Big League in a Day

I've recently condensed the Big League experience down to a single day event for my local community. This went over fairly well in my local group and lot of people in the global Guild Ball community expressed interest in how I accomplished it. Here's a write-up on what I did and what I would change.

General Idea and Objectives

Steamforged Games released the campaign rules for Guild Ball in the Season 2 rulebook, The Big League. I’ve run the Big League for my local group twice so far, with a very positive reception for the rules. There are some rules which have become dated due to the changes with the Season 3 update however the campaign holds up under the changes very well. The general idea behind the big league is one with some Guild Ball game play and some behind the scenes “wheeling and dealing”. The league rewards three different types of players, competitive players looking to win games, more casual players looking for key game moments, and players who mostly ignore win/loss in a game but enjoy the intrigue behind the scenes.

The success of the Big League campaign format for my gaming group encouraged some work to bring the Big League to a single day casual event. The typical big league is run over several weeks, ideally equal to 1 week less than the number of players in the league. The effort to boil this down to a one-day event required that I keep my eyes on a couple key goals:

• Restrict the experience to 3 rounds of games
• Maintain the capability and feeling for P-1 weeks Wheeling and Dealing (i.e. favours)
• Maintain the capability and feeling for P-1 weeks of league card expansion (i.e. campaign points)
• Maintain the 3-fold aspect of Competition/Big Play Moments/Intrigue with the limited timeframe of a single day event.

What did I do, what changes did I make?

In preparing for running a Big League in a Day I faced the challenge of distilling the “feeling” of a 7(ish) week league down to 1 day across 3 games. I also had my objectives to keep in mind to capture the same enjoyment for the players. I spent time thinking about those two goals and came up with the following changes.

First I decided to add favours at the start of the day prior to game one. This is a change that has been very positively received in my normal Big Leagues and it would similarly kick-start the wheeling and dealing for the BLiaD. I also decided to increase the access to guild plot card from the start to 2 plot cards. This would give people aiming for those “key play moments” access to more cards from the start. It would also help spur accumulation of campaign points starting in the first game. I knew I would have to increase the speed players would be able to gain campaign points and favours, so I also adjusted for round 2 and 3 on both those fronts.

One of the impacts to favours in the Big League is based on the win-record (League points) of your opponent. Playing an opponent with more league points you get a chance to earn more favours. Additionally, if you beat that opponent you gain an additional increase in favours earned. A traditional Big League where everyone optimally plays everyone else in the league opens opportunities for this to happen. I feel this is an important aspect of the system for a couple key reasons. First, it’s the best opportunity for intrigue focused players maximizing the currency they use in the league. Second, it creates key moments for all players in the league where favours and behind-the-scenes deals can lead to an upset, unseating a league point leader with an unexpected loss. Other players in the league can feed favorable deals to the lower ranked player to beef up their team through the judicious and creative use of favours. I needed to find a way to keep this aspect of pairings in the event despite the event being only 3 rounds. I achieved this by pairing based on favours spent, not on league points or a win/loss/points record. I also added an additional way to spend favours, Match Fixing, where the instigator could choose two players to be opponents in the upcoming round.

Lastly, I looked at the overall balance of the day across three rounds. I decided to adjust some of the escalators along with building in an increasing Longshanks Tax on favour expenditure. The adjusted escalators made sure there was not one all-decisive round during the day which would be the only round that mattered. Players would need to pursue their chosen objective all three rounds to achieve their desired result. The Longshanks tax assured that the escalator on favours stayed balanced through the day, despite having more to spend each round.

After all that planning and thinking my final set of rules resulted in the following:

Event Start:

• All players start with 5 favours
• Maximum 5 favours can be spent in round 1 W&D
• Players can build their plot deck from:
• Season 1, 2, 3 plot cards
• Common Big League plot cards
• 2 selected Guild Plot Cards

Round 1

• 3 league points for a win / 0 league points for a loss
• 1 favour for a win / 3 favuor for a loss
• 1:1 campaign points earned from plot cards
• +1 favour Longshanks Tax for player trades, 0 for all else

Round 2

• Max 8 Favour can be spent in W&D
• Player Trades & Campaign points: +1 Longshanks Tax
• Match Fixing for round 3: 3 Tax + LP difference between higher LP and lower LP
• 5 league points for a win / 2 league points for a loss
• 2 favour for winning a game / 4 favour for a loss
•  +1 Favour for playing an opponent with more LP / +2 Favour for winning vs more LP
• 2:1 campaign points earned from plot cards

Round 3 & Post game 

• Max 15 Favour can be spent in W&D
• Player Trade, Plot Card Trade, Campaign Points: +2 Longshanks Tax
• Sponsorships: +1 longshanks tax
• Match Fixing: same as round 2
• 7 League points for a win / 3 league points for a loss
• 3 favours for winning / 9 favours for a loss
• +2 favour for playing opponent with more LP / +4 for winning vs more LP
• 1:1 campaign points from plot cards

I also restructured the Campaign points to plot cards table slightly. I started the day with each player picking 2 plot cards, then incremented by 20 cp up to 100. After 100 I incremented by 15 CP per card. Here's a look at the restructured table:

How did the day go?

Overall the day went very well, with all the participants having a great time playing 3 casual games of guild ball. Despite the moderate level of interest for my area, only 5 players attended on the day, necessitating me to play as to avoid a bye. I’ confident this turn out is primarily attributed to a combination of more competitive than casual players in my areas plus competing events on the same weekend plus people schedule conflicts. I say this based on the feedback I’ve received from people who had intended to attend but didn’t (i.e. scheduling conflicts) and my general observation of who did and did not show interest in this event.

Leading into round one, things went very smoothly, with everyone generally understanding how the BLiaD would work, assembling their decks, and grabbing sponsorship's. Early moves were made to buy campaign points for favours early on, a couple players aiming to get access to an additional guild plot card. Round 1 played out without a hitch, although some general confusion about how the big-league plot cards and similar cards across seasons 1, 2, & 3, would work. These were quickly resolved and we accumulated the results to move into round 2. The end of round 1 did see wheeling and dealing timing advantages come into play as players who had finished their games first jumped into spending favours to grab specific players (Tater) and sponsorship's before other players had finished their games and moved to Wheeling and Dealing. This is something to be watched but did not upset anyone in my event.

The escalation of points in round 2 led to some key purchases for round three. One player came late to Wheeling and Dealing and spent their favours to match-fix themselves vs the other League Champion contender. Due to the small number of players and a desire to avoid same-match pairings, this resulted in the entire round 3 pairings being determined by that player. This was not necessarily a negative thing but was an interesting result to see. The overall escalation of points resulted in the desired outcome that all 3 rounds were important to the end of day awards, along with keeping the final post-round-3 wheeling and dealing phase as part of the determination factors.

What (if anything) would I change?

After the event, I asked for feedback from the group along with sharing some of my observations and thoughts. Based on all that feedback I would make some adjustments to the format. I would pull forward the earning escalation (2:1 campaign points) from round 2 to round 1, then create another level of escalation in round 3. I’d keep the longshanks tax largely the same, although I’d add a tax of 1 favour for sponsorships to round 2. I’d set round 3 to contain no escalation (1:1 campaign points, standard favours), but maintain the higher longshanks tax for the round.

