Challenge of Q'ermitt 2013, result = 6th of 12

FYI - Once posted I am going to be updating the date back in time so this fits along better in terms of when the tournament actually happened.  Just a disclaimer in case it ends up being confusing.  This is the NAF forum thread about the tournament - there is a link to the pitch rules somewhere in there.

A quick recap since it was so long ago and I just needed to make sure I posted up something.  A quick pic of each game, I will try to add something funny about each and some notes about my roster, skill upgrades and luck below.

2-1 win vs. Leathan (Wood Elves) on skaven sewer pitch

the sewer water flows in random directions and can carry the ball

1-1 tie vs. Colin (Nurgle) on graveyard pitch

the gravestones were really annoyingly placed in this game

1-0 win vs. Gord (Dark Elves) on boat pitch

fortunately the boat didn't cause as many problems as usual

1-2 loss vs. Joe (Wood Elves) on dwarf pitch

I don't think unpainted teams should be allowed to win tournaments

1-2 loss vs. Dave(Dwarves) on desert pitch

so many knock downs and so little actual damage

1. I had decided since it was league style that putting AG4 on a ghoul might be a bit foolish, since they are the only piece without regen on the team.  I ended up giving it to a wight with dodge as well.  In hindsight this was a mistake - playing a cagey grind game that particular wight wasn't on the end of blocks every turn, and it meant I didn't have him available to blitz with as readily.  Next time I think I would just give AG4 to 2 ghouls.
2. I also chose not to give my mummies any skills, hoping their mighty blow would earn them some CAS and with some fortune (doubles) get block cheaply.  Unfortunately they really didn't hurt anyone even facing several elf teams, but in general my luck was also poor in terms of casualties, I just hardly caused any all tournament - still on the fence about this one.
3. All this allowed me to take the chainsaw secret weapon star player - who combined for a miserably embarrassing amount of stuns/KOs and CAS all weekend (IIRC something like 4) :-(

In the end, I finished pretty well (top half) and only lost to the eventual first and second place winners - so if some of my gambles had paid off a bit better, who knows what could have happened.

Sidenote - it was pretty funny to see Dave (2nd place) also win Most Casualties when Chris E. had brought a dwarf list with the sole intention of winning most casualties - I think he lost by 2 or 3.

give my buddy a goblin...

... and you could win a print of my Xmas gift - two of my blood bowl teams duking it out!!

I promised the jpeg of my Xmas gift, here it is in all it's glory!

torne bane flaming ears (undead) vs. the jawbreakers (counts as slann)

You can check out the details HERE - but basically in order to be eligible for the contest, you need to paint a goblin for Abraxis' blood bowl team and donate it to him.  Therefore the prize had to be suitably awesome - hence the print.  I will get it signed by the artist as well.  He's also generously offered a coupon as a runner up prize

I selected the looney (chainsaw) goblin and plan to convert one similar to the rat wielding goblin I threw together for the blingtoof tournament.  I will use the same body and throw a space marine chainsword on there, and add some pads, etc.

We already have five people entered, please consider entering - it's just a painted goblin and the prize is well worth it.  Abraxis loved my idea of the harlequins painted by others as a necromunda gang so much he wanted something similar himself!  I already have 7 painted harlequins and there are two more floating in the blog-o-sphere (one with Mik and one with Paul of "The Man Cave") so my spire brat gang is in great shape.

Best Fiance EVER! merry christmas to ME!

It has been a little over two years since a post similar to this one went up on my birthday.  What a merry christmas it has turned out to be! My wonderful fiance has commissioned me another amazing piece of artwork by our friend Gavin (www.artbygavin.com) to decorate my new man cave! It's based on two of my blood bowl teams; the undead (Torne Bane Flaming Ears) and the team she helped me to paint, the slann (Jawbreakers).

Once again Gavin has completely outdone himself and included so much effort and detail into this painting - it is truly a masterpiece! I'll wait until I have the jpg's to post to describe all the amazing details and special little tidbits that he always incorporates into his work, but let's just say as usual ALL the details are picture perfect.  Also speechless how brilliant my fiance is! Best christmas gift ever!

blingtoof's gitbash - a fouling I will go!

