Guild Ball Beginner Tactics

Butchers

Hello everyone! It is time to cut down the enemy team, as the Butchers. 

Please enjoy these beginner tactics.

 The Butchers are a very aggressive time. Their main focus is just out right murdering the other team to victory as quickly as possible. They have big damage capabilities with the buffs they give each other and the bleed effects almost everyone can cause on a enemy team.

Though they do have a striker even she is built more to kill than to score, so scoring is mostly used as a backup way to gain VP.

It goes with out saying that this team deals a lot of damage and they are most effective bunching up the enemy where they can use all their buffs.

 When the enemy team is spread out, the Butchers break off into two man teams.

Ox and Boar are your front line, Ox is handles the buff and debuffs while Boar just cuts into the targets Ox single out.

Then you have Princess who is best group with Boiler but she can basically pair up with anyone and still be dangerous. 

Oh wait...all this killing has distracted me from the ball in the game.

Why do we even need this?

 So Brisket is the team's striker so hand her the ball when you have possession and you could go for a goal while the rest of the team is fighting. Though so is a goal threat she is just as valuable as another source of damage with her ability Dirty Knives. 

Now what happens when they get pass Ox and Boars onslaught?

Then they meet the Wingers.

 Shank and Boiler are on clean up duty for anyone who makes it to their side of the field. Weather it's taking the ball with a tackle or just out righting killing them they are the defense that makes quick work of anyone who gets pass the front line.

With 7 member on the team somebody needs to be sub out. So the two choices that seem viable is Boiler and Meathook.

Each of them benefit from hanging around Princess this choice is more of style choice between buff and damage output.

Boiler has the buffs to set Shank up on defense along with a DEF but for anyone in trouble on the team.

Meathook on the other had is a power house against enemies with the bleed condition along with her own buff for DMG.

Fishermen

Here i will go over how the Fisherman play and some basic tactics.

 So the Fishermen are a team all about scoring goals and avoiding fights.

As you can tell from the formation they want to be on the offensive, and making sure the ball stays with them. Along with making the enemy team look slow compared to them in movement.

This team is very mobile, which is good because they want the ball and keep it.

 As the great, late Bruce Lee said "Be water, my friend." 

The Fishermen want you to look silly chasing them around the pitch and if you some how get the ball, they will be able to get on to you quickly to get it back.

Mainly once a member gets the ball, they will use regular movement and dodge to get up the field quickly and pass too their two strikers. Shark, Team Captain, and Angel are the stars making sure once they get the ball they score.

Let's look at the Fishermen's Defense for a moment.

 Kraken and Jac are your bodies defending the goal. Both are capable of pushing the enemy out of position and getting the ball away from them. Kraken more so with his knock down move in his play book and his character play Release the...

Jac uses push abilities to get the enemy close to him then attack the ball, or just push them away from goal. 

Moving on to the wingers.

Greyscales and Siren.

 Greyscales is more of the middle man with the ball. Making sure with his high DEF and dodge options that the ball gets to the strikers quickly and safely.

Siren on the other hand wants to draw the enemies towards her and away from the ball to make sure the ball carrier stays safe.

Last but not least are the two Strikers.

The team captain Shark, and his partner Angel.

Shark not only is a striker but he is also the teams support player. He has plays that both help teammates move more quickly across the pitch and hinders the enemies from catching up to them. His Legendary play Caught in the Net can be activate if in a tough spot to give enemy models -4/-4 MOV.

Angel is more of a traditional striker with decent base stats but she can be buffed farther. She has two traits, one being Defense Support with requires Salt to be by her for a +1 DEF buff. Then the other is Tactical Advice which allows her to have +1/+1 INF for being near Shark. She also has the Super Shot and Nimble plays that makes her very difficult to hit and ensures that she scores too.

Morticians

Welcome everyone to the basic tactics with the Morticians

 The Morticians play style is one of denial. They want to make sure that the other team can not score any VP. To accomplish this they try to lure the enemy to the middle of the field so that they can gang up on a model and destroy them. So for the most part you will be on your end of the field defending your goal and taking out the other team as quickly as possible.

So how exactly do they plan on denying you sweet victory?

