Learning How to Play Guild

My experiment with the Guild continues.  Over the past week I have played another 5 or so games as I work to plow through painting all the Guild I have purchased so far.  Last Tuesday I got a couple games in against Second Generation Awesome Dan's Marcus crew, and then another against a local Andrew's Sonnia crew.  On Saturday, one of the local henchmen Nayte ran a league day at Victory Comics.  I got three real games in (the other three I played were two 5-stone games, and one where neither side was allowed to look at their hands at all) and managed to split perfectly with 1-1-1.  It seems like every game I play, I'm trying something different.  I love getting into a new faction - everything I do seems completely new.

In my first game on Tuesday, I put down Lady Justice and Ryle for the first time, branching out from my Lucius-centric games that I've had thus far.  Dan was playing Marcus and I spent a good chunk of time killing off everything that came near me.  But I learned pretty quickly that my crew wasn't great at heading out to catch other fast models.  Range was my primary weapon there but even still, a few Night Terrors slipped my net.

In my second game on Tuesday, I went back to Lucius and added the Guard Captain to try the Lucius Alpha-Strike.  It could not have gone any better against Andrew's Sonnia crew.  My Austringers were able to pelt his crew from afar while my Hounds rushed to Sonnia to Deliver the Message.

Fast forward to Saturday's games, I faced Bo first and took a Lady J list again, this time using Witchling Stalkers and the Pale Rider for the first time.  We played a game with no schemes and the Viktorias managed to Deliver the Message on turn two.  But in response, I learned just how hard Lady J can really hit!  One of the Viktorias was down by three wounds and in melee with Lady J, and the other was a few inches farther away.  Lady J activated, used Sword Style for +4 CB, and swung at the Sword Viki with her Melee Expert, killing her with 8 wounds in one hit.  She then charged the second Viki and hit, killing her in one hit for 8 wounds again.  It was a thing of beauty.  I managed to collect all my Plant Evidence markers and played to a tie.

Second Saturday game went against Mustache Matt and his Gremlin crew.  I reflipped my Strategy from Destroy the Evidence to Supply Wagon and took Lucius, wanting to try out my new Wardens (yay for being Guardsmen!).  This was another game where everything fell my way.  I didn't realize until after the game started how good Austringers were against Gremlins, and throughout the game I just killed everything that stepped into their range.  The game capitalized when a Warden stepped up and paralyzed Somer giving me virtually an entire round unchecked.

The last Saturday game was against Nayte.  I remember way back in the day when I was teaching Nayte how to play the game, and he's become pretty good with his Avatar McMourning crew.  I took Lady J, the Witchling Stalkers, and the Pale Rider again.  My strategy ended up being Escape and Survive, and he had McMourning with Von Schill, a Shikome and a couple dogs.  Lady J and the Pale Rider managed to kill off the Shikome, but Von Schill set a Red Joker gunshot on Lady J, knocking her down by 8 wounds right quick.  She died the next turn before she could do anything, and Nayte was able to essentially rout my army and I took a 2-6 loss.  While I didn't use any new models, I realized just how vulnerable Lady J is to non-melee attacks, especially against models that can use Soulstones.

So my games have been going pretty well, and I'm enjoying the new Guild.  Especially enjoying just how much damage these guys can pour out.  When a Witchling Stalker hits for minimum 3 damage, my jaw drops.  I mean, I've seen it happen against me before, but it's insane to see me being able to reliably knock down a solid opposing model in two hits when it takes 3-4 with my Neverborn crews.

My Guild crew's at a respectable place for the moment, so I think I'm going to take a break and learn what I've got so far.  I have two choices for master: Lucius and Lady J.  I have one totem, the Drill Sergeant.  And for minions, I'm sitting pretty with three Guardsmen, two Austringers, three Witchling Stalkers, a Lawyer, Ryle, a Guard Captain, the Pale Rider, two Wardens, a Watcher, the Brutal Effigy, and four Guild Hounds.  Overall, not too shabby.

