March painted

So at the start of March I set out the following paint queue:

WFB

10 Bret Peasant Bowmen – 10 Painted

10 Mounted Yeoman

HE Noble on eagle

 

Malifaux

1 Outcast Johan

2 Outcast Hollow Waifs

 

Relic Knights

3 Doctorine Acedemy Guard

1 Doctorine Delphine & Ekis

1 Doctorine Librarian

1 Doctorine Fiametta

 

WFB

That was having got all jazzed from playing in a couple of 1 day events.  Well I say that, the Brets are there to get done for a tourney in April so were always going to bump towards the front of the queue.

 

So I’ve gotten there with the Brets, list submitted ended up not using the Yeomen but they’re getting taken to an event in May so it’s not wasted, as using Fireforge models I’ve ended up doing 12 of them too as that’s how many come in a box.

Malifaux

I got basecoats down on the waifs but they’ve stalled, dunno why but I just cant bring myself to finish them off despite quite liking the models, I’m sure the mood will take me soon enough.  Johan was a pleasure to paint though.  Lovely flesh, a wonderful flowing cloak just screaming out for a load of work in blending/layering, but still not quite got round to finishing the details on him, just need to add eyes, a tiny amount more definition to the flesh and the base.

 

Relic Knights

These guys have been awesome fun to paint, a bright vibrant colour scheme that looks different to most other things I’ve painted for years.  Happily ticked off my new years resolution too of getting 50pts painted.  I actually enjoyed it so much I bought another faction for the game which was being sold off by someone I know!  Admittedly I did pick out most of the bigger cooler figures but about half the 30mm based stuff doesn’t look bad to paint either, sadly the prefects unit looks like it will just be a pain, so will likely languish in a box for a while.

 

April Painting target

At the time of writing Guild Ball has confirmed that shipping is to commence today so I’ll hopefully have some shiny new models to paint up for that.  If they come in time I’m very tempted to try and get them done for a trial game in the evenings at the when at the WFB tourney I mentioned above.  Also I’d like to try and see if I can get a painted team before the shipping reaches the US as a challenge mentioned on twitter when talking to a podcaster over there!  If achieved that would be another new years resolution succeeded.

 

After that I dunno what will take my fancy, I’m half tempted to do a bunch of ethereal stuff to summon into an undead legion army and a vamp or two to take with the list.  That is probably pretty quick and easy to do too with the airbrush so not a massive challenge.

 

The probably back to my Malifaux ‘to do’ box just to try and tick off that new years resolution.

 

I’m not really feeling the desire to start work on my Empire army with all the changes going on in WFB so I’ll possibly shelve that resolution.  Really it’s just the basing that is putting me off as if all humans & dwarfs are combined then I’ll do them to match my Brets and rebase my dwarfs.  I could do some of the WoC stuff as that would help give me a better selection of models to field that army as currently it’s very limited.

 

Hobby resolutions 2015 Q1 Update:

Finish epic Eldar 3000pts list – Done Q1

Base Brets – Done Q1

Paint 50pts Relic Knights – Done Q1

Paint all Malifaux figs (2 ish crew boxes plus a few) – Minimal Progress

Assemble guild ball teams, paint 1 team – now received Q2 target

Finish WoC (3 chariots, 4 skullcrushers, disclord and hell cannon) - Untouched

Finish empire (10 Demis, mounted wizbang) – Tempted to can this one due to the way WFB is up in the air at the moment.  Edition change usually means new models needed for existing armies instead.

Guild Ball is coming!

What is Guild ball?

Per their site:

Guild Ball: Tabletop Fantasy Medieval Football Game
minutes to learn - incredibly deep gameplay - modern-design game mechanics - fully realised world - amazing miniatures.

So medieval football was actually entire villages of people pushing against each other, this is a bit more stripped down, 6 players per team and two goals rather than the aim being to get the 'ball' to the other villages church!  But broadly the theme works.  Also it features guilds to represent the teams rather than a village so it gives them a distinct theme to each team.




'is it just another bloodbowl rip off?'
In short my answer would be no, in practice this game appears to have more in common with the likes of Malifaux or Warmachine than Bloodbowl other than the fact it terms itself a football game.  It plays on a 3x3' board, the movement is freeform rather than a grid and the objective of the game is to score more points than your opponent (points are scored by goals and by what is effectively killing people).




Fishermen Guild







Why should I be interested?
The game is completely free, ok you'll want 6 model but they give you the rules, all the player stats and everything you need to play free to download off their website.  Personally I think the models they are producing for the game look incredibly cool so I'll be using them, but you could use any old 6 models (preferably not all identical!) and be able to play.
Rules & player cards are linked here:
http://guildball.com/#downloads


Yeah but so what?
Um ok, you're right being free isn't enough these days in a competitive gaming market.  The game designers are Warmachine players of some repute (and also great painters which feeds into the figure design) these guys have tried to design a complex and engaging game system but one which has at its heart very simple rules and mechanics.  In short it looks like a really fun game with a good tactical depth to it.  Personally I love small scale tactical games as they let me not need to paint countless hordes of models but have a fun evenings gaming with a high replay value.


