Here at Steamforged it’s been amazing watching the forum & social media reactions to our articles on the the Blacksmith’s Guild. If you missed those articles you can find them here (Anvil - Sledge) Today is another big one, it’s time to talk about some of the unique rules that govern how you construct a Blacksmith team, AND you get to find out who the Captains are! We will also be looking at the blacked-out sections of the Anvil’s card. So much to see!

Always Two There Are

The first thing that anyone should know about Blacksmith’s Guild team construction is that it is quite different to that of any other Guild. Think back to our first article on the Blacksmiths. We said that when developing the Blacksmith’s Guild we wanted to fully represent how centrally important the relationship between Master and Apprentice is, even when the Blacksmiths are on the Pitch. Therefore, we decided quite early in the development of the Blacksmiths that they would have the Apprenticeship Guild rule. Apprenticeship supersedes the standard rules for Guild Ball team construction, which normally requires a team to have [1] Captain, [1] Mascot, and [4] team members. The Blacksmiths however, simply construct their team by selecting any [3] players with the [Master] model type and any [3] players with the [Apprentice] model type. Yes, this means that the Blacksmiths do not have any pre-defined Captains and they also do not have any Mascots!

But I know you’re thinking “…wait… EVERY team needs to have a Captain!” Well that’s true! But don’t worry about it, we’ve got that covered!

Master of the Forge

In our Blacksmith’s Guild announcement article, we said this:

“The other early concept that we developed to demonstrate on the Pitch was the idea that the Blacksmiths Guild are not quite as unified in structure as our more traditional Guilds. In the Empire of the Free Cities Blacksmithing styles, skills, and etiquette differ enormously from city to city. The Masters of the Blacksmith Guild are incredibly proud of the traditions that have been passed down to them through the generations, each of them believing beyond a shadow of a doubt that they are the very best at their craft. As a result, Master and Apprentice Blacksmith pairs can vary quite dramatically from one to the next in how they appear and how they play.”

What is related to this point that we didn’t tell you is that the Master Blacksmiths are also responsible for organising the Blacksmith Guild Ball team, each one vying for control through the creation of ever more potent weapons and armour.

Before each match, the most prominent Master Blacksmith at the time is given the honour of leading the Guild Ball team as its Captain. This could mean that the Blacksmiths have a different Captain every time they take to the Pitch. When developing the Blacksmith’s Guild, we decided to represent this through the Forge Master Guild rule. Due to Forge Master, after selecting a team, but before setting up your match, the Blacksmith coach chooses [1] of their players that has the [Master] model type. The chosen player gains the [Captain] model type for the rest of the match. In addition, to show their temporary increase in stature, the chosen player gains [+0/+2] to their INF attribute for the rest of the match too. This means that where most Guilds only have two or three choices for their Captain, the Blacksmiths have as many choices as they have Master Blacksmiths!

At this point I bet you’re thinking about the different implications that Apprenticeship & Forge Master could have, does being a Captain mean anything else to a Master Blacksmith? What about when I need to select a Captain in a tournament!? We will be making a small update to our Organised Play documents in order to account for Blacksmith’s Guild team selection. In tournament play, when coaches reveal their Captain & Mascot, a Blacksmiths Guild coach will instead reveal a Master Blacksmith and an Apprentice Blacksmith, the revealed Master Blacksmith becomes the team’s Captain for that match. And yes, being a Captain does make another difference for a Master Blacksmith...

*Drum Roll*

It’s time to reveal the completed Anvil card: