Guild Ball Primer: Morticians

Hello again, all!

It's time for a beginner guide on a faction, and just highlighting some basic's that are useful for newer players to know.

This entry is about giving you a basic overview of the Nightmare-Undead-Dark-Faction equivalent in Guild Ball... the Morticians!

The play style you can expect: debuffs, control, and overall just messing with your opponents. If you are the type of player who likes to actively screw up the way your opponent wants to play, Morticians are the faction for you!

The first point to discuss: The captain from the starter box, Obulus. He is practically the definition of being annoying and controlling how your opponent plays. Main things to think about:
-Obulus is hard to pin down with a combination of Unpredictable Movement, and a Momentous Dodge on his first column on his playbook, and a Double Dodge on 2. So, if your Obulus is being attacked somehow, just remember: counter-attack to escape!
-Puppet Master! This ability is so good, it's almost never a mistake to use it. Take advantage of it, to really control your opponent. Whether it's forcing your opponent to pass you the ball, or artificially extending the threat range of your other models... This character play alone is what makes Obulus special.
-Good use of Rigor Mortis (or not using it!). This ability controls the whole pace of the game. As long as you have it available for use, your opponent has to be very mindful of how much Momentum they hold. No opponent will likely let you steal a stack of 10 momentum. But if your opponent thinks you have a chance of using this ability on any given turn, they will spend any momentum they gain, just to deny you from having it. This is not a bad thing. This means you are controlling how they want to play! For a more detailed explanation on more advanced concepts, look at Slothrop's articles, "A Gravedigger's Handbook."

The next model, I feel is pretty much an auto-include in any Mortician's list. Ghast. He is arguably the best defensive model and tank in the game, and he does this through a combination of control and brute force.

He has a few abilities that are just so good together, that some players may not be able escape his grasp. A combination of being a medium base and having a 2" melee range gives him a big area he can threaten. The momentous KD on his second column, combined with a TAC of 6 means two things: One, you can generate a lot of momentum and Knock down a lot of models. But more importantly, once engaged, they can't leave, lest they be knocked down by Ghast's parting blow's. If your opponent's don't have 2" melee? Most of them are pretty much stuck if they started in base contact with him! Add in Fear and Rising Anger, and it just add's to your opponent's frustration when trying to deal with him. Essentially, Ghast is kind of like a big black hole that you can park somewhere, and your opponent will generally have to make a tough choice whether to try and take out this 21 hit-point monster, or just deal with being controlled until he can be dealt with later.

The next model to really focus on is Silence. He generates 3 Influence, which by itself is very notable. But the fact that he can bring back Dirge from death is sweet too. He is randomly a good kicker. Oh, and has 5+ defense with 15 hit-points. All-in-all, he would be a solid addition to your team, even if he didn't have great character plays.

But, it is his character plays that really add more to the control aspect of the game. With access to both Tucked and Shutout, he literally can control your opponent's turn. Certain teams, like the Mason's, who rely on very specific order of activation's really don't like being told which model has to go next and which model has to go last. Really, Silence is just gross, and you, Mortician's player, will probably put him in every team you ever make!


There are plenty of other Mortician's models to look at, but these three are the one's I feel you should learn to use first. Not only are they excellent rule's-wise, but they allow you to play the whole aspect of control and denial in Guild Ball. They also require more practice to make sure you are fully utilizing their disgusting powers. The other character's are pretty much used exactly as written on their cards, and are more "obvious", more or less. I may go over them in the future, but for now, learn the nuances of using these guys. The more you can learn about these models, the better a Mortician's player you will become! Oh, and I'm sure I'll have a Scalpel discussion sometime in the future.

Have an amazing day, and welcome to the world of annoying your opponents intentionally!

-the aY

Magnetizing and Transporting your Guild Ball miniatures!

You've probably met someone, or at least heard of someone, who magnetizes all their models and puts them in tins for safe transport. (If you haven't, well now you have: me!).

I had a friend who magnetized an entire army, some 100+ models, spread out among 5 or more different sized tins. That example is quite dangerous though. It was quite difficult carrying all those tins, and if he ever lost balance, his whole army had the potential to be ruined.

That example is a bit atypical, and probably impractical. But for a game like Guild Ball, where you only need 6 models for a game, and maybe 8 for a tournament, or even only 11 for a full team, magnetizing may be a bit more practical.

So, you may be wondering: why magnetize? Why not just use trusty foam and carrying cases? Simple: if you transport your models and actually take them out of the case to play, scratching your sweet paint job is an eventuality.

Putting your models on the table top can lead to damage. An errant dice roll, a model falling on a rough tabletop surface, or a measuring tape snapping prematurely can all lead to paint chipping from your models.