I think that those changes would speed up the attainment of favours and campaign points, opening increased access to those parts of the league people are looking for. The escalated league points should be watched to assure than no single round is a decider, but all 3 rounds matter for the league champion.

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Minx the Maligned (Guild Ball)

The following article is a mix of opinion and tactics specifically centered on the Union player Minx. I was torn on which label I wanted to apply and decided it's best to go with both and leave it at that. It's not uncommon that outside my local guild ball group I hear disparaging comments about how Minx is not very useful. I specify outside my own play group as my local area has come to respect her through multiple games against my own teams where she is included. I particularly like her in my Captain Rage Union list, there she plays a key role "turning on" the team. I've also gotten good use from her in my Hunters teams, although she does not play as strong a role there as in Union. She's been available since the release of the Kickstarter but is not regularly used. I suspect that's going to change as more time passes and players realise the fantastic tech she brings to team. I'm going to do my part ahead of the curve and help explain where and how she plays best.

Minx - Looking at the Card

I think it's best to start out looking at her card and digging into the basic mechanics of what she does. Looking at the front of her card we are immediately struck my her exceptional movement stat of 7/9. Minx can swiftly move across the board and appears to threaten 10 inches for her attacks. We see a fairly basic TAC, Kick, and the "average" defence on her. Then we reach the second eye catching point on her stat line, which is the 2/2 influence. As a player when you see an influence stat that is equal such as 2/2, this should trigger a question and cause you to scan the card to see if there's a reason for the odd stat. In this case, we find on the back of her card that Minx is furious, charging for free. Overall this makes her a very efficient model, bringing 2 influence and able to charge a target 10 inches away for free without using that influence.

Moving to Minx's playbook and character plays we find she has evenly spread momentous damage on 1, 3, and 5 successes. This points toward her being a damage dealer with nicely placed momentous damage generation. It also means that on a charge, should she get enough results to wrap, she can easily take advantage of damage buffs such as commanding aura and tooled up. On her playbook, we find two interesting character plays, both of which can be triggered from her playbook non-momentously. Screeching Banshee applies a movement penalty to the target model along with delivering 2 points of damage. Marked Target is more interesting, being able to be triggered as well as paid for with 1 influence. This is an 8 inch ranged play which applies a movement bonus for models charging the target the play was applied to. This threat extender can be incredibly helpful to "known threat range" models who want to charge into combat.

Swapping over to the back of her card we catch sight of a couple more interesting tidbits. The first, Furious, I mentioned above and is part of the key nature for Minx in a team. Furious lets her charge a target without influence, getting at least one attack. The second eye-catching trait is Damaged Target. This ability increases Minx's charge range by 2 inches when she is targeting a damaged model for her charge. This increases her overall threat range to a very impressive 12 inches. The third trait is one that's often forgotten but can be useful in niche situations. Follow-Up allows Minx to utilize her 7-inch jog to stay engaged with a model that moves out of her melee range.

Reviewing all of the information and stats for Minx we find the ideal situation is one where she can charge someone 12 inches away, hit them for 3 - 4 momentous damage then bounce away using the double dodge at the top of her playbook. This makes her a finisher model, supporting the rest of the team with both 2 influence to be assigned elsewhere and the final 2 - 4 points of damage for a take out.  If looked at in those terms she is just ok, not an amazing model at all.

One wonders why I would be writing this if that were all?

The Union team led by Captain Rage

Minx can be played with multiple teams but I feel she truly shines in a Captain Rage led union team. She brings some incredible utility to that team which increases the overall effectiveness and threat of the team. My current favorite team roster for Capt. Rage includes Minx, Coin, Gutter, Avarisse & Greed, and Mist. This team brings a total of 12 influence to be allocated turn 1, plus the Bag of Coffers influence allocated during the turn. Often turn 2 will see a desire to allocate 4 influence to Rage, 4 to Gutter, and 3 or 4 to Mist, draining the base pool of allocatable influence. This means that the other models, in this case Minx and A&G, are left with no influence. This is not a problem for Minx as she can still charge for free, adding some additional damage to a select combat. Almost more important, Minx can charge from "seemingly nowhere" to set up a gang-up bonus for a targeted combat. This becomes very beneficial for Capt. Rage when using Bloody Coin.

The second, and somewhat more important, value Minx brings to the team is Marked Target. Minx is able to extend Capt. Rage and Gutter's threat range. Of these two models, Capt. Rage has the more important threat range to extend. Typical opponents will be accutely aware of Capt. Rage's 7 inch charge / 8 inch threat range and endeavor to stay outside of it. Savvy opponents will often consider "Quick time" on Rage, extending that threat to 10 inches and will stay out side that. Minx can often charge into that range, hitting to trigger marked target and adding an additional 2 inches to increase Capt. Rage's threat to 12 inches. Even when she cannot charge, such as during turn 1, giving her a single influence gives a 1 dice chance to land Marked Target on an opposing model within 15 inches of Minx's starting point. It's especially useful to use Coin to give Bag of Coffers to Minx, giving her the influence and a bonus time for the character play when activation is not an issue.

Lastly and least important is her actual damage. Minx being able to charge an engaged target, attacking in range of Capt. Rage's legendary play can deliver some reliably good damage. In this situation she should be rolling 11 dice, averaging 5 hits for a momentous 4 damage plus a 2 inch dodge. Often she will spike this roll to 6, 7, or 8 hits and escalate that to 7 damage, 2 momentum, and a 2 inch dodge. It's a fairly nice finisher to a turn where she was not allocated any influence.

Minx vs Gutter with Blackheart

I've been fairly vocal about my disapointment with Gutter after the April errata, specifically when played with Blackheart. On Guild Ball Tonight I commented that I have switched to using Minx in place of Gutter because I felt she was better. This is a good place to discuss this comparison and where my preference comes from.

Following the April 2016 errata Gutter moved from a reliable control player to a damage focused player, specifically utilizing Scything Blow for her damage. Many people point out that Gutter still have a 4 inch chain grab along with reliable momentous damage. I always hear the stories about Gutter getting multiple scything blows off on models that get grouped up, thus delivering amazing results and incredible take-out's to generate points.

I'll point out that this is not untrue, in specific situations. Gutter when is an amazingly dangerous player when used to focus on maximising damage via scything blow. I'll go further and say that in specific teams (Butchers and Capt. Rage) she is a top choice among players, almost critical for a Capt. Rage team in my opinion. That said, she's not as good with Blackheart.

Blackheart benefits Gutter in two ways, via crowding out her target and via Commanding Aura. Commanding aura will grant +1 damage to playbook damage results and +1 TAC while attacking a target within the aura. In these situations, where Gutter can position appropriately to not endanger Blackheart or another friendly model, Gutter generates moderate results. She will be attacking with TAC 7 (base 5, +1 for gang-up, +1 for commanding aura) which only reliably generates 4 successes. This means that Gutter can choose momentous 2 (becomes 3 damage) or momentous scything blow (3 damage to everyone in 2 inches). Not bad damage, especially if she positions to get multiple people in range. Maximising this attack to get 12 damage by using all 4 influence on attacking means Gutter had to start within 8 inches of the target model and be able to walk to a position where she is not within 2 inches of any friendly models. She'll aim to pick this position to also have 2 or more enemy models in range.

