Time is Money

The clock is an integral part of a competitive game of Guild Ball. It offers an alternative win condition and ultimately is a constraint on how "perfectly" we can analyze, decide, and execute our path to 12 VPs. Time can be a resource for making better, more thought out, decisions than our opponents. That is if we can manage our time better than our opponents, and if they have more of a clock advantage on us then the tables are turned. Having good time management skills can give us the edge over the person across the table from us. Here are some tips to manage the clock.

The first and easiest is being organized. Having our widgets, tokens, dice, and cards sorted in an organized manner can save time fumbling around to grab the right tool for the job.

Having a plan. I have talked rather a lot on this topic. If we can avoid analysis paralysis and have a general plan it saves time on decision making. Sometimes spending time on finding the perfect play each activation will lose us the game by burning to much time. If we can prioritize quickly finding a practical response to our opponents decisions, we can give us more time when we need it. As always practice makes this easier to spot.

Utilizing our opponents time can give us more time. This isn't being a jerk by flipping the clock over to them constantly over little things, but it is being two steps ahead if possible. Whenever they are thinking about an activation we can be thinking about what they are most likely going to and plan a reaction to that move. If they have multiple activations in a turn that they are taking a lot of time to think, this give us more time to think about what the "best" response is. Some models abilities, such as unpredictable movement and counter charge can take more time away from our opponent. By forcing the opponent into playing around those abilities, which can swing the game if triggered, gives us more time thinking about what to do next. If our opponent is really struggling with analysis paralysis and taking a lot of time, we can do quick filler activations that put them back on their own time to think and you can return to plotting your course to victory on their time. These could be mascots, buffing activations, or just a player we gave zero influence to.

If we think of our team in modules it can speed up our play by cutting down branches from our decision tree. Having model A that will go before model B which leads into Models C's activation. Most teams have support models that will fill that sort of formula, i.e tooled up. For example in Engineers, Mother and Ratchet both want to activate before Hoist to make his activation be optimal, or Farmers, Harrow and Jackstraw want to activate before Thresher so he has his peak offensive output available to him.

Now that we are playing better on the clock what can we do with it? If we are ahead on time we can play more conservatively. The less risk involved with our plays the better, and it forces our opponent into taking riskier plays that we can capitalize on. If this advantage holds until our opponent clocks out we can play with little risk and minimize the amount of points they can get until we gain enough VPs from clock to achieve 12VPs first. That sounds like a boring game to play, but it works. If we have more time then our opponent, we can spend more time analyzing the game and finding the "best" activation. Cashing in our time advantage like this can turn the advantage we earned with better time management into more of an advantage in the VP race. Practice, is the best way to improve any skills in Guild Ball.

And Remember to Stay Ballsy out there.