Yeah yeah, I know. I should be posting on this thing more often! But hey. It’s very rare I feel able to say much at length that isn’t utter bollocks, and easily shot down by someone who knows what they’re talking about.
The subject here though is one I don’t feel there is an actual authority on at the moment – the Blacksmith’s Guild. These guys appeared to a hail of “OMG WTF THEY’RE BROKEN!!!”, were everywhere for a while, and then in the UK at least seemed to almost completely disappear again when it turned out that they required a significant amount of player skill and practice to unlock. It’s almost like they’re really well designed. Who’d have thought!
Well, your humble author was one of those who couldn’t get them to work. I went to 5 events with them and finished up with a frankly terrible 5-22 competitive record, with the low point coming at a 5-round event. I went 0-5 and took home the wooden spoon, before rage-quitting back to my beloved Brisk3t and promptly winning a smaller event the next day.
I’ve been doing a lot of thinking and plotting and chatting with the handy YouTuber such as he is Ritch ‘the Beard’ Keeling, and I think I’ve been starting to figure out where I was going wrong.
As a Blacksmiths player you will always have 12 influence – there is no combination of players you can take that will change that. You also don’t have a mascot – all your players can do great things, but they also need influence and are all worth 2VPs to Butchers or vet Rage when they end up in the crosshairs. You have to make sure you use what you’ve got to best effect.
Almost as a direct result, you have to be very careful not to end up completely starved of momentum. Blacksmiths generally can find it difficult to gather this precious resource. A lot of what they do comes in the form of character plays, which don’t gain you momentum. There is no Momentous Inspiration in the Blacksmiths. So if you commit, for example, 4 influence to Captain Burnish to light stuff on fire, 2 on Hearth to set up Apprentices and 1 to Furnace for his Tooled Up, you’ve only got 5 influence left to actually gain momentum with and 3 players who all want it.
My lineup of choice was Captain Burnish, Cast, Hearth, Alloy, Furnace, Cinder. I felt competitive in most games but my win-loss record says otherwise. I still believe that to be a strong team but I need to completely re-think how I use it and the rest of the Guild in general. There just wasn’t any momentum available for things like healing and counter-attacks, and building momentum to win the race to go first in the turn just didn’t happen.
One of the points Ritch raised was Farris and Bolt. He pointed out how much you can get out of Bolt for no influence. As long as he activates near Farris you get a free character play out of him, and that can be either I’m Open (one of my favourite plays thanks to my unhealthy love of Brisk3t) or Shoemarang (the biggest instigator of rage when it came out). He also has a free 4” jog from his Stamina trait, along with another move. So that’s at least 3 actions you can get for free out of Bolt. And in the right circumstances, loaded up with his 3 influence, he can easily cover silly distances and score you goals.
That in itself is making me look long and hard, and I think now that I’ll be running them consistently. Being able to get so much for so little is golden and Farris has some tricks up her sleeves as well as just being an enormous Armour 3 base to get in the way.
Another point I’ve taken on board came from watching some reports (such as Don’t Touch the Beard episode 23, when Jamie Perkins himself piloted the Blacksmiths) and talking to other players, and it’s the amount of work they can get out of Iron. Load him up with influence, maybe a set-up from Hearth, and fire him into an enemy model. He will net you momentum with big damage. And having a Master in Ferrite who is so able to move him around also counts in his favour.
Last one and this one is a Beardy bugbear – Sentinel is a thing. It’s a very good thing, but it’s something that’s rarely used. Apprentices that are within 1” of a Master with Sentinel (Anvil, Farris, Furnace) gain +1 Armour. That pushes Sledge, Bolt and Alloy up to 4+ / 2, Cast and Cinder to 3+ / 2 and Iron to 2+ / 3. Suddenly they don’t look quite so squishy any more and I agree with Ritch wholeheartedly – if you’re making use of Apprentices to beat face, that could literally be the difference between life and death.
So my starting 6 for this next foray into Blacksmiths will be Ferrite, Iron, Hearth, Alloy, Farris and Bolt. Not going to waste time here explaining why Hearth and Alloy are good. Hearth hands out 2” melee ranges and guaranteed net hits. Alloy can apply Shark levels of pressure on the ball and then knife someone for good measure. They’re great. We all know this. And I’m leaning towards Ferrite for Master of the Forge (captain) as the extra influence you can load her with makes her really shine.
The other players will also be in regular rotation. I love the theory behind the pairing of Furnace and Cast – Cast is an absolute demon if fired into a Burning target (my record was a one-activation takeout of Hammer who had suffered 1 Flame Belch), and damage from Furnace not just lights them on fire but also reduces armour. There will be times when I like to throw Anvil into the mix as well – he’s a great enabler and very capable of pushing the whole team up the board. I’m also a big Cinder fan – 3/8” kick with a ranged tackle makes her very capable of scoring a goal your opponent just doesn’t see coming. Burnish can be Benediction Lite courtesy of his very similar playbook, and Sledge does like a good schnoozle booping. So as with most Guilds, the difficult question is more about what you leave behind than what you take with you!
Blacksmiths are a Guild of toolboxes – I said when they came out the skill with them is going to be in making sure you’ve got your influence in the right place to use the right tool at the right time. I stand by that now. But in order to make them really play like they should, you need that momentum and efficiency.
