NaBBLe becomes HoBBLe (league season 2)

This past weekend was the playoffs of a local leagues second season.  The league has been renamed from NaBBLe to HoBBLe to be a little fluffier with it's location (Toronto ie. Hogtown).  You may remember that I walked away as champion of season 1 with my dark elf team the Karond Kar Raiders - and due to that they spent a season touring the olde worlde.  I brought a slann team for season 2 (my jawbreakers aka the googlies)

It was a pretty rough season!  The commish came up with the idea of playing a game vs. "the piggies" who were a bunch of halfings in order to build up some SPP.  Unfortunately for me, since slann don't have any piece that starts with block - I could only take them down on POWs or have to take a chance on having my own armour broken.  Dave played the piggies vs. me and he CAS'd all 3 of my catchers, including killing one outright!!  My first few games I basically took insane beatdowns including one game where I was on the receiving end of 7 CAS.

For all that though, I still managed to do really well with them.  I finished the league in 5th place - 2 points out of contention for the playoffs, which considering I was consistently;
a) having to replace dead/injured players (6 deaths, 2 MV busts, 2 MNG)
b) playing with a minimum of 1 journeyman every game
c) having between 300-650!! worth of inducements each game
I felt pretty good about my final record of 5W/1D/4L which is better than .500 - I'm not sure what the tiebreaker was between myself and Nicco - it could have been TD's scored (not diff, he beat me there) or it could have been head to head as I won our game.

So on Sunday we got together for the playoffs and anyone not playing in the playoffs got a "grudge match".  With identical records Nicco and I matched up again and while the game was close in terms of scoring (might've been different if his zombie didn't intercept a pass!!) he tore my team up pretty bad, killing outright my AG5/Guard blitzer as well as my ST4/mighty blow linefrog. Taking the grudge match into account I came out at exactly .500 which is still pretty impressive.

Originally I had planned to bring a new team next season as a number of people were planning to start new teams - however instead of just 1 game vs. the piggies - the plan is to have a small 1 day 3 game tournament to build up SPP for your team.  Unfortunately for me, it's scheduled for the day after my wedding so if I want to live to see season 3 I'm sure I will be missing it.  That gives me two options, 1) bring back the dark elves or 2) continue with the slann.  At first I thought nearly everyone was bringing a new team and that would make it pretty douchey to bring a tooled up team back, but now it seems that at least 4-5 coaches might bring their same teams from season 2 back so we'll play it by ear!

Zlurpeebowl VIII - result = 38/60

#WHUTUPSHUN

Sorry for how long this has taken me to put together - have been super busy lately and I wanted to really give a summary of the whole weekend because Xtreme (@XtremeBBer) really put a proper "weekend" of fun together.

pre-party

The canucks made excellent time driving down to Naptown, I think we arrived around 5ish.  Checked in at the lake house which turned out to be plenty big enough for 8 guys (they mentioned we might be cramped but the closets were big enough to hold our an air mattress - and Alex (@alexmatusiak) did sleep in the closet hoping for a bit of quiet, though it didn't work out that way as Hickling stayed up watching one of the american pie movies.

So once we dropped our stuff off, we headed over to Xtreme's place which was about a 20 minute drive.  Got there and Hickling immediately dove into a game of the BB team manager, while the rest of us hung around waiting for our beer to get cold.  Thankfully Sol and the mad dawgs showed up with a cooler and shared the wealth.  This party was a huge blast, everyone just hanging out and drinking, we all played silly games like rat ogre bowl (which Alex won) and space bowl (which Alex's team won - even despite my terrible efforts as the hive mind)

spacebowl broodlord vs. sergeant - that's me pointing!

hive mind high five! me, alex, randroid, sarge

DAY 1


Game 1 vs. Jeff (@ZootSuitJeff) 2-0 win

Jeff was one of the 'mericans crashing with the canucks at the little lake house we rented.  Appropriate we got to play each other!  Jeff brought a FTLOTG (and was eventual FTLOTG champion) counts as lizardmen team (no Saurus!) that was comprised of a giant robot for the kroxigor and a bunch of tiny robots for the skinks.  Very cool looking team.

game 1

In the first half I won the coin toss and chose to kick.  I used Boomer right away hoping it would force Jeff to try to score early.  Didn't work out that way and Boomer didn't have much effect as his skinks were so spread out - but I did manage to nip the ball and score late in the half.  Second half Jeff played a brilliant drive that very nearly succeeded in scoring down one flank, but fortune wasn't with him and he lost possession late (bit hazy now but I think it was a failed dodge or gfi) and even though I was planning to _not_ win by a lot (an early big win will have you playing stronger opponents sooner!) in the end I just tried to make a late scoring drive and ended up scoring a second touchdown without even using a reroll.  Should've saved some of that luck for later games!

