first ever blog! I am Unpredictable Plays and today… I am giving you my first ever attempt at a detailed battle report in a Guild Ball match. If you enjoy this blog, why not give my facebook page a big like and keep your eyes peeled for more. If there is anything I can do better, please do not hesitant on letting me know. Feedback is hugely appreciated!
So. What is my first battle report I hear you ask? Well this is full of first times as it will be about my first game using the newly released Shepherds Guild, going against a very experienced Butchers player, also known as Stew. This would be my opponent’s first time encountering Shepherds. We both had no idea how Shepherds would work and it was the first round in our local vassal tournament. So without further ado… Let’s Kick things off!
First things first… Lets explain how gameplan cards work. If you are playing a major guild, you would be getting 7 cards to choose from. Out of those 7, you choose the best 5 cards you feel would give you the advantage. If you play a minor guild though, not only do you get an extra card to choose from, you get to pick an additional card as well! On each card though, there are two circles along the bottom. On the left is the number you add to the amount of Momentum you have generated during the previous turn. On the right, that is the influence modifier. Will explain more as I get through this report.
After the cards were drawn and selected, we have a roll off. Normally, we would roll a D6 each and whoever rolled the highest number wins. In the current situation however, we were using Vassal. Therefore, one of us clicked on the ROLL tab. Since I was “home” I rolled a 3, up to 4 due to the minor guild advantage. Therefore, I get to choose if I want to kick or receive. I blame my time with Engineers here as I decide to kick the ball to the butchers. My thinking was mostly there was a Vet Boar in the Butchers 12 and any way of removing his scary threat is a good play.
Line ups:
Shepherds: Herder (C), Babe (M), Lamb, Ram, Shearer, Hook and Crook (Dynamic Duo)
Butchers: Vet Boar (C), Princess (M), Boiler, Meathook, Vet Brisket and Cinnamon
Upon deciding on deployment, I kicked with Shearer. Placed him on the flanks, jogged him 6″ to cover and kick the ball, measuring 3″ away from him. Shearer is normally a 3/6″ Kick. However, thanks to his Football Legend, he has a Kick stat of 4/7″ The ball marker landed near the middle, where Vet Boar was close by.
Lets see if my memory works regarding the influence allocation for turn 1:
Shepherds: Herder (1), Babe (1), Lamb (1), Ram (2), Shearer (4), Hook (1), Crook (1)
Butchers: Vet Boar (2), Princess (0), Boiler (3), Meathook (2), Vet Brisket (2), Cinnamon (3)
Meathook activates first. Tools Up Vet Boar, jogged, snapping the ball in the process and passed successfully to Vet Brisket. My opponent banked the MP and that was the end of Meathook. Shepherd’s first activation… Ram. Spent 1 influence to give herself +2/+2 MOV before spending the last influence to sprint 9″, pushing everybody else, minus Shearer 4″ forwards! Misplay alert!!! I forgotten about Ram’s Flock (Spoilers alert! I forgotten about it throughout the whole game!) but I did remember to plant a Harvest Marker within 2″ of Ram. Next, Princess just jogged a tiny little bit and that’s her done. I decided to activate Babe next. Jogged her to remain over 10″ away from Vet Boar and spent the lone influence to put the Harvest Marker behind her. Vet Brisket goes next. Immediately quick times Vet Boar, dodging him 2″ towards Babe before jogging and successfully passing the ball to Boiler. Stew banks the MP and Vet Brisket was done. I believe I activated Lamb next (at time of typing all this, I have no notes and relying purely on memory at roughly 11pm… Must take notes next time!) so all Lamb does is sprint and places 2 Harvest Markers within 4″.
