Yore Huckleberry

I think it needs to be narrower: using up an AP or resolving the forced interact from the attack is a change to the game state, so in the first place, it doesn’t solve the issue. But even if you wanted to contend against that, if Nellie forced the interact with her 8”-range One More Question attack, then even taking a “pick up zero marker” interact will set off Nellie’s Breaking News 8” bubble, causing her to gain focus and draw a card, which is a change to the game state. It may well also trigger the Chasing a Story 8” bubble of other reporters too. If Nellie is actually intended to be able to force enemies to drop enemy scheme markers at range as part of the synergy with her crew’s Slander triggers or tax-in synergy with Guard models, then the rules change needs to be something closer to adding Scheme marker in base contact as a cost, or something. Edit: that said, I’m all for future-proofing, and I’m curious if you have any other current examples in mind?

The idea was to put the Peacekeeper on the Claim Jump area and just hold it, backed by Hoffman heals and Phiona there to yank attacks off if need be -- an overprotection strategy for my claim jump points, basically, while the Watcher and Mech Attendant ambled off to Outflank supported by Langston and Joss. Because Phiona can lure Hoffman in to heal-hit her, the ability to dump a hit or two onto her in the middle as Joss and Langston pincered in seemed like a good general set of tactics. @Davos threw Phiona into some terrain off in another direction (probably should have brought a LLC for her!) and the big Hannah hits came in meanwhile.

I don't have any sour grapes about it, but yeah, I'd love to see a real errata there. I don't exactly remember, but I think he stoned for an extra ram and took the siphon power ram on one attack, and there may have been red joker damage in there. Can't recall if he had a focus to get a red joker cheat in, but yeah, it was potent. @Davos, do you happen to recall exactly how you did this? The Peacekeeper might have been down one wound to begin with or something.

I mean, this is one of the more controversial debates at the moment over in the rules forum. As I wrote: we played it as if allowed, but even my opponent agreed it probably isn't the intent of the ability.

So, I went to the Des Moines tourney on Saturday and finished 3-4-14. Bans format. Briefly: Round One: Turf War with Power Ritual/Harness/Claim Jump/Hold Up Forces/Outflank. Wedge. 5-3 loss Took Hoffman into Von Schill (Brian from S&S podcast) I banned Amalgam; he banned Marshal We played where Hannah could copy her own charge and she dropped the peacekeeper (which had claim jump) in a single activation, largely because Phiona had been tossed out of position into terrain so she couldn't take the hits. We both took claim jump (he had a librarian) and outflank. I scored outflank once and turf war twice; he scored outflank once, claim jump twice, and turf war twice. Round Two: Plant Explosives with Assassinate/Vendetta/Hold Up/Dig Graves/Detonate. Flank deployment. 5-4 loss Took Lady J into Von Schtuck I banned Forgotten; he banned Journalist We each moved sideways off the flank towards safe drop zones. Valedictorian flew in and dropped Lone Marshal with a red joker damage flip on the hard-to-wound minus. Lone Marshal was my Vendetta figure, so out two points. He forgot to use his Academic Zeal upgrade, and given my secretly lost points, I called missed opportunity (he was a good sport about that). Lady J dropped Valedictorian for the first point of Dig Graves (I expected to just get one from that). On my own side I forgot I'd taken a LLC on Lady J, resulting in him scoring first-assassinate: we decided those mistakes roughly canceled. We each scored the strat three times, but he got the first Vendetta point with an undergraduate By-Your-Siding into the Judge after my seven stones were gone. Round Three: Corrupted Idols with Search Ruins/Detonate Charges/Claim Jump/Deliver a Message/Take Prisoner. Standard Deployment. 7-0 win (newer opponent) Took Nellie into Titania on a board with a lot of severe terrain. I explained Nellie and Deliver before he chose schemes. I spread Nellie, a Field Reporter, and Allison out with Nellie and the Pale Taxi in the middle so that each could cover one drop area. Opponent controlled the drop and put it near where some minions (ook Razorspine Rattler, ook Candy, and the Gorar) could advance towards it. I used the P Press near there to shove them back and apply burning with Hot of the Press and shuttled Nellie towards it with the Pale Rider, who got some shots into Aeslin as well. I had taken a Peacekeeper to anti-scheme and prevent Claim Jump, and it finished Aeslin with a harpoon gun. Round two the Undercover Reporter replaced an Autumn Knight to de-position it. Meanwhile he tossed one idol over but Nellie arrived and double-tossed it 2" + 2" with free interact heals and covered the interaction with her Exclusive Interview bubble. My opponent had taken Detonate and Search and wasn't able to get them down. I took Deliver and Search and scored them both, with the Undercover Reporter helping me drop markers via minions in the early rounds. It was a pretty advantageous pool/list, but it's nice to remember that Guild DOES have some tools that really shine. The two close losses and the large game 3 diff gave me 7th, I think, with, I believe, a tie for second best diff at the tourney. I also won 2nd in the Painting Contest (theme Socialite) for Lucius, who matched that theme quite well. My play in games 1-2 wasn't perfect, but I do think each game was competitive and winnable, and losing the Lone Marshal to red joker damage round one was hugely significant in game two. I'm optimistic about future Guild work at tourneys.

