(MFP) must finish project #1 - finally complete!

FINALLY finished.  Almost three years in the finishing I've got my blood bowl orc team complete. Earlier in December I finished up the reroll counters, the score counter was previously painted and I got it based at the same time and now I've finished the turn counter.

turn marker

I do want to paint the rims of the rest of the team black, so I can fix up their base numbers and add some coloured lines to make the positionals more explicit and to match these bases better.  In the new year I will take some updated team photos.

(MFP) must finish project #1 - 4 down, 1 to go!!

Just a quick one today - finishing up this project dates back to 2010!!  In February of that year, I posted about the figures to finish up - then a bit later I got the snotling score counter painted (but not based). Later in April just before the Challenge of Q'ermitt that year I had painted up 2 more each of blitzers and blockers as well as 3 star players and an apothecary.

I recently received a PM on the talkfantasyfootball forums and one of the members liked my orc team and offered me some free resin cast counters (orcy block dice) he had leftover.  Since those were the counters I couldn't figure out - I was happy to accept and now I have managed to get a quick paint job on them.

orcy block dice counters

Includes 3 reroll counters and a counter I will use for a leader reroll.  I have also gotten the snotling based and begun painting the turn counter - which will "finish" off this project once and for all (I may update the numbers/lettering on the bases at some point in the future)

I'm still gunning for my 2013 painting points goal - other than the counters I have a skaven engineer for hakomike nearly complete, a minotaur for my WHQ baddies nearly complete and 6 novamarines terminators I am going to attempt to finish over the holidays.

Deathbowl X - result = 5th/24 (without a win!)

Check out my preamble to Deathbowl X here.  I did make a last minute change to my roster, dropping Strong Arm on the troll and Catch/Sprint on the goblin to give the goblin Pro and +MV.  Thinking back upon it now I wish I hadn't of changed my roster as I was always failing the catch or the throw. Hindsight is 20/20 but I didn't even think of probabilities in terms of actual opportunities (ie. I wanted Pro to reroll the landing, however it would have been better to make the catch roll easier with a full Catch skill reroll rather than Pro, and Strong Arm would have meant a 2+ throw instead of 3+ - which would have given me more chances to attempt to land and I should have just worked on saving my rerolls for that instead.  Ah well - maybe this means I take the original roster next year!

Game 1: 1-1 tie 3-1 CAS

My direct opponent was Matt, playing High Elves. To my left was Manuel also playing Orcs and to my right was Leathan playing Wood Elves.

Started on table one, which at this point seemed a blessing but by the end of day one was a curse.  It's impossible to sit down at this table due to it's height so I spent all day standing!  In this match I quickly decided it was best to focus on Leathans wood elf linemen so I could get them down and get some casualties.  I got 2 pretty quickly but then had to wait a long time for my third.  Leathan has won Deathbowl the past 2 years running so I wanted to make sure he didn't get a good start.  Debatable whether that helped him get to 2nd by not playing at top table or not, but in any case, right near the end of the game I made sure to help Manuel by blitzing one of Matt's players off his black orc so he could score the tying TD vs. Leathan.

I ended up with 5 points from this match.  1 for tie, 2 for having most CAS on the table, 1 for having 3+ CAS and 1 for sharing most TDs.

Game 2: 0-2 loss 3-2 CAS

My direct opponent was Mark H playing Humans. To my left was Peter playing Dark Elves and to my right was Colin K playing Skaven.

I wasn't too surprised to still be on table one, since I got lots of bonus points.  Mark's team was well composed with a ST5 blitzer with juggernaught as well as a MV10 catcher.  He and Colin made a good team, nullifying myself and Pete throughout most of the match.  I was very unfortunate to end a great turn one (first blitz = CAS vs. Colin) by eating my goblin.  Mark was very fortunate to have the ball bounce right next to his thrower (from the crowd/wall twice) after Pete failed a Leap to score vs. Colin and was able to run in his first TD without any blocking required!  Both he (again!) and Colin managed to score throughout the second half, so in the dying parts of the game, in order to screw Colin out of 2 points for the win, I threw the ball in front of Pete's blitzer, giving him a walk in TD and resetting the board. At this point Colin had 2 turns and I was willing to throw a ball to him, to then return those points but screw Mark out of the bonus points for most TDs on the pitch, but not surprisingly Colin didn't trust me and tried to get the ball himself, failing the pickup.

I ended up with 3 points from this match, 2 for most CAS and 1 for having 3+ CAS

Game 3: 1-2 loss 4-2 CAS

My direct opponent was Rod playing Skaven. To my left was Mark H with his Humans and to my right was Alex G also playing Orcs.

OK, NOW I am surprised to still be on table one.  CAS is apparently the way to go for bonus points so I am likely going to alter my plan away from the Slaan next year.  In this game Rod was really unfortunate not to score a couple times, with his gutter runner either dropping an accurate pass or failing the last GFI to score.  I also lucked out that in the later stages of the first half, nobody realized how close my goblin was to Rod's endzone so with a simple hand off, I ran the ball in and scored without even so much as a dodge or GFI required.  At this point I thought I had a good chance of progressing to play on top table again on day two, however in the second half, trying to throw a goblin twice ended up giving Rod easy TDs and he took the game 2-1.  I had maybe 5 TTM attempts this game and only once did I even get to roll to land the goblin which failed.  4 unsuccessful catches.