GenCon in Less Than a Month

I just got my GenCon tickets in the mail which means I am one step closer to heading west for Indianapolis.  I’ve been reading through the various companies that put out games that I enjoy and have a list of things I’d really like to see while I’m out there.  Some of them I’ll buy, others just fall in the “curiosity” spot.

Ten Thunders/Storm of Shadows by Wyrd

Every year I go to GenCon (this will be my third year going) I have one place I want to head first as soon as the doors open.  The first year I rushed to the Privateer Press booth to grab a copy of Apotheosis and see what the new warcasters and unique warjacks were all about.  The second year I went, I ran to the Fantasy Flight Games booth to get a copy of the Pegasus expansion for my favorite board game, Battlestar Galactica.  This year I rush to the Wyrd booth.

Wyrd has already announced the name of their new book, Storm of Shadows, and said it will introduce a new faction, the Ten Thunders.  They’ve estimated that around 70-80% of the book will be available at the booth.  I don’t know exactly what that will entail yet, but I know I will be buying at least the book and the Nightmare Hanging Tree.  Beyond that, I’d guess that Neverborn and Guild would be my top priorities.

X-Wing by FFG
I’ll admit I had no interest in this game whatsoever when I first heard about it, and I will likely pass on buying it, but I did get to see what the miniatures are going to look like, and it looks like it could turn out to be pretty fun.  I hope to make it to the FFG booth and get a demo of the game.  If I don’t, no big deal.  It’s not high on my list.  But since I’ve stopped playing Firestorm Armada, I don’t really have a good way to hold off my space combat fix.

Zombiecide by Cool Mini
I love zombie games, and while I certainly will not be purchasing this at GenCon (I already ordered a copy of it through their Kickstarter), I really am looking forward to seeing how the game plays.  The miniatures look good, and the characters I’ve seen from the emails that have been sent out to the supporters look solid.  I expect this to be a game of heroes working together to mow down as many zombies as they can, just blasting them to pieces.

Overall, looks like a nice companion game to my Last Night on Earth addiction.  LNoE serves as a good one for when I'm looking to have my zombies slaughter folks wholesale.  Zombicide will hopefully be the one to grab when you want to get out there and kill dozens of zombie minions.

Iron Kingdoms RPG by Privateer Press
I have been looking forward to this for years.  Ever since Privateer Press stopped making their DnD 3.5 edition compatible version.  I love the world for the Iron Kingdoms, even back before I ever started playing Warmachine.  I remember when DnD3 was a new thing and I saw the art for the first Witchfire book sitting on the shelf at a local gaming store.  I picked it up and read it through and was immediately taken by the world.  As the next two books came out, I picked them up as well, and then the world books when they arrived.  Even though I don’t really like the DnD system, I kept picking up the Iron Kingdoms books.

When it was canceled, we were told that they would come out with a new roleplaying game.  I’ve been waiting years.  And now it’s finally here.

I’ll be taking part in one of the demo games of this – my wife, Dan and his wife, and Slaz will all be joining in on the fun.  Looking forward to seeing how it turns out.

Level 7 by Privateer Press
This falls into the realm of games I’m interested in seeing but probably won’t buy unless it surprises the heck out of me.  I really enjoy PP games though, so I figure I should give this one a try.  This is a sci-fi conspiracy-type board game, and beyond that I know little about it.

Timber Peak (LNoE) by Flying Frog Productions
Here’s one I am certainly buying if it is there.  Last Night on Earth is one of my top board games, and when I heard they were coming out with a new stand-alone expansion for it, I knew I had to get it.  The game will be able to be played by itself or with any of the other ones.  There are six characters – three new ones and three “survivor” versions of the old ones.  Fourteen zombies, a full set of new boards, and new missions to play.  Seems like a must-have for LNoE players.