Let's lay that out as a list:

1. Must be within 8 inches of 2 enemy models
2. Cannot end within 2 inches of a friendly model
3. Blackheart is already engaging the target model she'll be attacking

That's the "ideal" situation that can be reasonably expected to scything blow and put 12 damage on 2 models.

Looking at Minx in a similar situation we can start by making a couple assumptions. The basic one is we assume Commanding Aura and engagement, but that the target model has not taken any damage yet. In this case Minx can charge the model from 10 inches across the board and will be making her first attack with 11 dice (base 5, +4 charge, +1 gang-up, +1 for commanding aura) and reliably generating 5 successes on the hit. This will do 4 damage, followed up by 2 attacks at TAC 7 doing an additional 3 per attack. Let's compare with the following list:

1. Must be within 10 inches of the target
2. Blackheart is already engaging the target model she'll be attacking

The comparable damage is 12 damage to the single target (possibly 12 to 2 targets in an ideal situation) vs 10 damage to a single target. Gutter took 4 influence and had to be closer to the target. Minx was further away and only required 2 influence. Gutter generated 4 momentum while Minx generated 3 momentum.

I have found that the more often I play savvy opponents, both locally and at the top tiers of tournaments, those opponents know how to counter Gutter. They watch for her and since she's a threat they focus on removing her or mitigating her threat. Minx tends to slip under the radar more and is not considered as much of a threat, or considered out of range to get into combat. When I combine this with her Marked Target being useful for Decimate and Blackheart charging, extending both their threat ranges, she is far more useful to me. Gutter can still chain grab, but in a team that cannot boost her number of attacks or drastically increase her damage on character playes, every chain grab is less effective damage she delivers.

As such, Minx is better with Blackheart. Spelling it out here are my reasons:

1. Greater threat range
2. Similar damage range (10 - 12), same threat if her charge spikes to 1 additional success.
3. Only 1 less momentum generation (which becomes same if Gutter has to chain grab)
4. Better team enablement with Marked Target

Conclusion .... for now

This should give you a good handle on how to start including Minx into your lists. I think she works very well with both Union captains, as you can see above. Minx also plays for Masons, Butchers, Hunters, and Morticians. I will write a future article about how she works with the Hunters, suffice it to say I think she's very useful in that influence constrained team. I think she fits well with Butchers as well, enabling the build of a team that's almost completely furious. I don't think she brings as much use to Morticians nor Masons, not really filling a necessary niche in those teams.

Painted Models - Hunters

During the Summer I typically have the opportunity for a Work-Cation trip to New England. This is a two week period of time where my wife, mother-in-law, and kids get to go to the beach and I settle myself out on the porch and work. One of the high points of this week is the relaxation and an increased chance to paint. This, along with Christmas, is typically my highest level of yearly productivity for painting miniatures.

This year I brought a number of things with me including my entire hunters set. These were already primed and I had been waiting to paint them before playing them. I'd stumbled around trying to figure out a good scheme for them for a while. I thought I wanted a fall theme but was having trouble picturing the right combination in my head. Thanks to "The Art of Wargaming" on facebook, I found the scheme that fit the picture in my head. While I certainly do not compare to their level of painting, I am pretty happy with my table top quality Hunters.

Overall I'm happy with the way the team looks, and I particularly like how they look when all together. Here's a group shot of the whole team.

Guild Ball Tactics - Shock and Awe

It's a balmy early July here in the Washington DC metro area and I've been thinking lately. I've been thinking about Guild Ball, specifically playing it competitively. All this has come about for a couple reasons, including a series of recent tournaments and the upcoming US National Championships at Gencon. At the time of writing Gencon is 3 weeks away.

I mentioned writing this article and my thoughts for it to my wife a couple days ago. She agreed it was likely an interesting article to write, but warned that I should not sabotage myself by publishing it prior to the US Championships. I am taking her advice, scheduling this for release on the Monday following Gencon. I'm not sure if there's anything here that would make a difference for my opponents or not, but there it is.

The idea's that I espouse in this writing are applicable to real military maneuvers along with the full range of tabletop miniature war games. In this article I'm going to focus on Guild Ball specifically and how to achieve these tactics using the Guild Ball rules, models, and typical situations.

Shock and Awe

Shock and Awe is a "real life" military tactic technically known as "Rapid Dominance", a military doctrine based on the use of overwhelming power and spectacular displays of force to paralyze the enemy's perception of the battlefield and destroy its will to fight. I've been thinking that this plays out in some of my preferred tactics when playing Guild Ball, across the majority of teams I play. I've recently contemplated how important this tactic has been to my relative success within the Guild Ball competitive environment.

Shock and Awe in Guild Ball is often achieved through a surprising play (or series of plays) during the first turn of the game. Successfully executing this tactic results in your opponent being put on their "back foot", scrambling to string together a series of plays to recover their perceived position in the game. Many times (but not always), this results in generating a large amount of the in-game currency "Momentum" in addition to gaining play momentum in the game.  

Shock and Awe within Guild Ball is characterized by a couple key factors:

• It's Fast
• It results in a scoring lead over your opponent
• It's difficult to counter

Although a Shock and Awe play (or series of plays) can be executed at any time during a match, typically the best results will be obtained when it's successfully executed turn 1. The effect is compounded when the triggering player can follow-through with their execution of plays into turn 2, taking the initiative and compounding the impact of the first turn plays. 

Opponents on the receiving end of this tactic shift their plans to a focus on how to recover from your play. They become responsive opposed to pushing their own game plan and agenda. This shift to responsive play surrenders control of the game to you, opening an opportunity to push your own plan forward. It does this in a way that's not entirely conscious for your opponent, generating the feeling that they are "starting the game behind" or "starting out losing".  It's important to be aware of this and capitalize on it by executing your plan for generating victory points, not returning control of the game to your opponent. Basically, don't get comfortable thinking you have an unassailable lead, your opponent will recover. What you need to do is capitalize on the time before they recover to cement your lead in the game.

In almost every case of this tactic being successful I see some type of activation control in play. This happens most often through the inclusion of Avarisse & Greede into a Guild Ball team lineup. Considering how Guild Ball is balanced, a Shock and Awe play will rarely be the first or second activation of turn 1, but require some level of set-up to be effective. Assuring that the play is the final play on Turn 1 provides the time to set it up and increase the chances of success, cementing the Shock and Awe impact. The extra activation Avarisse and Greede provide makes this critical and allows your opponent to make positioning mistakes during the turn, contributing to your plan. 

 

 Turn 1 Goal Scoring

Many teams will delivery a Shock and Awe tactic via successfully scoring on turn 1 from their deployment line. Every team has the capability to do this, however Fishermen, Masons, Alchemists, and Engineers  do it most often. There are three keys to successfully delivering a turn-1 goal score from your deployment line and you should aim to understand all of them.

First, is distance to your opponents goal. There is a minimum of 20 inches between the your deployment line and your opponents goal. This is if you set-up your goal-scorer (striker) directly across from the goal on the front edge of your deployment line and there is clear path for you to get there. Modifications need to be made to your plan based on rough ground, obstacles, and opponents models placement during the opening turn. It's key to understand your chosen strikers threat distance on the goal and the positioning you'll have to use to get there.

