This is a response to someone on the Wyrd Miniatures forum for the game Malifaux asking on opinions of the minions in disposal of the Guild faction. Thought it was a fair assessment of the model and did not want it buried under a bunch of non helpful topics. So I decided to post it here on my blog, I am going to attempt to have a running series of thoughts on each model so stay tuned..
Cost- In the battle for 3-4 soul stone range of models the humble guardsmen has no abilities that stick out at first glance. But after playing almost exclusively with them in lists I noticed quite a few things...
Melee- Has a nice cb of 6 for his melee attack and has the ability to critical strike (the guild 'calling card' in my eyes). Though the damage output is about average for a model of his cost before critical strike at 2/3/4. On average he will have a +1-2 to hit his enemies so something must be said about being consistent.
Shooting- the pistol is on the barely average at cb 4, the trigger "halt" isn't all that great but is a nice bonus since its free due to ghosted suit. The real advantage of the guard pistol is the positive flip for damage. Meaning on a hit you will usually be at a neutral flip that you can cheat, at the worst will just be at just a negative 1 flip after hard to to wound.
Spells- Menace/Cordon I honestly don't use these that often, not that I don't think they are great spells rather I always find my Guard can do better things. With that said feel free to correct my theoryfaux.
Menace- the objective is to pin an enemy in place so they cannot engage you in hand to hand. Bonus you get a walk towards them but hopefully out of their melee range. The reality... unless you are picking on low WP models you are going to have to keep a high card in your hand. Risky at best it is still a gamble, never try on a master unless they have no cards/stones.
Cordon- a nice ability to keep non flying/floating models away from objectives or important models. At the very least it will make the lead guardsmen the first model he HAS to kill to get past/break up cordon. As a bonus it is not an opposed duel so you don't need to worry about what your opponent is holding for this spell.
Talents- Raise Alarm and Patrol again mind the theoryfaux as I do not generally use these abilities though I am always tempted to use Raise Alarm...
Raise Alarm- useful if you have a lead guardsmen that needs help and he isn't doing anything better. In theory you could catapult a guardsmen using Lucius' reinforcements spell then use this ability to give most of your crew a free 3" movement.
Patrol- it might as well ALSO be a an (all) action because the guardsmen do not have any 0 abilities. It doesn't seem as useful to me seeing as guild has plenty of other ways to gain companion without sacrificing actions. It can be useful but there are more effective ways of doing this so I usually do not use patrol.
Armor 1- at first armor 1 doesn't seem like much. But in reality this is the small but important difference when it comes to this model and his other 3-4ss buddies.The ability to take just 1 more hit or take some of the strongest (not insane) hits out there and still keep kickin' is great.
For example he gets slugged for 6 damage armor knocks one off so he is barely hanging in there ready for next round. This forces your opponent into some tough decisions. Does he want to take the strikes from the guild guard in order to activate something else first? OR is he going to waste an AP or more trying to clear out the threat of a model on it's last leg?
Either way its a win because it forces the opponent to rearrange the order of his operations. Since I main Sonnia having that 1 wound left means that the guild guard gets turned into Witchling Stalkers more than my enemies. Free models are always a good thing (not withstanding slaughter scheme) so it doubles versatility. In fact I always start with Guardsmen over Witchling Stalkers purely for this reason unless the board is covered in terrain in which Scout is king.
Verdict- a surprisingly versatile and survivable model, the Guild Guard is a staple in my crew regardless if I use Sonnia or Lucius. Whether he pulls duty as the front line against the terrors of Malifaux or as a sacrificial lamb the Guild Guard is not afraid (most times) of doing his duty.
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