July 2017 Errata - Analysis from our foremost experts

Howdy sports fans!  Today we bring you a special feature (at least as special as the 40 other features doing this exact same thing), rich with provocative analysis and spicy meme references.

Our commentators on this ride will be:

• Peter Williamson, first and only winner of the Billy Wijnveld Award for Outstanding Achievement in the Field of Excellence.
• David Stent, future Australasian Guild Ball champion and veteran scene analyst.
• Handsome David Cameron, an average player in the NZ meta but a veritable god in the UK scene.
• JS Imbeau, a man with no Guild Ball achievements of note but not bad with a pen and paper.
• Billy Wijnveld, Football Legend. A man of few, but momentous, words.

Overall

PW: All aboard the Steamforged Errata Express! Choo Choo. The train has picked up a captains from both ends of the spectrum and moved them closer to the middle. Equality in action, under the "no captain left behind" policy. The changes for me are all positive, regardless of whether it is a reduction in power or an increase.

Whilst I feel that one captain change might have been slightly hit too strong with the nerf bat and will consequently have the adverse effect on Steamforged goal of increasing diversity,  Alchemists and Fish were slightly above the curve according to statistics, the changes should see more diversity in team selection, and this can only be good, right? On top of that I do feel like they have narrowed the gap between captain selection, on most of the captains changed.

HD: Come gather round people, wherever you roam - The 2017 errata has dropped. For some people, the sky is falling. For others, a mariachi band has been their heads since they read the news. So what do I think?

JS: A good shakeup to the game, that as usual I feel did not quite go far enough – there’s a small number of players in each guild that just aren’t really seriously considered for 10 man rosters and this likely will not change that. Alas, one step at a time.

Billy: *glares thoughtfully*

Midas

HD: The second big change is to Alchemists. This really made me do my happy dance. I don't disagree with the top brass who say that Alchemists are the top guild currently. You'll have seen my last blog post where I faced Midas, Naja, Mist, Vitriol, vKatalyst and Compound and really didn't have an answer. Well now the Steamforged gods have smiled upon poor old me.

Midas was too much. That's as simple as I can put it. Virtually unkillable at 5/1 and a 10" goal threat just put him in superhero territory. I've already heard alchemist players say that toning him down will make them consider Smoke on an equal footing, and that can only be a good thing.

JS: Perhaps a little too much in one go. I’d have gone with just the change to the heroic (the +1 ARM was basically free money) and removing Light Footed (both because it made no sense and was partially to blame in losing me a game to Stent). Losing Super Shot is probably fair in that it was very ‘win more’, but not a fan on making Lure of Gold once per turn on top of that.

Billy: Overnerfed.

Vitriol

HD: As for Vitriol, that's just gravy. Again, I don't think anyone would claim that nothing needed to be done. I don't think I've ever played against an Alchemist team that didn't include her. That's a bad sign in a player. Losing such easy access to high damage was a good start but removing 'Cover of darkness' was simply a stroke of genius. If she kicked off and moved into cover then her threat range was simply unfair. Alchemist players might just reconsider her status as an auto include, and that can only be good for the game in my opinion

JS: I must have been the only person that didn’t find her completely unreasonable before. She was however still a clear auto-include so a tweak was justified. She kept Clone, 2” melee and Skilled Within Shadow so she’s still pretty legit. Dunno if the health nerf was necessary but doesn’t seem too bad overall.

Ox

JS: Ox had a shit playbook (about half as bad as Jac's). Now he has a pretty decent playbook. Kept everything else that made him cool. Good stuff.

Billy: Still shit.

Hammer

PW: How do I call him the worst captain in the game now? I feel so hard done by with this change, although I feel he still doesn't touch Honour in terms of sheer awesomeness. He does provide a very different play style to her now. The Heroic changing to Legendary and the character play range increase, just allows for more of a big turn, rather than my feeling of before where popping his heroic just drained even more resources. Like I said, Honour still for me will be number 1, but I feel like I can at least play him now. Congratulations Hammer, your new title is "no longer the worst".

HD: Hammer is now categorically better. Again this balances the captains so he might get a look-in compared to Honour. Small enough tweaks that there doesn't feel anything specific to comment on, but big enough that he will certainly see more play. Good for the game, likely bad for Morticians.

