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Review of Guild Ball Season III: Butcher's Guild
Blurb from the publisher: The Bloody Master
'You're just meat to them. Weak, tender, soft meat. And they're the Butchers.' - Greyscales, Fishermen's Guild
Tougher than gristle, Ox sees Guild Ball as nothing but brutal bloodsport. More merciless maniac than athlete, the master butcher has transformed the pitch into a kitchen nightmare - cleavers, knives, hooks, you name it, his team wields it. Why the cutlery? Because to this deranged butcher, everyone, even his teammates, is a succulent meetbag, crying out for pain.
His team's playstyle is simple: get to the opposing team and shred flesh until there's nothing left. With a ruthless and unforgiving captain, it's not surprise their bread and butter is mid- to late game, after they've broken the minds and bodies of their opponents. Coaches eager to skewer and maim will delight in the savage brutality of these Butchers.
Cleave your way to winner's circle one opponent at a time, The Bloody Master set includes a ball, six player cards, and six players: Ox, Princess, Brisket, Boiler, Boar, and Shank.
The Scarlet Circle
'I remember once we celebrated to see the Master Butcher dethroned, and absent from the pitch. How wrong we were. What came next is even worse.' Obulus, - Mortician's Guild
Inheritor of the Master Butcher's throne, Fillet is one of the deadliest individuals throughout the Empire. A peerless duellist, she delights in playing with her opponents; dancing around them as she cuts bloody strips out of their exposed skin before bleeding them dry when she grows bored.
Like any Butcher team, Fillet's side will punish their opponents mercilessly - but more frightening still is the command they hold over the pitch. Defensive players dominate the opposition, dragging the enemy around ruthlessly before the more aggressive players utilize unexpected bursts of speed. This team will allow coaches to really take their fight to their opponents.
The bloody dance of death, this set includes a ball, six player cards, bases, and six players: Fillet, Truffles, Meathook, Veteran Brisket, Tenderiser, and Veteran Ox.'
What you get: The present review is a combo review of The Butcher's Guild, one of the thirteen Guilds currently available for Guild Ball Season III. The marketing model of Steamforged Games has moved from selling single miniatures to selling only two miniature sets per Guild. The contents of each set can be used autonomously, or they can be combined in any legal way according to the rules of Season III.
In contrast to The Farmer's Guild and The Blacksmith's Guild whose sets include fully assembled miniatures, the goalposts, and a terrain piece in plastic, the Butchers only contain metal miniatures and the ball, in different stages of assembly. To have the whole Guild at your disposal as it stands at Season III, you need to invest in the following three items:
- The Butcher's Guild: The Bloody Master (EUR 65). It contains 6 metal miniatures, 6 bases, 6 cards, and one ball token.
- The Butcher's Guild: The Scarlet Circle (EUR 65). ). It contains 6 metal miniatures, 6 bases, 6 cards, and one ball token.
- The Butcher's Guild: Dice Pack (EUR 15). It contains ten six-sided dice with gold pips on a red/purple background. The emblem of the Butchers is proudly displayed instead of number six.
The items are sold separately. There are no prerequisites, i.e. you don't need to buy one in order to buy another.
Additional items also exist in the line, like dedicated plastic tokens, a Butcher's Guild exclusive play mat, or guild patches for your garments. These items are not covered by the present review.
In the interest of full disclosure, I haven't finished treating all the miniatures (something that would have stalled the review quite a bit), but up to now the material behaved very well to my clumsy cleaning, cutting, priming, partial gluing and partial painting (with all the intermediary steps). The most observant of you might remember that this is the same approach I took on my previous reviews when it comes to miniatures.
Taking into account that the sculpts, and many of the plays of the Butchers, remain unchanged since Season I, the present review holds many similarities to the review from two years back.
Contents: The Guild sets do not include additional rules, except from the list of Union players that can legally play for the Guild at hand. I will thus take a look at what a Guild does holistically with the miniatures that form its ranks.
The Butchers have been around since Season I. In Season III they remain true to their guiding principles, even though their stats have been adjusted here and there for balance reasons. The existing footballers reappear on their initial sculpts; only the new footballers come in designs never seen before. They will hurt their opponents first and foremost. Their tactics revolve around violence, around getting a better placement to attack or defend against attacks. This does not mean however that they can't play football.
The Bloody Master set includes Boiler, Shank, Ox, Boar, Brisket, and Princess.
Boiler looks small and puny, with geeky steampunk glasses, yet he carries more knives than a late night telemarketing commercial. His attacks always reduce his opponents' ARM while causing bleeding. He appears to have a special affinity to Princess himself, seeing how models engaged by her are taking more damage when he attacks them. His Swift Stance play provides +1 DEF to a friendly unit, while with Marked Target he allows his teammates to attack farther away.
