Since everyone else is doing it. Playing the Guild, or Fighting as the law

[Iron Skies]

Onto the totems now.
I only actually own the mechanical attendant and drill sergeant so the rest is all theory.

Enslaved NephilimT
Pros : High movement, mask built in for obey, black blood if you want to get rid of it.
Cons : Low wounds as with all the other totems, only one real use - obey train

Govenors ProxyT
Pros : Boosts willpower to friendly Guild models, high WP
Cons : Kills your own models if they fail a morale duel. Low walk.

Purifying FlameT
Pros : boosted defence against ranged attacks, High charge
Cons : Kills itself when doing any ranged damage, no real use other than to die.

Scales of JusticeT
Pros : Can boost the next flips of friendly models. Can swap cards in hand
Cons : Low walk, low DF, low cast, has to discard a card before drawing one

Drill Sergeant
Pros : Boosts nearby guardsmen, high WP, can end paralysed and slow on models.
Cons : Low DF, low casting value, fairly static model for it's purpose.
So far only been used once, stayed with some austringers to boost their attack flips.

Mechanical Attendant
Pros : Only significant Guild totem, armour 1 and 5 wounds, expands the maintain machines bubble, ranged weapon that can be machine puppeted, can gain scrap counters from sacrificed constructs.
Cons : Takes wounds when gaining scrap from sacrificed models, target for those that know it's usefulness.
Used in nearly every game with the Hoff, can't say I have actually got any real complaints with it. IMHO the best totem of the lot

Luna T
Pros : Doesn't have insignificant on it's printing. Counts as a guild hound for the purposes of talents and spells (Think Guild kennels does fall under this) Crit on the bite.
Cons : Not elusive/evasive. Still a guild hound at the end of the day. Few spells to cast


---------- Post added 03-03-2012 at 01:06 AM ---------- Previous post was 03-02-2012 at 11:37 PM ----------

On to the avatars, have proxied all of them apart from lady J's. Not that many games with them still though so take this with a pinch of salt.

Hoffman
Pros : Both weapons paired, can alter his purpose when he activates. Heals when he kills a construct in melee, can make living models constructs, gains actions when killing constructs, gains immune to influence, cheeky paralyse trigger. Ability to make a whirlwind of death for an all action.
Cons : low DF, loses synergy with crew. High walk but no charge, only one spell will be used and then only when low on wounds.
When to manifest : late game turn 5/6, especially if your main damage dealer has been killed
Manifest requirements :Easy, Hoffman players will generally do one if not both requirements during a game.

JusticeT
Pros: can boost allies attacks or defence, keeps alot of her melee skill but loses an active charge. Can draw back up to full control hand, spells for each suit
Cons : needs a certain crew build to be used effectively, zero action charge though may be fighting with other zero actions depending on the situation.
When to manifest : Early middle game turn 2/3 if possible to get the most out of crew boosts.
Manifest requirements : No comment here, not sure if they are easy or not.

Perdita
Pros : paired pistols, gains flight and 3 wounds, can discard and redraw cards, terrifying. Can gain soulstones from kills.
Cons : loses gunfighter and only gains it back from charging attack trigger. Turns into a support model (not particularly bad)
When to manifest : Mid game, turn 3/4.
Manifest requirements : If the cards are with you fairly easy to get at least one requirement by turn 2 otherwise hero's gamble.

Sonnia
Pros : Flight, magical area damage, can move pyre markers around, high cast value, strong melee attack but low cb, keeps counter spell but damage will only happen once against a good opponent if that.
Cons : Still only walk 4, low DF against ranged attacks, opponents that know what she can do will avoid/kill ASAP
When to manifest : Mid game turn 3/4.
Manifest requirements : One of the easiest though easy to focus on too much and forget objectives.

One to add in, left the effigy till last deliberately.

Brutal EffigyT
Pros : Object, melee expert, adds a healing spell as a zero action, height 1.
Cons : Needs a 9 of any suit to cast the spell, low wounds for a 4 stone model
Not got that much of an impression on the Brutal yet apart from adds healing to a guild crew and a model to replace a totem if manifesting.

[nilus]

Something to consider

Enslaved Nephlim. Not terrible in melee combat. Can act as a pseudo melee bodyguard for models like Nino.

Scale of Justice. Can leave it with a group of Austringer behind cover and have it cast LJs see the unseen aura, which means they birds can get around of a lot of WP based targeting protection

[Iron Skies]

Hopefully the last big post for now

Faction strengths and weaknesses.

STRENGTHS!

