GWpertinent and MORE

Hot on the heels of my Chaos Cup coverage, Deathbowl IX is not far away!! I've begun planning my team roster. I had great success using Slann last year (my infamous Jawbreakers counts as team) coming in 6th. This year is "Year of the Elf" so Pro Elf teams get bonuses this time around. Each Pro Elf team will get a "Magic Codpiece" (this stops any adjustments being made to armour/injury rolls from skills such as Mighty Blow) and as well armour increases only cost 10K, and you can get two of them (however if you do, you fail Go For It rolls on a 1 or 2)

I debated bringing the Jawbreakers again - all that Leap is really helpful in Deathbowl format. Considering how well I did last year and how I forgot about the other benefits of Diving Catch (+1 to accurate passes, I forgot the entire tournament!) it's very tempting to bring the exact same roster. The "Magic Codpiece" is pretty solid though as it would nullify some of the concern about making one very strong player who should always be able to get the ball.

I have a new team I kinda started painting that I am debating trying to finish for Deathbowl this year. Failing that I could possibly draft in my dark elf team as Pro Elves. Here are a couple Pro Elf rosters - TV1250 and remember AV for Pro Elves this year is only 10K and can be taken twice.

Blitzer; AG5, Dodge, Leap, Strip Ball
Blitzer; Tackle
Catcher; Block, Dodge, Sure Feet
Catcher; Block, Dodge, Sure Feet
3x Lineelf; AV9
2x Lineelf
Thrower; Sure Hands
Thrower; Leader
Reroll

Blitzer; AG5, AV9, Dodge, Leap, Strip Ball
Blitzer; Tackle
Catcher; AV8, Block, Dodge, Sure Feet
Catcher; AV8, Block, Dodge, Sure Feet
3x Lineelf; AV8
2x Lineelf
Thrower; Sure Hands
Thrower; Leader
Reroll

Leaning towards the second as it would keep my more important players around longer with the extra armour - thoughts? Or do I bring back the Jawbreakers? Here is the roster from last year. I would probably drop Nerves of Steel on one catcher to get Block on all of them.

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

Well, even though I haven't had time to post about it - that doesn't mean that Ric hasn't been hard at work!

Three updates have gone by since my last post about the terminators - time to pimp them a bit! I have just included a single pic, but each "heading" is a link to his full blog post with multiple pics.

Deathwatch Apothecary

powerfist/standard apothecary backpack configuration

This guy comes with four different right arms (so far!); chain axe, hand flamer, infernus pistol, power fist and both a normal apothecary backpack and a jump pack. This is beneficial both for my Flesh Tearers army and for games of Deathwatch (which we are supposed to do not this weekend or the next but the one after!)

Space Hulk Dead Terminator on Throne objective

I get the feelin Ric was bored this day ;)

For my Space Hulk objectives I mounted them all on square bases. I also glued a magnet onto the arm of the throne so the magnet in the cup would allow the cup to stick to this objective.

Completed Assault Squad (with meltaguns!)

now with 2 meltaguns!

The original five were the first things Ric painted, and just had 4 bolt pistol/ccw marines plus the power fist sergeant - now they are ready to blow up a vehicle first and then tear the occupants to shreds! The hazard stripes really make these guys pop!

Huge thanks to Ric! He has shipped over the deathwatch apothecary so I can use him for RPGs, but the rest he's going to hold off shipping until we have found/purchased and settled in a house! He plans to work on a Land Raider: Crusader next - looking forward to it!!!

For the last game I bounced back up to table 13 (possibly an omen) and played against Chad and his Chaos Dwarves (yay, another AV9 team!) who was the third from Rockford (they all had names starting with C strangely enough).

Additionally since it's the Chaos Cup everyone got two free mutations for unskilled 0-12 or 0-16 roster spots, and you got to wait to see who your opponent would be. I debated Claw but had not been throwing many blocks with my Zombies so in the end I plumped for Foul Appearance on both.

Here's his roster
2 Bull Centaurs w Block
2 Chaos Dwarves w Guard
2 Chaos Dwarves w Stand Firm
Chaos Dwarf w Leader
Chaos Dwarf
2 Hobgoblins w Pro
2 Hobgoblins w Extra Arms (his two free mutations)

Below are my tweets from the final game. Chad enjoyed using my pre-registration red dice and they rewarded him! My models refused to stay on the pitch and once knocked out wouldn't come back either! Pipeline had to leave after game five and my joke was he left me with his luck! Also kept joking about hiding the red dice from Chad ;-) Game ended 1-2 loss, 1-3 CAS and earned me 12 tournament points.