The inaugural blingtoof's gitbash is in the books and I fully succeeded (and I mean FULLY) in winning the "Best Fouler" award.  I will save the details for further down the post but suffice to say that while second fouler had nearly triple the fouling points that third fouler had, he was still over 40 (yes FORTY) points behind me. MUHAHAHAHAAAAA!!!

"Best Fouler" trophy - bag of rats with chain

Game 1 was vs Tyler and his Orc team.  There are some pics below. Unfortunately for him he left his thrower too exposed early after receiving the kick and I managed to (after fouling for that turn of course) blitz his thrower down and steal the ball.  I stalled for a turn but by then a lot of his players were off the pitch so I scored to get more back on (to foul - lol).  He very nearly started the game without taking an upgrade package but I made sure he did, that would have just been unfair.  So he gave one blitzer +AG and someone +AV I think. In the second half I stalled too long and he caught my ghoul, then managed to work his way up the pitch to score.  To be honest I wasn't too upset as I didn't really want to be winning all my games.  

Game ended in a 1-1 tie and I garnered 24 (TWENTY FOUR) fouling points (6 stun, 5 KO, 2 CAS from fouls)

Game 2 was vs Chris (the tournament organizer) and his underworld.  We all got a normal skill to give to a goblin and a normal skill for anyone.  I gave my Fan Favourite goblin Sure Feet and my Leader mummy Grab. Chris got a quick 2-0 lead built up, and was really smart about avoiding my fouling.  I did foul out a fair number of his guys including his pumpkin troll (see pics 2 & 3 from below).  From there I caught up with two quick touchdowns of my own, but towards the end of the game he was looking pretty sure to get a third and I just took advantage of the proximity of his players to foul more!

Game 2 ended in a 3-2 loss and I scored 22 (TWENTY TWO) fouling points (2 stun, 4 KO, 3 CAS from fouls)

Game 3 was vs. Robert and his Orc team (there must have been at least four orc teams out of fourteen coaches).  We again got two normal skills to distribute so I gave Sure Feet to my goblin with Sneaky Git and Guard to a wight. He had a pretty standard non-troll orc team and he was the eventual wooden spoon recipient.  I tried to help Rob out a bit as he was obviously new to the game, so I showed him a bit about how to line up blocks so if you only get pushes you can block with another player, etc.  I had a lot of trouble knocking down his Orcs (he had a lot of Block) and so suffered my lowest fouling points game in the tournament.

Game ended 2-0 win and I scored 15 (only fifteen? :-( ) fouling points (5 stun, 3 KO, 1 CAS from fouls)

So I ended day one with a respectable 1 win / 1 loss / 1 tie (especially considering how frequently I ignored the ball!) and a massive 61 (yes, SIXTY ONE) fouling points.  The next highest had 40. I found out my next opponent was a chaos pact team so I was looking forward to fouling a bunch of goblins and skaven! 

Game 4 was vs. Mark D and his chaos pact team. I gave my last skeleton Dirty Player and last goblin Sneaky Git.  He quickly went up 2-0 but my fouling began to take it's toll.  I totally ignored the ball for the entire game, and it led to a hilarious conclusion in the final turns of the second half.  Marks ogre had kept blitzing towards the ball in my end while I was fouling the rest of his team near the scrimmage line.  He managed to get the ogre to pick up the ball and all the way to the end zone. Then he called it - "watch now he's going to go bonehead on the end zone line" and of course - nuffle works with no mystery at all.  3 boneheads in a row gave me a chance to sneak a goblin onto the pitch and help tie up the ogre with a skeleton. In one of my last turns I just decided to throw a two die uphill block and double-kapow'd the ogre, breaking his armour and stunning him for Mark's last turn.

Game ended 2-0 loss and I racked up 26 (TWENTY SIX, hell yea!!) fouling points (4 stun, 1 KO, 5 CAS from fouls)

Game 5 was the final game and I was matched up against Craig who was also trying for the fouling award but quite far behind me in points. I gave my Fan Favourite goblin +AG and my wight with Tackle +ST.  This was the second underworld team I played, and we both ignored the ball to concentrate on fouling (I did use it to distract him several times - AFTER my foul for that turn of course!) thanks to Stunty & Dirty Player I was quite successful in getting his players off the pitch.  He kept throwing the ball into my end to try and keep the game tied.  Late in the game, with his last player on the pitch (his troll) he threw a 3 die blitz against my same goblin who blocked Marks ogre down, rolled triple skulls and failed his loner to reroll! I then proceeded to break armour and KO the troll - BOOYAAH!  With three turns left and the board empty of underworld players I did manage to score a touchdown (took all three turns cuz I had no rerolls and ghouls were dropping my hand offs!) which very nearly gave Craig the wooden spoon but he did have lots of fouling points which were first tiebreaker.

