blueboyzcaptain

@Alphadork I guess The only differences I see is I use Furnace as my captain. Specifically against brewers, I almost always give him 4 even on turn one unless I'm receiving. I probably only give ferrite one or two most turns if she can threaten the ball. More often just one. Cinder gets one or two depending on whether friday has the ball or not. Sledge gets one until I'm certain he's safe from tapper. then Iron and anvil get a mix of the rest. Usually two on iron for a charge and the rest on Iron for damage. Specifically why I think furnace is a great captain is his +1 arm legendary. It makes him an amazing initiator. No matter what, if he goes in and sets up a player, or counters another player setting up yours, he shuts it down and resets the board. Not much can deal with +3/3 on its own. Especially if you can put him in cover. I also always hug cover. Everyone pretty much has to stand in cover to make the scrum work. I personally feel goal scoring is a trap as the blacksmiths unless you can get a goal with ferrite when she isn't captain or cinder. Brewers don't generate much net mom because of heroics so as long as no one dies turn two you win the race and tapper should die to crowd outs+iron/sledge. Guild ball is a game of inches. Small things make huge differences. I'm not saying ferrite is a bad captain into brewers or that it's a bad idea. I'm just saying I've had great success fighting brewers with furnace as captain and going 1-4.

I usually play blacksmiths 1-4. How I look at it we have a lot of ways to score. From Midfield. So we need midfield. How do we get this? By fighting for it. If they dare to bring the ball close then we have 4 players that can strip the ball and score with it in one activation. I like to score top of turn 2 if I receive against brewers. I'm satisfied just preventing them scoring while kicking. Prioritize setting up a winning scrum turn one. Whoever they send into you, should die. Blacksmiths should outfight brewers most times. The only scary one is Hooper after Tapper or Spigot. In any case, The matchup is a lot harder since they out-threat you with free times called, but if you can get 2 mom for a def counter, hopefully on Sledge while he's within 1 of a master. Letting him go on Furnace is okay also, anvil is nice but odds are he just wont. Abuse armor and crowdouts, brewers require wrapping to win. They have no dodges and their pushes are high playbook (for brewers). If they spend an activation KD everyone, thats one more activation of setup on Tapper. One first Last activation from sledge and Tapper is dead. They crumble like a wet paper bag after this without commanding aura. Just don't let them touch Cinder/Ferrite. Iron is best used as finisher since he is a mom farm. 4 Mom 4 on 4 usually kills spigot with a crowdout and scratch damage. That being said I have no idea how Esters plays into blacksmiths. None in my group are willing to try, they just pick tapper and hope for the best.

Makes the velocity turret even scarier though. The snapshot isn't as scary as having a loaded velocity that hasnt activated near your goal when you make a goal kick. Pretty much forces your opponent to deal with any model near their goal.

Specifically for hunters, the 50mm steppers seem unnecessary since the bear almost always moves in straight lines. I also feel the same about hearne, but V hearne might need them. The rest is 30mm so those are fine. I have everything else and always use them at least once a game. Note I personally haven't played as hunters. Yet. So these are just observations. The kick path templates can be replaced with a simple line laser and good eyesight though, probably the easiest of this group of purchases to say "maybe I dont really need this".