I ended up with 3 points from this match, 2 for most CAS and 1 for having 3+ CAS

Game 4: 1-4 loss 4-2 CAS

My direct opponent was Leathan with his Wood Elves.  To my left was Matt with his High Elves and to my right was Peter with his Dark Elves.

Again in this match I wanted to make sure Leathan didn't do well as there was definite possibility of him winning the tournament for the third time if the top table drew a bunch or he got a bunch of bonus points.  As it was I think that first tie in the first match just kept him out of 1st place (whew). Which was good because during the match, Matt took offence to me blitzing his catchers who he setup behind my LoS and CAS'd then fouled 2 black orcs out of the game.  He also went for it early but unfortunately his blitzer who knocked the ball loose caught the bouncing ball, which gave the impetus to Leathan with a big gap Matt had created, and it was quickly 1-0 Leathan.  Pete early on tried to return the favour by throwing a ball right in front of my blitzer to screw Leathan but luck or perhaps karma meant my blitzer bobbled the pick up and saved Leathan from a TD.  Later on, Pete did help me get a TD but it was too little too late since Leathan had a 2nd already and Matt kept fouling me to death, causing a casualty against my troll and removing my OTT TTM option.  Right near the end of the game I got my 3rd CAS (+ a bonus 4th).

I ended up with 3 points from this match, 2 for most CAS and 1 for having 3+ CAS

So I ended up with 14 points which tied me for 4th place and put me in 5th on tiebreakers, without even winning a game and with only 1 tie!!  WOW, so that's taught me something.  Colin K ended up in 3rd behind Leathan so mission accomplished to keep the Keilars off top spot.  If Stephane had managed to tie Colin late in game 4 on top table (Rod stopped him by scoring first) I think there was a chance I could have squeaked into 3rd place, however thinking back now I am pretty sure that then Stephane would have gotten 3rd.  Still I was very close to the podium without a win which was quite the feat.

I ended up winning Most CAS with 14, and due to finishing 16th last year (was 6th in 2010 - but last year everyone was ready for my Slaan) and 5th this year I also won Rising Star.  All in all a great fun and successful tournament for me.

Most CAS

Rising Star (complete w shit eating grin)

dual posted on Merry Mayhem News

CCKO 2012 - result = biggest dissapointment!!

The rules pack gave you 1,100TV to build your team, with each player only allowed 1 additional skill to start and every skill can only be used once.  I brought Orcs since I was a little tired of playing my Undead (even though they would probably be a better team based on the rules pack). My overall plan was to try and stay under the radar - win my games but not by much.  Between my ST4 blitzer and my Blodging blitzer I was hoping I would always have a ball carrier very tough to take down depending on what skills my opponent had.  After the third game was a skills draft, with two of each upgrade (ST, AG, etc.) and skill available - with last place picking first.

Blitzer +ST

Blitzer w Guard

Blitzer w Dodge

Blitzer

Black Orc w Block

Black Orc w Stand Firm

Black Orc

Black Orc

Thrower w Leader

Line Orc

Goblin w Sneaky Git

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Game 1 vs. Craig (Humans - 7th + Most Improved) 2-1 win
Funny how it goes, I hadn't played in a blood bowl tournament since the Blingtoof - where Craig was my last opponent, now he's my first opponent at the CCKO.  He brought the shadowforge bunny team but played them as humans.  For the first couple turns I kept thinking they were amazons.  He chose to receive after winning the coin toss, and I decided to pressure him very aggresively hoping for some early KO's/Casualties to get the numbers advantage.  This meant giving him an opportunity to really get out of range and score an early touchdown - which he dutifully took.  I did enough to force him to score on his turn 3, and then he rolled a Riot kick off result, which basically gave me 7 turns to grind to a first turn tying touchdown.  Throughout I managed to block & foul off 4-5 of his bunnies to get that numbers advantage.  I made sure to stall right the way to turn 8.

Second half I received, and Craig rolled all his KO's back.  He had 1 extra player in his build so we were just about even on numbers, but I managed to do a good job of cage-ing down to the end zone for a turn 8 score, all the while still getting 4-5 of Craigs players off the field.  He had his turn 8, and fortunately for me (and my setup) he failed to roll a riot and was unable to score again.  I think Craig hated my Sneaky Git goblin the most.

Game 2 vs. Stephan (Orcs - 18th + Special Mention: No CAS Against) 1-0 win
Another funny one.  Friday evening while chilling at one of the ottawa guys - Stephan and I nearly convinced each other to take duplicate rosters!!  I am glad I convinced him to bring all 4 black orcs (Glenn convinced him to take at least 3) and I am also glad he convinced me to switch my skills from blitzers to black orcs (blitzers are already pretty useful!) and then further glad he convinced me to switch my dirty player line orc to a sneaky git goblin.  That extra 10K + one black orc skill gave me Dodge for a blitzer, which was unlikely to be available in the skills draft.  It meant my goblin would remain on the pitch even if I rolled doubles but armour didn't break.  In the end Stephan ditched all but the black orc changes and kept his roster pretty different from mine.

