Blood Bowl Game 2: Chaos Dwarfs vs. Undead

Blood Bowl:  The AGBBL (Adventurer's Guild Blood Bowl League) season is in full force.   My Chaos Dwarf team, Public Enemy took to the pitch against the Undead team Rottington Deadskins of my good friend and Blood Bowl veteran, Jamie "Force Commander".  

Chaos Dwarfs are a fun team with a lot of options.   You have Chaos Dwarf blockers, who come with skils Block & Tackle from the start, and Thick Skull as well, so they are only stunned on an injury roll of an 8, and knocked out on a 9, instead of being KO'd on both an 8 or 9.     You can have up to 6 of them, and 2 Bull Centaurs.  The Bulls are the key to the team.  High Strength, fast movement, tough armor, and the added skills of Sprint and Sure Feet allow them to become Uber-Blitzers that can move 9 and really hammer your opponents.    Sadly, I lost one in my first game of the season, killed on the pitch against the Dark Elves.

So, i'm down one Bull, but I have several hobgoblins as well.  Sure, they are just generic players with generic skills, but sometimes it's just enough.   With an average agility skill, but better than the bull and dwarfs, they would have to be my ball handlers this game.

We set up, weather perfect, fans on my side, winning the FAME roll from  fan factor, my team was set to be cheered on to vicotry.   Being allowed an additional 110,000 gold coins in inducements due to the loss of my bull, I opted for the "Bloodwieser Babe", who's tastey refreshments would allow any of my Knocked Out players to return to play on a 3+ on a d6, instead of a 4+.    We spent 50,000gp more on a card from the deck of Miscellaneous Mayhem and got a bonus: "That Girl's Got Talent", where local females from an exotic bar my team frequented decided to show their support and play the role of cheerleaders for my team.  This gave me an additional +1 to FAME rolls on the kick off table results, ensuring that we would win every roll from Brilliant coaching, cheering fans, ect, and gain additional bonus Rerolls.   Sweet!

This looked to be a  simply drive for me down the field.   The Undead team was pretty generic as well.  2 Large Mummies, slow but strong.   2 Wights, the blitzers of the team, both had the Block skill, but one was upgraded with Dodge (making it, what we call a "Blodger").    2 Ghouls for ball handling filled out the skilled positions and the rest of the players were nothing more than slow, sluggish zombies.    Even down the bull centaur, I looked optomistic to my situation.

We won the coin toss and elected to Hit First....er I mean Receive the ball.    Kick off result was "Cheering Fans" and Public Enemy gained a bonus reroll, giving me 4 for the half.   3 Zombies on the line of scrimmage didnt' know what hit them as the Dwarf Blockers did their job and pushed the back with "Pows" on the dice.   I established a line of control on the right side of the field and moved my hobgoblins up to cover the ball.

Than the problems started.   Razor Raze, hobgoblin #9 (yes, so named after rapper Flavor Flav), fumbled the ball, used a team ReRoll, and fumbled again.    Turn 2, same thing.   Fumbled the ball twice.   This would become a recurring theme all game.

(Razor Raze.....Hobgoblin #9 "The Clocka-Rocka")

My inability to pick up the ball allowed Jamie to move his Undead into position to bottle me up.   He got too agressive though, looking to strike at me hard, and brought all of his men up close.   What he didn't do was leave a player or two deep to play a "Safety" position, just like in real football defenses.

After another turn, Razor Raze got to the ball and handed it off to Sir-Hits-A-Lot, #12.   I had 2 options at this point.   Run through a gap in the defense and make a dodge roll on a 3+ (with a reroll) and cut through, or pull the end-around, and sweep left.    I chose the safter option and swept left, using a lone chaos dwarf and hobgoblin as blockers.     It started to work.

The undead forces committed too many forces too far advanced, and I had an opening on the left side.    My Chaos Dwarf blocker opened up the lane, blitzing the Ghoul trying to hold my hobgoblin back with a tackle zone on him.   Once cleared, I ran the hobgoblin as far as I could, "going-for-it" twice, giving me 8 spaces of movement.  

The undead closed the gap and tried to tie my runner up and slow me down.    Blast it, the gamble worked and the blitzing Wight scored a "pow" on a one-die blitz, and than stunned the hobgoblin with the blow.   The ball was loose and kept bouncing towards the endzone, just next to the out of bounds line.

Next turn I had another shot at it.  Cleared the ball of opponents, had another hobgoblin able to get to the ball, and of course, it was Razor Raze again, and he fumbled the ball again....one more square closer to the endzone.    When you fail to pick up the ball, your turn ends on what is called a "turnover" and was now my opponents time to strike.