Union (me): Blackheart, Rage, Minx, Decimate, Mist, Strongbox GIC: Raise the Stakes Brewers: Tapper, Hooper, Spigot, Friday, Pintpot, Scum GIC: Another Round End score: 12-10 Brewers win Union won roll off and chose to receive. Tapper kicks off up the center and it scatters to Strongbox. Strongbox passes to minx and dodges her 4 then walks up 3. Spigot Times called and walks to get Tapper Hooper Friday in range of the aura, tool up tapper. Minx passes to decimate and charges tapper, snaring him and dodging 6 inches away. Tapper charges minx and puts her to 3 after kd and commanding aura off attack. Decimate passes to blackheart, dodges 4, and attacks tapper twice, ending 2 1/2 inches away from him. Hooper heroics and charges Decimate thanks to times called and hits a defensive stanced decimate bringing her to 6 hp and KD (8 hits after armor). Blackheart passes to rage, dodging him 4, walks closer. Friday dirty knives minx. Rage passes to mist, dodging mist, charges hooper doing KD. Scum sprints. Mist charges hooper, pushing him into turtle aura, clears minx conditions, shoots with bonus time and misses scattering right into the goal putting it infront of it. Pintpot does 6 dmg to Mist. Union win initiative. Blackheart kills hooper, legendaries hitting everyone for +1 def, stands next to tapper preventing him from killing two. I forget what exactly happens but no one dies this turn but he sets up 4 players to die due to +1 def, and I score with mist. Brewers win initiative and kill blackheart, Tries for goal but out of range, ball ends on decimate in scrum. Brewers win initiative again, KD decimate scatters ball wide towards blackheart who kills friday and hides on the flank from the brewers. Decimate Minx and Rage are taken out. Brewers win initiative again, friday takes ball and passes it infront of my goal. ball too far for anyone to get (I forgot to bring someone on near my goal) Tapper kills Strongbox, Kill friday with minx, spigot scores for the win. I wanted to try what is considered to be the weakest union card to see what specifically feels bad about it. It is my opponents AND my opinion that everything about Raising the stakes is bad. The only foreseeable upside to this card is that you get +1 to the rolloff for kick receive (I think, let me know if that's wrong). Compared to the other two GIC's, we both agreed that had I used them I would have both better options in the game and probably won. I could have gotten at least 2 if not 3 extra VP from Most Wanted, and the 3 Heal from Pirates Ransom would have helped prevent a few of my models from dying as easily, letting them survive another turn. Not sure if Changing it to heal 3 would have made it in equal standing to Most Wanted, since all that would do is stop me from losing as easily, when Most Wanted 100% just wins me the game if I had picked it. Similar concerns with Pirates Ransom. Times called, I mean, Another Round is a great GIC in comparison to the Brewers and their Momentum output. Only realistically gives them better options that don't always translate to more momentum, making the race still pretty acheivable and the 4 heal doesn't really stop me from killing them since it's possible to kill a few with only a little setup or scratch damage. Only concern is that it is better than the other two in most if not all situations. Hard to say if Bring it on would have been better since the lost of Times Called on turn one would have meant I am in a commanding position going into turn two since I can more than likely setup tapper for takeout without much reprisal during turn one, or at least force him to walk away from me instead of holding activation for mist goal run.

I play against a guy that uses big dice to track them. As long as you're okay with it it's fine. For events the TO has say in what is acceptable.

As an Engineer main player, I agree with everything Mechmage said. The only thing missing from an all comers 6 man group from the ballista box is hoist mother. That being said Union is not required, but not a bad option later on either. Overall the only bad eggs in their lineup is locus and V-velocity (mainly cause regular velocity is so good.) so for, like mechmage said, Ballista box is a much better starting point.

I usually play engineers, but I'm the only one in my close group that I play against a lot. I do play blacksmiths though and I have to say the thing I hate the most is the ranged game. Hunters Alchs and probably the ballista gun line suck to play against as the blacksmiths player. Pinvice with Hoist Ratchet also has merit though since hitting any of the apprentices twice with a tooled up deletion blast earth puts them low enough for pinvice to clean up top of next turn. I think go-to strategy is just put a lot of damage on apprentices and abuse the low damage on the masters to just walk over the apprentices. Without setup they still arn't going to do a lot of damage to your tanky models, so abuse this and try to take out the squishy ones before they have a chance. Blacksmiths have a good amount of ball control, but not great retreival outside of sledge and furnace. Don't sit the ball anywhere between your goal and their models and you should be fine in that department. Velocity being a snapshot turret should work amazing since blacksmiths hate spreading out. Use that to get an amazing breach snapshot or long bomb pass midgame. Models I think mandatory in the matchup: Ratchet, Hoist, Mother(nests make the scrum very controllable). Models I think great in the matchup: Ballisa, Colossus(for easy unexpected arrival), Compound (threat denial for longer range game before the scrum) Models I think are okay: Pin vice(weaker in the scrums, more likely to kill appentices) Velocity(just dont let furnace or sledge touch her. If ferrite is hugging her just use her as snapshot), Salvo(More ranged damage, but not worth taking out compound/colossus. Maybe in place of velocity) Locus(he has some merit in a scrum lineup for the KD on 1. Lets you control the scrum despite high armor since blacksmiths hate being on the ground since it dictates activation order. Still hard to use since he will be farmed eventually.) Models not worth taking: V velocity(no, why?) Mainspring(and not take mother? Everyone loves this bug but mother is literally hitler with how broken she is.)