 The duo in the mid-field Obulus and Silence are the ones in charge of luring the enemy into their trap. Obulus as team captain can be a very persuasive man, with one of his character plays Puppet Master he can take control of a single enemy model and command them to make a Jog, Pass, or Attack without spending influence. Then hes other two Character plays allow his team mates to do more during their activation, Confidence for a free re-roll, and Misdirection to allocate more influence to your team.  

Silence on the other hand likes to dictate the turn order of the enemy. Tucked letting him choose who goes next and Shutout to decide who will go last. He also has Embalming Fluid to place a AOE on the field that can help control the map itself.

Now let's talk about the assassins on the wings

 Graves and Cosset are your wingers on this team. While they both have different bonuses to charging enemies, one is more about status effects while the other adds more control to this team. 

Graves is in charge of applying status effects, Crucial Artery adds bleed to every enemy he hits so that hurts a lot but with Scything Blow he can apply it to multiple enemies with proper positioning. As a added bonus he also has Rabid Animal so that he can slow down enemy models add apply poison.

Cosset is what you might call your kamikaze model. She wants to charge in head first and deal more damage with her extra TAC, and if she is already next to her target then she can use her trait Crazy to deal damage to herself for more TAC. She also has a Lure to make sure someone is near her and Screaming Banshee to keep them from escaping. 

Now for the Big guys on the team Ghast and Casket.

These guys are really scary to go up against. Ghast is a tower of fear and damage, he has two traits that encourages getting in the enemies faces. Rising Anger give the friendly team two MP when he receives damage for the first time during a turn. Fear ,which is pretty ominous, the enemy must use an addition influence for the first attack against Ghast. Then his character play The Unmasking pushes everyone 4" away from him and they receive 3 damage.

Casket is a debuffing tank. He mainly is there to slow the enemy team down and he has multiple ways of doing it. Foul Order, Ghostly Visage, Heavy Burden, all of these are either traits or character plays that slow down the enemy. But what i really want to talk about is his legendary play,...Casket Time. This play can be activated after Casket takes out a enemy, what it does is give you four VP instead of two but it also stops the model taken out from, GAINING ANY ICY SPONGE TOKENS!! 

So not only do you get double the VP but you also permanently take out a enemy model for the rest of the match.

Masons

Welcome everyone to Beginner Tactics!

I will now be going over the Masons.

 The Mason is a team with no real weakness or strength. They are just a nice well balanced team able to handle anything the opposing team throws at it.

The Masons are rock solid...

There...I fucking said it, happy now?

 But in all seriousness this team is really well rounded. Able to handle any situation given to them and having the traits/character plays to help each other out.

This team works really well together and it shows through their synergy.

 Honour and Harmony are the sisters of the team. They work best paired with other players.

Honour is a excellent support character. Her Legendary play gives her teammates around her to gain either +1 ARM or +1 INF. While one of her character plays allow members to reposition the other is called Superior Strategy. Now this play is insane! this allows Honour to give a friendly model +1 INF AND another activation!. If you are a creative player you will have a lot of fun with this.

Harmony on the other hand does what a winger should attack the ball and help defend the goal. With the added bonus of copying Honour's TAC and KICK stats which can help her get the ball and pass it forward to Flint.

Lets look at the striker on the team Flint.

 Now being the striker on the team Flint is sort of the lone ranger. That being said he is self-efficient and once he gets the ball you can rely on him to score. He has Super Shot and the Where'd They go? play to help him out along with Close control to make sure he keeps the ball. But his other trait is odd, Charmed allows him to gain +1 DEF against attacks from males.

So in short Flint is so sexy that straight males question their own sexuality. 

Now on to Mallet and Tower your other two mid-fielders.

 These to guys of course are good for different reasons.

Mallet is good at roaming around the field where ever the ball goes and to make sure it stays in the possession of his team. His traits are very good allowing him to keep that ball safe from a distance, Football Legend gives him and his allies +1/+1 KICK, Extended Reach 3" during activation, and Forceful Blow which deals extra damage and pushes enemies away. His character plays are also good, Smashed shins -4/-4 KICK and Singled Out which gives +2 TAC on a target.

Tower is more defensive then Mallet. He does well around Brick who knocks enemies down for him and he gains +2 TAC for it. His Heroic play Protect Those Close allows him to soak up damage from teammates around him. He can also effect terrain and enemy models from afar, Shutout allows him to pick a target and they have to go last in the current turn, his other is Defend the Ground which gives Defensive Stance with out the use of MP to all friendly models in a certain piece of terrain.