Again I lost the coin toss and kicked to Stephan.  Unfortunately though he left an opening to hit his ball carrier pretty early and I took full advantage with my ST4 blitzer.  I ended up scoring around turn 6-7 and the rest of the match was pretty much a shoving contest - even were we did knock opposing players over there was only 2 KOs the entire game.  Stephan did give me a scare knocking the ball loose but I managed to recover and I threw the ball downfield leaving him with an opportunity for a passing score which unfortunately for him - didn't go off.  Kept this win under the radar too at 1-0.

Game 3 vs. Leathan (Chaos Dwarves - 6th) 1-0 win
Possibly my proudest moment of the tournament.  Leathan is a very strong player and I tend to not do well against chaos dwarves (those damn bull centaurs are freakin annoying!!) Thankfully he didn't have a minotaur.  This game my ST4 blitzer really proved his worth.  I lost the kick off again and Leathan had the ball in a bull centaurs hands.  He had my blitzer tied up, but elsewhere he rolled double skulls and (can't remember) either chose not to reroll or he rerolled to double skulls.  It seems Leathan has a tendancy to poor luck against me when it's 1-1 (he's owned me 3-0 but in deathbowl format - after looking up my NAF stats I see both games I've played him at CCKO I've won..  something in the water I guess!!)

I took a chance and once I had done the few safe moves I had, blitzed with the ST4 blitzer (requiring a dodge) and got a single dice block against the BC which turned up open star (schweeeeeet!) and this is where I can really tell my play is improving.  Instead of trying to pick up the ball with the blitzer (which after such a sweet blitz, I usually would have) I left him as a tackle zone next to the ball, and then used the rest of my team to get behind his line of scrimmage and picked it up with a different player.  Managed to stall out the first half and score late.  He had a long shot chance to score with a chain push (not beyond his abilities!!) but I rolled Perfect Defence on the kick off and got to screw up that chance for him.

Second half I just held the ball deep in my end zone, stalling him where possible and late on threw the ball into his end - again giving him a chance to score, but definitely making it more difficult by forcing him to roll many more dice than a blitz on my ball carrier would have.  I even dodged a black orc out of a tackle zone to tie up his bull centaur (something I should have learned from, because I should have tried a similar move later in the tournament).  Held on for my second win vs. Leathan out of two standard games (whaaaaaa?)

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After game three there is a skills draft.  In their game three, my next two opponents - Alex and Glenn - tied their match 1-1 so going into the skills draft I was in FIRST PLACE and got to pick skills DEAD LAST.  I got a nice little ovation for being in first place at the time (but by the end of the tournament if there had been a "biggest dissapointment" trophy I would have won it!)

I knew I would be playing Alex and Glenn (both Norse) - so my number 1 skill had to be wrestle.  Other selections I was hoping for were Stand Firm or Fend for a black orc, dirty player for the goblin, and hail mary pass for my thrower (just to be able to guaranteed get the ball out of my end).  I got Wrestle (was amazed Alex had the pick before me and he got dodge - how was dodge still available after 19 people had picked?!?!) and put it on a black orc.  Second pick I got Fend for the other skillless black orc, third pick I got my Dirty Player, fourth pick I had to scramble to choose since my selections were taken - in the end it was between Catch or Diving Catch for my blodging blitzer.  In the end I selected Catch because you can reroll a hand off as well (later in the tournament, Diving Catch would have helped - but I still think I made the right choice)

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Game 4 vs. Alex (Norse - 2nd + Best Defence) 0-2 loss
Definitely my worst performance of the tournament.  Can't blame anything - dice were not terrible, just down to poor decision making.  4th game of the day, it was very late by the time it started.  Alex made several mistakes too - also due to fatigue I am sure.  The best way to beat Norse is to start winning the numbers game, they are basically faster/more vulnerable dwarves so it's key to get some early KOs/CAS.  Strange how the one match that I won the kick off, I lost.  Alex kicked to me and I pressured his players very hard - going for some early damage.  He snuck a couple through and put pressure on my thrower.  Here's where I made my mistake, I tried to block (or blitz, can't remember) his player off my thrower but could only push him.  Then - instead of forcing him to block me down and then pickup the ball, I tried to dodge away with my thrower (I wanted to get the ball in the hands of my ST4 blitzer) and failed my dodge with a team reroll to boot.  This allowed Alex to simply free up a player, pick up the ball and stroll into the end zone.

I was pretty dissapointed with myself, the rest of the first half didn't accomplish much, but in the second half I had to kick to Alex and he took his time to score not leaving me with much chance at a consolation TD, let alone to tie it up.  Alex is pretty new but is already a very very strong player - he was the eventual second place winner so I don't feel too bad about losing to him - but have definitely decided from now on, caffeine is required before a 4th game in one day!!