Game 2 vs. Al 1-0 win

Al was _originally_ going to crash with us, but fortunately a cancellation let him stay in the house with the other mad dawgs whose team he was on, and was travelling with.  I'm sure that was nicer in the end for him.  Al also did a great job with the grill saturday night at the live after zlurp party.  He was the second lizardmen team I played, although he did have saurii (sp?).

game 2

Again I kicked to Al and used Boomer immediately.  Boomer had a much better impact in this game - I think it frustrated Al quite a bit.  The game was definitely a learning experience for Al, I'm not sure he was very familiar with the dangers of frenzy.  I warned him about being near the sidelines but I think the second hit threw him for a loop.  Fortunately for him the crowd only KO'd his tackle saurus.  Quite a back and forth game, where I managed to pull out a 1-0 win.  I think it wasn't until the second half that I scored but don't quote me on that, after the pre-party at Xtreme's Friday night the games from day one are tough to recall!

At the same time, Alex and Jonny P were playing right next to us, here's Jonny's #1 absolute favourite pic from the entire weekend.  Alex's Krox looming over his blitzer (or linewoman or whatever, ther're all blodgers - who cares!!)

NOM NOM

Game 3 vs. Tom 1-2 loss

Angry Tom! Septuple Burger Buddy Award winner! THE Tomcat Rummery.

I have played Tom twice before, and with a win and a draw under my belt I figured a bit of smack talk was in order.  He got his revenge in this game but the look on his face was priceless!!  Tom is part of the mad dawgs crew and ended up winning Zlurpeebowl!  He came in 2nd for the RPS tournament, but he cheated me by waiting to see what I chose first! ;)  He was also the 3rd lizardmen team in a row I faced. 

game 3

Made my first big mistake of the day here.  I won the coin toss and should have kicked, instead I chose to receive hoping to really cash in on Boomer, but it ended up costing me as Boomer caused a couple turnovers with fumbles.  AV7 started to cost me as well.  This was a very fun game as Tom and I traded smack talk the whole time.  Unfortunately as he was generally doing well (and there were young children nearby) didn't manage to drag out a proper Angry Tom performance but it was still a blast.  We both scored in the first half, and then in the second I couldn't hold him as the casualties started to mount.

guessing I just insulted Tom in this pic

waiting for retaliation??

Game 4 vs. Ezzard 1-2 loss

Ezzard is another American who crashed with us, so throughout day 1 I basically played people I've been connected to somehow, with Tom the only one I'd previously played - that's always nice! I felt for the poor guy, his allergies were going crazy and I am usually the same, but my allergies didn't bother me at all in the States, weird!

game 4

YAY not playing lizardmen! BOO playing guardspam dwarves! Double BOO, he took Boomer too so neither can use him!!  Made another huge mistake in choosing to kick to him, that's what I wanted to do if I had Boomer, so once I lost Boomer I should have immediately realized that would be suicide.  AND it was.  I think Ezzard got like 7 casualties against me but I still managed to score a TD and I think if I had received it could've been a different game.  Not surprised I made this mistake though as by game 4 of day 1 your mental fortitude is really what is tested the most.  Ezzard won 2-1 and he ended up winning Most Casualties (you're welcome!)

live after zlurp party

Well this was a BLAST.  Definitely the highlight of the weekend, if you have listened to Episode 36 of Zlurpcast you have already heard all the best stuff.  I missed hearing Hickling's interview live as I was scarfing down food, but I joined the crowd just as Jeff was doing his "Go For It". It's always a blast chatting with Main Guy and Other Guy, and I had fun doing my own "Go For It" - especially because Jonny just wouldn't give up until I got a skill roll and (as it had all night) giving away SPP just bugs Bryan!  I'm sure if you are reading this you've listened, but as a recap I started as an Orc blitzer and with a few "correct" answers ended up with 6SPP and took Mighty Blow as my first skill, time to crack a few skulls!

mustard vs. ketchup!

There were tons of games and such going on, so much that it was impossible to follow everything that was happening.  I think we called it quits sometime around 1am to head back to the lake house for a bit of sleep before the second day.  Thankfully for us, our location was much closer to the venue than everyone else, so we were able to sleep in quite a bit even though we had to be all packed up before we left.  The folks at Indy Lakes were super nice (if you are ever there, say hi to James for me!) and I wouldn't hesitate to go back even though it's mainly for fishing, it was just overall super convenient.  Next year will probably try to do a bit more planning so we can just eat breakfast there, since we really barely used the facilities - it even had laundry!

DAY 2

Game 5 vs. Josh 0-1 loss

Josh was part of the OWFUL crew, and was the guy who told the hilarious Jake Lloyd selling weed story on Zlurpcast Episode 36.  A really great guy and we had a super epic game.  This was easily my most fun game of the tournament - which always says a lot when you lose!

game 5

I chose to receive and used Boomer and right away was super pumped as the kickoff result was "Get the Ref!" giving me a bribe to attempt to keep Boomer around for both drives!!  KICK ASS I thought.  Boomer really tore into Josh's orcs, mostly just knocking them down - however did get the odd KO here and there.  In the end, I should have just tried to dodge away on my turn 8 with a reroll to score, but instead I tried to blitz his player off and had to burn the reroll on a gfi in the process.  Then the blitz didn't knock his player down so I had to dodge anyways (stupid!) and of course I failed.  So we went in at halftime with no score.  To make matters worse I rolled a 1 for my bribe, so I didn't get to keep Boomer.  NOOOOOOoooooooo.  Fought tooth and nail to keep Josh from scoring, but he managed to score on the last turn of the game, where he failed his catch roll from a hand off and the game literally came down to a single 3+ roll.  He made it and deservedly won the game 1-0.

