This past Saturday I traveled out to Kitchener/Waterloo region again to support my buddy Grant who took over running the Blingtoof/Foul Frenzy tournament that was scheduled for Hamilton on the same day, but the T.O. canceled it for fear of low turnout. It was renamed to the Spiked Shoe Cup for this years iteration.
Grant recruited a lot of his new league mates, and several guys showed up from London as well and we ended up with 14 participants which is quite a good turnout. We played at the Watchtower Restaurant which is an awesome fantasy/sci-fi themed pub. He also made super thematic trophies using kids shoes with little spikes attached and spray painted appropriate colours.
For a 3 game tournament I took another new race that I wasn't super keen on - I didn't really enjoy the build - I found it difficult to make any roster I thought would be fun. So I took high elves, to get an elf team that at least got 5 skills. Also be aware every roster needed to have at least 1 goblin on it.
My roster was a thrower, 2 blitzers (frenzy & tackle), 2 catchers (block & wrestle), 5 lineelves, 3 goblins (1 guard), and 3 rerolls.
Game 1: 3-1 win vs. Devon (Orcs)
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| vs. Devons Orcs |
He played a very strict cage game on his first drive - but he left one corner against a player of mine, so I was able to leverage the guard goblin's ability to dodge anywhere on a 3+ with reroll to get 2 dice against his corner and follow that up with a 2 dice against his ball carrier - knocking the ball free but unable to pick it up.
He then decided he wanted to throw a goblin for a touchdown. I managed to convince him he wanted to try and throw the goblin without moving, so he didn't need to land perfectly in the end zone to score - and he pulled it off! His blitzer picked up the ball and handed it off, and the troll moved over and tossed the goblin in a perfect spot and he casually landed and ran it in. 1-0 to the Doomspoons!
With only a few turns to score I ran 2 linemen up the sideline to form a half cage, and put my block catcher inside the cage. He marked part and lined up some tackle zones so I couldn't just run it in then tried to blitz the rear lineman, but failed something (GFI or hit can't remember). Then I blitzed his blitzer onto the sidelines and surfed him before scoring. Tie game.
Second half he kicked to me, and rolled a pitch invasion. He knocked down 7 of my 11 players. I knocked down 0 of his. It ruined a crowd surf I had lined up but fortunately for me, his kick was a touchback so my thrower got the ball. He got a 1 dice blitz against him in his next turn, but I managed to keep the ball and just ran off and threw a pass to score a 2nd touchdown. 2-1 to the high elves!
Then I got lucky with the kick and rolled a blitz. I got a blitz on the goblin near the ball and had a tackle zone where it landed. He got ahold of it, but didn't have enough resources to secure it and I managed to get ahold of it and had screened off the back from his guys on the LOS. I held it til my turn 8 and scored. 3-1 to the high elves!! He had an opportunity for TTM OTT but where he placed his goblins and where the kick landed scuppered that.
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| Round 1 |
Game 2: 1-0 win vs. Aaron (Norse)
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| vs. Aarons Norse. My T16. |
I'm pretty sure this was Aaron's first tournament. His roster was a bit unconventional (his 3 skills were pro, dump off and accurate - meanwhile his ulfwereners had no block, he took no berserkers) so all his frenzy had no block skill. That definitely burned him a bit during our game.
This was a super intense game even though we didn't do much in terms of casualties, fouls, etc. Neither of us could string more than a turn of success together all game.
Back and forth for 31 turns. First 3 turns of both halves my first dice roll failed. Both times I blitzed and needed a GFI, that failed. Succeeded the reroll just to roll double skulls on the hit. This was the second game my high elf thrower fumbled two passes.
Finally in my turn 16, the ball is on the ground and has 2 tackle zones on it. I chain-pushed to get it to be just 1, but in doing so blocked my line to the end zone with my catcher! I had to stand up and dodge my other catcher out of the way first before I picked it up (3+), 2 dodges (2+, 2+), and 2 GFI (with no rerolls for anything) to score the winning touchdown.
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| Round 2 |
Game 3: 1-1 draw vs. Ted (Skaven)
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| vs. Teds Skaven |
Also Ted's first tournament. He also showed off an Arsenal jersey to counter my Chelsea shirt when we started to play - so there was a good edge to the match from the get go.
We had sweltering heat all match long, so we swapped having drives with the man advantage. I would say he was too cavalier with his gutter runners - a bit better dice and he could have been in serious trouble. I probably got 5 or so what I would term "free" hits with my tackle or frenzy blitzer. Of course I didn't cause a casualty all game.
He was also really fortunate with his rat ogre - who only rolled wild animal twice - and twice he received a hand off or picked up the ball on a 5. I took him down the first time with a 2 die uphill with my wrestle catcher, getting both down and defender stumbles. The second time it was on a blitz where he knocked my player down and just decided to try a pick up. I had to surround him completely to force a dodge when he tried to score which fortunately he failed (and for the first time all tournament, a big guy failed his loner to reroll something against me!!!)
After a scoreless first half, I managed to score in the second, and then recover the ball after I got a perfect defence result on the kick off. I was then a long bomb away from locking up the game. No 5's for me though, for the third game in a row my thrower managed to fumble a second pass in a single game (only on a 1 thanks to Safe Throw) and he recovered it and got a gutter free. I then failed a dodge trying to blitz him, so he ran it in to score on his turn 16.
I had a chance at OTT, he rolled a blitz result - but actually made my life easier by adding guys to the LOS. Unfortunately I rolled skull/both down with my frenzy catcher and followed that with double skull on my chain pushes to see the game end at 1-1.
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| Round 3 |
So I finished in second place behind Grant (3 wins) with 2 wins and a draw.
Due to him running the tournament, Grant didn't want to accept the first place trophy so that's why you see me accepting it here. I keep listing him as the winner and he keeps listing me as the winner.
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| First Place? FAKE NEWS |
All in all a fun day at Watchtower Restaurant. Check them out if you are in the area and they are running a Blood Bowl league if you have an interest in that too.
