“Honour used to do wonders out there on the pitch, and I imagine she can bring just as much to a team on the sideline – but even the First Lady needs some hint of natural talent to work with. I doubt they’ve got much of that. They’re mostly just a bunch of backwards country bumpkins.” – Mallet, Mason’s Guild
The Farmer’s Guild was introduced to the game of Guild Ball at the start of Season Three. They started out with a six-man box containing Grange as their captain. They had a rough start, but once the second box with Thresher came along, suddenly they were top dog. Through a bunch of reworks, now they sit in a healthy place amongst the teams.
While each captain has their own distinctive playstyle, the Farmers have one big theme in common – their dichotomy between Planters and Reapers. This theme takes the common saying “you reap what you sow” to the field. The Planters plant the seeds and make the harvests grow, setting up the Reapers to reap the rewards. Generally, Planters are setup models, while Reapers are pay-off models, but there are some exceptions.
Whereas the Blacksmiths, Masons and Brewers rely on either high armour values or a slew of defensive traits to stay alive, the Farmers are models with exceptionally high HP values and loads of board control. If you want to successfully engage into a Farmers team, you need to be able to solve the puzzle their tech poses. Their road to victory can mostly be seen through a score of take-outs, but don’t think they can’t play ball as well!
The Team
Grange – Captain
The first captain of the Farmers is one that focuses on building the ideal midfield brawl. He wants to be in the thick of it, leading the charge and grounding the opposition for the rest of his team to mop up.
Important things to note:
- Grange’s squad loves to have the ball as For the Family lets them reliably pass it around for momentum gain or teamwork action repositioning.
- Triggering Constitution, Help ‘Em Out ánd the legendary play at the same time will most likely win you any scrum. But since these are auras, friendly models can easily be pushed out of the buffs, so take care with your positioning.
- While Grange is very tanky, he only has a 3+/0 defensive statline and no further defenses before his activation. A decent damage dealer with a good KD result can be a big problem, so make sure to protect him with abilities from other models.
Thresher – Captain
When Thresher came out, the Guild Ball world had a new archenemy. And after some reworks and nerfs to the team, people have still not forgotten the absolute havoc this model wreaked. Thresher is a super-solo captain, and he’ll often generate the most victory points for you in any match.
Important things to note:
- Thresher can do it all – take models out ánd score goals. Just make sure to protect him at all costs, as the rest of your squad will most likely mainly be Planters to accomodate for his light INF generation, which generally don’t easily earn you any victory points.
- Make sure to play with models that can put Harvest markers at forward positions, so Thresher use Don’t Fear The… to finish off any models he’ll go into. Also, Crow Scarer might just keep him alive on the clap-back.
- While most players will use Thresher as a yo-yo model between attacking and running back to his defensive bubble, you can also play him a bit more interactive alongside another Reaper. Him and either Shearer or Bushel can be quite threatening for a Guild that can’t protect the ball all that well.
Festival – Captain
The latest addition to the Farmers’ captain choices is a lass that wants to help her teammates be their best selves through loads of out-of-activation mobility and quite a bit of brawling buffs. When you’re facing Festival, expect to not have much time to prepare before they are in your face!
Important things to note:
- Loads of mobility on the first turn can immediately put the pressure on your opponent, but be wary into which teams you move forward so quickly. Any team that has a better brawling ability will love that you just put your squad in their threat range.
- While Festival sounds like a way to deal with Tough Hide squads, like Brewers or Engineers, through Our Tools Are Sharp, do remember that you don’t have to kill them all. Two take-outs is all that’s needed, while you focus on the ball with the rest of the squad.
- Hare in the Field and Line Dancing doesn’t have to be an aggressive action. Sometimes it’s smart to re-establish battle lines when the initial scrum doesn’t work out in your favour.
Peck – Mascot
The first mascot of the Farmers is regarded as one of the strongest in the entire game. Proactive and reactive anti-condition tech on a stick with self-protection tech? Well cock-a-doodle-doo to you too.
Important things to note:
- Don’t forget about Pain Response! It could just save the fowl’s life!
- While the most power budget lies in the heroic play (which makes him one of the best mascots in the game), do remember that he can also be used to recover a ball from kick-off quite decently with a 8″ sprint and 2/4″ KICK.
- If Peck does die, make sure he’s close to his squad, so Fertiliser can activate a Reaper’s ability to cause some mayhem in return.
Buckwheat – Mascot
Whereas Peck usually only has a passive, buffing style of play, Buckwheat is all about making the mascot able to generate VP themselves as well. Whether through his awesome 8″ KICK and additional movement, or through his pushes on the edge of the pitch.