The Second City Boxed Set (L5R RPG) by AEG

This last one comes down to how I’m feeling at the time.  I am going to be starting a Legend of the Five Rings campaign up soon and I have been going out and getting all the books I can find for the new edition.  The problem I have is that I really don’t like the current storyline.  The pre-Scorpion Clan Coup time period from back before the card game mucked things up really was the best of the time periods.

Fortunately, most of the 4th Edition L5R stuff can be used with any time period.  It’s designed to be timeline-independent.  However, this new box set is coming out that falls straight into the current timeline.  It’s a city set, similar to the old City of Lies and Otosan Uchi box sets from the first edition.  This one centers around “Second City”, the city that Rokugan is using as the capital of their occupied Burning Sands.  Problem is it sounds very dependent on the Rokugani being in the Burning Sands, otherwise it doesn’t really make much sense.  I might see if I can find someone who can talk me through how it is set up but at the moment it feels like a no-go.

What about all of you who are heading out to GenCon?  What are you looking forward to getting?

Roleplaying Scion - End of the Line

I have found there is always a feeling of catharsis after completing a roleplaying game.  While miniatures games are what I talk about most often here and on the Gamers Lounge, my introduction to gaming came through roleplaying when I was in high school, and some of my favorite memories are from roleplaying games.

Last August I started up a game of Scion with a few of my buddies.  I had always wanted to run a modern superhero-style game, and I had always wanted to run Scion, so the two just fit together well.  I had the players start out with no clue as to their heritage, nor really knowing each other beyond possible passing run-ins.

The first leg of the campaign was the flight stage.  The heroes were thrust together by virtue of the fact that something out there was hunting them all, and in order to protect each other, they banded together.  Quickly, the number of things hunting them grew from one supernatural being to include the US Government itself.  After spending a while on the road just trying to stay one step ahead, things moved into the exploration part of the story where they found others of their kind who knew more about what they were.  Except they quickly found that the people who they talked to all had their own take on what they were.  They were the children of gods.  They were government sleeper agents.  They were failed experiments.

The government caught up with the players and for a while, they joined forces, trying to stop the supernatural from coming after them.  But even as they were being trained, the rules and restrictions being placed on them became prohibitive.  They escaped from the government, getting answers along the way, which just led to more questions.  The government claimed responsibility for creating them, and they were nothing more than another superweapon that the powers of the world fought over after WWII.  The Former Soviets had their own soldiers, which were the supernatural creatures they had been seeing earlier.

But as with everything they had been facing, they weren’t sure they could take the government’s story at face value either.  They ran from the government for a brief time again before once again joining with them, this time more on their own terms.  They flew to Afghanistan where they found and fought against some of the Soviet Scions – those who called themselves the Titans, and killed some of them.

One of the Titans reached out to the players, a man who called himself Prometheus.  He suggested that they join together to create a safe haven for Scions, one far from the grips of the governments.  Just as the players had been finding the US Government stifling, so too had the Russians, and there was a rebellion within the ranks.  But neither government wanted to admit to the other they had lost control.

The players rejected the Titans’ offer and instead started hunting down the answers to their past.  What were they?  Failed experiments?  Children of gods?  Government sleeper agents?  It turned out they were all three.  Back before WWII, the Germans had captured the gods but after the war, they fell into the hands of others.  The Americans ended up with the Greek gods and started harnessing them to create generations of super soldiers.

Enraged, the players found and freed the gods, only to find the gods were none too pleased with having been captured and began to take it out on the nation.  Zeus and Poseidon began attacking the USA and only through negotiation with the players did they cease their assault for a period of 30 days.  The players had to find who captured the gods and give them to Zeus and Poseidon to deal with.

The players joined with Prometheus to try to find what happened only to be betrayed by him as they helped Prometheus get the last ingredient he needed for his plans in Afghanistan.  The players chased Prometheus down but in the fight unleashed the imprisoned Chronos.

Now with time running out they had to find a way to stop Chronos.  They learned that Chronos had sent Prometheus and the other Titans back to before WWII to capture the gods and that they were the ones who had set the whole thing in motion.  The whole plan was set in motion by Chronos to free himself.