The subject here though is one I don’t feel there is an actual authority on at the moment – the Blacksmith’s Guild. These guys appeared to a hail of “OMG WTF THEY’RE BROKEN!!!”, were everywhere for a while, and then in the UK at least seemed to almost completely disappear again when it turned out that they required a significant amount of player skill and practice to unlock. It’s almost like they’re really well designed. Who’d have thought!
Well, your humble author was one of those who couldn’t get them to work. I went to 5 events with them and finished up with a frankly terrible 5-22 competitive record, with the low point coming at a 5-round event. I went 0-5 and took home the wooden spoon, before rage-quitting back to my beloved Brisk3t and promptly winning a smaller event the next day.
I’ve been doing a lot of thinking and plotting and chatting with the handy YouTuber such as he is Ritch ‘the Beard’ Keeling, and I think I’ve been starting to figure out where I was going wrong.
As a Blacksmiths player you will always have 12 influence – there is no combination of players you can take that will change that. You also don’t have a mascot – all your players can do great things, but they also need influence and are all worth 2VPs to Butchers or vet Rage when they end up in the crosshairs. You have to make sure you use what you’ve got to best effect.
Almost as a direct result, you have to be very careful not to end up completely starved of momentum. Blacksmiths generally can find it difficult to gather this precious resource. A lot of what they do comes in the form of character plays, which don’t gain you momentum. There is no Momentous Inspiration in the Blacksmiths. So if you commit, for example, 4 influence to Captain Burnish to light stuff on fire, 2 on Hearth to set up Apprentices and 1 to Furnace for his Tooled Up, you’ve only got 5 influence left to actually gain momentum with and 3 players who all want it.
My lineup of choice was Captain Burnish, Cast, Hearth, Alloy, Furnace, Cinder. I felt competitive in most games but my win-loss record says otherwise. I still believe that to be a strong team but I need to completely re-think how I use it and the rest of the Guild in general. There just wasn’t any momentum available for things like healing and counter-attacks, and building momentum to win the race to go first in the turn just didn’t happen.
One of the points Ritch raised was Farris and Bolt. He pointed out how much you can get out of Bolt for no influence. As long as he activates near Farris you get a free character play out of him, and that can be either I’m Open (one of my favourite plays thanks to my unhealthy love of Brisk3t) or Shoemarang (the biggest instigator of rage when it came out). He also has a free 4” jog from his Stamina trait, along with another move. So that’s at least 3 actions you can get for free out of Bolt. And in the right circumstances, loaded up with his 3 influence, he can easily cover silly distances and score you goals.
That in itself is making me look long and hard, and I think now that I’ll be running them consistently. Being able to get so much for so little is golden and Farris has some tricks up her sleeves as well as just being an enormous Armour 3 base to get in the way.
Another point I’ve taken on board came from watching some reports (such as Don’t Touch the Beard episode 23, when Jamie Perkins himself piloted the Blacksmiths) and talking to other players, and it’s the amount of work they can get out of Iron. Load him up with influence, maybe a set-up from Hearth, and fire him into an enemy model. He will net you momentum with big damage. And having a Master in Ferrite who is so able to move him around also counts in his favour.
Last one and this one is a Beardy bugbear – Sentinel is a thing. It’s a very good thing, but it’s something that’s rarely used. Apprentices that are within 1” of a Master with Sentinel (Anvil, Farris, Furnace) gain +1 Armour. That pushes Sledge, Bolt and Alloy up to 4+ / 2, Cast and Cinder to 3+ / 2 and Iron to 2+ / 3. Suddenly they don’t look quite so squishy any more and I agree with Ritch wholeheartedly – if you’re making use of Apprentices to beat face, that could literally be the difference between life and death.
So my starting 6 for this next foray into Blacksmiths will be Ferrite, Iron, Hearth, Alloy, Farris and Bolt. Not going to waste time here explaining why Hearth and Alloy are good. Hearth hands out 2” melee ranges and guaranteed net hits. Alloy can apply Shark levels of pressure on the ball and then knife someone for good measure. They’re great. We all know this. And I’m leaning towards Ferrite for Master of the Forge (captain) as the extra influence you can load her with makes her really shine.
The other players will also be in regular rotation. I love the theory behind the pairing of Furnace and Cast – Cast is an absolute demon if fired into a Burning target (my record was a one-activation takeout of Hammer who had suffered 1 Flame Belch), and damage from Furnace not just lights them on fire but also reduces armour. There will be times when I like to throw Anvil into the mix as well – he’s a great enabler and very capable of pushing the whole team up the board. I’m also a big Cinder fan – 3/8” kick with a ranged tackle makes her very capable of scoring a goal your opponent just doesn’t see coming. Burnish can be Benediction Lite courtesy of his very similar playbook, and Sledge does like a good schnoozle booping. So as with most Guilds, the difficult question is more about what you leave behind than what you take with you!
Blacksmiths are a Guild of toolboxes – I said when they came out the skill with them is going to be in making sure you’ve got your influence in the right place to use the right tool at the right time. I stand by that now. But in order to make them really play like they should, you need that momentum and efficiency.
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