Guild Ball: Brewers Team (and a bit of a review of the game)

[JT-Y]

Posting these here because it is a fantasy football game, and because the models are great.

This is my first Guild Ball team, the Brewers.

The game is actually great, not at all an imitation of BB like so many others have been. It's a spin on old style mob football in a low fantasy setting, a sort of Steampunk/Victoriana/late med setting, which is quite a mixture of things but very well thought out. Personally I can't help but think of Gangs Of New York when I look at the setting and the background, the way the 'Guilds' are set up and the politics between them, and the way the players tend towards being tradesmen looking to better their lot in life or gangsters who revel in violence.
Oh, and one of the mercenary players is William Cutting by another name, so yeah.

It's played on an open pitch 3'x3' with only 6 models per side. Goals are scored by kicking the ball at a post. The game ends when a Victory Point target is hit, and VP's are won by scoring goals or taking out opposition players.
Game play wise, it is not unlike WM&H or Malifaux. All players are named characters, all have unique skills and abilities which can be triggered to make them better, make team mates better, or hamper opposition, and the trick lies in getting these things stacked in the right order and at the right time.
Models activate individually and play passes between teams one player at a time (I activate a model, you activate a model, when all are done we move to the next turn), which means that setting stuff up can look easy one moment and be countered the very next.
As you play you build momentum, and momentum can be spent to allow for ever more daring and/or devastating plays.
Combat isn't a straight up beat 'em up affair. You roll dice, compare successes to a playbook on the models card (all are different), and choose the result you want from those available. This can range from straight damage to tackling the ball away through pushing them away or dodging past them to carry on moving freely or get into a better position, to knocking them down or even activating a special ability.
And in this way you build the momentum to do ever more. It's a very nice mechanic that generates some very tense moments and excitement.

Right now there aren't many models to choose from for each Guild (7 on average plus some mercs, and you play with 6, so a limited choice), but later this year there will be a second wave of releases adding 4 models to each faction including a second captain (each team currently has and must include 1) and a second mascot (same deal as the captain).
There will also (so I've been told) be campaign rules in the first supplement to the rules. And this I find very interesting. The game can't develop like a BB league team does, players are named and have set abilities. I'm lead to believe that campaigns will be a more narrative thing and will involve a lot of plotting and politiking between Guilds. which sounds very different to what I'm used to and I look forward to seeing it.
I also believe (suspect) there will be 'veteran' versions of some players, and as the initial release includes some young rookies on several teams this makes sense, so there is scope for certain players to develop in that way.

Anyway, if you're still here after all that, I'll finish by saying that it is well worth a look and very different to BB, a very worthwhile distraction and great fun.

Steam Forged/Guild Ball website for more information:
http://guildball.com/

And now, after a gazillion words of context, here are some miniatures:

Brewers Team Captain; Tapper:


This is a conversion, the legs from a second Brewers model to give a fuller, more flowing kilt and to let me reposition the waist.

Scum; Brewers Mascot:


A great example of play this model. Whilst he's close to the captain he increases his 'influence'. But when Friday activates she can call the cat to move towards her out of sequence which, if done right, should mean she always has support when getting into a tackle or fight.

Friday; Brewers Striker:



Another bit of a conversion. I swapped her right arm out and added the bottle (sculpted) because the original has her holding a throwing knife which looks great but I felt was too fragile for my level of clumsiness. I also resculpted her feet to give her big heavy clogging boots. Just because it seemed fitting.

Spigot; Old Drunk/Football Legend:


Spigot is an odd one. A once great player who still have flashes of being brilliant. He makes others better and can do great things with the ball, but is often unreliable in that if you don't use him well he's just fragile.

Hooper; Midfielder:


The team tough guy. Not great at the game but really good at knocking opponents down and smashing their shins.

Stoker; Likes strong spirits and fire:


As per the description, Stoker is fun in that he will set the opposition alight and burn them out of terrain (oh, yes, it's played in rural areas so you can add small pieces of terrain).

Stave; Artillerist:


Stave is a big bulldozer of a player who clears space, either with his girth or by lobbing barrels which explode and force the opposition back. Great fun.

Fangtooth; Union (merc) monster:


Fangtotth is included because I love the model. Play wise he fits well as he's another player that clears space and dishes out damage.
The loincloth is a sculpted addition so that I could include some tartan.

Goal and Ball tokens:


The goal is a length of wooden dowl, the sign from a terrain kit. I though an Inn sign would be perfect.
The ball token is basically a 30mm base same as most of the models. Base size is used to determine ball path when passing and shooting, models have zones which extend 1'' or 2'' from their base which represents the area over which they can make ball handling harder. The trick is to get into the open so that you are shooting without intersecting and zones or, worse, bases. And that isn't as cut and dried as it sounds.

Brewers starter set group shot:


Thanks for looking. Any questions please ask.