The players tracked down how the gods had been captured and realized that it could be used on Chronos too.  Two problems arose: they had no way to keep Chronos back from killing them if he wanted to, and if they unleashed the imprisonment, all gods on the planet would be captured as well.  As soon as they began setting the prison, Chronos would become aware and if he weren’t distracted, he would come after them to kill them.

So they needed someone with the power to distract him.  Which would be the gods, but they weren’t willing to be on Earth when the prison was sprung.

So the Scions went to the gods to Ascend to Godhood.  Four of the seven people took the power so that they could hold Chronos back long enough for the humans to unleash the prison.  In the end of the fight, Ares had died.  As had three of the Scions who stepped forward to accept the power of the gods in order to save the world, Kyle of Dionysus, Ethan of Hades, and Collin of Zeus.  Eris of Ares left Earth for Mt. Olympus just before the ritual was completed and took his deceased father’s seat in the pantheon.  And while Tony of Hermes and Joan of Artemis performed the ritual, Khalesi of Apollo dealt the final blow to a weakened Chronos, pinning him away forever.

 

The campaign itself ran 11 months, which is pretty slick.  It had a lot of options and choices for the players to make, including who would end up becoming the villain of the story.  It could just have easily turned into a story where the characters were government agents heading out against enemies of the State.  Or a conspiracy theory story where the elder generation of Scions – the first ones created by the governments – took on the governments to find out what happened.  It could have been a story about joining with Prometheus to carve out a nation state for Scions to live.  But instead it became one of saving the world from the machinations of Chronos and from the vengeance of the gods.

We’re taking a short break now before we kick off our next campaign.  I figure we’ll be heading in to Legend of the Five Rings next.  Looking forward to it, but for now, it’s nice to have the break.

Guild Continues and McMourning's Revenge

I got two more games in last night, including my long-awaited victory over Slaz’s aRamos crew with my McMourning crew.  I managed to kill off aRamos on the top of turn 4 after both McM and the Dead Rider pounded on him the previous turn for a while.  From there, I wiped out his significant models and let my bats swarm around until they got all my Plant Evidence markers.  Felt nice to get that monkey off my back. Though now I have to beat him with McMourning again just to even things out.  We’re taking a break from that particular matchup next week though.

My other game was a quick 25 soulstone game against Tim, the guy I faced at the top table of the NoVA Open last year.  My first order of Guild had arrived at the store, so I bought them with glee, and then challenged Tim to a game since Slaz was already playing a game at the time.  He suggested Guild, so I stole Skill-less Brian’s models and set out a 25 stone Lucius crew.  Tim pulled out the Vikis, a crew with which he was less familiar.

The game did not go fantastically for Lucius this time around.  The Vikis came swarming in while my Guardsmen and Austringer tried to keep the peace.  I managed to Deliver the Message on turn 2 when one of the Vikis swarmed in and killed two of my dogs.  A Guardsman got triple-ordered to walk to the Viki, then activated to deliver the message.  That was about the last time things went well for me.  I lost my Guardsman, then Tailor ran in to my other Guardsman and Austringer.  I managed to knock a bunch of models down a few wounds, but Lucius died to a Viki.  My last hope was that my two remaining Guild Hounds could make it safely to my Stake a Claim marker to pull a tie (he had Exterminate: Beasts as well), but they were caught by the Vikis and the game went an extra turn, giving him his last chance to kill the last remaining Hound.  I lost, 8-4.

So my two games so far with Guild have been split.  Not too shabby to start out with.  I’ve mostly been playing around with Lucius, Guild Guards, Guild Hounds, the Drill Sergeant and Austringers.  Now that I’ve picked up my box set for Lucius, I figure my Guard Captain and Ryle will make their way into my list (oh, poor Lawyer…).

I started looking over the card to Lucius after a couple matches and found a few things I hadn’t picked up on by scanning the card while playing:

1.       Lucius gets +2 DF if he is close to one or more Elite Division or Guardsmen.  I was finding him pretty easy to hit, even with the (-) flips, and couldn’t for the life of me figure out why that was.  When he was across the table from me, I always had a much harder time.

