GUILDS game - new details! (Patreon)

Edit: after some tests on implementing old factions, we decided to tweak a bit the wheel for a more engaging experience.

Hello Adventurers!
Or should we say... Guildmasters?

We are working on a epic update for GUILDS, our skirmish tabletop game.
As you might know we have this project running since few years, but thanks to the fantastic support received and the huge amount of models we have sculpted, things are evolving pretty quickly now!

When we started to dream about our ideal fast-paced and engaging miniature game we had some starting forces in mind, but here we are making so many new factions that things grow up a lot!
In order to make our game compatible with both the universe we are building and the minis we make here on Patreon, we decided to subdivide the various factions across 6 cardinal alignments called Forces (which are also work in progress being in Alpha stage).

The new release of Guild (Alpha 0.75) was going to be published this week, but due to a super epic mounted hero we are working on now, we have to push the update later, about the end of the month.

Please note that this will not change the way we make models on Patreon.
This place (Patreon) is about 3d printable models coming each month, and it will not be influenced by GUILDS rules or Forces.
The game will adapt to our minis, not the other way around. The game rules and model stats will also be free to our Patrons as we promised since the beginning!

How GUILDS play

The first step you'll do when playing GUILDS is to create your Guild... deck.
If you are going to play a quick skirmish Quest, you can choose a level of Glory which is equal for all players. For example, you might choose to play with 40 points, which will allow 2 Heroes (paying their cost) and all the regular units or spell you can get.
A normal model cost is 2 points, while stronger ones costs 3 and lesser minions only 1. Heroes might Cost from 5 up to 10, it really depend on its skills.

As things are quickly updated or changed, for the moment we have not a final Card graphic, and we rely on a simple printable PDF which contains all models stats cards.
These cards are now from the Force of Nature.

Each character we make is represented by a Card and a Miniature on the table; cards are an important feature of this game, and are real game components in GUILDS, not only references for the statistics. Your personal deck of Guild Cards is deployed on your side of the table while their correspondent minis 

Do you like our super amazing gaming table on top?

The new Activation System makes the game much more engaging and fluent.
Every Round start with a quick Initiative Roll and is then subdivided in 3 major Phases: Event Phase; where your Guildmaster Shouts its Orders (and Quests events take place), an Activation Phase where players alternate activating one Card (and the correspondend hero or unit/s); and an End Phase where certain effects are applied and the wondering monsters are activated.
Unlike before, during the Activation Phase you activate a single Card by turning it to the side and act with its correspondent model, and your player do the same immediatly.
For example, Player 1 activate a Hero to move and cast a spell, Player 2 reply by charging and striking that hero with a formation of orcs, player 1 move in position some defenders to protect the hero and engage the orcs, player 2 activate his Guildmaster to shoot arrows to the defenders, and so on.
As every model on the table has been Activated, the End Phase start and so on.

Luckly our playtesters and grammar check Moderators @Torsten and @Aveal on Discord are making sure the Rules are easy to read and in perfect English (unlike this post!)

The Great Forces

In this case, the gameplay of this project is adapting to our Miniature Line product: an ever evolving line of characters and monsters, an expandable product that on Patreon will make new models every month.

This wheel is not about Kingdoms or Alliances, is more about ideologies and goals of the inhabitants of Artisan Guild multiverses.  Every Force defines the principles of the various factions who belong to it, their vision of the world, their goals and common beliefs.
This doesn’t mean that all the factions and characters of the same Force know each other: some of them could belong to different cultures - or even worlds -, but at the very core their philosophy is similar, and it's up to you as Guildmaster to build bridges across them and find synergies. For example, most Tyranny alliances across factions are brittle, as their leaders would easly backstab eachother in their endless seek to ultimate power; but this doesn't prevent you as player to make any combination you have in mind using the models of the same force. As seen in the next paragraphs it's possible to combine multiple forces.

• Resistance (yellow): Fortitude, Perseverance, Honor
• Chaos (red): Instinct, Strength, Warmongery
• Corruption (violet): Pestilence, Death, Sacrifice
• Tyranny (black): Power, Oppression, Fear
• Order (white): Justice, Compassion, Light
• Nature (green): Wildlife, Growth, Survival

Unocking more Forces

To create a Guild you fist pick a Hero Card (and the correspondent miniature) you like from our line and turn him into the Guildmaster (GM).
By choosing a GM you also lock your selection of units to its Force.
For example, Alvar Giantslayer is e dwarven Hero of the Resistance, so your next units will be Resistence units (which will also include other folks, such Amazons, Scourgelanders and so on).

If you play a game of at least 40 points, you can select a second Hero; you can pick a Hero of the same Force, or one of an Adiacent Force.
In the Forces Wheel on top, you can see that Creation and Chaos are adjacent to Resistance.
By using the same example as before, if your first hero was Alvar (Resistance), you might recruit a Hero from Nature (such a Deepwood Alfar or a Sylvan Knight), a Chaos one (such  Orc Barbarians, some Amazons, and Sparksoot Goblins for example), or even another Resistance one.

Depending on which Hero you will pick, you will have 2 Forces in your Guild, and you may recruit models from both.

When you are confident enough to play a game of 60 points, you'll have to choose a total of 3 Heroes, one of them being your Guildmaster. In this case, the third Hero could be of the same Forces you already have in your Guild, or of a Force adjacent to Heroes you already possess in your deck.
For example, you can start with a GM of the Order, then select a second Hero from Creation, and a Third one from Resistance, having a Guild composed by 3 Forces.
Or more simply, you can get a Heroine from the Order and expand to its adjacent Tyranny and Nature.

In any case, you will never have models of the opposite Alignment in the same Guild (such Order and Chaos, or Nature and Corruption.

If you want to be creative and pick some models from the Order and mix them with Tyranny, you can still do that (unlike in the previous version where wheel was broken). In that case a Templar of the Order who join with Tyranny is not a necessarly good: he put order and law above else and is allying, for example, with a Tyranny Heroine.

The Requiem Brotherhood
We can't wait to finish this Alpha Update, but at the moment we are really overwhelmed by sculpts. The next month was going to be simple after the crazyness of the Frost Jotunn Epic Boss.... but then we sketched a Flying Armored Holy Lion with a Paladin on top,... and well we screwed up the month ahah XD

Here a preview of 2 modulars of the next month. Modular figures will come also with helmet, there will be as always a variety of weapons and of course there will be some men in the set too. The next Release, coming in April, it's called the Requiem Brotherhood.
About Guilds, it's really hard that we will be able to provide stats and abilities for the new factions every month, but we will probably end up providing them 1-2 months later to make sure they are unique and playtested.

We can't wait to share the next update with you! Thanks a lot for your patience and comprension. Have a great week :)

Cheers!