Ox is the captain of the Butchers in this set. A grumpy man with a beard and a deadly eye, he is waiting for his opponents with his arms crossed, a huge ax hanging from his belt and with Influence oozing through his very existence. His teammates cause more damage when fighting near him, with his plays allowing him to toughen up a model close to him when receiving damage, reduce the ARM of enemy units and add even more damage against enemies. He has a Legendary play, 'Get 'em Lads!', which adds even more damage to plays that cause damage.
Boar is an enormous brute, even bigger and meaner than the no-nonsense Ox. He fights half-naked and sports a horseshoe moustache on his permanently angry face. If he hits when attacking, he may attack again without using any Influence. He may also charge without using Influence. Even worse, he regenerates when he damages successful models. His Concussion play forces an opponent to lose Influence. He no longer however has the Hamstring play that he had back in Season I; that was probably too much.
The red-haired Brisket is one of the cutest, as well as one of the most recognizable figures in the world of Guild Ball. She has the looks of the girl next door: voluptuous curves, a pretty, round face and girly ponytails. She dodges far more easily than one could imagine, and defends better when guys attack her (I wonder why). Her plays include Super Shot and Dirty Knives, the former giving her a plus in kicking while the second allowing her to hit her opponents more easily, while poisoning them in the process. However, her TAC no longer increases when fighting near Princess, her favourite dog, as she did in Season I.
Princess, the unfriendly bulldog with the spiked collar, is the team's mascot. Her Blood play causes opponents to bleed, while she can also make them lose MOV and get poisoned. Never mind that she is rabid and ugly and hostile however. Her teammates become furious when she suffers damage, and gain TAC as a result. This last trait is altered in relation to Season I, where Princess had to be taken out for her teammates to gain substantially bigger bonuses.
Shank is the only guy that cares about hygiene regulations and wears a butcher's cap. That is not however the most interesting thing on him; the cleavers attached to long chains and which end up on meathooks are more likely to make an impression. Along with Boar he is not armoured at all, but makes up for it with his enormous dodge play and his DEF reduction and DMG increase when fighting. Gaining extra MOV when charging damaged models is just the cherry in the (meat) pie. Shank has been slightly nerfed INF-wise from Season I. He now sports a 2/3 INF instead of his initial 2/4.
The Scarlet Circle set includes Fillet, Meathook, Tenderiser, Truffles, Veteran Brisket, and Veteran Ox.
Fillet is this set's Captain, having made her appearance in Season II already. She is caught in a running pose, wielding two dangerous-looking machetes. As expected, swords cause damage and bleeding, a lot of bleeding, through numerous plays. She makes her teammates faster, and behaves like a shark herself when attacking already-bleeding models. The more her enemies bleed, the more she regenerates.
Meathook is the blonde, sporty, muscular girl of the team. Her hair is gorgeously braided in a pattern that reaches up to her knees. She holds a meat hook in each hand and carries a set of pliers, all while wearing a full-body apron that has come out of an old-style Frankenstein movie. She literally smells blood, gaining MOV and causing more DMG when charging bleeding opponents. Like Boiler, she makes opponents bleed when hit, while with her plays she can cause damage to all models in her melee zone, as well as add extra damage when her teammates cause some due to their plays. Her Heroic Play makes opponents close to her lose MOV. Her stats have seen quite a few balancing changes, with a plus here, a minus there, and an overall streamlining of her abilities.
Tenderiser is another Guild member who joined on Season II. He is sculpted in what I consider to be the most interesting pose in the whole game. The only thing touching the ground is his enormous tenderizing tool; the rest of his body in the air as he puts all his weight behind the impact for maximum effect. He has an extremely powerful kick that cannot be intercepted, while he can push models away in a 2'' radius. He is a very good defender: not only he gains a Charge against nearby opponents when he is near his own post, he also makes it harder for opposing models to shoot.
Truffles is a fat, disgusting, carnivorous pig... literally. He jogs away when he takes damage, yet he needs to pay less INF when charging humans; apparently he doesn't like them. He has a tough hide and ignores 1 DMG on every hit. Being sturdy allows him to ignore the first knocked-down condition.
The timeline of the world of Guild Ball has progressed; this set provides us with Veteran Brisket. She is no longer the coy little girl that everybody would like. She is a star, a killer in her own right. Her stats are improved, while only her Unpredictable Movement Trait remains consistent. She enjoys the spotlight, gaining INF for the remainder of the game every time she scores a goal. She plays better near the edge of the pitch, paying less for her charges. Play-wise, she distributes Dodges to her teammates left and right, more importantly however, she can stylishly steal the ball and immediately pass it to a teammate.