Second, momentum is going to be required to make a shot on goal. You're going to have to generate momentum during your turn prior to making the final shot on goal. Additionally you should make sure to consider the requirement for an influence when making the shot, as this is sometimes forgotten. Returning to momentum, you'll likely want a second momentum available to bonus time the goal shot. Missing your first turn goal shot is unlikely to create a sense of Shock and Awe in your opponent.

Third, you'll need the ball in order to make a shot on goal. This may seem like a small thing to mention, but its important. If you did not receive the ball and retrieve it on the kick-off you're going to need a way to take the ball back from the opponent. The kicking player often has a difficult time retrieving the ball after kick-off, with only their kicker positioned properly to reach the ball once the opponent has taken possession.

 Let's take a look at a typical Shock and Awe 1st turn Goal for the fishermen. Assume that the Fishermen team has received the ball and allocated influence. We've places at least 1 influence on each model and plan to pass the ball twice before getting it to Shark. Shark will be loaded up with 5 influence on turn 1 to accomplish the tactic. We'll also position Shark to the left side of the field, half-way between the board edge and the middle of the field to avoid some obstructions near the midfield. We're going to make sure he's 24 inches from the opponents goal. We draw out the passing the ball until the second to last activation.

On this activation we want Greede to pass the ball to Shark, generating a momentum which we immediately spend for a Team Play 4 inch dodge for Shark. Shark dodges 4 inches toward the opponent goal with the ball then begins his activation since the opponent has used theirs. Shark's first action is to spend 2 influence for "Quick Foot" and look for a target model 13 inches away in the direction of the opponents goal. Shark spends 2 influence to charge that model, ending as close to the goal as possible but at least 1 inch away from the target. Assuming the average model has a 4 defense, 1 armor, and uses defensive stance for a 5df, we get 2 success on average. This is enough to dodge Shark 2 inches toward the goal and out of engagement with other models. Shark should have moved between 16 and 18 inches toward the opponents goal, leaving him between 6 and 8 inches from the goal. This is within Sharks kick range so he then takes a shot on the goal, rolling 5 dice due to bonus time. 

Capitalizing on this and winning initiative on turn 2 can create severe problems for your opponent. You're up 4 victory points from your first goal plus your starting turn 2 with an additional influence to allocate. You're striker is typically very good at tackling the ball away from opponents and is in a prime position to take the ball away from where ever the goal kick landed. Load your striker with max influence and look for a way to retrieve the ball, generate a momentum, and make a second shot on goal. Even if you cannot bonus time this second shot, it's worth the attempt. If you cannot get into position to shoot on goal after retrieving the ball, send it toward your own team and aim for another model picking it up and getting in a turn 2 goal.

Turn 1 Take Out

The Turn 1 Take Out is a much tougher play to put together for the majority of teams. The Masons are the best at doing this, coining the "Chisel Missile" play. Morticians, Union, Butchers, and Brewers can all string together a Turn 1 Take Out but it's a little tougher for them. Many times this requires the use of either Gutter for her Chain Grab or in the case of Morticians, Lure and/or Puppet Master. One advantage to the Turn 1 Take Out is the generation of Momentum and positioning for starting turn 2 strong.

In nearly every case we want to make a series of attacks with a model who does not need to charge into combat. This is done in order to maximize the number of attacks on the target, maximizing damage and generated momentum. Because of this we're looking for a way to force a reposition onto the target to bring them into range of our hitters. Gutters chain grab, models with push/dodge and push playbook results, and models with access to lure all facilitate this movement. Specifically for morticians there's Obulus with Puppet Master and for Brewers there's Stave's Lob Barrel.  However it's accomplished we want to pull the target into range. Once we reach that point it's time to launch our damage and kill the target. When possible take the target out although it's sometimes just as useful to leave the target low on health (1-3 health) if you can assure initiative on turn 2 to finish them off.

The example we'll use for this is the Masons Chisel Missile play. There are multiple ways to drag out activation with Masons including both Avarisse & Greede and using Honour's Superior Strategy. When nearing the final activation Honour will use her legendary play and Superior Strategy to give Chisel 2 additional influence and another activation.Prior to the activation Marbles will use Tooled up on Chisel. Ideally the Masons will also have Decimate on the team to have given Chisel Second Wind, although this is not critical to the play.

Chisel will activate last with 6 influence and make her first move down the board. She wants to move toward a target model with average or less defense and around 12 health. During her first activation she will activate Crazy, taking 3 points of damage. If she has second wind she will move an additional jog toward the target. On her second activation she will activate crazy at the start of her turn taking another 3 damage, then move into combat with the target model. Her range between these two activation's is 14 inches from her deployment line, 18 inches if she has second wind.

Chisel can now make 6 attacks (2 inch reach) against the target model, averaging 14 points of damage and netting 5 momentum if that takes out a model. She can reduce that damage by 1 if it will not take out a model and still net the 5 momentum. Provided this is enough to gain initiative on turn 2, Chisel should be given 4 influence again. She will start the turn by using Crazy and taking 3 more points of damage, triggering her Painful Rage ability. This lets her deliver 4 attacks averaging 12 additional damage.

Countering Shock and Awe

  How does on deal with an opponent who plans to deploy a Shock and Awe tactic against them? The first thing to do is determine if it's coming. If a Masons player starts giving buffs to Flint or Chisel while they're playing Honour, you can safely assume they are planning a Shock and Awe play. If a Union player is giving Mist a "bag of coffers" and/or Second Wind, you can safely assume they are planning a Shock and Awe play. If an engineers player is using Ping Vise and they recieve the ball, expect a Shock and Awe play.

Once you begin to predict and expect the plays it's time to see what can be done to counter them. The first step is to counteract the activation control. This is impossible to do when facing Honour led masons, just accept that. Aside from that specific team, adding Avarisse & Greede to your own roster evens up some of the activation's. I dread saying that as I'm already seeing A&G in almost every tournament list, but it's a simple fact (and likely the motivator is exactly what I'm describing here).

The second thing to consider is counter-play. Shock and Awe requires an aggressive play-style and this can be thrown off by using effective counter-play. Offering up targets which are not ideal choices for the Take Out focused S&A player then protecting the soft targets is one choice. Any model which has Fear can eat into the required influence necessary to execute the attacks. Areas of Rough Ground slow the attacker down (goal scorer or melee attacker) and Rising Anger will generate momentum for counter-attacks. Using traits such as Gluttonous Mass and Unpredictable movement to hamper your opponents plans are great ways to counter a S&A play series.

Finally, try to stay balanced in your view on the game. If you can keep an eye on your objectives and not fall into the "Shock" portion of the tactic then you may be able to recover quickly and move forward with your plan. This will minimize the impact of your opponents play.

Share your Shock and Awe stories in the comments below, I'd love to hear what people have seen in their games. If I'm blessed then I should be on the road home right now with the US National Championship under my belt. More likely I'm on the way home from Gencon without that title and just had a fantastic time at a great convention.