I've been thinking about how the Guild has really solid tech picks against Tara between the Jury and Death Marshal Recruiters. One of my local Outcast guys doesn't even take Tara into Guild at this point. I've been trying to think through whether there are factions that have just too big a toolbox for any of our masters? Or are there matchups you've had that went really poorly? E.g., I don't think I want to run Nellie into Ten Thunders, because Shenlong's ability to reverse manipulative and distracted means that he'll just hard stop a lot of the defensive tech in journalist keyword. And I don't think I like Hoffman into Neverborn because there are so many willpower duels they can threaten, plus things like Black Blood damage that can chip away the lower health of armored models awfully fast. Arcanists -- I think Collette can out-manipulate Nellie unit-for-unit, so in a schemier pool it might be worth using some other master. I think we've got great tools against a summoner, since we can always take the Agent-46/Exorcist combo even o-o-k for two extra points and uncheatably headshot big summons for a soulstone. Bayou -- lots of explosions and tests, so maybe want a more elite crew? Could be hard on Hoffman, too -- lots of small plink damage can drop armor units over time. Explorers -- at the moment, I don't think they have strong matches against our usual plays. Guild mirror -- I guess Dashel is weak to our summon-killing combos. Hoffman is weak to all of our armor piercing and execute tech. Perdita is weak to our ranged damage. Maybe a Lady J crew is fine here? Or Nellie teched out for control? Neverborn -- Hoffman's crew is weak to willpower duels and plink damage. Otherwise, we're both kill-first-scheme-later factions, and we have the advantage of distance. Outcast -- We're strong against Tara and Jack Daw with tech pieces. Not sure we have bad matchups here? Resurrectionists -- hard to imagine NOT picking Lady J here. Even if they try to get a Living crew out of Seamus or Von Schtook, the Emissary or Dead Rider or Archie or Necropunks are all undead pieces they're going to want to bring in. Plus Lady J is great at running down Seamus. Ten Thunders -- Nellie's crew has bad defenses against Drunken Kung Fu inversion. Curious what other people have seen?

I like Lone Marshal for the stat 7 and two solid triggers, though the execute from Riflemen seems pretty solid too. I’d be less worried about getting puncture from frontiersmen since you have decent odds of just winning the damage spread via your cheat/no-cheat advantage.