Game 6 GRUDGE MATCH vs. (@GDubToThaFeetUp) aka Jonny P (@jp4media) 1-1 draw

A man needing no introduction.  If you don't know who Jonny P is - I don't understand why you have read this far through this post!  Looks pretty soft in this pic eh???

game 6 vs. "soft" jonny

"I put dump off in dis bag" - your face says it all main guy

Another pretty epic game, though mostly for Jonny!  Boomer again was a force to be reckoned with since Jonny's entire amazon team were blodgers!  Really helped to knock his team down, though I gotta say I also rolled a fair amount of open POWs as well on my drive.  I scored late but didn't really do enough damage to Jonny's team.  

Second half JP made a nice push and tied the game up, then after kicking to me again - all of a sudden he started breaking armour like nobody's business around turn 5-6 and in two turns he had KO'd 3-4 and CAS'd another 2-3.  It was brutal!! In the end I had like 2 players on the pitch, and all I could do was draw his players close, then run up the field and throw it as far as was safe to do and pray to not fumble.  I managed it and JP couldn't manage to score with his chance so the game ended 1-1.

check out the beating I took!

GRUDGE....REMAINS

Awards

The "Eh" Team did pretty well overall..  in fact much better than anyone (even Xtreme) thought because after the fact I determined that we actually should have won "Best Team"!!! This was mainly due to the bonuses from Alex winning best appearance for his lizardmen team (this was what Bryan forgot) and for Hickling being on a top table in the final round.  At the event it went to the Legion of Boom from Wisconsin - so we will actually be co-champions.  Waiting to hear from Xtreme about possible prizes and I know we are getting certificates!  There's a blurb about this in Zlurpcast Episode 36 which is pretty funny!

Hickling ended up with 3rd place.  If he won his last game he would have won the tournament.  He was the only player to beat Tom (who won, going 5-1) - the results list shows him in 4th, but basically the top 2 tables in the last round make up who places 1-4th, so even though Petre won his last game (the last American who stayed with us at the lake house) and leapfrogged him, Mark still took 3rd.  As you can see he spent a lot of time on the top tables!  PS. This is the Mark they called "Chops" on Zlurpcast Episode 36.

hick vs taylor 1.0

hick vs. solarflare

hick vs. rodney

Here's my recording of the awards ceremony. Also you can check out the results thread on the zlurpeebowl forum.


All in all this was probably the most amazing blood bowl tournament experience I've had.  I know The "Eh" Team will be back!!

dual posted on Merry Mayhem News

Orion Cup 2012 - result = 4th

Wow, haven't posted since April 28th!  My apologies, have just had a lot going on and blogging has taken a backseat to everything else.  Here's a delayed posting about the first blood bowl tournament I played in back in June, the Orion Cup.

I brought a very similar Norse roster to my planned Zlurpeebowl roster, it had no Yhetee but did include Boomer Eziasson.

Game 1 vs. Anthony

This was a tight game, first half boomer kept the dwarves on their asses, but a nice play from Anthony put a tackle zone on my ball carrier, and I ended up having to burn my reroll on a failed GFI early in my last turn which meant when I needed it for a failed dodge it wasn't available.  Failed to score on my drive had me worried, went in at HT 0-0.

Second half I managed to do a good job tying up Anthony in the middle of the field and as time started ticking away and we had to finish - he decided to go for a 5+ dodge with reroll to get out of my "cage" (I had 3 players surrounding his ball carrier) which failed and the ball landed in my players hands - that bit of fortune helped me to score in the last turn of the game for a lucky 1-0 win.

Game 2 vs. Colin R.

Another tight game, Norse vs Norse.  I remember it being back and forth quite a bit but am starting to forget some details.  What I do remember is Colin's dice not being great and his "Samsquanch" (hehe) failing a number of wild animal rolls - along with some unfortunate block dice results.  This game ended 1-0 in my favour as well.

Game 3 vs. Kolja

Every game finished 1-0 for me this tournament.  This time I was on the receiving end.  I did manage to keep his skaven from scoring for something like 12-13 turns of the game, but late in the second half he pulled off some nice plays with his gutter runners to score and I just didn't have time to get one back.  I think I misplayed boomer in this game - I used him on my offensive drive (which works better vs. bashy teams IMO) but in this game I should have saved him for a defensive drive, since the skaven were too spread out when defending to take much advantage.

I finished in 4th place - a fun little one day tournament and some good practice for zlurpeebowl.  Everyone got prizes too which was nice.