There is SO much to talk about even on just these two cards, so let’s start with the basics. The core concept for Anvil & Sledge comes from one of the oldest methods of Blacksmithing, that of the ‘Blacksmith striker’. This method is employed where a piece of metal needs particularly heavy blows in order to shape it properly. A ‘striker’, in Blacksmithing terms, is an Apprentice with a large hammer that takes an enormous amount of focus and energy to wield. So much focus that if a Master were to wield the hammer, the Master may lose track of where they need to ‘strike’ the metal. Having an Apprentice perform this task means that the Master can concentrate on deciding precisely where and how hard the metal needs to be struck. To this end, Sledge is armed with an enormous two-handed hammer, that he can use to smash opponents into paste, and Anvil is armed with a smaller hammer that he can use to ‘mark’ a particularly tough opponent in the exact spot that he wants Sledge to ‘strike’. But how does this translate onto the Pitch?

One of the prominent features of these Blacksmith cards, when compared to each other, is that Anvil and Sledge have VERY different momentous results. Anvil has momentous knock-down, Play Icon, and Push results, whereas Sledge has entirely momentous damage results instead. This is to re-enforce the role that each model type plays on the Pitch. Master Blacksmiths tend to be distant, seeing themselves ‘above’ doing the dirty work a lot of the time. Instead, Master Blacksmiths prefer to use their skills and experience to disrupt and debilitate opponents in preparation for the Apprentices to annihilate in one fell swoop. As a general rule, Master Blacksmiths have a number of ways to increase the capabilities of the Apprentices, whether this is through increasing their TAC, damage, or movement speed. Alternatively, some Master Blacksmiths have several ways to make enemy players vulnerable to attack, such as easy access to knock-down Playbook results, or abilities that lower enemy movement speed, DEF, or ARM.

Perhaps the most prominent aspect of Sledge is his Playbook, and that incredible momentous [7] damage result that it contains. With it, Sledge is clearly capable of singular acts of destruction, but, with a Playbook that is seven columns long Sledge will require the assistance of Anvil to reach it consistently. There are several ways that Anvil can do this. Veterans of Guild Ball will be no stranger to the Singled Out Character Play, which increases the TAC of any player attacking an affected enemy by [+2]. When we create new Guild Ball players we re-use existing abilities where they fit the desired theme. In this way, Singled Out is the perfect example of an existing ability that we used here to show Anvil ‘marking’ an enemy player for Sledge to ‘strike’ with his hammer. In addition to Singled Out, Anvil has incredibly easy access to a momentous knock-down Playbook result, it’s on his first column! A super useful Playbook result for laying a potential target flat out on the Pitch ready for Sledge to flatten further. Lastly, there’s the Tutelage Character Trait on Sledge’s card which allows him to use a Character Play without spending Influence, but only if he activates close to Anvil. That Character Trait is probably very useful with Sledge’s second Character Play… I wonder what it could be…

Where Sledge has the highest Playbook damage result written to date, Anvil is different type of extreme altogether. At [19] HP, with an unprecedented [3] ARM, and the Tough Hide Character Trait. Anvil is certainly up there with the most resilient players in Guild Ball. Just looking at him with his enormous tower shield, attacking Anvil certainly looks like a daunting task. Indeed, in development we made the decision that we wanted the Master Blacksmiths to be more resilient than the average player. To this end, each of the Master Blacksmiths has a particularly defensive speciality. In the case of Anvil, he is designed to be able to take the full force of a charging enemy player and, in most cases, still be on the Pitch once the dust has settled.

A Master Blacksmith’s shield is more than just another piece of armour. A Master Blacksmith’s shield is his or her badge of office, whether it takes the form of a huge tower shield or a forearm mounted buckler. A Master’s shield demonstrates to all who see it their incredible skill in creating near-indestructible defensive equipment. On the Pitch, Master Blacksmiths use their shields to become living defensive positions that the Apprentices can take shelter behind. In the case of Anvil this is represented on the Pitch by the Sentinel Character Trait which increases the ARM of any nearby Apprentices by [1]. A much-needed ARM bonus since the Apprentice Blacksmiths have been designed to be slightly less resilient than the average player. Indeed, Sledge has only [12] HP which is on the low end for a DEF [4+] and ARM [1] player. Blacksmith coaches need to be careful to not get their Apprentices taken-out when trying to get the most out of their supreme offensive potential.

And there you have it, the Blacksmiths Guild has been unveiled! Let us know what you think of this brand new Guild through our forums and on Facebook. We will be back to take another look at the Blacksmiths Guild in future articles.