2.       Lucius only needs to hit for his Governor’s Authority trigger to go off.  He doesn’t actually need to damage anyone.  Never came up, but it’s good to know.

3.       Lucius has Slow to Die.  I mean… wow.  How did I miss that?  That’s a huge change to how I play him.

Add to that some of the other things I’m finding (wait… Guardsmen are CB6 in melee?!) and I am realizing just how much learning I have to do with this crew.  Looking forward to it.  Stay tuned for more of my Guild experiment!

Guild's First Match

I got my first game in with Guild yesterday.  Actually, I guess it’s my second since my first one was in the Pied Piper tournament back at the beginning of this year where I kept getting handed lists I’d never used before.  This was the first time I had voluntarily chosen to play Guild.  Skill-less Brian was nice enough to lend me his Guild and I opted to make a list out of the stuff that I have on order.  Second Generation Awesome Dan was across from me with his Avatar Seamus list.  Since he was playing a crew he was very familiar with, and I was just starting a newer crew, he took some of the harder schemes.

He flipped Deliver the Message and I flipped Reconnoiter.  I reflipped and took Plant Evidence instead.

My Crew: Lucius (4 stones), Drill Sergeant, Austringer x2, Guild Hound x4, Guild Guard x3

Strategy:  Plant Evidence

Schemes:  Bodyguard (Lucius), Stake a Claim

Dan’s Crew:  Seamus + Avatar (7 stones), Night Terror x3, Drowned x2, Dead Rider, Grave Spirit

Strategy:  Deliver the Message

Schemes:  Eye for an Eye, Exterminate (Beasts)

I know how much I drool when I sit down against Guild and take Avatar Seamus, so my goal was to minimize him as best I could.  Also, I needed a way to handle the three Night Terrors coming in to Deliver the Message early.  Austringers could help, but I had to put these guys down fast.

There was a ton of terrain all over the board, with probably four or five large pieces that would block LOS.  The rest of the board had barrels, crates, grave stones, fences, etc. to keep people able to hop from cover to cover.

I deployed one pair of dogs on a flank to go grab some objectives, and the other pair on the other flank, but closer to Lucius to help protect him if need be.  Two Guardsmen and an Austringer deployed in the middle, and the other Guardsman, Austringer, and Drill Sergeant deployed on the side next to Lucius.

He deployed pretty much everything across from Lucius with one Drowned slightly more towards the flanking dogs.

TURN ONE – SEAMUS INITIATIVE

He probably didn’t want the initiative here, seeing as I outnumbered him 11-8, but that’s the way it broke.  His Grave Spirit linked to his Dead Rider (no shock there) and then cast Face of Death.  My Drill Sergeant linked to an Austringer and put up Shooting Range.  His Drowned headed out, one of them heading towards the middle of the board and the other heading out to meet the flanking dogs.  My flanking dogs moved out with On the Trail (these guys are fast!) and two of my Guardsmen moved up to the barrels in the middle of the board.  His bats started hop-scotching up the board and his Dead Rider pulled in behind them near the midpoint.  My Austringer started firing and with Lucius ordering him, managed to get two of the bats down by two each.  Lucius started giving the Austringer orders, and the bats flew in.  The last two Guild Hounds went and I ended up with his bats having taken 2, 2, and 3 points of damage, and had them out of range of Delivering a Message to Lucius.

TURN TWO – SEAMUS INITIATIVE

He started with his first bat that flew to the other side of my dog and then pulled his two brothers into melee with Lucius.  Lucius activated, attacked one of the bats twice and killed him, then had only one left to deal with, and it had only one wound.  Unfortunately, Lucius was the only one in range of attacking the bat, so he tried to Order himself, but the (-) flip on the cast, and even tossing a Soulstone, he failed the cast.

