Review of Guild Ball Season III: Mason's Guild

Blurb from the publisher: ''Hammer is legendary in everything he does. While others may falter, he only gets better - stronger, faster. He is an inspiration, like an ancient titan of legend.' - Harmony, Mason's Guild

Unrelenting in their pursuit of glory, this set includes one ball, 6 player cards, 6 bases, and 6 players: Hammer, Wrecker, Chisel, Veteran Harmony, Tower, and Granite.'

What you get: The Mason's Guild has certain particularities in Guild Ball's Season III. Half of its crew is contained in Guild Ball: Kick Off! and is made of plastic. The remaining half of its crew is contained in The Mason's Guild: The Punishing March, and is made of metal. In order to add scenery for the Guild as it gradually does with all Guilds, Steamforged Games released all the scenery in one set, combined with the scenery of the Brewers, the other Guild that is featured in the Kick Off! set.

Having already seen Kick Off! together, and since I will examine the Mason's and Brewer's Terrain Pack on its own review in the near future, the present review deals with the following:

- The Mason's Guild: The Punishing March (EUR 65). It contains 6 metal miniatures, 6 bases, 6 cards, and one ball token.

- The Mason's Guild: Dice Pack (EUR 15). It contains ten six-sided dice with gold pips on a blue, marble-like background. The emblem of the Masons 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 Mason'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 Masons, 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 Masons have been around since Season I. The Punishing March however contains only two footballers from Season I. Its contents are Chisel, Granite, Hammer, Harmony, Harmony, Tower, and Wrecker.

Chisel is a misnomer, seeing how the cute, smiley brunette is a totally crazy woman holding a big, two-handed hammer. She has a sadistic streak, gaining health when opponents get injured around her. Anybody attacking her (not damaging her, simply attacking her), suffers damage himself. She may sacrifice big chunks of her health to gain an equal amount in TAC, while the more hp she loses the more TAC and DMG she earns.

Granite is tough, very tough. She alters the ground around her, making it harder for her opponents to move, while she can also limit their movement and lower their defenses. The more enemies attack her the more her DEF increases. She doesn't surrender easily, ignoring the first knock down per turn. She also has a very good spatial awareness, claiming Jogs here and there when certain preconditions are met.

Hammer is not a bruiser, even though his appearance and enormous axe would suggest it. He can transform a friendly unit's influence into extended MOV, a bonus to DMG or an improved Kick. He partially soaks damage, while he can knock back a model he damages, and even follow it himself for good measure. He cannot be pushed around easily. His Heroic Play allows his teammates to use any of his three plays as if they were theirs.

Harmony is substantially changed in relation to Season I, both when it comes to her abilities as well as her sculpt. She now sports an impressive, yet more static pose. Her hair is outright gorgeous, flowing in what is probably a very strong wind. The enormous katana-like sword she holds looks bad-ass enough. She can grant additional movement to her teammates against marked targets, as well as remove all their conditions if they stand nearby. She can take the damage intended for another teammate, while, after her activation, her nearby teammates gain additional DEF. She however dislikes Honour, her teammate, and cannot be affected from his friendly traits.

Tower is the most Mason-looking of them all, with well-defined muscles and an impressive tool belt. He wields an impressive hammer adorned with the emblem of free masonry. He improves the damage output of his teammates, helps defend particular types of ground better, and pushes and dodges just like Brick. He is kind of torn between the asinine habit of attacking opponents that are knocked down, and the heroism of taking damage instead of other units close to him.

Wrecker is a gigantic shrew, a fast wrecking ball whose main purpose it to disrupt enemy formations. He can choose to go even faster than his usual speed in order to further misplace his opponents, forfeiting however his right to attack. He can stick upon opponents who pass near him like glue; those he engages have a hard time shooting the ball.

The strong points: When it comes to having a homogenous appearance, the Masons would be Guild Ball's crowned champions. It is not just the gear they are wearing, and which comes out as purpose-built as opposed to the haphazard looks of practically everybody else; it is also the fact that, one way or another, they look like prime specimens of the human race irrespective of colour. Their characteristics are chiseled in their bodies and faces; there are no fat guys here, no 'cute'. It's all about stunning. All of them could have been top-tier athletes in the real world, with side-businesses in the modelling world.

The Masons are the most characteristic team where the sum is bigger than its constituent parts. They are all about teamwork, coming out as a rather flexible team to mold towards a particular style of play. When perusing their stats one is unlikely to get impressed, with rather ordinary-looking buffs here and there. The repetition alone between the players' buffs or players of other guilds might initially make you wonder whether this team is legit. It is, for as long as the players have the right position in the pitch in order to help one another. The game starts before the first whistle, when you are choosing which of them to field and which tactics you will mostly focus on. I like how, the designers themselves recognized the potential for abuse, and made certain abilities non-stackable. As a group the Masons are challenging to play, yet they provide a degree of added satisfaction due to the frustration they cause due to small things adding up. When playing against them the obvious tactic to go for is to alienate those who stack their powers up. A clever Mason player will not allow this to happen, while gradually scoring and taking opponents out.

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!

I like the dice, both when it comes to their aeshetics as well as their visibility. Yet, the colours do not have such a strong thematic link with the Guild, in the way red does with the Butchers or Aquamarine with the Fishermen. I have no idea why the Masons are blue and gold. On the other hand, I also have no idea of what could have created a stronger visual identity.

The weak points: If you have a thing for the Masons, you will have to pay more than for any other Guild. Half their squad can only be purchased with the Brewers and the other material of the starting game. Idem for their scenery and goalpost; you get those of the Brewers as well, irrespective of whether you like them or not. The Punishing March is the sole Mason-only product, dice excluded. And even if your have purchased all that, if you prefer working with either plastic or metal, you will have to deal with both materials anyway. You'd better be a good craftsman.

The metal minis in the set are not of the same texture and quality. None is 'better' than the other; they are simply different. Before any work is done with them, some look glossy and silvery, while others are matte and feel slightly more porous. I don't know what caused this; I haven't noticed any differences in behaviour while treating them.

The Mason's Guild is not hard to understand, nor will you need complicated diagrams and pre-determined plays. The difficulty lies in how to set the whole thing up and keep the abilities of one stacking with the abilities of the other. In other words, this is not the most straightforward or intuitive team to play. Other teams will try to disrupt, or outright destroy, the fine-tuning needed in order for the Masons to perform. Depending on the occasion they will be able to seize the moment or feel hopelessly out of place in the field (something that you should not allow to happen in the first place).

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 Masons do not have a Ronaldo, a Messi, or an Mbape in their ranks. Yet, their closely knit game, and their ability to stack up, makes them as exciting as the highly disruptive Iceland in the 2016 European Championship, or the impossibly effective Greece back in 2004. They are not the underdogs, but can they shine without a superstar? That's why they are fun to play.

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

Shameless plug: for more gaming news and content (including, for example, pictures of The Mason's Guild for Guild Ball Season III that I am unfortunately not able to upload on RPG.net for the time being), and to better keep track of my reviews, subscribe to my Antonios S facebook and twitter page.