Final game, picked foul appearance for my two zombie mutations.

Skull/chopblock x2 = stunned mummy. D'oh!

Managed to squirrel my sure hands ghoul down right near his endzone from a tough position.

Pretty much best kickoff I could get, ball far in the corner and perfect defence! ** this turned out NOT to be the case as I tried to hold up his Bull Centaurs with my Mummies in the wide zones and ... (see next tweet) **

Looking likely the chaos dwarves will tie it up before halftime. BOTH mummies taken out in one turn :-(

Pulled off a magic move, dodge into 3 tackle zones and uphill blocked the bull centaur down with wrestle.

Followed quickly by failing a 3+ dodge with reroll. wah waaaaaaah.

dual posted on Merry Mayhem News

Game 5 saw me on table 17 pitted against Paul (pipeline of "BANG" infamy) and his Chaos team "69 Dudes!" who unfortunately had terrible luck during the game but we later had a great chat about my visit to the Chicago Art Institute on Friday (where he works as a network admin) which was really cool and interesting.

His roster was
2 Chaos Warriors w Mighty Blow
Chaos Warrior w Leader
Chaos Warrior
2 Beastmen w Block
Beastman w Frenzy
3 Beastmen
Minotaur
Reroll

Same as all the previous posts my tweets are below. When my first block was double skulls I thought it was going to be painful for me but it turned around pretty quick. Pipeline took his licks with good sport and quick wit! Game ended 2-0 win and 1-1 CAS, netting me 62 tournament points.

Playing the infamous pipeline. double skulls for my first block :-@ not how I wanted to start day two.

War of attrition going OK, 1 chaos warrior and 1 beastman KO'd.

Averaging a KO per turn by turn four! #whutupshun

Quick progress upfield by the 69 Dudes! Turn 3 starts now.

Poor pipeline has nothing go his way, rerolls burned early and at least six pure skull or skull/chopblocks blocks.

dual posted on Merry Mayhem News

Game four was on table 19 vs Bobby and another Orc team, but at least it was a very different build from my previous opponent. His team was called Cyzygystic Disaster. Great feature about this game was getting to play on the custom Chaos Cup 2011 pitch - cool!!

Here's his roster.

2 Blitzers w Tackle
2 Blitzers w Strip Ball
2 Black Orcs w Block
Troll w Guard
2 Lineorcs
Goblin w Sure Feet
Thrower w Leader
2 Rerolls

As with all the other game reports here's my tweets/photos from game four. Game ended as a 1-1 draw, 0-1 CAS, garnering 30 tournament points.

PS. I googled Bobby's team name to try and figure out what Cyzygystic means. There was only one result, the 2009 Chaos Cup results, where Bobby placed last! He's obviously much improved, well done Bobby! (remembering your skills is a great start, hehe)
http://www.bloodbowlmajors.com/ChaosCup/2009/ChaosCup2009_Results.htm

Quickly had Piling On mummy and Guard wight KO'd so went for the quick score and pulled it off with no rerolls.

Managed to knock the ball free but failed a 4+ pass leaving the ball in the open.

Mummy CATCHES the bouncing ball! #WHUTUPSHUN

Then I was a gentleman and pointed out his Blitzer has strip ball so even the push on mummy knocked the ball loose. ** He later told me afterwards about him paying it forward when he taught a 13 year old how he could pull off a 1TT - how's that for showing how great this game and its players are! **

Two die uphill block to take down the thrower, double chop block = win!

Orcs tie it up pretty early in the second half, five turns to take the lead again.

Then my sure hands ghoul fails a go for it w reroll, dropping the ball and killing himself in the process :-@

I will post my day two games and the youtube clip of the awards tomorrow!

dual posted on Merry Mayhem News

Game three I dropped down to table 14. I played Chris with his Orcs. They were called "Generic Orcs". Chris was also from Rockford and friends with my previous opponent Craig.