JS: Verdict is out on the playbook changes (seems better to me), but that Legendary is very good. It’s basically choosing between Hammer being Ox, Spigod or Kicking Support activation by activation.

Billy: Might be alright.

Shark

PW: Yup he is the captain I feel that got hit overly hard with the changes. The changes to his legendary are certainly justified, but the changes to his third play book result are staggering (sorry). It just feels like a trash ability that you would only ever take if you just happen to roll 3 successes and don't need to do anything with that influence.  Stagger and a dodge would have been a better result in my opinion. With this change I just feel that Corsair will become everyone's default drop if they are not dealt Knee Slider and even then... why? The choice between the two was really close, but now it feels like Corsair is just a more all round solid drop.

HD: Shark had a minor range reduction on his legendary play, and Gut&String replaced with the less useful Stagger (arguably even less useful than a KD option). This was perhaps further than people expected them to go but it seems fair to me. Steamforged's reasoning that a combination of both plays led to a Haley2 level of "negative play experience" is something that rings true. No one needs that level of movement reduction. I empathise with those people saying it went too far - why not word the legendary play such that opposing players suffer "Gut&String"? That way it couldn't stack with his character play and a balance is still maintained. A further kick in the teeth is that Gut & String isn't gone from the game. Granite retains it as some sick taunt of what the Fisherman used to have.

My biggest fear regarding this nerf is that it will drive Fish players into the waiting nets of Corsair. My Morticians always seem to come up against Shark Fish, and I'm used to dealing with him (see earlier blog examples for my "Shark cage"). I'm far less used to dealing with Corsair, sad face.

JS: Most people thought Shark was weaker than Corsair before already (once you knew how to protect the ball) and this cements it. The Legendary range reduction is entirely justified, and -8/-8 (ie. not doing anything for an activation) was pretty traumatizing so don’t mind that being gone. I don’t think they hit the right lever in just removing G&S entirely though as that was a core part of the character and playstyle for me (moreso than the legendary).

Billy: Dead.

Siren1

PW: Totally legit change, what more needs to be said. I feel like she still does everything she needs to, just has that threat ever so slightly reduced. It's not a huge change, but reasonable. Although Siren1 could always punch pretty hard too, so i guess this a reduction in damage for her as well as the following.

Billy: Well I never liked Siren1 anyway.

JS: Fine. It limits her potential ceiling, which was extremely high before. Now I can just miss 3+ DEF models with Seduced and not have 1 useless INF sitting on her. Thanks SFG. Still a strong model.

Siren2

PW: It's a total blow to Corsairs main source of damage, The damage becoming non momentous is not that big a deal, but the extra column in the playbook, that's where the real sore point is. She just doesn't wrap as easily as she used to. So charging or having a lot of crowd outs her damage is severely reduced. All that said, you will still pick a Siren, they are both a mandatory pick, so dry your eyes petals, they are still way above most players in the game.

Billy: It's a fair change.

JS: Also fine, her momentous damage was very high with just a small amount of set up. Her damage output did go down the drain though as a result of the longer playbook, momentous or not. But she still does basically all the other cool stuff she did, so still has her place.Still in the roster.

Theron

PW: To be honest, I never felt that Theron was that bad, he had some real control elements to him and having snare on every attack makes him a good set up piece. His biggest weakness to me was that he wanted damage, rarely rolled the 3 hits on the first attack to get it. The momentous 1 now is unbelievably his biggest buff. After playing him he just feels like a strong captain now, he still sets up the rest of his team, but now he can hit people and influence the field with his heroic. My actual problem with the guy now is. Where the hell do i find the influence to put on him?

Billy: I didn't know what he did anyway.

JS: Things get pretty cool when you remove the Skornergy. Basically he’s the same as before except actually works efficiently – early activation, put out snares, get a bit more momentum doing his thing… enough to drag Hunters out of Hunter tier IMO.