Important things to note:
- Bucky is actually a great kicking model, able to charge in and tackle the ball away without any problems through Ass Kicking. Sadly, it’s non-momentous, but having another 1 INF left for an 8″ kick might just end up with a goal!
- Because of his 40mm base, it’s sometimes hard to maneuver him through scrums. Therefore, I believe he’s best used on a flank, threatening potential ring-outs on enemy models, while staying decently safe himself through Stoic.
- Bucky’s goal threat is a decent 20 inches if there’s a smart placed Harvest marker somewhere.
Amber – Squaddie
The latest addition to the Guild through the Free Cities Draft, Amber is the young blood that wants to show her mettle. This fiery redhead has her eyes set on being one of the best and she certainly has the capabilities to get there.
Important things to note:
- If Left Boot and One of Our Own are both online, Amber basically has Thresher’s stat-line. The latter is a revenge mechanic, so make sure to put it to good use!
- Amber is an allrounder, so should be useful to bring into any kind of team.
- Having a casual 4/10″ KICK in Grange could be useful for snapshot options.
Bushel – Squaddie
Grange’s enthusiastic little sister loves kicking the ball around, while her team is trying to keep her safe. It seems that Honour’s influence has given her quite a bit of confidence, as she might just be one of the best dribblers around at the moment.
Important things to note:
- Very strong to bring when receiving, as Cabbage Punt and I’m Open can either easily give you a first turn goal, or can bring up your models through out-of-activation dodges.
- Close Control while having anti-Close Control tech in Ball’s Gone makes her an excellent anti-scoring model. Just remember that she’s only a 1″ melee model, though!
- For a striker, she has an excellent damage capacity if she has a bit of help. 8 damage with 4 momentum? Yes please!
Fallow – Squaddie
‘Ye old murder granny’, as she is lovingly named by her community. Don’t let her see it when you wrong her family – she will have some words for you… and a pair of sickles.
Important things to note:
- While she doesn’t give you any influence, she’s a champ at generating it during turns with Making Hay. Just make sure that she’s within 4″ of Harvest markers, as otherwise she’ll not make great use of her With Age Comes Wisdom TAC buff.
- One of the better protective tech in the Guild between Between a Rock… and Protective Instinct. She even has a knockdown result on the second column! Use her to keep your more important activations, i.e. Grange, Thresher, Windle, etc. alive!
- As said, she doesn’t bring any influence generation, so you might just need an extra Planter in your draft. Make sure to generate at least four markers per turn!
Harrow – Squaddie
Bushel’s love interest, or so he wants to be. Harrow isn’t much of a fighter – he’d rather spend his time putting seeds in the ground for a bountiful harvest. But hey, he has to do something to catch her eye, doesn’t he?
Important things to note:
- While Harrow only makes a single Harvest marker per turn, he might make three more through Sow the Seeds. The question you have to ask yourself is: do I want to spend influence to make markers?
- Fun fact: together with Festival Subsistence (and Lamb’s Warming Oven), you are able to heal a single model 18 HP in a single turn. So either the opponent deletes your models in a single activation, or they won’t take your models out at all.
- Harrow is the only model within the Guild with a ranged single target character play that can target enemy models in Marked Target. While the play itself isn’t essential, with it he does have the only tech for the team to break Resilience before you enter the fray.
Veteran Honour – Squaddie
While the lass’ knee injury has prevented her from being as mobile as she used to be, Honour has seen something in the Farmers that she has sorely missed in a while – love for the game itself. She usually keeps to the sideline to provide tactics and strategy, but at times she still loves to kick the ball around herself, bringing all that knowledge the the pitch directly.
Important things to note:
- Being able to use Fields of Wheat and Surpassing Strategy to activate a Reaper’s ability to still do something during a turn while they were considered outside threat range can be the difference between losing and winning in the end.
- While her armour value only has a single point, Faithful Protector still acts as another defensive mechanic that would virtually make her a 3+/2. Put her in cover as well, and watch at how the opponent will struggle to actually just hit her.
- Bringing another instance of Cocksure to the pitch might just be enough to not have all your Reaper models lying face-down in the grass. She might even place it on herself to become even more of a tank model.
Jackstraw – Squaddie
An animated scarecrow? Now where are the tin man and the lion at? Are we still in Kansas? Just look at… hey, where did it go?! Oh man, I’m getting Fiddlesticks vibes over here…
Important things to note:
