Challenge of Q'ermitt 2012, Result = best ever (2 day) tournament result!

You can find the rulespack for Challenge of Q'ermitt HERE.  I'm bothering to link it because every pitch has it's own special rules so to make sense of some of the reports, you may want to download it.

My final starting roster was;
Snow Troll - mighty blow
2x Ulfwereners - block
2x Berserkers - 1 guard, 1 unskilled
Thrower - leader
Runner - dodge
4x Lineman
Boomerette
2 Rerolls

Day 1
Game 1 vs. Greg 

Me vs. Greg on the Mordheim pitch

Greg had dwarves - it was his first time playing dwarves and my first time playing norse!  We played on the Mordheim pitch.

I received the kick, first turn of the game I casualtied a dwarf blocker, but he retaliated by AG busting my snow troll - d'oh!  I used Boomerette to great effect this game, constantly knocking down his dwarves (I only failed to affect 1 dwarf once, and the 1 time it could've affected my own player Greg rolled a 3!) taking my time to work my way downfield and score late.  I kicked to Greg for his turn 8 and unfortunately rolled a Get it off me! kick-off result, which saw one of my players (closest to sidelines) get dragged off the pitch by a giant tentacle!

Greg chose to play for the draw once he saw how the first couple turns of the second half played out.  He did a solid dwarf grind and scored on his turn 8, leaving me with a chance for a OTT, until for the kick-ff he rolled Witch Hunters! which seemed pretty pointless - the only difference from a Pitch Invasion is you don't get to add FAME, you are placed prone instead of stunned and the coach who rolls highest get's to roll the dice for both teams.

Game ended 1-1 tie, with 1-3 CAS to Greg. My FF went up, and I received 40K in winnings.

Game 2 vs. Eric

Me vs. Eric on the Chaos Dwarf pitch

Eric was playing high elves - I lucked out here as I guess the CAS different meant I was the person with a tie playing a person with a loss!  I had 2 journeymen for this game which meant I was stuck with only 11 players - this meant no matter what I was starting the 2nd half with only 10 players since Boomerette is a secret weapon. We played on the Chaos Dwarf pitch which meant it costs an extra point of MV to stand up due to how riddled the pitch is with craters, etc.

I won +2 FAME and Eric won the coin toss, he elected to receive and I believe the kick-off result was Fire in the hole! - ironic because I already had a bombardier on the pitch but with +2 FAME I won the roll and one of his players (randomly selected) was hit with a bomb, KO'ing a catcher immediately!  Eric aggressively tried to score quickly (probably hoping to get my secret weapon kicked out early) but it unfortunately didn't go his way, it just left his ball carrier too exposed.  I think he may also have been confused as it was his blitzers who had both block/dodge, while his catchers (as the one carrying the ball) had only block.  I gained possession and then because I had Boomerette had to be sure to stall this half to get the most out of her.  Between that, crowd surfs and just a bunch of block/frenzy, Eric only had 4 players to start the 2nd half.  I scored on turn 8 with my unskilled berserker (neting me an improvement roll).

At which point he had to kick to me!  It wasn't too hard to keep his 4 players knocked down, so I hurried and scored with a lineman.  He got another KO back, so for the next drive setup with 5 players, but I still had an overwhelming numbers advantage and won the ball back, scoring again with the same lineman to ensure an improvement roll.  There was 1 final turn for Eric to attempt to even up the casualties, but unfortunately I rolled a Volcanic Eruption! kick-off result, which didn't harm anyone but by delaying the game d3 turns effectively ended the game.

Final score was 3-0 win, with 2-0 CAS to me.  My berserker skilled up and I chose Mighty Blow.  I also got a lineman skilled up and I chose Tackle.  My FF went up again and I picked up 80K for winnings (yay +2 FAME) so I purchased a 2nd runner.

Game 3 vs. Alex

Alex vs. Me on the Necrotic Fairy Tale pitch

I was now on the top table, playing Alex with his amazons (with Roxanna Darknail!) and we played on the Necrotic Fairy Tale pitch. Alex had 2 wins under his belt - I was in for a tough matchup.  None of this pitches special rules came into play unless you rolled that kick-off result, which never happened so it was probably the closest thing to a normal game of blood bowl I had all weekend.