Rumble Cup tournament report

On July 24th I attended a Sunday tournament, the Rumble Cup, at The Island Games in Chantilly VA. I don't prefer Sunday tournaments as my Sundays are already pretty crazy with family and church activities. I had missed out on a recent tournament and a couple Guild Ball game nights so decided to attend this one. I really wanted to get in 3 solid competitive games with an eye toward additional practice for Gencon. I knew this would be attended by my local scene and I was expecting some of the stronger players, although I also knew it would be a smaller tournament. Additionally, it was the first tournament run at The Island Games and first for the pundit, Sheridan. I wanted to support both the pundit and the store by attending.

I'll take a moment to say a little about the store, as it's a nice venue for events and general gaming. On first entering it is pretty clear the store focuses on card games (MtG, Pokemon, etc), although this should not be a surprise for anyone who frequents game stores in the US. This is only a first impression however, it only takes a look deeper into the store to see the tremendous support for board games and miniature games at near equal level to card games. The retail area of the store fills the front 1/3, with a small table in the middle of the front for some card games to be played. Large racks of board games and miniature games fill the spacious front of the store, surprisingly not feeling crowded at all for the amount of stock. Moving past the opening racks opens up a vista of 12 long tables filling the back 2/3 of the store. These tables are prefect size for board games, and can be pushed together to make space for typical miniature games. Along the back wall is a large shelf system filled with terrain for use by miniature gamers.

Overall, The Island Games is a very nice store and a great place for gamers. Anyone in the area should definitely check it out!

Matches

We had 8 people attending the event, meaning 8 rounds for the day. We started a little late but tings picked up quickly and the whole event was completed by 6:00pm. The mix in the field was both interesting and challenging, including Josh (ranked 12th in the US), Dutch (19th in the US), Dan (15th in the US), Dixon (3rd in the US), Ben (124th in the US), and 2 new players. Although these are all from my local scene, I knew I was in for a challenging day as 3 of us are practicing for the Gencon National Championship and Dan is a top player whenever he plays at a tournament.

**rankings mentioned above are per Black Orifice Guild Ball rankings updated after the tournament.

In deference to the new players the clocks were set to 50 minute clocks with 2 minutes of clocked-out time. This was good for the new players and you'll see in the round reports that I was typically playing with a 45 minute/1 minute clock.  

Round 1 - Josh's Hunters

Josh and I have played a lot of games since he's gotten into Guild Ball. Even with the return of MkIII Warmachine, Josh is still getting in 2 - 4 games of Guild Ball a week. He's coming on pretty strong in the Tournament scene, starting with Engineers, moving to Hammer led Masons (and doing really well), and now getting the Hunters on the table. His Hunters are a work in progress and he has not settled into a streamlined team yet, but he's worked out a lot of their tricks and plays a strong game.

Josh and I agreed to play on a 45 minute / 1 minute clock despite knowing the round was 50 minutes / 2 minutes. We expected we'd end the game prior to the normal round time and wanted to see how it played out. Overall this was a casual agreement as you'll see below.

He was running Theron, Fahad, Jaecar, Zarola, Seena, and Chaska facing my Capt. Rage, Coin, Gutter, Avarisse & Greede, Mist, and Hemlocke. Josh's strategy seemed to focus on grinding out the clock against me and trying to pick off players at a steady pace with Jaecar. If he could get in with Seena for a charge and Bear Hug he would but was more reliant on Seena as a threat and tar pit (21 wounds, tough hide, 2 inch reach).

We had a couple highlights and surprises during this game which are worth noting. Josh made excellent use of traps and positioning during the game to control Rage and Gutters charges, limiting what I was able to attack. Even when he grouped up I was rarely able to get into range for the flurry of scything blows I aim for with this team. During the first Turn Josh grouped up Zarola, Theron, and Chaska in a forest for cover, which nicely setup the spacing for Hemlock to drop poison on all of them. Josh also had issues early game with missing most of his character plays. At one point during the late game we were both surprised when Capt Rage charged a full health Seena and successfully killed him during the activation.

We hit a point in the game where I was on 8 points, Josh was on 4, Fahad had the ball in cover and was engaged by Hemlock and Mist. Hemlock and Mist were engaged by Theron, Chaska, and Zarola with Rage and Gutter out of range to get into the fight in 1 round. This was important as my clock ran out (45 minutes) and he had less than 3 minutes left on his clock. We paused to discuss what to do and agreed we'd keep playing as if we had 50 minute clocks, but track the 1 minute point's that would roll over. I also personally decided I'd play my turns within the 1 minute to see how to pull the game out. I had become a bit "tilted" shortly before this point in the game, growing frustrated with some bad dice results on my side along with an inability to untangle the situation Josh had set up.

Although the game officially ended with a score of 12 to 8, win to me, this was the most frustrating series of activation's I've played to date in Guild Ball.  Over the next several activation I was able to spring Hemlock from the tangle, with the ball, move and make a shot on goal. Unfortunately she missed the shot and the ball landed snuggled up to his goal, 6 inches away from Hemlock. In future attempts to generate momentum to move Hemlock up and grabbing the goal Josh positioned well and kept me at range, frustrating my attempts to win the game and grinding out activation. Overall I would have given up 10 points to clock out before being able to make the final points and win the game. This means had we been on regular tournament clocks Josh would have won 12 to 10  three activation prior to my finally winning.

On this day with how we agreed to play, I was able to extract a win from a very frustrating game. Kudo's to Josh for an excellent game, although I was incredibly frustrated at the end of the game. Win to me, 12 to 8.

Round 2 - Alex's Morticians

Round two saw me matched up against one of the new players in the tournament, Alex. I had given Alex a demo game two weeks prior to the tournament and found out that this round would be his fourth game of Guild Ball. I had a moment of feeling bad over this, as I was still mentally tweaked from my first game vs Josh, my brain in a hyper-competitive mode and still moderately frustrated from the game. I made an effort to tone my competitive view back and calm down on the frustration side, hoping to give Alex an enjoyable game.

Alex is starting his Morticians team playing Scalpel as captain. This tournament he was swapping out two of his "regular" models (Casket and Cosset) for Mist and Rage. His lineup was Scalpel, Dirge, Ghast, Rage, Mist, Silence facing Capt. Rage, Coin, Gutter, A & G, Mist, Minx. He was not really ready for this game and was surprised in a couple places despite my trying to keep him abreast of what my models did. He played really well for a new player, taking out Capt Rage and making a goal with his Mist. Overall I was able to recover from my "Tilt" and make this a fun game overall. Alex said he'd learned even more about the Guild Ball and enjoyed the match after our game.

This game put me on the top table going into the final round with a 12 to 6 win.

Round 3 - Dixon's Alchemists

Dixon is a top player in every miniature game I've seen him play, highly competitive, and always a challenge when I face him. He has earned a reputation as a negative play experience to face, but he and I have been friends for years and I enjoy gaming with him as much as I get frustrated playing against him. Dixon was coming out of a strange round 2 where half-way through the game his opponent conceded and then dropped from the tournament. Although it was on the table next to me I am not sure exactly what happened. I do know that both Dixon and his opponent in that game tend to frustrate each other simply based on their personalities during a competitive game, and they also suffer from becoming detrimentally frustrated when dice or plans do not go their way.

I knew Dixon was playing Midas led Alchemists for this game, one of his strongest teams. I also knew that he had recently decided he was not enjoying dice based games and currently feels that dice are too random for his liking and cause him undue frustration. Knowing this, my own earlier frustration, and that he was coming out of a game where his opponent conceded, I was expecting a fairly contentious game. My aim was to keep my cool, say as little as possible, and just play out the game trying to win as quickly as possible.

