Yesterday I had my 3rd, 4th & 5th game with my Chaos Narnia Pact team.
I went to a tournament in Pacifica California.
From the best of my memory, there were 3 Orcs, 2 Ogres, 2 Undead, Norse, Halfling, Dark Elf, Slann, and Chaos Pact. The tournament package allowed for 1.1mil with allowing for skills and stats to be bought for the standard prices, though no more than 2 extra skills per player and no more than 3 of the same extra skill on the team.
I took a similar build as my league team: all the renegades & big guys, 5 marauders, but down to 3 rerolls so I could afford more skills: Block for the Ogre, Block & Pro for the Minotaur, Block for the Elf, Wrestle for the Skaven, Leader for a Marauder. I worried about putting an extra 60k on the Minotaur, but I figured Pro would help a lot: wild animal is very unreliable if you want to simply move, and with frenzy, you can get into a bad spot, so Pro would help out.
Game 1 was against an Orc team: Ze Seaside Orcs
-The Orcs was a fun team build: full blitzers, 2 black orcs and a troll, leader kick off returning thrower and 3 goblins, one with agility 4, and a wrestling line orc. The Troll had strong arm, and the blitzers had some skills.
I've played this coach before: a very talented opponent: one of the craftiest players you'll ever run across.
I knew the agility 4 goblin was going to be a problem, although he didn't end up needing to rely on it.
I kicked to him, and the first half was a battle for every square. I nearly held him to 0 Touch Downs, and my last attempt was to do 2 go-for-its to get on a blitzer's Tackle Zone, to force a dodge roll for him to score- but I got a 1 on the roll, and it was an easy walk to score. I rolled a lot of 1's this game. Everyone notices the 1's they roll, and it always feels like a lot, but even my opponent said that yes, he noticed I was rolling a crazy amount of 1's. In the first half, I failed 6 of 8 or 9 go-for-its, 3 of those were after rerolls! Yes, I spent all of my rerolls in the first half to reroll failed go-for-its only to roll a 1 a second time. Well, sometimes those 1's just will not be denied: what can you do?
Second half, he put the pressure on me. I wasn't getting any of his team off the pitch. Armor rolls weren't happening, and on rare occasion when they did, nothing but stun. Seeing his team making it around my lines, I had to go for the throw-team-mate: the ball got handed to the frog, the bear picks him up, makes the throw, he gets a beneficial scatter, sticks the landing and runs it in! Score 1-1: now I just have to hold him.
I'm not a morning person: I make dumb mistakes before noon ;) I managed to slow him, despite being unable to get anyone off the pitch. At the last turn, he had only 1 player who could score: a goblin 4 spaces from the end zone. I had 1 reroll left, I blitzed him with my skaven: hit and get a push. His turn, he throws, I fail my interception, he catches it, dodges out and makes the winning Touch Down. What was I thinking? (I wasn't) I had a reroll and nothing to use it on: a free 2 die chance to bring the goblin down. Ah well, must have been set to roll double skulls! ;) The Game ended at 2-1 a Loss for me. Points were close, since no bonus points were made by either of us: 16pts for the Victor 10pts for me (8+2 for losing by a margin of 1).
Game 2 was against Morathi's Minions, a Dark Elf team.
This is the team that trounced my Scotlins in November: Grudge Match. Another great player- lots of fun to play against, even when she's grinding your poor goblins into the turf.
Her team had one runner with leader, a witch elf, 2 blitzers (one was a blodger the other with tackle iirc), a lineman turned into a thrower and three rerolls.
The weather was Very Sunny, so I decided to kick to her. The kick off result was 'weather change', which went to Perfect Blood Bowl Weather. Thank you kick-off table. sheesh. So I tried to slow her progress and hurt as many players as I could. She made a cage on my right, which the Elk broke apart, so she moved it to the left, which I then tied up, and next turn the Elk broke through it again. On Turn 4 both the Elk and Bear both killed two players. Yes: killed. I guess they aren't morning people either, but they were awake now!
I managed to steal the ball with my elf and scored. I find it amusing that one of the best players on my team is the same as the basic shmoes on her team, but in an Agility 3 team, the one with Ag4 is golden!
In the second half she kicked to me, and I continued to thin the ranks. Another elf got injured and I scored again.
Kicking to her again, but only six elves on the pitch I managed to steal the ball and score with injuring another dark elf. None of my players were injured- one had been knocked out once, but came right back.