So why are you pushing this?
Obviously I have an agenda here.  I bought into their Kickstarter and I would really like to have a bunch of opponents to play against.  I think there are a few of us locally who all took part and picked up some teams, but more players is what makes a game system really fun to play as everyone has their own take on the gameplay and it also just makes it a better chance of getting regular games!




Fishermen Sculpts





What's the games future?
Always a worry with Kickstarter games, but I think this should have some legs.  The developers have released the teams for 'season 1' and plan to develop more teams and story/plot developments which will feed into future seasons and there is evidence of this work already out there.  Plus they have committed to a delivery vehicle in order to get product out there through a partnership with Element Games so it feels like they've geared up for this to be a long term project not just a one time splash.


You mentioned Plot/Story?
That's right, this isn't just a set of mechanics.  A lot of time has been put into setting up an entire backstory/world in which the game is set.  It's not something utterly revolutionary that will blow your socks off but if you think a combination of the guilds from the Discworld novels combined with something like the aesthetic of the medieval Assassins Creed video game you'll not be far off.  Personally I'm a massive fan of the Renaissance period of history and this fits quite nicely into that feel.  The power struggle between the guilds is akin to the main Renaissance families of Italy as they vie for overall power/control of the world, but the battlefield is played out on the field of a Guild Ball game.




Butchers Guild

How does player development work?
This question is one which usually comes from other sportsball gamers.  In short it doesn't.  The designers have got round the issue of imbalance that comes into sports games by simply not having team development in the game. Instead they will control this through the changes made to teams in line with the wider story as each season progresses, so overall game balance can be maintained.  But the players all start with a good number of special abilities and different attacks which gives the game the real depth of how they interact, so it's not that you'll just have the equivalent of 6 linemen, 2 catchers, 2 blitzers and a passer with the handful of skills that entails in Bloodbowl (I'll restate I don't really think comparing to Bloodbowl is actually relevant, think more like the stat cards of other modern skirmish games).


But doesn't that mean my Season 1 players get invalidated?
In short no, you can continue to play your season 1 team players for as long as you like.  I believe you'll be able to mix and match players from different seasons once they're released, the only restriction being you cant take the season 1 and season 2 versions of the same player in the same team.  So you won't suddenly lose a player just because the story has moved on, you can keep your favourite version of player x in all your teams.


Ok I'm sold where do I sign up?
At present (Mar 2015) the Kickstarter is due to deliver this month and after it has shipped the models will become available for general release.  The designers aren't really wanting to be retailers so in addition to the deal with Element Games they are also ensuring many game stores are dedicated stockists.  Currently the closest (to Bristol) I'm aware of is Firestorm Games, but if it catches on I'd expect to see its models in all good gaming stores near you.  But remember the rules & cards are completely free to download (link above) so if you don't like the models they are making you can still play without giving them a penny.


So really, why are you pushing this?
Ok we asked this already and you fobbed us off with an answer of 'you want some opponents to play', really what's the answer?  Well it is exactly that, but the driver would be that I backed the Kickstarter to the tune of 5 teams.  I've put my money down on this one as I genuinely think it looks like a great game to play and I'd love to see it succeed so that I can use the cool models I've bought.  For anyone that hasn't checked them out yet go have a look at the Guild ball website and other various social media outlets which host photos, I think these are some of the best looking models for games around.

March Paint Queue

So in the last 2 weeks I've played 2 1 day tournaments (one Malifaux, one WFB) and this has me hugely jazzed for doing hobby stuff.  To that end I've been cracking on with painting, there are a few things on the list that I need to do for upcoming tournaments (WFB) but the rest of it is just cool figures I've pulled out my box that I really want to paint.

WFB

10 Bret Peasant Bowmen – 10 Painted

10 Mounted Yeoman
HE Noble on eagle

Malifaux

1 Outcast Johan

2 Outcast Hollow Waifs

Relic Knights

3 Doctorine Acedemy Guard – 1 Painted
1 Doctorine Delphine & Ekis
1 Doctorine Librarian
1 Doctorine Fiametta


So the Malifaux stuff is just continuing to work towards my goal of getting all the models I own painted up, these particularly would get me a complete levi crew once the waifs are done and then Johan who is an all round useful model apparently.


Relic Knights has been sat in a bag for a while and falls squarely into the realms of 'it looks cool' so I want to paint it and I made a 50pts force part of my NY resolutions (along with painting all the Malifaux stuff).  There are a couple of guys down the club who also backed the kickstarter so I'm trying to line up a game at some point too.

Feb Painting

Herald on palanquin & 3 bases of Nurglings

Blue scribes 

Karadrian 

Griffon 

Hunters

So after a frantic January Feb has been rather slow, what I have painted has all been additions to armies/crews for using at events, though I wont be using the daemons myself. 

But actually I've also been busy ticking off my New Years resolution of getting the basing and movement trays done on my Bretonnians.  That project got finished off this month but I'm adding a new unit to the army and will do a grand reveal once it is finished.