Game 5 vs. Glenn (Norse - 1st) 2-3 loss
This one was a total heartbreaker and probably a tie for my proudest moment at the tournament.  Glenn is something of a legend in Canadian blood bowl.  His living room has a coffee table that is a beautiful blood bowl pitch the likes of which you have never seen (it's glass over an entire stadium, filled with figures and with an etched glass field) and is littered with the stacks of trophies he has won over the years.  A really great guy, this was my first time ever playing him (he works at a bar, so unfortunately finds it tough to make most tournaments due to weekends being his major bread winning time).  I knew I was in for a tough match - again against a Norse team, which may have been the best team suited to the rules pack for this tournament.

Started very aggressively again, in a near copy of my first game vs. Craig - I caused some pain but gave up a very early TD.  For the remainder of the second half I stalled/held out, until finally on the last turn, managed a long pass TD score without even requiring a reroll!!  Unfortunately he rolled back all his KOs, and he started with 12 players so we were pretty even in the numbers game for the second half.  He as well as Craig really hated my little goblin sneaky git/dirty player!

In the second half, he managed to blitz my ball carrier who I was trying to keep out of harms reach and score another quick TD.  I pulled the same hijinx again and stalled until very late and made a long pass to score my second thrown TD of the game (with ORCS?!?!?) and here's where heartbreak happened.  He had two turns left to score, I rolled a Riot on the kick off and unfortunately for me, it gave him an extra turn to score, which I made very difficult but he dutifully did.  Later a buddy pointed out I should have tried to dodge out my black orc to make his passing play more difficult, it's difficult though when everyone is watching your game and with all the excitement.  I was literally a 50/50 die roll (the Riot result) away from tying Glenn on my very first game playing him - but well played to him for a good win and a really really fun and exciting game.

Game 6 vs. Ryan (Undead - 4th) 0-2 loss
After that demoralizing loss, I was happy to play any race other than Norse.  I came up against Ryan's Undead - he was close to 3rd and also to Most Casualties but ended up in 4th place.  It kinda sucked for him to come up against an Orc team when he needed casualties.  My goblin also was ejected on his first foul for double 5's which lost him the one AV7 guy he could beat up on.  I wanted to try something very similar to the games vs. Craig and Glenn - basically trying to destroy Ryan's ghouls early and force him to score early so I could grind out a 2-1 win.  Unfortunately for me, after killing a ghoul early - my dice just completely turned on me.  Lots of failed Go For It's and Dodges all over the place - if you remember last years CCKO, you know the dice have a big F-U on the 1's.  Well in this game I got the middle finger a lot.  Ryan played really well and stalled on his scores enough that I didn't really have enough time to grind - and while pushing to try to tie it up I kept giving up turnovers.

I did make one big mistake though, I didn't read his team sheet closely enough - I thought he had no tackle and my blodger would be very tough to take down - but he did have tackle and didn't have a problem all game destroying that blitzer.  Fair play to Ryan though, he played pretty well - though I managed to nullify the effect his mummies had on the game, after I killed that first ghoul he protected them very well and definitely earned the win. 

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So overall, I won my first 3 games, then lost my next 3.  1 loss I felt was due to the dice, and 1 loss was a real heartbreaker - but considering I lost to 1st, 2nd, and 4th place - I was very happy with my performance.  I really wanna win this tournament at some point though - this year they instituted red CCKO dice for the champion - where the F-U is on the SIX!!

dual posted on Merry Mayhem News

Lakeside Cup 2010, Result = I Suck!

Lakeside Cup is a team tournament (East vs. West) held in Cobourg, ON.  It's TV125 where only two players can have more than one skill (Captain & Asst. Captain) and the Captain gets Leader for free and a new upgrade after every game.

My roster was; Ripper, Blitzer w Dodge/Frenzy/Leader (C), Blitzer w Guard/Stand Firm (A), 4x Black Orcs w Block, Orc w Block, Orc w Wrestle, Goblin, 1 Reroll.

DAY 1 (Or - "1 out of 4 is pretty bad")

Game 1 vs. Mark H
Mark had a nicely painted Chaos Dwarf team, including a Minotaur with Claw, 2 Bull Centaurs, 6 CD Blockers. The game started really well for me, I had 3 casualties by the middle of the first half.  I managed to score, but unfortunately I couldn't capitalize any more than that and in the second half, Mark just started owning me, I think for something like 5 or 6 turns in a row he would knock a player out.  By the last few turns of the game I had 3 black orcs and a goblin left on the pitch.  I had faint hopes of holding out for a draw, but his damn Bull Centaur scooped up the ball and ran in it on the last turn for a second TD.  Loss #1.

Game 2 vs. Matt C
This game was against another Orc team.  Matt had a regular troll who spent much of the game being stupid, but it couldn't make up for the fact he surrounded Ripper the first time he was knocked down and fouled him out of the first half (knocked out)  I played pretty well and had earned myself a chance to tie up the game late in the second half, only to have my captain drop an accurate pass on the last turn of the game. Loss #2.