Again the Wight blitzer took his shot.  This time Razor Raze got sent out of bounds into the fans, who subsequently beat him up and he would miss the rest of the game being "Badly Injured".    This drive would see another hobgoblin injured and the ball bouncing around, until the Wight  failed to picked it up, this time leaving it in the endzone.

I had one shot left.   I chose to blitz with the Bull Centaur, who had to dodge away from opponents a few turns earlier.   I got lucky on those dodge rolls and now he was in position to save the day.    I could blitz with the bull and knock the wight away from the loose ball in the endzone and than either use him to pick it up on a 4+, or move the journeyman Hobgoblin 6 spaces, go for it once on a 2+, and than pick up the ball on a 3+.

I chose to use the hobgoblin.    The Bull Centaur blitzed the ball clear, and while guarding it, left room for the hobgoblin to pick up the ball and score a touchdown.    All I needed was to go for it once (2+ roll), and than pick it up on a 3+.    Turn 8.  out of rerolls.   I rolled a "1" for the Go-For-It roll, the hobgoblin tripping onto the ball and knocking it out of bounds, where the fans, all to happy to cause more mayhem, threw the ball back to the middle of the field.

The first half would end, 0-0.    Public Enemy would kick off to the Rottington Deadskins, down 2 players, as 2 of their hobgoblins were injured for the rest of the game.    The Deadskins, who had a number of zombies knocked out by some hard hitting blocks from the Chaos Dwarfs, regained all of their players due to their regeneration abilities.

The second half started with a gust of wind picking up, and the ball scattered just to the left sideline.   The Deadskins front line flattened two Chaos Dwarf blockers but only managed to push back the Hobgoblin Journeyman (Journeymen are extra players added to your roster if you start the match below 11 players, to fill out your team to the sacred Nuffle number of 11).

Playing down 9 players to 11, Public Enemy tried every trick they could to stop the Deadskins.   In a variant of the classic "cage" style offense, the Undead forces started to turn the field and march down the right sideline.    The Ghouls fast and agile, were moving the ball well.    In a cleverly calculating move, the Chaos Dwarfs managed to create a hole in the line of protection of the undead, and a Chaos Dwarf got free on a blitz onto the Ghoul with the ball.   He had an assist, so it was a 2-Dice block.   Result: 1 skull, 1 push.   P.E. used a team reroll, and the result again was a double-push.   All they could do was push the Ghoul towards the sideline, failing to knock him down and the ball loose.

That would prove to be the game breaking play.  Failing to put the Ghoul down with 4 dice, it wasn't too difficult for the Undead to push the Chaos Dwarf away and clear the lane for the Ghoul to score the first touchdown of the game.    Had P.E. scored at the end of the first half, this game would be tied.

That was the end of the Undead turn 6.   Public Enemy would receive the ball with 3 turns to go (6, 7, 8).   The fans though, were clearly unhappy.  A riot broke out (kick off table result), and the referees were forced to move the clock back, resetting at turn 5 for Public Enemy.   4 turns should be enough time to pull out a tie.   Except that the Chaos dwarfs were down 4 Hobgoblins now and only had 7 players to put onto the field.   7 vs. 11.   I thought, maybe, I can do this.

It was a deep kick.   Too deep.   Almost out of bounds.   Out of bounds would have been perfect, as that becomes a touchback and you can give the ball to any player.   I would have clearly gave the ball to the Bull Centaur and I could have scored in 2 turns.

But the ball stayed in bounds.    I crushed the front line of the undead and sent the bull centaur and one lone hobgoblin downfield into scoring range for passes.    The lone journeyman hobgoblin #17 made his way to the ball and picked it up.    I would spend the next turn moving players into position and trying to keep undead blitzers from coming near my ball carrier.   Unfortunately when I went to pass the ball, I needed to Go-For-it (recurring theme here) 2 more spaces to shorten the difficulty from a Long-bomb to a Long-Pass.    Of course, I rolled another "1" and the hobgoblin fell and fumbled the ball.

The undead would manage to swarm the ball with 2 zombies and a Ghoul, who ended up fumbling the ball again.   Now down to my turn 8.  I had one last desperate chance.    I pushed a ghoul into the ball, hoping to bounce it away from the zombies, as it was sitting in 3 tackle zones.    The ball bounced and ended up in the hands of the ghoul after bouncing 3 squares amid the zombies.    That was it, I had used my blitz and had no way to get the ball out of his hands.     All I could do was just prevent him from scoring again, and take the loss 0-1.

It was an incredibly frustrating and sloppy game.  Which meant it was tremendous fun seeing players tripping all over the field.    The dice failing both of us at the oddest times.    My opponent failed his share of dodge and Go-for-it dice rolls as well.   He just made less mistakes, got luckier than I did.  

And that's how the ball bounces in Blood Bowl.     I open up the season 0-2, something I dont' think I've ever done.   With this being a short 8-game season, I have to step up my game play if I am to make the playoffs.

