Favorite Guild Master

[JusticeUnleashed20]

Out of all the guild masters currently available. Who is your favorite to play? What makes them so enjoyable to play and how do you play them?

My favorite master to play is Perdita as she was my first master and has so many movement shenanigans. The way I run her is with a full family crew so that I can get a lot of good interaction out of them and hit my opponent's crew hard. My favored list for her is:

Perdita Ortega

-Aura Ancestral

-Trick Shooting

-Badge of Office

 

Francisco Ortega

-Wade In

Papa Loco

-Hermanos De Armas

Abuela Ortega

-Hair Trigger (Because it is hilarious)

Nino Ortega  

Santiago ortega (though wish I had the Santana model for him)

[4thstringer]

I'm a lucius man,  even if I have to admit he is not good at the current time.   I love his imagery and stories and love friendly obeys.

[Ludvig]

Lucius is my favourite by far. I am awful at playing him however so it's a sort of love-hate thing. He's enjoyable in a masochistic way but the model and the feel of ordering poor saps around and sacrificing them for your own gain is unbeatable.

[Surrealistik]

Well it's not really for your own gain when you get roflstomped anyways, now is it?

 

Also definitely a Hoffman guy myself; love his synergies and wombo combos despite the fact that he's countered by too many things. I really hope he gets an upgrade to deal with armour negation.

[Ludvig]

Getting roflstomped is all just part of the plan! Do you know nothing about the art of villainy?!  

[wizuriel]

In terms of pure fun I do like playing Lucius and Lady Justice, I just know I will never really win with either of them. Lucius with a Guard heavy list in particular

 

In terms of fun and having a competitive list I like playing Guild McMourning. I love playing with with a heavy Marshal list and unlike Lady J and Lucius he is competitive. In paticular I love the McMourning and Exorcist combination (my exorcist is styled after Captain Feckler ) 

[Surrealistik]

13 minutes ago, Ludvig said:

Getting roflstomped is all just part of the plan! Do you know nothing about the art of villainy?!  

Yeah, despite his impressive/imposing fluff, due to his terrible mechanics, Lucius definitely comes off in my headcanon as a much more stylish Dr. Evil who is every bit as bumbling, overwrought and unwittingly incompetent.

[fauxreigner]

It's McMourning for me. I love that he is a hybrid between combat and control master. Played Guild-side, he has the durability to stand in the middle of the fray, while buffing his crew, handing out interact actions, and getting markers dropped. I've not seen a scheme pool to date where I wasn't able to build a McMourning crew capable of competing.

[LunarSol]

Sonnia for me.  She's the master I bought the game for, being a big fan of the sword-mage vibe (though, as in most games with this setup, you do more mage than sword).  I'd probably have tired of her if she was just about curving fireballs around corners, but the ability to control the board with flame walls, protecting her crew from enemy spells, and now and again bring a Stalker out of the ashes of the enemy keep her diverse and interesting against a variety of opponents.

[Durza]

Mcmourning is my favorite master in the game, he's so much fun to play. Hoffman is second in guild, Lucius is third.

[Gnomezilla]

29 minutes ago, Ludvig said:

Getting roflstomped is all just part of the plan!...

Or so I tell myself every time I face Perdita. It's the chain activations that are doing it, too. Armor negation is annoying. Chain activation is fatal.

55 minutes ago, Surrealistik said:

Also definitely a Hoffman guy myself; love his synergies and wombo combos despite the fact that he's countered by too many things. I really hope he gets an upgrade to deal with armour negation.

Complicated play, unpredictable AP (from the obey style of machine puppet), and giant stompybots some of which perform better than they do in their native faction--what's not to love?

1 hour ago, wizuriel said:

In terms of fun and having a competitive list I like playing Guild McMourning. I love playing with with a heavy Marshal list and unlike Lady J and Lucius he is competitive. In paticular I love the McMourning and Exorcist combination (my exorcist is styled after Captain Feckler ) 

All the style points for you, sir! I'd love McMourning too, but given that I can and will turn the battle commentary into a complete panto while playing Hoffman*, it may be best for the peace and sanity of my group if I never do play McMourning again.

*Every time. Every damn time. Power loop up, rotten belles lure my constructs. Power loop down, constructs resist. Conclusions can be drawn.

[LunarSol]

You should take a Sanctioned Spellcaster then.

[Gnomezilla]

1 hour ago, LunarSol said:

You should take a Sanctioned Spellcaster then.

I thought you were supposed to have the master use the shock collar on the spellcaster, not the other way 'round, though I suppose it would work...
(Yes, they're on my shopping list.)

"Repeat after me: 'I am not to go chasing after strange women in the street, no matter how horny I am.' "

"I maintain this is entirely unnecessa--*ZAP*--I did have the foresight to earth this ...."

[Surrealistik]

3 hours ago, Gnomezilla said:

Complicated play, unpredictable AP (from the obey style of machine puppet), and giant stompybots some of which perform better than they do in their native faction--what's not to love?

 

The fact that Hoffman doesn't have an upgrade which reads: "The Armor condition and/or ability on your friendly constructs cannot be ignored or have its damage reduction reduced or negated."

[winterblade27]

Lucius is probably my favourite and I'll use him regardless of situation haha :P... But recently I have been on a Perdita kick, great master with an answer to everything before you even look at her upgrades!

[admiralvorkraft]

57 minutes ago, Surrealistik said:

The fact that Hoffman doesn't have an upgrade which reads: "The Armor condition and/or ability on your friendly constructs cannot be ignored or have its damage reduction reduced or negated."

That's the sort of thing that would be terrible for the game. Models have strengths and weaknesses, that's a good thing - I would go so far as to say it's fundamental to the functioning of the game. Kirai's conflux upgrade (Incorporeal models halve damage from casts within an aura) is terrible design and at least its an aura generated by a fragile (for its points) model.

For all the noise people make about Hoffman's counters armor ignoring isn't the biggest problem. Unless you're up against Ramos, Kirai, or Spirit Molly you're going to see one or two models that ignore armor, maybe a relic hammer. So count your blessings that you aren't facing belle spam and deal with the threats.

Hoffman's real weakness is anything that messes with his obnoxiously tight positioning game, but I'm not going to advocate for giving him Counterspell Aura. Lure's are awful against just about any crew, that's just a fact of life.

[Surrealistik]

7 minutes ago, admiralvorkraft said:

That's the sort of thing that would be terrible for the game. Models have strengths and weaknesses, that's a good thing - I would go so far as to say it's fundamental to the functioning of the game. Kirai's conflux upgrade (Incorporeal models halve damage from casts within an aura) is terrible design and at least its an aura generated by a fragile (for its points) model.

For all the noise people make about Hoffman's counters armor ignoring isn't the biggest problem. Unless you're up against Ramos, Kirai, or Spirit Molly you're going to see one or two models that ignore armor, maybe a relic hammer. So count your blessings that you aren't facing belle spam and deal with the threats.

Hoffman's real weakness is anything that messes with his obnoxiously tight positioning game, but I'm not going to advocate for giving him Counterspell Aura. Lure's are awful against just about any crew, that's just a fact of life.

Tongue in cheek.

Armour negation is definitely an issue though; I'd advocate a more middle road solution in earnest like reducing Armor damage reduction to a minimum of 1.

Also yes, fucking with his positioning is a bigger issue. Belles need to get Cuddled as they're blatantly undercosted, but outside of that a Counterspell Aura or something like it wouldn't be remiss given how much more critical positioning is to Hoffman vs other crews.

[Vorschlag]

Favorite because of aesthetics - Lucius
Favorite to play - McMourning. 
 

I enjoy running Douglas accompanied by an entourage of Doctors, nurses and a specialist in euthanasia (executioner) sometimes accompanied by the Guild offices legal representative (lawyer) to ensure everything is above board.

[admiralvorkraft]

5 hours ago, Surrealistik said:

Tongue in cheek.

Armour negation is definitely an issue though; I'd advocate a more middle road solution in earnest like reducing Armor damage reduction to a minimum of 1.

Also yes, fucking with his positioning is a bigger issue. Belles need to get Cuddled as they're blatantly undercosted, but outside of that a Counterspell Aura or something like it wouldn't be remiss given how much more critical positioning is to Hoffman vs other crews.

Sorry, hit a nerve with me for some reason

Changing Improvised Genius so that it was, "Models with the Power Loop condition can't be moved or pushed..." or changing Magnetism to allow him to ride along when a friendly construct is moved or pushed (I actually like that better).

[Surrealistik]

10 hours ago, admiralvorkraft said:

Sorry, hit a nerve with me for some reason

Changing Improvised Genius so that it was, "Models with the Power Loop condition can't be moved or pushed..." or changing Magnetism to allow him to ride along when a friendly construct is moved or pushed (I actually like that better).

S'all good.

Why not both? That way Improvised Genius while powerful doesn't become a must pick, and Hoffman has some basic resistance to getting totally rekt by models trying to pull his cohesion apart. Changes highlighted in bold:

Improvised Genius: "Models with the Power Loop condition can't be moved or pushed by enemy effects."

Magnetic: "This model may not declare more than two Walk Actions per Activation. When a friendly Construct in Au3 moves or is pushed, this model may push into base contact with that Construct after this movement is complete. When this model would move or be pushed for any reason other than this Ability, a friendly Construct in Au3 may push into base contact with it after that movement is complete."

[trikk]

I started Guild for Lady Justice, but it was the time she was unavailable for a few months, so I bought Sonnia. And I love her. The face of your enemies when Papa Loco buffed Sonnia blasts away half your enemies crew is really satisfying

I have McCabe, but never played him. I lost a game or two with Hoff, but I didn`t have a lot of models for him back then (now I have Howard, Rail Golem, Peacekeeper for heavy beaters). I won 1 game with Dita while losing 3 (thats a suprise). And Lucius is just for demoing

[JusticeUnleashed20]

9 hours ago, Vorschlag said:

Favorite because of aesthetics - Lucius
Favorite to play - McMourning. 
 

I enjoy running Douglas accompanied by an entourage of Doctors, nurses and a specialist in euthanasia (executioner) sometimes accompanied by the Guild offices legal representative (lawyer) to ensure everything is above board.

So the 'Doctor, Doctor' list actually works is it very effective?

 

[LunarSol]

In general, I'm of the belief that "Ignore Armor" should be "Reduces Armor by X" in order to provide some design space for variance in both the ability and in crews that rely on Armor.

[Dirial]

Lady Justice and Sonnia are the top level for me. They just click for me.

[trikk]

Dirial, you are alive!