Maybe this would have fit better under Midas than Hunters

Hearne1

PW: Hmm interesting. He's certainly a better piece, but I do wonder where he fits into the Hunters. I just have to experiment with the guy some more. He still makes a really terrible control piece. But I guess now you can fail that first roll and cry a little when you take singled out. I think his heroic change to allow himself a free skewer is a big deal. Does he replace others?  Not sure. Certainly will go in the 10 now.

JS: Similar to Theron, some Skornergy removed with the change to Blessing of the Sun Father and getting a momentous Singled Out. Now a valuable early activation that gets out debuffs and sets your team up.

A+G

HD: Avarisse & Greede. Wow. What to say. The best advice I've heard so far is from Jamie Perkins; forget the old A&G, we have new models. It's not a tweek. It's not truly an errata. It's a top down reboot, and it's welcome.

Removing their insane turn 1 goal threat is welcome, as it was rather predictable route that Steamforged seem determined to steer away from. Some people seem terrified now about Avarisse's ability to set up effective TAC8 with +1 DMG and whilst it does seem extremely powerful, it doesn't seem necessarily catastrophic. Expect to still see them. Expect to still fear them. But it'll be an easy 2 points for them, rather than an easy 4 points.

JS: A second radical rework for these two, their goal scoring ability was almost entirely removed in exchange for captain level damage. Walk up to someone, put Greede out in melee, Single Out or hit with Avarisse (in either order), then proceed to pump momentous damage into the target and have Greede jump back up. Easy.  Influence hungry but 5 INF for a bunch of momentum and a dead enemy player is usually a good trade. The flexibility of two simultaneous activations is still really strong as well.
Saying that, in my only post errata game, Greede got me the game winning goal, tapping in a goal following a teamwork dodge from an Avarisse pass. SeemsGood.

Harry

JS: Essentially removes Harry’s Crazy and equally stupid damage potential, thus refining him as a tank/brawler and set up piece. Still very good at that though.

*tumbleweed*

Closing: 

PW: Overall Predictions

Alchemists: You almost forget these guys can take Decimate...(take her, she's easily the best union choice). I see a shift to a more Vet Kat style of play. They don't really have 2 bruisers now, but still have so many set up pieces for Vet Kat. Will be interesting to see if Midas or Smoke wins out, but I think it will be Smoke. Though I foresee a lot of A&G being a straight swap for Harry.

Butchers: Still Fillet all day every day. Ox's play style is just too slow, compared to Fillet's. That said, think we actually see Ox now.

Fish: Corsairs reign of terror begins a new. Damn...

Masons: Still Honour... Hammer will at least see more play now though! Overall they are still a solid team, and probably the nerf to Alchemists and Fish is more of a boost, rather than the buff to Hammer.

Hunters:  Hard to say. I think they are certainly in the pack now. I don't think anyone can use the phrase "Hunters are shit" now. There are now only shit Hunter coaches :). I am not sure which captain will actually be played more, I believe some will still prefer Skatha, whilst others will prefer Theron. Your personal preference in playstyle will determine the captain choice.

Union: Roster is so deep, will see frequent amounts of A&G, Harry will probably disappear for a bit, but will come back.

HD: Rather drastically changing the most popular four models in the game less than a month before a major tournament? It's a bold move cotton. Ironically this will hamper both players and opponents as they struggle to remember new threat ranges and abilities! I can't pretend to be totally impartial but I judge these changes as balanced; nothing too extreme and all in the name of the overall health of the game.

Am I upset that Morticians didn't see a bump? Not really. I understand why, and wouldn't want every model to be errata every year. That doesn't mean they aren't being looked at, but does mean that nothing on the spooks roster has been inarguably "too much" and in need of toning down. I'm content for now.

Wish me luck at the British Nationals!

JS: Wish Handsome Dave luck at the British Nationals!

David Stent: Buff Vileswarm please.

Theron's Fading Light

- an article by Peter Williamsky, Winner of the Billy "Wargaming Legend" Award for Excellent in Wargaming

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.

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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

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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 4^th 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.

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.

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.

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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.

