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.