Now, if I was a more savvy player, Skill-less Brian pointed out that my Guild Hounds had Companion: Master, and could have moved in to finish off the last bat.  Gah!  Oh well – I won’t forget that option next time.

His bat with one wound activated and Delivered the Message, securing 4 VPs.  My dogs activated and finished off the two bats that were remaining, just clearing the board a little.  The two Drowned moved up some more, the one facing off against the dogs being just out of range of doing anything, and the one against the pair of Guardsmen blasting one of them for 2 wounds but failing to spill the damage onto the second one.  The dogs on the flank rushed out and grabbed two Plant Evidence markers, trying to peal away from the Drowned as they did.  The Drill Sergeant put up his shooting buff, and the Dead Rider picked up Fast and rolled in, cheating a Red Joker on damage to one-shot one of my Austringers.

My Guardsmen started plinking the Dead Rider, doing a point here and a point there, until one finally hit the Red Joker and dropped 7 wounds (5 after Armor) on him.  From there, my remaining Austringer picked a target that meant only the Dead Rider and one of my models could be shot at, and randomized into the Dead Rider twice, finishing him off.

Seamus kept moving up, grabbing his second Face of Fear, and leveled a gunshot at my remaining Austringer, killing him.

TURN THREE – SEAMUS INITIATIVE

Damn.  The Drowned near the dogs moved in and shot one, doing 2 wounds to it, but I cheated to make sure the second one did not take wounds.  Also, one of the dogs was now in melee.  I went with one of my Guardsmen, focusing a shot on the Drowned near him and taking down a few wounds.   The Drowned then shot back at my Guardsmen, but I was able to cheat to make the attack miss.  My second Guardsman finished off the Drowned and it exploded, doing a wound to each of my Guardsmen.

Seamus went and shot my Drill Sergeant dead, ending his short-lived reign of terror.

My dogs near the other Drowned rolled out, making it away with a disengaging strike on the second time, and activated my last two Plant Evidence markers.  Now it was a battle of the schemes.  One of my other dogs got rid of all the piling up Corpse tokens and then they both went after Seamus, one of them fleeing (Seamus held him in place) and the other one putting a few wounds into him.  Lucius moved up a little and had the dogs go again, knocking Seamus down a little more.

TURN FOUR – SEAMUS INITIATIVE

Lost initiative again, and the Drowned near my dogs killed one of them.  I looked over the board and realized I could not have the dog outrun the Drowned’s range anymore without On the Trail, so I’d have to turn and fight.  I started with my other dogs first, though, having them bite Seamus some more to keep him lower for when he manifested.

Sure enough, Seamus activated and Manifested, then smashed one of the dogs flat.  Lucius had the second one start picking off on aSeamus some more, but it didn’t really do too much.

My Guardsmen avoided the whole situation and started moving towards my Stake a Claim, keeping out of range.  Lucius tried to get my dog to walk away, but aSeamus stopped him, then flipped the BJ on damage from Wicked, keeping the dog around.  Lucius just moved away from the fight with his last AP.  My dog near the Drowned charged and did a few wounds to the Drowned.

TURN FIVE – LUCIUS INITIATIVE

I activated my dog near the Drowned and finished him off, taking a few wounds from the explosion, and leaving me with a dog that could possibly get away from aSeamus and save me from Exterminate.  aSeamus wrecked the last dog then started moving over towards the last one.  My Guardsmen tried to avoid aSeamus as much as they could.  One of them got onto the Stake a Claim marker and the other two huddled near it so they could run in if necessary.  aSeamus’ path to the dog took him right by the terrain piece.

TURN SIX – aSEAMUS INITIATIVE

So much for trying to get my dog away.  aSeamus moved twice to grab the dog and kill him, also engaging two of my Guardsmen.  By this point his Anathema was at 17 too.  Fortunately I had a 12 and 13 with which to cheat my terrifying checks for my two Guardsmen engaged and keep them alive.  They both put a few attacks in on Seamus, figuring that if the game went on any longer, I’d need to do as much damage to him as possible.  Finally at the end of the turn, we flipped and the game did not go on.