Guild Ball @ Grand Slam 2017

I ran a small tournament at the Auckland Grand Slam this past weekend - an equally small summary is offered below:

Final attendance was slightly misleading given the context of the event. The flagship tournament was a 2-day Warmachine affair, where the top 4 players of Day 1 played the semi-final and finals on Day 2, while the rest of the players durdled in a doubles tournament, or played other games.
3 of the 4 players in the Warmachine finals were intending to play Guild Ball had they not been so good, so we lost a chunk of people there. Aside from that, we had at least 3 other players who were intent on coming but were otherwise disposed due to life circumstances (work, family, etc.) shortly before the event. Them's the breaks. So we fell from a reasonable ~14 player event down to 8.

The bright side of this is that it made for a clean 3 round arrangement, which most people were happy to oblige in the end given the heat and access to cheap beer.

All guilds were represented bar Engineers and Fishermen (somewhat surprising), with Butchers being the only guild to be represented twice.

Final standings were as below:

1. Morticians (3-0)
2. Alchemists (2-1)
3. Masons 
4. Butchers 
5. Brewers (1-2)
6. Union 
7. Butchers
8. Hunters (0-3)

Interesting facts:

• Stave was not present in any roster. This is a huge decrease from my last event, where he was played twice in one game by the same player. Oh Stave, where did you go wrong.
• All rosters were dual captain with the exception of Union and (of course) Hunters.
• The Mortician team was the same every game: Scalpel, Vileswarm, Graves2, Ghast, Mist and Cosset. Take that, internet! At least you have that last place Hunters to make you feel better :)
• When asked about the secret behind his team, our Mortician player said "Hammer is the worst captain in the game". When asked to elaborate, he added: "The trick is to play Graves and Vileswarm as far away from each other as possible after the first turn". Dat synergy.
• Most goals (unsurprisingly) were Alchemists, with 8 goals across 3 games (1 Smoke, 2 Midas games).
• Takeout points were (surprisingly?) low, with the high team total being the 14 VP tallied by the Morticians. Turns out Grave Digger is pretty good....
• While neither Butchers nor Brewers took any Union, other teams took 1x Harry, 2x Minx and 2x Mist.

Thanks to our sponsors Steamforged Games (throwing in some prize support before the official kits becomes available to general pundits), Guild Ball Tonight (for some sweet dice) and Peter Williamsky, the recipient of the Billy "Wargaming Legend" Excellence Award for Wargaming:

Season 3 Overview

Yay Season 3!

To give a broad overview of the core changes and trends, without digging into too much detail (read the cards!)

• Tap In is now baseline - -1TN to goal kicks within 4"
• Home Crowd is now baseline - 1MP if you do not go first each turn after the first.
• Mascots now have icy sponges, and give up only 1VP when taken out. As a result, most mascots have had small (1-3 boxes) health reductions.
• All players now only have 1 Icy Sponge marker about halfway up the playbook. Many players have had slight health reductions.
• Many healing effects outside momentum use have been reduced or removed.
• A lot of players changed nationality (for the purpose of the 'Homelands Cup' format)
• Most (but not all) buffs are 'friendly Guild' so no longer affect Union models.

Alchemists:

What was thought as the "weakest" guild in Season 1 (largely due to lack of synergies between their team & captain) received a big boost to their AoE condition play with Smoke in Season 2. Season 3 in turn brought them big changes to their non-AoE aspect, with huge changes to both Midas and Katalyst.

The most significant changes were to Midas and Katalyst, who were heavily reworked:

• Midas has lost every single Play and Trait he had before (other than arguably combining 2 of his previous 3 heroic plays into 1), and became an A-list shifty showoff of a striker instead, with some excellent (indirect) team support options.
  The Midas of S1 and S2 that you either loved or hated is completely gone and replaced by a whole new different beast.
  In my opinion this rework is with good reason, as the first Midas had some issues that broke the game and its future development - True Replication combining with his Playbook being foremost and throttling future options for little real gameplay benefit.
  
  One more important note - Midas' new Legendary brings the Snared condition to the Alchemists, giving them access to every condition in the game, without Union models.
• Katalyst has become a human ball of flame that can spread fire and KD like a madman. 2/4 INF, shitload of health, and Seismic Kick to take advantage of his decent (for a big guy) kick stat and inflict KD at range. Legit.
  Somewhat ironically, the only way to "force" him to remove the fire is to get him or his team to shake ALL conditions off him - bleed him, KD him, poison him, snare him....