Bricks time to shine!

Brick is your center back and he likes to Charge people and knock them down. For the most part that is all he does but that is all you need from him to be honest. He also has Knockback so when he does hit the enemy they will be pushed back 1" and he can then dodge 1". His other trait is Counter Charge which lets him charge a enemy model within 6" of him immediately if they end their advance phase there. 

Brewers

Hello every and welcome to the Brewer's Beginner Tactics!

This thread is about getting familiar with the Brewer's strategy and play style.

Hope you enjoy this analyst! 

 So first and foremost the Brewer's is more of a defensive team. They are good at getting in your face, knocking you down and making sure that your trip to there goal is a rough one. Also to help in this endeavor they are pretty tanky with a good amount of the member having the Tough Hid trait.

They can also score with Spigot making sure that Friday gets the ball and scores.

Now one of the things you need to keep in mind when playing as the Brewers is their low INF. They counter act that with building a lot of MP.

 Now to help get extra INF that the Brewers need is Tapper's and Stoker's trait Tactical Advice. Using these traits are vital to your success to get the team's INF up.

Also using Tapper's heroic play every turn to give out even more INF like it's candy.

Don't worry to much about gathering INF because this team shines at getting MP to boost their capabilities and moves. 

Since the Brewer's are defensive team let me show you how they keep up that D.

KNOCKDOWN!

 So we can't talk about defense without mentioning Stave, the big guy on the team. So Stave's big move is his Lob Barrel which does some good AOE damage and also has a 4" push to keep the enemy out of his area. Along with Ramming Speed and his playbook that is full of pushes makes sure that people get out too.

Now for the rest of the team most of them have a KD move so they want the enemy on the ground a lot then putting down the hurt while they are down with Hopper and Spigot.

Now let's talk about a lovable drunk.

Spigot the best wing man in any occasion.

 Spigot is the type of guy you want around the ball constantly and while he is around he makes the rest of the team better and do some damage himself when a target is knock downed.

But his main goal is to get the ball and had it off to Friday, then protect her on the way to the goal post.

He is just a swell guy to be around.

Now that Spigot has pass the ball to Friday lets take some time to talk about her.

 Friday as you can tell is the striker for the Brewers. So even though team likes to get into brawls and able to do good damage, they still like to score while everyone is knocked down. So the plan is for Spigot to get the ball away from the enemy then pass it to Friday, then keeping him around for the buffs. She also can buff herself with her heroic play that buffs her KICK and DEF on parting blows, so useful when she is surrounded.

Rounding out her abilities is Dirty Knives so when she wants to she can add to the damage.

So the Brewers have 7 member so i will let you know who to sub in and out.

Hopper and Stoker who are the damage output guys on the team are the one you will want to swap.

With Hopper you can do a lot of damage to knock down enemies, so he works well with the teams default strategy. Use Hopper if you want a more mobile damage dealer and with his 2" melee it makes it easier to catch people.

While Stoker on the other hand is capable of doing damage all on his own with a lot of burning effects. Use Stoker if you want to have a more defensive style of play with his long range abilities, also you can have the added benefit of extra INF when he is around Stave. 

Alchemist

Hello everyone just wanted to give new players like me some help on figuring out what each guild plays like. So if you are looking for the other guilds go to their sub-forums and take a look at my treads.

Enjoy the Alchemist Tactics Analysis!

 So first off the Alchemist Guild is a offensive minded team, Looking to control the middle of the field with their muscle Katalyst who will lay down some damage along with Mercury and Calculus. Vitroil with the help of Flask and Midas scoring goals.

Katalyst needs enemies to have status effects on his target to do big damage.

 So it is best to stack fire and poison damage on enemies so Katalyst can be at his best. The other player needs to fear him. He has two jobs, kill enemies, and keep them away from the mid-field duo, Mercury and Calculus.

Mercury allows him to deal +1 damage on playbook plays, while Calculus gives him +2 TAC. So it is important that they stay alive and help Katalyst damage output.

Now you will notice that this team is really focus on mid-field.

What about the Wings?