  

FINAL SCORE:
LUCIUS 8 (4 Plant Evidence, 2 Bodyguard, 2 Stake a Claim)

aSEAMUS 6 (4 Deliver the Message, 2 Exterminate (Beasts), 0 Eye for an Eye)

Not a bad showing for my first romp out with Lucius.  I don’t like having to rely on Austringers for much, but with as squishy as they are, I think taking two is essentially ensuring that one will survive a bit longer.  The Guild Guardsmen were pretty solid, surprisingly good in melee with their CB 6 and minimum damage of 2.  Guild puts out a lot of damage!  I can’t wait to get some Witchling Stalkers in there instead and do that much more.

I’m interested in trying out Ryle and the Guard Captain a bit to see how they roll.  I think my biggest hurdle at the moment is learning which models do what.  Missing out on Companion: Master essentially handed Dan 4 VPs early on.  I may not have been able to stop the Rider from coming in and getting the strategy later, but I might have been able to delay him long enough to drop him to 2 VPs.

In the end, had Dan not been hindering himself with harder schemes, it would have rolled through as a tie, most likely.  I have a lot to learn with these guys, but it’s nice to come out of the gates swinging.

It Begins Again...

Yesterday I put in an order with Chris at Huzzah for my next project: the Guild!  It’s kinda funny because when I first started playing the game, they were the faction I said I would never buy into.  Though they are the last faction I bought a crew for, so maybe that counts.  Even still, I’m putting them higher than the Archanists on the list of factions that interest me.

My last experiment, the Ressers, I would call a success.  Of the four crews I purchased, only one of them did I not actually enjoy playing much, and that was Nicodem.  Seamus (especially his Avatar) was a bundle of fun.  Kirai wasn’t so much fun, but she did click with me.  But McMourning came out as the gem of the bunch.  I have enjoyed almost every game I played with him (even the ones where Avatar Ramos uses and abuses the poor guy).  My only regret, I think, in the whole Resser experience is that I think I went way overboard with them.  There are a lot of Resser models in my collection that just gather dust and don’t really help any.

To that end, I’m being a little bit more reserved in my Guild collecting.  I will not be purchasing every master (I say that now…) and rather than buying everything all at once, I’m going to be a little slower in making my purchases.  I’ve already outlined my initial purchases and picks for the crew, and I’m going to work with them only for a little while.

So who will be leading my first Guild crew?  Lucius!

I know he’s not a master, but since he hit the shelves, I have been intrigued by him.  In the past, I never really wanted to get him since he was just about the only thing in the Guild line that interested me, but I’m starting to come around on some of the other options.

It’s probably no surprise how much I like Lucius.  My favorite master of all is Zoraida, and the two of them have some similarities in how they support their crews.  I’m really looking forward to getting him on the table and trying to learn his tricks and trappings.

To go along with his box set, I’m picking up the Drill Sergeant, some Hounds, some more Guardsmen, and a pair of Austringers.  I figure that will give me a solid core for my crew that I can play around with and learn how they work, so I can expand in the future as need be.

From here, I’m going to be looking at spreading into some of the more generic Guild models.  The Warden will join Lucius’ crew, and as I pick up my first master, Lady Justice, I’ll be grabbing a few more toys she can take like Witchling Stalkers and a Guardian.  The Pale Rider’s going to make the cut at some point just because I love the way he looks (even though I hate painting the Riders).

This is probably pretty good timing for me to get into Guild.  Since I have my silly new year’s resolution of only playing with painted models, I need to start my new crew before GenCon comes around and all the extra goodies come out.

My next plan is working on my scheme.  I already picked the basic theme for the crew: I want them to be desert walkers crossing the cracked ground.  I found some bases over at ForgeCraft Games that fit perfectly.  Looking forward to getting the models out on the table as soon as they arrive and get painted up.  That bunch will probably be pushing my Avatar Dreamer and Widow Weaver to the back of the line.