First thing anyone will notice about the Guild, we got guns. We got lots of guns. With access to some of the longest ranged shooting in the game the Guild have an advantage in being able to reach out and touch models up to 18" away reliably.
Fairly straightforwards to get to grips with, the Guild seem to be the most newbie friendly to get into as individually each model is fairly simple though at more advanced levels the interactions get better and better.
Strong 4 point minions. The Guild has access to possibly the best 4 point minions in the game, while not overly amazing on their own with in built critical strike they do alot of damage.
Barring Hoffman all of the Guild masters are easy to get to grips with quickly, though reward repeated playing to find out just what they can do.
Able to take an all construct crew.
We have Batman (Lucius)

Weaknesses(Shh, don't tell anyone)
Low walk for most minions - The Guild models normally only have a walk of 4 so for objective based games they have to start moving straight away.
Low DF - Again, mostly 4 for the majority of models.
With high shooting and low melee ranges Guild models normally cannot block other models into Melee (there are exceptions however they are between 7-9 SS for a model that can do that effectively)
As soon as Guild crews start taking casualties their effectiveness drops significantly

[Iron Skies]

Something to consider

Enslaved Nephlim. Not terrible in melee combat. Can act as a pseudo melee bodyguard for models like Nino.

Scale of Justice. Can leave it with a group of Austringer behind cover and have it cast LJs see the unseen aura, which means they birds can get around of a lot of WP based targeting protection

Looking into getting Lady J at some point soon after I have had a few games with Perdita, so thanks for the sneaky tip!

[Guardian]

We have Batman (Lucius)

Can you elaborate? :D

[Iron Skies]

Can you elaborate? :D

Indeed! Batman err Lucius has a bit of everything going for him. High walk for a Guild model lets him get where he needs to be to support his crew. And if he is cought in Melee his CB is not to be sniffed at, especially with being able to use soulstones. Facing spirits? His hidden sniper is a spell which means it's magical damage (If we have been playing that wrong don't hesitate to say otherwise)
When near friendly Guardsmen or Elite division his DF gets a boost and is incredably difficult to kill with Slow to Die.

Basically a little bit of everything, just like the Bat

[Iron Skies]

Food for thought here, Peacekeeper or two Wardens with the Hoff?

Discuss

[Iron Skies]

Update for tonight played a friendly practice game against one of our club members Nat Sibley (can't remember if he is on the boards)
Guild vs Neverborn.

I had :
Hoffman, Ryle, Peacekeeper, Guardian, Francesco, Watcher and had paid two stones for AHoffman

Nat had :
Lilith, Lelu, Lilitu, Two Waldgeists, Cherub, Desperate merc, Terror tot and had taken ALilith as well

We went for individual strategies with me flipping Destroy The Evidence and Nat flipping Claim Jump.
For schemes I took and announced Breakthrough and Kill protege on Lelu
Nat had Hold Out announced and Kidnap which was not announced.

The board we were playing on had four buildings with a few woods scattered around the place.
The game started with Nat moving the forests around while I advanced everything in the Hoffman blob-star down the left hand side towards my evidence markers. Nat had chosen the other side of the board for his claim jump but moved to block me from getting to the evidence. During the second turn with high cards in my hand I let Lilitu lure Francesco onto one of the evidence markers before activating him and claiming the marker (high cards used to stop the follow up lures) Nat kept on moving the forests to stop Ryle from getting a clean shot at anyone though still managed to do 8 wounds to Lelu when he opened fire at last.
Francesco and Ryle were both killed by Lilith over two turns in contact with forests made by illusionary woods giving Nat both his requirements.
During this time Hoffman and the Peacekeeper got my two remaining markers before moving to make a run at Lelu in turn 4, killing them. Nat manifested Lilith in turn 4 as well doing slight damage to the Guardian which was healed up before turning to make for a run on the peacekeeper.
Turn 5 saw the Hoff manifest for me and back away with survival to prevent Nat from getting hold out while my Watcher made for te claim jump marker. By this point there was only Lilith and two Waldgeists left. One went for the claim jump marker while the other went to go get the Hoff but was stalled by the Guardian, Lilith meanwhile was stalled by the Peacekeeper needing all of her actions to kill it.
Turn 6 saw my watcher on Nats objective with Lilith then charging the Hoff. Thanks to some conservative play on my part he took no damage and caused Lilith to waste her actions. Hoff struck back but failed to Kill Lilith as the Guardian moved to block the second Waldgeist just in case however the game ended on turn 6 leaving it a 6 - 2 win for me.

Nat made the game as hard as he could for me to get to my objectives though in doing so lost sight of his own objectives. While I did not once get the initiative this proved to be a boon to me especially in the closing stages when I was no longer outnumbered.

[dunce002917]

Awesome battle report.

I'll get my first impressions of the Hoff on saturday. a small 15 ss game where me and my buddies learn the rules.

[Iron Skies]

I'd say keep it simple on your first few games. Where abouts are you located? Might be able to poke your local henchman into running a few demo's etc