Game 3 vs. Dan C
Dan had combined his mini's from his Khemri and Necromantic teams to bring a vanilla undead team.  This game got off on the wrong foot for me when I decided to try kicking to him when I won the coin toss and I rolled "Throw a Rock" as the kickoff result.  Guess who spent most of the first half knocked out before turn one...  RIPPER! Yay!  Dan immediately knocked out a black orc with his first hit and it just went downhill from there.  Dan mentioned (I think after his second or third touchdown) that every time I rolled the block dice, at least one of them was a skull.  Yea, that kinda game.  Still I find Dan one of the most fun guys to play and I voted him Best Sportsmanship or whatever the Lakeside equivalent is called.  Loss #3.

Game 4 vs. Colin
Colin's wretched Nurgle team.  Anyone who actually reads these will know he DESTROYED me at the Golden Sweetbun.  After some atrocious luck in my earlier games - the luck reversed and I managed to cage my way slowly downfield.  He did enough to slow me down quite a lot which meant I had to rush it near the end of the half.  Then I shot myself in the foot by rushing it and skulling a single die block with my only guy in position to score. BONE-HEAD!  At this point I figured I'd earned my fourth loss.  It was going to take a mistake on Colin's part to give me any chance.  Well a mistake was made, he had burned his reroll and did a "Go For It" with his ball carrier...  and rolled a one.  Probably the turning point of the game (except maybe his block with his captain that he skulled and casualtied himself) regardless I got a few casualties in as I picked up the ball and ran it downfield.  He did keep knocking my ball carrier down but I managed to complete a handoff in the last turn of the game to win it 1-0.  Win #1 - YAY!


DAY 2 (Or - "I can't believe I still lost!")

Game 5 vs. Adam J
Probably the highlight of the tournament for everyone but me.  I was SMOKING Adam in this game.  It seemed I couldn't NOT injure his guys.  Failed to score in the first half, but for most of the game he had 5 or less players on the pitch to my near full team (I think I had one guy KO'd or Casualty).  However the big moment was in the last turn of the game.  Adam had one guy left on the pitch (his captain) who had side step.  He had a tackle zone on my ball carrier so I had to surround him before trying to push him off, otherwise he would just get a tackle zone back on the ball carrier.  I had a choice of using my captain with frenzy to push him off or using a line orc with a "Go For It" to be able to blitz.  I picked the frenzy guy which ended up losing (it was a tie but I have to count this as a loss!) me the game.  All I could get was a push which meant I had to hit him again.  Another push meant he got a tackle zone on the guy with the ball again.  I had managed to save my reroll so all I had to do was make a successful 3+ dodge out to score and win the game.  1, reroll, ONE.  ARRRRRGGGHHH!!!!!  Ours was the last game being played so EVERYONE got to watch me screw-up.  My own team-mates were even giving Adam advice (thanks Ben! Winner of the Jackass award..  Hell yea I voted for him!). Tie #1.

Still this game will live forever in memory as possibly the funniest game I've ever played.
Damn you Jones! I'll get you yet!

Game 6 vs. Pat
A game against Pat and his dwarves.  After the last game I didn't really have much to play for (not to take anything away from Pat, he played a really solid game and just crunched my team into the dirt) Didn't stop the bad luck from continuing with a couple single die = skull and 2 die = double skull rolls on my part.  I don't really remember much of this game as after Game 5 I started drinking quite heavily!! Loss #4.

A really really fun tournament hosted by Peter and his wonderful wife Tammy.  They fed and housed us all weekend and it was nice to not have to travel anywhere to play our games.  The team format was extremely fun and generated a lot of laughs and  good times.

Challenge of Q'ermitt 2010, Result = NOT Wooden Spoon! (or 9th of 18)

I had two objectives for this tournament - not miss the second day (yay!) and not end up with the wooden spoon. Thankfully my play was good enough that Eric was able to retain sole possession of the wooden spoon (poor Eric just couldn't catch a break and finished the tourney with zero points) I'm not certain of my standing but with 8 points I think I made it into the middle of the pack - likely on the lower end. I managed both of my objectives and had a blast to boot - so mission accomplished!! Sorry I didn't bring my camera.

The Games
I started poorly, losing to Peter's dark elves - likely to a fault of my own, pushing his assassin needlessly into an easier dodge to hit my ball carrier. I managed to penetrate his armour more than 20 times but could do nothing but stun, while I took 2 casualties and had a black orc with block killed outright! I then tied against Mark H with his humans in what was probably the best match I could've had for my weakened team - with luck bouncing between Mark & myself such that it looked like I had the match in the bag, but Mark scoring near the end of the second half to claw back a draw.

I then won my next two matches in a row - the first against Jeana (with skaven) who is still learning the game (thank god I won the next game - would've been a horrible only "win" to have!) and then a super tight bashy match versus Chris P with his chaos dwarves - most impressive move of mine this game was keeping patient and following through completely - I saved my first half touchdown run after nearly losing it - because I had moved up all my blitzers around the ball and avoided a risky pass.