Once again I won +2 FAME (second game in a row) and this time I won the coin toss electing to receive, the kick-off was nothing out of the ordinary - I think it was quick snap.  My bash game started a bit slow, and I had to be really careful with the ball due to Roxanna - so I just kept my thrower back and tried to do some damage.  Alex did the best out of anyone so far at keeping Boomerette occupied so I couldn't just toss bombs all the time.  I did KO my own berserker with one bomb, but as I knocked down 4 of his players with one getting KO'd it wasn't the end of the world.  Then all of a sudden around turn 4, my dice got super hot and by the end of my drive I had ST busted one of his players and killed 2 others outright! (Would've been 3 kills, but he apothecaried one blitzer with guard to the ST bust).  There were some nervy moments as I was attempting to keep Roxanna on the ground with fouls near the LOS, but in his turn 7, he got up, dodged/leaped out of the surrounding players and knocked down my ball carrier, but fortune favoured me and I managed to pickup the ball and score on turn 8.  He tried to retaliate with some damage on his turn 8 but couldn't.

Now I had to kick to him in the second half and try to stop him from scoring.  He got the ball with Roxanna and despite my best attempts was able to keep her standing and holding the ball.  He caused a Badly Hurt CAS during his drive but I retaliated with another DEATH! Total of 3 deaths & 1 ST bust for this game.  I did put enough pressure on him that he had to score early and it gave me an opportunity to score a winning TD.  Unfortunately as I got close I needed to pass instead of hand off and my thrower (who was poor at passing all tournament) fumbled the ball and gave Alex the tie.

Final score was 1-1 tie, with 4-1 CAS to me.  My berserker with Guard skilled up and I selected Stand Firm, my FF went up and I received 60K in winnings.

Day 2
Game 4 vs. Peter

Me vs. Pete on the Norse pitch

Start of day 2 saw me facing off against Peter and his vampires on the Norse pitch (yea, home field advantage!).  Pete had Count Luthor, 2 vampires with block & dodge and had just purchased a rookie vampire.

Again I got +2 FAME (3rd game in a row!!) and the weather was Strong Winds with the scatter direction directly to Pete's right/my left.  He won the coin toss and chose to receive.  The kick-off result was changing weather and the Strong Winds turned into a Blizzard - meaning GFI failed on 1 or 2 and only quick or short passes could be attempted.  Pete got off to an unfortunate start, failing his first bloodlust (badly hurting a thrall) and needing to burn a reroll on turn 1.  This continued on turn 2, failing a bloodlust (stunning a thrall) and needing to spend another reroll.  On turn 3 he finally didn't fail a bloodlust but he then had to use his last reroll.  All 3 rerolls gone by turn 3.  He also made a crucial mistake - thinking with a player preventing a straight push I couldn't crowd surf his ball carrier - but he forgot due to the square away from the end zone, any frenzier would have a chance to get in between them.  So a vampire got crowdsurfed (badly hurt) and when the ball was thrown back in his other vampire failed to catch it.  I surrounded the ball and even though he was able to retrieve it, I'd been causing so much damage to his thralls and another vampire that he was already losing the war of attrition quite badly.  He got the ball into Count Luthor's hands but I surrounded him and managed to get the ball off him.  I kept him on the ground through fouls and I also killed one of his skilled vampires outright but he managed to regenerate him.  I scored on the last turn of the first half with my thrower (I had no rerolls left so it was too risky to attempt to get the SPP with another piece)

For the second half, Pete kicked to me, and rolled a Trial of Manhood kick-off result, with a norse hooligan running onto the pitch from his end zone.  I worked my way forwards quickly since he only had 4 players to work with, which meant the hooligan blitzed me instead of one of Pete's players, but I made sure it was an Ulfwerener so the block dice choice was in my hands and all he got was a push.  I kept the pressure on his vampires but was unable to hurt Count Luthor at all (whoever kills star players in this tournament get's a little tombstone trophy with that star players' name on it) so I scored quickly with my new runner.  Setup and kicked to Pete who now had 5 players, but I rolled a Wrath of Koli kick-off result and Pete lost the die roll and 3 of his 5 players started the drive stunned!  With just 2 pieces available it was pretty easy to knock the ball loose and score again with the same runner to ensure an upgrade.  I had 2 turns to try to score one more time, and the opportunity presented itself but my thrower again contrived to mess things up and fumbled the ball again (second game in a row, 1 reroll 1 - though with my luck so far it was hard to complain!)


Final score was 3-0 win, with 4-0 CAS to me.  I gave my second runner dodge as well, my FF went up and I received 90K in winnings (best you can ever get!) and with game 5 being the final game I spent as much as I could, buying an extra reroll and an extra lineman.

