Golden Sweetbun '10, Result = not last place (by the skin of my teeth)

I was originally going with only 1 runner (leader), 4 blitzers, 2 witch elves, 1 assassin (multiple block) and 3 linemen, but I ended up ditching all the blitzers so I would have money to spend on skills.  I probably should have dropped a reroll and kept a couple blitzers.  Final roster was 2 runners (leader/sure hands), 2 witch elves (block+tackle/block), 1 assassin (multiple block), 6 linemen (1 guard).  We got to pick bonus skills by drawing balls from a box.

Day One (the day of hell!!!)

First two ball skills were juggernaut (gave to block only witch elf) and stand firm (gave to guard lineman)

1st Game
Dark elf vs dark elf against Adam.  He scored twice in the first half and we both thought he had the game in the bag, but in the second half I came back to score two touchdowns and tie the game, leaving him needing to score in a short space of time.  Unfortunately for me, even though I swarmed all around his ball carrier, he managed to dodge his way through my players to score (3+, 3+, 2+, didn't even use his dodge reroll)

2nd Game
Against another elf team, Chris' pro elves.  This was nearly a complete blow out until I scored a second touchdown very late to finish 4-2.  I think I was a bit unfortunate in this game, not to have been closer early when I dropped a pass in the end zone in the first half that would've tied us at 2-2, but was definitely a fair result as I lucked out earlier due to our lack of understanding in juggernaut vs side step.  Chris went on to win second place, and I believe Most TDs.

Third ball skill I drew was kick (gave to a lineman)

3rd Game
Versus Colin and his Nurgle team.  He had a strong bashy load out, with his beast getting pro, block, leader and all his warriors having guard.  I got my first casualty of the tournament in this game very quickly but it all went downhill from there.  He had three casualties before the end of the first half and I was playing with 5-6 players for the entire second half.  Needless to say I got spanked!  Damn you tentacles, damn you!!!

4th Game
Against Pat's dwarves.  Another game with multiple early casualties and knock outs against me (damn mighty blow!)  This was probably the most fun game of the tournament, as I really had no chance to stop him from scoring a  third touchdown (while we were sitting at 2-1), however I managed to dodge a witch elf through a bunch of tackle zones to get to his ball carrier (including multiple 6's required), then threw a 2 die HE picks block, re-rolled it to get double kapow, grabbed the ball, dodged out and passed to a lineman I ran up the other sideline in case I got lucky and he caught it.
I had nobody to protect him so ended up having to just throw the ball into his end so he couldn't score again - but the witch elf was absolutely legendary!  I rolled something like eight or nine 5's & 6's to pull it off, plus the two die HE picks block.  Still lost the game but it was hilarious!

So overall some fun and some nerve racking games, but 4 losses and England drew to USA in World Cup...  ARGH!!  I was having visions of another last place finish.

Day Two (day of redemption!)

Fourth & Fifth ball skills I got were guard (gave to a lineman) and leap (gave to the tackle witch elf)

5th Game
Against Pat's wife Jess, who had a brilliantly done amazon team based on the movie Avatar.  Green stuff ears and tails on the standard GW amazons, with actual tiny little feathers from a pheasant in the head dress.  She had also built a tall tree shaped display board/case for them.
Unfortunately for Jess my luck started to reverse right away, and within 5 turns I had caused two casualties and knocked out another two.  Nothing she did worked and everything I did worked.  Ended up winning 4-0, but it still managed to be a fun game (even for Jess I think, she was still laughing and smiling - as befits the winner of the best sportsmanship award) and it also gave me a win in the tournament and gave me a whiff of hope to not finish last.

6th Game
Against the tournament organizer, Dan.  This was easily the most ridiculous game in the tournament.  Dan had a halfling team with two monstrous treemen with block and pro and some halflings tooled up to be thrown and score in one turn.  I used a guard lineman and witch elf to cause some problems in one side of his cage and the assassin and a lineman on the other side.  I still had to keep a strong line of scrimmage as otherwise it would've been too easy for him to throw a halfling for a touchdown.  He still ended up pulling it off with a 6 required to be accurate and scored the first touchdown. 
Unfortunately for him it all started to fall apart after that, as I just focused on getting his halflings out of the game.  I only caused one casualty, but I just kept knocking out his halflings (thank you stunty!) and by the end of the game, was just holding up down the field for a 2-1 victory while one treeman was rooted to the spot and the rest of my entire team was surrounding and fouling the other (to no real benefit, even having +5 on foul rolls I was rolling 3 or 4 needing to break armour 12 due to the tournaments rules for the soft ground)

So my final record was 2/0/4, but the two wins pulled me out of last place.  I think I need more practice with the dark elves!

A GREAT CAUSE

Another quick post before I head away for the weekend, I waited a bit before posting so I can say my donation is in (payday was thursday) I may still donate more depending on my finances before the drawing.  The earlier you donate the better as they are having tons of mini-raffles for other great loot!

Wanted to promote the Storm Wardens - Collaborative Army Build Charity Drawing. What a brilliant idea this is, these guys are going to make a certain individual very happy and in the process raise a ton of funds to donate to Doctors without Borders.

The basic premise is a 40K Space Marine army (Storm Wardens chapter from forthcoming Deathwatch RPG by fantasy flight games) built and painted by the pillars of the 40K blogosphere (santa cruz warhammer, from the warp, dave taylor, wynn studios, jawaballs, secret weapon miniatures, mik's minis)

Each dollar donated gets you a "raffle ticket" for when they give away the army. ALL proceeds are going to be donated. Can't lose with this one folks - donate today!

Golden Sweetbun '10

My third NAF tournament this year is rolling up this weekend. The Golden Sweetbun is a halfling hosted tournament that takes place in Montreal, Canada. This tournament gives some benefits to halfling teams, however I'll be bringing the Karond Kar Raiders, recently painted up for me by my friend Thomas.

Since I managed to stick around for both days, and avoid the wooden spoon at my last tournament, my objective will be to improve on my standings in this tournament. I'm looking to land better than 1 spot into the top half of players. This will be pretty tough as I've had lots of practice with my bashy teams (Orcs, Undead) and have yet to play a full game with the Dark Elves!

Keepin' my fingers crossed!