I feel like overall this should be answered before the game even begins. In a tournament setting (even if its not actually a tournement, practice for example) handing them the card seems reasonable if you don't want to hand hold them all over your strategy. In friendly games though it's not unreasonable to walk through what you're player is capable of if your opponent asks. Is there even a middle ground in this between these two settings? I guess if you know who you're playing better and they are specific on what they want. I do think the onus is on the more experienced player to identify what type of game it is beforehand, especially since even if they ask about threat ranges you can easily do other things like push a player into your threat range using a different player.

I think what matters more is these cards say "hey vet rage would you rather win in 4 take outs or..." but you never finish because he has already stabbed you. On the way out of the hospital the staff recommend you to a psyche ward for ranting about this weird guild ball character wounding you but you walk it off. You call an uber and get in, a weird quirk about the driver putting you off. You attribute it to the tiredness of your ordeal and tell him your address. About five minutes into the drive he pulls into an alleyway and gets out. You begin to freak out as he opens the door and starts stabbing you, finally recognizing the crazed eyes of rage. This happens two more times before you are forced to go to a mental institute for self harm. Days pass before a nurse you've never seen before brings your food. A letter is handed to you then he leaves you to your misery. The letter reads, "hey, vetrage here. I'm sorry for stabbing you 4 times. On the plus side I sold off all my momentum stocks after your momentum business failed. Your business tanked hardcore and just before it went bankrupt I refinanced and used your plan to make it the best in the world. I paid for all your medical needs as an apology." You fail to find any consolation in the fact your stolen business is more succesful without you before you notice more writing on the back of the letter. "By the way, I win." All joking aside, I doubt I would ever bring the other 2 captains with this ability available. Vetrage wins just as fast if not faster than other teams now and even if he has to spend every mom he has to get the extra VP's, who's gonna stop him? I don't think anyone can score "faster" with these gics, and now vetrage needs two less kills to win. The only real comparison is Windle getting 4 vp per takeout but thats just one model and it's still super viable. I'm not sure making the others more useful is the right answer in so much that 1vp per 3 mom is just way too good to pass up in a team that never runs out of it. Sidenote: I'm not a huge fan of +1 vp gics. They appear to be either oppressive or inconsequential as a bandaid. More thought needs to be put in to make them more unique or at least not directly coorelate to winning.

link is dead for me

Changing captain for the turn only is actually a buff considering you get your preffered captain back after the turn is over. Also gives slightly more flexibility of when you super legendary initial captain. Already such a strong tool in the right hands, not sure raising the skill cap with a "this turn only" effect to the captain tag is necessary on a team with such a high ceiling as is.

got my mystery box today in USA, Oregon brewers 6 hunters 8 engineers dice (exactly what i wanted) hunters dice LE Theron Obulous pin chibi cards(Esters, quaff, theron, fahad.) Didn't get everything i wanted but I didn't get any doubles other than dice but i wanted that Overall I'm pretty happy with everything other than the time it took to arrive. Wish I didn't get brewers, but not super dissapointed with getting a team i didn't have before. I did want hunters so I'm happy about that!

So you're saying you cannot take parting blows in the maintenance phase? interesting.

Here ya go