If you can't see any of the pictures the full albumis on Facebook here:
https://www.facebook.com/jonathan.taylo ... 768&type=3

[horekim]

Fantastic paintjobs! Really like them. The bottles are especially nice.

[JT-Y]

And yes, they're all ginger. I look forward to explaining at Burger Bowl this weekend that all Scots are in fact all ginger. This is a known fact.

[nurglerot]

Wow, that is one incredible looking team. The tartan pattern is really great.

[howlinggriffon]

Beautiful team. Have Mat and Rich seen these? They will be thrilled to see what you've done with them.

[JT-Y]

Thanks. And yes they have, Rich isn't far from us.

[Darkson]

Very nice. Finally played my first 3v3 game yesterday (not played since an early playtest version) and really enjoyed it.

[cornish]

great paint job. to get the definition do you use an ink wash for all the divides (between armour/ clothes and flesh for example)? And is this done at the end of the process? Really impressed and any pointers appreciated!

[JT-Y]

It's rarely as simple as just using ink washes to define an area.
Basically you should always start with the deepest areas and work upwards, so skin, then clothing, in this case the grey areas before the tartan because the tartan is on top of the grey bits, then leather areas, and so on upwards to the fine details.
If you need sharp edges it's earier to define them as you go, so edges were tidied up around the skin before moving on. to the grey being careful to keep that edge defined, then between the grey and tartan the edge was redifined. This way you maintain sharp edges and it's easier to keep a sharp edge on a raised edge rather than into an edge that disappears under another raised surface. A lot of the time though dark shades do this for me as I start from a mid tone and work both downwards in shade as well as upwards in hilight. If that makes sense.

If you simply apply washes at the end then you won't have so much control and will darken the colours you've finished.



Once you get onto the bigger games on the bigger pitch Darkson the game really clicks. The 3 player quick version can be a bit sudden in how stuff happens with the time needed to counter being denied.

[Darkson]

Once you get onto the bigger games on the bigger pitch Darkson the game really clicks. The 3 player quick version can be a bit sudden in how stuff happens with the time needed to counter being denied.

Yeah, just a bit limited on time for full games at the moment (especially while still learning the rules), not helped by being in a reading funk at the moment, so haven't had the will to read the rulebook properly.
Hoping that by the time the pitch arrives, and my team is finished by nobbynobbs I'll have read the rules properly (rather than a skim) AND have a night off work so I can get a full match in.

[JT-Y]

Oh, pitches. Alex will be doing pitches shortly as well. Below is the prototype he and I concocted to show to the SteamForged guys. They liked it so FF Fields will be doing official GB merchandise.

Bigger games flow well and don't take much more than an hour. Best advice I can give I think is to avoid terrain and the Guild Plots when you first go to a 6 man game. Figure out the flow of the bigger game then introduce terrain to interfere with it and Plots when you are confident you won't keep forgetting that extra, narrative bonus element.

[outcast]

Stunning (as always)! The icing on the cake for me is the liquid in the girls bottle. If I could paint like that I would never be able to play any games with the models!

[cornish]

think they are great. well done fella!

I appreciate you taking the time to explain the process. i follow the deepest to the highest as I go although am probably not as disciplined so will try that next time. I also work from dark to light on my colouring but notice some other high level painters start at a mid tone and bring up and down.

Finally - the drop shadow (e.g. on the white bandages or stitching)… so that's just pick up in from your flesh colouring to dark (for example), then tidied off with the crisp white when you come up a level?

Anyway - hats off. lovely work.

[Norse]

Lovely work as always JTY, overall I like the look and feel of the GB minis, but they seem pretty costly for resin. Also, it's so hard to get a TT game of BB these days I doubt I would ever be able to find a GB game

[JT-Y]

Re the bandages; Pretty much, though it looks so dark on the bandages because it is. They're painted grey then shaded black then hilighted to white, so the deepest shade is almost pure black.

The liquid in the bottles isn't really all that hard, you just draw a line as you are hilighting and don't go below it after a certain point other than the edges. Green glass and square bottles make it quite easy to do.
Spigot's pint of dark mild, now that was more difficult because it's a dark liquid in a clear glass disrupted by the texture on the glass itself.

edit: The shadow around the stiching is so dark because they are done in only two colours; black and white. First, after the cloth is finished, the stitches are painted a solid black, then picked out in white. thin white in two fine layers is self shading over the black, and the black is left around the edges to leave a key line and the illusion of shadow.
Same trick for all the small plasters, though you have more space to create a bit more depth on the white.



Norse, these are metal, high tin pewter to be precise. The resin versions are limited availability and though I've since gotten hold of a couple to see the quality, I couldn't get this team all in resin. Resin is only available direct from Steam Forged and availability is limited. If you're looking at other retailers then they'll be pewter.
It is high quality, but then so is the metal, so it's taste, there's nothing really lost or gained between the materials here because the casters used are amongsth the best.
Resin costs more though because it takes longer to do and the moulds deteriorate faster.