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".

Boostin' the rosters - Norse edition

Another Blood Bowl post! Back in February I posted about how I'd added a couple of star players to my teams. Thanks to a friendly seller on Facebook (cheers Josh!), I've now added two players to my Norse team line up - star player Thorsson Stoutmead, and a "big guy" who is a Yhetee!

When I've played with a Norse team, I've found them a tad underpowered, so I'm hoping the Yhetee will help them out. (In case, you're wondering Games Workshop create their own version of some words (like 'yeti') for intellectual property reasons.)

Buying these guys second hand means they arrived pre-built and ready for action. So they aren't going to sit in my 'pile of shame' for ages, like a lot of my models do. It could be a while before they get painted but they could get their debut next month!

Also, Thorsson has a great special ability - "Beer Barrel Bash!" He can launch a keg of beer at an opponent to hopefully knock them over. I look forward to using that bonus skill!

Battle of the Undead - Blood Bowl match report

An exciting double debut in mine and Bryan's monthly Blood Bowl match up - a brand new team, the Tomb Kings, and a first use of the new Season 3 rules! The main new rule we used was 'Secure the Ball', which means any player can pick up the ball as long as they don't roll a 1 on the dice.

The Tomb Kings seemed like an easy-to-play, fairly average team on their debut. The team's players are undead players from an Egyptian style necropolis. Their big guys, the Tomb Guardians, are very strong, but overall the team felt a bit under-powered, except for their throwers.

I was playing the Necromantic Horrors team that I debuted last month. They were boosted by a star player called Wilhelm Chaney, but he didn't really do very much. 

The first half was chaotic, and we ended up with the line of scrimmage pivoting 90 degrees and just a general mass brawl. 

One of my werewolves eventually got free and made a dash for the end zone. He was one yard away from scoring and needed to roll for an extra yard. The dice betrayed him and he fell over, with the ball rolling into the end zone.

Bryan couldn't get his players near enough to thwart the score and on my next turn, Wolfie stood up, moved one space, secured the ball and scored. 

The second half was more mayhem. Eventually I scored a second down following an incredible passage of play, failed dice rolls, fumbles and pure dumb luck!

Bryan was setting up for a pass downfield but went for one more block before he did so. He rolled double skulls, ending his go. My werewolf then blitzed his ball carrier, the ball bounced to two of his players who failed their rolls to take possession of it, before landing on one of my flesh golems.

The golem picked it up, provided a hand-off to the ghoul next to it, which rolled two agility rolls to a) collect the ball, and b) escape the grasp of another player and sprint free. The second agility roll needed to be rolled twice, which it could do because it had the Dodge skill. Then it ran into the end zone.

That proved to be the final score of the game, as there were only two turns left. 

Final Score: Tomb King 0-2 Necromantic Horrors. The weirdos win the Battle of the Undead! 

Purchasing another part 1 of a partwork

That time of year again, when a Games Workshop partwork starts. I've bought a few of these over the years as they're a fun way to get some really cheap models and sometimes other things like paint. I've assembled a small Space Marine squad off previous partworks.

This year it's olde worlde Warhammer getting the partwork treatment, with some pieces from the 'Spearhead' sets attached every week. 

I don't know much about "Spearhead" as a game concept. They are basically small complete armies that you can use for combat games. 

I bought this because the figures on the front included two skaven figures. I know the skaven are meant to be plague-ridden giant rats, but I have a soft spot for them.

The figures are push-fit meaning no glue is necessary, although I can't imagine getting the pieces off the sprue without a set of clippers. Despite being push-fit, the figures were very detailed. 

The two skaven figures are a 'Grey seer', which is a skaven priest-shaman, and a 'warlock engineer' who comes with a telescope and is leaning on a rudimentary musket.

The grey seer is standing on a ruined plague bell, with rats emerging from it. Ordinary rats often join in with skaven attacks.

The engineer with the wonky eye-glass is probably my favourite figure. It must act more like a periscope than a telescope.

The other main figure is a 'Lord Veritant' who comes with a small, vicious pet called a 'gryphcrow'. It's a small gryphon. 

I found the Lord Veritant harder to put together than the skaven figures. The flaming brazier piece was painful, as the two halves had sharp points on them. Those are unhelpful in a push-fit model.

The Lord Veritant is one of the 'Stormcast Eternals' who descend from heaven to rid the world of evil creatures like the skaven. I like the gryph-crow, but am less keen on the vanquishing angels. Team skaven for me.

Having both figures and some dice in the first pack means that the purchaser can start playing micro combat games straight away. (If they have time or inclination. Truthfully, I have neither.)

I tend to only get the first part of a partwork like this because it tends to be the most bargainous issue. Although, according to the back of the packet, you can get three rat ogres attached to part 2, which is more expensive than part 1, but cheaper than buying the figures normally. I could add a rat ogre to my skaven Blood Bowl team, so I could maybe give one a makeover and fashion him some Blood Bowl armour.

Boostin' the rosters - a Blood Bowl update

A while back I bought a couple of Blood Bowl star players, and with a possible debut for my 'necromantic horrors' team this month, I've gone on and built these characters. 

So say hello to wicked werewolf, Wilhelm Chaney, and giant lizard player, Anqi Panqi. 

Anqi is a fearsome-looking dude in a dinosaur skull helmet. He was a fun build and will probably be a pain to paint.

Wilhelm is a very dynamic sculpt. I found affixing his tail difficult and I suspect it may come off if he gets knocked over in a game.

I do like how Wilhelm's stats include how many balls he's buried.

Meanwhile, Anqi keeps getting in trouble for saying stuff in post-match interviews. Probably lewd stuff if his awards for innuendos are any indication. But, then his name is Anqi Panqi, so what else could we really expect?

These resin models require superglue and are fiddly, resulting in a condition I call "superglue fingers". I'm hoping the coating will wear off by match day!

Norse team Blood Bowl debut

Another game of Blood Bowl and another new team got an outing. Last month I built and painted my "Norse" team, who I'm calling the Ragnarockers. And last night I played my first game with them.

Bryan has also made some painting progress, with a very nice finish on the scales of his lizard-man team. He now needs to pick a uniform colour for them. 

The lizards quickly raced into a 2-0 lead as I got to grips with a team that is strangely unbalanced. In fact, but for a spoiling throw into nothing just before the end of the first half, the lizards could easily have scored more.

The lizards are a difficult opponent as they can move further than most other teams and their saurus characters have above average strength. They also had Roxy the kroxigor in their line up. I didn't have a Norse big guy to put up against Roxy - Norse teams can field "Yhetee" creatures, but that means buying a yhetee model. 

However the valkyries on the Norse team have a skill called Dauntless, which means they can go up as equals against players that are stronger than them. One of the valkyries was able to knock Roxy flat on her back at one point.

Meanwhile, the dice were busy betraying me whenever I rolled an agility test for the valkyries to try and pick up the ball. I lost count of how many fumbles they made but Bryan estimated it was 1 success in 7 attempts. 

One of the things that attracted me to the Norse team was the "beer boars", little piggies that can provide sustenance to players who have been knocked over. I thought these would feature as extra characters on the pitch but they take up a player space and I didn't feel they gave much advantage to the team. After going 2-0 down I replaced one of the beer boars with a lineman and that shored up the defence a bit. 

The Norse managed to score two downs in the second half to drag the scoreline back to 2-2. It felt like an undeserved draw. They did manage to injure some skinks and one of the saurus blockers. But they had a couple of players knocked out and one fatality - a berserker who will now be playing Blood Bowl in Valhalla!