CBBBL VI - The Final

A toast before the game from Paul.

So - here we are.  Just over six months ago, I decided to dig out the chaos dwarfs from deep storage and I was now in the final of the CBBBL!

I'd beaten a skaven team in the semi-final - and I was hopeful I could do the same in the final.  The game started off badly with a weather result of pouring rain - all pick up, intercept and catch rolls would be at -1.  The worst result for an AG3 and AG2 team.  Paul won the toss and opted to receive.  I fully expected him to score in a couple of turns but it seemed his team was having problems picking up and catching the ball too.  I punched his players and they fell over but I couldn't hurt them - and despite his best efforts, the half ended 0-0.

With me receiving the kick in the second half, I really did think I might do well - I thought I'd be able to cage up, move slowly down the field and score giving him no chance - but there were too many skaven on the field and I couldn't control them.  Eventually, one of my hobgoblins failed to pick up the ball and a gutter dodged in to grab it and then scored.  It was turn 7 at this point and my only hope was that the kick off would be a riot - but it wasn't to be.

It was disappointing to lose but with the weather being what it was and my team just not injuring the skaven, it was no surprise.  Still - looking back, I started using the chaos dwarfs all those months ago as I'd rarely used them and I wanted to learn how to play them.  I think I've been successful on that front as I managed to get them into the final.  It's the first time I've done that so I'll have to doff my pointy hat to them.

This will be my final entry on this blog as the season is over and they'll get packed away with all the other teams.  I will dig them out again one day though - I will use them in a tournament at some point as I'd like to use all of the twenty-four NAF approved teams in NAF tournaments.  It will be the turn of a different Blood Bowl team to take part in CBBBL VII next year though so I'll sign off by just wishing you all of Hashut's blessings and may Nuffle bless your dice!

Next Wednesday - the main event...

Semi-final vs Skaven

Rodders - a top bloke if ever there was one

Tonight's game was up against Rodders and his Skaven team.  He only managed to get eight of his ten games in this season but, even so, he was leading the league with seven wins and one draw (his draw was against me).  His team was awesome, especially his gutter runners - one had a Big Hand, another had Block and Dauntless, one was AG5 with Sure Hands and the last with Block and Strip Ball.  Add into the mix a Guard blitzer and a rat ogre with Juggernaut, Guard and Claws and you had a quite fearsome team.

I received the kick to start with and I started punching his players - a tactic which was especially ineffective over the course of the game as all I could do was knock players out.  His rat ogre managed to injure my Claw blocker but he wasn't a great loss.  With Rodders being plagued by rolls of 1, I managed to score in my turn 7 leaving Rodders two turns to score.  I could have tried stalling but I didn't want to be silly - I would rather score and force Rodders to try to equalise than try to stall and give him a chance to stop me.  On the restart, and after some fantastic blocking and pushing, he'd managed to get his AG5 gutter runner two spaces into my half without moving him.  Once he did so, he was one space away from the end zone - but he managed to fail to catch the ball when it was thrown to him.  It left me a chance to get my Break Tackle/Tackle bull centaur to blitz him but I could only push him to the side of the ball - in his last turn Rodders just move him into the tackle zone and picked it up without a thought.  The half ended 1-1.

At this point, I was pretty sure Rodders was going to win.  Kicking to him meant he could control the game and score whenever he wanted.  I set up fairly aggressively and rolled a blitz!  I immediately sent my minotaur after his rat ogre but the best I could do was to stun him.  My rookie bull centaur couldn't get close to his ball carrier and before I knew it, Rodders had got the ball in a fairly safe position and was looking like he would score as all my players were in his half and his player with the ball was half way into mine!  My Break Tacle/Tackle bull centaur saved the day but sprinting back and blitzing the ball carrier, managing to pick up the ball as he did so.  Rodders kept on at me though and I put my centaur in a really daft position when his Dauntless gutter runner could easily have crowd pushed him.  Luckily for me, he was out of rerolls by this point and the runner failed his Dauntless roll.  One of the dice came up with a skull...  With my bull centaur able to get clear, Rodders did keep on trying to get him but he was running out of players by this point.  I scored in the last turn of the game to make it a 2-1 win to the chaos dwarfs.  It was a brilliant game against someone who I know is a much better coach that I am - I was obviously pleased to win but I think Rodders probably deserved it more after his fantastic season.  His only loss was this game tonight.

What this means is that I've made it to the final of CBBBL VI!

The other semi-final was played on Saturday - Sherwin (nWo) and Paul (Score Score Quick Quick) fought it out and Paul won that 2-1.   Sherwin did brilliantly with his chaos pact team when you consider they are a team which is rated somewhere between tier 2 and 3.

Paul and I chatted after tonight's game and we've scheduled the final for next Wednesday.  My Chaos Dwarfs against more Skaven!  It seems fitting that we are playing each other at the end of the season seeing as we played each other at the start of it too.  This will be my first time reaching the final - not so for Paul as he won CBBBL I with his Dark Elf team.  It's going to be a good game whatever happens!