(Something to point out… I have indeed forgotten what has happened for the rest of the turn! But lets put a long panic into a snack sized reading session… Cinnamon does her thing I think, Hook and Crook pushes Vet Boar into the scrum in the middle and Herder swung at him. She knocked him down before Boiler marked target both her and Lamb, missing Babe in the process. Shearer was allocated max under the plans of grabbing a goal. However, that changed and he chipped some damage onto Vet Boar. However, Vet Boar did serious damage to Hook I believe? Or did Cinnamon did damage to Shearer at the end of the turn? My memory sucks massively. My bad guys!)
Man what a start! Vet Boar struggled to get his Furious off, thanks to the Dynamic Duo, Herder and Lamb in the mix. Shearer was on standby to chip more damage into people if needed. However, with a massive MP lead, Stew pretty much sealed that he was going first top of turn 2 by playing “Play it to the Crowd”, whilst I play “Caught Out of Position” Stew dodged Shearer 2″ towards Cinnamon whereas I dodged Vet Boar to the point he was engaged by Herder, Lamb and Shearer. I think the score was 1-0 to Butchers as Hook was taken out(?) I remember losing a doggo but cannot remember when that happened. At this point, I cannot remember who went in what order. However, Shearer got taken out (3-0), Lamb and Herder got Knocked Down. However, Lamb did put weak point onto Vet Boar as I had Herder fully stacked before he healed and jogged away! Think I pushed Boiler to the Herder zone and beaten him to a heaped mess… Apart from the first attack fluffed! That made the difference as Boiler survived on 2HP!
Turn 3… Lamb goes down, allowing me to plant 5 Harvest Markers anywhere I wanted on the pitch! Immediately jogged back on as I played the card that gives one of my squaddies “Put Me Back in Coach” (5-0) then Herder fell on a counter from Vet Boar, but not before taking out Boiler in the process! (7-2) all my other models were fully stacked and raring to go. Hook and Crook worked together to push Vet Boar away from his team as Chop Chop! was activate at that moment. Such a scary legendary! Between them, Ram and Shearer… They chipped Vet Boar down to 6 health but sadly Babe gets taken out by Princess! (8-2) Misplay alert!!! I forgotten about Loved Creature as Babe was damaged by Boiler this turn and I only remembered it after Hook, Crook AND Ram went! Glad I remembered it for Shearer. Hook got taken out during the end phase due to condition damage (9-2) but the MP count on both sides were very very interesting that turn! Stew was sitting on 13MP whilst I had 17MP! 30MP generated between the both of us!
Turn 4 and Crook wraps on a knocked down Vet Boar (all 8 dice hit the 2+) getting the 6 damage needed to take out Vet Boar! INSANE moment! (9-4) before jogging to Meathook and dealing 2 damage. Hook charged at Meathook but sadly only managed to put an addition 2 damage in… 10 dice needing 4s with a single point of armour… Vet Brisket went to sprint, quick timed herself to be within 8″ of the goal… She shoots… and scores a screamer to finish up the game (12-4)
So…. What have I learned? Shepherds are such a fun, brilliant minor guild. I made a couple of misplays but that was expected considering it was my first game with them! Also, I must remember to make notes regarding what has happened in what order. Again that is totally my bad but I am using this blog to try out so many different styles of writing (please notify me how you guys would improve this if you were in my shoes)
Butchers are still scary, however I feel that, with the right tools… There is potential to temporary control Vet Boar, especially when his legendary is up. I personally think my positioning during deployment, as well as forgetting about Ram’s Flock made a difference as I could have pushed my friendly models out of harms way when necessary.
Well… That’s all the time I have for regarding this battle report. Apologies for the memory lapse. This is why notes are important! (Take note future UP author!) I hope you have enjoyed this battle report. If so, feel free to like my facebook page (Unpredictable Plays. Will attach this blog to the page as well as the website) so you can keep an eye out regarding my future posts.
Next time. Either my locals Round 2 or Toss your Coin Round 1 as Engineers goes up against Blacksmiths!
Thank you so much for reading! Keep on rolling dice! See you soon Ballers.
Unpredictable Plays 