Tick-tock, tick-tock, you forgot this guild: the Engineer's Guild!

Good day to you fellow war gamers and welcome to another Wargamer Ramblings post!  So not too long ago a friend of mine, Josh over here at the Ordinary Wargamer, pointed out that I had forgotten a guild for Guild Ball!  Looking back I did forget a guild, I forgot the Engineer’s Guild!  So I apologize for you Guild Ball fans out there, people interested in the Engineers, or players of the Engineers!  I truly just forgot to write up on them, so without further ado let’s look at the Tinkers and as usual stat cards can be found HERE.

So the Engineers are a secretive bunch who have secrets upon secrets and like to build and work things, much like an engineer (hurr hurr hurr)!  Like many guilds they have their own agenda to play out while keeping a public façade of service with new technological developments and clockwork wonders.  On the field they remind me of how one would play the Convergence of Cyriss in Warmachice.  The activations need to be precise and the pieces of the machine need to work together flawlessly in order to succeed.  I could be wrong but I get the feeling that a wrong move could spell disaster for the Engineers.  Despite being unforgiving in some respects, a good Engineer player will be able to pull off some nasty moves and devastating plays.  So let’s look at the players of the team shall we?

Guild Crest

Ballista is the season 1 captain with a pretty good stat line and several momentous plays in his playbook.  Generating momentum with him shouldn’t be a problem with a lot of dodge results requiring 2-3 hits per play.  His character plays focus on a mix of support and ranged effects.  He can grant a jog move to another friendly model with ‘Second Wind,’ he can ‘Deadbolt’ someone to push them back 2”/with knockdown/3 damage.  Finally he can use ‘Flurry’ and drop a small area of 2 damage to the target and those within 2” of it.  He has Tough Hide to help with defense but he maintains a 4” aura that help generate more MP if a friendly generates a hit with a character play that causes damage.  Finally his legendary play ‘Mine Field’ is an 8” aura that causes 1 DMG per enemy reposition, and if they start or finish their advance in the aura they take 4 DMG.  Quite a nasty play if you rely on those a lot, right Fishermen?  Now Pin Vice, the season 2 captain I will get to in a bit because of her rather interesting take on the game.

Starter box with: Salvo, Ballista, Velocity

I am going to first talk about the human players of the Engineer’s Guild and it’ll make sense in a bit why.  Salvo is a winger with a nice stat line that can be used for scoring a goal in a pinch.  Her playbook is a little underwhelming at first and you’ll only generate MP with 2-4 results and they are when you tackle or a reposition.  She has ‘Kick Bolt’ and ‘Floored Bolt’ for her character plays which does a 3” push/2 DMG, and 1 DMG/Knockdown respectively.  She can use the Bonus Time! Ability once per turn for free and she can make a 1” dodge if causes damage.  Ratchet plays as a defensive midfielder with a decent stat line to suggest that he can also do a good job passing the ball back to where you need it to go.  His playbook is rather unassuming and his character plays are a toolbox.  He can heal a friendly Mechanica model for 2/remove all conditions, throw the ball 12” to a target spot with a scatter, or toss a rough-ground causing AoE within 10” that also deals 2 DMG.  Once per turn he can bring back to life Mainspring, one of the mascots, for 2 MP and for his heroic play he can cause a friendly Mechanica model to Sprint/Charge for free on their turn but they are then taken-out.  Engineer plays can also take Compound, a dual faction model for the Engineer’s and the Alchemists.  As I spoken about him before in a previous post, click HERE if you need to read up on him.  Colossus rounds out the last human player, but he is also a Mechanica model as well.  He’s quick to move, easy to hit, has 20 hp, and has a wide range of options for his playbook.  His character plays allow him to push models 2” when he makes base contact with them and if he can score a GB icon (which only takes 1 hit) he can grant his target a -4/-4” to their Kick.  For being a giant spider Mechanica he ignores the first tackle result on him, ignore rough-ground penalties through terrain and has ‘Tough Hide.’  As a central midfielder Colossus has a lot of variety to make him useful for a variety of situations.

Left to right: Colossus, Mainspring, Ballista, Salvo, Ratcher, and Velocity

So now let’s talk about the other Mechanica models.  Season 1 Velocity is a striker type with some really solid striker stats sporting a move of 6”/8” and a kick of 4/8” giving her a base 16” goal threat range.  Her playbook has a lot of reposition effects with dodges/pushes and her character play ‘Nimble’ bumps up her DEF from a 5+ to a hard 6+.  Additionally she has ‘Reanimate’ and ‘Close Control’ bringing her back to life once per turn with 3 hp and also ignoring the first Tackle each turn.  Season 2 Velocity is now upgraded to a goalkeeper but she can also adapt to be a striker instead.  Her stats are solid for her role and her playbook focuses on repositions and taking control of the ball.  Her character plays grant her +2 TAC or she can GB icon it up to give her target -4/-4” to their kick.  If she wants to play goalie she can stay within 4” of the goal marker and make the TN to score a goal go up by 1, and if they fail she automatically gains control of the ball.  She can ditch those two abilities to increase her move by 1 and she gains ‘Unpredictable Movement’ making it harder to catch her.  So depending on your need she can switch it up.  Hoist has a stat line similar to Season 2 Velocity and his playbook also has a wide range of options.  Unlike Velocity his adaptability comes from being able to replace his only character play, ‘True Replication,’ with that of another model for the rest of the game.  He also comes with ‘Tough Hide, Reanimate, and Sturdy’ making it hard to take him down.  While his ‘True Replication’ hasn’t been used he gains a slight buff to holding more INF.

So the two mascots for the Engineers are both Mechanica.  Mainspring can rush up the field and with his character play kick the ball a bit better, but if he’s taken out then he explodes in a 3” pulse that deals 3 DMG and puts the fire condition on people.  Now Mother is an interesting one because while her stats are similar to that of a mascot she plays around with the field using her nest markers.  She can have up to 3 at a time and she can drop one each turn within 6”.  Her character play allows her to teleport to a nest marker destroying it in the process or she can use them as proximity mines and put burning conditions on those within 1”. 

I am a fan of the blue/yellow combination, courtesy of Steamforged's dafruk

Aight so let me finish this article off with the Season 2 captain, Pin Vice.  She is mobile with a high move and the rest of her stats are common for the team captains.  Her playbook has a lot of options with several generating MP but she does not deal out a lot of raw damage.  What she does is interact with Mechanica models to do her bidding.  For a heroic play she can spend one MP to make all models on the team count as Mechanica.  Each character play when used will inflict 3 DMG on them at the end of the turn but she will instill them a boon by doing so.  She can grant someone +2”/+2” to their move, grant someone +1 DMG to their attacks and character plays while allowing them to use ‘Bonus Time!’ once without spending MP, or (and this is solid) they can activate after Pin Vice is done if they’ve not activated already.  Let’s look at her legendary play as well.  When used she will grant all Mechanica models an oil-marker which allows you, upon a successful pass, to immediately use the oil to make another pass without INF.  So if played right you can make a series of passes, all in succession, for free.  Need to get a final goal for the win and you have a good setup? Use this ability to get that goal in!  As a captain she is focused on pushing her machines to the limit but there are a lot of tricks available if you build a team around her strategy.

Another fine paintjob courtesy of Dark Iron Studios

So there we have it, the Engineer’s Guild!  I think now….let me make sure…yes now I am done with the Guild Ball teams!  Once again I apologize for leaving this team out, there’s a lot of potential in them and I didn’t want someone to think that by leaving them out they were a less viable option.  I just dumbly forgot!  Anyways have a good wargaming time fellow gamers and happy gaming!