In terms of minor changes: Vitriol received a surprisingly small but measured nerf (Hidden Damage once per turn only), Mercury received small systemic buffs (extra INF, Flame Jet cheaper), Compound's Rush Keeper is once per turn, while other guild models were mostly unchanged.

The real MVP of the changes is Veteran Katalyst's Heroic Play, which has been rightfully renamed to "Witness Me!"

All in all, I think Alchemists are in a position where they can, at one extreme, play a very strong football game (led by Midas) , while on the other end have an identity as a grindy, condition-based team (based on Smoke), and plenty of space in between to play around in. A very strong contender for top Guild in Season 3.

Brewers:

Brewers received perhaps the fewest changes of any team (tied with Fishermen):

• Small changes to Tapper (+1/+1 INF but can no longer Old Jake's himself) and a change to Commanding Aura (now a +1 TAC/DMG buff to friendly guild models with 4")
• Esters' Heroic Soothing Voice no longer heals 2 HP
• Friday's 2 DMG on column 2 no longer momentous
• Mash traded Long Bomb for a 4" push/KD playbook ability and slightly different playbook
• Stoker received sizable buffs (extra INF, cheaper character plays, faster)

All Brewers basically the same. Praise be to the Spigod. Don't fix it if it ain't broke? Brewers remain a synergy-driven, durable guild with good options in both the goal scoring (especially with Harry the Hat!) and "good old fashioned scrap" department.

Butchers:

Overall Butchers have received a number of balance changes, while retaining their core identity of "extremely hard hitting but relatively fragile" aka. glass cannons:

• Nerfs to Shank (2/3 INF), Brisket (no Princess TAC buff) and Fillet (Haemophilia effectively removed). 
• Small system buffs to vBrisket and Tenderizer (improved character plays)
• Significant buffs/reworks to Boar (3+ DEF, new playbook, better healing) and Meathook (+1 ARM, 2/3 INF, pushes added to most playbook results, inflicts -1 DEF on damage)

Ox and the mascots have received slight changes that in the greater scheme of things evens them out, and Boiler is entirely unchanged. 

Perhaps the biggest stealth change is that Ox's auras no longer affect Union models, thus likely removing Gutter from most Ox lineups in favour of a Butcher player, despite Gutter's actual playstyle with Ox being relatively unaffected. Minx's rework (more on that later) will also be interesting for Butchers, since DEF debuffs are huge for them.

The Butchers should remain a strong guild in Season 3 with an emphasized '4 TOs- 1 goal' strategy, although Tap In definitely boosts someone like Shank to a viable striker (likely the reason for his INF cap reduction). I don't think the nerfs invalidate any of the affected players at all, and the reworks make those two players a lot more valuable (Meathook will become the new cornerstone/support player for the team). The mascot changes I think will be especially visible in Butchers, who have mascots capable of dealing good (momentous) damage. Meathook also looks like she will work very well with both captains.

Engineers

Likely the most fundamentally changed guild, from a ranged attrition/denial guild to a much clearer football-oriented direction.

Engineers had too many changes to cover in detail, but here are the big ones. As a trend, most models have received reworked playbooks, with more impactful momentous and damage results:

• Ballista now has a weaker version of his old legendary as a character play to replace Flurry, and a Seismic Super Kick as a legendary.
• Pin Vice character plays now deal only 2 DMG, she's now DEF 5+/0 and traded 5 health for Reanimate.
• Mother's nests and Burrow reworked to be TN debuffs and ball retrieval instead of fire.
• Mainspring gets a 3/8" pass FOR FREE every turn, with a momentous tackle on 1. What a mascot.
• Colossus picks up Unexpected Arrival, Stoic and the ability to pick up loose balls within 2".
• Ratchet gets some momentous damage, Tooled Up, and more Mechanica support abilities (the recursive cricket bomb is gone though).
• Salvo loses his Bolts, but gets Flurry, Arrow to the Knee and the ability to pick up loose balls at a distance, effectively making him a striker in all but name.
• Velocity picks up Acrobatic (2" dodge, 1 INF)
• Hoist maintains True Replication, but it costs 0, targets friendlies and is usable every turn. Lots of really cool plays to steal!

