In some wired Doctor Who theme this week’s update actually starts before last week’s update was posted with the Vengeance 2016 Guild Ball event. As I’ve been going on about it for the last few weeks I’m sure you are all aware of it but as quick re-cap it was a 120 person event organised by Guild Ball Informer. To say that I was nervous would be a bit understatement but it turned out to be a really good event. If you were following along on twitter last week you already know how well things went for me, but for those who don’t know it went something like this. Game 1 lost 4 – 12 to the Morticians; game 2 lost 6 – 12 to the Morticians, game 3 lost 10 – 12 to the Union (that was my game against Al). Then the final game of the day was, you guessed it, lost 2 -12 to the Morticians. Despite all those losses it was still a really enjoyable day, but it did leave me feeling like I was on for the wooden spoon. One of the things the organisers had done that I really like is that the standings and the next game details were available on-line via ‘tiebreak’ so no messing around trying to view a piece of paper to tell you where your next game was. The only thing was this meant that I knew on Saturday night that my first game on Sunday was going to be against the Morticians, who were rapidly becoming my bogy team.
So Sunday morning and I was expecting another kicking. Sunday’s games went like this. Game 5 won 10 – 0 against the Morticians, game 6 and normal service resumes, lost 12 – 2 against the Union, Game 7 won 12 – 0 against the Hunters. So overall I ended up with 2 wins and 5 defeats, which placed me 107th out of 120. Not a great position but I did really enjoy the whole experience and would do it all again. Al who I went with finished 88th which was a good showing.
I didn’t get as many pictures as I would like because I was so caught up in actually enjoying the event. But I did manage to a few pictures so you can get a feel for the event.
One thing I normally find after a big event like this is that I tend to feel all gamed out and don’t want to play or paint for a while. But not this time I left feeling up for another game straight away. Unfortunately I missed game night this week but me and Al have a game lined up for next week and I’m going to have another team to face him.
This leads me nicely onto my hobby time for this week. When I first saw Guild Ball it was the Alarmists that really drew me into the game. But by all accounts they are difficult team to come to grips with, so for ease of use I went with Butchers to start with. But now I have a few games under my belt I want to give the Alchemists a try. I already have the season one models painted but they have received three models as part of season 2, one more than most teams because they were a bit short in the original line up. So I’ve spent the week painting more Alchemists.
First up we have ‘King Midas’ the team captain. The model I have in my line up at the moment is the Kick Starter version so I decided to pick up the normal version to round things out, and because I think this is a really dynamic sculpt. In game terms there is no difference between the models I just like having the option to use them both.
Next up we have ‘Smoke, The Breakthrough’ who is the season 2 captain who can replace ‘Midas’ although I’m not sure he will be happy about that. One of the things Steam Forged games have tried to with season 2 is to allow you to change the whole feel of your team by simply swapping out the Captain. It’s I nice touch to vary game play. Now I don’t really know how to use Midas yet so I can’t say what ‘Smoke’ changes, but she is a really nice model which is really why I picked her up.
Continuing the season 2 theme we have ‘Venin, The Rebel’. Something of nasty character in the story but I’m not sure how he will work in game terms. He has a really nice ability to dish out both the ‘poison’ and ‘bleed’ conditions to any model within 3” which could prove very nice. Painting wise I’m not doing anything different with him, sticking to the green, brown and white scheme I’ve used on my other Alchemists.
And finally we have ‘Compound, The Rat Catcher’ who is the goal keeper for the Alchemists. This is a really nice model with lots of opportunity to try and do some smooth, or as smooth as I can do, blends on the apron and skin. The canisters on his back are supposed to be filled with chemicals so I’ll need to be a bit creative with these when I get to them.
So as you can see I’ve had something of a Guild Ball surge this week. I’ve not forgotten the other Guild Ball minis that I’ve started and I’ve definitely not forgotten my Wild West Exodus Confederates. I simply had the bug to get these Alchemists finished so I went for it while the mojo was with me. The plan, with not pressure, is to get them finished to game night on Tuesday so that Al’s union can have a different team to beat down on.
That’s it for this week. Have a good week whatever you may be doing and I’ll see you all again next week.
