Spiked Shoe Cup - result = fake news trophy winner (2/14)

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)

vs. Devons Orcs

This was Devon's 3rd tournament and he was talking about winning at 3rd spoon (clearly since he named his team the Doomspoons!).  Despite that, he performed very well going 1-1-1 and finishing 7th which is top half!

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.

Round 1

Game 2: 1-0 win vs. Aaron (Norse)

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.

Round 2

Game 3: 1-1 draw vs. Ted (Skaven)

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.

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.

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.

Brewhouse Bowl III: three sheets to the wind - result = 1st place (again!) (1/14)

Just got back from Kitchener this past weekend to participate in Brewhouse Bowl III.

Astute readers (who've been running on fumes for years until my recent burst of blog motivation) may recall that I built Grant a Brewhouse Bash board and was duly rewarded with the karma required to come out on top in its inaugural year.

Well - two fantastic things came about in year three.

The first being that my constant nagging was rewarded with Grant building a simply FANTASTIC Brewhouse Bash board of his own.

Bonus marks if you can identify what the base is.

The second being that I won the tournament outright again - this time the first time I've ever used a race, and that race being Vampires!  Now a HUGE caveat is the build was very generous to Vampires, with them being bundled into the same tier as Stunties.  So I had a very strong roster which I was extremely happy with.  Big thanks to delevus, Gaixo and L3athalK for their tips and advice.

My roster was;
3 Vampires - 1) Block / Dodge 2) Block / Pro 3) Dodge / Leader
Wilhelm Chaney
11x Thralls - 1) Wrestle 2) Guard
3 Rerolls
3 Fan Factor

Game 1: 1-0 win vs. delevus (goblins)

• Stupid & Skulling trolls (and Grak) made it very tough for him to compete.
• Lost subsequent Brewhouse round

Game 2: 2-1 win vs. tlawson (dark elves)

• Very aggressive so he scored early, and I replied with a TD.
• He threw lots of skull/push.
• I intercepted a pass on a 6 in second half to get the ball for the win.
• WON subsequent Brewhouse round - gaining Jump Up on my Guard Thrall.

Game 3: 3-2 win vs. hammer16 (wood elves)

• He ran out of rerolls quick and then failed a handoff.  After I recovered it he hit me with strip ball, but a lucky scatter kept it in my hands.  All his rerolls were gone by turn 5 of first half.
• I got a blitz to screw up his OTT attempt at end of first half.
• I only rolled 2 bloodlusts we can remember all game.
• Lost subsequent Brewhouse round

Game 4: 1-1 draw vs. Stimme (halflings)

• Scored with Chaney in first half - did a good job avoiding his trees/Grak for the most part but he still CASd a Vamp who didn't regen early on.
• Got a blitz and messed it up resulted in touchback - he took off but even with six players I knocked ball loose and scooped it up and ran off with it.
• I made a mistake and could have done a lot better to wrap up a win.  Failed a GFI with Chaney when I could have tied up his treeman with a spare thrall. Went from potentially 2-0 to a 1-1.
• Only game where the CAS really started to mount up.  I think at one point I had 5 in the KO bin and 4 in the CAS box.
• He tied with Kick Team Mate using Grak/Crumbleberry - glad those rules are changing!!
• Lost subsequent Brewhouse round

Game 5: 2-1 win vs. Da5id (nurgle)

• Scored mid-late in first half with a thrall after gazing his marking player.  Got lucky on the handoff to that thrall because I forgot about disturbing presence and failed and needed a 5+ on the reroll and got it.
• Stopped him scoring in first, he scored a 2 turn TD with no reroll using a pass action to his pestigor.
• Got a blitz and couldn't get ahold of the ball, but took out Grotty when he threw him to try and get away and didn't move far enough.
• Very nervy turn 16 touchdown.  He dodged 2 bloaters to get a blitz on a blodge Vamp and got the open pow, but Vamp returned the favour and knocked ball loose and picked it up to score.

Got another cool brew themed trophy plus the usual NAF shield.

All in all a fantastic weekend.  Now Grant and I are tied again for NAF shields and winning a shield the first time you use a race (3 total shields, 2 first time with a race each) - unfortunately for Grant he's played as all 24 races so he can't win any more first time playing the race :)

Orion Cup 2017 - result = 2nd place, lost 1st on tiebreakers (2/12)

Saturday June 24th I participated in a 4 game, 1 day, turncoat style blood bowl tournament in Toronto, ON.

For this years Orion Cup - Stimme decided to steal the turncoat style from a Belgian tournament and use it here. Basically it meant you had to play using your opponents team for rounds 2 and 4.

I chose to take Chaos Pact, and I borrowed a team from Stimme the organizer.
Simply because I would only need to play 2 games with them! :)
I was hoping to get a few other teams knocked off the 24 list, unfortunately played teams I've already used a lot :(

My roster was all 6 positionals, 6 marauders, 3 rerolls and 3 FF.
I gave Block to Ogre, Juggernaut on Minotaur, Dodge on Dark Elf, Wrestle on Skaven and Sure Hands on 1 of the marauders.

Game 1 - 1-1 draw vs. Brent (Me = Chaos Pact, Him = Orc)

This was Brent's first NAF tournament, he played Orcs.  (Block on Troll and 2 BOBs)
Pretty much a text book first half.  I even got a CAS against a BOB with Block and KO'd some other orcs, while he couldn't break my armour.  Finished HT up 1-0 not down any players at all.

Then in the second half my big guys and lack of block screwed me. I'd already managed to turn him over and get the ball with the Dark Elf, but the Ogre failed bonehead, and I turned over on a skull/both down or both down/both down by marauder even using a reroll.  Just needed a push to make dodging the Elf away reasonable. (3+, 3+, 2+ with dodge) rather than (4+, 4+, 3+ ,2+).

