Review of Guild Ball Season III: Fisherman's Guild

Blurb from the publisher: 'Pirates Return

As unyielding as the seas, this set includes one ball, 6 player cards, 6 bases, and 6 players: Shark, Salt, Angel, Siren, Greyscales, and Kraken.'

What you get: The present review is a combo review of The Fisherman'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 Fishermen 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 Fisherman's Guild: Pirates Return (EUR 65). It contains 6 metal miniatures, 6 bases, 6 cards, and one ball token.

- The Fisherman's Guild: The Changing Tide (EUR 65). ). It contains 6 metal miniatures, 6 bases, 6 cards, and one ball token.

- The Fisherman's Guild: Dice Pack (EUR 15). It contains ten six-sided dice with silver pips on a semi-transparent aquamarine background. The emblem of the Fishermen 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 Fisherman'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 Fishermen, 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 Fishermen have been around since Season I. In Season III the two sets reflect their line up from Season I in one hand, while creating new possibilities for Guild Balls's fastest, and admittedly most spectacular, team.

Pirate's Return is the set where five out of the six miniatures are new, in comparison to Season I. It includes Corsair, Jac, Hag, Sakana, Siren, and Tentacles.

Corsair is the team's captain. He is a big-bellied grumpy guy with a well-tended moustache. He carries only three harpoons and a cleaver-like pole arm, probably because he doesn't need any more. His pole's use becomes immediately apparent, seeing how he is a brilliant ball-stealer, can drag enemy models towards him, while he inspires his own players to be more sturdy. He is tough to hit, tackle, or bring down overall. His Legendary Play helps his teammates dribble and shoot even better than usual.

Jac is the only miniature in the set that exists from Season I already, and he remains identical to what we saw back then. He is not only vaguely reminiscent of Ron Perlman, he also holds the most alien-looking trident/grappling hook you can imagine. A solid support guy, he can push opponents around when advancing, he can provoke enemy units to attack only him, he will aid his co-players trying to reach him, while also being able to shrug off damage. His Heroic Play relates to even more pushing; that's an enforcer out of thin air.

The Hag, while nominally a female, looks like what one would expect from a fantasy hag. She prepares herself against future attacks, while she buffs her teammates with an extra Dodge per turn. When targeted by her opponents, their actions cost more INF. Her swiftness is well-known, for she can start each activation with an extra 2'' Dodge. She can also use one of her plays per turn without paying in INF. In her Legendary Play, she can drop her health in order to push away models within a certain radius, while at the same time granting Dodges to her teammates.

Sakana is an impressive man. His card portrait gives him a middle-Eastern appearance, his sculpt however dangerously resembles Sean Connery with unexpected facial hair. He moves fast and kicks hard, with plays that reduce his opponents' ARM and provide him with cover. Traits help him reduce his opponents' ARM even more, counter attack without MP expenditure, and gain movement when he starts advancing from cover.

Veteran Siren is the improved version of Siren from The Changing Tide set. Her stats are the same with those of her standard self, her traits and plays however are very different. Enemies within her aura see their TAC reduced, Kraken, the mascot, gains additional DEF when near her, she can start her activation with an extra Dodge, while she has the uncanny ability of escaping the taken out condition. Is it agility, or is it luck?

Tentacles is, quite obviously, an octopus, and the mascot of the Fishermen in this set. Apparently he can use his ink on earth, seeing how he can blind his opponents, leading to loss of TAC, KICK and MOV at the same time. He ignores the first tackle against him each turn, while his enormous tentacles allow him to tag along his teammates even when it is not his turn.

All the miniatures in The Changing Tide set have been first seen in Guild Ball's Season I. The footballers are Angel, Greyscales, Kraken, Salt, and Siren.

Angel is cute, a tint of sadness and even boredom in her posture. She lazily carries a trident behind her back, her ruined fishnet stockings showcasing her gorgeous legs. She knows her defense and she can kick the ball hard, most importantly however she can provide defensive support to other team mates as well as extra INF to Shark with whom she shares the same ability when it comes to rough ground. Along with another minor alteration, she has been slightly rebalanced from Season I by eliminating her Defense support towards Salt.

Greyscales, with his characteristic chin-curtain beard, looks like an old wise man of the sea. In a posture and garments befitting a mariner-warrior-monk, he excels at defenses as well as stealing the ball from enemy models and passing it to his own. His enormous harpoon might explain his uncanny dodging abilities. Greyscales has joined Season III unchanged from Season I.

