Since everyone else is doing it. Playing the Guild, or Fighting as the law

[Iron Skies]

Ok, camera fail. Tried to upload pictures but to no use.

Played a game on Thursday night against Ant Hoult was a 55 stone Brawl. I've already forgotten what was taken (Thanks to not writing it down) except for the masters chosen.

Ant took : Kirai and Seamus

I had : Hoffman and Perdita

I did have two exorcists with me that thanks to their magical weapon buff made mincemeat of any spirits that got close. I used the game to try out different ways to deal with Jack Daw with a Guild crew which the exorcist fits in wonderfully against.

Highlight of the game : It being a brawl! No honestly! If you havn't played a brawl yet do so...Right now! Stop reading and play one!

[Iron Skies]

Hmm, not posted anything for a while.

Didn't play any games last week apart from Monty Python Fluxx (Still apologising for my Outrageous Accent!) and quietly hoping a few of my friends still have jobs (They work for Game) so uneventful week gaming wise.

On the other hand I only have a few Guild models left to paint and Sue (yay)

Since getting him I have been forcing myself to use him more and more with the following outcomes.

Sam stays in the box - No really with Sue around unless I'm facing arcanists (and even then it's 50/50) Sam stays in the box. With the Brutal effigy coming out soon we Guild will get a useful heal that will help keep Sue around for longer as well and take advantage of Hurt more.

Good for finishing things off - CB5 paired with critical strike, not the greatest stats for what is effectively an 8 stone model however built in crit and paired helps to finish models already targeted.

No synergy with any Guild master - I'm putting this down as a good thing as any Guild master can make use of him.

Makes Pandora cry - As an ex Pandora player I took one look at sue and immediately saw how useful he is against Neverborn and particularly Pandora. Boosting willpower, even a way to damage her if he gets close and able to destroy incite/pacify.

[Iron Skies]

Been waiting till after the tournament to post this.

Firstly thanks to Ian (Calmdown) to organising the event and an insightful last game (I don't care what people say. If you get the chance to play Ian do so, it will open your eyes to somethings you have missed)

I'll be coming back to add on this on Thursday so this is just the initial rundown of the tournament. I'll do a game by game writeup on Thursday.

The tournament was 35 stones fixed faction played over four rounds with the strategies being determined at random. Schemes were unique and no painting restriction.

I took the wonderful Guild to this tournament and ended up with two wins and two losses for the day.

First game was against Liam 'Ohgodshutup' Toop who took Ressers with Mcmourning as his master. Game ended 8-2 with the highlight being the Dead Rider one shotting Nino only to then be gunned down by Perdita for killing her cousin.

Strategy was shared slaughter.

Second game was against Ant 'Stryder' Hoult who took Arcanists with Rasputina as his master.

The game ended a very close 7-5 to Ant with the highlight being a wall of ice-pillars taking up most of the middle line.

Strategy was shared Recon.

Third game was against Adam 'Boyzie' Boyes who had taken Guild with Sonnia as his master.

The game ended 8-0 for me, this was Adam's first time facing Hoffman who took him completely by surprise. Highlight was Samael shooting Sonnia.

Strategy was shared Claim Jump.

Final game was against Ian 'Calmdown' O'Brien who had Ressers and took Mcmourning as his master. Game ended up 8-0 to Ian after a good master face-off in the centre which I will go into where I went wrong on Thursday. Not sure if it would have helped though

Strategy was shared contain power and the highlight was the whole game really

[WLSFK]

Hi Iron Skies,:ninja:

Great writings here, I'm just getting into the game and have a few crews which makes all your insights even more valuable. Please keep up the supply of info, thanks!

[Iron Skies]

Hi WLSFK,

Thanks for the feedback! Been trying to find my notes on the crew compositions and got some thoughts on Lady J that I should hopefully be posting tonight.

[Iron Skies]

So. After lots of procrastinating I have finally got around to putting this up.

Game 1

Shared Slaughter against club mate Liam 'Ohgodshutup' Toop with him using Ressers.

I had : Perdita, 2 X Exorcists, 2 X Austringers, Drill Sergeant and Nino

Schemes were Kill Protege on the Dead Rider and Hold out

Liam had : Mcmourning, 2 X Crooked men, Zombie Chihauha(SP?), Belle, Sebastian, 2 X Dogs and the Dead Rider (Of awesomeness)

Schemes taken were Kill Protege on Nino and Exterminate Guardsmen

The game started off fairly bloodless with two turns of 'dancing around' with me tempting Liam up the centre with Perdita and Liam moving the Dead Rider along the flanks until the end of turn 2 where the Dead rider charge and one-shotted Nino. Only for Perdita to return the favour the following turn.

