A night of horrors with disastrous dice

I frequently reference the problems that Bryan and I have with dice that betray us to ruinous effect in our monthly Blood Bowl games. And this month is no different.

A suitably gloomy score marker 

In a match up between my team of necromantic horrors and Bryan's lizard-men, the clear winners were the cubes of chaos that caused both of us (but mainly me) considerable grief.

Team photo before kick off

The game started horribly. I had two attempts using one of my ghouls to 'secure the ball' on my first two turns. All I had to do was roll anything but a 1. I rolled a 1. Twice. The second fumble meant a skink could run in, pounce on the ball in the endzone and therefore score! It was the first time a lizard had touched the ball since the kick off!

Things got worse from there, although I did manage to knock over and seriously injure the lizardmen's kroxigor on turn 1. After that it was all downhill. Double skulls rolls. Having a player sent off for trying to foul. Failing regeneration rolls and having my zombie linemen unceremoniously dumped into the serious injury box. Pretty much any dice roll that could go wrong... did.

My dice rolls peaked on turn 1

Another skink score 

Skulking in shame after being sent off

Splatted zombies 

My one breakaway saw my werewolf star player, Wilhelm Chaney, quickly surrounded and dispossessed. That was the closest my team got to scoring. On the very last turn of the game, another skink, a chameleon, ran in the third and final score of the game.

This did not go well for the wolfman

This emphatic 3-0 victory means that Bryan claimed the Blood Bowl Ball of Triumph and it will stay in his possession until I claim it back.

VICTORY!!

At least we had some great snacks for this game including seasonal spooky tortilla chips!

Bank holiday Blood Bowl bashfest

My monthly Blood Bowl showdown with Bryan was a battle of two "bash" teams. I was playing Norse for the fourth time, in search of my first win with them. Bryan was fielding his trusty dwarves again.

Previously my encounters with the dwarves have been while playing low-strength, low armoured, agile teams. However, the Norse line up had players who could go toe for toe with the dwarves and had a couple who were stronger. That led to two dwarf serious casualties, depleting their line up. Having a trollslayer sent off also didn't help them much.

Injuries and naughty trollslayer

Star player Thorsson Stoutmead had a decent game, using his special move 4 times to take out an opponent by lobbing a keg of beer at them. It's a useful way to open a hole in a defensive line. 

It was a breakthrough like that which led to the first Norse score. The dwarf ball carrier got sacked and four Norse players showboated to party in the end zone. 

In the second half, the Norse were receiving from the kick-off. The ball was collected by one of the valkyries, while her team-mates bashed a clear pathway through the reduced dwarf defence. She was then able to run the length of the pitch to score, fending off an attempted blitz on the way. 

But the play of the game led to the third and final score and saw Bryan overcoming his usual incredible terrible dice-rolling luck. With the Norse streaming forwards towards the dwarf ball carrier, Bryan rolled the required 6 to ensure a successful long pass and then successfully rolled to receive the pass. 

With three dwarves free and bearing down on the end zone, a Norse berserker tried to stop them but failed and ended up injured. 

There were a few turns left for fun bashy aggro, but no real chance of scoring as we ran the game out. The final score meant the Norse have finally won a game - it finished 2-1 to them.

Snacks: spicy crisps and mango jaffa cakes, washed down with Tango "Thirst Trap".

Bretonnian debut - Blood Bowl match report

After Bryan and I played our match last month, we did something new where we rolled a D12 die to select the teams we would be playing this month. Bryan rolled dwarfs. I rolled for Bryan to have a free pick and he decided I could play Tomb Kings. So I turned up expecting to get hammered by the dwarfs, only to find Bryan had finished assembling the Bretonnian team that had been in the season 3 box. 

So we ended up with Bretonnians v Tomb Kings, which was both teams in the box set. 

I like the Bretonnian team. They have a mix of skills. They are a bit under-strength compared to the Tomb Kings, but some of their players have the 'dauntless' skill - as befitting noble questing knights - which raises them up to the level of stronger opponents. However, the downside of that is they can end up within grabbing range of those stronger opponents who will attack back on the next turn and have a dice advantage. 

Stymied in midfield

It took a while for the game to get going but eventually the Bretonnian blitzer made it to the end zone to open the scoring. It was 1-0 at half time.

I like playing with fast, high agility teams like skaven or wood elves. The Tomb Kings are not a fast, high agility team. Still, they were able to run in a down after the 'Tomb Guardian' bigger guys bashed a hole in the Bretonnian defensive line. 