The game ended 3-0 with 4 casualties in my favor. The extra bonus points meant I got 24 pts for the game.
Game 3 was against Ragnar's Ravagers, a Norse team.
I'd played this coach once before as well, though we'd both had different teams. Another great guy and quite the strategist. His team had a seriously tooled Yeti: Block & Mighty Blow as additional skills. What a brute!
I had almost given my Minotaur 'claws' (which I'd probably have had more use for than Pro against the orcs in game 1!) claw & mighty blow is a wicked combo: roll a 7 and break any armor value. Ouch! I knew he'd be one to watch! He also had 2 werewolves with Block, a blodging blitzer, a sure hands blodging runner (was thinking I was glad I'd taken a wrestler!) and 2 guards. The only weak link in his team was he had only 1 reroll, and that was a leader reroll.
He won the toss, and elected to receive the kick. I realize now, I kicked first in every game, and I also lost every fame roll, though it didn't seem to effect much. I survived the first turn pounding pretty well, but could see his defense was going to be very solid. My first turn, looking at what was available I decided I had to make an attempt on the Yeti. I pushed one lineman out of the way and called a blitz with my go-to guy: Rudolph the Elk. Blitz, hit on the 5th movement, kocked the Yeti down, rolled 11 for armor, 9 for result (10 with mighty blow):injury = Yeti gone after 1 turn. I was hugely relieved, though the team was still a beast. The coach recovered quickly: he'd had one earlier game with the yeti sitting in the knock out box for over half the game, so it might not have been too shocking.
This game had the most back and forth fighting yet. I managed to inflict 3 injuries, and take only 1 (but crucial: the frog pushed into the crowd) yet the Norse were still relentless. He really knew how to play this team well.
I had some crazy times in this game: once, to try to prevent him scoring I blitzed with the bear! I had to dodge out with Agility 2, made it! blitz over, roll 2 dice: result was push/push.. that won't do it.. I use a reroll, roll against the loner trait: I rolled a 4! I get to reroll the block dice! reroll: double skulls! ahhh! You can only laugh. 0-1. Last turn of the half I have the ball, he knocks it away, I go in with the elf: dodge, go to pick up the ball and score, need a 2+ : 1. ah well. He'd had his share of bad luck too: double skull, leader reroll: double skull! Ouch.
2nd half: he kicks: result: perfect defense: reorganize his players.. no advantage for me here. He's down 2 players, I'm down 1. My plan works pretty well but I can't stall if I'm going to have a chance to win: score fast, try to steal the ball to score to win is the plan: turn 3 I scored: 1-1. I kick and I could not break through his defense well enough to get the ball. I'd stun some but not to much effect, though the troll did kill a lineman! 3 kills for my team this day.
He has the ball and on my last turn I have only one forlorn hope: the ferret. He's got my team well tied up, and it looks like he's got the winning TD in the bag for his final turn: my mission: send in the ferret to stop him and get the tie. But the ferret is in a TZ and 8 spaces away from the ball carrier. I have no rerolls left.
Declare the Blitz! The ferret dodges within the wolf's tackle zone: makes the 4+, dodge out: makes the 3+.. move one space, move another: into the TZ of a norseman, dodge within the TZ: makes my 4+, dodge out: makes the 3+, move, go for it: make the 2+, now in contact with the carrier.. roll the go for it to blitz 1 die, hoping for a pow or both down for the wrestle: go for it: result: made it! (you were expecting a 1 weren't you?) roll the 1 die block: push. Push?? ah! sooo close! His turn: dodge out: score. 2-1. A close hard-fought match!
Since I had lost by only 1 and had bonus points for injuries I didn't fare too bad: 16 pts for him, 14 pts for me.
I took a couple shots from some friends' games too:
My friend Bill borrowed my Slann for the day, and played against the Norse in game 2: He didn't fare so well: it seems Norse like Frog nearly as much as Herring! Bill got the "Player's choice" award for favorite team.
And my friend Dan, now owner of the Picnic Pillagers brought his team to 3 "Halfling Victories"!
The definition of a 'Halfling Victory' is when you tie a non-stunty team! 3 games with no losses... a victory in any gaffer's book. Dan secured the "Stunty Cup" award: not bad at all considering there were 2 Ogre teams there.