Basically, most players got better, the guild picked up a handful of ball retrieval abilities, they can do better damage and momentum generation in combat, and their ranged KD game (ie. Salvo) was reduced severely.

Overall they will be a very different Guild in Season 3, with better combat options and unique ball-control abilities to make up for the loss of mass ranged KD. Whereas Fish football relies on mobility and dodges to score and pick up loose balls, Engineers rely on teamwork actions (Harry!), pushes and character abilities. 

Fishermen

Relatively few changes to Fishermen, which I considered the possibly the most balanced guild in Season 1 & 2 (others may disagree, #FishOP)

• Small buffs were received by Angel (base DEF 5+), Salt (2/4" KICK)
• Kraken got a few more buffs with 2/6" KICK, DEF 3+/0 and some 2" pushes on the playbook.
• Greyscales lost 2 health in exchange for Decoy working against character plays and a better Ball's Gone!

Everything else appears untouched.

Somewhat surprisingly, Shark and vet Siren both remain completely untouched, despite the murmurs of 'negative play experience' resulting from their core abilities.

All in all - Fish remain Fish, but the game around them has become even better for them .

Hunters

Hunters were considered by many to be the weakest guild in the game by the end of Season 2, in my opinion largely due to having a lower number of models and therefore tactical depth than other teams. 

Despite this perception, there were only few changes on the Hunter side of things:

• Theron's Nature's Growth can only be used at the start of his activation, but can now be placed within 2" of other terrain (rather than 3"). He also lost Forest Sight.
• Hearne is now 3/6" KICK
• Seenah gets a free 2" push within his melee range at the start of activation and a reworked playbook.
• Also Minx.

Other models appear unchanged. Overall Hunters received some nice little improvements, but the community complaint seems to be based around not getting enough buffs to bring them into line with other guilds, and a nerf to their 1 captain on top of that. 

My (completely speculatory) theory is that the Nature's Growth / Forest Sight change is partially to do with Farmers, and partially because getting a forest in front of your face and then getting Pinned is a pretty hard counter for which only a minority of players have a counter-play, and you could do it every turn (more likely you missed the Pinned and got tilted at Theron :)

Otherwise the other buffs seem pretty solid to me for a guild that had good internal balance and will likely (hopefully) become more openly competitive with the release of a couple of new models in Season 3. 

Masons

Masons received a significant number of small to medium adjustments on top of Harmony & Tower's reworks:

• Hammer 4/5 INF
• Honour got several small changes that mostly even out (perhaps a small decrease in overall power) - Responsive Play -> Poised, Legendary 4" -> 6" (still "gains" INF!), Superior Strat now allocates & is OPT, KD result down a column.
• Flint loses Super Shot, but is 4/8" KICK baseline
• Vet Harmony traded Scything Blow for Marked Target, but Smelling Salts no longer heals.
• Marbles loses Tooled Up, but gains Counter Charge while within 4" of Brick

Harmony was reworked to have a longer Family leash (8" instead of 4"), Back to the Shadows, new character plays, and a better playbook.
Tower picked up Tooled Up, has an AoE play that grants Sturdy, and one that grants Defensive Stance. He's like the defensive cornerstone of the Masons, leaving Mallet as the offensive cornerstone.

A handful of vocal posters on the Masons forum community seem to be taking a very siloed, model-by-model approach to evaluating these changes, thinking of everything strictly in "buff/nerf" terms and not looking at the model in context of the team and in context of the game. Which is a strange way to look at it, given that almost every model that received a nerf also received a buff, and there were a lot! On top of this, the two reworked models are in my opinion also significantly better than their previous incarnations.

I think Masons remain as almost strong as previously and most of the "nerfs" received have good reasons behind them. The "power roster" will likely change a bit from what it is now but they will still be able to do their thing with great effectiveness.

Morticians

The boogiemen of Season 1, dominating metas everywhere with the Obulus/ Dirge/ Silence/ Ghast/ Mist/ Rage/ Avarisse + Greede roster.