My team gained 70,000 gold to add to the 90,000 in the treasury.   A bull Centaur costs 130K, and a Minotaur 150K.   I went with the Minotaur.  Why you ask?  Simple.  I need to really start clearing the pitch and a Minotaur is strong and harder hitting (with Mighty Blow skill and Frenzy) and will allow me more chances to clear opponents off the field.      Terminator-X, my Minotaur will help me win.   Terminator-X only speaks with his hands.  (and horns!).

Blood Bowl: Corounne Panthers, AGBBL season 9, game #6

AGBBL Season 9: Couronne Panthers game #6 vs. Arkham Annihilators.

My season in the AGBBL was stymied for a bit due to my family and I moving into a new house. Thankfully my next opponent, my good friend Brad from Harrisburg and the Adventurer's Guild made the trip down to Reading to meet me for a game. So, since it was a mildly special occasion, I broke out one of my special Blood Bowl Pitches made by Impact Miniatures.

I was originally optimistic, my human team had been performing well and I know that I had a bit more experience than Brad when it came to the game of Blood Bowl. However, no matter how sound your tactics are in ANY game, when the dice fail you, you will be hard pressed to salvage the situation.

I expect at least one or two games like this in any season of 8-10 games. Today happened to be that day for me.

Looking at home field advantage, the Couronne Panthers won the FAME roll, and had the +1 bonus. This result is determined pre-game and is modified by your fan factor. The FAME modifier can affect results on the kick off table each time, and did come into play at times for me.

Weather was perfect, the Chaos team: Arkham Annihilators won the coin toss and elected to receive first. I set my human team in a classic 3-8 defense, careful not to be too close to the sidelines as there was a Minotaur with Frenzy on the opposing team. The kick was short, but good, and the kick off table result was Brilliant coaching. I rolled a 6 for the d3 roll, +1 (for FAME) gave me a 4. The Annihilators rolled a 1, and had 2 assitant coahces, ganing +2 for a result of 3. The Couronne Panthers gained a bonus REROLL for the half.

Starting out, the Annihilators manged to KO one of my lineman and picked up the ball, forming a classic cage offense, with defenders on each corner of the ball carrier's tackle zones. It was all I could to to just pick up my men and position to try and drag out this drive and hope for a Chaos mistake at some point during the game.

It was becoming clearly evident that the Minotaur was going to be a problem. Most Big Guys are, but ones with skills are dangerous. This particular Minotaur, apart from being Strength 5 and having Horns and Frenzy, also had Tentacles to hold players fast and a Claw. The Claw mutation treats all armor as value 7, and with Mighty Blow, allows him to break armor on rolls of 6 or more. As fate would have it, the Minotaur (Shub-Niggurath) stunned another lineman on a frenzied block. My human passer, Matt Moore managed to do the same to one of the Chaos Beastmen.

In turn 3, the Chaos Minotaur blocked my lead passer Jake Delhome, and killed him! Flat out dead, it was everything for the apothecary to save the man, and as a result, he will now only be missing the next game. Apothecaries can help your team out once a game. You may reroll the injury dice, but are stuck with the new result. If a player is lessened to just a "Badly Hurt", he may actually enter you reserves in your dugout and enter play again next time you set your teams up. In my case, Delhomme would be saved, but would have to sit out my next match.

This is when the dice really started to fail for me and run red hot for Brad. Brad made every roll, dodge, block, armor, pick ups, everything. Me....I couldn't even make a Go-For-It roll and using a reroll, which normally is successful on a 2+ on 1d6.

One of my lineman tripped on a dodge to get into position. Turn over. The Chaos forces started to reassemble their drive and make their way downfield. They knocked out another one of my blitzers. All I could do was to keep trying to gain position on my opponent. Sometimes just having a tackle zone on the ball or ball carrier is enough, if you can force your opponent to make a mistake. In this case it didn't seem to matter much. Each time I moved a player to dodge out of a tackle zone or make Go-For-Its (up to 2 extra squares per player), my team would find a way to fall flat on their faces.
With the Annihilators close to scoring, I put just enough pressure on them at the end of turn 5 to force them to score by their turn 6. This would at least give me some time to try and score.

The Annihilators managed to hand off the ball and score in turn 7. This would give me 2 turns to try and tie up the game. Normally 2 turns is exactly what I need to pull off a moderate passing play to score.

As fate would have it, I had to move players to clear the way for my catchers to get downfield. Two of my blitzers led the way, one with guard moved into position to tie up to men, allowing the second blitzer to throw a block and clear the path. Fate failed me and I rolled a skull/pow (both down unless you have block), and his beastman did not have block. I needed a push to open the way for my men. So, all I had to do was "Go for it" with the blitzer and than move my two catchers downfield. I rolled a 1. I rerolled, and rolled a 1 again. Blitzer down, turn over. On a side note, the kick off result was "Get the Ref", and both teams received a bribe for the referees for any rules infractions, such as fouling a player while he is down.....

