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.