Saturday night was the Stunty Cup and we sat up and drank and played some Citadels. Rod & I finally got to sleep around 4:30am and were up at 8:30am.

Both of my games on Sunday were versus orcs. First game against Chris G I might've been able to pull off a win after a very successful first half "8 turn score", in the seventh turn of the second half, my black orc tripped "going for it" to put an extra tackle zone on his blitzer who dodged twice (4+, 3+) to score - I could've hit him with a 2 die block with an unskilled lineman, but was worried about pushing him closer (since the blitzer had dodge and I had no block, I needed a pure ka-pow! aka defender down) I think I made the right choice stats-wise, but he managed his dodges. We tied 1-1.

Second game on Sunday was a disaster for me, but totally hilarious. I played Dan with his Orcs. We ended up with a "Dense Fog" weather roll (all the variant pitches have special weather & kick off tables) which meant that basically ALL the players were bone-heads. I might have had one turn where I didn't have minimum 2 players bone headed (I think the highest was 4 in one turn) whereas Dan maxed out at 2 and could go one or two turns without anyone going stupid. At the half it was 1-0 Dan, I managed to roll "Changing Weather" on the kick-off table - only to roll snake eyes causing us suffer the same fate through the second half. The poor bone head rolls continued, Dan taking some pity on me and scoring in turn six. Then with a bit of luck and nice weather for two turns I scored a touchdown for pride when I gave my blitzer the ball on the line of scrimmage through a touch back. I'm sure we'll both remember this game forever. Dan took the win 2-1.

The awards are always fun to see and unique, for the Challenge of Q'ermitt Craig the T.O. had some block-head cardstock models made - these are pretty neat and done by one of Bens relatives. They included; First (Q'ermitt aka Slann-Mage), Second (Saurus), Third (Skink), Most TDs, Most CAS , Most Entertaining Opponent, Best Smack-Talk, and of course - the Wooden Spoon. My friend Laurent who drove out with me ended up taking home First, Most CAS and Best Smack-Talk - the triple threat - congrats dude!

Special thanks to Craig for organizing and letting us all crash!

Update: Just got some more details, and I came in 9th out of 18 players - in the middle of a three person tie at 8 points. Funnily enough, just after the first person I tied (Mark H) and just before the second person I tied (Chris G).

The Challenge of Q'ermitt 2010

I'm off to my second ever NAF sanctioned blood bowl tournament - The Challenge of Q'ermitt! This tournament features custom pitches with special rules and is in a league format. As per my most recent posts, I'm taking my Orc team, da Badlandz Deff Ramz.

Anyone familiar with the last tournament I went to knows I failed big time and brought home the wooden spoon - if I can make it to day two and avoid the wooden spoon this time around I will consider it a resounding success!

Wish me luck! Come on Nuffle don't fail me now!

(MFP) must finish project #1 - 8 to the good!

Put a healthy dent into my (MFP) must finish project #1. 8 guys completed, leaving the turn & score counters to complete (score counter is painted, not based) as well as I need to figure out some reroll counters. Maybe some squigs will do. I can't check this one off completely - and there's every possibility that since this is enough to bring to the tournament mentioned below, this may be as far as I take this project this year - but I am glad to have made some progress and the team is infinitely more usable now.
This was sparked by the Challenge of Q'ermitt, 2010 - not wanting to bring the same team as last time and with little time - beefing up my Orc team was the best bet. The star players are "nice to have", and though it will be nice to have a painted apothecary (the 40k ork painboy) - the 2 extra each of blitzers & black orcs was mandatory for this team to have any chance.

MFP (must finish project) #1

Getting the last few orcs & tokens completed for my blood bowl team. I finally got 2 old school ork goff boyz to use as blitzers alongside a couple warhammer black orcs. I have a third ork goff who I'm converting to be a chainsaw wielding star player. Varag still needs to be painted and I plan to use the extra armoured goff to be Greaser Geargrinder, an older star player (I have it and just in case they bring him back ;) ). I also have an apothecary, an older musician to be my turn counter and a little snotling to be my score counter.

I need some ideas for what to use as reroll counters. I have a couple older orcs with spears or standards who I could use - they would be on a 25mm base which is the right size for the standard reroll square. What do you think?

Any other special models you think I need to complete the Badlandz Deff Ramz?

2HD Blood Bowl league - day 14

Had another game vs. Matt at Two Headed Dragon, where I managed to scrape out a win 2-1 in the last turn of the game - very lucky as the kick scattered right into the hands of my second thrower after Matt scored the tying touchdown. I did a little better at not being too excited, but still made some mistakes. Some key points, Matt managed to injure all three of my black orcs enough to make them miss the next game and my new one got a niggling injury, my troll outright killed one of his linerats, my second thrower gained all his experience from a casualty and a touchdown, and then Hurt Warn'r stepped into the game for the last three turns, intercepted Matt's pass and coolly proceded to throw a touchdown pass and deservedly picked up the MVP!

Also convinced Matt he has to show some progress in painting otherwise he loses inducement $, important since my team rating is a pretty monstrous 175.

