Last night I headed down south to South Bend, IN for an introductory 3vs3 game of Guild Ball at Fantasy Games. Of the three gaming stores I have visited so far, this one has the most gaming space and selection of models that I am interested. On the plus side they also offer a customer rewards program so you can buy from them instead of an online site. I am always an impulse buyer and want my toy now.As of late, Guild Ball has kind of died down at this store, but hopefully I can resurrect some of that so I can keep getting more practice games. I had a brief 15 minute tutorial at LVO, but last night was my first time to get an actual game in after I read the rulebook.
I wanted to use last nights 3vs3 more as a learning eperience and try everything that I can so I know how all the mechanics work rather than being tactical and trying to win the game.
I was playing my Engineer's starter box with Ballista as my Captain, Salvo at Wiinger, and Velocity as my Striker. I was up against a team of Butcher's lead by Ox (and I do not recall what his other two models were).
Like I just mentioned above, for me it was more about the mechanics of the game. I wanted to test Attacking, Charging, Kicking, Passing, Scoring, Character Plays and Legendary Play and I was able to accomplish all that. Salvo even took some Poison so I could see how Conditions work.
The one part of the game that was throwing me off was, "I activate one model, then you activate one model". I kept on thinking Warmachine/Hordes in my head where I get to activate my Team, then the other player activates their Team. So some of the plays I was trying to come up with in my head may not work, since your opponent has a chance to counter before you activate your next player. Their are some Team Work plays in the rule book that may help me accomplish some of these plays that I am trying to come up with.
I am really glad that I decided to go with the Engineer's since they are a pretty decent scoring team (and do not easily get Taken Out either), My Striker Velocity ended up scoring both goals for me and winning the game 8-0.
Her first goal she sprinted towards a loose ball on my right side and continued her sprint towards the goal and just getting within her 8" range to kick. With 4 dice to her Kick she easily made the long shot for the goal.
Her second goal was pretty sweet..... Ballista had the ball just passed midfield and was engaged by a Butcher. Velocity was about 9" away diagonally near the goal. Ballista used his Legendary Play to increase the range of his kick (pass) from 6" to 10" and successfully made the pass. At that point I could have used the Team Work play Snap Shot but that costs 2 MP and the only player left on the Butchers to activate was Ox and he was Knocked-Down (and could only stand up). Once it was Velocities activation she moved towards the goal and did a Tap In kick (within 4" of the goal -1 TN). With 4 dice and now only needing 3+ she scored the game winning goal.
Now I know my opponent probably could have really beaten me bad if he really tried (but it has been awhile since he last played and was also refreshing on the rules), but it felt really good to get a win in.
I am not one who plays with unpainted minis that often, so I need to get the rest of my Team assembled and get these guys on the painting table.
I was able to squeeze in one more model for the month of February. When my son and I first got into Bolt Action three years ago, he always wanted a 76MM Sherman for his United States Army. We took most of 2015 and 2016 off from Bolt Action and we both recently got back into the game.
Last night I headed out east again to Kalamazoo to meet TJ at Odyssey Games for another game of Hordes. I met TJ the previous day on Sunday, but we did not get a game in so we schedule one for Monday night. Even though the store is 41 miles away, it only takes me about 40 minutes to get to since it is all interstate driving for me. I am just going to have to watch my number of miles driven on my new leased car. We were planning on getting a game at his house, but a last minute change we decided on the store. TJ wanted to place an order for his Trollbloods. While I was there, I also picked up some tokens for Fire damage and such (since on Sunday I realized I had no Fire tokens).
Since nothing was actually completed this past weekend, I thought I'd do a recap of the progress for the some of the projects I am working on. 
This week I continued working on my Brtish Army. For now I will have 4 Units of Infantry Sections, with one of them being completed last week and now the second one being completed last night.
Since the release of MKIII, more and more Minion players are playing with the Solo 'Lanyss Ryssyl'. I am not always up to date with the latest 'metas' of the game, but I believe it has to do with her 'Hunter's Mark', allowing friendly models to Charge or make Slam Power Attacks without being Forced or spending Focus on the target she 'marked', plus they also gain +2" Movement.
After I finished painting up my Blackhide Wrastler model for Hordes the other night, I had a little time to spare before the weekend arrived when I will start to work on my son's US 76mm Sherman Tank.
Back in late 2015 I painted the original sculpt for 
I finally got some models completed this month after having last weekend off attending the Las Vegas Open. Just before leaving to the LVO, my additional sprues from Warlord Games finally arrived so I could finish modeling my Infantry Sections.
As I mentioned the other day in my recap of the Las Vegas Open, I decided to get into the game of Guild Ball. I was looking for a "beer & pretzel" third game for me. Bolt Action is my favorite game to play for the ease of the rules and the history of WW2. Warmachine/Hordes, well I have a lot of models for this game, and honestly I do love the sculpts from Privateer Press, especially with the Hordes models (though I prefer the gameplay of Warmachine). Plus with WM/H, there seems to be more gaming in my area for this game. So Guild Ball will be used to fill in any time in between. This past summer there seemed to be a pretty decent local group that played the game, I am just hoping that the game is still going. Otherwise the state itself has a good Guild Ball turnout.
