There are now 11 Guilds to choose from. And soon there might be another 11 depending on how minor guilds work in practise.

That’s a lot for a new player to choose from (I know, I failed and chose all of them). Rather than Alphabetical or release I’m going to do this in the order I got them!

Masons

What’s their USP? Versatility. The all rounder team.

How do they Play? They tend to have high armour. They are quite tough, can hit quite hard, but also can score goals.

Who are the Captains? Honour who has some jank; her sister can activate after Honour for a double activation (this is super rare) and she can give someone a second activation (this is also very rare, and very good). Hammer is the ultimate Solo. He takes influence off the rest of the team to boost damage, kick or move.

Standout players? Mallet can have 3″ reach. Brick and marbles have counter charge. Flint scores goals for fun.

Why did I buy them? They were in the kickoff box set. Anny like the girls so I bought granite and chisel, and eventually just completed them.

Why should you buy them? You have the kickoff box set. They can do it all, but are maybe not the easiest faction to start with.

How easy are they to pick up and play? Not too bad. you need to be careful with positioning and think about how to use the jank, but they are quite forgiving. [7/10]

Brewers

What’s their USP? Being Drunk. Short play books (so they wrap more and build momentum) and they have lots of heroic plays (which need momentum)

How do they Play? Mostly fighty, lots of knockdowns. They are tough and have a good amount of tough hide. They can also score, although they lack dodges.

Who are the Captains? Tapper. Gives out attack buffs and extra inf. Ester, gives out damage or def buffs, throws fire and rough ground. They can both be beaters but are meant to be support captains.

Standout players? Mash; 2″ melee and unpredictable movement. Spigot (either). Friday for goals. Scum aka Murder cat (although losing sic ’em will hurt him).

Why did I buy them? In the kick off box set. Then the missus like them (and painted them) so I got the rest.

Why should you buy them? In the kick off box set! You like the idea of drunks beating people up. Some have bonuses for hitting models that are knocked down.

How easy are they to pick up and play? My wife would say pretty easy. She managed well learning both tapper and Esters. I think they are quite difficult to get a lot out of because they don’t score goals that easily and don’t do massive damage [6/10]

Hunters

What’s their USP? Bows and Traps. The snared condition.

How do they Play? Tricky. Some amount of ranged attacks. Traps to try to block paths or knock opponents into. They lack dodges and tooled up so don’t hit hard or score easily and aren’t tough. They do ignore terrain a lot though. They have a lot of Jank.

Who are the Captains? Theron. Ranged attacks, can make people use Character plays for “free”. Skatha, scores goals, freezes other team.

Standout players? Hearne; teleports to Theron’s forests. Skatha; she’s a bear! Jaecar; kills things.

Why did I buy them? They have a bear.

Why should you buy them? They have a bear. Falconers look awesome. They have a freakin Bear!

How easy are they to pick up and play? They are not. I got hammered using them until I saw Steve E use them against me and he taught me how to use some of them. Skatha is very tricky. The lack of big dodges for scoring and massive damage makes wins hard fought. Went 2-2 at my 2nd tournament (first with them) having had a number of practise games [4/10]

Butchers

What’s their USP? They kill people and make them bleed.

How do they Play? They kill people. All damage all the time. (Actually they have a good goal scorer)

Who are the Captains?Ox; damage buffs to whole team, debuffs armour, he’s a force multiplier. Fillet, does crazy damage on her own, plays with bleed, Fast!

Standout players? Brisket – scores goals. Meathook – Tooled up, causes bleed, reduces defence. Tenderzier – handy goalkeeper.

Why did I buy them? Liked the look of the simple game. I like red.

Why should you buy them? You want to do a lot of damage.

How easy are they to pick up and play? Some of the models are a pain. They are pretty easy to play with. I went 2-1 in first tournament after 1 practise game. My wife destroys me with fillet pretty regularly. [8/10]

Union

What’s their USP? They were originally mercenaries for other factions, so they do a bit of everything. They lack a defining trait. There’s also a lot of them – 18 pretty soon.

How do they Play? See above. It really depends on the captain.

Who are the Captains?Blackheart, the pirate – Hits pretty hard, dodges a lot, moves team around. Vet Rage – Does a lot of damage, can make his friends attack with damage buffs. S Brisket – scores for fun.

Standout players? Gutter, Decimate, Avarisse & Greede – Damage Dealers. Hemlocke, Harry – Jank. Mist – Probably best goal scorer in the game.

Why did I buy them? To use as mercs. But then really like S Brisket and the Solthecians and used them well.

Why should you buy them? You like pokemon and gotta catch them all. You like the idea of playing one faction but having lots of options. You don’t read the stories so the fact that most of the players have left (or are dead) doesn’t bother you.

How easy are they to pick up and play? Personally I don’t think they are that easy. There’s so many different combinations – you have a lot of individuals to choose from. But they are good, so it balances out. [5/10]

Fishermen (aka Fish)

What’s their USP? 2″ melee and scoring goals.

How do they Play? They score goals.

Who are the Captains? Shark, He scores goals, very easily. Can kick and get ball back (then debuff movement of other team) or just run and score. Corsair is more beaty, pulls people in, steals the ball at range, can grind down a team and then get his team to sneak in goals.