However, at least those are situations we can understand. If you use your models, there is chance for wear and tear. That is what we expect with most things in life.

But your models being scratched while sitting in a carrying case is just disappointing. It's not even something that you can control. Foam just happens to be rough enough that friction can rub the paint off your models. This is especially so with points and edges, usually on weapons.

However, if you magnetize your models, you eliminate the chance for wear and tear of your models during transport entirely! There is no foam to rub the paint off your models. Also, sometimes models can come into contact with each other in a case. Friction between those models can cause chipping. That wont happen here either! The illustration to the left shows how strong a hold these magnets have. The tin can even be held upside down and shaken, and they still hold!

The best part is, all you need are strong magnets (rare earth) that are probably available at your hobby store, or various other random places (like Princess Auto), and hot glue to attach them to the bottom of your base. Then, the metal storage container can be acquired from anywhere. Danish Butter Cookie tins, metal lunchboxes, or even tins from the dollar store! You can add little flair by spray painting the tin, and adding in a stenciled Guild Ball logo on the lid. Kind of like what we did when putting the logo on our home-made mats from my previous article HERE.

But remember the story I mentioned about the guy with 5 or more different tins who precariously carried them to the hobby store? We can add some safety by putting the tins in a bag to carry. I bought a small lunch bag from the hardware store, sprayed it black, and added a Guild Ball logo to personalize it.




The official Guild Ball bag from BattleFoam is $74 USD. It's a great, high-quality product, but it only holds 2 trays of foam. This arrangement allows as many tins as you want (depending on the size of the bag you buy), and smaller models can even be magnetized upside down on the lid for even more storage space! This whole combination only cost me $15 Canadian, taxes included!

Now, there are some downsides to magnetizing. In theory, if you threw your Battlefoam bag, filled with miniatures, your models have some chance of not being too broken. With this layout, extreme force will likely cause the models to detach from their spots in the tins. This isn't so much of an issue for me, as I have been carrying models in cases for the last 20 years or so, and not once have I ever accidentally thrown a carrying case. I've dropped them from my hand, resulting in a 1-foot drop, maybe. But that shouldn't affect the magnetic hold of these models. Also, this process also adds extra cost and time to each model. If not done correctly, you may also have your models still move around when the case moves around. Make sure you do it correctly, or else it defeats the whole purpose of this method! Also, if you happen to use metal rings to mark AOE's (I'm looking at you, Alchemists), be warned: your models may move from their current positions on a table if the rings are placed too close to your models base. If you are OK with these concessions, then magnetizing your models may be right for you. It sure works out for me!

Enjoy the rest of your day! :)

P.S. Due to some input, I will write an article on how-to, and points to consider when magnetizing your models!

-the aY

Alchemists Spotlight - Midas Striker Team

Last week, I decided to trade in some Magic cards on a whim. Apparently, I had some cards that were worth some decent coin! With my spoils, I picked up the remaining two models of the Hunter's team (Seenah and Chaska) that I was missing, and the entirety of the Alchemist faction, minus Katalyst. I also got to pick up Decimate and Mist, so I can use them in my Mason's lineups.

After playing so much Butcher's, I thought I would like to play a Striker team, but not so obvious like the Fishermen. But, after looking at the cards of the Alchemists, combined with some Union model help, I thought it was very realistic to make a fast-paced, high-octane Alchemist team that could threaten the goal from multiple threat vectors.

I also happen to like the idea of playing super-solos that can do a lot themselves (I'm a fan of this playstyle in many games), so I thought the obvious choice would be 'King' Midas himself. The hobbyist side of me wanted to make my model look like he was actually performing some kind of field alchemy, so I took my regular cork bases and made something that was very Full Metal Alchemist-esque. If you don't know what that is, you owe it to yourself to watch that series! It's probably my favourite anime series of all time.

Back on topic: Midas is amazing. The whole GB community probably already knows that. He can be a beater if he needs to be, but I think his comfort zone is being zippy and scoring goals. If you can steal 'Where'd They Go?', then you are in for some amazing times. He is just so mobile, and he has so much defensive tech built in, he feels almost unstoppable. His only weakness is that he can only activate once a turn, really.

   So, with all this Midas threat that is always on the table, I knew I needed to add some more strikers to make it a Striker team. Vitriol is the obvious choice. A very mobile, accurate Striker, who also happens to be able to beat face if need be. Also, she happens to be debated among the community as a contender for "best Striker, non-captain" on the forums.

   I think under most circumstances, having a double striker list is probably enough to be considered a goal-oriented team, however I prefer threat saturation when we are going for skews. So, let's add a third Striker! Mist was the top candidate. Although they tend to have great kick stats across the board, the remaining Alchemists don't quite have the mobility to be true Strikers. Mist having Where'd They Go just gives him that extra mobility to get into good scoring positions, or get into a spot where a snap-kick is possible. While he is excellent, the lack of a momentous tackle generally means he can't be the first activation in a turn to score a goal. So beware!

   Rounding out the rest of the team, I put in Flask as the mascot based on community feedback, but Naja could work. After a first-turn cloud to help Vitriol, I just tend to leave the mascot by the goal to help act as a ghetto goaltender. Compound, I feel is an easy-include in any Alchemist list, just because he generates 2 Influence and can act most turns without any INF. Just having the Rush-keeper stops certain goal runs, and controls a large table area. The sixth spot is what is currently the slot I have yet to finalize. Decimate seems to be the natural choice with her good kick stat and mobility, plus her ability to generate momentum easily if required.

   When I play with this list, it just feels like I can play recklessly, make mistakes and bad trades, and still come out on top at the end of the game due to the high capability to score goals from multiple models on the team. It doesn't matter if you give your opponent 10 VPs because you aren't defending well, or accidentally give a way easy take-outs. As long as you get 12 VPs, you still win! If you are an alchemist player already and haven't tried playing this way, try it out! If you aren't an alchemist player, but are looking for a new team, I'd say this is a solid choice. I know it's not any news to say that Midas is awesome. But for those who have never played as Alchemists, you don't realize how FUN a list like this is to play until you try it!

"Brief" Faction Overview in GUILD BALL - Helping you pick your Guild!

As promised from our podcast... speaking of which, if you want to listen to the audio version, it also has some added commentary that wont be found in this article, along with some other Guild Ball-related discussion, you can download it here.

This article will briefly go over each faction to help new players choose a Guild in their favourite mob soccer game. You'd be surprised how the Internet is not yet flooded with articles related to this, so I may as well contribute to the start of the future deluge. 

Just a disclaimer, these will be some pretty broad statements. The intention is just to give you an idea of what to expect when you play with and against these factions. If the article says something like “this Faction wants to score goals, but they can’t really kill anything,” it doesn’t literally mean that they can’t kill anything. Rather, they are just very focused on scoring goals, and have to go a bit out of their way or work harder to take down a model.

First, we will talk about the two most straight forward teams. This is not to say they are necessarily easier to play or are a vanilla faction. They are just very focused on what they do, and are conceptually easy to grasp for most people.

Fishermen – Excellent at mobility. Moving around, dodging all over the place. They are also the best overall team for consistently scoring goals. One thing to watch out for: while most teams usually want to receive the ball, Fishermen don’t mind kicking it. Don’t be surprised if you see Shark kick the ball up at the beginning of the game, get the ball himself, and then score a goal on turn 1. Many players feel that getting at least 2 goals with the Fishermen is almost certain. It’s how they get the last 4 VP’s to win the game that’s the puzzle they get to play.

Fun fact: The team only has 4 momentous damage results among all the players on the team, and 2 of them belong to the Captain: Corsair. So, don’t be too afraid of getting too many guys taken out when playing against the Fishermen. Instead, watch out for multiple Reach models striking you from out of combat range, and dodging around you to score more goals.

Butchers – These are guys are on the other end of the spectrum as the Fishermen. They hit hard, they easily take down most players in the game, and they generate a ton of momentum doing it. They are the glass cannons of the game, and if you like slicing through your opponents, this is the faction for you. Their starter box captain, Ox, is a Force multiplier. He basically has a damage buff aura that is always on, some damage debuffs, and a Legendary play that buffs damage even more. So, the idea here is, no matter what damage result you roll, let’s just say 1 damage, after all the buffs, it counts as 3-4 momentous damage. You start going higher up on the playbook, and you can get 5+ damage on a single hit! The other captain, Fillet, is kind of the opposite, where she wants everyone to support her and funnel their power into her so she can slice through the opposing team herself and dance away. Either way, you get to cut through your opponents with a sweet cleaver.

Now we’ve covered two teams that are on the opposite ends of the spectrum. The rest of the factions are a bit more nuanced and their strategy varies greatly from team to team.

Brewers – If the Butchers are about slicing through your opponents with a cleaver, the Brewers are more about a beat down with a tree stump. They do a lot of knockdowns, they are resilient, and they can do a lot of damage. The differentiating factor of Brewers damage versus Butchers damage, is that Butchers have consistent damage across their playbook, and it’s almost always momentous. With the Brewers, they generally only have one or two damage columns, with only one usually being momentous. Usually it’s the big damage number. However, since they have short playbooks, combined with their buffs and ability to knock down, they often get to wrap the playbook, so you get the possibility of big spikey damage.

