Thursday, August 30, 2012

Apes on the Blood Bowl Pitch! Mystic Knights of the Congo Bongo

The dream-child of Chance from 3-Die Block, a Blood Bowl Podcast, is a reality now.
This is great news for me, as anyone who frequents this blog might have noticed I'm quite the fan of Apes...
The Belgian Liberation Army for Weird World War II, Greystoke's Apes for Empire of the Dead, and now I can bring my favorite non-human apes into one of my all-time favorite games!

I backed the kickstarter and got my Apes from Impact Miniatures awhile back, and they're ready to play some Blood Bowl!

Apes seem ideal for a game like Blood Bowl: they're fast, amazingly strong, daunting to face, and feces-throwing skills should translate well for a passing game.

The minis were designed to be flexible to 'count-as' quite a few teams.  I gave a try at writing a roster for a new team to be actual Apes, but they could easily be run as Orcs, Chaos, Chaos Dwarves... the various Kickstarter reward team packages made that pretty evident.

I am thinking I'll be running my Apes as a 'Human' team.  We share so much DNA, so why not?
Besides, I never play Humans in Blood Bowl .. compared to orcs, dwarves, rats.. humans are boring!
But Apes? That's a team i can support.

I'm likely going to a Blood Bowl Tournament this weekend, if so, expect full expanded coverage!

For now, let's take a look at the team:  The Mystic Knights of the Congo Bongo! 

The muscle of the team: The Gorillas.    Danny, Vatos, Bartok & Sluggo.

They do sell football pants & torso armor for them, but I wanted my Gorillas to be natural.  For one thing, who's going to tell them they have to wear a uniform? You?  Good luck with that.  For another, I wanted to be able to use these as double-duty for my other Primate adventures.. they can now join the Belgian Liberation Army, or hunt the Victorian Streets of London without people wondering what their strange outfits are.
I can also use them for 'Prehistoric Pulp'.. when I get around to working on that project again!

The Gorillas will be the Blitzers.

Chimpanzees!   (Team will have 3): Owen Lee A. Ladd, Naas T. Habits, Violet Love.
How many Linemen can rip your arm out and beat you senseless with it? So yeah, Don't make them mad.

These will be the Linemen.

Orangutan Thrower, Zaius.
He's an up and coming star, already being sought by various companies for endorsements.
Expect to be able to get your 'Dr.Z' breakfast cereal soon!

A long bomb is often as easy as reaching out and placing the ball.

Catchers!  Inka-Martishka, Rainforest Gump, Nikima Cruise Chef.  

The Monkey, on the left, is from Eureka Miniatures. I reserve the right to run him as Puggy Baconbreath.

The Silverback: Mogambo!  

I think any Gorilla this size is easily the equivalent of an Ogre. Actually, an Ogre better watch himself.

Blood Bowl Tactical Test:
Question:  Where does a Silverback Gorilla set up for a drive?
Answer: Anywhere he wants to.

Every team should have a sideline band!  -Miniatures from Eureka, the winged monkeys, without the wings.

I will use these for a Cheerleader and as Tokens to track Turn, Re-rolls & Score.

The coach: General Grey Matters  (Also from Eureka Miniatures)
He is the coach.  He's also the Referee... 
when he isn't running the country and being the commander of the military.  
What?  You say someone can't be both coach and referee?  Gorillas will be coming to your house soon. 


And the team all together:  (click for larger)
The Mystic Knights of the Congo Bongo, now join the Hall of Fame.


I'm about 2/3 leaning toward going to the Tournament this weekend.

So if I run the team as Humans, which I want to, I am torn between two team builds:

The team construction is 1200 TV, with buying skills for normal cost, but can't have a skill more than twice.
Star players are allowed after 11 players as normal.

Version A:

Ogre, 4 Blitzers, Thrower, 2 Catchers, 3 Linemen, Puggy Baconbreath, 1 Reroll
Skills: Leader, Block for Ogre & a Catcher, Diving catch for a catcher, Blitzers: Guard, Tackle & Strip Ball.