The Exorcists were Liams primary target and I had no trouble using them to draw McM out to be gang-killed by the rest of my crew. The rest of Liams crew got picked about by the Austringers and Perdita chasing down the stragglers.

Thoughts after the game : I took a boring gunline and Liam fell to my tempting with first Perdita then the Exorcists.

Game 2

Shared Recon against another club mate Ant 'Stryder' Hoult with him using Arcanists

I had Perdita, 3 X Death Marshals, Watcher, Santiago and Samael

Schemes were Stake a claim and Bodyguard on Perdita

And had Rasputina, her avatar, 4 X Ice Gamin, Silent one and a December Acolyte

Schemes were sabotage and bodyguard on Raspy.

Again two turns of dancing around doing nothing as Ant set up a line of ice pillars to stop easy movement for me. Turn three kicked off with Ant bouncing a few blasts into my death marshals. Killing two of them rapidly and leaving the third cowering. Perdita then jumped in to shoot Raspy in the face but failed to kill the ice witch. All the while Ant was still making pillars down the centre line of the board.

The next two turns followed this same pattern with the game ending with me on my claim marker and Perdita still alive and one corner to Ant's sabotage with Raspy still alive and three corners.

Thoughts after the game : Should have pushed after Raspy as soon as I started to shoot at her instead of some 'clever' manuvering.

Game 3

Shared Claim Jump against Adam 'Boyzie' Boyes Guild on Guild!

I had : Hoffman, 2 X Hunters, Guardian, Peacekeeper, Mechanical Attendant and a Watcher

Schemes were Hoffmans own (Kill master with machine puppet) and Grudge on Samael.

Adam had : Sonnia, Witchling, Samael, Austringer, Nino and Santiago.

Schemes were Raid and Eye for an Eye.

This was a rather bloody game for Adam and a rather bloodless game for me, it was also the first time Adam had played against Hoffman so I hope it was a good learning experience for him as he takes the challenge of playing Hoffman himself. Adam manuvered to make a run on the claim jump marker with the Hunters shadowing several key models to get them closer. the Guardian moved up to cover Hoffman and take advantage of overprotective while the peacekeeper moved into position slowly (Dragging the Hoff the whole time)

Turns three and four involved the peacekeeper and hunters jumping on everything that was near. Rapidly killing Samael, the Austringer, witchling (Denied explosion thanks to dampening) and knocking some wounds off Santiago. Sonnia managed to run away from the initial onslaught only to be chased down by the peacekeeper and machine puppeted to death (Getting both my schemes) Nino fell to a hunter clawwing his face off.

Thoughts after the game : Realising that the flame walls from Sonnia are damage not wounds and could have possibly killed Sonnia a turn earlier.

Game 4

Shared contain power against Ian 'Calmdown' O'Brien playing as Ressers.

I had : Hoffman, Mechanical Attendant, Ryle, Guardian, Hunter, Watcher and an Exorcist.

Schemes taken were : Breakthrough and Raid

Ian had : McMourning, Bete Noire, Von Awesome - er Schill, Sybell, a Belle, Dog, Grave Spirit and Zombie Chihuaha.

Schemes taken were : A Piece for me and Hold Out.

The first two turns were McM turning the chihuaha into a load of body parts as well as the dog to move into position while the Hoffman Death star got into position as well. Sybelle and the Belle came on first but were mown down by Ryle before being taken down himself by Bete. Hoffman managed to pick up Ryle's scrap as well as the Hunters (Who had been taken down by Von Schill) McMourning then scalpelled in next to Hoffman and the Guardian to face four bouts of open circuit (resisting three) then McMourning taking down the Hoff and going to town on the remaining constructs.

Thoughts after the game : McMourning was next to the Guardian. What I should have done was companion the attendant first to open circuit and stone it then use Hoff to Machine puppet the Guardians shield. I had low rams in my hand so even if I missed my minimum damage was 3 following by activating the guardian to hit two more times. Hindsights 20/20 as they say.

Going to post on Lady J after having a few more games with her

[Iron Skies]

Been a while since I've last posted so update time!

Played a few games with Lady J and while I am enjoying her playstyle she is pushing me back to Perdita.

This is giving rise to the Perdita Avatar Challenge! *Fanfare* My next 10 games will be played with Avatar Perdita each time to get a feel for how she plays etc.

[dunce002917]

Been a while since I've last posted so update time!

Played a few games with Lady J and while I am enjoying her playstyle she is pushing me back to Perdita.

This is giving rise to the Perdita Avatar Challenge! *Fanfare* My next 10 games will be played with Avatar Perdita each time to get a feel for how she plays etc.

