DEATHBOWL XIII + Introducing my counts as Slann team... The Jawbreakers!

The Googlies
aka gumballs (hence the jawbreakers team name)

The Jawbreakers

Last weekend I participated in Deathbowl XIII - which for a few years now has had a "year of the ..." theme where if you use the particular team chosen, you will get a benefit other teams don't.  This was year of the slann and so slann teams got a magic item randomly chosen each half, which could be used in that game.  This seemed too good to pass up, and I only had a month to prepare for the tournament.  Unlike other folks, I usually prefer to use my own team - I would hate to borrow a team and damage it somehow.

Therefore I needed a quick way to put together a slann team, and having never played them before I wanted to make sure I had enough of each type that whatever my final team roster ended up looking like - I would have the models required.  Since slann all have the leap and very long legs skills - I needed something that would easily convey that.  Through some discussion with a friend I decided to build a team of "daddy long legs" using polystyrene balls, flower wire for legs and googly eyes!

Needless to say this team was cheap and quick to put together!  I painted the bases and drybrushed them to get a bit of the stone texture.  I drilled holes in the bases and slotted the wire legs in from underneath - using a hot glue gun to secure them.  I bent out the legs then twisted all the wires together and dabbed a little white glue on top before stabbing the bottom of the variously painted balls and applying some pressure to make the legs bend out.

Deathbowl XIII

My slann team was as follows;
catcher - block/dodge/sure hands
catcher - block/dodge/nerves of steel
catcher - block/dodge/guard
catcher - dodge/tackle
blitzer - strip ball
blitzer - tackle
line - leader
4x line - no extra skills
2 rerolls

Even with all the chaos that a deathbowl game brings, I still produced my best ever tournament result - coming in 6th with a record of 3 wins, 1 loss.  With a titch of luck and a bit more focus on my part, I could easily have gotten onto the podium (both attempts at backstabbing my "ally" failed even using a reroll, and I let someone intercept a pass on a 5 when he needed a 6).  On top of that I forgot about diving catch giving +1 to catch accurate passes ALL tournament long!!

Game 1

The googlies were a big hit - everyone found them hilarious.  We put them up for best team and they even earned 25% of the vote (4 of 16).  I'm claiming partial assist for Mark H winning best team (he's usually the bridesmaid) I figure those four votes would've gone to another team and forced a second round of voting if not knock him off outright!  You're welcome buddy!! (This even while the eternal bridesmaid of winning a tournament acted as campaign manager for my team - thanks Rob! LOL He might be re-thinking his actions since I screwed him off the podium and his campaigning in all likelyhood helped to finally get Mark hitched - to a best team trophy)

Game 4

All in all deathbowl was a blast and really well run.  Lots of fun and laughs as well as a few lessons to be learned which all point towards me becoming a better tournament player.  As an added bonus, slann are so new that from this single tournament I am now ranked as the 2nd best slann coach in Canada!! (Right behind the tournament organizer)