Currently
W/D/L
4/2/6

2HD Blood Bowl league - day 13

I missed day 12 last week. Made it in this week for a short time and had one game against Matt. By the end of the first half, I was winning 2-1, but game ended 2-3 for Matt. I had good luck in the first half and terrible luck in the second (including my troll managing to gimp himself on a 3 dice block!), but I have no one to blame but myself. The biggest thing I learned today was that I need to keep excitement separate from playing, I had managed to recover the ball with a black orc after a scrum behind my line of scrimmage. Instead of taking the safe route and pulling a couple guys back to surround the ball carrier, I tried to make a go for it roll and failed it twice! This definitely lost me the game and I need to try and stop making excited stupid decisions.

Currently
W/D/L
3/2/6

2HD Blood Bowl league - day 11

Played two more games at Two Headed Dragon tonight. Both 1-2 losses to Matt, neither game was really eventful. Both did a fair amount of casualties in the second game. My troll had to sit out the second game (Matt's moment of glory for the day) and I have 3 guys sitting out next match. A blitzer and my lineman with block both gained advances, skills to both. Tackle for the blitzer and Dauntless for the lineman.

Currently
W/D/L
3/2/5

2HD Blood Bowl league - day 10

Got two games of Blood Bowl in at Two Headed Dragon tonight. A 1-3 loss to Matt (brutal game, total of six casualties) in which I made a number of bone head mistakes - the biggest of which had to be forgetting my apothecary and letting my star goblin take a -1 MA injury!! :'( Four of my guys did get advancements though, one blitzer got mighty blow, the other strip ball, just gave the lineman block and gave the gobbo jump up, hopefully fooling some forgetful players. Second game was a 2-1 win over Karl (even with 450K of inducements to him), scoring twice with one of my blitzers, yet causing no casualties. No more advancements, but I finally rolled well for the gate, and currently have 130K to spend. I might need to hold off spending it to keep my team value down.

Currently
W/D/L
3/2/3

Tale of 2HD Gamers = Victory

Whew, what a fun day. Played two games of 40K, losing both. Took first place in the challenge (yay!) and I wanna congratulate Thomas for making it interesting. Had me worried when he started pulling out objectives, I was definitely glad I wrote up the fluff and built terrain. Being the only two entrants who completed the challenge we split the 3rd place prize. I ended up with the AoBR box (to be ordered) and $10, while Thomas has $50 to work with. I really found this motivating and hope I can get some minis for the Tale of 2HD Gamers - WHFB.

Update - calculated the final scores, I'm in bold.
Month 4 scoring;
9 Thomas - fully painted, 1 game, 1 win, 2 objectives, 2 terrain pieces, best painted
9 Tristan - fully painted, 2 games, 1 objective, 2 terrain pieces, written fluff

Final standings;
29 Tristan - fully paintedx4, 7 games, 2 wins, 3 objectives, best paintedx2, 2 terrain pieces, written fluff - complete
24 Thomas - fully paintedx3, partially painted, 3 games, 2 wins, 2 objectives, best paintedx2, 2 terrain pieces - complete
6 Ian - fully paintedx2 - incomplete
5 Ken - fully painted, 2 games - incomplete
4 Josh - fully painted, 1 game - incomplete

For reference (Grey Knight)
16 Karl - fully paintedx4, 2 games, 2 wins - complete

Then played a great game of blood bowl with Karl, orc vs orc. It was pretty much a ruckus from the get-go. I stomped my way down the field, losing and re-gaining the football before scoring in the last turn of the half. Karl flung his gobbo for a touchdown. Fouling and the ref were much in evidence. My troll didn't go stupid once this game, and caused two casualties. Karls troll however spent much of the game stupid, costing him 2 wasted re-rolls failing his loner test, and at least two Blitz actions. Late in the game I had a failed attempt at using Hail Mary Pass with Diving Catch, and Karl started passing the ball upfield. He managed to get it to a lineman who I managed to get a tackle zone on by blitzing his troll with mine, and running my thrower in. I did run a lineman in but he fell. Karl went to blitz my thrower and failed his go for it without any re-rolls. I got a second chance at the Hail Mary / Diving Catch combo. Gobbo still managed to scuffle it. Game ends as a tie, 1-1. Awesome.

2HD Blood Bowl league - day 9

Another thursday night @ Two Headed Dragon. Played a single game against Matt. He managed to score in the first turn with his star gutter runner, MA 10 with the sprint skill! I had some pretty unlucky dice rolls early on (and I think my troll had 2 turns where he wasn't stupid!), however made it back scoring with a pass to a blitzer, and the highlight - fouling his #2 (the gutter runner) straight DEAD! He had an apothecary so this took two 61+ rolls. Ahh #2 - you were so hated I got a round of high fives. Nearly brought a tear to poor Matts eye. Second half he only had 9 guys to setup, and then his kick off landed in the hands of one of my black orc blockers - who promptly caught it (needing a 6!) and led a push all the way down the field (killing outright another skaven), scoring my second touchdown. By the end of the game Matt had 5 players left, most prone or stunned.