Dixon brought Midas, Flask, Mist, Vitriol, Decimate, Compound facing Capt. Rage, Coin, Gutter, A&G, Mist, Minx. I am currently struggling between the desire to drop Gutter when facing Midas and my belief that Gutter is crucial to a successful Capt. Rage lineup. If I can figure out how to mitigate the Gutter/Midas interaction I'll be dramatically stronger facing Alchemists in tournaments.

The game opened with Dixon winning the roll for Kick/Receive and choosing to receive. I kicked with Avarisse, not moving too far forward but getting a decent kick. Dixon loaded up Mist and Midas, with a token amount of influence on Vitriol, and Compound. He retrieved the ball and passed a couple times before activating Midas and successfully grabbing Scything Blow. I had considered moving Gutter the activation before Midas went, but then thought that letting him come in for Scything blow and sitting 8 inches away from Gutter would be to my benefit to possibly hurting or killing Midas on turn 1. Via creative use of difficult terrain and ball passes he was able to position himself 12 inches away and keep Midas out of danger. Activations continued with his Decimate coming forward, staying just out of range of Capt. Rage. Minx moved forward and hit with Marked Target (on Decimate), putting Rage (3 inf) back in range. Rage charged Decimate, hitting twice and generating momentum.

This point in turn 1 left Dixon with a final activation of Mist (4 influence, 2 momentum) with the ball, and me with Gutter (3 inf) and my own Mist (4 inf + bag of coffers) remaining to activate. Dixon's Mist shot down the field, bouncing off Avarisse and generating 2 more momentum (putting him at 4) and successfully positioning to have a clear shot past Greede, then took a shot on goal with Bonus Time. 4 dice rolled and the results were 1, 2, 2, 3 for a missed goal. The ball parked itself next to Greede (who did not pick it up) and in front of my goal. I was surprised, readjusting my plans for Gutter to grab the ball and pass it to Mist. I started measuring to determine the best path for Gutter to grab the ball, Pass,  and still get attacks on Dixon's Mist when Dixon conceded the game.

Huh, he conceded at the bottom of round 1. I was surprised but decided there was no reason to dig for an explanation, but it was better to fill out my sheet and start picking up. Dixon started to comment that he conceded because the win meant more to me than to him and he would spend the game over-frustrated and he did not want to ruin the game for me. Overall, I would have preferred to play out a full game against a highly skilled and competitive player but c'est la vie. 

That put me at a 12 to 0 win in my favor, leaving me in first place for the tournament as a whole.

Tournament 8

I've settled into a standard Tournament 8 selection for Captain Rage. I've discussed this before but I'll do another quick overview along with thoughts from this tournament. I'm struggling even now with comparing tournament strength of Capt. Rage and team vs Blackheart and team. The two teams use many of the same models, with the largest different being Gutter vs Rage or Fangtooth. I'm not using Fangtooth much in either line-up, which makes choosing a Tournament 9 for Championship events easier. (Blackheart, Capt. Rage, Coin, A&G, Gutter, Decimate, Mist, Hemlocke,  Minx) The trick will be which Captain I decide to bring to the Qualifiers.

Captain Rage

Veteran Captain Rage has settled into my Union choices in a fabulous way, causing a difficult choice between team captains for me. I find Capt. Rage to be less flexible in his team choices when aiming for maximum impact on the table. He almost requires Gutter, A&G, and Minx to operate at maximum efficiency, leaving only a single swap-able choice on the team. A Capt. Rage led team is going to handily win games by delivering 4 take-outs and 1 goal or push through to a grinding 6 take outs for the win.

Although he and his team focus on take-outs, this doesn't mean he doesn't have tricks. Two things really set Capt. Rage apart from regular rage. First is his loss of "Maverick", allowing him to now gain benefits from other players. This means that Minx, Avarisse, and Decimate can all help him out, increasing his threat and total damage output. Second is gaining the character play "Quick Time". This ability to dodge 2 inches during his activation opens up a lot of opportunities for him.

Unfortunately, I feel a Capt. Rage team loses the ability to switch to a goal-scoring centric build and still benefit. The loss in utility from dropping combat focused players to movement and kicking players hurts Capt. Rage more than it hurts Blackheart. Simply removing the threat of 4 additional Scything blows or Unmaskings is enough to make Capt. Rage less overall.

Coin

Coin continues to do what Coin does, and continues to be one of the arguably best mascots in the game. I have not tried proxying the Strongbox on the table yet, I've only read it's card. I cannot see a time when I would take Strongbox over Coin in either a Blackheart or a Cap. Rage led team. I'm still using Coin on turn 1 to fuel up Mist with Bag of Coffers, then he moves forward to assist later in the turn. I've begun to see opportunities to give the Bag of Coffers to Avarisse and to Minx with more regularity during mid and late game turns.

Gutter

Gutter is a staple in my Capt. Rage teams, and I cannot see this changing. The simple threat of 7-8 scything blows in a turn is enough to scare the majority of my opponents. This works well with my Shock & Awe tactics, especially if I can get off a good set of scything blows early in the game. I've done well with my opponent leaving enough models in a group that I can often find 2 or 3 models to jump on creating a SB threat.

A note is the effectiveness of Chain Grab vs other methods of moving models around. This is part of what makes her more effective in a Capt. Rage team vs a Blackheart team. Capt. Rage has easy access pushes combined with damage on his playbook. These are also momentous, meaning there is no reason not to choose the result. This means that between Capt. Rage and Avarisse, opponent models can effectively be moved into a Gutter Threat Grouping ("GTG") reliably. Blackheart does not have pushes on his playbook, forcing Gutter to rely on Avarisse and her Chain Grab to create a GTG.

Avarisse & Greede

I've recently written about my thoughts that A&G are becoming cornerstone "must take" players on competitive teams. The extra activation for a Capt. Rage team is very important to force the opponent to burn out their activation's and fix models in place before Capt. Rage moves in for attacks. In those instances when Avarisse has influence and lands singled out or knockdown on an opponent in range of Capt. Rage, this becomes even worse.

One key point of interest is the fact Rage tends to want to go first starting turn 2. The extra activation for those later turns becomes useful in pushing the opponent who should already be short on model activation's to bring returning players further onto the board or force unfavorable activation's.

This tournament uncovered one of the liabilities with bringing A&G to a tournament. Once a clocked out state has been reached, extra activation's are not useful but give up points to the opponent. Clocking out near the end of the turn after the bulk of your useful players have activated forces non-useful Greede activation's to still cycle prior to the start of the new turn.

Mist

Mist is still in my line-up and is a primary choice for me, but I'm finding I swap him out more often than not. He has become my swap for Hemlock when facing Hunters. I'm still unsure if I need hemlock vs Smoke led Alchemists or if I can keep Mist in the team instead. Overall, Mist plays the same role he always has playing for a 1st turn goal, looking to retrieve the ball, and looking to score as often as possible. I'm looking more at end of turn scores where possible to open up as much threat as possible for my opponents. It's helpful to keep my opponent worrying about a goal at the same time they are worried about Gutter or Capt. Rage taking out a player or two.