From memory his roster was;

2 Black Orcs w Block
2 Black Orcs w Stand Firm
2 Blitzers w Guard
Blitzer w Leader
Blitzer
3 Lineorcs
Goblin
2 Rerolls

As with the previous game posts here's the tweets and photos I posted yesterday, I took too many photos in game two and I had to charge my phone so that's the reason I only took a few photos.

I was pretty disappointed with my performance in this game, mainly that I confused one of his Blitzers for a Black Orc. It's a mistake I frequently make with Orcs teams made from WHFB Orcs but still was no excuse. I thought my ghoul was in the clear but he got a tackle zone on him which eventually meant he scored instead of me in the first half. Hopefully this might teach me to count squares more in important circumstances.

Still, well played to Chris - he managed two TDs with thrown passes (one short and one long) which is very impressive with Orcs let alone without a thrower. Game ended as a 1-2 loss, 0-3 CAS, getting me 15 tournament points.

2 times failing 3+ dodge w reroll is killing my offensive drive. AND the freaking black orc caught a bouncing ball.

Managed an early TD (turn 3) thanks to Chris' gobbos inability to pick up the ball, tie game!

Goddamn gobbo makes up for it by throwing an accurate long pass. Double U Tee Eff!!

dual posted on Merry Mayhem News

Second game was the highest table I played on all tournament, Table 6! He came with a bunch of guys from Rockford and I ended up playing 3 of them throughout the tournament (all three of my losses - damn you Rockford!!). From memory his team build was.

2 Blitzers w Guard
2 Blitzers w Stand Firm
2 Linewomen w Wrestle
Linewoman w Leader
Linewoman w Sure Hands
4 Linewomen (possibly with some other skills I can't remember!)
Reroll
1 Fan Factor

Craig was a very skilled player and I found it really difficult to get to grips with his Amazons (Dirty Dodging Darlas), without having any Tackle. I did get a decent amount of casualties, it was the only AV7 team I got to play all tournament. He ended up placing second so getting whooped by him doesn't seem so bad now!

Again here's the tweets I made during the game with the accompanying photos. Game ended 0-3 loss, 3-1 CAS to me, which earned me 15 tournament points. Apparently I had a lot of time to take photos and tweet!

Game 2 vs Amazons. His first hit of the game kills my block ghoul. So far managed 1 KO. My bash game not firing.

Piling On mummy gets his second CAS of the day.

Amazons push quickly up the left flank, they score on turn 6. Booo.

Ball lands on line of scrimmage. Rocks stun a linewoman and a ghoul. Undead trash Amazon line and pickup ball.

Trying to push two possible receivers fails on a 4+ dodge by ghoul who kills himself :-@ grrrrrr

Amazons roll blitz on the kickoff to increase my misery :-( let's hope the casualties start to pile up (on?)

Lots of kapows this turn, turning it around? Nope spoke to soon :-( sure hands ghoul knocked out and ball dropped.

Frenzy wight rolls double skulls. Lost the leader ghoul so need to save reroll. :-/ not liking amazons right now.

Crazy scrum ensues! 3 ghouls out looking unlikely to score. Trying to hold him to one TD, also unlikely :-(

Dodge skill fails and amazons score again - not looking good! Working on casualties now :-/

Made one last drive for a TD only to have the ball carrier smacked and probably give up one last TD ;-(

Managed to put some guys in the way to hopefully stall that third TD. Piling On mummy scored 3 CAS so far.

With some crazy dice rolls tried to hold her up. didn't help ANY lol seems like I was supposed to lose this game.

dual posted on Merry Mayhem News

First game was on table 17 and I played Doug who showed up with the rest of the Madd Dawgs crew. He was playing Humans and his team was called the Meeshigan Maulers, here's his build. Something I just noticed is with only one unskilled lineman he may have lost out on a free mutation for game six (not the biggest deal I suppose)

Thrower w Accurate
Thrower w Leader
Blitzer w Guard
Blitzer w Mighty Blow
Blitzer w Frenzy
Blitzer w Tackle
Catcher w Guard
Catcher w Block
2 Linemen w Wrestle
Lineman
Reroll
Bloodweiser Babe

Doug was great fun to play and a great sport (as evidenced by the pics ** warning there is some rather crude hand gestures I thought were funny to include in the photos, Paul & the Lad this warning is especially for you! **)

Here's the rundown of the tweets I made and the pics I took, hope you enjoy. Game ended 2-0 win, 1-0 CAS to me, gaining me 64 tournament points.