Somehow I managed to get "Overall Champion" for the day. It seemed a bit odd, since I'd lost 2 of 3 games, and someone else did win all 3 games, but a narrow victory with no bonus points gave 16 points, for 48 total, which was the same as I'd gotten, and the tie breaker was painting and sports, so I was quite honored to have gotten point from the look of the Narnia team pitching in to help. Considering the last tourney I went to I got the wooden spoon I was pretty happy!
I got a fun trophy and the 16-man newest human GW Blood Bowl team, so I'll look forward to painting those up at some time. I'm finding I really enjoy playing the Chaos Pact team: it doesn't have a lot of skills, but is quite a toolbox. a few limited pieces that can any job you need, maybe not as well as some other teams, but there is a potential to do anything needed.
A great day with great people playing a great game: a day well spent.
Now, Cue Queen: (couldn't resist)
I went to a tournament in Pacifica California.
From the best of my memory, there were 3 Orcs, 2 Ogres, 2 Undead, Norse, Halfling, Dark Elf, Slann, and Chaos Pact. The tournament package allowed for 1.1mil with allowing for skills and stats to be bought for the standard prices, though no more than 2 extra skills per player and no more than 3 of the same extra skill on the team.
I took a similar build as my league team: all the renegades & big guys, 5 marauders, but down to 3 rerolls so I could afford more skills: Block for the Ogre, Block & Pro for the Minotaur, Block for the Elf, Wrestle for the Skaven, Leader for a Marauder. I worried about putting an extra 60k on the Minotaur, but I figured Pro would help a lot: wild animal is very unreliable if you want to simply move, and with frenzy, you can get into a bad spot, so Pro would help out.
Game 1 was against an Orc team: Ze Seaside Orcs
-The Orcs was a fun team build: full blitzers, 2 black orcs and a troll, leader kick off returning thrower and 3 goblins, one with agility 4, and a wrestling line orc. The Troll had strong arm, and the blitzers had some skills.
I knew the agility 4 goblin was going to be a problem, although he didn't end up needing to rely on it.
I kicked to him, and the first half was a battle for every square. I nearly held him to 0 Touch Downs, and my last attempt was to do 2 go-for-its to get on a blitzer's Tackle Zone, to force a dodge roll for him to score- but I got a 1 on the roll, and it was an easy walk to score. I rolled a lot of 1's this game. Everyone notices the 1's they roll, and it always feels like a lot, but even my opponent said that yes, he noticed I was rolling a crazy amount of 1's. In the first half, I failed 6 of 8 or 9 go-for-its, 3 of those were after rerolls! Yes, I spent all of my rerolls in the first half to reroll failed go-for-its only to roll a 1 a second time. Well, sometimes those 1's just will not be denied: what can you do?
Second half, he put the pressure on me. I wasn't getting any of his team off the pitch. Armor rolls weren't happening, and on rare occasion when they did, nothing but stun. Seeing his team making it around my lines, I had to go for the throw-team-mate: the ball got handed to the frog, the bear picks him up, makes the throw, he gets a beneficial scatter, sticks the landing and runs it in! Score 1-1: now I just have to hold him.
Game 2 was against Morathi's Minions, a Dark Elf team.
This is the team that trounced my Scotlins in November: Grudge Match. Another great player- lots of fun to play against, even when she's grinding your poor goblins into the turf.
Her team had one runner with leader, a witch elf, 2 blitzers (one was a blodger the other with tackle iirc), a lineman turned into a thrower and three rerolls.
I managed to steal the ball with my elf and scored. I find it amusing that one of the best players on my team is the same as the basic shmoes on her team, but in an Agility 3 team, the one with Ag4 is golden!
In the second half she kicked to me, and I continued to thin the ranks. Another elf got injured and I scored again.
Kicking to her again, but only six elves on the pitch I managed to steal the ball and score with injuring another dark elf. None of my players were injured- one had been knocked out once, but came right back.
The game ended 3-0 with 4 casualties in my favor. The extra bonus points meant I got 24 pts for the game.
Game 3 was against Ragnar's Ravagers, a Norse team.
I'd played this coach once before as well, though we'd both had different teams. Another great guy and quite the strategist. His team had a seriously tooled Yeti: Block & Mighty Blow as additional skills. What a brute!
