6th game vs Wood Elves

"Anything but a 1"

This night's game was another switcheroo - I had planned to play against Tom's Lizardmen but we needed to move around to ensure everyone got in a game against someone they hadn't played before.  I was now playing against Andrew and his Wood Elf team.  His team had suffered a few lumps and bumps over the season so he only had one wardancer on the field and was sporting a journeyman.  My Chaos Dwarfs were also in a rough state after last week's drubbing and two of my blockers were missing - so I also had a journeyman, albeit a hobgoblin.

I won the toss and opted to receive and lined up my players to maximise the blocking - and they were pretty damn effective I must say.  I was knocking elves down everywhere, although none injured.  I got hold of the ball, handed to a bull centaur and managed to even stall a while as I kept thumping his players.  I scored in turn five when the elves got just too close for comfort.  I kicked to Andrew and he was shy a couple of players thanks to the earlier punching - I managed to get the ball off him ball carrier, pick up the ball with one hobgoblin, pass to another, then have him move and hand off the ball to a bull centaur who then charged forward to score again.  The half ended 2-0 to me.

I was a little shocked at this - and I must admit I took my eye off the ball with my positioning for the second half.  Andrew's wardancer made short work of leaping over my players and fleeing down field - he nicely tied up my fast players so all I could do was watch him score in turn two.  I did feel confident that I might be able to score again but Andrew's wardancer was everywhere.  Everytime one of my players made a move with the ball, his wardancer swept in and knocked him down.  Rather than try a go for it to score, I stupidly left a hobgoblin next to the endzone while I marked every player I could - and the wardancer duly escaped easily, blitzed the hobgob and caused a MNG into the bargain.  Damn dirty wardancers!

So the game ended 2-1 to me and I gained enough SPP's to give Guard to a blocker and give Block to a bull centaur.  I think that's probably my last game for the year - next one is scheduled for 8th January!

Score - 2-1 win

My team : 2 x bull centaurs, 4 x chaos dwarfs, 3 x hobgoblins, 1 x minotaur, 1 x journeyman, 2 x rerolls, apothecary

Andrew's team : 1 x wardancer, 1 x thrower, 4 x catchers, 4 x linemen, 1 x journeymen, 1 x reroll, apothecary

5th game vs Chaos Pact

El Presidenté

I first met Sherwin back in 2008 - I'd arranged a one-day Blood Bowl tournament and Sherwin came along to take part.  He's been coming to the club ever since and a good job too as he's now the Chelmsford Bunker Club President!  He's also a fearsome Chaos Dwarf coach - it was he who'd been giving me tactical advice on how to play with my team this season.  So, facing off against an experienced chaos dwarf player meant I wasn't confident how the game would go...

Technically, I don't think I did that much wrong - my issue was Sherwin's absolutely ridiculous dice!  We were using identical dice as it happened.  We both had the red NAF block dice and our league's CBBBL dice - his results just ended up better than mine were :)

We all get those games where you just have to grin and bear it - and this was mine.  Sherwin's team broke armour nearly every block and a lot of those caused injuries.  A lot of them.  When the game ended, I only had five players on the pitch and I was 3-0 down.

So - I'm glad that game is over and the only issues are a chaos dwarf with a -1 MV and another that's missing the next game alongside him.  I will be using a journeyman hobgoblin in the next game.  I think it's Wood Elves next...

Score - 3-0 loss

My team : 2 x bull centaurs, 6 x chaos dwarfs, 3 x hobgoblins, 1 x minotaur, 2 x rerolls, apothecary

Sherwin's team : 1 x minotaur, 1 x chaos ogre, 1 x chaos troll, 1 x dark elf renegade, 1 x skaven renegade, 1 x goblin renegade, 6 x marauders, 3 x rerolls, apothecary

4th game part II vs Dark Elves

Barry - yes, he's wearing a deputy sheriff badge.  Don't ask...

It had been arranged that I'd play against Harvey and his Orc team but we had to do some swap arounds at the club so that everyone could get a game in.  Due to this, my opponent was changed to Barry and his Dark Elf team.

Barry's team had a TV 200K higher than mine so I had some inducements coming.  I briefly considered a couple of extra rerolls - but I soon ditched that idea when I realised I could hire a mercenary minotaur for 180K.  If there's one thing that Elves fear, it's a minotaur!

So, minotaur now on the roster, we started the game with me receiving the ball.  Barry had given one of his Linemen the Kick skill which is bloody annoying - so after some ineffective Line Of Scrimmage punching, I sent the minotaur after the kicker - and the mino rolled a 1 for his wild animal.  Argh!  Bloody minotaurs!  In my next turn I tried it again and this time the mino charged straight at him, broke his armour and caused a MNG casualty.  Barry had an apothecary and opted to use it - and it worked for him as the 2nd result was a Badly Hurt.  The kicker took up his position on the reserves bench and waited for the next kick off...  As the game progressed, I had lots of problems trying to get through all the elves - near the end of the half, one of his blitzers dodged away and rolled a 1 - a reroll later, he rolled another 1.  Then fell dead on the spot.  Soon after, another blitzer got hit by the minotaur and he caused a badly hurt result on him.  Two casualties in one half - this minotaur was awesome all over again.  Despite this, I failed in scoring after eight turns and the half finished 0-0.  I had knocked out a lot of his players though and he only had four guys on the pitch.

For the second half, Barry got a few of his knocked out players back in the game but he was down to eight players against my eleven.  It didn't help when the kickoff was a blitz and my bull centaurs pounced forward to get tackle zones on the ball.  Despite this, Barry's elves seemed full of razzle dazzle and they were soon threatening to break though my dwarves and get ready to score.  I was lucky that the ball-carrying witch elf tried to emulate his dead blitzer, albeit without killing herself into the bargain.  After a bit of a scrum, one of my hobgobs got hold of the ball, ran forward and handed it off to a bull centaur who scored.  With only a turn each left, the game was pretty much over from there.

So - a 1-0 win but not many SPP's to share around the team.  One of my hobgobs got MVP and rolled a doubles skill - but I chose to give him Sure Hands as the most sensible option.  The scoring bull centaur got a skill to so he now has Block.  After the winnings were worked out, I had enough in my treasury to buy a full time minotaur and also hire a journeyman hobgob as a full timer.

I think my next game is up against Sherwin and his Chaos Pact team - but who can tell...

Score - 1-0 win

My team : 2 x bull centaurs, 6 x chaos dwarfs, 2 x hobgoblins, 1 x journeyman hobgoblins, 1 x mercenary minotaur, 2 x rerolls, apothecary
Barry's team : 4 x blitzers, 1 x witch elf, 7 x linemen, 2 x rerolls, apothecary

4th game - cancelled!

No game this Wednesday unfortunately.  My opponent had to cancel at the last minute as he had to work late so we've had to defer it to another day.

My next opponent is due to be Harvey and his Orc team.  He gave me my first warm up game before the season started and smashed my team up, winning 1-0 against me in the process.  I'm not looking forward to it - I'm not sure how much of a team I'll have left afterwards!

3rd game vs Skaven

That could have gone better...

First up, I forgot to take a pre kick-off shot so the pic above is from a game that Rodders and I played last season.  I won the kick-off and elected to receive - so Nobbla Blackwart was on the field although I kept him hidden behind a bull centaur in case of a blitz.  A few fairly ineffective blocks later, one of his linemen was prone so he fired up his chainsaw and, stunned him.  Great.  My hobgoblin then failed to pickup the ball which, as I thought it was in a safe place, elected to let it fumble, forgetting that Rodders had a big hand gutter runner...  Before I knew what had happened, his rat ogre had blitzed the chaos dwarf defender and his gutter runners swarmed me.  The rest of the half descended into me frantically backtracking my players in an effort to contain the skaven.  Nobbla was supremely ineffective - the best he did was to knock out the rat ogre and a gutter runner.  Fouling with him was useless - he rolled a kick-back when trying to hurt a prone gutter runner and stunned himself.  The half ended still at 0-0.

Rodders was receiving in the 2nd half but he only had six players to bring to the field - and when I rolled a "throw a rock" result at the kick-off, his rat ogre got stunned.  Even so, Rodders gave a supreme display of tactics and he'd scored within three turns!  Disaster!  By this time, one of my hobgoblins had been killed by the rat ogre and I was down to 10 players - Rodders with eight after some of his knocked out rats regained their senses.  I had to set about simply bludgeoning his players and trying to leave as few gaps as possible - but Rodders still was nipping his gutter runners around and causing me headaches.  I had to aim for a draw and try to contain them as best I could which, thankfully, I did.  Rodders' luck started failing and a gutter runner got a -1ST injury after failing a dodge - Rodders used his apothecary on him and it that rolled a dead result.  A hobgoblin scored on the last turn to equalise.

A 1-1 draw but a definite moral victory for Rodders I think.  My only solace is that I've played both skaven teams in the league now so at least they are out of the way!  After three games, I've not lost either so there's something...

Dwarves next.  Oh dear.

Score - 1-1 draw.

My team : 2 x bull centaurs, 6 x chaos dwarfs, 3 x hobgoblins, 2 x rerolls, apothecary

Rodders's team : 2 x blitzers, 4 x gutter runners, 1 x thrower, 3 x linemen, 1 x rat ogre, 2 x rerolls, apothecary

Star player - Nobbla Blackwart

I have my third league game tonight, this time against Rodders and his Skaven.  Rodders gave me a couple of warm-up games before the season started and in those I managed to get wins but it's a totally different matter when it's a game that counts!  This will be his second game of the league - but in his first game against Wood Elves, he had an outrageously great game.  He won 6-0 and caused 7-0 casualties!  Because of this, he's got three gutter runners with skills, one being Big Hand and even his rat ogre skilled up!  His team is going to be a tough challenge for sure!

Rodders team is so much better than mine that I'm going to get 130k of inducements - which, by happy happen-chance, is exactly the same amount of cash needed to hire Nobbla Blackwart, goblin star player and all-round chainsaw looney.  Chainsaws vs AV7 = a good time.  All I needed to do was find my model of him and get painting!

I got home from work last night around 19:00 and immediate dived into my lead pile.  I found the model and a spare 25mm base, had a quick bit of dinner and then got cracking on him.  I thought about trying a quick painting technique where you undercoat the model white, wash it with a black wash, let it dry and then drybrush white over the top again, then colour the different parts of the model with colour washes.  That works great for quick and easy shading but I didn't have time for the washes to dry.  So - it was back to just painting it although with only a basecoat and a main colour.  He didn't take as long as I had feared though - even with spray undercoating, basecoating and painting the main colours, he was done in under three hours.  I even had time to finish his base and give him a coat of matt varnish!

Looking at it now, I think I missed painting a knuckle-duster but I'll catch that at the weekend.  He's more than ready for action in tonight's game.  Whether he survives for longer that Rodders turn one is something else entirely!

2nd game vs Orcs

Anthony getting ready for my kick-off

After last week's draw against outnumbered Skaven, I really wasn't that confident knowing I was facing Anthony's Orcs.  They're so much lumpier and I was expecting to be totally out-muscled.

I was pretty lucky though as my first blitz of the game knocked out a black orc and they struggled to keep their shape after that.  Some sneaky manoeuvring allowed me to maximize my blocking and I managed to keep a lot of his players on the floor - and in the process I took out one lineorc and killed another.  After the first half, I'd managed to get the ball off his orcs and was threatening to score but the first half finished 0-0.

In the second half, I carried on with trying to focus on keeping his players tied up in tackle zones while I moved the ball forward.  Anthony wasn't having a lot of luck, rolling 1's when going for it and double-skulls a number of times - and that really helped me break out from the scrum and get a bull centaur clear with the ball.  I risked stalling for a few turns to help me manage the clock and scored in my turn seven.  I'd injured his thrower so Anthony was down to eight players - but he did his best to get a blitzer into position in my half ready for his last turn.  I surrounded him with every player I could which did the trick - Anthony managed to pick up the ball and throw it accurately to him but he couldn't catch it.  So - the first win for the Chaos Dwarfs and against a tough team too.  This is a crazy game!

Score - 1-0 win.

My team : 2 x bull centaurs, 6 x chaos dwarfs, 3 x hobgoblins, 2 x rerolls, apothecary

Anthony's team : 4 x blitzers, 4 x black orcs, 1 x thrower, 2 x linemen, 3 x rerolls

1st game vs Skaven

Paul enjoying a pre-game slice of melon...

Woo!  It's Blood Bowl time baby yeah!

As you can tell, I've been looking forward to the start of the league - and the first game was scheduled against my old mate Paul who was playing Skaven.

The key thing for me in this game was the weather - it was raining.  I won the kick-off and Paul was expecting the punishment to start - but my team just didn't seem up to it.  They knocked players over but just couldn't do enough to hurt them.  I did manage to thin out their numbers though.  That being said, I made the mistake of stalling before scoring which was, in hindsight, a terrible idea.  Paul got one of his gutter runners to do some amazing dodges and hit the ball carrier - and even though I got to choose the result, they both meant my player would be down.  Top work from Paul indeed!

In the second half, I was kicking but it was still raining.  Paul only had six players against my eleven so I thought I might be okay - but Paul played really well and my players kept fumbling the pick up.

In the end, the game finished a nil-nil draw and with two casualties each.  A moral victory for Paul I think but at least I didn't lose!

Score - 0-0 draw.

My team : 2 x bull centaurs, 6 x chaos dwarfs, 3 x hobgoblins, 2 x rerolls, apothecary

Paul's team : 1 x rat ogre, 2 x blitzers, 3 x gutter runners, 5 x linemen, 3 x rerolls

Final warm up game vs Wood Elves part II

Tonight's game was my final warm up session before the league starts properly on 30th October.  In my excitement, it seems I totally forgot about taking a team photo before the game.  The game was against Wood Elves again, this time coached by Andrew, someone I've only known a short time but seems to be exactly the kind of guy I'm going to get on really well with.  He's a great guy and he loves Blood Bowl!

The game itself was very interesting - Andrew was cagey and careful with his players positioning while I did my best to thin out their numbers with continued blocking.  Eventually it paid off and I managed to blitz the ball carrier, grab the ball and stall long enough to get a touchdown as the half ended.

In the second half, Andrew only had six players on the pitch and three of those were ST2 catchers.  I must admit, I got a bit complacent as I had a full team of eleven - but fate conspired against me with some double-skull results that meant I'd burnt both rerolls by the 2nd turn.  Although I was moving up the field and keeping his remaining players prone, one of Andrew's catchers managed a stunning combination of dodges and hit my hobgoblin ball carrier with a "two dice I choose".  They were both down or defender stumbles!  Both players went down and the ball landed right next to the sideline.  In my turn, I had another hobgoblin try to pick it up - and failed.  The ball scattered off the field and the crowd threw it back on deep in my half and right in front of one of his linemen.  The lineman scored in no time - curses!

With three turns to go, Andrew managed to get seven players back on the field and I had to set up to try to score if I wanted to win.  Andrew kicked the ball deep - right in my endzone!  I moved my bull centaurs up field, punched and put tackle zones on the elves on the line of scrimmage and then tried to pick up the ball - which worked!  I then did a hand-off to another hobgoblin which again worked.  It was looking good...  Andrew moved some of his catchers to cover my centaurs and it was time for my last turn.  I had to put a dwarf blocker against my centaur to help with the coming blitz - I had to ask another dwarf blocker to go for it twice to blitz a Wood Elf catcher, thankfully knocking him down and pushing another catcher out of the way into the bargain.  All I needed to do now was have the hobgoblin do a 4+ handoff to the now free bull centaur and then have the centaur make a go for it.  The dice rolled beautifully.  2-1 to me.  Andrew had so few players left he opted to skip his last go so the game ended.

So, in summary, I've had seven warm up games, won four, drawn one and lost two.  Not too shabby for a team I'm not confident about!  I'm really looking forward to the start of the new season now - I'm totally fired up for the league!

Score - 2-1 win.

My team : 2 x bull centaurs, 6 x chaos dwarfs, 3 x hobgoblins, 2 x rerolls, apothecary

Andrew's team : 2 x wardancer, 4 x catchers, 5 x linemen, 1 x reroll

Warm up game vs Wood Elves

I had yet another warm up game last night - I'm still trying to wrap my mind around the best ways of using this Chaos Dwarf team.  This time is was against my friend Darren and his Wood Elf team.  Darren won CBBBL IV with this team, albeit mainly due to the phenomenal luck of rolling stat increases on a Wardancer to make it a ST4 AG5 pointy-eared aberration.  There was just no stopping it - and combined with his skilful playing, there was no stopping him either.  Hopefully this league he will not be quite so lucky!

The game started fairly well for me - I won the FAME roll and the dice-off to see who kicked or received.  When the Wood Elves kicked off the ball scattered off the field and I got a touchback and gave it straight to a bull centaur - just trying to give the ball to a centaur normally burns my rerolls!  I slowly moved up the field, doing my best to keep my ball carrier free from any chance of being blitzed whilst doing my best to smash the elves.  I did manage to punch a few unconscious but not enough to stop Darren blocking my path.  Around turn six I tried to break free and left a small chink in my defence - and Darren immediately got to work.  He had a catcher put a tackle zone on my bull centaur, then did some crazy dodges and a leap with his Wardancer to one dice block my centaur - and smashed him to the floor.  The ball scattered and he got a nearby elf to grab it and lob it downfield!  Disaster!  All Darren needed to do to score in the last turn of the game was to make a go-for-it - and the elf slipped over whilst doing so.  Lucky escape there...

In the second half, the Wood Elves only had eight players so he tried a refused flank setup - my kick went very deep to the other side of the field which was excellent for me.  Then his treeman took a swipe at my dwarf blocker and rolled a skull and a both down.  Darren elected to take the result rather than use his only reroll.  I sent my players downfield towards the ball carrier and started punching the rest of his players.  With yet more elf razzle dazzle, Darren's wardancer blitzed one of my players, leapt over my defensive line and sprinted off into my back field - then his thrower grabbed the ball, threw it over the heads of my chaos dwarfs and the wardancer caught it perfectly - another big gameplay switch!  I pulled back some of my players and did the only thing I could - I blitzed with a bull centaur and managed to knock the wardancer over, stunning her.  In my next turn, I needed my players to do what they have the most trouble with - picking up the ball!  One of my hobgoblins managed to do just that and, to cap it off nicely, he even managed to hand it off to a bull centaur!  The centaur charged down field again, this time with a few nearby players to support him.  I'd continued to keep punching Darren's other players and it was taking it's toll on them, with them being knocked out and pushed off field.  With so few players left, Darren couldn't really do much to stop my bull centaur but he did his best, sending that wardancer after him and getting her to leap into my cage to blitz him, with a two dice block my choice - which luckily for me had come up with a skull.  She was becoming very annoying so I had a few players surround her and then had a hobgoblin foul her - which resulted in a -1 AG stat decrease on her.  The dirty little swine wasn't even sent off.  Darren was very, very pleased that this was just a warm up game...

I scored in my last turn leaving Darren with just a prone treeman on the field.  It was a tough match indeed but it's always a good test to play against Darren.

I've got one more warm up game scheduled before the start of the league proper - I think I'm just about ready for it now.

Score - 1-0 win.

My team : 2 x bull centaurs, 6 x chaos dwarfs, 3 x hobgoblins, 2 x rerolls, apothecary

Darren's team : 1 x wardancer, 1 x thrower, 2 x catchers, 6 x linemen, 1 x treeman, 1 x reroll

Warm up game vs Dark Elves part II

It's been a few weeks since my last warm up game but I managed to get to the club last night to play - with the start of CBBBL looming, my fellow coaches have started to get back into the swing of Blood Bowl so, hopefully, I'll get a couple more warm ups in before the league starts on 30th October.

This game was against Graeme who was using his new Dark Elf team.  Graeme had been intending to use his Vampire team; a team he's not had a lot of luck with in previous leagues as they're just so unforgiving in a league format.  He had a recent practice game against Rodders and took a heavy drubbing - so he's switched teams to Dark Elves which will hopefully allow him a much more enjoyable season.

Graeme received the kick and got to work quickly, pushing through my defences thanks to the nimbleness of his AG4 players and he scored in his turn two.  I was a bit flummoxed by this as I thought I'd done a decent set up - but with seven turns left I thought I'd be able to score this half and then try to dominate the second half to allow me a win.  That plan was all well and good apart from the uncooperative hobgoblins who absolutely refused to pick up a ball.  I burned through both my rerolls on them - any by the time they did get hold of the ball, it was too late to score.  Curses.  Additionally, the best I'd done to injure any of his players was to knock them out so at the second half we both still had full team rosters to field.

Things went a little better for me in the second half - my hobgoblin actually managed to pick the ball up at the first attempt for one. I managed to hurt one of his linemen and, thanks to some poor positioning, I had an easy task of crowd-surfing his witch elf - and the fans killed her for it!  Graeme was very thankful that this was just a warm-up game and won't make that mistake again, I'm sure!  I scored around turn five to equalise and, hopefully, give me a chance to turn him over and try to get a win.  Even with just nine players on his side, Graeme pushed forward and got very close to scoring - I had to blitz his ball carrying blitzer to try to stop him and, thankfully, it worked.  I recovered the ball but there was no time left to do anything other than ensure he couldn't score and the game ended 1-1.

So - a better result than I had last time against Dark Elves but, from the practice games I've had so far, I suspect my league chances will be slim.

Score - 1-1 draw.

My team : 2 x bull centaurs, 6 x chaos dwarfs, 3 x hobgoblins, 2 x rerolls, apothecary

Graeme's team : 3 x blitzers, 1 x witch elf, 7 x linemen, 2 x rerolls

Warm up game vs Dark Elves

Another warm up game on the FUMBBL client, this time against Barry, one of my fellow club committee members.  Barry has played a lot of FUMBBL games in the past (well over 150 in fact) but it had been a couple of years since he played last, one of which was against me.  Barry is trying out a Dark Elf team so it was a good test of how my rookie team would fare against an AG4 team.

I received the kick but Barry's agile elves soon made short work of my poor defensive positioning - my dice rolls were abysmal too and I'd burned both my rerolls before turn three.  Barry scored on his turn three and I knew I had my work cut out from there!  My dwarves went to work and hurt some of his linemen which helped give me a chance to equalise at the end of the first half.

I was kicking to Barry but he had only eight players vs my ten - so I was hopeful that I could turn him over.  Alas - it was not to be.  Despite my best efforts, Barry punched though my lines and scored again - his elves seemingly incapable of rolling anything other than sixes.  I had time to equalise but one of Barry's blitzers managed to take out the hobgoblin ball carrier and it all went wrong from there on.  The game ended 2-1 to him - a well deserved win for him.

So - I'm not quite sure where this leaves me with the team.  I think they're sound enough - it's just my coaching that is letting the side down.  Oh dear.  More practice, I think... One cool thing about the FUMBBL game is that a bull centaur got a skill and rolled +1 AG!  If that happens in the live league I won't complain...

Score - 2-1 loss

My team : 2 x bull centaurs, 6 x chaos dwarfs, 3 x hobgoblins, 2 x rerolls, apothecary

Barry's team : 3 x blitzers, 1 x witch elf, 7 x linemen, 2 x rerolls

Warm up game vs Skaven part II

I can't get to the club this week (something about the club meeting coinciding with my wedding anniversary) so Rodders and I had another warm-up game using the FUMBBL Blood Bowl client.  FUMBBL is an online way of playing Blood Bowl against an opponent via a Java game client - it's free to use and it's been running for years.  I've been signed up on it since 2005 but I only had my first game on it back in 2011 - so this game against Rodders would be only my second.

We both set up our existing CBBBL teams on there although I have made a change to my roster - I removed a hobgoblin and a reroll and bought a sixth chaos dwarf and an apothecary.

The weird thing for me about FUMBBL is that the game is played sideways - and I'm one of those people who've only ever played tabletop Blood Bowl with the board facing me.  It took me a few turns to get used to the format!  With FUMBBL, you also need to ensure that you decide what you want to do with a player before you select the action - so if you want to have a player pick up the ball and hand off to another, you have to choose that option from the menu; you can't choose move and then decide to hand off at the last minute.  This is a more accurate way of how Blood Bowl should be but I think the coaches at my club are a little more forgiving than the rules state.

Rodders received the kick and immediately set about being tricksy with his rats, knocking over my defensive line and getting his gutter runners deep into my backfield.  By turn three, he'd scored which was very early - he wasn't able to stall as I'd kept a bull centaur back as a defence.  I now had quite a lot of the half left to try to equalise - and I did manage to do that in the end although Rodders was making it very difficult despite having a number of knocked out players.  In the second half, the lack of numbers was starting to hurt him as my team started beating his up.  I did lose a hobgoblin to a -1 AG injury - I chose to not use the apothecary though as in the CBBBL league I will be saving him for the bull centaurs.  Hobgoblins are cheap so they can be replaced... I did, however, manage to kill one of Rodders blitzers which was harsh on him.  Towards the end, he had so few players left that I was in total control of the game - I even managed to get a hobgoblin to hand off to a bull centaur so he could score.

So - a 2-1 win to the Chaos Dwarfs over the Skaven and I'm thinking I'll keep my lineup for the CBBBL start.  Only having two rerolls is a risk but, as Rodders pointed out after our game last week : "You should only use a reroll if you really do need to score or stop the opponent scoring - if you're trying something desperate then you've already lost but you don't know it yet."

Score - 2-1 win

My team : 2 x bull centaurs, 6 x chaos dwarfs, 3 x hobgoblins, 2 x rerolls, apothecary

Rodders' team : 2 x blitzers, 4 x gutter runners, 1 x thrower, 3 x linemen, rat ogre, 2 x rerolls

Warm up game vs Skaven

I had a game tonight against Rodders who was using his Skaven team.  Rodders is the most experienced BB coach at my club - he's a NAF regional tournament organiser, has run the Carrot Crunch tournament in Sudbury for years and is a great guy to boot.  I must admit, I didn't fancy my chances against him as he's a tough enough opponent even when he's not playing Skaven.  Still - I'll never turn down a chance to play him as it's a great opportunity to test myself against a pro and learn something into the bargain.

The kick-off went my way and I chose to received, hoping to thin down the Skaven numbers before they had a chance to do anything - but my blocking was totally ineffective.  The best I could do was push over a blitzer.  To add insult to lack of injury, my hobgoblins fumbled the ball pickup.  Feeble.  Rodders had a host of gutter runners on his team and they swarmed forward whilst his rat ogre blitzed a hobgoblin, killing him instantly.  Oh dear.  This was not going well...

Somehow I managed to back track and get some players around the ball and the rest of the half descended into a punch up.  Rodders was making canny blitzes in an attempt to pop the ball free and I was doing my best to cover his players and clear some off the field.  I did manage to kill one of his linemen so at least we had even numbers.  The rest of the turn played out and we were level a nil-nil.

For turn two I had ten players to his eight - but with the Skaven receiving I was sure they would score before I had a chance to blink.  I kicked a touchback too which didn't help things.  I was lucky though as Rodders started having bad dice rolls and his rats started failing actions.  I managed to blitz his ball carrier and a hobgoblin grabbed the ball and headed up field.  It was Rodders turn to back track this time - and to ensure that I had no option of ball-stalling, he half-die blitzed my hobgoblin with a gutter runner.  He rolled a defender stumbles and a push - so I had to chose the push which forced my hobgob into the endzone to score.  At least it allowed Rodders a few turns to equalise.

Another kick-off from me and I rolled a Perfect Defence, allowing me to reposition my players which really helped.  Rodders had burned both his rerolls and I had superior numbers - so this really started to tell in the final turns.  All my blocking and blitzing was taking a toll on his rats and, in the end, he just didn't have enough bodies on the field to stop a hobgoblin handing off to a bull centaur and having him score.

So - an unexpected 2-0 win to me in the end but I'm still not convinced on my ability to coach this team well.  Maybe when they start getting some skills I may be more reliable on them but as a starting team, I'm still struggling.  Still - a win's a win :)

Score - 2-0 win

My team : 2 x bull centaurs, 5 x chaos dwarfs, 4 x hobgoblins, 3 x rerolls

Rodders' team : 2 x blitzers, 4 x gutter runners, 1 x thrower, 3 x linemen, rat oger, 2 x rerolls

Warm up game vs Orcs

Although I've played Blood Bowl since the 2nd edition, I started playing it regularly since 2006.  As such, I know my way around a BB pitch and I've tried to help the newer players at the club to develop their tactics so they don't get thrashed and lose interest.  That does nobody any favours.  So, this Wednesday, I scheduled a warm up league game with Harvey and his Orc team.  Harvey is a great guy and seasoned wargamer but he's only been playing BB for a year or so.  I thought I could give him a game to help him remember the rules and get to grips with some of the tactics, such as pointing out where he could maximise the effectiveness of blocking and positioning of his players.  It would also help me get used to my team so I knew what to look out for.

As it happened, what I needed to look out for was being rubbish at rolling dice!  I kicked to Harvey and his Orcs pummelled my guys a bit and some fell over.  My players got up and tried to stop Harvey from moving forward.  That was what happened for pretty much the whole first half except that one of my Chaos Dwarfs got injured so I was a man down.  Harvey scored in his turn 8.  In my turn 8, Harvey kicked a blitz and knocked out a Hobgoblin.  In the 2nd half, the hobgob got back onto the field to give me 10 men which was something.  Harvey kicked a blitz again and his guys again pummelled my team.  My hobgobs fumbled the pickup and wasted a reroll.  The orcs commenced punching again...  After a long struggle, I managed to get the ball to a Bull Centaur in range of the end zone.  He just needed to make two go for it's to score and he had Sure Feet to make it easy.  I got cocky and rolled both dice simultaneously.  Snake eyes.  Oh dear.

The good points of the game is that Harvey enjoyed playing his team and I think I helped him with remembering some rules and how he could do things better - I just need to get some new dice that don't hate me ;)

Score - 1-0 loss

My team : 2 x bull centaurs, 5 x chaos dwarfs, 4 x hobgoblins, 3 x rerolls

Harvey's team : 4 x blitzers, 4 x black orc blockers, 1 x thrower, 2 x linemen, 3 x rerolls

An old team for a new season

This is going to be a micro-blog for the Zharrduk Zephyrs, my Chaos Dwarf team in a new season of Blood Bowl at my wargaming club.  I did a blog like this last year for my Chaos team and it was good fun - even if no-one else reads it, it can act as a chart of the highs and lows as the team work their way though ten games of brutal gridiron action.  I'm using Chaos Dwarfs this year purely because I've had this team for years and never managed to get to grips with how to use them effectively.  It's high time I pulled my finger out and learnt how to play them then...

The league I play in is called CBBBL - the Chelmsford Bunker Blood Bowl League - and I run the website that hosts the software for the league (the OBBLM software which is just great).  The link to it is http://www.cbbbl.co.uk/ so you can see all the results on there.

Like last year, the top four players in the league will go on to the play-offs to decide who the CBBBL VI champion will be - and get their team name engraved on the league plaque.  I must admit, I'm not sure how well I'm going to do this year so I'm not confident on aiming to get into the playoffs, let alone strive for the champion title.  If I end up placed in the top third of the league I will be happy.

The league starts on 30th October so I've got a bit of time to get some practice games in before it all kicks off.  I can play around with the team lineup before this date too so I may change things around before then.

At present my lineup is :

2 x Bull Centaurs
5 x Chaos Dwarf Blockers
4 x Hobgoblins
3 x Rerolls
20K in the treasury to help save for an apothecary after game 1

All that's left to do is post up some pictures of the team - I'll get the bases numbered before the start of the season!

Obligatory team shot

Bull Centaurs

Chaos Dwarf Blockers

Chaos Dwarf Blockers

Hobgoblins

Minotaur

Hthark the Unstoppable

Rashnak Backstabber

Zzharg Madeye