3 turns and only a KO :-/ hoping things turn around!

First CAS of the game caused by Piling On mummy! Doug is not impressed :-)

Piling On mummy fouled out of the game. Grr :-@ and failed regeneration, DOUBLE GRRR :-@

Freaking TRIPLE SKULL! lucky I still had a reroll. Doug finds it amusing :-@

Sweltering heat takes out a zombie/2 humans. Managed to free up the ball early in second half.

Then manage to squeeze the ball out of the scrum and pick it up...

and last turn (due to time) scramble into the endzone for a second touchdown. 2-0 win!

dual posted on Merry Mayhem News

Well it was a complete blast but the dust has settled. I'd like to thank Jonny P, Bryan aka "Xtreme", Jimmy Rufer and the rest of the Chaos Cup committee for throwing a very well run tournament. Be sure to start following JRufer if you're on twitter, he also posted a bunch of tweets during his games, and he's a hilarious dude!

Here's a pic of Jonny P on the Inquisition podium during registration. Doug my first opponent is standing there in the grey hoodie and the dude by the table in front came all the way from the Netherlands!

@ chicago battle bunker

Photos of the Chaos Cup swag! Khorne Flakes and the red dice were for pre-registration. I picked up some extra base sets for a few buddies (Paul @ The Man Cave and AbraxiS/Axt @ Merry Mayhem News)

coin, dugout, patch, 2x black d6s, 2x red d6s (pre-reg only)

pre-reg only, actually a box of cornflakes!

There was also a bunch of raffles throughout the two days. Most were funny junk the organizers obviously wanted rid of but lucky me scored one of the best prizes, a set of dice and a patch from the Headbangers Ball.

possible way to beat Glenn Jones - have him throw the game in exchange for these dice!

I also picked up some extra stuff, namely a set of dice & counters from zlurpeebowl 7, as well as the zlurpus zombling model and that also scored me a zlurpeebowl stress dice.

zlurpee 7-11 dice, save the crom dice, counters

picked up the little zombling in the middle

free for buying a certain amount of zlurpee swag

I'd also like to thank all of my opponents (Doug, Craig, Chris, Bobby, Paul and Chad) for great games and being great sports, as well as the awesome guys from the Madd Dawg crew (Tom, Sol, Ryan, Doug and Chris) and the Kalamazoo guys (Randy, Bo, Tim and Jeff) and especially Brian H or BCH on the zlurpee forums who split my room with me and was a total gent and great guy to room and hang out with for the weekend, thanks again bud!! Sorry if I have missed anyone!

Oh yea, and I picked up some Team USA world cup dice from Tom to support those guys, smart way to help fund the trip to Amsterdam!

Here's a list of the award winners, congratulations to these guys. 56 coaches in the running meant there was some stiff competition! At least my only loss by more than one touchdown was the runner up!
1st; Frank
2nd; Craig
3rd; Aron
Most TDs; Tim
Least TDs; Matt
Most CAS; Bryan (Xtreme of Zlurpcast)

aww yea, Other Guy! the original OG!

Best Sport; Mike G
Best Appearance; Jamie
Stunty Cup; Chance (from 3 Die Block)

Chance from 3DB, the other Other Guy - Drew taking pic in the mirror is pretty funny

Wooden Spoon; Mike

Jonny P also put together a fun photo scavenger hunt, I'm sure those pics will be up on the zlurpcast website soon. I'm even in one of them as "something from the 80's".

the skaven-ger photo hunt list

Even though I didn't really have time to participate I still had to get a pic with Main Guy!

aww yea, whutupshun!

Skaven-ger Hunt Winners; Kalamazoo Guys

Randall (aka Randroid at Drinkin' & Modelin')

Beau

Tim

Jeff

Usually at two day tournaments I get a good day and a bad day. This was the first time my good and bad results were mixed up on both days, food for thought!

Finally this tournament just confirmed that Blood Bowl players are the best, great folks every one of them, thanks fellas! This pic is hilarious, DarkOrk20 giving flyingdingle the tongue, JP and Xtreme WHUTUPSHUN, Chance with his 3DB gang sign. Awesome!

dual posted on Merry Mayhem News