In a recent email announcement, tabletop publisher Steamforged Games announced Kick Off!, the upcoming two player starter set for Guild Ball, set to release on Black Friday this year. The starter set will contain everything an aspiring coach will need to start playing directly out of the box.
The starter set will contain the following:
- Kick Off! Starter guide
- Guild Ball Rulebook
- Captain’s Handbook
- 3’ x 3’ gaming mat
- 12 plastic models
- Character cards
- Game tokens
- Templates
- Guild Ball dice
Kick Off! Will feature both the Masons and Brewers guilds facing off against each other. The Masons Guild contains Brick, Mallet, Harmony, Honor, Flint, and the team mascot Marbles. The Brewers Guild comes with Tapper, Hopper, Stave, Spigot, Friday, and Scum the mascot. This traditional style of starter set is a great way to get a full team right away and jump into the game. If you’re not interested in either team, however, then you’re stuck purchasing everything piecemeal.
The miniatures themselves are pre-assembled colored plastic, most likely the soft plastic typically seen in traditional board games and more recently in Warmachine and Hordes battle boxes. Not only does this lower the barrier to entry for new players as fiddling with small resin or metal bits is required, but it gives the game overall more of a board game feel, which will attract board game players who are either hesitant or intimidated by jumping over into miniature games.
Looking at the images of the starter set on the Guild Ball Web Store, it appears that Kick Off! will contain rules for Season 3. This makes a great deal of sense for Steamforged Games, as the launch of Kick Off! coincides with the start of this year’s SteamCon convention in Leeds. That combined with the start of the holiday shopping season in the US makes late November the perfect time to launch Season 3 of the game.
Kick Off! is currently listed on the Guild Ball Web Store with a price of $70.93 USD/£49.95 GBP/€63.44 EUR with a release date of November 2016. Check your FLGS for additional release and price information.
