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Guild Ball


Csonti

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Had my eye on this one since someone pointed out the Arena Rex inspired damage tree (and I do so love Arena Rex). I don't play Bloodbowl or Dreadball, but this looks interesting. Like others, I'm not sure how being a tabletop game will effect the pace, but I'm not too bothered. I do like the artwork, and the thought of some fresh resin goodness is certainly tempting.

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I got to play a demo at smogcon and really enjoyed it. The interaction between the models in a team is interesting, several styles of play can ba adopted with success and the game itself has some mechanics that add a lot of tactical depth while, at the same time being easy to pick up and play with (influence and momentumn).

3d printed models looked great.

All in all, I'm happy to be a backer of this and could easily see it become my second game.

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Completely and utterly different, from what I can tell. There's no board - it plays on a 3' square table. There's terrain, model synergies, multiple resource allocations, variable winning conditions and individual characters with individual skills.

It seems to me that Malifaux is a *far* closer comparison point than Blood Bowl, the only similarity with BB being that there's a ball involved.

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It seems to me that Malifaux is a *far* closer comparison point than Blood Bowl, the only similarity with BB being that there's a ball involved.

 

From what I saw that looks like a good comparison. Like Malifaux with one strategy & no schemes or terrain  :wacko: 

The core mechanic looked pretty elegant & the minis are great. It set off some warnings by reminding me of 2e Bloodbowl & it has all of the things I don't like about miniatures games that you avoid in a boardgame - imprecise measurement & range guessing.  It also looked pretty long. 

I will try it once they put out the beta rules & decide what to do then  - I am super fussy so don't let me put you off the team are good guys. 

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actually schemes are a part of guildball too - its not just about scoring goals :)

 

terrain is also part of the rules, it just wasn't being used in the demos so that the core mechanics could shine through.

 

A game currently lasts until 3 goals are scored, so being able to do that might affect how capable you and your opponent are able to complete your schemes.  Having the "clock" be part of the game is a very interesting mechanic too.

 

This is a tabletop skirmish game first and foremost - NOT a boardgame.

 

another key thing I found while playing is that the position of the players does not reset when a goal is scored, nor is there a half-time.  This means that you must prepare for the strategy to flip-flop on you and you must balance offense and defence or you risk losing a goal as soon as you score one.

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actually schemes are a part of guildball too - its not just about scoring goals :)

 

terrain is also part of the rules, it just wasn't being used in the demos so that the core mechanics could shine through.

 

A game currently lasts until 3 goals are scored, so being able to do that might affect how capable you and your opponent are able to complete your schemes.  Having the "clock" be part of the game is a very interesting mechanic too.

 

This is a tabletop skirmish game first and foremost - NOT a boardgame.

 

another key thing I found while playing is that the position of the players does not reset when a goal is scored, nor is there a half-time.  This means that you must prepare for the strategy to flip-flop on you and you must balance offense and defence or you risk losing a goal as soon as you score one.

 

First to 3 was a Bloodbowl rule in 2e & worked very badly there as it was so hard to score games were interminable. The dice pool system & not resetting after scoring are in Dreadball. 

 

I have played tabletop skirmish games that are also board games  (not recently)  - http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/1323/cry-havoc

 

Having a board just makes measuring simpler & more accurate at the cost of some abstraction & less appealing terrain, usually. There is also the spend all your money on lead/plastic business model but that can be applied to either type of game. (See BB & Dreadball)

 

What Guild Ball is is the offspring of the sophisticated modern skirmish games like Malifaux rather than the simplistic old ones like 1e Warhammer. 

 

I was blanking the idea of schemes & terrain as they sounded tacked on.  Terrain seems to be an afterthought in some games- Bushido suffers from this & even Malifaux does not have crystal clear comprehensive terrain rules.

Schemes seemed dumb in the context of a sport simulator but on reflection the "sport" is more about getting prestige (or what have you) for your guild & winning a game is only one way of doing that.  Again it sounds a bit tacked on like 1.0 Malifaux rather than pretty organic like 2e

Anyway I am looking forward to the rules coming out & will probably back it if only to moan about things in the beta test.

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Also backed this project to get me four to five teams, depending on how much will be achieved during the Kickstarter. I am following their facebook page quite closely after I learned parallels to the Arena Rex ruleset which I really like.

I am looking forward to the achievements of this Kickstarter and I hope that it continues to grow until the end.

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I also got a demo at SmogCon, against Joel.   You can read a bit about it on my blog, link in my sig.

 

The short version is that the game has real potential and I was really surprised by how interesting and fun it is to play. GB shares more DNA with Malifaux than it does with Bloodbowl. Unlike more or less every other fantasy sports game it's not trying to be a BB clone, it's very much it's own animal. The quick play rules are available to download now for those interested in the way it plays;

 

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1248312770/guild-ball-a-tabletop-medieval-football-game/posts/759278

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The game looks pretty cool, but the price is pretty steep. At least for me in America, it's around $100 for two teams, and that's not even counting the international shipping. I don't have a lot of funds, so I'll probably have to sit out on this one unfortunately. Maybe I'll consider it still. I'd have to try out the quickstart quite a bit before jumping in. The models do look nice though. If it had pre-measuring, I'd be a little more interested...

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For metals, wouldn't two teams be $100 ish including shipping? £50 plus £7 shipping. Not that 100 bucks is small change, mind.

I ended up pledging for some resin teams after watching the summary of gameplay on their stream, looks interesting and fun. And, y'know, better to eat one less meal a day for a few extra weeks than to have to prep metals :P

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Eh, I wasn't really counting the early bird special, though that is a bit of a better deal. I just wish they gave the actual rulebook as well. I'd kinda have to pay extra for it. Pdf rulebooks ain't terrible, but considering the two-player box is more or less a "two-player starter set", I think they should have put it in there. It's not a bad deal, but I'm not sure if I can afford it right now. Still looks pretty cool though.

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Yeah, I ended up adding that to my pledge, paper rules are so much easier.

The QuickStart rules are pretty short though, so it might not be so bad. Even I can sort of work it out after a read through, and I'm usually shocking at this stuff!

I'm just looking forward to seeing some more previews at the moment to remind myself why there's a new hole in my bank balance :D

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What's it costing for you guys in the States? I still can't do currency adjustments in my head despite working in two currencies daily... (ok, one's CAD, but the other's a real currency, it's the good old pound sterling :D )

 

I'd kind of thought it came out similar to two crew boxes and the rules manual, would be a shame if it was more.

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Yeah, that's kind of what's holding me back a little bit.I don't mind paying extra if the print rules book is nice and thick, espeically if it's filled with lore (I LOVE the Malifaux books, the MERCs book is actually really good as well). But at least from the picture, the print rule book doesn't look too great. It's a little bit of a pricey game. I might still end up getting it just so I have a blood bowl style sports minis game, but I'm just a little hesitant. Part of it is that I jsomewhat recently backed another project that was a much better deal (still about $100, but came with about 30 models and a full rule book). Still, the art for that game looks really cool, and I can't help but want what I don't have...

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