I would like to talk to people about Guild balance. Not the balance between Guilds, or between certain captain match-ups; that might be something for another day. No, for now I’d like to discuss the balance of a team’s pick rates of certain models.
Within the world of the Free Cities, the Guilds are usually characterised by their own playstyles. The Fisherman’s Guild has been seen as ‘thé goal scoring team’, while the Butcher’s Guild can be described as ‘thé take-out team’. The Farmers and the Blacksmiths share a certain duality within their Guild, namely respectively the Reaper/Planter and Master/Apprentice duality. Some Guilds can be considered all-rounders, but masters of none, like the Brewers, Masons or Union. And obviously, there’s the control Guilds, each with their own version of what they think ‘control’ means; the Alchemists, Engineers, Hunters and Morticians. (I will not consider Minor Guilds in this article, only the play-ups for their respective Majors.)
Each of these teams has at least 13 models to pick from, when considering a roster of 12 for a tournament. These 12 can be chosen based on what the meta of a specific tournament entails, but are usually the same 12 models for every Guild out there. If a 12-part roster always stays the same, this tells a lot about a Guild’s balance. For example, an Alchemist player usually brings the whole Alchemist roster except for veteran Katalyst, as he is considered ‘not viable enough for competitive play’. But where does this come from?