That dice failure cost me any chance to score in that half. More hits from the chaos team sent one blitzer to the Knock Out ward and another to the infirmary with a Serious Injury (Miss Next Game).

So, I entered the 2nd half down some men, but thanks to reserves, it was only going to be 11 vs. 10. I was receiving and thought I could pull out a tie and with luck, I could still win this game, it was a new half.
The second half for me was worse than the first. The kick off result was Brilliant coaching. The Arkham Annihilators won this roll, giving them another reroll for the half. I tried my classic clear the lane and send 2 catchers downfield. I had men on the front line, but no one on the minotaur, thinking without someone for him to hit, he may be left out of the mix. Big mistake, i should have sacrificed one lineman to tie him up.

My men went downfield, my passer got to the ball, I was prepared to throw the ball next turn and score in turn 2. Or so I thought.

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The Minotaur miraculously made his "Wild Animal" roll, and if he's not blocking or blitzing, he can only move on a 4+. He moved right between my two cathers, getting his tentacles all over them. A Chaos Warrior managed to dodge away from my lineman and blitz my passer, leveling him and knocking the ball loose. This than allowed #3: Abhoth, another Chaos Warrior to move in and pick up the ball.

With a Strength 4 Chaos Warrior running with the ball, I would have to use at least 2 men at any time to have a hope at knocking the ball loose. I moved men into position but the chaos team's blocking was so effective I could only get one man into position to do anytying and Abhoth simply blitzed and pushed him away, scoring a TD in the 4th turn of the 2nd half.

I was down 2-0 and 4 turns left. I was going to have to play very tricky and desperately to have a hope at tying this game at all. I set my men up, kick off result was "high kick" allowing my passer to get underneath the ball and attempt to catch it. He didn't. I was not surprised.

I rolled my men down field and attempted to make a way down to score. This time I found a seam in Brad's defense. I moved one catcher through it, making the dodge and getting into scoring position. I moved the second catcher into a similar position. He failed the dodge but has "dodge" skill, so got to reroll that result for "free". He failed it again.

The Arkham Annihilators showed no mercy, nor would I expect such from a Chaos team. They set about throwing devestating blocks. My catcher with Strength 3, Dwayne Jarret #81 was injured and sent off the board with a minor injury. Lineman #72, Duke Robinson was knocked out. Blitzer # 53: Na'il Diggs was thrown out of bounds, but thankfully landed into the safe hands of some Panther fans.

The rest of the Chaos team bum-rushed downfield to get to the ball, pushing my passer away. I tried to get my men into position to save face and take the ball away from the chaos team, one last attempt at a possible TD score for my honor. My dice failed again and passer Matt Moore (#10) fell. This allowed the Chaos team to get a Chaos Warrior into position to pick up the ball.

The only saving grace I had here was that one of the Warriors picked one fight too many. Throwing a block at #74, Geoff Schwartz, Chaos Warrior Abhoth rolled double skulls on the dice, and the Panther's lead scoring man in casualties got his 5th one of the season by ducking low and kicking him in the groin. Abhoth will be sitting out his next game recovering from that attack.

I tried to move men into position to stop the Chaos Warriors, but they ganged up on Matt Moore and fouled him, stunning the human passer and effectively taking him out of the play, leaving the Panthers helpless to prevent yet a 3rd touchdown score by the Annihilators.

In the end, the game was an utter loss for me. My tactics were sound, my dice were horribly bad. Not one play I made succeeded, where as when the Chaos team tried to do anything, they almost always succeeded. The Minotaur was amazing, activating every round but 1. He dominated the game, responsible for 75% of the knock outs, stuns and casualties. Big guys can be a risk but in this game, Brad showed how truly effective they can be.

Still it was a good game in that I got to see a good friend of mine, we hung out for a few hours, swapped some tales, and had several laughs over the inneptness of my team today. On a bright note, my 2 players that miss the next game are not permanently injured and the 50,000 gold coins my team earned for their play today gives me enough for purchasing an Ogre to play for the Corounne Panthers.

So, we welcome #99: Fredrick W. "The Ogre" Palowaski to the team!

With the ball loose, I tried to blitz my men to clear the way and get someone to pick it up. All I managed was a series of pushes and the chaos warriors were still around the football. The Annihilators would mess up and drop the football on a failed attempt. I had one more chance to fix this mistake.

Four Diamonds Cup Blood Bowl Tournament, 2010

The Four Diamonds Cup: Blood Bowl Tournament

Well, I was able to once again attend a terrific tournament, the Four Diamonds Cup. This event is hosted by a friend of mine, Jaime, who is a member of the AGBBL (Adventurer’s Guild Blood Bowl League). This event is a one-day tournament of 3 rounds of solid Blood Bowl action.

What’s really great about this tournament is that the proceeds are donated to the Four Diamonds Fund at Hershey Medical Center (and with Penn State Unniversity). The money helps support THON and the Four Diamonds, a fund to aid in research as well as to support patients of pediatric cancer and their families.

This tournament is especially meaningful to me, as my daughter Natalie has just finished 2 years and 3 months of chemotherapy battling A.L.L. Leukemia and is finally on the road to recovery. My family made extensive use of the support offered by the Four Diamonds foundation, who have given us aid with medical bills, meal vouchers, counselors, as well as moral support. The students at Penn State Unniversity also help raise money for THON, the largest student-run fund raiser that supports the Four Diamonds foundation and Hershey Medical Center in PA.

Jaime and his wife Evan lost their daughter to an invasive brain tumor and the Four Diamonds helped them during their daughter’s treatment and throughout. This is his family’s way of giving back.

So, that all said, this event drew over 30 participants, had incredible prizes, raffle drawings for cool stuff, great competition and an incredible buffet of food for the entire event. The $25 donation to the fund was modest considering what one got in return. The raffle tickets available were for various prizes, and a special drawing for a custom made dugout that Jaime expertly assembled. Truly that was the most coveted prize of all, apart from the first place trophy.

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Having not played in a Blood Bowl tournament in a year due to my heavy involvement in Warhammer 40K and playing on the GT circuit, I went back to my roots of Blood Bowl where I am the most comfortable. I went with my classic Dwarf team modeled after the Pittsburgh Steelers: The Black Fire Pass Blitzers.

I love this team. Sure other players call Dwarfs (Dorfs) slow, boring, ect. But truth is they are tough, hard hitting, reliable, but they are slow. One must be tactically aware of movement limitations as an agile elf team can quickly out pace you if you do not set up a solid defensive net maximizing use of player skills and tackle zones.

One fun part of this event is that many of the local Blood Bowl enthusiast use this as a format to test out “fun” teams and really let loose. The tournament organizer, Jaime, had allowed stunty teams (and Evan’s special skeleton team) to be exempt from the feared “Paddle of Doom” that the loser must sign and be spanked by.

The format was Living Rule Book 6.0 (LRB 6.0). We were allowed to give 4 skills to players, one could be a “doubles” skill. I gave 2 longbeards/linemen Guard, perfect for support in blocks and running a cage-style ground game offense, and both slayers skills: one: Mighty Blow for breaking armor and eliminating opponents off the pitch, and the other took Side Step, allowing for safety if he would play near the sidelines, throwing opponents off the pitch out of bounds due to frenzy.

My roster for the tournament was as follows:

• Runner: Ben Rumblesberger (#7). Move: 6, ST:3, AG:3, AV:8, Skills: Sure Hands, Thick Skull, Cost: 80,000gp
• Runner: Terry Badshaw (#12), Move: 6, ST:3, AG:3, AV:8, Skills: Sure Hands, Thick Skull, Cost: 80,000gp
• Blitzer: Rok Warson (#26), Move: 5, ST:3, AG:3, AV:9, Skills: Block, Thick Skull, Cost: 80,000gp
• Blitzer: Jak Hammerbert (#58), Move: 5, ST:3, AG:3, AV:9, Skills: Block, Thick Skull, Cost: 80,000gp
• Troll Slayer: Kevyn Gangrene (#91), Move: 5, ST:3, AG:2, AV8, Skills: Block, Dauntless, Frenzy, Thick Skull, Side Step Cost: 90,000gp
• Troll Slayer: Korrik Hammerhands (#92), Move: 5, ST:3, AG:2, AV:8, Skills: Block, Dauntless, Frenzy, Thick Skull, Mighty Blow Cost: 90,000gp
• Longbeard: Dermonti Deathrun (#63), Move: 4, ST:3, AG:2, AV:9, Skills: Block, Tackle, Thick Skull. Cost: 70,000gp
• Longbeard: Mikail Battlestone (#64), Move: 4, ST:3, AG:2, AV:9, Skills: Block, Tackle, Thick Skull, Guard Cost: 70,000gp
• Longbeard: Arn Ironfist (#71), Move: 4, ST:3, AG:2, AV:9, Skills: Block, Tackle, Thick Skull, Guard. Cost: 70,000gp
• Longbeard: Willie Colon (#74), Move: 4, ST:3, AG:2, AV:9, Skills: Block, Tackle, Thick Skull. Cost: 70,000gp
• Longbeard: Mean Jorg Green (#75), Move: 4, ST:3, AG:2, AV:9, Skills: Block, Tackle, Thick Skull. Cost: 70,000gp

GAME1: vs. Shawn Mullarkey (Dark Elves).

Shawn (a.k.a. King) has taken to Blood Bowl recently and has been learning the game well at a very quick rate. I’ve faced Shawn in 40K tournaments before with his Black Templar and he has been a cagey opponent. I expected no less from him in Blood Bowl. He entered the AGBBL in season 8, finishing with a very impressive 8-2-2 record, and made it to the Semi-finals. This time he brought Dark Elves, but he had never faced me on the field.

In Shawn’s defense, my dice were hot. Using the dice that were part of our “prize package” for entering the Four Diamonds Cup, my dice were solid all game. In turn, his dice were quite the opposite. Even the best laid plans and tactics will fall apart in Blood Bowl if Nuffle forsakes you.

The game started out with the Dark Elves receiving, and Dwarfs had the FAME bonus. Early armor breaks resulted in some Dark Elf casualties and knock-outs, leaving the Dark Elves down men. Still, King managed to play well, surfing runner #7 Ben Rumblesberger into the crowd, out of bounds. Luckily Ben was pushed into Black Fire Pass fans and was able to return to the reserves bin in the dugout.

Dark Elves scored on their turn 4, giving me five full turns to rumble downfield. More than enough time for a solid running “cage” style offense. The Dwarf turn opened up with a flurry of blocks, both Troll Slayers taking elves off the pitch. Runner #12 Terry Badshaw picked up the ball and rumbled forward and took safety around dwarf blockers.

The Dark Elves offer a flexibility in their agility. Shawn took full advantage of it and did his best to try to invade the cage and hit the ball carrier. The mistake Shawn made was as I moved my players to sweep right, he over compensated and this allowed me to counter left, and eventually seal his players off.

Despite my best efforts, on turn 7, Dark Elves managed to pop the ball loose from the runner, picked it up, but instead of holding on to it, he tried to dodge away and go for it. The result was too many dice rolls and eventually luck failed him. His player dropped the ball and the dwarfs were able to pick it up and secure enough blockers, allowing a score on the following turn 8, ending the first half.

The second half started with the Black Fire pass Blitzers receiving. The Dark Elves took to the field down 3 players. As the game was tied, I wanted to make a solid, time consuming drive down the field and control the ball (and the clock, so to speak).

Knowing that Shawn’s Witch elf was going to be his best option to take shots at my ball carrier, I tried to feed him options of linemen to bait her away. One such play almost cost me as he was able to send one of my guarders out of bounds, thankfully into my own fans (player was stunned on injury roll), and allowed to return to the reserves.

The Dark Elves tried to take aggressive shots at my players, almost popping the ball loose, but he failed a critical Go-For-It roll having to push into the cage on frenzied blocks with the witch elf. Instead the witch elf tripped, knocking herself out.

Runner #7 Ben Rumblesberger continued with the ball as dwarf blockers sent another elf off with a casualty and knocked out yet another. Down to just 4 or 5 players on the pitch, but still in a chance to try to take a shot at the ball carrier, I had to score in turn 6. I wasn’t happy about giving elves 3 turns to score, and despite being down players, there was still a chance King could pull out a tie.

As the Dark Elves set up for their last drive, I spread my defense out deep and wide. I planned to react to his players positioning and force him to roll dice. Now, sure, elves can dodge well with a 4-Agility, but as King was out of team rerolls this late in the game, I am a firm believe that if you make someone roll enough dice, eventually the odds will catch up with them.

That happened here. I had a chance to pin down Dark Elves and tie them up with tacklezones. Despite my efforts, Shawn was able to dodge out, complete a pass/handoff and had a chance to score. All he had to do now was make 2 or 3 key dodges and 2 go-for-its.

It came down to the final turn. His ball carrier made it past the dwarf runners, making dodges on 4+, and 3+, and had one more dodge to make before rolling two GFI’s (2+). Fate would have it that the last dwarf in line, #58 Jak Hammerbert would be the last tacklezone the dark elf had to escape and he failed to do so. The Dwarf Blitzer saving the day and thus securing a win in game 1 of the tournament.

GAME 2: vs. Rory Driebler’s Undead team: “I’m Not Dead Yet”

Rory is a solid player and has won many games in the AGBBL. He was bringing in a classic Undead team to face me, starting line up: 2 Mummies, 2 Whites, 2 Ghouls, 7 Zombies, 3 rerolls, and coach and cheerleader.

Game started out with normal weather, Black Fire Pass Blitzers had +1 FAME (fan base) and won the coin toss. I elected to “hit” first, er…..I mean receive. Heh heh.
Some players have different thoughts on tactics, I’ll have to address that in another blog, but I always prefer ball-control and going first in the game allows me to throw the first blocks and start to establish position on the field. It also allowed Troll Slayer #91, Kevyn Gangrene to score a casualty, putting a zombie out of the game and he did not regenerate. The kick was out of bounds and termed a “touchback” so I gave it to Blitzer #26, Rok Warson, putting the ball in the hands of a player with the “block” skill.

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My failed attempt at taking out a Mummy with a blitz from Slayer #92 Korrik Hammerhands ended up with said slayer suffering a casualty at the hands of the Mummy on the Undead turn. This was going to be a slugfest, and I knew it. Rory has a reputation as being a hard-hitting player as do I, (ranked 2nd or 3rd in AGBBL in total casualties). The luck of the dice were going to determine this game.

As we exchanged blocks, I attempted to move downfield and my blocks were true. I was breaking armor rolls and either stunning opponents or scoring KO shots, taking zombies off the pitch at a steady rate. The Thick-skull of the dwarfs proved to be great and helped keep my players on the field.

I made a tactical error with my remaining slayer, pushing a zombie around on the second block of a frenzied move. Rory would have allowed me to select otherwise, but I kept true to my play and left my slayer in a dangerous position next to a Mummy. A Troll Slayer is only Armor Value: 8, and a Mummy comes with Mighty Blow, allowing +1 to the armor or injury roll. As expected, that Slayer too was put out of the game, leaving me without my two big hitters.

I kept true to my game plan, caging up the ball, using the guarding blockers to solidify my position. I left a lone longbeard on each Mummy, tying them up and the tougher armor of the longbeards kept them alive and able to absorb the punishing blocks of the Mummies.

Eventually I broke free with a few blockers in place and slowed my charge, stalling one turn before scoring. I don’t like to stall in a league game, but in a tournament, if I must to take a turn away from my opponent, and I feel safe about it, I will do it. I held off on turn 6, scoring in my turn 7. This left only 2 turns for my opponent in the half, as each half is only 8 turns long (per player).

As I kicked the ball off to Rory, the kick off result was “RIOT” and we lost a turn due to fans rioting onto the field. This took away his turn 7, starting him at turn 8 and no chance at all to score.

Second half of the game started out strong. Mummy blocker stunned a longbeard, and I followed suit with #75, Mean Jorg Green knocking out another zombie. I stayed away from trying to put Mummies on their backs without Troll Slayers around, instead relying upon the tough armor of my dwarf blockers.

Knowing that my opponent has to score quickly to have any chance at winning this game, I kept some blockers back deep for defense. I placed players in position to force him to throw blocks and roll dice. Eventually he would burn out his rerolls, but in truth, his dice failed him badly. Guarding blockers allowed me to throw blocks on the mummies and knocked one of them out too.

Rory sent a ghoul deep for a pass play. I had a shot to take him down, but my man fell rolling a 1 on the Go-For-It roll, and rolling another “1” as I burned a team ReRoll. The undead player moved to better his position to try the pass play to score.

This forced me to play aggressively and even move some dwarfs into making dodges out of tacklezones (something not typical of dwarf play). My two runners swarmed on the ghoul in scoring position as I moved longbeards front, and with one Mummy out of the way, I was able to get Arn Ironfist #71, on the ghoul with the ball, who was hoping to make a pass play.

Undead turn ended quickly on a double-skulls roll on a block and no rerolls left. This allowed Arn Ironfist to assist #75 Mean Jorg Green on a blitz and pop the ball loose, tackling the ghoul.

The Undead managed to get the ball back, and hoped now just to tie the game as it was now turn 6. Dwarf Longbeard #63, Dermonti Deathrun tied up the mummy the rest of the match, allowing my other players to play a tighter defense, and the undead now down several zombies from knockouts and 2 casualties, were sorely outnumbered.

The Ghoul tried to get to scoring position, breaking past the two dwarf runners. He made all of his dodge rolls, but failed the go for it roll making it past runner #12 Terry Badshaw. Badshaw picked up the ball, throwing it downfield to the other runner, who dropped it, but kept the ball in a position that would not allow the Undead any more chances to score.

A tough game, and a solid vicotory: 2-0…..one more round to go!

GAME 3: vs. Loki’s Lager Lovers (Norse) coach: Jason Schrieber.

This was going to be a good game. Jason and I both were undefeated. He is down from the NY area and working with another friend of mine, a skilled player, Ramsey MacPhereson and the two are planning on running a tournament in June.

His roster was with the newer Norse types, and I’ve not had much experience (or luck) against this roster. The upside: all players have block skill except Ulfwereners, who instead get STR: 4, and Frenzy. Norse Beserkers also have Frenzy and Jump Up. The Downside: Armor Value: 7. This makes a Norse team very fragile. Also, if not handled properly, Frenzy can be used against an opponent, especially if you have players with guard and can sucker him into secondary blocks.

Jason’s upgrades were block on both Ulfwereners, dodge on his runner (who also has Dauntless), and sure hands on his Thrower.

To complicate things, we rolled a Blizzard for weather. This meant that only quick and short passes could be thrown, and also all Go-For-It rolls would fail on a 1 or 2, instead of just a “1”. This would work to my advantage, holding his team’s movement back, if I could play defense properly.

It must have been the theme for the day, but third game in a row that my team rolled +1 on the FAME, which is determined by rolling 2d6 + Fan Factor. This would affect results on the kick off charts and in my case would be very beneficial.

I picked up the ball with runner #12, Terry Badshaw and went with my classic frontal blocks and attempt to cage up the ball. I tried to keep away from the sidelines this time, as I was facing 4 players with Frenzy, which allows a player to take 2 blocks per turn.

The front line was great, knocking out one player and stunning two more. I made a poor move with one of my Slayers and the Norse closed up. I was in a really bad position, so I pulled back, retreated a few steps and reset my offense. This proved to be a good move on my part, as if I would have pressed on, the Norse would have had me out positioned.

Trying to keep up with my movements and keep pressure on me, the Norse players started to get aggressive early. He would get into position to throw blocks on my runner, but when he would have to make a Go-For-It roll (GFI), he would fail. The ice and snow ended up being my friend this match.

Charging forward again, my team managed to stun another norseman and send another off the pitch with a casualty. I was moving into good position until my other runner failed a block on an Ulfwerener since he didn’t’ have block and got stunned. This left an opening in my cage.

The Norse were able to capitalize on the play, popping the ball loose, but burned out their last reroll in turn 5. The dice continued to be hot, more casualties and stuns on the norse team at the hands of my dwarfs opened up the field. After the next couple of turns, I scored a few more stuns, a KO and another casualty. I was able to get to the ball and get a dwarf into scoring position.

Norsemen kept slipping on the ice, allowing my men to get into position to finally score near the end of the half in my turn 8. This left the norse with 1 turn in the first half, but an Ulfwerener scored a key hit, injuring one of my longbeards.

The second half the Norsemen were receiving. They were down a few players thanks to knock outs and injuries. I was hoping to outmaneuver him and either stop him or take the fight to him.

The kick off result was a quick snap, allowing his men to move one extra square each, but the kick landed deep in his territory. The Lager Lovers started out strong with 3 stuns on my front line. All I could do was reset my men and prepare to counter.

Norse blocks continued to be strong, knocking out “The Old Man”, guarding blocker Arn Ironfist, #71. Than luck failed the Norse once again……..they fumbled a pass.

This was just the chance I needed, and in my next turn I moved men into position and #26 Rok Warson jumped into a tacklezone and picked up the ball (using a reroll in the process).

The next turn a norse Ulfwererner had a chance to hit one of my longbeards. But….he rolled double-skulls (attacker down) and with the reroll, had the same result, and #63 Dermonti Deathrun stunned his norse attacker.

This gave me a clear opening to block norse men clear of the ball and I was able to move and give the ball to the runner #7, Big Ben Rumblesberger.

Norse turn 4 just got worse as his players failed a dodge past Troll Slayer #92, Korrik Hammerhands. This opened up major blocking by the Dwarfs, opening up the path for the ball carrier. As the dwarfs moved downfield, the norsemen were scrambling to try and stop my “stealing” of the ball. The ice and snow again causing failed GFI rolls by norsemen, leaving them flat.

Two more knock outs by dwarf blockers opened up the path, and Big Ben was on the edge of the goal line waiting to score. Somehow the Norse managed to get an Ulfwerener downfield and was able to put a tacklezone on my Dwarf Runner.

Now it was my turn 6. I had 1 reroll left. Runner on the goal line. All of my supporting blockers were just out of range to help without making Go-For-It rolls. I made the gamble to dodge away and score. I needed a 3+ and had the reroll left. But, as I said my dice were hot, and I rolled a 5, scoring my 2nd touchdown of the game.

The Norse were left with 2 turns left to score. In a vain attempt to save face, the norse thrower fumbled the ball. They were only able to throw some blocks that didn’t account for much of anything, leaving me with a 2-0 win.

So, I finished the tournament 3-0! My best performance in a Blood Bowl tournament yet. My total Net Touchdowns was 4. Unfortunately for me, my friend Justin Stoner also went 3-0 and his Net Touchdowns was 5. So, due to the tie breaker, I ended up in 2nd place.

I got a nice trophy, a custom made passing template, and some other raffle prizes, including some werewolves or Ulfwereners. More importantly the entire tournament raised almost $1700 for the Four Diamonds Foundation.

I can’t wait until next year!