Now that the dust has finally settled… Let’s get into the main discussion of this piece today. As many people would remember, SFG has pulled the plug on the game that has gotten them onto the map: Guild Ball.

Their reasons? Competitive players ruins the game for newer players… Ermmmmmm ok bear with me whilst I find the time I felt that was the case…. Spoilers, you will be waiting ages as there has never ever been a moment I thought that. In fact, I STILL stand by my opinion that the Guild Ball community is one of the best communities out there! And I think the announcement proves that point!

Trying remember the other reasons… But I cannot as I have not been completely focused on the announcement. Instead, I have been focused on the memories the game has offered me. Early 2017, I was doing my voluntary work at a Local Game Store, where I saw these 2 guys play Guild Ball… I believe the 2 guilds were Brewers and Engineers and I remember being hugely amazed by the game play, the amount of planning involved. A couple of weeks later, I had a demo game (I chose Masons as I loved the look of them and Brewers reminded me of my old demons. Those close to me knows about those) and whilst I did lose the game 12-8, I remember asking how I could get started. A few months later, I entered my first ever local event (The day after I did a regionals at Liverpool for a TCG) and yes with The Kick off 6 Masons, I got destroyed. However, I loved setting Flint up for a T1 goal and I remember meeting a ton of amazing people as well as picking up a ton of advice and tips.

These days, I mostly play Engineers (After picking up both Alternative versions of Salvo in the English National Swag Bag… Took it as a sign), occasionally play Miners (for the minors only events) and even Farmers (1st guild I properly went all out with. Mostly used as a memory, especially Festival as I painted her hair like my other half’s hair at the time) and I recently decided join the world of Malifaux using The Guild Faction (potentially going to Explorer’s when released)

So… What is my plan from here? I plan on doing more blogs that are GB related, as there are events still going on and as long as that remains the case, I will keep attending. I plan on going through my Engineers 12 and why I chose the players for the roster. But for now, I bid you farewell whilst I get planning regarding how to keep this going 🙂

Hello guild ballers. I hope everybody has been well, especially during the past few months. Phew those were extremely rough to handle that’s for sure. However, I am a bearer of good news… I am back! After spending the past couple of months just not doing anything related to guild ball, I have an itch that needs to be scratched… That itch can only be satisfied via playing with toy soldiers and rolling some dice!

As of the time of typing, we still are unable to attend events. However, I know there are some people who would be playing again and I cannot wait to binge watch guild ball related stuff on Youtube. That’s one of the many things I have been missing.

I also have FINALLY been able to see my daughter safely, after nearly 4 MONTHS of not being able travel to another county to pick her up and have her down mine over the weekend. I would like to say I am missing work…. But honestly… I miss the job but not the people if that makes sense?

But this isn’t about all that… I am writing to announce that over the next few months (provided we can meet and play games again soon), I WILL be aiming to have a game of guild ball a week… To make them into battle reports whilst preparing myself for the GG Masters in November 2020 (Forgive me GG… But I have forgotten the dates… Pretty sure its the 20th-22nd but will check with work as I know I got the days off….)

So…. What is my plan exactly? I am going say…. I am restarting a journey. I pick a guild, play with that guild whilst learning the pros and cons of each model the guild has to offer, how to approach each matchup etc. Pretty much… I aim to be some form of “expert” with the chosen guild.

I already know which guild to use… I am sticking with the Cogs aka Engineers. Why them? They suit my playstyle incredibly well (considering I was a farmers player before and I preferred Grange over Thresher… Ahhhh Grange was so satisfying before he got buffed before Festival came along)

I cannot wait to get playing again. Hope to see you all soon folks!!!

What’s rolling Guild Ballers? I am Unpredictable Plays and today… I am going off my planned blogs to write this one. You see… As we all already gathered, the whole world has been in lockdown because of the Coronavirus and it will take its toll on so many people’s mental health. So I guess this blog would be about my own mental health and how it is affecting my passion for Guild Ball.

If you guys remember my first ever blog, I did my first ever shepherds match against butchers and lost 12-4. I have had 2 further games with them since and lost 12-8 against Corbelli and 12-6 against Miners respectively. In between those games, I have played 4 games with Engineers… All resulting in losses… 12-6 against Blacksmiths, 12-4 against Obby Morticians, 14-0 against Steeljaw Hunters and 12-0 against Yukai Fish. The past couple of results with Engineers, especially the loss against fish, has hit me way harder mentally than it should and, as a result, I dropped out of the 3rd event I was in.

Reason for the drop out, as well as me feeling mentally down… So many different theories. However, I am going put my own reasons in here. Basically, I did mention I had 3 different rosters with a new guild and 2 engineers 12, each with an upgraded captain. That actually broke my own policy of analysing each player in a guild, choose my favourite 12 and go from there. Also, I have been making so many mistakes recently, most of which were repeating so I personally felt I have made no progress as a player compared to last August/September time when I first picked up Engineers. With a dark cloud on my mind, I felt my passion for the game slowly slip away. That’s when I decided to drop out of the 3rd event I was in… To allow myself time to recover and relearn what each player does for Engineers. It could also be the fact I am missing hanging out with the locals, rolling actual dice whilst having a laugh and drinking coffee!

Don’t get me wrong, vassal is an amazing tool and its something I would strongly recommend if you want grab some games in against people from around the world. However, its nothing compared to actually being in a room filled with other guild ballers and exchanging laughs and hints!

Think that is all I am going to write in this blog today. Please remember to look after each other during these difficult times, stay safe and please please pleaseeee look after yourselves! We all will be able go back out soon… In which case I want to literally grab my engineers and roll some dice!

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.

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