Wood elves whomp naive Norse (Blood Bowl match report)

Yesterday evening was my monthly Blood Bowl night with Bryan. I took all my teams and he picked to play using the wood elves for the first time. I decided to give my Norse team another go. I'm still a Norse novice and haven't worked out how best to play them, although I have an inkling they just might not be that strong a team.

The wood elves were bolstered by Mosstyn the treeman who gave them a bit of punch in the middle of the park. He also stomped one of my beer boars that had strayed too close to him. It was a complete mismatch and the piggy was properly whomped by him and removed from play. Both my beer boars ended up as casualties, along with both my berserker players who were out of the game before half time. 

Beer boar down!

As in the previous game, most of the Norse heavy hits and ball-in-hand running came from the valkyries. That's partly because they have the 'dauntless' skill, which means they can match up to a much stronger player and initiate attacks on an equal footing. One of my valkyries knocked Mosstyn on his back towards the end of the game, but by then the game was almost over.

It was 0-0 at half time. But the wood elves broke the Norse lines twice at the start of the second half, their high agility players evading the Norse defence. Two successful passes to free-running catchers resulted in two touchdowns, one for each catcher. 

The elves went close a third time, but a pass out of defence by a valkyrie alleviated the pressure. However, the lineman who collected the ball couldn't get the ball over the line. He had an agonisingly few squares left to go when the final whistle went.

Maybe if he'd put his flagon down...

Some final thoughts on playing Norse. Beer boars are cute little figures, but add very little to gameplay. If they were just additional critters on the pitch then they would be worth having, but sacrificing a human player for them is a waste of time. I had a couple of early turns cut short because players fluffed picking up the ball. In hindsight, I would have been better concentrating on blocking the elves when I had a strength advantage in the hope of inflicting some early injuries to unsettle the team. I got very little from my berserkers and would prefer to play with four valkyries instead. They bring a lot more to the game, particularly with the 'dauntless' skill and enhanced catching and passing abilities. 

Final score: Wood elves 2-0 Norse. Winning coach: Bryan. 

Game snacks: Flipz chocolate coated pretzels and Seabrooks spicy paprika Trebles. I don't do snack of the month posts any more, but if I did, I would be recommending the Trebles to everyone.