Fellow DreadBall Fanatic Geoff and I played at Origins this summer. I was not impressed.
Caveat: I like "board games," not "miniature games." I define the two between a board with a grid, and a map with nothing.
Guild Ball requires a ruler. I hate rulers. I despise them. I retired my X-Wing wings because of the templates.
NOTE: Blood Bowl gets a "pass" from me because the templates are only for throwing/scattering the ball, and those template actions can be accounted for with alternatives. It also plays on a gridded pitch.
Other DB Fanatics has stressed to me that GB takes a handful of games to see it's beauty. Perhaps, but I won't pursue it after my first two outings. Using the tape measure was obnoxious. The other obnoxious part? The cost.
On the positive: the game's minis are handsome. Theme aside, there's no denying they are quality. Thematically, each team is distinct with an interesting political leaning. These differences lend to various plot cards and adds some narrative to the game.
I was less impressed with the card graphics. They're too muddled with information, and you're flipping them back and forth for stat lines. Further, you'll need to have a supply of dry erase markers because you're always checking off damage onto the cards. I'm told the layout is improved in the 'third' edition.
I also understand the 3rd edition will introduce a plastic starter box that is actually affordable. Not that it seems to matter. Cost seems to be little factor with the middle aged playing. Guild Ball has leap frogged DreadBall in tournament popularity. Digression: I rarely see kids playing a sports board game.
I've played a few games of Guildball. It is a straight miniatures game- as in terrain set up different and measuring tapes rather than a girded board. It reminded me a lot of Warmachine/Hordes in the placing of influence/focus tokens to buff characters abilities, cards for each character with check boxes and even the base sizes.
In all the games I have played so far, my opponents have focused on combat and essentially ignored the ball. Which is too bad because there are some clever soccer ideas built in- you can do give and go passes you can swing the ball cross field and are awarded for making multiple passes in a turn. In other words spreading the field to make passes and trying to get open is valuable. There is a lot of tactical decisions - the turns work where I activate a guy then you do - once everyone is activated the next round starts. All the characters have special abilities and many have some synergy. So decided who to use when is important.
It is a pretty neat game, it feels a bit more open (and confusing) than Blood bowl and is not a short game.... you play to a set number of points rather than a number of turns.
Just wanted to add the Guildball is FREE. The games site has all the rules and cards and even cardboard players to print on their website. My team (Masons) consists of the starter box set for masons, an ape pencil topper, Stryker from Warmachine, and two deadlands railroad worker miniatures- all mounted on old warmachine stands. The miniatures sold for the game are nice quality, but they are spendy - however the rules/ tournament rules whatever do not require you to use them.
Edulis is far more articulate on the game than I. And he does point out a great perk: all of Guild is free if you go the paper route. DreadBall does some of this, but not nearly as comprehensively as Guild Ball. Check it out Jeff. You may dig it. I did not.
Tournament attendance was bananas at Gencon. DreadBall was less than a dozen. GuildBall and Blood Bowl were over two dozen each.
I don't know if there's correlation or not. I would think so, as the sports board game genre is a niche of a niche. I have no evidence, other than attendance observation at the big three in NA.
Ok, it’s confirmed. We just talked with our Games Workshop salesman and gave us the following information:
25/11/16 Official Release of the following 4 items:
Blood Bowl Boxed Set: retail price 85 EUR
Death Zone Season 1 gaming supplement: retail price 20 EUR
Skaven Team (12 Players): retail price 25 EUR
Skaven Dice (Set of 10 Dice): retail price 9 EUR
12/11/16 Pre-Orders of the 4 items stated above
As you know, CXN will also offer Pre-Orders for all these items. These pre-orders will also start on 12/11/16, the same date than GW will start them. We will offer a 20% DISCOUNT over all the retail prices. Besides that, we will also offer a Limited Edition Wooden Fan Factor Coin for all you, fan-boys that make your pre-orders through us CXN!!! With this coin, there will be no doubt about who is in possession of the +1 FF or the +2 FF every time you play!!! We will show you soon pictures of this Wooden FF Coin.
Ups, I almost forgot... You will also get the usual gifts that we offfer to all the regular orders made in your store, depending on the total value of your order. You can find out here the gifts that you will receive:
Please take into account that the Boxed Set is a heavy item. However, with our Shipping Costs Policy, you will be able to get Free Shipping Costs worldwide, if you accomplish the requirements stated here:
If you are interested in making a pre-order through us, let us know your name and which items you wish and we will send you all the information and details about how to do it. You can start sending your messages right now to this email address:
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May Nuffle bless your dice,
COMIXININOS – Your Fantasy Football Online Store
The box set is a little more than I would have thought, but the sold separately teams are not. 25 Euros...that's like $28. Not bad at all.
Yea thinking of getting into this sports miniatures game nonsense, then I heard the cost is $100 (no, no discounts around here). Not unfair, but currently out of my budget.
I'm amazed they gave the skaven gutter runners a new skill because the model has knives. Anyone seen all those punch daggers issued out to the human team?
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