Foreword: this is pre-Heralds of Winter, I will give my thoughts on playing them at a later time. Also, there are many ways to play Guildball, this is just how I have found the most success with playing the Hunters. Might want to grab a coffee or something too before reading on. I am unsure if any of this is going to be really helpful to anyone, because Guildball is such a situationally-dependent game.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Hunters are a
team that are competitive, you just may have to work a little harder than most
teams in order to play them well. Anyone who points to stats saying Hunters are
clearly the weakest, I will just point out that those same stats suggested Morticians
in season 2 were middle of the pack with Obulus being fair and balanced.
Let’s be clear about this: Hunters are indeed the hardest
Guild to play. Part of the reason for this, is they don’t hit as hard as
other teams such as Brewers or Butchers and most certainly can’t keep up with
the footballing teams in terms of goal scoring. So where then do the Hunters excel? It’s kind of weird that Hunters actually excel at, well… hunting. Isolating their targets, taking them down and then
moving on to the next.
Pro Tips
- Move in packs: when moving the Hunters around, try to move your players to positions that they will end being supported by other players. Most hunters do damage in some form and gather momentum in doing so (if you look at Hunter playbooks, most have momentous results on all but 1 column - JS), which is often used to heal a player, so it’s important to keep the opponent worried about committing. When moving forward ensure that there is another player that is within range of the aggressor as either back-up or follow-up. Also, it is important not to let too many opposing players be in range of whomever you put forward as bait, as Hunters do not stand up well to scrum fights or getting ganged up on . One last important note about moving is don't be afraid to take a parting blow to move a player back. Often this feels like a bad move, but it will save damage in the long run.
- Plan on losing the momentum race: One thing that has struck me with the Hunters, is actually to give up (for the most part) on the attempt to go first. Spend that momentum on healing players! It’s very important to not give up the VP’s, whereas going second isn’t usually that big a deal. Your players have decent counter attacks (a lot of low pushes/dodges), to place the opponent on edge. I personally also often want the last activation of the turn in order to give a player full information when activating. Being a momentum-starved Guild, the free momentum for going second does help :)
It’s hard to discuss how to play Hunters without going into specific players, but as a Hunters player you typically want the opponent to commit to you.
I have found that whenever I have gone over the halfway line too quickly and
overextend, I usually end up losing. Hunters have enough ranged elements to
ensure that the enemy will have to commit to you at some point. Just be patient
and try not to blink first. You know
what they say: patience is virtue.
 |
| Token Bear high five image |
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Roster
The main line up I tend to run is:
Theron, Fahad, Jaecar, Seenah, Egret, and for my saucy Union choice, Minx.
That is 3 Furious models and 3 models with Back to the Shadows.
Theron is the main tank of the team, basically you want to
snare as many people as possible. He will generally only be able make ranged
attacks and be allocated 4 or more on the first turn after that he will give
the team influence, allocating only 2-3. Why is he the tank? Well he can give
himself cover, which he will usually do by dropping the forest on himself
and he has the best defensive stats of all the Hunters (4+/1 with 18 boxes). Ensure that you keep
him healthy by healing him whenever he activates (keep this in mind for any
player, but players can only heal 4 a turn if they have already activated and
were undamaged) So try to ensure that he activates after he has suffered a
little bit of damage for maximum efficiency, and to get up to 8 healing per turn.
I would suggest after the first turn that you don’t even
bother using his ranged abilities (situations will obviously occur that you
must do this to stop goals). He is mainly a guy who gets into a fight and after
the first attack snares the target, he will usually do 2 momentous damage per hit . It’s that first attack
that can be a little bit of kicker, so try to have a momentum (for Bonus Time, if needed) if possible
before activating him. He gets a bad rep for some reason as a terrible captain,
but at least he isn’t Hammer (who is useless). The flexibility of Theron is
actually pretty decent but he is definitely not a super star captain who receives
max influence, nor he is a captain that supports (ie. buffs) his team.