Game 5 vs. Rob

Rob vs. Me on the Goblin Swamp pitch

In the final game, I was sitting in 4th place - with 2 wins, 2 ties at 8 points and I played Rob who was in 2nd place (he had 3 wins, 1 loss but had already played Alex who was in 1st with 3 wins, 1 tie) while Laurent (also 3 wins, 1 loss) in 3rd played Alex.  Rob was playing dwarves and we played on the Goblin Swamp pitch - with which Rob has some unfortunate history from previous years.  The rules are that crocodiles can only come out of a plank section (which leaves the LOS clear of holes that players can be pushed into, since it is an island) but his opponent (Laurent) didn't notice so there were holes on the LOS which he kept pushing Robs players into (this was years ago).  So due to this I made sure to read the rules closely - which meant I felt obliged to point out that there are NO refs on the pitch, which basically meant Rob got to keep his deathroller for the entire game.  OUCH! (I got to keep Boomerette too, but still!)

I won the FAME, I thought I got +2 for the 4th time when Rob rolled snake eyes, but I missed by 1 or 2.  The weather was nice and Rob won the coin toss, choosing to receive.  So in trying to mess with Rob, I called out for a Croc Attack! kick-off result and got it!  Unfortunately the croc attacked MY Ulfwerener and was KO'd, leaving a hole in my side of the pitch.  Rob worked at a pretty standard dwarf grind, while I actually tried to do little to stop him while I worked at knocking down and fouling or bombing the deathroller.  I got close with a 10 armour roll once, but never much more than that.  He stalled near the end and took until his turn 8 to score.  My dice were definitely not hot in this game, failing lots of rolls of just about every type.  My only consolation was everytime Rob knocked one of my players down, the absolute best he got was a KO - until the last turn when he CAS'd my other Ulfwerener, but I used my apothecary and since 1 of the results was badly hurt he went back into my reserves.  He had also racked up 3 KO's to go with my Ulfwerener by the end of his drive.  My dice stayed cool and I rolled 1 of 4 KOs back, but by starting with 14 players I still had enough to attempt a OTT.  Rob rolled another Croc Attack! kick-off result and of course it KO'd another of my players - my thrower. Then my blitzer failed to dodge out of a tackle zone after the first hit of my turn 8 so that attempt was done quickly.

For the 2nd half, his kick-off result was Aaargh! My foot! and one of his players started prone.  I had again failed to roll more than 1 KO back (my thrower so at least I had my leader back) so I decided I had to play for the tie, and kept my thrower with the ball way back in my end until I was ready to go for a score.  A lot of my turns ended quickly due to lack of players and being stuck with 1 die blocks, but late I got a chance when my berserker rolled 2 die uphill vs his runner and got double kapow, then dodged away from his blitzer and was stood within scoring range.  Here's where I made the most crucial mistake of my entire tournament - a real learning experience which will hopefully stick with me and make me focus more.  I was throwing a long bomb with my thrower so the result might not have changed much, but I should have ensured he at least did not get a chance to intercept, because he rolled a 6 and intercepted my pass, allowing him to score a 2nd touchdown in the last turn of the game.  Over the last 2 turns I did get 2 CAS to even up that stat, but the extra touchdown gave him both the tournament overall win, as well as most TDs (yes, with dwarves, the one skaven player had a bad tournament overall, he only had 10 and this gave Rob 11 and Eric with high elves ended up with the spoon - again).

Final score was 0-2 loss, with 2-2 CAS.  I ended up in 5th place out of 16 - which for a 2 day tournament (ie. more than 4 games) is my best ever performance (both just in terms of actual ranking - I have scored 6th before) but also in comparing the # of players (this put me in top 32% of players and my previous best there was 7 of 18, which is top 39%).

I thought I had a chance for better with the tie, but after learning the other results - as soon as this game was not a win, 5th was the highest I could have gotten.  If I had won, I would have taken 2nd (first if the top table had tied) but either a tie or a loss put me in 5th as Mark won 4th with 3 wins, 2 losses.

Congratulations to all the winners, you can check out the final results here.  Challenge of Q'ermitt is always a fun tournament as there is so much crazyness going on anything can happen.

ps. As I headed home, with a mixture of elation at doing so well and a bit of frustration at the error that gave Rob the tournament (he most definitely still could've won - not sure about the other tiebreakers, but the second TD guaranteed it) I happened to be browsing through my blogroll, when I noticed that I had won a free Storm Raven from the talented (and generous) Joel of Mordian 7th. A very nice way to end the day!  Cheers to Joel and his blog is a highly recommended read!