Watchers are also a point more expensive than hounds, which are also super fast and stay within that 3-4 stone schemer range. Once you're up to 5 points for a watcher I think it's pretty board dependent to take that over a keyword model with some synergy (like, if you're playing Family, that's a stone away from a Monster Hunter). Yeah, I think Marshal is actually our deepest toolbox. Exorcists deal with a LOT of defensive tech and have some potent spike surprises. Domadores are healers and suited obey'ers for anyone nearby. The Jury is a potent inexpensive henchlady with a suited obey, good attacks, and defensive "get what you dealt" tech. I hadn't ever thought about taking the Judge ook for the card draw, but spending a 5 for up to three free cards at the risk of some recoverable damage really is pretty good -- though I'm not sure you buy her ook before the Pale Rider. Honestly Death Marshals themselves are the perfect pawn at 5 stones, too, and bumping them to 6 probably fills in holes for a few of our other keywords. In Elite, Investigators are pretty good models for certain schemes (Claim Jump), as are False Witnesses (Harness, Detonate Charges). And Agent 46's un-cheatable attack is powerful, especially if it gets a good gun to copy out of some other in-keyword model and can fire at range ... though the best gun is probably either Santiago's or the Lone Marshal's, which points back to Marshal again a bit. The other GIGANTIC tech pick in Marshal is Lady Justice herself. The fact that she's worth considering as a 5-AP beatstick for 17-stones is fun on its own ... but the real potency is picking her against a poison or fire master and leaping in to use "Restore the Natural Order" at the end of round one to instantly remove the 35 poison they spent all their AP putting on their models.

Ooph! Welp. Performer it is!

I honestly feel like Guild is in pretty good shape to resist bans. Peacekeeper, Pale Rider, and Guild Steward are all versatile, which matches well for when you need a melee beater, ranged threat, or focus/condition removal. Hitting Guard stops executioners, but then you can simply bring Thralls, and vice versa. I guess hitting Guard also stops hiring in Guild Hounds, which can hurt our scheming. Guard: Stops our Hounds and Executioners. Stops the Queeg trick of turning focuses into Fast, maybe useful in casual Family games. Augmented: pretty insulated? Peacekeeper is Versatile and immune. Marshal: Stops Exorcists and Jury as tech picks; stops Lone Marshal as a self-sufficient and mobile ranged threat. Stops Lady J as a 17-stone beater pick. Witchling Hunter: Stops Thralls, I suppose? Stops Sonnia as second master Journalist: pretty insulated? The best model to borrow here is the totem, and if you just want Arcane Reservoir, pick Lucius instead of Nellie+Printing Press. Nellie as a 16-point schemer is pretty costly. Family: Stops Monster Hunter or Pistolero scheme runners; stops Perdita as a second master Frontier: Stops Pathfinder or Austringer niche picks? Elite: Stops Agent 46 tech picks or Alan Reid as a mid-cost disruptor henchman. Stops Lucius as an Arcane Reservoir and Obey-Minion platform ... maybe best with Guard and Executioners?

I'm curious about the offensive potential of bans, too. Offhand, here are the bans I'd start from: Arcanists: Performer (Coryphees, Cassandra) or possibly M&SU (the Captain) if I know I want to be shooting a lot (though Howard Langstrom or Diesel Engines are still a thing) Bayou: Tri Chi to stop free Dig Their Graves with Akaname, possibly Wizz-Bang if I'm expecting Taxidermist shenanigans, Tricksy to stop Rooster Riders, maybe? Explorers: Whichever they aren't playing! XD Neverborn: Swampfiend (Zoraida, The First Mate, breaks up the Dreamer/Zoraida combo) Outcasts: Bandit to stop Mad Dog or Dead Outlaw hijinks, Freikorps to stop their utility pieces Resurrectionists: Transmortis to stop students of sinew/steel/etc, Redchapel if I just don't want Seamus hired in, Ten Thunders: maybe Honeypot to stop Kitty Dumont? Or Last Blossom to stop Ototo? Monk to stop Thunder Archers, maybe?

These DO look great! So you've just put "green stuff" into the bases and then there's a roller to make that flagstone pattern? My base game needs some serious hustle, so I'd love to hear more about this.

I’m playing in my first GG-0 bans tournament this weekend. On the one hand, Guild feels pretty well inured against them: peacekeeper, emissary, and Guild Steward are all versatile, as is Grimwell, Heartsbane, and the Orderly. On the other hand, there’s a LOT of tech in Marshals (Jury, exorcists, Lone Marshal), and a few niche pieces that could be important (Papa Loco vs Raspy, Eg). I’m curious what you’d be worried about having banned, and how you’d adjust? EG, “I like to run Hoffman with the Lone Marshal for a surprise range threat, but if they ban Marshals I could bring Santiago or just use Melissa KORE.” or “Nellie likes to use an executioner to double up on scheme marker control, but if they ban Guard I’d just bring a Peacekeeper.” or “I use Death Marshal Recruiters as a threat against Collette or Bette Noir, but if they ban Marshal I’ll use Papa Loco and a No Prisoners upgrade to splash damage onto her.” Any one else have thoughts or experiences with this?

