Long-post warning! 😉
Still no new cards for release this time though, but an interesting read nontheless – and hey, more Guild Ball content!
First off, I think we need to adress the version numbers on the Anatomists cards.
Some cards are 4.4 and some are 4.5 and it might look like no one noticed. But don’t worry, they know! CultOf1s and GlassWalker80 who do the work on all of this, have explained it to me. 🙂
The idea is that all new Anatomist cards that haven’t been shared with the public yet are released as 4.4 and then after a first evaluation by the public eye they are reworked and re-released as a 4.5 version.
Therefore, the older cards that you’ve seen a month back, are at the 4.5 version by now, and the cards that are currently being released are still at the 4.4 version. I perfectly understand how this can be confusing, but I also see the very good point of trying to keep updates separated and in strictly to certain version numbers, much like with all the official guilds through erratas and seasons.
The plan for the Anatomists as it stands now, is to first and foremost release 4.4 versions of all intended models to fill the size of a major guild. Then after that (or possibly parallell to that) the plan is to bring all of the released cards up to a 4.5 version.
Call the 4.4 version the alpha version if you will, and then the 4.5 the beta version after first initial pilot feedback.
A little further into the future, primarily during next year, the intention is to systematically continue to update all cards to a 4.6 version, so that the guild is caught up with the official errata version number. That will be the first “stable version” if all goes well.
Then after the official 4.7 errata gets released in march (by current SFG estimations) a new iteration of the Anatomists should be just around the corner too.
There! Hopefully now it’s more clear how the updates are intended, and tested and revised and so on.
Some playtesting has been done already of course, but so far not very much yet. So to those who play them, keep it coming! And to those of you who feel like trying them on the pitch; that would be awesome! The guys want to know all of your feedback and critique for sure. Again, send it in any way you like – through discord, facebook, or just to me here and I will absolutely forward it to them.
Yes! That’s good, to get that out there extra clearly I think.
Moving on. 🙂
Just for the fun of sharing with all of you who read here, we have some notes here on how the creepy doctors play, from a playtest game that was recently sent.
IMPORTANT to note again though: Playtesting the Anatomists is NOT affiliated with official playtesting for GBCP or SFG. The Anatomists Guild remains a fan project by CultOf1s and GlassWalker80 – and while it’s really awesome it’s not part of official design. You know this already, but since development and playtesting is on a lot of people’s lips these days, I still feel it’s important to be thorough 😉
Click images to enlarge.
Anatomists Guild vs Brewers Guild
Led by captains Caduceus for doctors, and Esters for drunks.
Played with the Box6 of team The Doctor is In for Anatomists.
Brewers kick, Anatomists recieve.
“I made no notes for turn 1 unfortunately. But at the end of turn 1 I was behind on momentum so I knew I was not going first next turn. I had lost Caduceus during the first turn, and start of turn 2 I had her walk back in some way away from the fight. That facilitated positioning my team better.
Bonus influence from my gameplan card gave the Anatomists more tempo, and with the reduced cost for encourage through diagnosis, Apothecary was able to be healed and survive long enough.
The scrum that I had built first turn became a bloodbath. Syringe and Triage were stuck in the center and were surrounded by Pintpot and Stoker, with Stave coming in to knock down the two. It allowed for a play in which half of my models were brought low, and the loss of Syringe.
Overall I was still mostly able to get my models to move to where they wanted to be though, and use all abilities they had to set up more actions.
End of turn 2 Triage fetched the ball, then captain Cad went from the center line, bounced off a model, push-dodged out of engagement then fired off her legendary play to get both her and Apothecary even further in. Then she removed a diagnosis condition by Do No Harm (via her Hippocratic Oath trait) and got an extra dodge, grabbed the ball then got a shot on goal. She missed though, but luckily it scattered to Leech who could try to set up for new tricks.
Apoth just always kept Cad alive as she was below recovery-level hp for that entire turn.