Game ended 1-0 win and I got 29 (TWENTY FREAKIN NINE!) fouling points (1 stun, 6 KO, 4 CAS from fouls.

Day two finished up 1 win / 1 loss and a massive 55 (FIFTY FIVE in two games!!) fouling points, bringing my grand total up to 116, with Craig (my final opponent) next highest with 72.  "Best Fouler" was in the bag and I managed a pretty reasonable winning % as well with 2 wins / 2 losses / 1 tie.

Best Fouler

Some other stats, I actually placed 7th overall, which is just into the top 50 percentile (with 14 coaches) and I was 8th for most touchdowns and 10th for most casualties.

Also congrats to my buddy Mike @ shiftedmatrix for winning Best Team award with his Nurgle Rotters.

dual posted on Merry Mayhem News

blingtoof undead/goblin roster

Here's my roster for the blingtoof tournament starting tomorrow at meeplemart.  Am pretty set on my plan but any tips for massive fouling is much appreciated! I even setup my printed roster with lots of space to track my fouling points!

mummy w leader
mummy
wight w tackle
wight
3x ghoul
2x zombie
2x skeleton w dirty player
skeleton
goblin
goblin w sneaky git
goblin w fan favourite
2x reroll
bribe

You read that right, 15 players! I am going all out for the fouling award, we are talking aiming for 80 turns of fouls over 5 games. Definitely expect to have some players ejected. I have the one cheap bribe (50K) available to sanctioned teams and decided to use the double for leader on a mummy.

• Going to start w fan favourite goblin on the pitch.  
• Attempt to sneak on the vanilla gobbo sometime around turn 5-8.
• Have 1 skel with dirty player on, save the other for when he gets ejected.
• So hopefully late game I still have a dirty player and if I suffer bad ejections will have the gobbo with sneaky git.

Looking for advice regarding whether I play the vanilla skel or 3rd ghoul from the start? Thoughts??

Expect some live tweets tomorrow.  Probably less than normal as time at the store is very tight, probably just every foul that results in something (could hopefully be lots of tweets - lol)

dual posted on Merry Mayhem News

extra goblin for blingtoof tournament

You may have heard some mention of the upcoming blingtoof tournament that I am attending this weekend.  The rules allow for any team to take any number of standard goblins, goblins get the most bonus skills and there's a way to sneak an extra goblin onto the pitch!  What's not to like?!?  There's even an award for the most fouling points which is the second most important trophy after winning!

ridiculous shouldpad lol

I have been making last minute tweaks to my list, but regardless of anything else I plan to take 3 standard goblins.  This has the benefit of being considered a "sanctioned team" which gives you several benefits

• stat and double boosts can be given to big guys (from your upgrade package)
• purchase bribes as permanent roster addition (first is 50K)
• + 1 to rolls for cheering fans, brilliant coaching, throw a rock

So I am bringing my undead team and adding 3 goblins and going for the fouling award! This way I can get a cheap bribe and one of the goblins will be able to take "sneaky git" for fouling after my "dirty player(s)" have been kicked out.  The bribe can also save your turn if you are trying to sneak a goblin on and fail. My current roster ideas have 14-15 players, muhahaha

Unfortunately I only had two painted goblins for my orc team I can borrow, so I needed a third! The trophies are all bags of rats, so in that vein I have made my third goblin from a monopose figure (as with most of my orc team) carrying a giant rat.  Following the theme of my orc team (based on 1999 superbowl champion rams) I plucked a name & jersey number for this gobbo to use.  He happened to be the kick return so I gave the goblin a giant shoulderpad.  He came out pretty well for an old 4th edition monopose spearman goblin.

ps. Yay, first painting point in.... nearly three months. I might even be able to break 100 this year!

pps. Thanks to Mike @ shiftedmatrix for providing painting space while our condo is staged/showing.

Chaos Cup - Game 6

For the last game I bounced back up to table 13 (possibly an omen) and played against Chad and his Chaos Dwarves (yay, another AV9 team!) who was the third from Rockford (they all had names starting with C strangely enough).