Cool, let us know how the Avatar performs on the board...

[GoodPhule]

Played a few games with Lady J and while I am enjoying her playstyle

Are you going to post your thoughts on the Lady?

[Iron Skies]

Ok, after a long time here's my thoughts on Lady J.

Firstly, above average walk for a Guild model is nice to have giving her an effective threat range of 12" with the reach from her greatsword added.

flip on the greatswords attack means you will normally getting a neutral flip, forcing your opponent to either cheat in a high card to equal you or letting you cheat on the damage flip.

As mentioned before she's paired on her pistols so even though she's only CB4 if your opponent has any anti-melee triggers it's sometimes worth shooting instead of stabbing.

Possibly the best anti-melee trigger in the game with Ripost. The only downside is she's only DF5 so is rather squishy. The same trigger is the reason onslaught is rarely used with her.

So far in my games with her she's been best used to kill a random weak minion to boost everyone elses CB. This puts death marshals up to CB7 and boosts Nino up to CB9 BEFORE in my sights is cast on anything. Then leaping through to finish off a master after the minions have chipped soulstones off them with their boosted CB.

[Iron Skies]

Ok, had a few games with Avy Perdita.

Thoughts so far. She's metal, I mean completely metal. I had thought she would be a resin cat-dragon with a metal Perdita.

Second thought, how the hell am I supposed to get her in my case?

Third though, buy a new case.

Ok serious now

She plays like normal Perdita but with a much lower defence, so instead of being a 'wade in and kill big model' piece she's a 'circle and pounce on something isolated' model. her major damage output comes from getting a :rams on her charge, otherwise paired range 12 pistols ruin anyones day.

So far I have found I've not had to use her spells much though having an extra draw phase for myself has been a huge advantage.

With her bigger base she actually has a larger threat range than most people think as well. Cheeky tactic so far is to shoot something to make sure you're in range then charge if you have a high :rams in your hand.

More thoughts as I play with her so stay tuned

[Mr. Bigglesworth]

On lady j you need to try her with student and Lucius fir mega slingshot. Also just try j with student threat range goes through roof.

Big thing you fail to mention for j is she can hand out melee expert. Give a pair of dogs melee exper, or a pair of marshals or judge. The ability to hand out two modifiers per cast is huge. Her one ap can produce two more Ap to attack.

Inspiring swordplay is double esge sword and usually never worth going for, since it can usually she is going to be left open.

Because of onslaught she should be able to kill most def 3 or less masters with ease.

J is arguably our best master but is easiest to misuse. She is more a backfield late game master, supporting her crew and coming in for clean up or a precision killer.

Edited May 17, 2012 by Mr. Bigglesworth

[Iron Skies]

Quick update, still going strong with Avvy Perdita. Main thing to add is that damage output is reduced. Not by much but enough to catch you off guard with the removal of critical strike.

The cat/dragon thing has also got a name now. Mr Snuffalumpagus

That is all

[GoodPhule]

Big thing you fail to mention for j is she can hand out melee expert. Give a pair of dogs melee exper, or a pair of marshals or judge. The ability to hand out two modifiers per cast is huge. Her one ap can produce two more Ap to attack.

I have never really used this, (I think I dismissed it too quickly and never came back to it) but reading your post and going back to the card makes me see how potentially powerful this could be - especially with a range of 10.

I always thought that one attack with J would be better than two attacks with others but you are right when you say that it lets her stay safe whilst still helping out the combat so she can come in at the end and clear things up.

I'd guess the range also means she can also boost her minions without the crew having to clump together too badly.

If you are running a Death Marshals (esp The Judge) then I bet this combines well with Finish the Job to increase damage output.

[Headcase2]

Pray tell, why waste an action on this with LJ if you can just have your totem do it? Even Scales casts it on a 9 (well worth cheating), and if you decide to use a Proxy it's only a 7.

---------- Post added at 03:54 PM ---------- Previous post was at 03:51 PM ----------

Thoughts after the game : McMourning was next to the Guardian. What I should have done was companion the attendant first to open circuit and stone it then use Hoff to Machine puppet the Guardians shield. I had low rams in my hand so even if I missed my minimum damage was 3 following by activating the guardian to hit two more times. Hindsights 20/20 as they say.

This doesn't work. You can't trigger critical strike on a missed shield attack, since it is not the strike doing damage, it's a side-effect of the weapon.

[Mr. Bigglesworth]

I don't cast through totem because I either take the student where it is rarely worth it or no totem at all. But yes if i had a totem i would more likely use totem, but I tend to keep j back and shoot stragglers while my roided crew attacks.