I had almost given my Minotaur 'claws' (which I'd probably have had more use for than Pro against the orcs in game 1!) claw & mighty blow is a wicked combo: roll a 7 and break any armor value. Ouch! I knew he'd be one to watch! He also had 2 werewolves with Block, a blodging blitzer, a sure hands blodging runner (was thinking I was glad I'd taken a wrestler!) and 2 guards. The only weak link in his team was he had only 1 reroll, and that was a leader reroll.
He won the toss, and elected to receive the kick. I realize now, I kicked first in every game, and I also lost every fame roll, though it didn't seem to effect much. I survived the first turn pounding pretty well, but could see his defense was going to be very solid. My first turn, looking at what was available I decided I had to make an attempt on the Yeti. I pushed one lineman out of the way and called a blitz with my go-to guy: Rudolph the Elk. Blitz, hit on the 5th movement, kocked the Yeti down, rolled 11 for armor, 9 for result (10 with mighty blow):injury = Yeti gone after 1 turn. I was hugely relieved, though the team was still a beast. The coach recovered quickly: he'd had one earlier game with the yeti sitting in the knock out box for over half the game, so it might not have been too shocking.
This game had the most back and forth fighting yet. I managed to inflict 3 injuries, and take only 1 (but crucial: the frog pushed into the crowd) yet the Norse were still relentless. He really knew how to play this team well.
I had some crazy times in this game: once, to try to prevent him scoring I blitzed with the bear! I had to dodge out with Agility 2, made it! blitz over, roll 2 dice: result was push/push.. that won't do it.. I use a reroll, roll against the loner trait: I rolled a 4! I get to reroll the block dice! reroll: double skulls! ahhh! You can only laugh. 0-1. Last turn of the half I have the ball, he knocks it away, I go in with the elf: dodge, go to pick up the ball and score, need a 2+ : 1. ah well. He'd had his share of bad luck too: double skull, leader reroll: double skull! Ouch.
He has the ball and on my last turn I have only one forlorn hope: the ferret. He's got my team well tied up, and it looks like he's got the winning TD in the bag for his final turn: my mission: send in the ferret to stop him and get the tie. But the ferret is in a TZ and 8 spaces away from the ball carrier. I have no rerolls left.
Declare the Blitz! The ferret dodges within the wolf's tackle zone: makes the 4+, dodge out: makes the 3+.. move one space, move another: into the TZ of a norseman, dodge within the TZ: makes my 4+, dodge out: makes the 3+, move, go for it: make the 2+, now in contact with the carrier.. roll the go for it to blitz 1 die, hoping for a pow or both down for the wrestle: go for it: result: made it! (you were expecting a 1 weren't you?) roll the 1 die block: push. Push?? ah! sooo close! His turn: dodge out: score. 2-1. A close hard-fought match!
Since I had lost by only 1 and had bonus points for injuries I didn't fare too bad: 16 pts for him, 14 pts for me.
I took a couple shots from some friends' games too:
The definition of a 'Halfling Victory' is when you tie a non-stunty team! 3 games with no losses... a victory in any gaffer's book. Dan secured the "Stunty Cup" award: not bad at all considering there were 2 Ogre teams there.
Somehow I managed to get "Overall Champion" for the day. It seemed a bit odd, since I'd lost 2 of 3 games, and someone else did win all 3 games, but a narrow victory with no bonus points gave 16 points, for 48 total, which was the same as I'd gotten, and the tie breaker was painting and sports, so I was quite honored to have gotten point from the look of the Narnia team pitching in to help. Considering the last tourney I went to I got the wooden spoon I was pretty happy!
I got a fun trophy and the 16-man newest human GW Blood Bowl team, so I'll look forward to painting those up at some time. I'm finding I really enjoy playing the Chaos Pact team: it doesn't have a lot of skills, but is quite a toolbox. a few limited pieces that can any job you need, maybe not as well as some other teams, but there is a potential to do anything needed.
A great day with great people playing a great game: a day well spent.
Now, Cue Queen: (couldn't resist)
Go Narnia, go Narnia! Excellent work that man.
ReplyDeleteCongrats on the trophy, and more importantly the good times!
ReplyDeleteI hope my son doesn't read this and get the idea to put Bock and MB on his Yeti...
Congratulations dude. Nice to see some painted teams. Even the team of ghosts look ok :D
ReplyDeleteThanks all :)
ReplyDeleteLuckily Paul Block is a double skill, I never seem to roll doubles for Big Guys, but maybe your son will have more luck.