Version B:  (Cut Puggy, run with bare 11 and get another reroll and more skills)
Ogre, 4 Blitzers, Thrower, 2 catchers, 3 Linemen, 2 Rerolls
Skills: Leader, Block Ogre, Catchers: Block & Diving Catch, Blitzers: 2 Guard, Mighty Blow, Tackle,
Linemen: Kick & 2 Wrestle.  Every player gets a skill!

What do you think?
Puggy could be fun (or he could kill himself being Ogre-thrown). Version B doesn't have a spare on the bench, but a lot more skills to maybe keep players on the pitch longer.

I have to decide by tomorrow so I can paint the numbers and skills on the bases.

In the meantime, General Grey Matters insisted that his personal theme song be played by the sideline band, The Congo Cacophony Orchestra...

12 comments:

The Angry Lurker said...

What a fantastic team of great figures, you know you'll end up going!

Clint said...

Another excellent BB team. Packed full of character. Really like them.

Simon Quinton said...

They are all superb mate. great work on these. I really like the Chimpanzees and the Orang-utan thrower

Unknown said...

Naas T. Habit and Slugo-Ferret you slay me. These are some great figures and well painted too. I want these pretty badly right now. Yeah, I'm gonna click on the link!

Great song up today.

Oh and the goat is making a cameo appearance on my blog today!

Tom Anders said...

I'm not sure the link is up there. The figures are available through Impact! Miniatures here: http://www.impactminiatures.com/index.php?option=apes

Paul´s Bods said...

Blimey they are good! Spotted the planet of the apes connection..Zaius.
Cheers
paul

Chance said...

WOW! I wish I had mine painted so fast...and well. :) Awesome job, thanks for the kind words and goo dluck with your apes!

Chance
3DB

Tristan M said...

Skip Puggy.

I would swap tackle for frenzy on a blitzer, has other uses than just against dodge and bumps a 2die block chance of a pow to just under a 2die block pow or push/pow. You also have 2 wrestle linemen (like that!) for blodgers/dodgers. MV7 with frenzy is nice!

I don't like kick on the lineman, when you need to use it, you will want him on the line getting hit. I would give him +AV instead, to go along with your wrestle linemen. Keep your ogre and blitzers back off the line of scrimmage when kicking.

Instead of diving catch I would take sure feet or side step. Diving catch is not a bad choice, but a side step catcher is annoying because you can stay within scoring range more easily, and sure feet means he has an effective MV of 10.

Good luck - love the team!

Laughing Ferret said...

Thanks all :)

Jay, well the Human team roster isn't a bash-fest like Orcs or Norse, but respectable I think, with an Ogre & 4 Blitzers. I'm certainly not opposed to roughing it up!

Angry: Yes, I've decided to make an attempt to get there. Leaving at 7am is about 2.5 hours after I usually go to bed. so I may have to 'auto-pilot' my first game ;)

Anne: I'd forgotten the link- I've added it to the text now. I think Blood Bowl would be a game that would agree with you ;) re: song: thanks! One of my favorite songs, and might be my favorite Oingo Boingo song- just love that xylophone part, could easily imagine some apes rocking out to that. Lots of fond memories of Oingo Boingo shows.

Thanks Chance, and most thanks for pushing to get Apes on the pitch!

Tristan: Thanks for the ideas! Frenzy always makes me nervous for someone who is strength 3, but since he has block I guess it isn't too much of a risk.

-wish I could make both catchers blodgers, but putting block on the ogre is just too tempting. Side-step is annoying, might go with that one then. I can see the point against kick, to have 3 linemen take the line, not a bad idea- not so sure about armor value though,could drop the cheerleader to do it.. what about dirty player? I kind of like the idea of the line chimps.. 2 wrestle and a dirty player: drag someone down, then foul him- if risking getting kicked out, at least I'd have a better chance to make it effective that way. and wouldn't risk fouling with anything but a lineman anyway.

Michael Awdry said...

Sorry far too late on commenting on these, but just wanted to add my congratulations. Another fabulous unit, such ingenuity.

Paul O'G said...

Brilliant Brilliant Brilliant !!!!

MrLee said...

The close ups of the models are just brilliant.. great job on these, and best of luck at the tournament!

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