[Iron Skies]

One other thing I want to add to this. I took the effigy and witchling handler out in the same game against the gremlins. The handler I used to just push witchlings around and get them into combat without a charge action. The effigy didn't do much thanks to being one shotted pretty early on. When I get more games in with them I'll do a proper writeup.

[Headcase2]

I don't cast through totem because I either take the student where it is rarely worth it or no totem at all. But yes if i had a totem i would more likely use totem, but I tend to keep j back and shoot stragglers while my roided crew attacks.

I think it's a bit of a waste to relegate LJ to fire support. Cb 4 (admittedly, paired) with a mediocre damage track vs. a Cb 9+ greatsword... Also, I think the Student of Conflict is overrated.

[Iron Skies]

Long time since I've posted anything here. The Avatar Perdita challenge has finished and while only 10 games with her normal perdita is best used for 80% of the schemes and strategies. While gaining paired and an extra 2" of range is a tempting tradeoff going down to DF5 will come back to haunt you. Losing gunfighter all the time as well will make for a sad panda.

On the plus side if you want to distract your opponent she's very good at that and isolated models are pretty much mincemeat with her around (Especially if you have a high ram in your hand)

Other than that she does really change much apart from becoming easier to kill.

If anyone wants a more detailed rundown just pester and I'll write one up.

Next challenge for me is the Govenors secretary, after some discussion at the team GT I feel I do not have as good a grasp of him as I should.

[nurglez]

I've been wondering about her Avatar. A list I was considering was abusing her hand manipulation, Taking along Sue and someone to heal him (Brutal effigy as I own one and will lose her totem when she manifests anyway).

Only problem is this costs 16ss, leaving me without much to utilize the card manipulation.

I really like Perdita, and really enjoyed the short story before her Avatar stats in the latest book

[Iron Skies]

The hand manipulation is a very powerful tool however you do have to play with those cards open to your opponent. And the Brutal is like all Guild 4 stone models, very solid and good for his points.

[nurglez]

I was under the impression only one of her draw cards abilities required you to have them face up, the other one you had to show to your opponent but doesn't specify leaving them face up...

[Iron Skies]

Phew, over a month since my last post on this. Before I get into the nitty gritty here's a summary of what's going to follow.

- Lucius is awesome, only scratching the surface with him

- Wardens are pure gold for ANY Guild master when taken in pairs

- Guild hounds have managed to make it into nearly all of my lists

- The Witchling Handler is fantastic

Ok, so first point. Having taken Lucius on his own a few times he plays a very defensive game. So far what seems to happen is I reach the middle line then sit there with Lucius buffing the crew and making them kill key models while the Austringers throw birds at people. As it is my usual 35 stone crew with Lucius has been :

Guild Crew - 35 - Scrap

Lucius -- 4 Pool

Drill Sergeant [3ss]

Guild Austringer [5ss]

Guild Austringer [5ss]

Guild Guard [4ss]

Guild Guard [4ss]

Guild Hound [3ss]

Guild Hound [3ss]

Ryle, Guild Pawn [8ss]

Though with the release of the Wardens it is likely to change to something like this :

Guild Crew - 35 - Scrap

Lucius -- 4 Pool

Drill Sergeant [3ss]

Guild Austringer [5ss]

Guild Austringer [5ss]

Guild Guard [4ss]

Guild Guard Captain [7ss]

Guild Hound [3ss]

Guild Hound [3ss]

Warden [5ss]

Speaking of Wardens so far I have used them in pairs with Lady J where their key moment so far has been punching a December Acolyte off a HT5 treehouse to his doom. Not had chance to use the restraint claw yet as been using them as Melee hitters and cheap(ish) distraction models.

Don't actually need to expand on the hounds as it's more of a statement though the handler, especially when taken with at least 3 witchlings boosts an already good 4 stone model into an amazing 4 stone model. So far I've mainly used her with Perdita as the master. The handler sits back in my deployment zone pushing witchlings forwards to get the anti-magic buff up (This does require some clever movement and positioning turn 1 to get them where they are neeed) or to push them into Melee range for 2 attacks.

She's been equally effective in objective scenario's such as claim jump where after turn 3 or so she can start walking to the objective and plonk a greatsword on it.

[FearLord]

This doesn't work. You can't trigger critical strike on a missed shield attack, since it is not the strike doing damage, it's a side-effect of the weapon.

Wrong - see here http://www.wyrd-games.net/showthread.php?20395-Can-Critical-Strike-trigger-even-if-my-Duel-fails&highlight=shield+critical

[Iron Skies]

Huh, and a ruling from a Marshall as well there. Shield bash has come back into the game for me! >