Last year, Steamforged Games launched the Warmachine 3D Tribe on digital model marketplace My Mini Factory, offering new and remastered digital models and terrain for its flagship miniature wargame Warmachine via a monthly subscription - and it fast became the most popular subscription service on the entire platform. Now the firm has uploaded the entire model range for Guild Ball, a fantasy skirmish wargame themed around medieval mob football, onto My Mini Factory - will lightning strike twice?
Physical Guild Ball kits went out of production in 2020, when Steamforged decided that it was no longer economical to support the game - not a popular decision among long time fans. But last month it revealed a brand new Guild for the game, the sturdy Lumberjacks, and on Tuesday it made the entire Guild Ball range available as digital files on My Mini Factory.
Guild Ball was the very first game that Steamforged Games' founders Rich Loxam and Matt Hart designed, informed by their experiences in the competitive Warmachine scene of the early '00s. The studio announced its intention to return to its original miniature wargame last year, releasing a free downloadable starter set to print at home, and moving the full miniature range into production on a made-to-order basis
Guild Ball is a character heavy skirmish game, where each team is a 'guild' - think Butchers, Masons, Blacksmiths, or Shepherds - and players can win both by scoring goals and knocking the opposing team's teeth out. Despite the sportsball theme, it doesn't play like Blood Bowl - and not just because it's based on soccer rather than American football.
The new digital models are sold in the same sets as the print-on-demand kits, and only about 25% cheaper, so this looks like an effort to make the game more widely available without undercutting store prices. Unlike the extremely popular Warmachine 3D there isn't a subscription option, and it remains to be seen whether the new Lumberjacks team are a one-off release, or the start of a more regular rhythm of releases. But given that it's been five years since the last new team appeared for Guild Ball, it won't take much to improve the tempo!
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