Kraken is the slowest player the team has, and the closest thing this guild has to a tank. He can push or pull his opponents with his harpoon, causing knock-downs and damage at the same time. A part of the damage that he receives gets soaked. You'd need to try hard to take him out, something instantly understood once you look at his enormous, old-style strongman miniature of his pointing at his next victim.

Salt is a Sea Lion. She is and looks friendlier than other mascots, just dodging here and there, do not however misconstrue this as helplessness. She is amongst the faction's faster units, getting in the way and diverting the opposition. She is also so beloved by foes and fans alike, that if she gets damaged her team gets a TAC bonus. Those who are paying attention will notice that this is also a trait of Princess, the dog of the Butcher's Guild in Season III. For both animals, this is a conceptual readjustment.

Shark is the Captain of the sea-faring team. He is the quintessence of a stylish running man, and remains unchanged from Season I. The fishermen are not just faster than their opponents, Shark makes them run even faster while slowing his opponents down in more than one way. He doesn't care about rough ground; he just runs.

Siren is stern, authoritative, like a violent, imposing ballerina with a harpoon in each hand. Being beautiful makes her harder to hit, while males have additional trouble attacking her. She gains ARM near Kraken, further enhancing her defenses. She can lure enemy models towards her forcing them to expend their base move, or even force them to pass or attack without spending Influence.

The strong points: Whatever I write about Guild Ball's miniature quality is simply not enough. I can't but repeat what I had written in the Season I review: 'The weight, the design, the detail, they are all beyond description. In addition to the fishing gear expect a lot of extra buckles and mild allusions to steampunk pirates with the dozens of accessories and layers that the Fishermen are wearing. I am holding a realistic sea-lion at 16 mm for crying out loud. Angel is adorable in the cutest of ways, while Siren has this impressive otherworldly stance that keeps people away no matter her sexy physique. Captain Shark and Jac are caught mid-run, while the barefoot Kraken inspires stability and strength. As for Greyscales, I dare say that he is one of my favourite miniatures in the range so far. You will need a magnifying lens to appreciate how much work and sculpting has gone into this figure.' The new additions to the team follow on the same lines. Some of these minis like the Hag or Sakana will demand a lot of your time thanks to their incredible details. This is however a positive, isn't it?

When it comes to tactics, the Fishermen are pretty much the mirror image of the Butchers. They will take a cheap shot if and when the opportunity arises, that is not however their strength. Speed is, along with opening up spaces and creating continuous movement. They need to dance in the pitch to thrive. Were there statistics about distance covered in Guild Ball, Fishermen would systematically outrun their opponents irrespective of faction. Their opponents should expect a lot of spatial harassment, of constant frustration. They should try to remain in a semblance of formation while the Fishermen clear the field and score goal after goal, at least at the beginning of the game. They have the runners, they have the ball handlers, they have the kickers. If there is one team that can play real football without serious violence in Guild Ball, these would be the Fishermen. If you like Barcelona's tiki-taka ball with many potential passes and perfect player positioning, this is the team to go for.

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 very pretty. They remind me of the clear Caribbean waters, of gorgeous exotic beaches which we usually associate with paradise on earth. This is an elegant team, a pleasure to watch while executing their spatial domination plays; it is only logical that they receive a pleasant, if not slightly remote, set to use.

The weak points: The transition to preassembled plastic miniatures has not been made for this Guild. This means that the Fishermen 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 Fishermens' time comes to turn plastic.

A side-effect of the Fishermen 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; I would love to see a ball with scales, as if made by fish skin. 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.

There is nothing wrong when it comes to the quality of the miniatures, or the production values of the product overall. If I can write something it relates to the play style. The Fisherman's Guild is by far the fastest of them all, they are however quite delicate. If you want to play violent killers that incapacitate their opponents with brutal hits, or tanks that can withstand any hit, this is the wrong team to play. Idem if you enjoy more convoluted tactics, abilities of sorts or disruptive play. Take a look at Shark, in case you don't get it. One of the two captains is centered around the concept running, be it alone, with his team, or through slowing down his opponents. It is extremely effective, yet I wouldn't call it diverse.

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 in 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.

Conclusion: The Fishermen of Season III are as fast and technical as they have always been. This isn't just the team one plays to win; this is the team he plays to teach football, to amaze, to show how elegance, flair, and spatial control are more effective than brute force and underhanded tactics. Their only drawback, up to now? No goal post, no scenery, no markers, no additional language cards. If you want them in plastic, you will have to wait for just a bit.

For more info on The Fisherman's Guild for Guild Ball Season III and Steamforged Games visit their website at http://steamforged.com.

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