The transfer window is open

       My first post since Salute, its been that sort of week. I am not going to do the whole Salute review and photos thing as so many other bloggers have done a great job already, and I am not even going to do a picture of my haul, as I forgot to do one before I started building stuff. Suffice to say my trusty backpack was full to the brim and I am going to add at least a couple more labels into my theme bar.
      The one thing I will say about Salute, though, was it was great to meet all the other bloggers, I didn't hang around anywhere near long enough, something I will rectify next year, but putting some faces to random screen names was really worth doing, especially finally meeting the Sir Michael Awdry. It would be nice if the next step for the blogging community was to organise games between bloggers or even a full meet up and game day?

      This post is about the first of my finished Salute purchases; a new Guildball Player for each of my two teams and another version of the Fishermen's guild player Kraken. The two new players were unlocked right at the end of the Kickstarter, because the teams you got as basic were big enough for the biggest size game I decided to hold off adding extra players as the costs were starting to spiral.

Jac - Fishermen's Guild

Tower - Mason's Guild

Kraken (again) - Fishermen's Guild

    There I was on twitter, seeing what was happening on the build up to Salute, and then Guildball tweets a picture of a limited edition model they will be putting on sale at Salute, and for some strange reason my wallet started crying uncontrollably. Here he is though, a stunning sculpt that I expect from this company now, and they haven't fallen into the trap that a lot of companies do with limited edition versions in games that use individual figure cards, they haven't beefed up the stat card at all, this is just a different sculpt, not an uber model. Wargamers are always going to buy limited edition models, we can't help ourselves, but I don't like rule sets where you have to buy them to stay relevant.
     On other news I think I am on the verge of organising a game or two for Guildball, so hopefully I will be posting a game up soon.

    I also need to find out what people prefer to read on blogs, as I have seen lots of different styles online. Do you prefer to have multiple posts in a row on the same project so you can watch it grow before moving onto another one, or do you like posts of what ever has come off the painting desk the most recently? I keep trying to do the first but keep drifting into the second.

Thanks for reading

Mason's Guild for Guildball

     The second team I bought as part of my Guildball kickstarter pledge was the Mason's guild, unlike the Fisherman's guild that had been partially sculpted at the time and they had a solid idea of what each player was going to look like, the Mason's were a shot in the dark. The one model they had sculpted, however, was the team captain, and I have to say I went for this team almost purely on the strength of that single sculpt.

     The masons guild's style of play, doesn't rely on overwhelming strength, or speed, or defense, but in having a team who are in sync with each, they each have skills that increase the stats or another specific player, so when your team is fresh they are spectacular, but as you lose players, your team quickly becomes sub standard.

The full team

 Honour and Marbles

 Brick and Mallet

 Harmony and Flint

 Another goal and ball.

      I still have the two union team players I got free as part of my pledge, only held up by the fact I genuinely don't know how one of them is supposed to be stuck to the base, true story. Then I need to get a game or two in at some point.
     Oh and the guys who are behind guildball are going to be at Salute tomorrow, with a ltd edition version of Kraken (see last post) and an extra player for each team . . .

I hope to see as many of you as I can at Salute tomorrow.

Fishermen's Guild for Guildball

      I know the posts have been thick as fast in the build up to Salute but the process of clearing my desk is starting to achieve a result. 

      Guildball was a kickstarter I got into last summer and last Saturday it finally arrived in the post. Guildball is a fantasy football game designed to be played on a 3 by 3 pitch, but unlike any other fantasy football game I have seen, it has no grid and allows scenery, so it can be played in the middle of a town, or in a proper field. The teams are formed from the mercantile guilds of the country the game is set in rather than the normal different races idea that other games tend to use, which means stat wise most players are fairly similar, but somehow because each team focuses on a different style of play, each team plays in a completely different way. The game also has two different ways of winning, a normal game is played until one side hits 8 or 12 points, depending on how big a game you are playing, points can be earned either by taking out the opponent's players ( 2 points a player) or by scoring goals (4 points a goal).

     The kickstarter reward I went in for was the whole game set up and two teams, the plan being I all I would need was a second person willing to learn the game and I would everything I needed to play from the get go. The two teams I picked were the Fisherman's guild and the Mason's guild, I'll talk about the Masons more when I get them painted up.

     The Fishermen's style of play is all about scoring goals by being fast and dodging out of combat, rather than actively taking opponents players out. The fishermen are just about the only team who could quite possibly score multiple times in a single turn if the game goes their way. Most of them have long weapons so they can avoid being locked in close combat and none of them have particularity good armour, so really can't afford to let their opponent's grind them down.

 The basic team, plus mascot, goal and ball.

 Shark - Team Captain & Salt - Team Mascot

Kraken & Greyscales

 Angel & Siren

 Ball and goal

 Rule book, tokens, dice and templates.

      If you are heading to Salute I recommend having a look at the Guildball demo game and especially the figures, I have played the demo once and absolutely loved it. Now, back to painting, hopefully I can get the Mason's done before Salute, then I can concentrate on getting some games in once I get back.

Thanks for reading