Masons vs. Morticians - Guild Ball AAR

Last week I managed to play another game of Guild Ball with Kevyn at Stomping Grounds.

I played my Masons in a 5-on-5 game against Kevin's Morticians. Our teams were:

Masons
Honor
Marbles
Harmony
Mallet
Brick

Morticians
Obulus
Dirge
Cosset
Silence
Ghast

I ended up winning the first dice-off, but decided to kick instead of receive. I wanted to see what it was like starting without the ball. So I gave Mallet the ball, and he sent it flying to the other side of the pitch.

The first turn ended with Mallet attacking Obulus with his huge 3" attack range. Silence ran the ball up the side of the pitch with Dirge.

Honor and Harmony ganged up on Ghast, while Cosset charged Mallet and Silence charged Marbles after being goaded.

The game then saw a big swing towards the Morticians. While Ghast was taken out by the two sisters (netting 2 VP for the Masons), Mallet was knocked out by Cosset, and Silence scored a goal, quickly making it a 6-2 game. I did use a couple Plot Cards to gain extra Influence and put a Vengeance Token on Silence however.

The ball was thrown back in, and Harmony managed to snap up the ball as Honor went after Obulus. Despite needing a single 4+ on four dice, I failed to roll a single success, and so the ball went shooting past the Mortician's goal. Then Harmony was taken out by Obulus, ending the turn with a score of 8-2 in the Mortician's favor.

Hoping to capitalize on Silence's Vengeance Token, I had brought Mallet back in only after a single turn. I quickly realized that this had been a terrible idea, as Silence put the old mason back down into the dirt again, scoring two more VP.

Finally, after surviving an onslaught from Honor, Obulus chased after Marbles (already weakened by an earlier charge from Silence) and put the Mascot down, gaining two more VP and ending the game 12-2.

Ouch - not a great start for the Masons. Although Harmony's terrible kick didn't exactly help, as it sent the ball to the very edge of the pitch, out of easy reach. And I definitely haven't figured out any kind of strategy of kicking the ball instead of receiving it! I think I tried too hard in the bashing side of the game, especially wasting a bunch of Influence and time having Honor and Harmony beat down Ghast. And the benefits from the Guild Plot cards certainly didn't outweigh the loss of giving the Mortician's the first goal.

Well, I've got Flint and Tower arriving soon, and Chisel following shortly afterward. So I'll be able to play full games, and will even have options to switch players in and out.

Update: I wanted to add a little more to this post. This past weekend, I played another 5v5 game against the Brewers, and ended up winning 12-0. I got the chance to see exactly how the Masons work, with player synergies helping each other. Honor and Harmony were the MVPs, with Harmony scoring two goals (even though she missed another), and Honor knocking out the Brewer's captain. Even Brick got his moment in the spotlight, when he stopped Stave (the Brewer's big guy) from getting off his knock-down AoE by attacking with his counter-charge ability. So, when the Masons work, they really work!