Like the mortar in our walls, we're laying it down thick for the Mason's Guild!

Good day to you my fellow wargamers and players of all sorts of games and welcome to another blurb about Guild Ball!  We’ve only got a few teams left to go over so let’s get going with it and take a look over the Mason’s Guild today.  As usual this is just a quick overview so I will only touch on what stands out to me.  As per usual cards can be found right HERE.

The Mason’s Guild in the lore had a pretty glorious and well envied position prior to the establishment of the sport, seeing as they are the builders of cities and what not.  When the guild ball game began the guild had a rather slow introduction and similar to the Fishermen they were relegated to ignominy until now!  On the pitch the team is considered as a jack-of-all-trades being able to score goals and take enemy models down well enough.  This gives them some flexibility compared with the more focused Butcher’s/Fisherman’s guilds.  In addition most of the team has some form of armor (with one person being the exception) making them slightly resilient in combat.  So let’s take a look at the individual models.

One tool away from Communism!

Captains lead the way and that’s what we are starting with!  Honour is quite a fan favorite and the favored option of many Mason coaches.  Solid stat-line all around with nothing standing out as being unbelievable or terrible, solid like a rock! One thing to note is that her playbook has all her momentous results in the first three columns almost guaranteeing that if you only get a few hits off you’ll also receive 1 MP.  She has a character play giving a 2” dodge but the one that stands out is Superior Strategy.  For 4 INF you can grant another friendly model 1 INF and they make another activation.  I’ll let that sink in for a bit.  The season 2 captain, Hammer, trades a bit of the balanced nature for more offense.  His character plays are a bit interesting as they steal INF off of friendly models to give him buffs to his move, damage, or kick stats.  Hammer lacks a legendary play but can give friendly models the same 3 character plays through his heroic play.  This allows some variability boosting for the team in being able to buff individual models through INF on friendly models.

Starter box with Harmony, Honor, and Mallet

I wanted to touch on the mascots next because often one in particular is taken for his buffing ability and that is Marbles, the crazy ape!  Marbles has the Tooled Pp character play buffing a friendly model’s damage by 1, which on the right person at the right time can lead to a knockout early one.  In addition he has Goad which messes with the enemy to make them move towards Marbles instead of where they wanted to go.  Wrecker is the season 2 mascot and I can tell he would be annoying.  He has armor 3 and his character play, Ramming Speed, moves people 2” out of the way when he contacts them during his move.  Oh and his character trait, Rollerball, gives him a +2”/+2” and can use Ramming Speed for free in exchange for losing out on attacks.  Still a 10” sprint that knocks people out of the way 2” when contacted is nice, and if he engages a model with the ball they need to spend 1 more INF to kick.

From left to right: Hammer, Flint, Honor, Brick, Marbles, Harmony, and Mallet

Coming up we look at Brick who has a average stat-line for a big brute, but with 2 armor!  His character play only triggers on a double ball but the target loses out on 1 INF point.  His character traits are definitely towards reacting with Counter-Charge and Tough Hide making him more resilient in combat and able to react to a crucial move in a 6” bubble around him.  Flint’s role as a striker is reflected in his stat-line with a difference being that his defense is lower than average but he has armor!  His character plays allow him to kick more effectively and get out of sticky situations with a 4” dodge.  He is able to control the ball a bit more by ignoring the first tackle against him and against men his defense goes up to a more manageable 4+.  Looking at Tower next he is similar to Brick in stat-line but with a better kick stat.  His character plays allow him to designate terrain for allies to use the Defensive Stance momentous play without spending MP, but also he can force someone to activate last on the enemy team (Mortician much there Tower?).  Tower can also use his heroic play to soak the damage on models near him, and per his character trait Floored he gains a TAC bonus when attacking models knocked down.

Some Mason commission work from Lil' Legends

Mallet is another defensive midfielder the Mason’s can wield and his stats reflect his role quite well.  One thing I noted was that both of his character plays require a single GB icon to trigger, both are against his target in melee, and both only need 1 hit result to get! He can target the model for allies to gain +2 TAC against or give them a -4/-4” kick! If you needed goal defense this guy is the one to do it.  Oh and his melee reach is 3” on his activation AND if he charges someone then no matter the result on the playbook the target gets a 2” push back and 2 damage.  Insane.  Chisel is different from the rest of the team in that she will play around damage.  She can take damage intentionally for more TAC, if below 6 hp she gains a +1 to damage and +2 TAC, and her character plays allow her to heal when someone takes damage in a 6” bubble around her while also dealing a vindictive 2 damage to those who hurt her.  She’s like Cosset’s sister in a different guild!  Harmony season 1 is a fragile winger who benefits from being around Honor and Brick, specifically she can use Honor’s TAC and Kick if within 4” and gains +1 armor near Brick.  She is agile with a higher defense, but no armor, and can make it so that you can only hit her on 6’s on parting blows.  In addition she can do a sweep for 3 damage in her 1” melee zone if she gets a GB icon in her playbook.  Harmony season 2 must have had a fight with her sister because she does not benefit from Honor’s character traits at all.  Harmony s2 seems to be more a team-wide buffer than her previous incarnation.  She can go around healing teammates for 2 and removing conditions while buffing them with +1 defense against character plays if she ends her activation within 6” of them.  Finally you can transfer damage from a friendly onto her if you need to.

Full team presented right here in model form! From Henry at Dakkadakka

So that in a nutshell are the Mason’s Guild members.  As I’ve been doing I’ve been giving a quick overview on the teams and noticing what stands out.  It seems that the Mason’s are about synergy and making the parts all work together but if you can get it down then I would say you are going to be a touch wall to get through.  That’s it for now, tune in next time for the Brewer’s Guild and we’ll see you next time!