Additionally since it's the Chaos Cup everyone got two free mutations for unskilled 0-12 or 0-16 roster spots, and you got to wait to see who your opponent would be. I debated Claw but had not been throwing many blocks with my Zombies so in the end I plumped for Foul Appearance on both.

Here's his roster
2 Bull Centaurs w Block
2 Chaos Dwarves w Guard
2 Chaos Dwarves w Stand Firm
Chaos Dwarf w Leader
Chaos Dwarf
2 Hobgoblins w Pro
2 Hobgoblins w Extra Arms (his two free mutations)

Below are my tweets from the final game. Chad enjoyed using my pre-registration red dice and they rewarded him! My models refused to stay on the pitch and once knocked out wouldn't come back either! Pipeline had to leave after game five and my joke was he left me with his luck! Also kept joking about hiding the red dice from Chad ;-) Game ended 1-2 loss, 1-3 CAS and earned me 12 tournament points.

Final game, picked foul appearance for my two zombie mutations.

Skull/chopblock x2 = stunned mummy. D'oh!

Managed to squirrel my sure hands ghoul down right near his endzone from a tough position.

Pretty much best kickoff I could get, ball far in the corner and perfect defence! ** this turned out NOT to be the case as I tried to hold up his Bull Centaurs with my Mummies in the wide zones and ... (see next tweet) **

Looking likely the chaos dwarves will tie it up before halftime. BOTH mummies taken out in one turn :-(

Pulled off a magic move, dodge into 3 tackle zones and uphill blocked the bull centaur down with wrestle.

Followed quickly by failing a 3+ dodge with reroll. wah waaaaaaah.

dual posted on Merry Mayhem News

Chaos Cup - Game 5

Game 5 saw me on table 17 pitted against Paul (pipeline of "BANG" infamy) and his Chaos team "69 Dudes!" who unfortunately had terrible luck during the game but we later had a great chat about my visit to the Chicago Art Institute on Friday (where he works as a network admin) which was really cool and interesting.

His roster was
2 Chaos Warriors w Mighty Blow
Chaos Warrior w Leader
Chaos Warrior
2 Beastmen w Block
Beastman w Frenzy
3 Beastmen
Minotaur
Reroll

Same as all the previous posts my tweets are below. When my first block was double skulls I thought it was going to be painful for me but it turned around pretty quick. Pipeline took his licks with good sport and quick wit! Game ended 2-0 win and 1-1 CAS, netting me 62 tournament points.

Playing the infamous pipeline. double skulls for my first block :-@ not how I wanted to start day two.

War of attrition going OK, 1 chaos warrior and 1 beastman KO'd.

Averaging a KO per turn by turn four! #whutupshun

Quick progress upfield by the 69 Dudes! Turn 3 starts now.

Poor pipeline has nothing go his way, rerolls burned early and at least six pure skull or skull/chopblocks blocks.

dual posted on Merry Mayhem News

Chaos Cup - Game 4

Game four was on table 19 vs Bobby and another Orc team, but at least it was a very different build from my previous opponent. His team was called Cyzygystic Disaster. Great feature about this game was getting to play on the custom Chaos Cup 2011 pitch - cool!!

Here's his roster.

2 Blitzers w Tackle
2 Blitzers w Strip Ball
2 Black Orcs w Block
Troll w Guard
2 Lineorcs
Goblin w Sure Feet
Thrower w Leader
2 Rerolls

As with all the other game reports here's my tweets/photos from game four. Game ended as a 1-1 draw, 0-1 CAS, garnering 30 tournament points.

PS. I googled Bobby's team name to try and figure out what Cyzygystic means. There was only one result, the 2009 Chaos Cup results, where Bobby placed last! He's obviously much improved, well done Bobby! (remembering your skills is a great start, hehe)
http://www.bloodbowlmajors.com/ChaosCup/2009/ChaosCup2009_Results.htm

Quickly had Piling On mummy and Guard wight KO'd so went for the quick score and pulled it off with no rerolls.

Managed to knock the ball free but failed a 4+ pass leaving the ball in the open.

Mummy CATCHES the bouncing ball! #WHUTUPSHUN

Then I was a gentleman and pointed out his Blitzer has strip ball so even the push on mummy knocked the ball loose. ** He later told me afterwards about him paying it forward when he taught a 13 year old how he could pull off a 1TT - how's that for showing how great this game and its players are! **

Two die uphill block to take down the thrower, double chop block = win!

Orcs tie it up pretty early in the second half, five turns to take the lead again.

Then my sure hands ghoul fails a go for it w reroll, dropping the ball and killing himself in the process :-@

I will post my day two games and the youtube clip of the awards tomorrow!

dual posted on Merry Mayhem News

Chaos Cup - Game 3

Game three I dropped down to table 14. I played Chris with his Orcs. They were called "Generic Orcs". Chris was also from Rockford and friends with my previous opponent Craig.

From memory his roster was;

2 Black Orcs w Block
2 Black Orcs w Stand Firm
2 Blitzers w Guard
Blitzer w Leader
Blitzer
3 Lineorcs
Goblin
2 Rerolls

As with the previous game posts here's the tweets and photos I posted yesterday, I took too many photos in game two and I had to charge my phone so that's the reason I only took a few photos.

I was pretty disappointed with my performance in this game, mainly that I confused one of his Blitzers for a Black Orc. It's a mistake I frequently make with Orcs teams made from WHFB Orcs but still was no excuse. I thought my ghoul was in the clear but he got a tackle zone on him which eventually meant he scored instead of me in the first half. Hopefully this might teach me to count squares more in important circumstances.

Still, well played to Chris - he managed two TDs with thrown passes (one short and one long) which is very impressive with Orcs let alone without a thrower. Game ended as a  1-2 loss, 0-3 CAS, getting me 15 tournament points.

2 times failing 3+ dodge w reroll is killing my offensive drive. AND the freaking black orc caught a bouncing ball.

Managed an early TD (turn 3) thanks to Chris' gobbos inability to pick up the ball, tie game!

Goddamn gobbo makes up for it by throwing an accurate long pass. Double U Tee Eff!!

dual posted on Merry Mayhem News

Chaos Cup - Game 2

Second game was the highest table I played on all tournament, Table 6! He came with a bunch of guys from Rockford and I ended up playing 3 of them throughout the tournament (all three of my losses - damn you Rockford!!). From memory his team build was.

2 Blitzers w Guard
2 Blitzers w Stand Firm
2 Linewomen w Wrestle
Linewoman w Leader
Linewoman w Sure Hands
4 Linewomen (possibly with some other skills I can't remember!)
Reroll
1 Fan Factor

Craig was a very skilled player and I found it really difficult to get to grips with his Amazons (Dirty Dodging Darlas), without having any Tackle. I did get a decent amount of casualties,  it was the only AV7 team I got to play all tournament. He ended up placing second so getting whooped by him doesn't seem so bad now!

Again here's the tweets I made during the game with the accompanying photos. Game ended 0-3 loss, 3-1 CAS to me, which earned me 15 tournament points. Apparently I had a lot of time to take photos and tweet!

Game 2 vs Amazons. His first hit of the game kills my block ghoul. So far managed 1 KO. My bash game not firing.

Piling On mummy gets his second CAS of the day.

Amazons push quickly up the left flank, they score on turn 6. Booo.

Ball lands on line of scrimmage. Rocks stun a linewoman and a ghoul. Undead trash Amazon line and pickup ball.

Trying to push two possible receivers fails on a 4+ dodge by ghoul who kills himself :-@ grrrrrr

Amazons roll blitz on the kickoff to increase my misery :-( let's hope the casualties start to pile up (on?)

Lots of kapows this turn, turning it around? Nope spoke to soon :-( sure hands ghoul knocked out and ball dropped.

Frenzy wight rolls double skulls. Lost the leader ghoul so need to save reroll. :-/ not liking amazons right now.

Crazy scrum ensues! 3 ghouls out looking unlikely to score. Trying to hold him to one TD, also unlikely :-(

Dodge skill fails and amazons score again - not looking good! Working on casualties now :-/

Made one last drive for a TD only to have the ball carrier smacked and probably give up one last TD ;-(

Managed to put some guys in the way to hopefully stall that third TD. Piling On mummy scored 3 CAS so far.

With some crazy dice rolls tried to hold her up. didn't help ANY lol seems like I was supposed to lose this game.

dual posted on Merry Mayhem News