Morticians – At the time of this podcast, people would already have heard that Gencon’s top 3 players were all using Morticians. Fear not, new people. Apparently, this is only really an American trend, and the overwhelming presence of the Morticians at top tables is not pronounced there. What makes this faction good? It’s about controlling the game. You can steal Momentum, increase Influence costs, move your opponents models. If you like to actively screw around with your opponents plans, this is the faction for you. The biggest piece to note though, is the original captain: Obulus. He is the most prominent face of the Morticians. He manipulates models, he steals Influence and gives it to his friends, and he himself requires effort to pin down. And his influence stat is 5/8, so that’s apparently good.

Alchemists – While the Morticians directly manipulate the battle, the Alchemists manipulate the field by putting AOEs all over the pitch, and they create cover for themselves, and put conditions on their opponents. They will also try to directly put all kinds of conditions on your models. So, if you don’t have an efficient way of removing conditions, expect to take poison damage and be lit on fire all the time. Midas himself is also an incredibly versatile Captain that has defined this faction for quite some time. He is another super-star Captain that is resilient because he is hard to hit and pin down, he can lay the smack down if required, and he can steal a Character Play for the rest of the game. This means if you have something really sweet, let’s say Scything Blow, then Midas will also have that sweet ability to use against you all game. The faction is relatively pillow-fisted when it comes to hand-to-hand combat, so condition damage and scoring goals is the name of the game here.

Engineers – Are the ranged faction. They love to use Character Plays to damage, push, and knock down their opponents. I said the Alchemists were kind of pillow-fisted. What’s even fluffier than pillows? In hand-to-hand, the Engineers may be the worst team. So the idea is to keep the enemies at bay through ranged control, and score some goals to win.

Masons – This is one of the most versatile factions, and it’s the synergy faction. Overall, the Masons have high armour for resilience, they have a lot of pushes, and they have the ability to activate multiple times, thanks Honour, every turn. They have arguably the best Striker in the game, Flint, who can score a goal 22 inches away, unassisted. Add in random shenanigans, and you are almost guaranteed 1 goal every game. Then, we have the concept of the Mason’s Missile. Essentially, one model (either Chisel or Mallet, goes almost the whole way across the table, takes someone out, then retreats back to safety. You also have Honour, can either choose to give someone else an extra activation, score a goal with her 4 dice kick stat, or beat down almost anyone herself, with the appropriate buffs, you have a team that does it all. This all sounds awesome and OP, but there are some things to consider. First, the synergy concept. If you start removing key pieces, let’s say Marbles their mascot, they lose a lot of board control and damage potential. Chisel is fragile, and likes to hurt herself to ramp up damage, so she is easy to remove as the game goes on. Removing Honour herself shuts a lot down. The Mason’s generally have to wrestle with the order of their activations every turn. The more you can wrenches you throw in their gears, the more they have to cope with what to do next.

Hunters – The newest faction to be released, the Hunters are the most different of all the other guild’s. Since they are the first new Guild after the initial Guilds were released, Steamforged really tried to shake things up. The Hunters are about de-buffing enemies, then doing take-outs for the majority of the time. They also have the ability to score random goals to contribute to the win. Their biggest trademark is the ability to easily put out a condition called Snared on the opposition. This slows down their enemies, and lowers their defense so the Hunters can run amok with their opponents having a reduced ability to retaliate. Theron, the captain puts snared on any target he damages, and then he puts up a forest every turn that he can use as cover, to hinder opponents movement, or other creative things. They also have the ability to put out trap markers all over the field to put even more snared conditions on the opponents. The short way to describe the faction: they are a ranged faction that slows down and softens up their opponents, and then finishes them off in melee. They are a pretty versatile faction, but they have some drawbacks. They are relatively squishy. They tend to not have armor stats and they have to be careful with their Influence use, as almost every character wants to be loaded up, so the Hunter player has to prioritize and make what feels like big sacrifices every turn. Theron is kind of the lynchpin to a lot of the Hunters plans, so if you are able to take him out early, you can greatly change the game in your favour. Jaecar is also a high priority target that will probably make it into every Hunter’s team forever. He is their main damage dealer, and he puts out trap markers, making him incredibly useful for the Hunters.

I hope this article helped you decide which faction to choose. Personally, I doubt you can go wrong, no matter what faction you choose. And most people tend to end up getting more than one faction anyway. Regardless, have an amazing day! Until next time!

-aY