However, the Bretonnians came back, courtesy of a very long pass downfield. The Tomb Kings had an opportunity to blitz the ball carrier to prevent the score but I rolled a skull! And the Brets went on to score what turned out to be the winning down.

Noooooooooooooooo!

Fail!

The winning down

Even then, the Tomb Kings had a chance to salvage a draw at the death with two players heading for the score line and the ball in the bony hands of a designated thrower. 

However, Bryan cleverly blitzed the player nearest the line, meaning the remaining Tomb King player couldn't reach the end zone even by rushing. I managed to roll a 6 to complete a long pass of my own but the guy fumbled the catch anyway. It would have been more gutting to have fumbled it in a scoring position. But this is how close I got before running out of turns.

Final score: 2-1 to the Bretonnians 

Overall, then, I think the Bretonnians are the better of the two sides out of the starter box. Even with Bryan's penchant for rolling disastrously (he rolled a 1 three times in a row when all he needed was a 2 or higher) they seemed a much more balanced unit with greater flexibility to switch play between running and passing. 

Two game snacks this month as well: cheesy penguins and jaffa cake biscuits!

Definitely not cakes!

Cursed dice and leaping wardancers (Blood Bowl match report)

This month I took my high agility wood elf team to play against the Tomb Kings. I don't have any names for the team except for Mosstyn the treeman. He had a decent game, including a successful blitz on an opponent. 

Mosstyn was bostin!

Although he did end up on his face at one point after a bad roll. 

Double skulls!

The wood elves are high agility, and their wardancers have a special ability called 'leap', which means they can jump over an opponent. I have only just learned to use this skill, but it meant on two occasions I was able to get a wardancer into the Tomb Kings back line and sack the ball carrier before running in to score. 

However, the event of the game was a disastrous dice roll of truly epic proportions. Bryan had a power advantage which meant he could roll three dice to resolve an attack on one of my players. He rolled 2 skulls and the 'both down' option where both players are knocked over and his turn would end. But, a lifeline! His attacking player had a skill that meant he could re-roll a both down result. Bryan rolled the dice again and rolled... another skull. 

Triple skulls from four dice rolls is unbelievably bad luck. And possibly a new record. We are seriously wondering if the dice are cursed. 

The Tomb Kings managed a consolation down after the wood elves had put four on the board.

I was a turn away from scoring a fifth down when the game ended. The final score was 4-1.

So close...

We had a very suitable snack this time. Reese's dipped peanuts. They make excellent edible Blood Bowl balls!

Blood Bowl match report - farce and failures for the Norse

On the final Friday in May Bryan and I played our monthly Blood Bowl game. I decided to take my Norse team, the Ragnarockers, as last month I boosted my Norse roster!  

I'd played Norse twice before (my first game with them was in May last year) and I was yet to win with them. Surely, having a yhetee big guy and a star player would swing the odds in my favour.

Sadly not. And, as is often the case with Blood Bowl, hubris and sheer awful luck did for both my new players. 

As early as turn 3 my yhetee went on a blitz. I rolled a skull, Bryan got two decent dice rolls and my big guy was flat on his back in the seriously injured box.

Previously I have felt the Norse are under-powered. Bryan was playing with the Tomb Kings where almost half the team are strength 5 giving them an advantage in any scraps. Losing my big guy was a bitter blow.

However, my valkyrie was able to run in a down in the first half. 

If losing the yhetee was terrible luck, losing my star player Thorsson Stoutmead was farcical. Thorsson has a special move where he can hurl a keg of beer at an opponent to try and take them out. He successfully knocked someone over in the first half. At the very start of the second half he tried again.

But I rolled a 1. That meant Thorsson hit himself with a keg. Bryan made another two good dice rolls and Thorsson joined the yhetee in the box of seriously injured players. It was a disaster.

We have discovered a weakness in the Tomb Kings "regeneration" skill, in that it makes it more likely for an injured player to be removed from the pitch. Bryan only had 3 players left on the field when my team scored their first half down. 

But this was a high carnage game for both sides. I ran out of reserves in the second half so had to field one of my cute-but-pretty-much-useless beer boars for the final couple of turns after the Tomb Kings had equalised. 

One of my knocked out players 

Desperate times call for beer boars

Honours even, then, with a 1-1 draw. Still no wins for the Ragnarockers. 

Game snack report

Chipotle and lime mini-cheddars. None survived the game.