• Obulus himself took a few hits: -1 TAC, -2 health, 5/7 INF, Puppet Master no long refunds an INF.... but then again his Misdirection was significantly improved at -2 INF & OPT
• Silence, the other terror in the lineup, took a hit with 2/4 INF and -3 health. At the same time, he got +0/+1 MOV and traded Embalming Fluid for Fire Blast (significantly better IMO)
• Dirge's Dark Doubts is only -2MP now (net -1MP, rather than -3MP).

And that's it in terms of nerfs. Most models were unchanged, but 3 got significantly better:

• Graves picked up 2/4 INF, traded Rabid Animal for Tooled Up and now has a momentous Scything Blow.
• Cosset got a reworked, shorter and much more efficient playbook, and traded Damage Support Dirge for Assist Dirge (more potential, but harder to set up). Screeching Banshee now a DEF debuff over a MOV debuff.
• Bonesaw now a legit goal threat with the reworked Football Dervish allowing yoyo football dodges, a very reliable goal kick and more consistent defensive abilities in exchange for 1 health and Reanimate.

Morticians in general have lost slivers of health on most players, reducing their tankiness down a few notches. Most of the power roster was addressed both directly (Rage's Tooled Up being Guild only, A+G rework, Mist nerf..) and indirectly (1 Union player per roster max), resulting in an understandable loss of power for the Morticians. At the same time, most of the underused models were significantly improved, and Scalpel has become a very competitive choice with Obulus, which I think will open up the guild a lot.

The Union

Steamforged's favourite nerf bat target (mostly on account of being ridiculously OP in Season 1), the Union make a stellar recovery in Season 3 with a few small nerfs and a number of sizable reworks:

• Blackheart, in my (unpopular) opinion the best captain in Season 1, was reworked from being a mobile tank deathstar into something a little more tricky and football oriented. He is still very mobile and durable, but his team's area damage output has been reduced significantly in exchange for gaining one of the few abilities in the game to get the ball off a friendly model that has already activated, plus a usable Misdirection.
• Minx' Hunter identity has been well and truly developed, with a number of Hunter traits like Back to the Shadows, the ability to apply Snared on damage and the new Screeching Banshee. Very INF efficient winger for any team. May actually be legit OP.
• Harry has gone from dumpster to throne with a massive rework, the most notable features of which are a new playbook, 2" melee and an aura that grants -1MP cost to teamwork actions. Rock solid midfielder.
• Finally, Avarisse and Greede have changed significantly, most notably on the Greede side of things: lots of stat buffs and icy sponges. Both activate at the same time and Greede can detach at any point in the activation and use Avarisse' INF. Still look really solid in both the damage department and ball-control/striking.
  I have a small fear that losing Greede won't be as big a deal anymore though, as you can bring him back on straight away and just hide in a corner, giving out his 1 INF at no risk like Mascots of old.

A few tune ups (two of which are sizable buffs):

• Vet Rage's Heroic can now be used on other models as well.
• Gutter now has Scything Blow on the 5 column (which no longer heals her), and 6" Chain Grab on the 3.
• Snakeskin picked up a momentous dodge result on column 1.

The only arguable 'nerfs' are to: 

• Coin (who now has a 1" melee range and Bag of Coffers is "allocated")
• Mist (who lost Where'd They Go for Acrobatics, and Shadow Like in certain teams). 
• Oh, and Hemlocke's Smelling Salts no longer heal. Good old Hemlocke, taking it on the chin again and beating Gutter for the crown of Most Nerfed Model.
  At least, if you ignore that she gained +1 TAC and a new << >> momentous result on 4 hits....

All other models appear to be the same. Union as a guild will remain competitive but now have the ability to play the game with team-oriented football lining, instead of just outfighting and outtanking most rosters. This could make the two captain pairing very interesting in 9 man rosters, since a lot of Union players can go both ways (ie. are good fighters with 3/6" KICK stats)


Also it looks like we might be getting a red haired, striker-oriented Union captain in Season 3, coinciding strangely with the exile of Brisket from the Butcher's Guild and Ox's release by the Solthecian Church.....