 Well that is where Mercury and Calculus come in. Their AOE's distance is HUGE! That big green awful excuse for a circle shows the combine area they can use their abilities and that is without movement.

The AOE's also have a on-going attack on the field for the rest of the turn so enemies will have try to go around or back to the middle where Katalyst awaits.

Now lets talk about scoring some goals with Vitriol.

She is mobile like most striker but she also has a extra bonus when in the cover of smoke.

 The plan is to get Vitriol the ball then using the smoke abilities that she and Flask both have. Under the cover of smoke not only does Vitriol become more difficult to hit and pin down. She also can do more damage to enemies while in it, then when she decides to leave she gets a +2/+2 MOV buff. Along with the Clone ability she is very difficult to catch with or without the ball.

Now can you believe that i have been talking all this time and i haven't even mention Midas the Captain?!

Well this is all about him and his versatility.

Midas is almost at mobile as Vitriol, with the Unpredictable Movement trait and Metallic Skin Heroic play not only can he move but be well protected from enemies.

I believe Midas is best played as a debuffer and ball handler. When attacking he can use Heavy burden to slow down enemies so not to escape the mid-field and when he has the ball using clone to protect him is very useful as well. Don't forget about his Kick range which is as long as a striker not only making him able to make a long pass to Vitriol but also a threat to goal on his own if she is busy.

Now for one of most powerful abilities (arguably) True Replication. With this ability he can copy a single (human, non-captain) Character play, so giving the enemy a taste of their own medicine. I think this is best used to copy a AOE or buff/debuff ability so he can help his team even more!  

Engineers

Welcome to the Engineer's Beginner Tactics

This is a thread to help new players learn how all the different guilds play, and help them to pick a team they would like to play.

 The Engineers are a defensive team whose focus is keeping the enemy away from their goal, then scoring them selfs.

So how does their defense work?

 This guild is big on keeping enemies and the ball away from their goal. To the engineers they want to treat the mid-field line as marker of where they want the enemy to be at. They accomplish that with knock downs and pushes.

Lets talk about the front line of their defense.

Colossus the big guy in mid-field.

 The is the ball winner and supplier to the more speedy players. He commands mid-field with the help of Ballista and Ratchet.

He is best used attacking the enemy with the ball and taking it for himself, and with the help of the Close Control trait he will keep it. Without the ball around he is happy to knock down some fools.

Now it is time to talk about Ratchet. Who is so cool he has 3 jobs.

 Ratchet is a healer, defender, and damage dealer in one package.

With his Character play Fixer he can heal any member of the team who is a Mech, for 2HP.

He has good defensive abilities too, and when he has the ball with no where to go a simple Long Bomb play gets the ball out of their side of the field. Also his AOE leaves rough-ground terrain making it difficult to get to their goal.

Where is damage comes from is when Mainspring is around him. His heroic play Overclocked he turns Mainspring into his personal kamikaze robot for good damage and leaving a burn condition on enemies.

Now it is time to talk about Ballista the bully, i mean Captain.

 Ballista is the one that makes sure that the enemy team stays on their side of the field. Majority of his moves involve pushing the enemy away, up close and at range and when they do get close he wants to knock you down and have his team close in and do damage on them, with the help of his aura that gives the team extra MP when they cause damage around him.

When things get out of hand and he is surrounded, this is the time to activate Mine Field. This play allows repositions of any kind around Ballista to do 1 damage to the model moving. Along with him and his team multiple push options means that you can do a lot of damage.

So we covered how the Engineer's defense work.

Lets move on to how they plan to win.

Salvo and Velocity are the speed on this team.

Salvo the winger is long range fiend. Off the ball he can cause knockdowns and pushes from range, on the ball he is very difficult to catch combining his push move with his dodge heavy playbook. Also he has two awesome traits that help him too. Pumped Up which allows him to use Bonus Time! for free every turn, and Swift Strikes that allows him to dodge 1" every time he causes damage!

Next is Velocity the striker, its main purpose is of course score a goal but it does nothing else but hold the ball. It has a +5 DEF on default along with the Close Combat trait and Nimble Character play that makes it near impossible to get the ball away from it. And if you think fine what ever i don't need to tackle it just kill it. Well that is going to be difficult with it's other trait Reanimate, which allows it to recover from 0HP to 3HP AND remove all conditions once a turn.