Turn 3 I first really thought I needed Apothecary to live, and once again I was stuck going second. Apothecary was too low though and I needed to score another goal. I gave up keeping Apoth alive so that I could score, and wished I could’ve got Bandages on the Go on him for coming back to the pitch the same turn.
I scored and the goalkick scattered its way to the scrum on the opposite side of the pitch. Brewers took Apoth out and got lots of momentum, and Stave was able to get the ball to Hooper who made a snapshot, but missed. The ball ended up next to the goal within rage of Apoth when he’d walk back on next turn. Caduceus moved to engage Pintpot midfield.
Turn 4 started with Apoth walking in and grabbing the ball. Pintpot killed Syringe again. Apoth activated and passed the ball to Leech, and got within 4 of Caduceus to protect her. The ball was stolen by Esters, and then made its way back down the pitch so that Hooper had a new chance at a goal. Missed again though. Caduceus was able to get away from Pintpot and get the ball back to Leech. Stave whiffed a lob barrel and Leech was able to score.
Match ended with Anatomists win!
Thoughts after the match:
Caduceus has insane ball threat, and she is so slippery. I will say, the last changes to this first team feel really fun to play. Cad can just keep moving as long as Apothecary is there, and diagnosis on him turns him into a sponge. Just like they’re meant to. Didn’t feel oppressive, but strong.
Overall the Anatomists all still die pretty fast though, but they are very easy to get back and get going again. I would be afraid if Apoth did have more HP as he would shrug off a lot of the team’s damage. So that was really valuable input after the first reveal of his character.
Keeping in mind where the diagnosis condition is on the pitch is so important. That in turn makes influence allocation extra important as well, as you always need to either have diagnosis already applied or have something ready to apply it exactly when you need want it.
Leech was an MVP this game with Bound in Blood. He largely allowed for the goals to happen each time, with his bloodsoaked version of Linked (off the playbook!) making a huge difference. The control side of Bound in Blood did not come into play here, but it very well might if he is played under the other captain, Chirurgeon. Overall it’s obvious that Bound in Blood is a very strong play – we will have to look out for that in further testing.
Caduceus still scored two goals. One off a snap shot from Triage, after Triage was linked by Leech (bound in blood). In this match as well, as have been seen before Quack never got to charge with his Ball Hunter trait, but he still does work because he moves the ball so well.
I think overall the guild is fairly balanced internally, and the rules do not push things too far.
Lots of bad luck rolls for the Brewers, but it resulted in a very dynamic match. The Anatomists might still be on the strong side, but lots and lots of further testing is required of course. “
This playtest match was played with the paper standees that can be easily printed for play if you don’t have a 3D printer to make use of the free STL files.
Moving on to some more design notes about the creepy doctors’ guild, stolen from their dedicated design discussion channel on discord:
“They were always intended to have a fairly high skill floor level, in that they might need an experianced player to really shine. Momentum management should be one of the parts in that, and the generally low TAC paired with playbook design should reflect that as well.
On a broad perspective, Diagnosis together with the Encourage cost-reduction provides us with a little bit of efficiency. And our conditions will probably be something of a tax on the opposing team.
The way Anatomists need to manage momentum really should be part of where the guild makes or breaks. Damage should not be momentum outside of the few examples we have, and overall they should have a difficult time to get a large surplus of momentum outside of captain Chirurgeon.”
Just a teaser from some design discussions there. If you’re curious about more, I know for a fact that Lewis and Jeromy would love to discuss openly what they’re up to. What they’re thinking about the guild so far, and what the coming plans are apart from trying to get some more Anatomists playtesting in.
As noted before, do reach out to them through facebook or discord if you know where to find them (I know that many of you already do) or just throw me any questions here at The Bench and I’ll make sure they get them!
Last but not least, some nice Team Art.
Including spoilers for the last two models in the Bad Medicine team.
That’s all for now!
But stay in touch, the 4.4 cards for Panacea and Emia are basically just waiting to get released.