It let Brent grab the ball and even though he failed a pass action to score, I turned over on a 2 die block with reroll again and then he picked it up and walked it in.  I had 2 turns to score, but was only able to get the skaven within scoring range (I threw the goblin without the ball, unfortunately he scattered back towards the LOS and couldn't land in a tackle zone - perhaps a mistake, could have waited and thrown him last turn, but he was so aggressively positioned I knew if I had 2 guys deep, I'd be able to have a good opportunity to score)


Game 2 - 2-1 win vs. Scott (Me = his Orcs, Him = my Chaos Pact)

I was worried this tournament was taking a downward turn at the start of this game.  Scott's troll (who I was controlling) was very very stupid.  His blodging blitzer failed a dodge 2nd turn of the game & KO'd himself (never to return).  Scott then managed a single die blitz on my ball carrier, picked up the ball and scored in his second turn of the game (after kicking to me).

Then he kicked to me again, and the ball went right off to the sidelines, I surrounded it and failed a sure hands pick up, and it squirted to the worst possible square.  He blitzed a guy off and went and picked it up and ran off!!  Luckily for me, he tried a pass or hand off and it failed and it let me get ahold of the ball again.  After that I played more cautiously than I think I ever have and just ground upfield to tie at half time, then took the entirety of the second half to score a second.

WHEW

Game 3 - 3-0 win vs. Robert (Me = Chaos Pact, Him = Skaven)

So back to Chaos Pact.  Robert really liked using his speed to re-deploy every turn, I was planning to slow grind anyways so it was very challenging to just keep maneuvering my cage around while freeing up my ball carrier all the time.  He never tried anything too risky, just put a tackle zone on him by blitzing a bit of the cage free - however he did leave his gutter runners too vulnerable. Anytime I had a block available that would free my ball carrier, I used that to give me a chance to blitz his gutters with either the Mino or Ogre and they spent a lot of the game in the KO box.  Scored turn 8 in the first half.

Second half, he made an aggressive push down my left hand flank, but probably set himself up for failure by leaving nobody in the backfield or around where he was planning to make a pass action. He fumbled the pass and from there I swooped in and even though I couldn't blitz his thrower off the ball, I had the area secured and then ran in with the Sure Hands marauder and grabbed the ball and dodged away.  Back to the same pattern as earlier, I kept moving my cage around in whatever way let me throw a non critical blitz with a big guy against a key player - by this time both his blitzers were out of the game, so he struggled to even safely blitz the corner away any time his Rat Ogre rolled Wild Animal (2-3 times in second half).  I scored on my turn 7.

Then rolled a blitz on the next kickoff.  I blitzed a hole and ran a marauder up and based his thrower. Ran a big guy around his LOS and tied them up.  Then he failed his first block of his turn 8, so I blitzed my guy in his end free and got him the ball and he ran it in for a bit of icing on the cake!

Game 4 - 2-1 win vs. Tim (Me = his Slann, Him = my Chaos Pact)

Game 4 and I'm undefeated - now I get to use Slann which I'd played a ton of leading up to Amorical Cup - so I was fairly confident I could at least leverage the team I had to play to my advantage. Unfortunately I felt Tim's roster left something to be desired - he took Block on both catchers where I'd really rather have had Dodge.  It cost me twice early in the game, and I had to just eat dirt right after taking the ball away from him the second time because I knew I would need the last reroll I had later on for something more important.

So we went back and forth - quite a bit of failures, however they only counted against me!  He had two CAS very early and each half caused at least 3 KOs.  His AV dice were FIRE!!!  There wasn't much I could do when needing to save that reroll for something impactful, so he ended up beating me up before handing off and taking off with his skaven.  I did manage to blitz him but rolled both down and I chose not to reroll it.  He could either choose wrestle and have a chance to pick up the ball freely next turn or take the both down and roll the dice.  He chose wrestle and then even though he did a bunch of risky stuff first, he still stood up, grabbed the ball and scored.

So he kicked to me and I ran a loose formation up the right flank.  He got a bunch of guys fronting up and protecting behind leap range so it looked tough, but I lucked out with knocking his player down and was able to run up, leap over and dodge away to score a tying touchdown - needing that reroll so it was worth it!!

Alex caught me off guard this time

Second half he kicked to me again and I just held the ball deep and let him press.  Then around the middle of the half, while I was still pretty safe, I ran a blitzer deep in his end and did two GFI to get well within scoring range.  He based him and felt that was enough and kept pushing, and then he got slanned!  I leaped and dodged my other blitzer over his LOS, and blitzed that player off my other blitzer.  Then ran and leaped my catcher into range to make a pass action, caught the ball and ran it in to score.

I kicked to him again and he failed to get the ball very far forward, so I managed to seriously tie it up and kept 2-3 tackle zones on the ball all the time - he popped it whenever I got ahold of it, but luckily it always stayed in my tackle zones so by the end of the game, I'd held him off and finished the tournament undefeated!


Unfortunately for me, even though I was tied for first place on points - I lost out to the opponent strength tiebreaker to Grant - so I finished in 2nd place.
His opponents finished 3rd, 4th, 5th & 10th whereas mine finished 5th, 8th, 9th & 10th.

Grant also poked some fun at the photo of me receiving my award :D

Also a big congrats to Grant and Alex who both completed the 24! They have played a NAF tournament with all 24 rosters! Well done you fogeys!

NAF partners for lyfe!

No more TT until Brewhouse Bash III in Waterloo - July 22nd/23rd unless the next season of our HoBBLe league starts up before then.  Any guesses as to what race I'll be playing at Brewhouse?