Thanks, @Maniacal_cackle; that's how I read it, too. I suppose it's nice that Obeying models are weak on SOMETHING at least!

Dinging my Master level pledge with ... a Master! And his totem. Here’s 19 SS to augment some possibilities for my Guild self. Fun to play with different metallic textures and get a new master assembled.

So an obey DOES work, even though “it” (the activating model) does not directly damage the Vendetta target? I’m definitely tracking that it has to be during, Eg, the Guild Lawyer’s activation. I’m also clear that the activation requirement means that you can’t, say, obey a Rifleman that has a Vendetta target to do damage out-of-activation and score it. But if a Guild Lawyer has Vendetta against an enemy, and the Lawyer obeys a Rifleman to shoot the target model and do damage, you’re saying the condition for Vendetta is satisfied?

If you take Vendetta on someone like a Gautreaux Bokor or Guild Lawyer, can you satisfy the “if it dealt damage during the activation” part of Vendetta through an attack that’s performed by another model with Obey? It seems like “it” refers to the model itself dealing damage, but I’m curious if there’s any sort of FAQ on this, similar to the Corrupted Idols GG0 rule where the obeyer must take damage for moving an idol.

I’ve got a tourney coming up with Wedge Turf War Pool: Power Ritual Outflank Claim Jump Harness the Ley Line Hold Up Their Forces So it’s mostly positional play: take the four quarters, points available in the corners, the sides, the center, and along the centerline. I think I really like Dashel for this, with a lot of blasting into the Wedge deployment to scare them off. My other thought is Hoffman, but he doesn’t really have the speed to stop someone breaking past and scoring Power Ritual.

Well spotted! I was looking at the mask trigger for Coordinated Attack on his Long Carbine, but now I see what the OP was saying.

Attacks generated by a trigger cannot declare triggers (it’s in the breakout box on page 12 of the rulebook), so you’re only getting the first extra attack, alas!

What’s your go to order for Turf War? It feels like Marshals or Family are pretty solid here, able to pick off targets at a good distance. Hoffman, on the other hand, strongly resists an opponent dropping a unit just to flip a marker. Nellie can get something flipped with Don’t Mind Me and, say, a versatile Peacekeeper and Pale Rider for help. Or maybe Dashel’s summons are worth the most here, where there’s less of an immediate points penalty for losing a unit, provided you put them all on your opponent’s side. Of course, Basse can start you right near markers, trap other markers, and start the fight where your opponent is. What are people having success with?

If you mean Lady J’s counterattack, it only goes off if she wins the defensive duel, so she won’t die at the same time as the Viktoria (the Vik isn’t winning the duel or dealing damage). If you mean the Jury’s trigger, I agree with @santaclaws01 above that it will be the active model (presumably the Vik).

Yeah, I think Lady J does some great work if you stumble into a counter-match. She's strong against Tara (bring Jury and maybe a DMR) or Summoners, for example, as you can tech in Agent 46 and copy the Exorcist's summoned-headshot and then stone for the trigger. Against Undead the Judge and Jury are still strong; the Judge suddenly has three meaningful attacks at range and a hell of a swing up close. So that's helpful against Ressers and a handful of other matchups (I had fun against Sloth in a Crossroads 7 game once, and Judge can put some real hurt into Izamu in a Yan-Lo crew if you give her the armor-ignoring upgrade and stone a bit). We've got some interesting toolboxes for sure!

I'm a new player as of October 2019, and I love this idea! Since I'll be collecting and painting my way into at least one faction, I'd like to be ambitious and start with a Master Level Pledge! If I wind up full-up on minis, perhaps I'll move on to some of the terrain suggestions. Thanks to you guys for organizing this! PS: Where will the updates each month be, and is there a place to keep track of our progress on any sort of public spreadsheet or what-have-you?

2+ mask on Phiona is astonishingly effective for “Ive got your back” and the free attack trigger.