Postscript

You may have gotten the impression I think Season 3 is very good, and I do. Is it perfect? Of course not. There are several areas where changes were perhaps warranted but weren't implemented - Hunters as a whole, Chisel, and Stave have each received a large amount of attention as underpowered models in S3, and there are likewise some concerns that Minx & Harry the Hat have become too powerful and too much of a shoe-in for that coveted 1 Union slot.

What I think is most important about this process is not only that the overall changes are by and large overwhelmingly well-received and backed by good reasoning, but that Steamforged continues to show willingness to do what is necessary in order to make Guild Ball a more compelling, competitive and enjoyable game, to the point of making significant changes to about 1/3rd of the models in the game, and even going so far as DELETING a captain model entirely and building him back from the ground up, because he was a negative games experience for many and skewed the game in a way that affected future development.
Not only this, but the game's developers have repeatedly shown to be willing to directly interact with community media in order to explain their decision making process. And you still don't have to pay a cent to access the full rules for the game. 

Season 1+ 2: Stats Compilation

Earlier in the year, we put up a few articles regarding average stats across guilds:

• Melee Ranges
• TAC stats
• KICK stats
• MOV stats
• DEF/ARM stats

While these are in no way conclusive or all encompassing characterizations of each guild (primarily since it excludes Character Plays and Traits), they do paint a pretty good picture of what each guild is about. Here is a compilation of these stats:

# of 2” melee:

Engineers	Hunters	Brewers	Butchers	Masons	Union	Alchemists	Morticians	Fishermen
2/11	2/8	3/11	3/11	3/11	4/14	4/11	4/11	8/11

Mean TAC:

Fishermen	Engineers	Masons	Alchemists	Union	Morticians	Brewers	Hunters	Butchers
4.4	4.5	4.5	4.7	4.7	4.8	4.8	5	5.6

KICK die means:

Butchers	Masons	Morticians	Hunters	Union	Brewers	Alchemists	Fishermen	Engineers
2.09	2.18	2.18	2.25	2.33	2.46	2.46	2.72	3.27

KICK distance means:

Hunters	Union	Morticians	Engineers	Masons	Alchemists	Butchers	Brewers	Fishermen
5.5”	5.7”	5.8”	5.8”	6”	6”	6.1”	6.2”	6.4”

Mean base MOV:

Brewers	Union	Alchemists	Hunters	Masons	Butchers	Fishermen	Morticians	Engineers
4.7	5.1	5.2	5.3	5.4	5.4	5.6	5.6	5.7

Mean DEF:

Masons	Brewers	Engineers	Union	Butchers	Fishermen	Hunters	Alchemists	Morticians
3.2+	3.3+	3.6+	3.7+	3.7+	3.7+	3.8+	3.8+	3.9+

Mean ARM:

Morticians	Hunters	Butchers	Fishermen	Union	Alchemist	Brewers	Engineers	Masons
0.6	0.6	0.6	0.6	0.7	0.8	0.9	1	1.4

Choosing a Guild - Hunters

One of the first articles we put up was in regards to choosing a guild based on rough criteria of what aspect of the game each guild was strong or weak in. These were based on early Season 1 numbers put together by the development team - granted that things have probably shifted a bit by now.

One of these changes was the release of the Hunters. I've put together a few ballpark numbers based on feedback from the online Hunter community:

Hunters

Melee Damage - 6
Ranged Damage - 4
Ball Control - 3
Speed - 5
Toughness - 5
Special - 7

Hunters are arguably the second best control guild in the game after Morticians, due to their traps and widespread access to the Snared condition (-1 DEF & -2/-2 MOV). They also excel at moving through rough ground, and their captain Theron has the unique ability in the game to create terrain. On the whole the guild has pretty average stats, however they also have 2 of the best melee damage dealers in the game in Jaecar and Seenah (literally a bear) which gives them a slight edge in that department.
One department where they are definitely weak is the football game, with the worst KICK stats on average. They attempt to make up for this by having some very mobile players who can slip away for a goal in the right situation. The other difficult aspect of the Hunters is that usually require multiple activations to set up that 'perfect trap' due to many interconnections.

Hunters might suit you if:

• You like a patient control style, combined with savage damage dealing
• Are willing to 'work harder' for your VPs and 'setting up the trap'
• Like the rugged northern woodsman aesthetic - and bears