I tried kicking off with Mist for the first time during this tournament. I can see the benefit although I need to practice the play more. The aim (for those who are unaware) is to move Mist up the field into cover to kick, putting him into range of the opponents deployment line. This allows Mist to rush out during turn 1 and retrieve the ball, hopefully combined with generating momentum and taking a shot on goal as well. It's an aggressive play but I can see I'll be using it more once I've practiced it.

Minx

Early on I wanted to fit Minx into my Capt. Rage team but was struggling to find a place for her. After a number of games this has switched to I struggle to figure out when I should not take her. The trick is her Marked Target extending both Capt. Rage and Gutter's threat ranges. Most players look at Capt. Rage and consider his 7 inch sprint and 1 inch reach, measuring to stay out of an 8 inch threat range. Really good players add in his 2 inch "Quick Time" and calculate a 10 inch threat they need to worry about. Often times even very good player forget about or count on Minx failing a "Marked Target" play granting 2 additional inches of charge.

An additional nice to have benefit is Minx's free charge when Capt. Rage uses his legendary play. That free charge onto an already engaged target reliably delivers 11 dice statistically landing 5 hits for 4 damage and a double dodge away from the combat. Often I've had this spike to wrap 2 or 3 more hits, turning that 4 damage/double dodge into 7/double dodge, double momentum.

Hemlock

Hemlock has delivered some reliable plays for me in numerous games. She is a staple choice when I am facing Hunters, replacing Mist and becoming my striker and healer. She dropped a nicely placed Poison cloud in this tournament and has dished out Blind a couple times here and there. I struggle with her as a striker even though she has a momentous tackle on 1 success and a 3/6+ kick. More often than not I'm finding her not in position to make a kick or as my fail-safe backup if things are not going well.

I also struggle with the short range on her healing. Healing and condition removal is incredibly important when facing Hunters, Butchers, and Smoke led Alchemists. That said, I constantly forget that her range on the heal is only 4 inches. On the bright side, it is a 3 inch AOE of healing, which means that it's not too touch to get it onto 2 or 3 models at a time with how the team plays.

Decimate

I'm sad to say this, but Decimate is as big of a difference between my Blackheart and Capt. Rage led teams as Gutter. Decimate has not found her way into my Capt. Rage led teams recently. She brings some amazing abilities to the table but needs too much influence to make them work. Minx does better with 0 influence, and even Avarisse brings Greed when he is assigned 0 influence. I've considered adding Decimate into the line-up in place of Gutter when facing Midas, but I'm not sure that will be as good. I need to look at my other choices and see if I like something else better.

Season 2 Guild Plots

Several months ago near the beginning of the year I wrote an article talking about the Season 1 Guild Plots. I broke down each of the plots into categories, analyzed each one, shared my opinions on the best and not-best uses, then ranked them. Although it was not my most viewed Guild Ball post it was a fairly popular one.

Season 2 is not strongly underway and we have a new set of 12 Guild Plots to pick from. The new plot cards have shifted in a couple ways from Season 1 and the focus is different. They fulfill the same role, but with an arguably less and definitely different impact to the game. It's time to jump in and take a look at what we have and share my opinions on the best and worst to choose.

Season 2 Guild Plot Overview

I recommended that the Season 1 plot cards be added to the game once a new player has 3-4 games of experience and I continue to believe this is the best time to add them. Complicating the game for new players is not necessary or encouraged, and Guild Plots add both complexity and new tactical choices.

We see a design shift in the season 2 plot cards nearly removing two common aspects we saw in during Season 1. First is the dodging and extra movement we saw with cards such as "Don't Touch the Hair" and "Knee Slider".  We also see a near removal of the recovery style cards with the exception of "Husbandry", which is adjusted to return a Mascot but only at 1 health box. The Season 2 cards have shifted focus toward bonus's when played in response to opponent actions instead of on-table direct reactions such as movement or extra healing.

Another design decision was made to create cards with little or no way to counter what they do. Few of the Season 2 plot cards are triggered by actions that can be avoided in a successful game. There are also few (only 1) cards which can be countered by increased range models bring the target of the card. Overall there is very little that can be done in Season 2 to mitigate the use of a plot card.

The season 2 Guild Plots can be roughly split into three categories plus Husbandry:

• Momentum: Immediate Response, Get it Back, Home Crowd
• "Free" abilities: Too Flash, Steamroller, Nuts!, One Touch Football, Tracking Back
• Bonus: Give as Good as You Get!, Damage Sponge, Tap In
• Other: Husbandry

Of these there are only 2 plot cards which are truly "offensively" focuses and 2 which are "defensively" focused, using the categories from my original article.  It appears that the game designers wanted to reign in some of the direct impact the plot cards had on the game, making them less "active" overall and more of a lesser "buff" to the team holding the card.

Momentum Guild Plots

Immediate Response - Immediate Response is a universally good plot card, on that is among my default picks when I have the choice. This gives the player 2 momentum points in response to an opponent taking-out a friendly model or scoring a goal. The dual nature (take-outs and goals) of this card combined with gaining 2 momentum is very strong.

In the event this is not in your hand you should assume it's one that your opponent has chosen. That said, unlike the Season 1 plot cards, there is nothing you can do to counter this. Be aware that at some point your opponent could make a 2 MP jump in response to you earning VP and move on with your game. I do not recommend factoring this heavily into any plans aside from awareness.

Selection Priority: Tier 0 - always choose

Get It Back - This plot card requires your opponent successfully tackle the ball from one of your players, at which point you can gain a (1) momentum point. Due to the requirement of a successful tackle and the timing for counter-attacks, this plot card will not do as described and help you regain possession of the ball. It will give you a boost in your momentum pool for future actions during the turn. If your playing against a team with heavy tackle abilities such as Fishermen, Alchemists, team builds featuring Mist or Snakeskin, or footballing Masons or Brewers this is a good card to take. Considering there is no requirement for the Tackle to be a "playbook tackle", this card works vs "Balls Gone" and similar character plays.

This is another card where the only response is awareness. It should not influence your plans for tackling the ball from your opponent, and will not directly respond to that Tackle. 

Selection Priority: Tier 2 - I often choose this card when its available

Home Crowd - Home Crowd is a must take card when it shows up as a choice in your Guild Plot selection. This card grants the player who loses initiative 1 momentum point at the end of the Maintenance Phase. One key consideration is that this is granted upon losing an initiative roll, so cannot be used on the first turn when losing the kick-off roll. Aside from turn 1, this changes the dynamics of losing the initiative roll by granting an immediate counter-attack opportunity or an early turn goal-threat without the need to generate the momentum elsewhere.

Sticking with the theme of the Season 2 plot cards, there is nothing you can do to counter this. You should assume that if it was not in your selection then your opponent has chosen this card. Keep a watch for oddly placed goal-threat models holding the ball at the start of a turn. A goal-threat holding the ball without a direct path to generate momentum then score is typically a sign that you're opponent is waiting to play this card. Aside from that, be aware that getting initiative during a turn may not make you immune to counter-attacks for an activation, possibly shifting your plans for the first activation.

