Reviews: What's all this I hear about Guild Ball

Guild Ball

So, you may have heard some rumblings about this. Since their 2014 Kickstarter, Steamforged’s game has grown expansively (and notably, without subsequent Kickstarters). You might have seen some minis on the web, or in a store. You might be ball-curious. So, this is a short primer about some common questions I’ve heard about the game.

So, is it like Blood Bowl?

Probably the first question I get every time I show off the game. I’m about to drop my nerd cred by about 17 points, but I’ve never played Blood Bowl. However, I’ve talked to a fair few people who have played both, and I can say, with a fair degree of confidence, no, Guild Ball is not like Blood Bowl.

Yes, they’re both sports games, but it’s fair to say that’s where the similarity ends. Blood Bowl models itself on Gridiron – Guild Ball is more closely styled on soccer (or, by its more international and exotic name, football). Blood Bowl is about pushing your luck and assessing risks. Guild Ball has more of a resource management style. Being based on Gridiron, Blood Bowl has more static lines of defence that need to be penetrated. Guild Ball focuses on fluid and dynamic passes, and allows you to react to your opponent’s moves.

Blood Bowl is also firmly rooted in the Tolkein fantasy tradition that was reimagined through GW “The Old World” (pouring out my 40 Oz for all my lost ratcatcher homies). Guild Ball’s aesthetic is a more Victorian/Steampunk vibe. There are no fantasy races in there, although not all the players are human…

Ok I get it. It’s not Blood Bowl. So what is it?

So as alluded to above, Guild Ball is a kind of pseudo soccer, although taking a fall will only invite someone to lay in the boot in this game. The different teams are the public representatives of various trade guilds. These guilds give each team its playstyle and flavour.

The gameplay is single model activations (usually). Each player alternates activations of their players. It features a resource management system using “Influence” which is assigned to each player so they can take actions.

There are two paths to victory in Guild Ball. The first way is scoring goals. The second is punching people until they fall over. You can go whichever way you like, although most people score a mix of goals and take outs to secure victory. New players are often tempted just to ignore the ball and lay the boot in, but this is usually a mistake. The ball is a vital positioning tool in Guild Ball, and you ignore it at your peril.

What’s good about Guild Ball?

So we gamers are fairly saturated for choice these days, and buying into a new game is no small thing. There’s some reasons Guild Ball has been expanding at a substantial rate (including running its own international invitational tournament and convention in Leeds, England this year). I’ll try to run through what some of the appeals are:

• Small model count: A tournament Guild  Ball team is six models – A Captain, a Mascot, and 4  other players. Unlike a lot of games, almost any six models that work for a team will do something together, so it’s not as synergy dependent as a lot of smaller skirmish games tend to be.
• The models are sweet: aesthetics is a personal taste thing, by Guild Ball models have been well received overall. They’re dynamic and unique looking. Each guild has a very different vibe.
• Each player is an individual: There are no generic models in Guild Ball. Each player is a unique character with their own backstory, and a suite of abilities that set them apart from every other  player.
• The rules are innovative: Guild Ball uses not one, but two different kinds of resources to make the game interesting. The first, Influence, is generated at the start of your turn and allocated to your players. If you’ve played Warmachine, this part will feel very familiar. The second, Momentum, is generated during your turn by doing cool things, and you can use it to do sweet ball manoeuvres, to heal, to counter-attack, to win initiative, and most importantly, to score goals. The Momentum system really keeps you involved in the game as it goes, and rewards playing towards your Guild’s strengths.
• It’s dynamic: Models in Guild Ball are always moving, reacting to events, and changing their positions. It doesn’t get bogged down in static melees. A great series of passes will really have the feel of a magic run in a game of soccer, and scoring a goal WILL make you want to put your t-shirt over your head and run around the room.

Ok, ok, ok. Sold! How do I get into Guild Ball? What will it cost?

Well, before you take the word of a random degenerate from the internet, why not try it for yourself, for free? The cards, rules, and even fiction are all freely downloadable from Steamforged.com.  They’ve even got downloadable paper dolls that you can cut out to play the game with (although if you own some 30mm and 40mm based models, you could just proxy with those instead.

A starter box for Guild Ball should be hitting stores any day now. At approximately $100 aussie dollerydoos, you get two full teams, (Masons and Brewers), along with tokens and cards for the various effects in the game. It even comes with health dials so you don’t have to use a whiteboard marker to mark damage. It will also include a complete copy of the rules and an instructional guide. The figures in the starter are PVC plastic and come pre-assembled, so you can open the box and play.

Buying a Guild outside of the starter isn’t too steep. On a per model basis, Guild Ball is pretty expensive, but then you need to remember you’ll only need 6 models. You should be able to get a starter box with a Captain and two players for about $50. A mascot and two more players will round out your full team, and that will probably cost you about another $60.

Does Guild Ball happen anywhere?

The Guild Ball scene in Victoria is still forming out of the primordial gamer sludge, and probably only has rudimentary air sacs at present. Gatekeeper games in Fitzroy has a pretty active scene, running on Tuesday nights. Incidental games are played elsewhere – I know WSWA has a few players. But Kick Off will hopefully see a bunch of new people get in, as a low cost of entry, easy to play product.

Hey! My Guild Ball meta in (blank) is huge and you totally ignored us!

This is probably going to happen – my omniscience ain’t what it used to be. And my knowledge ends at the borders of the metropolitan Melbourne region. So if you’ve got a Guild Ball event/night happening in Victoria, drop me a line on the VMG Facebook page and let me know about it! I’ll be happy to pimp it out. Guild Ball could be on the cusp of something big, and growing links between gaming communities is the best way to get it to happen!