Veteran Ox is the final miniature in this set. He is no longer a captain, something that has turned him into a murderous maniac. His INF has dropped, while everything in his traits and plays has been refreshed. He is vindictive towards men, and gains a bonus to damage every time he takes a model out. The more enemies surround him the better; he actually recovers HP when enemies are within his melee zone. Even worse, when enemies damage him, they get damaged themselves.
The strong points: The metal miniatures are gorgeous, both the ones already seen in Season I as well the new ones that I encounter in Season III for the first time. As I had written in the Season I review, '[y]ou would have kissed Brisket were she in front of you, and you would have run away from the raging charge of Boar.' In The Scarlet Circle however Brisket's veteran iteration remains fixed and ponders upon the meaning of (her opponents') life. I never thought I would have enjoyed that much the mostly round sculpt of a growling hog like Truffles (Truffles?!), yet admittedly he is very cool. I can't wait to finish him with a Hello Kitty colour scheme, or something that is as distanced as possible from the angry hog that he really is.
Gamewise, the Butchers' style has not changed. Their game is about carnage, about buffing one another and inflicting the most damage possible. Those who liked the Season I plays, which are classic by now, are more likely to use the Bloody Master set. Those who want to shake things up, and see the blood flowing from the table, are more likely to use Fillet as the captain and Veteran Ox from The Scarlet Choice set. The amount of bleeding that takes place in games with those two in is ridiculous, especially when accompanied by footballers like Meathook; you might want to have read paint around and water the gaming pitch. The synergies one can achieve from formations are very high, especially when he goes asking for trouble. Veteran Ox is the living proof of it; whenever his opponents make the mistake of coming close together, he will be the first to rush into their ranks in order to regenerate. If it looks counterintuitive, it actually isn't. These are the Butchers, after all.
I strongly approve of the transition from selling many solitary models to having only two sets of miniatures. It increases the game's availability and visibility, makes the investment cost easier to grasp, and overall facilitates the game.
I really enjoy how fast and easy bookkeeping is in Guild Ball overall. All you need to do is sleeve the cards, and use an erasable marker above the sleeves for HP. That's all!
The dice are disturbingly cool. The colour is not exactly red, but meat red, with discolourations here and there, just the way you would have expected freshly-purchased meat to have. Do not eat them! They will be much more effective as a way to creep out your opponents.
The weak points: The transition to preassembled plastic miniatures has not been made for this Guild. This means that the Butchers are not plug and play, in contrast to the Farmers, the Blacksmiths, the Brewers and the Masons, along with the other Guilds that are slowly turning the way of plastic. If you are not into assembly, and you prefer playing right away, you can either start from another Guild, or wait until the Butchers' meat is ripe.
A side-effect of the Butcher's being sold in the old-style boxes is that they do not have dedicated goal posts or terrain hurdles yet. They also don't have a specialized ball, something that is a pity; I would have expected nothing less than a heart and a skull. This is bound to change as soon as the transition is made. Those who enjoyed the players' cards in different languages will find none of that here. It's either English or bust. No markers exist; if you wish to play with them, you have to buy them separately.
The Tenderiser is a gorgeous mini. He is also hard to assemble, thanks to the angle of his arms. Take it easy when you are dealing with him, lest you permanently damage him.
There is nothing wrong when it comes to the quality of the miniatures, or the production values of the product overall. When it comes to play style, play the Butchers for what they are, a bunch of murderous maniacs. They are not the team to choose if you want precise ball-handling, fast miniatures and elegant plays. This is about violence, about softening the opponent before claiming victory within the pitch full of unconscious opponents.
Season III continues with a card format that I find counterintuitive. Experienced players may remember their guildballer's stats and abilities by heart, my question however remains: why isn't all pertinent information printed on the same side of the card? That would have either necessitated slightly bigger cards, or, were that not possible, the inclusion of two cards of each type for ease of reference. Page-flipping during a game is not fun, not to mention how it increases the learning curve for the newer players. On the other hand, and to instantly alleviate the issue, one can simply print the free cards from the Internet.
My copy of The Scarlet Circle set was missing the card of Veteran Ox. I was able to play immediately anyway, seeing how his stats are included in the Season III rulebook. In an act of class, the customer service of Steamforged Games sent me the missing card later on. Hat off!
Conclusion: The rebalanced Butchers are a solid Guild Ball team. They are brutally entertaining to play in either their classic or their advanced timeline iteration, or any other configuration in-between. If you are looking for plastics, scenery, markers and other language cards however, you will be disappointed... at least for the time being. The Butchers are what they are, and for the moment they are still metal.
For more info on The Butcher's Guild for Guild Ball Season III and Steamforged Games visit their website at http://steamforged.com.
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