Selection Priority: Tier 0 - always choose

"Free Abilities" Guild Plots

Too Flash - This is a plot card that you will choose more often based on the skill of your opponent. Too Flash becomes incredibly powerful in the event your opponent uses Teamwork momentous actions, and less so if your opponent doesn't. Teamwork actions are "Give 'n' Go", "Pass 'n' Move", and "Snap Shot". On "Give 'n' Go" and "Pass 'n' Move", the model that makes the dodge will be the model receiving the Too Flash token. On "Snap Shot" it will be the model making the shot on goal. Once the "Too Flash" token is on a player it can be used by other friendly models to reduce a Charge by 2 influence, making it cost (0). This means that Fear and other abilities that increase the cost of Charges will still do so.  This "free" charge can be very powerful regardless of the type of team (Goal scoring or Take Out) your playing.

Be aware that Too Flash could be in your opponents hand if it was not one of your choices. Using the Teamwork action on a model with "Unpredictable Movement" or a high defense is typically the best choice in countering this card. Be aware of your opponent holding onto a card if you're not using many teamwork actions, that's a sure sign they chose this plot and are waiting for the best target to put it onto.

The section priority for this plot is going to be completely dependent on your opponents skill level in the game. The greater the skill of your opponent the more often they will use teamwork plays to position their players. Don't jump at the first opportunity to use this plot card, instead carefully target the players you will benefit the most from having a free charge against.

Selection Priority: Tier 1 - when playing a more experienced player or in a tournament
                               Tier 3 - when playing a less experience player

Steamroller-  This plot grants a single use of "Anatomical Precision" or "Forceful Blow" to a charging model after the charge is declared. These abilities are both strong on any model that's charging. "Anatomical Precision" will remove 1 armor during the attack, increasing the number of hits when you're typically rolling the greatest number of dice. "Forceful Blow" will add an additional 2 points of damage to a charge attack (when damage is already dealt) along with pushing the target up to 2 inches directly away. Both of these abilities are very strong and being able to choose between the two on declaring the charge is ideal. It's particularly useful to remember this when charging with a 2-inch reach model, as a 1-inch reach target can be pushed out of their range, stopping the counterattack.  

Selection Priority: Tier 1 - one of the best plot cards to choose regardless of play style

Nuts! - This plot card is triggered by an enemy model declaring a parting blow, and grants the friendly model targeted Close Control for the remainder of the turn.I'm not often finding a large use for this card, although it appears on first read to be an amazing choice. In one situation where a model is holding the ball and has activated to move toward a pass or goal, "Close Control" is a fantastic ability. The challenge here is that these models will typically have some type of dodge or other ability to disengage from combat without suffering the parting blow in the first place. They are also typically models that are lower in health and do not want to suffer damage in lieu of just dodging out of combat. Another situation where this card may be amazing is a model that does not have the ball but you want to hold the ball later in the turn. In this case they will disengage and suffer the parting blow during their activation, play this card, then sit in an ideal place to hold the ball for the rest of the turn. Later in the turn another model will pass the ball to this model to park it there. The problem with this plan is the set-up involved and the limited time (until the end of the turn) that "Close Control" will be in effect.

Selection Priority: Tier 3 - Ok to play around with, possibly good with a specific plan.

One Touch Football -  This is a really good plot card on any team with at least 2 good ball-passing models included in the line-up. This plot card allows for a ball carrier to pass the ball to a model, play this card, and generate an immediate free pass to move the ball again. The trick is that the receiving model cannot use a Teamwork action such as "Pass 'n' Move" or "Snap Shot". However, this does not stop the kicking model from using "Give 'n' Go" to dodge 4 inches after the kick, nor the second receiving model from using "Pass 'n' Move" or "Snap Shot". There are so many uses to this plot it would make a great short article on it's own.

Selection Priority: Tier 2 - really good card when you have at least 2 reliable kicking models

Tracking Back -  This plot card grants "Goal Defense" for the remainder of the turn to a friendly model who ends their movement within 4 inches of the friendly goal. The prevalence of Avarisse & Greede being played at tournaments creates numerous opportunities to use this card. The real question becomes if it's better than any of the higher ranked cards available. It's a good card to take against goal-scoring teams such as Fishermen, Alchemists, and certain Masons Builds. It's particularly effective when facing a goal-scoring focused Morticians team, considering their limited kick dice.

Selection Priority: Tier 2 - better when facing a goal-scoring team

Bonus Guild Plots

Give as Good as You Get - On declaring a counter-attack you can play this plot card to add +2 to your TAC for the duration of that attack. This gives a nice boost to your counter-attacking model as long as you're able to complete the counter-attack. The key is to think about how often your actually declaring a counter-attack and successfully delivering on that declaration. How often are your opponents knocking you down (lots when facing Butchers) or dodging away (Fishermen, Hunters, Alchemists) from the attack. This card is more powerful the less often your opponent actively tries to mitigate the opportunities for counter-attacks.

Selection Priority: Tier 3 - good card but very dependent on the skill of your opponent.

Damage Sponge -  This plot cards allows you to add +1 Def when an enemy declares an attack against one of your friendly models. This does not work when targeted by a charge (the opponent declared a charge, not an attack), or a Parting Blow (same theory, declared a parting blow), or a Counter Attack. There are very few games when your opponent will not be attacking you at some point, and that makes this a top tier card choice.

Selection Priority: Tier 1 - almost always choose

Tap In - Tap In is a great plot card which is useful for every team and almost always a good choice. Tap In suffers from comparison to other cards and while an excellent card on its own, it often is just not as strong as others. It's going to add a bonus (-1 TN on goal shot) when you're close to the opponents goal, but the question becomes is that a better choice than other cards. This would have been a stronger rated card in Season 1, but in the Season 2 selection it's fairly average overall.

Selection Priority: Tier 2 - Good card, but situational and tough against the competition of other good Season 2 cards.

Other Guild Plot

Husbandry - This plot card was one that stuck out to me as an amazing card when I first looked at the Season 2 plot cards. I played it in my first couple games and each game I became less enamored with it. Overall it's the only card that is just not great in the season 2 plot cards. This plot card allows you to bring back a Mascot to the game after they've been taken out. This is amazing, until you dig into the remaining conditions. The Mascot returns to play on 1 Health and still awards victory points for a subsequent take-out. This card requires the immediate use of an activation and 1 or 2 momentum to heal up the mascot in order to not immediately award additional easy VP to your opponent. Some Mascots are very good in the game, but rarely are they useful enough to bring back with Husbandry. Had this brought back a Mascot at half health or even 4 health it would have been an amazing card, and a much higher priority and harder choice.

Selection Priority: Tier 4 - no matter what your plan is (i.e. loved creature) it's not worth it

Final Standings

There's my thoughts on the Season 2 plot cards. As before, my ratings start at Tier 0 rating for an always choose to a Tier 4 rating, with the lower rating being more desirable. As a quick summary, here is how the ratings came out:

• Tier 0 - Immediate Response, Home Crowd
• Tier 1 - Too Flash*, Steamroller, Damage Sponge
• Tier 2 - Get it Back, Tracking Back, One Touch Football, Tap In
• Tier 3 - Too Flash*, Nuts!, Give as Good as You Get,    
• Tier 4 - Husbandry

We see a more balanced distribution of cards, and the 2 Must Take Tier 0 cards are not as game disrupting as "Don't Touch the Hair" is.