Gained me an advancement for my thrower, the black orc scorer and a lineman who had a casualty and got MVP. Gave the thrower hail mary pass (my star gobbo has diving catch - hehe), block to my black orc (duh) and I gave the lineman guard, just for something different. Also gained 50k gold, which I'm gonna save because I really think I should get another thrower since Hurt Warn'r has +1 agility and hail mary pass - he can put the ball where I need it - but he's bound to attract some negative attention.

2HD Blood Bowl league - day 7

Got a couple games in at Two Headed Dragon tonight. Played Matt first, we tied 2-2. He did an astounding amount of damage to me. One blitzer died outright and a black orc & a linemen both missed my next game. I gave Fungus the Loon a try in this game but used him all wrong, knowing the rules for secret weapon now I know better. My gobbo again was the star, scoring both touchdowns. My thrower got the MVP, which now that he's making completions is less important for him as for linemen who don't get points as easily. I gave my gobbo the Diving Catch skill. I also bought another new blitzer to replace the one who died.

Next up I played another Tristan (wtf!) who had a human team. I had some fairly jammy luck on kick offs, getting a couple perfect defense and a blitz. With only 10 men, took this game 4-1, managing to get a touchdown with a blitzer and a linemen on top of 2 more for the gobbo. Was nice to finally see someone else's big guy stand around for a while - though it really really hurt him this game. The gobbo was a star, flying through the air, and even causing a casualty when blitzed. He won MVP for this game as well, and is now sitting at 27 points. One more touchdown is a further skill for him, and I'll have my 2nd black orc and extra linemen back for my next game.

All in all, much more successful than my previous outings. Earlier I did lots of damage but didn't score. This time I scored, but in some cases didn't do enough damage. Have 50K back in the treasury now and my fan factor has gone up to 7.

2HD Blood Bowl league - day 6

Missed a bunch of days over the holidays for the Two Headed Dragon blood bowl league, also we've now started playing thursday nights. Got one game in yesterday against Matt (who had to re-start with his skaven after taking too many casualties - like to think I had a bit to do with that). He won again and scored 3 touchdowns again (damn those gutter runners are fast), however I did manage to score a touchdown this time, and my cage worked wonders for keeping the ball and holding him up. Both thrower and goblin got an advancement roll - a bonus AGILITY point for my thrower (beauty!) and I gave my goblin the catch skill. I just gotta stop trying to foul people with the gobbo as he always gets sent off.

2HD Blood Bowl league - day 2

There's no update for day 1 as I missed it.

Showed up pretty early day 2, but only got in a game & a half (we aren't timing our turns - yet).

I've learned I need to be a little more patient to actually score. I lost the first game 0-3, though I did cause 2 casualties - one a broken collarbone! (w00t!), and the second game am losing 0-1 at the half (with one casualty caused). I have no problem with causing the opposition problems - however lack of a second thrower is causing some issues. Definitely one of my first purchases coming up.

I tend to cause more damage with black orcs & blitzers than my troll. I think I'll start leaving the troll to lynch pin an area with only linemen for support.

My goblin has done a total of two actions in both games, both fouls, both snake eyes. Yet somehow he won MVP for the first game. LOL!

The inducement cards are fun, but I find only the expensive one's can really impact the game - the cheaper one's really require circumstances to be beneficial.

Update - Badlandz Deff Ramz

Great news! My new hobby store hangout Two Headed Dragon is starting a Blood Bowl league!
Come by every Wednesday after 5pm to participate.

In preparation I started (well more like re-started) to get some additional orc team players modeled up and painted (still in primer only). Can anyone tell where the catcher pose gobbo is from? (See below)

So here's the list with '99 Rams names/jersey #'s, including the newcomers - any ideas for what number I should give Varag? I was thinking just #1.

#? Varag Ghoulchewer Star Player
10 Kut Warn'r Thrower
23 Deffin Bush Black Orc
27 Meat Bow'in Black Orc
33 Jabbin Watsun Blitzer
28 Mashall Folk Blitzer
16 Maul Justen Thrower
49 Chop Loois Lineman
54 Turd Callin's Lineman
58 Spike Morten Lineman
83 Crush Tomass Lineman
91 Des'Troy Pelshak Lineman
32 Dread Bly't Lineman
93 Kill'in Carver Troll
80 I'sic Brawl Goblin
88 Torry Holt Goblin

and here are some close ups of some of the newcomers.

Varag


Troll front & back



That's right - an autogun gretchin from 40K 2nd edition.

Introducing... da Badlandz Deff Ramz!

Have always loved specialist games. Case in point - blood bowl.
When I recently got back into the hobby, the first thing I painted was the Orc team from the blood bowl boxed set. With the Orcs it was easy to paint different pieces different colours so they all look different, so I decided no conversions for these guys - I converted the human team instead (more on that later...)

I really wanted to have fluff behind the team so I based them on the 1999 superbowl champion Rams. Great icon for an orc team, I went for blue/yellow instead of purple/yellow because my dark elves are purple. I named every player after a real Rams player of that year and gave them the correct jersey #.