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!

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.

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! 

Blood Bowl night of horrors

As it was Friday the 13th, I decided to debut my Necromantic Horrors team (boosted by a werewolf star player that I built a few days ago). I also debuted my Blood Bowl themed t-shirt that Bryan and Elaine got me for Christmas.

The phrase "Nuffle giveth and Nuffle taketh away" was very apt as my team of zombies, ghouls, golem, werewolves and wraiths started strong, putting two opponents into the casualty box. But gradually the game turned towards the lizard-men, who had star player Anqi Panqi making a debut for them. And my dice rolls couldn't keep up. (And, truthfully, my tactical understanding of the necromantic team was very poor.)

The necromantic team benefits from most players having the "regeneration" skill. This gives a coach a 50/50 chance of a player avoiding becoming a casualty and missing the rest of the game. A number of players were saved this way but the body count was so high, regeneration couldn't save everyone!

On top of that I was soon a haunted bedsheet down when one of my wraiths got sent off for trying to foul an opponent. To make matters worse, I tried to "argue the call", rolled a 1, and got ejected from the ground.

The Lizard-men went ahead towards the end of the first half, a skink making an extra dashing yard to score. 

Anqi Panqi didn't do very much on his debut for the lizards, but Roxy the Kroxigor bossed the midfield, making two successful blitzes and also carrying the ball for several yards before a team-mate fumbled receiving the ball from her. 

That loose ball proved crucial, as one of my werewolves, who was back on after regenerating, got hold of the ball and charged downfield.  Despite being surrounded by three players at one point, the lycanthrope managed to score a very unlikely equaliser on the penultimate turn!

So the final score was 1-1, which I almost felt embarrassed about, it was so undeserved.