Fahad usually hangs approx. 4 inches behind Theron, often wasting his activation by sitting around doing nothing, as mascots often do, and is usually the first to activate when trying to delay activating key pieces. It’s usually not worth committing the kitty unless the target is snared, so be patient and wait for it. He is usually a hit or miss player, which either generates crucial momentum or never gets a chance to do anything. But for a mascot who receives no influence, who cares?
Jaecar is all about
reducing the health of the player that went into Theron, Gut & Stringing him
and reducing that defence even further. Or he can go in on some other enemy player and dance back.
4+/0 defensive stats ensures that you need to be careful with him. Although he has Back to the Shadows, if he gets targeted, he will go down. Again, try to keep the guy in
reserve to respond after your opponent commits. My advice would be to always Gut & String (even
though it’s non-momentous) someone if you get 4th column play book
result, then place the trap next to them, buy an attack and dodge back your 5 inches. Most
players can’t even reach you at 6 inches away this point, as they'll trigger the trap by moving and get Snared.
Seenah!!! Keep him behind and wait for them to have committed into Theron, as they are probably snared up. Jaecar has likely thrashed them for a fair amount of damage so they are effectively -2 DEF. This is enough for you to wreck them and probably get the Bear Hug off reliably. Unfortunately, after doing this once, he is on the front line, but you should have netted yourself a sweet 3VP. You should be in 6 vs 5 scenario and the bear doesn’t really go down that easily because of Tough Hide. I have been told people will now farm the bear for momentum, but it is not infinite damage and will take some dedicated pressure to kill.
Seenah!!! Keep him behind and wait for them to have committed into Theron, as they are probably snared up. Jaecar has likely thrashed them for a fair amount of damage so they are effectively -2 DEF. This is enough for you to wreck them and probably get the Bear Hug off reliably. Unfortunately, after doing this once, he is on the front line, but you should have netted yourself a sweet 3VP. You should be in 6 vs 5 scenario and the bear doesn’t really go down that easily because of Tough Hide. I have been told people will now farm the bear for momentum, but it is not infinite damage and will take some dedicated pressure to kill.
3 VP is a big deal, it now opens up that easy to kill
mascot, or to set up another Bear Hug. This is fairly easy to be honest,
although harder than the first. Use the same method as before. Use a couple of punches from Theron for snare and apply another DEF debuff.
If Seenah ends up in-front of the rest of the guild,
something has probably gone wrong, or you feel sufficiently safe that he
isn’t going to get quickly isolated.
He really isn’t a player that you can send forth by himself. I recommend trying it though at least once, experiencing the pain is a good to remind yourself not to do it again.
He really isn’t a player that you can send forth by himself. I recommend trying it though at least once, experiencing the pain is a good to remind yourself not to do it again.
Minx will always play on the far wing. This girl has ridiculous
threat on anyone who is damaged. So she can usually support players even though
she looks miles away. She is one of the few players you probably don’t need to support. A solid player, and can score goals combined with Egret.
Egret - the flex player. She is actually very good at holding the ball, probably one of the best players in the game for it. She hangs out behind your team and receives 2 INF. She will either pass/score or fire out a Flurry and walk about 11 inches a turn, whilst doing at least 4 damage. Poison is so clutch to weaken players early, because as previously mentioned Hunters don’t burst players as effectively as some other teams. I actually find she herself won’t score the goals, but she can launch the ball to players such as Minx and Jaecar and have them go score. Final note for Egret and her positioning: she usually doesn’t get the Heroic from Theron because of timing and where Theron is compared to her.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Now for some blurry photos to try give an example of what I have said. Maybe even poor examples but we are not all perfect and mistakes are made. Note: on the second photo, do as I say not as I do :).
For the record I lost 12-6, but only because i fumbled my last few activations, but had a real shot at 6 point activation. I was down 8-0 , but was patient to not over extend, to keep the scoreline ticking in my favour for the next 2-3 turns:
 |
| Kick off , kicked aggressively off the board.. oops |
 |
| Start of 2: notice my mistake? Yup i had egret on the wrong side, meaning the bear couldn't support her by knocking fillet over, pushing her away and heal Egret, |
 |
| Start of 3, Decimate wrapped on a charge previous turn (wtf) and so i am down 8-0 after she can now kill Minx and score. |
No comments:
Post a Comment