Standout players? Greyscales, so hard to pin down. Siren, lure is great. There is a mascot people like…

Why did I buy them? For easy scoring, the aesthetic didn’t really appeal. I haven’t used them much, but they are painted (Except Corsair – NPE)

Why should you buy them? You want to score 3 goals every game.

How easy are they to pick up and play? The tactic is straightforward, but harder in execution. It’s hard to score if all your players are dead. [6/10]

Morticians

What’s their USP? The Spooks. Weird Jank.

How do they Play? They control the opposing team and stop them doing what they want. Not great at scoring and pretty good at killing.

Who are the Captains? Obulus, the puppet-master. Can make an enemy move, attack or pass, so it’s hard to keep the ball. He can also steal your inf and mom and buff his team’s attacks. Scalpel is not Obulus. A bit killy, and can score goals. Harder to make work than Obulus.

Standout players? Ghast – wrecked me in my first tournament game. Casket – can place a player in a box and remove them for a round.

Why did I buy them? Like the cool creepy vibe. Yet have not really played the much. Probably next up for me.

Why should you buy them? You prefer control and anti-play than going all out. You like the whole death vibe. You are emo.

How easy are they to pick up and play? They’re not. Lots of tricks, a lot to learn, lots of things which can be good if you can pull them off. They are hard to play into though. [4/10]

Alchemists

What’s their USP? Conditions. They have access to all of them.

How do they Play? Scoring goals while doing slow damage from conditions.

Who are the Captains? Midas was once an amazing striker but was nerfed and now isn’t. Works really well as a snapshot turret, if he can stay alive. Smoke plays the condition game, moving AOEs around and multiplying all the poison and burning. Then runs, teleports and scores from 20″ away. Love smoke!

Standout players? Calculus – Blind is so useful vs killer captains. Kat and Vet Kat are the guild beaters.

Why did I buy them? Liked the steampunk alchemy thing, and was almost complete at that point.

Why should you buy them? You like the idea of doing condition damage to the whole opposing team. You want to score, but fight as well.

How easy are they to pick up and play? Not too bad. I hadn’t played against them much but could work out Smokes game pretty easily. Nerfed Midas was harder to pickup but still have wins with him. My total record with Alcs is 11-9, in tournaments I’m 5-3. [5/10]

Engineers

What’s their USP? Robots. Seriously, they have mechanica.

How do they Play? Mostly they are a footballing side and have access to all the football tec (dodges, close control) but can also fight (tooled up, ranged AOEs) and have Jank (chain activations, copying abilities).

Who are the Captains? Ballista has lots of tec and can fight and has a powerful kick. Pinvice buffs other mechanica (or herself) and is fast.

Standout players? Ratchet – Tooled up, Ranged AOE, free charges or sprints for mechanica. Hoist – copies plays. Velocity – crazy fast, high def.

Why did I buy them? They were the last ones to get. I still need to paint them all, but I want to play them sooner rather than later.

Why should you buy them? You like steampunk or mechanica. You want to score goals and do damage.

How easy are they to pick up and play? Although they have some jank a lot of stuff just works. They weren’t nerfed in the summer like alchemists. I’ve had problems against them. [6/10].

Farmers

What’s their USP? Harvest Markers, Reapers and Planters. High inf, lack of armour.

How do they Play? Mostly fighty. they can score goals but mostly they control the pitch, ignore conditions, heal and do a lot of damage.

Who are the Captains? Grange gets makes his team do more damage and pass better. Thresher kills things and is back up by his team.

Standout players? Tater – counter charge and then extra damage and knock down is good. Millstone – free harvest marker, tanks conditions for the team.

Why did I buy them? They were the new shiny. Also plastic so no glueing. Have painted mine and then not really used them.

Why should you buy them? They are plastic, so quicker to get to table if you are no hobbyist inclined. Thresher is pretty OP at the moment. Don’t know if that’s a pro or con for getting them.

How easy are they to pick up and play? If you’ve looked online you can get thresher to work quite well but people are learning how to counter him. Grange has less help for him, but also can do stuff people might not be ready for. Having extra influence is always good but the positioning on this guild is more important that with anyone else. So not really a starter faction IMHO [5/10]

BlackSmiths (aka Smiths)

What’s their USP? No mascots. Lots of Armour. Masters and Apprentices

How do they Play? Quite Versatile. They can score goals and do some silly damage, but the damage is all from the apprentices who are squishy and require the masters to set them up.

Who are the Captains? Any Master can be an apprentice. Most people choose Ferrite for the whole team move buff and scoring potential, or Burnish for the burning AOE damage.

Standout players? Alloy. He’s a ninja who scores goals. Hearth – can give out 2″ melee and buff attacks, plus can have 3″ melee. Cinder – ranged tackle.

Why did I buy them? They looked totally awesome (and were the new thing)

Why should you buy them? I still think they look awesome. You want something a bit different.

How easy are they to pick up and play? At first glance they look amazing. But they struggle for influence and the master apprentice split makes things hard to work. They clearly can work, but not everyone is Christian Metz! [5/10]

If you can’t decide I still say buy the Kickoff box. You get the masons original 6 who are probably the best 6 box in the game. You also get the brewers and can see if you like a more beater style. Failing that get Fish for scoring (go for the shark box to start then expand to the other box) or Butchers for fighting (probably need both boxes). Once you’ve got comfortable with one of these go for something else.