Play-off Draw

The play-off draw has been made!

Score Score Quick Quick  vs  nWo

Flying by the seat of my pants  vs  Zharrduk Zephyrs

So - I'll be playing against Rodders skaven team next Wednesday 5th March.

CBBBL VI Playoffs

It's a bit of a shock but I think my chaos dwarfs have made the playoffs for CBBBL VI.  Erik's Araak-Frizko 69ers dwarf team was in contention to take fourth place from me but he needed to win in his last game to claim the three points needed.  He finished with a draw against a Lizardman team meaning just one point.

I've already faced off against the three teams above mine - I got draws against the top two skaven teams and got smashed by Sherwin's chaos pact team.  My team does have a few more skills now so you never know...

I'll update once the official announcement has been made by the commissioner (which is Sherwin...) and who I'm drawn against in the semi-final.

10th Game vs Lizardmen

Bad hair day for Luke

The season is over (boo!) but I had a cracking game to finish it all off.  I was playing my old mate Luke with his Lizardman team and he's had a rough season with them so far; sauruses are always slow to skill up and he's had a lot of injured players to cope with.  As such, he was fielding a couple of journeyman skinks but had enough in inducements to take Silibili and a couple of Bloodweiser Babes.

Winning the toss, Luke elected to Kick and a got to work punching his players to make a hole so I could move forward.  I knocked a few of his players out during the drive but I couldn't protect my ball carrier enough to stall so I scored around turn five.  In my turn to kick, Luke's wall of sauruses and Silibi were formidable and he managed to break a skink free to get ready to equalise.  Thankfully my blitzing bull centaur knocked him over and some hobgoblin passing razzle dazzle soon saw my greenskinned sneaky gits charging towards to endzone.  I thought I'd done enough to get another touchdown but I had to blitz a saurus out of the way to do so and my other bull centaur rolled double skulls.  The hobgob was taken out in the subsequent turn and the half ended 1-0 to me.

In the second half, I'd injured one of Luke's journeymen and in return he's badly hurt my wrestle hobgoblin and a guard chaos dwarf blocker - Silibi had done then in in the final turn of the previous half.  Thankfully I'd bought a spare hobgoblin so I still have 11 players.  Luke received my kickoff and set off with a similar tactic that he'd done in the first half drive - but this time it worked perfectly and we were soon level at 1-1.  Those skinks are soooo fast... Luke kicked off again and this time my blocking was starting to take effect - his skinks weren't able to take the punishment my team was dealing and I tied up his sauruses with spare blockers while my bull centaur surged down the field.  Even the minotaur got in on the action by knocking out Silibi.  Struggling to backtrack, Luke had to try some 5+ dodges to try to get close to my centaur but I get tackle zone on them and they couldn't make the dice rolls the needed.  I stalled out and scored in my turn seven.  Luke's final turn was aimed at getting a completion for a skink on 5 SPP's (which is managed) and the game finished 2-1 to me.

So - 5 wins, 4 draws and only 1 loss is, I think, pretty good for a team which I've always struggled to get to grips with.  There's a slight chance they might even make the play-offs but I'm not going to tempt fate further by discussing it here...

Score - 2-1 win

My team : 2 x bull centaurs, 6 x chaos dwarfs, 4 x hobgoblins, 1 x minotaur, 3 x rerolls, apothecary

Luke's team : 5 x sauruses, 3 x skinks, 3 x journeyman skinks, Silibili, 4 x reroll, apothecary

9th Game vs Dwarfs

Thundercats are go

Game 9 saw me facing against the Araak-Frizko 69ers coached by my mate Erik.  Erik is a canny coach who's won the CBBBL previous using high elves but has doomed himself for a number of years thanks to his preference of playing ogres.  This season though, he's using dwarfs.

Dwarfs vs chaos dwarfs was never destined to be a high scoring match - and tonight's game proved to be just that.  It was a big punch up basically.  Tactical for sure but a big scrum.  Erik suffered a dead blocker and I suffered a bull centaur that would miss his next game.  We each scored a touchdown too - and I just about managed to stop him scoring again which meant we finished with a hard-fought draw.

With four wins, four draws and a loss, it isn't looking likely that I'll be making the playoffs this year.  The only way I could do it is if I manage a huge amount of touchdowns and casualties against my final opponent.  So - with one of my centaur missing the final game, I had to make a tough decision to fire him and use what was left of my winnings to buy a replacement rookie centaur.  I was left with 40K so I bought another hobgoblin to use up the last of my winnings.

One more game of the season left.  I don't think I'll make the play offs but I will still aim for a win!

Score - 1-1 draw

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

Erik's team : 2 x blitzers, 2 x runners, 2 x troll slayers, 6 x linemen, Boomer Eziasson, 3 x reroll, apothecary