The Rodents Return - a Blood Bowl match report

I have a large number of Blood Bowl teams. If you check my list of match reports, last year I coached two different orc teams, wood elves, and Norse (humans). This year I've debuted my team of "necromantic horrors". But, however much I enjoy fielding other teams I keep coming back to my rats.

I now have my own copy of the Season 3 rules for Blood Bowl, courtesy of my sister-in-law Abby who gave it to me for as part of my birthday present. The skaven (giant rats) have been slightly 'nerfed' in the new rules because a coach can only field two gutter runners (super agile and speedy players). However, gutter runners do have a new "stab" skill (which I forgot to use) and I have two star players, one of whom is very agile and speedy.

My reserves box is just teeming with line-rats now. Including two that aren't painted.

Bryan is still figuring out the Tomb Kings that came in the starter set he had for Christmas. They are a strange side. The 'big guys' tomb guardians are very strong, but none of the team are agile. They also all have the regeneration skill, which can work for a coach but often works against them as it increases the possibility of a player having to leave the field.

I say I love my rats, but they are a bit neglected. Hakflem and Glart, the two star players are still unpainted. Hakflem got injured almost immediately and spent the first half recovering. He was lucky with his injury. One of my gutter runners ended up dead.

It was a fairly even first half. Towards the end a skaven line-rat broke free and scored a down.

The second half started similarly to the first, with a star player carted off to the injuries box. 

I was having a bad time with my dice rolls. Lots of ones being rolled and that all-time clasic, double skulls! Fumbles led to some loose play on the wing.

But my surviving gutter runner scored.

The Tomb Kings then ended a drive successfully with a down. 

From the restart, possession was regained by the rats and they were able to pivot the play, opening up a channel through the Tomb Kings defence.

That led to Hakflem scoring a down on the very last turn of the game. Not a bad comeback from injury.

Final score: Tomb Kings 1-3 Skaven

And on an additional note, Bryan and Elaine had made me a birthday "cake" out of jaffa cakes. They know me so well!

The jaffa cakes had an even worse survival rate than my skaven players!

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.

Blood Bowl match report - the rats squeak a win

Bryan and I have played our first game of Blood Bowl in 2025 and, just like last year, we have resolved to play more often this year!

Our first 2025 game featured Bryan's unpainted Lizard-men team (with a borrowed kroxigor "big guy") against my Skaven team. This was the first game featuring the Skaven star players I built last year, Hakflem Skuttlespike and Glart Smashrip.

Neither star player added much, to be honest. Hakflem got injured on my second turn of the game and was deposited in the casualty box for the remainder of the match. 

Glart spent the entire game grappling with the kroxigor in the centre of the pitch, which at least meant the brute was contained and couldn't wreak havoc on my rats.

Nothing really happened in the first half. The dice weren't with me. The ball got trapped in a melee of players. The lizards inflicted three casualties and that was about it. 

Ball stuck in melee

Things changed in the second half. A successful long pass to one of the skaven line-rats saw the rodent free to scuttle into the end zone and spike what would turn out to be the only score of the game. 

However, the win hinged on a ludicrous piece of play when a chameleon skink pulled off the longest possible pass direct into the end zone, but unfortunately the recipient was a particularly inept saurus blocker who dropped the ball. One of the skaven throwers then tried to pick the ball up and failed on the very last skaven turn of the game. And then on the final turn for the lizard-men, the saurus punched out the skaven player, stepped over its prone body, went to pick up the ball, flubbed the pick up and ended up scooping the ball to bounce harmlessly away.

It was a gutting end to the game because the successful "long bomb" pass required rolling a 6 - and it was rolled! Any other lizard on the receiving end in the end zone and it would have been a glorious last gasp equaliser. 

So, a narrow 1-0 win for the skaven. Next time out I'm going to try playing the black orc team that I built last year. 

Blood Bowl Update - new star players and another match report

2024 has got off to a good start in terms of Bood Bowl. This week Bryan and I played our second game of the year. And I've gone on and finally built two star players that have been sitting in my "pile of shame" for way too long.

And here they are:

Both of the star players are 'skaven', a race that are basically giant mutant rats. The chonky one is Glart Smashrip, a bulky blocker. The one with two heads and four arms is Hakflem Skuttlespike, a mutant bred in a lab who plays as a blitzer.

The models come from Forgeworld, which is the Games Workshop online specialist service. They are made from resin rather than plastic.

They arrive in these horrible clamshell cases that need to be cut open.

Then they need washing before the glueing starts. Washing up liquid is fine for this.

And then the glueing starts. Because they are resin they require superglue. I used some cheapie superglue in small tubes.

The models were very fiddly to assemble. Hakflem's arms didn't want to stick and Glart's tail was very awkward. As a result I ended up with much more superglue on my fingertips than I wanted!

The skaven weren't in action this month. The latest game was between my human team (bolstered by an ogre) and Bryan's dwarfs. Neither team are fully painted. The human team uniforms are actually chocolate and cream although they don't look it in the pictures. The ogre is in an old colour scheme so doesn't match.

It was a fun game and the humans won, with one catcher sprinting for the end zone and rushing two extra yards to score the second down on the very, very last turn of the game.